n at all, but had been kept folded away
for years, and only brought out when a fitting occasion came round at
the proper season of the year. As we turned over the beautiful fabrics,
a black broadcloth garment at the bottom of the basket aroused my
curiosity, and I pulled it out and held it up for closer inspection. A
curious garment it was, bound with white, and with a great white crest
_applique_ on the middle of the back. Curious white stripes gave the
coat a military look, and it seemed appropriate rather to the wardrobe
of some two-sworded warrior than to that of a gentlewoman of the old
type. To the question, How did such a coat come to be in such a place?
the older lady of the company--one to whom the old days were still the
natural order and the new customs an exotic growth--explained that the
garment rightfully belonged in the wardrobe of any lady-in-waiting in a
daimi[=o]'s house, for it was made to wear in case of fire or attack when
the men were away, and the women were expected to guard the premises.
Further search among the relics of the past brought to light the rest of
the costume: silk _hakama_, or full kilted trousers; a stiff, manlike
black silk cap bound with a white band; and a spear cover of broadcloth,
with a great white crest upon it, like the one on the broadcloth coat.
These made up the uniform which must be donned in time of need by the
ladies of the palace or the castle, for the defense of their lord's
property. They had been folded away for twenty years among the
embroidered robes, to come to light at last for the purpose of showing
to a foreigner a phase of the old life that was so much a matter of
course to the older Japanese that it never occurred to them even to
mention it to a stranger. The elder lady of the house was wonderfully
amused at my interest in these mute memorials of the past, and could
never comprehend why I was willing to expend the sum of one dollar for
the sake of gaining possession of a set of garments for which I could
have no possible use. The uniform had probably never been worn in actual
warfare, but its owner had been trained in the use of the long-handled
spear, the cover of which she had kept stored away all these years; and
had regarded herself as liable to be called into action at any time as
one of the home guard, when the male retainers of her lord were in the
field.

There are in the shops of T[=o]ky[=o] to-day hundreds of colored prints
illustrating the splen