had not the elements come to the aid of Japan the issue of the affair
might have been serious for the island empire. While the soldiers were
fighting the priests were praying, and the mikado sent a priestly
messenger to the shrines at Ise, bearing his petition to the gods. It
was noonday, and the sky perfectly clear, when he offered the prayer,
but immediately afterwards a broad streak of cloud rose on the horizon,
and soon the sky was overcast with dense and rolling masses, portending
a frightful storm.
It was one of the typhoons that annually visit that coast and against
whose appalling fury none but the strongest ships can stand. It fell
with all its force on the Chinese fleet, lifting the junks like straws
on the great waves which suddenly arose, tossing them together, hurling
some upon the shore, and forcing others bodily beneath the sea. Hundreds
of the light craft were sunk, and corpses were heaped on the shore in
multitudes. Many of the vessels were driven to sea, few or none of which
ever reached land. Many others were wrecked upon Taka Island. Here the
survivors, after the storm subsided, began cutting down trees and
building boats, in the hope of reaching Corea. But they were attacked by
the Japanese with such fury that all were slain but three, whose lives
were spared that they might bear back the news to their emperor and tell
him how the gods had fought for Japan.
The lesson was an effective one. The Chinese have never since attempted
the conquest of Japan, and it is the boast of the people of that country
that no invading army has ever set foot upon their shores. Six centuries
afterwards the case was to be reversed and a Japanese army to land on
Chinese soil.
Great praise was given to the Hojo then in control at Kamakura for his
energy and valor in repelling the invaders. But the chief honor was paid
to the gods enshrined at Ise, who were thenceforward adored as the
guardians of the winds and the seas. To this day the invasion of the
Mongols is vividly remembered in Kiushiu, and the mother there hushes
her fretful babe with the question, "Little one, why do you cry? Do you
think the Mogu are coming?"
It may be well here to say that the story of this invasion is told by
Marco Polo, who was at the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol conqueror of
China, at the time it took place, and that his tale differs in many
respects from that of the Japanese historians. Each party is apparently
making the best of its side of the affair.
According to Marco Polo's account, the failure of the expedition was due
to jealousy between the two officers in command. He states that one
Japanese fortification was taken and all within put to the sword, except
two, whose flesh was charmed against the sword and who could be killed
only by being beaten to death with great clubs. As for those who reached
Taka Island, they contrived by strategy to gain possession of the boats
of the assailing Japanese, by whose aid, and that of the flags which the
boats flew, they captured the chief city of Japan. Here for six months
they were closely besieged, and finally surrendered on condition that
their lives should be spared.
_NOBUNAGA AND THE FALL OF THE BUDDHISTS._
For more than two centuries the Ashikaga lorded it over Japan, as the
Hojo had done before them, and the mikados were tools in their strong
hands. Then arose a man who overthrew this powerful clan. This man,
Nobunaga by name, was a descendant of Kiyomori, the great leader of the
Taira clan, his direct ancestor being one of the few who escaped from
the great Minamoto massacre.
The father of this Taira chief was a soldier whose valor had won him a
large estate. Nobunaga added to it, built himself a strong castle, and
became the friend and patron of the last of the Ashikaga, whom he made
shogun. (The Ashikaga were descendants of the Minamoto, who alone had
hereditary claim to this high office.) But Nobunaga remained the power
behind the throne, and, a quarrel arising between him and the shogun, he
deposed the latter, and became himself the ruler of Japan. After two
hundred and thirty-eight years of dominion the lordship of the Ashikaga
thus came to an end.
Of this great Japanese leader we are told, "He was a prince of large
stature, but of weak and delicate complexion, with a heart and soul that
supplied all other wants; ambitious above all mankind; brave, generous,
and bold, and not without many excellent moral virtues; inclined to
justice, and an enemy to treason. With a quick and penetrating wit, he
seemed cut out for business. Excelling in military discipline, he was
esteemed the fittest to command an army, manage a siege, fortify a town,
or mark out a camp of any general in Japan, never using any head but his
own. If he asked advice, it was more to know their hearts than to profit
by their advice. He sought to see into others and to conceal his own
counsel, being very secret in his designs. He laughed at the worship of
the gods, being convinced that the bonzes were impostors abusing the
simplicity of the people and screening their own debauches under the
name of religion."
