The main tower was designed by the general Kato Kiyomasa, who, according to Mr. Griffis (Mikado's Empire'), was a very ill-conditioned fellow indeed, who wore a helmet three feet high, quarrelled with his brother officers, inscribed prayers on his banners, became a member of the Nicheren sect, and "a bloody persecutor of the Christians in the sixteenth century." He appears, however, to have been a skilful architect of castles, if one may infer this from the style and construction of this great tower at Nagoya, and from the fact that he designed also the castle of Kumamoto, in Kiushiu, which I have seen described as another of the finest in Japan. He is now a deified personage, and some of my Japanese friends to whom I have spoken respecting him assure me that his colleague in the Korean expedition, with whom he refused to act cordially, was really a most objectionable individual; that the so-called Christians whom Kato Kiyomasa is said to have persecuted were of a bad sort; and that he is worthily worshipped as a great and good patriot, and now one of the gods of Japan, by a very large number of the Japanese people. It is not to be expected that I should decide between these opposite views of his character in a mere gossip about a tower of his design; so I will pass on to that Nagoya Castle stands upon about four hundred acres of ground; that it is protected by two moats, with the power of inundating the country at the back of it, where its defence say centre from which to keep in check He new and more formidable one, and fixed upon the present site at Nagoya as the most advantageous for his purpose. Several Daimios, the principal of whom were Fukushima Masanori, prince of Aki, Kato Kiyomasa, prince of Higo, and Kuroda Nagamasa, prince of Chikuzen, were, after some threatening, prevailed upon to undertake the task. The materials of the old fortress of Kiyosu helped to compose the new stronghold, and it is said that 200,000 men were employed, who finished the work of erection in a few weeks." is obviously weak; that it was until lately the castle of one of three of the most powerful Daimios in Japan, who as members of the Tycoon's family enjoyed many important and exclusive privileges, and that although part of its inclosure is now used for military purposes, another part is devoted to the growth of vegetables, which is probably a better use, in some respects, than was ever before made of it. We ascended Kato's tower to the top floor, and obtained an extensive view over the city and its suburbs, and for some miles of fruitful ground around, but the atmosphere was not clear enough to admit of a view of the mountains in either direction. It may be interesting to mention that the plan adopted in the designing of this tower was to make the area of the lowest floor one thousand "mats," that of the next floor five hundred, the others decreasing upwards by a hundred mats per floor, the upper being of one hundred mats only. The "mat" is a rectangle of about three feet by six feet, that being the size given to the single piece of the matting in use as the floor-covering throughout Japan. The sizes of rooms are usually given in mats. A fine model of the great tower, constructed before the tower itself was built, and therefore nearly three hundred years old, was shown to us in the Shogun's palace, and is in perfectly good condition. The palace of the Tycoon, though intended for occasional occupation only, was of a far more costly character, both in its construction and in its decorations, than that of the Mikado at Kioto. The ceilings are panelled and decorated with some of the most refined artists' work that I have seen in Japan, while the carved work is lavish alike in its abundance and its beauty. This palace seems to furnish an illustration of the accuracy of those who tell us that under the system of government which the Tycoons gradually brought about the Mikado, the true emperor, was kept in a state of comparative weakness, meanness, and privation, while the Tycoon revelled in wealth, splendour, and power. CHAPTER XII. TO SHIDZUOKA : THE HOME OF THE TOKUGAWAS. Early departure from Nagoya-The great Tokaido road-Monument to "the Shogun of three days"-Okazaki, the birthplace of IyéyasuYoshida-A famous artist-Our picturesque procession-Miraculous appearance of the goddess Kwannon-A colossal statue to the goddess -Fuji-yama again—A shrine of splendour-Beauty of the sea-The gate of Arai-The fishers of Mayezaka-Bridge over the Tenriu, 4000 feet long-A windy day in the hills-Kagos, or mountain chairs— Swiss-like scenery-A scene for artists-A tunnel through a mountain -Shidzuoka-Lacquer, inlaid, and bamboo work-Japanese tea-cultivation-Large exports of tea-Iyéyasu's love of literature-The last of the Tycoons-A picture painted by him-An eminent litterateurLegends of the Night-crying Stone, the Sworded Pheasant, and the Wishing Bell. OUR long land journey from the old capital (Kioto) to the new (Tokio) was resumed on Thursday, March 13, at 7 A.M. The later hours of the previous day had been devoted to