x\ i.j JAPANESE GARDENS. 631 



it. During this excursion we visited, among other places, the 

 graves of the Tycoons, the imperial garden, and a very 

 remarkable exhibition in the capital. 



A number of the Tycoons, or, as they are more correctly 

 called, Shoguns, are buried in Tokio. Their place of sepulture 

 is one of the most remarkable memorials of Old Japan. The 

 graves are in a temple which is divided into several courts, 

 surrounded by walls and connected with each other by beautiful 

 gates. The tirst of these courts is ornamented with more than 

 two hundred stone lanterns, presented to the temple bythe 

 feudal princes of the country, the name of the giver and the 

 date at which it was given being inscribed on each. Some of 

 these peculiar memorials are only half-finished, perhaps an 

 evidence of the sudden close of the power of the Shoguns 

 and the feudal princes in Japan. In another of the temple 

 courts are to be seen lanterns of bronze, partly gilt, presented 

 by other feudal princes, A third court is occupied by a temple, 

 a splendid memorial of the old Japanese architecture, and of 

 the antique method of adorning their sanctuaries with wooden 

 carvings, gilding, and varnishing. The temple abounds in old 

 b(;ok-rolls, bells, drums, beautiful old lacquered articles, &c. 

 The graves themselves lie within a separate inclosure. 



The common Japanese gardens are not beautiful according 

 to European taste. They are often so small that they might 

 without inconvenience, with trees, grottos, and waterfalls, be 

 accommodated in a small State's department in one of the crystal 

 palaces of the international exhibitions. All, jjassages, rocks, 

 trees, ponds, yea, even the fishes in the dams, are artificial or 

 artificially changed. The trees are, by a special art which has 

 been very highly developed in Japan, forced to assume the 

 nature of dwarfs, and are besides so pruned that the whole plant 

 has the appearance of a dry stem on which some green clumps 

 have been hung up here and there. The form of the gold fish 

 swimming in the ponds has also been changed, so that they have 

 often two or four tail-fins each, and a number of growths not 

 known in their natural state. On the walks thick layers of 

 pebbles are placed to keep the feet from being dirtied, and at the 

 doors of dwelling-houses there is nearly always a block of granite 

 with a cauldron-like depression excavated in it, which is kept 

 filled with clean water. Upon this stone cauldron is placed 

 a simple but clean wooden scoop, with which one can take water 

 out of the vessel to wash himself with. 



The imperial garden in Tokio is distinguished from these 

 miniature gardens by its greater extent, and by the trees, at least 

 at most places, bearing fruit. There is here a veritable park, 

 with uncommonly large, splendid, and luxuriantly-growing trees. 

 The public is generally excluded from the garden. At our visit 



