Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/239

 the modern Japanese that their loyalty to the Throne is limitless, and that a counterpart cannot be found elsewhere. The Japanese themselves assert the fact; assert it with vehemence and insistence calculated to suggest doubt rather than to inspire confidence. But the above historical analysis shows conclusively that if loyalty to the Throne survived down to the Meiji era, it did so in spite of frequent encroachments upon the Imperial prerogatives and constant displays of disrespect; that it seldom or never took the form of practical reverence, and that its existence as a directing influence could not possibly be inferred from the conduct of either the bushi or the Court nobles in ante-Meiji days. In short, like his feverish patriotism, the almost delirious loyalty of the modern Japanese, though its roots may be planted in the soil of a very ancient creed, never showed any signs of vigorous growth until the profound fealty of the bushi towards their liege lords was transferred, after the abolition of feudalism, to the only figure that had survived all vicissitudes, the sovereign. It is not intended to deny that loyalty to the Throne partakes of the character of a religion in modern Japan, and that the people's reverence for the Sovereign amounts almost to worship. But with the frequently asserted claim that such loyalty is traditional, such reverence hereditary, it is impossible for any careful student of history to fully agree.