As a language of politics, ‘reason of state’ has undergone development and transformation. It originally meant in Botero that a state was endowed with its own raison d’ etre which overrode all moral and legal considerations. In the English Renaissance, however, this political language of prudence was expanded to include not only its synonym, arcana imperii, or mysteries of state, but also a Phoenix image and the Actaeon myth.
    According to F. Meinecke, a German historian, this ‘noble sport’ became common in Italy about the second quarter of the seventeenth century, as a subject for conversations among the barbers and other base craftmen. In England, its vulgarization began a little earlier at the turn of the century, when Ben Jonson used the term ‘de stato’ in his satirical comedy, Cynthia’s Revels (1600). By the caricaturized portrait of Sir Politic Would-be, the leading figure in the subplot of Volpone (1610), he also showed us how much a Quiotic man of the Renaissance such as he was enamored and distracted with the matters of state.
    On the other hand, Edmund Spenser refers to the ‘somewhat’ of Queen Elizabeth alias Diana as one of arcana imperii, and tells us how the spell the Queen had casted over him was broken when Spenser-Faunus peeped at her middle-aged naked body. Thus ‘breaking forth in laughter’ Spenser fashioned himself from a faithful subject of the Shepherds’ Nation into a revolutionary ‘subject’.
    To John Donne, a failure in life due to his religious faith and secret marriage, the trope doesn’t imply the Queen’s deformed body, but his own world of love. He tries in vain to persuade his newlywed wife to live an eternal life with him like the Phoenix that resurrects as often as it dies. So he yearns for death to be buried in a well-wrought urn, and be canonized for love. But as he grows old, he becomes so anxious for recognition by the world that he changes his faith to Anglicanism, with the result that he denies the existence of the Phoenix itself. He also confesses in his sermon that arcana imperii have also turned into something negative and harmful at once.
    By 1621, when the reason of state became a part of the arsenal of arguments on the side of the Parliament, the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh had already been carried out as a scapegoat of the King’s pro-Spanish policy. In The History of the World, one of the best-sellers of the seventeenth century, Raleigh mentioned nothing definitely about what the King’s Prerogative or the reason of state should be like, but it is quite clear he thought it as a matter of course ever since the Norman dynasty for the king to consult with the Parliament on anything really important to the state.
    The popularity of that political language, which gave poets in the English Renaissance an occasion suitable for their self-aggrandizement, has not lasted long since then. Apart from people’s allergy to the bitter Civil War, some other reasons can be considered. One is the disappearance, with the dusk of the Renaissance, of a man with the Actaeon-like mentality who will gladly be hunted to death by his own passions. The other is the fact that it was originally made of too contradictory elements such as ‘honestum’ and ‘utile’ to live long in England, where the ‘jealousy of trade’ soon became prevalent in the eighteenth century.

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    This is a study on the history of Japanese society based on three divisions, namely, the Ancient Stage, the Middle Stage, and the Modern Industrial Stage.
    As a country, Japan emerged during the fifth century under the name Yamato Chotei. Previously, it consisted of many small Uji and Kabane communities without the integrated and central control of Tenno domination under the name of “shiseisei”（氏姓制）. It consisted of many small competing local areas, that fought incessantly between them.
    The important emperor Tenji Tenno（626–671）, leader of the Taika-no-Kaisin , made a significant break to the traditional institution of the “shisei-sei” by introducing a new body that became known as “Handenshuju-sei”（班田収授制 in 律令制） in the year 645. The end result was the founding in 710 of the new capital Heijo-kyo in the city of Nara under the reign of Empress Genmei Tenno .
    However, the city of Nara was greatly affected by the sudden decision in 794 taken by Emperor Kanmu Tenno to make the city of Kyoto the country's capital. Although some may hold the view that there were similarities between the neighboring cities of Nara and Kyoto, they were dissimilar in most respects . In the city of Nara, land was divided under the measures of the nationalization plan. Conversely, in the city of Kyoto, land was divided according to measures of privatization. Also, in Nara the state drafted the Handenshuju plan, while in Kyoto there were no such plans.
    The result of these policies was that in Kyoto the land was owned by the wealthy, large religious institutions, and Buke families. In Nara, however, under Ritsryosei , common people were taxed so heavily that they escaped from the city to the countryside.
    As the premature Tenno continued to expand, it became necessary for them to be covered by “Sessho” and “Kampaku” until the Tenno matured. The growing Tenno needed such support, which led Sessho and Kampaku to acquire additional influence and power.
    The first Buke Society began in Kamakura Bakufu under Minamoto Yoritomo. Yoritomo married Masako of the Hojo family, and she was an able and strong woman. After the death of her husband, she became the head of the Kamakura Bakufu .
    Shugo and Jito were both Buke, and Yoritomo appointed them as the lords of the manor（荘園領主）. However, Chotei and Bakufu were at odds with each other. Bakufu was stronger than Chotei in terms of military might, when they battled in 1221, in what became known as Jokyu-no-Ran, Bakufu was victorious. After the Jokyu-no-Ran, the large Mongolian Army attacked Japan on two occasions（Bun-ei no-Eki, 1274, and Koan-no-Eki, 1281）, but were defeated each time by the Japanese defenders. However, the cost of these battles was great, and the Japanese army found itself impoverished.
    Another important event resulted from the dispute over the succession of the Tenno throne between the two lines consisting of the Jimyoin-party and the Daigakuji-party. Godaigo Tenno of the Daigakuji-party wanted to gain the crown by overthrowing the Bakufu. However, Godaigo was unsuccessful and this led him to create the “Nancho”（South Side）.
    Meanwhile, Ashikaga Takauji, who supported the “Hokucho”（North Side） of Kyoto, kept to his own side leaving Chotei divided between North and South. As a result, Kamakura Bakufu was ruined, and Muromachi Bakufu was rebuilt by Ashikaga Takauji ]in Kyoto as the second Bakafu.
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