THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN
 
 THE 
 
 GARTER MISSION 
 
 TO JAPAN 
 
 BY 
 
 LORD REDESDALE 
 
 G.C.V.O., K.C.B. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " TALES OF OLD JAPAN " 
 
 SLonlJon 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 I 906 
 
 A U rights reset-ved
 
 3?s 
 
 TO 
 
 MY WIFE 
 
 FOR WHOM MY JOURNAL WAS KEPT 
 I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The Mission appointed by the King to carry 
 the Order of the Garter to the Emperor of Japan 
 left Marseilles on the I2th of January 1906. 
 It was composed as follows :— 
 
 His Royal Highness Prince Arthur of 
 
 connaught, k.g. 
 Lord Redesdale, G.C.V.O. 
 Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Seymour, 
 
 G.C.B., O.M. 
 General Sir Thomas Kelly-Kenny, G.C.B. 
 Colonel Arthur Davidson, C.V.O. 
 Captain Wyndham, Equerry to Prince Arthur. 
 Mr. Miles Lampson, of the Foreign Office, 
 
 Secretary to the Mission, and Acting Secretary 
 
 to the Order of the Garter. 
 
 The voyage out was a prosperous one. At 
 
 every place where the Mission touched, — Aden, 
 
 Colombo, Singapore, Hong-Kong, — the reception 
 
 with which the Prince met was not only striking 
 
 vii 
 
 S&UJs.
 
 viii THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 from its magnificence and interest, but also as a 
 testimony of loyalty and affection towards the 
 King. 
 
 At Hong-Kong the Mission went on board 
 H.M.S. Diadem, Captain Savory, the Flag-ship of 
 Admiral Sir Gerard Noel, which had been placed 
 at His Royal Highness's disposal. 
 
 The return voyage across the Pacific was in 
 every way delightful ; and a prolonged tour in 
 hospitable Canada, covering many thousand miles, 
 enabled the Mission to form some estimate of the 
 growing prosperity of that wonderful Dominion. 
 
 But the record which is contained in the 
 following pages deals only with the main object 
 of the expedition. A detailed account of the 
 outward and homeward journeys would by itself 
 fill a volume. It is not possible to do more here 
 than to give expression to a very real feeling of 
 thanks for the splendid hospitality of which the 
 Mission were the grateful recipients in the East as 
 in the West. 
 
 In one respect we were unlucky. We arrived 
 in Japan in February, notoriously the worst month 
 for weather of the whole Japanese year. Had we 
 started a month later we should have found the 
 spring of the poets, rich in all the wealth of
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 flowering trees and shrubs for which the Land of 
 Sunrise is famous. To have missed this was our 
 one crumpled rose-leaf, and so I am almost afraid 
 that I may have given a false impression of the 
 Japanese climate. 
 
 As regards the form which this little book 
 takes, I may point out that it consists of journal 
 Letters written primarily for home consumption. 
 This will account for the use here and there of 
 the pronoun " you." 
 
 Jiaie 1906.
 
 THE 
 GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Never did the winter sun rise in greater glory 
 than it did on the 19th of February 1906, when 
 H.M.S. Diadem, Captain Savory, carrying Prince 
 Arthur of Connaught and the Garter Mission to 
 Japan, steamed at daybreak into the harbour of 
 Yokohama. Never did it shine upon a fairer scene. 
 The King's standard was flying at the main ; the 
 buildings on shore and the vessels in the bay, blue 
 as that of Naples, were all dressed ; eleven great 
 warships thundered out a Royal welcome, their 
 bands playing " God Save the King " ; in the 
 distance was the pine-clad Hakone range, beauti- 
 ful as my recollection of it ; but, best of all, Fuji, 
 the Peerless Mountain, covered with snow and 
 glittering in the morning rays, was lifting its 
 mystic cone to heaven, without a cloud to mar 
 
 I B
 
 2 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the grace of its outline ; for the goddess of the 
 mountain, " the princess that causes the trees to 
 blossom," had risen in her beauty to give us a 
 foretaste of the greeting which the spirit of old 
 Japan was making ready for the messengers of her 
 friend and ally, King Edward the Seventh. 
 
 One mishap, indeed, there was. Admiral 
 Kataoka with his squadron had gone out the 
 night before to meet the Diadem and escort us 
 into harbour. Being an hour before our time 
 we missed him, to our great regret. Had we 
 met him, our entry, heading the majestic proces- 
 sion of a battle-fleet, might have been more 
 imposing, and more in accord with the gracious 
 intentions of our Imperial host : more picturesquely 
 framed it could not have been. 
 
 Hardly had we let go our anchor when the 
 British Ambassador, Sir Claude Macdonald, came 
 on board with a number of distinguished Japanese 
 officers who were to be attached to Prince Arthur 
 during his stay in the country. Conspicuous 
 among these were General Kuroki and Admiral 
 T5g5, the two mighty leaders with whose exploits 
 the whole world has been ringing. You may 
 imagine that our first interview with them was 
 not a little exciting. Admiral Togo is a quiet.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 3 
 
 silent man, with a rather melancholy face, lighted 
 up, as the spirit moves him, by one of the sweetest 
 of smiles. The expression is gentle and tender ; 
 sometimes, unless he be spoken to, he appears 
 lost in thought, almost always with his eyes fixed 
 on the ground and his head turned to the right. 
 General Kuroki, on the other hand, sunburnt, 
 hard, and trained as fine as an athlete for the 
 Olympian games, the picture of a soldier, is 
 always gay and looking at the bright side of 
 things, a man of the most imperturbable good- 
 humour. No two men could at first sight present 
 a greater contrast, yet is there one quality which 
 they have in common : their modesty and self- 
 restraint are most captivating. To hear them talk 
 you would never dream that either of them has 
 played a part, not only in the history of his country, 
 but of the world. In both, self entirely disappears. 
 And here I must say, once for all, that during 
 my whole stay in Japan, after having spoken with 
 some hundreds of Japanese of every condition in 
 life, I have never once heard anything approaching 
 to a boast over the brilliant successes of the late 
 war. The absence of all bragging, the calm 
 dispassionate talk about the circumstances which 
 led to it, about the war itself, and about its
 
 4 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 consequences, far-reaching as they may be, are a 
 striking feature in the character of the New Japan, 
 and one which stands out as an example to the 
 whole world. Never was so great a triumph 
 accepted in so humble a spirit. Another notable 
 figure among the Japanese gentlemen appointed 
 to attend Prince Arthur was Mr. Nagasaki, a 
 Councillor of the Court, who, being an admirable 
 English scholar, acted as interpreter between the 
 Emperor and the Prince, and, indeed, organised 
 our whole stay in, and journey through, the 
 Islands. He was commissioned some years ago 
 to visit Europe in order to study the ceremonial 
 of the various Courts, and on his return drew up 
 a code for the Court of Tokyo, based in the main 
 upon that of Berlin. To the other members of 
 the staff, all men of importance and distinction, 
 I shall allude later on. Each one played his part 
 to admiration, and all strove their utmost to 
 ensure the success of our visit. 
 
 And so, at the end of our long voyage, in real 
 Emperor's weather, we at last set foot in Fairyland. 
 
 There was a vast gathering of both Europeans 
 and Japanese assembled to greet the Prince. The 
 whole community of Yokohama was on the quay 
 to receive him. Sojourners in strange lands await
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 5 
 
 the arrival of a ship that comes from home with 
 interest enough in any case ; every link which 
 connects them with the old country is very 
 precious ; but here was a mission which had 
 come to bind more closely an alliance and a 
 friendship which the good people of Yokohama 
 above all know how to appreciate. Moreover, it 
 is not every day that such an ambassador is seen 
 in Japan. Judge whether he was welcome. 
 Princes have been here before, but it has been 
 as tourists that they have come, making Japan a 
 stopping-place on their journey round the world. 
 Their visits have been interesting chiefly to them- 
 selves. This visit has a purpose and a significance 
 which are of international importance ; and this 
 was the conviction which made itself felt to-day. 
 
 There were addresses from the various com- 
 munities to be received and answered, but this was 
 soon over, and we were driven off to a pavilion 
 near the railway station, built for the use of the 
 Emperor on the rare occasions of his coming to 
 Yokohama. The streets were crowded ; every 
 soul in the place must have turned out to line 
 them — the grown-up people behind, the children 
 in front according to their stature, the best place 
 belonging by prescriptive right to the tiniest.
 
 6 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Every child was armed with two flags, one 
 Japanese and one English, which were waved most 
 conscientiously, and then there arose such a shout- 
 ing of " Banzai " from shrill treble and deep bass ! 
 I always thought that the Eton boys could cheer, 
 but their cheers are as the chirruping of grass- 
 hoppers beside the " Banzai " of a Japanese crowd 
 when its enthusiasm is really aroused. And then 
 the action ! Both hands raised high above the 
 head, with the palms turned outward, feet parted, 
 mouth wide open, eyes sparkling. It is indeed 
 a welcome ! 
 
 I may as well say here that, throughout our 
 long tour, the school children for many miles 
 round had been brought in by train to greet the 
 Prince at every station. This is a compliment 
 which has never before been paid to any traveller 
 except the Emperor himself. Wherever we went, 
 whether we stopped or whether we steamed 
 through, there were the children waving their 
 flags, and the girls' schools all singing " God 
 Save the King " at the top of their voices. At 
 first the effect was quite startling. 
 
 Before we started for Tokyo we had about 
 three-quarters of an hour to wait, which we spent 
 in making better acquaintance with our Japanese
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 7 
 
 hosts, and then a run of about forty minutes took us 
 to the capital. Skirting the famous old Tokaido, 
 the great road which leads from Kyot5 to Tokyo ; 
 past the shrine of Benten ; past Kanagawa ; past 
 the old cryptomerias which shaded the Daimyo's 
 processions and wayside tea-houses; over the bridge 
 at Kawasaki where we and our horses used to be 
 ferried across the river ; through the wicked suburb 
 of Shinagawa, where, as in the wynds of the old 
 town of Edinburgh, the broils of the clans and the 
 vendettas of individuals used to take place, now 
 grown intensely staid and respectable ; past the old 
 temple of Sengakuji, under which the Legation 
 buildings used to be ; past the little old temple of 
 Monriyo-in, where I lived thirty-nine years ago, 
 when first the Legation went back to Yedo ! What 
 memories, some sad, some gay, crowded upon my 
 mind ! Of those who shared our difficulties and 
 our pleasures how few are left ! 
 
 But all these too personal memories were 
 quickly to fade away ; for here at Shimbashi, the 
 terminus of the railway, there took place a cere- 
 mony which must have stirred to their profoundest 
 depths the hearts of all the Japanese who witnessed 
 it. Never before, since the first creation of Japan, 
 was such a compliment paid as that which awaited
 
 8 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Prince Arthur, Surrounded by the Crown Prince 
 and all the other Princes of the Blood, the 
 Emperor had come in person to greet his guest. 
 This august Sovereign, whom his subjects revere as 
 something, if not actually divine, at any rate far 
 removed above the rest of mankind, and as heir of 
 a god-descended line of kings, had come, for the 
 first time in all the history of the country, publicly 
 to acclaim a foreign prince. It was an act of 
 kingly hospitality most graciously conceived, most 
 graciously carried out. It struck the keynote of 
 the cordial demonstrations of friendship and good- 
 will which never failed us throughout our stay in 
 His Majesty's dominions. When the Emperor so 
 warmly shook hands with the Prince it was a 
 message to his people which said in unmistakable 
 terms, "This is my friend." 
 
 I was the only European present who could 
 remember the old days of mystery and seclusion 
 in which the Emperors of Japan had lived for 
 upwards of eight centuries. Indeed, there were 
 probably few Japanese there who could have 
 witnessed that time. Those who had must have 
 been struck by the change as I was, and they 
 must have reflected as I did that, however able 
 the men might be by whom he is surrounded, the
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 9 
 
 Emperor himself must be a strong man to have 
 scattered to the winds all the trammels of tradition 
 by which his ancestors had for so many generations 
 been fettered. Indeed, from all that we can 
 gather, the strength which is written in his face is 
 his great characteristic. His whole time, so the 
 Japanese statesmen tell us, is given to public work. 
 His few leisure moments he solaces with writing 
 poetry. In his care for his people he appears to 
 be ably seconded by the Empress, who is described 
 as an angel of goodness, full of talent and learning, 
 and herself an accomplished poetess. I asked 
 whether any of her poems had been published ; 
 " No," was the reply ; " she is too modest for that ; 
 but, nevertheless, a few short pieces have found 
 their way into the Japanese newspapers, and have 
 been much admired, purely on their merits." In 
 Her Majesty every good work, more especially 
 all that concerns hospitals and nursing, finds a 
 patroness and a powerful helper. Her name is in 
 itself a poem — " Haruko," the Child of Spring. 
 
 We took leave of the Emperor at the railway 
 station, and drove off escorted by a troop of 
 lancers. Tokyo was in gala dress. The streets 
 were all lined with soldiers. Vast crowds had 
 gathered together, the children, as usual, in front.
 
 lo THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Day fireworks were being let off in all directions. 
 " God Save the King " was being played or sung 
 at every turn, and the shouting of " Banzai " never 
 ceased. One thing struck us. Even where there 
 were no soldiers, and only policemen at per- 
 haps fifty yards' distance from one another, the 
 children's places were sacred. No man or woman 
 endeavoured to push to the front. In Japan, 
 King Baby is paramount, and keeps the streets as 
 effectively as a regiment of Life Guards. When 
 the soldiers went to the war, his cry of " Banzai " 
 was the last pathetic home-sound which cheered 
 the heart of many a poor fellow who never came 
 back. 
 
 At a foot's-pace we reached the Kasumigaseki 
 Palace, an European building standing in a lovely 
 garden, with a miniature lake and bridges, and 
 ornamented with the thousand and one fancies 
 dear to the Japanese horticulturist. The Palace 
 was, until recently, inhabited by Prince Arisugawa, 
 and is a most delightful dwelling, filled with every 
 comfort, and tended by a model staff of servants, 
 resplendent in European liveries, but having pre- 
 served all the stately courtesy which is one of the 
 charms of the East. 
 
 After luncheon we proceeded to the Palace to
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN ii 
 
 rehearse the morrow's ceremony, for the benefit 
 of the Japanese courtiers who were to take part in 
 it, and of Sir Claude Macdonald. The Emperor 
 was, of course, not present. 
 
 The modern Palace of the Emperor stands 
 inside the moat and Cyclopean walls which in old 
 days surrounded the Castle of the Shoguns. 
 When the feudal system came to an end in 1868, 
 these lost their significance. The moat still serves 
 as a sanctuary for the beautiful wild birds that 
 sail about unmolested on its surface ; but the 
 great gates are thrown open, and the people freely 
 throng the broad roads inside the walls, the 
 colossal masonry of which is such a wonder. 
 Pines, maples, and other trees, many beautiful 
 flowering cherries, plums and peaches, varied with 
 graceful bamboos, fringe the moat, and the park 
 inside the inner circle is of great size and rare 
 loveliness. The Palace is imposing on account of 
 the beauty of its carved woodwork and the 
 graceful sweep of its heavily tiled roofs ; and the 
 interior, with its vast corridors and endless succes- 
 sion of great rooms with coffered ceilings, richly 
 lacquered with gold and gorgeously painted, its 
 verandahs opening on to little courtyards, each 
 one fashioned into a miniature garden, strikes one
 
 12 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 as very regal — the fitting residence of a mighty 
 potentate. The decoration of the sliding screens, 
 the painted open-work carving of the friezes, the 
 parquetry of the highly polished floors, are all 
 works of the highest art. And yet, in spite of 
 all this magnificence, nothing is tawdry, nothing 
 is obtrusive. On the contrary, simplicity is the 
 diapason of the whole scheme, while in the hushed 
 silence of these great spaces there is a sense of 
 mystery and of majesty which gives play to 
 thought. 
 
 In the evening we were all invited to dinner 
 with Prince and Princess Arisugawa, in whose 
 palace we spent a delightful evening. The Prince, 
 as you know, is the type of the very highest 
 breeding, and the Princess, grande dame to her 
 finger-tips. You remember how gracious they 
 were to everybody in London ; how determined 
 they seemed to be pleased with all things and all 
 people. What they were as guests they also were 
 as host and hostess. Nothing could exceed their 
 kindliness and eagerness that every one of us 
 should be pleased. They both talked a great deal 
 about London, and in the course of the evening 
 the Princess took me on one side and spoke to me 
 with the greatest affection and gratitude of the
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 13 
 
 King and Queen, More than once she said, " I 
 shall never forget that evening at Buckingham 
 Palace." She told me, too, how much she had 
 been struck by the splendour of the State Ball. 
 In the same pretty unaffected way she reminded 
 Sir Thomas Kelly-Kenny of their meeting at 
 Berlin, She is all grace. 
 
 During dinner, and in the evening, a capital 
 string band played Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, 
 and Wagner, European music is fast displacing 
 the old Chinese school. All the military bands 
 are on the European system, and there is a musical 
 school for the army, like Kneller Hall in England, 
 where the bandsmen are trained, I do not sup- 
 pose that the geisha, with her samisen, her koto, 
 her flute, and her drum, will ever quite disappear, 
 I hope not. But she has distinctly lost the mono- 
 poly which she formerly enjoyed ; and Japanese 
 young ladies are learning the piano and the violin, 
 just as our girls do. 
 
 In the course of the evening Princess 
 Arisugawa's daughter, a very dainty young lady 
 of sixteen, clad in the old Japanese dress, made 
 her appearance. It was a strange contrast to the 
 European toilettes of the other ladies. She tells 
 me that she too is learning to play the piano. Soon,
 
 14 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 I believe, she is to be dressed in Paris fashions. It 
 will seem a pity, for in her own dress she is so 
 charming that no improvement is required, or 
 indeed possible. 
 
 One very pretty custom of modern introduc- 
 tion I must mention. At the end of dinner a 
 tiny box of silver or lacquer is put before each 
 guest filled with little sugar-plums. The box is 
 small enough to go into a waistcoat-pocket, and 
 on the outside it bears an appropriate device — 
 generally the crest of the host, as was the case 
 here, but on one occasion all the boxes were 
 decorated with wreaths of roses and chrysanthe- 
 mums intertwined, the two national flowers — a 
 pretty thought. 
 
 Tuesday, February 20. — Our great day at last ! 
 But what a transformation scene ! Gone, the 
 beautiful blue sky and the bright sunshine of 
 yesterday, and in their place a dismal blizzard ! 
 When I awoke and looked out of window the 
 snow was deep on the ground, and a fierce wind 
 was driving huge flakes against the glass panes. 
 I felt sorry for the silk-stockinged coachmen and 
 footmen of the State carriages, and for the escort 
 of Lancers who, at 10.20, came to fetch us for 
 the Garter ceremony. The streets were almost
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 15 
 
 deserted ; only a few shivering mortals hugging 
 themselves in Inverness capes, and one or two 
 women clattering to market in their high clogs, to 
 be seen — a day of hyperborean misery for man 
 and beast. 
 
 At the entrance to the Palace we were received 
 by the great officers of State, who conducted 
 the Prince to a separate place by himself, while we 
 were led into another room in which the insignia 
 of the Garter had been laid out in readiness for us. 
 The Star and the Garter were in diamonds, the 
 George and the Dragon carved out of an onyx and 
 mounted in brilliants. 
 
 In about five minutes we joined the Prince, 
 and our procession was formed. First came Mr. 
 Lampson, as Acting Secretary to the Order ; then 
 Captain Wyndham, carrying the plumed hat ; 
 Colonel Davidson followed, carrying the blue velvet 
 mantle and star ; next, marching abreast, came Sir 
 Edward Seymour and Sir Thomas Kelly-Kenny, 
 the one bearing the garter, the other the collar ; 
 then myself with the ribbon and George ; and last 
 of all the Prince, wearing the mantle, collar, and 
 insignia of the Order. Very slowly we marched 
 along the succession of long corridors until at last 
 we came to the verandah on to which the Throne
 
 1 6 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Room opens ; there we halted until a band hidden 
 behind the sliding panels had finished playing 
 " God Save the King." This, by the bye, was 
 most impressive, for it was taken in slower time 
 than is usual, reminding me of what a Frenchman 
 once said to me of it, "C'est plus qu'un air national, 
 c'est une priere." When the last chord had died 
 away we entered the room one by one, except 
 the Admiral and General, who remained abreast — 
 the British Ambassador announcing each as we 
 went in. 
 
 The scene before us was one to be re- 
 membered. Imagine to yourself a vast room or 
 hall, square, or nearly so, in shape. The floor is 
 parqueted ; the walls panelled with silk brocade 
 surmounted by a frieze of the most elaborate 
 carving, coloured and gilt ; the ceiling coffered, 
 finely lacquered and enriched with gold decoration. 
 Opposite the entrance is a raised dais carpeted with 
 crimson and canopied with a baldachino of silk 
 and velvet of the same colour, supported by two 
 huge gilt spears springing up from the wall at an 
 angle of about forty-five degrees. On the dais is 
 the throne of gold and velvet, in front of which 
 stands the Emperor in a Field-Marshal's uniform, 
 with white breeches and jack-boots. Close behind
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 17 
 
 His Majesty, a little on his right, is Mr. Nagasaki, 
 who is to interpret. Below the dais, on the left, 
 are the Marquis Tokudaiji, the Lord Chamberlain, 
 with the general Aide-de-Camp and two Masters 
 of the Ceremonies. At His Majesty's right hand, 
 also below the dais, are the Princes and Princesses 
 of the Blood, and at right angles to them are the 
 great nobles, generals, admirals, statesmen, and the 
 ladies of the Court — all in European uniforms and 
 dresses — and opposite to these are the British 
 Ambassador and Ambassadress, with the ladies and 
 gentlemen of the Embassy. 
 
 Not a sound was heard, not a movement of a 
 finger, not the rustle of a dress, as very slowly 
 each one of us in turn, carrying the insignia on a 
 red velvet cushion, advanced alone towards the 
 throne, making the three prescribed obeisances, and 
 drawing up on each side to make a lane for the 
 Prince, who, of course, came in last. 
 
 When His Royal Highness, having made his 
 three bows, came up to the Emperor he handed to 
 His Majesty an autograph letter from the King, 
 and then slowly and with great dignity read the 
 following address : — 
 
 " Sire — I have it in command from the King- 
 Emperor, my august master and royal uncle, to
 
 1 8 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 ask Your Majesty's acceptance of the highest mark 
 of his friendship and esteem which it is in His 
 Majesty's power to bestow. 
 
 " Your Majesty is no doubt aware that the 
 Order of the Garter was instituted nearly six 
 hundred years ago, as an Order of chivalry, by 
 King Edward the Third, and it is recognised as 
 our most noble Order of Knighthood. 
 
 " Originally it consisted of the King as 
 Sovereign of the Order, the Prince of Wales, and 
 twenty-four Knights, which restricted number has 
 been adhered to from that day to this. It has 
 been the custom, however, to confer the dignity 
 upon those Emperors, Kings, and Princes who are 
 in special and peculiar amity or alliance with the 
 King of England. 
 
 " And so it is that I come here to-day 
 empowered to invest Your Majesty with the 
 Insignia of this ancient and most noble Order of 
 the Garter. 
 
 " You will accept it. Sire, as a signal mark of 
 the friendship of King Edward, who feels that on 
 no Sovereign could the symbols of chivalry, valour, 
 and honour be more fittingly bestowed." 
 
 This address was translated by Mr. Nagasaki 
 for the Emperor, whose reply was as follows : —
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 19 
 
 " Your Royal Highness — It gives me special 
 pleasure to welcome Your Royal Highness. I 
 accept the distinguished and most noble Order of 
 Knighthood, of which Your Royal Highness is the 
 bearer, as a new and signal proof of the friendship 
 and good-will of His Majesty King Edward. 
 
 *' J request Your Highness to be the inter- 
 preter to His Majesty of my sincere sentiments of 
 cordial appreciation, not only for the high distinc- 
 tion itself, but for adding to the distinction by 
 designating Your Highness as his special represen- 
 tative for the occasion ; and I also request Your 
 Highness to assure His Majesty of my warm 
 esteem and invariable friendship and attachment, 
 as well as of my ardent wishes for his continued 
 good health and well-being." 
 
 The addresses did not take up many minutes, 
 and. then followed the investiture. Sir Edward 
 Seymour stepped forward with the Garter, which 
 Mr. Lampson, who had to perform the duties of 
 Secretary of the Order, took from him and handed 
 to the Prince. Now came a compliment as pretty 
 as it was unexpected. At the very moment when 
 the Prince was buckling the Garter below the 
 Emperor's knee, at a preconcerted signal, the 
 invisible band struck up once more " God Save the
 
 20 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 King." The effect was electric, and lent a charm 
 to the whole ceremony. Of a truth, in all that 
 appertains to courtesy the Japanese are past 
 masters. What other people would have thought 
 of this graceful message of thanks to our King ,'' 
 With great solemnity, one after another, we each 
 carried forward our part of the Insignia, with 
 which the Prince, assisted by Mr. Lampson, in- 
 vested the Emperor, and each in his turn came 
 back to his place, bowing and making way for the 
 next man. When at last His Majesty, having 
 been robed in the mantle and having handed the 
 hat to his Chamberlain, had received all the 
 Insignia, Prince Arthur retired, backing out of 
 the room with three obeisances, and one by one 
 we followed in the same way, the band again 
 playing " God Save the King." Thus it was that 
 in solemn state we left the presence of His 
 Majesty, Mutsuhito, Emperor of Japan, K.G. 
 
 In every quarter I hear of the great impression 
 that was created both upon the Japanese and upon 
 the Europeans who were present by the dignity 
 and stateliness of the ceremonial. In such sur- 
 roundings it could hardly be otherwise. The 
 central figure, the Tenshi Sama, the Son of 
 Heaven, a monarch the origin of whose ancestors
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 21 
 
 is lost in the dimness of myth and fable — himself, 
 until a few short years ago, as great a mystery 
 even to his own people as those very ancestors — 
 now a Ruler whom all may see, and whom all 
 revere, not only as the symbol of authority, but 
 because, during the whole thirty-eight years of his 
 reign, he has never done a deed in his public or in 
 his private life of which either he or his people can 
 be ashamed. In every department of the State he 
 has had the talent to surround himself with the 
 best Councillors, and so he has raised his country 
 from the obscurity of a Hermit Nation to the proud 
 position which she now occupies among the great 
 Powers of the world. Such, in brief, is the 
 Sovereign to honour whom our King has sent 
 his own brother's son, bearing a gift the signifi- 
 cance of which has not been lost either upon His 
 Majesty or upon his people, who are taught by 
 their own pubHc press to look upon it as the 
 recognition of those achievements at which the 
 world has stood amazed. And, indeed, this 
 recognition has been well earned, not only by 
 the successes in war of such men as Admiral 
 Togo, Marshal Oyama, and General Kuroki, but 
 by the setting of an example of chivalry, generosity, 
 and modesty in the midst of triumph which has
 
 22 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 won over the good opinion even of those who 
 were inclined to shake their heads at a danger 
 which they now acknowledge to have been 
 imaginary. 
 
 Hardly had we reached home when the Emperor 
 came to pay a visit in person to Prince Arthur. 
 We all received him at the door, and then His 
 Majesty, with the Prince and Mr. Nagasaki, retired 
 into a private room. The conversation was alto- 
 gether private and unofficial, but it sufficed to 
 show how sincerely pleased the Emperor had been 
 with the investiture. He expressed great admira- 
 tion of the ceremonial and of the smoothness with 
 which it had been conducted. He also praised 
 the beauty of the Insignia, and repeated his senti- 
 ments of gratitude to King Edward, dwelling upon 
 his pleasure at the Prince's visit. Then producing 
 a lacquer box, he took from it the ribbon and star 
 of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, and with his 
 own hands put the ribbon over the Prince's 
 shoulder and pinned the star to his breast. This 
 Order is the highest in the Empire ; only three 
 subjects below the Imperial rank have it — Marshals 
 Yamagata and Oyama and Marquis Ito ; the 
 other members of the Order are the Emperor 
 himself and the Princes of the Blood. But the
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 23 
 
 chief significance of the gift lay in the personal 
 investiture. Never before, not even in the case 
 of the Crown Prince, has His Majesty deigned to 
 invest a recipient. As a rule he has handed the 
 box containing the Insignia unopened. Some- 
 times he has gone so far as to open it. But no 
 man save Prince Arthur alone can boast that 
 the Emperor put on the ribbon or fixed the star 
 for him. 
 
 When the Emperor went away we attended him 
 at the door. He seemed highly pleased with his 
 visit, and shook hands cordially with every member 
 of the Mission — a most unusual compliment. 
 
 After the Emperor had gone I was taken into 
 an inner room and presented, by His Majesty's 
 command, with a lacquer box decorated with the 
 Imperial crest of the Pawlonia, tied together with 
 tasselled cords of crimson silk, and containing the 
 grand cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, 
 after the so rarely given Chrysanthemum, the 
 highest decoration of Japan. It is something to 
 have the privilege of wearing the same ribbon and 
 star as a Togo and a Kuroki ! The same honour 
 was bestowed upon Sir Edward Seymour and Sir 
 Thomas Kelly-Kenny. To Colonel Davidson was 
 given the second class of the Sacred Treasure ; to
 
 24 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Captain Wyndham and Mr. Lampson the fourth 
 class of the Rising Sun. 
 
 In the evening the Emperor gave a State 
 dinner in honour of Prince Arthur and the Garter 
 Mission. In full uniform, wearing the decorations 
 which had that morning been conferred upon us, 
 we drove to the Palace. Prince Arthur was in 
 the first carriage with Admiral Togo and Mr. 
 Nagasaki ; I was in the second with General 
 Kuroki. The snow was falling fast and furious, 
 but in spite of wind and weather there were a few 
 more determined sightseers who must needs 
 witness the chilly show. Arrived at the Palace, 
 the Prince was conducted to the room where the 
 Imperial family were to assemble, we to a large 
 ante-room where the rest of the guests were 
 gathered together. We had not long to wait. 
 Very soon the National Anthem announced the 
 coming of the Imperial party. Prince Arthur led 
 the way with Princess Arisugawa ; next came the 
 Emperor wearing the star and collar of the Garter 
 and leading Princess Higashi Fushimi, and after 
 them the rest of the Princes and Princesses. We 
 lesser folk followed them into the banqueting hall, 
 each leading his lady. There must have been 
 some eighty persons present in all. I was
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 25 
 
 admirably placed, for I was almost immediately- 
 opposite to the Emperor, so that I could see and 
 hear everything that took place. The dinner was 
 excellent and not too long, which is the fault that 
 in most countries usually mars such entertain- 
 ments, while the Emperor's band played most 
 admirably. Immediately behind His Majesty 
 stood Mr. Nagasaki, who interpreted, and though 
 the occasion was in the highest degree stately, it 
 was never dull. The two ladies between whom I 
 sat were excellent company. 
 
 As soon as the sweet course was reached, the 
 Emperor rose and gave the toast of the King of 
 England, which was drunk in all solemnity, the 
 band playing " God Save the King." Shortly 
 afterwards Prince Arthur got up and wished 
 " health, long life, and prosperity to His Majesty 
 the Emperor of Japan," and now burst forth 
 the stately National Anthem of Japan. This, it 
 may be noted, is the first occasion upon which an 
 Emperor of Japan has ever proposed a toast. 
 
 After dinner we marched out, in the order in 
 which we had come in, into an adjoining room, 
 where coffee was served, and where each member 
 of the Mission was called up in turn, to be 
 personally presented to, and have a little talk with,
 
 26 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the Emperor. To me he spoke of bygone days, 
 remembering, or having been reminded of, the 
 time when I acted as interpreter between himself 
 and the Duke of Edinburgh, and of his first 
 reception of Sir Harry Parkes, Sir Ernest Satow, 
 and myself at Kyoto when his power was re- 
 established in 1868 by the overthrow of the 
 Shogun, shortly after he came to the throne. 
 
 To Sir Thomas Kelly -Kenny he spoke of 
 improving the horses in Japan, the existing breed 
 being too small. The General, ever equal to the 
 occasion, replied that " it is not always the big 
 horses and the big men that do the best work." 
 His Majesty caught the allusion at once, and 
 chuckled with pleasure at the joke. 
 
 When each of us had had his little audience, 
 we all adjourned, the Emperor leading the way, 
 to a great hall, where a stage had been erected for 
 the performance of the classic dance known as 
 Bugaku. This dance, which is in honour of the 
 first Emperor, Jimmu Tenn5, is a very solemn and 
 semi-religious entertainment. It is given only 
 once in twelve months, at the New Year, but had, 
 on this occasion, been put off for the Prince's 
 visit. It is held only in the Palace, so that few 
 Japanese, and those only of the highest rank, have
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 27 
 
 ever seen it. The performers are men who have 
 been initiated into the mysteries one by one, 
 keeping the tradition unbroken for more than a 
 thousand years. As one man dies or becomes in- 
 capacitated, another is appointed to his place, and 
 is instructed in the mystic lore, in which no outsider 
 may bear a part. The dresses are in the fashion 
 of the most hoary antiquity, such as you may see 
 represented in some of the very ancient drawings 
 on screens or in books which depict the customs 
 of the old Court of Kyoto. The long flowing 
 robes of rich brocade, the strangely fashioned 
 black caps, the spears and swords, the weird in- 
 struments of the musicians who crouch, clad in 
 the ancient garb, behind the performers — all these 
 belong to a time before history was invented, and 
 when tradition still traced all ceremonial and all 
 courtly entertainments back to the days when the 
 gods ruled upon earth. Of the dance itself it is 
 very difficult for the uninitiated to speak. It con- 
 sists of posturing, the drill of which is exceedingly 
 complicated and most accurately executed. The 
 inner significance of every movement is something 
 at which it is impossible to guess. Learned 
 antiquaries have written volumes upon it and 
 treatises of great research. Until these shall have
 
 2 8 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 been translated, all that can be said is that it 
 depends for such charm as it may possess upon 
 that Old-World flavour which clings to everything 
 connected with the ancient Court of the Mikados, 
 and which is so attractive to all those who still have 
 a care for the glories of the past, now too quickly 
 fading into oblivion. All courts have their 
 picturesque traditions. Happy are those that 
 preserve them. Who would care to see our own 
 Beefeaters wiped out and abolished ? 
 
 There were, as will be seen by the programme, 
 three separate dances which were to have been 
 performed ; but at the end of the first part the 
 Emperor gave the signal for a move, thus ruthlessly 
 cutting out the second half of the programme. 
 Many guests had been invited to the Bugaku 
 who had not been present at the Banquet, so 
 we were ushered into a great room, where supper 
 was laid out for those who needed it. But that 
 soon came to an end, at any rate so far as we 
 were concerned, for after a few minutes Prince 
 Arthur took his leave. 
 
 With kingly courtesy His Majesty and all 
 the Imperial Princes escorted the Prince as far as 
 the end of the last corridor but one leading to 
 the entrance. There he bade the Prince and all
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 29 
 
 of us farewell, shaking hands again with each one 
 of us. 
 
 So ended a memorable day, a day which has 
 broken all records and established many pre- 
 cedents, a day of happy augury, marking a new 
 epoch in the relations between the two countries. 
 Some forty years ago I was looking with a Japanese 
 gentleman at a map of the world on the Mer- 
 cator's projection ; pointing to England in the 
 west and Japan in the east, he said, " Look at 
 those two island kingdoms ! are they not like the 
 two eyes in a face ? If they could only see 
 together ! " That pious wish of a man who has 
 been dead for many years has now been realised — 
 realised, it may be hoped, as a security for peace, 
 at any rate in the Far East. 
 
 PROGRAMME of the Music performed at the State Dinner 
 given by the Emperor of Japan at Tokyo, 20th February 
 1906. 
 
 1. La Reine de Saba (Marche et 
 
 Cortege) .... Ch. Gounod. 
 
 2. Romeo et Juliette (Ouverture) . V . Bellini. 
 
 3. Eternelle Folie (Valse) . . T. K. Naxare-Aga. 
 
 4. Selection from the Opera Cavalleria 
 
 Rustic an a . . . . P. Mascagni.
 
 30 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 1. Romance (Violin Solo) . . T. Szvendsen. 
 
 2. {a) Menuet . . . . L. Boccherini. 
 \b) Traiimerei (for String (^uintett) R. Schumann. 
 
 To each of the guests at the State Dinner of 
 fhe 2oth of February was given the following 
 explanation of the Bugaku dance : — 
 
 PROGRAMME 
 
 Shuntei-kwa. — This classical dance was originally introduced 
 from China about one thousand one hundred and twenty 
 years ago. Afterwards the music was rearranged by a 
 Japanese Court artist, and the dancing was arranged by 
 Korenari Inugami. A number of gentlemen are supposed 
 to be enjoying and admiring blossoms in a garden in 
 spring-time. 
 
 Taiheiraku. — This dance is in imitation of the old Chinese 
 Taiheiraku of one thousand and forty years ago. It is 
 supposed to mean the putting away of all disorders and 
 the restoration of peace. 
 
 Nasori. — -This is an old Korean piece and represents two 
 dragons at play. 
 
 Wednesday^ February 1 1 . — I wonder how often, 
 since we landed in Japan two days ago, the 
 question has been put to me by old Japanese 
 friends and new acquaintances, " Do you not see 
 great changes in our country since you were here 
 before," I think that, without giving any heed
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 31 
 
 to what had gone before, all that we saw and did 
 on Wednesday, the 21st of February, furnishes 
 a pretty complete answer to that question. 
 
 We were up betimes, for we had a long day's 
 work ahead of us. There was a good deal to be 
 done before 9.30, when the Prince had to receive 
 a number of Japanese nobles who came to be 
 presented. Among them the most conspicuous 
 figure was Prince Tokugawa, the ex-Sh5gun, whose 
 rule came to an end when the revolution of the 
 Daimyos in 1868 restored to the then Boy- 
 Emperor the power which for seven hundred 
 years had been vested in successive dynasties of 
 Shdguns, the last of which — the Tokugawa — was 
 founded by Tokugawa lyeyasu in a.d. 1603. 
 The battle of Fushimi, near Kyoto, on 17 th January 
 1868, and the battle of Uyeno in the following 
 July, in which his troops were finally defeated, 
 reduced the Shogun from the inheritance of a royal 
 power, held by his ancestors for two hundred and 
 fifty years, to the condition of a private gentleman. 
 The flame of war flickered for a while in the North, 
 but the great man himself retired to his castle at 
 Shidzuoka, where he seems to have occupied him- 
 self in organising a tea industry for the benefit of 
 his former retainers, amusing himself the while
 
 32 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 with country sports and the composition of Chinese 
 poetry. 
 
 At the age of thirty, when I remember him just 
 before his downfall, Prince Tokugawa was one of 
 the handsomest and most distinguished - looking 
 men I ever saw. Nor was that all. He was 
 endowed with the most winning graciousness and 
 charm of manner. He was not tall, but singularly 
 well-proportioned. His features were clean cut, 
 the mouth and teeth perfect, the complexion clear 
 olive, the hands and feet fit for a sculptor to 
 model. When he smiled the whole face was 
 lighted up. Even now, as an old man, he has 
 retained much of his good looks and all his charm. 
 
 I remember, as if it had happened yesterday, the 
 first time we went to an audience of the ShSgun. 
 It was in the castle of Osaka, a most imposing 
 building. Sir Harry Parkes, Mr. (now Sir Ernest) 
 Satow, and myself were shown through a labyrinth 
 of corridors into a great matted room beautifully 
 decorated. Chairs were placed round a table at 
 which the Gorojiu (the Shogun's councillors) and 
 ourselves were seated ; one chair was vacant. All 
 of a sudden the hissing sound of breath drawn 
 in, the sign of the approach of a great man, was 
 heard through the building and passages. Nearer
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 33 
 
 and nearer the sound came, until at last the sliding 
 screens were pushed aside, and for a second or two, 
 in the space formed, a statuesque figure stood 
 motionless. We rose and bowed, the salutation 
 was smilingly and gracefully returned, and the 
 Sh5gun, beckoning us to be seated, took the 
 vacant chair. 
 
 First, after a series of intrigues which were not 
 bloodless, the Ruler of this great Empire, to all 
 intents and purposes a King, then treated as a 
 rebel, afterwards forgiven and taken into favour 
 again by the Emperor, Prince Tokugawa must 
 have gone through as many vicissitudes of fortune 
 as any man that ever lived. 
 
 A few days later I saw him again when he came 
 to luncheon with Prince Arthur, and had a long 
 talk with him. At first he did not recognise me 
 owing to the change of name, but when I explained 
 that to him, he remembered me and talked quite 
 freely. " Things have changed a good deal since 
 you and I met at Osaka," was the first thing he 
 said. They have indeed ! 
 
 But the last time that I saw him ! It was after 
 the battle of Fushimi, and he was riding back to 
 Osaka, a beaten man, at the head of his army, 
 surrounded by a bodyguard of warriors, helmeted 
 
 D
 
 34 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 and visored, clad in the ancient armour of Japan. 
 It was not only a picturesque sight never to be 
 forgotten, it was also a day fateful in history. 
 
 I accompanied him to the door when he left. 
 His carriage was waiting for him, and so he drove 
 ofF without even one gentleman in attendance. 
 He, before whom every knee was bent and every 
 head was bowed, who never moved out without 
 his hundreds of spearmen and bowmen and 
 retainers and officers, all the pomp and circum- 
 stance of state — now absolutely alone ! And yet 
 a great personage. For if the Shogunate is 
 abolished, the Head of the House of Tokugawa 
 remains an important noble, happier perhaps in 
 his calm old age than ever he was in the stormy 
 days of a glory which he himself felt to be an 
 anachronism, false and untenable. 
 
 After the Japanese nobles had taken their leave 
 the Diplomatic body had to be introduced, and 
 then followed a ceremony which was full of interest. 
 
 The King had sent his Order of Merit to be 
 conferred upon Marshals Yamagata and Oyama and 
 upon Admiral Togo, and the Prince was to invest 
 them with the badge. It was a grand sight to see 
 these three bronzed and war-worn heroes come up 
 one by one with bowed heads to receive at the
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 35 
 
 young Prince's hands an honour which was now for 
 the first time conferred upon anybody not a subject 
 of our King. That they fully appreciated this, and 
 were deeply moved, is certain ; it was written in 
 their faces, and it was almost reverently that they 
 took the badge which Colonel Davidson hung 
 round their necks. 
 
 As each in turn stood before him the Prince 
 read the following address : — 
 
 " Sir — I am commanded by the King of 
 England to present to you the ' Order of Merit,' 
 an order instituted by His Majesty for the reward 
 of services of special and exceptional merit. 
 
 " The number of recipients of the Order is 
 limited to twenty-four, and in conveying to you 
 this mark of the King of England's appreciation, 
 I am to inform you that this is the first occasion 
 upon which the Order has been bestowed on any 
 one not of British nationality." 
 
 To this formal speech the Prince added a few 
 personal and gracious words of his own, saying, 
 " It is a great personal pleasure to me, and I con- 
 sider it a great honour to have been deputed by 
 His Majesty to confer the Order of Merit on one 
 who has so nobly served his country, and I hope 
 that you may long live to wear it."
 
