GE

GREAT GATE, NIKKO _Frontispiece._

FUJIYAMA 10

SHUZENJI VILLAGE, IDZU 36

FARMERS PLANTING RICE SPROUTS, JAPAN 52

LETTER-WRITING IN JAPAN 63

KARAMO TEMPLE, NIKKO 78

RETURNING FROM MARKET, JAPAN 98

MAIN STREET, YOKOHAMA 108

CHUSENJI ROAD AND DAIYA RIVER 132

A CHINESE IRRIGATION WHEEL 165

AN ITINERANT COBBLER, CANTON, CHINA 180

A CHINESE PAGODA 197

WATER CART, PEKIN, CHINA 210

SHANGHAI, FROM THE WATER-SIDE 222

MARKET SCENE IN SHANGHAI 255

CHINESE GAMBLERS 281

CHAIR AND CAGO CARRIERS 306

STREET SCENE, PEKIN, CHINA 318

A BRONZE-WORKER'S SHOP 330

THE PEKIN GATE 347

* * * * *

_THE FIRST OF THE MIKADOS._

The year 1 in Japan is the same date as 660 B.C. of the Christian era,
so that Japan is now in its twenty-sixth century. Then everything began.
Before that date all is mystery and mythology. After that date there is
something resembling history, though in the early times it is an odd
mixture of history and fable. As for the gods of ancient Japan, they
were many in number, and strange stories are told of their doings. Of
the early men of the island kingdom we know very little. When the
ancestors of the present Japanese arrived there they found the islands
occupied by a race of savages, a people thickly covered with hair, and
different in looks from all the other inhabitants of Asia. These in time
were conquered, and only a few of them now remain,--known as Ainos, and
dwelling in the island of Yezo.

In the Japanese year 1 appeared a conqueror, Jimmu Tenno by name, the
first of the mikados or emperors. He was descended from the goddess of
the Sun, and made his home at the foot of Kirishima, a famous mountain
in the island of Kiushiu, the most southerly of the four large islands