to the month to which they referred. The new-comer will therefore do well to treat Japanese statements regarding dates and ages with caution.
Book recommended. The Abacus, in its Historic and Scientific Aspects, by Dr. C. G. Knott, F. R. S. E., printed in Vol. XIV. Part I. of the "Asiatic Transactions."
Abdication. The abdication of monarchs, which is exceptional in Europe, has for many ages been the rule in Japan. It came into vogue in the seventh century together with Buddhism, whose doctrines led men to retire from worldly cares and pleasures into solitude and contemplation. But it was made use of by unscrupulous ministers, who placed infant puppets on the throne, and caused them to abdicate on attaining to maturity. Thus it was a common thing during the Middle Ages for three Mikados to be alive at the same time,—a boy on the throne, his father or brother who had abdicated, and his grandfather or other relative who had abdicated also. From A.D. 987 to 991, there were as many as four Mikados all alive together:-Reizei Tennō, who had ascended the throne at the age of eighteen, and who abdicated at twenty; En-yu Tennō, emperor at eleven and abdicated at twenty-six; Kwazan Tennō, emperor at seventeen and abdicated at nineteen; and Ichijō Tennō, who had just ascended the throne as a little boy of seven. Under the Mikado Go-Nijō (A.D. 1302–8) there were actually five Mikados all alive together, namely Go-Nijō Tennō himself, made emperor at seventeen, had his four abdicated predecessors: Go-Fukakusa Tennō, emperor at four and abdicated at seventeen; Kameyama Tennō, emperor at eleven and abdicated at twenty-six; Go-Uda Tennō, emperor at eight and abdicated at twenty-one; and Fushimi Tennō, emperor at twenty-three and abdicated the same year. Sometimes it was arranged that the children of two rival branches of the Imperial family should succeed each other alternately. This it was, in part at least, which led to the civil war in the fourteenth century between what were known as "the Northern and Southern Courts;" for it was of course impossible that so extraordinary an arrangement should long be adhered to without producing violent dissensions.