drenching rains outside and rest indoors, but the saving of time was a matter of so much importance to me, and the delays occasioned by my illness were tending to so much. congestion of duties, if I may so speak, in both Japan and England, that we decided to start at an early hour next morning, rain or sun, showers or torrents. Happily the morning broke fine, with little or no sunshine, but with a Early as it Early as it was, the leave of us, and, with dry atmosphere, the rain wholly gone. vice-governor was kindly there to take many little arrangements for enabling a rheumatic individual of a certain age to make a journey of forty-five miles in a hand-carriage without too much distress, off we went. All the shops and places of business appeared to be open and in operation as we rattled through Nagoya and Miya, although the hour was so early. There were several very pretty gateways in Miya which I should have been glad to have sketched had time allowed, but a passing glance was all we could devote to them. The shrines of Atsuta, with their mystic sword, their towering trees, their crowded lightpillars and simple ceremonies, were soon passed and left behind, and behind us likewise loomed up the great Honganji temple, and beyond, the mountains-mountain-shrines, shall we call them ?-hung with curtain-screens like Atsuta, but in this case the screens were blue, and wrought of valley mist and morning light. Numerous temples, and still more numerous shrines much simpler than temples, were passed during the day, and at many of them, here as elsewhere, the stone basins in front of them for the washing of the hands received their water from spouting bronze dragons of considerable size and much artistic merit. Soon after leaving Miya we were again upon the great Tokaido road, which throughout the day, as on some former days, was a fine, smooth, well-kept road between the towns and the villages, but was much neglected where it passed through them-a point which would seem to require some attention on the part of both the central and local governments. The road traversed by bridges several large rivers, the beds of which were raised above the neighbouring land-level by as much as 10 feet. After a short halt at the town of Narumi, where cotton-spinning is carried on, and transit through another in which dyeing is successfully practised, we passed through the famous battle-field in which the great Shogun of three days, so to call him, Yoshimoto, engaged the redoubtable Nobunaga in the sixteenth century, and was defeated by him and killed.* A monument to his (Yoshimoto's) memory was passed in a field on our right-a simple column of stone, surrounded by a railing of wood. Luncheon was taken at the town of Okazaki, the birthplace of Iyéyasu, at which are the great granite quarries from which the capital, Tokio, and many other places, are provided with that stone; the *See vol. i. p. 185. nearness of Okazaki to the bay of Owari and its branches greatly facilitating the supply of this stone to towns and cities near the coast. The remainder of the day's journey was completed at four o'clock in the apparently thriving town of Yoshida, which is situated on a branch of the great river Tenriu, which finds its way into the sea further eastward. This town does a considerable trade in timber, most of the roof-rafters for Tokio going hence. After the drive of forty-five miles a stroll in the town to the river bank and flower garden was a pleasant change. After dinner a gentleman, Mr. Watanabé Shoka, of great local fame as an artist, and considered by some of our party as one of the first now living in Japan, did us the honour of dropping in and helping to pass a wet evening pleasantly by knocking off a few large rough sketches of birds, each drawing being executed in times varying from five to ten minutes only. In this pleasing pastime he was joined by Mr. Hinoké, from Nagoya, who had accompanied us thus far, and who, like his friend just mentioned, possesses wonderful skill in producing fine effects with a few daubs and touches of the brush. I observed that in putting in trees and certain parts of birds Mr. Watanabé Shoka frequently employed two brushes simultaneously. I have seen a good deal of rapid sketching and drawing at different times, but with the exception of my friend Chevalier de Martino, the painter of great naval pictures, who is surprisingly skilled in the swift use of the ink-brush, I know no one who approaches Mr. Watanabé Shoka. Early on Friday the 14th of March, after another night of rain, we pursued our journey eastward, in an atmosphere of delightful freshness, in a north-western breeze of considerable force, and in sunshine that made the morning perfect. We were soon skirting on our left ranges of wooded hills, rolling away to mountains in the distance. I was informed that on one of the finest and most sheer and lofty of these high wooded hills there was a temple. I had chosen a position in the procession of jinriki-shas well to the rear, so that I had before me the shifting picture of more than a |