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146 HONDA THE SAMURAI. where riding-masters gave lessons to those wishing to learn. Only the samurai or to ride on saddled gentry were allowed horses. A man of the lower classes, merchant, laborer, or artisan, if on a pack- saddle or riding bareback, must dismount on seeing a gentleman approach. While there was a large number of pack-horses employed as burden-carriers, a horse harnessed to a wagon or carriage was a thing unknown. The use of the horse as a beast of draught was yet in the future, bullocks and human beings still having the monopoly of draught-labor. One could have often seen women harnessed to small carts. The sight of mothers with babies slung on their backs, pulling loaded wagons, was very common in provinces near Echizen. This unnecessary and degrading form of human drudgery had not yet become the work of the horse and the locomotive; but education and the elevating ideas of the dignity of humanity afterward became more general under the teaching of such men as Mr. Koba, and when the ancient and ever-pressing necessity of the country good roads was provided for. This matter of good roads was one of the many great enterprises which feudalism discouraged, for there was little sentiment of national unity in the empire before the epochal year of 1868. Let us walk round Fukui, of feudal days, and first go to see the horses. Immediately in front of the gate and bridge lead- ing from the citadel of the castle, on the far side of the broad avenue skirting the moat, were the stable,
MEN, MONKEYS, HOUSES, AND SOTS. 147 the riding-school, and the race-course or polo-ground. Close to them were the lovely grounds and substan- tial buildings of the monastery of the Shin sect of Buddhists. Every one of the Japanese clans or feudal bodies, numbering three hundred or more, into which the Japanese nation was divided, possessed one of these stables for the gentry, the horses numbering from ten to five hundred, according to the wealth of the clan. In Fukui the number was fifty. These clan stables were the relics of the old Genji and He*ik days when each nobleman had his following of knights who owned their own horses. In the long peace the knights, or samurai, owned horses in common. The stable was a wooden structure four hundred feet long and about twenty feet wide. The windows facing the street were of paper, about eight feet from the ground. On entering the main gate we stepped into an open, shady space, skirted with tall trees. To the left was the range of stables; to the right, one long building consisting of neatly matted rooms, with sliding paper-covered windows looking out on the riding-ground, on which polo was played and races held. Mr. Honda's office was in a building by itself. These matted rooms in the gallery-like edifice overlooking the course were for the accommodation of spectators on extra occasions. The riding-course was about six hundred feet long and forty feet wide, covered with sand, shaded by fine old trees. We should have found many things to amuse us
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MEN, MONKEYS, HOUSES, AND SOTS. 147<br />
the riding-school, and the race-course or polo-ground.<br />
Close to them were the lovely grounds and substan-<br />
tial buildings of the monastery of the Shin sect of<br />
Buddhists. Every one of the Japanese clans or<br />
feudal bodies, numbering three hundred or more,<br />
into which the Japanese nation was divided, possessed<br />
one of these stables for the gentry, the horses<br />
numbering from ten to five hundred, according to<br />
the wealth of the clan. In Fukui the number was<br />
fifty. These clan stables were the relics of the old<br />
Genji and He*ik days when each nobleman had his<br />
following of knights who owned their own horses.<br />
In the long peace the knights, or samurai, owned<br />
horses in common.<br />
The stable was a wooden structure four hundred<br />
feet long and about twenty feet wide. The windows<br />
facing the street were of paper, about eight feet<br />
from the ground. On entering the main gate we<br />
stepped into an open, shady space, skirted with tall<br />
trees. To the left was the range of stables; to the<br />
right, one long building consisting of neatly matted<br />
rooms, with sliding paper-covered windows looking<br />
out on the riding-ground, on which polo was played<br />
and races held. Mr. Honda's office was in a building<br />
by itself. These matted rooms in the gallery-like<br />
edifice overlooking the course were for the accommodation<br />
of spectators on extra occasions. The<br />
riding-course was about six hundred feet long and<br />
forty feet wide, covered with sand, shaded by fine<br />
old trees.<br />
We should have found many things to amuse us
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