“Japan As It Was and Is”, Volume II

CHAPTER XXXII

“To accommodate travellers, there is, in all the chief villages and hamlets, a post-house, belonging to the lord of the place, where, at all times, they may find horses, porters, footmen, etc., in readiness, at certain settled prices. Travellers, of all ranks and qualities, with their retinues, resort to these post-houses, which lie at from six to sixteen English miles distance from each other, but are, generally speaking, not so good nor so well furnished upon Kiūshiū as upon the great island Nippon, where we came to fifty-six in going from Ōsaka to Yedo. These post-houses are not built for inn-keeping, but only for stabling and exchange of horses, for which reason there is a spacious court belonging to each; also clerks and bookkeepers enough, who keep accounts, in their master’s name, of all the daily occurrences. The price of all such things as are to be hired at these post-houses is settled, not only according to distances, but with regard to the goodness or badness of the roads, to the price of victuals, forage, and the like. One post-house with another, a horse to ride on, with two portmantles and an atotsuke, may be had for eight sen a mile. A horse, which is only saddled, and hath neither men nor baggage to carry, will cost six sen; porters and kago-men, five sen, and so on.

“Messengers are waiting, day and night, at all these post-houses, to carry the letters, edicts, proclamations, etc., of the emperor and the princes of the empire, which they take up the moment they are delivered at the post-house, and carry to the next with all speed. They are kept in a small, black varnished box, bearing the coat of arms of the emperor or prince who sends them, which the messenger carries upon his shoulder, tied to a small staff. Two of these messengers always run together, that in case any accident should befall either of them upon the road, the other may take his place, and deliver the box at the next post-house. All travellers, even the princes of the empire and their retinues, must retire out of the way and give a free passage to the messengers who carry letters or orders from the emperor, which they take care to signify at a due distance by ringing a small bell.

“There are inns enough, and tolerable good ones, all along the road. The best are in those villages where there are post-houses. At these even princes and princely retinues may be conveniently lodged, treated suitably to their rank, and provided with all necessaries. Like other well-built houses, they are but one story high, or, if there be two stories, the second is low, and good for little else but stowage. The inns are not broader in front than other houses, but considerably deep, sometimes forty ken, or two hundred and forty feet, with a Tsubo—that is, a small pleasure-garden—behind, enclosed with a neat white wall. The front hath only lattice windows, which, in the daytime, are kept open. The folding screens and movable partitions which divide the several apartments, unless there be some man of quality with his retinue at that time lodged there, are also so disposed as to lay open to travellers, as they go along, a very agreeable perspective view across the whole house into the garden behind. The floor is raised about three feet above the level of the street, and by jetting out, both towards the street and garden, forms a sort of gallery, which is covered with a roof, and on which travellers pass their time, diverting themselves with sitting or walking. From it, also, they mount their horses, for fear of dirtying their feet by mounting in the street.

“In some great inns there is a passage, contrived for the conveniency of people of quality, that, coming out of their norimono, they may walk directly to their apartments, without being obliged to pass through the fore part of the house, which is commonly not over clean, and makes but an indifferent figure, being covered with poor, sorry mats, and the rooms divided only by ordinary screens. The kitchen is in this fore part of the house, and often fills it with smoke, as they have no chimneys, but only a hole in the roof to let the smoke through. Here foot travellers and ordinary people live, among the servants. People of fashion are accommodated in the back part of the house, which is kept clean and neat to admiration. Not the least spot is to be seen upon the walls, floors, carpets, window screens, in short, nowhere in the room, which looks as if it were quite new, and but newly furnished. There are no tables, chairs, benches, or other furniture in these rooms. They are only adorned with some Miseratsie (?), of which more presently, put into or hung up in the rooms, for travellers to amuse their leisure by examining, which, indeed, some of them very well deserve. The Tsubo, or garden behind the house, is also very curiously kept, for travellers to divert themselves with walking in it, and beholding the beautiful flowers it is commonly adorned with.

“The rooms in Japanese houses have seldom more than one blank wall, which is plastered with clay of Ōsaka, a good fine sort, and so left bare, without any other ornament. It is so thin that the least kick would break it to pieces. On all other sides the room has either windows or folding-screens, which slide in grooves, as occasion requires. The lower groove is cut in a sill, which runs even with the mats, and the upper one in a beam, which comes down two or three feet from the ceiling. The beams in which the grooves run are plastered with clay of Ōsaka. The ceiling, to show the curious running of the veins and grain of the wood, is sometimes only covered with a thin, slight layer of a transparent varnish. Sometimes they paste it over with the same sort of variously colored and flowered paper of which their screens are made. The paper windows, which let light into the room, have wooden shutters on both sides, taken off in the daytime, but put on at night.

“In the solid wall of the room there is always a Toko, as they call it, or sort of cupboard, raised about a foot or more above the floor, and very near two feet deep. It commonly stands in that part of the wall which is just opposite to the door, that being reckoned the most honorable. Just before this toko two extraordinarily fine mats are laid, one upon the other, and both upon the ordinary mats which cover the floor. These are for people of the first quality to sit upon, for, upon the arrival of travellers of less note, they are removed out of the way. At the side of the toko is a Tokowaki, as they call it, or side cupboard, with some few shelves which serve the landlord or travellers, if they please, to lay their most esteemed book upon, they holding it, as the Mahometans do their Alcoran, too sacred to be laid on the ground. Upon the arrival of the Dutch, this sacred book of the landlord is put out of the way. Above is a drawer, where they put up the inkhorn, paper, writings, books, and other things of this kind. Here, also, travellers find sometimes the wooden box which the natives use at night, instead of a pillow. It is almost cubical, hollow, and made of six thin boards joined together, curiously varnished, smoothed, and very neat, about a span long, but not quite so broad, that travellers by turning it may lay their head in that posture which they find the most easy.[1] Besides this wooden pillow, travellers have no other bedding to expect from the landlord, and must carry their own along with them or lie on the mats, covering themselves with their clothes. In that side of the room next to the toko is commonly a balcony, serving the person lodged in this, the chief room, to look out upon the neighboring garden, fields, or water, without stirring from the carpets placed below the toko.

“Beneath the floor, which is covered with fine, well-stuffed mats, is a square walled hole, which, in the winter season, after having first removed the mats, they fill with ashes and lay coals upon them to keep the room warm. The landladies in their room put a low table upon this fire-hole, and spread a large carpet or tablecloth over it, for people to sit underneath, and to defend themselves against the cold. In rooms where there are no fire-holes they use in the winter brass or earthen pots, very artfully made, and filled with ashes, with two iron sticks, which serve instead of fire-tongs, much after the same manner as they use two other small sticks at table instead of forks.

“I come now to the above mentioned Miseratsie (?), as they call them, being curious and amusing ornaments of their rooms. In our journey to court I took notice of the following: 1. A paper neatly bordered with a rich piece of embroidery, instead of a frame, either with the picture of a saint done apparently with a coarse pencil, and in a few, perhaps three or four, strokes, wherein, however, the proportions and resemblance have been so far observed, that scarce anybody can miss finding out whom it was designed to represent, nor help admiring the ingenuity and skill of the master; or else a judicious moral sentence of some noted philosopher or poet, writ with his own hand, or the hand of some noted writing-master, who had a mind to show his skill by a few hasty strokes or characters, indifferent enough at first sight, but nevertheless very ingeniously drawn, and such as will afford sufficient matter of amusement and speculation to a curious and attentive spectator; and, lest anybody should call their being genuine in question, they are commonly signed, not only by the writing-masters themselves, but have the hands and seals of some other witnesses put to them. They are hung up nowhere else but in the toko, as the most honorable place of the room, and this because the Japanese set a great value upon them.

2. “Pictures of Chinese, as also of birds, trees, landskips, and other things, upon white screens, done by some eminent master, or rather scratched with a few hasty, affected strokes, after such a manner that, unless seen at a proper distance, they scarce appear natural.

3. “A flower-vase filled with all sorts of curious flowers, and green branches of trees, such as the season affords, curiously ranged according to the rules of art, it being as much an art in this country to arrange a flower-vase as it is in Europe to carve, or to lay a table.[2] Sometimes there is, instead, a perfuming-pan, of excellent good workmanship, cast in brass or copper, resembling a crane, lion, dragon, or other strange animal. I took notice once that there was an earthen pot of Cologne, such as is used to keep Spauwater in, with all the cracks and fissures carefully mended, used in lieu of a flower-vase, it being esteemed a very great rarity, because of the distant place it came from, the clay it was made of, and its uncommon shape.

4. “Some strange, uncommon pieces of wood, wherein the colors and grain either naturally run after a curious and unusual manner, or have been brought by art to represent something.

5. “Some neat and beautiful network, adorning either the balcony and windows towards the garden, or the tops of the doors, screens, and partitions of the chief apartments.

6. “A bunch of a tree, or a piece of a rotten root, or of an old stump, remarkable for their monstrous deformed shape.

“After this manner the chief and back apartments are furnished in great inns, and houses of substantial people. The other rooms gradually decrease in cleanliness, neatness, and delicacy of furniture; the screens, windows, mats, and other ornaments and household goods, after they have for some time adorned the chief apartments, and begin to be spotted and to grow old, being removed into the other rooms successively, there to be quite worn out. The chief of the other rooms is that where they keep their plate, china ware, and other household goods, ranged upon the floor in curious order, according to their size, shape, and use. Most of these are made of wood, thin, but strongly varnished, the greatest part upon a dark red ground. They are washed with warm water every time they have been used, and wiped clean with a cloth; by which means they will, though constantly used, keep clean and neat, and in their full lustre for several years.

A Scene in a Tea Garden

“The small gallery or walk which jets out from the house towards the garden leads to the house of office and to a bathing-stove, or hot-house. The house of office is built on one side of the back part of the house, and hath two doors to go in. Not far off stands a basin filled with water to wash your hands, commonly an oblong, rough stone, the upper part curiously cut out into the form of a basin. A new pail of bamboo hangs near it, and is covered with a neat fir or cypress board, to which they put a new handle every time it hath been used, to wit, a fresh stick of the bamboo cane, it being a very clean sort of a wood, and in a manner naturally varnished. The bathing-place, commonly built on the back side of the garden, contains either a hot-house to sweat in, or a warm bath, and sometimes both. It is made warm and got ready every evening, because the Japanese usually bathe or sweat after their day’s journey is over, thinking by this means to refresh themselves, and to sweat off their weariness. As they can undress themselves in an instant, so they are ready at a minute’s warning to go into it; for they need but untie their sash, and all their clothes fall down at once, leaving them quite naked, excepting a small band which they wear close to the body about their waist. Their hot-house, which they go into only to sweat, is an almost cubical trunk, or stove, raised about three feet above the ground, and built close to the wall of the bathing-place, on the outside,—not quite six feet high, but about nine feet long, and of the same breadth. The floor is laid with small planed laths or planks, some few inches distant from each other, both for the easy passage of the rising vapors and the convenient outlet of the water. You go, or rather creep in, through a small door or shutter. There are two other shutters, one on each side, to let out the superfluous vapor. The empty space beneath, down to the ground, is enclosed with a wall to prevent the vapors from getting out on the sides. Towards the yard, just beneath the hot-house, is a furnace, part of which stands out towards the yard, where they put in the necessary water and plants. This part is shut with a clapboard when the fire is burning, to make all the vapors ascend through the inner and open part into the hot-house. There are always two tubs, one of warm, the other of cold water, for such as have a mind to wash themselves.

