Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the post-stations free, and farmers had to turn out, or send deputies, to act as porters and
provide labor.
(64) Nikkō, Ieyasu's mausoleum.
Thelanguageofthecourtwasextremelycourteousandflowery,andthecourtiersthem-
selves were considered as rather soft and decadent, even though they were treated with
the greatest deference. Their pursuits included such aesthetic exercises as flower view-
ing, capping verses, distinguishing between and appreciating the odors of heated incense
woods—all pursuits frowned on by those townsmen who obeyed the merchant code of
parsimony—andmoreenergeticbutstillhighlyritualizedoccupationslikeceremonialdan-
cing to the court orchestra, and games such as football and polo, where the object was not
to win, but to keep the game going in a graceful way. They were also able to summon en-
tertainers from outside, theatre groups and puppeteers, to help them pass the time that no
doubt hung heavily on their hands. They cannot have had much opportunity to commit of-
fences, but the government had available a system of banishment by which they could be
punished if necessary.
Inthemid-nineteenth century,thecourtbecame thecenterofactivity whichfinallyres-
ulted in the overthrow of the Shogun's government, and its replacement by an Emperor re-
storedtoapowersuchashehadnotknownfornearly1,000years;thusthemosttraditional
of Japanese institutions came to preside over a policy which brought to an end the period
of traditional Japan.
In so far as the Emperor had a fundamental religious function, it was as descendant of
the sun goddess Amaterasu-omi-kami, “the great sky-lighting deity,” and as insurer of fer-
tility by the cultivation of a sacred rice-field in the palace precincts, rather as the Chinese
Emperor was responsible for the crops of his vast nation. The religion in the context of
