the Manyoshiu, on the Norito, and the Ise Monogatari, and lexicon of Makura-kotoba (entitled Kuanji-ko), are most valuable. His original works are the Niimanabi, on the study of Japanese literature, and various archæological essays. From his time the study of Shinto and philology went on hand in hand under the name of koku-gaku, "national learning," in antithesis to kan-gaku, "Chinese learning." Mabuchi's mantle fell on the shoulders of Motoöri Norinaga (1730–1801), whose greatest work is the commentary on the Kojiki, already mentioned. His original contributions to literature are: the Giojiu-gaigen, against the Chinese philosophy; the Tama-kushige, a work on the philosophy of government, written for the prince of Kishiu; the Uiyama-bumi, a treatise on the art of study, with special reference to Shinto; the Tama-arare, an essay on the faulty composition of common writers; the Tama no Ogushi, a critical work on the Genji Monogatari; and the Tama-katsuma, a collection of miscellaneous papers, which contains some interesting fragments of autobiography. His style is a model of clearness and ease, and shows what the Japanese language might have become if it had not been deformed by the introduction of Chinese words and idioms. That of Mabuchi, on the other hand, though equally correct, is painful on account of his close imitation of the ancient classic literature, which is not a convenient medium for argument. Motoöri was succeeded as the leader of modern Shintoism by Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843), whose principal writings have already been named. His Shutsu-jo Shogo (7 vols.) is an extremely amusing attack upon Buddhism, written in a style closely approaching the colloquial, a style which if it were universally adopted would be an immense relief to the intellectual powers of the Japanese; for the ability to translate thought into the literary style requires years of patient study to acquire, and is a barrier to all freedom of expression. Other writers of the same school as these men are Fujitani Nariakira (1735–'76), Ozawa Koan (1723–1801), Kato Chikage (1734–1808), Tachibana Tsuneki (1704–'62), Murata Harumi (1746–1811), Arakida Hisaoye (1746–1804), Katori Nahiko (1723–'82), Motoöri Haruniwa (1763–1828), Ozaki Masayoshi (1752–1827), Hashimoto Keirio (1760–1806), and Shimidzu Hamaomi (1776–1824). Most of them confined their efforts to poetry, but Fujitani is known as the author of two celebrated works on grammar, the Ayui-sho and the Kazashi-sho. Motoöri Haruniwa produced the Kotoba no Yachimata, a valuable treatise on the Japanese verb. Ozaki Masayoshi is the author of the Hiakuninshiu Hitoyo-gatari, which, besides explanations of the poems in that collection, contains a large number of biographical notices of eminent persons of the second age of literature, written in the very best style.—Of contemporary Japanese literature little is to be said. The 20 years following 1853 have been a period of political disturbance and of the influx of European ideas; and original composition has been abandoned for translations of foreign elementary works, chiefly on scientific subjects. Translations of such works as Smiles's "Self-Help" and Mill's "Essay on Liberty" have found an immense sale. Together with this rage for foreign books has grown up a corrupt literary dialect, formed on Japanese word-for-word translations of the Chinese, which bids fair to become permanent, in spite of its awkward inelegance.
JAPAN CLOVER (Lespedeza striata), a plant indigenous to China and Japan, a few specimens of which were noticed by botanists in the southern states before 1860, but which has since spread with such vigor as to kill out Bermuda grass and other plants considered difficult to extirpate. It has received various names, such as "little wild clover" and "Japan pea," but it is most generally known as Japan clover. It
Japan Clover.
belongs to the hedysareæ, in a different tribe of the family (leguminosæ) from clover. The plant is a perennial, a foot or more high, not very abundantly furnished with trifoliate leaves, in the axils of which are borne single inconspicuous flowers, each of which is followed by a small one-seeded pod. Southern agriculturists differ as to the value of this plant, but as it is liked by stock of all kinds, and will grow in soil too poor to produce any other forage, the weight of testimony is in its favor. It seems to come in almost everywhere without any sowing; and though the old plant is woody and indigestible, the young shoots are readily eaten by cattle.
JAPANNING, the process of ornamenting wood, leather, paper, or metal by covering it with a brilliant hard varnish, in which are often introduced gilt or colored designs. The art is supposed to have been acquired from the Japanese, whence its name. It is still practised
