Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/97

 of life suggests that it might be revived at any moment.

Barristers are spoken of above as an outcome of the legal and judicial reforms of 1872. They are not the first of their genus in Japan. Their prototype was the kuji-shi (public-business man) of Tokugawa times. A modern barrister (bengo-shi) would be much offended, however, were he described as a kuji-shi, and his mood may be explained by saying that the nearest equivalent of the Japanese kuji-shi is the American "scheister." The kuji-shi did not require to be versed in law. There were, in effect, few laws for him to study. His equipment consisted of wiliness and craft. He found no opportunity to plead his client's cause in open Court, and if he had attempted to make capital out of legal quibbles, he would probably have been himself removed to the dock without delay. His function was to circumvent the other side by trickery, by falsehood, by forgery, or by treachery. He cared nothing for loyalty. To acquire an intimate knowledge of a client's case and then to sell that knowledge to the adversary, was a common device. So detestable did his practice render him that, in 1838, the Shōgun's Government forbade the employment of kuji-shi, and directed that all persons following that profession should be driven from their dwellings. The modern bengo-shi is a very different kind of person. He has graduated at the law schools, he has received his diploma, and he has a recog-