CHAPTER XIX
WITHIN THE PALACE NIJO
CHAPTER XIX
WITHIN THE PALACE NIJO
THE palace Nijo, the resort of West-desiring nobility and court, was possibly the oddest if most expensive residence in Tokyo. Originally it had been a Yashiki of the Daimio of Mito. Time and the impulsive treatment of the Imperialists had demolished portions of the place. With each persistent rebuilding, strangely enough, the palace took on a more modern, foreign aspect, until this time, when, in spite of its ancient moat, quite dry and overgrown with trees, its lodges, and its few melancholy turrets, it bore a strong resemblance to those houses built upon the bluffs of Yokohama by the foreign residents.
The Nijo palace in itself was a monument to the country’s change. Bit by bit its ancient Eastern aspect was disappearing, so that now, except for the rambling character of portions of its yashiki-like walls, and its enormous size, it was as Western in outward looks as the Japanese modern himself appeared when clad in Western dress.
Even its grounds were typical of the new era, for close-clipped lawns replaced the gardens, groves, shrines, fish-ponds, hillocks, and artificial landscapes, once the rule within the walls of this yashiki.
No longer at the palace gates the lordly, haughty man of swords scowled upon the passer-by. The days of the samurai and ancient chivalry were dead,—since but a score of years. So rapid was the sweeping “progress” of the new Japan! Now stiff guards, in heavy foreign uniform, patrolled the grounds; while within the house itself the very servants wore the buttoned livery of the West. Fashion shook her foolish hand over the city of Tokyo, and her subjects, adoring and submissive as ever, named her guilelessly, “Progression.”