dor of the Sh[=o]gunate; for the fine clothes, the
pageants, the show and display that ended with the fall of the house of
Tokugawa, are still dear to the popular mind. In these one sees
reproduced, in more than their original brilliancy of coloring, the
daimi[=o]s, with their trains of uniformed retainers, proceeding in
stately pageant to the palace of the Sh[=o]gun; the games, the dances,
the reviews held before the Sh[=o]gun himself; the princess, with her
train of ladies and attendants, visiting the cherry blossoms at Uyeno,
or crossing some swift but shallow river on her journey to Yedo. There
one sees the fleet of red-lacquered pleasure barges in which the
Sh[=o]gun with his court sailed up the river to Muk[=o]jima, in the
spring, to view the cherry-trees which bloom along the banks for miles.
One sees, too, the interiors of the daimi[=o]s' houses, the intimate
domestic scenes into which no outsider could ever penetrate. One picture
shows the excitements consequent upon the advent of an heir to a noble
house,--the happy mother on her couch, surrounded by brightly dressed
ladies-in-waiting; the baby in the room adjoining; another group of
brilliant beings preparing his bath; while down the long piazza, which
opens upon the little courtyard in the centre of the house, one sees
still other groups of servants, bringing the gifts with which the great
mansion is flooded at such a time. Still further away, across the
courtyard, are the doctors, holding learned consultation around a
little table, and mixing medicines to secure the health and strength of
both mother and baby.

The fall of the Sh[=o]gunate, and the abolition of castle and _yashiki_,
have made a radical change in the fashions of dress in Japan. One sees
no longer the beautiful embroidered robes, except upon the stage, for
the abolition of the great leisure class has put the flowered _kimono_
out of fashion. There are no courts, small and great, scattered all
through the country, where the ladies must be dressed in changing styles
for the changing seasons, and where the embroideries that imitate most
closely the natural flowers are sure of a market. When one asks, as
every foreigner is likely to ask, the Japanese ladies of one's
acquaintance, "Why have you given up the beautiful embroideries and
gorgeous colors that you used to wear?" the answer always is, "There are
no daimi[=o]s' houses now." And this is regarded as a sufficient
explanation of the change.[*