The Komoso Society.

THE KOMOSO SOCIETY .

BY the attention of a kind correspondent we are enabled to print the following interesting paper on a Japanese Secret Society , and which appeared , we think it fair to say , in the Japan Weekly Mail , August 30 th , 1879 , but the subject of which is unknown to most of our readers . IN several of the works recently published in Europe touching upon the

manners and customs of the Chinese may be found allusions to what are commonly known to foreigners by the name of the Tryad Societies . These are said to be secret associations , whose branches spread throughout the length and breadth of the Chinese Empire ; and although but little is as yet known with regard to the tenets and object of these so-called fraternities , it is nevertheless beyond all doubt that they do actuall y exist , and that their

members are bound one to another by certain hidden ties and secret mysteries that are kept carefully concealed from uninitiated outsiders . It is even asserted that several foreigners have also been admitted as members , which , if true , would seem to indicate that these societies are of a cosmopolitan nature , the ri ght of entrance thereto not being restricted to natives of the " Middle Kingdom " alone . In Japan , too , it is ivell known that what may be termed Secret Societies have existed , and amongst these that of the Komosd stands first and foremost .

The Komoso , —as their very name implies , —were a semi-monastical association ; and although the date of their ori ginal organization is unknown , it is a fact that they existed in Japan down to the time of the Revolution of 1868 . Whether the scattered remnants of the societ y have been re-organized since that date , or , indeed , whether there now exist any remnants at all , is a question enveloped in the deepest obscurity . But it is of the past , not the

present , history of this strange society that we now propose to speak , According to Japanese traditions ( for it may here be observed that all the information at present forthcoming with regard to this subject is merely oral , not written ) the Komosd Society first came into prominent notice at the time of the rise of the last , or Tokugawa , dynasty of Shoguns , —i . e . in the year 1603 A . D . Its history rior to that date is unknownbut from that time down

p , to the year 1868 its existence was fully recognised . As a proof of this we may mention that in the well known Japanese drama of the Chiushm-gura ( describing the deeds of the famous " Forty-seven Bonin " ) , one of the most effective scenes is that iu which Kakogawa Honzo appears upon the stage N