UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 3 1822024792228 | -THE i { AWAKENING OF - JAPAN OKAKURA-KAKUZO LIBRARY UNIVERSITY Of CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO r. NIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN D EGO 3 182202479 2228 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN BY OKAKURA-KAKUZO AUTHOR OF " THE IDEALS OF THE EAST " NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1905 Copyright, 1904, by THE CENTUKY Co. Published November, 190U THE DEVINNE PRESS CONTENTS PUBLISHERS' PREFACE CHAPTER I. THE NIGHT OF ASIA The sudden development of Japan an enigma to foreign observers Asia the true source of Japan's inspiration While Christendom struggled with medievalism the Buddhaland was a garden of culture Effect of Islam upon Asia The Mongol outburst destroyed Asia's unity The condition of China and India Japan never con- quered, but buried alive for nearly 270 years ..... S CHAPTER II. THE CHRYSALIS Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate lyeyasu's influ- ence The Mikado's palace the " Forbidden Interior" The kuges, or court aristocracy The daimios The samurai, or sworded gentry The commoners: farmers, artisans, and traders The outcasts The nation in a pleasant slumber ................ 22 CHAPTER III. BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM Buddhism and Confucianism never interfered in matters of state Despite its temples and monasteries, Japan has no church Neo-Confucianism .......... 58 CHAPTER IV. THE VOICE FROM WITHIN Three schools of thought united in causing the regener- ation of Japan First, the Kogaku, or School of Classical Learning Second, the School of Oyomei Third, the Historical School ................ 70 CONTENTS CHAPTER V. THE WHITE DISASTER The advent of the West not an unmixed blessing But the Japanese eagerly identify themselves with Western civilization And are regarded as renegades by their neighbors Russia the first European nation to threaten Japan, at the end of the eighteenth century The advent of American war-vessels a mighty shock 95 CHAPTER VI. THE CABINET AND THE BOUDOIR The coming of Commodore Perry unites the nation The ladies of Yedo Castle and the shogunate The shogun of Commodore Perry's time The conflict on the succes- sion to the shogunate Execution of agitators Assassi- nation of the Premier Hikone 113 CHAPTER VII. THE TRANSITION Eight years of rapid changes The Federalists The Imperialists The Unionists The last of the shoguns. . 141 CHAPTER VIII. RESTORATION AND REFOR- MATION The Restoration essentially a return Past conditions revived, with the new spirit of freedom and equality Constitutional government a success in Japan Edu- cation The commoner transformed into a samurai by the system of military service The Japanese soldier's contempt of death not founded on hope of future reward The exaltation of womanhood The question of treaty revision The helm in strong hands 162 CHAPTER IX. THE REINCARNATION Japan accepts the new without sacrificing the old The heart of Old Japan still beats strongly In art Japan stands alone against all the world 184 vi CONTENTS CHAPTER X. JAPAN AND PEACE The very nature of Japanese civilization prohibits aggres- sion Relations with China and Korea The war with China in 1894-5 The Yellow Peril The night of the Orient has been lifted, but the world still in the dusk of humanity 201 CHRONOLOGY . . 224 Vll PUBLISHERS' PREFACE OKAKURA-KAKUZO, the author of this work and of " The Ideals of the East," was born in the year 1863. Having been, as he has said, " from early youth fond of old things," after leaving col- lege in 1880 he interested himself in the formation of clubs and societies for ar- cha3ological research. The Japanese Renaissance, begun at the end of the eighteenth century, suffered a brief check during the civil commotion fol- lowing the opening of the country after the arrival of the American Commodore Perry. The work of Okakura was a resumption of that begun by the earlier scholars. In 1886 this scholarly young enthu- siast was sent to America and Europe as a commissioner to report on Western art education. On returning, he organ- ix ized the Imperial Art School of Tokio, of which he was made director. He was also one of the chief organizers, and is still a member, of the Imperial Archseo- logical Commission, whose duty it is to study, classify, and preserve the ancient architecture, the archives of the monas- teries, and all specimens of ancient art. Okakura was, naturally, one of the promoters of the reactionary movement against the wholesale introduction of Western art and manners. This move- ment was carried on by the starting of periodicals and clubs devoted to the preservation of the old life of Japan, the work being carried on, also, in the field of literature and the drama. In 1898 he resigned the directorship of the Imperial Art School at Tokio, having had some difference with the educational authorities in the matter of the course of instruction to be pursued therein. Nearly one half of the faculty resigned at the same time, and started, in a suburb of Tokio, a private acad- emy called Nippon Bijitsuin. Here are kept up the ancient traditions of na- tive art. Simultaneously with the foundation of this school of instruction, a number of prominent painters of the national school of art in various parts of the country organized the Society of Japa- nese Painters, of which the president is Prince Nijo, the head of the Fujiwara family and uncle of the crown prin- cess, Okakura being elected vice-presi- dent. It is proper to state that the present work, like " The Ideals of the East," is not a translation, but is written by its Japanese author originally in English. This work is based not merely upon printed material and common hearsay, but upon information derived through the author's special acquaintance with surviving actors in the Restoration. In " The Awakening of Japan " the author answers with profound know- ledge, great vividness of expression, and xi intense patriotism the question now up- permost in the minds of Western ob- servers: From what sources are drawn the intellectual and moral qualities which have enabled the present genera- tion of statesmen, citizens, soldiers, and sailors, under an able emperor, to enter suddenly, as a first-class liberal power, into the company of nations? The author shows clearly and pictur- esquely that the accomplishments of the New Japan are the natural outcome of her history, her religion, her art, her tradition. He declares that there is no 'Yellow Peril"; that the empire, though warlike, stands not for aggres- sion but for peace ! He sketches the en- tire history of the country, but dwells particularly upon modern events and developments, the opening of the long- closed door of the imprisoned nation by Commodore Perry, the restoration of the Mikado to power, the new regime, the occasion of the war of 1904. He essays an answer to the anxious query xii of the admirers of the art of Japan: Will Japan's modern successes lead to the loss of its ancient and distinctive art? He indicates some of the tendencies which may affect the future