In modern times the ceremony has taken place at night, either in the palace or in the garden of a Daimio, to whom the condemned man has been given in charge.  Whether it takes place in the palace or in the garden depends upon the rank of the individual.  Daimios and Hatamotos, as a matter of course, and the higher retainers of the Shogun, disembowel themselves in the palace:  retainers of lower rank should do so in the garden.  In the case of vassals of feudatories, according to the rank of their families, those who, being above the grade of captains, carry the baton,[103] should perform hara-kiri in the palace; all others in the garden.  If, when the time comes, the persons engaged in the ceremony are in any doubt as to the proper rules to be followed, they should inquire of competent persons, and settle the question.  At the beginning of the eighteenth century, during the period Genroku, when Asano Takumi no Kami[104] disembowelled himself in the palace of a Daimio called Tamura, as the whole thing was sudden and unexpected, the garden was covered with matting, and on the top of this thick mats were laid and a carpet, and the affair was concluded so; but there are people who say that it was wrong to treat a Daimio thus, as if he had been an ordinary Samurai.  But it is said that in old times it was the custom that the ceremony should take place upon a leather carpet spread in the garden; and further, that the proper place is inside a picket fence tied together in the garden:  so it is wrong for persons who are only acquainted with one form of the ceremony to accuse Tamura of having acted improperly.  If, however, the object was to save the house from the pollution of blood, then the accusation of ill-will may well be brought; for the preparation of the place is of great importance.

[Footnote 103:  A baton with a tassel of paper strips, used for giving directions in war-time.]

[Footnote 104:  See the story of the Forty-seven Ronins.]

Formerly it was the custom that, for personages of importance, the enclosure within the picket fence should be of thirty-six feet square.  An entrance was made to the south, and another to the north:  the door to the south was called Shugiyomon ("the door of the practice of virtue"); that to the north was called Umbanmon ("the door of the warm basin"[105]).  Two mats, with white binding, were arranged in the shape of a hammer, the one at right angles to the other; six feet of white silk, four feet broad, were stretched on the mat, which was placed lengthwise; at the four corners were erected four posts for curtains.  In front of the two mats was erected a portal, eight feet high by six feet broad, in the shape of the portals in front of temples, made of a fine sort of bamboo wrapped in white[106] silk.  White curtains, four feet broad, were hung at the four corners, and four flags, six feet long, on which should be inscribed four quotations from the sacred books.  These flags, it is said, were