gold one in the ratio of 32⅓ to 1, or say 2/0½ sterling per yen. The extreme difficulty of the situation could scarcely have been more strikingly exemplified than by the circumstance that, in the brief interval between Japan's decision to adopt a gold standard and the putting of that decision into effect, the relative value of the two metals had already again varied as much as five-eighths of a penny by the continued appreciation of gold. Far be it, however, from ignoramuses like ourselves to venture into the controversial quagmire.
Book recommended. The Coins of Japan, by N. G. Munro.
Cycle. "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." But it has been pointed out that there is, after all, little difference between the two terms of the comparison. The Chinese cycle, which the Japanese employ for historical purposes, has but sixty years (see Article on Time).
Daimyō. The Daimyōs were the territorial lords or barons of feudal Japan. The word means literally "great name." Accordingly, during the Middle Ages, warrior chiefs of less degree, corresponding, as one might say, to our knights or baronets, were known by the correlative title Shōmyō, that is, "small name." But this latter fell into disuse. Perhaps it did not sound grand enough to be welcome to those who bore it. Under the Tokugawa dynasty, which ruled Japan from A.D. 1603 to 1867, the lowest Daimyōs owned land assessed at ten thousand bales of rice per annum, while the richest fief of all—that of Kaga—was worth over a million bales. The total number of the Daimyōs in modern times was about three hundred.
It should be borne in mind that the Daimyōs were not the only aristocracy in the land, though they were incomparably the richest and the most important. In the shadow of the Mikado's palace at Kyōto, poor but very proud of their descent from gods and emperors, and looking down on the feudal Daimyō aristocracy as on a mere set of military adventurers and parvenus, lived,