 36 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 The three veterans went ofF at once to tele- 
 graph their thanks to the King. It is a character- 
 istic trait of the modesty of these great men that 
 Admiral T5go certainly, and I think both the 
 Marshals, at first wore their decorations with the 
 words " For Merit " turned inwards. To wear 
 them with such an inscription exposed would 
 savour of bragging, and these men are no braggarts. 
 It was only when the incorrectness of this was 
 pointed out to them that, in deference to etiquette, 
 they turned their badges the right way. 
 
 It is not an easy matter to record a succession 
 of entertainments, each perfect of its kind, each 
 marked by the same graceful hospitality, the same 
 cordial enthusiasm. If only in any one of them 
 there had been some small failure^ some error of 
 commission or of omission, it would have given to 
 my writing a little of the zest of variety, a little of 
 the spice of criticism. As it is, I am condemned 
 to a monotone of praise and admiration. Again, 
 there have been so many " first times " to tell of, 
 that any one who takes the trouble to read these 
 pages will wish that some one person had put his 
 back up and refused to do the right thing, if only 
 for the sake of a little change. For such mal- 
 contents I have no story to relate. I can only
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 37 
 
 fall back upon the weather, which certainly behaved 
 most shabbily. 
 
 It was raining in torrents when we set out for 
 the Koraku Yen — the Arsenal Garden where 
 General Terauchi, the Minister of War, had 
 invited us to luncheon. The garden is one of 
 the most beautiful places of Tokyo. It was in old 
 days the home of the Princes of Mito, one of 
 the Go-san-ke, the three princely houses of the 
 Tokugawa family in which the succession to the 
 Shogunate was formerly vested. It was the 
 intriguing of the old Prince of Mito which led to 
 his third son Keiki, now the Prince Tokugawa 
 mentioned above, being raised to the office of 
 Sh5gun in 1866, and caused the once famous 
 murder of the Minister li Kamon no Kami. The 
 palace now no longer exists ; the sounds of courtly 
 music and solemn dances are replaced by the clank 
 of steel, the blast of furnaces, and the endless din 
 of the giant forges. Grimy artisans, engineers, 
 pondering abstruse problems, hurry with eager 
 steps along paths once delicately trodden by dainty 
 dames clad in richest brocade, Vulcan has turned 
 Venus out of doors, but the beautiful garden re- 
 mains as well tended as of yore, though its only 
 tenants are two solemn cranes, emblems of Ion-
 
 38 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 gevity, looking supremely miserable in the pelting 
 rain with which their plumage is bedraggled. I 
 think that on the whole this is the prettiest garden 
 that I have seen in Japan ; at any rate it is one in 
 which, from our Western point of view, the most 
 art is shown. Other gardens in the midst of fine 
 scenery may be more romantic ; but this is 
 fashioned in the town without any extraneous 
 advantages. Then it has the charm of age, giving 
 dignity to the trees and to the lichen-covered rocks. 
 When we had wandered through the workshops 
 and seen all the many wonders, we were taken to 
 have luncheon in a great temporary building, where 
 in the decoration every corner had been trans- 
 formed into a fairy bower of cherry-trees in full 
 blossom, and the electric light had been turned to 
 such account as I had never before seen. The 
 effect was really bewildering and took us all by 
 surprise. I sat between Prince Arisugawa and 
 Marshal Oyama, so I was well placed. After 
 luncheon Prince Arthur made a pretty little speech, 
 proposing " The Japanese Army." General 
 Terauchi replied, and then Prince Fushimi drank 
 to the health of the English Army, coupling Sir 
 Thomas Kelly-Kenny with the toast. Then up 
 got our General and touched the true note when
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 39 
 
 he spoke of " my comrades, your illustrious 
 generals," a little compliment which could not fail 
 to go straight to the hearts of his audience. The 
 ball was prettily thrown, and as prettily caught. 
 
 By the time we had taken leave of our hosts 
 the day was well advanced, but there was still 
 plenty of light, so we were driven off to the 
 famous Mitsukoshi shop, a huge place full of 
 temptations, which I do not think that any of us 
 even attempted to resist. There were gorgeous 
 embroideries, pictures wrought in needlework, 
 crepe of all kinds and colours, silken robes, with 
 charming little ladies to put them on and set 
 them off. I bought five pieces of crepe, which I 
 hope will meet with success when they reach their 
 destination. 
 
 Our visit to the Mitsukoshi shop had long 
 been pre-arranged, so the proprietors — very rich 
 people — had determined to do something in 
 honour of the Prince. In a little courtyard inside 
 the shop they had caused to be built a tiny tea- 
 house, not much bigger than a toy, in two com- 
 partments, in one of which sat a professoress of 
 the Cha No Yu, the tea ceremonies, one of the 
 most complex entertainments of old Japan. It 
 was a treat to sec the way in which she went
 
 40 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 through the mysteries of her craft. How grace- 
 fully she moved ! How daintily her pretty little 
 hands dealt with every stage of the process ! The 
 pouring of the water on the powdered leaves, the 
 stirring of the mixture with a bamboo whisk 
 (which must come from Nara), the covering of 
 the cup, the final obeisance and handing of the 
 cup to the honoured guest — every motion is 
 prescribed. Not a finger must go astray, not a 
 fold of the dress must be awry. There must be 
 no hurry, nothing precipitate — not the semblance 
 of a smile must strike a note of frivolity. It is 
 all gentle and graceful, and very, very solemn. 
 The little house was so small that only one of us 
 at a time could take his place in the compartment 
 which mimicked a guest-chamber. But the 
 ceremony was complete and absolutely perfect, 
 for the lady was a past mistress of her art, 
 
 A very pleasant dinner, given by the Crown 
 Prince at the Shiba Palace — where I sat next to 
 the Marquis Kido, the adopted son of the best 
 friend I had here in the old days, now, alas ! long 
 since dead — by no means brought the day's 
 festivities to a close, for there was a ball at the 
 British Embassy, at which all the princes and 
 princesses were present.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 41 
 
 Princess Arisugawa brought her daughter. It 
 was her first ball, and very much she seemed to 
 enjoy it. Being in Japanese costume she could 
 not, of course, dance round dances, but she did 
 take part in quadrilles. As for me, when I see 
 these things I feel like Rip Van Winkle. I have 
 been asleep, and centuries have passed over 
 my head. 
 
 Thursday^ February 11. — A ball following 
 upon a pretty full day is not the best preparation 
 for getting up before daybreak on a very cold 
 winter's morning. However, at 6.15 I had to 
 be afoot in order to be ready for an early start 
 by train for Yokosuka, an important naval arsenal 
 about fifty miles from Tokyo, west of Yokohama. 
 We were singularly lucky in our weather, for, 
 although we heard afterwards that it had rained 
 all day in the capital, we had a bright sky and a 
 shining sun to cheer us. 
 
 Yokosuka is a very pretty land-locked harbour 
 surrounded by those picturesque volcanic hills 
 charmingly laced with pine-trees, bamboos, and all 
 manner of fascinating vegetation, which form such 
 a striking feature in the coast scenery of Japan. 
 It was only a small fishing village when certain 
 French officers in the Shogun's service fixed upon
 
 42 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 it as the site for an arsenal, which from small 
 beginnings has risen to be a dockyard of the first 
 importance. 
 
 But two hundred and fifty years before it had 
 attracted the official attention, it had been the scene 
 of a story, and the home of a man whose memory 
 has been recently resuscitated by the new Anglo- 
 Japanese Alliance. It was in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, in the year 1600, that Will Adams, the 
 pilot, landed in Japan, being the first Englishman 
 who ever set foot in these Islands. In his letter 
 to certain English " marchants " in the Island of 
 Java he gives the following account of himself : — 
 " Your worships, to whom this present writing 
 shall come, is to geve you to understand that I am 
 a Kentish man, borne in a towne called Gillingam, 
 two English miles from Rochester, one mile from 
 Chattam where the King's ships doe lye." Having 
 been apprenticed for twelve years to one master, 
 Nicholas Diggines at Limehouse near London, he 
 served as master and pilot in Her Majesty's ships. 
 He then entered the service of " the Worshipfull 
 Companie of the Barbarie Marchants," until " the 
 Indish traffic from Holland " began. In this 
 " Indish traffic " he wished to " make a lettel ex- 
 perience of the small knowledge which God had
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 43 
 
 given me," and so he became Master Pilot of a 
 " Fleet of five sayle." It would be too long to 
 tell here how they sailed for Brazil, passed through 
 the Straits of Magellan, and entered the Pacific 
 Ocean. How they lost their companion ships by 
 stress of weather. How they shaped their course 
 for " Japon," reaching Bungo starved, sick, and 
 sorry, with the loss of many men, on the 19th of 
 April 1600. But the difficulties of the sea were 
 not the only ones with which Will Adams had to 
 deal. "The Jesuits and the Portingals " were 
 jealous of this new comer, and did what they could 
 to destroy him. Luckily, however, a wise man, 
 Tokugawa lyeyasu, was ruler over the country. 
 At the end of many days Adams was set free from 
 prison ; as much of the property which his enemies 
 had stolen from him as could be recovered was 
 restored to him, and he himself being in high grace 
 and favour was appointed to " learn " lyeyasu in 
 " some points of jeometry and understanding of 
 the art of mathematickes, with other things." To 
 cut a long story short, lyeyasu was a good judge 
 of men ; he recognised the value of Will Adams, 
 kept him in his service as a ship-builder, and 
 married him to a Japanese wife ; and although 
 poor Will always prayed to be allowed to return
 
 44 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 home to his English wife and children, at Hemin 
 by Yokosuka he had to remain. His grave and 
 that of his Japanese wife are shown here, and now, 
 in face of the English Alliance, a movement has 
 been set on foot among the Japanese to get up a 
 fund to endow these tombs, so that a curatorship 
 may be established for their care for all time. 
 
 It is noteworthy that Will Adams was actually 
 appointed feudal lord over Hemin and its inhabit- 
 ants ; the acknowledgment which he paid to the 
 Sh5gun was the daily gift of a tai (sea-bream), 
 which was sent to T5kyo ; and for 250 years after 
 the old pilot's death, until the abolition of the 
 Shogunate, Hemin continued to send that daily 
 tribute to the Palace. When Adams died on the 
 1 6th of May 1620, it was found that he had not 
 forgotten the poor English wife from whom he 
 had been so long and so much against his will 
 separated. For in his last will and testament he 
 left her half his property. The other half went to 
 a son and daughter in Japan. 
 
 A letter addressed by Captain Cock to the 
 
 Governors of the East India Company, dated the 
 
 13th of December 1620, and reprinted by the 
 
 Japan Gazette from the Papers of the Hakluyt 
 
 Society, runs as follows : —
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 45 
 
 *' Our good frend Captain Wm. Addames, whoe 
 was soe long before us in Japon, departed out of 
 this world the vj of May last ; and made Mr. 
 Wm. Eaton and myselfe his overseers : geving the 
 one halfe of his Estate to his wife and childe in Eng- 
 land ; and the other halfe to a sonne and daughter 
 he had in Japon. The coppie of his will, with an 
 other of his inventory (or account of his estate), 
 I send to his wife and daughter, per Captain 
 Martin Pring, their good frend, well knowne to 
 them long tyme past. And I have dehvered one 
 hundred pounds starling to diuers of the James 
 Royall Company, entred into the purser's book to 
 pay two for one in England, is two hundred pounds 
 starling to Mrs. Addames and her daughter, for it 
 was not his mind that his wife should have all, in 
 regard she might marry an other husband, and 
 carry all from his childe ; but that rather it should 
 be equally parted between them : of which I 
 thought good to adviz your wourship. And the 
 rest of his debts and estates being gotton in, I will 
 either bring, or send it per first occasion ofFred 
 and that may be most for their profitt : according 
 as the deceased put his trust in me and his other 
 frend Mr. Eaton." 
 
 The will itself is preserved among the records
 
 46 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 of the Honourable the East India Company. It 
 is in Japanese, and no translation of it has been 
 found. 
 
 The flags were flying, the guns were booming, 
 and there was lusty cheering as we put off in the 
 steam-launch to see the many sights of Yokosuka. 
 But this time the cry was not " Banzai," but 
 " Hoga," for the Japanese sailor has a cheer of his 
 own. " Banzai " means " ten thousand years," 
 like the " O King, hve for ever ! " of the Bible. 
 " Hoga," on the other hand, means " Respectfully 
 saluting " ; but whether the cry be " Banzai," or 
 whether it be " Hoga," there is no mistaking the 
 heartiness of the welcome. There is something 
 inspiriting, too, in the sight of the sun : " Togo 
 Hiyori ! " say our Japanese friends, and the great 
 Admiral smiles a pleased smile ; for when he came 
 back from the war and made his triumphant entry 
 into Tokyo, the weather was brilliant, whilst when 
 Marshal Oyama came back the rain was falling 
 pitilessly, so with the crowd of Tokyo, " Togo 
 Hiyori " and " Oyama Ame," Togo sunshine, 
 Oyama rain, have become household words. 
 
 lb the ignorant the sight of a great arsenal, so 
 full of meaning to the expert, conveys little save 
 the sense of power, — of the triumph of man, the
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 47 
 
 master of fire, over immeasurable difficulties, each 
 conquered step by step, each the despair of many, 
 the victory of one. To me one lathe is very like 
 another. Two forges side by side may be turning 
 out very different work, but the profane see only 
 the fierce flames, hear only the hissing of the 
 mighty bellows and the angry roar of the fire. 
 Streams of molten iron are being poured into 
 moulds and come out as mighty guns, sheets of 
 red hot steel, moved with as great ease as toys, are 
 being pressed by the power of water into armour 
 plates. It is all very wonderful, and rather 
 horrible ; but only he who is himself of the craft 
 can grasp it all. 
 
 Work ! work ! work ! Never were men so 
 eager as these Japanese artisans. The presence of 
 an English Prince, with his following of famous 
 admirals and generals, hardly tempts them to 
 glance for a second away from lathe or hammer 
 or file. Not for a moment does the clang of 
 metal upon metal cease. Prince or no Prince, the 
 task must be done ; the task is everything. It 
 was as if each man felt that upon him and upon 
 his work depended the fate of the Empire. Here 
 is the true spirit of labour, the chivalry of work ; 
 the ambition which makes a man determine that at
 
 48 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the end of each day he shall be able to say to 
 himself^ " Well done, good and faithful servant." 
 
 The activity outside these cyclopean workshops 
 is as great as that which reigns within. If the 
 ghost of Will Adams ever revisits the lovely spot 
 where he, the Lord of Hemin, used to build 
 galleons for the Shogun lyeyasu : if he can see the 
 giant Satsuma — the first ironclad battleship ever 
 built in Japan, nineteen thousand tons of her — 
 lying on the stocks with the busy workmen swarm- 
 ing over her, fitting, bolting, hammering — what 
 must his thoughts be } If he can see in the 
 harbour four great Russian ships, the Nicholas 1. 
 the Variag^ the Peresviet, and the Apraxin, the spoil 
 of Admiral Togo's bow and spear, all smashed to 
 pieces almost, but all being repaired to form part 
 of the Japanese navy, how proud he must be of 
 the country for which he toiled so faithfully for 
 twenty long years of his life. 
 
 We steamed round three of these ships, and 
 went on board the Peresviet. It is difficult — 
 indeed impossible — for me, a landsman, to convey 
 any idea of the havoc created by the great shells 
 — iron riven asunder, great yawning chasms, deck 
 after deck pierced through, funnels riddled with 
 shot and wrenched out of all shape, great sheets
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 49 
 
 of iron and steel armour twisted like tissue paper. 
 One small torpedo boat, which is now lying on 
 the shore by the jetty, has been on one side 
 knocked out of all similitude to itself. You have 
 to look to the other side to see that she was once 
 a boat, otherwise she is just a heap of old iron 
 and nothing more. She was on board the Orel 
 when the shell struck her, and it gives one some 
 idea of the gallantry with which the Russians 
 fought that ill-fated ship, when one sees what was 
 happening on her decks. She must have borne 
 herself bravely indeed ! It was an awful sight. 
 But when some days later, at Sasebo, I was shown 
 a book of photographs of wounds done for the 
 naval hospital, then I think I realised something 
 of the terrors of modern warfare. It was a night- 
 mare — a haunting horror ! 
 
 It would have been most interesting to have 
 seen all this in any case, but that interest was 
 increased a thousandfold by the presence of 
 Admiral Togo, the hero of Japan's naval triumphs. 
 As Sir Edward Seymour said, it was like going 
 with Nelson to see the San Josef m the Hamoaze 
 at Plymouth. 
 
 At luncheon we had the usual speeches — Sir 
 Edward Seymour responded for the British Navy,
 
 50 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 alluding to the battle of the Sea of Japan as the 
 Japanese Trafalgar. One of the English news- 
 papers reported his speech as if Trafalgar was 
 quite reduced to a second place. Of such lese- 
 majeste against the great man of his profession 
 neither he nor any English seaman could be guilty. 
 He gave full praise, however, to the Japanese Navy, 
 and who can doubt that he was right when he 
 hailed Admiral Togo as the Nelson of Japan } 
 The battle of Trafalgar broke the power of 
 Napoleon ; the battle of the Sea of Japan sealed 
 the fate of Port Arthur, and ended the war with 
 Russia. Two big results, worthy of being put 
 side by side. 
 
 Praise, however, and honour sit lightly upon 
 Admiral Togo. I should hardly have deemed it 
 possible, had I not witnessed it, for any man to 
 remain so unmoved as he was when he was 
 accompanying us over the Peresviet. Mostly he 
 remained in the background, and it was only when 
 he was directly appealed to that he took any part 
 in the proceedings. When Admiral Seymour 
 spoke at the luncheon, he bowed, and his own 
 peculiar gentle smile came over his face. He is 
 too great a gentleman not to acknowledge a 
 civility, but he always seems to think so little of
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 51 
 
 what he has done. I cannot help dwelling on 
 this characteristic in Admiral Togo and in General 
 Kuroki, for I am anxious that it should be under- 
 stood what manner of men these are, whom we, 
 who know them, admire so much. 
 
 Always in a hurry ! so much to see at 
 Yokosuka : so much that must be left unseen ! 
 I for one should dearly have liked to visit the 
 tomb of Will Adams and his wife. But we had 
 to be whirled back to Tokyo for many reasons. 
 Above all, there was a reception at the American 
 Legation, held in honour of General Washington's 
 birthday, which it was our duty to attend. There 
 are fortunately, however, some duties which are a 
 real pleasure, and this was one of them. Mr. 
 Wilson, the American charge d'affaires^ and Mrs. 
 Wilson, did the honours of their house with so 
 much grace and such a kindly manner that they 
 made us regret that we had not more time to 
 spend in their salon ; but it is always the same 
 story, — too little time ! Here too I met an old 
 friend, one of the few left whom I remember in 
 the far-away days in Japan. Mr. Minami was at 
 one time Under Secretary in the Foreign Office. 
 He has now left the public service and has started 
 a sort of Cook's tourist agency for Japan, in which
 
 52 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 he is assisted by his two sons. As he speaks 
 English extraordinarily well I should hope that he 
 must succeed. He was so good as to present me 
 to his wife, a charmingly unaffected Japanese lady. 
 We talked over many reminiscences, but here again 
 our conversation was, unfortunately, cut short by 
 an absolutely necessary move homeward. 
 
 In the evening we dined with Mr. Kato, 
 the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I had the 
 advantage of sitting next to His Excellency at 
 dinner, and had a great deal of interesting talk 
 with him. He was formerly Minister in London, 
 and consequently knows England well. He is an 
 extremely agreeable and well-informed man, and 
 his acquaintance with so many people whom I 
 know gave an additional zest to his conversation. 
 
 Unfortunately he has, since our dinner with him, 
 resigned his office. It seems, according to the 
 Press, that his disagreement with his colleagues is 
 upon the subject of the measure now in con- 
 templation for the purchase by the State of the 
 various railways. 
 
 Friday, February 23. — Duck-netting at Shin- 
 hama was the first order of the day on Friday, 
 February 23. In Mr. Chamberlain's delightful 
 book, Things Japanese, it is called " Duck-hunting."
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 53 
 
 The first thought which suggested itself to me 
 was, How does a man, being only a man, and not 
 furnished with wings, set about hunting a duck ? 
 The second thought on looking at the weather was. 
 How much rather I would be the duck than the 
 hunter. For it was raining as if it had never rained 
 before and was making up for lost time — a steady 
 downpour without an interval from 6.30 a.m., when 
 I got up, hoping against hope that a merciful 
 telegram might arrive to say that the hunt was 
 put off. No such telegram was forthcoming, 
 however. The carriages came round to the door, 
 and off we went, 
 
 I confess that when I looked out on the sloppy 
 streets, when I saw the torrents of rain, and the 
 poor folk who were forced to be out of doors 
 splashing through the mud " koro-koro " on their 
 high wooden clogs, my spirits sank below zero. 
 But it was impossible to remain in the dumps for 
 long in company with General Kuroki and Captain 
 Takarabe. Their gaiety and good humour were 
 infectious, and we were soon all laughing as if 
 there were no such thing as rain and inclement 
 weather. Captain Takarabe, a distinguished sailor, 
 and Vice-Admiral Ijuin, who is also attached to 
 Prince Arthur's staff during his stay in Japan,
 
 54 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 were neither of them actively engaged in the late 
 war. Nevertheless they played an important part 
 in it, for it was they who, as heads of the Intelli- 
 gence Department of the Ministry of Marine, 
 received and drew up all the telegrams containing 
 reports or conveying instructions. During nine- 
 teen months Admiral Ijuin slept in his office — 
 always on the alert, always ready for any emer- 
 gency; and though occasionally sent with despatches 
 to Admiral Togo, for nine weeks Captain Takarabe 
 never even went outside the building. The first 
 news that they received of the battle of the Sea 
 of Japan was to the effect that things were going 
 favourably for the Japanese fleet— nothing more. 
 Then a long period of awful, blank delay ; and 
 at last, after twenty-four hours of straining anxiety, 
 THE telegram — news so glorious that they could 
 hardly believe it, could in no wise realise it. It is 
 difficult to think what must have been the feelings 
 of those men who had been waiting, waiting in a 
 fever of suspense, when the glad tidings came, 
 bringing the certainty of a victory never surpassed 
 in its completeness — the enemy swept off the face 
 of the sea, the capture of Port Arthur a mere 
 question of days or weeks, a vision of peace in the 
 near future.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 55 
 
 But this is not duck-hunting. 
 
 It was a long drive, beyond the very farthest 
 limits of the great city. We crossed two rivers 
 over two ugly modern bridges of stone, which have 
 replaced the picturesque old wooden structures of 
 former days. It is well enough that wood should 
 have been supplanted by stone ; but why not have 
 preserved the beautiful old forms ? The common- 
 place European stone and cast - iron work is 
 altogether out of tune with the grace of Japanese 
 art. At Kyoto and in the country I have seen stone 
 bridges of the most charming fashion. It is a pity 
 that here in the capital the European Vandal or his 
 pupil should have been allowed to perpetrate these 
 iniquities. Barring these bridges, there is nothing 
 that one comes upon during all those miles which 
 does not carry the impress of the many charms of 
 Old Japan. The low wooden houses, with their 
 paper screens in lieu of windows ; the shops with 
 little maidens doing their daily marketing ; the 
 costermongers with their two baskets carried 
 across their shoulders on bamboo poles ; the blind 
 shampooers with their whistles ; the old women 
 stopping under their paper umbrellas, despite the 
 rain, for a gossip with a crony ; the closely-shaven 
 Buddhist monks — all these remind one of Old
 
 56 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Yedo, which is now Tokyo. One figure — I do 
 not think that he was one of the charms of those 
 days — is missing, the swashbuckler, with his two 
 swords, swaggering home after a night's revel in 
 the wine-shops of Shinagawa or elsewhere, and 
 looking with anything but friendly eyes upon what 
 a Japanese writer once called the " unacquainted 
 foreigner," 
 
 It took us pretty well two hours to reach a 
 broad river, across which we were ferried, and on 
 the other side were waiting the jinrikishas which 
 were to carry us on to Shinhama. For some time 
 before we reached the ferry we had been travelling 
 through suburbs which had a more or less rustic 
 appearance : there were even fields and market- 
 gardens such as we old folk remember between 
 Chelsea and Fulham. But here at last we were in 
 the real country. 
 
 I wonder whether any country in the world 
 can show such snug and picturesque homesteads 
 as those of the peasants of Japan. Nestled against 
 a mountain side, or perched on some tiny knoll 
 only a few feet above the flooded rice-fields, in a 
 little grove of trees stands the tiny house. It is 
 but a flimsy affair, built, of course, like the town 
 houses, of wood and paper. The chief difl'erence
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 57 
 
 is in the roof, which, instead of being tiled, is 
 covered with a rich brown thatch, warm in winter, 
 cool in summer, and bearing in due season a lovely 
 crop of blue Iris flowers. It is fenced in by a 
 bamboo hedge with camellias and other evergreens 
 behind it. Cocks and hens strut about the little 
 yard, where the goodwife is busy with her house- 
 hold duties, hanging up linen to dry, pounding 
 rice for the Mochi, cleaning vegetables or what 
 not, while the eldest daughter is minding the 
 babies. Close by is a Tori-i, or bird's seat, the 
 simple portal which marks the approach to a 
 Shinto shrine in honour of Inari Sama, the god of 
 farming, whose ministers are the two foxes, figures 
 of which are placed on either side of the altar 
 on which is his tablet. It is all so primitive, so 
 innocent, and so well-to-do — a picture of that 
 " Simple Life " of which so much is said in these 
 days, a picture of content earned by honest work. 
 Cheerfulness is written in the faces of these happy 
 peasants. Their fare is humble, like their houses ; 
 but it is enough, and they are contented : men 
 and women alike have smiling faces, and a kindly 
 greeting for the stranger who passes their 
 way. 
 
 On a day like this, when the dykes are as
 
 58 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 slippery as ice, and when the foothold is, to say 
 the least of it, precarious, it is no easy matter for 
 the jinrikisha men to steer their course safely 
 through the rice-fields. There is but just room 
 for the little carriages, and a false step would pre- 
 cipitate cart and fare into the paddy. More wet 
 we could hardly be, but when one thinks how 
 these fields are nourished the thought is appalling. 
 But the men are surefooted, and on they trot, 
 heedless of mud, heedless of rain, and when, finally, 
 they land us in the courtyard of the Lodge at 
 Shinhama they are as bright and merry as when 
 they started. 
 
 The Grand Veneur, Count Toda, G.C.V.O., 
 with his officers, all in uniforms of Lincoln green 
 with aiguillettes, giving quite a Sherwood Forest 
 look to the scene, were before us, ready to receive 
 Prince Arthur. The Lodge is an unpretentious 
 little wooden building, which apparently consists 
 only of a dining-room and waiting-room. In the 
 latter were great trenches in the concrete floor, in 
 which at intervals charcoal fires were burning. It 
 was a luxury for us to warm and partially dry our- 
 selves at these — a perfectly futile proceeding, for 
 in a very few minutes we were soaked through as 
 before ! But no matter ! our kind hosts were
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 59 
 
 determined that we should be pleased, and 
 we were as determined as they. So all was 
 well. 
 
 The first thing was that we should have some 
 little knowledge of what was going to take place, 
 so there was a rehearsal, in which the professors, of 
 whom Admiral Togo was one of the most pro- 
 ficient, taught us our lesson. 
 
 When we had mastered the first rudiments of 
 the science, we were conducted to the scene of 
 operations. 
 
 At about a hundred and fifty or two hundred 
 yards from the Lodge is a salt-water lake or arm 
 of the sea, which at certain times is covered 
 with wild fowl of all sorts. A great dyke of 
 earth masks this preserve, from which are cut 
 rather deep little canals ; at the farther end oi 
 these is again a small mask of earth with a peep- 
 hole, enabling the keepers to see when the ducks, 
 who have been led in by feeding and by decoys, 
 are in sufficient numbers for sport to begin. 
 Silent as the grave, the sportsmen crouch outside 
 the mask. Not a sound must be uttered. When 
 the keeper gives the signal they all creep forward, 
 each armed with a great net at the end of a 
 bamboo pole, like a butterfly net from the
 
 6o THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 kingdom of Brobdingnag, and keeping out of sight, 
 stand, four on each side of the canal, until the 
 ducks, scenting mischief, rise up in front of them. 
 That is the exciting moment. It is not altogether 
 so easy as it sounds to catch the wary duck, 
 and in our case, for some reason or another — 
 perhaps owing to the spitefulness of the weather — 
 not many came into the canals, though the great 
 mere was swarming with them, as we could see 
 when we were taken to one of the peep-holes in 
 the great dyke. But the fun and the laughter 
 were good enough for anything — and the chaff that 
 went on ! We caught a few duck, or rather teal, 
 and then went back to the Lodge, drenched to the 
 skin, but very happy. We had as usual a most 
 excellent luncheon, presided over by Viscount 
 Tanaka, Minister of the Imperial Household, and 
 were sitting about the charcoal fires when an 
 electric bell sounded, " More duck in the canals." 
 Out we sallied again, but this time we were 
 doomed to disappointment altogether. The 
 ducks had gone back again, and not one put in 
 an appearance, so we had to console ourselves 
 with watching a very picturesque fisherman in his 
 grass waistcoat, like a drawing by Hokusai, per- 
 forming marvellous feats with a casting-net out of
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 61 
 
 a cockleshell of a boat, and seeing a falcon strike 
 down a flying duck. 
 
 But it was time to go back to Tokyo. So we 
 said good-bye to our hosts, who, as usual, had 
 taken so great pains to give us an enjoyable and 
 exciting day. 
 
 I never heard of this form of sport in the old 
 days. But that is no matter for wonder, for, 
 according to Mr. Chamberlain (and if he does not 
 know, no man does), it was only invented about 
 thirty years ago for the amusement of the Imperial 
 family. When duck are plentiful it must be 
 very good fun, as many as from seven to eight 
 hundred having been caught in one day. We 
 were unlucky in our day, but otherwise all was 
 delightful. It was a novel experience, and if we 
 did get a little wet we were none the worse 
 for it. 
 
 Few people visit Japan without coming in for 
 the experience of an earthquake. This evening, 
 while I was dressing, we had our first taste of one 
 on this journey ; the house began to shake and the 
 crockery to rattle, but it was a poor, half-hearted 
 little affair, and I have known as good a specimen 
 on the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire, 
 
 An official dinner at the Embassy, with all the
 
 62 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Princes and Princesses, brought the day to a close. 
 After dinner there was an exhibition of jujutsu in 
 the temporary ball-room. 
 
 A certain dramatic interest had been given to 
 the jujutsu by weaving it into two little plays. A 
 young girl is attacked by a ruffian in a lonely 
 street. Of course the ruffian is armed with a 
 sword ; equally, of course, the young girl has no 
 defence but her own two arms, and a very stout 
 pair of arms they are. The poor ruffian never has 
 a chance. He may dance about and prance about 
 as he pleases. Every cut is stopped by that 
 powerful wrist, and ultimately the ruffian, disarmed 
 and discomfited, is most disgracefully beaten. A 
 famous Japanese general who was sitting next to 
 me, said with a meaning twinkle in his eye, " Some 
 of that girl's tricks would have been pretty useful 
 to you in the old days, would they not ? " 
 
 Then there was another scene enacted. A 
 faithful servant girl is alone in the house at night 
 Enter a burglar. But it is all of no avail. His 
 burgling is doomed to failure and he to con- 
 tumely ; for the young girl, uttering hoarse 
 screams of defiance, does what she pleases with 
 him — twists hlni and turns him and throws him, 
 and utterly routs him, in spite ot his arms and his
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 63 
 
 terror-striking yells and shouts. And so the 
 young girl is left mistress of the situation, while the 
 disgraced burglar has to plead for mercy. From 
 the dramatic point of view one is driven to the 
 criticism that it is inappropriate for a burglar to 
 give out yells which would awaken the Seven 
 Sleepers, and must arouse the whole neighbour- 
 hood, but as an exhibition of strength on the part 
 of a girl it was simply amazing. 
 
 During our stay in Japan we have seen a good 
 many of these shows of jujutsu, and certainly they 
 are very surprising. To see a woman tossing a 
 full-grown man over her head as easily as if he 
 were a baby is wonderful. More wonderful still 
 is it that women should be taught these violent 
 exercises at all. It has been a common sight for 
 us to see women fencing with wooden swords, 
 giving and taking as hard blows as the men do, 
 without a sign of flinching or of pain. We have 
 even seen a set-to between man and woman, 
 between sword and spear. It would seem as if 
 nothing were so much in fashion at the present 
 day with men and women alike as everything 
 that pertains to military excellence ; even mere 
 posturings with weapons, to us quite meaningless, 
 arouse enthusiasm and admiration.
 
 64 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Drill is an important factor in the curriculum 
 of all schools. Boys and girls alike are taught to 
 march and countermarch, and it would do Lord 
 Roberts' heart good to see a battalion of girls 
 march in fours with a soldier-like swing and form 
 up two deep with the accuracy of the Brigade of 
 Guards. In this way are stimulated habits of dis- 
 cipline and of obedience, which can scarcely be 
 attained by any other method, and which must 
 most certainly make the rawest recruit more valu- 
 able material for the drill sergeant to develop into 
 a soldier than the clumsy shop-boy or the yokel 
 taken straight from the plough. 
 
 Nay, more. The spirit of Bushido is fostered 
 and worked up to the highest pitch. First of all 
 things duty. Duty to the Fatherland. Duty 
 before life itself. This was the leading thought 
 which inspired the hero Hiros6, and there are 
 many Hiroses in Japan. 
 
 Some there may be who will sneer at this and 
 call it jingoism, mihtarism. Let them sneer. 
 This it is that builds up the strength of a nation 
 and makes it rise above its fellows. In each man 
 it breeds the determination to be himself at his 
 best, — that such faculties as he possesses shall be 
 so developed, so improved that, should his
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 65 
 
 country want him, he can offer up, in sacrifice if 
 so it must be, the highest capabiHties of which he 
 is the heir. Never must the talent be laid up in a 
 napkin. 
 
 There is another point in which we may learn 
 much from our allies, and that is a quality for 
 which I must coin a word — preparedness. I 
 remember as a boy hearing a story ot the great 
 Duke of Wellington which I have never seen 
 recorded. It was in 1848. The Chartists were 
 expected to attack London. Lord John Russell 
 suggested to the Duke a number of precautions. 
 In each case the answer was, " Done already." 
 When the late war with Russia became inevitable 
 everything had been "done already." Nothing 
 was left to chance. Every military preparation 
 had been made. Transports ^ were at hand, ships 
 of war were fitted, 800,000 tons of coal were 
 lying in reserve at Sasebo, medical outfits were 
 complete. Princesses and Dames of high degree 
 
 ' Transports in themselves a miracle of foresight, for they carried 
 rails and culverts each numbered for the place which it was to fit, and 
 every necessary for those military railways which had already been 
 accurately planned. The whole of the country which was to be 
 the seat of war had been carefully surveyed for the purpose. I 
 suppose no war was ever declared where so little was left to chance : 
 there was no detail too small for the clear eyes of the Intelligence 
 Department. Their prescience was complete. 
 
 F
 
 66 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 had been for months and months packing lint and 
 other necessaries, nurses by the hundreds were 
 trained as never nurses were trained before (as 
 to that we have the evidence of Sir Frederic 
 Treves and Miss M'Caul). " Done already ! " 
 
 And all this had been going on silently, calmly, 
 without fuss or fidget, so that it was not until 
 they actually came into use that the existence of 
 all these preparations was even guessed at. 
 
 The war is over. Is all this at an end too ^ 
 Go to Yokosuka, to Kure, to Sasebo. Better still, 
 go to any school in any out-of-the-way country 
 village. The answer is there. 
 
 Saturday^ February 24. — At 9.30 in the 
 morning another earthquake ; this time a pretty 
 sharp one — indeed, the Japanese tell us that it is 
 the worst that has occurred for five years. At 
 Yokohama it must have been more violent than at 
 Tokyo, for some damage was done to buildings. 
 At the Hong-Kong and Shanghai bank a chimney 
 stack was knocked down and partially wrecked a 
 room. In Tokyo there was a fine dance of 
 crockery, and furniture played a game of general 
 post, but so far as 1 could hear no harm was 
 done. If this was a bad specimen of the earth- 
 quakes of to-day — and all witnesses agree that it
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 67 
 
 was something out of the common — I cannot help 
 thinking that they must have become less severe 
 than they were forty years ago. I remember the 
 first night I slept in Japan in 1866 being 
 awakened by a shock which seemed as if the 
 house must inevitably come crashing down upon 
 us, A year later I was sitting with a Japanese 
 gentleman in my house at Tokyo when the room 
 began to rock to and fro, gently at first, then 
 with such alarming violence that we rushed out 
 into the garden. There we saw a curious sight : 
 the house was swinging like a pendulum, and 
 trees, one a pine of considerable size, were lifted 
 slowly out of the earth so that their roots were 
 all exposed. As slowly they were drawn down 
 again, and, strange to say, were none the worse for 
 these unwonted gymnastic exercises. But the 
 great catastrophe in modern times was the famous 
 earthquake of 1855, when it was reckoned that 
 twenty thousand persons perished — some burnt to 
 death by the great fire that took place owing to 
 the overturning ot braziers of charcoal ; others 
 killed by falling roofs ; others, as they tried to 
 escape, crushed in gaping crevasses which opened 
 to catch them and quickly closed in upon the poor 
 screaming wretches.
 
 68 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 It was during this awful upheaval that the 
 mighty tidal wave occurred which swept whole 
 villages to destruction, and wrecked the Russian 
 frigate Diana. Since that time there has been no 
 such tragedy. 
 
 For close upon two hundred years, since 1707, 
 when the last eruption took place, Fuji has been 
 at rest. For fifty years, though there have been 
 many shocks — I remember upwards of two hundred 
 being counted in one fortnight — none have been so 
 great as to amount to a calamity. Can the hidden 
 forces have wellnigh spent themselves ? One would 
 fain hope so. 
 
 This day we were invited to luncheon by 
 Prince Fushimi in his beautiful palace, where side 
 by side with the modern European building stands 
 a perfect Japanese house in the old style, opening 
 out on to a large garden laid out with all the skill 
 of the Japanese landscape poet. I sat next to 
 the Prince, our own Prince, according to the 
 fashion of Tokyo, sitting opposite to his host. 
 
 Immediately after luncheon we went into the 
 garden, where Prince Fushimi had arranged a 
 dakyu match — Japanese polo — for us to see. The 
 regulation course is sixty yards long by twenty 
 broad. At one end is a high boarded fence which
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 69 
 
 constitutes the goal, in the middle of which is a 
 small pocket into which the balls have to be 
 thrown. On either side are movable discs, which 
 by being moved up and down indicate the score. 
 The two last discs are marked with a cross ; it is 
 not until one of these has disappeared that the 
 game is decided. Above the fence on either side 
 are two poles, one carrying red, the other white 
 streamers. 
 
 A number of red and white balls are thrown 
 on to the ground in the lists. Two of these, one 
 of each colour, are crossed to correspond with the 
 scoring discs. Then the players ride in — eight 
 clad in red, eight in white. They wear the 
 ancient dress and flat lacquer hats of the Samurai, 
 with wide riding trousers. Their saddles and 
 stirrups and all their accoutrements are of the old 
 fashion. In great stateliness the procession rides 
 in, first a red player, then a white, alternately. As 
 they pass the tribune in which the Princes and 
 other guests are seated they gravely salute, and 
 then the game begins. Each rider carries a cane 
 wand with a little net at the end ; armed with this 
 he has to stoop and pick up a ball of his own 
 colour, itself a clever feat of dexterity, then 
 balancing the ball as he goes he rides up to the
 
 70 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 goal and takes a shot at the hole with his wand. 
 During the throwing of the first three or four 
 balls there is no serious opposition on either side. 
 After that the one side begins tackling its opponents, 
 riding at them, circling round them, and balking 
 them in every possible way. But when it comes 
 to the two last starred balls, by which the game 
 has to be decided, then the fun gets fast and 
 furious. That is the moment when the captains 
 on either side really come to the front, and the 
 excitement reaches its height. It is a battle royal. 
 It is no mean test of horsemanship to carry a ball 
 in the net cup of a long stick through a yelling 
 crowd of skilled players and gallop with it up to 
 the goal, and when that is reached the shot has to 
 be taken with eight men all dashing forward, 
 straining every muscle to hinder it — a rare trial of 
 nerve and eye. The captain of the white side 
 was reputed the champion player of dakyu in 
 Tokyo, and it was wonderful to see the skill with 
 which, like a first-rate player running the ball at 
 football, he tricked his enemies, twisting to the 
 right, off" again to the left, charging one man, 
 being charged by another, yet never dropping the 
 ball, hindered once, hindered twice and again, 
 but in the end dropping his ball safely in the
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 71 
 
 pocket. Then arose a shout as if a great victory 
 had been won, and, saluting as before, the players 
 rode out of the arena. The excitement was con- 
 tagious, and I think we were as keen as the riders 
 themselves. 
 
 The Japanese set a great value on their game 
 of dakyu ; and well they may, for it is an excellent 
 schooling for horsemen. It is not easy to convey 
 any adequate idea of its difficulties. The scrimmages 
 are of the wildest, and through all the storm and 
 stress the ball must be balanced. We only saw 
 two games, but though they were contested with 
 all the heat of a cavalry charge, only one man was 
 unhorsed. It seems to me that this is a game 
 which might well be introduced into England.^ 
 
 As usual, hurry was our bane. We had to 
 take leave of our courtly host who had done so 
 much to entertain us, for the other Imperial 
 Princes and Princesses were waiting for Prince 
 Arthur at Uyeno, where Lady Macdonald had 
 organised a charity concert. 
 
 How much rather, being at Uyeno, we should 
 have spent the afternoon wandering through the 
 lovely groves that contain the tombs of the Shoguns 
 
 • In an appendix will be found a Japanese explanatory treatise 
 containing the rules of the game.
 
 72 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 and so many relics of the past. With so little 
 time to pass in Japan, it did seem a little hard to 
 be robbed of all those hours. However, the 
 concert itself was in its way an interesting 
 experience. 
 
 Could it be possible ^ Here was an orchestra 
 of some forty musicians, all, or nearly all, of 
 whom (for they were not all visible from where 
 I sat) were Japanese. All the first violins were 
 young ladies in their native dress ; one of them 
 a daughter of the Koda family, who had studied 
 with the great Joachim at Berlin. The pro- 
 gramme was of the most ambitious character, 
 opening with the overture to Don Giovanni, and 
 containing the Largo of Handel, a movement 
 from one of Mendelssohn's symphonies, and the 
 prelude to Lohengrin. The conductor was a 
 German gentleman, Professor Junker, who has 
 also trained a chorus, which sang two pieces very 
 creditably. It was amazing to see these players, 
 and equally amazing to see an audience brought 
 up in the strictest school of Chinese music, 
 nurtured upon koto, samisen, yokobue, or mouth 
 organ, flute and drum, now listening with eager 
 ears to a full band and applauding Mozart, 
 Mendelssohn, and Wagner.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 73 
 
 The concert came to an untimely end in an 
 extremely characteristic fashion. At the end 
 of the first part there came a telegram from 
 the meteorological department saying that the 
 gentlemen who call themselves seismologists had 
 observed signs which led them to expect the 
 immediate advent of an earthquake of unusual 
 violence. The building in which we were not 
 being deemed safe, there was an immediate break 
 up. Happily no panic — we went, but the earth- 
 quake did not come. Curses as deep as that with 
 which the Abbot of Rheims banned the jackdaw, 
 the thief of the ring, fell upon that unhappy 
 seismologist. We — forgave him. 
 
