The Komoso Society.

The lands granted to the Society enabled its members to obtain sufficient means of maintenance . On a journey they were assisted by other Komosd , and often by outsiders also . If a Komosd met another person similiarly attired , he at once challenged him by signs , & c , to ascertain if he were a true member of the Society . In case of failure to respond , such person Avas deemed to have

assumed the garb merely as a disguise ( as Avas , indeed , often the case ) , and the true Komosd was then held to be justified in seizing and confiscating the clothing of the pretender . The Avhite clothing was in the first instance given to each man by the superior officers of the Society . The chief , when travelling , was always attended by a select band of Ms fellows , and their journeys were performed on foot

, No Avomen were admitted iuto the Society , and a man desirous of entering it used therefore to leave his wife and family in the charge of relatives or friends . A son ivas often admitted with his father , but boys of tender age Avere on no account received . Communication with the outer world was

discountenanced , and it was an exceedingly difficult matter for any uninitiated person to gain access to a friend who had entered the Society . He was always subjected to rigid examination at the temple , before various members , ere he be could be alloAved to see his friend , and even then the interview was but brief . Those members who died were buried in the temple enclosures , whenever this was practicable . The tombstones , so tradition has it , ahvays bore the true

name of the deceased ; and thus , in death , were at last known the . actual appellations of those Avho , during their lifetime , had wandered to and fro , homeless ancl unknown men . One of the principal Komosd cemeteries is said to exist even now in the neighbourhood of Nagoya , and another to the east of Kiyoto : the very site , however , of the latter is well-ni gh unknown , and it is probable that the former has shared the fate of the Chief Temple to which it

Avas originally attached . The Komosd were most numerous in the province of Owari ( their headquarters ) but large numbers were also found along the line of the Tokaido and in the province of Shimosa . They generally avoided the large towns , and kept to the country districts , where they received substantial assistance from the farming population , in the Avay of money , food , & c . It is a well known fact

that many of these mysterious men perished while fighting on the Tokugaiva side in the battle in the temple-ground of Uyeno , in Tokio , on July 4 th , 1868 ; and it is also stated that on that clay a numerous band of their fellows , with others , were on the march from Shimosa to succour the force besieged in Uyeno . A A'iolent storm of wind ancl rain delayed their arrival until after the combat was over , but had it not been for this mishap the swords of these Komosd would doubtless have done good service in aid of the clan by whom their sooifitv had hfifin hnth recoD-nisfid and assisted .

Many men entered the ranks of the Komosd not in consequence of any offence on their oivn part , but voluntarily , the better to carry out plans for avenging themselves on the murderer of a relative . It is said that instances have even been knoAvn of men so admitted discovering the murderers , of whom they were in search , among the Komosd themselves , and there and then carrying out the vendetta bkilling the latter . Such caseshoweverwere undoubtedl

y , , y very rare , though it is certainly within the bounds of possibility that both pursuer and pursued might have been enabled to find an asylum in the ranks of this strange fraternity . Such is the history of the' Komosd so far as is knoAvn to the outside world . Of their secret arts and hidden mysteries it is improbable that anything further Avill come to lihtforaccording to oral assertiontheir extinction as

g , , , a Societ y was contemporary with the downfall of the Tokugawa dynasty . It remains , however , for after ages to prove this fact , and to determine whether the Komosd are really extinct , or likely to appear again under , perhaps , a fresh name and a different organization . N 2