y
is made. I had the delight of seeing during my country-house visiting
many ancient pictures of country life and of animals and birds. It was
also a precious opportunity to inspect armour and wonderful swords and
stands of arrows in the houses in which the men who had worn the
armour and used the weapons had lived. The way of stringing the
seven-feet-high bow was shown to me by a kimono-clad samurai, as has
been recorded in the previous chapter. When he threw himself into a
warlike attitude and with an ancient cry whirled a gleaming two-handed
sword in the dim light thrown by lanterns which had lighted the house
in the time of the Shoguns, the figures on old-time Japanese prints
had a new vividness.

What also helped in illuminating for me the old prints of warlike
scenes was a display of a remarkable kind of fencing with naked
weapons which one of my hosts kindly provided in his garden one
evening. The tournament was conducted by the village young men's
association. The exercises, which, as I saw them, are peculiar to the
district, are called _ki-ai_, which means literally "spirit meeting."
They call not only for long training but for courage and ardour. The
combats took place on a small patch of grass which was fenced by four
bamboo branches. These were connected by a rope of paper streamers
such as are used to distinguish a consecrated place. Before the first
bout the bamboos and rope were taken away and a handful of salt was
thrown on the grass. Salt was similarly thrown on the grass before
every contest. The idea is that salt is a purifier. It signifies, like
the handshake of our boxers, that the feelings of the combatants are
cleansed from malice.

Most of the events were single combats, but there were two meetings in
which a man confronted a couple of assailants. The contests I recall
were spear _v_. spear, spear _v_. sword, sword _v_. long billhook,
spear _v_. the short Japanese sickle and a chain, spear _v_. paper
umbrella and sword, pole _v_. wooden sword, pole _v_. pole, and long
billhook _v_. fan and sword. The weapons were sharp enough to inflict
serious wounds if a false move should be made or there should be a
momentary lack of self-control. The flashing steel gave an impression
of imminent danger. There was also the feeling aroused in the
spectators by the way in which the combatants sought to gain advantage
over one another by fierce snarls, stamping on the ground and
appalling gestures. The neck ve