Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/102

90 The single blossom variety is generally at its best about the 7th April, coming out before the leaves; the clustering double variety follows a little later. The places best worth visiting in Tōkyō are Ueno Park, Shiba Park, the long avenue of Mukōjima, and, in the neighbouring country, Asuka-yama and Koganei. But the most famous spots for cherry-blossom in all Japan are Yoshino amid the mountains of Yamato, and Arashi-yama near Kyōto.

The Japanese are fond of preserving cherry-blossoms in salt, and making a kind of tea out of them. The fragrance of this infusion is delicious, but its taste a bitter deception.

 Chess. Japanese chess (shōgi) was introduced from China centuries ago; and though it has diverged to some extent from its prototype, the two games still have a feature in common distinguishing them from all other varieties. It is this. The rank on which the pawns are usually posted is occupied by only two pieces, called p'ao by the Chinese, and hisha and kaku by the Japanese. Also, on either side of the king are two pieces, called ssŭ in the Chinese, and kin in the Japanese game. These perform the duty imposed on the ferz or visir of the Persian Shatranj, which was the equivalent of the modern queen. Therefore, no queen or piece of similar attributes appears in either Chinese or Japanese chess. There are eighty-one squares on the Japanese board, and the game is played with twenty pieces on each side, distinguished, not by shape or colour, but by the ideographs upon them. Though the movements of the pieces resemble in most respects those followed in the European game, there are certain ramifications unknown to the latter. The most important of these are the employment of the pieces captured from the adversary to strengthen one's own game, and the comparative facility with which the minor pieces can attain to higher rank.

Chess is understood by all classes in Japan. The very coolies at the corners of the streets improvise out of almost anything around them materials with which to play, and thus while away the tedium of waiting for employment. But it is comparatively