The above is an extract from an Epistle of St. Ignatius, the 26th of March, 1553, which is still regarded as authoritative and is read every month to each of the houses. It was supplied to me by Dr. Carl Meyer and verified by Rev. D. H. Buel, S. J. of St. Francis Xavier's College, New York City. Dr. Meyer has also pointed out that the Second General Congregation, 1565, severely forbids any Jesuit to act as confessor or theologian to a prince longer than one or two years, and gives the minutest instructions to prevent a priest from interfering in any way with political and secular affairs in such a position.
Mr. Koeckebacker says: “The rebels counted in all, young and old, as it was said, about forty thousand. They were all killed except one of the four principal leaders, being an artist who formerly used to gain his livelihood by making idols. This man was kept alive and sent to Yedo.”—Dr. Geerts' paper, Asiatic Society Transactions, vol. xi., part 1, p. 107.
There is a tradition that a number of the prisoners who were captured at this castle were hurled down from the rocks of the island now called Papenberg in Nagasaki harbor. But Dr. Geerts ridicules this notion and says: “A little local knowledge would show it to be impossible to throw people from the rocks on Papenberg into the sea, as the rocks are by no means steep bluffs, but possess an inclined shape and a shore. A little knowledge of the Dutch language would further show that the name Papenberg means ‘mountain of the priest,’ in allusion to the shape of a Roman Catholic priest's cap or bonnet.”—Asiatic Society Transactions, vol. xi., part 1, p. 115.
As illustrative of Buddhism at its greatest splendor we give here the figures of the great bronze image of Buddha at Kamakura, and of the great bell at the temple of Daibutsu in Kyōto. [Transcriber's Note: This bell is shown as the Frontispiece to the book.] The former was erected about a.d. 1252 after plans initiated by Yoritomo before his death. The statue in its sitting posture is nearly fifty feet in height. It is constructed of separate plates of bronze brazed together. Formerly it was enclosed in a temple, but this was twice destroyed by tidal waves, and since its last destruction in 1494 it has not been rebuilt.
The bell given in the illustration is that at the temple of Daibutsu, the inscription on which is said to have offended Ieyasu. It is nearly fourteen feet in height and nine feet in diameter. Its weight is more than sixty-three tons.—See Satow and Hawes' Handbook, p. 368.
From Japanese Chronological Tables, by William Bramsen, 1880.
The system of counting from year-periods (nengō) was introduced from China. These periods of Japanese history do not correspond to the reigns of the emperors. A new one was chosen whenever it was deemed necessary to commemorate an auspicious or ward off a malign event. By a notification issued in 1872 it was announced that hereafter the year-period should be changed but once during the reign of an emperor. The current period, Meiji (Enlightened Peace), will therefore continue during the reign of the present emperor.
The numbers in the second column of this table indicate the years as counted from the founding of the empire by Jimmu Tennō. According to the official chronology this occurred b.c. 660.