The imperial residence in Japan is a very different structure from anything that European ideas of palaces would expect, being chiefly built of wood and other materials so inflammable that a palace has been reconstructed and destroyed within a year. When we read of each emperor, at an early date, building a palace for himself, it is not to be supposed that these were either expensive or very durable buildings. Each emperor seems to have occupied a different habitation from his predecessor, removing from one site to another, but generally keeping within the province of Yamashiro, or that adjoining, Yamato. Kwanmu, in the year 794, built a palace on the site where the present city stands, and since his time Miako has been always looked upon as the metropolis. The palace of the Emperor of Japan is called, as a whole, “Kinri go sho.” Though built of fine and expensive timber, it presents no appearance of that outward splendor which is generally considered by us to be necessary to an imperial residence. The roofs of the buildings are said to be white. It is surrounded by a common inclosure of wooden boarding. This inclosure is pierced by several gates. These entrances are graduated, and the settlement of the gate by which a great man shall make his entrance or his exit is a matter of no small importance at court. These gates lead into a large open space; in this is another inclosure (with other gates), in the center of which stands the wooden building, the “Shi shin deng,” or imperial office, in which the emperor receives the highest officers of the empire. This he appears to do almost in the open air. The emperor does not sit upon a throne or chair, but is slightly raised above the floor--three of the ordinary mats of the country, placed one above the other, being used as a throne. To the back of this public office is the residence or private apartments of the emperor; and behind these are the female apartments of the empress, the empress-mother, and other high ladies.