nfucian
classics(227) to be printed at a press which he patronized in Fushimi, and
this was said to be the first time these works had ever been printed in
Japan. He gathered scholars about him at Fushimi, at Yedo, and after his
retirement at Shizuoka (Sumpu). He favored education and encouraged the
daimyos to establish schools where the children of their retainers could
be taught not only military accomplishments but the elements of a good
education. The Chinese classics were made the essentials of such an
education, and the chief duty of a school was to teach the pupils to read
and write and understand the works which their venerable and learned
neighbor had furnished them.

[Illustration]

Mixing Ink For Writing.

Unfortunately this movement in behalf of learning was hampered by the
impracticable nature of the Chinese written language. Instead of a few
characters representing sounds, like European alphabets, it consists of
thousands of symbols, each representing an idea. The pupil must therefore
spend years in learning to make, and know and read the mere signs of
language. And in the modern necessities of printing,(228) the compositor
must handle not less than 4,000 or 5,000 Chinese characters, besides the
Japanese _kana_ and other needful marks. The _kana_ here mentioned were
the result of a promising effort which was made to simplify the Chinese
written language by expressing it in symbols representing sounds.
Forty-seven _kana_ letters--by repetition extended to fifty--each
representing a syllable, are used to express Japanese words.

[Illustration]

Styles Of Letters: (Chinese Proverb: Hiroku koriwo aisuruwo jintoyu. To
love universally is true humility.) 1. Kaisho (book letters). 2. Ditto. 3.
Gyosho (script letters). 4. Ditto. 5. Hirasaua (Japanese script).

[Illustration]

Japanese Syllabary.

The castle of Yedo was reconstructed and enlarged after the battle of
Sekigahara, while Ieyasu continued to reside at Fushimi. The Jesuit
fathers, who accompanied the Father Provincial on his visit to Ieyasu,
assert that 300,000 men were employed in this work. Very much of the
ground where the present city of Tokyo now stands, was then, according to
old maps, covered with water. In excavating the moat which surrounds the
castle, and the canals connecting this moat