Directory_and_Chronicle_1879 — Page 414

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TOKIO.

verted into Public Offices and built in European styles. Besides these there are thirteen temples, among which the temple of Goh aku Rakan (temple of the 500 images) is particularly vei.erated and deserves special attention. It consists of two large old buildings which lave suffered severely from earthquakes; a part of the idols belonging to Gehiaku Rakan have been removed into an adjacent store-house. The district No. 7 contains about twenty temples, whose gardens and out buildings cover nearly half of its entire area. Among these temples is that of Hachiman, the Japaneso "God of War." The rest of this district is occupied the governmental stores and warehouses and the dwellings of citizens. The district No. 8. besides many buildings belonging to the Government and to the nobles, contains one large temple and a good many private houses. Honjo is connected with Tokio by four great wooden bridges of very simple but solid construction. They are called, commencing on the north, (1) Adsuma-Bashi, (2) Liogoku- Bashi, (3) Ohashi, and (4) Yeitai-Basbi. The largest of these is Ohashi, or Great Bridge, its length being 350 yards. Honjo is a very quiet part of the capital. The quay, on the banks of the Okawa, forms a spacious and handsome street, and may be especially recomu.ended to a traveller who has only a few days to spend in Tekio. In passing along the quay, he will see across the stream sev ral fine temples and great buildings, which stand on the western bank of the Great River, and he may get at the same time a very good idea of the animated river-lite of the Okawa, whose waters are always covered with junks and boats of all descriptions.

Tokio proper is divided into three portions: Siro, or the Castle; Soto Siro; or Outside of the Castle; and Midzi, Town and Suburbs. Siro, or the Imperial Castle, has a circumferer co of nearly five miles. It contains the palace of the Vikado, the palaces of the members of the Cour.cil of State, and the Public Office s There is not a single public templo in the Siro. The space which contains the im, er al palaces is surrounded by high walls and by several canals. There are been public bridges in the Siro, and a multitude of private bridges, for almost every palace is surrounded by a moat and communicates with the main road by sever little bridges. The imperial palaces exhibit that simplicity, both within and without, which distinguishes all Japanese buildings except the temples. The public walks round the castle are very agreeable and picturesque. The finest part of these walks is that on the banks of the principal canal, which is covered with thousands of aquatic birds, and surrounds the fine old walls of the imperial palaces.

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Outside of the Siro, or Castle, to the westward, there is a hill (Atago ama) which every foreigner should visit for the purpose of getting an idea of Treat extent of Tokio. It looks less like a city than a vast assemblage of parks and villas. In certain districts there may be seen regular s'reets, but by far the greater part of the ground is covered with palaces and numerous temples, surrounded by gardens. The large temples are generally very fine edifices. As regards t!. of the nobles, they are long buildings, of a single high storey, ordinar wasted, and look like good sized warehouses, having nothing remarka}} architecture. The large doors of these habitations are sometimes orca good carvings; but usually they are made of plain wood, covered with slites of copper, forming various designs, such as the proprietor's coat of arms. The interior of these palaces is simplicity itself, and the beauty and fineness of the mats, carvings and paintings, are the only points of distinction between the houses of the princes and those of ordinary citizens.

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The Soto Siro has a circumference of nearly ten miles. It is sepad from the Siro by the canal which surrounds the latter; from Honjo by the Oka a; and from the rest of the city by a large canal, called Chori. It is united to Siro by eighteen bridges; to Honjo by the three bridges, Liogoku-Bashi, Ohashi and Yeitai-Bashi; and to the rest of Tokic by thirty bridges. In the interior of Soto Siro there are about twenty more bridges, among which is the celebrated Nihon Bashi or Bridge of Japan. This is regarded

regarded as the centre of the Empire, inasmuch as all geographical distances are counted from it. Of the five square miles which form