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We had been permitted to walk at will over the throne-room, but when we came to a suite of private apartments called the Ko-go-sho, one of the attendants was found to have sufficient energy to forbid entrance. We might walk about the verandah and look in at the beautifully painted panels, but the tread of a foreigner, albeit bootless, must not desecrate the floor. This suite of rooms faced a pretty garden with maple trees glowing in reds and yellows, and a moss-grown stone bridge spanning a fish-pond.

The On-mi-ma, "august three rooms," is that portion of the palace where the Mikado was wont to watch the performance of the No players. This place is marked by a dais, raised six inches from the ground, on which the Mikado sits. The stage is some distance off, and, as now, when not in use is cut off from the imperial apartments by a wooden hoarding. Amongst the decorations of this room is a wonderful group of horses, drawn with their heads and tails down, and their legs stiffly pendant, in the attitude a beast falls into when it is being lowered into the hold of a ship with a band round its belly. Japanese artists are great in birds and flowers, but they ludicrously fail when they come to draw any kind of an animal.

from a tea-house to a temple. Sometimes, in respect of the temples, the game has turned out to be not worth the slipper. There was quite a posse of attendants detached to accompany us through the palace, where one intelligent man would have done equally well. They were attired in ordinary Japanese dress, though I dare say on festive occasions they proudly produce a rumpled suit of black broadcloth and a pair of white cotton gloves, such as their colleagues wore at the review on the Mikado's birthday, and such as undertakers wear in England.

I do not know why they should have been present in such numbers, but it was evidently not with the intention of making themselves useful. The Governor of Kioto had politely sent one of his secretaries to accompany us through the palace. This gentleman, with the excessive courtesy of the Japanese, would not allow us to carry our own boots. In such case it seemed not improbable that some of the able-bodied servants who followed us about might carry a pair. But that was not an idea that occurred to them, and pleasurable contemplation of the works of art in the palace was disturbed by repeatedly coming upon the governor's secretary taking short cuts with four pairs of boots under his arm.

We entered by a suite of apartments in which the daimios seeking audience of the Mikado were wont to assemble. There is a series of apartments known as the chrysanthemum-room, the stork-room, and the tigerroom, in reference to the subjects treated on the panels of the sliding walls. Unlike the residences of some sovereigns which the public are privileged to gaze upon, here are no mighty four-post bedsteads, no full-bottomed chairs, no tapestry, no carpets nor hangings, no portraits of ancestors; nothing but the bare room, with its thickly matted floor, its artistically decorated walls, and its ceiling always of beautiful wood. The absence of paint in their dwelling-houses compels the Japanese to seek colour and variety in the grain of various woods, and within their own country they find a rich field.

The throne-room, reached from the waiting-rooms by a corridor, is a long bare apartment with a canopied chair set near the centre. The chair is lacquered and richly inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The canopy consists of white silk trimmed with deep border of reddish brown. At first sight it looks like chintz. As the attendants entered, they all bowed low to the empty throne, repeating the obeisance whenever they passed or approached

it. In this room the new Mikado is solemnly enthroned, and here, through successive New Year's days, a long line of Mikados, now sleeping in the dust, have given audience to peers of the realm. It is not actually the same room, since the palace, as already mentioned, has more than once been destroyed by fire. But it is built up again as nearly as possible a copy of the old one, with the same provision for ceremonial. Immediately facing the throne is a courtyard, access to which is gained by eighteen steps. These correspond with the grades into officials are divided. reached the dignity of on the lowest step are known as fi-ge, or "down on the earth."

which the imperial Those who have not being allowed to stand

A wall at the back of the throne is divided into panels, each containing four portraits of Chinese sages. Above these hang two excellent oil portraits of the Mikado and the empress. It must not be supposed that either sacred personage went through the process of "sitting" for the vulgar artist. But even a Mikado may, without suffering in his dignity, hold communication with the sun. This conceded, the illustrious pair were photographed, and from the photograph an able artist in Milan evolved the oil paintings.

We had been permitted to walk at will over the throne-room, but when we came to a suite of private apartments called the Ko-go-sho, one of the attendants was found to have sufficient energy to forbid entrance. We might walk about the verandah and look in at the beautifully painted panels, but the tread of a foreigner, albeit bootless, must not desecrate the floor. This suite of rooms faced a pretty garden with maple trees glowing in reds and yellows, and a moss-grown stone bridge spanning a fish-pond.

The On-mi-ma, "august three rooms," is that portion of the palace where the Mikado was wont to watch the performance of the No players. This place is marked by a dais, raised six inches from the ground, on which the Mikado sits. The stage is some distance off, and, as now, when not in use is cut off from the imperial apartments by a wooden hoarding. Amongst the decorations of this room is a wonderful group of horses, drawn with their heads and tails down, and their legs stiffly pendant, in the attitude a beast falls into when it is being lowered into the hold of a ship with a band round its belly. Japanese artists are great in birds and flowers, but they ludicrously fail when they come to draw any kind of an animal.

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