Such was the man who by genius and strength of will now rose to the head
of affairs. Not being of the Minamoto family, he did not seek to make
himself shogun, and for forty years this office ceased to exist. He
ruled in the name of the mikado, but held all the power of the realm.
The good fortune of Nobunaga lay largely in his wise choice of men.
Under him were four generals, so admirable yet so diverse in military
ability that the people gave them the distinctive nicknames of "Cotton,"
"Rice," "Attack," and "Retreat." Cotton, which can be put to a multitude
of uses, indicated the fertility in resources of the first; while the
second made himself as necessary as rice, which people cannot live a day
without. The strength of the third lay in the boldness of his attacks;
of the fourth, in the skill of his retreats. Of these four, the first,
named Hideyoshi, rose to great fame. A fifth was afterwards added,
Tokugawa Iyeyasu, also a famous name in Japan.
It was through his dealings with the Buddhists that Nobunaga made
himself best known in history. He had lived among them in his early
years, and had learned to hate and despise them. Having been educated in
the Shinto faith, the ancient religion of Japan, he looked on the
priests of Buddhism as enemies to the true faith. The destruction of
these powerful sectaries was, therefore, one of the great purposes of
his life.
Nobunaga had other reasons than these for destroying the power of the
bonzes. During the long period of the Ashikagas these cunning
ecclesiastics had risen to great power. Their monasteries had become
fortresses, with moats and strong stone walls. Internally these were
like arsenals, and an army could readily be equipped from them with
weapons, while many of the priests were daring leaders. During the civil
wars they served the side that promised them the most spoil or power.
Rivals among them often fought battles of their own, in which hundreds
were killed and towns and temples burned. So great were their authority,
their insolence, and their licentiousness that their existence had
become an evil in the land, and Nobunaga determined to teach them a
lesson they would not soon forget.
Of the monasteries, the most extensive was that of Hiyeizan, on Lake
Biwa. Within its territory lay thirteen valleys and more than five
hundred temples, shrines, and dwellings, the grounds of which were
adorned in the highest style of landscape art. The monks here were
numbered by thousands, with whom religious service was a gorgeous
ceremonial mockery, and who revelled in luxury, feasted on forbidden
viands, drank to inebriety, and indulged in every form of
licentiousness. They used their influence in rousing the clans to war,
from which they hoped to draw new spoils for their unrighteous
enjoyments, while screening themselves from danger behind the cloak of
the priesthood.
It was against this monastery that the wrath of Nobunaga was most
strongly aroused. Marching against it in 1571, he bade his generals set
it on fire. The officers stood aghast at the order, which seemed to them
likely to call down the vengeance of Heaven upon their heads. With
earnest protests they begged him not to do so unholy an act.
"Since this monastery was built, now nearly a thousand years ago," they
said, "it has been vigilant against the power of the spirits of evil. No
one has dared in all that time to lift a hand against these holy
buildings. Can you design to do so?"
"Yes," answered Nobunaga, sternly. "I have put down the villains that
distracted the country, and I intend to bring peace upon the land and
restore the power of the mikado. The bonzes have opposed my efforts and
aided my enemies. I sent them a messenger and gave them the chance to
act with loyalty, but they failed to listen to my words, and resisted
the army of the emperor, aiding the wicked robbers. Does not this make
them thieves and villains? If I let them now escape, this trouble will
continue forever, and I have allowed them to remain on this mountain
only that I might destroy them. That is not all. I have heard that these
priests fail to keep their own rules. They eat fish and the
strong-smelling vegetables which Buddha prohibited. They keep
concubines, and do not even read the sacred books of their faith. How
can such as these put down evil and preserve holiness? It is my command
that you surround and burn their dwellings and see that none of them
escape alive."
Thus bidden, the generals obeyed. The grounds of the monastery were
surrounded, and on the next day the temples and shrines were set on fire
and the soldiers remorselessly cut down all they met. The scene of
massacre and conflagration that ensued was awful to behold. None were
spared, neither young nor old, man, woman, nor child. The sword and
spear were wielded without mercy, and when the butchery ended not a soul
of the multitude of inmates was left alive.
