NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13813, 28 July 1908, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

HOW THE MIKADO SPENDS HIS

DAY. In the Pacific Era Mr. Asai Jiro writes an article full of interesting details concerning the life of the Mikado and his family. The Mikado gets .up at , six, breakfasts at seven, a doctor visits him at nine, and at ten he is usually master of all the private and domestic affairs of the palace, and then goes to his library to devote himself to public duties. There he works till twelve, when the mid-day meal is served. He works till five or six in the afternoon. In the early days he used to amuse himself by .practising archery and out-of-door sports, but nowadays it is very rare indeed that His Majesty even permits himself the pleasure of walking through his palace "'gardens in company with his Yorkshire terrier. He is said to be very fond of taking his gymnastic exercises on an ingenius wooden horse, which gives.him all the advantages of horse exercise. After these exercises he takes the inevitable and daily bath, and after the evening meal he devotes himself to,.,poetry' and literature. He sleeps well. The Mikado performs his public duties in his. military costume of commander-in-chief of the army and the navy. After office hours he wears a simple frock-coat, the cloth of which is of native manufacture, and at night he dons a native gown made of perfectly white material. His Majesty wears a garment but once. After he has put aside a dress he gives it away to some officer of the Court,* by whom it is preserved as a priceless heirloom. A special tailor-shop is established within the palace, which attends to the Imperial requirements exclusively. The tailors are all dressed in white, and before entering upon their labours they have to go through a special series of purification. At the morning and noon meals not more than five courses are. served; at the evening meal seven. At noon and in the evening the Mikado always' takes chicken soup. He does not like foreign dishes, but he likes vegetables simply prepared. He is said to bo partial to a dish of raw fish thinlysliced, although he is also fond of fishes broiled, in salt. There are a number of palace officials whose sole duty in life seems to begin and end with the sampling of Imperial dishes. The Mikado uses chopsticks which are nine inches long, polished 'ike ivory. The Princes and Princesses of the blood royal use chop-sticks eight inches long, and the less highly placed relatives use shorter chop-sticks. The manufacture of the Imperial chop-sticks is the speciality of a' specially purified man, who never employs the tools used on the Imperial chopsticks for any other purpose. When he works, he divorces himself from his family and refuses to receive the mo.',b intimate of his friends, iind in one day he is said to hav«f made some fifty pairs of chop-sticks after concentrated efforts which carry all the seriousness and piety of a religious exercise. . ..'.;.