ces, various privileges were granted to
the professors of the art. They were exempted from the discharge of
official duties and their occupation became hereditary. Several
ancient Japanese books contain reference to music and dancing, and in
one work* illustrations are given of the wooden masks worn by dancers
and the instruments used by musicians of the Wu (Chinese) school.
These masks were introduced by Mimashi and are still preserved in the
temple Horyu-ji.

*The Horyu-ji Shizai-cho, composed in A.D. 747.

In the matter of pastimes, a favourite practice, first mentioned in
the reign of the Empress Suiko, was a species of picnic called
"medicine hunting" (kusuri-kari). It took place on the fifth day of
the fifth month. The Empress, her ladies, and the high functionaries,
all donned gala costumes and went to hunt stags, for the purpose of
procuring the young antlers, and to search for "deer-fungus"
(shika-take), the horns and the vegetables being supposed to have
medical properties. All the amusements mentioned in previous sections
continued to be followed in this era, and football is spoken of as
having inaugurated the afterwards epoch-making friendship between
Prince Naka and Kamatari. It was not played in the Occidental manner,
however. The game consisted in kicking a ball from player to player
without letting it fall. This was apparently a Chinese innovation.
Here, also, mention may be made of thermal springs. Their sanitary
properties were recognized, and visits were paid to them by invalids.
The most noted were those of Dogo, in Iyo, and Arima, in Settsu. The
Emperor Jomei spent several months at each of these, and Prince
Shotoku caused to be erected at Dogo a stone monument bearing an
inscription to attest the curative virtues of the water.

CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE

That Buddhism obtained a firm footing among the upper classes during
the first century after its introduction must be attributed in no
small measure to the fact that the throne was twice occupied by
Empresses in that interval. The highly decorative aspects of the
creed appealing to the emotional side of woman's nature, these
Imperial ladies encouraged Buddhist propagandism with earnest
munificence. But the mass of the people remained, for the most part,
outside the pale. They continued to believe in the Kami and to
worship them. Thus, when a terribly destructive earthquake* occured
in 599, it was to the Kami of earthquakes that prayers were offe