long duration. This week has been spent in making acquaintances in
Tokiyo, seeing some characteristic sights, and in trying to get
light on my tour; but little seems known by foreigners of northern
Japan, and a Government department, on being applied to, returned
an itinerary, leaving out 140 miles of the route that I dream of
taking, on the ground of "insufficient information," on which Sir
Harry cheerily remarked, "You will have to get your information as
you go along, and that will be all the more interesting." Ah! but
how? I. L. B.



LETTER V



Kwan-non Temple--Uniformity of Temple Architecture--A Kuruma
Expedition--A Perpetual Festival--The Ni-o--The Limbo of Vanity--
Heathen Prayers--Binzuru--A Group of Devils--Archery Galleries--New
Japan--An Elegante.

H.B.M.'s LEGATION, YEDO,
June 9.

Once for all I will describe a Buddhist temple, and it shall be the
popular temple of Asakusa, which keeps fair and festival the whole
year round, and is dedicated to the "thousand-armed" Kwan-non, the
goddess of mercy. Writing generally, it may be said that in
design, roof, and general aspect, Japanese Buddhist temples are all
alike. The sacred architectural idea expresses itself in nearly