. The mikado's empire. ative teachers who hadbeen in Nagasaki. In the medical department I found a good collec-tion of Dutch books, chiefly medical and scientific, and a fine pair ofFrench dissection models, of both varieties of the human body. Inthe military school was a library of foreign works on military subjects,chiefly in English, several of which had been translated into one part of the yard young men, book, diagi-am, or trowel in hand,were constructing a miniature earthwork. The school library, of En-glish and American books—among which were all of Kusakabes—was quite respe
. The mikado's empire. ative teachers who hadbeen in Nagasaki. In the medical department I found a good collec-tion of Dutch books, chiefly medical and scientific, and a fine pair ofFrench dissection models, of both varieties of the human body. Inthe military school was a library of foreign works on military subjects,chiefly in English, several of which had been translated into one part of the yard young men, book, diagi-am, or trowel in hand,were constructing a miniature earthwork. The school library, of En-glish and American books—among which were all of Kusakabes—was quite respectable. In the Chinese school I found thousands ofboxes, with sliding lids, filled with Chinese and Japanese books. Se\-eral hundred boys and young men were squatted on the floor, withtheir teachers, reading or committing lessons to memory, or writingthe Chinese characters. Some had already cut off their top-knots.* * In one of the popular street-songs hawked about and sung in the streets o^ 432 THE MIKADOS Student burning the Midnight Oil. (Photograph from life.) At one end of the buildings were large, open places devoted tophysical exercise. Several exhibitions of trials of skill in fencing andwrestling were then made for my benefit. Six of the students repair-ed to the armory and put on the defensive mail, to shield themselvesin the rough work before them—as Japanese swords are for use withboth hands, having double-handed hilts without guards. The foilsfor fencing are made of round, split bamboo, and a good blow willmake one smart, and bruise the flesh. So the fencing - master andstudents first donned a corselet, with shoulder-plates of hardened hidepadded within, and heavily padded gauntlets. On their heads werewadded caps, having a barred visor of stout iron grating. Takingtheir places, with swords crossed, they set to. All the passes are cut^ Fakui, Ozaka, and Tokio, at this time was a stanza satirizing the three fashions ofwearing the hair: in Western styl
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgriffisw, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1894
