moat, and an official quarter for the dwellings of my lord's chief retainers, and in its day it has played no mean part in the history of the country, of which for some generations it was the military capital.

Just now the main street is full of bustle; scores of wayfarers travelling eastward are pouring in, and although the

now (1872) that railroads and telegraphs are an established fact in Japan, the advance in toleration will no longer be by steps, but by seven-league-booted strides. We must now pass through the ordeal of inspection at the bansho or guard-house, a wooden shanty entirely open on the side facing the road, in which are squatting over their braziers four or five rather place is full of houses of entertainment ragged petty yakunins, literally "officemen," smoking in grim and sulky silence. One of them seeing me beckons with his pipe, and in the vile jargon of Yokohama, bids me come up and deliver my passport. Shiraki and the chief of my escort are horrified at this breach of good manners, and rush to the front vying with one another in loud denunciation of the chikusho ("beast") who dares to take such liberties.

"If it be possible" says the polite corporal, apologizing to me, "be pleased to exercise imperial patience. This guard is a beast that knows no manners. Verily I have lost face."

(many of them, as I have hinted above, not over respectable), it becomes no easy matter to find suitable accommodation. As for my horse, at one moment I feared that I should have to leave him roofless to brave the storm that was evidently brewing as best he might, for there was not a stable in the place big enough for him to walk into. At last, by causing a rotten beam to be cut away from under an archway, I contrived to get him housed. All along the road his size had called forth a great measure of wonder, for Europeans when travelling usually content themselves with Japanese ponies; but here, beyond the treaty limit, a horse over sixteen hands high created as much astonishment as a giraffe might in a Yorkshire village. By the same token, in these out-of-the-way regions Dog Lion was taken sometimes for a bear, but more often for a sheep, an animal known by fame, indeed, but never seen out of the neighbourhood of foreign settlements.*

After some wrangling, and no little abuse of the unhappy guard, who now looked thoroughly crest-fallen and ashamed of himself, my passport was pronounced to be en règle, and I was allowed to make my arrangements for crossing the river, on the bank of which a whole company of coolies were disputing and fighting for the job of carrying me and my party over. And now heavy black clouds were gathFording the river on horseback was quite ering overhead, and the storm began to out of the question; it was running like a bluster and scold among the mountains, at mill-race, and both in breadth and depth the foot of which we lay snugly sheltered, far beyond its usual measure. So we were having washed away our travel-weariness placed man by man, each with his saddle in a hot bath, the one genuine comfort by him, on a square deal board, and hoisted which is never failing in a Japanese inn, on to the shoulders of four stout brown- (Be sure, however, that your servant sees limbed coolies, naked, save a loin-cloth, that you have the first use of it, unless who bore us bravely across the muddy Japanese-like you do not mind bathing in flood, although the stream threatened at every step to wash their legs from under them. The horses were left in charge of the grooms, who stripped (a process which, sooth to say, did not involve taking off very much), and plunging in with them, drove them, somewhat frightened, poor beasts, in safety to the other side. Twelve hours later neither man nor horse could have faced the torrent.

We have no great distance to go now, up a gentle picturesque ascent, to reach Odawara, this day's goal. A pitiful, mean little town it is, with dilapidated houses much needing repair, whether seen from the moralist's or the builder's point of view. Poor in appearance as it now is, however, it still boasts a handsome feudal castle, with tower-cornered walls and a

the same water after, perhaps, half a secre of other persons; not a pleasant idea, especially in a country where skin-diseases are so prevalent. In the morning you may always be certain of virgin water, for the natives do not bathe until after the day's work is over, and before the evening meal.)

