icinity of
Fusiyama, the sacred mountain and reputed centre of the world. The entire
land or Han was originally divided into five provinces collectively named
the Go-kinai (the word go like the Maya ho, signifying five), the
territorial divisions and presumably consisting of four quarters and the
capital. Light is thrown upon the extent of this quinary organization by
the fact that, in ancient Japan, time was divided into five-day periods,
by official days of rest, which fell on the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st,
and 26th days of each month. The computation of time by cycles, which will
be treated further in a separate monograph, also prevailed in Japan, as
might be expected, since this method was a main feature of the definite
scheme on which the entire empire was founded.

In accord with this plan the population was divided into four classes,
consisting of the Haimin=the people; the warriors or Samurai, the Kazoku,
literally the flower of families, the nobility. All members of the
imperial family formed a fourth caste and above all stood the Emperor, the
central ruler, the divine descendant of the sun-goddess Amaterasu.
Evidences that an extension and fresh territorial division of the empire
took place at one time seem preserved in the ancient Japanese name for
Japan: Oya-shima=the eight islands. It is likewise related that the
Japanese creators, Izanajo and Izanami, built, in the centre of the world,
an octagonal palace around a central pillar, the octagonal form having
reference to the eight holy corners or points, the "Hak-kaku," or the
cardinal points and half cardinal points. It is impossible to overlook the
fact that by a similar method, but by means of four larger and four
smaller rays, the field of the Mexican calendar star is divided into eight
equal portions. It is a well-known fact that, in 1854, Japan was
practically governed by two rulers: the Mikado or Tenno, of divine or
"heavenly" descent, who led so secluded an existence that he was becoming
a shadowy and invisible ruler, and the Shogun, the civil governor, who had
become the terrestrial ruler _par excellence_, and whose power was in the
ascendant. This state of affairs affords a most interesting object lesson,
teaching how ancient empires gradually become divided and disintegrated
under dual government and under the influence of rival cults. The ancient
state religion or "Imperial worship" of Japan, the Shinto, was becoming as
obsolete as the worldly pow