The Project Gutenberg EBook of Child-Life in Japan and Japanese Child
Stories, by Mrs. M. Chaplin Ayrton

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Title: Child-Life in Japan and Japanese Child Stories

Author: Mrs. M. Chaplin Ayrton

Editor: William Elliot Griffis

Release Date: May 28, 2009 [EBook #28979]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's note:

A few typographical and punctuation errors have been
corrected. A complete list follows the text.

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[Illustration: The Lion of Korea.]

CHILD-LIFE IN JAPAN

AND

JAPANESE CHILD STORIES

BY

MRS. M. CHAPLIN AYRTON

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY

WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, L.H.D.

Author of "The Mikado's Empire" and "Japanese Fairy World"

_WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING SEVEN FULL-PAGE PICTURES DRAWN AND
ENGRAVED BY JAPANESE ARTISTS_

BOSTON, U.S.A.
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
1909

COPYRIGHT, 1901,
BY D. C. HEATH & CO.

PREFACE.

Over a quarter of a century ago, while engaged in introducing the
American public school system into Japan, I became acquainted in Tokio
with Mrs. Matilda Chaplin Ayrton, the author of "Child-Life in Japan."
This highly accomplished lady was a graduate of Edinburgh University,
and had obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Letters and Bachelor of
Sciences, besides studying medicine in Paris. She had married Professor
William Edward Ayrton, the electric engineer and inventor, then
connected with the Imperial College of Engineering of Japan, and since
president of the Institute of Electric Engineers in London. She took a
keen interest in the Japanese people and never wearied of