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EAST ASIA.
a rich plain north of Fuzi, is one of the great centres of the silk industry, and
possesses a spinning factory modelled on those of France. it Beyond follow the
towns of Sidzuoka, Hamamatz, and Toyobasi ( Yosida},
all lying near the shore of
Tohotomi-nada Bay. Hamamatz was formerly the castle- town of a powerful feudal
chief. In the neighbourhood are two famous Sinto temples, noted for their
magnificent
internal and external decorations. But since the downfall of the
Toku-gava family, hy whom they were endowed, their revenues have been secularised,
and these splendid buildings allowed to go to ruin. Another temple in the same
district contains a much revered image, the female Buddha, Kwan-non, which is
traditionally said to have been washed up from the sea in the year 806 A.n. But
since the disestablishment of Buddhism, this temple also has lost much of its former
splendour.
Nayoya, now A'itsi-ken, founded by Ota Nobunaga, laid out with the regularity
of a chessboard, and situated in a rich, well-watered plain on the bay of Ovari, is the
fourth city
in Japan for population, and is specially distinguished by the industry and
enterprise of its inhabitants. They are engaged in the manufacture of woollen
and silken goods, enamels and porcelain, and a school of medicine has recently been
founded here. Kuana (Kavana} and Atsuda, the latter much frequented on account
of its famous Sinto sanctuary, serve as sea-ports for the capital of the ken, as well as
for Yonagi, Iiasamats, Gifu (Imcttdtmf), Ohogaki, and the other cities of the plain.
The maritime town of Tsu (Ano-tsii^, on the west side of the same bay of Ovari, is
also much frequented by junks, and its blue Ovari porcelain, so named from the
province whence it is exported, is in most general use throughout the Empire.
Farther on is the important city of Yamada, in the peninsula encircling the south
side of Ovari Bay in the province of Ise. Near it are the most renowned temples
of Sintoism, the Ge-ku and Nai-ku, yearly visited by multitudes of pilgrims.
Traditionally 3,000 years old, these temples date at any rate from the beginning of
the vulgar era, although the present edifices are no more than exact reproductions
of the original buildings.
They are pulled down every twenty years, reconstructed with timber of the
same species, and thatched with straw. Nothing is ever changed in the arrange-
ment or character of the fittings ; none of the Buddhistic innovations so prevalent
in other temples have yet desecrated these revered monuments of the Sinto worship.
Scarcely a Japanese house but has amongst its sacred relics a scrap of paper bearing
inscriptions as mementos of the temples of Ise, and some objects in consecrated
wood from the same locality.
The eastern entrance of the Inland Sea could not fail to become the site of a
large centre of population. Vtika-ynma, lying at the mouth of the Yosino-gava, north
of the strait to which the Dutch have given the name of Linschoten, is accordingly
an important trading place, and is moreover famous for the beauty of the surround-
and the abundance of its fruits. In the same
ing scenery, the fertility of its plains,
valley lies the monastic city of Koya-san, containing no less than 370 Buddhist
temples and monasteries, formerly sanctuaries and places of refuge, where criminals
and the suspected from all the surrounding lands found shelter. The carved