All the characters as portrayed in these pages, were living actors in the great national drama. Of those whose names have never before appeared in print, Karassu Maru, the only impulsive noble I have ever known, was the first imperial governor of Yedo. He died in August, 1872, and I attended his funeral. Honami came to Yedo with the emperor, but he was soon sent back to Kyoto, where he was placed under guardianship.

I have enjoyed the retrospective communication with my old friends. If my readers do so, they owe the pleasure to the publishers, who suggested the composition of the book.

R. van Bergen.

Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 12, 1900.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE
I.Japan Asleep[1]
II.The Old Yashiki[10]
III.The Messenger[21]
IV.The Fifth Day of the Eleventh Month[32]
V.The Council of the Clan[44]
VI.Young Kano Grows Up[55]
VII.Kano’s Journey to Yedo[65]
VIII.Yokohama in 1859[76]
IX.New Experience[88]
X.Friendship or Hatred[97]
XI.Choshiu Yashiki[107]
XII.Sonno Joï![118]
XIII.Plotting[129]
XIV.Within the Palace[141]
XV.Underground Rumbling[151]
XVI.The Court Aroused[161]
XVII.A Conference[171]
XVIII.Flight[184]
XIX.Battle and Defeat[195]
XX.Drilling[206]
XXI.Down With Tokugawa[216]
XXII.Conclusion[226]

Illustrations

Inouye in Samurai Costume[Frontispiece]
PAGE
Peace reigned over the country[5]
A Japanese Family[24]
Ito’s mother, suffering from rheumatism, to receive a massage treatment from one of the servants[31]
It is really a day devoted to Hachiman, the god of war[59]
He was in Kamishimo[118]
The friends were standing in the garden of a Teahouse[165]
But the houses are still as they were before[229]