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Notices of Japan, No. VI.
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replied the judicial officer, "and I would all the world were like you. I need not await the governor of Yedo's permission to grant your wish; you are at liberty to join Chuya."
The two friends conversed awhile undisturbed; then Sibata produced a jug of sake, which he had brought, that they might drink it together, and as they did so, they bade each other a last farewell. Both wept. Chuya earnestly thanked Sibata for coming to see him once more. Sibata said: “Our body in this world resembles the magnificent flower asa-gawa, that, blossoming at peep of dawn, fades and dies as soon as the sun has risen; or the ephemeral kogero (an insect), But after death, we shall be in a better world, where we may uninterruptedly enjoy each other's society." Having thus spoken, he rose, left Chuya, and thanked the superintending officer for his indulgence.
All the prisoners were then fastened to separate crosses, aud the executioners brandished their fatal pikes. Chuya was first dispatched, by ripping him up with two cuts in the form of a cross. The others were then successively execut. ed; Chuya's wife dying with the constancy promised by her previous conduct.
It may here be observed, that the difference between this execution and all the descriptions given in the last paper, tends to confirm the conjecture there hazard- ed that the manner is not fixed, but depends much upon the judge. The different writers describe what they have seen, rather than what is prescribed. This rip- ping up of Chuya does not affect what was there said of the hara-kiri, the essence of which is, its being suicidal, or the proper act of the sufferer. This is merely a substitute for decapitation. But our story is not yet finished.
When this judicial massacre was over, Sibata presented his two valuable swords to the official superintendent, with these words: "To you I am indebted for my conversation with my lost friend; and I now request you to denounce me to the singoun, that I may suffer like Chuya."--"The gods forbid that I should act thus!" rejoined the person addressed. “You deserve a better fate than to die like him; you, who whilst all his other friends were consulting their own safety by lurking in concealment, came boldly forward to embrace him.”
As the name of Sibata Zabrobe does not again occur in the Annals, it may be hoped that this stout-hearted and faithful friend was suffered to return safely to his distant home. But the fate of another of the suspected conspirators is still to be told, and the manner of his escape exemplifies one of the lofy characteristics of the nation—their devoted fidelity.
The burning of Chuya's papers had destroyed all proof, if any had existed, of Yorinobu's complicity; but circumstances were strong against him. His palace was searched, but nothing found that could decidedly inculpate him; and now his secretary, Kanno Heyemon, came forward with a doclaration, that he, and only he, in the prince's establishment, had been cognizant of the conspiracy, confirming his assertion by ripping himself up. The fruit of this self-immolation was, that Yorinobu, although still suspected, remained unmolested at Yedo; and that a suspected prince did so remain, may show how modified and bound by law is Japanese despotism. Some generations afterwards, Yosimune, descendant of Yorinobu's, became siogoun, and evinced the gratitude of the family for the preservation of their ancestor, by raising the posterity of Kanno Heyemon to some of the highest honors of the state, and rendering them hereditary in his race. The next anecdote, taken from the same source, will both show that the wo-