Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/330

318 and kado, a "gate," reminding one of the "Sublime Porte" of Turkey. Sir Ernest Satow prefers to derive it from mika, an archaic word for "great," and to, "a place." In either case the word is one indicative of the highest respect, as it is but natural that the name used by the Japanese of old to designate their heaven-descended sovereign should be. The word Mikado is often employed to denote the monarch's Court as well as the monarch himself, Japanese idiom lending itself to such double usage for a single word.

The antiquity of the Imperial family of Japan is unparalleled. The Japanese themselves claim that, after endless ages passed in higher spheres, it began its earthly career with the first human monarch, Jimmu Tennō, in the year 660 before Christ. From this, historical criticism bids us subtract more than a millennium, as Japanese history does not become a record of solid facts till the fifth or sixth century after Christ. It should also be pointed out that the succession has by no means followed those stringent rules which Europe considers necessary for legitimacy. Many Mikados, even down to quite recent times, have been the sons of concubines; others have been merely adopted from some related branch. Still, all deductions made, the family as such stands forth proudly as the oldest in the world. We know positively that it has reigned ever since the dawn of history in this archipelago, and that even then it was considered of immemorial age. The fact is peculiarly striking, if we reflect upon the usually brief life of Oriental dynasties. Little wonder, therefore, all things con sidered, if a religious reverence for the Imperial line is as axiomatic in Japan, as completely removed beyond all doubt or controversy, as is the doctrine of the equal rights and duties of all men in the democratic societies of the West.

The present Mikado was born on the 3rd November, 1852, and succeeded to the throne in 1867. His name is Mutsuhito; but this name is scarcely ever mentioned, and is probably not even known to the great majority of the nation. In Japan the Emperor is simply the Emperor, not a personality, an almost