or rather vegetated through centuries, the Kuge, the legitimist aristocracy of Japan. The revolution of 1868, in bringing about the fall of the Daimyōs, at last gave the Kuge their opportunity. With the restoration of the Mikado to absolute power, they too emerged from obscurity; and on the creation of a new system of ranks and titles in 1884, they were not forgotten. The old Kuge took rank as new princes, marquises, and counts, and what is more, they were granted pensions.
Books recommended. The Feudal System in Japan under the Tokugawa Shōguns, by J. H. Gubbins, printed in Vol. XV. Part II. of the "Asiatic Transactions." Reference to Mr. Gubbins's learned essay will show that the subject of Daimyō is not so simple as might appear at first sight.—T. R. H. McClatchie's Feudal Mansions of Yedo, in Vol. VII. Part III. of the same, gives interesting details of the "palaces" in which the Daimyōs resided while attending on the Shōgun at Yedo.
Dances. Our single word "dance" is represented by two in Japanese,—mai and odori, the former being a general name for the more ancient and, so to say, classical dances, the latter for. such as are newer and more popular. But the line between the two classes is hard to draw, and both agree in consisting mainly of posturing. Europeans dance with their feet,—not to say their legs,—Japanese mainly with their arms. The dress, or rather undress, of a European corps de ballet would take away the breath of the least prudish Oriental.
One of the oldest Japanese dances is the Kagura, which may still be seen in a degenerate form at the yearly festival of almost any parish temple. It is of the nature of primitive theatricals,—half dance, half antic and buffoonery,—got up by the young men of the place, who appear in masks and great bundles of tawdry clothes, and twirl about and pursue each other to the incessant tomtoming of a drum and piping of a flute. Sometimes a rough platform is erected as a stage, sometimes the temple itself does duty for such. The original of the Kagura is said to have been the dance by means of which, soon after the beginning of the world, the Sun-Goddess was lured from a cavern into which she had retired, thus plunging all creation in darkness. The sacred dances at Nara and Ise belong to this category; but the Ise Ondo, sometimes