October 11th.-Rain falling in sheets; the main street running like a mountain burn; a group of coolies dressed in mushroom hats, and rain-coats made of long grass, looking like animated haycocks that

It is said that sheep will not live in Japan, the rot; but I take it, that if the experiment were tried soil being so rich and moist that they die of footin some of the inland morelands, they might be made to breed and thrive there; as it is, we get our sheep over from Shanghai, and our mutton costs us half-a-dollar a pound.

now made the castle of Odawara his headquarters, and having so far pushed his way in the world, he entered the Buddhist priesthood under the name of Soun; but though he donned the scarf, he did not lay aside the sword, and his military power waxed stronger and stronger, until he became the recognized leader of the chivalry of the two provinces. The task of completing the glory of the family was reserved for his grandson Ujiyasu, who, having put down with a strong hand the

had suddenly taken to themselves legs, and rushed under the projecting eaves of the houses to save the crop; a petty personage, closely shut up in his litter, being borne along at extra speed by naked bearers, all glistening with wet, his two attendants vainly trying to wrap themselves in their waterproof coats made of oiled paper, out of which stuck their swords like the tails of wooden monkeys; water dripping, water pouring, water running, a general sloppiness, beggaring description: this was the scene upon which I looked factions which disturbed the eight provout the following morning. It was hopeless to think of starting in such a downpour; so having made as long a business as possible of shaving, dressing, and breaking my fast, in order to kill time, I sat down with Shiraki to learn what I could respecting the town of Odawara.

inces of Kwantô, annexed them, and placed them under his own rule. Odawara now took the place of Kamakura as military capital, and here the Hôjô family ruled for five generations in the capacity, although not bearing the title, of Shoguns (which was still held by the Ashikaga family), unThe arch-enemy of the Shogun Yorito- til the time of Hôjô Ujimasa, who, having mo was Taira no Kiyômori, the head of neglected a summons to go to court at the house of Hei. So great was his ha- Kiyôto, was attacked by the famous gentred of Yoritomo, that he died saying, "Af-eral Taiko Sama, who determined to ter my death say no litanies for the good punish his disobedience. Taiko Sama of my soul; all that I desire is that the invaded the eastern provinces with an head of Yoritomo may be laid upon my overwhelming force, and pitched his main grave.' This was his last will and testa- camp on mounts Ishigaki and Biyôbu, so ment. Now, when the house of Gen, with distributing the rest of his forces as to Yoritomo as its leader, rose to supreme overcast the town of Odawara with a power, it followed as a matter of course, that the house of Hei became utterly ruined, its members being scattered here and there over the country, and forced to gain their livelihood as best they might. In the chronicles of the provinces of Idzu and Sagami, it is written that towards the end of the fifteenth century a descendant of Kiyomori called Hôjô Shinkurô Nagauji had, by the lapse of time, become reduced to the condition of a peasant, and was a wanderer upon the face of the earth. But notwithstanding his fallen condition, his valour and talents were worthy of the noble blood that flowed in his veins, and his spirit rebelled against the misfortune under which he was crushed. So he went to the capital, Kiyôto, and having placed himself under the protection of one of the ministers of the then Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, took up his abode at the fortress of Kôkokuji. Bent on raising himself to eminence, he took advantage of a feud which existed between the Shogun at Kiyôto and his representatives at Kamakura, and distinguished himself in many conflicts in the provinces of Idzu and Sagami, finally wresting the town and castle of Odawara from the Omori family, who belonged to the Kamakura faction. He

• Dzu-So-Ki is the title of the book.

cloud of soldiers. Ujimasa prepared to make a stout defence, and called all the troops of Kwanto to his assistance; but they were no match for Taiko Sama, whose artillery played pitilessly upon them from the neighbouring heights; and on the fifth day of the seventh month of the year 1590 Ujimasa surrendered at descretion, Taiko Sama refusing to hear his prayer for peace, and insisting that he must put himself to death. So Ujimasa disembowelled himself, and his head was sent to Kiyôto, to be exposed as the head of a traitor; his son Ujinao was banished to Mount Koya in Kishiu; and this was the end of the great Hôjô family, which had held the castle of Odawara for ninety-seven years.

One day during the siege, as Taiko Sama and his general Tokugawa Iyeyasu were standing on a watch-tower which they had built on the heights above Odawara, Taiko Sama said, "I see before me the eight provinces of Kwantô. Before many days are over I will take them and give them to thee."

Iyéyasu thanked him, saying, "That were indeed great luck."

"Wilt thou live here at Odawara," asked Taiko Sama, "as the men of Hôjó have done?"

66

Ay, my lord," answered Iyéyasu, "that will I."

