The Tycoon's messengers then read the imperial mandate, which
proclaims that, in accordance with the ancient custom of the country,
the Daimio is permitted honourably to sacrifice himself for its
benefit, and thus to expiate in his own person the crime or offence he
has committed against the welfare of the state. In the illustration,
the two officials charged with this disagreeable office are sitting
opposite the Daimio and his friends, reading the fatal document, their
suite surrounding them in respectful attitudes.

The whole party wear the official dress, which intimates at once the
respect due to the victim and the official nature of the ceremony.

The second scene shows the Daimio on the point of performing the
sacrificial ceremony. His forelock is reversed, as a sign of
submission to his fate, and to assist the executioner, who, as soon as
his master goes through the form of disembowelling himself with the
knife on the stand, will, with one blow of his razor-edged sword,
complete the sacrifice by decapitation. Only the two chief
commissioners appointed by the Tycoon, and the sorely-tasked
supporters of the victim, remain to witness the last act of the drama.
The rest of the party await its completion in the adjoining
compartment of the enclosure, which is expressly constructed for that
purpose.

The funeral procession, which is the subject of the next scene, is
accompanied by all the pomp indicative of the high position of the
deceased. The mourners wear robes of white cloth, and all the feudal
paraphernalia are draped with the same material; which, as before
mentioned, is used in Japanese mourning. The coffin is carried near