lasted long after it ceased to have power)
it continued to represent what was most civilized in Japan: the study
of Chinese literature, the patronage of art, and the attempt to preserve
respect for something other than brute force. But the Court nobles (who
remained throughout quite distinct from the military feudal chiefs) were
so degenerate and feeble, so stereotyped and unprogressive, that it
would have been quite impossible for the country to be governed by them
and the system they represented. In this respect they differed greatly
from the mediaeval Church, which no one could accuse of lack of vigour,
although the vigour of the feudal aristocracy may have been even
greater. Accordingly, while the Church in Europe usually defeated the
secular princes, the exact opposite happened in Japan, where the Mikado
and his Court sank into greater and greater contempt down to the time of
the Restoration.

The Japanese have a curious passion for separating the real and the
nominal Governments, leaving the show to the latter and the substance of
power to the former. First the Emperors took to resigning in favour of
their infant sons, and continuing to govern in reality, often from some
monastery, where they had become monks. Then the Shogun, who represented
the military power, became supreme, but still governed in the name of
the Emperor. The word "Shogun" merely means "General"; the full title of
the people whom we call "Shogun" is "Sei-i-Tai Shogun," which means
"Barbarian-subduing great General"; the barbarians in question being the
Ainus, the Japanese aborigines. The first to hold this office in the
form which it had at most times until the Restoration was Minamoto
Yoritomo, on whom the title was conferred by the Mikado in 1192. But
before long the Shogun became nearly as much of a figure-head as the
Mikado. Custom confined the Shogunate to the Minamoto family, and the
actual power was wielded by Regents in the name of the Shogun. This
lasted until near the end of the sixteenth century, when it happened
that Iyeyasu, the supreme military commander of his day, belonged to the
Minamoto family, and was therefore able to assume the office of Shogun
himself. He and his descendants held the office until it was abolished
at the Restoration. The Restoration, however, did not put an end to the
practice of a real Government behind the nominal one. The Prime Minister
and his Cabinet are presented to the world as the Japanese Government