Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/545

Rh N I K N I K 503 sent to the lower Yolga under the protection of a military force ; whilst the thick forests of the neighbourhood favoured the develop ment of shipbuilding. In 1606-11 the trading classes of Nijni took an active part in the expeditions against the revolted serfs, ami it was a Nijni dealer in cattle, Kozma Minin Sukhoruki, who took the initiative in sending an army for the delivery of Moscow from the Poles. During the 17th century the country around Nijui became the seat of a vigorous religious agitation, and in its forests the Raskolniks spread hundreds of their monasteries and communities, those of the Kerjenets playing an important part in the history of Russian Nonconformity even to our own day. Nijni-Novgorod had at one time two academies, Greek and Slavonic, and took some part in the literary movement of the end of the last century ; its theatre also had some importance in the history of the Russian stage, It is the birthplace of Kulibin and Dobroluboff. (P. A. K.) NIKKO, one of the chief religious centres of Japan, is beautifully sitdated on the Nikko Zan (Mountains of the Sun s Brightness) in Tochigi ~ken (province of Shimotsuke), about 92 miles north-north-west of Tokio (Yedo) by the ordinary route via Utsunomiya. The town is properly called Hachi-ishi, but this name is very little used in com parison with that of the shrines. A Shinto temple seems to have existed at Nikko from time immemorial, and in 767 its first Buddhist temple was founded by Sho-do Sho-nin (the subject of many strange legendary adventures) ; but the main celebrity of the place is due to the sepulchres and sanctuaries of lyeyasu and lyemitsu, the first and third shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty. lyeyasu was buried with amazing pomp in 1617, and lyemitsu, his grandson, was slain in 1650 while visiting his tomb. From 1644 to 1868 the &quot;abbots&quot; of Nikko were always princes of the imperial blood ; thirteen of them are buried within the sacred grounds. Though the magnificent abbots residence was destroyed by fire in 1871, and the temples have lost most of their ritual and much of their material splendour, enough remains to astonish by excellence and bewilder by variety of decorative detail. Of the numerous structures which cluster round the shrine of lyeyasu, it is sufficient to mention the cylindrical copper column, 42 feet high, adorned at the top with a series of six lotus flowers, from the petals of which hang small bells; a five-storied pagoda, 104 feet high, with the animals of the duodenary cycle running round the base ; the gate of the Two Kings, with its figures of unicorns, tapirs, elephants, and tree-paeonies ; the vermilion-coloured timber enclosure to which this gate gives entrance, with three great storehouses, a sumptuous stable for the sacred horses, and a finely fashioned granite cistern for holy water ; and the Yo-mei gate, which with the contiguous cloister is covered with the most elaborate carving, and gives access to the court in the midst of which stands the last and most sacred enclosure. This, known as the Tamagaki, is a quadrangle of gilt trellis-work 50 yards square ; within it stands the &quot; chapel &quot; or oratory (or rather a series of chapels, though the inmost is kept closed), in the decoration of which gilding and black lacquer have been lavishly employed. The tomb of lyeyasu lies apart from all this magnificence two hundred and forty steps higher up the hills, in the shadow of tall cryptomerias a single light-coloured bronze urn or casket standing on a circular base of three steps with a stone table in front on which rest a censer, a lotus-cluster, and a stork with a candlestick in its mouth, the whole enclosed by a high stone wall. Somewhat similar are the tomb of lyemitsu and its surroundings ; and though the art dis played is of an inferior character, the profusion of buildings and embellishments is even more perplexing. Hotoke Iwa, the hill on which the tomb stands, is completely covered to the summit with trees of various tints. See Satow and Hawes, Guide-look to Japan, 1881 ; Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, 1880. NIKOLAIEFF, the chief naval station of Russia on the Black Sea, is situated in the government of Kherson, 41 miles north-west of the government capital. It stands most advantageously a little above the junction of the Ingul with the Bug, at the head of the liman, or estuary, of the Bug, and is the natural outlet for the basin of that river. The estuary, which is 23 miles long, enters that of the Dnieper ; and Nikolaieff, 42 miles distant from the Black Sea, thus combines the advantages of a good seaport with those of an inland town. The entrance to the double estuary of the Bug and Dnieper is protected by the fortress of Otchakoff and by the fort of Kinburn, erected on a narrow headland opposite, while several forts sur round Nikolaieff on both sides of the Bug and protect it from an attack by land. The town, which occupies two flat peninsulas between the Bug and the Ingul, extends up the banks of the latter, while its suburbs spread still farther into the steppe, the whole covering an area of 6 square miles. Immense unoccupied spaces separate the houses, which are mostly one-storied, and border on spacious streets. The bank of the Ingul is taken up with shipbuilding yards, docks, slips, and various workshops of the admiralty for the construction of armour-plates, guns, boilers, &c. On the river there is a floating dock for armoured ships, but Nikolaieff has this drawback that fully armoured ships are unable to pass the bar, which is only 18 to 21 feet deep. Before the Crimean War the activity of the dockyards was very great, ships of 130 guns being built in them ; the suburbs which belong to the admiralty were bound to supply the necessary hands to the number of 3000 every day, and all the inhabitants had to perform compulsory service. Special bodies of militarily organized workmen were trained in shipbuilding, and thus Nikolaieff became a great school for all branches of navigation and naval architecture. The population, numbering 35,000, was mainly dependent on these sources ; but when the activity of the admiralty was brought to a stop for fourteen years by the treaty of Paris the inhabitants had to seek other means of support. By a branch of the Balta-Krementchug Railway, starting from Znamenka (147 miles), Nikolaieff has been brought into connexion with the Russian railway system, and its grain exports now equal those of Riga, while it is the chief market for a region comprising the governments of Kher son, Poltava, Kharkoff, Ekaterinoslaff, and parts of Kieff and Podolia. In 1878 it reached the maximum of 2,665,000 quarters (9,660,000 cwts. in 1881). Large storehouses, capable of holding 2,000,000 quarters, stand close to the commercial port, two miles distant from the town, at Popova Balka on the Bug. The export of timber, skins, tallow, and cattle is steadily increasing. The population, which is growing rapidly, now amounts, including the suburbs, to upwards of 70,000 (45 per cent, of them mili tary, and 7000 Jews). The sanitary conditions are bad, and the mortality reaches 40 per thousand. The educational institutions of Nikolaieff are more numerous and better than in many capitals of Russian governments. They include a gymnasium, an artillery school, and a dozen schools for boys and girls, an astronomical and meteoro logical observatory (46 58 N. lat. and 31 38 E. long.), four museums and libraries, and a hydrographical insti tute. Among the public buildings, the cathedral, which contains some good Italian pictures, the theatre, the admiralty and several other state buildings are worthy of mention. The manufactures in the hands of private individuals include a shipbuilding yard and several tallow-melting houses and tobacco works. Since 1870 the Nikolaieff admiralty has resumed activity, especially in the construction of armoured ships and torpedo boats, though not to such an extent as before the Crimean War. Though a district town of the government of Kherson, Nikolaieff is under an independent military governor.