The blind in Japan have long been trained in massage, acupuncture and music, and until recently, with few exceptions, none but the blind engaged in these occupations. From three to five years are required to become proficient in massage, but a blind person is then able to support himself. In Yokohama, with a population of half a million, there are 1000 men and women engaged in massage, and all but about 100 of these are blind. In 1878 a school for the blind and deaf-mutes was established in Kyoto, and soon after one in Tokyo. Japan has four schools for the blind, and seven combined schools for the blind and deaf-mutes. Entry: TABLE
KIOTO (KYOTO), the former capital of Japan, in the province of Yamashiro, in 35° 01´ N., 135° 46´ E. Pop. (1903), 379,404. The Kamo-gawa, upon which it stands, is a mere rivulet in ordinary times, trickling through a wide bed of pebbles; but the city is traversed by several aqueducts, and was connected with Lake Biwa in 1890 by a canal 6(7/8) m. long, which carries an abundance of water for manufacturing purposes, brings the great lake and the city into navigable communication, and forms with the Kamo-gawa canal and the Kamo-gawa itself a through route to Osaka, from which Kioto is 25 m. distant by rail. Founded in the year 793, Kioto remained the capital of the empire during nearly eleven centuries. The emperor Kwammu, when he selected this remarkably picturesque spot for the residence of his court, caused the city to be laid out with mathematical accuracy, after the model of the Tang dynasty's capital in China. Its area, 3 m. by 3½, was intersected by 18 principal thoroughfares, 9 running due north and south, and 9 due east and west, the two systems being connected at intervals by minor streets. At the middle of the northern face stood the palace, its enclosure covering three-quarters of a square mile, and from it to the centre of the south face ran an avenue 283 ft. wide and 3½ m. long. Conflagrations and subsequent reconstructions modified the regularity of this plan, but much of it still remains, and its story is perpetuated in the nomenclature of the streets. In its days of greatest prosperity Kioto contained only half a million inhabitants, thus never even approximating to the size of the Tokugawa metropolis, Yedo, or the Hojo capital Kamakura. The emperor Kwammu called it Heian-jo, or the "city of peace," when he made it the seat of government; but the people knew it as Miyako, or Kyoto, terms both of which signify "capital," and in modern times it is often spoken of as Saikyo, or western capital, in opposition to Tokyo, or eastern capital. Having been so long the imperial, intellectual, political and artistic metropolis of the realm, the city abounds with evidences of its unique career. Magnificent temples and shrines, grand monuments of architectural and artistic skill, beautiful gardens, gorgeous festivals, and numerous _ateliers_ where the traditions of Japanese art are obeyed with attractive results, offer to the foreign visitor a fund of interest. Clear water ripples everywhere through the city, and to this water Kioto owes something of its importance, for nowhere else in Japan can fabrics be bleached so white or dyed in such brilliant colours. The people, like their neighbours of Osaka, are full of manufacturing energy. Not only do they preserve, amid all the progress of the age, their old-time eminence as producers of the finest porcelain, faience, embroidery, brocades, bronze, _cloisonné_ enamel, fans, toys and metal-work of all kinds, but they have also adapted themselves to the foreign market, and weave and dye quantities of silk fabrics, for which a large and constantly growing demand is found in Europe and America. Nowhere else can be traced with equal clearness the part played in Japanese civilization by Buddhism, with its magnificent paraphernalia and imposing ceremonial spectacles; nowhere else, side by side with this luxurious factor, can be witnessed in more striking juxtaposition the austere purity and severe simplicity of the Shinto cult; and nowhere else can be more intelligently observed the fine faculty of the Japanese for utilizing, emphasizing and enhancing the beauties of nature. The citizens' dwellings and the shops, on the other hand, are insignificant and even sombre in appearance, their exterior conveying no idea of the pretty chambers within or of the tastefully laid-out grounds upon which they open behind. Kioto is celebrated equally for its cherry and azalea blossoms in the spring, and for the colours of its autumn foliage. Entry: KIOTO
Perhaps the most extensive library of the empire is that of the Imperial Cabinet (1885) at Tokio with over 500,000 vols., consisting of the collections of the various government departments, and is for official use alone. The University Library (1872) is the largest open to students and the public; it contains over 400,000 vols. of which 230,000 are Chinese and Japanese. The Public Library and reading-room (Tosho-Kwan) at Ueno Park (1872) was formed in 1872 and contains over 250,000 vols., of which about one-fifth are European books. At Tokio are also to be found the Ohashi Library (1902) with 60,000 vols. and the Hibaya Library (1908) with 130,000 vols. and the Nanki Library (1899) with 86,000 vols. The library of the Imperial University of Kyoto contains nearly 200,000 vols., of which over 90,000 are in European languages. To this is attached the library of the Fukuoka Medical College with 113,000 vols. The Municipal Library of Kyoto (1898) contains 46,000 vols. Other important municipal libraries in Japan are those at Akita in the province Of Ugo (1899), 47,000 vols., at Mito, province of Hitachi (1908), 25,000 vols., Narita, province of Shimosa (1901), 36,000 vols., chiefly Buddhistic, Yamaguchi, province of Suó (1907), 23,000 vols. The libraries of the large temples often contain books of value to the philologist. Lending libraries of native and Chinese literature have existed in Japan from very early times. Entry: AUTHORITIES