Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 27

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Notices of Japan, No. V.

JAN.

ART. II. Notices of Japan, No. V.: political state of the empire,

classes of people, laws, prisons, &c.

THE government of Japan is supposed to be, like that of most oriental states, despotic; and so in fact it is, although the received idea of despotism requires some little modification to render it perfectly applicable to the sovereign ruling authority of Japan. We must especially abstract from that idea one of its great- est evils, and one which is habitually, whether or not justly, conceived to be inseparable from, if not an essential part of, despotism-namely, its arbitrariness. Liberty is, indeed, unknown in Japan; it exists not even in the common inter- course of man with man; and the very idea of freedom, as distinguished from rude license, could, perhaps, hardly be made intelligible to a native of that extra- ordinary empire. But, on the other hand, no individual in the whole nation, high or low, is above the law; both sovereigns, the supreme mikado, and his lieu- tenant-master the siogoun, seeming to be as completely enthralled by Japanese despotism as the meanest of their subjects, if not more so. If it be asked, how despotism can exist, unless wielded by a despotic sovereign, either monarch, oligarchy, or democracy, which last may be interpreted demagogue; the answer is, that at least at this present time, law and established custom, unvarying, known to all, and pressing upon all alike, are the despots of Japan. Scarcely an action of life is exempt from their rigid, iuflexible, and irksome control; but he who complies with their dictates has no arbitrary power, no capricious tyranny to apprehend.

Japan is a feudal empire, according to the very spirit of feudality. The mikudo, as the successor and representative of the gods, is the nominal proprietor, as well as sovereign, of the realm ; the siogoun, his deputy or vicegerent. His dominions are divided, with the exception of the portion reserved to the crown, into princi- palities, held in vassalage by their respective hereditary princes. Under them, the land is parceled out amongst the nobility, who hold their hereditary · estates by military service.

The utter impotence for good or for evil of the nominally all-powerful mikado has been sufficiently shown in a former paper, as also the perpetual thralldom in which he is held by the very honors paid him. It is, probably, the ever-recurring annoyance of these troublesome honors, that still induces the mikado frequently to abdicate in favor of a son or daughter. If even by this step they gain very little that can be called liberty, they at least escape from their task of diurnal immobility, and are no longer, it may be hoped, actually restrained from all lo- comotion.

The next personage to be noticed, in speaking of the political condition of Ja- pan, is the mikado's vicegerent, the siogoun, or kubo, the names being indifferently given him, without any clear explanation of diversity of signification between them.* Klaproth, however, indicates siogoun as the more appropriate title. This * [In the note on page 305 of vol. IX, the term kubo is applied to the mikado at Miyako. It is however more commonly applied to the siogoun at Yedo, but an examination of the Chinese characters employed for this title shows that

or 'the lord's palace,' might sometimes be applied to the mikado without committing a very glaring blunder, though it is no doubt incorrect to apply that term to the mikado though he is known by it in some parts of Kiusiu.]

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