ABSTRACT
Sendai castle stands on a sharp hill, in a fine natural situation, and Masamune made it as strong as unsparing effort could; part still stands, part was destroyed in the war of the Restoration, when the city held out for the Tokugawa, its ancient overlords. Under the new division of the country into ken Sendai became the capital of Miyagi ken; and it is a very modern, progressive place, proud of its fine hospital and schools, and a college which hopes soon to become a university. A few miles south of Sendai, at the junction for the East Coast Railway, there is a curious old temple of Inari, the Shinto god of rice, whose servants are the foxes. To reach Matsushima from Sendai one go by the branch road to Shiogama in about half an hour, and there hire a boat to sail or row across among the islands.
