[Illustration:  A minister of the Mikado on A religious expedition.]

Whenever this great personage wishes to take an airing, he is carried by fourteen men in a large norimon with latticed windows, through which he is able to see without being seen; and even when granting an audience he is said to be concealed from view by bamboo screen-work.  His court consists of the members of his own family and certain great officers of State appointed by the Tycoon, who nominally receive and promulgate his commands; but, in ordinary times, he has no real power in the temporal affairs of the empire, and only refuses to confer legality on the acts of his lieutenant under the pressure of intrigue, or of undue family influence.

To relieve the wearisome monotony of his life, as well as to prevent the possibility of the sacred race becoming extinct, he is allowed twelve wives, who are chosen from the most beautiful daughters of the chief princes of the empire.  These ladies occupy separate palaces in the immediate vicinity of his, where they are attended by their own retainers; but only one of them enjoys the rank of empress, although they are all treated with the deference due to royalty.  He is also said to have an unlimited number of concubines, who reside within the bounds of the Imperial establishment.

The distinctive mark of the members of the Mikado’s court and of the ladies of his family consists of two black patches placed on the forehead, and in the arrangement of the hair, which is gathered up in a long cue and curved over the head by one sex, and worn dishevelled and without any kind of ornament by the other.  Though the Mikado has little influence in the secular affairs of state, his authority in religious questions is supreme; but it is doubtful if he personally takes any part in the solemnities which are constantly occurring at Miako.

The subject of illustration represents one of these sacred observances:  the procession is coming from the Mikado’s palace, which, properly speaking, is a temple, being full of idols and effigies of the ‘Kamis,’ or ‘canonised saints.’  The principal figure is the third minister of state, and from this circumstance the white dresses worn by the ‘Kargardhee,’ or ‘fire-bearers,’ and the presence of some of the Imperial children, it is probably a midnight pilgrimage to some neighbouring shrine, in honour of the manes of a departed member of the family.

The early education of the Mikado’s children is entrusted to the ladies of the court:  the sons, while still young, are sent to different religious fraternities; and the daughters, on attaining a suitable age, are bestowed in marriage on the nobles of the country, except the eldest, who is appointed chief priestess of the temple of the Sun at Issie, which contains the shrine of Ten-zio-dai-zin, to which all Japanese are supposed to make a pilgrimage once in their lifetime.