"That will not do," said Taiko Sama. of the escort, who at last lost all patience "I see on the map that there is a place called Yedo some twenty ri* eastward from here. It is a fine position, and that is the place where thou shouldst live." "I shall with reverence obey your lordship's instructions," replied Iyéyasu.

Now, when the house of Hôjô had been annihilated, Taiko Sama fulfilled his promise, and made lyéyasu lord of the provinces of Kwanto; and he became the founder of the last dynasty of Shoguns, and made Yedo the military capital, according to his chief's advice. So Odawara lapsed into insignificance, it being a matter of wonder, indeed, that a place so utterly at the mercy of an attack from the mountains which overhang it should ever have been chosen as a military stronghold.

with one touting scoundrel, saying, "What do you take us for, you lubber? The next time a country bumpkin passes this way you may talk like that, but it's no use your trying it on with a Yedo child; " and I had to interfere to save the poor wretch from a liberal payment of stick bakhshish. It was stiffish walking up the slippery hillpaths, but what a beautiful scene! The variegated trees sparkling with prismatic colours; the mountain torrents, swollen and foaming, dashing past lichen-covered rocks overhanging black pools, the home of many a tiny trout; such subtle effects of light and shade; such blue distances; the two famous twin mountains, Futago Yama, clothed in deep purple, ahead of us; a fresh keen air that was new life to men The vacillation showed by the lord of sodden with the hot damp of the plain; Odawara during the siege has passed into even the stout and elderly Shiraki rose in a proverb. He was for ever saying, "To-spirits notwithstanding the efforts of the morrow we will fight,"-"To-morrow we scramble, and declared, gasping for breath, will make a sortie." But the carrying out that this was indeed enjoyment. I think of his good resolutions was always de- we were none of us sorry when we came layed, so that the expression, Odawara upon a certain spring called Himémidzu, hiyojo," deliberations of Odawara" (a sort | of jingling play on the name Hôjô being also intended), is now a synonym for fatal procrastination.

the Princess-water, where an ancient dame served us with cups containing the most delicious crystal-clear draught, as cold as ice, which we sat down and drank as if it had been nectar. The spring takes its name from a story that one of the princesses of the noble house of Hôjô was wont to come hither from Odawara with her ladies, and make tea al fresco. Close to the well the old woman has a little cottage, and she earns a scanty living by serving tea of the Princess-water to weary foot-pads like ourselves. Having rested ourselves, we made her happy with a small silver coin, a dargesse about ten times as bountiful as she had hoped for, and went

We must have gone some nine miles, as

During the whole morning the pelting rain continued, but towards one o'clock the hills began to unveil themselves, and a glorious afternoon rewarded us for the gloom in which we had been confined. My original intention had been to go straight up the Hakoné Pass by the main road; but hearing that a great friend of mine, a native gentleman, one of the most distinguished members of the Government, was staying at Miyanoshita, a place among the mountains, famous for the beauty of its scenery and for certain natural hot-on our way. springs, I determined to change my route in order to go and pay him a visit. For a I should guess, since we left Odawara, short distance we rode, but when we had to turn up to the right by a steep, difficult mountain-path, it became evident that Shanks's mare was the best horse, so we sent our beasts back to Odawara to await our return, and proceeded on foot. We camphor-wood boxes, marqueterie and toys had some little difficulty in finding our way, as neither my escort nor Shiraki knew the road. As for the distance, like the Scotch "mile and a bittock," it seemed to be an unknown quantity, for the natives of whom we asked our way, eager to be hired as guides, always made Miyanoshita recede in proportion as we advanced, greatly to the indignation of the corporal

• One Rl = 4,320 yards.

