Imperial poem competition which is held every New Year. A subject is
set by His Majesty and the thousands of pieces sent in are submitted
to a committee. The dozen best productions are read before the
sovereign himself, and this is the honour sought by the competitors.
The subject for competition in the year in which the landowner had
been successful was, "The cryptomeria in a temple court." His poem was
as follows:

In transplanting
The young cryptomeria trees
Within the sacred fence
There is a symbol
Of the beginning of the reign.

The New Year poems come from every class of the community and there
is seldom a year in which landowners or farmers are not among the
fortunate twelve.

As we rode along a companion spoke of the force of public opinion in
keeping things straight in the countryside, also of the far-reaching
control exercised by fathers and elder brothers. But the good
behaviour of some people was due, he said, to a dread of being
ridiculed in the newspapers, which allow themselves extraordinary
freedom in dealing with reputations.

I met a man who had had a monument erected to him. He was a member of
a little company which received me in a farmer's house. He was
formerly the richest man in the village, that is to say, he owned 20
_chō_ and was worth about 100,000 yen. Moved by the poverty of his
neighbours, he devoted his substance to improving their condition. Now