I heard from my friends something of Nogi’s demeanour.  The old general was a familiar figure in Tokyo.  In the street cars—­those were the days when they were not over-crowded—­he was always seen standing.  His admirers used to say that his face “beamed with beneficence.”  But Nogi, though he loved to be within reach of the Emperor and did his part as head of the Peers’ School, liked nothing better than to get away to the country.  He was originally a peasant and he still possessed a cho of upland holding.  He was glad to work on it with the digging mattock of the farmer.

FOOTNOTES: 

[36] Son-God-of-the-Spirit-of-the-Province.

[37] It was a tiny squid.  There are seventy sorts of cuttlefish and octopuses in Japanese waters.  Value of dried cuttlefish in 1917, 4 million yen.

[38] The hands are laid flat on the ground with finger-tips meeting and the forehead touches the hands.

[39] See Chapter XX.

[40] The root grows to about the size of a big apple.  It may be seen in the shops in white dried sections.  A stiff greyish jelly made from it is eaten with rice.  It is also eaten as oden or dengaku.

[41] See Appendix IV.

[42] See Appendix XX.

[43] See Appendix V.

[44] The truth is being learnt by the younger generation.

[45] For crime statistics, see Appendix VI.

[46] Harakiri (seppuku is the polite word) still happens.  Just before writing this note I read of the captain of the first company of the Japanese garrison in a Korean town having committed seppuku because of a sense of responsibility for the irregularities of subordinates.  But of 7,239 suicides of men in 1916 only 308 were by cold steel.  Of 4,558 cases of women suicides 140 were by steel.

CHAPTER VII

OF “DEVIL-GON” AND YOSOGI

The consciousness of a common purpose in mankind, or even the acknowledgment that such a common purpose is possible, would alter the face of world politics at once.—­GRAHAM WALLAS

There was a bad landlord who was nicknamed “Devil-gon.”  He was shot.  There was another bad landlord who, as he was crossing a narrow bridge over a brook, was “pistolled through the sleeve and tumbled into the water.”  Although the murderer was well known, his name was never revealed to the police, and the family of the dead man was glad to leave the district.  The villagers celebrated their freedom by eating the “red rice” which is prepared on occasions of festivity.  In another village, the guncho who spoke to me of these things said, there were several usurious landlords.  “The village headman got angry.  He called the landlords to him.  He said to them that if they continued to lend at high interest the people would set fire to their houses and he would not proceed against them.