Loyal Demonstration
UNTIL very recently, all noisy demonstrations of a crowd, such as shouting, hurrahing, waving of hands etc:, when any high dignitary was passing, had been an experience unknown in Japan. Neither was it permitted, as with us, for any of the people to assume an elevated position from which to obtain a better view of the august personage. No clusters of street urchins on lampposts, no congregation of well-dressed spectators on platforms or balconies, were to be seen. On the contrary, the windows of all houses in the line of procession were closed and sealed, to prevent the possibility of any person being in a more elevated position than passing Royalty. In the highways, formerly a sitting, and more recently a standing posture, silent and almost motionless, was the invariable mode by which the public showed their deepest respect,
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until for the first time, at the recent triumphal entries of the Emperor and Empress into their Capital after the glorious conclusion of the war with China, the long pent-up feelings of their devoted subjects irresistibly burst forth, and amid waving of innumerable flags and banners, the people rent the air with shouts of “BANSAI! BANSAI!” (“O King, live for ever!”) thus inaugurating a departure from immemorial custom as significant as it was novel.
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