as carried on by Princess Awo, elder sister
of Woke. At length the latter yielded and assumed the sceptre. His
first care was to collect the bones of his father, Prince Oshiwa,
who had been murdered and buried unceremoniously on the moor of Kaya
in Omi province. It was long before the place of interment could be
discovered, but at length an old woman served as guide, and the bones
of the prince were found mingled in inextricable confusion with those
of his loyal vassal, Nakachiko, who had shared his fate.

The ethics of that remote age are illustrated vividly in this page of
the record. A double sepulchre was erected in memory of the murdered
prince and his faithful follower and the old woman who had pointed
out the place of their unhonoured grave was given a house in the
vicinity of the palace, a rope with a bell attached being stretched
between the two residences to serve as a support for her infirm feet
and as a means of announcing her coming when she visited the palace.
But the same benevolent sovereign who directed these gracious doings
was with difficulty dissuaded from demolishing the tomb and
scattering to the winds of heaven the bones of the Emperor Yuryaku,
under whose hand Prince Oshiwa had fallen.

THE VENDETTA

In connexion with this, the introduction of the principle of the
vendetta has to be noted. Its first practical application is
generally referred to the act of the boy-prince, Mayuwa, who stabbed
his father's slayer, the Emperor Anko (A.D. 456). But the details of
Anko's fate are involved in some mystery, and it is not until the
time (A.D. 486) of Kenso that we find a definite enunciation of the
Confucian doctrine, afterwards rigidly obeyed in Japan, "A man should
not live under the same heaven with his father's enemy." History
alleges that, by his brother's counsels, the Emperor Kenso was
induced to abandon his intention of desecrating Yuryaku's tomb, but
the condition of the tomb to-day suggests that these counsels were
not entirely effective.

BANQUETS

The annals of this epoch refer more than once to banquets at the
palace. Towards the close of Seinei's reign we read of "a national
drinking-festival which lasted five days," and when Kenso ascended
the throne he "went to the park, where he held revel by the winding
streams," the high officials in great numbers being his guests. On
this latter occasion the ministers are said to have "uttered
reiterated cries of 'banzai'"*, which has come into