One more great centre of Buddhism remained to be dealt with, that of the
monastery and temple of Houguanji, whose inmates had for years hated
Nobunaga and sided with his foes, while they made their stronghold the
hiding-place of his enemies. Finally, when some of his favorite captains
had been killed by lurking foes, who fled from pursuit into the
monastery, he determined to deal with this haunt of evil as he had dealt
with Hiyeizan.
But this place was not to be so easily taken. It was strongly fortified,
and could be captured only by siege. Within the five fortresses of which
it was composed were many thousands of priests and warriors, women and
children, and a still more frightful massacre than that of Hiyeizan was
threatened. The place was so closely surrounded that all escape seemed
cut off, but under cover of the darkness of night and amid a fierce
storm several thousand of the people made their way from one of the
forts. They failed, however, in their attempt, being pursued, overtaken,
and slaughtered. Soon after a junk laden with human ears and noses came
close under the walls of the castle, that the inmates might learn the
fate of their late friends.
Vigorously the siege went on. A sortie of the garrison was repelled, but
a number of Nobunaga's best officers were killed. After some two months
of effort, three of the five fortresses were in the assailants' hands,
and many thousands of the garrison had fallen or perished in the flames,
the odor of decaying bodies threatening to spread pestilence through
camp and castle alike.
In this perilous condition of affairs the mikado sent a number of his
high officials to persuade the garrison to yield. A conference was held
and a surrender agreed upon. The survivors were permitted to make their
way to other monasteries of their sect, and Nobunaga occupied the
castle, which is still held by the government. These two great blows
brought the power of the bonzes, for that age, to an end. In later years
some trouble was made by them, but Nobunaga had done his work so
thoroughly that there was little difficulty in keeping them under
control.
[Illustration: KARAMO TEMPLE, NIKKO.]
There remains only to tell the story of this great captain's end. He
died at Kioto, the victim of treason. Among his captains was one named
Akechi, a brave man, but proud. One day, in a moment of merriment,
Nobunaga put the head of the captain under his arm and played on it with
his fan, saying that he would make a drum of it. This pleasantry was not
to the taste of the haughty captain, who nursed a desire for
revenge,--behind which perhaps lay a wish to seize the power of the
chief.
The traitor did not have long to wait. Nobunaga had sent most of his
forces away to quell a rebellion, keeping but a small garrison. With
part of this Akechi was ordered to Kiushiu, and left the city with
seeming intention to obey. But he had not gone far when he called his
officers together, told them of his purpose to kill Nobunaga, and
promised them rich booty for their assistance in the plot. The officers
may have had reasons of their own for mutiny, for they readily
consented, and marched back to the city they had just left.
Nobunaga resided in the temple of Hounoji, apparently without a guard,
and to his surprise heard the tread of many feet and the clash of armor
without. Opening a window to learn what this portended, he was struck by
an arrow fired from the outer darkness. He saw at once what had
occurred, and that escape was impossible. There was but one way for a
hero to die. Setting fire to the temple, he killed himself, and before
many minutes the body of the great warrior was a charred corpse in the
ashes of his funeral pile.
_HOW A PEASANT BOY BECAME PREMIER._
In the history of nations there have been many instances of a man
descended from the lowest class of the populace reaching the highest
rank. Kings, conquerors, emperors, have thus risen from the ranks of
peasants and laborers, and the crown has been worn by men born to the
beggar's lot. In the history of Japan only one instance of this kind
appears, that of one born a peasant who supplanted the noble families
and became lord of the people and the emperor alike. Such a man was
Hideyoshi, the one of Nobunaga's generals who bore the popular nickname
of "Cotton," from his fertility of resources and his varied utility to
his chief.
Born in 1536, the son of a peasant named Yasuke, as a baby he had almost
the face of a monkey, while as a boy he displayed a monkey-like cunning,
restlessness, and activity. The usual occupations of the sons of
Japanese peasants, such as grass-cutting and rice-weeding, were not to
the taste of young Monkey-pine, as the villagers called him, and he
spent his time in the streets, a keen-witted and reckless young truant,
who feared and cared for no one, and lived by his wits.
