Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/141

 A nobleman's going abroad in state continued to be a business of great pomp and elaborate organisation. It reached its zenith of grandeur in the days of the Ashikaga Shōguns. Court nobles and high officials deemed it an honour to take part in the procession that attended such magnates as Yoshimitsu or Yoshimasa, and were particularly flattered if the duty fell to them of carrying the Shōgun's shoes, or acting as his train-bearer. This progress was called o-nari—"the honourable becoming." The Shōgun rode in an ox-carriage or palanquin, accompanied, in the former case, by an ox-driver and an ox-feeder. The animal was always a noble specimen of its kind, jet black and groomed so that it shone like velvet. The caparisons were scarlet, purple, and white, and the carriage glowed with golden lacquer and delicately tinted hangings. Before and behind and on either side marched a crowd of guards, bearers of swords and lances, attendants, "miscellaneous folks," carriers of waterproof coats, umbrellas, and so on. Officers of rank carried the Shōgun's sword and his foot-gear, and one person, the bearer of an article more necessary than euphonious, went by the polite name of "morning and evening" (chōseki). When such a procession, or even that of a lesser magnate, passed through the streets, all the citizens were required to kneel with the hands placed on the ground and the head resting on them, and the shutters of upper windows giving