him to look for a more lucrative employment, and he first commenced the manufacture of carriages, which he built both to order and for hire. He prospered in the trade. When he saw the newly-invented jinrikisha in its crude state, he at once perceived the possibilities in store and, after months spent in improving it, he opened a work-shop in Ginza, the main street of Tokyo, for the manufacture of his jinrikisha; and as it was both comfortable and handy, his shop was soon flooded with orders. Akiba, after making a fortune by the vehicle, died in 1894. An ex-official of the Tokugawa Government was the first to apply the calash-top to the jinrikisha. The body of the vehicle was at first lacquered black, yellow, crimson, or green and adorned in addition with highly coloured representations of famous sceneries, warriors, actors, women, birds, beasts, fish, trees, or arabesques. In a corner of the back was given the owner’s name with his address in full. But of late these glaring pictures have gone out of fashion; and generally only the owner’s crest is painted in gold on sober background.
The rapidity with which the jinrikisha has come into wide use is attributable to its superiority in speed and comfort to the old palanquin, which it has entirely superseded except in mountainous districts. It is far more extensively patronised on account of its lower fares. This supersession of the palanquin by the jinrikisha was greatly facilitated by the similarity in the modes of life of the palanquin-bearer and the jinrikisha-man, which enabled the former to turn into the latter without the least difficulty; and a majority of palanquin-bearers, on finding that their occupation was doomed to decay, readily took to the two-wheeler. It is highly probable that, but for the palanquin-bearer, the new vehicle would not have enjoyed such sudden and extensive popularity. Like his prototype, the jinrikisha-man waits at the street-corner and solicits passers-by very importunately, though in contravention of the
