Identifier: mikadosempire05grif (find matches)
Title: The mikado's empire
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Griffis, William Elliot, 1843-1928
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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short study of the volumes of poetry, amorous andotherwise, written by them, and still quoted as classic. As to thestandard of virtue in those days, I believe it was certainly not belowthat of the later Roman empire, and I am inclined to believe it wasfar above it. In the court at Kioto, besides games of skill or chance in the house,were foot-ball, cock-fighting, falconry, horsemanship, and archery.The robust games of the military classes were hunting the boar, deer,bear, and smaller game. Hunting by falcons, which had been intro-duced by some Corean em-bassadors in the time ofJino-u Koo;o, was almost asextensively practiced as inEurope, almost every feu-dal lord having his perch offalcons. Fishing by cor-morants, though a usefulbranch of the fishermansindustry, was also indulgedin for pleasure. The se-vere exercise of hunting forsport, however, never be-came as absorbing and pop-ular in Japan as in Europe,being confined more to theprofessional huntsman, andthe seeker for dailv food.
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Court Lady in Kioto. 210 THE MIKADOS EMPIRE. The court ladies shaved off their eyebrows, and painted two sablebars or spots on the forehead resembling false eyebrows. In additionto the gentle tasks of needle-work and embroidery, they passed thetime in games of chess, checkers, painted shells, and a diversion pe-culiar to the palace, in which the skill of the player depended onher sensitiveness in appreciating perfumes, the necessary articles beingvials of fragrant extracts. Their pets were the peculiar little dogscalled chin. They stained their teeth black, like the wom^n of thelower classes; an example which the nobles of the sterner sex followed,as they grew more and more effeminate. One of the staple diversionsof both sexes at the court was to write poetry, and recite it to eachother. The emperor frequently honored a lady or noble by givingthe chosen one a subject upon which to compose a poem. A happythought, skillfully wrought stanza, a felicitous grace of pantomime,often made the

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