 I append a programme of the concert. 
 
 PROGRAMME 
 
 1. Orchestra (Overture to Do?i Jua7i) Mozart. 
 
 2. Song (" Song of Thanksgiving ") 
 
 Mrs. Lee Lee. 
 
 3. Orchestra (Largo) . . Handel. 
 
 4. Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello 
 
 (First Movement) . . . Meridelaoh/i. 
 
 Prof. Dr. von Koeber, Prof. Junker and Mr. Schmid. 
 
 5. Choruses 
 
 {a) Russian Folk Song (Volga). 
 {b) Old Flemish Song.
 
 74 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Sketch by Mr. G. Brady. 
 
 6. Orchestra (Prelude to Lohengrin) Wagner. 
 
 7. Song (" Spring has Come ") . . M. Valerie White. 
 
 Mrs. Lee Lee. 
 
 8. Concerto for Pianoforte and 
 
 Orchestra (in G. Minor) . Mendelssohm. 
 
 Mrs. FuEHR. 
 
 9. Orchestra (Three Dances from 
 
 Henry I' III.) . . . E. German. 
 
 Conductor — Prof. A. Junker. 
 
 Thanks to the false prophet, we for once had 
 a quiet hour before dressing for a dinner, at which 
 Prince Arthur was the host, and to which all the 
 members of the Imperial family now in Tokyo 
 had been invited. As soon as dinner was over 
 we all, including the Imperial Princes and 
 Princesses, drove off" to the Kabukiza or Opera 
 Theatre, where the business men of Tokyo had 
 organised a theatrical entertainment in honour 
 of Prince Arthur and of the Nichi-Ei-Domei, 
 the Anglo-Japanese alliance. This was a very 
 brilliant affair. The decorations were quite 
 magnificent, the flags of the two countries being, 
 of course, conspicuous everywhere. An immense 
 box, taking up the greater part of one of the 
 long sides of the oblong wall, had been erected
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 75 
 
 opposite the stage for the use of the Princes and 
 Princesses ; and the body of the hall, what we 
 should call the pit, was crowded with notable 
 men and their wives. 
 
 The story of the play was based upon that of 
 Will Adams, whom the Japanese call Anjin, " the 
 Pilot," as a fitting subject for an entertainment 
 designed to celebrate the alliance ; and the second 
 act gave an opportunity for the introduction at 
 Anjin's marriage of a troop of the most famous 
 geishas of the city, who performed a new dance 
 and song composed in honour of the Wakamiya 
 — the "young Prince.' I annex translations of 
 the story of the play, the programme of the 
 dance, and the song made by our hosts. 
 
 PROGRAMME of ENTERTAINMENT given 
 
 IN HONOUR OF HiS RoYAL HiGHNESS PRINCE 
 
 ARTHUR OF CONNAUGHT at the 
 KABUKIZA, AT 9 P.M. ON SATURDAY, 
 February 24TH, 1906, by the BUSINESS 
 MEN OF TOKYO. 
 
 Performance 
 
 1. THE ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE. 
 
 2. THE VENDETTA OF THE SOGA BROTHERS, 
 
 3. THE SCULPTOR'S DREAM,
 
 76 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 
 Pr'mcipal Actors 
 
 
 Shikan 
 
 Uzayemon 
 
 Matsusuke 
 
 Yaozo 
 
 Komazo 
 
 Ichizo 
 
 Baiko 
 
 Kikugoro 
 and others. 
 
 Shimbashi Geishas. 
 
 Kichiyemon 
 
 THE ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE 
 
 Illustrated by an old Story 
 {Specially ivritten for the occasion by Taro Masuda^ L.S.C.) 
 
 Act I. Scene i 
 Locality — By the sea-shore at He>ni in Soshu. 
 Period — Autuyyin in the year 1609. 
 
 Autumn flowers are blooming, and between the rocks 
 waves are seen raging. On a rock in the centre of the 
 stage Iwai Tetsunojo, a ronin (unattached samurai) of 
 Osaka, stands holding the girdle of OtsQ, a young girl 
 who is gazing distractedly in the direction of the sea. 
 Giheiji, father of Otsu, has gone to look for her brother 
 who has been absent for many days on a fishing expedi- 
 tion, and the girl, fearing that her father also is in danger, 
 was endeavouring to put out in a small boat to his rescue 
 when the ronin Iwai interfered. This renin is in love 
 with OtsQ, but being a man of bad character (one of a 
 band by whom the people of the vicinity are much 
 oppressed) he has been unable to obtain her father's 
 consent to their union. He now restrains Otsu trom 
 her desperate undertaking ; points out to her that a boat
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 77 
 
 managed by one weak woman could not possibly live in 
 such a sea, and declares that the punishment of heaven 
 has now overtaken her father for refusing her lover's 
 suit. Otsu angrily repels him, and asks whether she 
 could ever become the wife of a man who urges her to 
 desert her father in his extremity. Iwai, rendered 
 desperate by her resistance, threatens to use his sword, 
 and is forcing her to accompany him when Anjin (Will 
 Adams), attracted by the noise of the struggle, runs up 
 and separates them. Iwai reviles him as a foreigner, and 
 warns him that his life will be the cost of interference. 
 But Anjin replies that all nations alike recognise the duty 
 of the strong to succour the weak. Iwai attempts to cut 
 him down, but Anjin gets the better in the struggle and 
 Iwai flies. Anjin then, learning the cause of Otsu's 
 trouble, leaps into the boat she had intended to use and 
 succeeds in saving her father, wlio, on recovering from 
 his swoon, tells her that all hope of her brother's life must 
 be abandoned. Father and daughter then express pro- 
 found thanks to Anjin, and, in the course of the ensuing 
 conversation, they learn from him that if they are griev- 
 ing for the loss of a son and brother, he has been nine 
 long years lamenting his separation from his family in 
 England, and is now rejoicing in the thought that a 
 Dutch vessel has reached Hirado, and that he will be able 
 to return to his country forthwith. He then insists on 
 aiding Giheiji, who has not yet recovered from the 
 effects of his immersion. But on the way they are 
 attacked by a band of ronin with Iwai at their head ; 
 Anjin is seized and bound, and although Otsu and her 
 father offer to take his place, the ronin carry him off.
 
 78 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Scene 2 
 
 Neighbourhood of the same place : Prince Tokugawa 
 lyeyasu approaches riding in a"norimono" (palanquin), 
 and with a large retinue of samurai. 
 
 Giheiji runs up desperately and prostrates himself in 
 front of the procession. He is quickly followed by Otsu, 
 and father and daug-hter vie with one another in callin"; 
 aloud for assistance. To present a petition direct to the 
 Shogun being a capital crime, Giheiji and Otsu are 
 seized and bound by the Tokugawa chief's retinue. But 
 on learning their errand, lyeyasu orders their release and 
 sends a party of samurai under Giheiji's guidance to 
 rescue Anjin. During the absence of the samurai 
 lyeyasu questions Otsu, and learns from her the occasion 
 that induced her and her father to brave death for Anjin's 
 sake. Presently the samurai return leading Anjin, Iwai, 
 and the latter's fellow-ronin. Iwai, questioned by lyeyasu, 
 accuses Anjin of dealing in necromancy and producing 
 supernatural effects ; but lyeyasu replies that he himself 
 has been Anjin's pupil in the science of Western civilisa- 
 tion, and that when the ronin, without any due authorisa- 
 tion, subjected Anjin to indignity, they were guilty of a 
 direct insult to the Shogun. Thev are bound in ropes 
 and led off in custody. Anjin then asks lyeyasu as to 
 the latter's object in visiting Hemi, and lyeyasu replies 
 that it is to solicit the continued presence of Anjin in 
 Japan. He explains that after granting permission for 
 Anjin to take passage home by the Dutch vessel, he 
 reflected that to perpetuate the peace in which Japan 
 was now rejoicing, her intercourse with foreign countries
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 79 
 
 must be extended, and that the assistance of Anjin would 
 be essential for that purpose. Anjin nevertheless declares 
 himself unable to abandon the hope of seeing his family 
 once more, and then lyeyasu confesses that, apprehending 
 this diificulty, he has already sent away the Dutch ship. 
 He declares that his first consideration must be for the good 
 of the country which he has been trusted by the Emperor 
 to administer, and that he is content to incur resentment 
 if he can be conscious of having done his duty. Anjin 
 becomes reconciled. He declares that it is the will of 
 heaven, and he bows to lyeyasu's frank statement that if 
 he has subjected his foreign visitor to a hard lot, it was 
 done because of the high esteem in which he holds 
 Anjin's services. The Shogun then expresses a desire to 
 make some amends to Anjin, and suggests that as Anjin 
 is separated from his sister, and as Otsu has just lost her 
 brother, they should endeavour to console one another. 
 It is finally arranged. lyeyasu laughingly observes that 
 a woman's hair is proverbially strong enough to bind 
 even a big elephant, and that a Japanese girl will soften 
 the pains of exile for Anjin. He orders that an income 
 of 50 koku of rice shall be given to Giheiji, who, in the 
 excess of his delight, almost forgets to express his 
 gratitude. 
 
 Act II 
 
 The interior of the Shogun's Castle in Yedo. lyeyasu, 
 Anjin, Otsu, Giheiji, several nobles (Daimyo), and a 
 number of attendants and dancing- girls are present, 
 The occasion is the celebration of Anjin's wedding with 
 Otsu. A congratulatory series of couplets are uttered by
 
 8o THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the Daimyo, each deHvering a hne separately until the 
 last, when all speak in unison. lyeyasu expresses his 
 satisfaction that Anjin is to reniain. He says that though 
 Japan is a small country, her people mean to make her 
 the Japan of the world, and that the ceremony of this 
 evening shows how close East and West are after all. 
 Anjin and Otsu perform the prescribed rite of exchanging 
 wine-cups, and on its conclusion lycyasu confesses that 
 he has still one apology to make to Anjin ; the Dutch 
 ship has not been sent away from Japan ; she is still at 
 Hirado. Does Anjin still wish to return by her ? 
 Giheiji and Otsu await Anjin's answer with much 
 anxiety, but he declares that he will remain in Japan. 
 The ceremony ends with a geisha dance. 
 
 [Curtain.) 
 
 GEISHA DANCE 
 
 (During the Second x'\ct) 
 
 MiKUNI BuRi 
 
 (A New Dance) 
 
 Miss Kiyoka Miss Goro 
 
 „ Eirio ,, Jitsuko 
 
 Miss HidcmatSLi 
 
 Wakamiva (Young Prince) Welcome 
 
 Miss Shori Miss Tokuko Miss Kumcko 
 
 „ Haruko ,, Tsuneko „ Sckiya 
 
 „ Miyako ,, Kohan „ Hidcyo 
 
 Miss Matsuko
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 81 
 
 TRANSLATION OF WAKAMIYA (Young Prince) 
 WELCOME 
 
 (A new dance specially made in honour of 
 Prince Arthur of Connaught) 
 
 A young Prince came to the land of rising sun. 
 Chorus — Wakamiya Welcome 
 Yoi, Yoi, Yoiya, Sa. 
 
 He is the envoy of British Lion very very highly 
 honoured. 
 
 Chorus — Wakamiya Welcome 
 Yoi, Yoi, Yoiya, Sa. 
 
 Now, the two countries unite in love for ever, 
 and ever, and ever. 
 
 Chorus — Wakamiya Welcome 
 Yoi, Yoi, Yoiya, Sa. 
 
 Musicians 
 
 Kiyoji Maru Naoji Kokichi 
 
 Sato Suma Kume Maruko 
 
 Wakakichi Masuyo 
 
 THE VENDETTA OF THE SOGA BROTHERS 
 
 Time, a.d. i 193 
 
 Place- — The hunting encatnp?nent of the Shogun Torito7no 
 at the southern base of Fujiyama. 
 
 The Soga brothers, Jiiro and Goro, are celebrated in 
 Japanese history as the first practical disciples of the 
 Confucian maxim : " A son should not live under the 
 same sky with his father's assassin." Their father had 
 been murdered by Kudo Sulc(5tsune, and they determined
 
 82 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 to take vengeance on the murderer by surprising him 
 when he accompanied Yoritomo's hunting expedition. 
 They achieved their purpose, but Juro w^as killed in the 
 struggle and Yoritomo ordered Goro to be beheaded. 
 
 The scene discloses Fujiyama and the wild undulating 
 country on its south-western slope. Here and there are 
 seen rude structures erected as temporary residences of 
 the Daimyo, a number of whom Yoritomo has invited 
 to partake in the hunt. The Soga brothers have seized 
 this occasion not only to wreak vengeance on the slayer 
 of their father, but also, if possible, to kill Yoritomo at 
 the instigation of Hojo Tokimasa. Most conspicuous 
 among these rude structures is that of Kudo Suketsune, 
 the principal object of the Soga vengeance. 
 
 Soga Juro, the elder brother, and Soga Goro, the 
 younger, enter stealthily to reconnoitre. A woman in 
 night garments emerges from the building with a light. 
 The brothers conceal themselves till she re-enters, and 
 then creep in after her with drawn swords. A heavy 
 storm of wind and rain is raging. At this point a party 
 of samurai on guard make their appearance. They have 
 been warned of the existence of something suspicious, 
 but, being unable to discover anything, they withdraw. 
 
 Presently from the interior of the hut cries are heard 
 of " traitors," "assassins," and the brothers run out with 
 gestures of joy. They then resolve that as heaven has 
 aided them so far, they will die such a death as shall render 
 their names illustrious. They therefore raise their voices 
 and shout : " We, Juro and Goro, sons of Kawazu 
 Saburo, who in his day was counted as a god for strength, 
 have taken vengeance on his murderer. Let those that
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 83 
 
 seek fame by slaying us, come on," This defiance is 
 speedily answered. A number of samurai hasten from 
 all directions. The brothers cut down many. Goro 
 now enters in search of Yoritomo, leaving Jiiro outside. 
 
 At this point Nitta Tadatsune, a renowned warrior of 
 Yoritomo's party, rushes out with a glaive (naginata), 
 and challenges Juro to single combat. The two men 
 engage. After a fierce fight Juro's sword is struck from 
 his hand and he stands resigned to die, but Nitta picks 
 up the weapon and restores it to him. Finally Juro 
 receives a wound in the leg and falls. 
 
 The stage now revolves and shows a corridor in the 
 interior of Yoritomo's hunting lodge. Goro is seen 
 resting for a moment, when suddenly the voice of Nitta 
 Tadatsune is heard announcing the death of Juro. 
 Desperate with grief, Goro now heads for the inner 
 apartments, bent upon killing Yoritomo. But he is met 
 by Gosho Goromaru, who, though wearing a full suit of 
 mail, has thrown over it a woman's outer garment. 
 Goro, thinking he has to do with a woman, thrusts Gosho 
 aside, but is seized from behind by the latter and 
 ultimately overpowered. 
 
 (N.B. — The purpose of this piece is designed to show the 
 armour of the fapanese samurai^ their way of fighting^ and 
 the weapons they used in jnedia:val titnes.) 
 
 THE SCULPTOR'S DREAM 
 
 The scene opens on a park surrounding the residence of 
 Count Sakuramachi. 
 
 In the distance is seen an old-style palace, and in the 
 middle distance a profusion of flowers in bloom. Four
 
 84 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 large rocks in the garden support platforms, on which are 
 mounted the following statues : — 
 
 1. Shizuka^ the celebrated Shirabyoshi (danseuse) of 
 
 the Kamakura Era (about a.d. ii8o). 
 
 2. Shyushikly a lady dressed in a costume of the 
 
 Genroku Era (a.d, 1688). 
 
 3. Seishonagon^ the renowned authoress of the 
 
 Imperial Court at the close of the tenth 
 century. 
 
 4. Omiwa^ daughter of a wealthy merchant of the 
 
 Fujiwara Era. 
 
 5. Masaoka^ a lady-in-waiting of a Daimyo's house 
 
 in the Tokugawa Era. 
 
 6. Toshitsune [a.-d. 1 1 80). 
 
 7. Benkei (a.d. i 180). 
 
 All the above figures are dressed in the costumes and 
 furnished with the accessories that were in fashion in 
 their respective eras. 
 
 There now appears upon the scene Hidari Jinsai, a 
 celebrated carver of the era, who is employed at the Art 
 School. A number of his pupils accompany him. Jinsai 
 tells his pupils that Count Sakuramachi is an ardent 
 patron of art, and that he has selected fourteen of the most 
 beautiful figures on the Japanese stage and ordered them 
 to be sculptured with the utmost care. This work has 
 now been achieved by the zealous assistance of the 
 pupils of the Art School. The Count has declared himself 
 fully satisfied. Each of the pupils makes obeisance to his 
 master, and one of them remarks that it would be a
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 85 
 
 delightful culmination of their work if some of the 
 figures would show their appreciation of the artist's skill 
 by becoming sentient beings. Jinsai replies that, 
 although instances of that kind were not wanting in 
 ancient times, unfortunately there have been no examples 
 in modern days, whether because art has depreciated or 
 the gods have ceased such supernatural displays. He 
 renews his thanks to his pupils for their able assistance, 
 and also asks them to leave him for a time to rest in the 
 presence of their work. Jinsai then seats himself and 
 drops asleep. In his dreams he is visited by a heavenly 
 messenger in the shape of a little child, who tells him 
 that the beauty of these works has been appreciated by 
 the gods, and that they have ordered him to carry to the 
 artist two packets of incense which, if burned in the 
 presence of the sculptures, — the green packet for the men, 
 the red for the women, — each statue will become a 
 sentient being. Jinsai awakes in great astonishment and 
 imagines that he has seen a senseless dream, the product 
 of his own imagination, until he observes that the two 
 packets of incense are actually lying beside him. He 
 then calls out excitedly to his pupils and relates the whole 
 story to them. As they hasten in, they decide to try the 
 experiment with the female figures first. When the red 
 incense is burned these figures begin to dance, and then 
 the green is burned with the same result in the case of 
 the men. Jinsai calls out that they must extend the 
 experiment to the other figures in the mansion, and an 
 inner curtain risino; displays the followino- figures : — 
 
 I. Toshiiye^ the renowned Minamoto warrior at the 
 beginning of the twelfth century.
 
 86 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 2. A figure of a soldier dressed in the uniform of a 
 
 sergeant-major of the Guards to-day. 
 
 3. Yayoi^ a lady of the Tokugawa Era. 
 
 4. Dokwan^ the designer of the Yedo Castle 
 
 (a.d. 1500). 
 
 5. Tadanohu^ a warrior of the Kamakura Era 
 
 (a.d. 1 180). 
 
 6. Kouiachi-H'vnc (eighth century). 
 
 Some curious phenomena result from mistakes made 
 in burning the incense, certain of the female figures 
 behaving as if they were men. Ultimately all obey the 
 fumes of the incense, and after an animated dance resume 
 their original condition as inanimate images. 
 
 The scenery and acting were excellent — especi- 
 ally good being the very difficult and dignified 
 part of lyeyasu. Will Adams, too, was capital, 
 his Elizabethan dress, fair wig and beard, being 
 very realistic. The first scene, by the seashore 
 at Hemin, was exceedingly well managed. The 
 waves of the sea quite seemed to break upon the 
 shore, while the trees were waving to and fro 
 in the wind, an effect which I never saw on the 
 European stage. The illusion was very well 
 kept up. The second act was of great interest, 
 because it might be taken to give a correct re- 
 presentation of a wedding in the house of a 
 personage of exalted rank. 
 
 At the end of the second act we were all taken
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 87 
 
 to a great room upstairs, where supper was served, 
 at which all the geishas appeared and played at 
 waiting upon the guests. Their pretty little 
 ways, their dainty movements and graceful 
 manners were very charming ; but unfortunately 
 they still had on all the coat of paint on face and 
 lips, which to our eyes is excessive even on the 
 stage, but off it, at close quarters, is anything but 
 attractive. 
 
 I take it that this entertainment, from begin- 
 ning to end, must have been a novel experience 
 to the members of the Imperial family, who for 
 once broke through the bonds of Court etiquette. 
 At any rate I think everybody enjoyed it, and 
 nobody more thoroughly than the Wakamiya, 
 *'the envoy of the British Lion." The business 
 men of Tokyo may congratulate themselves on 
 the success of a show got up with lavish expen- 
 diture of thought and money, of which all their 
 guests will carry away the pleasantest and most 
 grateful recollection. It was a pretty thought 
 to choose for our entertainment the " premiere " 
 of a piece founded on the one episode in the old 
 history of Japan in which an Englishman could 
 be made the hero. Let us hope that author and 
 actors may be rewarded by a great run.
 
 88 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Sunday^ February 25. — On Sunday, the 25th of 
 February, the Prince, Captain Wyndham, and I 
 drove to church. We started in good time, and 
 it was lucky that we did so, otherwise we should 
 have arrived after the congregation had dispersed ; 
 as it was, we came in when half the service was 
 over, after much wandering in a wrong direction. 
 We stopped, indeed, at one building, which had 
 some slight resemblance to a church, but which 
 turned out to be of quite another denomination, 
 but we had to make many turns and many futile 
 enquiries before we were landed in the right place. 
 There were no churches here in my day, so I 
 could not help. The Bishop took part in the 
 service, and Mr. Cholmondeley, son of my old 
 friend the Rector of Adlestrop, preached the 
 sermon. There was a large congregation, a few 
 of whom were Japanese. The Prince was evidently 
 expected, for there was a huge crowd gathered 
 together outside the church to witness both our 
 coming and going. 
 
 The chief event of our day was a luncheon 
 at home, to which a number of Japanese noblemen 
 had been invited. Among them was Prince 
 Tokugawa, the ex-Shogun, of whom I have 
 already written.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 89 
 
 In the afternoon I drove with Sir Claude 
 Macdonald to the Temple of Sengakuji, where 
 are buried the famous forty-seven Renins, whose 
 story I told long ago in the Tales of Old Japan. 
 
 In all truth it may be said that no story better 
 illustrates the unwritten laws which governed the 
 conduct of the Samurai in mediasval times than 
 that of the forty - seven faithful men. By 
 *' mediaeval times " I mean the times which pre- 
 ceded the great Revolution of 1868. Kataki-uchi, 
 or the vendetta — literally " the slaying of the 
 enemy " — was no act of vulgar revenge ; it was 
 the wiping out of an insult, the just retribution for 
 an evil deed, and it meant self- murder as its 
 consequence. For, although the man who failed 
 to avenge the death or dishonour of his master or 
 family would be branded and spurned as craven, 
 yet would the dutiful deed of revenge be a crime 
 in the eye of the law, to be wiped out only by 
 death. 
 
 This is in brief what happened. An envoy 
 from the Mikado's Court was expected in the 
 Palace of the Shogun. Asano Takumi no Kami, 
 a noble of high rank, a cadet of the princely house 
 of Geishiu, was appointed to receive him, and a 
 courtier named Kira Kotsuke no Suke was told off
 
 90 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 to instruct him in the ceremonial proper to be 
 observed. This Kira was an avaricious and 
 corrupt man, a taker of bribes, and as my Lord 
 Asano failed to propitiate him to his content, he 
 heaped every imaginable insult upon him. For a 
 while Asano bore his insolence with patience, but 
 when at last Kira bade him tie up the latchet of 
 his sandal for him, his long-suffering was at an 
 end ; he drew his sword and pursued and wounded 
 his tormentor. For such an act committed within 
 the precincts of the palace, death by his own hand 
 was the penalty — death for himself, ruin for his 
 family. The laws of the Shogun's Court were 
 even more severe than those of the Star Chamber. 
 Such was the outrage which Oishi Kuranosuke 
 and his comrades after many months, during which 
 to elude suspicion and put Kira off his guard they 
 remained scattered and hidden, avenged in the 
 year 1703, and for their deed they died, as brave 
 men, by their own hands. The tragic story is 
 full of romance and weird interest ; it has been 
 wrought into a popular play ; it is familiar to every 
 man, woman, and child in Japan ; and although 
 the vendetta may have died out with the birth of 
 new ideas and the abolition by law of the carrying 
 of irms, yet is the memory of these men revered
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 91 
 
 as much as ever, and their graves receive almost 
 divine honours. To us who are separated by 
 centuries from the chivalry and the poetry of feudal 
 times, these things seem remote indeed ; but to 
 the Japanese, to whom they are nearer than the 
 days of stage - coaches and blunderbusses and 
 Hounslow Heath are to the Englishman, they are 
 no dream of the past, but a reality, living in a new 
 form in the spirit of patriotism and loyalty which 
 is their dearest inheritance. It will be long before 
 that flame dies down. 
 
 Two rather curious sidelights have been thrown 
 upon that romantic story of the past during my 
 present stay in Japan. Mr. Asano, who is master 
 of the ceremonies to the Emperor, is the eldest 
 son of the Marquis Asano, the present representa- 
 tive of the family of which the Lord Asano of the 
 story was a younger member. Mr, Asano tells 
 me that the descendant of Oishi Kuranosuke, the 
 chief of the forty-seven Ronins, is to this day one 
 of his father's retainers. Oishi's eldest son, Chikara, 
 a lad of sixteen, shared in his father's plot, and 
 died, performing hara kiri. But the second son, 
 being of tender years, and too young to join in his 
 father's chivalrous exploits, was taken as a retainer 
 by the Marquis Asano's ancestor, and his children
 
 92 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 and children's children have remained in the family 
 ever since, Mr. Asano promised to bring this 
 gentleman to see me, but for some reason, to my 
 regret, he was prevented from doing so. 
 
 The other sidelight was even stranger. At 
 Kyoto the Mayor gave an entertainment, of which 
 I shall have to tell you later on. At this feast 
 there were present all the most fashionable geishas 
 of the town. One of these — not one of the dancers, 
 but a musician — was introduced to me by Mr. 
 Nagasaki as the present owner or occupant of the 
 house in Kyoto where Oishi Kuranosuke lived 
 while he was hatching his plot of revenge. She is 
 very proud of the historic fame which attaches to 
 her house, and she was delighted when Mr. 
 Nagasaki told her that I had translated the story 
 of its hero for the benefit of Europeans. Had 
 there been time I should have liked to accept 
 her invitation to see a house to me so full of 
 interest. 
 
 Two hundred years and more have passed away 
 since the forty-seven men wreaked their vengeance 
 upon the man who dishonoured and ruined their 
 Lord, but the spot is sacred as ever, and the 
 memory of these faithful samurai is still green. 
 Every day men come to lay flowers and burn
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 93 
 
 incense and leave visiting cards before their graves. 
 Poor soldiers with their humble pay, old women 
 and young children, samurai, artisans, and peasants, 
 all will spare a cash or two for some sweet tribute 
 of veneration for the spirit of old Japan which 
 burnt so fiercely in these warriors' breasts. 
 
 Not a stone's throw from the great portal ot 
 Sengakuji is Monriyoin, a little temple standing 
 on a hillock overlooking the Bay of Yedo, where 
 I lived so many years ago. At that time it was 
 one of the prettiest spots in all the suburbs of the 
 great city, and the house was as dainty as Japanese 
 art could make it. Now it has all gone to rack 
 and ruin. The sacred building and the graveyard 
 are still there, but the dwelling-house attached to 
 the temple is a mere wreck of its former self. 
 The garden, so trim and so pretty, is all destroyed. 
 The temple grounds have been sold or let, and 
 the place once so gay with flowering shrubs and 
 trees is smothered with small shops, where vege- 
 tables, dried and salted fish, cheap tea and cakes, 
 and all the humblest necessaries of a poor neigh- 
 bourhood are set out. In the squalor of these 
 surroundings I could not recognise my former 
 home ; it was a depressing sight, from which, in 
 melancholy mood, I turned away.
 
 94 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Indeed, the whole suburb of Takanawa is 
 altered, and not for the better. Abbots and 
 monks have parted with much of their land for 
 building purposes, so the temples which stood in 
 groves sacred to the gods have been shorn of 
 much of their glory. Nor do I see that the money 
 so acquired has been devoted to the maintenance 
 of the holy buildings ; on the contrary, they seem 
 to me to be shabbier and less well-cared-for than 
 they were in the olden time. Perhaps there was 
 less wealth and more piety in those days. The 
 tombs alone remain sacrosanct. For these the 
 layman cares. 
 
 We were commanded to a second dinner with 
 the Emperor this evening. It was by no means 
 so big an affair as the State dinner of last Tuesday, 
 very few persons besides the Imperial family having 
 been invited ; the ceremonial, however, was the 
 same, and the banquet as magnificent, only the 
 numbers were reduced. The Emperor himself 
 was as gracious as ever. After dinner each one 
 of us had a short audience of His Majesty, who 
 seemed most anxious to know whether we had 
 been pleased with our stay in Tokyo. That was 
 a question which we could indeed answer in a way 
 that would accord with the precepts of a Chester-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 95 
 
 field, and yet be the barest truth ; for never were 
 guests treated with so much kindness and con- 
 sideration. We could honestly say that our visit 
 had been one long chain of pleasant surprises, and 
 it was much that we were thus able personally to 
 express our thanks for all that, by His Majesty's 
 commands, had been done for us. Mr. Nagasaki 
 told me afterwards that every item of our pro- 
 gramme had been considered and settled by the 
 Emperor himself. The questions as to the duck- 
 netting which he put to me showed that he knew 
 all that we had been doing, and the interest which 
 he took in it. As the dinner took place punctu- 
 ally at 6.30, it was over proportionately early, 
 and it was not yet ten o'clock when we got back 
 to the Kasumigaseki Palace. 
 
 Monday, February 26. — On the following 
 morning (Monday, 26th February) the Emperor 
 again came to visit the Prince and bid him fare- 
 well, for this was the last day of our official stay in 
 Tokyo. On the morrow we were to leave for a 
 tour in the country, and on our return we should 
 be the Emperor's guests, indeed, but in a private 
 capacity. As before, the visit was strictly private 
 only Mr. Nagasaki being present as interpreter, 
 but it was of the most cordial character. Again,
 
 96 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 on leaving, the Emperor shook hands with all of 
 us as before ; smiling and evidently pleased, he 
 stepped into his carriage and drove off. 
 
 The day was bitterly cold, but luckily fine, for 
 Mr, Ozaki, the Mayor of T5kyo, had arranged 
 for the Prince an entertainment which would have 
 been utterly ruined had it rained or snowed. In 
 the heart of the city, opposite the Admiralty and 
 the Courts of Justice, and alongside of the Foreign 
 OfHce, is a great space which is being converted 
 into a public park — the Hibya Park. Here a 
 huge temporary building, which must have cost a 
 mint of money, had been erected for a luncheon 
 at which several hundred people were to be present. 
 The great hall was panelled with lacquer and 
 festooned with cherry blossoms. Pillars, also 
 lacquered, of which the capitals were composed 
 of flowers in which electric lights were concealed, 
 carried a ceiling divided off into coffers of huge 
 palm leaves, with three great flowers in each ; 
 pendants of alternate roses and chrysanthemums 
 served to carry more electric lights. How easily, 
 in the hands of a European " decorator," this 
 might have degenerated into vulgarity. Here it 
 was all so skilfully conceived, so delicately carried 
 out, and in such refined colouring, that it was fit
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 97 
 
 for the court of King Oberon and Queen Titania. 
 Indeed, though I have travelled now — at inter- 
 vals — from north to south, from east to west, 
 all through these islands, never did I see aught 
 to which the term " vulgar " or even " common- 
 place " could apply, save where some misguided 
 potter or enameller has had the unhappy thought 
 to imitate the horrors of the vulgarest European 
 work, which, in their innocence, they take to be 
 what we like. 
 
 All along the hall was a show which would 
 deserve a chapter to itself The chief professors 
 of the mystery of flower arrangement had been 
 invited to a competition in what is called Hako- 
 Niwa, literally translated Box- garden. Into a 
 porcelain dish, tray, or huge bowl was to be set 
 forth the similitude in miniature of a beautiful 
 landscape — a lake, with river, bridges, mountains 
 with moraines, stone lanterns, perhaps a shrine. 
 This was the setting for dwarf trees, pines, 
 cypresses (retinospora), flowering cherries, plums, 
 and peaches — not necessarily all growing, but 
 trunks cut ofi^ in every picturesque shape, and 
 arranged in such dainty fashion as the imagination 
 of these landscape artists could suggest. And very 
 exquisite it all was. For such an occasion every 
 
 H
 
 98 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 man had striven to do his best, and the inspiration 
 of the lovely goddess of Mount Fuji had descended 
 upon all. 
 
 It was a remarkable company. Imperial 
 princes, statesmen, generals, admirals, financiers, 
 men of letters, dilettanti^ — all that is most distin- 
 guished in the capital of Japan was present. 
 After luncheon there was a great gathering of 
 ladies, who had come to see, from a pavilion out- 
 side, the wonderful show for which such great 
 preparations had been made. 
 
 The first item in the programme was the re- 
 presentation, in the great space in front of the 
 pavilion, of a Daimyo's Giyoretsu or procession, 
 such as used to be seen daily on the Tokaido, or 
 on any of the great roads of Japan, in the time 
 before the restoration. Less than forty years ago ! 
 and already the Japanese, speaking of that time, use 
 the word Mukashi — " in ancient days " ! The very 
 paraphernalia necessary for the procession were 
 hard to find, and old cupboards in ancient castles, 
 and houses in distant provinces, had to be ran- 
 sacked in order to bring them to light. Even the 
 stage management was difficult. Few men are left 
 who have seen such a procession after they came 
 to man's estate — none, probably, who have ever
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 99 
 
 had the direction of such a thing. When the 
 leading men came strutting into the park several 
 of the younger generation of Japanese, one of the 
 Princesses in particular, turned to me and said, 
 " You have often seen such processions in real 
 life ; is this a correct representation ? " Indeed, 
 it was very correct. First came the swaggering 
 leaders with their hoarse cry of SKta ni iro—sJita 
 ni iro ! "Be down ! be down ! " for as the great 
 man passes every man, woman, and child must 
 grovel with head bowed in the dust. Dangerous 
 it was, indeed, to disregard the cry of these pro- 
 fessional bullies, whose duty it was to strike terror. 
 Then followed a number of swashbucklers, putting 
 on airs of preternatural fierceness. A whole army 
 of coolies was carrying luggage in baskets slung 
 on bamboo poles ; more men-at-arms, armed with 
 great spears fringed with horsehair tufts below the 
 blade ; others carried halberds which were really 
 swords on spear-handles. All put on the most 
 blood-curdling expression. To them succeeded 
 the wrestler or fencing-master by himself, and im- 
 mediately after him the " norimono " or palanquin 
 in which the great man was being carried by eight 
 bearers ; after him the master of the procession 
 on horseback ; then the physician-in-ordinary with
 
 loo THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 shaven head like a priest, ready to prescribe, apply 
 moxa, or perform acupuncture, according to the 
 most orthodox methods of the Chinese school. 
 He, by the bye, was quite a puzzle to the younger 
 Japanese, who thought he must be a priest. After 
 them the Daimyo's horse richly caparisoned with 
 saddle-cloth of rare fur ; then more men-at-arms, 
 more coolies, more baggage, luncheon-box of gold 
 lacquer, clothes, stores of all kinds, and finally a 
 few more guards. 
 
 Well may the Japanese talk about Mukashi. 
 Looked at in the Tokyo of to-day, it is something 
 which belongs to another age. It is as if we in 
 England were to represent the progress of Queen 
 Elizabeth through Warwickshire to Kenilworth to 
 pay a visit to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. 
 
 At the time of the Revolution there was issued 
 a very clever political skit which caricatured the 
 pomp of these Daimyo's progresses with inimitable 
 fun. It represented a procession in which all the 
 actors were insects. The strutting bullies in front 
 were beetles, the coolies were wasps, the armorial 
 bearings and spears were blades of grass and wild 
 flowers, the great wrestler was a cricket ; the 
 the master of the procession was an insect riding 
 on a grasshopper, and using the antennas as reins.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN loi 
 
 The rear was brought up by one very tiny wasp- 
 coolle who had fallen out, and was tying up his 
 sandal. Half-a-dozen copies of this caricature 
 were issued, in which all the figures were cut out 
 in coloured silks, so cleverly executed that the 
 little insects seemed alive. The skit, in its more 
 ordinary form, had an immense vogue, and was 
 being sold by hundreds in Osaka in the year 
 1868. 
 
 Twice round the huge arena did the long 
 procession stalk, and it was so arranged that the 
 people outside — the greatest crowd that I ever 
 saw in Japan — could have a full view of it. 
 
 After the procession, which was, as it was 
 intended to be, the great feature of the entertain- 
 ment, there came a number of performances by 
 geishas, but for these I could not wait. I had to 
 go and put on uniform and carry decorations 
 from the King to several Grandees whom, for 
 various reasons, the Prince had been unable to 
 invest personally, so with Mr. Asano, who very 
 kindly accompanied me, I made my escape by a 
 back way, and thus avoided the crowd. 
 
 Two of these gentlemen were very old friends. 
 I knew Count Inouye first at the time of the 
 hatching of the plots for the restoration. He was
 
 I02 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 called Inouye Bunda in those days, and, like his 
 friend the famous Marquis Ito, then plain Ito 
 Shunske, was of the Choshiu clan. By some means 
 the two contrived in 1864 to elude the authorities 
 (for at that time to travel abroad was a crime 
 punishable by death), and, working their way, 
 came to England. Political troubles in their own 
 country fetched them back, and they became 
 powerful agents in the new movement. Since 
 then both have received the reward of their 
 merits. The Marquis Ito is, as his world-wide 
 fame attests, the leading statesman in his country. 
 Count Inouye is no longer the holder of any 
 office. But he is a man whom no Government 
 can afford to leave out of its reckoning : he is one 
 of the so-called " elder statesmen," and is sum- 
 moned into consultation by the Emperor whenever 
 affairs of State requiring unusual sagacity are in 
 discussion. 
 
 Count Inouye lives in a Japanese house in the 
 old style, and he has enriched it with what is said 
 to be one of the finest collections of works of art 
 in the Empire. He received me with the greatest 
 cordiality, and it was a real pleasure to me to be 
 the bearer to him of the Grand Cross of St. 
 Michael and St. George, with which he was
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 103 
 
 delighted, expressing the deepest gratitude to the 
 King. We had met several times during the last 
 few days, but had never had an opportunity for 
 a long talk. Here we were free, and could chat 
 over old days at our ease. He was very anxious 
 that the Prince and all of us should go and dine 
 with him. That, unfortunately, was quite impos- 
 sible, every day, and indeed every hour, being 
 appropriated. 
 
 I had to take the same decoration to Mr. Kato, 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs, and to the Prime 
 Minister, the Marquis Saionji. 
 
 To the brother of the latter, the Marquis 
 Tokudaiji, I carried the Grand Cross of the Royal 
 Victorian Order. His Excellency is now, and has 
 been for many years, Grand Chamberlain to the 
 Emperor. Though I cannot say that I ever knew 
 him well, as I did Count Inouye, he himself 
 reminded me of our first meeting at Kyoto in 
 1868. Indeed, the circumstances were not such 
 as a man easily forgets. But in order to the right 
 understanding of what took place in regard to the 
 foreign relations of that time, it is necessary to 
 make a digression — to be skipped at option. 
 
 When the treaties of Lord Elgin and Baron 
 Gros were made, they were, of course, concluded
 
 I04 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 with the Shogun, or Tycoon as he preferred to be 
 called, in his dealings with foreigners — for the title 
 Shogun simply means commander-in-chief, whereas 
 TaT-kun (Tycoon) is a Japanese pronunciation of 
 two Chinese words signifying great prince, and so 
 carrying with them a flavour of royalty. There 
 was no one else with whom the envoys could deal. 
 True, they had heard of a mysterious Emperor 
 called the Mikado, living in sacred seclusion at 
 Kyoto. But all notions about Japan were derived 
 from the Dutch, and the nonsense which they 
 wrote about a Spiritual and a Temporal Emperor, 
 explaining ignotum per ignotius^ was swallowed 
 whole. But a ^tw years later, when clever scholars 
 like Satow and Aston had been at work, all these 
 fables faded into thin air. The Shogun's true 
 position was realised, and the foreign ministers, at 
 the instigation of Sir Harry Parkes, who was a 
 very sagacious statesman, demanded the ratifica- 
 tion of the treaties by the Mikado — until that 
 should be obtained he justly held that they were 
 mere waste paper. In the summer of 1866 the 
 Shogun ly^mochi was at Kyot5. The moment was 
 opportune, and a combined international squadron 
 appeared off Hiogo to demand the ratification. 
 This brought the Gorojiu, the Councillors of the
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 105 
 
 Shogun, down from Kyoto in a panic of terror. 
 After much argument they agreed to procure the 
 Imperial signature, and in due course back they 
 came, bearers of the ratified treaties, signed and 
 sealed by the Mikado. This was considered to be 
 an immense diplomatic triumph ; it was hailed as 
 such in the newspapers of the day, and was actually 
 mentioned in the Queen's Speech at the opening of 
 Parliament. It was not until some eighteen months 
 later, when the present Emperor succeeded to the 
 throne, and resumed the power which his ancestors 
 had delegated to others, that we discovered that 
 the whole thing was a fraud. The late Emperor 
 had never ratified the treaties, had never even seen 
 them ; the signature and seal were a forgery of the 
 Gorojiu. 
 
 But in 1868 times had altered. The old Emperor 
 was dead ; the Shogun lyemochi was dead ; the 
 Shogunate was abolished ; the Gorojiu had vanished. 
 New men with new ideas were in power. The 
 young Emperor himself showed from the first the 
 most friendly disposition towards foreigners. His 
 advisers, politicians drawn for the most part from 
 the Satsuma, Choshiu, and Tosa clans, were men 
 who had long since convinced themselves that it was 
 not expedient for Japan to remain in the isolation
 
 io6 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 to which her former rulers had for centuries con- 
 demned her. The treaties — pending the possi- 
 bility of entering into new and more advantageous 
 agreements — must be ratified. And what was still 
 more important, the Emperor had agreed to receive 
 the foreign representatives. 
 
 The day was fixed, and we all went up to 
 Kyoto. The British Legation took up its abode 
 in the beautiful temple of Chi-on-in. The next 
 morning Sir Harry Parkes, with Mr. Satow (now 
 Sir Ernest) and myself, set out for the Gosho Sama, 
 the Imperial Palace. We had with us a formidable 
 escort, our own Legation guard carrying lances 
 on horseback ; a company of the 9th Regiment, with 
 Lieutenants Bradshaw and Bruce, now Marquis of 
 Ailesbury, and a large number of Japanese infantry. 
 When we reached the Shimbashi Street there 
 occurred one of those unhappy accidents by which 
 the best designs are sometimes frustrated. A couple 
 of ruffians — one an unfrocked priest, the other a 
 ronin — suddenly dashing out of a house, attacked 
 us with their two-handed swords ; Goto Shojiro, 
 afterwards Count Goto, a minister of state, and 
 Nakai KozO, afterwards governor of Kyoto, who 
 were riding with Sir Harry Parkes, at once drew 
 their swords in his defence. The ronin was killed
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 107 
 
 at once by Count Goto, but Nakai Kozo was badly 
 wounded in the head by the priest, who ran forward, 
 cutting and slashing madly at all that came in his 
 way. Thirteen men and three horses were more 
 or less badly wounded, some very severely, before 
 I had the luck to stop him and take him prisoner, 
 as he rushed at me with his sword dripping blood, 
 and his own head bleeding profusely. The street 
 was so narrow that, what with the confusion and 
 the shying of the horses, our men could not use 
 their lances. The place was a shambles ; the dead 
 renin's head had been cut off, and our men were 
 lying wallowing in his and their own blood. Of 
 course all idea of going to Court was at an end 
 for that day ; we had to take our wounded men 
 and our prisoner, the ex-priest, back to the Temple. 
 " Sensation diplomacy, this ! " Sir Harry Parkes 
 said to me as I walked by the side of his horse. 
 