“The garden is the only place in which we Dutchmen, being treated in all respects little better than prisoners, have liberty to walk. It is commonly square, with a back door, and walled in very neatly. There are few good houses or inns without one. If there be not room enough for a garden, they have at least an old ingrafted plum, cherry, or apricot tree; and the older, the more crooked and monstrous, the greater value they put upon it. Sometimes they let the branches grow into the rooms. In order to make it bear larger flowers and in greater quantity, they trim it to a few, perhaps two or three, branches. It cannot be denied but that the great number of beautiful, incarnadine double flowers are a curious ornament to this back part of the house, but they have this disadvantage, that they bear no fruit. In some small houses and inns of less note, where there is not room enough neither for a garden nor trees, they have at least an opening or window, to let the light fall into the back rooms, before which, for the amusement and diversion of travellers, is put a small tub full of water, wherein they commonly keep alive some gold or silver fish; and for further ornament there is generally a flower-pot or two standing there. Sometimes they plant dwarf trees, which will grow easily upon pumice or other porous stones, without any earth at all, provided the root be put into the water, whence it will suck up sufficient nourishment. Ordinary people often plant the same kind of trees before their street-doors.

“But to return to the Tsubo, or garden. A good one must include at least thirty feet square, and consist of the following essential parts: 1. The ground is covered partly with roundish stones of different colors, gathered in rivers or upon the sea-shore, well washed and cleaned, and those of the same kind, laid together in form of beds, partly with gravel which is swept every day, and kept clean and neat to admiration, the large stones being laid in the middle as a path to walk upon without injuring the gravel, the whole in a seeming but ingenious confusion. 2. Some few flower-bearing shrubs planted confusedly, though not without some certain rules. Amidst them stands sometimes a Saguer (?), as they call it, or scarce outlandish tree, sometimes a dwarf tree or two. 3. A small rock or hill in a corner of the garden, made in imitation of nature, curiously adorned with birds and insects cast in brass, and placed between the stones. Sometimes the model of a temple stands upon it, built, as for the sake of the prospect they generally are, on a remarkable eminence or the borders of a precipice. Often a small rivulet rushes down the stones with an agreeable noise, the whole in due proportions and as near as possible resembling nature. 4. A small thicket or wood on the side of the hill, for which the gardeners choose such trees as will grow close to one another, and plant and cut them according to their largeness, nature, and the color of their flowers and leaves, so as to make the whole very accurately imitate a natural wood or forest. 5. A cistern or pond, as mentioned above, with live fish kept in it, and surrounded with proper plants, that is, such as love a watery soil, and would lose their beauty and greenness if planted in a dry ground. It is a particular profession to lay out these gardens, and to keep them so curiously and nicely as they ought to be.

“There are innumerable smaller inns, cook-shops, sake, or ale-houses, pastry-cooks’ and confectioners’ shops, all along the road, even in the midst of woods and forests, and at the tops of mountains, where a weary foot-traveller, and the meaner sort of people, find at all times, for a few sen, something warm to eat, or hot tea, or sake, or somewhat else of the kind, wherewith to refresh themselves. ’Tis true these cook-shops are but poor, sorry houses, if compared to larger inns, being inhabited only by poor people, who have enough to do to get a livelihood by this trade; and yet, even in these, there is always something or other to amuse passengers, and to draw them in; sometimes a garden and orchard behind the house, which is seen from the street, looking through the passage, and which, by its beautiful flowers, or the agreeable sight of a stream of clear water, falling down from a neighboring natural or artificial hill, or by some other curious ornament of this kind, tempts people to come in and repose themselves. At other times a large flower-pot stands in the window, filled with flowering branches of trees, disposed in a very curious manner. Sometimes a handsome, well-looking housemaid, or a couple of young girls, well dressed, stand under the door, and with great civility invite people to come in, and to buy something. The eatables, such as cakes, or whatever it be, are kept before the fire, in an open room, sticking to skewers of bamboos, so that passengers, as they go along, may take them and pursue their journey without stopping. The landladies, cooks, and maids, as soon as they see anybody coming at a distance, blow up the fire, to make it look as if the victuals had been just got ready. Some busy themselves with making the tea, others prepare soup, others fill cups with sake or other liquors, to present them to passengers, all the while talking and chattering, and commending their merchandise with a voice loud enough to be heard by their next neighbors of the same profession.

“The eatables sold at these cook-shops, besides tea, and sometimes sake, are manjū, a sort of round cakes, which they learned to make from the Portuguese, as big as common hens’ eggs, and filled within with black-bean flour and sugar; cakes of the jelly of a root found upon mountains, and cut into round slices, like carrots, and roasted; snails, oysters, shell-fish, and other small fish, roasted, boiled, or pickled; Chinese laxa, a thin sort of pap, or paste, made of fine wheat flour, cut into small, thin, long slices, and baked; all sorts of plants, roots, and sprigs which the season affords, washed and boiled in water with salt; innumerable other dishes peculiar to this country, made of seeds, powdered roots, and vegetables, boiled or baked, dressed in many different ways.

“The common sauce for these and other dishes is a little soy, as they call it, mixed with sake, or the beer of the country. Sanshō leaves are laid upon the dish for ornament, and sometimes thin slices of fine ginger and lemon peel. Sometimes they put powdered ginger, sanshō, or the powder of some root growing in the country, into the soup. They are also provided with sweetmeats, of several different colors and sorts, which, generally speaking, are far more agreeable to the eye than pleasing to the taste, being but indifferently sweetened with sugar, and so tough that one must have good teeth to chew them. Foot travellers find it set down in their printed road-books, which they always carry about them, where and at what price the best victuals of the kind are to be got.

“Tea (since most travellers drink scarce anything else upon the road) is sold at all the inns and cook-shops, besides many tea-booths set up for this trade alone, in the midst of fields and woods, and at the stop of mountains. The tea sold at all these places is but a coarse sort, being only the largest leaves, which remain upon the shrub after the youngest and tenderest have been plucked off, at two different times, for the use of people of fashion, who constantly drink it, before or after their meals. These larger leaves are not rolled up and curled, as the better sort of tea is, but simply roasted in a pan, and continually stirred whilst they are roasting, lest they should get a burnt taste. When they are done enough, they put them by in straw baskets, under the roof of the house, near the place where the smoke comes out. They are not a bit nicer in preparing it for drinking, for they commonly take a good handful of the tea leaves, and boil them in a large iron kettle full of water. The leaves are sometimes put into a small bag; but, if not, they have a little basket swimming in the kettle, which they make use of to keep the leaves down, when they have a mind to take out some of the clear decoction. Half a cup of this decoction is mixed with cold water, when travellers ask for it. Tea thus prepared smells and tastes like lye—the leaves it is made of, besides that they are of a very bad sort, being seldom less than a year old; and yet the Japanese esteem it much more healthful for daily use than the young, tender leaves, prepared after the Chinese manner, which they say affect the head too strongly, though even these lose a great part of their narcotic quality when boiled.”[3]

CHAPTER XXXIII

“It is scarce credible,” says Kämpfer, “what numbers of people daily travel in this country; and I can assure the reader, from my own experience, having passed it four times, that Tōkaidō, which is, indeed, the most frequented of the seven great roads in Japan, is upon some days more crowded than the public streets in any of the most populous towns in Europe. This is owing partly to the country’s being extremely populous, partly to the frequent journeys which the natives undertake, oftener than perhaps any other people.

“It is the duty of the princes and lords of the empire, as also of the governors of the imperial cities and crown lands, to go to court once a year to pay their homage and respect. They are attended, going up and returning, by their whole court, and travel with a pomp and magnificence becoming as well their own quality and riches as the majesty of the powerful monarch whom they are going to see. The train of some of the most eminent fills up the road for some days. Though we travelled pretty fast, yet we often met the baggage and fore-runners, consisting of the servants and inferior officers, for two days together, dispersed in several troops, and the prince himself followed but the third day, attended with his numerous court, all marching in admirable order. The retinue of one of the chief Daimiōs, as they are called, is computed to amount to about twenty thousand men, more or less; that of a Shōmiō to about ten thousand; that of a governor of the imperial cities and crown lands to from one to several hundreds, according to his quality or revenues.[4]

“If two or more of these princes and lords should chance to travel the same road at the same time, they would prove a great hindrance to one another, particularly if they should happen to meet at the same post-house or village; to prevent which it is usual for great princes and lords to bespeak the several post-houses by which they are to pass, with all the inns, those of the first quality a month, others a week or two, before their arrival. The time of their intended arrival is also notified in all the cities, villages, and hamlets, by putting up small boards on high poles of bamboo, signifying in a few characters what day of the month such or such a lord will be at that village, to dine or sleep there.

A Native Postman;

Toko-no-ma

“Numerous troops of fore-runners, harbingers, clerks, cooks, and other inferior officers go before to provide lodgings, victuals, and other things necessary for the entertainment of their prince and master, and his court. They are followed by the prince’s heavy baggage, packed up either in small trunks, as already described, and carried upon horses, each with a banner, bearing the coat of arms and the name of the possessor, or else in large chests, covered with red lackered leather, again with the possessor’s coat of arms, and carried upon men’s shoulders, with multitudes of inspectors to look after them. Next come great numbers of smaller retinues, belonging to the chief officers and noblemen attending the prince, with pikes, scymetars, bows and arrows, umbrellas, palanquins, led horses, and other marks of their grandeur, suitable to their birth, quality, and office. Some of these are carried in norimono, others in kago, and others go on horseback.

“The prince’s own numerous train, marching in an admirable and curious order, is divided into several troops, each headed by a proper commanding officer, as, 1. Five, more or less, fine horses, each led by two grooms, one on each side, two footmen walking behind. 2. Five or six, and sometimes more, porters, richly clad, walking one by one, and carrying lackered chests, and japanned neat trunks and baskets, upon their shoulders, wherein are kept the wearing apparel and other necessaries for the daily use of the prince, each porter attended by two footmen. 3. Ten or more fellows, walking one by one, and carrying rich scymetars, pikes of state, fire-arms, and other weapons, in lackered wooden cases, as, also, quivers with bows and arrows. Sometimes, for magnificence sake, there are more chest-bearers and led horses following this troop. 4. Two, three, or more men, who carry pikes of state, as the badges of the prince’s power and authority, adorned at the upper end with bunches of cock feathers, or other ornaments peculiar to such or such a prince. They walk one by one, and are attended each by two footmen. 5. A gentleman, attended by two footmen, carrying the prince’s hat, worn as a shelter from the heat of the sun, and which is covered with black velvet. 6. A gentleman carrying the prince’s sombrero, or umbrella, which is covered in like manner with black velvet, this person also attended by two footmen. 7. Some more bearers of trunks, covered with varnished leather, with the prince’s coat of arms upon them, each with two men to take care of it. 8. Sixteen, more or less, of the prince’s pages, and gentlemen of his bed-chamber, taken out from among the first quality of his court, richly clad, and walking two and two before his norimono. 9. The prince himself, sitting in a stately norimono, carried by six or eight men, clad in rich liveries, with several others walking at the norimono’s sides, to take it up by turns; also, two or three gentlemen of the prince’s bed-chamber, to give him what he wants and asks for, and to assist and support him in getting in or out. 10. Two or three horses of state, the saddles covered with black. One of these horses carries a large elbow-chair, which is sometimes covered with black velvet. These horses are attended each by several grooms and footmen in liveries, and some are led by the prince’s own pages. 11. Two pike-bearers. 12. Ten or more people, carrying each two baskets of a monstrous size, fixed to the ends of a pole, which they lay on their shoulders in such a manner that one basket hangs down before and the other behind them. These baskets are more for state than for any use. Sometimes some chest-bearers walk among them, to increase the troop. In this order marches the prince’s own train, which is followed by six to twelve led horses with their leaders, grooms, and footmen, all in liveries. The procession is closed by a multitude of the prince’s domestics and other officers of his court, with their own numerous trains and attendants, pike-bearers, chest-bearers, and footmen, in liveries. Some of these are carried in kago, and the whole troop is headed by the prince’s high-steward, carried in a norimono. If one of the prince’s sons accompanies his father in this journey to court, he follows with his own train immediately after his father’s norimono.

