hand. The petition is
read, and his fellow-villagers saved from further oppression, but the
head-man, for his daring, is condemned by his own daimi[=o] to suffer
death by crucifixion,--a fate which he meets with the same heroism with
which he dared everything to save his fellows from suffering.

The peasant, though ignorant and oppressed, has not lost his manhood;
has not become a slave or a serf, but clings to his rights, so far as
he knows what they are; and is ready to hold his own against all comers,
when the question in debate is one that appeals to his mind. The rulers
of Japan have always the peasantry to reckon with when their ruling
becomes unjust or oppressive. They cannot be cowed, though they may be
misled for a time, and they form a conservative element that serves to
hold in check too hasty rulers who would introduce new measures too
quickly, and would be likely to find the new wine bursting the old
bottles, as well as to prevent any rash extravagance in the way of
personal expenditure on the part of government officials. The influence
of this great class will be more and more felt as the new parliamentary
institutions gain in power, and a more close connection is established
between the throne and public opinion.

In considering this great heimin class, it is well to remember that the
artisans, who form so large a part of it, are also the artists who have
made the reputation of Japan, in Europe and America, as one of the
countries where art and the love of beauty in form and color are still
instinct with life. The Japanese artisan works with patient toil, and
with the skill and originality of the artist, to produce something that
shall be individual and his own; not simply to make, after a pattern,
some utensil or ornament for which he cares nothing, so long as a
purchaser can be found for it, or an employer can be induced to pay him
money for making it. It seems as easy for the Japanese to make things
pretty and in good taste, even when they are cheap and only used by the
poorer people, as it is for American mills and workers to turn out
endless varieties of attempts at decoration,--all so hideous that a poor
person must be content, either to be surrounded by the worst possible
taste, or to purchase only such furnishings and utensils as are entirely
without decoration of any kind. "Cheap" and "nasty" have come to be
almost synonymous words with us, for the reason that taste in decoration
is so rare that