"THE GATE OF DEATH."

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 33, 26 November 1912, Page 2

"THE GATE OF DEATH."

FELL ON HER DAGGER. I The bravery of Countess Nogi, who j du*l with her husband at the time of the Emperor's funeral, has been somewlnit overshadowed, but is appears ill at she was a true daughter of Old Japan, andi took her own life after she had seen her husband die, serving him "even through the gate or death,' as the Japanese saying goes. It was thought that she had committed suicide first and that her husband had assisted her in the act, afterwards calmly ending his own existence. But the examination made by her lifelons friend, Baron Ishiguro, showed that General Nogi was the first to die and that he was followed by his wife. Baron Ishiguro believes that when Countess Nogi wns told of her husband's intention to die she tried to prevent him, but seeing that he had firmly made up his mind she determined to follow him, but did not utter a word to betray her purpose. On the morning of the Imperial funeral she called a hairdresser at seven o'clock to do her hair, as she was going to the palace to pay her last respects to the late Emperor by worshipping at his bier. When the hairdresser arrived she found the countess in her bath and was told to go upstairs and wait for her. Countess Nogi was a woman who paid little attention to dress, but on this occasion she wore her hair hanging down her back in the ancient Court ladies' fashion. While this was being done General Nogi, who was smoking in the next room, called to her to hurry as a photographer had come to take their pictures together. Later they went off to the Imperial palace in a motor car.

The Evening Rite. That evening when the Tokio crowds were waiting for the funeral procession General Nogi killed himself. While the minute gun was booming For the late Emperor Countess Nogi hastened to follow her husband. She wore an old-fashioned ceremonial kimono, one that has been out of date for a long time in Japan, and her dagg«r bad been forged by a famous sword-smith.

Her first attempt was in the centre of the chest, but she only inflicted a wound. Then she struck again and iiiercod the lung, but still was unable to die. The countess did not falter, and with all her remaining strength she placed the dagger to her left side when she lost the power in her bund and fell over on the knife, which pierced the heart.

Countess Nogi was a stern but .'ov ino: mother to her children. The management of her home she did not entrust to the servants but kept only one maid. She made the clothing for her children, and washed and mended for them. During the Russo-Japanese war tier two sons were killed on the battlefield. She had already lost thrae daughters, so that the house was desolate, and when she saw that General Nogi, the companion of 40 years of married life, was about to leave Ihe world, she felt that she must go ako, as there was nothing left in existence for her.