nd Izumo on the west,
and reached probably to Owari on the east. All this time he had held a
firm hand on the island from which he had come, so that few if any
outbreaks occurred among its restless Turanian or native inhabitants.

The Emperor Jimmu was succeeded by his third son, known by his canonical
name as the Emperor Suizei. The reigning emperor, it seems, exercised the
right to select the son who should succeed him. This was not always the
oldest son, but from the time he was chosen he was known as _taishi_,
which is nearly equivalent to the English term crown prince. The Emperor
Suizei, it is said, occupied a palace at Takaoka, in Kazuraki, in the
province of Yamato. This palace was not far from that occupied by his
father, yet it was not the same. And in the reigns of the successive
sovereigns down to A.D. 709, when the capital was for a time established
at Nara, we observe it as a most singular circumstance that each new
emperor resided in a new palace. In the first place, the palace spoken of
in these early times was probably a very simple structure. Mr. Satow, in
his paper(53) on the temples at Ise, gives an account of the form and
construction of the prehistoric Japanese house. The Shinto temple in its
pure form is probably a survival of the original palace. Before the
introduction of edge-tools of iron and boring implements or nails, the
building must have been constructed in a very primitive fashion. It will
be understood that stone or brick were never used. Wood was the only
material for the frame. The roof was thatched with rushes or rice straw.
The pure Shinto temples of modern times are built with the utmost
simplicity and plainness. Although the occasion for adhering to primitive
methods has long since passed away, yet the buildings are conformed to the
styles of structure necessary before the introduction of modern tools and
appliances. To build a new palace therefore for a new emperor involved by
no means such an outlay of time and work as might be imagined.

It is not improbable that when a young man was chosen crown prince he had
an establishment of his own assigned to him, and this became his palace
which he occupied when he became emperor. When a man died, and especially
when an emperor died, it was an ancient custom to abandon his abode. It
became unclean by the presence in it of a dead body, and therefore was no
longer used.

[Illustration]