 News of what occurred soon reached the 
 Emperor. He and all his ministers were horrified 
 at the outrage that had been committed, and he at 
 once sent the Marquis Tokudaiji, then Tokudaiji 
 Dainagon, to express his personal regret to Sir 
 Harry Parkes, together with the hope that the 
 crime would not prevent him from making an 
 engagement for another day. This was the
 
 io8 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 occasion of my first seeing His Excellency, and 
 this was the story of which he reminded me. On 
 the following day but one for the first time an 
 English representative had an audience of His 
 Majesty. 
 
 Nothing could have been more courteous or 
 more sympathetic than the whole attitude of the 
 Japanese Government in this very disagreeable 
 affair, and Count Goto and Mr. Nakai, now, alas ! 
 both dead, most gallantly risked their lives to 
 save that of Sir Harry Parkes, As for the 
 Emperor, we heard that he was profoundly morti- 
 fied at this ill-starred beginning of his intercourse 
 with foreigners. It was most unlucky. But no 
 one was to blame. There are ruffians in every 
 country ; unfortunately, here they used to carry 
 a deadly weapon which my friend, the late French 
 Admiral du Petit Thouars, christened by an excel- 
 lent name, " le Marteau Rasoir." In truth, it was 
 heavy as a hammer and sharp as a razor. I always 
 suspected that this affair had something to do with 
 the abolition by law of the right of the Samurai to 
 carry sword and dirk. If so, out of evil has come 
 much good. Few changes in Japan are more 
 remarkable than the conversion into peaceable 
 citizens of the lower class of Samurai, in whom
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 109 
 
 the possession of arms of itself seemed to breed 
 the microbe of broil and bloodshed. 
 
 A dinner at the German Legation in honour of 
 the silver wedding of the Kaiser ended this day. 
 
 Tuesday^ February 27. — Our official visit to 
 Tokyo had now come to an end, and this morning 
 we were to start on our expedition through the 
 country. Every item of our journey had been 
 most carefully planned and submitted to the 
 Emperor. Mr. Nagasaki himself had travelled 
 over the whole ground, and left accurate instruc- 
 tions with officials, police, hotel -keepers, and 
 others, to ensure the Prince's comfort. No detail, 
 however trifling, had been neglected. The result 
 was a reception which was quite overwhelming. 
 It was like the triumphant progress of a conqueror 
 who has saved his country. At every station 
 troops were drawn up ; the school children 
 for miles round had been brought in to see the 
 Prince ; bands were playing ; ladies and members 
 of the nursing association were there ; flowers and 
 baskets of oranges were brought to the carriage, 
 and the cheers were deafening. I think I heard 
 " God Save the King " oftener during this mission 
 than in the whole of the rest of my life. Wherever 
 the train stopped we had to get out in order that
 
 no THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Prince Arthur might receive the generals and other 
 distinguished persons of the neighbourhood. 
 
 Shidzuoka, where we stayed for the night, is a 
 town of some importance. It is the capital of a 
 province and district reputed to be the most fertile 
 in Japan. Oranges and rice are cultivated with 
 the greatest success, while the tea is reckoned to 
 be almost as good as that of the famous Uji dis- 
 trict. The temples are very fine, and contain some 
 famous works of art. As regards manufactures 
 there is not much to be said ; some poorish lacquer 
 is made, but the most noted art product, though not 
 a costly one, is the bamboo work. Baskets of the 
 most delicate kind, playthings of many sorts, pretty 
 little toy cottages of superfine workmanship, trifles 
 made so deftly that one wonders how human fingers 
 can have put them together, are all to be bought 
 at prices which can leave but a small margin for 
 bread-, or rather rice-winning. Then the number 
 of people who have to share the rice when it is 
 won ! In a small shop where I made some trifling 
 purchases, one man fetched the wares, another 
 showed them ofi^, while a third looked on ; an old 
 woman calculated the price, a girl fetched the 
 change ; upon a deal of perhaps half-a-dozen 
 shillings five people were employed, not to speak
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 1 1 1 
 
 of a nestful of hungry little mouths, all of which 
 must be fed ! We could see but little of the 
 town, for the rain was pitiless. Unfortunately, 
 too, it spoilt the elaborate illuminations and fire- 
 works which had been prepared for the Prince, 
 
 The fame of Shidzuoka depends chiefly upon 
 its connection with the great Shogun lyeyasu. 
 Here it was that he spent his childhood ; here 
 that he retired when, weary of the afl^airs of State, 
 he became Inkyo — resigned the Shogunate to his 
 son. In recent times it was here that the last of 
 his descendants that held his ofiice, Tokugawa 
 Keiki, dwelt in seclusion until he was restored to 
 the favour of the Emperor. It was during those 
 years that the ex-Shogun wisely did so much to 
 promote the tea industry of the neighbourhood. 
 Finding himself surrounded by a vast number of 
 retainers, for whose employment and welfare he 
 could not provide, he parcelled out land for them, 
 and established them as tea-planters ; thus, as we 
 were told, the tillers of the soil here are for the 
 most part not the ordinary hiyakusho ^ or peasants, 
 but Samurai, men of more or less gentle birth, 
 
 ^ Hiyaku-sho. Literally " the hundred names " ; a Japanese 
 version of the Chinese po hsing — the hundred names — ol iroWoi, the 
 Plebs.
 
 112 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 driven by stress of political weather to a lowlier 
 life, happy, if they but know their own weal. 
 
 We were lodged at the Daitokwan Hotel ; it 
 was my first experience of an European inn kept 
 by a Japanese, and very comfortable it was. Our 
 dinner was excellent. Of all the countries of the 
 world of which I have any knowledge, none pro- 
 duce such good fish as England and Japan ; and 
 Shidzuoka is noted even in Japan for the excellence 
 of its fish, of which the Amadai, a sort of sea-bream, 
 I believe, is the king. And now I must record a 
 compliment paid to Prince Arthur, which, so far as 
 I know, is unique. During dinner Mr. Nagasaki 
 apologised for the clumsiness of the waiting ; as a 
 matter of fact the clumsiness was purely imaginary, 
 for we had noticed how charmingly and demurely 
 the bewitching little waitresses, gliding noiselessly 
 about the room, were filling their office — every 
 wish was forestalled, every want anticipated. These 
 dainty little ladies clumsy ! " You see," said he, 
 " these are not professional waitresses, but young 
 ladies of position in the town, who have begged 
 to be allowed to serve the dinner in honour of 
 His Royal Highness." How to thank for such 
 attention as this ? 
 
 When the dinner, which had been served with
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 113 
 
 such touching charm, was over, we had an enter- 
 tainment which reminded me of the old days when 
 sometimes I had the chance of being invited to 
 gatherings where I was the only European present, 
 and when the amusements were purely Japanese. 
 Three artists came in, and spreading out long 
 panels of silk upon the mats, sat down with their 
 boxes of colours and brushes, ready to dash off 
 a picture on any theme to be set by the guests. 
 The first subject chosen was an uguisu (bush- 
 warbler — the Japanese nightingale) singing among 
 the bamboos. Without a moment's hesitation, 
 travelling over the silk with marvellous quickness, 
 the clever fingers were at work, and in a very few 
 minutes the first painter had produced a sketch 
 of the greatest beauty and grace, in which every 
 one of his bold slap-dash strokes counted for an 
 effect ; not one was superfluous. The subjects 
 at the command of these artists are various — a 
 mountain scene, Fuji for choice ; a waterfall ; 
 pine - trees ; bamboos ; flowering shrubs ; birds. 
 But in the delineation of these their knowledge 
 of form and accuracy are surprising. Then the 
 poetic fancy with which the different members 
 of a subject are interwoven ! What a force of 
 imagination a man must possess, and how he
 
 114 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 must have exercised his creative power, before 
 at a moment's notice he can think out, and as 
 rapidly express, the theme which comes not from 
 his own brain but from that of another man ! 
 
 It used to be, probably it still is, the amuse- 
 ment of the scholarly Samurai, with whom 
 beautiful handwriting was a highly -valued ac- 
 complishment, to compose poetry and, crouching 
 on the mats like these artists, to write their com- 
 positions in giant characters on huge sheets of paper 
 while the others looked on, and at some peculiarly 
 happy thought, some vigorous stroke of the fude 
 or writing-brush, would call out " umai ! umai ! " 
 — " charming ! charming ! " A master of this 
 craft was the famous Marquis Kido, then a plain 
 gentleman of the Choshiu clan, of whom I must 
 say more presently. I can see him now, a most 
 attractive figure, leaning over the paper with 
 eager eyes, while with bold brave strokes he 
 dashed ofF some fanciful thought, hailed with 
 admiration by all present. One of these im- 
 promptus he gave me ; I had it mounted, and 
 I still treasure it. 
 
 Several sketches, all dainty, each one full of 
 the spirit of poetry, were produced by these 
 artists, and then they packed up their paints and
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 115 
 
 brushes and retired, modestly deprecating the 
 praise which they had so justly earned ; for 
 music and dancing were to take the place of 
 painting, and a troop of geishas with their at- 
 tendant band of samisen and koto-players, not to 
 speak of a very active drummer — of course, a 
 lady, — were waiting to perform a dance specially 
 composed for the occasion in honour of Prince 
 Arthur. We have now seen several of these 
 specially composed pieces, and I confess that it 
 is difficult to see in what respect they differ from 
 the usual graceful posture-dances of the geishas. 
 It is true that these carry fans decorated with the 
 Union Jack where Prince Arthur is the motive, 
 and fans alternately with the Union Jack and 
 the national flag where the alliance is to be re- 
 presented ; but it would need much power of 
 imagination to detect any special significance in 
 the movements. In all her dances the Japanese 
 geisha exhibits what to us seem to be the same 
 willowy swaying of the body, the same dramatic 
 action ; yet in each case the ladies themselves 
 professed that there was a notable peculiarity in 
 these dedicatory dances, which set them apart 
 from all others. Some of the girls were quite 
 young, not more than thirteen or fourteen years
 
 ii6 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 old ; but even these were so well trained as to 
 be quite able to hold their own with the older 
 ones. It was amusing to see the conviction and 
 solemnity with which they went through their 
 complicated evolutions. Western girls at that 
 age would have been laughing and giggling all 
 the time. These children were perfectly com- 
 posed and altogether absorbed in their business. 
 
 After the dance the little ladies remained for 
 some time talking and laughing in the hall of the 
 hotel. Then came good-night ! farewell ! say5nara ! 
 the prettiest of all good-byes — sayonara, " since it 
 must be so." We bow to the inevitable, and go, 
 as Mr. Pepys would have said, to bed, well con- 
 tented with our day. 
 
 Wednesday^ February 28. — The rain was still 
 falling dismally when on the following morning, the 
 28th February, at 8.45, we left Shidzuoka on our 
 way to Kyoto. In spite of cold and wet a great 
 crowd had gathered together to see us off. And so 
 it was all along the line, a succession of welcomes, 
 the warmth of which nothing could chill — the same 
 shouting of Banzai ; the same merry, laughing 
 faces ; the same waving ot flags ; the same 
 reception of leading personages. 
 
 The railway follows a line which passes through
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 117 
 
 a most lovely country — though now not at its 
 best. Watercourses of huge breadth, but at 
 present almost dry, run down from the distant 
 purple mountains, in winter all capped with 
 snow. Arms of the sea studded with picturesque 
 fishing -junks come almost up to the line. 
 Rice -fields are all over the plain, but the rice 
 is not yet tinged with green, so the fields are 
 just now mere brown patches of sloppy mud ; 
 orange-trees are plentiful, but the camellias and 
 plums are blossoming very lazily, for it is a late 
 season, and the flowers dare not face the inclement 
 weather. Volcanic action has tossed about the 
 near hills in all manner of wild and fantastic 
 shapes. Comfortable farmsteads are dotted about 
 among the rocky groves. Perched on one great 
 pinnacle is a gigantic bronze statue of Kwannon, 
 the goddess of Mercy, and near every house is 
 a Shinto shrine, easily recognised by its Tori-i 
 (bird's seat), and the straw ropes knotted with 
 paper which hang across the portal, to remind 
 the world of the time when the Sun-goddess, in 
 horror at the impious deeds of her " impetuous " 
 brother, hid herself in a cave of which she barred 
 the entrance. 
 
 In the afternoon we came upon the Biwa-ko,
 
 ii8 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the beautiful Lake of the Lute, which, as the fable 
 runs, was formed by a great convulsion of nature 
 at the same time that Mount Fuji was raised 
 some 150 miles away. The shores of the lake, 
 which takes its name from the Biwa or lute, in 
 whose form it is fashioned, are lovely and 
 romantic, the birthplace of as many legends of 
 history and fairy lore as the banks of the Rhine. 
 
 When we reached the town of Otsu, where the 
 flags were flying and the shouts of Banzai were 
 ringing in my ears as usual, I could not help 
 thinking of a day long years ago when Sir Ernest 
 Satow and myself were almost by a miracle saved 
 from coming to an untimely end in this very place. 
 
 It was in 1867. Sir Harry Parkes went for a 
 cruise round the Islands in the Salamis with Sir 
 Henry Keppel, and he took us with him. On our 
 way back from the north we stopped at the 
 harbour of Nanao on the west coast. Very 
 little was known then about the provinces be- 
 tween Nanao and Kyoto, and Sir Harry was 
 anxious to have some information as to their 
 commercial capabilities, so he sent us with orders 
 to travel overland and join him at Osaka. The 
 government of the Shogun was at that time 
 tottering to its fall. His people knew that any
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 119 
 
 trouble with foreigners would precipitate the 
 catastrophe, and that there were plenty of their 
 enemies only too eager to attack them in that 
 way. With this fear before them they did all 
 that lay in their power to prevent us from start- 
 ing : they declared that they could not protect 
 us, and that they could not answer for the con- 
 sequences. However, we were determined to go, 
 so they took a receipt for our bodies from the 
 local authorities at Nanao — a form, by the bye, 
 which was observed at every daimyo's frontier 
 throughout the journey — and off we went. It 
 was a most interesting expedition, and we had 
 nearly reached our destination, when, late on the 
 night before we were to arrive at Otsu, as we 
 were talking of the morrow's journey, the inn- 
 keeper, a very intelligent man, suggested to us 
 that, as we wanted commercial information, we 
 should do well to make a little roundabout in 
 order to see the Uji tea-district, thus avoiding 
 Otsu. Very luckily, as it turned out, we fell 
 in with the suggestion, for at that place a number 
 of the hot-headed young bloods of Kyoto, hearing 
 that two " red-haired foreigners " were defiling 
 the land in the neighbourhood, had come out 
 some three hundred strong to lie in wait for us.
 
 I20 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 What a contrast to the scene of to-day ! 
 
 We heard of the affair in a curious way. Mr, 
 Satow, as he was then, had in his employment a 
 young Samurai named Noguchi, an excellent, 
 faithful retainer, who, I believe, would have gone 
 through fire for his master. This man, when we 
 reached Osaka, went to a tea-house for refresh- 
 ment, and as he sat drinking his tea overheard 
 in the next room, separated from him only by a 
 thin paper screen, a conversation between some of 
 the band and their friends in which they gave all 
 the details of the plot, and appealed for sympathy 
 in their disappointment. 
 
 Later the whole story was confirmed to me by 
 Count Goto, who, being in Kyoto at the time, had 
 heard of the scheme and tried in vain to stop it. 
 
 To return, however, to to-day. We reached 
 Kyoto at about 3.30 and drove to the Miyako 
 Hotel, receiving by the way such an ovation as made 
 our ears ache. But of the old " sacred " capital of 
 the Mikados I must write later on. For to-day 
 we had but a long drive through pelting rain and 
 muddy streets, so of the beautiful city, whose 
 welcome was so enthusiastic, we could see but 
 little. 
 
 Thursday^ March i. — We had some hours in
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 121 
 
 hand this morning. I was anxious to go and see 
 the graves of my two frie^ids, Governor Nakai 
 Kozo and Marquis Kido. General Kuroki very 
 kindly insisted on accompanying me, for both had 
 been friends of his as well as of mine. Governor 
 Nakai especially was a fellow-clansman, a Satsuma 
 man. The latter and his wife lie buried in the 
 beautiful park of the temple of Tofukuji, south 
 of the city, at the foot of the Eastern hills. 
 Across a mountain torrent which runs through 
 the temple enclosure, surrounded by a grove of 
 bamboos, cherry-trees, maples, and pines, lie the 
 graves, carefully tended, lovingly decked with 
 fresh flowers in little bamboo vases, to which I 
 added my small tribute. Poor Nakai ! He was 
 a small man, but he had the heart of a lion, and 
 he risked his life, as I have already told, to save 
 ours. He was one of the merriest of men, always 
 joking, always ready with some witty thought 
 which would set a whole company laughing. 
 And what men they were with whom Satow and 
 myself spent so many happy evenings in the old 
 time — the men who helped to make the new 
 Japan ! — Kido, Komatsu, Goto, Nakai, Terashima, 
 Okubo, Okuma, Inouye. Only the last two left 
 alive to-day. I see that I have left out one
 
 122 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 famous name — Saigo. Of him I shall have to 
 speak when we reach Kagoshima. Back we drove 
 from the southern suburbs through the whole 
 length of the busy city to Kodaiji, another ancient 
 temple founded more than a thousand years ago, 
 and restored in her husband's honour by the 
 widow of the mighty Hideyoshi, the conqueror of 
 Corea in the sixteenth century. High up above 
 the temple, in the sacred silence of the forest- 
 clad hills, a steep ascent leads to the tomb of the 
 Marquis Kido. Tall and handsome, a man of 
 singularly winning manners and sweetest temper, 
 an accomplished scholar, he was a born leader of 
 men. He was a Samurai of the Choshiu clan, and 
 one of the five or six men who were the most 
 conspicuous figures in the great Revolution of 
 1868. Whom the gods love die young! but 
 he lived long enough to see the success of his 
 work, and to help in laying the foundations of 
 the greatness of Japan. When I told a Japanese 
 friend of mine that I was going to see Kido's 
 grave, he replied : " He will be glad to see 
 you." "Alas," said I, "he is dead, he cannot 
 see me." " His spirit will be there," answered 
 my friend, gravely rebuking me. If his spirit 
 be indeed there, if he haunts the place where
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 123 
 
 his body lies, he can look down upon the 
 great city, till so recently, during centuries upon 
 centuries, shrouded in romantic mystery and a 
 holy ignorance of that outer world to which it is 
 now open, and can think triumphantly of the 
 wondrous change in which he bore so brave a part. 
 
 Year after year the litanies of the priests will 
 be chanted before the high altar ; year after year 
 crowds will flock to see the famous cherry-trees 
 blossoming in the Temple gardens ; year after 
 year men will stand before the relics of Hideyoshi 
 and his pious widow ; but the man who loves 
 Japan will rather climb to the little enclosure on 
 the heights, and bestow a thought upon the noble 
 heart which ceased to beat all too soon. 
 
 As a matter of interest to the Embassy, Sir 
 Claude Macdonald was anxious that I should 
 identify for him the quarters which we occupied 
 in the Temple of Chi-on-in when we went to 
 Kyoto for our first audience of the Mikado in 
 1868. I was to join him at the Temple, where I 
 arrived just as Prince Arthur was leaving it, and 
 the Abbot, in full canonicals, resplendent in his 
 cope of crimson silk and gold embroidery, was 
 standing in the great portal as I drove up. 
 His reverence is now a very old man, but bright
 
 124 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 and active, and he at once, with great courtesy, 
 offered to do the honours of the place. He 
 remembered perfectly all that occurred during 
 those terrible days when the great State apartments 
 of his Temple were turned into hospital wards for 
 our poor wounded men. He also told us how to 
 find the street in which the affair, of which I have 
 already related the story in connection with my 
 visit to the Marquis Tokudaiji, took place. With- 
 out that information I might, after a lapse of 
 thirty -eight years, have had some difficulty in 
 identifying it. 
 
 Chi-on-in, with its avenues of cherry-trees, its 
 vast halls, its great bell, whose solemn tones had 
 been set booming for the Prince's benefit, and all 
 its many sacred treasures, is indeed one of the 
 sights of Kyoto. But to me it was full of thoughts 
 more significant than memorial tablets of lyeyasu 
 or paintings by Kano Eitoku, and it was very 
 interesting to talk over the old days with the 
 abbot, who seemed as pleased to recall them as 1 
 was — our first arrival, and wonder at the beauty 
 of our quarters ; the brightness of our start for 
 the Palace, and our sorrowful return bringing our 
 wounded men and our black-browed prisoner, 
 who became so touchingly penitent when his
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 125 
 
 wounds were tended by our kind Legation doctor, 
 Willis ; and when I carried him soup and food — 
 " Ah ! " he almost sobbed out, *' if I had known 
 how kind you foreigners are ! " I can hear his 
 voice now. 
 
 Armed with the clue given to us by his 
 reverence, we walked straight to the place in 
 Shimbashi Street, where the outrage took place. 
 How vividly I could see it all ! Sir Harry Parkes 
 sitting on his horse like a statue, absolutely un- 
 moved, and happily unhurt. There stood the 
 calm, impassive figure, just where the Shimbashi 
 Street runs into another street at right angles to 
 it — a street apparently for the most part inhabited 
 by geishas, out of one of the houses of which the 
 two would-be murderers rushed ; upon the horrors 
 by which he was surrounded it boots not now to 
 dwell. Sir Claude took a kodak photograph of 
 the spot where his great predecessor was so nearly 
 done to death. As for me, the whole scene came 
 back to me as if the affair had happened yesterday ; 
 but it is all ancient history now, and who cares ? 
 
 The next morning the Japanese papers were 
 full of our visit to the Temple and Shimbashi 
 Street, telling the old story over again, and making 
 special mention of Sir Claude's photograph.
 
 126 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 We left Kyoto at 1.30 for Shimonoseki. The 
 towns of Osaka and Kobe vied with one another 
 in their demonstrations of welcome, and even at 
 the stations through which the train passed long 
 after dark, the Prince was greeted with illumina- 
 tions of lanterns decorated with the two flags. 
 The candles were the only change. 
 
 Friday^ March 1. — Punctually at 6.30 a.m. 
 the train landed us at Shimonoseki, after a most 
 comfortable journey. We had a special train and 
 a carriage which had been built for the Crown 
 Prince. Nothing that ingenuity could suggest 
 had been wanting. The hotel was prepared to 
 receive us, and an excellent breakfast ready. At 
 8.30 we walked to the jetty, where some thousands 
 of people were standing, and where a regiment of 
 girls was marching in fours to serenade the Prince 
 with '* God Save the King," A little steamer 
 carried us across the straits, crowded with steamers, 
 junks, and fishing-boats, to Moji, where, at the 
 railway station, there was again a great concourse. 
 The Japanese ladies in especial had mustered in 
 full force, all eager to give their cards to the 
 Prince. This ended in a general melee^ with 
 Prince Arthur in fits of laughter in the centre, 
 surrounded by a whole bevy of pretty little dames.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 127 
 
 all smiling and giggling and chattering, pushing 
 one another out of the way, elbowing, squeezing, 
 almost fighting, all good-humoured and full of 
 fun, all scrambling for the pleasure of — putting a 
 card into his hand. The urgencies of railway 
 travelling alone saved the Prince from being torn 
 in pieces. Rescue came in time. 
 
 We were soon rolling through the beautiful 
 island of Kiushiu — " the nine countries," for that 
 is its name, owing to the nine territories of 
 which it is composed, each ruled in the old days 
 by their respective Daimyos, of whom the 
 Shimadzu family, Lords of Satsuma, or Sasshu, 
 was the most important. I am bankrupt of 
 epithets, and have none left wherewith to describe 
 the charms of Kiushiu. Its rocks are almost all 
 volcanic, and have apparently been tossed about 
 by Nature in one of her weirdest, maddest moods. 
 The result is a succession of the most fantastic 
 scenes that imagination can picture. Yet is there 
 nothing terrible about it. There are no great 
 storm-blasted crags suggesting Walpurgis nights 
 or witches' Sabbaths. The forms of the moun- 
 tains, hills, and knolls are quaint, surprising, 
 unexpected ; but they are so generously clad 
 with a vegetation to which the Southern climate
 
 128 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 has added great variety, the little homesteads are 
 so dainty and cosy-looking, that it all suggests 
 the fairy's wand rather than the work of fire and 
 demon. One hardly expects to see the ordinary 
 worker step out into the fields, hoe in hand, from 
 one of those choice little thatched houses. Rather 
 should it be Inari Sama himself, the god of farming, 
 or some Heavenly Being, waving her lovely hand 
 over the crops, and so charming them into growth 
 by the magic of her divine power, not forcing 
 them by labour and the roughness of toil. 
 
 Travelling through this enchanted landscape 
 we reach Sasebo, where there is a naval arsenal. 
 The harbour is landlocked, with no visible outlet, 
 hemmed in on all sides by hills and islands, against 
 which the blue waters of the bay on a day like 
 this break gently in a soft frill of silver foam. 
 We were received by the Commandant and a 
 brilliant staff of naval officers, who gave us tea 
 and entertained us most kindly. The afternoon 
 was wearing on, and the place was very muddy, 
 owing to the late rains, so we contented ourselves 
 with steaming about the harbour. Here we saw 
 the Retvisan^ one of the warships raised at Port 
 Arthur — a mere ghost of a ship, so cruelly wounded 
 by the fierce howitzer fire from the famous 203
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 129 
 
 Metre Hill that it will take some two years of work 
 before she can again be commissioned. But the 
 saddest sight of all was the Mikasa^ Admiral 
 Togo's flagship. It must have been indeed bitter 
 to him when he saw her there, lying sunk in deep 
 water, and when he thought of the three hundred 
 braves, spared in the great battle only to meet a 
 cruel death by an accident in peaceful home waters. 
 She will be raised ; as to that the Japanese have 
 no doubts ; but it is a tough job, and will take a 
 long time. 
 
 When we had seen all that there was to be 
 seen we steamed to the Diadem^ which Captain 
 Savory had brought round from Yokohama to 
 carry us to Kagoshima, and afterwards through 
 the Inland Sea, Admiral Kataoka's squadron was 
 there too, and was to escort the Prince on the 
 voyage. Threading our way through the intricate 
 maze of the islands, attended by the five great 
 stately ships and by a flotilla of fifteen torpedo 
 boats, we left Sasebo. It was an imposing sight 
 when at dusk the flotilla of smaller vessels left us, 
 and we steamed out into the night, with the lights 
 of the Japanese warships following in solemn 
 procession in our wake. 
 
 Saturday, March 3. — When we woke at early
 
 I30 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 dawn we were at Kagoshima. The morning broke 
 bright and fair. On our left was the Kaemon 
 Dake, a volcano so shaped as to be a miniature 
 Fuji, indeed called the Fuji of Satsuma ; in front 
 of us the town lying under a hill ; in the distance 
 Mount Kirishima, the mountain upon which the 
 god, the descendant of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu 
 no Mikoto, came down upon earth — a volcanic 
 range, now covered with snow, and sparkling with 
 myriad jewels in the morning sun, one of those 
 mountains with which all over the world the 
 divine legend is connected — -Ararat, Sinai, Olympus, 
 Ida, Fuji, Parasnath, and how many more ? The 
 bay, bright as the distant hills, studded with islets, 
 some no bigger than rocks, all bearing their little 
 groves of quaint-shaped pines. This is the scene 
 into which, amid the booming of great guns and 
 the fluttering of flags, we landed from the big 
 ship, a scene hardly to be matched, certainly not 
 to be surpassed. 
 
 Prince Shimadzu, a handsome young man of 
 nineteen, was waiting to greet Prince Arthur at 
 his landing. Now a cadet in the naval school, he 
 expects to leave in about a year, when he will 
 come out as a full-blown midshipman, for in 
 Japan the years of preHminary training before
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 131 
 
 going to sea are longer than with us. If the 
 ancient order of things still existed he, as head of 
 the house of Shimadzu, would be a great Daimyo, 
 Prince of Satsuma, suzerain of the Liu Kiu Islands 
 — almost a king. Great potentates were these 
 Lords of Satsuma in the olden time, by far the 
 most powerful Daimyos in Japan. The Maedas, 
 Princes of Kaga, were richer, but in influence 
 Satsuma was paramount. The Choshiu clan came 
 next. But the Satsuma men were from all time 
 warriors, the Choshiu men politicians. One of 
 the proudest acts of any Prince of Satsuma was 
 the claim of the then Daimyo in 1 867 to a separate 
 space in the great Exhibition of Paris in that year, 
 a terrible blow to the Shogun's government. A 
 certain Comte de Montblanc appeared as his 
 agent, and demanded the concession for le Rot 
 de Satsuma^ and it was accorded. When in the 
 following year the revolution came, it was the 
 men of Satsuma and Choshiu, helped by the fierce 
 warriors of Tosa, who were mainly instrumental in 
 destroying the power of the Shogun and restoring 
 the rule of the Mikado. Then in 1877 followed 
 the great Satsuma rebellion — some say that it was 
 the Corean question, some the dissatisfaction which 
 was felt at the too rapid introduction of Western
 
 132 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 methods, that made the great Saigo — the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the Emperor's army — draw the 
 sword against his Sovereign. Be that as it may, 
 the rebelHon took some nine months to quell, and 
 it was not until he had made his last stand in the 
 mountain opposite to us, when the last shot had 
 been fired, that Saigo, wounded and desperate, 
 performed harakiri with his faithful braves, and 
 the rebellion was at an end. When his body was 
 discovered the head was missing. It had been cut 
 off by one of his friends and hastily buried, but it 
 was soon found, covered with mud. It was fitted 
 to the body, and proved to be his. Then the 
 Emperor's commander took it, and piously wash- 
 ing it with his own hands, caused the remains to 
 be interred with great honour. Saigo had been 
 his friend and comrade in arms in the old days. 
 He had died the death of a Samurai. Japanese 
 chivalry wars not with the dead. In further proof 
 of this generous feeling, Saigo Takamori was 
 forgiven, posthumous honours were conferred 
 upon him, and a statue in his honour was erected 
 at Tokyo. Such a Sovereign is the Emperor 
 Mutsuhito. 
 
 For the right understanding of all that occurred 
 during our short stay in Kagoshima, it was neces-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 133 
 
 sary, however briefly, to tell the story of Saigo 
 Takamori. 
 
 Great was the excitement at Prince Arthur's 
 visit. It was said, I know not with what truth, 
 that the guns had never been fired from the forts 
 for a British ship since the bombardment by 
 Admiral Kuper in 1863, when the firing was at 
 the ships, not in their honour. It was reckoned 
 that a million of persons were lining the road and 
 enthusiastically cheering the Prince between the 
 port and Iso, the residence of Prince Shimadzu. 
 Trains upon trains had been running to bring in 
 the great gathering and the 25,000 children from 
 every part of the island. The addresses were 
 very remarkable documents. One was from the 
 Governor of the province, the other from the 
 Mayor on behalf of the prefecture. Both alluded 
 to the bombardment of Kagoshima as having 
 been largely instrumental in bringing about the 
 reformation — if I may use the word — in Japan. 
 It had showed them that no country could hope 
 in these days to stand alone. If a country was to 
 prosper it must be by entering the society of 
 nations : that was the gist of the addresses. When 
 the cause of the bombardment is remembered — 
 the exaction of a penalty for the murder of Mr.
 
 134 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Richardson in 1862 for getting into the way of 
 the procession of Shimadzu Saburo, the Inkyo or 
 retired Prince of Satsuma, on the Tokaido — it 
 will be confessed that these addresses were signifi- 
 cant not only as an expression of satisfaction with 
 the present order of things, but also as marking 
 disapprobation of the past. 
 
 For two miles along the picturesque road by 
 the sea we drove in jinrikishas to the young 
 Prince's country house at Iso. Thither he had 
 preceded us, and there he received us with all the 
 courtesy and grace of a Japanese nobleman of the 
 old school. 
 
 It will readily be believed, when the stately 
 position and great wealth of the Princes of Satsuma 
 is remembered, that their villa by the sea must be 
 something altogether exceptional : and so it is. 
 Some two hundred and fifty years ago the site was 
 chosen as being one of the most romantic, even in 
 this island of fairy scenery. But let us take the 
 Japanese account of it. " It stood at the foot of 
 a lofty precipice with a fine prospect in front, 
 while behind and around it was a forest of grand 
 old trees, with fantastic boulders showing here and 
 there among the intersections of their wide- 
 spreading boughs. Known at first as the Cave of
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 135 
 
 Sengan, on account of the resemblance to Sengan 
 in China, the place was, after the erection of the 
 villa, called the Park or Garden of Sengan. Eight 
 years later the villa was rebuilt. 
 
 " In the course of the banquet given to cele- 
 brate the completion of the work, a pair of cranes 
 swooped down from the eastern sky, and after 
 feeding in the yard for some little time took their 
 perch upon the roof. This was the best of omens, 
 for in Japan the crane is the emblem of longevity. 
 So the villa was named Ki-kwaku-tei, the pavilion 
 of the happy cranes. Since then it continued for 
 generations to be the country residence of the 
 Shimadzu family, but Tadayoshi, father of the 
 present Prince, rebuilt and enlarged the place as a 
 permanent residence." 
 
 The garden has been laid out with great science 
 and taste. Water there is in plenty, falling in 
 natural cascades from the hill-side, and forming 
 rock-girt pools in which varieties of fish disport 
 themselves. The stone lanterns, which form such 
 a feature in every Japanese garden, are of the 
 quaintest shapes, the stones — huge rocks, each 
 selected for some special beauty, some accidental 
 resemblance in shape to a tortoise, a bird, or what 
 not ? — are the finest which I have seen. The
 
 136 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 flowering shrubs, just waiting for the first breath 
 of spring to coax them into blossom, are all of the 
 choicest kinds. The verandah of the house, the 
 paper shutters of which are pushed open, showing 
 the white mats and golden screens, masterpieces 
 of ancient art, is lined with dwarf trees in pots. 
 Over the parapet of the garden is a glorious view 
 of the bay and its islands, with little white-sailed 
 boats, like sea-birds, playing about round the black 
 hulls of the six great warships which mount a 
 stately guard over our Prince. 
 
 Truly an entrancing spot, where a man might 
 rest and dream away his life, far from the cares and 
 labours of statecraft. 
 
 One cannot help admiring the patriotism and 
 public spirit of the young Prince, who to all this 
 beauty and luxury prefers the black broth of Sparta 
 and the hard life of the naval cadet's school. 
 
 After luncheon we went to the Town Hall, 
 where there was a great show of fine old armour. 
 The care with which these relics of the past have 
 been kept all over the country is remarkable ; not 
 only the lacquered plates of the surcoats and 
 helmets, but even the elaborately plaited silk-work 
 with which they were fastened together look as 
 new and fresh as if they had left the armourer's
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 137 
 
 hands yesterday. The swords, the special objects 
 of veneration to the Samurai, are kept bright and 
 unsoiled by so much as a speck of rust — the blades 
 are most carefully wiped with a paper made on 
 purpose, then they are oiled and a peculiar powder 
 is dusted over them, after which they are again 
 wiped and put aside. This is done at least once 
 in every two months. To our no small embarrass- 
 ment the Governor and the prefecture had prepared 
 presents for us of the " meibutsu " or special 
 products of the country. It is a pretty fashion 
 this of present giving, and one of the graceful 
 customs of Japan. But the traveller who can 
 offer nothing in return feels abashed by the kind- 
 ness of his hosts, who have already done so much 
 to make him welcome. Indeed, how can he make 
 any return for the gifts of a Corporation : 
 
 There is in Kagoshima an old custom — 
 peculiar to the clan and nowhere else to be seen 
 — a military celebration now three centuries old, 
 which is known as the procession to the Temple 
 of Miyoyenji. Once a year the Samurai of 
 Satsuma with their children, all, old and young, 
 clad in the ancient armour, suits of which even 
 for the smallest are hereditary in their families, 
 march in solemn state to the Temple, twelve miles
 
 138 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 away, where lies buried Shimadzu Yoshihito, a 
 chieftain of the family who performed prodigies of 
 valour at the great battle of Sekigahara, the fight 
 which placed Japan finally under the rule of the 
 Tokugawa Shoguns. He fought on the losing 
 side, but he was a mighty brave. That is enough 
 for the men of Satsuma, who revere his memory 
 to this day. Once a year, then, this festival is 
 held in his honour, and the Samurai piously spend 
 the night in the Temple. It is like the vigils of 
 the knights of old in our Western Chivalry. 
 
 In a great plain outside the town a display had 
 been got up for Prince Arthur, and the first item 
 in the programme was a rehearsal of this pro- 
 cession. Very strange it was to see the faces of 
 the little children, grave and full of conviction, as 
 they marched past in their little panoplies. Then 
 came the grown-up warriors, grim and fierce- 
 looking, but not more stately than the Liliputians 
 who had preceded them. This procession to the 
 sacred goal fosters and keeps alive in the most 
 martial clan of Japan that warlike spirit which has 
 produced such remarkable men — Saigo, Oyama, 
 Kuroki, Togo, and many others, are all Satsuma 
 names. The clan is proud of its great soldiers 
 and sailors, past and present, and it is heedful that
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 139 
 
 there shall be no falling off in the future. After 
 the procession there was a fine show of fencing 
 with wooden swords ; first a general melee of two 
 sides, red and white, a fierce engagement in which 
 hard knocks were given and taken, followed by 
 single combats between specially-skilled swords- 
 men — a most exciting exhibition. Then followed 
 a war-dance with swords, executed by girls, who 
 played their parts with as much dignity and sense 
 of its importance as the men. In this way are 
 trained the mothers of Satsuma warriors who are 
 yet to be. This was altogether a most striking 
 performance, the complicated evolutions being 
 executed with an accuracy and grace which could 
 not be surpassed. The last performance was a 
 quarter-staff dance (Bo odori). This is altogether 
 a religious ceremony, executed by farmers to pro- 
 pitiate the gods and ensure a prosperous harvest. 
 The dancers are dressed in a surcoat, each with 
 his crest upon it, for even the humblest peasant in 
 Japan has his crest or badge. Round their heads 
 are tied white napkins, mittens of blue cloth 
 protect their hands, on their feet they wear white 
 socks, and a cord with which their long sleeves 
 are tied back completes their costume. In their 
 hands some carry a pole six feet long, others a
 
 I40 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 sickle or a halberd. One of the dancers is the 
 leader, and gives his commands by waving a spear, 
 which he afterwards sticks in the ground, and then, 
 all in chorus, accompanied by drum and flute, sing 
 songs, of which one has been translated as follows 
 by a Japanese gentleman : — 
 
 The river runs in front of the hill 
 
 On which the castle stands. 
 
 Like that river and like that hill 
 
 For ages may our master reign. 
 
 Gods send forth rain to cleanse the earth 
 
 To welcome our sire's return. 
 
 The Satsuma men are careful to point out that 
 even the farmers' dance is tinged with the military 
 spirit, for they, too, must be ready if their country 
 needs them. Verily, this is a race of warriors ! 
 and in Satsuma one is penetrated with a sense of 
 the martial character of the spirit of old Japan. 
 
 It was a fine sight at night to look out upon 
 the bay. The ships were illuminated and fireworks 
 were being let off; lights were twinkling in the 
 distance among the islands, whose outlines, feathered 
 with trees, stood out against the starlit sky. 
 
 After dinner we had a performance by children 
 of notables of the town dressed up as the Seven 
 Gods of Fortune. Very cleverly they went 
 through their dances. One little fellow, a little
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 141 
 
 creature not more than seven years old, I should 
 think, represented Hotel, the fat god of luck, 
 with a Falstaffian stomach. That child is a real 
 little comedian, full of drollery, and ought to 
 grow into a first-rate actor. He raised shouts of 
 laughter all over the room, but he himself remained 
 as grave as a bishop. I believe, by the bye, that 
 he was a girl. 
 
 To the children succeeded a performance on 
 the koto or harp, and the Satsuma biwa or lute ; 
 the latter an instrument peculiar to the province 
 which I had never heard before ; and when that 
 came to an end there walked into the room an 
 elderly man who, after bowing profoundly, pro- 
 ceeded, accompanying himself on the biwa, to 
 chant the story of Murakami, a hero who, to save 
 his chief when he was sorely pressed by his enemies, 
 put on his master's clothes and armour and so died 
 in his stead. This is one of those poems which 
 stir to the inmost depths of his heart the Japanese 
 listener. The grimmest warriors cannot hear it 
 unmoved, and tears may be seen rolling down 
 the furrowed cheeks of men from whom sword and 
 shell and shot, the fury of the hottest fire, could 
 draw nothing but a defiant cry of " Banzai ! " It 
 is very melancholy, very tragic ; first comes a
 
 142 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 prelude, then a few words in recitative, then more 
 music, and so in successive sobs, interspersed with 
 the sad strain of the biwa, the harrowing story is 
 sung. It is a wail, a dirge, with a tear in every 
 note of it. 
 
 As I lay on the mats that night with a warm 
 Japanese quilt over me it was very like old times 
 — and yet so unlike ! Here in the very sanctuary 
 of the great Shimadzu Saburo, a name at the 
 sound of which forty years ago Europeans 
 trembled, a party of Englishmen were being 
 hospitably entertained and receiving a welcome 
 such as has seldom been accorded to any man in 
 any place. And then people continue to ask the 
 eternal question, " Is the country much changed 
 since your day ? " 
 
 Sunday, March 4. — The following morning I 
 got up in good time and wandered through the 
 pretty garden admiring all its curiosities and 
 quaint conceits. Admiral Togo and General 
 Kuroki were also afoot early, so we had some talk 
 before it was time to be off again sight-seeing. 
 Close by the villa in the bay were a number of 
 fishermen waiting to draw in a seine for our 
 amusement, but, barring the picturesque appear- 
 ance of these brown-legged men with their straw
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 143 
 
 headgear shaped like cocked hats, the fishing did 
 not differ in any way from that to be seen else- 
 where. They made a goodly haul of fish, however, 
 and were pleased at showing off their sport. 
 
 The first event on the programme of the day 
 was a visit to the tombs of General Saigo and his 
 braves, who lie buried in the high grounds of a 
 temple overlooking the sea. On the left-hand 
 side is a little covered building containing a statue 
 of the great man and numerous relics, among 
 others a characteristic picture relating to the days 
 when for a while he retired from public affairs to 
 his farm. Three statesmen have come all the way 
 from the capital to consult him on some knotty 
 problem, for his wisdom is proverbial. They are 
 seated on the verandah of the cottage ; he, carry- 
 ing a hoe in his hand, for he has been freshly 
 summoned from the field, is expounding his views 
 to them. It is the story of Cincinnatus over 
 again. We all paid our respects to the grave, and 
 I left a few flowers there, for I had known the 
 great General well. Many well-known names are 
 among the graves by which his is surrounded — 
 names of men all of whom fell with him. Admiral 
 Togo pointed out to me the tomb of his brother. 
 He himself was in England studying at the time
 
 144 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 of the rebellion, otherwise he, too, would probably 
 have been lying there. It might have made some 
 difference in the history of his country ! 
 
