Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 132.djvu/769

Rh risk has not to be run again until the next new year. But who can blame inexpressibles for being too high at the bottom, when they are so much too low at the top? It must surely be the fault of the waistcoat, of which the other garments are innocent, that there is a broad stratum of shirt between the two; and it is creditable to all concerned that the stratum aforesaid should have been clean no longer ago than the last time it was worn, last New Year's Day. But a dress-suit, even when tastefully constructed of good alpaca, is hardly warm enough for January. We need a comforter, and what so effectual in this capacity as a nice large rough bath-towel? Picture the Japanese yakunin complete; his costume, as above surmounted by the remains of his tall hat, delicately balanced on his ears, himself in a jinriksha, or mounted on a donkey; and compare this with the graceful, flowing robes of elegant materials worn by his fathers, and all will agree that in the matter of the change of costume, Japan has been most ill-advised.

On the 1st, his Majesty the mikado receives ministers, and on the 2nd there is a general reception of foreigners in the employ of the government, to which certain of the foreign employés are invited from each department, the question as to who is to go and who not, being decided arbitrarily by the Japanese in a way which I am informed causes much discontent in some quarters. The presentation on this day consists in waiting the ordinary time that always has to be so spent on such occasions, and then you are admitted to bow to the emperor, who does not return any of the salutations.

Festivities, have not been limited to the Japanese of Yedo. Sir Harry and Lady Parkes have well supported the name of English hospitality, and the legation has night after night been gay with guests within and pretty with lanterns without. On the evening of the 6th there was a brilliant gathering of Japanese and foreign ministers and families at the English legation, who were entertained with a Christmas-tree and other festivities. The scene was peculiarly attractive, owing to the presence of a number of Japanese ladies of high rank, whose costumes were an object of great interest and admiration on the part of the foreigners of the softer sex. One lady in particular, the wife of his Excellency the prime minister, was so very splendidly dressed as to experience some difficulty in locomotion; and I think Sir Harry, on whose arm she entered the ball-room, must have felt a touch of relief when she was safely seated without mishap. Japanese ladies do not wear jewelry, such ornaments as ear-rings are thought barbarous in Japan, but their full-dress costumes of the most magnificent brocades seem to gain rather than lose lustre from the absence of jewels.

To-day the celebrations may be said to have been brought to a close by the ceremony of the reopening and inspection of the Imperial Naval College by his Majesty the mikado. This is an annual affair, and is always performed by the emperor in person. All yesterday was spent in busy preparations, the entrances to the college being decorated, and the walls of the interior hung with drawings and maps. The "Sei-yo-ken" (Foreign House) hotel was also trimmed with evergreen and flags. At eight o'clock this morning, officers of high rank in the Japanese navy assembled in great force to await the coming of the emperor, and of course the English naval mission, in whose hands the actual work of the college lies, were present in their full strength. Waiting in a dress-suit outside a college gate for half an hour or more, with a hard frost on the ground and a keen wind blowing, is chilly work, even under a Japanese sun and cloudless sky; but even this must come to an end at last, and the mikado arrived at about nine o'clock, and proceeded at once to the principal reception-room of the college. Here the officers and instructors of the college and the school attached were presented in due course to his Majesty, after which the foreign ministers arrived, and the proper civilities having been exchanged, the royal party adjourned to inspect the cadets working the heavy guns in the gun-shed of the college, a fine solid wooden building, mounting five seven-inch muzzle-loading rifled guns, of seven tons' weight and Armstrong design, similar to those in use in the British service. These guns were handled by mere boys in a style which spoke volumes for the care and skill of their instructors, as well as for the diligence of the pupils, the excellence of both the broadside and the detached firing leaving no room for fair criticism. When the drill with blank-cartridge was over, his Majesty adjourned to a pavilion outside, to witness the practice with shells at a target moored fifteen hundred yards out to sea. This practice was the weak part of the day's proceedings, for the fuzes of the shells were of Japanese manufacture and pattern, and so much too sensitive that every shell burst almost at the muzzle. But the day, which included a drill of the training-ship, 