Umenoki, a village through which they next passed, was famous for the sole manufacture of a medicine of great repute, found out by a poor but pious man, to whom the god Yakushi, the protector of physic and physicians, revealed in a dream the ingredients, which are certain bitter herbs growing upon the neighboring mountains. This story helped the sale of the medicine, by which the inventor soon grew very rich, so that he was not only able to build a fine house for himself but also a small temple, opposite his shop, and highly adorned, in honor of the god who had given him the receipt, whose statue, richly gilt, was to be seen there, standing on a _Tarate_ [?] flower, and with half a large cockle-shell over his head. The next day (Sunday, March 4) the Dutch travellers crossed the Tsuchi Yama, a mountain ridge, so steep that its descent was like that of a winding staircase cut out in the face of the precipice. On this mountain were many temples, and in this neighborhood vast crowds of pilgrims were encountered, bound to Ise, situate some forty miles to the south. The travellers struck the seacoast at Yokkaichi, a town of a thousand houses, whose inhabitants were partly supported by fishing, and the next day (Monday, the 5th), after about nine miles’ travel, they entered the city of Kuwana, in the province of Owari, situated at the head of a deep bay. It consisted of three parts, like so many different towns. The first and third parts were enclosed by high walls and ditches. The other part was entirely surrounded by water, the country being flat and full of rivers. The castle, washed on three sides by the sea, was separated from the town by a deep ditch with draw-bridges. From Kuwana they proceeded by water to Miya, present Atsuta, some fifteen miles distant. The head of the bay was very shallow, and the boats were pushed through mud-banks. Miya, though not so large as Kuwana, consisted of two thousand houses, with two spacious castles, one of them for size and strength reckoned the third in Japan. There were two temples, in one of which are preserved three, in the other eight, miraculous swords, used by the race of demigods who were the first inhabitants of Japan. Tuesday, March 6, the travellers dined at Okasaki, a town of fifteen hundred houses, with a strong castle situate on the shores of the same bay. The country travelled through was a fertile plain along the foot of a range of mountains, the shores of which, beyond Okasaki, extended to the sea.