XVII.] JOURNEY IN KAGO. 651 



But if we examine the boxes more carefully, we find upon many 

 of them, along with the magic sentence unintelligible to 

 the Japanese, an inscription indicating that they have been 

 made by some Japanese manufacturer. On other boxes this is 

 completely w^anting, but the falsification is shown by an un- 

 fortunate error in the inscription. It thus appears that the 

 Swedish matches are not only introduced into Japan on a large 

 scale, but are also counterfeited, being made with the Swedish 

 inscription on the box and with a cover resembling that used at 

 home. The imitation, however, is not nearly so good as the 

 original, and my Japanese servant bade me therefore, when I 

 purchased a box of matches, observe carefully that I got one 

 of the right (Swedish) sort. 



Photography also has spread so rapidly in the country that at 

 many places in small towns and villages in the interior Japanese 

 photographers are to be met with who put out of their hands by 

 no means bad work. The Japanese appear to have a great 

 liking for having their by no means remarkable dwellings photo- 

 graphed. On several occasions, when we left a place we received 

 from our host as a parting gift a photograph of his house or inn. 

 Perhaps this was done with the same view as that which induces 

 his European brother-in-trade to advertise at great expense. 



Between Ikaho and Savavatari, our next resting-place, the 

 road was so bad that the jinrikisha could no longer be used, we 

 accordingly had to use the kago, a Japanese sedan-cliair made of 

 bamboo, of the appearance of which the accompanying wood- 

 cut gives an idea. It is exceedingly inconvenient for Europeans, 

 because they cannot like the Japanese sit with their legs cross- 

 wise under them, and in course of time it becomes tiresome 

 to let them dangle without other support by the side of the 

 kago. Even for the bearers this sedan chair strikes me as being 

 of inconvenient construction, which is shown among other things 

 by their halting an instant every two hundred, or in going up a 

 hill, every hundred paces, in order to shift the shoulder under the 

 bamboo pole. We went up-hill and down-hill with considerable 

 speed however, so that we traversed the road between Ikaho 

 and Savavatari, 6 ri. or 23'6 kilometres in length, in ten hours. 

 The road, which was exceedingly beautiful, ran along flowery 

 banks of rivulets, overgrown with luxuriant bamboo thickets, 

 and many different kinds of broad-leaved trees. Only round 

 the old temples, mostly small and inconsiderable, were to be 

 seen ancient tall Cryiatomeria and Ginko trees. The burying 

 places were commonly situated, not as at home, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the larger temples, but near the villages. They 

 were not inclosed, but marked out by stone monuments from a 

 third of a metre to half a metre in height, on one side of which 

 an image of Buddha was sometimes sculjDtured. The receat 



