ABSTRACT
PREPARATIONS had already begun for the coronation of the Emperor, another matter that formed a popular diversion. As in the case of the coronation of King George the Fifth of England, there was an unprecedented study of ancient forms and usages, with a view to carrying out the ceremony upon a more magnificent scale than had ever been seen before. The Emperor Meiji had been buried among his ancestors near Kyoto, and his successor was to assume imperial state in the ancient capital. The preparations were elaborate, and while even to a Western eye they were not lacking in a strange grandeur, their prodigious cost was probably their most impressive feature. For long beforehand the details of the archaic robes and other paraphernalia of the coming ceremony afforded readers of the popular Press material for interest in imperial affairs, particularly when it was announced that Her Majesty the Empress, already the mother of three sons, would not be able to participate in the coronation or wear the garments prepared for her on account of the approach of the birth of another child, after a considerable interval of time.
