Page:The Awakening of Japan, by Okakura Kakuzō; 1905.djvu/51

 of the palace, but its members were chosen from the tried body-guard of the Tokugawas themselves. They continued to invite one of the imperial princes to take the monastic vows and reside in Yedo as lord abbot of the Uyeno temple, by which means they always virtually held at their capital a hostage from the Kioto court. No daimio was allowed to seek audience of the Mikado without their consent.

The Mikado, unseen and unheard, commanded a mysterious awe. His palace now became the "Forbidden Interior" in the strict sense of the word. The ancient political significance of the court was lost in a semi-religious conception. No wonder that the Westerners who first visited our country wrote that there were two rulers in Japan, the temporal in Yedo, and the