his absence and cry _Banzai_ to victorious generals and admirals, but
perfect silence is considered the most respectful way of greeting the
Emperor himself.) The Imperial train, which was preceded by a pilot
engine drawing a van full of rather anxious-looking police, slowed
down on approaching the station so that everyone had a chance of
seeing the Emperor, who was facing us. All the school children of the
district had been marshalled where they could get a good view. The
Japanese bow of greatest respect--it has been introduced since the
Restoration, I was told--is an inclination of the head so slight that
it does not prevent the person who bows seeing his superior. This bow
when made by rows of people is impressive. Undoubtedly the crowd was
moved by the sight of its sovereign. Not a few people held their hands
together in front of them in an attitude of devotion. The day before I
had happened to see first a priest and then a professor examining a
magazine which had a portrait of the Emperor as frontispiece. Both
bowed slightly to the print. Coloured portraits of the Emperor and
Empress are on sale in the shops, but in many cases there is a little
square of tissue paper over the Imperial countenances.

FOOTNOTES:

[30] _Shoji_ are the screens which divide a room from the outside.
They are a dainty wooden framework of many divisions, each of which is
covered by a sheet of thin white paper. The _shoji_ provide light and
are never painted. The sliding doors between two rooms are _karakami
(fusuma_ is a literary word). They are a wooden framework with thick
paper or cloth on both sides of it and with paper packing between the
layers. _Karakami_ are often decorated with writing or may be painted.
No light passes through them.