Europeanism, this has been a matter of sentiment only, a return from cosmopolitanism to nationalism in matters of minor importance, and has affected nothing practical by so much as a hair's breadth. Inquisitive persons from home, who remember the Stuarts and the Legitimists and Don Carlos, sometimes ask whether there may not be a Japanese reaction in favour of feudalism. No! never,—not till the sun stops shining and water begins to flow uphill. (Compare Article on Clans.)
Books recommended. Japan, by Walter Dickson, gives perhaps the fullest account of the government in feudal days. See also Brinkley's Japan and China for all periods.—Marquis Itō's Commentaries on the Constitution cf the Empire of Japan possess exceptional interest, as the utterances of the man who was mainly instrumental in framing that constitution. The historical statements in the Commentaries must, however, be received with extreme caution, the Marquis being less of a historian than of a statesman. To take but one instance among several: in the authorised English version, all the Empresses are converted into Emperors. Thus we find "the Emperor Suiko," "the Emperor Genshō," and so on, which is exactly as if an English constitutional historian should refer to "the Emperor Maud" or "King Elizabeth!" There may, too, be observed throughout a tendency to minimise the differences that separate ancient from modern times. Along with the Commentaries, are printed the text of the Constitution itself and several other important documents of a cognate character. Translations of all the more important government papers, and reports of the proceedings of the Diet will be found in the files of the Japan Mail, published at Yokohama.
Harakiri. Need we say that harakiri was for centuries the favourite Japanese method of committing suicide? There were two kinds of harakiri— obligatory and voluntary. The former was a boon granted by government, who graciously permitted criminals of the Samurai class thus to destroy themselves instead of being handed over to the common executioner. Time and place were officially notified to the condemned, and officials were sent to witness the ceremony. This custom is extinct. Voluntary harakiri was practised by men in hopeless trouble, also out of loyalty to a dead superior, and in order to protest when other protests might be unavailing—against the erroneous conduct of a living superior. Examples of this class still take place. That of a young man called Ōhara Takeyoshi, which occurred in 1891, is typical. He was a lieutenant in the Yezo militia, and ripped himself up in front of the graves of his ancestors
