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18 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
there are the barley-paste toy-makers, and the mail
who rents batter and griddle for children to play
making cakes on, and other pedlars who have stands
and only migrate occasionally. Perhaps street musicians
with trained monkeys, women who play
three-stringed banjos, or funny fellows who amuse
the children with the "Korean Lion" game collect
crowds of young folks, hatless, and rosy-cheeked
the dirt.
despite
Something more dignified and quiet may be seen
inside the castle enclosure where the gentry live:
ladies in silk and gentlemen with elegant swords
in their girdle
;
riders on horseback ; occasionally a
procession of noblemen and retainers ;
the moats
blue with flowing water in which men fish, or sluggish
and full of great pink lotus flowers; boys flying
kites or knots of children at gleeful games
;
and
babies looking as much like the dolls as the dolls
look like them.
On the south side are most of the one hundred
and twenty-five larger Buddhist temples in the
Happy Well City. Here one hears the tinkle and
boom of bells, the chanting of monks and priests,
and sees well-dressed people coming and going from
worship. Here are costly buildings, rich with gold
and bronze and art decorations, with large tracts of
land containing gardens, groves, and lovely solitudes.
All these are owned by the priesthood, for Echizen
is a stronghold of Buddhism. There are also
throughout the city twenty-two principal Shinto
shrines, in which the native gods of Japan are