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Whenever this great personage wishes to take an airing, he is carried by fourteen men in a large norimon with latticed windows, through which he is able to see without being seen; and even when granting an audience he is said to be concealed from view by bamboo screen-work.
This circumstance is also rendered more galling by foreigners sitting coolly on their horses by the road-side as the great man passes, generally in a low norimon, on which they must necessarily look down in contradiction to Japanese etiquette, which permits no inferior to look down upon a superior while the people of the country are either abjectly kowtowing to him or patiently waiting in their closed houses until his passing shall set them once more at liberty.
The lady afterwards came to pay a return visit to our friend's wife. She and her elder children arrived each in a norimon. This is a sort of litter slung to a bamboo pole, each end of which is carried on a man's shoulder. A cushion is placed at the bottom, so as to come up at one end for the back, at the other for the knees; and the person sits crouched up in rather an awkward position.
There is a flat covering, on which the lady's slippers, fan, smoking apparatus, and other articles are carried. The bearers have each a pole, on which they can rest the norimon. The ladies, I should say, are great smokers, though their pipes are small and their tobacco of a delicate description.
Naiboen excursions to the tea-houses are very frequent, notice being sent previously in order to insure proper accommodation and privacy: the latter precaution being principally taken on account of the ladies of the family, who never go beyond the palace except in a norimon guarded by armed retainers. In their homes, the aristocracy are as simple in their habits as the rest of the people.
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