Seven THE PALAESTRA OF JAPAN Ostenditque humeros latos, alternaque iactat MONG the most fair and fanciful of cities is AM Kioto, the ancient seat of the Empire and capital of Japan. For a thousand years it was the cage whose gilded bars immured the unseen but sacred person of the Mikado. Within the blind walls of the palace-enclosure the royal fainéant dawdled away a linnet-like existence. Outside, the bulk of his people torpidly acquiesced in the rule, however fallible, of a son of the gods. Under the guise of an imperial theocracy, Japan was in reality a playground for the military adventurer, and Kioto the focus of court intrigue. A heavy curtain of mystery, the joint weaving of the palace and the priesthood, enveloped the sacred pile, and hermetically concealed it from alien eyes. It was only in the latter part of the last decade that the folds were torn asunder, and that Kioto became accessible to foreigners. The Mikado and his court were moved to Tokio; the castle was dismantled; the temple doors were thrown open, and the traveller was at liberty to ransack shrines and secret places and sanctuaries with inquisitive impunity. The town is exquisitely situated in a cup between mountain ranges, quaintly outlined, and clothed with an astonishing wealth of trees. From the eastern range, where the visitor is probably lodged, he will get a wonderful outlook, both at sunrise and at nightfall. In the early dawn the entire city is drowned in a sea of white vapour, from which only the huge hooded roofs of the temples emerge, black and solemn, like the inverted hulls of gigantic ships. Suddenly, across the mist booms the sonorous stroke of some vast temple-bell, and rolls away in melancholy vibrations. At night the dusky mass of houses, stretching for miles, twinkles with the light of a thousand lanterns that glimmer from the lintels and dance along the streets. A swarm of fire-flies would seem to be flitting in the aisles of some dim and sombre forest, from whose recesses float upwards the indescribable hum of congregated humanity, street cries and laughter, the sound of voices, and the tinkling of guitars. At festival time, and when the matsuris, or religious holidays, are celebrated, Kioto is especially worthy of a visit. The whole town turns out merry-making; the temple precincts are blocked from morn till night by gaily-dressed crowds; the tea-houses overflow with customers; the singing girls extract rich harvest; and copper pieces rain into the tills of itinerant purveyors of entertainment and theatrical shows. One street in particular is ablaze with a succession of gaudily-decorated booths, containing acrobats, jugglers, story tellers, peep-shows, pantomimes, and plays. These are crowded from daybreak to sunset, and a forest of clogs and sandals, suspended on the outer wall, testifies to the thronged condition of the pit within. In the dried-up bed of the river which intersects the town, and which at different periods presents the opposite appearance of a gutter and a torrent, will probably be erected a gigantic booth, surrounded with gaudy bannerets flying from lofty poles. A stream of passengers pouring into the entrance shows that some exhibition of interest and popularity is being enacted within. It was in the wake of such a crowd, and on such an occasion, that, at Kioto, I first made acquaintance with the palaestra of Japan. We do not require the authority of the bas-reliefs of Thebes and Nineveh, or even of the 32nd chapter of Genesis, to learn that wrestling must have been one of the earliest methods of conflict in vogue among ancient peoples. The light of nature must have very soon suggested this mode of encounter between human beings. Weapons may not always have been forthcoming. A duel of blows, i.e., a boxing match, would involve the victory of the more practised. Whenever two combatants were engaged in a personal struggle, it would be the spontaneous instinct of the one who was placed at a disadvantage, either of implements or of skill, to close with his adversary, and submit to the practical test of bodily agility or strength. In this way would he be most likely to equalise the handicap of fists, or club, or sword. But here, again, there |