Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/371

Rh 集). These are the standard collections of Japanese classical poetry, brought together by Imperial command during the middle ages,—the first in A.D. 905, the last circa 1440.

"" (三十三所) sacred to Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy.

"" (三十六歌仙). A full list of their names is given in Anderson's Catalogue of Japanese and Chinese Paintings, p. 145.

"" (五十三次) on the Tōkaidō. Though the railway has done away with the old Tōkaidō journey by road, these fifty-three stages will always remain familiar to lovers of Japanese painting in the colour-prints of Hokusai, Hiroshige, and other old-time artists.

 Painting. See Things Japanese/Art.

 Paper. The Japanese use paper for a score of purposes to which we in the West have never thought of putting it, one reason being that their process of manufacture leaves uncut the long fibres of the bark from which the paper is made, and consequently renders it much tougher than ours. Fans, screens, and lanterns, sometimes even clothes, are made of paper. A sheet of nice, soft paper does duty for a pocket-handkerchief. Paper replaces glass windows, and even to a certain extent the walls which with us separate room from room. Japanese housemaids do their dusting with little brooms made of strips of paper; and dabs of soft paper serve, instead of lint, to arrest bleeding. Oil-paper is used for making umbrellas, rain-coats, tobacco-pouches, and air-cushions, as well as for protecting parcels from the wet in a manner of which no European paper is capable. Paper torn into strips and twisted takes the place of string in a hundred minor domestic uses. We have even seen the traces of a harness mended with it, though we are bound to say that the result, with a restive horse, was not altogether satisfactory.