[4] Quoted from a war-song. [5] The cherry-blossom is the flower of the warrior, because of its beauty, its short life, and its glorious death. [6] Quoted from the Imperial Rescript on Education. This may be called the Japanese Gospel on Education, and is read with all possible tokens of reverence in all Japanese schools on all ceremonial occasions. For full text, see Appendix A. [7] _Go_, a measure of capacity equal to a little more than a gill. [8] _Sen_, equal to half a cent. [9] Rice is a banquet to people so poor that they live ordinarily on millet. [10] “Banzai!” “Hurrah!” (Literally, “Ten thousand years!”) [11] This refers, not as it may seem, to the thought of coming back disabled, but to the idea of returning without the body after death. [12] The sheath and hilt of whitewood indicates the ceremonial dagger used in committing hara-kiri. [13] _Yamato-damashii_, the spirit of Yamato, an expression that contains in itself the idea of all that is heroic in Japanese history and character. Yamato was the province first conquered by Jimmu Tenno, and where he established his empire. The name is still used for that province, and poetically, to mean all Japan. [14] _Koto_, the Japanese word used here, means, literally, “arms and legs.” [15] Quoted from the Imperial Rescript to the Army and Navy upon which the moral education of the military and naval men of Japan is founded. For the full text, and the five articles, see Appendix B. [16] Quoted from the Imperial Declaration of War against Russia. For full text see Appendix C. [17] _Oni_, a goblin or devil. [18] The farewell cup of water (_mizu-sakazuki_, “water-wine-cup”), to which reference is made frequently in Lieutenant Sakurai’s story, is a religious ceremony, probably of Shinto origin, of the nature of a sacrament. At the moment of death, the nearest relative present administers water to the dying person, an act of purification for the next life. Hence, on the departure of any member of the family on an errand to which he has vowed his life, the farewell cup that is given him is not the _saké_, typifying joy and good-fellowship, but water, the symbol of purification. In one of the Japanese classical dramas, _Taikoki_, the scenes of which are laid in the time of Hideyoshi, the Taiko (1582-98 D.D.), a young man is about to depart on a forlorn hope, with the certainty of ending his life in battle. He is betrothed, and before he leaves his home the wedding is celebrated; but the marriage cup which bride and bridegroom share is filled with water instead of _saké_, as a sign that the union is not for this life but for the next. The bridegroom leaves immediately after the ceremony and dies fighting; the young wife at once commits suicide and rejoins him in the new life to which they pledged themselves in the “death-cup” of their wedding-day.