The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-03-20

| port of Yokohoma.
After a period Of feudal overlordship
the Shoguns in their turn dwindled into
mere pupSsts and were superseded by
their vassals, the Hojo lords, who were
in the ascendant from 1205 to 1893 A. d.
| AT this time occurred the great Mongol
| invasion of Japan under Kublai Khan.
! The invasion, with the aid of the ele-
ments, was successfully repulsed. There
! after, for some sixty years. there were
/ two rival dynasties of Emperors, the
northern dynasty, supported by the Ash
| ikaga family. finally proving the victor.
| The rule of this family continued till 1913
! ana this period was one of high culture
/ and refined art
In 1852 the Portuguese entered the coun-
| try. introducing firearms and an aggres-
sive religion. A wonderful momentary
conversion, under Francis Xavier, re-
suited. But papal pretentions and various
imprudences reused the jealous patriotism
Of the nation. A period of anarchy en-
sued followed by the rise Of three able
generals and administrators. One Of
them, Hideyoshi, having succeeded in re-
storing order and unity in the state, en-
plOyed the great army he had organized
in an expedition against Korea Q592-l59s)
But no permanent held on that country
was obtained and when Hideyoshi died
no one appeared TO carry on his ambitious
scheme Of territorial acquisition. A great
work of interior organization and central-
cation, however, was carried out, and the
turbulent feudal mobiles, the Daimio, were
sub1ued. Meanwhile. hostility against the
lore bad The West
it seemed, did not understand or care to
understand the position. The land became
an arena for the struggles, not of Western
cTeeds, but of parties or confraternities
within a creed, representing after sort
the rivalries of two kindred peoples the
Spaniards and the Portuguese. The in
sane competition between the Jesuts and
the Franciscans led TO the reversal of the
policy of the pre-Tokukawa Shogunate.
any Iycyasu. the Light of the East, as he
was afterwards canonized almost at the
very moment when he brought the $50
petty states into which Japan was divided
under the overlordship of his dynasty, ar
rested the development for which he had
prepared the way and withdrew the coun-
try into an isolation, unparalleled in the
history Of the world, for nearly two cen
turtles and a half
This was in 1888. The Dutch alone. in
the restricted area Of Nagasaki. were
granted very narrow privileges of trad
ing Christianity was rooted out The /
Japan of this period is the Japan of ro-
nance, OF exquisite suicide. of elaborate
punctilio, of exquisite taste in lacquer,
porcelain. and inlaid work Though the !
desultory system of private war came to |
an end with the rise to power Of the |
dynasty, the age remained an |
age of blood. Vendettas were mercilessly /
continued from generation to generation, /
the slightest political disaffection was 1
punished By death. wholesale harakiri /
were practiced on trivial pTetexts, while |
the annual number of executions at Yedo |
alone by decapitation crucifiXion, and at
the stake amounted To three thousand,
and torture was a principal element in
criminal procedure, as indeed. it continued |
to be up to 1873, long after the Japanese
had begun to clamor for the abolition of
extra terrtoriality. Yet amid this ruth
less ferocity, the arts fiourished, literature
and philosophy were cultivated, refined
were created and elaborated
to conventional pedantries Materially
and morally little progress was made dur
ng the Tokugawa period. Nevertheless.
the seeds of change lay dormant here and
there, and showed signs of termination
even before the advent of the foreigners
gave them catalytic impulse towards
a fuller life. The Tokugawa system al
most the only merit of which was its abo-
ition Of private war, was slowly under
mined by its own inertia by the gradual
Of European ideas through the
Dutch lin spite Of the confinement of the
after to a small area, by the spread of
encouraged by the Shoguns
themselves, which inculcated the supreme
Importance of the people, by the revival
{ the religion of Shnton, by the publica-
ion of the famous "Gwaishi out
aders history of Japan-and lately by the
abolition of the law obliging the Daimios
O reside every alternate year in Yeddo,
md requiring the permanent residence of
heir families there as hostages for their
good behavior. 1t was no great shock or
surprise. therefore. when in 1854. Commo-
lore Perry, Of the United States navy,
steamed up the harbor at UraCa with a
squadron of war vessels. After that
Western influence began 10 be felt more
strongly. Twenty years later French Off
ers We're invited 10 organize an army;
British naval mission organized a navy;
professors from the United States estab-
shed an educational department; and
British and Dutch engineers set about
making railroads, harbors. and canals In
$40 a dispute with China over the Loo
hoo Islands ended in Japan annexing that
erritory. \ more serious conflict with
'hina about the Korean peninsula broke
ut in open warfare in 1885,. The japan
Sc proved much the stronger combatant
n dthe war ended in 1895 all in their IA
or. They surprised the Western nations
] this war by their exhibition Of naval
Since this event Japan has en-
cred enthusiastically upon a policy of in
us.rial and commercial expansion. and
he japanese have astonished the whole
'orld by their energy and ability and sud 5
en- adapta bility 10 Western methods and g
onditionS. a
Under the new regime. the number of c
lajor crimes diminished in a decade from !!
ZOO to 1000. Yet eishty executions take 3
lace annually in Tokyo. The number of :
inor crimes increased. during the same
ecade from 225.o)2 to 2ltnro. and suicides r
lcreased from $50 TO 80 The number &
case sof fraud nearly doubled-from (
500 to l6.ooa The Tcnno uhe Emperor n
a fisurehcad. but a/~ensible one. His Of ?
&c. however. is at present the most i'm a
1rtaut element in the constitution. Were Ii
le reverence for II. now almost univer- Z
II. 10 diminish 70 any serious extent it i
impossible TO foresee what would hap Ii
n. Some observers think that the coun- I.