“It is a sight exceedingly curious and worthy of admiration, to see all the persons who compose the numerous train of a great prince, clad, the pike-bearers, the norimono-men and livery-men only excepted, in black silk, marching in an elegant order, with a decent, becoming gravity, and keeping so profound a silence that not the least noise is to be heard, save what must necessarily arise from the motion and rushing of their dresses, and the trampling of the horses and men. On the other hand, it appears ridiculous to an European to see all the pike-bearers and norimono-men, with their clothes tucked up above their waists, exposing their nakedness to the spectators’ view, with only a piece of cloth about their loins. What appears still more old and whimsical is to see the pages, pike-bearers, umbrella and hat bearers, chest-bearers, and all the footmen in liveries, affect, when they pass through some remarkable town, or by the train of another prince or lord, a strange mimic march or dance. Every step they make, they draw up one foot quite to their backs, stretching out the arm on the opposite side as far as they can, and putting themselves in such a posture as if they had a mind to swim through the air. Meanwhile the pikes, hats, umbrellas, chests, boxes, baskets, and whatever else they carry are danced and tossed about in a very singular manner, answering to the motion of their bodies. The norimono-men, who have their sleeves tied with a string as near the shoulders as possible, so as to leave their arms naked, carry the pole of the norimono either upon their shoulders, or else upon the palms of their hands, holding it above their heads. Whilst they hold it up with one arm, they stretch out the other, putting the hand into a horizontal posture, whereby, and by their short, deliberate steps and stiff knees, they affect a ridiculous fear and circumspection. If the prince steps out of his norimono into one of the green huts which are purposely built for him at convenient distances on the road, or if he goes into a private house, either to drink a dish of tea or for any other purpose, he always leaves a koban with the landlord as a reward for his trouble. At dinner or supper the expense is much greater.

“All the pilgrims who go to Ise, whatever province of the empire they come from, must travel over part of this great road. This pilgrimage is made at all times of the year, but particularly in the spring, at which season vast multitudes of these pilgrims are seen upon the roads. The Japanese of both sexes, young and old, rich and poor, undertake this meritorious journey, generally speaking, on foot, in order to obtain, at this holy place, indulgences and remission of their sins. Some of these pilgrims are so poor that they must live wholly upon what they get by begging. On this account, and by reason of their great number, they are exceedingly troublesome to the princes and lords who at that time of the year go to court, or come thence, though otherwise they address themselves in a very civil manner, bareheaded, and with a low, submissive voice, saying, ‘Great Lord, be pleased to give the poor pilgrim a zeni, towards the expense of his journey to Ise,’ or words to that effect. Of all the Japanese, the inhabitants of Yedo and the province Oshū are the most inclined to this pilgrimage. Children, if apprehensive of severe punishment for their misdemeanors, will run away from their parents and go to Ise, thence to fetch an Oharai, or indulgence, which upon their return is deemed a sufficient expiation of their crimes, and a sure means to reconcile them to their friends. Multitudes of these pilgrims are obliged to pass whole nights lying in the open fields, exposed to all the injuries of wind and weather, some for want of room in inns, others out of poverty; and of these last many are found dead upon the road, in which case their Oharai, if they have any about them, is carefully taken up and hid in the next tree or bush.

“Others make this pilgrimage in a comical and merry way, drawing people’s eyes upon them as well as getting their money. They form themselves into companies, generally of four persons, clad in white linen, after the fashion of the Kuge, or persons of the holy ecclesiastical court of the Dairi. Two of them walking a grave, slow, deliberate pace, and standing often still, carry a large barrow, adorned and hung about with fir-branches and cut white paper, on which they place a resemblance of a large bell, made of light substance, or a kettle, or something else, alluding to some old romantic history of their gods and ancestors; whilst a third, with a commander’s staff in his hand, adorned, out of respect to his office, with a bunch of white paper, walks, or rather dances, before the barrow, singing with a dull, heavy voice, a song relating to the subject they are about to represent. Meanwhile, the fourth goes begging before the houses, or addresses himself to charitable travellers, and receives and keeps the money which is given them. Their day’s journeys are so short that they can easily spend the whole summer upon such an expedition.

“The Junrei, another remarkable sight travellers meet with upon the roads, are people who go to visit in pilgrimage the thirty-three chief Kwannon temples, which lie dispersed throughout the empire. They commonly travel two or three together, singing a miserable Kwannon-song from house to house, and sometimes playing upon a fiddle, or upon a guitar, as vagabond beggars do in Germany. However, they do not importune travellers for their charity. They have the names of such Kwannon temples as they have not yet visited writ upon a small board hanging about their necks. They are clad in white, after a very singular fashion, peculiar only to this sect. Some people like so well to ramble about the country after this manner that they will apply themselves to no other trade and profession, but choose to end their days in this perpetual pilgrimage.

“Sometimes one meets with very odd sights; as, for instance, people running naked along the roads in the hardest frosts, wearing only a little straw about their waists. These people generally undertake so extraordinary and troublesome a journey to visit certain temples, pursuant to religious vows, which they promised to fulfil in case they should obtain, from the bounty of their gods, deliverance from some fatal distemper, they themselves, their parents or relations, labor under, or from some other great misfortunes they were threatened with. They live very poorly and miserably upon the road, receive no charity, and proceed on their journey by themselves, almost perpetually running.

“Multitudes of beggars crowd the roads in all parts of the empire, but particularly on the so much frequented Tōkaidō, among them many lusty young fellows, who shave their heads. To this shaved begging tribe belongs a certain remarkable religious order of young girls, called Bikuni, which is as much as to say, nuns. They live under the protection of the nunneries at Kamakura and Miyako, to which they pay a certain sum a year, of what they get by begging, as an acknowledgment of their authority. They are, in my opinion, by much the handsomest girls we saw in Japan. The daughters of poor parents, if they be handsome and agreeable, apply for and easily obtain this privilege of begging in the habit of nuns, knowing that beauty is one of the most persuasive inducements to generosity. The Yamabushi, or begging mountain priests (of whom more hereafter), frequently incorporate their own daughters into this religious order, and take their wives from among these Bikuni. Some of them have been bred up as courtesans, and having served their time, buy the privilege of entering into this religious order, therein to spend the remainder of their youth and beauty. They live two or three together, and make an excursion every day some few miles from their dwelling-house. They particularly watch people of fashion, who travel in norimono, or in kago, or on horseback. As soon as they perceive somebody coming, they draw near and address themselves, though not all together, but singly, every one accosting a gentleman by herself singing a rural song; and if he proves very liberal and charitable, she will keep him company and divert him for some hours. As, on the one hand, very little religious blood seems to circulate in their veins, so, on the other, it doth not appear that they labor under any considerable degree of poverty. It is true, indeed, they conform themselves to the rules of their order, by shaving their heads, but they take care to cover and to wrap them up in caps or hoods made of black silk. They go decently and neatly dressed, after the fashion of ordinary people. They wear also a large hat to cover their faces, which are often painted, and to shelter themselves from the heat of the sun. They commonly have a shepherd’s rod or hook in their hands. Their voice, gestures, and apparent behavior, are neither too bold and daring, nor too much dejected and affected, but free, comely, and seemingly modest. However, not to extol their modesty beyond what it deserves, it must be observed, that they make nothing of laying their bosoms quite bare to the view of charitable travellers, all the while they keep them company, under pretence of its being customary in the country; and, for aught I know, they may be, though never so religiously shaved, full as impudent and lascivious as any public courtesan.

“Another religious begging order is that of Yamabushi, as they are commonly called; that is, the mountain priests, or rather Yamabu, mountain soldiers, because at all times they go armed with swords and scymetars. They do not shave their heads, but follow the rules of the first founder of this order, who mortified his body by climbing up steep, high mountains; at least, they conform themselves thereunto in their dress, apparent behavior, and some outward ceremonies; for they are fallen short of his rigorous way of life. They have a head, or general, of their order, residing at Miyako, to whom they are obliged to bring a certain sum of money every year, and who has the distribution of dignities and of titles, whereby they are known among themselves. They commonly live in the neighborhood of some famous Kami temple, and accost travellers in the name of that Kami which is worshipped there, making a short discourse of his holiness and miracles, with a loud, coarse voice. Meanwhile, to make the noise still louder, they rattle their long staffs, loaded at the upper end with iron rings, to take up the charity money which is given them; and last of all, they blow a trumpet made of a large shell. They carry their children along with them upon the same begging errand, clad like their fathers, but with their heads shaved. Those little bastards are exceedingly troublesome and importunate with travellers, and commonly take care to light on them, as they are going up some hill or mountain, where, because of the difficult ascent, they cannot well escape, nor indeed otherwise get rid of them without giving them something. In some places they and their fathers accost travellers in company with a troop of Bikuni, and, with their rattling, singing, trumpeting, chattering, and crying, make such a frightful noise as would make one almost mad or deaf. These mountain priests are frequently applied to by superstitious people for conjuring, fortune-telling, foretelling future events, recovering lost goods, and the like purposes. They profess themselves to be of the Kami religion, as established of old, and yet they are never suffered to attend, or to take care of, any of the Kami temples.

“There are many more beggars travellers meet with along the roads. Some of these are old, and, in all appearance, honest men, who, the better to prevail upon people to part with their charity, are shaved and clad after the fashion of the Butsudō [Buddhist] priests. Sometimes there are two of them standing together, each with a small, oblong book before him. This book contains part of their Hōkekyō, or Bible, printed in the significant or learned language.[5] However, I would not have the reader think, as if they themselves had any understanding in that language, or know how to read the book placed before them. They only learn some part of it by heart, and speak it aloud, looking towards the book, as if they did actually read in it, and expecting something from their hearers, as a reward for their trouble.

“Others are found sitting near some river, or running water, making a Segaki,—a certain ceremony for the relief of departed souls. This Segaki is made after the following manner: They take a green branch of the Hana Shikimi tree, and, murmuring certain words with a low voice, wash and scour it with some shavings of wood, whereon they had written the names of some deceased persons. This they believe to contribute greatly to relieve and refresh the departed souls confined in purgatory; and, for aught I know, it may answer that purpose full as well as any number of masses, as they are celebrated to the same end in Roman Catholic countries. Any person that hath a mind to purchase the benefit of this washing, for himself or his relations and friends, throws a zeni upon the mat, which is spread out near the beggar, who does not so much as offer to return him any manner of thanks for it, thinking his art and devotion deserve still better; besides that, it is not customary amongst beggars of note to thank people for their charity. Any one who hath learned the proper ceremonies necessary to make the Segaki is at liberty to do it.