 This is a very sacred spot, so a photographer 
 had been commissioned to take a group com- 
 memorating the visit of an English Prince to the 
 great soldier's grave. 
 
 First the grave, then the birthplace of the 
 General. It was rather reversing the natural order 
 of things, but both places are held in veneration, 
 and both were to be shown to us. At the birth- 
 place we were all asked to plant trees, as were 
 Admiral Togo and General Kuroki. The same 
 ceremony took place at the birthplace of another 
 famous man of the clan, Okubo Toshimichi, who 
 was murdered in Tokyo when on his way to the 
 Palace in the spring of 1878. Some men, whose 
 judgment is to be respected, look upon him as 
 the ablest statesman whom the troublous times of 
 1868 produced. His name is great in Satsuma. 
 It was said, quite falsely, I believe, that he had 
 flicked aside with his cane the veil of the temple 
 at Ise. This was the cause of his murder by 
 fanatics, who resented what they took for an act 
 of sacrilege. The murderers were executed, but 
 the people were on their side, and gave them
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 145 
 
 almost divine honours. Yet men say that there 
 is no feeling for religion among the Japanese ! 
 
 Whether our jinrikisha men were less nimble 
 than those of the rest of our party, I know not, 
 but in some way or another Admiral Togo, Sir 
 Thomas Kelly-Kenny, and myself got separated 
 from the others, and this resulted in what was to 
 me, and also, I think, to the General, the proudest 
 incident in our expedition. The place where the 
 great Admiral was born is now a girls' school. 
 The house itself is pulled down, but the site where 
 it stood in the courtyard of the school is marked, 
 in the unpretentious Japanese fashion, by a simple 
 stone with a modest inscription in Chinese char- 
 acters. It was known that the famous Togo was 
 in the town, and preparations had been made for 
 him, and possibly others, to plant a tree on the 
 spot. So at his request we went with him. No 
 sooner did our little carriages appear than the 
 martial -minded maidens rushed out to acclaim 
 their hero. Never had man a sweeter welcome. 
 And when the tree was planted, down went the 
 girls on their knees scraping the earth round it, 
 and smoothing it with their pretty little hands. 
 Then must the General and myself, as Togo so 
 willed it, each plant a tree, with the same eager
 
 146 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 assistance, the charming girls swarming round us 
 and holding up the skirts of our long greatcoats 
 lest they should be soiled. I have planted many 
 trees in my life, never one which gave me such 
 pleasure and pride. When we left, the girls all 
 flocked round the Admiral again, and almost 
 worshipped him. Remember we were in Satsuma ! 
 
 At a great sort of bazaar where specimens of 
 the chief products of the province had been 
 brought together we joined our party. Here we 
 were able to make some few purchases. Some ot 
 the modern Satsuma ware is really beautiful ; 
 indeed, much of the potters' work is even better 
 than it was of yore. It is such a pity that they 
 do not keep to their own beautiful models. There 
 were some imitations of certain European fac- 
 tories for which it is difficult to find adequately 
 ugly epithets. I have alluded to this before ; my 
 excuse for returning to the charge here is that this 
 is a centre where most lovely work has been pro- 
 duced in the past, and is still being produced in 
 the present. It is tantalising that these clever 
 craftsmen should waste time and ingenuity upon 
 degrading an art which they have raised so high. 
 
 Back to the pavilion of the Happy Cranes. 
 There, at least, all is lovely, all is harmonious.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 147 
 
 After luncheon there was a Httle concert, fol- 
 lowed by the tea - ceremony with its intricate 
 courtesies, of which I have already written. The 
 concert opened with an altogether novel feature, 
 " God Save the King," played by ladies on four 
 kotos, in unison, of course, for the music of Japan 
 ignores harmonies. This was indeed a " first 
 performance." 
 
 But our delightful visit was at an end ; we had 
 to say goodbye to Kagoshima. In the garden 
 there were a number of ladies of the clan, to 
 whom we bade a most ceremonious farewell. The 
 Governor, the Mayor, and other officials accom- 
 panied us to the harbour, but Prince Shimadzu 
 came with us, for there was a spare cabin on board 
 the Diadem^ and Prince Arthur had had the happy 
 thought to invite him to take advantage of it. 
 
 One thing struck me during our visit. It is 
 the fashion among European officials in Japan to 
 say that no rank now counts in Japan save only 
 that which comes from official position. That is 
 absolute nonsense. Nobody who saw the way in 
 which Prince Shimadzu — according to that theory 
 a mere naval cadet and nothing more — was treated 
 by the veterans of his clan, men, like Togo and 
 Kuroki, of world-wide fame, could fail to see that
 
 148 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the old feudal spirit, the reverence for the chieftain, 
 is not dead, and that the Prince is still the Prince, 
 the Lord of Satsuma. If his manner with them 
 was perfect and most deferential, theirs with him 
 was no less so, and one could not help feeling that 
 Shimadzu is still a name to conjure with. Long 
 may it remain so ! 
 
 When we were about to leave Kagoshima one 
 of the leading men came to Prince Arthur and 
 asked him to put on uniform, in order that the 
 people might be sure of identifying him. Besides, 
 he said, the people here are all born soldiers, and 
 they love anything in the shape of military display. 
 The Prince felt that, after all the kindness which 
 he had received, this was but a small favour to 
 grant, and he also was glad to have the oppor- 
 tunity of showing the decoration which he had 
 received from the Emperor, and of which he was 
 so proud. The Satsuma men cheered before ; 
 they roared now ! 
 
 Darkness was coming on — an active volcano 
 was beginning to glow as we steamed out of the 
 labyrinth of islands and left the birthplace of 
 heroes, followed always by the five great ships. 
 When the night fell the Villa of the Happy Cranes 
 was still a white speck far away in the distance.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 149 
 
 Monday^ March 5. — Every one who collects 
 old lacquer, drawings on silk, or other Japanese 
 works of art, has somewhere in his possession 
 a view of a lovely island with a shrine 
 embowered in a grove of trees, while its chief 
 portal, a Tori-i of camphor-wood, planted out 
 into the sea some distance from the shore, is 
 being washed by the rippling of the tide. That 
 is Miyajima, the Shrine -Island, where next day 
 we anchored. The date of the shrine, which is 
 pure Shinto, is really unknown ; it is a matter 
 of tradition, for all its archives and muniments 
 were burnt centuries ago. Very old it is beyond 
 all doubt, and the object of the pious care of 
 emperors and nobles from the earliest days, a 
 spot made beautiful by nature, hallowed by the 
 worship of more than a thousand years. 
 
 One strange religio loci, not, so far as I know, 
 to be matched anywhere else, is still respected 
 here. Neither birth nor death may take place in 
 the sacred island. Fate, to be sure, will some- 
 times interfere in both cases. Then great and 
 long and solemn are the purifications which are 
 insisted upon. Should a babe be born before its 
 time, the poor mother is at once ferried across to 
 the mainland, where for thirty days she remains
 
 I50 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 impure. Should a sudden death occur, the corpse 
 must be buried elsewhere, and the mourners are 
 forced to undergo lustrations for fifty days, during 
 which they may not return. There is yet a third 
 rule which proscribes all dogs. In this way is 
 kept clean and undefiled the holy shrine of the 
 three heavenly princesses, daughters of the 
 turbulent God Susa-no-o no Mikoto. 
 
 It was wretched weather when we came to 
 Miyajima. The rain was falling in torrents ; rocks 
 and trees and the sacred buildings standing out in 
 the sea at high tide were all dripping dismally, 
 robbing the divine island of so much of its 
 charm that it hardly seemed fit to rank as one of 
 the Go San Kei, " the three sights " of the Empire. 
 One could only guess at what it must be on a fine 
 day in spring, summer, or autumn, if in a land of 
 so many beauties this holds pride of place as one 
 of "the three." Would that we had seen it in 
 better circumstances ! Waterproofs and umbrellas 
 mar the finest scene. 
 
 We were to have dined on board the Manchu 
 Maru this evening. But the rain turned to snow, 
 which came down furiously. There was a strong 
 wind and the sea got up — altogether a most un- 
 pleasant state of things for evening dress and
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 151 
 
 gadding about in boats ; so the dinner-party was 
 put off, and we remained snugly on board the 
 Diadem. 
 
 Tuesday J March 6. — It was still snowing when I 
 woke up on Tuesday, the 6th of March. The cold 
 was bitter. However, the weather cleared by ten 
 o'clock, and we were able to make the most of an 
 excursion to the Naval College at Etajima, an island 
 about four miles from the harbour of Kure. It is 
 not for any one who is not an expert to express 
 an opinion as to such an establishment. To me it 
 all seemed very amazing. Assiduous teachers were 
 lecturing on mysterious hieroglyphics chalked 
 upon black-boards. Eagerness was written on 
 the faces of the students. Models of ships, and 
 of every conceivable member of every ship, 
 appeared to be of the greatest accuracy. The 
 whole anatomy of a war vessel was laid bare, every 
 artery that causes its pulses to beat was exposed. 
 Personally, I should have understood as much at 
 the museum of a college of surgeons. In the 
 uninstructed mind these things arouse wonder, 
 but they excite none of those nerves which are in 
 communication with the brain-cells of intelligence. 
 One thing, however, the most humbly ignorant 
 could set a value upon, and that was the
 
 152 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 marvellous physical training by which every one 
 of these lads is developed into a finished athlete. 
 This was not a case of X and Y and Z ; it was 
 something which would appeal to any one who 
 has gone through the only serious curriculum of 
 our own public schools. No finer exhibition of 
 athletic skill could be conceived than the jujutsu 
 as it is expounded in the naval academy at 
 Etajima. The jujutsu system is now so well 
 known everywhere that there is no need to give 
 any description of it. Suffice it to say that these 
 young men gave an exhibition which would have 
 satisfied the most exacting judge. How they 
 tussled ; how they threw one another over their 
 heads ; with what imperturbable good-humour they 
 took their falls ! I had some talk afterwards with 
 the chief professor. When I first looked at him I 
 fancied in my innocence that perhaps he paid a 
 little more attention to the training of his pupils 
 than to his own, and that he might be just a little 
 inclined to fat. Fat ! He allowed me to feel 
 his arms, legs, and chest. There was not an 
 ounce of spare flesh upon him. All was hard, 
 solid muscle. A Hercules of about 5 feet 4 
 inches, almost as broad as he was long. 
 
 Next came the fencing with the two-handed
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 153 
 
 wooden swords. First a melee^ then a set-to in 
 pairs. Very stately, very solemn is the salute as 
 the two opponents, sitting down upon their heels 
 opposite one another, bow their heads to the 
 ground. Then, springing up, they face one 
 another and the bout begins. It is rather hard to 
 say exactly upon what the victory rests, for as 
 they attack, uttering fierce cries and yells, many 
 a blow is given which, if the sword were one of 
 the heavy razor-sharp blades, would drink the 
 life's blood of the adversary. But the umpire 
 admits it not. Upon rules, which doubtless are 
 as strict as the laws of the Medes and Persians, 
 but of which we have no inkling, he decides. 
 Then the two duellists sit down again, and after 
 once more gravely saluting, retire. 
 
 Ordinary drill is, of course, part of the teaching, 
 and very admirable it is. But I think that the 
 most interesting, because the most novel, of the 
 physical exercises that we saw was the game of 
 Bo Taoshi, "the overturning of the pole." 
 
 Two companies of young men, the red side 
 and the white, each some two hundred strong, 
 march on to the ground in fours and form up 
 at about a hundred yards' distance from one 
 another. At a given signal a number of the
 
 154 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 stoutest of these lads form into a close group, and 
 on to their shoulders climbs a champion bearing a 
 pole with a flag of the colour of his side. There 
 he stands firm on his bearers as on a rock. At 
 another signal there is a rush of the free men on 
 either side, the whites struggling to pull down the 
 champion red flag, the reds equally straining for 
 the white flag. Most fierce is the onslaught, 
 most determined the defence. Time after time, 
 on either side, is the living stronghold stormed 
 and escaladed, time after time is the wave of 
 assailants beaten back. Doughty deeds are done 
 by red and by white; pushing, scrambling, 
 wrestling, the assault on both flags is fierce and 
 furious ; blows rain unheeded upon heads and 
 cheeks and shoulders. Many a tough fighter 
 bites the dust, but he is up again in a trice, more 
 eager than ever for the fray. At last the white 
 champion is evidently in difiiculties. His bearers 
 are no longer so steady ; the flag is seen to waver ; 
 a determined rush of the reds is followed by a 
 mighty cheer. The white champion totters ; he 
 cannot keep his balance ; a red hero makes a last 
 dashing charge ; the white flag is torn down ; the 
 game is won, and a great shout proclaims the 
 victory of the reds.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 155 
 
 A capital game, but not one to be encouraged 
 save among young men who are as well trained in 
 courtesy as in athletics. To-day hard blows were 
 given and taken ; the contest was no milk-and- 
 water affair, but there was no loss of temper, no 
 angry word was spoken, and when the game was 
 over the fine young fellows marched off again in 
 fours to meet presently at mess, doubtless also to 
 discuss the game, but in all good-fellowship and 
 comradeship. The famous Hirose, the hero of 
 Port Arthur, was the champion player of his day. 
 He once broke his foot in the game, and was 
 terribly hurt. 
 
 At Etajima we again saw young Prince 
 Shimadzu, who had left the Diadem the day 
 before in order to rejoin the academy. We also 
 saw a son of Prince Arisugawa who is bent on 
 following his father's old profession, the Navy. 
 
 There are altogether some five hundred students 
 in the naval academy, which must be most 
 economically managed, for we were told that the 
 cost of each cadet to the country is only ^^27 : los. 
 a year. As, I think, I mentioned before, they do 
 not go to sea before the age of twenty or twenty- 
 one, so long and so arduous is the preparatory 
 course of study.
 
 156 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 At Etajima we embarked on board the Matichu 
 Maru, which was to take us to the arsenal at 
 Kure. 
 
 The NLanchu Maru^ which is being used as an 
 Admiralty yacht, was taken from the Russians in 
 the port of Nagasaki at the beginning of the war. 
 She is a most comfortable vessel, fitted with every 
 luxury that ingenuity could devise ; above all she 
 is warmed throughout, and that to us meant a 
 great deal, for the Diadem, with all her merits, 
 is not a warm ship. Strange is the irony of fate. 
 Here was a vessel, once Russian, now Japanese, 
 to-day, in compliment to the Prince, flying the 
 royal standard of England at the main ! 
 
 Kure is another great arsenal and dockyard, 
 active, busy, swarming with men, deafening with 
 machinery and the clang of iron. Two cruisers 
 are being built here, and preparations are being 
 made for the setting up upon the stocks of 
 another great battleship of 19,000 tons, sister ship 
 to the Satsuma^ which, as you will remember, is 
 being built at Yokosuka. Here, too, are in 
 harbour the two Orels^ the one a man-of-war, 
 the other a merchant vessel, more of Admiral 
 Togo's captures. The Orel seems to have made 
 a famous fight of it, for it was not until three
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 157 
 
 hundred men had been killed on board that she 
 was conquered. I have already described the 
 torpedo boat which lay on her deck and was 
 shattered into a mere heap of old iron, now lying 
 on shore at Yokosuka. Here on the wharf we 
 saw the plates of a defended gun. One shell 
 struck the defence and made a deep indentation, 
 but the concussion killed every man inside it. As 
 for the ship herself, she is a most piteous sight, 
 riddled with holes and bared of all paint, yet even 
 she, poor old cripple as she was, had been dressed 
 in honour of Prince Arthur's visit like the other 
 ships. She must have been a stately beauty in her 
 day ! 
 
 Sir Edward Seymour noted that in the captured 
 ships that we saw, the damage done by horizontal 
 fire was mostly at or above the main deck, and 
 aloft against funnels and masts. At Port Arthur, 
 the shells from the high -angle howitzer fire, 
 plunging down through the upper decks, pierced 
 the several decks and did considerable mischief 
 below. 
 
 At any rate the horizontal fire did damage 
 enough, when one comes to think of it ; for of 
 the thirty-eight ships which Admiral Rojdest- 
 wensky commanded in the battle of the sea of
 
 158 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Japan, only two escaped ; the rest either sank or 
 were captured, or interned. 
 
 A pretty busy day, ending with a dinner on 
 board the Manchu Maru with Admirals Togo 
 and Kataoka, and our other Japanese friends. 
 
 Wednesday, March 7, — On the following 
 morning, Wednesday the 7th of March, we 
 landed at the port of Ujina, which we found 
 gaily decorated with quite a holiday appearance, 
 partly perhaps in honour of Prince Arthur, but I 
 suspect still more in honour of the brave soldiers 
 coming home from the war in Manchuria. 
 Triumphant arches there were with the word 
 Welcome upon them in great letters, but that 
 was an after-thought, a way of killing two birds 
 with one stone. There were two or three trans- 
 ports full of these happy warriors, now, after so 
 many sufferings and such long trials, in sight of 
 their homes. They all looked radiant, as well 
 they might, though many of them will have sad 
 stories to tell to the relatives of others who have 
 been less fortunate than themselves. 
 
 We went ashore and travelled for some three 
 or four miles to Hiroshima, where we were to see 
 a sham fight, of which Sir Thomas Kelly-Kenny has 
 kindly furnished me with the accompanying notes.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 159 
 
 " Owing to the season and to the fact that the 
 great body of the troops were passing through the 
 country to their garrisons and homes from 
 Manchuria, mihtary operations on a large scale 
 were not carried out. We saw much of the army 
 as it were at home, in the garrisons we passed 
 through, on the railway, in trains, disembarking at 
 Ujina fresh from Manchuria; and in addition a 
 small-scale operation was carried out under our 
 observation at Hiroshima, with part of the Fifth 
 Division under Lieutenant-General Higoshi. The 
 line of our approach, some three miles from Ujina, 
 was partly lined with troops of all arms. There 
 were about 2000 men, mostly last December's 
 recruits. It was difficult to believe that these 
 sturdy soldiers had only joined the colours in 
 December last : all well-grown, healthy, broad- 
 chested men ; average height 5 feet 4 inches, or 
 5 feet 5 inches. Their clothes and appointments 
 were warm and well -fitted ; they handled their 
 arms with the skill of old soldiers, and they stood 
 at the present as His Royal Highness passed along 
 the line as steady as rocks. The small field-day 
 took the form of two companies at war strength 
 holding a position against an attack of three 
 companies supported by artillery. The soldiers
 
 i6o THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 were all from Manchuria. The operations were 
 simple, and not unlike our own system of attack 
 and defence. The defensive position was pro- 
 tected by a very strong wire entanglement. The 
 leading attackers carried strong two-handled wire- 
 cutters, with which they made openings, the 
 sections from the rear rushing in. Small as the 
 sphere of operations was, they were most carefully 
 carried out, with a programme explaining the 
 situation under which the attack was made. A 
 large crowd of citizens witnessed the little fight. 
 After the field-day was over, the troops were 
 assembled and His Royal Highness and the 
 members of the Mission, with General Kuroki 
 and the other officers present, inspected the troops. 
 Originally the Japanese army took the French 
 army as its model. The dress is French, as is 
 much of the military etiquette. The German 
 organisation and system of training was adopted 
 at a later period. The Japanese, while assimilat- 
 ing what they considered suitable in these two 
 great European armies, depended on themselves 
 for the chief factor — that is, the military discipline 
 and patriotic spirit. Only a very poor observer 
 can fail to trace in the bringing up of the children, 
 the education of the youth of the country of both
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN i6i 
 
 sexes, and the courteous habits of the people, the 
 causes of their great success in war. A military- 
 spirit shows itself at every step. Boys and girls 
 march naturally in military formation, form up in 
 line, bow low or cheer at the word of command 
 from their teachers. At first, from the appear- 
 ance of the little boys all dressed alike in blue 
 coats and brass buttons, I thought they were all 
 military or naval cadets, but it is not so ; they are 
 civil schools. The girls also are dressed nearly 
 alike in plum-colour skirts and black jackets. 
 Again, their amusements, such as fencing and 
 wrestling, display a martial spirit." 
 
 Conscription being universal, I asked General 
 Kuroki whether there are any Etas ^ (pariahs) in the 
 ranks. He replied in the affirmative, and, answer- 
 ing a further question as to whether this created 
 any class difficulties, he said " No, except as to 
 messing." The other men will not eat with them ; 
 but even this difficulty, he thinks, will disappear 
 with time. 
 
 As regards the question of class, it is interesting 
 to give a glance at the composition of the army 
 cadets school at Tokyo. When it is remembered 
 
 ' See my Tales of Old Japan, ■ " The Hatamoto and the Eta 
 Maiden." 
 
 M
 
 1 62 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 that in old days the Samurai was the only soldier 
 — the only man entitled to bear arms, — it must be 
 admitted that the breaking down of barriers in 
 late years has been pretty effective. 
 
 Out of a total number of 668 cadets in the 
 military college at Tokyo, 12 are the sons of 
 nobles of the highest rank ; 357 belong to the 
 Samurai class, among whom must be reckoned the 
 lower nobility and the class which among us would 
 rank as landed gentry ; while no fewer than 299 
 are drawn from what are called commoners, that is, 
 merchants, shopkeepers, and what we should count 
 as the lower middle class. 
 
 Promotion from the ranks is very rare in war- 
 time ; in peace-time it is unknown. But this, be 
 it noted, does not arise out of any idea of aristo- 
 cratic exclusiveness or class prejudice, but from 
 the conviction that technical education is an 
 absolute essential for an officer. The Japanese 
 look upon the art of war as a matter of long 
 and special study. They say : " It takes us seven 
 years of hard work to qualify as officers. How 
 should we be justified in promoting to the rank 
 and responsibilities of officer a man who has not 
 received that education ? Neither bravery, nor 
 drill, nor exemplary conduct are sufficient. A
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 163 
 
 man must be an adept in the science of war before 
 he is fit to become an officer and command 
 men." 
 
 The generals and other officers whom we met, 
 and who are as a matter of fact the fruit of 
 the system — Marshals Yamagata, Oyama, and 
 Nodza, Generals Nogi, Kuroki, and Fukushima (I 
 jot down the names as they occur to me), — are men 
 of whom any army might well be proud. Again, 
 there was General Count Kodama, who was 
 summoned from the governorship of Formosa to 
 take up the office of Chief of the Staff in the war, 
 and who has just been appointed to succeed 
 Marshal Oyama, who has resigned the office of 
 Chief of the Staff at Tokyo. All these men have 
 been recognised as high authorities by those most 
 competent to judge ; but, after all, their deeds are 
 before the world, and are better evidence even 
 than the estimate of an expert, be he never so 
 skilled. 
 
 On our way back from the field-day we stopped 
 in the town of Hiroshima and saw the famous 
 garden of Marquis Asano. His eldest son, Mr. 
 Asano, was one of the gentlemen attached to the 
 Prince's suite, so we had the advantage of seeing 
 this beautiful place under the best auspices. Mr,
 
 1 64 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Asano spent some years in England, and is an 
 admirable English scholar. His father, the Marquis, 
 was unfortunately ill in Tokyo. The Asano family 
 is one of the noblest in Japan. Its chief was the 
 Daimyo of Geishiu; and if Daimyates had not been 
 abolished, that would now be the position of the 
 Marquis. Here again we had the chance to 
 observe the great respect with which the repre- 
 sentatives of the old " great names " (Dai-myo) 
 are treated. Mr. Asano, the heir, was treated 
 here much as Prince Shimadzu had been at Kago- 
 shima. He was the chief of the clan, and the two 
 hawk's feathers crossed, the crest of the Asano 
 family, have lost none of their significance in the 
 old capital of Geishiu, or indeed out of it. 
 
 The old castle has been pulled down, and only 
 the walls remain, so this delightful house, which 
 was formerly a villa, is now the chief country 
 residence of the Marquis. The garden is famous 
 all over Japan, and is rich in all the characteristic 
 beauties with which the nobles of Japan were wont 
 to surround their leisure. The artificial water, the 
 rocks, the trees and shrubs, the stones displayed in 
 scientific confusion, the great cranes with their 
 majestic deportment, like the lords of the place — of 
 which indeed they would seem to be the only
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 165 
 
 inhabitants when the chief is away in the capital, — 
 all combine to give an old-world look to grounds 
 which cannot cover more than three or four acres, 
 but which are so skilfully designed that nowhere 
 do you see an end. They fade away into the 
 mystery of space ; they might be surrounded by a 
 pathless forest. 
 
 Before we left we had an exhibition of posturing 
 — I can find no other word for it, A man armed 
 with a sword was opposed to a girl who carried a 
 spear. There was no fighting or fencing about it. 
 Both contented themselves with apparently showing 
 the various positions in which blows can be aimed 
 and parried ; long they lingered over every move- 
 ment. Very decorously, very solemnly they went 
 through a performance which, to our ignorance, 
 did not convey the same meaning as it did to the 
 delighted eyes of the Japanese experts who 
 accompanied us. 
 
 We returned to the Diadem for luncheon. 
 The bluejackets had been preparing a great 
 entertainment for this evening. General Kuroki, 
 Admirals Togo and Kataoka, Captain Takarabe, 
 Mr, Asano, and the other Japanese gentlemen on 
 board the Manchu Maru, came to dinner. The 
 entertainment, which was after the manner of a
 
 1 66 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 music-hall show with " turns," was a great success, 
 but the triumph was a topical song in which 
 Admiral Togo was celebrated. As a specimen of 
 poetry and naval history the poem, perhaps, left 
 something to be desired ; but it had its effect. 
 The Japanese, when it was translated to them, 
 were delighted, and no one more so than the 
 hero himself, who could not conceal his pleasure. 
 I believe that this was General Kuroki's first 
 experience of the British man-of-war and the 
 handy -man. The ship's plumber was the ac- 
 companist, and a mighty good one too. 
 
 At the end of the entertainment Captain 
 Savory made an excellent little speech, winding up 
 by calling for three cheers for Admiral Togo. 
 How the bluejackets responded to the call ! I 
 think the Japanese guests were quite sorry to 
 go back to their ship when the entertainment came 
 to an end. 
 
 Thursday^ March 8. — We reached Kobe on 
 Thursday the 8th of March at i p.m., and here 
 we bade a final farewell to the Diadem^ where we 
 had spent so many happy days since we first went 
 on board at Hong-Kong. It is always sad saying 
 goodbye to a ship, and there is a majesty about a 
 man-of-war which adds to the feeling. Captain
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 167 
 
 Savory and all his officers had been so kind and 
 had made us so welcome that I, for one, feJt as 
 if I were leaving a very happy home. An evening 
 spent in the ward-room playing bridge, or gossip- 
 ing round the very necessary fire, had all the 
 cosiness and intimacy of a comfortable club. 
 
 Before going ashore we all went off to take 
 leave of Admiral Kataoka, whose squadron had 
 furnished the Prince with such a stately guard of 
 honour during his cruise in Japanese waters. His 
 Royal Highness was supposed to be travelling in 
 the strictest incognito after we left Tokyo ; but in 
 spite of that the five great ships never left him, 
 never failed to illuminate at night. It was an 
 " incognito " which the Japanese, with their 
 courteous attention, converted into a royal and 
 triumphant reception ; and when this " unknown 
 person" — I suppose that is what "incognito" 
 means — landed, there were no fewer than ten men- 
 of-war making the surrounding hills ring with the 
 echo of their parting salute. 
 
 The welcome which the Prince met with on 
 shore v/as as enthusiastic as any that had greeted 
 him elsewhere. 
 
 Kobe, which, when I first landed there in 1868, 
 was a mere tract of waste land outside Hiogo,
 
 1 68 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 without so much as a single hut upon it, has in 
 the few intervening years risen from Uterally 
 nothing into a town of the first importance, with 
 a population of some 270,000 people. In old 
 days its chief fame consisted in the excellence 
 of its beef. Whenever at Tokyo or Yokohama 
 our head boy could bring back from market a 
 sirloin of Kobe beef, or a leg of mutton from 
 Shanghai, that was a red-letter day, when friends 
 were invited to share the unwonted delicacy. 
 Now Kobe is, in virtue of its exports and imports, 
 the foremost port in the Islands of Japan. 
 
 It was whilst the foreign settlement of Kobe 
 was being laid out that soldiers belonging to the 
 Bizen clan fired upon the flags and representatives 
 of the Treaty Powers. We were still in the early 
 days of 1868. The different Legations, and such 
 foreigners as happened to be there, were busily 
 engaged surveying the site, when a regiment was 
 seen coming out of the town of Hiogo. When 
 the men came opposite the unsuspecting foreigners, 
 a word of command was given : " Halt ! Front ! 
 P'ire ! " Luckily the soldiers had just been supplied 
 with rifles from America of which they did not 
 understand the sights, so the bullets whistled 
 harmlessly far overhead into the sea. No one was
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 169 
 
 hurt. The only tragic element in the whole affair 
 was the death of the officer who was responsible in 
 the matter. The Emperor's Government were in 
 despair. In their honest attempts to show their 
 friendliness and good faith towards foreigners, they 
 were continually being brought face to face with 
 difficulties which it seemed impossible to avoid. 
 Both they and we had our evil quarters of hours 
 in those days. 
 
 But there was nothing evil about the hours with 
 which I am dealing now. The whole community 
 of Kobe, but more especially the British members 
 of it, had made up their minds that the Prince 
 should carry away the best impression of their 
 loyalty and devotion to the King — and right well 
 they carried out their intention. It would have 
 been impossible for their welcome to be more 
 hearty or more touching. For myself, I had the 
 pleasure of shaking hands with one or two old 
 friends, whom I never expected to see again here 
 after so many years. 
 
 In Japan the wooden houses age rapidly, and it 
 seemed little short of miraculous to drive through 
 long streets of already venerable-looking shops 
 where I remembered empty space. It was as if 
 Aladdin's lamp had been at work. The distance
 
 I70 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 through the busy town to the railway station 
 seemed interminable. 
 
 From Kobe to Kyoto, however, is no far cry. 
 At Osaka there was again a great company of 
 generals, officials, ladies, and school children. One 
 lady, the widow of an officer who was killed in 
 Manchuria, brought her little orphan son, a child 
 of six, dressed in the uniform of his father's 
 regiment, who gravely saluted the foreign Prince 
 as a soldier should. 
 
 As we drove through Kyoto from the railway 
 station the welcome was, if possible, even more 
 vociferous than it had been before. I was in the 
 carriage with General Kuroki and the Governor of 
 Kyoto ; when the cries were at their loudest, 
 the latter said : " You must not suppose that these 
 are mere meaningless shouts. In every school 
 throughout the country which you are to pass, all 
 the children, even the smallest, have been carefully 
 instructed in the meaning of this Mission to Japan. 
 They all know that it is due to the King of 
 England, who has sent his own nephew to do 
 honour to our Emperor ; and they have been 
 taught not only that, but also the significance of 
 the alliance. So their cheers are not ignorant, but a 
 real greeting." On our voyage across the Pacific
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 171 
 
 we fell in with an English officer who had been 
 making a walking tour in Japan, He and a 
 friend had travelled on foot all the way from 
 Kyoto to Nikko, a distance of well over three 
 hundred miles. Through many out-of-the-way 
 villages they passed, and everywhere they found 
 the two flags decorating the houses or in the 
 children's hands. The people were so far away 
 from all centres of information that they knew 
 nothing of England ; all that they knew was that 
 the crossed flag was the flag of the " Friend 
 Nation." This shows that in the remotest 
 districts the friendship is respected and welcomed, 
 even where it is hardly understood ; but in the 
 great centres and along the chief artery ways of 
 the country the thing has been so well expounded 
 that it has become a matter of common knowledge. 
 Indeed, I think it would be impossible for such a 
 welcome as the Prince received to be a mere 
 question of the word of command. There was 
 throughout, from the first moment of our landing 
 at Yokohama, a ring of sincerity about it which 
 was very convincing. In such teaching as this, as 
 well as in drill and physical training, our school- 
 masters miorht well take a hint from our allies. 
 
 o 
 
 It must be difficult, nay impossible, for those
 
 172 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 who only know the new Japan, to realise the halo 
 of sanctity and mystery which those who were 
 here in the olden time still see in the old capital. 
 To the Japanese themselves, the Emperor, the 
 Miyas or Princes of the Blood, and the Kuges or 
 nobles of the Court, were something awful, hidden? 
 sacred, to be spoken of with bated breath, like 
 beings of the unseen world. The Shogun himself, 
 with all his power, could not see the Mikado face 
 to face. When summoned to Court he only 
 saw a curtain, from behind which a voice issued, 
 and below which the long floating trousers of rich 
 brocade protruded. The most solemn ceremonial 
 of his own Court at Yedo (Tokyo) was that 
 which attended the reception of a Kuge sent as an 
 envoy by the Emperor. The mission might or 
 might not accomplish its end ; but in either case, 
 no tittle of the rules of etiquette prescribed by 
 immemorial tradition must be omitted, and the 
 envoy himself must be treated as something 
 altogether sacred. Of the private lives of the 
 members of this hidden Court nothing was 
 known. Tradition itself was dumb on matters 
 so occult. 
 
 One would have imagined that many centuries 
 of seclusion from the rest even of their fellow-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 173 
 
 countrymen, coupled with the additional dis- 
 advantage of intermarriage within their own limits, 
 would have produced a worn-out race quite unfitted 
 for taking a share in public affairs. It was not 
 so. There were amongst the Kuges men of action, 
 who were ready to combine with the great 
 Daimyos for the restoration of the Mikado's 
 power, keen as the Princes of Satsuma, Choshiu, 
 and Tosa themselves to be emancipated from the 
 fetters of the Shoguns. These were not men like 
 the prisoners who came out of the dungeons of 
 the Bastille, blinking blindly at their first sight of 
 the sun. The Kuges were far removed from the 
 poor, bigoted, monkish recluses that they had been 
 represented to be ; they v/ere highly cultivated 
 men, learned in all that made up the lore and 
 accomplishments of a finished Japanese gentleman 
 of that day. The repression of an imprisonment, 
 however honourable, had not strangled in them 
 the memory of ancient glories, the desire for 
 present freedom. And so, when the critical time 
 came, there were found among them men ready 
 and fit to take part in what developed into a 
 great national movement. A Prince of the Blood, 
 Ninwaji no Miya, placed himself, nominally at 
 any rate, at the head of the Imperial army, by
 
 174 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 which he was acclaimed with enthusiasm. When 
 the new Government was formed, a Kuge, Sanjo 
 Daijo Daijin, became Prime Minister : other high 
 offices of state were filled by Iwakura, Higashi 
 Kuze, the Tokudaijis, and other great personages 
 of the old Court, who shared with the Kidos, 
 Okubos, Okumas, Gotos, Inouyes, representing 
 the Samurai class, the responsibility of guiding the 
 ship through the shoals and tortuous straits which 
 were ahead of her. It is not too much to say 
 that the Daimyos and Samurais by themselves 
 could not have succeeded in forming the new 
 Japan, They needed the co-operation of the 
 Mikado's Court, without which the revolution 
 would have degenerated into a mere civil war 
 between the Daimyos and the Shogun — each 
 party struggling for the possession of the Mikado : 
 possibly a change, but always the same thing ; — a 
 repetition of what took place three centuries ago, 
 when lyeyasu, at the battle of Seki-ga-hara, 
 wrested the power from Hideyoshi's infant son. 
 
 In no place can the great change have been 
 more felt than in Kyoto. The Mikado has left 
 the hallowed precincts of its palace ; the Miyas no 
 longer end their days in holy seclusion as abbots 
 of one of the great shrines ; they are statesmen,
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 175 
 
 soldiers, sailors. The Kuges have disappeared, 
 free to follow the bent of their own inclinations, 
 serving the State or themselves as the spirit moves 
 them. The veil of the temple has been rent, and 
 the mystery has faded into thin air, like a ghost 
 that has been laid. 
 
 And yet, in spite of all, there lingers here, in 
 the old town under the mountains, something of 
 the charm of antiquity, as it does in Damascus, 
 in certain delightful unimproved quarters of 
 European cities, even in odd nooks and corners 
 of our own grimy London. Here and there a 
 few houses in the Western style have been built, 
 and telegraph posts with their wires are as 
 obtrusive as elsewhere ; mercifully, however, the 
 streets are so narrow that there can be no tram- 
 ways ; there is not therefore enough of what is 
 modern to wipe out all that is old, and there is 
 still an undefined, indescribable atmosphere which 
 tells of days that seem as remote as if centuries, 
 not decades, separated us from them ; days when 
 the great bullock-drawn carts, all ablaze with gold 
 and lacquer, now relegated to museums, used to 
 carry mysterious personages to equally mysterious 
 ceremonies ; days when windows were sealed lest 
 a profane eye should look down upon something
 
 176 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 too sacred even to be seen ; days when royalty 
 was almost divinity ; days which must have been 
 one long penance to the victims of so much 
 honour. The actors have dispersed, the dresses 
 have disappeared, but the scene is still standing, 
 and it needs no great stretch of the imagination to 
 fill in the picture with the August Beings, the 
 richly robed priests and monks, the proud Daimyos 
 with their processions of turbulent men-at-arms, 
 and the Renins or wave-men, unattached swash- 
 bucklers, ruffling it through the streets, ever ready 
 to pick a quarrel or join in a fray ; rarely, a lady 
 concealed in her cart or closely veiled palanquin. 
 The Japanese have indeed changed, but Kyoto is 
 still Kyoto. 
 
 Although the old city is unable to boast of an 
 antiquity which will compare with that of Athens 
 or Rome, or many other of the world's ancient 
 towns, it is still venerable, for it was a flourishing 
 city and the capital of Japan three hundred years 
 before Gundulf, the weeping monk of Bee in 
 Normandy, laid the foundation stone of the White 
 Tower of London for William the Conqueror. 
 With one brief interval in the twelfth century, 
 when Hiogo for a while became the residence of the 
 Court, Kyoto remained the capital of the Mikado
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 177 
 
 from its foundation until 1868, — no mean record. 
 The situation of the town is beautiful. It lies at 
 the base of an amphitheatre of precipitous moun- 
 tains, some at the present moment capped with 
 snow, and all covered by a primeval forest of 
 conifers, maples, and all manner of beautiful shrubs. 
 It is cut in two by the river Kamo, on either side 
 of which are built houses with picturesque little 
 balconies overlooking the river-bed, which, save 
 when there are heavy floods, is an almost dry 
 watercourse. Here the citizens, building little 
 bridges where there is an inconvenient pool, love 
 to sit of a summer's evening drinking tea and 
 breathing the fresh air from the mountains. The 
 greater part of the city, including the palace, lies 
 to the west of the river. But to the east, where 
 the mountains begin to rise, are most of the famous 
 temples, each standing in its own beautiful grounds, 
 so that the good folk of Kyoto have for their 
 enjoyment a chain of lovely parks through which 
 they can walk from north to south. No more 
 romantic spot can be found for a man to take his 
 pleasure in, when the cherries put forth their 
 exquisite blossoms in spring, or when the maples 
 set the woods ablaze in autumn. In the summer 
 there is the grateful shade of the great trees under
 
 1 78 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 which he may sit and look out upon the purple haze 
 trembling over the hills. In the intervals between 
 these old temples are many little villas standing in 
 gardens. As I passed by one of these one morning, 
 the sun was shining, a plum-tree was in full bloom, 
 and a little uguisu, the Japanese nightingale, was 
 singing away for dear life. He thought the spring 
 had come ; he v/as soon undeceived. 
 
 Friday^ March 9. — A boar-hunt up in the hills 
 to the north of the city had been arranged for us ; 
 but the weather was, as usual, deplorable. Most of 
 us preferred remaining in our comfortable hotel 
 to facing rain and sleet. Besides, we wished to 
 devote the two short days which were all that we 
 had in hand to Kyoto itself. Those who did 
 brave the storm, and went to the mountains, got 
 nothing but wet jackets for their pains. Not one 
 of them fired a shot, or indeed saw anything to 
 shoot at. The hunt was quite unsuccessful. 
 
 We, on the contrary, who stayed behind had 
 our time well filled. I was very anxious once 
 more to see the Gosho, the Imperial Palace, 
 whither I accompanied Sir Harry Parkes when he 
 had his first audience of the Mikado. This is a 
 building held in the greatest veneration, so much 
 so that the people usually speak of it as " Gosho
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 179 
 
 Sama," thus applying to it the same honorific which 
 is used in speaking of or to persons of considera- 
 tion. Sama and its abbreviation San is not a 
 translation of our word Mr. or Master or Mistress. 
 It signifies "appearance," The masters of ancient 
 punctilio in Japan held that it was less offensive to 
 speak of " the appearance " of such an one having 
 done this or that, than to speak of him or her 
 directly. It is not really an honorific though used 
 as such, it is simply an indirect, and, therefore, 
 more polite way of alluding to any one. Rarely 
 indeed does a Japanese address another without 
 using this decorous sufHx, unless he be an inferior 
 in his own employ. Foreigners in their ignorance 
 often suppress it, thinking thereby to convey a 
 sense of a sort of good fellowship ; but the Japanese 
 deem it vulgar, not intimate, and it jars upon 
 them accordingly. I remember reading one of 
 the many lady tourists' books on Japan, in which 
 the authoress hearing Mount Fuji called Fuji San 
 expressed her astonishment that the Japanese 
 should speak of their sacred mountain as Mr. Fuji. 
 She did not realise that San in that case is only 
 a mispronunciation of the Chinese word Shan, a 
 mountain. I know of no case in which Sama is 
 ever applied to an inanimate object, save those of
 
 i8o THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the sun and the moon which are divine, and the 
 Gosho which is invested with an altogether peculiar 
 sanctity. 
 
 It stands in the midst of what is now a park, 
 chiefly planted with pine trees, walled in but open 
 to the public, — a succession of vast buildings, some 
 erected and fitted up in the Chinese style, others 
 in the Japanese. Cold, draughty, and comfortless 
 the great halls seem to be, but then it must be 
 remembered that they are now uninhabited ; we 
 know what a house at home is like when the 
 master is away, and the greater it is, the worse it 
 is. In a Japanese room, where there is practically 
 no furniture and no fireplace, the sense of loneliness 
 and cheerlessness is accentuated. But the decora- 
 tion is exquisite in its simplicity ; the walls, 
 screens, and sliding doors are painted by great 
 masters, as famous in their country as Reynolds, 
 Gainsborough, or Turner in ours, and very 
 beautiful they are. The curved roofs of the 
 buildings at first sight look as if they were of 
 thatch, but a closer inspection shows that they 
 are made of layers of the bark of the cypress 
 (retinospora), held together at the top by a ridge of 
 potter's work. I'he gardens are, of course, master- 
 pieces, the design of men famous in their craft.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN i8i 
 
 One thing struck me as specially curious : at 
 the entrance to the verandah, which leads to what 
 were the Mikado's apartments, there is a trapdoor 
 — I know not what other name to give it — which 
 is loose, and yields about an inch at the slightest 
 touch. This was constructed to give warning of 
 any approach ; no matter how light the footfall 
 might be, no person could draw near to the Sacred 
 Presence unheard and unnoticed. The wooden 
 guardian, a sentinel that never slept, gave the alarm. 
 