Fortune favored the little vagrant by bringing him under the eyes of the
great soldier Nobunaga, who was attracted by his wizened, monkeyish
face and restless eyes and gave him occupation among his grooms. As he
grew older his love of war became pronounced, he took part in the
numerous civil turmoils in which his patron was engaged, and manifested
such courage and daring that Nobunaga rapidly advanced him in rank,
finally making him one of his most trusted generals. No man was more
admired in the army for soldierly qualities than the peasant leader, and
the boldest warriors sought service under his banner, which at first
bore for emblem a single gourd, but gained a new one after each battle,
until it displayed a thick cluster of gourds. At the head of the army a
golden model of the original banner was borne, and wherever it moved
victory followed.
Such was the man who, after the murder of Nobunaga, marched in furious
haste upon his assassin and quenched the ambition of the latter in
death. The brief career of the murderer has given rise to a Japanese
proverb, "Akechi ruled three days." The avenger of the slain regent was
now at the head of affairs. The mikado himself dared not oppose him, for
the military power of the empire lay within his grasp. There was only
one man who ventured to resist his authority, and he for no long time.
This was a general named Shibata, who took the field in defence of the
claim of Nobutaka, a son of the slain regent. He did not realize with
whom he had to deal. The peasant general was quickly in the field at the
head of his veteran army, defeated Shibata at every encounter, and
pursued him so hotly that he fled for refuge to a fortified place now
known as Fukui. This stronghold Hideyoshi besieged, establishing his
camp on the slope of a neighboring mountain, from which he pushed his
siege operations so vigorously that the fugitive gave up all hope of
escape.
In this dilemma Shibata took a resolution like that of the Epicurean
monarch of Assyria, the famed Sardanapalus. He gave a grand feast in the
palace, to which all the captains and notables of his party were
invited, and at which all present danced and made merry as though
victory hung over their banners. Yet it was their funeral feast, to be
followed by a carnival of death.
In the midst of the banquet, Shibata, rising cup in hand, said to his
wife,--
"We are men, and will die. You are a woman, and have the right to live.
You may gain safety by leaving the castle, and are at liberty to marry
again."
The brave woman, the sister of Nobunaga, was too high in spirit to
accept this offer. Her eyes filled with tears, she thanked her lord for
his kindness, but declared that the world held no other husband for her,
and that it was her sole wish to die with him. Then, reciting a farewell
stanza of poetry, she calmly stood while her husband thrust his dirk
into her heart.
All the women and children present, nerved by this brave example,
welcomed the same fate, and then the men committed _hara-kiri_, the
Japanese method of suicide, Shibata having first set fire to the castle.
Soon the flames curled upward round the dead and the dying, and the
conqueror found nothing but the ashes of a funeral pile upon which to
lay hand.
Hideyoshi, all resistance to his rule being now at an end, set himself
to tranquillize and develop Japan. Iyeyasu, one of Nobunaga's favorite
generals, became his friend and married his sister; Mori, lord of the
West, came to the capital and became his vassal, and no man in the
empire dared question his power. His enemies, proud nobles who were
furious at having to bend their haughty heads before a peasant,
privately called him Sava Kuan ja ("crowned monkey"), but were wise
enough not to be too open in their satire. Their anger was especially
aroused by the fact that the mikado had conferred upon this parvenu the
lofty office of kuambaku, or prime minister of the empire, a title which
had never before been borne by any one not a noble of the Fujiwara clan,
for whom it had been expressly reserved. He was also ennobled under the
family name of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
The new premier showed as great an activity in the works of peace as he
had shown in those of war, putting his soldiers to work to keep their
minds employed. Kioto was improved by his orders, splendid palaces being
built, and the bed of the river Kamo paved with flat stones. Ozaka was
greatly developed, an immense fortress being built, the river widened
and deepened, and canals dug in great profusion, over which were thrown
more than a thousand bridges. Various other cities were improved, great
towers and pagodas built, and public works erected in many parts of the
realm. In addition Hideyoshi won popularity by his justice and mercy,
pardoning his opponents, though the rule had hitherto been to put the
adherents of opposite parties to death, and showing no regard for rank,
title, or service to himself in his official duty as judge.
