Japan. Various

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its carvings, and the loveliness of its scenery have inspired a popular saying that without seeing Nikkō a man is not qualified to speak of the beautiful (Nikkō wo minai uchi wa kekkō wo iuna). Matsushima, one of the three landscapes of Japan, is on the seashore of Rikuzen. Here scattered over the face of the bay are hundreds of tiny islets, every one of which is clothed in a luxury of pine-trees. Viewed from the top of the hills, the scene is like a creation of fancy rendered on the canvas of a skillful painter.

      Japan proper is divided into nine principal regions according to its configuration: they are Kinai, Tōkai-dō, Tōsan-dō, Hokuriku-dō, Nankai-dō, Sanin-dō, Sanyō-dō, and Hokkai-dō. These, again, are subdivided into eighty-five provinces (koku or kumi). The province, however, has little importance in the administrative divisions of the country. The unit of the latter is either the urban (chō) or rural (son) district, which, together with the larger divisions, city (shi) and county (gun), constitutes a self-governing entity. Over and above these divisions are one board of Hokkaidō (dō-chō), three of Tōkyō, Kyōto, and Ōsaka, and forty-three prefectures or ken. At present, there are, outside of Formosa, 638 gun, 58 shi, 1054 chō and 13,468 son.

      The city of Tōkyō was formerly, under the name Edo, the seat of the feudal government for nearly two and three-quarters centuries. To-day it is the capital of the empire. It occupies a central position and is the largest city in the country. Its fifteen wards have a total population of nearly a million and a half. Kyōto, the old capital, is divided into two wards and has a population of over 353,000. Ōsaka, the third of the cities, was the seat of the Taikō's administration. Possessing exceptional facilities for communication by sea and by river, it has been a trading center from olden times. It is divided into four wards, and has a population of 825,000. These three cities constitute the three fu. Next in order of importance come Nagoya, between Tōkyō and Kyōto, with a population of 245,000; Kanazawa, in the north of the main island, with a population of 85,000; Sendai, in the northeast, with a population of 84,000; Hiroshima, in the southwest, with a population of 123,000; Kumamoto, in Kiushū, with a population of 62,000. Among the open ports, Yokohama, with a population of 195,000, and Kōbe, with a population of 216,000, are the two most important, Nagasaki, Hakodate, and Niigata following at a considerable interval.

      The total population of Japan proper is nearly forty-seven millions, and that of Formosa about three millions. The distribution per square mile, exclusive of Formosa, varied in 1898 from 495 in the western part of the main island to 23.7 in Hokkaidō, with the average at about 300. To-day it is approximately 324. The recent national activity of these people will be briefly described in the last division of this volume, and the career of their ancestors in the earlier parts.

      Before we proceed, however, a few words may be said regarding the general nature of the historical account of Japan. In ancient times Japan possessed neither literary script nor a regular system of calendar and chronology. All events had to be transmitted from generation to generation by oral tradition. The use of writing was imported from China, probably one or two hundred years before Christ, but the general use of letters for the purpose of recording events dates from the fifth century A. D., while the compilation of the national annals began two centuries later still. But such historical records as were then compiled suffered almost total destruction a short time afterward by fire, and the oral records of remote antiquity must have already been greatly disfigured by omissions, errors, and confusion of facts. Regretting this, and perceiving that unless steps were then taken to correct the annals, subsequent generations would be without any trustworthy record of remote events, the Emperor Temmu ordered an eminent scholar, Hieda-no-Are, to prepare a brief chronicle of sovereigns and important events. Unfortunately the death of the emperor, which occurred in 689, interrupted this work. Some twenty years later the Empress Gemmyō instructed Ō-no-Yasumaro to continue the compilation of Hieda-no-Are's annals. The work thus completed in 712 is the "Kojiki" as we now possess it. It must be regarded as the most trustworthy record extant of the events of ancient times. Eight years after the appearance of the "Kojiki," or in 720, the "Nihongi" was compiled. We find, on comparing these works, that although, on the whole, they agree, certain discrepancies exist between them. In these two works, however, is found the chief material for the reconstruction of the history of ancient Japan. If curious supernatural incidents figure in their pages, it should be remembered that literature being then in its infancy and a long interval having elapsed since the time of many of the events recorded, the annalists were untrained in the selection of matters worthy of a place in authentic history, while, at the same time, in the oral traditions on which they relied, errors had doubtless been included, and, ordinary events drifting out of sight, extraordinary incidents and supernatural stories had alone survived.

      As regards the ancient chronology of Japan it is recorded that almanacs first came into use in Japan in 604 A. D., although it appears that the Chinese calendar had been imported about the middle of the preceding century. The compilation of annals, as already stated, had preceded the latter event by a considerable interval. We may therefore conjecture that some method of reckoning months and years had been practiced from an early era, but no certain knowledge of this matter is available.

      The history of Japan does not lend itself to the customary division of the ancient, mediæval, and modern ages. On the basis of the important changes that have taken place in the administration and politics of Japan, her history will, in the following pages, be divided into three parts of unequal lengths. Part one covers the long space of time between the founding of the empire and the beginning of the feudal régime toward the end of the twelfth century. During this period, the power of the government rested, theoretically, in spite of great fluctuations which took place, in the hands of the sovereign. This was followed by nearly seven centuries of military autocracy, which constitutes the second part. The third part begins in 1868, since which year administrative power has reverted to the emperor, a constitutional régime with representative institutions has been established, and the general aspects of the life of the nation have undergone a profound change.

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