In This, As In Many Other Yadoyas, There Were Kakemonos With Large
Chinese Characters Representing The Names Of The Prime Minister,
Provincial Governor, Or Distinguished General, Who Had Honoured It
By Halting There, And Lines Of Poetry Were Hung Up, As Is Usual, In
The Same Fashion.
I have several times been asked to write
something to be thus displayed.
I spent Sunday at Komatsu, but not
restfully, owing to the nocturnal croaking of the frogs in the
pond. In it, as in most towns, there were shops which sell nothing
but white, frothy-looking cakes, which are used for the goldfish
which are so much prized, and three times daily the women and
children of the household came into the garden to feed them.
When I left Komatsu there were fully sixty people inside the house
and 1500 outside - walls, verandahs, and even roofs being packed.
From Nikko to Komatsu mares had been exclusively used, but there I
encountered for the first time the terrible Japanese pack-horse.
Two horridly fierce-looking creatures were at the door, with their
heads tied down till their necks were completely arched. When I
mounted the crowd followed, gathering as it went, frightening the
horse with the clatter of clogs and the sound of a multitude, till
he broke his head-rope, and, the frightened mago letting him go, he
proceeded down the street mainly on his hind feet, squealing, and
striking savagely with his fore feet, the crowd scattering to the
right and left, till, as it surged past the police station, four
policemen came out and arrested it; only to gather again, however,
for there was a longer street, down which my horse proceeded in the
same fashion, and, looking round, I saw Ito's horse on his hind
legs and Ito on the ground.
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