ze of lanterns of the cheap iron
variety, set on cheap wooden posts. On the right is seen a minor shrine
or two dedicated to the Inari goddess. On the left is a small building
devoted to votive offerings, the crude and the more elaborate. The most
striking is the offering of a little _geisha_ lady, and portrays an
heroic scene of early days. There are other portraitures, in which
perhaps a wandering lover is seen as a hero, to the lady's eyes, of
these later times. On the outside of the structure are posted up by the
hundred pictures of once woebegone ladies, now rejoicing in the potent
influence of the Tamiya shrine to restore to them the strayed affections
of husband or lover. Next in line is an open, shed-like structure. It is
a poor chance if here the casual visitor does not encounter one or two
of the petitioners, patiently trotting round in a circle from front to
back, and reciting their prayers in this accomplishment of "the hundred
turns." Just opposite, and close by, is the shrine itself. This is in
part a massive store-house set back in the domestic structure, with the
shrine of the Inari facing the visitor. The floor space at the sides and
before it often is piled high with tubs of _shoyu_ and _sake_, with
bundles of charcoal, such negotiable articles as the wealthier
shopkeeper can offer to the mighty lady; and long tresses of hair of
women too poor to offer anything else, or wise enough to know that a
woman could make no greater sacrifice. And is not the object of their
worship a woman? Numerous are these severed strands. Entering the shrine
and passing the pleasant spoken warden at its entrance, peddling his
charms and giving advice where often it is sadly needed--perhaps the
more valuable of his two public duties--to the left within is the
Oku-no-In, the inner shrine containing the _ihai_ or memorial tablet of
O'Iwa. That the shrine is popular and wealthy; that the lady is feared,
venerated, and her dreadful powers much sought after; this is plain to
the eye in the crowded elaborateness of this inner holy place of the
larger sacred structure.

Now Echizenbori is not a particularly old quarter of the city. Long
after Edo was established, the city, step by step, fought its way down
to the river; filling in lagoons and swamps, and driving their waters
into the canals which were to furnish very largely the means of
communication for its traffic. Yotsuya on the contrary is old. Its
poverty is of later date. In