fty.

There were formerly several teahouses in the village, but under the
influence of the young men's association all houses of entertainment
but two had been closed. These two had become "inns." In one of these
the girl attendant was the proprietor's daughter; in the other there
was a solitary waitress. One of the abolished teahouses had taken
itself two miles away, where possibly it still had visitors. There
seemed to be two public baths in the village, both belonging to
private persons. The charge was 1 sen for adults and 5 _rin_ for
children. At one of the baths I noticed separate doors for men and
women; in the bath itself the division between the sexes was about two
feet high.

The smallest subdivision of the village is called _kumi_ or company.
Each of these has a kind of manager who is elected on a limited
suffrage. The managers of the _kumi_, it was explained, are "like
diplomatists if something is wanted against another village." The
_kumi_ also seems to have some corporate life. There is once a month a
semi-social, semi-religious meeting at each member's house in turn.
The persons who attend lay before the house shrine 3 or 5 sen each or
a small quantity of rice for the feast. The master of the house
provides the sauce or pickles. I heard also of a kind of _ko_ called
_mujin_, a word which has also the meaning of "inexhaustible." By such
agencies as these money is collected for people who are poor or for
men who want help in their business or who need to go on a journey.

We have seen that the village is by every token well off. What are its
troubles? Undoubtedly the people work hard. I imagine, however, that
there are very many districts where the people work much harder. The
foreigner is too apt to confuse working hard with working
continuously. Whether outdoors or indoors, whether at a handicraft or
at business, an Oriental gives the impression of having no notion of
getting his work done and being finished with it. The working day
lasts all day and part of the night. Whether much more is done in the
time than in the shorter Western day may be doubted. During the brief
silk-worm season many of the women of the village in which I stayed
are afoot for a long day and for part of the night, but the winter
brings relief from the strain of all sorts of work. Owing to the snow
it is practically impossible to do any work out of doors in January,
February and March. The snow may stop work even in December. Here