The History of the Southern Savage.  Who was the “Southern Savage”?  The word is namban, the name given to the early Portuguese and Spanish voyagers to Japan. (The Dutch were called komojin, red-haired men.) In looking through the official railway guide on the boat I saw that there was a list of specially favourable places for viewing the moon.  An M.P. passenger told me that the average cost of getting returned to the Diet was 10,000 yen[174].

The difficulties of communication in Shikoku are so considerable that I was compelled to leave the two prefectures of Tokushima and Kochi unvisited.  Kochi is without a yard of railway line.  In the prefecture of Ehime most of my journey had to be made by kuruma.  Communication between the four prefectures of Shikoku—­the one in which I landed was Kagawa—­is largely conducted by coasting steamers and sailing craft.  An interesting thing in Kochi is the area by the sea in which two crops of rice are grown in the year.  Tokushima holds a leading place in the production of indigo.  At one place in the hills the adventurous have the satisfaction of crossing a river by means of suspension bridges made of vine branches.

The streets of Takamatsu, the capital of Kagawa, are many of them so narrow that the shopkeepers on either side have joint sun screens which they draw right across the thoroughfares.  Here I found the carts hauled by a smallish breed of cow.  The placid animals are handier in a narrow place and less expensive than horses.  They are shod, like their drivers, in waraji.  In Shikoku the cow or ox is generally used in the paddies instead of the horse.  “It is slower but strong and can plough deep,” one agricultural expert said.  “It eats cheaper food than the horse, which moves too fast in a small paddy.  Cows and oxen are probably not working for more than seventy-five or eighty days in the year.”

At Takamatsu I had the opportunity of visiting a daimyo’s castle.  I was impressed by its strength not only because of the wide moats but because of the series of earthen fortifications faced with cyclopean stonework through which an invading force must wind its way.  There was within the walls a surprisingly large drilling ground for troops and also an extensive drug garden.  The present owner of the castle proposed to build here a library and a museum for the town.  I was glad of the opportunity to ascend one of the high pagoda-like towers so familiar in Japanese paintings.  I was disillusioned.  Instead of finding myself in beautiful rooms for the enjoyment of marvellous views and sea breezes I had to clamber over the roughest cob-webbed timbers.  One storey was connected with another by a stair of rude planking.  Such pagodas were built only for their military value as lookouts and for their delightful appearance from the outside.