PLATE I. 



SHINOBAZU-NO-IKE, UYENO. 



This is a large lotus-lake situated just below the elevated ground now 

 occupied by the Uyeno Park, and containing a prettily wooded peninsula, with a shrine 

 amidst the trees dedicated to the goddess Benten. The conversion of the surrounding 

 shores into a modern race-course within recent years has somewhat destroyed its wild 

 and picturesque character, but, regarded from the neighbouring heights, it still presents 

 a fair example of a particular type of Japanese scenery, often reproduced in the 

 landscape gardens of the country. The lake is said to have been excavated under the 

 direction of the priest Jigen Daishi, in 1625, when a temple was first founded at Uyeno, 

 and with the intention of imitating on a small scale the famous Lake Biwa, in the 

 province of Omi. The little shrine to Benten, a goddess specially associated with 

 lakes and lotuses, originally stood on an island, which was visited from the shore in 

 boats. The causeway which now converts this island into a promontory or peninsula 

 was added in the year 1660. Reed-covered marshes and a wavy sea of emerald 

 lotus leaves, sprinkled with pink and white at blossom time, the whole set off by 

 gnarled pine trees, and surrounding wooded bluffs, impart to it considerable natural 

 beauty at certain seasons. The illustration here given has been selected partly to 

 show in detail the mass of graceful undulating lotus leaves contrasted with the pine, 

 the monarch among the trees of Japan, the soul of nearly every landscape real or 

 artificial, and the emblem in Japanese art of all that is virile and enduring. 



