[Footnote 33: This gate was destroyed by fire a few years since.]

[Footnote 34: Sir Rutherford Alcock, in his book upon Japan, states
that the portraits of the most famous courtesans of Yedo are yearly
hung up in the temple at Asakusa. No such pictures are to be seen now,
and no Japanese of whom I have made inquiries have heard of such a
custom. The priests of the temple deny that their fane was ever so
polluted, and it is probable that the statement is but one of the many
strange mistakes into which an imperfect knowledge of the language led
the earlier travellers in Japan. In spite of all that has been said by
persons who have had no opportunity of associating and exchanging
ideas with the educated men of Japan, I maintain that in no country is
the public harlot more abhorred and looked down upon.]

At Asakusa, as indeed all over Yedo, are to be found fortunetellers,
who prey upon the folly of the superstitious. With a treatise on
physiognomy laid on a desk before them, they call out to this man that
he has an ill-omened forehead, and to that man that the space between
his nose and his lips is unlucky. Their tongues wag like flowing water
until the passers-by are attracted to their stalls. If the seer finds
a customer, he closes his eyes, and, lifting the divining-sticks
reverently to his forehead, mutters incantations between his teeth.
Then, suddenly parting the sticks in two bundles, he prophesies good
or evil, according to the number in each. With a magnifying-glass he
examines his dupe's face and the palms of his hands. By the fashion of
his clothes and his general manner the prophet sees whether he is a
countryman or from the city. "I am afraid, sir," says he, "you have
not been altogether fortunate in life, but I foresee that great luck
awaits you in two or three months;" or, like a clumsy doctor who makes
his diagnosis according to his patient's fancies, if he sees his