Identifier: mikadosempire05grif (find matches)
Title: The mikado's empire
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Griffis, William Elliot, 1843-1928
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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a ve-hicle of any sort. At a certain gate, called Gejo^ leading to the honmaru, or citadel of the Yedo castle, all dairaios were obliged to dis-mount from their palanquins and walk. The abbot of the temple ofZdzoji, at Shiba, as a mark of high rank, could enter in a palanquin.Such a privilege was equal to a patent of nobility. The castle-raoats, on varying levels, to make a current and preventstagnation, were supplied with water brought in stone-lined aqueductsfrom the Tonegawa, nine miles distant. In the moats it varied fromfour to twelve feet in depth. The scarp and counter-scarp were facedwith stone, and where the castle was on high ground the sloping em-bankments were sodded, the water flowing scores of feet below. Inthe shallow parts, lotus-flowers grew luxuriantly in summer, and inwinter thousands of water-fowl, ducks, geese, storks, and herons madeit their secure home, the people never harming them—a statement al-most incredible to a foreign sportsman. A number of the shogims
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STUDIES m TEE CAPITAL. 397 swans added grace and beauty to the peaceful scene. It was forbid-den to fire a gun within five ri of the castle. I wondered how for-eign sportsmen could resist the temptation. Let the reader imagine a space of several miles square covered withyashikis. To walk through the streets inside the castle enceinte wasa monotonous and gloomy task. There was nothing to break the dulluniformity of black or white tiles and windows, except here and therea sworded samurai or a procession. Occasional variety was obtainedin a very large yashiki by erecting a wall around the entire inclosure,and building the houses inside. This made the monotony worse,since the eye had no relief in looking at windows, in which, perchance,might be a pot of flowers, or peeping eyes. It scarcely added to thecheerfulness to meet no common folk, but only proud and pompousmen with two swords, the mark of the Japanese gentleman of feudaldays. The winter head-dress of the Japanese of both sexes is

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