Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/115

 obscure outlines of a dark figure seated behind a semi-transparent curtain. But, though shorn of temporal power, the Emperor gained in mystical dignity. He received periodically the profound homage of the Yedo Regents. From him the living derived their titles; the dead their apotheosis, and by an Imperial delegate even the Shōgun himself was invested. In the speech of the people he was always "the Son of Heaven;" in their writings the line where his name figured might never be invaded by any other ideograph. A magnificent abstraction, the possibility of his becoming involved in any intrigue, voluntarily or involuntarily, grew more and more remote in proportion as his godlike dignity obtained fuller appreciation. That was the end contemplated by Iyeyasu. Against the head of the secular administration, the Shōgun in Yedo, who held his commission direct from the sovereign, every insurrection unsanctioned by the Emperor would be technically rebellion, and every insurgent a traitor to the Throne. Iyeyasu made it virtually impossible for any one to obtain that sanction or even to seek it.

Responsible government had never before existed in Japan, and Iyeyasu thus became the author of the first written constitution. The so-called constitution of Prince Shôtoku in the seventh century had been only a collection of moral maxims; but now a document was drafted consisting of thirty-five articles, seventeen of