rises when she returns to Iwafuji in public the malicious blow, and
with the same sandal, which she has kept as a sign of her revenge. She
then challenges Iwafuji, in behalf of the dead, to a trial in fencing.
The haughty Iwafuji is forced to accept, and is thoroughly defeated and
shamed before the spectators. The whole truth is now made known, and the
daimi[=o], who admires and appreciates the spirit of O Haru, sends for
her, and raises her from her low position to fill the post of her dead
mistress.

These stories show the spirit of the samurai women; they can suffer
death bravely, even joyfully, at their own hands or the hands of husband
or father, to avoid or wipe out any disgrace which they regard as a loss
of honor; but they will as bravely and patiently subject themselves to a
life of shame and ignominy, worse than death, for the sake of gaining
for husband or father the means of carrying out a feudal obligation.
There is a pathetic scene, in one of the most famous of the Japanese
historical dramas, in which one seems to get the moral perspective of
the ideal Japanese woman, as one cannot get it in any other way. The
play is founded on the story of "The Loyal R[=o]nins," referred to in the
beginning of this chapter. The loyal r[=o]nins are plotting to avenge the
death of their master upon the daimi[=o] whose cupidity and injustice have
brought it about. As there is danger of disloyalty even in their own
ranks, Oishi, the leader of the dead daimi[=o]'s retainers, displays great
caution in the selection of his fellow-conspirators, and practices every
artifice to secure absolute secrecy for his plans. One young man, who
was in disgrace with his lord at the time of his death, applies to be
admitted within the circle of conspirators; but as it is suspected that
he may not be true to the cause, a payment in money is exacted from him
as a pledge of his honorable intentions. It is thus made his first duty
to redeem his honor from all suspicion by the payment of the money, in
order that he may perform his feudal obligation of avenging the death of
his lord. But the young man is poor; he has married a poor girl, and has
agreed to support not only his wife, but her old parents as well, and
the payment is impossible for him. In this emergency, his wife, at the
suggestion of her parents, proposes, as the only way, to sell herself,
for a term of two years, to the proprietor of a house of pleasure, that
she may by this vile serv