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"THE AMERICANS HAVE COME." 181
believed that they were blessed above all others
by heaven. It was instilled into every child's mind
that a foreigner was a barbarian, and that if one set
foot on the sacred soil of Japan the country would
be denied. It was a sacred doctrine that the Mikado
was descended directly from the gods who long ago
had come down from heaven ; therefore the divine
ancestry of their emperor were indignant at this
visit of the outside barbarians from America. Some
people were already praying that the Divine Breath,
as they called the stormy wind, might blow away
the ships of the western world and wreck them.
Long ago the Mongol Armada, sent by Genghis
Khan to invade Japan, had been scattered and
wrecked and so they hoped it would now be.
It would be very natural also for turbulent young
fellows, trained in sword and spear exercise, to im-
agine that the best way of getting rid of the foreigners
would be to rush at the
with naked sword and cut him
American leader
down. To get
courage for their venturesome act they would visit
the shrine of some one of the Mikado's ancestors,
and after worshiping there attempt their mad deed,
expecting to die in the attempt. As to such an
effort, Mr. Rai had his suspicions directed towards
a certain young man, who was no other than his own
nephew, Honda Jiro, who was an expert swordsman.
A devoted student of history and of irreproachable
character, he was almost fanatical in his devotion to
the Mikado. His hatred of foreigners was intense.
His idea was that the soil of Japan, because created