Note 41 — Chapter LXI

The reference in our text is to Go-Midzuno-o, who was mikado from 1611 to 1630; in the latter year he abdicated that dignity, forced to this step by petty persecutions and interference by the shôgun Hidetada, and lived in retirement for the rest of his life, dying in 1680. The statement as to cutting off his hair is hardly accurate in regard to its rarity, as it was then the custom for potentates of various degrees to abdicate their office at an early period therein, and retire into a Buddhist monastery, on which occasion the head of the candidate was shaved. Dairi is merely one of the appellations bestowed upon the mikado of Japan (see Vol. XIX, p. 51). The term mikado is practically the equivalent of “Sublime Porte;” the first to bear this name was Jimmu-Tennô (660–585 B. C.), and his dynasty has continued to the present day. After the conquest of Korea (202 A. D.) Chinese influences began to affect Japan; and the mikado’s authority was gradually diminished by powerful chiefs and lords, until the dignity of shôgun—a military title of honor—was conferred (1192) upon Yoritomo, and made hereditary in his family. From that time dates the dual monarchy which ruled Japan—the mikado being but the nominal sovereign—until 1868; the revolution of that year suppressed the shôgunate, and restored to the mikado his rightful authority. The mikado’s residence was established at Kiôto in 793, where it remained until 1868, being then transferred to Yedo (now Tôkiô). The comparison of the mikado to a pope arose from his possessing certain prerogatives in religious matters, and because a sort of divine character was ascribed to him from the claim of the first mikado that he was a descendant of the sun-goddess Amaterasu. See Rein’s Japan, pp. 214, 224, 315–317; also Murdoch and Yamagata’s Hist. Japan, chap. i, and pp. 697–700.