Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-05-10

:. "A warrior OF noble birth named no
9ima Takanori, cherished a romantic
loyalty for him. When the i'll fated
monarch was being carried into exile,
ko11ma tried ito rescue him on the
road. but failed. Sorely wounded, he
followed the royal cavalcade and its
strong guard of soldiers to a roadside
Inn, but could not gain access to the
mlkado. AT night he stole through
the ring OF sentries into the garden,
scraped some of the bark off a cherry
tree, and wrote on the white wood the
following quotation from an ancient
Chinese poem:
Heaven! destroy not Kosen,
For he is not without Hanrei!
The reference was, to Chinese
king, who, after a long period of war
fare, was helped to victory by a faith
full yassal. The mikado saw the mes
sage OF hope and was comfarted in his
exile. In Japan the cherry tree is the
emblem of patriotism and loyalty, so
that its choice as the medium of such
message was particularly approprl-
ate. Kojima died, some years later,
fighting for his beloved master.
Another unfortunate monarch was
Antoku Tenno, an infant mikado, who
persisted in the great sea fight which
ended the long and bloody contest be-
tween the Tara and Minamoto clans.
When the fleet in which he was borne
had been utterly defeated his mother
wanted to have him: but his fierce old
grandmother would not hear of it. She
insisted that the mikado could not hon
orably survive refeat, so she folded the
poor baby in her arms and jumped into
the sea.
Sunin Tenno and Traitorous Queen.
The history of Japan is full of trag-
edies, but there is none more terrible
than that of Suinin Tenno the elev-
enth emperor and his traitorous queen.
Her brother wanted to rule as mika-
do and she plotted with him to murder
her husband. But as she stood over
his body one night with 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 ter
ror. he told her he had dreamed that
a snake had coiled itself around his
breast and was about to sting him,
and he wondered what the dream
meant.
The guilty queen, stricken with ter
ror and remorse, fled from the palace
with her brother. They gathered their
partisans together and awaited the at
tack of the emperor, entrenched be-
hind palisades. At this critical mo.
ment the empress gave birth to a
child.
AS the loyal army advanced to the
assault she went alone outside the pal.
isades, held up the child in full view
of the two forces and cried aloud, be.
seeching. the emperor to take it into
his care. He was deeply moved, for
he loved her; and he told a band OF
his trustiest warriors to advance to
take the child and also to try to cap
ture, the mother
But she had anticipated his wish
She had shaved her head and replaced
the severed hair as a wig; she had
soaked her clothes and jewe
strings in sake" to make them
rotten. When the soldiers seiz
ed her as she held out the babe tc
them her hair came off, her clothes
tore. her jewels broke; and SO she es
capped from their clutches and fled
back to the palisades.
During the furious assault that fol
lowed, while all the defenders were
perishing by fire and sword, the EN-
peror shouted above the tumult to his
guilty spouse to ask her what name
Should be given to the child and how
it should be brought up. She CRIED
back name, gave the required direc
tons and then persisted with her broth
er in the massacre.
The throne of Japan is probably the
only one in the world which has beer
wrestled for. Wrestling is the his
toric national sport of Japan. In the
ninth century mikado died, leaving
two sons who disputed the succession
Instead of plunging the country into q
civil war they sensibly agreed to &C
cept the arbitrament of mimic battle
Each chose champion and the one
who proved to be the better wrestler
won the throne for his patron.
How the Line Has Survived.
The japanese are immensely proud
Of the antiquity and continuity of their
imperial dynasty, but the line would
not be in existence today if European
ideas OF royal succession had been fol
lowed. Many of the mikados We're the
sons of concubines, and others were
adopted by the previous monarch from
distant branches of the imperial fam,
| lily. But even taking these facts into
consideration the long life Of the dy-
nasty is surprising.
| The student of Japanese history is
at first COMPOUNDED by the extraor.
binary number of monarchs who fit
| across the scene. In the traditional
period the ages of the emperors chal
lenged comparison with those of the
patriarchs of scripture. Several of
them lived to be over 100 years, and
reigned until they died, while the aver
age age of the first seventeen was
over 100 years But later on, when
the emperors became fgureheads, they
were constantly advocating, sometimes
only after years reign 1t was quite
common in the middle ages of Japan
for three mikados to be alive at the
same time-a boy on the throne. his
Rather or grandfather. who had abdi.
Gated, and his grandfather, who had