when we reached the village of Miyanoshita, a most lovely spot lying lost among the hills. The little hamlet seems to be made up entirely of bathing-houses, which are also inns and shops for the sale of

of different sorts, very pretty and tasteful, which the bathers take home as keepsakes to their families. It is a most fashionable watering-place, a sort of Japanese Tunbridge Wells. I never saw a place in such compléte repose; when we came upon it not a soul was stirring, not a dog was barking; perhaps rest is part of the cure; at last I found a native who told me at which of the inns my friend was staying, and was lucky enough to be able to secure

an apartment in the same house. It will room quite a home-like air. Two or three easily be imagined that in such a place the smart rugs or small carpets, a luxury inns are perfection in their way; the charm which has recently been borrowed from of that at which I put up quite passed my the west, gave a colour and warmth to the expectations. I was lodged in a beautiful cold whiteness of the mats and walls; clean set of rooms, with a balcony looking | writing materials, books, handsome lacquer on to a lovely little garden full of dwarfed trees, rare shrubs and flowers, with quaint rockeries, and a pond full of gigantic goldfish and carp, grown old, and fat, and lazy, under a long course of feeding at the hands of generations of bathers; behind the garden the mountain copses made a natural background of forest scenery. As I lay looking out on this pretty view, after a bathe in the hot water welling from the living rock, I was lulled almost to sleep by the plashing of a neighbouring waterwheel. I was aroused from my dreamy state by the entrance of my friend Katô, who had just come in from a country walk. He had been surprised not a little to hear of my arrival, and when I told him that I had come purposely to see him, he was profuse in his expressions of thanks. See-vate gentlemen, remarkably pleasant men, ing that my baggage had not yet arrived, he pressed me warmly to go across to his rooms and dine with him, an invitation which I was glad enough to accept.

boxes, musical instruments, pipestands and a swordrack, were strewed about the floor, and in the recess a bronze jar contained one of those bouquets, the making up of which is a special and elaborate part of a Japanese lady's education. Further, lest he should find his villegiatura dull, he had gathered together a few friends, "companions of his solitude," to whom, as they came dropping in one by one, I was solemnly presented. First and foremost was the doctor, an intelligent young man of the Satsuma clan, who had studied medicine in the English school presided over by Dr. Willis at Yedo, and had acquired some little reputation in his craft: he spoke with enthusiasm of his kind and excellent teacher. Then there were two or three pri

learned in the lore of their country, a professor of the game of chequers, as elaborate a study as chess or whist, and above all, a certain character who deserves a paragraph to himself.

Here it was that I first became acquainted with Kato's wife, a bonny little This was an artist in lacquer, one of the lady, though eyes less familiar with the drollest creatures I ever met, as grotesque custom than mine would have objected to as the devices upon his own boxes. He the disfigurement of shaven eyebrows and was a wit, a wag, a contortionist, cunning blackened teeth. She was very civil and at legerdemain and all manner of tricks, pleasant, and had none of the shyness which he was continually showing, and yet, which I have usually met with in Japanese somehow, he never was a buffoon. It was ladies; nor had she the servile manner, most excellent good fooling, and always in which is another defect bred by the seclu- good taste. Although a rich man and the sion and abased condition in which women especial pet of the great and powerful on are kept; on the contrary, she took part account of his social talents, he affected to in the conversation brightly and well, and be especially careful not to imitate their did the honours of her husband's apart-dress, but to abide by the old fashions of ment with ease and grace. She had with her as companion and playmate a charming little girl about eight or nine years old, whose special function appeared to consist in being petted and stuffed with sweetmeats. The story of my host's marriage was a romantic one. During the political storms which preceded the outbreak of the revolution, Katô had brought himself into notice as a very active and dangerous man; a price was set upon his head, and he had to fly for his life: this young lady sheltered him and screened him from his enemies, and he fell in love with and married her. A very happy couple they seemed to be.

Purposing to remain some weeks at Miyanoshita, Katô had surrounded himself with a number of comforts which gave his

the Chônin or wardsmen, even in the cut of his hair, which was closely shaven to the tops of the ears, and brought forward in the tiny little queue, which used to be a distinguishing mark of artisans. In his girdle, in the place of a dirk, he wore the wooden beater which his mother had used to pound rice, and which he had decorated with many a curious fancy in lacquer, and studded with gold coins. "What need had he to carry a blade?" he said. His playful sallies, the effect of which was heightened by a marvellously mobile face, kept us in laughter during the whole evening.

