rds," I ventured, "the village where there is some
non-material feeling."

The rejoinder was: "Western religion is too high, and, I fear,
inapplicable to our life. It may be that we are too easily contented.
But there are nearly 60 millions of us. I do not know that we feel a
need or have a vacant place for religion. There is certainly not much
hope for an increase of the influence of Buddhism."

As we went along in the train I was told that on a sixth of the rice
area in Tottori there had been a loss of 70 per cent. by wind. When a
man's harvest loss exceeds this percentage he is not liable for rates
and taxes. A passenger told me about "nursery pasture." This is a
patch of grass in the hills to which a farmer sends his ox to be
pastured in common with the oxen of other farmers under the care of a
single herdsman. It is from cattle keeping on this modest scale that
the present beef requirements of the country are largely met.[194]

Although the opinions expressed to me by Governors of prefectures
have been frequently recorded in these pages, I have not felt at
liberty to identify more than one of the Excellencies who were good
enough to express their views to me. A friend who knew many Governors
offered me the following criticism, which I thought just: "They are
too practical and too much absorbed in administration to be able to
think. Often they read very little after leaving the university. They
have seldom anything to tell you about other than ordinary things, and
they seldom show their hearts. You cannot learn much from Governors
who have nothing original to say or are fearful or live in their frock
coats or do not mean to show half their minds or are practising the
old official trick of talking round and round and always evading the
point. One fault of Governors is that they are being continually
transferred from prefecture to prefecture. You have no doubt yourself
noticed how often Governors were new to their prefectures. But with
all the faults that our Governors have, there are not a few able, good
and kind men among them and they are not recruited from Parliament but
must be members of the Civil Service. One of the most common words in
our political life is _genshitsu_, 'responsibility for one's own
words.' If Governors fear to assume the responsibility of their own
views they are only of a part with a great deal of the official
world."

We turned away from the northern sea coast and struck south in order