 I had some little difficulty in identifying the 
 audience chamber in which we were received in 
 days gone by. There are two such rooms, one 
 small, the other large. We came first to the 
 small one, and I felt sure that this must be the 
 room. There was the raised dais on which stood 
 the throne surmounted by a four-posted canopy of 
 white silk with a pattern in red and white. There 
 in front of the throne were the two ancient Kylins, 
 one male and the other female, which I had never 
 forgotten, and yet, somehow, the audience chamber 
 seemed to have shrivelled into something smaller. 
 But presently we came to the great hall, where all 
 the accessories are repeated, throne, curtains, and 
 Kylins, and then it all came back to me. The 
 Mikado in the ancient State dress, now a thing of
 
 1 82 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the past, surrounded at a distance by his nobles — 
 all wearing their robes and the black cap, Yeboshi, 
 which was peculiar to them — only, so far as I 
 remember, Sanjo Daijo Daijin and an interpreter 
 being near him, — a most impressive sight, which 
 carried one back into the gloom of the centuries. 
 
 Few things have interested me more than this 
 second visit to the Gosho Sama. In grandeur and 
 magnificence the palace at Kyoto cannot be com- 
 pared to that at Tokyo ; but its simplicity is its 
 leading character, and I well remember the effect 
 which that produced upon us all when the Court 
 was in residence. The ceilings, gorgeously panelled 
 in lacquer and gold, the painted walls and sliding 
 doors, with the fair white mats, and the elaborately 
 carved woodwork are of the highest artistic beauty ; 
 but there is nothing glaring, nothing ostentatious, 
 nothing meretricious in their art. It is all sub- 
 dued and dignified and kingly. 
 
 We went also to see the Nijo palace, which 
 used to be occupied by the Shogun when he came 
 to Kyoto ; a truly gorgeous building full of works 
 of art. But of palaces, as of books, there is no 
 end. The chrysanthemum now everywhere takes 
 the place of the Mitsu-aoi, the crest of the Shoguns, 
 
 It is the fashion to say that there are no fine
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 183 
 
 specimens of the old Japanese arts left for sale. 
 That is really not the case. I went to-day to a 
 famous shop kept by one Hayashi, who has a fine 
 collection of genuine old things, mixed up, of 
 course, with a great deal of tourists' rubbish. His 
 prices, considering the merits of his wares, seemed 
 not excessive. There are several other good estab- 
 lishments of the same kind, and I feel sure that in 
 some of the humbler curiosity shops there must 
 still be many beautiful things to be picked up ; 
 but the chase requires much time, and that I had 
 not got. At any rate, Kyoto must be quite the 
 richest hunting-ground in Japan. The silk ware- 
 houses, too, are very fascinating ; the most beautiful 
 embroideries and weavers' work being all turned 
 out here, so far as I was concerned, in vain. What 
 silken purchases I intended to make I had already 
 made at Tokyo, but the silks were woven here. 
 
 The newspaper reporter was ubiquitous. The 
 next morning all Kyoto was informed that at 
 Hayashi's shop I had bought two screens painted 
 by Kano Eitoku and at what price, together with 
 a vase of Chinese cloisonne enamel. Such is 
 fame ! 
 
 Talking of bric-a-brac, Mr. Saigo, the mayor of 
 Kyoto, son of the great General whose grave we
 
 1 84 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 visited at Kagoshima, took us this afternoon to 
 see an exhibition which he had been getting up of 
 the products of the city, ancient and modern. 
 This was a show of the greatest interest, and being 
 of course absolutely authentic, most instructive to 
 the collector. What was very striking about the 
 older objects was their marvellous freshness. Kept 
 in great warehouses attached to the nobles' palaces, 
 only taken out perhaps once in ten years for a few 
 hours, their state of preservation was perfect. 
 There were pieces of gold lacquer centuries old, 
 as to the genuineness of which there could be 
 no doubt, for they were lent by owners in whose 
 families they were heirlooms, and who kept their 
 pedigrees as jealously as the objects themselves, 
 which were bright as though they had been made 
 yesterday. A good deal of nonsense is talked 
 about the patine of antiquity, which very often is 
 only dirt. The Japanese know better than that. 
 They keep their art treasures clean. What would 
 some of our dilettanti say if they were shown 
 Hideyoshi's lacquer travelling set, with all the 
 pieces looking as new as if the great man were 
 going to use them to-day, instead of having been 
 Iiiniself buried three hundred years ago ? True 
 patine is as much appreciated by the Japanese as
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 185 
 
 by ourselves. They are too good artists not to 
 feel its value ; patine which is dirt they abominate. 
 Exhibitions such as this must be most valuable 
 to the Japanese themselves, showing them what to 
 cultivate, what to avoid. In every craft cultivate 
 the old, avoid the new. Kyoto has always been 
 famous for its lacquer ; and the moderns are as 
 good in this one art as the ancients. What says 
 Mr. Basil Hall Chamberlain.? " Specimens worthy 
 of the best age still continue to be produced. 
 Competent critics assert that Shibata Zeshin, who 
 died as lately as 1891, was probably as great as 
 any artist that ever existed, and that others no less 
 skilled are still living to-day" (^Things Japanese^ 
 p. 274). It will be an evil day for Japan if ever 
 the lacquer artists come to be laid low by the 
 European fever, like the painters, embroiderers, 
 potters, and enamellers, who have mostly, in greater 
 or lesser degree, succumbed to the taint. Lacquer 
 is as yet undefiled, a sprig of flowers, the verandah 
 of a garden house with ladies and gentlemen 
 viewing the scenery, a group of graceful bamboos, 
 the famous porch of Miyajima, a pine-clad hill with 
 a tuft of maples in one corner. Mount Fuji, a land- 
 scape from the lute-shaped lake, a cascade, a gate- 
 way draped with the wistaria, a flight of cranes
 
 1 86 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 or wild geese, — such subjects, treated according to 
 the canons of Japanese art, are dear to the modern 
 as well as to the ancient craftsman, and so it may 
 be hoped they will remain, for no other is so well 
 suited to his skill. 
 
 Among the curiosities which we were shown were 
 some of the old carts, which played so conspicuous 
 a part in the ancient sacred and courtly ceremonies 
 of Kyoto. Strange, indeed, are these wains, more 
 curious than beautiful, profusely decorated and 
 surmounted by wonderfully carved groups of life- 
 sized dolls, illustrating some episode in the myth- 
 ology or legendary history of the country. Heavy 
 and innocent of springs, furnished with great 
 clumsy wheels — to be carried in one of them must 
 have been a misery. 
 
 Our kind hosts always had some entertainment 
 prepared for us ; not a moment was left uncatered 
 for. This evening we were invited to a perform- 
 ance at the Kaburenjo Theatre. A huge royal 
 box had been constructed facing the stage. All 
 the leading Japanese officials and gentlemen of 
 Kyoto had been invited with their wives, together 
 with a few European ladies, who had come up 
 from Kobe. 
 
 The first piece on the programme was entitled
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 187 
 
 ToMOzuRu, or the Friendly Cranes, and its ex- 
 planation was as follows : — " A new dance, especi- 
 ally to be performed by six dancing girls to 
 welcome His Royal Highness Prince Arthur of 
 Connaught's visit to Kyoto. It is composed of 
 three stanzas ; the first showing the beautiful 
 sceneries of the city, the former capital of the 
 Empire ; the second, expressions of hearty welcome 
 by its inhabitants on his arrival ; the third, a 
 sincere wish for the long continuance of Anglo- 
 Japanese Alliance and friendship." 
 
 All this was represented by postures and 
 gestures. Fans with the Union Jack on one side, 
 and the red sun of Japan on the other, were the chief 
 properties. After the six little Friendly Cranes had 
 finished their graceful performance, they came up 
 into the royal box to be complimented, and I am 
 bound to say that nothing could exceed their 
 Friendliness. They chatted and laughed, asking 
 us all sorts of questions, and were as gay and 
 merry as Friendly Cranes could be, until it was 
 time for them to go on the stage again, when, 
 as a parting gift, they presented us with their 
 emblematic fans, and scuttled off. 
 
 The second performance was Azumagenji, 
 " One of the classical dances, showing a part of
 
 1 88 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the life of a feudal lord in his mansion. He 
 drinks sake and dances a la Japonaise ; then his 
 beautiful daughter and two maids of honour join 
 him in dancing." 
 
 The part of the feudal lord was played by a tall 
 handsome girl dressed in gorgeous robes of ancient 
 fashion ; she was wonderfully dignified and impres- 
 sive in all her movements, and altogether the little 
 piece gave a very pretty picture of Japanese home 
 customs in the stately medlasval times. 
 
 The finale was the Miyako Odori, which our 
 programme described as "the typical Kyoto 'Cherry 
 Dance,' which is performed there during the 
 month of April only, but with a changed subject 
 every year." (It was given on this occasion in 
 March as an exceptional compliment to Prince 
 Arthur.) "The theme here to be performed 
 refers to three famous Shinto Temples in Japan — 
 Hachiman Temple at Mount Otokoyama, Kasuya 
 Temple in Nara, and Jingu Temple in the province 
 of Ise. During the performance the scene changes 
 eight times, showing the inner and outer parts of 
 those temples, together with the performance of 
 some Shinto sacred dances, and the surrounding 
 sceneries." 
 
 These quotations are from an explanatory
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 189 
 
 booklet which had been very thoughtfully prepared 
 for our use, and without which we should have 
 been very much at sea. The changes of scenery 
 were effected, not as is usual in a Japanese theatre, 
 by means of a revolving stage, but by drop scenes 
 as in Europe. A view of the sea in the last scene 
 was very effective. The performers were the very 
 pick of the geishas of Kyoto ; and the geishas of 
 Kyoto have been famous from time immemorial. 
 The dresses were magnificent, the theatre beauti- 
 fully decorated, and the whole entertainment most 
 sumptuously got up. In short, it was an altogether 
 exceptional display of an art which has been so 
 long cultivated as to have reached the height of 
 perfection. It is this perfection which makes it 
 dear to the cultured Japanese. To realise its full 
 beauties is a matter of education. Amongst us 
 dancing is an art which appeals to the senses ; with 
 the Japanese it appeals to the imagination. Their 
 perception is more delicate, and by nature keener 
 than ours ; it is tempered, moreover, like the finest 
 steel, by centuries of a peculiar culture. A theme 
 is set ; it tells a story it may be of love, it may be 
 of heroic deeds, but distinctly a story ; it is worked 
 up by the composer, and invested with all the 
 poetic fancy of which he or she is capable. Then
 
 190 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 comes the geisha, trained to every nicety of pose 
 and gesture. She is the interpeter. But of what 
 avail is poetic fancy and imagery unless the onlooker 
 can read into the grace of the dancer all that she 
 intends to convey, all the charm of the story. He, 
 too, must be educated, his perceptive eye must be 
 as highly trained as the supple limbs of these 
 dancing girls, he must be almost a composer him- 
 self before he can penetrate the subtle mysteries 
 of what to the uninitiated is meaningless motion. 
 We can praise the beauty, the decorous grace, the 
 poise of the neck, the playful carriage of the hands 
 and fingers, the dainty flutter of the fan ; but 
 behind all there is a magic, something hidden, 
 something which we can see means so much to the 
 enlightened, but as to which we remain perforce 
 in the dark. How can there be sympathy where 
 understanding is lacking ? 
 
 This being so, I do not suppose that of such a 
 performance as this the praise of an Englishman 
 can be counted as worth much, but seeing that 
 it satisfied the exactions of the most critical 
 onlookers (audience would hardly be the word 
 applicable) in the world, I think it is not too 
 much to say that it was something quite out of 
 the common. We at any rate went home de-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 191 
 
 lighted, and as our pleasure was the object aimed 
 at, our hosts might be sure that they had a bull's 
 eye to their credit. 
 
 Saturday^ March 10. — Only this one day 
 more to spend in the romantic old city, for the 
 morrow was to be devoted to Nara, which no 
 one would wish to miss. But this one day was 
 entirely at our own disposal, to be husbanded 
 and made the most of as each man pleased. 
 There were no official functions, no prearranged 
 entertainments. For a wonder, it was a lovely 
 morning, and it was a joy to wander without a 
 thought of sight-seeing through the great parks 
 at the foot of the hills and dream oneself back 
 into bygone days ; and perhaps nowhere on earth 
 is it more easy to forget the passing of the 
 centuries. How the scene lends itself to the 
 wildest play of the imagination ! Here before 
 one are the very backgrounds dear to the painters 
 of solemn processions, of courtly ceremonies, of 
 rituals in which princely abbots play the leading 
 part, and the very acolytes are beings high 
 removed above the vulgar crowd. At those 
 shrines Mikados have gone in state to worship ; 
 into those halls Shoguns have retired, abandoning 
 the pomp of the world ; through those groves
 
 192 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 princesses have carried relics of dead heroes to be 
 laid as offerings upon the altars. Statelier than 
 the great fanes themselves are the noble trees ; 
 lovelier than the loveliest of all who come to 
 worship are the blossoming cherries, which even 
 now are budding, waiting to unfold themselves 
 into life. Who would not linger lovingly in such 
 a paradise ? But the giant bell of Chi-On-In is 
 sending great waves of sound rolling through the 
 air. The dream is over, and it is time to be 
 gone. 
 
 So far my wanderings in and about Kyoto had 
 been confined to the eastern side and the centre 
 of the town. I was anxious to see something of 
 the west, so four of us set out driving in the 
 afternoon to search for what there might be of 
 interest in a, to us, new quarter. Through the 
 hubbub and bustle of the streets we drove for 
 miles, and the suburbs seemed endless ; but the 
 scenes were of never -failing interest, for here 
 once more was Old Japan, scarcely touched by the 
 vandal hand of time. Of course we had all heard 
 of the Katsura river, down the rapids of which 
 the timber is floated from the far-away mountains 
 of Tamba. Very picturesque were the rafts with 
 the sunburnt, half- naked men creeping about
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 193 
 
 them ; very beautiful the pine-clad gorge ; very 
 effective the bridge, the inevitable tea-house, and 
 the sparsely scattered buildings about it. But 
 the glory of the morning had departed ; a thick 
 mist was gathering, and soon the heavy rain- 
 drops were spoiling all the lovely surroundings. 
 Kismet ! It was our fate ! Still, rain or no rain, 
 we must knock at the gate of Ginkakuji, the 
 Temple of the Silver Pavilion. A small boy, 
 aged twelve, with his head shorn, a monk in 
 embryo, answered to the call ; had he been an 
 abbot, in cope and stole, full of years and dignity, 
 he could not have been more solemn, more wise, 
 or better learned in all the traditions and legends 
 of his temple. 
 
 In the latter half of the fifteenth century 
 Ashikaga Yoshimasa ruled as Shogun over Japan. 
 He was a man of aesthetic tastes, highly cultured 
 in all those ceremonies to which the Japanese used 
 in old days to attach an esoteric significance — 
 poetry, the tea-ceremonial, incense-burning, land- 
 scape-gardening, Hana-mi and Tsuki-mi, the 
 watching of the flowers and of the moon, seated 
 on some appropriate spot in the company of 
 congenial friends, aesthetes like himself, — these 
 were occupations which he preferred to the affairs
 
 194 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 and the cares of State, and so he became Inkyo — 
 that is, assigned the Shogunate to his successor, 
 and retired into private life. 
 
 There was much to be said in favour of this 
 almost universal custom of becoming Inkyo. A 
 man felt himself to be growing old, no longer fit 
 to wrestle with the difficulties which beset a 
 Shogun or a great DaimyO. He retired in favour 
 of his son, real or adopted. But although he 
 thus nominally divested himself of the power, he 
 remained an influence to be reckoned with ; 
 seldom was a new departure of any importance 
 taken, seldom was any Gordian knot cut, without 
 consultation with the Inkyo, who was able, with- 
 out being vexed by those innumerable details of 
 lesser importance which eat up the day of a ruler 
 of men, to help and guide his successor until the 
 latter should have proved his fitness for govern- 
 ment. The real value of the practice lay in the 
 watchful care which trained the younger man 
 during the early years of his power. 
 
 In the case of Yoshimasa, it may be imagined, 
 this latter consideration had little weight. His 
 only care now was to find some appropriate spot, 
 lovely and secluded, far from the hum of the 
 busy hives of men, where no intrusive minister
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 195 
 
 might interrupt the solemnities of tea-drinking or 
 penetrate the arcana of incense-burning. 
 
 Picture to yourself a party of four or five 
 elderly gentlemen clad in the robes pertaining to 
 their rank, gravely seated in a room specially 
 designed for the purpose, which must not exceed 
 or fall short by so much as an inch of the rules 
 laid down by the great givers of the law on this 
 weighty subject. The walls are decorated with 
 scrolls painted by Cho Densu, Josetsu, Kano 
 Masanobu, or some other of the famous quattro- 
 centisti of Japan ; the mats are spread over with 
 tiger skins from Corea ; the only ornament is a 
 bronze vase containing a spray of flowers, arranged 
 according to the severest canons of the great 
 teachers. The tea-service is of the rarest porce- 
 lain ; the kettle is boiling on a tripod or hanging 
 from the ceiling, according to the dictates of the 
 school to which the party belongs. Every move- 
 ment, whether in the preparing or in the drink- 
 ing of the infusion, is guided by the strictest 
 etiquette. But the climax is reached when the 
 guessing begins. Whence comes this tea ? Say, by 
 its flavour, by its fragrant bouquet, is it from Uji, 
 is it from Shidzuoka, or whence ? or is it, mayhap, 
 a blend ? The lucky guesser is rewarded by the
 
 196 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 gift of a cup from the princely service, and so high 
 a value was set upon such specimens of porcelain 
 that they became heirlooms ; and I remember well 
 being told of a case in which a DaimyO being in 
 need of money obtained a large sum from the 
 moneylenders of Kyoto on no other security 
 than a small cup which had been given to one of 
 his ancestors by the great Hideyoshi ; with so 
 precious a pledge the lenders were content ; they 
 had no fears for their money. 
 
 Even stranger to the ordinary mortal, who is 
 not blessed with the hyperassthetic perception of 
 these old - world Japanese connoisseurs, is the 
 pleasure to be found in " listening" to incense. The 
 compounding of incense [ko-awase) was another of 
 the ceremonies of which the Silver Pavilion was the 
 shrine. Here again the skill consisted in the nice 
 discrimination between various cunningly prepared 
 perfumes ; and, as in the tea ceremonies, prizes 
 were given to the successful judges. 
 
 Cha-no-yu, literally " hot water for the tea," is 
 a very simple and commonplace designation for so 
 dignified and solemn a rite as that which was prac- 
 tised by these august aesthetes. They made up for 
 it by altogether repudiating any suggestion of 
 vulgar smelling or sniffing in regard to incense.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 197 
 
 To the perfumes they " listened," every now and 
 then refreshing their deadened senses by washing 
 their noses with vinegar. 
 
 These, and such as these, were the pleasures for 
 which Yoshimasa with his two pet abbots, ecclesi- 
 astics as luxurious as the Prior of Jorvaulx himself, 
 gave up the dignities and the oppressions of state- 
 craft. It must be remembered that these amuse- 
 ments, frivolous as they may seem to the uninit- 
 iated, must not be judged by a European standard 
 of taste. There is behind all this meticulous 
 pedantry an inner meaning, associated partly with 
 poetry, partly with religion. It was intimately 
 connected with profound study, both of secular 
 and sacred literature. As in their landscape 
 gardening, suggestion, not the mere imitation, of 
 an ideal beauty is the object to be attained, so in 
 these contests of perception there are also hidden 
 meanings and esoteric references of which we have 
 not the key. They have, moreover, the sanction 
 of centuries ; they have been the solace of 
 Emperors, Shoguns, Daimyos, and heroes, includ- 
 ing the great Hideyoshi, the most famous of 
 Japan's old statesmen and warriors ; and if in 
 later days they have been practised chiefly by 
 aesthetes, they have not hindered some, at any rate,
 
 198 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 of their votaries from doing yeoman's service to 
 their country. But those who wish to know more 
 about what is a very complex subject must turn 
 to the pages of Captain Brinkley's great work, 
 where all these refined amusements are dealt with 
 at great length in the second and third volumes. 
 
 Shuko, who designed the buildings, was not 
 only a master of his craft, but also an adept in the 
 codes which governed, and perhaps still govern, 
 the mystic ceremonials of which his building was 
 to be the chief theatre. He it was who initiated 
 the ex-Shogun and his reverend boon companions 
 in the mysteries of Cha-no-yu. To him was 
 added a famous landscape artist, one Soami, a man 
 renowned for his power of suggestion in garden 
 poetry, so the Silver Pavilion sprang up in the 
 midst of a scene which must have satisfied the 
 taste even of the fastidious InkyO, and which is 
 still counted as one of the chief beauties of 
 Japan. 
 
 Since writing the above 1 have happened upon 
 a passage in Mr. Inazo Nitobe's little treatise on 
 Bushido^ which well bears out the views I have 
 tried to give of Cha-no-yu, and by implication of 
 incense ceremonies. " As an example of how the 
 simplest thing can be made into an art and then
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 199 
 
 become spiritual culture, I may take Cha-no-yu, 
 the tea-ceremony. Tea-sipping as a fine art ! 
 Why should it not be ? In the children drawing 
 pictures on the sand, or in the savage carving on a 
 rock, was the promise of a Raphael or a Michael 
 Angelo, How much more is the drinking of a 
 beverage, which began with the transcendental 
 contemplation of a Hindoo anchorite, entitled to 
 develop into a handmaid of Religion and Morality ? 
 That calmness of mind, that serenity of temper, 
 that composure and quietness of demeanour which 
 are the first essentials of Cha-no-yu, are without 
 doubt the first conditions of right thinking and 
 right feeling. The scrupulous cleanliness of the 
 little room, shut off from sight and sound of the 
 madding crowd, is in itself conducive to direct 
 one's thoughts from the world. The bare interior 
 does not engross one's attention like the innumer- 
 able pictures and bric-a-brac of a Western parlour ; 
 the presence of kakemonos (hanging scroll pictures) 
 calls our attention more to grace of design than to 
 beauty of colour. The utmost refinement of taste 
 is the object aimed at, whereas anything like dis- 
 play is banished with religious horror. The very 
 fact that it was invented by a contemplative recluse, 
 in a time when wars and rumours of wars were
 
 200 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 incessant, is well calculated to show that this insti- 
 tution was more than a pastime. Before entering 
 the quiet precincts of the tea-room, the company 
 assembling to partake of the ceremony laid aside, 
 together with their swords, the ferocity of the 
 battlefield or the cares of Government, there to 
 find peace and friendship. 
 
 " Cha-no-yu is more than a ceremony; it is a fine 
 art ; it is poetry, with articulate gestures for 
 rhythms ; it is a modus operandi of soul discipline. 
 Its greatest value lies in this last phase. Not in- 
 frequently the other phases preponderated in the 
 mind of its votaries, but that does not prove that 
 its essence was not of a spiritual nature ! That 
 is the way in which a Japanese gentleman and 
 scholar looks upon Cha-no-yu." — Bushido, by 
 Inazo Nitobe, pp. 33-34. 
 
 How Sir Piercie Shafton and the Euphuists of 
 Oueen Elizabeth's reign would have delighted in 
 Cha-no-yu ! What eccentricities of language 
 would Lily not have found for the celebration of 
 the joys of " listening to incense " ! 
 
 At the time of our visit the great pavilion 
 overlooking the lake was being repaired, so we 
 could not see it. But our clever little shaveling 
 took us all over the garden, pointing out all its
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 201 
 
 beauties and traditions, and showed us the smaller 
 pavilion standing on a knoll shaded by a grove of 
 venerable trees, where Yoshimasa dwelt. The 
 best of cicerones, he had a story for every corner 
 and for every spring that plashed out of the rock ; 
 of the very stones each had its tale, for in a 
 Japanese garden the stones preach sermons, and in 
 these romantic grounds money had been lavishly 
 spent in selecting and bringing from no matter 
 what distance the appropriate and "suggestive" 
 rock. Here the great man was wont to wash his 
 hands ; here was drawn the water for the tea- 
 ceremonial ; from yonder stone he would watch 
 the rising of the moon ; on that other one he 
 would stand to admire the beauty of the flowers in 
 the spring-time. But all these tales have been 
 gathered together by Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. 
 W. B. Mason in Murray's Handbook for Japan, 
 a book the equal of which in its kind has seldom 
 been written, perhaps never, if the difficulties, 
 linguistic and other, be taken into account ; a 
 book worthy of ranking with Ford's Spain, and, 
 like it, deserving a place in every library — whether 
 its owner meditate a journey to Japan or not — so 
 replete is it with learning and information of 
 every kind.
 
 202 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 But what sybarites these old potentates were ! 
 It is burning summer, and my lord is faint with 
 the heat. Quick ! send for a gang of men and 
 cover the hill yonder with sheets of white silk, so 
 that his eyes may be refreshed by looking on a 
 snow scene ! This is a story of Yoshimitsu, a 
 forebear of the Shogun of whom I have just been 
 writing, who became a monk, but in spite of being 
 Inkyo never quite gave up the reins of govern- 
 ment. Our young neophyte points out the hill 
 with pride. Indeed, the freak appears to me to 
 be worthy of a place with the drinking of melted 
 pearls and the dishing up of nightingales' tongues 
 in the records of the sublimest follies of mankind. 
 
 There was something curiously incongruous in 
 hearing these archaic stories coming from the 
 mouth of an urchin not yet in his teens. But he 
 was a dear little fellow, pouring out his store of 
 legendary lore with as much conviction as any 
 toothless greybeard, and when we left him, not 
 because we would not willingly have gone on 
 listening to his old-world tales, but because the 
 day was coming to a damp, disagreeable ending, his 
 sayOnara was as solemn and ceremonious as if he 
 himself had lived in the days of Ashikaga Yoshi- 
 masa, and played a part in the courtly entertain-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 203 
 
 ments of the great assthete. Fare you well, good 
 little acolyte ! I wish I had asked your name that 
 I might prophesy great things for you — that you 
 shall go on prospering in piety and learning until 
 some day you become Lord Abbot of your temple. 
 But the prophecy of a heretic might bring you ill 
 luck, so perhaps it is as well that we part thus, 
 unknowing and unknown. 
 
 Sunday^ March 11. — There are only some 
 twenty-five miles of rails separating Nara from 
 Kyoto, and the road passes through a country of 
 more than ordinary interest. Fushimi is the first 
 place reached ; indeed, it is so near as often to be 
 called a suburb of Kyoto. Here it was that in 
 the month of January 1868 the fate of the Shogun 
 was virtually decided, for, though there was 
 fighting afterwards both at Tokyo itself and in the 
 north, after the battle of Fushimi the army of the 
 rebels never had a chance of success. Fushimi 
 must therefore always remain a famous landmark 
 in Japanese history. But it is ill dwelling upon 
 battles, the slaughter of men, and the burning 
 villages, the flames of which we, who were at 
 Osaka at the time, could see illuminating the night. 
 It is pleasanter to think of Uji, the pretty village 
 near the Biwa Lake, with its little farms surrounded
 
 204 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 by the plantations which produce the finest tea of 
 Japan. Not a pretty crop to look at, rather like 
 euonymus bushes, and no more picturesque than 
 a cabbage garden, but it is one which means ease 
 and comfort to the grower. 
 
 Tea is not indigenous in Japan ; indeed it is 
 doubtful whether it is even really indigenous in 
 China, whence it was brought hither eleven 
 centuries ago by one of those wandering Buddhist 
 monks, of whom there seems to have been, in the 
 remote ages, an almost continuous stream coming 
 through Corea to the land of Sunrise, teaching and 
 converting. Reading and writing, the making of 
 porcelain, music, dancing, even a sort of football 
 played with a shuttlecock, and heaven knows how 
 many other arts and accomplishments, all were 
 introduced in the same way. As for tea, it has 
 even been stated that though it has been cultivated 
 for so long in China, of its first appearance there 
 is no record ; its true home is India. To this day 
 the finest seed comes from Manipur, and forms, 
 as we are told, an important item of the Rajah's 
 income. The Indian theory would seem to be 
 borne out by a Buddhist legend of the holy 
 Indian saint Daruma. He it appears was, like the 
 fakirs, whom he would presumably have looked
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 205 
 
 upon as an abomination, in the habit of taking 
 upon himself inconvenient vows. Upon one 
 occasion he swore that for a term of years he 
 would not take his hands out of his sleeves, 
 which must have been unpleasant in many ways ; 
 but once it chanced that, as he stood wrapt in 
 contemplation, a wasp came and settled upon his 
 forehead. This was trying, but the holy man 
 was steadfast ; his hands remained locked, and he 
 only tried to wrinkle the creature off. On 
 another occasion he bound himself to read the 
 sacred books for a spell of time without sleeping. 
 But at last, after long nights of study, he was 
 overcome ; sleep conquered. When he awoke he 
 was so penitent and so ashamed that he drew a 
 knife and cut off his eyelids, in order that they 
 might never close again. But the eyelids thrown 
 on the ground were, by a miracle, changed ; 
 assuming the shape of plants, they budded and 
 took root, and so was born into the world Tea, as 
 an homoeopathic treatment for heavy, drowsy 
 eyelids. Legends sometimes spring out of facts 
 upon which they throw a light. Had tea been 
 brought to India from China the Daruma legend 
 would never have been invented. 
 
 What Moscow is to Petersburg, that is Kyoto
 
 2o6 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 to Tokyo ; what Kief is to Moscow, that is Nara 
 to Kyoto. During three-quarters of the eighth 
 century of our era Nara was the capital of the 
 Mikados. But in the year 784 a.d. the Court 
 moved to Kyoto, and has never returned. The 
 teeming population which once thronged its streets 
 has followed the Court ; but Nara remains 
 beautiful as ever, the richer moreover by that 
 mysterious attraction of which age alone has the 
 secret. 
 
 The modern town, indeed, has little to distin- 
 guish it from the many pretty places through which 
 we have travelled. It is when one comes into the 
 great park that one feels the magic of the true 
 Nara. Here the world seems to have stood still. 
 The Buddhist abbots and monks, resplendent in 
 vestments of golden brocade, walking with stately 
 steps down the stairways leading from their temples ; 
 the Shinto priests in their ancient dress and quaint 
 caps ; the sacred dancing girls with their mystic 
 dances, — all might have walked out of those golden 
 screens which we have seen in the palace at KyOtO. 
 Hundreds of years of coaxing and petting have 
 produced a herd of five hundred small deer, stags, 
 and hinds and calves that will come up to you as 
 confidentially as dogs, and feed out of your hand.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 207 
 
 Woe betide the man who should injure one of 
 these ! to kill one was in old days punished with 
 death. Such as the great temples and shrines are 
 to-day, such they were in the eighth century, in 
 the days of the glory of Nara. It is true that 
 where buildings are constructed of such perishable 
 materials as Japanese architecture employs, there 
 must of necessity be continual patching and repair- 
 ing, almost rebuilding. But the appearance remains 
 the same as it did in the time of the old Mikados, 
 the foundations of whose palace twelve hundred 
 years have not yet quite wiped out. Venerable 
 and hoary with age are the avenues and forests of 
 stone lanterns, telling of the piety of benefactors 
 long since dead. What is to be said of the glori- 
 ous veteran cryptomerias, among which the sacred 
 buildings stand half revealed ? What of the great 
 wistarias and other lianes which climb up their 
 rugged stems ? For centuries upon centuries have 
 these great pillars stood, braving wind and storm 
 which bend their heads, earthquakes which twist 
 and tear their roots ; but they are as green as ever, 
 types of a vigorous old age,^ and giving promise of 
 
 ' The Japanese positively assert that the cryptomerias of Nara 
 are over one thousand years old. This, however, is open to doubt. 
 At any rate, they are very old. That is self-evident, and it is 
 enouEfh.
 
 2o8 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 endurance yet to be fulfilled. That old trees are 
 haunted by fairies is a favourite superstition with 
 the Japanese. What a fitting home for a fairy 
 would be one of these gnarled and hoary bolls ! 
 
 One might spend days wandering through the 
 holy places, listening to the legends of the monks, 
 examining the many relics of a world that has 
 passed away which their treasure-houses contain. 
 We have to rush through, exploring here a lovely 
 gorge by the side of a mountain torrent, there 
 following some courtly priest through the halls 
 and passages of his temple. The most we can 
 hope for is to carry away a memory of the subtle 
 charm, which is, after all, the great delight of the 
 place. 
 
 In these times, when men wander to the utter- 
 most parts of the earth with as much ease as in 
 old times they made the grand tour, everybody has 
 heard tell of the fame of the colossal Buddha, the 
 Dai Butsu, of Kamakura. Here at Nara there is 
 another still greater Dai Butsu, — greater, that is 
 to say, in size, and far older than its rival, but 
 in artistic merit much its inferior. It lacks the 
 extraordinary dignity, the expression of holy calm, 
 which distinguish the great Kamakura statue ; 
 moreover, though the greater part of the figure
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 209 
 
 at Nara dates from the eighth century, the head 
 was so much damaged by fire that it had to be 
 replaced by a new one in the sixteenth century. 
 What the former head may have been like, who 
 knows ? The present one is certainly ugly, being 
 flattened from the face to the back of the skull, 
 while the features are coarse and poorly modelled. 
 A figure of some fifty feet in height gains dignity 
 by being looked at from a long way off, as is the 
 case at Kamakura, the temple which once enshrined 
 it having been destroyed, so that the Buddha stands 
 in the open ; whereas at Nara the statue, being 
 enclosed in a vast building, is viewed from a 
 distance of a few feet. In short, the Dai Butsu 
 of Kamakura has always seemed to me to be 
 the most imposing statue that I have ever seen, 
 whereas that at Nara, though five hundred years 
 older, fails to impress one in the same way. The 
 one is a work of supreme art, the other only an 
 object of curiosity. 
 
 It would seem as though from the earliest days 
 the Japanese workers in metal had been past 
 masters of their craft, for the Kamakura Dai Butsu 
 is some six hundred and fifty years old, and its 
 elder rival at Nara shows that even in the eighth 
 century the casting of bronze had reached a high
 
 2IO THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 degree of perfection. Some thirty or forty years 
 ago there was a moment when it seemed as if the 
 art was decaying. The necessity of producing 
 cheap work for ignorant tourists, and a certain 
 catch-penny cleverness, unfortunately still not in- 
 frequent, threatened a permanent degradation of a 
 skill which used to produce masterpieces. But 
 works of good and sound art are even now being 
 turned out. The statuettes of one Udagawa, a 
 Tokyo artist, whose work in some respects reminds 
 me of that of Mr. Gilbert, are worthy of the best 
 days of To-un, Seimin, and even of the MiyOchin 
 family, who for some three hundred years handed 
 down from father to son the best traditions of the 
 worker in iron. (Only the other day I was told 
 that the last representative of the family died a 
 few years ago. He was famous for making iron 
 chopsticks. A strange field for Art !) 
 
 As we were leaving the temple of the great 
 Buddha we noticed that the bare hill opposite. 
 Mount Mikasa, from which Admiral Togo's ill- 
 fated flagship took its name, was crowded with 
 children scrambling up its steep side, apparently 
 holiday-making. All of a sudden a gun fired, and 
 in a moment the human swarm had formed itself 
 into gigantic letters, Welcome, and the little
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 211 
 
 creatures began waving their flags and shouting 
 Banzai ! as if their throats would burst. After a 
 few minutes, just time enough for the pretty 
 comphment to assert itself, another gun was fired, 
 and the four thousand children came scutthng 
 down the hill, none too soon, for the eternal rain 
 was beginning to fall again, and quickly there 
 was a regular downpour. However, we had 
 good shelter in the great club-house, which had 
 been very kindly lent for our entertainment ; 
 we had seen as much of Nara and its sacred 
 groves as time would allow, and we had to 
 race back to Kyoto in order to dress for an 
 old-fashioned Japanese dinner with Mr. Saigo, 
 the Mayor. 
 
 Dressing for dinner sounds simple enough ; but 
 on this occasion it was anything but simple. The 
 invitation specially stipulated that we should come 
 in Japanese dress, and as the Mayor had very 
 kindly presented us each with a suit, for which he 
 had actually sent a man all the way to Tokyo, 
 when we first arrived there, to take our measures, 
 we could only do as he wished. How to put on 
 a suit of Japanese clothes was a problem which 
 none ot us was competent to solve. There were 
 knots and bows to be tied, of which only the
 
 212 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 initiated possess the secret, involving possibilities 
 of solecisms not to be thought of. However, 
 there were willing and cunning hands ready to 
 help, and by the time that the carriages were 
 ready we were all rigged out as Japanese gentle- 
 men, correct to the nicest fold. A more comfort- 
 able dress it would be difficult to find, cool in 
 summer, warm and cosy in winter. Why did the 
 Japanese abandon it for our clumsy costume .'' 
 Only one thing came amiss to me. The white 
 socks, with their division for the big toe, seemed 
 to cut me ; but that is a matter of habit. 
 
 In this matter of dress the Mayor's dinner 
 reached the height of topsy - turveydom. For 
 whereas the English guests were all in 
 Japanese robes, the Japanese guests were all 
 in European coats. Admiral Togo, General 
 Kuroki and the others had not brought their 
 kimonos with them on this journey, so they 
 were compelled to dine in what clothes they had. 
 It was a curious sight, and the management of 
 chopsticks by some of our party was not quite 
 what might have been expected of gentlemen so 
 attired. The black cloth coats were quite at 
 home with them, the kimonos, on the contrary, 
 were very much puzzled, and not averse to a
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 213 
 
 little help from small clever hands. In taking 
 their seats upon the mats, too, the coats had 
 much the best of it, the poor kimonos sprawling 
 about in very ungainly attitudes. 
 
 All this was very amusing to the pretty little 
 geishas who were busy serving the dinner, and 
 who could not conceal their merriment. Some 
 of them we had met before at the theatre, but there 
 they were in their grand robes and war paint ; 
 to - night they were much more at their ease ; 
 besides, were we not already acquaintances ? The 
 dinner was excellent, the company was made up 
 of some of the most distinguished men in the 
 country, and the waitresses were the flower of 
 the professional beauties of Kyoto. What could 
 we want more ^ What with the music and the 
 dancing and the joking, — for your professional 
 beauty must be professional amuser as well, 
 otherwise there is no place for her at such 
 parties, — the evening sped merrily. Always 
 ready with a repartee, quick to seize a joke and 
 as quick to fling it back again, full of fun, and 
 bubbling over with the joyousness of life, it is 
 wonderful how these little maidens, some of them 
 mere children, manage, without any apparent 
 supervision, to keep within the strictest bounds
 
 214 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 of decorum. I asked one tiny creature how old 
 she was. " A geisha never tells her age," she 
 answered very solemnly, but I am sure she was 
 not more than fifteen. 
 
 But there is a skeleton at every feast. Koto 
 and samisen, song and dance, could not quite 
 make us forget that this was our last evening 
 in the delightful old capital, and that every hour 
 brought us nearer to our departure from Kyoto, 
 where we had been so kindly received and made 
 so welcome. When our host and his friends 
 marched along the corridor, to an accompani- 
 ment of dainty little pattering feet, to bid 
 us good - night, we were quite in tune with 
 the melancholy weather, which was drip, drip, 
 dripping outside. 
 
 No place in the East, Far or Near, has quite 
 the same charm for me as Kyoto. It is full of 
 memories, mostly sad, — but it is the sad memories 
 that are the most abiding. We may forget the 
 place where we laughed — the place where we 
 mourned, never. At Jerusalem the weeping 
 stones are the best remembered spot ; who can 
 point to the place where King David danced 
 before the Ark } But apart from all personal 
 recollections, Kyoto is unique. It is a living
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 215 
 
 link with the buried past, a past that was many 
 centuries old when it vanished thirty-eight short 
 years ago. Indeed, one is tempted to ask whether 
 of a truth it is quite dead ; whether among these 
 holy places there does not lurk, hidden in remote 
 and almost forgotten corners, some slight remain- 
 ing flicker of a life that is not altogether extinct. 
 Japan has a glorious present ; she has a great 
 future before her ; it is well for her and for 
 the world that in some few sanctuaries, such as 
 Kyoto, Nara, Ise, Nikko, there should linger the 
 perfume of a past which was inspiring and romantic 
 as the vision of a poet's dream. 
 
 If only Kyoto possessed a Trevi fountain, that 
 one might drink deeply of its waters, and hope to 
 return once more ! 
 
 Monday^ March 12. — Meeting, says the 
 Japanese proverb, is the beginning of parting, 
 and a sad little saying it is, — one the truth of 
 which was on this journey being continually 
 forced upon us ; for it seemed as though no 
 sooner were we arrived at any place than it was 
 time to pack up and begone. I shall never hear 
 the National Anthem again without thinking of 
 our last drive through the old capital to the rail- 
 way station, and of the cheering crowds. The
 
 2i6 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 fever of excitement ran its course all along our 
 journey ; but could a clinical thermometer have 
 been found to measure its progress, I think 
 perhaps the highest point reached would have 
 been found at Kyoto. The shrill voices of the 
 nice little children really made one's ears ache. 
 I had thought, in my ignorance, that these were 
 all the children of the poorer classes who had 
 turned out to greet us. I was wrong. " I don't 
 see my daughter," said Mr. Omori, the Governor 
 of Kyoto, who was in the same carriage with me, 
 " yet I know she is here somewhere — that is her 
 schoolmistress." His Excellency, with Mr. Saigo, 
 the Mayor, and everybody who was anybody in 
 Kyoto, had come to see us off, and the people 
 were as loud in their demonstrations of good will 
 as they had been when they greeted our arrival. 
 We left Kyoto with one more happy memory to 
 carry with us through life. 
 
 We were to sleep that night at Nagoya, and 
 we reached our destination at 3.30. After the 
 usual receptions, and leaving our baggage at the 
 Nagoya Hotel, a capital inn, by the bye, we were 
 at once carried off sight-seeing to save our 
 daylight. 
 
 Until the revolution Nagoya was the strong-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 217 
 
 hold of the Princes of Owari, one of the three 
 mighty families, descendants of Tokugawa 
 lyeyasu, in which the inheritance of the office 
 of Shogun was vested. Although by no means 
 one of the oldest monuments of the feudal 
 system, the Castle of Nagoya is certainly one of 
 the most interesting. Even its birth was in- 
 structive, as showing the great power which 
 lyeyasu wielded, for it was built in the first years 
 of the seventeenth century by a number of 
 Daimyos, vassals of the great Shogun, as a suitable 
 gift for one of his sons. Twenty of these 
 feudatory lords at their own expense dug the 
 moats and built the massive walls, with their 
 castellated buildings. The great central tower, 
 which still rears its five stories high into the 
 skies, was the gift of one man, and when it was 
 finished he put upon its curved pagoda-like roof 
 the two famous golden Shachihoko, with their 
 silver eyes, the mystic fishes of a Buddhist legend, 
 which seem to mount guard upon the keep, 
 shining like beacons far away in the distance. 
 Made of pure gold, standing more than eight 
 feet high — worth, as Mr. Chamberlain tells us, 
 some ^^36,000 — these two fishes are the pride of 
 Nagoya. One of them was sent to the Exhibition
 
 21 8 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 of Vienna in 1873. Great was the consternation 
 in the town when, on the homeward voyage, the 
 ship carrying it was wrecked ; but it was re- 
 covered, and replaced on its lofty station, where 
 it now faces its mate once more. 
 