of the Orient; and he speaks especially of the Christian attitude toward woman as an influence upon the society and civili- zation of Japan. Xlll THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN THE NIGHT OF ASIA THE sudden development of Japan has been more or less of an enigma to foreign observers. She is the coun- try of flowers and ironclads, of dash- ing heroism and delicate tea-cups, the strange borderland where quaint shad^ ows cross each other in the twilight of the New and the Old World. Un- til recently the West has never taken Japan seriously. It is amusing to find nowadays that such success as we have achieved in our efforts to take a place 3 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN among the family of nations appears in the eyes of many as a menace to Christendom. In the mysterious no- thing is improbable. Exaggeration is the courtesy which fancy pays to the unknown. What sweeping condem- nation, what absurd praise has not the world lavished on New Japan? We are both the cherished child of modern progress and a dread resurrection of heathendom the Yellow Peril itself! Has not the West as much to un- learn about the East as the East has to learn about the West? In spite of the vast sources of information at the command of the West, it is sad to realize to-day how many misconcep- tions are still entertained concerning us. We do not mean to allude to the unthinking masses who are still domi- nated by race prejudice and that vague 4 THE NIGHT OF ASIA hatred of the Oriental which is a relic from the days of the crusades. But even the comparatively well-informed fail to recognize the inner significance of our revival and the real goal of our aspirations. It may be that, as our problems have been none of the sim- plest, our attitude has been often para- doxical. Perhaps the fact that the his- tory of East Asiatic civilization is still a sealed book to the Western public may account for the great variety of opinions held by the outside world con- cerning our present conditions and fu- ture possibilities. Our sympathizers have been pleased to marvel at the facility with which we have introduced Western science and industries, constitutional government, and the organization necessary for car- rying on a gigantic war. They forget 5 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN that the strength of the movement which brought Japan to her present position is due not less to the innate virility which has enabled her to as- similate the teachings of a foreign civ- ilization than to her capability of adopting its methods. With a race, as with the individual, it is not the ac- cumulation of extraneous knowledge, but the realization of the self within, that constitutes true progress. With immense gratitude to the West for what she has taught us, we must still regard Asia as the true source of our inspirations. She it was who trans- mitted to us her ancient culture, and planted the seed of our regeneration. Our joy must be in the fact that, of all her children, we have been permitted to prove ourselves worthy of the in- heritance. Great as was the difficulty 6 THE NIGHT OF ASIA involved in the struggle for a national reawakening, a still harder task con- fronted Japan in her effort to bring an Oriental nation to face the terrible ex- igencies, of modern existence. Until the moment when we shook it off, the same lethargy lay upon us which now lies on China and India. Over our country brooded the Night of Asia, en- veloping all spontaneity within its mys- terious folds. Intellectual activity and social progress became stifled in the at- mosphere of apathy. Religion could but soothe, not cure, the suffering of the wounded soul. The weight of our burden can never be understood with- out a knowledge of the dark back- ground from which we emerged to the light. The decadence of Asia began long ago with the Mongol conquest in the 7 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN thirteenth century. The classic civil- izations of China and India shine the brighter by contrast with the night that has overtaken them since that disas- trous irruption. The children of the Hwang-ho and the Ganges had from early days evolved a culture compara- ble with that of the era of highest en- lightenment in Greece and Rome, one which even foreshadowed the trend of advanced thought in modern Europe. Buddhism, introduced into China and the farther East during the early cen- turies of the Christian era, bound to- gether the Vedic and Confucian ideals in a single web, and brought about the unification of Asia. A vast stream of intercourse flowed throughout the ex- tent of the whole Buddhaland. Tidings of any fresh philosophical achievement in the University of Nalanda, 1 or in 1 The center of Buddhist learning in Behar. 8 THE NIGHT OF ASIA the monasteries of Kashmir, were brought by pilgrims and wandering monks to the thought-centers of China,, Korea, and Japan. Kingdoms often ex- changed courtesies, while peace mar- ried art to art. From this synthesis of the whole Asiatic life a fresh impetus was given to each nation. It is curious to note that each effort in one nation to attain a higher expression of hu- manity is marked by a simultaneous and parallel movement in the other. That liberalism and magnificence, re- sulting in the worship of poetry and harmony, which, in the sixth century, so characterized the reign of Vikra- maditya in India, appear equally in the glorious age of the Tang emperors of China (618-907), and at the court of our contemporary mikados at Nara. Again the movement toward individual- ism and renationalization which, in the 9 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN eighth century, is marked in India by the advent of Sankaracharya, the apostle of Hinduism, is followed, dur- ing the Sung dynasty (960-1260), by a similar activity in China, culminating in Neo-Confucianism and the recasting of the Zen school * of Buddhism, a phase echoed both in Japan and Korea. Thus, while Christendom was strug- gling with medievalism, the Buddha- land was a great garden of culture, where each flower of thought bloomed in individual beauty. But, alas! the Mongol horsemen un- der Jenghiz Khan were to lay waste these areas of civilization, and make of them a desert like that out of which they themselves came. It was not the first time that the warriors of the steppes 1 Zen is the sect of Buddhism which seeks illumination through self-concentration. It corresponds to the Indian Gnan. 10 THE NIGHT OF ASIA had appeared in the rich valleys of China and India. The Huns and the Scythians had often succeeded in tem- porarily inflicting their rule on the borders of these countries. After a time, however, they were either driven out, or else tamed and finally absorbed in the peaceful life of the plain. But this last Mongol outburst was of a magnitude unequaled in the past. It was destined not only to reach the Pa- cific and the Indian Ocean, but to cross the Ural and overflow Moscow. The descendants of Jenghiz Khan in China established the Yuen dynasty and reigned at Peking from 1280 to 1368, while their cousins began a series of attacks