Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/313

 stick. Thus the upper margin of the tempered section showed a more or less irregular line, which, like the marks of the forger's hammer, furnished a means of identification. The presence of this line of demarkation has betrayed many persons into the erroneous supposition that the edge of a Japanese sword is welded to the body of the blade.  —For fuller information on all these points see an admirable essay by Mr. Ed. Gilbertson, in the fourth volume of the Japan Society's Transactions, and another by Professor Hütterott in the Proceedings of the German Asiatic Society for 1885.  —First among the swords of Japan ranked the sacred blade which formed one of the Imperial Regalia. Then came the Hirugoza (daily companion), the Hateki (foe-smiter), and the Shugo (guardian) of the Emperor; followed by the "Beard-cutter" (hige-kiri) and the "Knee-severer" (hiza-kiri) of the Minamoto, so called because, after cutting off a head, one divided the beard also, the other gashed the knees, of the decapitated man; then the "Little Crow" (ko-garasu) and the "Out flasher" (nuki-maru) of the Taira, and then innumerable other celebrated blades preserved in the families of feudal nobles.  —Religious influence often showed itself in the legends on flags. A common inscription was Namu Amida Butsu (hear! Oh, Amida Buddha) or Hachiman Daibosatsu, a compound of Shintô with Buddhist tenets; or Namu Horengekyo, the formula of the Nichiren sect. The celebrated soldier Katō Kiyomasa always used this last legend for his pennon.  —A tent was simply a space enclosed with strips of cloth or silk, on which was blazoned the crest of the commander. It had no covering.  —These two last principles are based on the idea of not driving the foe to desperation. There is reason to think that when the Japanese invested the Chinese forces in Ping-yang, in 1894, they acted upon the advice of the third-century strategists, for they deliberately left a road of escape for the enemy, who took it.  —The Japanese military man is called indiscriminately samurai or bushi. Samurai originally signifies "guard," 