d a great turning-point in the
history of that ancient empire. Through its influence the mikado came to
his own again, after being for seven centuries virtually the vassal of
the shogun. So long had he vanished from sight that the people looked
upon him as a far-off spiritual dignitary, and had forgotten that he was
once the supreme lord of the land. During all this time the imperial
court had been kept up, with its prime minister, its officials and
nobles,--with everything except authority. The court dignitaries ranked,
in their own conceit and their ancient titles, far above the shogun and
daimios, the military leaders, but they were like so many actors on the
stage, playing at power. The shogun, with the power at his command,
might have made himself the supreme dignitary, but it was easier to let
the sleepy court at Kioto alone, leaving them the shadow of that power
of which the substance was in the shogun's hands.

Yet there was always a risk in this. The sleeping emperor might at any
time awake, call the people and the army to his aid, and break through
the web that the great spider of military rule had woven about his
court. Some great event might stir Japan to its depths and cause a vital
change in the state of affairs. Such an event came in the visit of the
American fleet and the signing of a treaty of commerce and intercourse
by the Tai Kun, or great sovereign of Japan, as the shogun signed
himself.

For two centuries and a half Japan had been at peace. For nearly that
length of time foreigners had been forbidden to set foot on its soil.
They were looked upon as barbarians, "foreign devils" the islanders
called them, the trouble they had caused long before was not forgotten,
and throughout the island empire they were hated or despised.

The visit of the American fleet was, therefore, sure to send a stir of
deep feeling throughout the land. During this period of excitement the
shogun died, and the power was seized by Ii, the regent, a daring and
able man, who chose as shogun a boy twelve years old, imprisoned,
exiled, or beheaded all who opposed him, and was suspected of an
intention to depose the mikado and set up a boy emperor in his place.

All this aroused new excitement in Japan. But the opposition to these
acts of the regent would not have grown to revolution had no more been
done. The explosion came when Ii signed a treaty with the foreigners, a
right which belonged only to the mikado, and sent word to