“Others of this tribe, who make up far the greater part, sit upon the road all day long upon a small, coarse mat. They have a flat bell, like a broad mortar, lying before them, and do nothing else but repeat, with a lamentable singing tune, the word Namida, which is contracted from Namu Amida Butsu, a short form of prayer wherewith they address Amida as the patron and advocate of departed souls. Meanwhile they beat almost continually with a small wooden hammer upon the aforesaid bell, and this, they say, in order to be the sooner heard by Amida, and, I am apt to think, not without an intent, too, to be the better taken notice of by passengers.

“Another sort we met with as we went along were differently clad, some in an ecclesiastical, others in a secular habit. These stood in the fields, next to the road, and commonly had a sort of altar standing before them, upon which they placed the idol of their Briaréus, or Kwannon, as they call him, carved in wood and gilt; or the pictures of some other idols, scurvily done, as, for instance, the picture of Amida, the supreme judge of departed souls; of Emma, or the head-keeper of the prison, whereunto the condemned souls are confined; of Jizō, or the supreme commander in the purgatory of children; and some others, wherewith, and by some representations of the flames and torments prepared for the wicked in a future world, they endeavor to stir up in passengers compassion and charity.

“Other beggars, and these, to all appearance, honest enough, are met sitting along the road, clad much after the same manner with the Kwannon beggars, with a Jizō staff in their hand. These have made vow not to speak during a certain time, and express their want and desire only by a sad, dejected, woeful countenance.[6]

“Not to mention numberless other common beggars, some sick, some stout and lusty enough, who get people’s charity by praying, singing, playing upon fiddles, guitars, and other musical instruments, or performing some juggler’s tricks, I will close the account of this vermin with an odd, remarkable sort of a beggar’s music, or rather chime of bells, we sometimes, but rarely, met with in our journey to court. A young boy, with a sort of a wooden machine pendent from his neck, and a rope, with eight strings about it, from which hang down eight bells, of different sounds, turns round in a circle, with a swiftness scarce credible, in such a manner that both the machine, which rests upon his shoulders, and the bells, turn round with him horizontally, the boy, in the meanwhile, with great dexterity and quickness, beating them with two hammers, makes a strange, odd sort of a melody. To increase the noise, two people sitting near him beat, one upon a large, the other upon a smaller drum. Those who are pleased with their performance throw them some zeni as they pass.[7]

“The crowd and throng upon the roads is not a little increased by numberless small retail merchants, and children of country people, who run about from morning to night, following travellers, and offering them for sale their poor, for the most part eatable, merchandise,—such as several cakes and sweetmeats, wherein the quantity of sugar is so inconsiderable that it is scarce perceptible, other cakes, of different sorts, made of flour, roots boiled in water and salt, road-books, straw shoes for horses and men, ropes, strings, toothpickers, and a multitude of other trifles, made of wood, straw, reed, and bamboos.

“Nor must I forget to take notice of the numberless wenches, the great and small inns, and the tea-booths and cook-shops in villages and hamlets are furnished withal. About noon, when they have done dressing and painting themselves, they make their appearance, standing under the door of the house, or sitting upon the small gallery around it, whence, with a smiling countenance and good words, they invite the travelling troops that pass by to call in at their inn, preferably to others. In some places, where there are several inns standing near one another, they make, with their chattering and rattling, no inconsiderable noise, and prove not a little troublesome.

“I cannot forbear mentioning in this place a small mistake of Mr. Caron, in his account of Japan, where he shows so tender a regard for the honor of the Japanese sex (perhaps out of respect to his lady, who was a Japan woman) as to assert that, except in the privileged houses devoted to it, this trade is not elsewhere carried on. It is unquestionably true that there is hardly a public inn upon the great island Nippon, but what is provided with courtesans, and if too many customers resort to one place, the neighboring inn-keepers will lend their wenches, on condition that what money they get shall be faithfully paid them. Nor is it a new custom come up but lately, or since Mr. Caron’s time. On the contrary, it is of very old date, and took its rise, as the Japanese say, many hundred years ago, in the times of that brave general and first secular monarch, Yoritomo, who, apprehensive lest his soldiers, weary of his long and tedious expeditions, and desirous to return home to their wives and children, should desert his army, thought it much more advisable to indulge them in this particular.”

CHAPTER XXXIV

“All the princes, lords, and vassals of the Japanese empire being obliged,” says Kämpfer, “to make their appearance at court once a year, it hath been determined by the emperor what time and what day they are to set out on their journey. The same is observed with regard to the Dutch, and the fifteenth or sixteenth day of the first Japanese month, which commonly falls in with the middle of our February, hath been fixed for our constant departure. Towards that time we get everything ready to set out, having first sent by sea, as already mentioned, to the city of Shimonoseki the presents we are to make, sorted and carefully packed, together with the other heavy baggage, and the victuals and kitchen furniture for our future travels. Three or four weeks after, and a few days before our departure, our president, attended with his usual train, goes to visit the two governors of Nagasaki, at their palaces, to take his leave of them, and to recommend the Dutch who remain in our factory to their favor and protection. The next day, all the goods and other things which must be carried along with us are marked—every bale or trunk—with a small board, whereupon is writ the possessor’s name, and the contents. The day of our departure, all the officers of our island, and all persons who are any ways concerned with our affairs, particularly the future companions of our voyage, come over to Deshima early in the morning. They are followed soon after by both governors, attended with their whole numerous court, or else by their deputies, who come to wish us a good journey. The governors—or their deputies—having been entertained as usual upon this occasion, and taken their leave, are by us accompanied out of our island, which is done commonly about nine in the morning, at which time, also, we set out on our journey. The Bugiō, or commander-in-chief, of our train, and the Dutch president, enter their norimono. The chief interpreter, if he be old, is carried in an ordinary kago; others mount on horseback, and the servants go a-foot. All the Japanese officers of our island, and several friends and acquaintances of our Japanese companions, keep us company out of the town so far as the next inn.

“Our train is not the same in the three several parts of our journey. Over the island Kiūshiū it may amount, with all the servants and footmen, as also the gentlemen whom the lords of the several provinces we pass through send to compliment us, and to keep us company during our stay in their dominions, to about an hundred persons. In our voyage by sea it is not much less, all the sailors and watermen taken in. In the last part, over the great island Nippon, from Ōsaka to Yedo, it is considerably greater, and consists of no less than an hundred and fifty people, and this, by reason of the presents and other goods which came from Nagasaki, as far as Ōsaka by sea, but must now be taken out and carried by land to Yedo, by horses and men.

In a Japanese Garden

“All our heavy baggage is commonly sent away some hours before we set out ourselves, lest it should be a hindrance to us, as, also, to give timely notice to our landlords of our arrival. We set out early in the morning, and, save only one hour for dinner, travel till evening, and sometimes till late at night, making from ten to thirteen Japanese leagues a day. In our voyage by sea we put into some harbor, and come to an anchor every night, advancing forty Japanese water-leagues a day at farthest.

“We are better treated, and more honorably received, in our journey over Kiūshiū than upon the great island Nippon, though everywhere we have much more civility shown us by the inhabitants of the cities and districts through which we pass, than by our Nagasakian companions and our own servants, who eat our bread and travel at our expense. In our journey across the island Kiūshiū we receive nearly the same honors and civility from the lords of the several provinces we pass through as they show to travelling princes and their retinues. The roads are swept and cleaned before us, and in cities and villages they are watered to lay the dust. The common people, laborers, and idle spectators, who are so very troublesome to travellers upon the great island Nippon, are kept out of the way, and the inhabitants of the houses on either side of the roads and streets see us go by, either sitting in the back part of their houses, or kneeling in the fore part, behind a screen, with great respect and in a profound silence. All the princes and lords whose dominions we are to pass through send one of their noblemen to compliment us, as soon as we enter upon their territories; but, as he is not suffered to address us in person, he makes his compliment in his master’s name to the Bugiō, or commander-in-chief of our train, and to the chief interpreter, offering, at the same time, what houses and men we want for us and our baggage. He likewise orders four footmen to walk by every Dutchman’s side, and two gentlemen of some note at his court, who are clad in black silk, with staffs in their hands, to precede the whole train. After this manner they lead us through their master’s territories, and, when we come to the limits thereof, the Japanese companions of our voyage are treated with sake and sakana, and so they take their leave. For our passage over the bays of Ōmura and Shimabara the lords of these two places lend us their own pleasure-barges and their own watermen besides that they furnish us with abundance of provisions, without expecting even so much as a small present in return for their civil and courteous behavior; and yet our thievish interpreters never miss to lay hold of this advantage, putting this article upon our accounts as if we had actually been at the expense; and they commonly put the money into their own pockets. In our whole journey from Nagasaki to Kokura, everybody we meet with shows us and our train that deference and respect which is due only to the princes and lords of the country. Private travellers, whether they travel on foot or on horseback, must retire out of the way,—those who hesitate about it being compelled to it by the officers,—and, bareheaded, humbly bowing, wait in the next field till our whole retinue is gone by. I took notice of some country people, who do not only retire out of the way, but turn us their back, as not worthy to behold us,—the greatest mark of civility a Japanese can possibly show. None, or but few, of these public marks of honor and respect are shown us in our journey over the great island Nippon.”

“As to what concerns our accommodation on the road, the same is—with regard to the carriage of us and of our baggage, the number of horses and men provided for that purpose, the inns, lodgings, eating, and attendance—as good for our money as we could possibly desire. But, on the other hand, if we consider the narrow compass allowed us, we have too much reason to complain; for we are treated in a manner like prisoners, deprived of all liberty, excepting that of looking about the country from our horses, or out of our kago, which, indeed, it is impossible for them to deny us. As soon as a Dutchman alights from his horse (which is taken very ill, unless urgent necessity obliges him), he that rides before our train, and the whole train after him, must stop suddenly, and the Dōshin and two other attendants must come down from their horses to take immediate care of him. Nay, they watch us to that degree that they will not leave us alone, not even for the most necessary occasions. The Bugiō, or commander-in-chief of our train, studies day and night, not only the contents of his instructions, but the journals of two or three preceding journeys, in order exactly, and step by step, to follow the actions and behavior of his predecessors. ’Tis looked upon as the most convincing proof of his faithfulness and good conduct still to exceed them. Nay, some of these blockheads are so capricious that no accident whatever can oblige them to go to any other inns but those we had been at the year before, even though we should, upon this account, be forced in the worst weather, with the greatest inconveniency, and at the very peril of our lives, to travel till late at night.

“We go to the same inns which the princes and lords of the country resort to, that is, to the very best of every place. The apartments are at that time hung with the colors and arms of the Dutch East India Company, and this in order to notify to the neighborhood who they be that lodge there, as is customary in the country. We always go to the same inns, with this difference only, that, upon our return from Yedo, we lie at the place we dined at in going up, by this means equally to divide the trouble, which is much greater at night than at dinner. We always take up our lodging in the back apartment of the house, which is by much the pleasantest; also otherwise, as has been mentioned, reckoned the chief. The landlord observes the same customs upon our arrival as upon the arrival of the princes and lords of the empire. He comes out of the town or village into the fields to meet us, clad in a kamishimo, or garment of ceremony, and wearing a short scymetar stuck in his girdle, making his compliments with a low bow, which before the norimono of the Bugiō and our Resident is so low, that he touches the ground with his hands and almost with his forehead. This done, he hastens back to his house, and receives us at the entry a second time, in the same manner, and with the same compliments.

