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THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO.
" They will have a good rest while we are taking our meal.
We must keep on and reach Nagoya by nightfall."
Kuwana boasted of three inns, the best of which was that
of Kio, where they stopped.
At two o'clock the party crossed the river and followed
the To-kai-do until they reached Tsushima, when they turned
into a country road that led to their destination.
Nagoya proved to be quite a place, it having
once been the
seat of the powerful princes of Owari, who were one of the
Go Sanke (three august families), related to the Tokugawa
clan.
The stores contained excellent collections of Shippo (Japanese
cloisonne), fine curios, and old Imari ware.
It was dark before they reached the city, so the boys did
not see the castle until the morning, when Fitz awakened his
party by shouting, "Get up everybody. My goodness! Here
is a five-storied building with whacking great gold-fish on the
gables. It is a sight worth looking at."
They joined him in the veranda, and saw the Ten-shu, don-
jon of the castle, which was ornamented with the celebrated
shachi-hoku (golden dolphins), made by the order of Kato
Kiyomasa * two hundred and seventy years ago.
" Those figures are eight feet seven inches high," said Mr.
Nambo. " They are of solid gold and are worth thirty thou-
sand dollars each. Seven years ago one of them was taken
down and sent to the Vienna exhibition. On its way back it
was wrecked, and the government went to great expense to
recover it. What are you looking at, Fitz San ? "
"
The boy sighed, made a comical gesture, and said, You
are ahead of us in one thing. We have the biggest snakes, the
tallest men, and the handsomest women in the world, but you
beat us in gold-fish.
Yes, you are ahead of us in this."
* For Kato Kiyomasa, vide " Young Americans in Japan," p. 179.