Japan and the Japanese

VISITS TO THE HIGH OFFICERS. 417
tables. We drank sometimes a cup of the boiled tea, but did not
touch the tobacco, and the pastry was taken home through the pru-
dent care of our interpreters.
" I shall never forget the delightful prospect we had during these
visits, from an eminence that commanded a view of the whole of
this large and extensive town, which the Japanese affirm to be
twenty-one leagues, or as many hours' walk, in circumference.
The evening drew nigh by the time that we returned, weary and
worn out, to our inn.
" On the following day (May 19th) we paid our respects to the
temple lords, as they are called, the two governors of the town,
and the two commissaries of strangers. A few days elapsed after
this before we received our audience of leave. This was given, in a
very summary manner, on the 23d following, and only before the
lords in council appointed for this purpose. The intervening days
were employed in receiving presents and preparing for our depart-
ure. At the audience of leave, the gowns or Japanese dresses,
intended as presents for the Dutch East India Company, were
delivered. The presents destined for us were carried to our inns.
Every ordinary privy councillor gives, the day after the audience
of leave, ten gowns ; every extraordinary privy councillor, six ; every
temple lord, five ; and every commissary, and the governor of Na-
gasaki, two. Of these our banjos [the officers called by Kiimpfer
bugio and deputy-bugio the conductors of the journey] received
two ; the secretary and myself two apiece ; and the ambassador
four. The rest are packed up for the company's account." *
Of these gowns, the universal, and almost only article of Japanese
dress, Thunberg, in another place, gives the following account.
"
They are long and wide, and worn, one or more of them, by
and condition in life. The rich have them of
people of every age
the finest silk, and the poor of cotton. The women wear them
reaching down to their feet, and the women of quality frequently
with a train. Those of the men come down to their heels ; but
travellers, together with soldiers arid laboring people, either tuck
them up or wear them so short that they only reach to their knees.
* This was a different arrangement from that which prevailed in Kamp-
fer's time, when the ambassador had the whole, except those presented bj
the emperor himself.