als is carried on to but a very limited extent. The
temple of Shiba is located near the centre of the population, occupying
many acres of ground, walled in and shaded by a thick growth of trees,
whose branches are black with thousands of undisturbed rooks and
pigeons. The principal characteristic of the architecture is its
boldness of relief, overhanging roofs, heavy brackets and carvings. The
doors are of bronze, in bas-relief.

After visiting the temple of Shiba we took jinrikishas to that section
of the suburbs known as Atago-Yama, a hill from which we were promised a
fine view of the city. Here a steep flight of a hundred stone steps
were ascended, which led to the summit, where were found some
tea-booths, tended by fancifully dressed Japanese girls, and a small
temple with sacred birds and horses. The temple required a strong effort
of the imagination to invest it with the least interest, but the view
from this point was fine. A couple of miles southeasterly was the broad,
glistening Bay of Tokio, and round the other points of the compass was
the imperial city itself, covering a plain of some eight miles square,
divided by water-ways, bridges, and clumps of graceful trees, looming
conspicuously above the low dwellings. The whole was as level as a
checker-board, but yet there was relief to the picture in the fine open
gardens, the high, peaked gable roofs of the temples, and the broad,
white roadways.

At a subsequent visit to the city we attended a fair held in the grounds
surrounding one of the many temples of Tokio, giving it a half-secular,
half-religious character; but the whole exhibition, as to any coherent
purpose, was quite incomprehensible to a foreigner. Enormous paper
lanterns covered with blue and yellow dragons, and other impossible
creatures, with small bodies and big heads, hung over the grounds in all
directions. We were told that these would be lighted at night, and
glaring fire would be seen coming out of the eyes of these dragons! The
temple was gaudily decorated for the occasion with bold and vulgar
caricatures, mingled most incongruously, the sacred with the profane.
The priests were propitiating the idols inside the temple with drums,
fifes, and horns, while the pleasure and trading booths were doing a
thriving business outside. The confusion was very great all over the
crowded inclosure. Old and young men were flying kites, some were
shooting at a mark with bows and arrows, and some were bea