arena; but as the religions of Japan are nowise Puritanical, this theatre is sometimes erected in the grounds of a popular temple. The finest wrestling is to be witnessed twice yearly at the temple of Ekō-in in Tōkyō, during the months of January and May. Generally the combats are single, but occasionally sides are formed of as many as ten or twenty each. The plan then is for each side to choose a champion, it being incumbent on the victor to throw three adversaries in succession before he can gain a prize. As he himself is necessarily blown by the first or first two struggles, while his new adversary is quite fresh and springs upon him without a moment's interval, this is a great trial of endurance. To instance the popularity of the ring, it may be mentioned that a single ten days' season has been known to draw over 28,000 spectators. Devotees of the sport are sometimes carried away so far by their enthusiasm as to throw to a favourite champion articles of clothing or anything else that may be at hand. Not that the recipient retains any object thrown. One of his pupils brings it next day as a token to the owner, who then redeems it by a present of money.
The queerest historical episode connected with wrestling is that the Japanese throne was once wrestled for. This happened in the ninth century, when, the Mikado having died and left two sons, these wisely committed their rival claims to the issue, not of real, but of mimic warfare.
What is termed Jūjutsu is a separate art, and ranks higher in aristocratic esteem than the ordinary wrestling (Sumō) practised by the fat wrestlers. The police are officially instructed in Jūjutsu, and the Nobles' School and other academies have classes in it. Its principles, like those of so many Japanese arts, were formerly handed down as an esoteric secret from teacher to teacher; but the leading idea has always been clear enough,—not to match strength with strength, but to win by yielding to strength, in other words, by pliancy. Various ways of causing apparent death by pressure, and of recalling to life from such dead swoons, bone-setting, and also matters connected rather
