The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-11-08
FABLE Of THE
CHERRY TREE
Sheba Tells of the Part 1t Has
Played in the History of
Old Japan.
STORY OF TAKAN0RI KOJlMA
George Washington and His
Handy Ratchet Hundreds
of Years Late.
STORY OF TAKAN0Rl KoJlMA

George Washington was not the first
person to make the cherry tree "a
nous, for hundreds of years before he
was small boy with a handy Ratchet
IN his fathers orchard, cherry tree
pi"yed an important part in the his
tory of Japan. according to statements
made by Editor Sheba of the Hawaii
Shlnpo at the banquet of the Japanese
Merchants Association on Saturday
night.
Tableaux of historical nature were
shown, depicting scenes of anoien. ia
pan, and among them was one repre-
senting the patriot Takanori Koiima,
who own night stole into the camp of
Ashitoga the usurper, in order to save
Emperor Go Daigo, who was being
exiled to an isolated island. Takanori
erept into the camp while watehman
were asleep, but being unable to save
the emperor, he peeled off the bark IF
a cherry tree in the garden and wrote
a poem on the clean surface, which
the emperor saw the next morning, and
was delighted to know that in spite of
the turbulent condition of affairs then
existing, there were some subjects who
remained loyal to him.
There were other tableaux. One
was of Hideyoshi, who played most
important part in the history of ia
pan. The union of the empire, the
Capitalization of the government, and
a number of other benefits reaped by
the nation were the result of his ge.
MUS. Confusion and utter disorgani.
cation prevailed throughout the eoun-
try when Hideyoshi rose to power. A
famous japanese historian describes the
age as one in which ''the tail was too
| big to be wagged, the head lost con
| troll of the limbs of the body polite. y
| The ruler of the nation lost his power
and the country was in a state OF
chaos. The history of this period wat
one of usurpation, plotting and coun
| terplotting, universal distrust, a tota
disregard of principle, neglect of learn
| ing, agriculture and commerce. The
utter misery of the age that preceded
| Hideyoshf defies adequate description
1t was unprecedented in japanese
annals.
BY the genius, indomitable courage
and resolution of one man, Hideyo-
shi, the whole aspect of affairs be
came changed, and two hundred and
fifty years of peace and prosperity sue
ceeded two centuries of civil strife
and all its attending evils. Hideyo-
shi S mother prayed to the goddess Sun
for a son. He came into the world,
and his whole career was marvel
Gus one. He subdued all rivals and re-
stored peace to the empire.
But his ambition was unbounded. and
when he was the actual ruler of Japan
he gave his land and money away to
his generals and sent an army into Ko-
rea as a step to further his ambition.
His career resembles that of Alexander
the Great. In the tableau represent
ing Hideyoshi. there was another char
acter. that of Yodogimi. who is often
compared with Cleopatra, and, to fur
Their carry out the comparison, Hide
voshi was like Caesar.
The characters in the tableaux were
costumed and made up to look like
the pictures of the fierce, mustached,
oldtime shoguns.