ENLIGHTENED GOVERNMENT
most enlightened and progressive statesmen. It appeared that when visiting the Shrine of Ise in the previous year, he had raised one of the sacred curtains with his cane, an act which presented itself to many Japanese in a sacrilegious light. It is certain that Viscount Mori did not intend to offer any slight whatever to the spirit worshipped at the shrine. What he did was done inadvertently and under fully extenuating circumstances. In a Western country brief newspaper comment would have been the limit of his punishment, and even that might have seemed excessive. But Japan was suffering at the time from an attack of hysterical loyalty, and the Shrine at Ise being dedicated to the progenitrix of the country's sovereigns, it seemed to Nishino Buntaro that when high officials began to touch the sacred paraphernalia with walking-sticks, the foundations of Imperialism were menaced. No obligation devolved on him to vindicate the majesty of the shrine. He had no more connection with it than a student at Oxford has with Westminster Abbey. But he had been reared in the bushi's creed that a duty indicated by conscience must be discharged at all costs or hazards. He fell under the swords of the Minister's official guards, and for years afterwards his tomb received the homage of that section of Japanese men and women who worship achievement in despite of obstacles without regard to the nature of the thing achieved.
The framing of the Constitution had been
235
