R. (Robert) Van Bergen - A Boy of Old Japan

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A BOY OF OLD JAPAN

A BOY OF OLD JAPAN.

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A BOY of
OLD JAPAN

BY
R. VAN BERGEN

Author of
The Story of Japan, The Story of
China, Heroic Japan, etc., etc.

Illustrated with original
Japanese Color Pictures

BOSTON
LEE and SHEPARD
M C M I

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Copyright 1901, by LEE & SHEPARD
All rights reserved
A Boy of Old Japan
Norwood Press
Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass.,
U. S. A.

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TO
MY LITTLE SON
HENRY A. S. VAN BERGEN,
IN RECOLLECTION
OF OUR PLEASANT VISIT
TO CAMBRIDGE

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PREFACE

I am under deep obligations to the publishers, for giving me an opportunity to tell the story of the rejuvenation of Japan. I was a witness, although at that time I did not comprehend the movement, but I, and those few who are still living, do now.

From a federation of mutually autonomous oligarchies, Japan was metamorphosed into an Empire which holds Russia at bay. From a nation occupying 150,000 square miles, it has expanded by the addition of Formosa, and its population has grown from thirty millions to forty-five millions. An oriental people adopted occidental progress, and within three decades or little more than one generation, digested and assimilated our progress.

I have known, and was personally known to the men, whose story I have endeavored to tell. They are now honored under the simple name of Genr,statesmen of Revolutionary Times. Of the brilliant array of patriots whose names appear in these pages, only Ito, Inouye, and OKuma remain!

I have kept the names. Why should I not? Only honor can be bestowed upon such patriots as they; and the world delights to honor them. Besides, there is a healthy spirit for the young in a true story of devotion, sacrifice, and self-restraint. How often does a child, when reading an interesting story, ask: Papa, is this true? In this case the father may conscientiously answer: It is.

All the characters as portrayed in these pages, were living actors in the great national drama. Of those whose names have never before appeared in print, Karassu Maru, the only impulsive noble I have ever known, was the first imperial governor of Yedo. He died in August, 1872, and I attended his funeral. Honami came to Yedo with the emperor, but he was soon sent back to Kyoto, where he was placed under guardianship.

I have enjoyed the retrospective communication with my old friends. If my readers do so, they owe the pleasure to the publishers, who suggested the composition of the book.

R. van Bergen.

Cambridge, Mass. , Nov. 12, 1900.

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Contents

CHAPTER	PAGE
I.	Japan Asleep
II.	The Old Yashiki
III.	The Messenger
IV.	The Fifth Day of the Eleventh Month
V.	The Council of the Clan
VI.	Young Kano Grows Up
VII.	Kanos Journey to Yedo
VIII.	Yokohama in 1859
IX.	New Experience
X.	Friendship or Hatred
XI.	Choshiu Yashiki
XII.	Sonno Jo!
XIII.	Plotting
XIV.	Within the Palace
XV.	Underground Rumbling
XVI.	The Court Aroused
XVII.	A Conference
XVIII.	Flight
XIX.	Battle and Defeat
XX.	Drilling
XXI.	Down With Tokugawa
XXII.	Conclusion

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Illustrations

Inouye in Samurai Costume

PAGE

Peace reigned over the country

A Japanese Family

Itos mother, suffering from rheumatism, to receive a massage treatment from one of the servants

It is really a day devoted to Hachiman, the god of war

He was in Kamishimo

The friends were standing in the garden of a Teahouse

But the houses are still as they were before

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A Boy of Old Japan

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I
JAPAN ASLEEP

Japan had been asleep for more than two hundred years. About the time when the Pilgrim fathers landed in what is now known as the New England States, the man who ruled over Japan had made up his mind that he would have nothing more to do with the people of Europe, and he gave orders that no more foreigners should be admitted. He made one exception in favor of the people of Holland, but on condition that only a very small number of them should reside in Japan at a time; and they must be satisfied with the and promise that they would obey the governor of that city.

It was not many years before this time, when the Japanese had been glad to receive every European, but they had found out that the Portuguese and Spaniards wished to be masters of their country, and so their kindness had changed first into dislike and afterwards into hate. The Portuguese had taught many Japanese about our Lord, and a number of them had become Christians. But the Shogun is why I said that Japan had been asleep for more than two hundred years.

In all that long time there had been no change. Just as Japan was in 1621, so it was in 1853. The houses were still built in exactly the same way, the men and boys dressed exactly as their ancestors had done before, and so did the women and girls, and they lived in the same manner.

The people worked hard from early in the morning until late at night. The merchants, mechanics, and farmers, toiled from the beginning of the year to the end, without any Sundays or holidays, except on New Years day, and perhaps a few days later. They had nothing to say in the government, and belonged to the Lord on whose estate they were living. The whole of Japan was divided into about three hundred of such estates; some of them very large and others again very small. Over each of these estates was a daimiyo, were the civil officers of the estate while there was peace; but as soon as war broke out they were soldiers, always ready to go into battle, and to die for their lord.

The greatest of all the daimiyo was the Shogun for he was to them the Child of Heaven, the descendant, as they thought, of the gods who created Japan.

But Tenshi Sama, they believed, was too mighty and too great to care about such a small and caused the Tenshi Sama to make him Shogun.

PEACE REIGNED OVER THE COUNTRY

PEACE REIGNED OVER THE COUNTRY.

Iyeyasu was such a brave general, and besides an able as well as a generous man, that the country began to enjoy peace. The great daimiyo tried once more to shake off his rule, but they could not do it. In 1615 the last battle was fought, and the daimiyo were defeated so badly that they gave in. Iyeyasu punished some of them very severely. He took a very large part of the estate of Lord Mori, the grandson of Iyeyasu and the third Tokugawa Shogun, commanded them to leave their wives and children at Yedo, where he held them in his power. He made laws for the people, the samurai, and the daimiyo, and, since he had an army of 80,000 samurai on his own estates, he was strong enough to make the daimiyo obey him.

Thus all war ceased in Japan and peace reigned over the country. The merchant plied his trade, the mechanic worked at his craft, and the peasant toiled in his field, as their fathers had done before them, and they brought up their sons to do as they had been taught. There was, therefore, no progress; and there was very little liberty.

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