THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN
from their last terrible battle with the Ashikaga hosts. Smiling, he listened to the swift reply, “I wish to be born again to strike a blow for the Mikado,” and said, “Though Buddhists teach that such wishes are sinful and lead to the hell of Asuras, yet not for once only but for seven lives do I wish to be reborn for that same end”; then each fell by the other’s sword. They read how Masatsura, the son of Mashashige, refused the first beauty of the court, who was deeply attached to him, when the Mikado offered her to him as a reward for his hereditary loyalty, pleading that his life was for death and not love.
Soon as the memory of past ages came over the samurai, the lost glory of the Son of Heaven flashed upon them. They saw the Mikado himself leading his army to victory. They
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