Japan and the Japanese

56 JAPAN. A. D. 1281 1350.
thing more than a mere shadow, of a still more ancient form of government,
in which the civil and ecclesiastical authority had both
been united under OTIC head.
The Dairi,* Vo, or Mikado, as he was otherwise designated, had
for his residence the north-east quarter of Miako (a great city, not
far from the centre of Nipon, but nearest the southern shore). This
quarter was of vast extent, surrounded by a wall, with a ditch and
rampart, by which it was separated from the rest of the city.
In the
midst of this fortified place, in a vast palace, easily distinguished from
a distance by the height of its tower, the Dairi dwelt, with his empress
or chief wife ;
his other eleven wives had adjoining palaces in a cir-
cle around, outside of which were the dwellings of his chamberlains
and other officers. These Dairi claimed to be descended from Sy?i-
Mu, who, it was said, had, A. c. GOO, introduced civilization into
Japan, and first established a regular government, and commencing
with whom, the Japanese annals show a regular series of Dairi,
who are represented as having been for many ages the sole lords
and imperial rulers of Japan, till, at length, they had been insensi-
bly set aside, as to the actual exercise of authority, by the Cubo-
Sama, or commanders of the armies. Yet these gradually
eclipsed and finally superseded emperors equivalents of the
" "
idle kings of the Carlovingian race of France, or to the present
nominal sovereign of the British empire were, and still are,
treated (as Queen Victoria is) with all the ceremonial of sub-
stantial power, and even with the respect and reverence due to the
spiritual head of the national church, descended from a race of
divinities, and destined at death to pass by a regular apotheosis into
the list of the national gods.
All the revenue drawn from the city of Miako and its dependencies
was appropriated to their support, to which the Kubo-Sama
added a further sum from his treasury. He himself treated the
Dairi with as much ceremonious respect and semi-worship as the
British prime minister bestows upon the British queen. He paid
an annual visit to the court of the Dairi in great state, and with
all the carriage of an inferior ; but took care to maintain a garri-
* Dairi, in its original sense, is said, by Rodriguez, in his Japanese gram-
mar, to signify rather the court than the person of the theocratic chief to
whom it is applied ; and so of most of the titles mentioned in the text