JAPAN

THE HISTORY OF NATIONS

ARCHIBALD HENRY SAYCE, LL.D.,
Professor of Assyriology, Oxford University

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSTON, M.D., Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Oriental History and Archaeology, Johns Hopkins University

C.W.C. OMAN, LL.D.,
Professor of History, Oxford University

THEODOR MOMMSEN,
Late Professor of Ancient History, University of Berlin

ARTHUR C. HOWLAND, Ph.D.,
Department of History, University of Pennsylvania

CHARLES MERIVALE, LL.D.,
Late Dean of Ely, formerly Lecturer in History, Cambridge University

J. HIGGINSON CABOT, Ph.D.,
Department of History, Wellesley College

SIR WILLIAM W. HUNTER, F.R.S.,
Late Director-General of Statistics in India

GEORGE M. DUTCHER, Ph.D.,
Professor of History, Wesleyan University

SIR ROBERT K. DOUGLAS,
Professor of Chinese, King's College, London

JEREMIAH WHIPPLE JENKS, Ph.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Political Economy and Politics, Cornell University

KANICHI ASAKAWA, Ph.D.,
Instructor in the History of Japanese Civilization, Yale University

WILFRED HAROLD MUNRO, L.H.D.,
Professor of European History, Brown University

G. MERCER ADAM,
Historian and Editor

FRED MORROW FLING, Ph.D.,
Professor of European History, University of Nebraska

FRANÇOIS AUGUSTE MARIE MIGNET,
Late Member of the French Academy

JAMES WESTFALL THOMPSON, Ph.D.,
Department of History, University of Chicago

SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER, LL.D.,
Professor of Modern History, King's College, London

P.W. JOYCE, LL.D.,
Commissioner for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland

JUSTIN McCARTHY, LL.D.,
Author and Historian

AUGUSTUS HUNT SHEARER, Ph.D.,
Instructor in History, Trinity College, Hartford

W. HAROLD CLAFLIN, B.A.,
Department of History, Harvard University

CHARLES DANDLIKER, LL.D.,
President of Zurich University

ELBERT JAY BENTON, Ph.D.,
Department of History, Western Reserve University

SIR EDWARD S. CREASY,
Late Professor of History, University College, London

ARCHIBALD CARY COOLIDGE, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of History, Harvard University

WILLIAM RICHARD MORFILL, M.A.,
Professor of Russian and other Slavonic Languages, Oxford University

CHARLES EDMUND FRYER, Ph.D.,
Department of History, McGill University

E.C. OTTE,
Specialist on Scandinavian History

EDWARD S. CORWIN, Ph.D.,
Instructor in History, Princeton University

PAUL LOUIS LEGER,
Professor of Slav Languages, Collège de France

WILLIAM E. LINGELBACH, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of European History, University of Pennsylvania

BAYARD TAYLOR,
Former United States Minister to Germany

SIDNEY B. FAY, Ph.D.,
Professor of History, Dartmouth College

J. SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D.,
President Royal Geographical Society

ALBERT GALLOWAY KELLER, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of the Science of Society, Yale University

EDWARD JAMES PAYNE, M.A.,
Fellow of University College, Oxford

PHILIP PATTERSON WELLS, Ph.D.,
Lecturer in History and Librarian of the Law School, Yale University

FREDERICK ALBION OBER,
Historian, Author and Traveler

JAMES WILFORD GARNER, Ph.D.,
Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois

JOHN BACH McMASTER, Litt.D., LL.D.,
Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

The editors and publishers desire to express their appreciation for valuable advice and suggestions received from the following: Hon. Andrew D. White, LL.D., Alfred Thayer Mahan, D.C.L., LL.D., Hon. Charles Emory Smith, LL.D., Professor Edward Gaylord Bourne, Ph.D., Charles F. Thwing, LL.D., Dr. Emil Reich, William Elliot Griffis, LL.D., Professor John Martin Vincent, Ph.D., LL.D., Melvil Dewey, LL.D., Alston Ellis, LL.D., Professor Charles H. McCarthy, Ph.D., Professor Herman V. Ames, Ph.D., Professor Walter L. Fleming, Ph.D., Professor David Y. Thomas, Ph.D., Mr. Otto Reich and Mr. Francis J. Reynolds.

The editors of "The History of Nations" concluded their work with the chronicling of events to October, 1905, and all additions thereafter, bringing the histories to date, have been supplied by the publishers.

PREFACE

The present revised edition of the "History of the Empire of Japan" (compiled, in 1893, for the Imperial Japanese Commission of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, by Messrs. K. Takatsu, S. Mikami, M. Isoda, and others, and published in Tōkyō by order of the Department of Education) is not intended to supersede the original edition, the high qualities of which are, on the contrary, recommended to all students of Japanese history. That work admirably represents what might be termed the orthodox view of the national history, and is free alike from the unscientific method of the more conservative historian, and from the superficial speculations of the more radical, but not more scientific, student. Were the present editor to write an original work on Japanese history, however, he would, it is unnecessary to say, change the entire manner of presentation in order to make it accord with his own conception of the subject-matter. In this revision, he has not changed the general order of the original work, but has merely corrected a few data which are obviously out of date, omitted those minor facts which may well be dispensed with, and made the general narrative somewhat smoother than it was.

The fourth part is, however, the editor's own work. The primary aim in this division of the volume has been to supply a popular and accurate account of certain phases of the national progress that has taken place since the "History of the Empire" was prepared a dozen years ago. The substance of chapter XVIII has appeared among the new chapters supplied by the editor to the new edition of Brinkley's (edit.) "Japan," (J. B. Millet Co., Boston, 1905), and has been inserted here with the permission of those publishers.

Yale University