The four bearers, the servants and the samurai pass down along the beautiful Kanda River, whose waters mirror the stars, and whose depths of shade re-echo to the gurgling of sculls, the rolling of ripples and the songs of revelers.  The cortege enters one of the gate-towers of the old city-walls, passes beneath the shade of its ponderous copper-clad portals, and soon arrives at the main entrance of the Yamashiro yashiki.  Here they find the street in front and the stone walk covered with matting, and a friend of Taro’s, in full dress, waiting to receive the cortege.  Of course the gazers of the neighborhood are waiting respectfully in crowds to catch a glimpse of the coming bride.

The go-between and a few friends of the bridegroom come out to receive the bride and deliver her to her own servant and two of her own young maiden friends, who had gone before to the Yamashiro mansion.  The room in which the families of the bride and groom and their immediate friends are waiting, though guiltless of “furniture,” as all Japanese rooms are, is yet resplendent with gilt-paper screens, bronzes, tiny lacquered tables and the Japanese nuptial emblems.  On the wall hang three pictured scrolls of the gods of Long Life, of Wealth and of Happiness.  On a little low table stands a dwarf pine tree, bifurcated, and beneath it are an old man and an old woman.  Long life, a green old age, changeless constancy of love and the union of two hearts are symbolized by this evergreen.  In the tokonoma (or large raised recess) of the room are the preparations for the feast, the wine-service consisting of kettles, decanters and cups.  On two other tables are a pair of white storks and a fringed tortoise.  All through the rooms gorgeously painted wax candles burn.  The air of the apartment is heavy with perfume from the censer, a representation in bronze of an ancient hero riding upon a bullock.  All the guests are seated a la Japonaise—­upon the floor.  Two or three young ladies, the bridesmaids, go out to meet the bride and lead her to her dressing-room.  Here she finds her own property, which has been brought to her future home during the day.  Toilet-stands and cabinets and the ceremonial towel-rack are prominently displayed.  On a tall clothes-horse of gilt lacquer are hung her silk robes and the other articles of her wardrobe, which are bridal gifts.  Over the doorway, in a gilt rack, glitters the long spear or halberd to the dexterous use of which all Japanese ladies of good family are trained.  In a box of finest wood, shining with lacquer and adorned with her family crest, are the silk sleeping-dresses and coverlets, which are to be spread, as all Japanese beds are, on the floor.  The articles above mentioned constitute the trousseau of a Japanese bride.

Here Kiku rearranges her dress, retouches her lower lip with golden paint and puts on her hood of floss silk.  This is of a half-moon shape, completely covering her face.  She does not lift it until she has drunk the sacramental marriage-cup.  Many a Japanese maiden has seen her lord for the first time as she lifted her silken hood.  Kiku is all ready, and she and the groom are led into the room where the ceremony is to be performed, and assigned their positions.