studying them
and their beautiful country. With my sister, she made excursions to some
of the many famous places in the wonderful city of Tokio. When her own
little daughter, born among the camellias and chrysanthemums, grew up
under her Japanese nurse, Mrs. Ayrton became more and more interested in
the home life of the Japanese and in the pictures and stories which
delighted the children of the Mikado's Empire. After her return to
England, in 1879, she wrote this book.

In the original work, the money and distances, the comparisons and
illustrations, were naturally English, and not American. For this
reason, I have ventured to alter the text slightly here and there, that
the American child reader may more clearly catch the drift of the
thought, have given to each Japanese word the standard spelling now
preferred by scholars and omitted statements of fact which were once,
but are no longer, true. I have also translated or omitted hard Japanese
words, shortened long sentences, rearranged the illustrations, and added
notes which will make the subject clearer. Although railways,
telegraphs, and steamships, clothes and architecture, schools and
customs, patterned more or less closely after those in fashion in
America and Europe, have altered many things in Japan and caused others
to disappear, yet the children's world of toys and games and stories
does not change very fast. In the main, it may be said, we have here a
true picture of the old Japan which we all delighted in seeing, when, in
those sunny days, we lived in sight of Yedo Bay and Fuji Yama, with
Japanese boys and girls all around us.

The best portions and all the pictures of Mrs. Ayrton's big and costly
book have been retained and reproduced, including her own preface or
introduction, and the book is again set forth with a hearty "ohio" (good
morning) of salutation and sincere "omedeto" (congratulations) that the
nations of the world are rapidly becoming one family. May every reader
of "Child-Life in Japan" see, sometime during the twentieth century, the
country and the people of whom Mrs. Ayrton has written with such lively
spirit and such warm appreciation.

WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS.

ITHACA, N.Y.

CONTENTS

Page

Preface by William Elliot Griffis v

Introduction by the Author xi

Seven Scenes of Child-Life in Japan 1

First Month 16