Mikado, which for more than ten centuries has exercised
a profound influence upon the development of Japan.

In China, the pen and the sword have been kept apart; the civilian and
the soldier, the man of letters and the man of arms, have been distinct
and separate. This was also true in old Loo Choo (now Riu Kiu), that
part of Japan most like China. In Japan, however, the pen and the sword,
letters and arms, the civilian and the soldier, have intermingled. The
unique product of this union is seen in the Samurai, or servant of the
Mikado. Military-literati, are unknown in China, but in Japan they
carried the sword and the pen in the same girdle.

3. This class of men had become fully formed by the end of the twelfth
century, and then began the new feudal system, which lasted until the
epochal year 1868 A.D.--a year of several revolutions, rather than of
restoration pure and simple. After nearly seven hundred years of
feudalism, supreme magistracy, with power vastly increased beyond that
possessed in ancient times, was restored to the emperor. Then also was
abolished the duarchy of Throne and Camp, of Mikado and Sh[=o]gun, and
of the two capitals Ki[=o]to and Yedo, with the fountain of honor and
authority in one and the fountain of power and execution in the other.
Thereupon, Japan once more presented to the world, unity.

Practically, therefore, the period of the prevalence of the Confucian
ethics and their universal acceptance by the people of Japan nearly
coincides with the period of Japanese feudalism or the dominance of the
military classes.

Although the same ideograph, or rather logogram, was used to designate
the Chinese scholar and the Japanese warrior as well, yet the former was
man of the pen only, while the latter was man of the pen and of two
swords. This historical fact, more than any other, accounts for the
striking differences between Chinese and Japanese Confucianism. Under
this state of things the ethical system of the sage of China suffered a
change, as does almost everything that is imported into Japan and
borrowed by the islanders, but whether for the better or for the worse
we shall not inquire too carefully. The point upon which we now lay
emphasis is this: that, although the Chinese teacher had made filial
piety the basis of his system, the Japanese gradually but surely made
loyalty (Kun-Shin), that is, the allied relations of sovereign and
minister, of lord and retainer, and of master and serva