Survival Arts

Quote of the day

The Meiji Restoration had not really changed the feudal status quo, it had only "repainted the signs", as the Japanese put it. An elite addicted to wealth and status was afraid to give ordinary Japanese more than cosmetic democracy. For a thousand years, it was the policy of emperors and shoguns to keep people ignorant, and to keep taxes high enough so families had to struggle to survive, because this kept them fully occupied and harmless.

The Yamato Dynasty, p149
Sterling and Peggy Seagrave