“As soon as we are come to the inn, our guardians and keepers carry us forthwith across the house to our apartments. Nor, indeed, are we so much displeased at this, since the number of spectators and the petulant scoffing of the children, but, above all, the exhaustion of a fatiguing journey, make us desirous to take our rest, the sooner the better. We are, as it were, confined to our apartments, having no other liberty but to walk out into the small garden behind the house. All other avenues, all the doors, windows, and holes which open any prospect towards the streets or country, are carefully shut and nailed up, in order, as they would fain persuade us, to defend us and our goods from thieves, but in fact to watch and guard us as thieves and deserters. It must be owned, however, that this superabundant care and watchfulness is considerably lessened upon our return, when we have found means to insinuate ourselves into their favor, and by presents and otherwise to procure their connivance.

“The Bugiō takes possession of the best apartment after ours. The several rooms next to our own are taken up by the Dōshin, interpreters, and other chief officers of our retinue, in order to be always near at hand to watch our conduct, and to care that none of our landlord’s domestics nor any other person presume to come into our apartment, unless it be by their leave and in their presence; and in their absence they commit this care to some of their own or our servants; though all the companions of our voyage in general are strictly charged to have a watchful eye over us. Those who exceed their fellow-servants in vigilance are, by way of encouragement, permitted to make the journey again the next year. Otherwise they stand excluded for two years.

“As soon as we have taken possession of our apartment, in comes the landlord with some of his chief male domestics, each with a dish of tea in his hand, which they present to every one of us with a low bow, according to his rank and dignity, and repeating, with a submissive, deep-fetched voice, the words, ah! ah! ah! They are all clad in their garments of ceremony, which they wear only upon great occasions, and have each a short scymetar stuck in his girdle, which they never quit, so long as the company stays in the house. This done, the necessary apparatus for smoking is brought in, consisting of a board of wood or brass, though not always of the same structure, upon which are placed a small fire-pan with coals, a pot to spit in, a small box filled with tobacco cut small, and some long pipes with small brass heads; as also another japanned board, or dish, with Sakana,[8] that is, something to eat, as, for instance, several sorts of fruits, figs, nuts, several sorts of cakes, chiefly manjū, and rice cakes hot, several sorts of roots boiled in water, sweetmeats, and other trumperies of this kind. All these things are brought first into the Bugiō’s room, then into ours. As to other necessaries travellers may have occasion for, they are generally, in the case of native travellers, served by the house-maids. These wenches also wait at table, taking that opportunity to engage their guests to further favors. But it is quite otherwise with us; for even the landlords themselves and their male domestics, after they have presented us with a dish of tea, as above said, are not suffered upon any account whatever to enter our apartments; but whatever we want it is the sole business of our own servants to provide us with.

“There are no other spitting-pots brought into the room but that which comes along with the tobacco. If there be occasion for more they make use of small pieces of bamboo, a hand broad and high, sawed from between the joints and hollowed. The candles brought in at night are hollow in the middle; the wick, which is of paper, being wound about a wooden stick before the tallow is laid on. For this reason, also, the candlesticks have a punch or bodkin at top, which the candles are fixed upon. They burn very quick, and make a great deal of smoke and smell, the oil or tallow being made of the berries of bay-trees, camphor-trees, and some others of the kind. It is somewhat odd and ridiculous to see the whirling motion of the ascending smoke followed by the flame, when the candle is taken off the punch at the top of the candlestick. Instead of lamps, they make use of small, flat, earthen vessels, filled with train-oil made of the fat of whales, or of oil made of cotton-seed. The wick is made of rush, and the abovesaid earthen vessel stands in another filled with water, or in a square lantern, that, in case the oil should by chance take fire, no damage may thereupon come to the house.

“The Japanese, in their journeys, sit down to table thrice a day, besides what they eat between meals. They begin early in the morning and before break of day, at least before they set out, with a good, substantial breakfast; then follows dinner at noon, and the day is concluded with a plentiful supper at night. It being forbid to play at cards, they sit after meals, drinking and singing some songs, to make one another merry, or else they propose some riddles round, or play at some other game, and he that cannot explain the riddle, or loses the game, is obliged to drink a glass. It is again quite otherwise with us, for we sit at table and eat our victuals very quietly. Our cloth is laid, and the dishes dressed after the European manner, but by Japanese cooks. We are presented, besides, by the landlord, each with a Japanese dish. We drink European wines and the rice-beer of the country hot. All our diversion is confined, in the daytime, to the small garden which is behind the house; at night to the bath, in case we please to make use of it. No other pleasure is allowed us, no manner of conversation with the domestics, male or female, excepting what, through the connivance of our inspectors, some of us find means to procure at night in private and in their own rooms.

“When everything is ready for us to set out again, the landlord is called, and our president, in presence of the two interpreters, pays him the reckoning in gold, laid upon a small salver. He draws near, in a creeping posture, kneeling, holding his hands down to the floor, and when he takes the salver which the money is laid upon, he bows down his forehead almost quite to the ground, in token of submission and gratitude, uttering with a deep voice the words ah! ah! ah! whereby in this country inferiors show their deference and respect to their superiors. He then prepares to make the same compliment to the other Dutchmen; but our interpreters generally excuse him this trouble, and make him return in the same crawling posture. Every landlord hath two koban paid him for dinner, and three for supper and lodgings at night. For this money he is to provide victuals enough for our whole train, the horses, the men that look after them, and porters only excepted. The same sum is paid to the landlords in the cities, where we stay some days, as at Ōsaka, Miyako, and Yedo, namely, five koban a day, without any further recompense. The reason of our being kept so cheap, as to victuals and lodging, is because this sum was agreed on with our landlords a long while ago, when our train was not yet so bulky as it now is.[9] It is a custom in this country, which we likewise observe, that guests, before they quit the inn, order their servants to sweep the room they lodged in, not to leave any dirt, or ungrateful dust, behind them.

A Daimyō’s Procession

“From this reasonable behavior of the landlords, the reader may judge of the civility of the whole nation in general, always excepting our own officers and servants. I must own that, in the visits we made or received in our journey, we found the same to be greater than could be expected from the most civilized nations. The behavior of the Japanese, from the meanest countryman up to the greatest prince or lord, is such that the whole empire might be called a school of civility and good manners. They have so much sense and innate curiosity, that, if they were not absolutely denied a free and open conversation and correspondence with foreigners, they would receive them with the utmost kindness and pleasure. In some towns and villages only we took notice that the young boys, who are childish all over the world, would run after us, calling us names, and cracking some malicious jests or other, levelled at the Chinese, whom they take us to be. One of the most common, and not much different from a like sort of a compliment which is commonly made to Jews in Germany, is Tōjin baibai? which, in broken Chinese, signifies, Chinese, have ye nothing to truck?

“It may not be amiss to observe, that it is not an indifferent matter to travellers in this country what day they set out on their journey; for they must choose for their departure a fortunate day, for which purpose they make use of a particular table, printed in all their road-books, which they say hath been observed to hold true by a continued experience of many ages, and wherein are set down all the unfortunate days of every month. However, the most sensible of the Japanese have but little regard for this superstitious table, which is more credited by the common people, the mountain priests, and monks.

“To give the more authority to this table, they say that it was invented by the astrologer Seimei, a man of great quality and very eminent in his art. King Abeno Tashima was his father, and a fox his mother, to whom Abeno Tashima was married upon the following occasion. He once happened with a servant of his to be in the temple of Inari, who is the god and protector of the foxes. Meanwhile some courtiers were hunting the fox without doors, in order to make use of the lungs for the preparation of a certain medicine. It happened upon this that a young fox, pursued by the hunters, fled into the temple, which stood open, and took shelter in the very bosom of Tashima. The king, unwilling to deliver up the poor creature to the unmerciful hunters, was forced to defend himself and his fox, and to repel force by force, wherein he behaved himself with so much bravery and success that, having defeated the hunters, he set the fox at liberty. The hunters, ashamed and highly offended at the courageous behavior of the king, seized, in the height of their resentment, an opportunity which offered to kill his royal father. Tashima mustered up all his courage and prudence to revenge his father’s death, and with so much success that he killed the traitors with his own hands. The fox, to return his gratitude, appeared to him, after the victory which he obtained over the murderers of his father, in the shape of a lady of incomparable beauty, and so fired his breast with love that he took her to his wife. It was by her he had this son, who was endowed with divine wisdom, and the precious gift of prognosticating and foretelling things to come. Nor did he know that his wife had been that very fox whose life he saved with so much courage in the temple of Inari, till, soon after, her tail and other parts beginning to grow, she resumed by degrees her former shape.[10]

“Seimei not only calculated the above table by the knowledge he had acquired of the motion and influence of the stars, but, as he was at the same time a perfect master of the cabalistic sciences, he found out certain words which he brought together into an Uta, or verse, the repetition of which is believed to have the infallible virtue of keeping off all those misfortunes which, upon the days determined in the table to be unfortunate, would otherwise befall travellers,—this verse being for the use and satisfaction of poor ordinary servants, who have not leisure to accommodate themselves to the table, but must go when and wherever they are sent by their masters.”

CHAPTER XXXV

At coming out of Nagasaki, on his first journey to court (Tuesday, February 13, 1691), Kämpfer noticed the idol Jizō, the god of the roads and protector of travellers, hewn out of the rock in nine different places. At the next village stood another of the same sort, about three feet in height, on a stone pillar twice as high, and adorned with flowers. Two other smaller stone pillars, hollow at top, stood before the idol, upon which were placed lamps, for travellers to light in its honor; and at some distance stood a basin of water, in which to wash the hands before lighting the lamps.

The first twelve miles’ travelling, which was very steep and mountainous, brought the company to the shores of the bay of Ōmura, which they found too shallow for vessels of size; but by crossing it in boats, furnished by the prince of Ōmura, each rowed by fourteen watermen, they saved a distance of ten miles or more. The distance across was thirty miles. The town of Ōmura was seen on the right at the head of the bay, and beyond it a smoking mountain. The shells of this bay were reported to yield pearls.[11]

The second day (Wednesday, February 14) they passed an old camphor-tree, estimated to be thirty-six feet in circumference, and hollow within.[12] At Shiwota, where they dined, a seaport on the gulf of Shimabara, was a manufactory of large earthen pots, used by vessels as water-cakes, and also of china ware, made of a whitish, fat clay, abundant in that neighborhood. The same day they visited a hot spring, much frequented for its medicinal effects, and provided with accommodations for bathing. There are several others in the neighborhood.[13]

Saga, the capital of the province of Hizen, through which they passed the next day (Thursday, February 15), without stopping, was found to be a considerable place, situated not far from the western border of the province, near the head of the bay of Shimabara. “The city,” says Kämpfer, “is very large, but extends more in length than in breadth. It is exceedingly populous. Both going in and coming out we found strong guards at the gates. It is enclosed with walls, but more for state than defence. The prince or petty king of this province resides here in a large castle, which commands the city. The streets are large, with streams of water flowing through them. The houses are but sorry and low, and in the chief streets fitted up for manufacturers and shopkeepers. The inhabitants are very short, but well shaped, particularly the women, who are handsomer, I think, than in any other Asiatic country, but so much painted that one would be apt to take them for wax figures rather than living creatures. Many were noticed who seemed little more than girls, yet evidently the mothers of several children. These women of Hizen have the reputation of being the handsomest in Japan, next to those of Miyako. This province, though less wealthy than that of Satsuma, is reputed to be about the most fertile in all Japan, being particularly famous for its rice, of which it produces ten different sorts or qualities, one of which is reserved for the special use of the emperor. The rice-fields were observed to be bordered with tea-shrubs about six feet high; but as they were stripped of their leaves, they made but a naked and sorry appearance.”

