The main body of the new imperial army is located and drilled in the capital. Its creation after the great revolution of 1868 was superintended by French officers. There is a large arsenal, well stocked with excellent modern machinery, in Tokio; and also a naval college, where cadets for the marine service receive a good scientific education and practical training.
Much of the former glory of old Yedo has vanished, many stately palaces and rich temples having been burned to the ground, or allowed to fall into decay. But the chief natural beauties of the city remain the 30 m. of tortuous moats, with their summer blaze of lotus-flowers, and the exquisitely beautiful parks and gardens with their luxuri ant flowers and rich wooding.
During the winter there are almost nightly fires in Tokio. In 1858 a single fire destroyed fully one-quarter of the whole city; and in one night in 1876, 8,000 houses were burned. The whole business part of the city is studded with clay fire-proof store houses, into which all the chief valuables are hurriedly thrust immediately upon the breaking out of a fire in the neighborhood. The massive iron doors and shutters of these fire-proof " dova" are, as soon as the interior is filled, cemented air-tight. Lighted candles having been placed inside before the closing of the last door in order to exhaust the inflammable oxygen of the inclosed air, the building may be left to be raged round by the flames of a dozen burning houses crowded about it, and may even be raised to a red-heat without there being any danger of combustion taking place inside. The houses
burned down, being of a light wooden construction, are rebuilt with what appears to a stranger incredible rapidity.
In Tokio, as in other important towns of Japan, the use of gas for street and shop lighting is gradually extending. There are numerous papers (including a dozen dailies) and periodicals published in Tokio; but although many of them are cleverly edited, the press suffers severely from government censorship. A considerable export trade in silk, silk-worms' eggs, copper, lacquer-work, mats, timber, etc., passes through Tokio, the goods being shipped at Yokohama. The bay of Tokio is shallow, permitting only small craft to approach the city at high tide.
H.B.M.'s Consular Reports for Adam's History-of Japan; Griffis' Mikado's Empire; Aime Humbert's Japon Blustre; Maurice Dubard's Japon Pittoresque; sir Rutherford Alcock's Capital of the Tycoon; Oliphant's Narrative of Lord Elgin's Mission; The Treaty Ports of China and Japan; Mossman's New Japan.