374 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
The Gevernor had premised to cany me round next day 
to see whatever was remarkable in the town. I was not much 
delig'hted at this, because I feared that the whole day would 
be taken up with inspecting the whole or half-European 
public offices and schools, which had not the slightest interest 
for me. My fear however was quite unjustified. The Governor 
was a man of genius, who, 
according to the statements of 
my companions, was reckoned 
among the first of the con¬ 
temporary poets of Japan. He 
immediately declared that he 
supposed that the new public 
offices and schools would in¬ 
terest me much less than the 
old palaces, temples, porcelain 
and faience manufactories of 
the town, and that he there¬ 
fore intended to employ the 
day I spent under his guidance 
in showing me the latter. 
We made a beginning with the 
(Jd imperial palace Gosho, the 
most splendid dwelling of Old 
Japan. It is not however very 
grand according to European 
ideas. A very extensive space 
of ground is here covered with 
a number of one-story wooden houses, intended for the Emperor, 
the imperial family, and their suite. The buildings are, like all 
.Japanese lupuses, divided by movable panels into a number of 
rooms, richly pr(3vided with paintings and gilded ornamentation, 
but otherwise without a trace of furniture. For the palace now 
stands uninhabited since the Mikado overthrew the Shogun 
NOBLE IN ANTIQUE DRI-SS. 
