Japanese Memories

Japanese Memories
By Ethel Howard
Author of "Potsdam Princes."
LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED HUSBAND
The Past is gone, yet echoes still remain: Sweet memories of love, sad memories of pain. Then let us learn of each, and, day by day, Strive to retain the good and throw the dross away The Truth will live, we only need the Real To guide us onward to the Great Ideal.
H. A. B.
AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my grateful thanks to Lady MacDonald for her generous help and encouragement during my work in Japan, and also for her great kindness in allowing me to use the photographs, taken by the late Sir Claude MacDonald, which add so enormously to the value of my little book.
E. B.
JAPANESE MEMORIES
FOREWORD
THE contents of this book are primarily personal experiences of a seven years' stay in the house of a Japanese nobleman, having been gleaned from jottings in my diary and such reminiscences as my memory recalls. In writing of a country so steeped in centuryold traditions and of a people so loath, in many ways, to adopt Western culture, it is necessary to introduce a little history at the outset, for the reader will have to familiarize himself with certain strange names and systems that had dominated the social order in Japan without change for generations, and still influenced both ruler and ruled at the time of my arrival in that country in 1901.
Since the house of a Daimyo was my destination, it will be perhaps well for me first to explain the meaning of that title, and the standing and identity of such an all-powerful nobleman as the Prince of Satsuma. Up to 1868 Japan had a Feudal System, and under the Emperor there was a Viceroy or Military Suzerain, known officially by the title of "Shogun," who swore fealty to the Emperor, and in his turn had as his vassals the Daimyos or dukes of the country, who were some two hundred and sixty-seven in number. The Provinces of Japan were formerly governed by Daimyos under the Shogun, to whom they paid homage, and their vassals were in turn the Knights of their own Province, who as a class bore the name of Samurai.
The Samurai of old had very high standards of duty loyalty and obedience to their lord and master being foremost. Their sword was the very expression of their soul, a weapon for defending right and subduing wrong. They regarded all kinds of trade as beneath them, never coveting gold, and, in fact, preferring poverty as being decidedly more honourable than riches. In their eyes it would have been an insult to receive payment for any duty rendered to their lord. But they expected of their Daimyo that his soul should be that of an ideal warrior, of a brave fighter untouched by the things of this world, and for this reason he was kept as a recluse in his castle.
The Shogun was appointed by the Emperor, who was given a free choice in the matter until 1603, when lyeyasu was appointed to this office. He was a member of the Tokugawa family and a man of tremendous influence, and for two hundred and sixty-five years from his being appointed the Shogunate remained exclusively in the Tokugawa family as an hereditary office. The appointment was still nominally made by the Emperor, but he was compelled to offer it to a member of this family.
As time went on the Shogun became more and more powerful, and the Emperor ceased to take any active part in the affairs of government. He resided in Kyoto, the capital, and lived in complete seclusion, the Shogun visiting him once a year to pay homage as his vassal. The Daimyos lived half the year in their own Province and during the other half in Tokio, by command of the Shogun, who resided there, and who fixed the time for their yearly visit. When the day came for a Daimyo to visit Tokio it was a very big undertaking. He was carried in a palanquin, with curtains all round it, and was accompanied by a large retinue consisting of a number of pedestrians and a few horsemen.
There is a long, lonely road leading from Kyoto to Tokio called the Tokaido road, along which the Daimyos' processions used to pass. At the present day many pilgrims are to be seen walking along it in white kimonos and large broad-brimmed hats, each carrying a red blanket and a piece of matting by way of a bed. There is also up at Nikko a most beautiful avenue, with rows of fine cryptomeria trees, which were planted as a memorial by the Daimyos after the death of lyeyasu. No words can describe the beauty of these