He had married a peasant girl while a peasant himself, but as he rose in
rank he espoused new wives of increasingly high station, his last being
of princely descent. In the end he had as many wives as the much-married
Henry VIII., but not in the same fashion, as he kept them all at once,
instead of cutting off the head of one to make room for the next.
Hideyoshi had one great ambition, born in him when a boy, and haunting
him as a man. This was to conquer Corea, and perhaps China as well. He
had begged Nobunaga to aid him in this great design, but had only been
laughed at for his pains. Now that he was at the head of affairs, this
plan loomed up in large proportions in his mind. Corea had long ceased
to pay tribute, and Corean pirates ravaged the coast. Here was an excuse
for action. As for China, he knew that anarchy ruled there, and hoped to
take advantage of this state of affairs.
Patting the back of a statue of Yoritomo in a patronizing fashion, he
humorously said, "You are my friend. You took all the power in Japan, a
thing which only you and I have been able to do. But you came from a
noble family, and were not, like me, the son of a peasant. I propose to
outdo you, and conquer all the earth, and even China. What say you to
that?"
To test the feeling of the gods about his proposed expedition, he threw
into the air before a shrine a hundred "cash," or Japanese small coin,
saying, to translate his words into the American vernacular, "If I am to
conquer China, let these come up head."
They all came up "head," or what in Japan answers to that word, and
soldiers and ruler were alike delighted, for this omen seemed surely to
promise success.
Nearly fourteen hundred years had elapsed since the previous conquest of
Corea by the famous empress Jingu. Now an army said to have been five
hundred thousand strong was sent across the ocean channel between
Kiushiu and the Corean coast. Hideyoshi was at this time sixty years of
age and had grown infirm of body, so that he felt unable to command the
expedition himself, which was therefore intrusted to two of his ablest
leaders, Kato, of noble birth, and Konishi, the son of a druggist, who
disgusted his proud associate by representing on his banner a paper
medicine-bag, the sign of his father's shop.
Notwithstanding the ill feeling between the leaders, the armies were
everywhere victorious, Corea was overrun and the king driven from his
capital, and the victors had entered into serious conflict with the
armies of China, when word came from Japan (in 1598) that Hideyoshi was
dead. A truce was at once concluded and the army ordered home.
Thus ended the second invasion of Corea, the second of the events which
gave rise to the claim in Japan that Corea is a vassal state of the
island empire and were used as warrants to the nineteenth century
invasion.
_THE FOUNDER OF YEDO AND OF MODERN FEUDALISM._
The death of the peasant premier left Iyeyasu, the second in ability of
Nobunaga's great generals, as the rising power in Japan. Hideyoshi, in
the hope of preserving the rule in his own family, had married his son,
a child of six, to Iyeyasu's granddaughter, and appointed six ministers
to act as his guardians. He did not count, in cherishing this illusory
hope, on the strength of human ambition. Nor did he give thought to the
bitter disgust with which the haughty lords and nobles had yielded to
the authority of one whom they regarded as an upstart. The chances of
the child's coming to power were immeasurably small.
In truth, the death of the strong-willed premier had thrown Japan open
to anarchy. The leaders who had returned from the Corean war, flushed
with victory, were ambitious for power, and the thousands of soldiers
under their command were eager for war and spoils. Hidenobu, a nephew of
Nobunaga, claimed the succession to his uncle's position. The five
military governors who had been appointed by the late premier were
suspicious of Iyeyasu, and took steps to prevent him from seizing the
vacated place. The elements of anarchy indeed were everywhere abroad,
there was more than one aspirant to the ruling power, and armies began
to be raised.
Iyeyasu keenly watched the movements of his enemies. When he saw that
troops were being recruited, he did the same. Crimination and
recrimination went on, skirmishes took place in the field, the citadel
of Ozaka was successively taken and retaken by the opposing parties, the
splendid palace of Hideyoshi at Fushimi was given to the flames, and at
length the two armies came together to settle in one great battle the
fate of Japan.