‘Thrashemono,’ or ‘public exposure,’ is associated with all Japanese punishments, and is said to be in itself a great preventive of crime, as the spirited Japanese dread being held up to the reprobation of their acquaintance more than they fear the extreme penalty of the law.

[Illustration:  Mode of conducting A criminal to execution.]

The illustration, showing the mode of conducting a criminal to execution, is an instance of ‘thrashemono.’  The culprit is bound on a horse, and is preceded by a placard, borne by his relatives or neighbours, and indicating his crime.  In this manner he is conducted through the town to the place of execution, where his sentence is read to him.  He is then placed (with his limbs still bound) over a freshly-dug hole, where he is supported by his relatives till the executioner’s sword performs its task.

After execution, the heads of malefactors are generally exposed:  that of Simono Sedgi (the lonin who was decapitated in the presence of the British garrison of Yokohama, for being the organizer of the assassination of Major Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird of Her Majesty’s 20th Regiment) was exhibited on the public stand at the guard-house at the entrance of the town.

This man was a fair specimen of the lonin type, and was a most determined ruffian, whose whole life had been a career of crime.

When exposed in the streets of Yokohama the day preceding his execution, he conducted himself with great bravado, remarking on the improvements in the town since he last visited it, and expressing his regret that he had not killed a consul.

At the place of execution he made an impassioned speech, in which he declared that he was a gentleman by birth, and had studied the arts and sciences, and never believed the government would sacrifice a Japanese for the death of a foreigner.  He said that the days would come when they would repent the encouragement they were now giving to strangers; and ended by complimenting the executioner on his well-known skill.

The lonin differs from the ordinary criminal, and is thus ably described by the highest authority on Japanese matters:[4]—­

’As a noble or head of a house is responsible for all who are of his family, or claim his protection, when any of his people are resolved upon a desperate enterprise they formally renounce the protection and declare themselves “lonins;”—­in other words, outlaws, or friendless men:  after which no one is responsible for their acts, and this is considered a highly honourable and proper thing to do.

[Footnote 4:  Sir Rutherford Alcock.  See ‘Capital of the Tycoon.’]

The worst of this system is, that any one harbouring or assisting a lonin endangers his head; and such men are, therefore, compelled to resort to robbery and extortion as means of supporting themselves.  It generally happens that this legalised method of taking the law into their own hands drives those who avail themselves of it into a series of crimes, and frequently they become the associates of common thieves.