ABSTRACT
The Reformers of 645 may well have cherished the hope that a strong centralised government would enable Japan to resume the prosecution of her enterprises in the Korean peninsula and to carry them to a successful completion. A few years later Koguryu fell before the combined Chinese and Silla attack; and the latter State now found itself undisputed mistress of the greater part of the peninsula. The establishment of a mint served to add not inconsiderably to the penal, legislation of Japan. The small-pox epidemic of 735-737 had been a rare godsend for the priests. In the Middle Kingdom it has been the immemorial wont to reward meritorious services to the State by the grant of posthumous honours, or posthumous promotion in rank. In the Tokugawa age, among the Samurai or two-sworded class the most important of all the virtues was loyalty; hearty, unquestioned, whole-souled devotion to one’s feudal superior.
