Characteristics of the Japanese People 97 



This modification is found in a com- 

 pilation of the customs and traditions of 

 old Japan, iwhich was promulgated in the 

 fifty articles of Teiyei era (1232 A. D.). 

 This is something like the Justinian 

 Roman laws compiled in the reign of 

 Emperor Justinian. This period we 

 call the era of adaptation in our legal 

 evolution. 



THE JAPANESE JURY OF TWELVE 

 JUDGES FOUNDED 670 

 YEARS AGO 



No doubt an American audience will 

 be much interested to know that as 

 long ( ago as the year 1232 A. D. a 

 Japanese statesman made the laws in 

 touch with the popular feeling, for by 

 the laws of the Teiyei era he established 

 a council of state with twelve judges, 

 the same number as the English jury. 

 These twelve judges sat in the council 

 chamber, before whom all litigation was 

 brought for investigation and decision. 

 The plaintiff and defendant had their 

 spokesmen, who argued and defended 

 the case ; and afterward the twelve 

 judges retired into a closed chamber, 

 where an oath was administered to them 

 as follows : 



" During the deliberation of a case, 

 and the decision afterward between 

 right and wrong, neither family con- 

 nections, nor sympathy with or antipa- 

 thy against, the party shall influence. 

 Fear not a powerful family, or favor not 

 a friend, but speak in accordance with 

 the dictates of truth. Should there be 

 a case decided wrong and redress re- 

 fused to a man, we shall be punished by 

 all the gods and goddesses of the realm. 

 Thus, we swear and affix our signa- 

 tures." 



This is the oath they take before they 

 deliberate and examine the case. Here 

 we have the law, whose spirit and prin- 

 ciple are exactly the same as the Anglo- 

 Saxon common law. Again, in 1336 

 A. D. the laws of the Kenbu era were 

 promulgated by the Asikaga dynasty. 



This era, combined with that of the Hojo 

 dynasty, might be called the stage of 

 adaptation ; but the era of origination 

 begins later on with the Tokugawa dy- 

 nasty, because the Shogunate of that 

 family made for the first time the distinc- 

 tion of the laws between the sovereign 

 de jure and sovereign de facto by pro- 

 mulgating ' ' The Seventeen Articles for 

 the Imperial Family " and " The Eigh- 

 teen Articles for the Military Ruler, ' ' 

 and then again they made the laws for 

 the people, which were denominated as 

 "The One Hundred Articles of the 

 Tokugawa Regime. ' ' Thus the laws — 

 imperial, military, and common — were 

 executed throughout the whole country 

 without an intermission until the impe- 

 rial restoration in 1868. With this 

 theory of the characteristics of the Jap- 

 anese people in our minds, we will find 

 the same three stages of evolution 

 throughout the whole course of our 

 national progress in arts, architecture, 

 industry, commerce, etc. 



THUS OUR TRAINING FOR CENTURIES 

 HAD EQUIPPED US TO ASSIMILATE 

 ANOTHER CIVILIZATION 



Therefore, when we were confronted 

 at the time of the imperial restoration, 

 in 1868, with a new type of civilization, 

 the western civilization, we were fully 

 equipped by our individual strength and 

 national power to assimilate the foreign 

 civilization with our own, for we had 

 gone through many hard and persever- 

 ing struggles — religious, social, and po- 

 litical — for many centuries, and without 

 fear could welcome the modern culture 

 and science. 



WE STRIVE TO MARK OUT A "GRAND 

 POLICY FOR A CENTURY TO COME " 



Here I might refer to one fact, that 

 the Japanese are a little different from 

 the western people in regard to their re- 

 spect for the past, for they adore the 

 past and the history of their ancestors 

 much more than occidental people do. 



