The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-10

palace gate of her vanquished foe, "The AIns or Korea Is the dog of Japan" her son was born after her return to Japan. He became Opin Tenno ana u,a . 1 dehcd as the War God of Japan under the Chinese name of Hachimah, of which tho Japanese equivalent is Yawata. He l won no distinction as a warrior his claim 10 worship by martial souls being simply ms prenatal influence on his mother when she was fighting her great battles. The last Mikado who fought hard { against being a mere flgurehead was Go Dalgo Tenno, monarch famous in Japa- hese history for his misfortunes. His | reign lasted from 1919 to 1889. In the l early part of 1t he was defeated by reb- els and banished. Eventually he re- turned and regained his power, but a wicked concubine bribed by his enemies. poisoned his mind against his best friends and even persuaded him to imprison and execute his own son on a false charge of treason. Too late, he turned from his evil counsellor and ruled wisely. Then his chief enemy, TakauJi. set up a rival Mikado, and bitter civil war ensued, in which Go Daigo perished.
 A legend is told of this Mikado which recalls the familiar story of Blondel and Richard of the Lion Heart.
 A warrior of noble birth, named Ko1ima Takanori, cherished a romantic loyalty for him. When the ill-fated monarch was being carried Into exile, Kojima tried to rescue him on the road, but failed. Sore ly wounded, he followed the royal caval- cade and its strong guard of soldiers to a roadside inn, but could not gain access to the Mikado. At ILg1ht he stole through the ring of sentries into the garden, scraped some of the bark of a cherry trnn nd nn following quotation from an ancient Chi nese poem:
 Heaven! destroy not Kosen,
 For he Is not without Hanrei!"
 The reference was to a Chinese King who, after a long period of warfare, was helped to victory by a faithful vassal. The Miloado saw the message of hope and was comforted in his exile. In Japan the cherry tree is the emblem of patriotism and loyalty. so that It's choice as the medium of such q message was particu- larly appropriate Kojima died, some years later. fighting for his beloved mas ter.
 Another unfortunate monarch was An toku Tenno an infant Mikado, who per ished in the great sea fight which ended the long and bloody contest between the Taira and M1namoto clans. When the fleet in which he Was borne had been ut- terly defeated his mother wanted to save him; but his fierce old grandmother would not hear of 1t. She insisted that the Mikado could not honorably survive de- feat. so she folded the poor baby in her arms and jumped into the sea-
 Suinin Tenno and His Traitorous
 Queen.
 The history of Japan Is full of trage- dies but there Is none more terrible than that of Suinin Tenno, the eleventh Elm peror, and his traltorous queen. Her brother wanted to rule as Mikado. and she plotted with him to murder her hus- band. But as she stood over his body one night with a dagger in her hand, her heart failed her, and she wept instead of striking the fatal blow
 Her tears fell on the face of her hus- band and awoke him. Pale with terror, he told her he had dreamed that a snake had coiled itself around his breast and was about to strike him, and he won dered what the dream meant.
 The guilty queen. stricken with terror and remorse, fled from the palace witch her brother. They gathered their par ds- ans together and awaited the attaclk Of the Emperor, entrenched behind the pail sades. At this critical moment the Elm press gave birth to a child.
 s the loyal army advanced to thfs as
 It she went alone outside the pail
 cid up the child in full view 2.