He at first divided with the
Mikado the duties of the government, but by degrees succeeded in
concentrating in himself the real supremacy. From him descended the
temporal sovereignty of Japan, which has ever since overbalanced the
spiritual authority, although the first nominal rank is still accorded to
the Mikado.
In the year 1295, the existence of Japan was first announced to the Western
world. Marco Polo, returning from his Asiatic travels, related all that he
had learned of a vast island lying to the east of China, and even
designated its position on his maps. He called it Zipangu, the name he had
heard in China. This narration was not received with much credit, and was,
until the sixteenth century, generally forgotten. It is a singular fact,
that the record left by Marco Polo had a strong influence in deciding the
convictions of Christopher Columbus, whose expectation in sailing from
Spain was to discover the island spoken of by the Venetian voyager. But the
ambition of Columbus was otherwise satisfied, and Japan was not visited by
the representatives of any Western nation until the year 1543, or 1545,
when a party of Portuguese, among whom was Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, were
driven by a storm upon the coast, and forced to take shelter in the
province of Bungo, upon the island of Kiu-siu. The account of this visit,
given by Pinto, is full of interest, and, notwithstanding the questionable
character that clings to his writings, is without doubt correct in almost
every particular.
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