Another change, which commenced after the introduction of Buddhism, was the abdication of the Emperors after very short reigns. This led again to the successive appointments of mere children as Emperors. The ages at which several of the Emperors, over a lengthened period, ascended the throne, tended to reduce the position of Emperor to a name, and to throw the entire power into the hands of the ministers. The system began shortly after the introduction of Buddhism at court, and the minds of the boys and women who successively were nominal sovereigns of Japan were directed to the study of books of the religion, to the erection of magnificent temples, and to the manufacture of enormous idols and bells; such as the enormous copper figures of Buddha at Narra, Kamakura, and Miako. The latter has been melted down and a wooden figure substituted. Such were the Empress Sei wa, who began her reign at the age of nine; Yozei, who commenced his at the age of eight; Daigo, at thirteen; Reizan, a weakly lad of eighteen; Yenwou, at eleven; Go itsi, at nine; Konye, at three; and Rokusio, at two. But at intervals when a man ascended the throne, as the Emperor Ten si, it is a relief to see that some energy remained in the members of the royal family; and at times the national vigor was shown, and the military spirit, which the people are always proud of asserting, was fanned, by wars with Dattang (or Tartary) and Corea in 658 and 661. About the same time Yezo was once more overrun by Japanese arms and brought into subjection, military stations and officers being appointed in the island and in the hitherto barbarous provinces of Mootz and Dewa, in the north of Nippon. Revolts in the island of Kiusiu about 740 demanded fresh action from the center, and tend to show what a loose hold this central power had at that time over the extremities of the country. Not till the year 794 was this central power finally fixed at Miako. About this year the Emperor Kwan mu built a large palace there, finding that the magnitude of the business transacted by the eight boards of the empire demanded some settled place at which the court and the heads of departments might be permanently located. To the introduction of Buddhism and Chinese literature we may ascribe the completion, by Fusiwara (Tankai ko), who died in 720, of the “Ritz Rio,” a code of laws which are in force and use at the present day. The introduction of an alphabet or syllabary (the Hira Kana and Kata Kana) to facilitate the reading and understanding of Chinese was the work of the famous priest Ko bo, born in the province of Sanuki in 774, and who died in 835. He was canonized as Kobo dai si, and is venerated as one of the holiest saints of the Japanese calendar, and consequently was very much abused by the Jesuits. He spent some part of his life in China studying under the Buddhists of the time, and brought with him, as many others did, large numbers of Buddhist books. The enduring property of Japanese