Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/40

 spoken of, numbers of persons perished under the wheels of these cumbrous vehicles, which were consequently interdicted. Much greater security was found in a tiled roof, and in the year 1721 one Hachiroji Iga devised a fire-proof warehouse covered entirely with mud and plaster. He communicated his invention to the Shōgun Yoshimune, accompanying it with a classical quotation to show that such edifices had been approved by the Chinese in the days of Confucius. Yoshimune at once appreciated the value of this counsel, and took practical steps to popularise it by advancing money from his own treasury for the building of these dozo (mud storehouses), as they were called. The name of Hachiroji Iga is little remembered now, yet he deserves to rank among Japan's greatest benefactors. His device did not, indeed, suffice to prevent fires, but it served to save great quantities of property, for a well-built dozo preserves its contents against the fiercest conflagration. It is observable that while perils of fire served to promote recourse to a more substantial kind of building, no embellishment of the city resulted. From an architectural point of view nothing could have been less picturesque than the dozo. Neither did the mansions of the feudal barons add much to the city's appearance, since they were generally surrounded by parks so spacious as to render the edifices invisible from the streets. The Shōgun's castle, with its broad moats and imposing battlements, was the