Japanese census takers, nosing around in the northern mountains of their country, discovered a village, unmentioned by maps, containing 152 inhabitants, none of whom had ever heard of the outside world. They wore clothes of a style fashionable in Japan centuries ago. Their teeth were blackened for beauty; they ate only fruit and vegetables. Archaeologists calculated that they must be descendants of a clan called Heike which was driven into the mountains in the 11th Century by Genji, amorous but warlike royal bastard, whose biography* has lately been appearing in English, translated by...
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