on India which ended in the empire of the Grand Moguls. The Yuens still adhered to Buddhism, though in the degenerate form known 11 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN as Lamaism; but the Mogul emper- ors of Delhi, who came in the foot- steps of Mahmud of Ghazni, had em- braced the Arabian faith as they sped on their path of conquest through southern Asia. The Moguls not only exterminated Buddhism, but also per- secuted Hinduism. It was a terrible blow to Buddhaland when Islam inter- posed a barrier between China and India greater than the Himalayas themselves. The flow of intercourse, so essential to human progress, was suddenly stopped. Our own time- honored relations with our continental neighbors even began to wane after the Mongol conquerors of China at- tempted to invade Japan in the latter part of the thirteenth century, forcing Korea to act as their ally. Their bel- ligerent attitude continued for nearly 12 THE NIGHT OF ASIA forty years; and though, thanks to our insular position and the prowess of our warriors, we were able successfully to repel their attacks, remembrance of their aggression was not to be effaced, and even led to retaliatory steps on our part. The memory of our ancient friend- ship with the courts of the Tang and Sung dynasties was lost. One of the latent causes of our late war with the Celestial Empire may be found in the mutual suspicion with which the two nations have now regarded each other for many centuries. By the Mongol conquest of Asia, Buddhaland was rent asunder, never again to be reunited. How little do the Asiatic nations now know of each other! They have grown callous to the doom that befalls their neighbors. One cannot but be struck by the con- 13 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN trast between the effect of the Mongol outburst on Buddhaland and on Chris- tendom. The maritime races of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, by their long course of mutual aggression, were well equipped to cope with the terrific onslaught of the nomadic invaders. In spite of temporary reverses, Europe may even be said to have gained some advantage from those struggles which were so disastrous to us of the East. It was then that she first developed that power of combination which makes her so formidable to-day. The Mongol outburst, which displaced the Turkish hordes and resulted in the creation of the Saracenic and Ottoman empires, gave the Frankish nations the oppor- tunity of uniting against a common enemy. Before the walls of Jerusalem and on the banks of the Danube met in 14 THE NIGHT OF ASIA comradeship, once and forever, the flower of Christian chivalry, and there was consolidated a conception of Chris- tendom such as papal Rome could never alone have brought into exis- tence. The fall of Constantinople was in itself one of the chief factors of the Italian Renaissance. The peaceful and self-contained na- ture of Eastern civilization has been ever weak to resist foreign aggression. We have not only permitted the Mon- gol to destroy the unity of Asia, but have allowed him to crush the life of Indian and Chinese culture. From both the thrones of Peking and Delhi, the descendants of Jenghiz Khan per- petuated a system of despotism con- trary to the traditional policies of the lands they had subjugated. Entire lack of sympathy between the con- 15 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN querors and the conquered, the intro- duction of an alien official language, the refusal to the native of any vital participation in administration, toge- ther with the dreadful clash of race- ideals and religious beliefs, all com- bined to produce a mental shock and anguish of spirit from which the In- dians and the Chinese have never re- covered. Such scholarship as was al- lowed to survive, was confined to those servile minds who submitted meekly to barbaric patronage. What was left of original intellectual vigor was heard only among the despairing echoes of the forest, or in the savage laughter of the bazaar. Art thenceforth becomes either ultra-conventional or else bizarre and grotesque. Attempts to overthrow the foreign yoke were not lacking, and some of 16 THE NIGHT OF ASIA them were even successful. But the disintegration of the national con- sciousness under alien tyranny made renationalization almost impossible, and the native dynasties were unable to withstand fresh waves of outside ag- gression. In China, the Ming or Bright dynasty, which wrested the gov- ernment from the Mongols in the mid- dle of the fourteenth century, soon be- came a prey to internal discords. Scarcely had the destruction attendant on the Mongol reign been repaired, when, near the end of the sixteenth cen- tury, a fresh invasion came from the north, and the Manchus tore the scep- ter from the native rulers. In spite of the strenuous efforts made by the wiser statesmen of this new dynasty, no com- plete fusion of the Manchus and the Chinese has ever been accomplished. 2 17 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN To-day the Celestial Empire is so di- vided against itself that it is powerless to repel outside attack. Europe, with her iron grasp on some of her most im- portant ports, has even contemplated the partition of the whole of China. So in India the reactionary uprising of the Mahrattas and the Sikhs against the Mohammedan tyrants, though parti- ally successful, did not crystallize into a universal expression of patriotism. This lack of unity enabled a Western power to shape her destinies. Bereft of the spirit of initiative, tired of impotent revolts, and deprived of le- gitimate ambitions, the Chinese and the Indian of to-day have come to prostrate themselves before the inevitable. Some among them find refuge in the memory of past grandeur, thus hardening the crust of tradition and exclusiveness ; 18 THE NIGHT OF ASIA while the souls of others, wafted among ethereal dreams, seek solace in an ap- peal to the unknown. The Night of Asia, which enshrouds them, is not, perhaps, without its own subtle beauty. It reminds us of the deep glorious nights we know so well in the East, listless like wonder, serene like sadness, opalescent like love. One may touch the stars behind the veil where man meets spirit. One may listen to the secret cadence of nature beyond the border where sound bows to silence. Japan, who had proved herself equal to the task of repelling the Mongol invasion, found little difficulty in re- sisting that attempt at Western en- croachment which, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, came in the form of the Shimabara Rebellion, in- stigated by the Jesuits. It has been 19 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN our boast that no foreign conqueror ever polluted the soil of Japan, but these attempts at aggression from the outside hardened our insular preju- dice into a desire for complete isolation from the rest of the world. Soon after the Jesuit war the building of vessels large enough to ride the high seas was forbidden, and no one was allowed to leave our shores. Our sole point of contact with the outside world was at the port of