whose temporary support it is thought desirable to secure.
Besides the early stamps mentioned above, those issued in 1895 to commemorate the Emperor's Silver Wedding, and those issued in 1896 to commemorate the China war will have special interest for collectors. Of both these issues, only the values 2 sen and 5 sen exist. The War Commemoration stamps are also noteworthy, because one set of each value bears the image of the late Prince Arisugawa, Commander-in-Chief, and another set that of Prince Kita-Shirakawa, who died fighting in Formosa. A peculiar feeling of awe has hitherto prevented the Emperor's effigy from being thus used, and some conservative persons objected at the time even to the issue bearing the effigies of the Imperial Princes. The latest special issue was a pink 3 sen stamp commemorative of the Wedding of the Crown Prince in May, 1900. On it is represented a box of rice-cakes (mochi), such as are partaken of by Imperial personages on the first three evenings of wedded life, while below, in a smaller box, are some chop sticks with which to convey them to the month. Picture post cards came into vogue about the beginning of the century; some of them take up in a charming manner the art motives of "Old Japan." Others follow the vulgarest European precedents.
Praying-wheel. This instrument of devotion, so popular in Thibetan Buddhism, is comparatively rare in Japan, and is used in a slightly different manner, no prayers being written on it. Its raison d’étre, so far as the Japanese are concerned, must be sought in the doctrine of ingwa, according to which everything in this life is the outcome of actions performed in a previous state of existence. For example, a man goes blind: this re sults from some crime committed by him in his last avatar. He repents in this life, and his next life will be a happier one; or he does not repent, and he will then go from bad to worse in successive rebirths. In other words, the doctrine is that of evolution applied to ethics. This perpetual succession