When we had finished dinner, our hostess produced her samishen, half guitar, half banjo, to the accompaniment of which she began singing, while the lacquer-man, not to be outdone in a matter of polite accom

plishments, came in with a flute obligato. | (which now holds the flies and feathers of I cannot say in conscience that the result a distinguished salmon-fisher), at a reasonwas pleasing to an European ear, but, as able price, thanks to my friend with whom is often the case elsewhere, the music I presently started on our expedition, the was the signal for and assistance to con- whole of the party of the night before, versation, and we the audience, began talk- with the exception of the lady, being of the ing politics, leaving the performers to the company. enjoyment of their own sweet sounds. It was eleven o'clock when I wished my friends good-night, and I left Katô and the professor, heads on hands, as completely abstracted from all earthly matters as Buddhists in a state of Nirvana, lost in the solution of some impossible problem in the mysterious game of chequers.

We had a very pleasant walk over the hills, Katô, on account of his delicate state of health, being carried in a litter, which, however, being open at the sides, did not prevent him from joining in the conversation and laughter with which we beguiled the way. Every now and then the doctor or one of the others would take me for a The following morning (October 12) scramble to see some new point of view, dawned in rare splendour, and the opened some fresh beauty in the landscape, for slides let in a waft of fresh mountain air, these Japanese are passionate lovers of as exhilarating as good news from home, nature, so that after many stoppages, now The garden all ablaze with dew, its trim- to feast our eyes, now to rest Kato's coolies, ness in striking contrast to the wild nature it was noon by the time we reached Kiga. beyond, was looking even more beautiful, Our picnic was a great success; the docif possible, than the evening before a tor and the lacquer-man were with one fitting spot in which to enjoy one of consent elected chief cooks, and distinHeaven's own holidays. It is always a guished themselves by producing, the one matter of regret to me that the beauties a fry of delicious burn-trout, the other a of Japanese scenery should have been savoury stew, in which the shortcomings done justice to by no gifted word-painter of a rather lean old cock-pheasant were like John Ruskin. The shapes of the skilfully concealed. The cordon bleu of the mountains, sometimes grand, sometimes establishment supplied the rest of the fantastic; the marvellous gradations of the tree-colours from the exquisitely tender green of the feathering bamboo, slender and graceful, to the gloom of the sturdy pines and cryptomerias which spring from the more barren soil; the rocks streaked and patched with lichens and mosses, with many a rare fern and lycopod peeping out of chinks and crannies, are worthy studies for a great artist to paint with loving hand, and hardly will he succeed, limn he never so cunningly. To me the memory of these places is like that of a beautiful dream of fairyland, vivid and bright, but utterly beyond the pale of description.

dishes, my contribution being sundry bottles of pale ale and porter, which were immensely popular, for the names of Bass, Allsopp, and Guinness are familiar now as household words to the Japanese. Through the heat of the afternoon we remained chatting over every conceivable matter, grave and gay, but chiefly discussing politics and the application of European principles of government to Japan. Of all subjects, this is the favourite among this improvement-seeking people. It is little wonder that, with their eagerness to learn and profit by the experience of other nations, they should have distanced their backward neighbours, the Chinese, in such matters as railways and telegraphs. In the cool of the evening we trudged home, and at a little distance from Miyanoshita we were met by Katô's wife with her little companion.

At about nine o'clock I received a visit from Katô, who came to tell me that he was off to take his daily bath in the hot iron springs at Kiga, a lovely spot among the mountains, and proposed that I should accompany him that we might make a pic- Towards eight o'clock we all met again nic luncheon together. At the time of in my rooms for dinner, Dog Lion, at the his coming my room was full of sellers of special request of the lady, being present, camphor-wood boxes and toys, who had and exciting great admiration by his disbrought their wares for inspection; direct- creet and polite behaviour. He divided ly they saw Katô their prices went down the honours of the evening with the lacfifty per cent.; the rogues had been asking quer-man, who outdid himself in efforts to the foreigner something like three times make my party go off well. Shiraki, as the real value of their goods. I bought a chief retainer, did the honours, affording few very pretty specimens of marqueterie, thereby an instance of Japaness manners and a certain camphor-wood cabinet, and customs. No feature of Japanese so