Nagasaki, where the Chi- nese and the Dutch were permitted, under strict surveillance, to carry on trade. For the space of nearly two hundred and seventy years we were as one buried alive! Yet a worse fate was in store for us. The Tokugawa shoguns, who brought about this remarkable isolation of Japan, ruled the country from 1600 to 20 THE NIGHT OF ASIA 1868, and threw the invisible network of their tyranny over all the nation. From the highest to the lowest, all were entangled in a subtle web of mutual espionage, and every element of indi- viduality was crushed under the weight of unbending formalism. Deprived of all stimulus from without, and impris- oned within our own island realm, we groped amid a maze of tradition. Dark- est over us lay the Night of Asia. II THE CHRYSALIS THE Tokugawa tyrants, who initia- ted the policy of strict seclusion, were the successors of various lines of shoguns who, as military regents of the Mikado, had, since the twelfth century, usurped the government of Japan. Be- fore that period, Japan was under the personal rule of the Mikado, who, with the assistance of court functionaries, reigned over the country from Kioto. The over-centralization of the imperial bureaucracy, however, was the cause of its own decay. Its neglect of provin- cial administration led to local disturb- ances and the creation of baronial es- THE CHRYSALIS tales, over which the Kioto court exer- cised no active control. The real au- thority thus came into the hands of the strongest baronial power, whose repre- sentative, vested by the Mikado with the title of shogun, or commander-in- chief , ruled the country as regent, the Mikado retaining but a nominal sov- ereignty over the empire. The first, or Kamakura, shogunate, so called from the city which its repre- sentatives made their capital, exercised the powers of government from 1186 to 1333. This was followed by a tem- porary restitution of power to the Mi- kado ; but the reins of government soon fell into the hands of another line of shoguns, the Ashikaga, who from 1336 to 1573 ruled the country from Kioto itself. The f all of the Ashikaga shogunate was followed by a long period of civil war, during which the various great barons struggled for supremacy. Out of this state of turmoil arose that Napoleonic genius, Taiko Hideyoshi, who, born a peasant, died, in 1598, the master of unified Japan. His son was, however, unable to retain the authority left him by his father, and the dic- tatorship of the empire devolved, in 1600, on lyeyasu, the first of the To- kugawa shoguns. The Tokugawa shogunate differed from those preceding it in that it was virtually a monarchy, despite its ap- parent feudalistic form. Even under the great Taiko, the government of the country was conducted by a council composed of five of the most powerful barons, but under the Tokugawa re- gime it became purely autocratic. lye- yasu framed for his descendants a 24 THE CHRYSALIS course of policy which enabled them to retain their rule through fourteen generations, until the recent restoration of the Mikado in 1868. He not merely curtailed the power of the barons until they were such only in name, but erected safeguards against every pos- sible source of danger to his dynasty. He not only cut us off from all outside intercourse, but so separated the differ- ent classes of society, that the idea of national unity became completely lost. The subtleness of his machinations is manifest not less in his elaborate scheme for maintaining military ascen- dancy than in the way in which he took advantage of our own idiosyncrasies and secret vanities to disarm all oppo- sition to his rule. In order that he might yoke us unresistingly to the car of routine, he soothed our feelings and 25 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN delighted our souls by appeals to that love and worship for the past that is one of our national instincts. Our bonds were, in fact, largely of our own weaving, and lyeyasu but lulled us to sleep, unmindful of the future, within the chrysalis of tradition. Perhaps it is for this, that he knew us only too well, we execrate his memory to-day. The mechanism of the Tokugawa rule cannot be adequately described in brief; not only is it exceedingly com- plicated, but it is without striking par- allel in the history of any country. It affords the peculiar spectacle of a so- ciety perfectly isolated and self -com- plete, which, acting and reacting upon itself, produced worlds within worlds, each with its separate life and ideals, and its own distinct expressions in art 26 THE CHRYSALIS and literature. It exhibits all the sub- tleness of European class distinction, plus the element of caste as understood in India. We can here but indicate its main phases. First, over all was the Mikado. That sacred conception is the thought-in- heritance of Japan from her very be- ginning. Mythology has consecrated it, history has endeared it, and poetry has idealized it. Buddhism has enriched it with that reverence which India pays to the " Protector of the Law," and Confucianism has confirmed it with the loyalty which China offers to the "Son of Heaven." The Mikado may cease to govern, but he always reigns. He ex- ists not by divine right, but by divine law, a fact of man and nature. He is always there, like our beloved mountain of Fuji, which stands eternally in silent 27 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN beauty, or like the glorious sea which forever washes our shore. We must remember, however, that the political significance of the Mikado has not always been the same. As we are often unconscious of the every-day facts of nature, because of their un- questioned existence, so we became un- conscious of the Mikado, and basked in the daylight, unmindful of the sun above. Clouds of successive usurpa- tions long obscured the heavens, so that devotion to the Solar Throne became a distant though never entirely forgot- ten homage. By the sixteenth century, when lyeyasu assumed the shogunate and became in reality absolute mon- arch of Japan, all memory of the per- sonal rule of the Mikado had been lost for four long centuries. The Mikado's court at Kioto, the former capital of 28 THE CHRYSALIS the imperial government, was still ex- istent, owing to its past prestige, but it was only a faint reflection of its former glory. The great genius of lyeyasu is ap- parent in his full recognition of the Mikado in the national scheme. In strong contrast to the arrogance and utter neglect which the preceding sho- guns displayed toward the court, he spared no effort to show his respect. He augmented the imperial revenues, invited the daimios (feudal lords) to participate in rebuilding the imperial palace, restored the court ceremonial and etiquette, and was unceasing in his ministrations to the welfare of the im- perial household. He even started the unprecedented ceremony of the sho- gun paying personal homage to the throne, and a brilliant pageant yearly 29 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN passed from his castle of Yedo (now known as Tokio), dazzling the de- lighted eyes of the populace as it wended its