The earliest Japanese history, like that of all other nations, is a mass of myths and legends. But out of this one solid fact has been evolved: the Japanese were a race who invaded the island kingdom by way of Korea, much as the Saxons and other Teutonic tribes invaded Britain. They therefore used the sea at a very early period of their history.

They found aboriginal tribes when they came, and of these the Ainu still exist in the north, a race as distinct as our Celts in the north of Scotland. The immigrant race are always spoken of and accepted as Mongolians, though in Japanese legend the invaders had, as in similar Western myths, a divine origin. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that a Japanese, with kindred tastes to those Western savants who have found the cradle of the human race in Lapland or in Central Africa, has built a theory by which ancient Egypt was the early home of the Japanese. To support this theory numerous small similarities were brought forward; but it does not seem to have made headway in Japan, or to be known in the Western world. It is, as regards plausibility, about on a par with the Anglo-Israelite theory that had once quite a vogue in this country, and is by no means without disciples to-day.

Whence they came, however, is a matter of no moment here. Japanese national history begins with the expedition led by the Emperor Jimmu, at a date which a loose chronology fixes at 660 b.c. This is the earliest over-sea operation unconnected with deities and myths.

Jimmu, who, according to the legends, was the grandson of the Sea Deity’s daughter, led an expedition eastward from Mount Takachiho, and eventually found himself on the shores of the Inland Sea, and here built a fleet, by means of which he reached Naniwa (Osaka), and consolidated the empire.

For the next seven or eight centuries the nation was forming; but beyond a legend, suggestive of the story of Jonah, nothing is heard of ships or boats till 202 a.d., when the Empress Jingo equipped a great fleet for the invasion of Korea. As an early instance of the use of “sea-power,” this expedition has laid great hold on Japanese imagination; but since the transportation of the flagship by legions of fishes, with which the Empress has made an alliance, is the central point of the story, its nautical details can hardly be seriously considered. What is of more moment is the undoubted fact that the expedition took place, that it was a complete success for Japan, and laid the foundations of that Japanese interest in Korea which is to-day so potent a factor in the Far Eastern problem.

Korea paid tribute without question for some three hundred years. About the year 520, however, the Emperor Keitai Tenno collected a fleet, and conducted some operations against the Koreans that served to tighten Japan’s hold on her over-sea possessions. From this time onward for the next two or three hundred years Japan grew as a trading nation, and intercourse with both Korea and China became common. As in those days every merchant ship became a warship when required, Japan must have ranked as a considerable naval power.

As for the ships, these may have been either mere boats or small coasting junks, probably differing very little from the boats and junks of the present day.

About the year 650 Japanese garrisons were driven out of Korea by hostile tribes, assisted by the Chinese, and with the expelled Japanese came many Koreans, an immigration that continued for some considerable period.

In the middle of the ninth century the Samaurii, or military caste, whose descendants to-day provide the bulk of naval officers, first began to arise. The Shoguns, afterwards to become such a power, were originally generals, there being one in command of each of the four military districts into which the Emperor Sujin had divided Japan. A Shogun with any special powers did not arise till the year 1200 or so, when Yoshinaka made himself Sei-i-Shogun (Chief Shogun).

As he was driven to suicide soon afterwards in the civil war then desolating the empire, the post did not convey any great advantage to him; but Yaritomo whose troops had defeated him, became after a time Sei-i-tai-Shogun (great barbarian compelling Shogun). This civil war—between the Taira and the Minamoto clans—culminated in a naval battle. The former are credited with 500 junks, which, in addition to the soldiers, were crowded with women and children and the fugitive emperor. At Dan-no-ura, on the Inland Sea, these were overtaken by the Minamoto with 700 vessels, and the smaller fleet was annihilated. This decisive action ended the civil war, but it created the system of Shogun rule, whereby all the governing of the country was in the hands of Yoritomo, the Emperor being a mere figure-head and puppet in his hands.

The descendants of Yaritomo, as Shoguns de jure, did not exercise much power de facto, for regents (the Hojo) acted for them. In time, too, tutors came to act for the regents, and under this condition of government, plunged into a species of anarchy, Japan faced the great Chinese invasion of 1281.

Having resolved on the capture of Japan, the Chinese sent envoys demanding its surrender. These, after being sent from pillar to post in a search for the real governing power, were eventually killed by the populace. The Chinese then prepared a fleet of 300 of their own and Korean ships, added the Japanese sun to the consuming dragon on the Chinese flag, and invaded to consummate the capture. On the water they encountered no opposition, but on landing they were met and defeated by the Japanese, united in the presence of a common danger. A great storm at the same time destroyed the hostile fleet, and the invasion was at an end.

It was followed by more internal strife, till in 1333 the Hojo were finally put down. Shortly afterwards the chief power came into the hands of the Shoguns.

Despite the civil warfare, Japan still made headway as a maritime State. Trade and piracy were conducted not only with Korea and China, but Japanese vessels sailed regularly to the distant shores of Siam.

In 1542 the Portuguese first came into touch with Japan. Three cannon were presented to the Shogun, and a little later Pinto arrived on the scene, and taught the manufacture of gunpowder. Jesuits followed, and made such headway that in the next civil war the Christian Japanese, to the number of 600,000 or more, were a strong political factor.

In 1587 Hideyoshi the Taikio, the de facto ruler of Japan, issued an edict against the Christians, many missionaries were expelled, and the ports open to foreign vessels were finally limited to one only, Nagasaki, as at that time the suspicion first began that soldiers would presently follow the missionaries.