In the afternoon our travellers passed into the province of Chikugo, and having traversed a small but very pleasant wood of firs,—a rare sight in the flat parts of the country,—they saw at a distance the castle of Kurume, the residence of the prince of the province.[14] Friday, February 16, mountains were encountered, which they passed in kago, as the road was too steep for horseback-riding. This country, forming a part of the province of Chikuzen, struck Kämpfer as not unlike some mountainous and woody parts of Germany, but no cattle were seen grazing, except a few cows and horses for carriage and ploughing. The people were less handsome than those of Hizen, but extremely civil.

The next day (February 17), after passing, in the afternoon, some coal-mines, whence the neighborhood was supplied with fuel, they reached Kokura, capital of the province of Buzen, once a large town, but now much decayed. It had a large castle of freestone, with a few cannon and a tower of six stories, the usual sign of princely residences. A river passed through the town, crossed by a bridge near two hundred yards long, but it was too shallow to admit vessels of any size. At least one hundred small boats were drawn up on the banks. On leaving their inn where they had stopped to dine, the Dutch found the square in front of it, as well as the bridge, crowded with upwards of a thousand spectators, chiefly ordinary people, who had collected to see them, and who knelt in profound silence, without motion or noise. The distance of this place from Nagasaki was reckoned at fifty-five Japanese miles, and had consumed five days.

Image of Jizō

Embarking in boats, the Dutch travellers crossed the strait which separates Shimo from Nippon, narrower here than anywhere else, less than three miles wide, though the town of Shimonoseki, which gives its name to the strait, being situated at the bottom of an inlet, is near twelve miles from Kokura. This town, in the province of Nagato, consisted of four or five hundred houses, built chiefly on both sides of one long street, with a few smaller ones terminating in it. It is full of shops for selling provisions and stores to the ships, which daily put in for shelter or supplies, and of which not less than two hundred were seen at anchor. It also had a temple to Amida, built to appease the ghost of a young prince of the family of Heishi, so celebrated in the legendary annals of the Japanese, whose nurse, with the boy in her arms, is said to have thrown herself headlong into the strait to avoid capture by his father’s enemies, at the time of the ruin of that family.

The voyage from Shimonoseki to Ōsaka was reckoned at one hundred and thirty-four Japanese water-miles, and was made in six days, the vessel coming to anchor every night in good harbors, with which the coast abounds. This voyage lay first through the strait between Shimo and Nippon, and then through the strait or sea between Nippon and Shikoku, which was full of islands, some cultivated, others mere rocks. On the main land on either side snow-covered mountains were visible. The barge could proceed no further than Hyōgo, a city of the province Settsu, nearly as large as Nagasaki. Here the company embarked in small boats for Ōsaka. As they passed along they saw at a distance the imperial city of Sakai, three or four Japanese miles south from Ōsaka. The description of Ōsaka, and of the journey thence to Miyako, is thus given by Kämpfer:

“Ōsaka, one of the five imperial cities, is agreeably seated in the province of Settsu, in a fruitful plain, and on the banks of a navigable river. At the east end is a strong castle; and at the western end, two strong, stately guard-houses, which separate it from its suburbs. Its length from these suburbs to the above-mentioned castle is between three and four thousand yards. Its breadth is somewhat less. The river Yodogawa runs on the north side, and below the city falls into the sea. This river rises a day and a half’s journey to the northeast, out of a midland lake in the province of Ōmi, which, according to Japanese histories, arose in one night, that spot which it now fills being sunk in a violent earthquake. Coming out of this lake, it runs by the small towns Uji and Yodo, from which latter it borrows its name, and so continues down to Ōsaka. About a mile before it comes to this city, it sends off one of its arms straight to the sea. This want, if any, is supplied by two other rivers, both which flow into it just above the city, on the north side of the castle, where there are stately bridges over them. The united stream having washed one third of the city, part of its waters are conveyed through a broad canal to supply the south part, which is also the larger, and that where the richest inhabitants live. For this purpose several smaller channels cut from the large one, pass through some of the chief streets, deep enough to be navigable for small boats, which bring goods to the merchant’s doors—though some are muddy, and not too clean, for want of a sufficient quantity and run of water. Upwards of an hundred bridges, many extraordinarily beautiful, are built over them.

“A little below the coming out of the above-mentioned canal another arm arises on the north side of the great stream, which is shallow and not navigable, but runs down westward, with great rapidity, till it loses itself in the sea. The middle and great stream still continues its course through the city, at the lower end whereof it turns westward, and having supplied the suburbs and villages which lie without the city, by many lateral branches, at last loses itself in the sea through several mouths. This river is narrow, indeed, but deep and navigable. From its mouth up as far as Ōsaka, and higher, there are seldom less than a thousand boats going up and down, some with merchants, others with the princes and lords who live to the west, on their way to and from Yedo. The banks are raised on both sides into ten or more steps, coarsely hewn of freestone, so that they look like one continued stairs, and one may land wherever he pleases. Stately bridges are laid over the river at every three or four hundred paces’ distance. They are built of cedar wood, and are railed on both sides, some of the rails being adorned at top with brass buttons. I counted in all ten such bridges, three whereof were particularly remarkable, because of their length, being laid over the great arm of the river where it is broadest.

“The streets, in the main, are narrow but regular, cutting each other at right angles. From this regularity, however, we must except that part of the city which lies towards the sea, because the streets there run along the several branches of the river. The streets are very neat, though not paved. However, for the conveniency of walking, there is a small pavement of square stones along the houses on each side of the street. At the end of every street are strong gates, which are shut at night, when nobody is suffered to pass from one street to another without special leave and a passport from the Otona, or street officer. There is also in every street a place railed in, where they keep all the necessary instruments in case of fire. Not far from it is a covered well, for the same purpose. The houses are, according to the custom of the country, not above two stories high, each story of nine or twelve feet. They are built of wood, lime, and clay. The front offers to the spectator’s eye the door, and a shop where the merchants sell their goods, or else an open room where artificers, openly and in everybody’s sight, exercise their trade. From the upper end of the shop or room hangs down a piece of black cloth, partly for ornament, partly to defend them in some measure from the wind and weather. At the same place hang some fine patterns of what is sold in the shop. The roof is flat, and in good houses covered with black tiles laid in lime. The roofs of ordinary houses are covered only with shavings of wood. Within doors all the houses are kept clean and neat to admiration. The staircases, rails, and all the wainscoting, are varnished. The floors are covered with neat mats. The rooms are separated from each other by screens, upon removal of which several small rooms may be enlarged into one, or the contrary done if needful. The walls are hung with shining paper, curiously painted with gold and silver flowers. The upper part of the wall, for some inches down from the ceiling, is commonly left empty, and only clayed with an orange-colored clay, which is dug up about this city, and is, because of its beautiful color, exported into other provinces. The mats, doors, and screens are all of the same size, six Japanese feet long and three broad. The houses themselves, and their several rooms, are built proportionably according to a certain number of mats, more or less. There is commonly a curious garden behind the house, such as I have described elsewhere. Behind the garden is the bathing-stove, and sometimes a vault, or rather a small room, with strong walls of clay and lime, to preserve, in case of fire, the richest household goods and furniture.

“Ōsaka is extremely populous, and if we believe what the boasting Japanese tell us, can raise an army of eighty thousand men from among its inhabitants. It is the best trading town in Japan, being extraordinarily well situated for carrying on a commerce both by land and water. This is the reason why it is so well inhabited by rich merchants, artificers and manufacturers. Provisions are cheap, notwithstanding the city is so well peopled. Whatever tends to promote luxury, and to gratify all sensual pleasures, may be had at as easy a rate here as anywhere, and for this reason the Japanese call Ōsaka the universal theatre of pleasures and diversions. Plays are to be seen daily, both in public and in private houses. Mountebanks, jugglers, who can show some artful tricks, and all the raree-show people who have either some uncommon, or monstrous animal to exhibit, or animals taught to play tricks, resort thither from all parts of the empire, being sure to get a better penny here than anywhere else.[15] Hence it is no wonder that numbers of strangers and travellers daily resort thither, chiefly rich people, as to a place where they can spend their time and money with much greater satisfaction than perhaps anywhere else in the empire. The western princes and lords on this side Ōsaka all have houses in this city, and people to attend them in their passage through, and yet they are not permitted to stay longer than a night, besides that upon their departure they are obliged to follow a road entirely out of sight of the castle.

“The water which is drank at Ōsaka tastes a little brackish; but in lieu of thereof they have the best sake in the empire, which is brewed in great quantities in the neighboring village, Tennōji, and from thence exported into most other provinces, nay, by the Dutch and Chinese, out of the country.

“On the east side of the city, in a large plain, lies the famous castle built by Taikō-Sama [Toyotomi Hideyoshi]. Going up to Miyako we pass by it. It is square, about an hour’s walking in circumference, and strongly fortified with round bastions, according to the military architecture of the country. After the castle of Higo, it hath not its superior in extent, magnificence, and strength, throughout the whole empire. On the north side it is defended by the river Yodogawa, which washes its walls. On the east side its walls are washed by a tributary river, on the opposite bank of which lies a great garden belonging to the castle. The south and west sides border upon the city. The moles, or buttresses, which support the outward wall, are of an uncommon bigness, I believe at least forty-two feet thick. They are built to support a high, strong brick wall, lined with freestone, which at its upper end is planted with a row of firs or cedars.

“The day after our arrival (Sunday, February 25) we were admitted to an audience of the governor of the city, to which we were carried in kago, attended by our whole train of interpreters and other officers. It is half an hour’s walking from our inn to the governor’s palace, which lies at the end of the city in a square opposite the castle. Just before the house we stepped out of our kago, and put on each a silk cloak, which is reckoned equal to the garment of ceremony which the Japanese wear on these occasions. Through a passage thirty paces long we came into the hall, or guard-house, where we were received by two of the governor’s gentlemen, who very civilly desired us to sit down. Four soldiers stood upon duty on our left as we came in, and next to them we found eight other officers of the governor’s court, all sitting upon their knees and ankles. The wall on our right was hung with arms, ranged in a proper order, fifteen halberds on one side, twenty lances in the middle, and nineteen pikes on the other; the latter were adorned at the upper end with fringes. Hence we were conducted by two of the governor’s secretaries through four rooms (which, however, upon removing the screens, might have been enlarged into one) into the hall of audience. I took notice, as we came by, that the walls were hung and adorned with bows, with sabres and scymitars, as also with some fire-arms, kept in rich black varnished cases.