way slowly toward Kioto. All this was flattering to the national love of tradition. It was considered as heralding the advent of the mil- lennium. But behind this appearance of loy- alty to the throne lay hidden the sub- tlest snares of the Tokugawas. If they recognized the necessity of the im- perial cult, they determined that they alone should be its high-priests, and that others should worship at a respectful distance. In the name of sanctity, the Kioto court was deprived of those last remnants of political authority which former regencies had suffered it to re- tain. A strong garrison was stationed in Kioto, ostensibly for the protection 30 THE CHRYSALIS of the palace, but its members were cho- sen from the tried body-guard of the Tokugawas themselves. They contin- ued to invite one of the imperial princes to take the monastic vows and reside in Yedo as lord abbot of the Uyeno tem- ple, by which means they always virtu- ally held at their capital a hostage from the Kioto court. No daimio was al- lowed to seek audience of the Mikado without their consent. The Mikado, unseen and unheard, commanded a mysterious awe. His palace now became the " Forbidden In- terior " in the strict sense of the word. The ancient political significance of the court was lost in a semi-religious con- ception. No wonder that the Western- ers who first visited our country wrote that there were two rulers in Japan, the temporal in Yedo, and the spiri- 31 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN tual in Kioto. In spite of the constant loyalty which our forefathers expressed for the Mikado in Tokugawa days, they had none of the fiery enthusiasm which inspires us to-day. With them it was symbolism; with us it is a living reality. Next to the Mikado, and foremost in social rank (the imperial line being considered above all class distinctions), came the kuges, or court aristocracy of Kioto. The exalted position which they held in society arose from their association with the Mikado. From their position near the throne, they were called poetically the Friends of the Moon and Guests of the Cloud. Their fortunes waxed and waned with those of the imperial household, to which, regardless of the immense political changes that have come over Japan 32 THE CHRYSALIS since the days when they actively par- ticipated in the conduct of the empire, they have ever remained faithful. Herein again lies another remarkable example of that obstinate tenacity which makes the Japanese race pre- serve the old while it welcomes the new. The kuges were the successors of those princely bureaucrats who par- ticipated in the imperial rule from the year 645 to 1166. The old system of government, together with its social customs and art expressions, was based mainly on that of the Tang dynasty of China. The kuges have always re- mained guardians of its ideals. While China was trying one policy after an- other, and Japan herself was passing through various different phases of feudalism toward the monarchism of the Tokugawas, the kuges continued 3 33 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN to live the life which preceded the twelfth century. Their costumes were of the eleventh, their etiquette of the tenth century. They read Chinese with the intonation of the Tang period, and danced to the classic measure of the Bugaku music, the inheritance of an era preceding the ninth century. They delighted in the purism of the Fujiwara poetry, and affected the technic of the ancient school of paint- ing. It is to their devotion to the past that we owe the preservation of the Kharma-kanda (ritualistic obser- vances) of India and the early Buddhist doctrines of China. The Tokugawa government hu- mored and honored the court nobles be- cause of their association with the Mi- kado and the place they occupied in the history of the nation. The kuges were given precedence over the daimios, and 34 THE CHRYSALIS their incomes, if not greatly increased, were at least assured to them. This last must have been gratifying to those of them who remembered the disastrous days when they had to sell autograph poems for their sustenance. They were contented, and the Tokugawas kept them well disposed toward themselves by intermarriage and timely financial aid. All political power, however, was completely taken from the kuges, not- withstanding the high-sounding titles which they were still allowed to retain. The duty of the privy councilor would consist in debating on the merits of a love-ditty, and that of the high min- ister of state in presiding over a com- petition of nightingales. It was in those days of refined folly that the queen in our game of chess was sol- emnly abolished by imperial command. Theoretically, next to the court no- 35 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN bility of Kioto in social position, but actually far prouder and more power- ful, came the daimios, or feudal lords (literally grandees), nearly three hun- dred in number. These were divided into classes the Tozama daimios, who were the descendants of the barons of former days, and the daimios of recent creation, who had been ennobled by the Tokugawas, either for their services, or because they traced their lineage to some member of that family. In the early days of Tokugawa rule, the To- zama daimios were a source of great danger, as their ancient warlike spirit remained as yet untamed. The meth- ods that lyeyasu and his successors em- ployed in maintaining military ascen- dancy, and in generally bringing the daimios under absolute control, are a study in themselves. Any map of Japan THE CHRYSALIS in the early days of the Tokugawas will show the feudatory provinces so dis- tributed that all political combination between them was rendered impossible. On such a map we will find the daimi- ates of Tokugawa creation, which were constantly being augmented in size and strength, wedged in between the earlier daimiates. Gradually all strategical points on the main roads of communi- cation throughout the country were taken from the Tozama daimios, and either held by the shogun himself or put into the hands of his minions. The practice of assembling the daimios at Yedo to sit in conference over ques- tions of territorial rights soon led to the inauguration of a system by which each daimio was obliged to leave his terri- tory every alternate year and pay per- sonal homage to the shogun, while his 37 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN family were required to reside perma- nently at the capital as hostages. In this manner the greater part of such time as the daimios were not under im- mediate control of the shogun was con- sumed in journeying to and from their provinces, so that but little opportunity was given them to form or carry out conspiracies against the government. The newly enacted law of inheritance demanded the approval of the govern- ment in each case of succession to the daimiates, and also in all cases of mar- riage. A constant drain was main- tained on their feudatory income by inviting the daimios to assist in repair- ing the imperial palace, and in other public works. Jealousy and rivalry were encouraged to such an extent that they resulted in a lamentable condition of mutual distrust and espionage. 