 Wandering through one of their great fortress- 
 palaces, one can form some idea of the state in 
 which these great lords lived. Their abodes were 
 typical of the feudal system the world over. The 
 vast moated and fortified enclosure which sur- 
 rounded the keep contained the barracks for the 
 soldiers and men-at-arms ; houses for the Karo, 
 literally "elders of the house," who were the 
 Prince's counsellors, themselves hereditary, with 
 a whole official hierarchy of retainers of greater 
 or lesser magnitude. If it be true that there is 
 no man so small but what he can find some other 
 man worse off than himself to do service for him, 
 it was nowhere truer than under the feudal 
 system ; and so it came to pass that these great 
 castles became veritable warrens for the creatures 
 of the great man and for the creatures' creatures : 
 while, as in Europe in the mediaeval times, the 
 merchant and the artisan built their houses close 
 under the castle walls for protection from marauders, 
 noble and ignoble, and so the town was formed.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 219 
 
 Living in his own quarters in beautifully 
 decorated rooms — rooms such as I have described 
 elsewhere, lavishly gilt, and furnished with screens 
 and sliding doors panelled with the masterpieces 
 of famous artists, but in which warmth and 
 comfort were unknown, — the lord of all this 
 magnificence must have passed the dullest of days : 
 of society, as it is understood to-day, he had 
 absolutely none. He was surrounded by the 
 pomp of State, but he had all its cares as a set-off, 
 and he was fettered by the inexorable laws of an 
 etiquette the complications of which must have 
 been one of the most ingenious forms of torture 
 ever devised by the wit of man. I cannot but 
 think that the Japanese noble of to-day is in a 
 far more enviable position than was his father a 
 generation ago. His castle has probably been 
 turned into a public office, but he lives more 
 comfortably and with greater freedom of action 
 in a private gentleman's house ; he receives a 
 modest percentage of his former income, but his 
 retainers are dispersed, his army no longer clamours 
 for pay ; and he has the satisfaction of knowing 
 that those energies which formerly went, at most, to 
 promote the petty interest of his own Daimyate, 
 are now fused into a mighty unit which has
 
 220 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 raised his country to a foremost place in the 
 world. 
 
 The Daimyo, as he existed in the days of the 
 Shoguns, was a most picturesque figure, possessing 
 an interest which, in the latter half of the nine- 
 teenth century, was altogether unique in the 
 world. But it was precisely the fact of being 
 an anachronism which invested him with that 
 archaic interest which all of those Europeans who 
 came in contact with him felt so intensely. He 
 was a relic of a bygone age. PoHtically, outside 
 the boundaries of his own province he was a 
 cypher. Even there it often happened that the 
 nominal Prince was a mere puppet, who must 
 dance according as some Karo, or other leading 
 Samurai, pulled the strings. But in the common- 
 wealth he had neither voice nor part. In the 
 country as a whole, the Shogun was supreme, and 
 though his writ might hardly run among such 
 clans as those of Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, still even 
 those mighty chiefs had to attend his Court in 
 Yedo (Tokyo), and to leave hostages for their 
 good behaviour. It was no wonder that the great 
 territorial nobles fretted under this galling yoke. 
 Yet this state of things might have gone on 
 indefinitely had their eyes not been opened by
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 221 
 
 intercourse with foreigners to the right under- 
 standing of a political system under which, since 
 the days of Yoritomo, eight hundred years before, 
 they had been kept in a splendid thraldom. Small 
 wonder that they gave up the shadow for the 
 substance, and were willing to cast away their 
 principalities and their power, such as they were, 
 provided only that the rule of the Shogun should 
 come to an end. There was but one way to 
 effect that object, and they chose it. As a first 
 step towards establishing a constitutional govern- 
 ment the Mikado must be restored to power. 
 The rest, they said, would come. It did come. 
 
 But all these things have little to do with what 
 is a mere journal. 
 
 We clambered up to the top of the great 
 tower and had a wide view over the fair lands 
 of the Lords of Owari, and in the far distance, 
 at least a hundred miles away, there was just 
 perceptible the faintest of outlines, the very ghost 
 of a mountain, but that mountain was Fuji, the 
 incomparable. 
 
 Nagoya is famous for its manufacture of 
 cloisonne enamel, and when we got back to our 
 inn we found that the kind people had brought 
 samples of their ware for us to see, and even
 
 222 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 insisted on our carrying off some specimens as 
 recollections of our visit. 
 
 Cloisonne enamel has gone through great 
 changes in Japan during the last thirty or forty 
 years. The designs in favour during the years 
 1865 to 1870 were mainly Chinese. Now the 
 Nagoya vases are altogether European in style, 
 with very realistic representations of flowers, such 
 as irises, lilies, chrysanthemums, and others. 
 
 Very little cloisonne enamel found its way to 
 Europe from the Far East until the sacking of the 
 Summer Palace near Peking in i860, when great 
 sums were paid for the loot that was brought 
 back. The Chinese fix the invention of cloisonne 
 during the reign of the Emperor Ching Tai of the 
 Ming dynasty, about the middle of the sixteenth 
 century. Some authorities go so far as to say 
 that the Emperor worked at it himself, as 
 Louis XVI. did at locksmithery, and Peter the 
 Great at boat-building. At any rate, it is still 
 called in China Ching Tai Lan, " Ching Tai's 
 blue," or more vulgarly Fa Lan Ti, "that which 
 puts forth blue." Some of the best specimens 
 were made in the reign of the Tartar Emperor 
 Chien Lung, 1 736-1 796, and it was these pieces 
 that attracted so much attention after i860.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 223 
 
 After Chien Lung's reign the art seems to have 
 gone out of fashion, for it fell into decadence and 
 was no more carried on. But the prices fetched 
 at Christie's brought it to life again both in China 
 and in Japan. The earlier pieces made in Japan 
 were by no means equal to the Chinese either in 
 colour or design. The Japanese had not the trick 
 of the beautiful harmonious colouring, the secrets 
 of which had lain by locked up in old Chinese 
 cupboards for the best part of a century, but 
 which had never been lost. Hence, probably, the 
 Japanese artists adopted a new style of their own, 
 which they have been at great pains to work up, 
 and of which the Nagoya men are supposed to 
 be the best exponents. 
 
 The theatre at Nagoya is one of the prettiest 
 that I have seen in Japan. The hall was beauti- 
 fully decorated, coloured electric lights and the 
 flags of the two nations, of course, playing a 
 prominent part, while all around the walls there 
 was a display of dwarf trees and flower arrange- 
 ments in porcelain pots and vases which would 
 have been worthy of a palace. In these surround- 
 ings an entertainment had been prepared for 
 Prince Arthur, of which the following is the 
 playbill : —
 
 224 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 PROGRAMME of DANCE and PLAY given in Honour of 
 His Royal Highness Prince Arthur of Connaught. 
 
 DANCE 
 
 BEAUTIES OF FLOWERS IN FOUR SEASONS 
 
 Spri/ig .... Yayoi no Sono 
 
 (The garden of the Cherry Blossoms) 
 
 Summer . . . Yukari no Yatsuhashi 
 
 (The colour of the Lilies) 
 
 Autumn . . . Chikusa no Nishiki 
 
 (The field of Autumn) 
 
 Winter .... Shishi no Kotobuki 
 
 (The life of the Lion, Great Britain, live for ever) 
 
 PLAY 
 
 HISTORICAL PLAY OF MICHIZANE SUGAWARA 
 
 Scene — Before the Shrine of Toshida in Kyoto 
 
 ROLKS 
 
 ToKiHiRA Fujivvara, thc Miuister of the Left, by Kitsusaturo 
 
 Arai. 
 First Attendant — Matsuomaru, by Gausleo Arasi. 
 Second Attendant — Sugiomaru, by Dansaburo Ichikawa. 
 First Attendant — Umeomaru of Michizane Sugawara, by 
 
 Ichizo Ichikawa. 
 Second Attendant — Sakuramaru, by Hirosaburo Arasi. 
 Many other Servants. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE PLAY 
 
 Thc following event took place a little over a thousand 
 years ago.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 225 
 
 Michizane Sagawara, the Minister of the Right, renowned 
 for wisdom and justice, is banished to Tsakushi by the false 
 accusation of his colleague, Tokihira Fujiwara, the Minister 
 of the Left. The two faithful vassals of Michizane, 
 Umeomaru and Sakuramaru, while with difficulty trying to 
 convey the family of their master to the place of his banish- 
 ment, unexpectedly meet Tokihira, their master's false accuser, 
 in royal state paying a homage at the shrine of Yoshida. 
 
 Umeomaru and Sakuramaru are much enraged at the 
 sight of their master's enemy in this haughty attitude, and 
 attempt to obstruct the Tokihira's procession, whereupon 
 Matsuomaru, the first attendant of Tokihira, who happens to 
 be the brother of Umeomaru and Sakuramaru, and, moreover, 
 was in former time a servant of Michizane, yet in obedience 
 to his loyal duty overcomes his brotherly feeling and 
 Umeomaru and Sakuramaru to make a way for his master. 
 
 N.B. — Matsuomaru is the eldest of the three brothers, 
 Umeomaru the second, and Sakuramaru the youngest. 
 
 I have transcribed the playbill and " explana- 
 tion " exactly as they were furnished to us by our 
 hosts. 
 
 The dancing was as skilful as graceful, and as 
 Ingeniously conceived as any that we had seen ; 
 and as for the dresses of the girls, they were quite 
 magnificent. The acting was very characteristic. 
 The two avenging brothers, their heads covered 
 and their faces entirely hidden by huge baskets 
 coming down to their shoulders, after the manner 
 of Samurai of the olden time when out on deeds 
 of derring do, swaggered in the most reckless 
 
 Q
 
 226 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 style. Their threats and challenges were uttered 
 with all the tones and semitones from deepest bass 
 to highest falsetto, which beseem the stage warrior 
 in Japan, and the whole performance was instinct 
 with the spirit of antiquity. Considering that this 
 was a play given in a country theatre, the success 
 was amazing. 
 
 I have rarely seen anything prettier in the way 
 of stage effect than the scenery, especially the 
 setting of the four seasons, which gave the 
 opportunity for a succession of beautiful pictures. 
 There was one scene which was especially realistic, 
 and in which the poetry of a moon-lit landscape 
 was rendered with consummate art. 
 
 To one feature of the entertainment I must 
 allude, for it showed how carefully in every little 
 detail our hosts had watched over the comfort of 
 their guests. In the body of the hall a green 
 carpet had been laid, as we were told, " that the 
 Prince's eyes might be rested from looking at 
 the brightness of the stage." Indeed, when the 
 geishas came trooping in, in Indian file, along a 
 little raised platform on one side of the pit, and 
 took their places on the stage, the gold brocade of 
 their dresses and girdles and the bright scene were 
 quite dazzling.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 227 
 
 The audience was as noteworthy as the per- 
 formance. All the chief people of the town were 
 present with their wives, and with the exception 
 I think, of one European gentleman, all wore the 
 old dress of Japan. This of itself was, in these 
 days, quite a distinctive feature, and gave a special 
 character to the entertainment. But the most 
 touching thing in the whole evening was some- 
 thing long to be remembered. Every lady present 
 had pinned over her heart a single rose — the Rose 
 of England ! Could there be a prettier or more 
 graceful fancy ? Would any other nation have 
 imagined it ? Several of the leading ladies were 
 presented to the Prince by the Governor, who 
 acted as interpreter. It was pretty to see these 
 ladies, when Prince Arthur thanked them for the 
 compliment, bow, gravely and decorously, as 
 beseems dames of quality, but yet evidently 
 delighted that their charming thought had not 
 missed its effect. 
 
 When we left the theatre we found that the 
 streets had been illuminated brilliantly, and with 
 such results as these masters of decoration have 
 the secret of. Festoons of electric lamps hung 
 from house to house, and great use was made of 
 lanterns, each bearing in red a single letter spelling
 
 22 8 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the word which at every step we were made to 
 feel — Welcome. 
 
 The night had a sad ending. Shortly after we 
 got back, to the hotel a fire broke out in a street 
 adjoining the theatre which we had just left. 
 There was no wind, as good luck would have it, 
 but these wood and paper houses burn like tinder, 
 and twenty-six families were homeless before the 
 firemen could master the flames. Happily no life 
 was lost. 
 
 Tuesday^ March 13. — There is much that is 
 interesting, both old and new, at Nagoya, much 
 that we should have liked to have seen ; besides, 
 the people are so kind and hospitable that it is a 
 pleasure to be with them. That, however, is a 
 characteristic of which they have no monopoly ; 
 it is common all over Japan. Unfortunately it 
 was impossible for us to remain ; we were due 
 at Tokyo to dine with the Marquis Saionji, the 
 Prime Minister, at eight o'clock, so we had to 
 make an early start. 
 
 There was, of course, the usual gathering of 
 people to see us off — generals, officials of all 
 branches of the service, school children with their 
 never-flao;ging enthusiasm, the ladies of the roses 
 of the night before, nurses in their white caps and
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 229 
 
 aprons, made up a crowd, smaller, indeed, than 
 that at Kyoto, but not one whit less demonstra- 
 tive ; and so we set out, Eastward Ho ! 
 
 When we passed through this country a fort- 
 night ago, the weather was so wretched that we 
 could not realise its beauty. The mountains were all 
 veiled in mist, the wind was howling, the rain was 
 falling in sheets, and few things are more dismal 
 than sloppy rice-fields into which rain is plashing. 
 Such poor husbandmen as were forced to face the 
 misery of it all were clad in their grass raincoats, 
 with huge waterproof hats of plaited bamboo, 
 looking like overgrown mushrooms. To-day all 
 was changed. The sun was shining brightly, the 
 landscape was at its best for the time of year, and 
 we could look out of window at the weather 
 without that feeling of contented superiority 
 which makes one thank Heaven that one's lot 
 is not as that of other men. We could 
 appreciate the richness of the tea plantations, and 
 the fat fields round Shidzuoka. A few of the 
 plum-trees, and here and there a camellia in 
 blossom, lent a prettiness to the farmers' houses. 
 A tinge of green, hardly more than a fancy as yet, 
 was beginning to make itself felt. A goodly 
 fief indeed were these lands of the Tokugawa
 
 230 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 family. Even the waters brought tribute to them, 
 for the bays and arms of the sea which ripple in 
 at intervals, almost up to the very doors of the 
 houses, are famous for their fish, and the amadai 
 is a delicacy fit for an Emperor's table. When 
 we were going westward the boats were all drawn 
 up, lying in idleness on the shingle of the beach ; 
 to-day their white wings were fluttering over the 
 countless smiles of the sea, the deep blue of which 
 was almost matched by that of the distant moun- 
 tains. It was one of those happy and fascinating 
 pictures which only Japan in her best moods can 
 show, and which have inspired her poets and 
 painters with such delicate fancies. 
 
 As we rolled on towards the East the sky began 
 to darken — never enough to conceal the rugged 
 shapes and fantastic peaks of the mountains, but 
 dressing them in that dark and mysterious gloom 
 out of which the dragon of the fable used to come 
 spreading terror over the quaking land. Nearing 
 the high land the scene became wild and inhospit- 
 able. Here and there, near some lonely peasant's 
 cottage, a patch of land had been reclaimed for a 
 hardly-to-be- won crop. Boulders of rock hindered 
 the course of a mountain stream fighting its way 
 down to the sea from the melting snows of the
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 231 
 
 Hakone range. A solitary figure, rod in hand, 
 was whipping the Hkely pools where a fat trout 
 might lurk under the shadow of the great stones. 
 Above all towered the mighty hills tossed up in 
 mad shapes by the hidden flames which still cause 
 sulphur to seethe and water to boil at the bidding 
 of the unappeased Fire-god. The rays of the 
 evening sun were casting lurid lights upon the 
 purple clouds, blazing every now and then into 
 tongues of fire, and illuminating a scene fit for a 
 demon's orgies. It is not to be wondered at that 
 all this district should be the home of legend and 
 of fairy lore. Here it was that the heroes of the 
 houses of Gen and Hei, the warriors of the 
 Japanese Wars of the Roses, were visited by 
 heavenly beings, and saw visions not to be seen by 
 ordinary mortals. As in the old days of Troy, so 
 in the great battles that took place here, the Gods 
 themselves took sides, and furnished those whom 
 they favoured with invincible arms. It must have 
 been out of some such cloud as those yonder that 
 the fairy, radiant with the glory of the skies, came 
 down upon earth to visit the sleeping prince, 
 warworn and despairing, bringing him the charmed 
 bow and arrows with which on the morrow he 
 went forth to victory.
 
 232 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Verily the country through which we travelled 
 this afternoon is rich in stories sacred and profane. 
 For if there are tales of battle and bloodshed, there 
 are also more peaceful traditions. Saints and holy 
 monks have passed this way, and their traces are 
 even more revered by the pious country folk 
 than those of turbulent princes and knights. 
 Miracles have been performed, signs have been 
 given. Let him who doubts see for himself the 
 sculptured rocks miraculously wrought into holy 
 images in a single night by hands possessed of 
 more than mortal powers. 
 
 We reached Tokyo about six o'clock, in com- 
 fortable time to dress for dinner with the Prime 
 Minister. 
 
 The Marquis Saionji had prepared for us a 
 magnificent banquet in the Japanese fashion, and, 
 as at the dinner of the Mayor of Kyoto, the 
 waiting was done entirely by the pick of the 
 smartest geishas in Tokyo. There were not many 
 guests beyond our own party, with General 
 Kuroki, Admiral Togo, and the other Japanese 
 gentlemen who were attached to Prince Arthur's 
 suite ; but I was glad to find there my old friend 
 Count Inouye, always cheery, always laughing, 
 and full of wit. We spent a most agreeable
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 233 
 
 evening. The little ladies were endowed with all 
 the charm and grace for which they are famous, 
 and of course their dancing, which began as soon 
 as the first courses of the dinner were over, was of 
 the very best. One of these fair maids of Shim- 
 bashi, Akiko San, had been sent for specially as 
 she could speak a little English, of which she was 
 very proud, and she made the most of it. What 
 an advantage it gave her over her play-fellows, 
 who must have been bursting with envy when they 
 saw her chatting away as if she had been used to 
 associate with foreign Princes and Potentates all 
 her life ! Wonderful are the changes in a geisha's 
 demeanour during the course of an evening. At 
 first she is reserved, demure, and very respectful to 
 your lordships ; presently she is all fun and merri- 
 ment ; but when it is her turn to dance or sing she 
 changes again as if by magic, and it is hard to 
 recognise in the solemn, pathetic figure, treading 
 a measure inspired by some tragic poem, the 
 laughing girl who a moment before was gossiping 
 so gaily, as, with a profound reverence, she offered 
 you the cup of hot sake. 
 
 Men of the highest position take part in these 
 feasts, either as hosts or guests, and it has happened, 
 not seldom to my knowledge, that they have
 
 234 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 brought together eminent politicians or grave men 
 of business for the discussion of affairs of the 
 highest importance. It may seem strange that 
 political changes of deep moment, or financial 
 operations involving millions, should be debated 
 to the accompaniment of koto and samisen ; but 
 so it has been. Important agreements have been 
 initiated in that way in the past, and doubtless 
 will be again — the details, of course, remaining to 
 be worked out elsewhere. 
 
 And yet, I believe that to this day there are 
 people in Europe who take an utterly false view 
 of such entertainments. They think that because 
 dancing and singing girls are present, therefore the 
 feast is necessarily bound to degenerate into some- 
 thing like what they have themselves seen in the 
 lowest quarters of some Algerian town, or at a 
 fourth-rate Indian nautch. They cannot realise 
 the fact that these dances are all founded upon 
 motives poetical and classic — tragic as the death 
 of Patroclus, tender as the love of CEnone. You 
 might as well seek for a comic element in a chorus 
 of the Agamemnon as in a dance such as the 
 Miyako-Odori ; and although, when her perform- 
 ance is over, the geisha will pledge you in a cup 
 of wine, and esteem it a compliment to be invited
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 235 
 
 to do so, yet will the courtesy be as ceremonious 
 as the passing of the loving-cup at a Lord Mayor's 
 banquet. 
 
 Let me, who will see her never again, add my 
 humble stone to the cairn of admiration which has 
 been raised in honour of the grace, distinction, 
 and charm of the Japanese geisha. Her dignity, 
 her naivete, her ladylike manners, her wit and 
 readiness of repartee, are as great as her pro- 
 fessional skill in dance and song. When the last 
 chord has been struck, when the courtly obeisance 
 has been made, and she glides away with all the 
 stateliness of a grande dame, I for one cannot help 
 feeling indignant with those who, when Japan was 
 only known by what took place in the open ports, 
 so cruelly misrepresented a class of which they 
 had heard but which they never saw, and which 
 in their ignorance they confounded with something 
 quite different. 
 
 The Marquis Saionji and his brother the 
 Marquis Tokudaiji, now Grand Chamberlain, 
 belong to one of the families of the Kuges or 
 nobles of the Court of Kyoto which came to the 
 front in the great Revolution. There is nothing 
 surprising in the fact of their obtaining high office, 
 but the career of their younger brother is a note-
 
 236 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 worthy illustration of the social upheaval which 
 took place at that time. It must be remembered 
 that the Kuges, although deprived for centuries of 
 all political power, regarded themselves, and indeed 
 were looked upon by the whole country, as the 
 very bluest blood in the land. Many of their 
 families, indeed, traced their ancestry to former 
 Mikados. They looked upon the Shoguns and 
 the greatest Daimyos as mere upstarts, the children 
 of soldiers of fortune. How much more, then, 
 must they have despised the merchants and the 
 men of money, who, under the old order of things, 
 were considered as inferior to the very peasants 
 who tilled the land.? Yet when the great political 
 crash came, a Tokudaiji wisely thought it not 
 beneath him to accept adoption into the family 
 of Sumitomo, the great bankers, copper and coal- 
 mine owners of Osaka. A more startling revolu- 
 tion of ideas it would be difficult to imagine. It 
 is in Japan as it has been in England for the last 
 hundred and fifty years. " Sir," said Dr. Johnson, 
 " the young nobility has gone into the city to seek 
 a fortune." The change did not suit the iron- 
 bound ideas of the old Tory sage, but it was the 
 necessary outcome of modern developments, and 
 it has penetrated to the far East, Nor is that all.
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 237 
 
 In progressive Japan trade has not been ignored 
 in the distribution of patents of nobility. The 
 representatives of the Mitsui family of bankers, 
 and the Iwasaki house of bankers and shipov^ners, 
 have been created barons, while many a family of 
 more ancient blood has been left in obscurity. 
 
 I sat next to our host, and had much interest- 
 ing talk v^^ith him. The changes which have taken 
 place during the last forty years furnish never- 
 failing topics for discussion. It would ill become 
 me to repeat a private conversation, especially 
 when my interlocutor was a man holding the 
 important position occupied by His Excellency. 
 There was, however, one subject which we talked 
 over to which I think I may without indiscretion 
 allude. 
 
 For some few years past there has been in 
 Japan an association, the " Romaji hiroge Kai," 
 the object of which is to substitute the Roman 
 alphabet for the Chinese character, and the Kana 
 or syllabary based upon that character, which 
 have been in use for so many centuries. I had 
 been asked in London by a Japanese friend in a 
 high position to do what I could during my stay 
 in Japan to further the views of this society, and I 
 was anxious to know the opinion of the Marquis,
 
 238 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 the more so as he has filled the office of Minister 
 of Public Instruction. The objections to retaining 
 the Chinese writing are many. First and foremost, 
 there is the enormous waste of time in acquiring 
 a mastery of it. The dictionary compiled under 
 the auspices of the great Emperor Kang Hsi, in 
 the seventeenth century, contains some forty thou- 
 sand characters, and although a quarter of that 
 number would represent the stock of the most 
 learned scholar, and perhaps six thousand would 
 suffice even most official requirements, still the diffi- 
 culty remains a colossal effiDrt of mental energy, 
 which might be better employed in other direc- 
 tions. Secondly, the Chinese character renders 
 impossible the use of such modern necessities of 
 life as the " Tape " and the typewriter. There is 
 no need to insist upon the importance of that 
 objection. Thirdly, there is the formidable obstacle 
 which the ideographic writing sets up between 
 Japanese and foreigners. That perhaps is a barrier 
 which affects us more than it does Japan. For 
 the Japanese student can easily master our twenty- 
 four letters, whereas the European student sees a 
 great hopeless wall of hindrance between himself 
 and all literary communion with the Japanese. 
 At first sight it would seem as if the proposi-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 239 
 
 tion was one of sound common sense, to which 
 there could be no possible objection. But, as 
 usual, there are two sides to the question — there 
 are difficulties in the way. 
 
 First, there is the sentimental difficulty of 
 tradition ; that is one which, wherever a good 
 object was to be achieved, the Japanese have shown 
 their ability and their willingness to brush away. 
 
 Secondly, if the Roman character were to be 
 adopted the whole of the ancient literature of 
 Japan would have to be rewritten and republished; 
 remaining in the Chinese character the classics, 
 the histories, the poets would obviously be sealed 
 books to the modern student. 
 
 A third difficulty is created by the adoption 
 into the language of a great number of Chinese 
 words — a tendency which during the last few 
 years has been largely on the increase — which 
 can only be distinguished in writing by a special 
 ideographic character or sign. For instance, 
 when the new orders of nobility were created in 
 1887 the Japanese adopted the five Chinese titles, 
 Kung, Hou, P6, Tsii, Nan, which the Japanese 
 pronounce Ko, Ko, Haku, Shi, Dan, and which 
 have been translated as Duke or Prince, Marquis, 
 Count, Viscount, Baron. It will be seen that the
 
 240 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 two first both become Ko when written in our 
 own character. How to distinguish between 
 them ? How differentiate between a duke 
 or prince and a marquis ? The Chinese signs 
 representing them are perfectly different, and 
 the distinction is easy. This difficulty is a very 
 serious one, for there are a vast number of cases 
 in which it would have to be overcome, but it is 
 not a hopeless one ; if it led to a reaction in 
 favour of the pure Japanese language instead or 
 the bastard Chinese now in vogue, it would be, 
 in the opinion of many competent scholars, a 
 great gain. 
 
 I think that this gives in brief a fairly impartial 
 statement of the arguments for and against the 
 proposed change. The entanglements are intricate, 
 and the army which defends the existing position 
 is a formidable one. But there is great strength 
 in the attacking force, and I was glad to find 
 that the Marquis Saionji is on the Roman side. 
 His Excellency, whether in or out of office, 
 exercises such influence that his adhesion is a 
 matter of the greatest importance. 
 
 In considering the difficulties in the way of 
 this change, it must be remembered that there is 
 not one of them which amounts to an impos-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 241 
 
 sibility, and that in the opinion of many profound 
 Japanese scholars it can and ought to be brought 
 about. Two days later I had a conversation with 
 Professor Takakusu, who occupies the chair of 
 Sanskrit in the University of Tokyo, to whom 
 the Japanese Ambassador in London, Viscount 
 Hayashi, had given a letter of introduction for 
 me, in order that we might talk over this very 
 subject. Professor Takakusu is a red-hot en- 
 thusiast and a powerful advocate in the cause of 
 the adoption of the alphabet. He takes a very 
 hopeful view of the question, but it is certain 
 that there will be a strong opposition to the change. 
 In the meantime the Marquis Saionji has 
 promised me that, as a first experiment, he will 
 cause some short novel or popular tale to be 
 printed in Roman letters ; this will be a valuable 
 trial, and if it succeeds will go far to settle the 
 matter. The last thing which His Excellency 
 said to me when I took leave of him at the 
 railway station on leaving Tokyo was, " I shall 
 not forget my promise about the Romaji." With 
 men so distinguished in politics and literature as 
 the Marquis Saionji, Viscount Hayashi, Professor 
 Takakusu, and others in its favour, the adoption 
 of the Romaji must be only a matter of time. It
 
 242 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 is something more than a mere academic question. 
 It has become a political necessity. 
 
 It was late when we thanked the Marquis for 
 his hospitality and drove off. But even then his 
 kindness had not come to an end, for, after the 
 good old Japanese custom, dishes of delicacies 
 from the feast had been sent home to us ; the 
 host sees to it that those of a household who 
 have been left behind shall have some share of 
 his cakes and dainties, and that there shall be 
 no " poor lion " (or lioness) " that has not got a 
 Christian." 
 
 JVednesday^ March 14. — Everybody has read 
 of the beauties of Nikko : most people have 
 heard of the jingling rhyme which forbids a man 
 to use the word " kekko " (magnificent, delicious, 
 the highest form of praise) until he has seen it. 
 I, who have now been three times in Japan, have 
 never seen it. Fate has cast a spell upon me ; 
 something has always happened to prevent me. 
 The Prince and several of the party went off 
 there this morning, and I, having business in 
 Tokyo, with only this one day in which to do 
 it, remained behind ; my tomb must carry this 
 inscription — 
 
 He might not say kckko !
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 243 
 
 My disappointment is as great as that of the old 
 peasant of whom poor Nadaud sang, " II n'a 
 jamais vu Carcassonne ! " 
 
 In the morning I had a visit from Mr. Suzuki, 
 a director of the Yokohama Nursery Gardeners' 
 Company, who came to bring me a Hst of the 
 beautiful new plants which they have introduced. 
 I spent a most interesting hour with him, and 
 was only sorry when it came to an end. At 
 eleven I had to drive out to the temple of Kaianji, 
 to the beautiful grounds of which men flock in 
 the late autumn to see the glory of the maples — 
 the " brocade " of the maples, according to the 
 fanciful Japanese term — a beautiful spot over- 
 looking the Bay of Tokyo and the now dis- 
 mantled forts which the Shogun vainly built to 
 keep the western barbarian out of his capital. 
 It is a lovely drive, past many famous spots : the 
 shrine-crowned hill of Atago, with its steep flight 
 of steps, almost perpendicular for men, and an 
 easier ascent for women ; the glorious tombs of 
 Shiba, where so many of the great lords of the 
 Tokugawa family are buried ; Takanawa, the 
 suburb where the British Minister once was 
 lodged ; Goten-Yama, the pretty hill where the 
 Legation was to have had its permanent home,
 
 244 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 had not the building in course of construction 
 been wrecked and burnt by a band of Ronins, 
 one of whom (so have times changed !) now 
 wears the cross of the Order of the Bath upon 
 his breast, and is one of England's best friends. 
 
 The object of my pilgrimage to Kaianji was to 
 visit the tombs of two friends of former days who 
 lie buried in its cemetery. 
 
 Iwakura Ko was one of the nobles of the 
 Court, and a man conspicuous for his ability and 
 for the part which he played in the revolution. 
 Although a Kuge, he was not by birth one of 
 the foremost of those exalted personages ; it was 
 by his own energy and talents that he rose to 
 the front rank. He was one of the first of the 
 courtiers with whom we came in contact, and he 
 at once made the most favourable impression 
 upon the Foreign Ministers, who quickly recog- 
 nised the fact that in him they had to deal with 
 a man of no ordinary calibre. He became one 
 of the leaders of the new order of things, and 
 although Prince Sanjo, also a Kuge, was by 
 reason of his high rank nominally the first 
 Minister, it was Iwakura Ko who with others 
 really held the tiller, and was certainly in effect 
 the most important of those Kugcs who joined
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 245 
 
 hands with the DalmyOs and their party. He 
 was a man of broad and hberal views, and during 
 his Embassy to Europe in 1872 took high rank 
 as a diplomatist. 
 
 Close by the grave of Iwakura Ko is that of 
 Count Terashima, who was also a prominent 
 figure in the days of the restoration ; like so 
 many of the leaders in the great movement, he 
 was a Samurai of the Satsuma clan ; early in life 
 he had been a doctor, but he deserted medicine 
 for politics, and ultimately became Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs. I knew him both before and 
 after the revolution, and was pretty constantly 
 in his society. There were several questions 
 which I was deputed by Sir Harry Parkes to 
 settle with him, and so we became intimate. 
 When I left the Legation in 1870 his words of 
 farewell were among the kindest which I received. 
 
 Reverence for the graves of the dead, and the 
 touching belief that the dead man's spirit, ever 
 present, takes a delight in the simple attentions 
 of the living, are a beautiful feature in the 
 Japanese character. I went to see several graves. 
 Before every one I saw a little tribute of flowers, 
 fresh and bright, or a sprig or two of some ever- 
 green shrub, in their little jars, placed there by
 
 246 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 pious hands for the delight of the dead who are 
 yet cherished in the hearts of those who loved 
 them. How could I do less than pay my 
 humble tribute to the memory of those who had 
 been good friends in very troublous times ? Thus 
 it came to pass that this last day in Tokyo was 
 devoted to this same purpose, for in the afternoon 
 the Marquis Date came to take me to the ceme- 
 tery near Uyeno, where his grandfather is buried. 
 Date Ko, when I first knew him, had resigned 
 the Daimyate of Uwajima in favour of his son and 
 become Inkyo. He cast his lot in with the 
 Princes of Satsuma, Choshiu and Tosa, and became 
 one of the most loyal and devoted adherents of the 
 Mikado's party. He, like Count Terashima, 
 became at one time Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 He was a great gentleman, one for whom we 
 foreigners conceived the highest respect. Blessed 
 with the kindliest disposition, always courteous, 
 always hospitable, he was one of the most pleasing 
 of men, and one for whom it was impossible not 
 to feel a real affection. There was a welcome in 
 his eyes and in his smile which won you over 
 at once. 
 
 The frock-coat is the despair of sculptors — 
 witness Parliament Square. There stands in
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 247 
 
 Tokyo, in one of the most beautiful spots of the 
 city, a statue of Count Goto. It is of heroic size. 
 The dress chosen is the frock-coat. The pity of 
 it ! For the greater part of his life Count Goto 
 wore the robes of a Samurai. These, at any rate, 
 would have lent themselves to artistic treatment, 
 and I would, if I had the opportunity, very 
 humbly suggest the question whether in the future 
 it would not be well for the Japanese sculptor 
 to discard a costume which, in European art, is 
 deplored as an unhappy necessity, but which here 
 might be so easily avoided. In any case, and in 
 any dress, we Englishmen are glad that there 
 should be a memorial of this trusty friend. I have 
 already related how, when we were attacked at 
 Kyoto on our way to Court in 1868, Goto Shojiro, 
 as he then was, sprang from his horse and killed 
 one of the ruffians who were rushing at Sir Harry 
 Parkes. There are few men of that day who 
 would have hailed with greater joy the alliance of 
 his country with England ; for he was one of the 
 first of the leaders of the new political school to 
 hold out his hand to the strangers from the West, 
 and he remained their consistent friend to the 
 end. Now, alas ! he sleeps in the great cemetery 
 of the Aoyama. As I stood by his grave I could
 
 248 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 not help thinking of the last occasion on which I 
 saw him. It was in 1873, when I went to Japan 
 for the second time. He was then in the Ministry, 
 and we had been thrown much together. I was 
 to leave Tokyo the next day, and he had arranged 
 a dinner for me, to which he had invited several 
 of the leading men of that time. There was music 
 and dancing, and one of those competitions in 
 poetry which used to be the delight of the lettered 
 men of Japan. How bright and merry it all was, 
 and with what applause a brilliantly turned stanza 
 or a masterpiece of beautiful handwriting would 
 be acclaimed ! Of that peaceful tournament, in 
 which I was, of course, only a spectator, I believe 
 that I am the only survivor ; but one of the gems 
 of that night's compositions was given to me, and 
 it is still one of my treasured possessions. 
 
 When the roll-call of warriors shall be read out 
 at the sacred feasts of the heroes of Valhalla, 
 surely one of the first to be hailed as brave among 
 the braves will be Hirose. During the late war 
 many hundreds, many thousands of dauntless men 
 went to meet their death, — death in the conning- 
 towers and casemates by sea ; death in saps and 
 mines and accursed wire entanglements by land. 
 Cheered by the spirit of Bushido, knowing no
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 249 
 
 fear, freely laying down their lives for country 
 and for sovereign, they set an example of valour 
 for generations to come. But among all the 
 doughty deeds that were done during those terrible 
 months of deadly struggle, Hirose's two returns 
 to the ship which, with such peril, he had succeeded 
 in placing to block and lock the enemy's fleet in 
 the harbour of Port Arthur, are crowned by his 
 countrymen with a halo of glory that nothing can 
 dim. The flashlights were playing upon him 
 when his boat left the ship. A midshipman was 
 missing. To return was almost certain death : no 
 matter ! He must go back. The poor lad lay 
 dead upon the deck. By a miracle the brave man 
 escaped. In safety he reached the boat, but he 
 became aware that he had left his sword behind 
 him. In the famous legacy of lyeyasu, translated 
 by Mr. Lowder, a code of rules drawn up for the 
 guidance of his successors and their Ministers, it is 
 written : " The girded sword is the living soul of 
 the Samurai. In the case of a Samurai forgetting 
 his sword, act as is appointed ; it may not be 
 overlooked." Could a man like Hirose be parted 
 from his sword — from his soul ^ Once more he 
 climbed on to the fatal ship ; this time to return 
 no more ; the Russian aim was too deadly. His
 
 250 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 mangled remains were carried to Tokyo and 
 buried here on the Aoyama, the Green Hill. A 
 whole people mourned his loss. Never will his 
 name be forgotten ; he will live in song and in 
 story, the darling of all those who cherish the old 
 spirit of chivalry, the " Way of the Warrior." 
 
 Let him who would know what Bushido means 
 to the Japanese visit the tomb of some famous 
 warrior — that of Saigo at Kagoshima, or that of 
 Hirose on the Green Hill of Tokyo. It may be 
 a busy day, and there may be no man in the Shin 
 Den — God's field. Yet will some pious soul have 
 been there before him, and have left a loving 
 tribute of flowers before what is rather a sacred 
 shrine than a mere grave, a reliquary rather than 
 a resting-place for the dead. Maybe he will see, 
 as I did, a young mother come with her children, 
 the babe slung on her back, the five-year-old son 
 led by the hand. Reverently she will make her 
 obeisance to the spirit of the dead, and in hushed 
 tones she will tell her little man of the mighty 
 hero's deeds, hoping that he too may be stirred to 
 earn fame as a noble Samurai. And the child, 
 listening awe-struck, will drink in the thrilling tale, 
 and when he goes back to his school, his mates, 
 and his drill, every dull task will have a fresh and
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 251 
 
 inspiriting meaning for him, and he will say to 
 himself, " This must be done well, that better may 
 be done hereafter. To me also it may be given 
 to die for my country." For that end even the 
 tender mother will not grudge his life ; of such 
 stuff are Japanese women made. 
 
 To die — that is the point. That is why the 
 story of a Nelson moves the people more than 
 that of a Marlborough or a Wellington. The 
 battle of Abraham's Plain, though its results were 
 beyond count, and the conception was grandly 
 imagined and grandly carried out, was, when it 
 came to blows, a mere tussle of gladiators. But 
 Wolfe and Montcalm died, and their death cast a 
 glamour over what a great general once called in 
 my hearing " a vulgar fight, without scheme or 
 strategy." We may be sure that it was in no wise 
 as sightseers only that this year the Japanese 
 sailors visited the tomb of Nelson in St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, nor was their tribute of a wreath an 
 idle or ceremonial act of courtesy. To them 
 Nelson is the incarnation of Bushido, the Way of 
 the Warrior, and his death in the hour of victory 
 its highest award. When they stood by the great 
 admiral's grave they felt the real presence of his 
 spirit welcoming them, and accepting a homage
 
 252 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 which those who understand them best know to 
 have come from the heart. Perhaps even there, 
 in a strange temple in a foreign land, they too 
 may have uttered the warrior's prayer, "May our 
 end be as was his ! " 
 
 Let no man think that Bushido is a vain thing. 
 It is the soul of a nation. You cannot kill the 
 soul. 
 
 Thursday^ March i6. — There can be few sadder 
 experiences in life than that of revisiting after 
 many lustres a place where you were once young 
 and happy and rich in friends. The place is 
 changed, the friends all gone. You are told that 
 the town has grown, that it is greatly improved, 
 that stone buildings have sprung up where formerly 
 there were only wooden bungalows. Yes. But 
 every bungalow contained a welcome — the stone 
 houses contain heaven knows whom ! Such a 
 place to me is Yokohama, whither I went this 
 morning with Sir Edward Seymour. I could 
 hardly find my way about. Once past the Benten 
 Dori, the famous street in which are all the native 
 shops, selling silk, lacquer, porcelain, and all manner 
 of curiosities, all was strange to me. Truly, on 
 the Bund there were still left a few houses that 
 seemed very familiar. But the tenants, the old
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 253 
 
 well-known names 1 Dead long since, or scattered 
 over the face of the earth, taking no more heed in 
 dealings in tea, silk, or silkworm's eggs, caring 
 nothing for a rise or fall in the price of shirtings 
 — themselves as much a thing of the past as the 
 Nibu Kin ^ in which they used to gamble. There 
 are, doubtless, good men and true here now as 
 there were of old, but I know them not, and it is 
 the privilege of age to say in the words of Holy 
 Writ, " There were giants in those days." 
 
 We tarried in Yokohama no longer than was 
 needful for us to finish some small business that 
 we had to do, being forced to hurry back to 
 Tokyo to join the Prince on his return from 
 Nikko, for there was to be a luncheon at our 
 Palace to the Cambridge Society, a company of 
 fifty or sixty Japanese gentlemen who had received 
 their education at the English universities, and we 
 must be present. 
 
 We found the Prince and his fellow-pilgrims 
 just arrived, all full of praise of the beauties of the 
 wonderful place ; and once more I had to give ear, 
 tantalised, to enthusiastic descriptions of its glories 
 — the beauty of the scenery, the picturesque setting 
 
 1 Nibu-Kin, a gilt token coin in which, during the sixties, there 
 used to be large speculative transactions.
 
 254 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 of the temples in which the two great Shoguns 
 lie, the mountain gorge, the cryptomeria avenue, 
 all the marvels of art and nature on which travellers 
 from the West have spent their store of adjectives 
 for many a long year. In the earlier days of our 
 intercourse with Japan, Nikko was as inaccessible 
 to a European as Mecca to a Christian or a 
 Jew, and it was thought no small matter when 
 Sir Harry Parkes, about the year 1868 or 1869, 
 obtained permission to visit the hallowed tombs. 
 He would have taken me with him, but, as ill luck 
 would have it, he had sent me on a special mission 
 to Osaka ; so I missed a chance which never came 
 again. Now who pleases may go there, staying in 
 a quite first-rate hotel, surrounded by a whole 
 colony of curiosity-sellers, who reap a goodly 
 harvest out of the foreign visitor. With jealous 
 ears I listen to those more fortunate Christians 
 who have seen the Kaabah and kissed the black 
 stone. 
 
 Time and storms have, so it seems, done much 
 damage at Nikko, and the famous red lacquer 
 bridge has disappeared, washed away a few years 
 ago by a great flood. But repairs are actively 
 going on, and the Japanese will never allow so 
 beautiful and so famous a sanctuary to fall
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 255 
 
 permanently into decay. There was a time at 
 the beginning of the present order of things when 
 a dangerous spirit of vandahsm was in the ascend- 
 ant — when the destruction of works of art con- 
 nected in any way with the rule of the Shoguns 
 was deemed among a certain class to be an act of 
 patriotism, the proof of devotion to the Sovereign. 
 Better counsels now prevail, and the legacies of 
 the great masters are nowhere treated with greater 
 respect than they are in Japan. 
 
