[100] The statement is, he told me, a calumny. He explained that he lost his post for refusing to bow, not to the portrait, but to the signature of the Emperor, the signature appended to that famous Imperial rescript on education which is appointed to be read in schools. Uchimura is very willing, he said, to show the respect which loyal Japanese are at all times ready to manifest to the Emperor, and he would certainly bow before the portrait of His Majesty; but in the proposal that reverence should be paid to the Imperial autograph he thought he saw the demands of a "Kaiserism"--his word, he speaks vigorous English--which was foreign to the Japanese conception of their sovereign, which would be inimical to the Emperor's influence and would be bad for the nation. [101] But journalism is one of the most powerful influences for good, and some of the best brains of the country is represented in it. Papers like the _Jiji, Asahi, Nichi Nichi_, and the Osaka papers run in conjunction with them have altogether a circulation approaching two millions. [102] For statistics of forests, see Appendix XXXII. [103] A severe shook occurs on an average about every six years. The eminent seismologist, Professor Omori, told me that he does not expect an earthquake of a dangerous sort for a generation. [104] The _Oriental Economist_, a Japanese publication, in the autumn of 1921 suggested the abandonment of all the extensions to the Empire on the score that they had not been a benefit to Japan, and that she was in no way dependent on them. See also Appendix XXXIII. [105] See Appendix XXXIV. [106] What of the old story which I have heard from Uchimura and others of the Confucian missionary to certain head hunters of Formosa? After many years of labour among them they promised to give up head hunting if they might take just one more head. At last the good man yielded, and told them that a Chinaman in a red robe was coming towards the village the next day and his head might be taken. On the morrow the men lay in wait for the stranger, sprang on him and cut off his head, only to find that it was the head of their beloved missionary. Struck with remorse and realising the evil of head taking, the tribe gave up head hunting for ever. CHAPTER XI THE IDEA OF A GAP Bold is the donkey driver, O Khedive, and bold is the Khedive who dares to say what he will believe, not knowing in any wise the mind of Allah, not knowing in any wise his own heart. The "Japanese Carlyle" is getting grey. It seemed well to seek out some young Japanese thinker and take his view of that "heathenism" concerning which Uchimura had delivered himself so unsparingly. Let me speak of my first visit to my friend Yanagi.