he was admitted to some function at the Imperial Court, his appearance there scarcely evoked an expression of surprise. To readers brought up in Europe, with its Carlists, its Bourbons, in old days its Stuarts, at all times its irreconcilables of various names and degrees, it would seem but natural that a party favouring the restoration of the Shōgunate should linger on to embarrass the new regime. This is not the case. Far-Eastern minds view these matters differently. Being matter-of-fact by nature, they accept the logic of events more easily and more absolutely than we do. In this part of the world, a lost cause does not simply fall:—it ceases to exist.
The practice of most modern writers on Japanese subjects—foreigners as well as natives—is to treat the Shōguns as usurpers. But surely this is a highly unphilosophical way of reading history. It is not even formally correct, seeing that the Shōguns obtained investiture from the Court of Kyōto as regularly as ministers of state have obtained their commissions in later times. We cannot undertake here to go into the causes that produced Japanese feudalism, with the Shōguns at its head. But if seven centuries of possession do not consitute a legal title, how many of the governments at present existing in the world are legitimate? And what test is there, or can there be, of the legitimacy of any government except the general acquiescence of the governed?
Book recommended. Brinkley's Japan and China, Vol. IV. Chap. II., especially p. 33 et seq., for curious account of female officialdom at the Shōgun's Court.
Shooting. No one is advised to come to Japan for sport. Deer and even bears do, no doubt, exist in the northern island of Yezo; pheasants, snipe, quail, wild-duck, teal, hares, and other small game in the Main Island, but not in sufficient numbers to wander so far afield for, seeing that Europe and America offer superior attractions. Shooting licenses may be obtained at the prefectural office (kenchō) of the various open ports, and at the Tōkyō Fu, or city office, in Tōkyō. The fee varies according to the income of the applicant, but practically
