Note 30 — Chapter XXXVII

In his account of his second visit to Yedo, a year later, Kämpfer gives the following account of this second audience: “Soon after we came in, and had, after the usual observances, seated ourselves in the place assigned us, Bingo-sama welcomed us in the emperor’s name, and then desired us to sit upright, to take off our cloaks, to tell him our names and age, to stand up, to walk, to turn about, to sing songs, to compliment one another, to be angry, to invite one another to dinner, to converse one with another, to discourse in a familiar way like father and son, to show how two friends or man and wife compliment or take leave of one another, to play with children, to carry them about in our arms, and to do many more things of a like nature. They made us kiss one another like man and wife, which the ladies, by their laughter, showed themselves to be particularly well pleased with. It was already four in the afternoon when we left the hall of audience, after having been exercised after this manner for two hours and a half.”