 There was not much time to cross-examine the 
 travellers on their adventures in the sacred groves, 
 for our guests were arriving and must be attended 
 to. All of them were distinguished men who 
 have made their mark, and kept up the best tradi- 
 tions of the English universities in the far-away 
 land of their birth. They do not waste their 
 time, these Japanese students ; they are no milk- 
 sops, as we have seen, and they are ready enough 
 to play their part in any game, whether of war or 
 peace. But when they work they work, and educa- 
 tion is to them something as sacred as religion 
 itself. They do not look upon Oxford and 
 Cambridge as places where a lad may go to 
 amuse himself, idling away six months in each of 
 three consecutive years, learning the art of living
 
 256 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 beyond his means ; at the best, if he have thews 
 and muscles, gaining some credit in games or on 
 the river. They have an old-fashioned idea, quite 
 out of date with the bulk of our youngsters, that 
 these are venerable homes of learning, founded 
 long since by pious men for study, for the forma- 
 tion, not of the body only, but of the mind. 
 Students they are, earnest determined students, 
 carrying with them into the schools the same spirit, 
 the same resolve to conquer, that they show in 
 the battlefield ; and so it is that they take home 
 with them at the end of their time something 
 better worth having than a slip of dark or pale 
 blue ribbon, or the reproduction of a photograph 
 of themselves cut out of an illustrated newspaper. 
 A gathering of the Cambridge Society of Japan 
 is, therefore, an assembly of gentlemen highly 
 cultivated, not only in the learning of their own 
 country, but also in those branches of study which 
 are taught in our universities, and the conversation 
 is perhaps more varied in such a group of men 
 than it is in any similar body in the world. 
 Questions of science, questions of letters, of 
 history, of political economy, of philology, are 
 discussed with just that tinge of oriental imagery 
 which gives a spark of the divine fire to whatever
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 257 
 
 it touches, stifling pedantry and brightening the 
 narrow dulness of the common room. 
 
 I was singularly lucky in my neighbour, for I 
 was placed next to Baron Suyematsu, whose 
 lectures and letters to the Times and other papers 
 and magazines, French and English, have made 
 him famous all over Europe. The last time we 
 met was on the occasion of his reading a brilliant 
 paper on Japanese morals at the Society of Arts, 
 when I was in the chair. He had recently come 
 back to his own country (just in time to see his 
 father-in-law, Marquis Ito, before the departure of 
 the latter for Corea), after an absence of many 
 months utilised in making Japan better understood 
 among the nations. 
 
 Another eminent man who was present at this 
 luncheon was Mr. Takakusu, whom I have 
 mentioned before in connection with the move- 
 ment for adopting the Roman alphabet, the 
 professor of Sanskrit in the University of Tokyo. 
 Seeing the influence which Buddhism has had 
 upon the earlier development of their country, it 
 is clear that the study of the pre-Buddhist civilisa- 
 tion of India must have a special interest for the 
 Japanese ; the more so when it is remembered how 
 largely the bastard Buddhism of the monks was
 
 258 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 mixed up with that far more ancient mythology 
 against which the teaching of Buddha himself was 
 a protest and a rebellion, and which has had such 
 an influence upon art both in China and Japan. 
 The chair of Sanskrit, therefore, must always be 
 one of great and peculiar importance in the 
 University of Tokyo, and it is fitting that it 
 should be held by a disciple of Max Miiller. 
 
 In the company of such men as these, and 
 others of no less mark, the time sped fast, and it 
 was late in the afternoon when the party broke up. 
 
 Sir Edward Seymour and I spent what remained 
 of the daylight in a farewell visit to the Temple of 
 Sengakuji and the tombs of the forty-seven 
 Ronins, which the Admiral had never seen. As 
 usual, there was quite a stream of people filing past 
 the graves, and few there were who did not piously 
 bring their humble tribute of a stick of incense to 
 burn in honour of the dead heroes. Go when you 
 will to the temple, these graves are never deserted, 
 and the out-house in which their effigies, carved in 
 wood, are preserved, together with the relics con- 
 nected with their deed, is never without a little 
 crowd of reverent sight-seers. 
 
 To-night the Prince dined en petit comite with 
 Prince and Princess Arisugawa. The rest of our
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 259 
 
 party stayed at home, busy with making ready for 
 to-morrow's departure. 
 
 Friday^ March 17. — All the miseries of a 
 flitting. The great corridors of our beautiful 
 palace were everywhere littered with trunks and 
 bags and packages of all conceivable shapes and 
 sizes, to fit the multiform purchases and presents 
 which they contain. Messengers carrying notes 
 and photographs and last words were hurrying 
 through the passages. Odd men who had never 
 shown their faces before, sprang up from the 
 bov/els of the cellars armed with cords and tackle 
 of every kind for making fast boxes. Butlers, 
 grooms of the chambers, and footmen in gorgeous 
 liveries bore a hand, and at last all was ready. 
 The signal was given for departure, and we went 
 sadly down the stairs, at the foot of which Admiral 
 Togo, General Kuroki, Mr. Nagasaki, and our 
 other friends were waiting for us. The carriages 
 drove off ; the guard turned out for the last 
 time ; and the Kasumigaseki Palace, where we 
 had been so happy, knew us no more. What 
 wonder that we saw its gates close upon us with 
 deep regret ? We had expected great pleasure 
 from our visit to Japan ; we knew that we should 
 be received with all kindness and honour by our
 
 26o THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 good friends and allies ; but who in his wildest 
 dreams could have foreseen the enthusiasm of our 
 welcome ? who could have expected a whole 
 nation to turn out in thousands, nay, literally in 
 millions, to cheer the advent of a foreign Prince ? 
 The soldiers might be paraded to present arms, 
 the school children might be ordered out to cheer ; 
 but no one could compel the tradesmen and 
 artisans of cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, to 
 crowd the streets and shout for joy over the 
 alliance ; no one could make the peasants leave 
 their fields and flock to every station that they 
 might hail the King of England's nephew. The 
 worth of the welcome lay in this, that it was real 
 and spontaneous ; because it came from the heart, 
 therefore it touched the heart. That this is 
 chiefly due to the Emperor himself, none can 
 doubt. Ever since his advent to the throne 
 thirty-nine years ago he has shown himself to be 
 a consistent and honest friend of foreigners. He 
 has been ably seconded by statesmen of the type 
 of Ito, and others whose names are not so familiar 
 in the West. But if he had been hostile, their 
 game would have been hard to play. How 
 diff'erent it all was in the days of the Shogun's 
 government, the Bakufu. The Shogun himself,
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 261 
 
 Prince Tokugawa, was always courteous, kind, 
 and friendly ; but his Council were astute enough 
 to see that intercourse with foreigners must lead 
 to their own destruction — it was to their interest 
 that Japan should remain isolated. There was 
 also a strong anti - foreign feeling, which was 
 fomented by certain Daimyos and their retainers, 
 because, as I have already pointed out, they 
 saw that one way of achieving the ruin of 
 the Shogun's government was to get them into 
 difficulties with the Western barbarians, and it 
 was doubtless to this end that many of the 
 troubles of our early days were called into exist- 
 ence. When Richardson and his party, by a 
 mischance, came in contact with the procession of 
 Shimadzu Saburo on the Tokaido in 1862, the 
 great man had just left the Shogun's presence in a 
 fury of rage, and was returning to his own 
 country full of wrath ; there is little doubt that 
 the tragedy of that day was far more due to a 
 desire to embroil the Shogun than to any patriotic 
 or fanatic hatred of foreigners. Since the restora- 
 tion all has been changed. I am not aware that 
 during the last thirty-six years there has been a 
 single attack upon a Western. The foreigner lives 
 and goes where he pleases ; there is absolutely no
 
 262 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 restraint, and you may walk the streets of Tokyo 
 or Kyoto in as great safety as if you were in 
 Regent Street or on the Boulevards. It is clear, 
 then, that to the Emperor of Japan, personally, we 
 owe a debt of respect and gratitude, and I believe 
 that the action of our King in sending this 
 Mission of Prince Arthur's has been a wise recog- 
 nition of that debt. One thing is certain. Quite 
 apart from the alliance, it has been regarded in 
 Japan as a most gracious and friendly act. It 
 puts a fitting keystone to the arch of our relations 
 with the Far East, and, once for all, crowns the 
 work of such men as Sir Harry Parkes and Sir 
 Ernest Satow. These were the thoughts which 
 forced themselves upon me as we drove through 
 avenue after avenue of bright, happy faces, all 
 cheering lustily, all eager fittingly to speed the 
 parting guests. 
 
 There was, as might have been expected, an 
 enormous crowd at the Shimbashi station. All 
 the Princes of the Blood were there, and all the 
 Ministers. There were others too, Hke Count 
 Inouye and Mr. Kato, who, though for the time 
 holding no official position, were anxious to pay 
 their respects to the Prince, and, through him, to 
 the King. There was a few minutes to spare —
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 263 
 
 time enough to say a word or two of thanks to 
 each for the good friendship of which we had 
 received such touching proofs, and then, with the 
 guard of honour presenting arms, and the band 
 playing " God Save the King," the train steamed 
 out of the station. General Kuroki, Admiral 
 Togo, Mr. Nagasaki, and the other gentlemen 
 who had welcomed us on board the Diadem on 
 our first coming, accompanied us to Yokohama. 
 
 We found Yokohama decked out in holiday 
 attire. Flags and bunting were flying from every 
 house, and every ship in harbour was dressed. 
 The good folk of the town had determined to 
 give the Prince a royal reception, and they had 
 spared no pains to make the last event of his stay 
 in Japan a great success and a happy memory. 
 We drove through the gaily decorated streets to 
 the Club, a larger and handsomer building than its 
 next-door neighbour, which sufficed the wants of 
 my day, when the community was far smaller and 
 less important than it is now. How little I 
 thought when I became a member in 1866 that I 
 should come back and write my name in the 
 Visitors' Book just forty years later ! But the old 
 Club is turned into an hotel, and of the members 
 of my time I believe not one is left. I saw
 
 264 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 hanging on the wall the portrait of one good old 
 friend whom 1 had hoped I might have found ; 
 but he died a year or two years ago, the last of 
 the pioneers of Yokohama. Two foreigners in 
 all Japan I found who were there when I first 
 came : the old order has changed with a vengeance. 
 Well, Yokohama flourishes, and the Club would 
 not disgrace Pall Mall. May both continue to 
 prosper ! 
 
 The event of the day was a magnificent lun- 
 cheon to which the community had invited the 
 Prince and the whole Garter Mission, together 
 with the Japanese gentlemen attached to his suite, 
 and the Governor with his wife. There were 
 speeches, of course, and the chairman, Mr. 
 Walter, proposed the Prince's health, which was 
 drunk with enthusiasm. It is really splendid to 
 see how vigorous and full of life the loyalty of 
 Englishmen remains to whatever distance they 
 may be banished by office or business. Here in 
 this far land the King is as much beloved as he is 
 by the crowds that wait outside his palace for 
 hours in the hope of catching a glimpse of him as 
 he drives out of the gates. 
 
 But we had to bid our kind entertainers fare- 
 well all too soon, for the Canadian Pacific mail-
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 265 
 
 steamer Empress of Japan was due to sail at three 
 o'clock, and ships, like Louis Quatorze, brook not 
 to be kept waiting. The skipper must not be 
 able to say, " J'ai failli attendre." 
 
 It would be difficult indeed to imagine a more 
 distinguished group of men than those who stood 
 on the landing - stage at Yokohama, gathered 
 together to bid us God-speed. There was Kuroki, 
 the general, against whom the redoubtable Kuro- 
 patkin never was able to score a success ; Togo, 
 the famous admiral, the Nelson of the Sea of 
 Japan, with Ijuin and Takarabe, the eyes and ears 
 of the Naval Intelligence Department; Fuku- 
 shima, the Argus of the Army ; Utsunomiya, 
 formerly Military Attache in London ; Mr, 
 Asano, the heir of Geishiu ; and last, not least, 
 Mr. Nagasaki, to whom we owed so much, and 
 whose plans, supervised, as he often told us, by 
 the Emperor himself, had been the means of so 
 much enjoyment. From all these gentlemen, two 
 at least of whom are already inscribed on the roll 
 of fame of the world, we had received such kind- 
 ness and attention as made us their debtors for 
 life. It was my good fortune to have daily 
 relations of close intimacy with Admiral Togo 
 and General Kuroki. I could wish for no greater
 
 266 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 honour. When I bade them farewell it was sad 
 to think that, unless some miracle should happen, 
 I should never see those kind faces again. 
 
 There was no time for long leave-takings. 
 We had to hurry on board. The gangway was 
 drawn ashore, the band played " God Save the 
 King," and the guard gave a royal salute as the 
 screw began to turn and the stately ship moved 
 slowly away from the jetty. As we glided out of 
 the harbour the great guns of the men-of-war 
 boomed out their farewell. As long as a wave of 
 the hand could be distinguished our good friends 
 remained upon the jetty signalling their kindly 
 sayonara. 
 
 Rarely indeed during our stay in Japan had 
 Mount Fuji deigned to show itself Jealously 
 it had hidden itself behind a veil of snow and 
 rain. But this was a glorious afternoon. There 
 was not a cloud floating in the sky ; and when the 
 sun set, the stately mountain stood out in all its 
 majesty, a solemn mysterious mass against the fiery 
 heaven. As it had welcomed our coming, so it 
 revealed itself to speed our homeward way. 
 Never did I see it grander or more imposing than 
 on that evening. The great beautiful mountain, 
 matchless in all the world ! Where else can you
 
 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 267 
 
 see such a cone springing twelve thousand feet and 
 more from the very sea-level, in one graceful curve, 
 kissing the skies ? Small wonder that it should 
 have inspired poets and painters : small wonder 
 that men, awestruck, should have worshipped it as 
 a God ! 
 
 Of Yamato, the land of Sunrise, 
 It is the peace-giver, it is the God, 
 It is the treasure.^ 
 
 Courteous to the last, the Japanese had sent a 
 flotilla of torpedo boats to escort the Empress of 
 Japan. As night fell they steamed up in Indian 
 file on either side of the ship, the crews, as the 
 boats went about one by one, being drawn up 
 on the decks, standing at attention and shouting a 
 final Hoga ! The cheers of the sailors were the 
 last sound that fell upon our ears in Japanese 
 waters. 
 
 Long, long we lingered on deck straining our 
 eyes towards the lovely islands, and watching the 
 shrouding of the mountains. When the last 
 flames had died out of the opal of the sky, when 
 Fuji and the volcano of Oshima could no more be 
 seen, sadly we went to our cabins. 
 
 ' Japanese poet of the Manyos/iiu (ninth century), quoted by 
 W. G. Aston in his treatise on Shinto.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 A SHORT JAPANESE TREATISE EXPLANATORY 
 OF DAKYU, OR JAPANESE POLO 
 
 The origin of the game " Dakyu " is not known, but has 
 been played from an ancient period, and some time in the 
 eighteenth century, the Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshimune, 
 made it one of the pastimes for the mihtary training of 
 the Knight class, and advised his subjects to practise it. 
 It has always been considered an excellent training for 
 good horsemanship, and helped to improve the cavalry of 
 the country. Recent experiments have shown the best 
 results accruing therefrom, not only in enabling the rider 
 to quickly learn the management of a horse, but in train- 
 ing the horses to work together quietly and well. For 
 this reason, we are desirous of introducing the game to 
 the public more extensively. 
 
 The following are the rules and manner of playing 
 the game :■ — 
 
 L (a) The ground should be in the form of a parallelo- 
 gram, sixty yards long and twenty yards wide. 
 (b) Goal, or " ball-gate," and the necessary outfit, 
 such as scoring-balls, a gong and a drum, a 
 ball-receiving net (a pocket for the goal), large 
 269
 
 270 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 and small flags, are to be arranged as shown in 
 the diagram. 
 
 (c) Distance between the goal and railing. 
 
 A railing should be erected in front of and at a 
 distance of from four to eight yards from the 
 goal- — the distance varying according to the 
 skill of the players, for the shorter the distance, 
 the easier it becomes to throw in the ball. 
 
 {^/) Balls : — There are two kinds of balls : one is 
 called the " Hiramari " and the other the 
 "Agemari." Both should be i^^^^ inches in 
 diameter and weigh 406 grains (Troy weight). 
 The number of the " Hiramari " used in play on 
 each side (red and white) is between seven and 
 twelve, the number being fixed according to 
 the skill of the players. One " Agemari " is 
 used on each side, and is to be thrown in after 
 all the " Hiramari " are in. The side which 
 throv/s in the " Agemari " first is declared to 
 be the v/inning side. 
 
 II. Officers and players : — 
 
 One Umpire. One Gong-man. 
 
 One Equerry. One Drummer. 
 
 One Ball-man. Two Score-keepers. 
 
 (tf) The Umpire : — It is the duty of the umpire to 
 order the players to get ready, and the equerry 
 to saddle the horses thirty minutes before the 
 time set for the opening of the game. 
 He is to oversee the match by stationing himself 
 at one side of the o-oal. If the game is not
 
 APPENDIX 271 
 
 finished at the end of twenty minutes, he is 
 to order the gong-man and drummer to give 
 the signal to stop the play, and declare " no 
 side." 
 
 [b) The Equerry : — It is the duty of the equerry 
 
 ( I ) to furnish the players with horses accord- 
 ing to their skill in horsemanship; (2) to 
 saddle them by order of the umpire, arranging 
 them in double rows in a place provided for 
 them outside of the ground twenty minutes 
 before the commencement of the game ; and 
 (3) to make the arrangements for the next 
 game in due time, the players, mounted, wait- 
 ing for the order to enter the ground. 
 
 [c] The Ball-man : — It is the duty of the ball-man 
 
 to place the white balls on the ground at the 
 right and the red at the left several feet back 
 from the entrance to the ground. The number 
 of the balls on the ground must be double the 
 number of players, and when these are ex- 
 hausted, being thrown or knocked out of 
 bounds, the ball-man will replace them with 
 new ones. When the required number of the 
 "Hiramari" has been thrown into the ffoal, 
 the ball -man throws the " A^emari " into 
 play. If either of these balls be thrown or 
 hit out of bounds, an extra ball may be thrown 
 in by the ball-man, but in no case should two 
 " Agemari " of the same colour be put in play. 
 After every game the ball-man should gather up 
 the balls scattered on the ground.
 
 272 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 (d) The Signal-men (Gong-man and Drummer) : — 
 
 The gong is to be the signal for the white ; 
 and the drum for the red. 
 
 When the umpire announces the commencement 
 of the game, the gong is to be struck first, and 
 then the drum beaten. When striking gong 
 and drumming continues successively, increas- 
 ing in speed gradually to the end, it is the 
 signal for the opening of the game. 
 
 The signal-men are stationed behind the goal, 
 and carefully note the number of balls thrown 
 into goal, and for every ball thrown in, they 
 are to strike the gong for the white and beat 
 the drum for the red, twice in succession. 
 
 When the umpire declares " no side," both the 
 gong and the drum are to be sounded in rapid 
 succession. 
 
 [e) Score-keepers : — It is the duty of these men to 
 
 hang out the required number both of red and 
 white balls before the players enter the ground, 
 in order to inform the players of the number 
 of balls in play j and for every ball thrown into 
 goal, they are to draw up one of the scoring- 
 balls out of sight, in order that the players may 
 know how many balls are still left on the ground. 
 The same is done with the "Agemari." 
 {/) Players : — The number of the players may be 
 eight, ten, or twelve, divided into sides of equal 
 number — the red and white, and each side is 
 to wear uniforms and caps according to their 
 respective colour.
 
 APPENDIX 273 
 
 III. Order of the game : — 
 
 (a) Preparation of the players : — Following the order 
 of the umpire, each player, holding his stick, 
 waits for the further order to enter the ground 
 on horseback. 
 
 (/>) Entering : — The umpire orders the players to 
 enter when all is arranged. When the players 
 are ordered to enter the ground in the order 
 arranged in the list one white and one red 
 alternately, the white leading. They march 
 slowly in single file to the centre of the ground 
 toward the goal, saluting the honoured guests 
 as they pass the stand. At the railing in front 
 of the goal, the white turning to the right and 
 the red to the left, they gallop back to the 
 entrance of the ground, and each player with 
 a ball on his stick awaits the order to begin. 
 
 IV. Commencement : — 
 
 [a) The umpire orders the signal-men to give the 
 signal at the proper time. 
 
 (h) When the signal is given, the players rush toward 
 the goal at full speed and the match has begun. 
 
 (f) When each side has a ball in goal, the umpire 
 orders each player to impede or hinder in any 
 way the progress of an adversary. At this 
 point the match becomes exciting, for each 
 side tries to hinder the opposing side and pre- 
 vent them from throwing balls in goal. 
 
 V. Termination : — 
 
 [a) When one side has thrown in all the " Hiramari "
 
 2 74 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 and " Agemari " they are declared the winners, 
 and the first match is ended. When an 
 " Agemari " is put in play the contest becomes 
 close, as the opposing side will put its entire 
 force in defence. 
 (h) The duration of a game is usually twenty 
 minutes. 
 When the game is not finished at the end of 
 twenty minutes, the umpire announces a 
 " drawn game," and the signal for the same 
 is given as described above. 
 
 VI. Remarks : — 
 
 Each side usually chooses the best player for 
 captain, and it will be his duty to instruct the 
 team as to the method to be pursued, and also 
 direct and encourage them during the game 
 when it is necessary ; for instance, he may 
 appoint two men to guard the goal and to 
 hinder the adversaries, and two others may be 
 kept at a distance to send up the balls of their 
 side nearer the goal, while the rest are engaged 
 in throwing- the balls in goal.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Adams, Will, story of, 42-46, 51 j 
 
 play founded on life of, 75 
 Ailesbury, Marquis of (Lieut. Bruce), 
 
 106 
 Akiko, Miss, 233 
 Alphabet, question of using Roman, 
 
 in Japan, 237-242 
 "Anjin, the Pilot," Japanese name 
 
 for Will Adams, 75 
 Aoyama, the Green Hill of Tokyo, 
 
 247 
 
 Apraxbi, the, formerly Russian 
 battleship, 48 
 
 Arisugawa, Prince, 10-13, -4' 3^ > 
 daughter of, 41 ; son of, 155 j 
 Prince Arthur dined with, 258 
 
 Army, military training, 159-163 
 (jf£ also War, the) 
 
 Arthur, Prince — ■ 
 
 Ceremony of investing Emperor of 
 Japan, 16-21 j Order of the 
 Chrysanthemum personally be- 
 stowed upon, by the Emperor, 
 22-23 ; farewell visit of the 
 Emperor, 95-96 ; inspection of 
 troops at Hiroshima, 159-160; 
 Japanese name given to, 75 ; 
 popularity and welcome to, 5, 
 259-262 \see aho Garter Mission) 
 
 Artists' rapid and beautiful work, 
 113-115 
 
 Asano, Marquis, 91, 163-165 
 
 Asano, Mr., 91, loi, 165, 265 
 
 Ashikaga Yoshimasa, story of, 193- 
 203 
 
 Aston, 104 
 
 Atago, 243 
 
 " Banzai," 6 
 
 Battleships, 48-49 
 
 Benten, shrine of, 7 
 
 Benten Dori, Yokohama, 252 
 
 Berlin Court ceremonial adopted at 
 
 Tokyo, 4 
 Bivva-ko Lake, 11 7- 11 8, 203 
 Boar hunt, 178 
 Bo Taoshi, game of, 1 53- 155 
 Bradshaw, Lieut., 106 
 Brady, G., 74 
 Bridges in Japan, 55 
 Brinkley, Capt., 198 
 Bruce, Lieut., 106 
 Bugaku Dance, 26-28, 30 
 Bushido, 250-252 
 Bus/lido, by Inazo Nitobe, 198, 200 
 
 Cambridge Society of Japan, 253, 
 255-258 
 
 Castle of the Shoguns, 1 1 
 
 Chamberlain, Basil Hall, 52, 61, 
 185, 201, 217 
 
 Cha-no-yu, tea ceremonies, 39-40, 
 196-200 
 
 Chien Lung, Tartar Emperor, 222 
 
 Chikara, 91 
 
 Children — 
 
 Greeting Prince Arthur, 6 ; con- 
 sideration for, 10; significance 
 of Garter Mission explained to, 
 170-171 
 
 Ching Tai, Chinese Emperor, 222 
 
 Chi-on-in, Temple of, 106, 123- 
 125 
 
 Cholmondeley, Mr., 88 
 
 Choshiu clan, the, 131 
 
 275 T 2
 
 276 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Chrysanthemum, Order of the, per- 
 sonally bestowed on Prince 
 Arthur by the Emperor, 22-23 
 
 Chrysanthemum, the, as crest, 182 
 
 Church service (English), at Tokyo, 
 88 
 
 Cloisonn6 enamel, 221-223 
 
 Cock, Capt., quoted, 44-45 
 
 Court ceremonial taken from Europe, 
 4 ; sanctity and mystery of, in 
 old days, 172-176 
 
 Crown Prince of Japan, 41 
 
 Cryptomerias, 207 and note 
 
 Dai Butsu statues, 208-210 
 Daimyo, life of a, 220-221 ; pro- 
 cession represented, 98-101 ; 
 explanation of word, 164 
 Daitokwan Hotel, Shidzuoka, 112 
 Daky'u, Japanese polo, 68-7 1, 269-274 
 Dances, poetical meaning of, 189- 
 
 I90> 233-235, 
 Daruma, legend ot, 204-205 
 Dat6 Ko, 246 
 Date, Marquis, 246 
 Davidson, Col., 15, 23, 35 
 Diadem, H.M.S., i, 2, 129, 147, 
 
 151, 155, 156, 165-166 
 Diana, Russian frigate, 68 
 Duck-hunting, 52, 55-61, 95 
 
 Earthquakes, 61, 66-68 
 
 Eaton, Wm., 45 
 
 Edinburgh, 7 
 
 Edinburgh, Duke of, 26 
 
 Elgin, Lord, 103 
 
 Emperor of Japan — 
 
 Met Prince Arthur in person, 7- 
 8; palace of, 11-12; invested 
 with Order of the Garter, 16- 
 21 J personally invested Prince 
 Arthur with Order of the 
 Chrysanthemum, 22-23 j State 
 banquet, 94-95 ; farewell visit, 
 95-96 J character and policy, 
 8-9, 21, 1 32 J friendliness to 
 foreigners, 105-108, 260 
 
 Empress of Japan, 9 
 
 Empress of 'Japan, the, 265-267 
 
 English Church service at TokyO, 
 
 88 
 Etajima, Naval College at, i 51-156 
 
 Fencing, 63, 152 
 
 Fish and fishing, 112, 142-143 
 
 Foreigners, attitude of the Japanese 
 
 to, 105-100, 259-262 
 Formosa, 163 
 Fuehr, Mrs., 74 
 
 Fuji, Mount, 1, 68, 118, 221, 266 
 Fuji of Satsuma, 130 
 Fukushima, Gen., 163, 265 
 Fushimi, Battle of, 33, 203 
 Fushimi, Prince, 38, 68, 71 
 
 Gardens — 
 
 Marquis Asano, 163-1655 Koraku 
 Yen, Arsenal Garden, 37-38 5 
 Sengan Garden, 135-136 
 
 Garter Mission — 
 
 Arrival at Yokohama, 1-6 ; 
 investiture at TokyO, 16-21 ; 
 State banquet, 94-95 ; Order 
 of Merit bestowed, 34-36 j 
 Orders bestowed on some 
 members of the Mission, 23- 
 24 ; farewell visit of the 
 Emperor, 95-96 5 significance 
 of, explained to children, 170- 
 171 ; welcome given to, 259- 
 262 {see also various towns) 
 
 Geishas, 13, 115-116, 189-190, 
 213-214, 233-235 
 
 Geishiu, 164 
 
 Gorojiu, the, 104-105 
 
 Go-san-k6, 37 
 
 Gosho, the, at Kyoto, 178-182 
 
 Goten-Yama, 243-244 
 
 Goto Shojiro (Count Goto), 106-108, 
 120, 121 j statue of, 247-248 
 
 Gros, Baron, 103 
 
 Gundulf, 176 
 
 Hacliiman Temple, 188 
 Hakluyt Society, 44 
 Hakond- Mountains, i, 231 
 Handhok for Japan, Murray's, 201 
 " Haruko," name of the Empress, 9 
 Hayashi's shop, 183
 
 INDEX 
 
 277 
 
 Hayashi, Viscount, 241 
 
 Hemin, 44 
 
 Hibya Park, TokyO, 96-101 
 
 Hideyoshi, 122, 123, 174, 184, 196, 
 
 197 
 Higashi Fushimi, Princess, 24 
 Higashi Kuze, 174 
 Higoshi, Lieut. -Gen., 159 
 HiOgo, 104, 167, 176 
 Hiros6, hero of Port Arthur, 155, 
 
 248-250 
 Hiroshima, sham fight at, 158-161 ; 
 
 Marquis Asano's garden, 163- 
 
 165 
 " Hoga," 46 
 
 li Kamon no Kami, 37 
 
 Ijuin, Vice-Admiral, 53-54, 265 
 
 Inari Sama, 57 
 
 Inazo Nitobe, 198, 200 
 
 Incense compounding, 196-197 
 
 Indian legend about tea, 204 
 
 Inkyo, 194 
 
 Inouye, Count, 101-103, '^'i ^32, 
 
 262 
 Ise, province of, 188 
 Iso, 134-136 
 
 Ito, Marquis, 22, 102, 257, 260 
 Iwalcura Ko, 174, 244-245 
 Iwasaki family, 237 
 ly^mochi, Shogun, 104-105 
 lyeyasu, Shogun, 1 1 1, 124, 174, 
 
 217, 249 
 
 Japanese characteristics — 
 
 No boasting, etc., 3-4, 50-51 j 
 consideration for children, 10 ; 
 activity of work, 47-48 5 cheer- 
 fulness and thrift of peasants, 
 57 ; training of girls in jujutsu, 
 etc., 62-64 J duty paramount, 
 64 ; preparedness, 65 ; religious 
 feeling, 144-145 ; military train- 
 ing, 159-163 ; reverence for 
 graves, 245 ; Bushido, 250-252 
 
 Jimmu Tenno, first Emperor, 26 
 
 Jingu Temple, 188 
 
 Jujutsu, 62-63, ^5- 
 
 Junker, Prof., 72, 73, 74 
 
 Kabukiza, the, 74 
 
 Kaburenjo Theatre, 186, 191 
 
 Kaemon Dake volcano, 130 
 
 Kaga, Princes of, 131 
 
 Kagoshima, visit to, 122, 129-148 
 
 Kaianii, temple of, 243-246 
 
 Kamakura, 208-209 
 
 Kamo River, 177 
 
 Kanagawa, 7 
 
 Kang Hsi, Emperor, 238 
 
 Kano Eitoku, 124, 183 
 
 Kasumigaseki Palace, 10, 259 
 
 Kasuya Temple, 188 
 
 Kataoka, Admiral, 2, 129, 158, 165, 
 167 
 
 Kato, Mr., 52, 103, 262 
 
 Katsura River, 192 
 
 Kawasaki, 7 
 
 Kelly-Kenny, Sir Thomas, Order of 
 Rising Sun conferred on, 23 ; 
 the Emperor's conversation 
 with. 26 ; notes on sham fight 
 at Hiroshima, 158-161 j re- 
 ferred to, 13, 15, 38-39 
 
 Keppel, Sir Henry, 118 
 
 Kido, Marquis, 40, 114, 121, 122- 
 
 123 
 Ki-kwaku-tei, 135 
 Kirishima, Mount, 130 
 Kiushiu, Island of, 127 
 Kobe, 126, 166-170 
 Kodaiji Temple, 122 
 Kodania, Gen. Count, 163 
 Koeber, Prof. Dr. Von, 73 
 Komatsu, 121 
 Koraku Yen, Arsenal Garden, 3-- 
 
 38 
 
 Kugcs, the, 172, 235-236 
 
 Kuper, Admiral, 133 
 
 Kur6, arsenal at, 66, 151, 156 
 
 Kuroki, General — ■ 
 
 At Kagoshima, 142-146 ; at Mr. 
 Saigo's dinner, 212 ; at Marquis 
 Saionji's dinni-r, 232 ; farewell 
 to, 259, 263, 265-266 ; referred 
 to, 2-3, 21, 24, 51, 53, 121, 
 138, 160, i6i, 163, 165, 166 
 
 Kyoto — 
 
 In ancient times, 174-177; descrip- 
 tion of, 177-178 ; visit to, 178-
 
 78 THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 203, 211-216; referred to, 7, 
 26, 118, 119, 120, 123 
 
 Lacquer, 185-186 
 Lampson, Mr., 15, i9> 20, 24 
 Lee Lee, Mrs., 73, 74 
 Liu Kiu Islands, 131 
 Lowder, Mr., 249 
 
 M'Caul, Miss, 66 
 
 Macdonald, Sir Claude, 2, 11, 89, 
 
 123, 125 
 Macdonald, Lady, 71 
 Maedas, the, 131 
 Manchu-Maru, the, 150, 156, 15S, 
 
 165 . , 
 
 Manchuria, soldiers returning from, 
 
 158, 159 
 Mason, W. B., 201 
 Metal and bronze work, 209-210 
 Mikado's Court at Kyoto, 172-177 
 Mikasa, Mount, 210 
 Mikasa, the, 129 
 
 Military preparations for the war in 
 good time, 65-66; military 
 training, 159-163 
 Minami, Mr., 51-52 
 Mito, Princes of, 37 
 Mitsui family, 237 
 Mitsukoshi shop, 39-40 
 Miyajima, the Shrine Island, 149- 
 
 150 
 Miyako Hotel, Kyoto, 120 
 Miyas, the, 172 
 Miyochin family, 210 
 Miyoyenji, temple of, 137-138 
 Moji, 126 
 
 Monriy5-in, temple of, 7, 93 
 Montblanc, Comte de, 1 3 1 
 Music, 13,29-30, 72-74, 147 
 Mutsuhito, Emperor of Japan, 20 
 
 Nagasaki, Mr. — 
 
 Personal superintendence of ar- 
 rangements, 109 ; farewell to, 
 259, 263, 265 ; referred to, 4, 
 ,7, 18, 22, 24, 25, 92, 95, 112 
 
 Nagasaki, port of, 156 
 
 Nagoya, visit to, 216-229; Nagoya 
 Theatre, 223-227 ; Cnstlc of 
 Nagoya, 217-218 
 
 Nakai Kozo, 106-108, 121 
 Nanao Harbour, 118, 119 
 
 Nara, visit to, 188, 203, 206-211 
 
 Nelson, visit of the Japanese sailors 
 to tomb of, 251-252 
 
 Nichi - Ei - Dsmei, Anglo - Japanese 
 Alliance, 74 
 
 Nicholas /., formerly Russian battle- 
 ship, 49 
 
 Nijo Palace, KyOto, 1S2 
 
 Nikko, visit to, 171, 242, 253-255 
 
 Ninwaji no Miya, 173 
 
 Nobles of Japan, life in Old and 
 New Japan contrasted, 219-221 
 
 Nodza, Marshal, 163 
 
 Nogi, Gen., 163 
 
 Noguchi, 120 
 
 Oishi Kuranosuke, 90-92 
 
 Okubo Toshimichi, 121, 144 
 
 Okuma, 121 
 
 Old and New Japan, 172-177, 219- 
 
 221 
 Omori, Mr., 216 
 Orders : English — 
 
 Order of the Garter bestowed 
 
 on the Emperor, 16-21 
 Order of Merit bestowed on Mar- 
 shals Yamagata and Oyama, 
 and on Admiral Togo, 34-36 
 various, 102-103 
 Japanese — 
 
 Order of the Chrysanthemum 
 
 personally bestowed on Prince 
 
 Arthur bythe Emperor, 22-23 
 
 Order of the Rising Sun, 23-24 
 
 Order of the Sacred Treasure, 23 
 
 Oreh, the two, 49, 156-157 
 
 Osaka, 32, 33, 118, 120, 126, 170, 
 
 203 
 Otokoyama, Mount, 188 
 Otsu, 118-1 19 
 Owari, Princes of, 217 
 Oyama, Marshal, 21, 22, 34-36? 3^5 
 
 46, 138, 163 
 Ozaki, Mr., 96 
 
 Parkes, Sir Harry- 
 Incident of Treaties, 104-108, 
 124, 125, 247; incident in
 
 INDEX 
 
 279 
 
 1867, I 18-120 ; policy of, 262 ; 
 
 referred to, 26, 32, 178, 245 
 Pensants' houses, 56-57 
 Pereswet, the, 48, 50 
 Petit Thouars, Admiral du, 108 
 Plays, Japanese, 74-87, i86-it)i, 
 
 223-227 
 Polo, Japanese (dakyu), 68-71, 269- 
 
 274 
 Port Arthur, 50, 54 
 Processions, Daimyo's procession 
 
 represented, 9S-101 ; procession 
 
 to the temple of Miyoyenji, 
 
 137-140 
 Products and industries, at Shid- 
 
 zuoka, no, in; Satsuma 
 
 ware, 146 ; at Kyoto, 183- 
 
 186 J cloisonne enamel, 221- 
 
 223 
 
 Railways, question of State purchase 
 
 of, 52 
 Rank still valued in Japan, 147-148 
 Ret-visan, the, 128 
 Richardson, Mr., 134, 261 
 Rising Sun, Order of the, 23 
 Rojdestwensky, Admiral, 157 
 " Romaji hiroge Kai," 237-242 
 Roman Alphabet, question of using, 
 
 in Japan, 237-242 
 Russell, Lord John, 65 
 
 Sacred Treasure, Order of the, 23 
 
 Saigo, Mr., 183, 21 1-2 14 
 
 Saigo Takamori, Gen., 122, 132- 
 
 133, 138 5 tomb of, 143-144 
 Saionji, Marquis, 103, 228, 232-242 
 Salamis, the, 118 
 " Sama " or "San," explanation of 
 
 word, 179 
 Samurai, in 
 
 Sanjo Daijo Daijin, 174, 182, 244 
 Sas6bo, Naval Arsenal at, 49, 65, 66, 
 
 128-129 
 Satow, Sir Ernest, 26, 32, 104, 106 ; 
 
 incident at Kyoto, 118-120 ; 
 
 policy of, 262 
 Satsuma, the, 48, 156 
 Satsuma rebellion, 131-132 5 famous 
 
 men, 138; Prince of, 135 
 
 Savory, Capt., i, 129, 166, 167 
 
 Schmid, Mr., 73 
 
 Seimin, 210 
 
 Seki-ga-hara, Battle of, 138, 174 
 
 Sengakuji, temple of, 7, 89-93, 
 258 
 
 Sengan, Garden of, 135-136 
 
 Seymour, Sir Edward, 15, 19 ; Order 
 of Rising Sun bestowed on, 
 23 ; speech by, 49-50 ; com- 
 ments on fire sustained by cap- 
 tured ships, 157-158; visit to 
 Yokohama, 252-253 j visit to 
 Temple of Sengakuji, 258 
 
 Shachihoko, the golden, 217-218 
 
 Shiba Palace, 40 ; tombs of, 243 
 
 Shibata Zeshin, 185 
 
 Shidzuoka, i lo-i 16 
 
 Shimadzu, Prince, 130, 133, 134- 
 136, 147-148, 155 
 
 Shimadzu Saburo, 134, 142, 261 
 
 Shimadzu Yoshihito, 138 
 
 Shimbashi Street, Kyoto, 106, 125 ; 
 Station, 7, 262-263 
 
 Shimonoseki, 126 
 
 Shinagawa, 7 
 
 Shinbama, 56, 58 
 
 Shogunate abolished, 26, 34, 105, 
 131 [^see also Tokugawa, Prince) 
 
 Shuko, 198 
 
 Soami, 198 
 
 Sumitomo family, 236 
 
 Summer Palace near Peking, 222 
 
 Suyematsu, Baron, 257 
 
 Suzuki, Mr., 243 
 
 Tadayoshi, Prince of Satsuma, 135 
 
 Takakusu, Prof., 241, 257-258 
 
 Takanawa, 94, 243 
 
 Takarab^, Capt., 53-54, 165, 265 
 
 Tales cf Old Japan, ^ 
 
 Tamba Mountains, 192 
 
 Tanaka, Viscount, 60 
 
 Taro Masuda, 76 
 
 Tea ceremonies, 39-40, 147, 195-200 
 
 Tea plantations, 204, 229 
 
 Temple of the Silver Pavilion, 193- 
 
 263 
 Terashima, Count, 245-246 
 Terauchi, Gen., 37-38
 
 28o THE GARTER MISSION TO JAPAN 
 
 Things Japanese^ by B. H. Chamber- 
 lain, 52 
 
 Toda, Count, 58 
 
 Tofukuji, temple of, \z\ 
 
 Togo, Admiral — 
 
 Order of Merit bestowed on, 34-365 
 modesty of, 50-51 j duck hunt- 
 ing, 59 ; at Kagoshima, 142- 
 146; ships taken by, 156; 
 bluejackets, topical song refer- 
 ring to, 166 5 at Mr. Saigo's 
 dinner, 212 ; Marquis Saionji's 
 dinner, 232 5 farewell to, 259, 
 263, 265-266 ; referred to, 2-3, 
 21, 24, 46, 49, 138, 158, 165 
 
 Tokaido Road, 7, 98 
 
 Tokudaiji, Marquis, Order bestowed 
 on, 103 ; incident in 1868, 107, 
 124 J referred to, 17, 174, 235- 
 236 
 
 Tokugawa, Prince (the Shogun), 
 sketch of life, 3 1-34, 37 j policy 
 of, 260-261 J referred to, 88, 
 III, 138 
 
 Tokyo (formerly Old Yedo) — 
 
 Court ceremonial, 4 ; arrival at, 
 8 } description of, 9-10 5 visit 
 to, 109, 232-259 ; departure 
 from, 262-263 5 Army Cadet 
 School at, 16 I- 162 
 
 Tosa, 131 
 
 To-un, 2IO 
 
 Trafalgar, 50 
 
 Transports, preparation of, for the 
 war, 65 note 
 
 Treaties of Lord Elgin, etc., 103- 
 108 
 
 Treves, Sir Frederick, 66 
 
 Udagawa, 210 
 Uji, 119, 203 
 Ujina, Port of, i 58 
 Utsunomiya, 265 
 Uyeno, 71, 246 
 
 Variag, the, formerly Paissian battle- 
 ship, 48 
 Vienna Exhibition (1873), ^'^ 
 Villa of the Happy Cranes, 135-136, 
 146, 148 
 
 Wakamiya, Japanese name for Prince 
 Arthur, 75 
 
 Walter, Mr., 264 
 
 War, the, 2-4, 48-50, 54 ; prepared- 
 ness for, 65-665 damage to 
 ships, 156-158 ; return of 
 soldiers from Manchuria, 158, 
 159,- heroism of Hirose, 248- 
 
 Welcome given to Prince Arthur, 
 
 retrospect of, 259-262 
 Wellington, Duke of, 65 
 Willis, Dr., 125 
 Wilson, Mr. and Mrs., 5 i 
 Wyndham, Capt., 15, 24, 88 
 
 Yamagata, Marshal, 22, 34-36, 163 
 
 Yedo,^01d (Tokyo), 7, 56 
 
 Yokohama, arrival at, i -6 ; earth- 
 quake at, 66 ; visit to, 252-253 j 
 departure from, 263-267 
 Nursery Gardeners' Co., 243 
 
 Yokosuka, Naval Arsenal, 41-51, 
 66, 156 
 
 Yoritomo, 221 
 
 Yoshimitsu, 202 
 
 THE END 
 
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