The Japanese still cling with tenacity to the formal recognition of the absolute rights of the Dairi. With as much warmth as a loyal Englishman would exhibit in maintaining the actual sovereignty of Queen Victoria, they insisted to Titsingh—and the same thing afterwards occurred to Golownin—that Europeans were mistaken in applying the term “emperor” to the Shōgun, the Dairi being the only legal emperor, and the Shōgun but an officer to whom the Dairi had entrusted the administration.[71] The annual visit of the Shōgun to the Dairi, made in Caron’s time, had been discontinued; but mutual embassies are still exchanged, and the envoys sent from the Dairi are received by the Shōgun as if they were the Dairi himself. The Shōgun goes to meet them, and conducts them to the hall of audience, where he performs the kitō, bending before them till his head touches the mats, as if they were the very Dairi. This homage finished, the Shōgun resumes his rank, and the ambassadors then perform the kitō to him. During their stay they are entertained by two persons, who, from the allowance made for it, find this office very lucrative. The ambassadors also receive rich presents, not only at Yedo, but all along the route, and the attendance upon this service, even in an inferior capacity, is so lucrative as to be eagerly coveted by the poor courtiers of the Dairi. Titsingh encountered one of these embassies on his return from Yedo, in 1782, and was obliged to stop a whole day, and to lodge in a citizen’s house, all the horses, porters, and inns being taken up by the embassy. However poor and powerless, the courtiers of the Dairi still enjoy all the outward observances of superior rank. The first princes of the empire must pay them the homage of the kitō, and must lay aside their two swords in their presence. For this reason, these princes, in going and returning to Yedo, carefully avoid passing through Miyako.