On the 17th of February they reached the city of Kokura, in the province of Busen. Though considerably fallen from its ancient opulence and splendour, Kokura was still a large city, fortified by towers and bastions, adorned with many curious gardens and public buildings, and inhabited by a numerous population. Here they moved through two long lines of people, who lined both sides of the way, and knelt in profound silence while they passed. They then embarked in barges; and, sailing across the narrow strait which divides the island of Kiersu from Nisson, landed at Simonoseki in the latter island, the name of which signified the prop of the sun. Next day being Sunday, they remained at Simonoseki; and Kæmpfer strolled out to view the city and its neighbourhood. He found it filled with shops of all kinds, among which were those of certain stonecutters, who, from a black and gray species of serpentine stone, dug from the quarries in the vicinity, manufactured inkstands, plates, boxes, and several other articles, with great neatness and ingenuity. He likewise visited a temple erected to the manes of a young prince who had prematurely perished. This he found hung, like their theatres, with black crape, while the pavement was partly covered with carpets inwrought with silver. The statue of the royal youth stood upon an altar; and the Japanese who accompanied our traveller bowed before it, while the attendant priest lit up a lamp, and pronounced a kind of funeral oration in honour of the illustrious dead. From the temple they were conducted into the adjoining monastery, where they found the prior, a thin, grave-looking old man, clothed in a robe of black crape, who sat upon the floor; and making a small present to the establishment, they departed.