38 THE CHRYSALIS Those Tozama daimios who revolted against this state of things soon found out their impotence, and were inva- riably punished by the diminution, transference, or confiscation of their territorial possessions, the latter pen- alty attended with death. They were taught to realize that the government of the country, though still feudal in form, had become in reality an absolute monarchy, patriarchal and benevo- lent, but thoroughly despotic. They soon found that their smallest actions were watched with unceasing vigilance, so that they began to be distrust- ful of even their own retainers. This vigorous surveillance was not confined to the Tozama daimios alone. Dread- ing the combination of administrative power with hereditary influence, the Tokugawas invariably chose their cab- 39 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN inet ministers from among the smaller daimios of their own creation. The powerful members of their own aristoc- racy were watched as strictly as were the Tozama lords, a fact which ex- plains why all the daimios were so luke- warm in their sympathy toward the Tokugawa government during the struggles of the Restoration. Below the daimios came the samu- rai, or sworded gentry, four hundred thousand strong. They served either immediately under the shogun himself, or else under the banners of the various daimios. Their appointments were hereditary, and their blood was kept pure by the prohibition of all marriage with the lower classes, except in case of the foot-soldiers, who constituted the lowest rank of samurai. They had the right and obligation of wearing two 40 THE CHRYSALIS swords and bearing family crests. Within their own ranks were many class distinctions, each with its special privileges. The estates of high-class samurai were often wider and richer than those of the smaller daimios. Un- der the code of the samurai, however, all enjoyed that equality that belongs to comradeship in arms; and even as a king of England or France delighted in the title of first gentleman of the land, so the shogun considered himself first samurai of the empire. But with the advent of the Toku- gawa regime the existence of the dai- mio and the samurai, like that of the court aristocracy of Kioto, became an anachronism. The samurai, a product of the feudal period intervening be- tween the fall of the imperial bureau- cracy in the twelfth century and the 41 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN rise of the Tokugawa monarchy in the seventeenth century, clung with singu- lar tenacity to their past ideals. Their art was that of the Kano school, a re- flection of the fifteenth century. Their music and drama were the No, the six- teenth-century opera of Japan. Their costumes, architecture, and language retained the style of the time imme- diately preceding the Tokugawa pe- riod. Their religion followed those Zen doctrines which had been the vital inspiration of the feudal age. In fact, the whole code of the samurai was an heirloom left to them by the Kama- kura and Ashikaga knights, in whose days the whole nation was a camp. lyeyasu, accepting Japan as it was, and utilizing its idiosyncrasies, kept the military class quiet through its own love of hereditary conventions and 42 THE CHRYSALIS military obedience. Everything was regulated by precedent and routine. The son of a samurai or a daimio fol- lowed exactly in the footsteps of his father, and dreamed of no change. By giving the samurai a Confucian educa- tion, the Tokugawas both pacified his warlike instincts and encouraged his worship of tradition. The blessing of that rule which they termed the Great Peace of Tokugawa was so constantly dinned into his ears that he hoped and believed that it would be everlasting. The life of a Tokugawa daimio or samurai was not devoid of amusements. Besides his fencing-bouts and jiujitsu matches, his falconry and games of archery, he had his no-dances, his tea- ceremonies, and those interminable banquets at which he would recount the exploits of his ancestors. Moreover, 43 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN much time might be consumed in the composition of bad Chinese poems be- neath the cherry-trees. He was often wealthy and always extravagant, for his contempt for gold was ingrained. He would squander a fortune for a rare Sung vase or a Masamune blade. The marvelous workmanship of the Gotos in metal, and of the Komas in gold lacquer was the result of his pa- tronage. It is to the disappearance of the daimio and the samurai that Japan owes her sudden fall of standard in ar- tistic taste. Such samurai as had been thrown out of employment either through dis- missal by their lord or the extinction of the daimiate under which they served, were called ronin (the unattached). Sometimes a second son, with literary talents or scholastic ambitions, became 44 THE CHRYSALIS a ronin, and supported himself by teach- ing. The ronins retained all the rights and privileges of the samurai, while their state of independence gave them an individuality and freedom of thought unknown among their more orthodox brethren. It was through the ronin scholars that the first message of the Restoration was to be announced to the nation. Fourth in the social scale came the commoners, ranked in the order of farmers, artisans, and traders. As in the case of the rise of European mon- archies the populace ever came to the help of the sovereign against the no- bles, so in Japan the Tokugawas found in the commoners their best al- lies against the daimios, and conse- quently granted them many privileges hitherto unknown. Then life and prop- 45 erty of the masses found a security un- precedented in the days of the preda- tory barons. Within a limited sphere, they were even allowed to develop self- government. Industry and commerce flourished unmolested. Agriculture was specially encouraged, as rice was the medium in which the revenues of the government were taken. It is to the commoners that we owe the arts and crafts which have made Japan famous. It is to them that we are indebted for our modern drama and popular litera- ture, the color-prints of Torii and Ho- kusai. Toward the commoners also, how- ever, the Tokugawas pursued their policy of segregation, inclosing them by barriers of tradition within a sepa- rate compartment of their social struc- ture. They were welcome to their spe- 46 THE CHRYSALIS cial vocations and amusements, but they were forbidden to trespass on what belonged to the higher orders. They were not allowed to wear family crests, or even to bear surnames. They could have their theater, with its line of dangiuros (actors), but might not indulge in the wo-music of the samurai, (^ or the classic dance of the Kioto no- bility. As a precaution against an uprising, all the commoners were disarmed. An immense body of secret police was em- ployed to watch their movements, and any breath of discontent met with se- vere punishment. Silent fear haunted them, for all the walls seemed to have grown ears. Theirs it was to work