nces; _Tozando_, or
eastern mountain circuit, eight provinces; _Sanindo_, or mountain back
circuit, eight provinces; _Sanyodo_, or mountain front circuit, eight
provinces; and _Saikaido_, or western sea circuit, nine provinces; in all
sixty-eight provinces. After the close of the war of restoration in 1868,
the large territories in the north of the Main island represented by the
provinces of Mutsu and Dewa, which had been conquered from the Ainos, were
subdivided into seven provinces, thus making seventy-three. Still later
the island of Yezo, with which were associated the Kurile islands, was
created a circuit under the name of _Hok-kaido_, or north sea circuit,
having eleven provinces. The number of existing provinces therefore is
eighty-four. In recent times these eighty-four provinces have for
administrative purposes been consolidated into three imperial cities
(_fu_), forty-two prefectures (_ken_), and one territory (_cho_). The
imperial cities (_fu_) are Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto; the one territory
(_cho_) comprises the island of Yezo and the adjacent small islands
including the Kuriles; and the prefectures (_ken_) have been formed from
the provinces by combining and consolidating them in accordance with their
convenience and proximity.

There are only a few large cities in Japan, but very many of a small
size.(13) Tokyo,(14) the capital, contains 1,155,200 inhabitants. Osaka,
the second largest city contains 473,541; Kyoto, the old capital, 289,588;
Nagoya, 170,433; Kobe, 136,968; and Yokohama, 127,987. These are all the
cities containing as many as 100,000 inhabitants. Besides these there are
four cities which have between 100,000 and 60,000; twelve which have
between 60,000 and 40,000, and twelve which have between 40,000 and
30,000. The number of smaller towns is very great. The division of the
country into _daimiates_, and the maintenance of a _daimyo_ town in each
led to the establishment of many cities and large villages.

The population of the empire of Japan is to a large extent massed in
cities and villages. Even in the country, among the farmers, the people
are gathered in settlements with wide spaces of cultivated and
uncultivated land between. This is due in a great measure to the character
of the crops and to the primitive nature of the cultivation. Rice, which
is the most common crop, requires irrigation for its successful tillage.
This limits the area occupied to the valleys and to those hillsides whe