Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/37

Rh physical strength that it demanded was decorously and elegantly exercised.

Gambling, which in the Nara and Heian epochs had been regarded as a somewhat vulgar pastime, prevailed extensively under the Military regimen. From the General officer to the transport coolie, almost every one was addicted to this vice. Usually dice were employed, but sometimes shells took their place, the hazard depending upon the faces exposed by the shells when thrown. Money was wagered also upon the game of go, and it is recorded that the ranks of the vagabond and burglar classes received large accessions, owing to the ruin which constantly overtook devotees of these various games. An attempt made by the Kamakura rulers at the zenith of their power, in the middle of the thirteenth century, failed to check the abuse, and at a later period the samurai fell into the habit of staking their arms, armour, and horse-trappings on a cast of the dice, so that men would go into battle with helmets and no cuirasses, or in partial panoply without swords. Finally (in the middle of the fourteenth century), the vice prevailed so extensively that a fully equipped soldier, from the medium grade downward, was rarely seen in the fight. One effect of the abuse was that men began to think robbery more respectable and less dangerous than going into battle with deficient arms or armour. They took what they wanted wherever they could find it, and presently the