THE WRESTLER AND HIS RING.
33
ENTRANCE TO THE WRESTLING BOOTH AT EKOIN.
CHAPTER II.
The Wrestler and His Ring.
en are easily caught by external appearances, and the Japanese are no exceptions. When Japan first entered upon her course of Occidental civilisation, she was most attracted by its material phase; and in the same manner the individual Japanese, as a first step towards Europeanisation, took to European clothes, as if they considered European civilisation to be of exogenous growth or a mere cutaneous affection. European clothes which were at first assumed chiefly by Government officials extended to other classes and sprang into such fashion in 1887 that even shop boys were seen to wear them. Since that year, however, a
