northern Asian mainland.

Between the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth parallels, and west of the
one hundred and thirty-eighth meridian of longitude, may be found what
is still the choicest, richest and most populous part of The Country
Between Heaven and Earth. Here the prevailing element was Korean and
Tartar.

To the north and east of this fair country lay the Emishi savages, or
Ainos.

In "the world" within the ken of the prehistoric dwellers in what is now
the three islands, Hondo, Kiushiu and Shikoku, there was no island of
Yezu and no China; while Korea was but slightly known, and the lands
farther westward were unheard of except as the home of distant tribes.

Three distinct lines of tradition point to the near peninsula or the
west coast of Japan as the "Heaven" whence descended the tribe which
finally grew to be dominant. The islands of Tsushima and Iki were the
stepping-stones of the migration out of which rose what may be called
the southern or Tsukushi cycle of legend, Tsukushi being the ancient
name of Kiushiu.

Idzumo is the holy land whence issued the second stream of tradition.

The third course of myth and legend leads us into Yamato, whence we
behold the conquest of the Mikado's home-land and the extension of his
name and influence into the regions east of the Hakone Mountains,
including the great plain of Yedo, where modern T[=o]ki[=o] now stands.

We shall take the term "Yamato" as the synonym of the prehistoric but
discernible beginnings of national life. It represents the seat of the
tribe whose valor and genius ultimately produced the Mikado system. It
was through this house or tribe that Japanese history took form. The
reverence for the ruler long afterward entitled "Son of Heaven" is the
strongest force in the national history. The spirit and prowess of these
early conquerors have left an indelible impress upon the language and
the mind of the nation in the phrase Yamato Damashi--the spirit of
(Divine and unconquerable) Japan.

The story of the conquest of the land, in its many phases, recalls that
of the Aryans in India, of the Hebrews in Canaan, of the Romans in
Europe and of the Germanic races in North America. The Yamato men
gradually advanced to conquest under the impulse, as they believed, of a
divine command.[9] They were sent from Takama-no-hara, the High Plain of
Heaven. Theirs was the war, of men with a nobler creed, having
agriculture and a feudal system of organization which