PREFACE.  In preparing this volume neither labour nor expense has been spared; and I send it out to the public feeling confident that no such gallery of photographs, giving the exact picture of every day life of the Japanese, has ever been presented before in one volume.  Being printed by the collotype process, which has of late become very popular, the pictures herein contained are true to nature and free from any retouches by the artist.  Moreover, unlike ordinary photographs, these collotype pictures are really permanent, in the sense that they will not fade in any length of time.  I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to Messrs. K. Tamamura and S. Kajima, as well as to Prof. Burton, for several of the plates in this volume. K. OGAWA		GREETING.  These women show the exact attitude the Japanese assume in greeting or bidding adieu.  The photograph is a good representation of a fair-sized Japanese room with the conventional tokonoma (the place of honour) and other fixtures. Japanese house will appear to foreigners conspicuous by the abscence of furnitures, just as a highly adorned boudoir of Europe or America suggests to a Japanese an idea of a museum.  The floor is covered with the spotless tatami, or mats, never defiled by boot or shoe, and absolutely of a fixed size measuring six feet in length and three in width.  The size of a room is measured by the number of mats it contains.  A picture hanging on the tokonoma, a folding screen or two, a vase of flowers, two or three charcoal braziers, make up about all the necessary fittings for the apartment.  Despite such simplicity and graceful economy, taste and convenience are not lost sight of in the Japanese architecture.
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