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432 EAST ASIA.
the sixteenth century, is situated the station of Si'kigakara, where in the year
1,600 Yeyas gained the decisive victory which led to the rise of the Shogunal
dynasty of Toku-gava, and to the destruction of the faction allied to the
Christians.
Ohotz (Odzu) and Siga-ken, lying at the outlet of the lake, jointly form a city,
the possession of which was also frequently disputed by the rival political parties.
On the heights of the Hiyei-san, overlooking it on the north, stand some famous
Sinto sanctuaries and still more celebrated Buddhist temples, that especially of
Hiyidera, whose religious inmates took part in the struggle against Ota Nobunaga,
dictator of the Empire and protector of the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier. Ohotz,
with its straggling suburb of Zeze, is now a commercial city, and may be regarded as
an advanced quarter of Kioto, with which it communicates by a branch of the
recently opened railway. By means of its steamers it has also acquired the mono-
poly of the local trade of Lake Biva, from whose waters sailing vessels have already
nearly disappeared. A speciality of the industry of Ohotz is the manufacture of
abacuses (soroban), or calculating machines.
The city of Kioto, that is to say, " Capital," called also Hiako, or the " Resi-
dence," Srikio, or the " Western Capital," and Heianzio, or " Castle of Peace and
Tranquillity," has lost its rank amongst Japanese cities, and is now merely one of
the three imperial, and the third only in the number of its inhabitants. After
having been the seat of Empire for nearly eleven hundred years, it was supplanted
by its eastern rival, Yedo, in 1868, when the sweeping revolution took place, which
changed at once the government, administration, and national customs. Since
then the population has diminished by more than one-half, and whole quarters
have remained almost uninhabited. Nevertheless, Kioto, with its historic associa-
tions, still remains the city of beauty, elegance, and refinement. It also excels the
new if
capital, not in industrial activity,
at least in the artistic taste of its pro-
ducts. Here are found the most skilled Japanese artisans in the manufacture of
silks, brocades, embroidered fabrics of every kind, enamels, porcelains, ornamental
bronzes, and other metal wares.
The ancient palace of the Mikados at Kioto covers a space of about twenty-six acres
with its enclosures, and is surrounded by a roofed wall of earth and plaster with six
gates. The inner court is approached by a flight of eighteen steps, corresponding
in number to the original series of grades into which the Mikado's officials were
divided. Outside the court is a building called Kashiko-dokoro, where was kept
the copy of the sacred mirror given to the Mikado's ancestor by the Sun-Goddess>
the original of which is supposed to be still preserved in her temple at Ise. When
the palace was destroyed by fire in 960 the mirror flew out of the shrine in which
it was then deposited and alighted on a neighbouring cherry-tree, where it was
found by one of the Na'i-shi, or female attendants of the Mikado. Henceforth the
Na'i-shi always had charge of the sacred emblem. Since the beginning of the
seventeenth century the palace has been six times destroyed by fire, the" last
occasion having been in 1854. In the following year it was restored exactly in its
previous size and style, but very nearly experienced the same fate again in 1864,