My thanks are due to His Excellency Viscount Hayashi and the members of the Japanese Embassy in London, by all of whom the most kindly interest has been taken in my work, and from whom I have received most valuable aid in its preparation. Also to Baron Suyematsu, who assisted me greatly with his personal reminiscences and who revised the chapter on Marquis Ito, his father-in-law. I have also to record my indebtedness to the Editor and Mr S. Imai of the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, from whom I received material help in regard to the history of those earlier Makers of Japan who flourished in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. I have availed myself of every opportunity of consulting the writings of Messrs Black and Rein, and the works on Japan and its affairs by Count Matsukata, Sir R. Alcock, Sir E. Reed, Sir Robert K. Douglas, Messrs Hearn, Clement, and many others, and I have taken my figures for the most part from Japanese official publications. When in 1895 I wrote “Advance, Japan!” I ventured to predict the rise of Japanese influence in China and that Japan would be “the lever to set the Chinese mass in motion” though her efforts would “tend towards the consolidation of the Chinese Empire rather than to its disintegration.” That work was translated in 1904 into Russ avowedly in order that the Tsar’s people might learn something of the nation they were fighting. In 1898 I had written “What will Japan do?” and had based the story on a firm conviction that she would defeat Russia when the inevitable contest should occur, the date I ventured to assign for the outbreak of hostilities being, as it turned out, three years too soon. That little volume was at once translated into Japanese. If in the attempt that I have now made to assign to the chief personages their due positions in respect of their nation’s stirring history, I have in the smallest degree succeeded in conveying useful information concerning our allies and their country to the people of the Occident, I shall not have laboured in vain, and in submitting my work in all humility—conscious of its many defects and shortcomings—to the judgment of the public, my one hope is that it may be of some slight service to those who may honour me by perusing its pages.

J. M.

CONTENTS

PAGE
I.His Majesty the Emperor of Japan[1]
II.Prince Tokugawa Keiki: the Last of the Shoguns[53]
III.Fujita Toko[97]
IV.Sakuma Shuri (otherwise Shozan)[101]
V.Yoshida Torajiro (otherwise Sho-in)[114]
VI.Marquis Ito[119]
VII.Prince Iwakura Tomomi[154]
VIII.Prince Sanjo Sanetomi[163]
IX.Count Inouye Kaoru[170]
X.Viscount Okubo Toshimichi[184]
XI.Count Goto Shojiro[195]
XII.Marshal Saigo Takamori[202]
XIII.Field-Marshal Marquis Yamagata[219]
XIV.Count Okuma Shigenobu[246]
XV.Field-Marshal Marquis Oyama[255]
XVI.Fukusawa Yukichi[268]
XVII.Marquis Kido Koin[273]
XVIII.Count Itagaki[279]
XIX.Count Matsukata Masayoshi[284]
XX.Admiral Viscount Enomoto[299]
XXI.Admiral Togo Heihachi[306]
XXII.Baron Eichi Shibusawa[315]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

H.M. the Emperor of Japan [Frontispiece]
The Geku Shrine at Isé to face page [8]
The Arms Museum at Tokio ” ” [32]
The Ex-Shogun and Family ” ” [53]
(From a Photograph by the Kinkodo Co., Tokio)
The Interior of Shiba Temple ” ” [84]
Fujita, Sakuma, and Yoshida ” ” [97]
Marquis Ito ” ” [119]
Japanese School at Seoul ” ” [136]
Prince Iwakura Tomomi ” ” [154]
Prince Sanjo Sanetomi ” ” [163]
Count Inouye Kaoru ” ” [170]
Viscount Okubo Toshimichi ” ” [184]
Count Goto Shojiro ” ” [195]
Marshal Saigo Takamori ” ” [202]
Marquis Yamagata ” ” [219]
Count and Countess Okuma ” ” [246]
(From a Photograph by the Kinkodo Co., Tokio)
Marquis Oyama ” ” [255]
Fukusawa Yukichi ” ” [268]
Marquis Kido ” ” [273]
Count Itagaki ” ” [279]
Count Matsukata ” ” [284]
(From a Photograph by Elliott & Fry)
Admiral Enomoto ” ” [299]
Admiral Togo ” ” [306]
Baron Shibusawa ” ” [315]