The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-25

forget what Dr. Jordan did not speak
 of, that remarkable passage in the
 Legacy of Lyeyasu," the founder of
 the Takugawa dynasty, an injunction which has been divine law in the creed of the samurai Iyeyasu wrote for the ! samurai this counsel: Tn respect to re- Venging injury done to master or fath- | CT, 1t is granted by the wise and vir- | tuous (Confucius) that you and the in- jurer cannot live together under the
 canopy of heaven" This passage, dur | ing the last 300 years, has impelled | thousands of atal sword strokes in l Japan, in either the duel, the feud or in assassination. The medieval ages of Europe were never more blood stained
 in this way than the TakugaWa era of
 Japan,
 Neither may we forget here the world- famed Forty-Seven Ronin. Were they
 not all samurai? Dr. Inonyne says that
 the principles of Yamaga Soko, the or
 ganizer of the code of Bushido. were
 imbibed by the Forty-Seven Ronin and
 by hundreds of other warriors of those
 times" pr. William F. Griffis says of
 these Ronin: '"These forty-seven men
 hated wife, child, society, name, fame,
 food and comfort for the sake of aveng-
 ing the death of their master. After
 they had killed their lords enemy, by
 the law of their code they killed them
 selves. Thousands of pilgrims every year do homage at their tombs. No
 dramas are more permanently popular
 on the stage than those which display
 the virtues of these heroes the right
 eous samurai' The story of the For
 ty-Seven Ronin is even to-day like
 Bible to most of the youth of Japan.
 Two centuries of enthusiastic admira-
 tion of whole people" writes Prof. B. H. Chamberlain, has been the reward of their obedience to the ethical code of
 their time and country"
 It was only in July last that Prof. Kikuchi, the imperial minister of edu- cation, in intoxicating the higher moral ity needed in Japan to-day,said The did not hold up Kusunoki Masashige and Oisni Yolto as examples for direct imi- tation to these times of peace, but he
 did commend the spirit by which these heroes had been animated.' Kusunoki and his follower committed suicide. Oishi was the leader of the Forty Seven Ronin.
 I know that the times have changed much in Japan within the last half cen- tury, and that the old age is passing away. But if is true also that the in- nuence of the Bushido in its seven forms is still mighty force, and when it is evidently sincerely followed, as with Iba, great deal of popular sym pathy is given to it. Dr. Grims writes further: Tn this era Of Meiii most ap- palling is the list of assassnations, be- ginning with the murder in Kioto of Yoko Heishiro. Yet in every case the murderers considered themselves con- secrated men and ministers of heavens righteous vengeance. Of course, as ev- cry one knows, the assassins are legal criminals, but so exact an. authority as Prof Chamberlain writes: Mark one i curious point-the vendetta was in- peratively prescribed by custom, | though forbidden by law Not to take { vengeance on an enemy Involved social i ostracism On the other hand, to take | it involved capital punishment. But | not to take it was an idea which never | entered the head of any .efivalrous Jap | anese.'
 will not tax your indulgence further to reply to my critic. Nor need I say 4 more. The literature I could quote from is voluminous. IGhold it a com. I that, to take the last half century only from the assassination of Ii Ramon no Kami, whose assassins aid in their letters to the Yedo author- t ties: "We have consecrated ourselves as the instruments of heaven for pun ishing the wicked man. to the Nping of Arinori Mori and Toru Hosf1i the 'assas sins have all pleaded loyalty and love of country, the supreme virtues of Bushdo, as the justification of their F deeds, and I hold further that the his- Y tory of .Bushido. as practiced, supports r them in their making this plea
 Bushido, as a code of personal loyal ty, integrity, virtue and honor, is wor- < thy the highest praise. But unquestion- ably in old Japan, and even in the Y Japan of to-day the samurai's creed has again and again led it's votaries to 7 attempt to set right what they have bought wrong, even to the extreme of .akng the lives of others and of bring ng about their own deaths.-Clay Mac Cauley in Japan and America"