r to send five
pilgrims as far away as Yamagata, on the other side of Japan. The
priests did not seem to count for much. "Their only concern with the
public," I was informed, "is to be succoured by it. They are living
very painfully. The Buddhist priests have to send money to their sect
at Kyoto." In one of my strolls I passed the Shinto priest carrying a
rice basket and looking, as my companion said, "just like any other
man." At a shrine I saw a number of bowls hung up. A hole cut in the
bottom of each seemed a pathetic symbol of need, material or
spiritual.

The keeper of the teahouse in the _oaza_ had been given a small sum by
our host to take himself off, but in the village of which the _oaza_
formed a part there were two teahouses, where ten times as much was
spent as was laid out on religion. No one had ever heard of a case of
illegitimacy in the _oaza_ but there had been in the twelve months
three cases which pointed to abortion. It was five years since there
had been an arrest. The young men's association helped twice a year
families whose boys had been conscripted.

According to what I was told in various quarters, some landowners in
Chiba did a certain amount of public work but most devoted themselves
to indoor trivialities. The fact that two banks had recently broken at
the next town, one for a quarter of a million yen, and that a
landowner had lost a total of 30,000 yen in these smashes, seemed to
show that there was a certain amount of money somewhere in the
district. No one appeared to "waste time on politics." In ten years
"there had been one or two politicians," but "one member of Parliament
set a wholesome example by losing a great deal of money in politics."
As to local politics, election to the prefectural assembly seemed to
cost about 500 yen. Membership of the village assembly might mean "a
cup of _sake_ apiece to the electors."

I was assured that this hamlet was above the economic level of the
county. The belief was expressed that it could maintain that position
for three or four years. "I do not feel so much anxiety about the
present condition of the people," my host said; "they are passive
enough: but as to the future it is a difficult and almost insoluble
question."

"The condition of our rural life is the most difficult question in
Japan," said a fellow guest.

In one of the farmers' houses a girl, with the assistance of a
younger brother, was weaving rough matting for baling up artifi