Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/256

Rh sovereign of Japan, the Mikado, which had been taken away from him for a period of 682 years (1186-1868) and which had been wielded by the de facto sovereign, the shogun or the military government. The history of Japan dates back 2,565 years, exclusive of the ages of gods, when our first Emperor, Jimmu, laid the foundations of the Empire, and our august ruler of today is the 121st of the Emperors descended from the direct and unbroken line of the Imperial family. Even prior to 1186 the powers of the Mikados had, in a large measure, passed into the hands of the Fujira family, but at that period Yoritomo, a military man of great ability, founded the shogunate or military government for the first time in Japanese history, whereby he prac- tically usurped the political powers of the Mikado and substituted his rule for that of the legitimate sovereign. It was an incidental consequence of one of the phases of human history. In Japan, as in other feudal countries, there had been an alternate tendency toward strong and weak central governments. In order to maintain peace and order and to preserve the nation as a compact unit against a strong tendency toward decentralization which was then prevailing, Yoritomo had fought a series of bloody battles with local chieftains and magnates, and finally succeeded in establishing a vigorously centralized military government over the whole Empire and by the side of that of Mikado. This was the beginning of the dual government in Japan which so much perplexed the westerners at the beginning of the foreign intercourse.

The letters of credence which the President of the United States addressed to the Emperor of Japan were handed over by Commodore Perry to the shogun of the time, and when Townsend Harris, the first United States minister to Japan, was told by the shogun that the treaty required the approval of the Mikado he was astounded. Since the establishment of the first shogunate by Yoritomo, in 1186, down to the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, in 1868, all real power, civil and military, had passed entirely from the hands of the Mikados, they themselves being allowed to retain only an outward semblance of authority. It was remarkable, however, that through the period of nearly seven centuries when the military government was in predominance no one ever disputed the legality of the Imperial authority. On the contrary, all the shoguns formally recognized that authority by obtaining the Imperial sanction for the appointment of each successor to the shogunate government, as well as in other matters.

It was in 1868 that this de jure sovereignty of Japan was restored to full authority after the nominal existence of seven centuries. The manner in which it was brought about is almost unique in the annals of mankind, but what made it more remarkable was the inauguration of a new policy so radically different from what had existed before in Japan, upon which the foundation of New Japan was firmly laid down.

In order to realize the real magnitude of the dramatic period of Japanese history it is necessary to know something of the political regime that existed in Japan at the time of the restoration. Roughly speaking, Japan, under the Tokugawa government, had a feudal system with 276 daimios or feudal barons. These barons had their own respective dominions, and within them they wielded an autocratic power, without any restrictions outside of a certain sort of super- vision exercised by and a certain homage paid to the chief baron or shogun. The size of the dominions, the revenues and expenditures, the number of the vassals or retainers, called Samurai or military class, the barons possessed differed ac-