ABSTRACT
Since this island empire of the Pacific came to attract the interest of the West, things Japanese have been written up by earnest students long resident in this country and by hurrying tourists who “do” Japan at an express rate. There is scarcely any subject of interest which is left untouched by these eager hunter of romance in Japanese life. The subjects have almost been exhausted, and when I take up my pen with an ambitious desire to make some original contribution to the literature on Japan, I am at a loss what subject I should take up. Being somewhat of a Waltonian, at last I have selected angling as the subject of my article. I do not claim this to be a virgin subject: I have neither courage nor wish to go through the pages of the two bulky volumes of the indefatigable Wenckstern to ascertain whether the subject of my choosing has taken the fancy of a previous writer. I have a belief, however feeble, that this is at least a new subject; it is some consolation.
