and unflagging zeal that the course of training for the army, once entered on, was never suffered to deviate a hair’s-breadth from the plan on which it had been determined that the vast structure should in the main be raised. Two maxims have always had weight with him, and he has steadfastly inculcated their observance by every individual in the army in which he takes such justifiable pride: they are:— Gi wo mite, nasazaru wa, yu naki nari. (Duty recognised, but unfulfilled, means lack of courage.) Gi wo omonzuru koto tai-san no gotoku Shi wo karonzuru koto, ko-bo no gotoshi. (Duty should weigh (with us) as the mass of a lofty mountain: Against it, our lives resemble in lightness the swan’s down.) There are six kinds of decorations in Japan, that of the Golden Kite being the Japanese equivalent of the Victoria Cross. Its first grade carries an annuity of £150. The Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun and Paulownia is the Order of Merit, held by very few. Marshal Yamagata has both, and in February 1906, he was invested with the British Order of Merit, at the hands of Prince Arthur of Connaught, an honour which was universally appreciated in Japan. His heir is Mr Yamagata Isaburo, his adopted son, who took office as Minister of Communications in 1906. XIV COUNT OKUMA SHIGENOBU Very few of those who have been prominent as Statesmen in Japan have wholly escaped the personal dangers which there appear to be inseparable from a political career, and though the attacks have not always been fatal they have been painfully frequent in the past forty or fifty years. Count Okuma was maimed by the explosion of a bomb hurled at his carriage as he drove past on his way to the Finance Department one morning in 1889, and has but one leg. The marvel was that he survived the attempt on his life at all, for the fanatic who was guilty of the crime unquestionably intended to murder him outright and did succeed in killing his coachman and groom. Count Okuma, who was raised to the peerage in 1887, is a native of Hizen, having been born in that province, at Saga, in February 1838. He is a big, broad-shouldered man, endowed with a bright, cheery disposition, possessed of most genial manners, and is brilliant and entertaining to a degree in his ordinary conversation. It is generally conceded that in the qualities which go to form a successful politician Count Okuma and Marquis Ito have much in common, for in respect of their prestige as party leaders, and the remarkable mental vigour and activity by which these renowned statesmen have ever been distinguished, there can be no doubt that they both take exceptionally high rank in the public esteem. Both have been the consistent advocates of progress, and both date their service to the Crown from the very beginning of the present reign. In one sense the Count’s success in politics was more noteworthy than that of his colleagues among the Elder