while eighty noble
Coreans were taken as hostages for the faith of the king. And now, with
blare of trumpet and clash of weapons, with shouts of triumph and songs
of praise to the gods, the fleet set sail for home. Two months had
sufficed for the whole great enterprise.

Nine empresses in all have sat upon the throne of Japan, but of these
Jingu alone won martial renown and gained a great place in history. The
Japanese have always felt proud of this conquest of Corea, the first war
in which their armies had gone to a foreign country to fight. They had,
to use their common phrase, made "the arms of Japan shine beyond the
seas," and the glory of the exploit descended not only on the Amazon
queen, but in greater measure upon her son, who was born shortly after
her return to Japan.

The Japanese have given more honor to this son, still unborn when the
conquest was achieved, than to his warlike mother. It was in him, not in
his mother, they declare, that the Spirit of War resided, and he is now
worshipped in Japan as the God of War. Ojin by name, he became a great
warrior, lived to be a hundred and ten years old, and was deified after
his death. Through all the centuries since he has been worshipped by the
people, and by soldiers in particular. Some of the finest temples in
Japan have been erected in his honor, and the land is full of shrines to
this Eastern Mars. He is represented with a frightful and scowling
countenance, holding in his arms a broad, two-edged sword. In all
periods of Japanese art a favorite subject has been the group of the
snowy-bearded Takenouchi, the Japanese Methuselah, holding the infant
Ojin in his arms, while Jingu, the heroic mother, stands by in martial
robes.

_THE DECLINE OF THE MIKADOS._

Our journey through Japanese history now takes us over a wide leap, a
period of nearly a thousand years, during which no event is on record of
sufficient interest to call for special attention. The annals of Japan
are in some respects minute, but only at long intervals does a hero of
importance rise above the general level of ordinary mortals. We shall,
therefore, pass with a rapid tread over this long period, giving only
its general historical trend.

The conquest of Corea was of high importance to Japan. It opened the way
for a new civilization to flow into the long isolated island realm. For
centuries afterwards Corea served as the channel through which the arts
and thoughts of Asia reached t