Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/226

 Buddhist edifices. The architect of private dwellings attached more importance to satin-surfaced boards and careful joinery than to any appearance of strength or solidity. Spaciousness and elegance, however, were not altogether wanting. The main gate of the Palace was flanked on either side by guard-houses having a forest of pagoda-like minarets, which served as watch-towers, and there stood on its east and west, inside, two buildings, where officials assembled before proceeding to the place of audience, which consisted of twelve halls, symmetrically disposed and each having its own status. Beyond these there was the "hall of pleasure and plenty," where social entertainments were held; the "hall of the word of truth" for rites of worship; the "hall of military virtue" for soldierly exercises; the "hall of central tranquillisation" for venerating the spirits of the imperial ancestors; and, finally, the residence of the sovereign, comprising sixteen halls and five galleries. At the entrance to the principal of these sixteen halls—the Shishinden or "purple hall of the north star"—there were planted a cherry-tree and an orange-tree, the "guardian cherry of the left" and the "guardian orange of the right." The floor of all these edifices was raised some six feet above the ground, and was reached by flights of wooden steps placed at frequent intervals.

The general plan excepted, there was little to