and obey, and not to question. However rich or accomplished, commoners born must die commoners. Hemmed in by 47 inexorable customs and restrictions, their energy had to vent itself either through the frivolity of life or the sad- ness of religion. Can we wonder that to the more serious commoners religion consisted in an appeal to the infinite mercy of Amitaba for absorption in that divine love, the expression of which is so marked in the Bhaktas of India? Can we blame the weaker and more frivolous among them for seeking forgetfulness in the idealization of folly? Below the commoners, and, in fact, ostracized entirely from the social scheme, were the outcasts known as Yettas. They were the descendants of criminals, who, in early times, were not allowed to intermarry with other fam- ilies, and so formed a distinct caste by themselves. Some of them became 48 THE CHRYSALIS quite wealthy, owing to their posses- sion of a monopoly in the handling of leather and hide, an occupation consid- ered unclean, according to the Bud- dhist canons. It was from their ranks that the public executioners were ap- pointed. Before the Restoration, when all men were made equal in the eye of the law, any contact with this class was considered a pollution. The national consciousness, divided within itself by the dams and dikes of its own conventions, could but narrow and finally stagnate. The flow of spontaneity ceased with the end of the seventeenth century. The microscopic tendency of later Oriental thought be- came in us accentuated to a degree un- known even in China. Our life grew to be like those miniature and dwarf trees that were typical products of the Toku- 4 49 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN gawa age. Only in art and litera- ture, essentially the world of freedom, some vitality is to be found. The self -concentration of a nation during that period has given a peculiar charm to Japanese art. The worship of tra- ditions, which is the foundation of style and elegance, has given a subtle re- finement to all its expressions. Yet this very classicism was the enemy of the romanticist efforts, for true indi- viduality was subdued under the gen- eral trend of formalism. Again, the demarcation of social life and ideals prevented any creative mind from mir- roring the whole of national loves and aspirations. Despite a certain clever- ness in details, or an occasional dash of wild fancy, no painter of the caliber of Korin, 1 or poet with the strength of 1 Korin, a great colorist in the latter half of the seventeenth century. 50 THE CHRYSALIS Chikamatsu, 1 is to be found. Some, like beautiful pools, may reflect the shadows of contemporary thought; but in not one do we get a vision of the limitless ocean of the ideal. Yet the hibernation of Japan within her chrysalis must have been pleasant in itself, or the nation would not have slumbered so long. Old folks are still to be found who cherish the memory of those days of leisure, when no one was so vulgar as to think for himself, when life was elegant, if it was formal. There were always chances of being exquisitely foolish, if one was wise enough to avail himself of them. Said Kampici, the Chinese Machiavelli, in telling the secret of absolutism twenty- two centuries ago : " Amuse them, tire them not, let them not know." lye- 1 Chikamatsu, his contemporary, the Japanese Shakspere. 51 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN yasu, a past master of craft, followed these injunctions but too faithfully. We were amused, we cared not for change, we did not seek to know. Ill BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM SOME critics see in the encourage- ment given to learning that flaw in the Tokugawa system of govern- ment which caused its ultimate down- fall. Under the regime inaugurated by lyeyasu every child in the empire was obliged to learn to read and write, under the instruction of the local priests, thus giving a certain amount of education to even the meanest peasant, while innumerable academies were es- tablished throughout the length and breadth of the land. It is doubtless true that the result of these measures was to prepare the national mind for 53 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN receiving the message of the Restora- tion. Yet, when we come to examine into the nature of the instruction so freely given to the people by the To- kugawas, we shall find that perhaps lyeyasu and his immediate successors were not so far amiss in their calcu- lations, after all. All branches of knowledge are inter- esting, but some courses of study tend to encourage ignorance, and such were the courses in Buddhism and Confu- cianism which formed the sole curricu- lum in the Tokugawa academies. To those who have seen our landscapes studded with pagodas, and heard our temple bells calling from every hill, or to those who remember the great halls of learning in the various daimiates, and the chant of reciting voices in every Tokugawa village, it must seem 54 BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM strange that Buddhism and Confucian- ism played so small a part in the Res- toration. The fact is that their teach- ings never interfered in matters of state, and their influence was solely directed toward enforcing ideas of sub- mission and the love of peace. We do not agree with those enemies of lyeyasu who accuse him of being a skeptic and utilizing ethics and re- ligion only as a means to further his own ends. He was a great statesman who combined many of the characteris- tics of Cromwell and Richelieu. He was sincere, and acted, according to his lights, for what he considered the best interests of the nation. The following instance of his humanity is enough to refute those charges of heartlessness which have been brought against him. Noticing, during one of his campaigns, 55 that the enemy were using loose-shafted arrows, the heads of which remained in the wound and caused a cruel and lingering death, he gave orders that all the Tokugawa arrowheads should be securely fastened and lacquered to the shafts. We believe, however, that the " Old Badger," as he is often nick- named, knew full well the nature of Buddhist and Confucian teaching, and that his astuteness and knowledge of men did not fail to recognize the bear- ing which the Oriental philosophy of his day might have upon the further- ance of his system of government. Buddhism was never a menace to the state. The reason for this lies far back in the antithesis of the Oriental con- 0J ception of the social and supersocial order. By that antithesis the ethical life of the householder is distinguished 56 BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM from the religious life of the wander- ing recluse, the two standing in con- trast, though not necessarily antagonis- tic. Eastern society, with all its beauty of harmonized duties and intercalated occupations, is based on mutual depen- dencies, and at best can but end in con- ventionalism the moral bondage of the commune. Religion, on the other hand, furnishes the means of true /jJ emancipation, and constitutes the acme of individualism. The ideal monk