The Boy Travellers in the Far East [Part First]: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and ChinaKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East [Part First]: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and China
Knox, Thomas Wallace
China -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Japan -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
Total height of statue, 53 feet 6 inches; width across shoulders, 29
feet; length of face, 16 feet; width of face, 9 feet 6 inches. It is
said to weigh four hundred and fifty tons, and to be made of a bronze
composed of gold, mercury, tin, and copper. The head is covered with
curls, also of bronze, and there are said to be 966 of them; then there
is a halo around the head 78 feet in diameter, and supporting 16 images,
each one 8 feet long. The statue is in a squatting posture, like the one
at Kamakura, and is covered with a building so small that it is
impossible to obtain a good view in consequence of being too near the
figure. The expression of the features is not at all equal to that of
the great Dai-Boots at Kamakura, and the whole design is far less
artistic. But it is the second in the empire in size, and for that
reason is worthy of notice as well as for its antiquity.
[Illustration: DIKES ALONG THE RIVER.]
From Nara the party continued to Kioto, halting for dinner at Uji, which
is the centre of an important tea district. Men and women were at work
in the fields gathering the leaves from the plants, and other men and
women were attending to the drying process which the gathered leaves
were undergoing. They were spread out on matting, on paper, or on cloth,
where they had the full force of the rays of the sun, and were
frequently turned and stirred so as to have every part equally exposed
to the solar heat. While the party was at Uji a shower came on, and then
there was some very lively hurrying to and fro to save the tea from a
wetting. During the afternoon the rain continued, and the rest of the
ride to Kioto was not especially cheerful. Part of the route led along
the banks of the river, which forms a navigable way for small boats
between the tea district and Osaka; and at one place, where the bank
was broken, Frank had a narrow escape from an overturn into the water.
The wheel of his little carriage sank into the soft earth and spilled
him out, but, luckily, a friendly tree was in his grasp and saved him
from falling down the steep slope of twenty feet or so. "A miss is as
good as a mile," he remarked, as he brushed the mud from his clothes,
and took his seat again in his vehicle.
"And I know a miss," said Fred, "that is better than any mile we have
had to-day."
Frank asked what he meant, and was told--
"Miss Effie."
He quite agreed with Fred, and said he would gladly exchange that last
mile, overturn and all, for one minute of her society. But he had the
consolation of knowing he could have her society for a good many
consecutive minutes when he got home again, and could keep as long as he
liked the recollection of the miles between Nara and Kioto.
[Illustration: NIGHT SCENE NEAR FUSHIMI.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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