“In the hall of audience, where there were seven of the governor’s gentlemen sitting, the two secretaries sat down at three paces’ distance from us, and treated us with tea, carrying on a very civil conversation with us till the governor appeared, as he soon did, with two of his sons, one seventeen, the other eighteen years of age, and sat down at ten paces’ distance in another room, which was laid open towards the hall of audience by removing three lattices, through which he spoke to us.

“He seemed to be about forty years of age, middle-sized, strong, active, of a manly countenance and broad-faced; very civil in his conversation, and speaking with a great deal of softness and modesty. He was but meanly clad in black, and wore a gray garment of ceremony over his dress. He wore, also, but one ordinary scymitar. His conversation turned chiefly upon the following points: That the weather was now very cold; that we had made a very great journey; that it was a singular favor to be admitted into the emperor’s presence; that, of all nations in the world, only the Dutch were allowed this honor.

“He promised us that, since the chief justice of Miyako, whose business it is to give us the necessary passports for our journey to court, was not yet returned from Yedo, he would give us his own passports, which would be full as valid, and that we might send for them the next morning. He also assured us that he was very willing to assist us with horses and whatever else we might stand in need of for continuing our journey.

An Ancient Warrior

“On our side, we returned him thanks for his kind offers, and desired that he would be pleased to accept of a small present, consisting of some pieces of silk stuffs, as an acknowledgment of our gratitude. We also made some presents to the two secretaries or stewards of his household; and, having taken our leave, were by them conducted back to the guard-house. Here we took our leave also of them, and returned through the above-mentioned passage back to our kago. Our interpreters permitted us to walk a little way, which gave us an opportunity to view the outside of the above-described famous castle. We then entered our kago and were carried back through another long street to our inn.

“Wednesday, February 28, we set out by break of day on our journey to Miyako, because we intended to reach that place the same day, it being but thirteen Japanese miles, or a good day’s journey, distant from Ōsaka, out of which we came by the Kyōbashi, or bridge to Miyako, which crosses the river just below the castle. We then travelled about a mile through muddy rice-fields riding along a low dike raised on the banks of the river Yodogawa, which we had on our left. Multitudes of Tsadanil (?) trees, which grow as tall in this country as oaks do with us, were planted along it. It had then no leaves, because of the winter season, but its branches hung full of a yellow fruit, out of which the natives prepare an oil. The country hereabouts is extraordinarily well inhabited, and the many villages along the road are so near each other that there wants little towards making it one continued street from Ōsaka to Miyako.

“The small but famous city, Yodo, is entirely enclosed with water, and hath besides several canals cut through the town, all derived from the arms of the river which encompasses it. The suburbs consist of one long street, across which we rode to a stately wooden bridge, called Yodobashi, four hundred paces long, and supported by forty arches, to which answer so many ballisters, adorned at the upper end with brass buttons. At the end of this bridge is a single well-guarded gate, through which we entered the city. The city itself is very pleasant and agreeably situated, and hath very good houses, though but few streets, which cut each other at right angles, running some south, some east. Abundance of artificers and handicraftsmen live at Yodo. On the west side lies the castle, built of brick, in the middle of the river, with stately towers several stories high at each corner, and in the middle of its walls. Coming out of Yodo, we again passed over a bridge two hundred paces long, supported by twenty arches, which brought us into a suburb, at the end of which was a strong guard-house.

“After about two hours’ riding we came, at two in the afternoon, to Fushimi. This is a small, open town, or rather village, of a few streets, of which the middle and chief reaches as far as Miyako, and is contiguous to the streets of that capital, insomuch that Fushimi might be called the suburbs of Miyako, the rather since this last city is not at all enclosed with walls. It was to-day Tsuitachi with the Japanese, that is, the first day of the month, which they keep as a Sunday or holiday, visiting the temples, walking into the fields, and following all manner of diversions. Accordingly we found this street, along which we rode for full four hours before we got to our inn, crowded with multitudes of the inhabitants of Miyako, walking out of the city to take the air, and to visit the neighboring temples. Particularly the women were all on this occasion richly apparelled in variously colored gowns, wearing a purple-colored silk about the forehead, and large straw hats to defend themselves from the heat of the sun. We likewise met some particular sorts of beggars, comically clad, and some masked in a very ridiculous manner. Not a few walked upon iron stilts; others carried large pots with green trees upon their heads; some were singing, some whistling, some fluting, others beating of bells. All along the street we saw multitudes of open shops, jugglers and players diverting the crowd.

“The temples which we had on our right as we went up, built in the ascent of the neighboring green hills, were illuminated with many lamps, and the priests, beating some bells with iron hammers, made such a noise as could be heard at a considerable distance. I took notice of a large, white dog, perhaps made of plaster, which stood upon an altar on our left, in a neatly-adorned chapel or small temple, which was consecrated to the Patron of the dogs. We reached our inn at Miyako at six in the evening, and were forthwith carried up one pair of stairs into our apartments, which in some measure, I thought, might be compared to the Westphalian smoking rooms, wherein they smoke their beef and bacon.

“We had travelled to-day through a very fruitful country, mostly through rice-fields, wherein we saw great flocks of wild ducks, if they deserve to be so called, being so very tame that no travelling company approaching will fright them away. We took notice also of several large, white herons, some swans, and some few storks, looking for their food in the morassy fields. We likewise saw the peasants ploughing with black oxen, which seemed to be lean, poor beasts, but are said to work well.

“February 29, early in the morning, we sent the presents for the chief justice and the governors to their palaces, laid, according to the country fashion, upon particular small tables made of fir, and kept for no other use but this. We followed soon after, about ten in the forenoon, in kago. Their palaces were at the west end of the city, opposite the castle of the Dairi. We were conducted through a court-yard, twenty paces broad, into the hall or fore-room of the house, which is called Ban, or the chief guard, and is the rendezvous of numbers of clerks, inspectors, etc. Hence we were taken, through two other rooms, into a third, where they desired us to sit down. Soon after came in his lordship’s steward, an old gentleman who seemed upwards of sixty years of age, clad in a gray or ash-colored honor-gown, who seated himself at about four paces from us, in order to receive, in his master’s name, both our compliments and presents, which stood in the same room, laid out in a becoming order. They consisted of a flask of Tent wine, besides twenty pieces of silk, woollen, and linen stuffs. The steward having very civilly returned us thanks for our presents, boxes with tobacco and pipes and proper utensils for smoking were set before us, and a dish of tea was presented to each of us by a servant, at three different times, the steward and the chief gentlemen pressing us to drink. Having stayed about a quarter of an hour, we took our leave, and were conducted by the steward himself to the door of their room, and thence by other officers back to the gate.

“This first visit being over, we walked thence on foot to the palace of the commanding governor, who was but lately arrived from Yedo. Some sentinels stood upon duty at the gate, and in the ban, or hall, we found very near fifty people besides some young boys, neatly clad, all sitting in very good order. Through this hall we were conducted into a side apartment, where we were civilly received by the two secretaries, both elderly men, and were treated with tea, sugar, etc.; receiving, also, repeated assurances that we should be soon admitted into the governor’s presence.

“Having stayed full half an hour in this room, we were conducted into another, where, after a little while, the lattices of two screens being suddenly opened just over against us, the governor appeared, sitting at fourteen paces distant. He wore, as usual, a garment of ceremony over his black dress. He seemed to be about thirty-six years of age, of a strong, lusty constitution, and showed in his countenance and whole behavior a good deal of pride and vanity. After a short conversation we desired that he would be pleased to accept of our small present, consisting of twelve pieces of stuffs, which lay upon a table, or salver, in the manner above described. He thereupon bowed a little, to return us thanks, and putting himself in a rising posture, the two lattices were let down forthwith, in a very comical manner. But we were desired to stay a little while longer, that the ladies—who were in a neighboring room, behind a paper screen pierced with holes—might have an opportunity of contemplating us and our foreign dress. Our president was desired to show them his hat, sword, watch, and several other things he had about him, as also to take off his cloak, that they might have a full view of his dress, both before and behind. Having stayed about an hour in the house of this governor, we were conducted by the two secretaries back to the hall, or chief guard, and thence by two inferior officers into the yard.

“It being fair weather, we resolved to walk on foot to the house of the other governor, some hundred paces distant. We were received there much after the manner above described. After we had been treated in the ban with tea and tobacco, as usual, we were conducted, through several rooms, into the hall of audience, which was richly furnished, and, amongst other things, adorned with a cabinet filled with bows and arrows, small fire-arms, guns and pistols, kept in black varnished cases. These, and other arms, we took notice, were hung up in several other rooms through which we passed, much after the same manner as in the governor’s house at Ōsaka. On one side the hall we took notice of two screens, pierced with holes, behind which sat some women, whom the curiosity of seeing people from so remote a part of the world had drawn thither. We had scarce sat down, when the governor appeared, and sat himself down at ten paces from us. He was clad in black, as usual, with a garment of ceremony. He was a gray man, almost sixty years of age, but of a good complexion, and very handsome. He bade us welcome, showed in his whole behavior a great deal of civility, and received our presents kindly, and with seeming great satisfaction. Our chief interpreter took this opportunity to make the governor, as his old acquaintance, some private presents in his own name, consisting of some European glasses, and, in the mean time, to beg a favor for his deputy’s interpreter’s son. Having taken our leave, we returned to our kago, and were carried home to our inn, where we arrived at one in the afternoon.

“Kiō, or Miyako, signifies in Japanese, a city. (Klaproth says, great temple or palace.) It lies in the province Yamato[16] in a large plain, and is, from north to south, three English miles long, and two broad from east to west, surrounded with pleasant green hills and mountains, from which arise numbers of small rivers and agreeable streams. The city comes nearest the mountains on the east side, where there are numerous temples, monasteries, chapels, and other religious buildings, standing in the ascent. Three shallow rivers enter, or run by it, on that side. The chief and largest comes out of the Lake Ōtsu;[17] the other two from the neighboring mountains. They come together about the middle of the city, where the united stream is crossed by a large bridge, two hundred paces long. The Dairi, with his family and court, resides on the north side of the city, in a particular part or ward, consisting of twelve or thirteen streets, separated from the rest by walls and ditches. In the western part of the town is a strong castle of freestone, built by one of the hereditary emperors, for the security of his person during the civil wars. At present it serves to lodge the Kubō, or actual monarch, when he comes to visit the Dairi. It is upwards of a thousand feet long where longest; a deep ditch, filled with water, and walled in, surrounds it, and is enclosed itself by a broad empty space, or dry ditch. In the middle of this castle there is, as usual, a square tower, several stories high. In the ditch are kept a particular sort of delicious carps, some of which were presented this evening to our interpreter. A small garrison guards the castle, under the command of a captain.

“The streets of Miyako are narrow, but all regular, running some south, some east. Being at one end of a great street, it is impossible to reach the other with the eye, because of their extraordinary length, the dust, and the multitude of people. The houses are, generally speaking, narrow, only two stories high, built of wood, lime, and clay, according to the country fashion.

