Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 92

184 1.

Notices of Japan, No. V1.

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maps, but was detected in the transgression of this prohibition, and imprisoned. His escape was effected by the fidelity and attachment of his Japanese domestics; but the

person or persons who were responsible for his safe custody had no re- source but the hara-kiri. This is the story circulated on the Continent; the ac- of the details cannot be avouched; but of the fact, that the German curacy doctor's escape, like the British sailor's, caused Japanese suicide, there seems to be, unhappily, no doubt.

But to leave the subject of self-slaughter. The following fragment of history, from the Annals of the siogouns of the Gongen dynasty, is characteristic alike of the vindictive temper, resolution, high sense of honor, and ferocity in punishment of the Japanese, and also of their long enduring hereditary gratitude.

*

During the civil wars (which will be related in a succeeding paper on Japan. ese history) between Gongen and his grand-daughter's husband, Hideyosi, the prince of Toza had been a faithful adherent of the latter; after whose discomfiture, he fell into the conqueror's hands. He endured much cruel, much degrading treatment; and at last, his hands were ordered to be struck off, which in Japan is the very extremity of dishonor. The prisoner upbraids the usurper, who thus appears to have been present throughout, with his perjury to Hideyosi, and his barbarity to himself. The answer to his reproaches was sentence of decapitation. The prince's son, Marubasi Chuya, instantly resolved to avenge his father's death; but being then a destitute and helpless child, but nine years old, he careful. ly concealed his purpose until he should find himself in a condition to effect it. This did not happen until the accession of Gongen's great-grandson, Minamoto no Yeyetsuna, in 1651, when he was appointed commander of the pikemen of Yorinebu, the new siogoun's uncle. Chuya now deemed the moment of revenge arrived. He concerted his schemes with Ziositz [or Yuino Siosits], the son of an eminent dyer but a man of such talent, that he had been tutor to Yorinobu. This prince himself was suspected of being implicated in the conspiracy; if he was, the presence of mind and firmness of his confederates effectually screened him. Yet, when we are told that the drift of the plot was to exterminate the whole race of Gongen, and to divide the empire between Chuya and Siosits, this seems a design so unlikely for a prince of the proscribed family to participate in, that we must suppose the views of the conspirators to be misrepresented, or Yorinobu to have been duped by his accomplices, as the issue of the transaction renders it hardly possible to acquit him of all knowledge of the plot.

measures

An act of indiscretion on the part of Chuya, after so many years (nearly fifty) of prudence, betrayed the conspiracy, and orders were issued for his arrest, and that of Siosits. It was deemed important to seize both, or at least Chuya, who resided at Yedo, alive, in the hope of extorting further disclosures; and were taken accordingly. An alarm of fire was raised at Chuya's door, and when he ran out to ascertain the degree of danger threatening his house, he was suddenly surrounded and attacked. He defended himself stoutly, cutting down two of his assailants; but, in the end, was overpowered by numbers, and secured.

His wife, meanwhile, had heard the sounds of conflict, and apprehend- ing its cause, immediately caught up those of her husband's papers which would have revealed the names of his confederates (amongst whom were men of distinc- tion and princes of the land), and burnt them. Her presence of mind remains

Titsingh, page 14.

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