rule vested in the person of the Mikado, and devotion to the ancestral land on whose consecrated and divine shores no foreign conqueror has ever set his foot. It called upon Japan to break loose from blind slavery to Chinese and Indian ideals, and to rely upon herself.
The historic spirit swept on through the realms of literature, art, and religion, until it finally reached the heart of the samurai. Till then its effects had been brilliant but not momentous, its expressions scholarly and therefore limited in scope. A democratization of the new message is found in the works of the early writers of the last century, among whom the poet-historian Rai-Sanyo stands foremost in rank. It was from his lucid pages that the full meaning of the past dawned on the minds of the young samurai and ronins. Their
87
