enormous size of the town may be judged from the fact
that one of its principal streets is said to be nine miles
long.
Easter season came round during my stay at the
capital, and at the hotel there was no lack of cross
buns, oysters, whitebait, and all sorts of delicacies ;
whilst the day passed in exchanging calls with the few
European residents at the Foreign Legations. Also
two or three Japanese officials made their appearance
for no special reasons, so far as I could ascertain,—
probably as part of their spy system,—but as tbe conversation
had to be carried on through interpreters,
it was a lame affair, enlivened only by the sipping of
sundry small cups of tea, and the inhaling of fumes
from a very diminutive pipe. I was much charmed
with the melodious sound of their language, and most
of the words ending in a vowel, it rather reminds one
of Italian. I learnt two words on that Easter-day,
which have often helped me out of a difficulty
during the remainder of my stay. They were Arimhss,
an affirmative, standing for yes, I have, I am, I will,
I want, etc. ; Arimass-mg, a negative, no, I won’t, and
so on. Never did I acquire two more accommodating
forms of speech.
The enormous theatre, Oki-Chibaya, I visited on the
following day, accompanied by the mayor of Yeddo,
who had insisted upon doing the civil on this occasion
in person. I t is situated in the Midsi quarter of the
town ; the building, of a circular form, is very lightly
constructed, entirely of wood, and is said to hold six to
eight thousand spectators when full, and the most
graphic description I can hit upon is by comparing its
interior arrangement with the Leicester sheep-market
on a fair-day. The whole of that vast parterre is
divided into pens, and by metamorphosing the sheep
into human figures clothed in dark blue and brown
jackets, the picture is complete. Here they squat,
hour after hour, some the entire day,— Japanese
theatres perform from ten a.m. until six p.m.,—having
brought their frugal meal with them, and listen with
perfect good humour to the continual repetition of low
jokes and love intrigues. A gallery runs round the
inner space, some eight or ten feet above the ground ;
and here the aristocracy is installed, paying an entrance
fee of quarter of a dollar. On our arrival, the curtain,
representing a large fish on pale blue ground, intended,
I suppose, to reproduce its natural element, was just
rising, and presented the stage, ornamented in such a
manner as to suit exteriors and interiors alike, and in
the centre there was a circular platform or turn-table,
probably fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, divided into