XVI.—To select a convenient season in which to employ men for public work is the rule of good ancient law. Winter is a time of leisure; but during the season between spring and autumn, in which they are employed on their farms and in feeding silk-worms, it is not expedient to take men from their work, or interfere with them in their efforts to supply food and clothing.
XVII.—Important matters should only be settled after due conference with many men. Trifling matters may be decided without conference, because they are not so material in their effects; but weighty matters, on account of their far-reaching consequences, must be discussed with many councillors. It is thus that the right way shall be found and pursued.
Footnotes
[1.]The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian; translated by Colonel Henry Yule, C.B. Second edition, London, 1875, vol. ii., p. 235.[2.]These islands belonged to Russia until 1875, when by a treaty they were ceded to Japan in exchange for the rights of possession which she held in the island of Saghalien.[3.]E. M. Satow, Transactions of the Asiatic Society, vol. i., p. 30.[4.]This word is not a proper name but a descriptive designation, and must be understood in this way when used by Dr. Griffis in his Mikado's Empire and by Dr. Rein in his two works on Japan. In the successive issues of the Résumé Statistique, published by the Statistical Bureau, the term Nippon is used to designate the principal island. This name has the advantage of having been used extensively in foreign books, but its restricted use is contrary to the custom of Japan. After much consideration we have determined to designate the principal island by the term “Main island,” which is the translation of the word Hondo.[5.]See Satow and Hawes' Handbook, p. 108.[6.]See Chamberlain's Things Japanese, second edition, p. 122.[7.]One of the most notable of these is that which occurred in 1596 when Hideyoshi was at Fushimi. In 1854 a series of shocks followed by tidal waves occurred on the east coast of the Main island. The town of Shimoda, which had been opened as a port for foreign trade was almost destroyed, and the Russian frigate Diana which was lying there was so injured that she had to be abandoned. In 1855 a severe earthquake occurred at Yedo, which was accompanied by a great fire. About 16,000 dwelling-houses and other buildings are said to have been destroyed, and a large number of lives were lost. Transactions of Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. vi., p. 249.[8.]Rein's Japan, p. 44. In Things Japanese second edition, p. 122, Japan is credited with no less than fifty-one active volcanoes.[9.]The word gawa (river) takes the form kawa when euphony so requires.[10.]Dr. Rein was the first clearly to apprehend and state the influence of the northeast monsoon on the climate of Japan. See Rein's Japan, p. 104.[11.]Camellia trees are frequently found from twenty to twenty-five feet high.[12.]Chamberlain, Asiatic Society Transactions, vol. xi., p. 162.[13.]These details of the population, area, etc., are taken from the government publication, Résumé Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, 1892.[14.]In the population of the imperial cities is included that of the suburban districts politically attached to them.[15.]Résumé Statistique (Government publication), 1892, p. 11.[16.]Asiatic Society Transactions, supplement to vol. x., p. 213.[17.]Batchelor, Asiatic Society Transactions, vol. x., p. 211.[18.]Batchelor, Asiatic Society Transactions, vol. x., p. 216.[19.]Miss Bird's Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, vol. ii., p. 96.[20.]Professor E. S. Morse, Memoirs of the University of Tokio, vol. i., part i.[21.]Henry von Siebold, Notes on Japanese Archæology, p. 14.[22.]“But I must tell you one thing still concerning that island (Japan) (and 'tis the same with the other Indian Islands), that if the natives take prisoner an enemy who cannot pay a ransom, he who hath the prisoner summons all his friends and relations, and they put the prisoner to death, and then they cook him and eat him, and they say there is no meat in the world so good!”—The Book of Ser Marco Polo, London, 1875, vol. ii., p. 245.[23.]Professor Milne, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. viii., p. 82.[24.]Rev. John Batchelor, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. x., p. 209.[25.]Hildreth's Japan, etc., p. 337.[26.]Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft, etc., as reviewed in The Chrisanthemum, May, 1883.[27.]Rein's Japan, p. 383.[28.]“We know that for all points of detail and for keeping a correct account of time, tradition is worthless.”—The History of Rome, by Rev. Thomas Arnold, D.D., 1864, p. 10.[29.]For easy access to this valuable Japanese work we are indebted to the translation by Basil Hall Chamberlain, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. x., Supplement.[30.]See Chamberlain's translation of Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. x., Supplement.[31.]Satow, “Ancient Japanese Rituals,” Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vols. vii. and ix.[32.]Satow, Westminster Review, July, 1878.[33.]See [Appendix I].[34.]Bramsen, Japanese Chronological Tables, p. 30.[35.]I remember presenting this point to a Japanese scholar in this way, and he answered me that he thought this great age of the Japanese emperors no more wonderful or unreasonable than the ages of the patriarchs in the Bible.[36.]“I wished to give these legends at once with the best effect, and at the same time with a perpetual mark, not to be mistaken by the most careless reader,—they are legends and not history.”—The History of Rome by Thomas Arnold, D.D., 1864, Preface, p. vii.[37.]For the translation of these names, and for the principal events of these myths, we rely upon Mr. Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki, and his admirable notes and introduction. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. x., Supplement.[38.]This is supposed to have been one of the small islands off the coast of Awaji in the Inland sea.[39.]An island about fifty miles long in the Inland sea.[40.]This probably means that the sword was ten breadths of the hand in length.[41.]The Japanese name of this most venerated goddess is Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami.[42.]There seemed to have been an old superstition about flaying from the tail toward the head.[43.]This is one of the ancient names of the Main island of Japan.[44.]The name of this prince of which the translation is here given is usually shortened to Ninigi-no-Mikoto.[45.]Nakatomi-no-Muraji is also among these, who was the ancestor of the Fujiwara family that from the reign of the Emperor Tenji attained great political distinction.[46.]Dr. Rein in 1875 was shown an old sword on the top of this mountain which is claimed to have been carried on this occasion.—Rein's Japan, p. 214, note.[47.]This canonical name was given to him in the reign of the Emperor Kwammu, who commanded Mifune-no-Mikoto to select suitable canonical names for all past emperors, and these have since been used.[48.]See Milne's paper on “Pit-Dwellers of Yezo and Kurile Islands,” Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. x., p. 187.[49.]
A large number of songs are handed down in the traditions of this period. They are in the most ancient form of the language and are not easy to translate. We give as a specimen Jimmu's song from Chamberlain's translation of Kojiki, Asiatic Society Transactions, vol. x., Supplement, p. 142.
Into the great cave of Ōsaka people have entered in abundance and are there. Though people have entered in abundance and are there, the children of the augustly powerful warriors will smite and finish them with their mallet-headed swords, their stone-mallet swords: the children of the augustly powerful warriors, with their mallet-headed swords, their stone-mallet swords, would now do well to smite.
Yamato-hime or Yamato-princess had been appointed high priestess of the temples in Isé, and in that capacity had charge of the imperial regalia which were deposited there. She is a very celebrated person in Japanese legendary story and is said to have lived several hundred years.
See Chamberlain's translation of Kojiki, p. 183, note 7; Asiatic Society Transactions, vol. x., Supplement.