LETTER XVI

Summary

Kurumatogé, June 30.

A short ride took us from Ichikawa to a plain about eleven miles broad by eighteen long. The large town of Wakamatsu stands near its southern end, and it is sprinkled with towns and villages. The great lake of Iniwashiro is not far off. The plain is rich and fertile. In the distance the steep roofs of its villages with their groves look very picturesque. As usual not a fence or gate is to be seen, or any other hedge than the tall one used as a screen for the dwellings of the richer farmers. I must confess that it is a lovely plain, well wooded and watered, its thriving villages half hidden by persimmon and walnut-trees, and its fertile acres so magnificently tilled that even at this prolific season not a weed is to be seen. The lacquer-tree (Rhus vernicifera) abounds, and one of the finest of the native trees, keaki, the Japanese elm (Zelkowa keaki), grows to an immense size. I measured the girth of one of these which was surrounded by the Shintô straw rope, and found it 36 feet 10 inches, at four feet from the ground, and the spread of its thick drooping foliage was noble in proportion. Tea grows in every garden, and mulberrytrees everywhere show that sericulture is one of the leading industries of the district, and the paper mulberry (Broussonettia papyrifera) is also abundant.

Bad roads and bad horses detracted from my enjoyment. One hour of a good horse would have carried me across the plain; as it was, seven weary hours were expended upon it.