were obliged to gain a livelihood by selling their autographs!
Nor did any great party in the State protest against this
condition of affairs. Even in the present reign--the most
glorious in Japanese history--there have been two rebellions,
during one of which a rival Emperor was set up in one part of
the country, and a republic proclaimed in another.

As for Bushido, so modern a thing is it that neither Kaempfer,
Siebold, Satow, nor Rein--all men knowing their Japan by heart
--ever once allude to it in their voluminous writings. The
cause of their silence is not far to seek: Bushido was unknown
until a decade or two ago! THE VERY WORD APPEARS IN NO
DICTIONARY, NATIVE OR FOREIGN, BEFORE THE YEAR 1900.
Chivalrous individuals of course existed in Japan, as in all
countries at every period; but Bushido, as an institution or
a code of rules, has never existed. The accounts given of it
have been fabricated out of whole cloth, chiefly for foreign
consumption. An analysis of medieval Japanese history shows
that the great feudal houses, so far from displaying an
excessive idealism in the matter of fealty to one emperor, one
lord, or one party, had evolved the eminently practical plan
of letting their different members take different sides, so
that the family as a whole might come out as winner in any
event, and thus avoid the confiscation of its lands. Cases,
no doubt, occurred of devotion to losing causes--for example,
to Mikados in disgrace; but they were less common than in the
more romantic West.

Thus, within the space of a short lifetime, the new Japanese
religion of loyalty and patriotism has emerged into the light