. The mikado's empire. ideyoshi except that in the district ofAichi, in Ovvari. There, in 1536, lived a peasant called Yasuke, whosewife bore a wizen-faced, pithecoid baby, who grew up to be a cunningand reckless boy. Instead of going out to the hill-sides, grass-hookin hand and basket on back, to cut green fodder for horses, or stand-ing knee-deep in the mud-pulp of the rice-fields weed-ing the young plants, re-turning at night, with hoeon shoulder, he lived onthe streets, and sharpenedhis wits, afraid of no one.^Tiile a mere boy, he be-came a betto, or groom, toNobunaga, who noticed theboys
. The mikado's empire. ideyoshi except that in the district ofAichi, in Ovvari. There, in 1536, lived a peasant called Yasuke, whosewife bore a wizen-faced, pithecoid baby, who grew up to be a cunningand reckless boy. Instead of going out to the hill-sides, grass-hookin hand and basket on back, to cut green fodder for horses, or stand-ing knee-deep in the mud-pulp of the rice-fields weed-ing the young plants, re-turning at night, with hoeon shoulder, he lived onthe streets, and sharpenedhis wits, afraid of no one.^Tiile a mere boy, he be-came a betto, or groom, toNobunaga, who noticed theboys monkey face and rest-less eyes, and encouragedhim to become a soldier,which he did. The number and varietyof names possessed by himin his life-time illustratewell the confusing customin vogue among the Japa-nese of frequently changingtheir names. The reader . Familiar C.)untry Scene: Boys o^oinc, up a Mount- ^f .j^^ ^^^^^^^ literature oram to cut Grass; Peasant Woman, with Hoe on her Shoulder. of foreign works of Japan. fflDJETOSHrS ENTERPRISES.—INVASION OF CORE A. 237 is perplexed, among the multitude of names and titles, to distinguishthe personage to whom they belong. When there are many actors inthe scene, and each is known by a half-dozen aliases, confusion becomesconfounded, and the patience is sorely taxed. In this work I designate one person by one name, although appar-ent anachronisms must thereby be committed, and the eyes of thescholar be often annoyed. It has, until recently, in Japan been thecustom for every samurai to be named differently in babyhood, boy-hood, manhood, or promotion, change of life or residence, in com-memoration of certain events, or on account of a vow, or from merewhim. Thus, at his birth, Hideyoshis mother having, as it is said,dreamed that she had conceived by the sun, called him Hiyoshi maro(good sun). Others dubbed him Ko chiku (small boy), and afterwardSaru matsu (monkey-pine). As a soldier, he enlisted as Kinoshita To-kichiro, the first
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgriffisw, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1894