About the same period Hideyoshi, who had designs upon China and Korea, began to prepare warships. He also endeavoured to create a fleet of European-built ships, but the traders whom he approached on the matter refused to sell their vessels. He had, therefore, to content himself with a junk navy, which was raised much as fleets were raised in England at the same period, by levies upon the coast districts. The princes of these districts were required to furnish sailors to man the ships that they provided.

The invasion of Korea was carried out by two divisions, the first of which, under Konishi, reached Fusan on April 13, 1592. The town, which had for some two hundred years been used as a Japanese trading port, was easily captured, and the army then marched to the capital. The fleet lay inactive at Fusan for some time, but Konishi, in the midst of a victorious career on land, presently conceived the idea of using his fleet also. It was, therefore, sent round to the westward, where it met a Korean fleet.

The Koreans, whose ships were constructionally superior, made out to sea, and the Japanese following, sustained a defeat that caused them to retire to Fusan again.

After this Chinese troops appeared in large numbers, and, though the invaders won a few battles, they were checked, and compelled to fall back.

Peace negotiations were opened in 1596, but these fell through, and in 1597 130,000 fresh Japanese troops were sent to Korea.

In the latter part of this same year the Korean fleet attempted to signally defeated by the Japanese vessels. Most of the attacking fleet were destroyed. No headway was, however, made by the Japanese land force, and in 1598 the expedition withdrew.

In the year 1600 William Adams, an Englishman, reached Japan, and, though for a time imprisoned at the instigation of the Jesuits, he eventually gained liberty and consideration from Ieyasu, the Shogun. He built for the Shogun, first a small 18-tonner, and then, in 1609, a ship of 120 tons. In this ship some Spaniards who had been wrecked on the east coast of Japan were sent to Acapulco. They appear to have navigated themselves, and the vessel was kept, but a much larger ship was sent to the Shogun as a present in return for his kindness.

In 1611, owing to Adams’s partiality for the Dutch, these secured from the Shogun permission to trade with any port in the country. A little later the British East India Company secured the same advantages, but, owing to the outbreak of war between England and Holland, a good deal of isolated fighting took place between the traders, till it ended in the withdrawal or destruction of the English.

In 1614 the Japanese ruler began to be thoroughly alarmed at the progress of Christianity, and the expected advent of Portuguese soldiers to take possession of the land. All foreign Christians were ordered to leave the country, all native ones to renounce their creed. In 1616 the majority of Christians who still held to their faith were disposed of by the same means that in Europe were used to ensure conversion to Christianity.

In 1637 a revolution broke out amongst some of the Samaurai, or soldier class, who had been compelled to become farmers. Such Christians as had survived the massacres joined these.

After some defeats, the rebels were shut up in a large deserted castle at Hara, where 160,000 men besieged them. A tremendous defence was made, and the besiegers, failing to make much headway, applied for and secured aid from the Dutch factory at Hivado. Guns were lent, and finally a Dutch warship, the de Ryp, 20 guns, bombarded the castle from the bay, without, however, effecting its reduction. Eventually the castle was taken, and practically the whole garrison executed.

In 1640 the rivalry between the Dutch and Portuguese, of which the Dutch assistance against the rebellious Jesuit converts was probably an incident, came to a head. It ended in the expulsion of the Portuguese, and the establishment of the Dutch at Nagasaki as the sole Western nation having dealings with Japan.

Here for two hundred years the Dutch traded unmolested. The civil commotion quieted down, and with her seclusion from the outside world Japan entered upon an era of domestic peace. There were no more great civil wars, and, save for the conflicts of the Samaurai against each other, the nation grew ignorant of the art of war.

As these Samaurai were the ancestors of modern Japanese naval officers, some account of their methods of training may be worthy of study, for to them it is undoubtedly due that Japan exists as one of the great Powers to-day. Otherwise she would assuredly have sunk to the Chinese level of an ultra-high civilisation in which courage has no place, and in which the military profession is lower than the meanest civil calling. From all this the Samaurai saved Japan.

The country was then under a feudal system. The Emperor, the nominal head of the State, was a mere figure-head, too sacred to concern himself with mundane affairs—a condition of mind which generations of clever tutelage at the hands of various Shoguns had produced. More often than not the Shogun’s rule was of a similar nature, a regent being the real head of the State. Under the Shogun or his regent were the governors of provinces; under these the great feudal lords, each of whom maintained his Samaurai, or fighting men. The soldier-ant is the nearest natural equivalent to these Samaurai, who only very partially resembled our knights of the Middle Ages. Below the Samaurai, and cordially despised by them, were the lower classes, engaged in trade and agriculture. The exact social equivalent of the Samaurai in our society system does not exist, but probably the old “squireens,” a now almost extinct class of small country gentry, would most nearly occupy the same social status. The Samaurai might be richer or poorer than the working class, but in all cases they cordially despised them, and were in turn respected or feared.

These Samaurai lived in a constant state of killing and being killed. If one of them left his house, he took his life in his hand from that moment. Duels were frequent, murders common, and the fearful form of suicide known as hari-kari was performed by them without a shudder at the slightest hint of an insult that could not be avenged. Vendettas, too, were everlasting, so that altogether the Samaurai were by heredity inured to a callous disregard of life and suffering. In all their crimes and vices they cultivated the grand Spartan virtues, and Japan will yet, perhaps, reap the benefit of those centuries of training.