A Holiday Scene--A Matsuri--Attractions of the Revel--Matsuri Cars-
-Gods and Demons--A Possible Harbour--A Village Forge--Prosperity
of Sake Brewers--A "Great Sight."

TSUGURATA, July 27.

Three miles of good road thronged with half the people of Kubota on
foot and in kurumas, red vans drawn by horses, pairs of policemen
in kurumas, hundreds of children being carried, hundreds more on
foot, little girls, formal and precocious looking, with hair
dressed with scarlet crepe and flowers, hobbling toilsomely along
on high clogs, groups of men and women, never intermixing, stalls
driving a "roaring trade" in cakes and sweetmeats, women making
mochi as fast as the buyers ate it, broad rice-fields rolling like
a green sea on the right, an ocean of liquid turquoise on the left,
the grey roofs of Kubota looking out from their green surroundings,
Taiheisan in deepest indigo blocking the view to the south, a
glorious day, and a summer sun streaming over all, made up the
cheeriest and most festal scene that I have seen in Japan; men,
women, and children, vans and kurumas, policemen and horsemen, all
on their way to a mean-looking town, Minato, the junk port of
Kubota, which was keeping matsuri, or festival, in honour of the
birthday of the god Shimmai. Towering above the low grey houses
there were objects which at first looked like five enormous black
fingers, then like trees with their branches wrapped in black, and
then--comparisons ceased; they were a mystery.

Dismissing the kurumas, which could go no farther, we dived into
the crowd, which was wedged along a mean street, nearly a mile