. The mikado's empire. y, etiquette, and the numerous diaries andworks on travel in China, Corea, and the remote provinces of thecountry, and the books called mirrors {kagami) of the times, nowso interesting to the antiquarian student. Occasionally nobles orcourt ladies would leave the luxury of the city, and take up theirabode in a castle, tower, pagoda, or temple room, or on some mountainoverlooking Lake Biwa, the sea, or the Yodo River, or the plains ofYamato; and amidst its inspiring scenery, with tiny table, ink-stoneand brush, pen some prose epic or romance, that has since become an LIFE
. The mikado's empire. y, etiquette, and the numerous diaries andworks on travel in China, Corea, and the remote provinces of thecountry, and the books called mirrors {kagami) of the times, nowso interesting to the antiquarian student. Occasionally nobles orcourt ladies would leave the luxury of the city, and take up theirabode in a castle, tower, pagoda, or temple room, or on some mountainoverlooking Lake Biwa, the sea, or the Yodo River, or the plains ofYamato; and amidst its inspiring scenery, with tiny table, ink-stoneand brush, pen some prose epic or romance, that has since become an LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AOES. 205 immortal classic. Almost every mansion of the nobles had its lock-ing-room, or Chamber of Inspiring View, whence to gaze upon thelandscape or marine scenery. Rooms set apart for this aesthetic pleas-ure still form a feature of the house of nearly every modem native ofmeans. On many a coigne of vantage may be seen also the summer-houses or rustic booths, where gather pleasure parties on Picnic Booth, overlooking Lake Biwa. In the civil administration of the empire, the chief work was todispense justice, punish offenders, collect taxes, and settle the rude surveys of those days, the boundaries of provinces anddepartments were marked by inscribed posts of wood or stone. Be-fore the days of writing, the same end was secured by charcoal buriedin the earth at certain points, the durability of which insured themark against decay. The peasants, after the rice-harvest was over,brought their tribute, or taxes, with joyful ceremony, to the govern-ment granaries in straw bags, packed on horses gayly decorated withscarlet housings, and jingling with clusters of small bells. A relic ofthis custom is seen in the bunches of bells suspended by red cotton 14 206 THE MIKADOS EMPIRE. stuff from the .rear of the pack-saddle, which dangle musically fromthe ungainly haunches of the native sumpters. From earliest times there existed seki (guard gates o
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgriffisw, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1894
