Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/187

 instance when they went forth to salute the prince of Satsuma as he passed through their village on his way up to Yedo. One of the potters was good enough to put on this dress in order to give me an idea of the appearance which they presented. He began by drawing on a pair of wide trousers of dark blue silk, of a very delicate material, differing from the ordinary Japanese hakama in having a division between the legs, but tied on in the same way, that is, the front part was tied on by strings which passed round the waist, and then the back piece was fastened by strings in a double bow-knot in front. Next he threw over his shoulders a wide-sleeved mantle or haori of like colour and texture, the sleeves of which were not sewn up in pockets, as those of the clothes worn by adult Japanese usually are, and fastened it with strings on the right side of the waist. Finally, he crowned himself with a long conical black cap, edged with white. He also produced a broad-brimmed black hat, apparently woven of the stem of a kind of creeper. The knowledge of the Korean language is still kept up by some among them, whose duty it is to interpret between cast-away Korean junkmen and the Japanese officials. Before the destruction of the monasteries, the inhabitants of the village belonged to the Buddhist sect Tendaishu, which was no doubt that of their ancestors in their native country. At present they are under the protection of a Japanese deity, whose shrine, called Gyoku-san-Gū, stands on a hill south-west of the village. In front of the shrine stand a couple of lanterns of white ware with a blue design, presented by the potters belonging to sixteen out of the seventeen families, as may be seen by the names inscribed on the pedestals. The tombs in the cemetery, which lies at the side of the path to this temple, do not differ in any marked manner from Japanese tombs, which is what we should expect to find, as the style of sepulchral monuments in Japan is essentially Indian-Buddhist, and most likely derived through Korea. It appears that these people marry freely amongst themselves, identity of surname not being considered an obstacle as it is in China, but seldom intermarry with Japanese, except they be members of the samurai class.