. The mikado's empire. g him more and more inaccessible to hispeople. Then followed in succession the decay of his power, the cre-ation of a dual system of government, with two capitals and centresof authority ; the domination of the military classes ; the centuries ofanarchy; the progress of feudalism; the rending of the empire intohundreds of petty provinces, baronies, and feudal tenures. Withinthe time of European knowledge of Japan, true national unity hasscarcely been known. The political system has been ever in a state 102 THE MIKADOS EMPIRE. of unstable equilibrium, and the nation but a
. The mikado's empire. g him more and more inaccessible to hispeople. Then followed in succession the decay of his power, the cre-ation of a dual system of government, with two capitals and centresof authority ; the domination of the military classes ; the centuries ofanarchy; the progress of feudalism; the rending of the empire intohundreds of petty provinces, baronies, and feudal tenures. Withinthe time of European knowledge of Japan, true national unity hasscarcely been known. The political system has been ever in a state 102 THE MIKADOS EMPIRE. of unstable equilibrium, and the nation but a conglomeration of units,in which the forces of repulsion ever threatened to overcome the forcesof cohesion. Two rulers in two capitals gave to foreigners the im-pression that there were two emperors in Japan—an idea that hasbeen incorporated into most of the text-books and cyclopedias ofChristendom. Let it be clearly understood, however, that there neverwas but one emperor in Japan, the mikado, who is and always was. The Mikado ou bib Throne. Time, from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century. the only sovereign, though his measure of power has been very dif-ferent at various times. Until the rise and domination of the milita-ry classes, he was in fact, as well as by law, supreme. How the mi-kados actual power ebbed away shall form the subject of this and thefollowing chapter. From the death of Nintoku Tennd, the last of thelong-lived mika-dos, to Kimmei (540-571), in whose time continental civilization wasintroduced, a period of one hundred and forty-one years, fourteen em-perors ruled, averaging a little over ten years each. From Kimmei THE THROyE AND THE NOBLES. 103 to Gotoba ( 1198) fifty-three emperors reigned, averaging elevenyears each. (See list of emperors, p. 123.) In 603, the first attempt to create orders of nobility for thenobles, already numerously existing, was made by the Empress orders were instituted, with symbolic names, after the Chinesec
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