is the child of freedom, who, dying to the mundane, is reborn to the realm of the spirit. He is like the lotus which rises in purity above the mire. He is silent, like the forest in which he meditates; untrammeled, like the wind that blows his gown around him. He is of no caste and no country. What if thrones are overthrown and nations enslaved: 57 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN did not Buddha, the great teacher of re- nunciation, watch with undimmed eyes the total annihilation of his own kingly race? Society, the world of tradition and ethics, looked with respect on the world of freedom, and gazed with wonder at the achievements of the spiritual work- ers who left behind them the boundary lines of school and sect as they trav- eled through the regions of the unex- plored toward the light. Chinese man- darins dreamed, amid palatial luxuries, of the bamboo forest, and sighed at the call of the pine-clad hills. The highest desire of an Indian or Japanese house- holder was to reach the age at which, leaving worldly cares to his children, he might learn that higher life of a re- cluse known as Banaprasta or Inkyo. In donning the monkish robe, a priv- 58 BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM ilege open to all, he found release from . the world of convention. It was in order to escape from social trammels * '(lA-cfi- that our artists shaved their heads and assumed the guise of priests. But the social and the supersocial worlds never clashed, for each was the counterpart of the other. In Indian society we find the Shramanic as the necessary counterbalance to the Brah- manic ideal, while in China the same positions are held by Taoism and Con- fucianism. Herein lies the secret of that toleration which has made of In- dia a museum of religions, and has caused China to welcome, so long as they do not interfere with her political system, the alien faiths of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorianism, Mo- hammedanism, and modern Christian- ity. The existence of this twofold 59 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN development also explains, in a certain measure, that attitude of liberalism and apparent indifference which our modern statesmen of Japan display toward religious questions, an atti- tude often construed as a false idea of European statecraft, if not of agnos- ticism. The demarcation of the polit- ical from the religious life, the divorce of state and church, is no new idea with us. Indeed, despite our temples and monasteries, we have no church. The innate individualism of the Buddhist ideal, unlike that of the papal church of Europe, which is even now a source of concern to some nations, has ever prevented the formation of a sin- gle powerful organization to impose its influence on the state. The tem- poral power exercised by some of our monks was due solely to their personal 60 BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM influence over the Mikado or his officers, in the imperial days before the feudal period. It was a sort of mundane of- fering laid at the feet of holiness, and was the temporary result of a purely personal relationship. The priesthood, as a body or sect, rarely tried to retain authority over the government, and the social consciousness was always eager to reclaim what it considered its own special function. A sovereign might be carried away by his spiritual zeal, but the dynasty invariably recovered its equilibrium. With the rise of the Ka- makura shogunate,the Buddhist power, which had its root in the devotion of the Kioto court, declined. The ultra-indi- vidualistic sect of Zen, which at this time became the leading school of thought, made no pretense to political ambition. During the turbulent age 61 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN that followed, the predatory attacks of neighboring barons on the monasteries caused the establishment of an armed monkhood. These warrior-priests guarded the sanctuaries, and, either alone or in alliance with various dai- mios, were a prominent feature in the Ashikaga wars, where they are often found foremost in the fray, their robe of mercy ill concealing the blood- stained mail beneath. They had, how- ever, almost disappeared by the time of lyeyasu, when the Hongangi, the last sect which still boasted of some military adherents, was easily made to submit to the authority of the shogun. The policy of lyeyasu toward Bud- dhism is characteristic of the funda- mental idea of Eastern statesmanship. Himself a Confucian, he counted among his best friends the three great 62 BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM Buddhist monks of his age. He would have tolerated even Christianity, if the Jesuit movement had not covered aj political menace. He guaranteed the privileges of the monasteries, restored and insured their revenues, and granted funds for the publication of religious works. He even enforced ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and punished by the pillory and banishment all those who broke the monastic vows. But at the same time he debarred the priest- hood from any participation in the gov- ernment. He abolished the custom of employing Buddhist agents in diplo- matic amenities with Korea, and ap- pointed a lay officer to control all af- fairs connected with the clergy. The influence of Buddhism was on the wane. Under the protection afforded to the monkhood, and the cultured ease they 63 THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN enjoyed, the monasteries became uni- versities whose occupants were famed more for their erudition than for their holiness. The single new sect which originated in that era differed from the others only in discipline, a subject widely discussed in that age of order and strict regime. Like Buddhism, Confucianism had in its later developments become super- social and indifferent to politics through its absorption of Taoist and Buddhist ideals. In China, from the latter part of the Tang dynasty, Confucianism tended to become religious instead of being purely ethical, as in previous -f days. In Japan this tendency was even more pronounced, for during our feudal age all branches of learning were confined to the Buddhists, so that the early teachers in the Tokugawa 61 ^A BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM academies were mostly monks who had been induced to return to a secular life in order to impart secular teaching. They did not give up their Buddhist costume for a long time, and used to shave their heads even after they began to wear swords like other samurai. They were all followers of the school / u, of Shiuki, a Neo-Confucian of the Sung dynasty, and the teaching they imparted accorded well with their dress. Neo-Confucianism, a product of that remarkable age of "illumination," soj rich in creative efforts both in art and literature, aimed at a synthesis of Tao- ist, Buddhist, and Confucian thought, and marks the result of a brilliant ef- fort to mirror the whole of Asiatic con- sciousness. Its exponents differed in their interpretation of the Confucian classic, according to their mental affini- 65