“Miyako is the great magazine of all Japanese manufactures and commodities, and the chief mercantile town in the empire. There is scarce a house in this large capital where there is not something made or sold. Here they refine copper, coin money, print books, weave the richest stuffs, with gold and silver flowers. The best and scarcest dyes, the most artful carvings, all sorts of musical instruments, pictures, japanned cabinets, all sorts of things wrought in gold and other metals, particularly in steel, as the best tempered blades, and other arms, are made here in the utmost perfection, as are, also, the richest dresses, and after the best fashion, all sorts of toys, puppets, moving their heads of themselves, and, in short, there is nothing can be thought of but what may be found at Miyako, and nothing, though never so neatly wrought, can be imported from abroad, but what some artist or other in this capital will undertake to imitate it. Considering this, it is no wonder that the manufactures of Miyako are become so famous throughout the empire as to be easily preferred to all others (though, perhaps, inferior in some particulars), only because they have the name of being made there. There are but few houses in all the chief streets where there is not something to be sold, and, for my part, I could not help admiring whence they can have customers enough for such an immense quantity of goods. ’Tis true, indeed, there is scarce anybody passes through but what buys something or other of the manufactures of this city, either for his own use, or for presents to be made to his friends and relations.

An Archer

“The lord chief justice resides at Miyako, a man of great power and authority, as having the supreme command, under the emperor, of all the bugiō, governors, stewards, and other officers, who are any ways concerned in the government of the imperial cities, crown lands and tenements, in all the western provinces of the empire. Even the western princes themselves must, in some measure, depend on him, and have a great regard to his person as a mediator and compounder of quarrels and difficulties that may arise between them. Nobody is suffered to pass through Arai and Hakone, two of the most important passes, and, in a manner, the keys of the imperial capital and court, without a passport, signed by his hand.

“The political government and regulation of the streets is the same at Miyako as it is at Ōsaka and Nagasaki. The number of inhabitants of Miyako, in the year of our visit, will appear by the following Aratame[18] (exclusive, however, of those who live in the castle and at the Dairi’s court).”

CHAPTER XXXVI

Kämpfer and his company left Miyako Friday, March 2, and, after a journey of eight or nine miles, during which they saw a high mountain towards the south, covered with snow, they reached Ōtsu, a town of a thousand houses, where they lodged. This town lies at the southwestern extremity of the large fresh-water lake of the same name, already mentioned.[20]

On the southeastern shore of this lake, which abounds with fish and fowl, lies the famous mountain Hieizan (by interpretation Fair-hill), covered with Buddhist monasteries, and near it were seen other mountains, covered with snow, and extending along the lake shore. Shortly after leaving Ōtsu, the Yodogawa, one of the outlets of the lake, was crossed upon a bridge, supported at the extremities by stone columns, of which the following legend is told. These columns were in old times possessed by an evil spirit, which very much molested travellers, as well as the inhabitants of the village. It happened one day that the famous saint and apostle, Kōshi,[21] travelling that way, all the people of the neighborhood earnestly entreated him to deliver them by his miraculous power from this insufferable evil, and to cast this devil out of the columns. The Japanese, a people superstitious to excess, expected that he would use a good many prayers and ceremonies, but found, to their utmost surprise, that he only took off the dirty cloth which he wore about his waist, and tied it about the column. Perceiving how much they were amazed, Kōshi addressed them in these words: “Friends,” said he, “it is in vain you expect that I should make use of many ceremonies. Ceremonies will never cast out devils; faith must do it, and it is only by faith that I perform miracles.” “A remarkable saying,” exclaims Kämpfer, “in the mouth of a heathen teacher!”

Umenoki, a village through which they next passed, was famous for the sole manufacture of a medicine of great repute, found out by a poor but pious man, to whom the god Yakushi, the protector of physic and physicians, revealed in a dream the ingredients, which are certain bitter herbs growing upon the neighboring mountains. This story helped the sale of the medicine, by which the inventor soon grew very rich, so that he was not only able to build a fine house for himself but also a small temple, opposite his shop, and highly adorned, in honor of the god who had given him the receipt, whose statue, richly gilt, was to be seen there, standing on a Tarate [?] flower, and with half a large cockle-shell over his head.

The next day (Sunday, March 4) the Dutch travellers crossed the Tsuchi Yama, a mountain ridge, so steep that its descent was like that of a winding staircase cut out in the face of the precipice. On this mountain were many temples, and in this neighborhood vast crowds of pilgrims were encountered, bound to Ise, situate some forty miles to the south. The travellers struck the seacoast at Yokkaichi, a town of a thousand houses, whose inhabitants were partly supported by fishing, and the next day (Monday, the 5th), after about nine miles’ travel, they entered the city of Kuwana, in the province of Owari, situated at the head of a deep bay. It consisted of three parts, like so many different towns. The first and third parts were enclosed by high walls and ditches. The other part was entirely surrounded by water, the country being flat and full of rivers. The castle, washed on three sides by the sea, was separated from the town by a deep ditch with draw-bridges.

From Kuwana they proceeded by water to Miya, present Atsuta, some fifteen miles distant. The head of the bay was very shallow, and the boats were pushed through mud-banks. Miya, though not so large as Kuwana, consisted of two thousand houses, with two spacious castles, one of them for size and strength reckoned the third in Japan. There were two temples, in one of which are preserved three, in the other eight, miraculous swords, used by the race of demigods who were the first inhabitants of Japan.

Tuesday, March 6, the travellers dined at Okasaki, a town of fifteen hundred houses, with a strong castle situate on the shores of the same bay. The country travelled through was a fertile plain along the foot of a range of mountains, the shores of which, beyond Okasaki, extended to the sea.

The next day (Wednesday, March 7) they passed through several considerable places, of which Yoshida, present Toyohashi, with a castle and about a thousand small houses, was the most considerable. Arai, twelve or fifteen miles distant, was a town of about four hundred houses, situate not far from the sea, at the inland extremity of a harbor called Sao, narrow at its entrance, but spreading out within. Arai was the seat of certain imperial commissioners appointed to search the goods and baggage of all travellers, but particularly of the princes of the empire, that no women nor arms might pass. “This,” says Kämpfer, “is one of the political maxims which the now reigning emperors have found it necessary to practise in order to secure to themselves the peaceable possession of the throne; for the wives and female children of all the princes of the empire are kept at Yedo, as hostages of the fidelity of their husbands and parents. And as to the exportation of arms, an effectual stop has been put to that, lest, if exported in any considerable quantities, some of those princes might take it into their heads to raise rebellions against the government as now established.”

The harbor of Sao was crossed in boats, on the other side of which the road led through a flat country, rather thinly inhabited. They slept that night at Hamamatsu, a town of several hundred inferior houses, with a large castle. The next day (Thursday, March 8), travelling on through a beautiful plain, in the afternoon they reached the town of Kakegawa; as they were passing through which, a fire broke out, occasioned by the boiling over of an oil kettle. Perceiving only a thick cloud behind them, they thought a storm was coming on, but were soon involved in such a cloud of smoke and heat as to be obliged to ride on at a gallop. Having reached a little eminence, on looking back, the whole town seemed on fire. Nothing appeared through the smoke and flames but the upper part of the castle tower. They found, however, on their return, some weeks after, that the damage was less than they had expected, more than half the town having escaped.

It was necessary, shortly after, for the travellers to take kago to cross a steep mountain, descending from which they were obliged to ford the river Ōigawa, proverbial throughout Japan for its force and rapidity and the rolling stones in its bed, but just then at a very low stage. The road thence to Shimada, a small town where they lodged, was close to the sea, but through a barren country, the mountains approaching close to the shore.

The next day (Friday, March 9) brought them, most of the way through a flat, well-cultivated country, to the city of Suruga, capital of the province of that name. The streets, broad and regular, crossed each other at right angles, and were full of well-furnished shops. Paper stuffs, curiously flowered, for hats, baskets, boxes, etc., also various manufactures of split and twisted reeds, and all sorts of lackered ware, were made here. There was also a mint here, as well as at Miyako and Yedo, where koban and ichibu were coined. It had a castle of freestone, well defended with ditches and high walls.

A few miles from Suruga were kept certain war-junks for the defence of the bay of Tōtōmi; and just beyond, upon a high mountain, stood the fortress of Kunō, esteemed by the Japanese impregnable. It was built to contain the imperial treasures, but they had since been removed to Yedo.

In the course of the next day (Saturday, March 10) the road turned inland, in order to cross the great river Fujigawa, which enters into the head of the bay, taking its rise in the high, snowy mountain Fuji-no-Yama.[22] It was crossed in flat broad-bottomed boats, constructed of thin planks, so as on striking the rocks to yield and slip over. The mountain Fuji, whence this river takes its rise and name, towers in a conical form above all the surrounding hills, and is seen at a great distance. It is ascended for the worship of the Japanese god of the winds, to whom the Yamabushi, or mountain priests, are consecrated, and who frequently repeat the words Fuji Yama,, in discoursing or begging. It takes three days to ascend this mountain; but the descent can be made, so Kämpfer was told, in three hours, by the help of sledges of reeds or straw, tied about the waist, by means of which one may glide down over the snow in winter and the sand in summer, it being surprisingly smooth and even. Japanese poets cannot find words, Kämpfer tells us, nor Japanese painters colors, in which to represent this mountain as they think it deserves.

A Kitchen, showing Utensils

A Fishmonger;
The Marketing and Preparation of Food

Our travellers kept on this day and the next (Sunday, March 11) through the mountainous country of Hakone, which runs out southward from the broad peninsula of Izu. At a village, hemmed in between a lake and a mountain, the lake itself surrounded in every other direction by mountains not to be climbed, was a narrow pass—another imperial searching-place, where all persons travelling to, and especially from, Yedo must submit to a rigorous examination. Upon the shore of this lake were five small wooden chapels, and in each a priest seated, beating a gong and howling a namida [abbreviation of Namamidabutsu]. “All the Japanese foot-travellers of our retinue,” says Kämpfer, “threw them some kasses into the chapel, and in return received each a paper, which they carried, bareheaded, with great respect, to the shore, in order to throw it into the lake, having first tied a stone to it, that it might be sure to go to the bottom, which they believe is the purgatory for children who die before seven years of age. They are told so by their priests, who, for their comfort, assure them that as soon as the water washes off the names and characters of the gods and saints, written upon the papers above mentioned, the children at the bottom feel great relief, if they do not obtain a full and effectual redemption.” This lake has but one outlet, falling over the mountains in a cataract, and running down through a craggy and precipitous valley, along which the road is carried on a very steep descent to the mouth of the river in the bay of Yedo. Here, on a plain four miles in width, was found the town of Odawara, containing about a thousand small houses, very neatly built, and evidently inhabited by a better class of people; but the empty shops evinced no great activity of trade or manufactures. The castle and residence of the prince, as well as the temples, were on the north side, in the ascent of the mountains.

The next day (Monday, March 12), the road following the northwest shore of the outer bay of Yedo crossed several very rapid streams, till at length the mountains on their left disappeared, and a broad plain spread out extending to Yedo. Off the shore was seen the island of Kamakura,[23] with high and rugged shores, but of which the surface was flat and wooded. It was not above four miles in circumference, and was used, like several other islands, as a place of confinement for disgraced noblemen. There being no landing-place, the boats that bring prisoners or provisions must be hauled up and let down by a crane. After a time the road left the shore, crossing a promontory which separates the outer from the inner bay of Yedo; but by sunset the shore of the inner bay was struck.

The country now became exceedingly fruitful and populous, and almost a continued row of towns and villages. In one of these villages there lived in a monastery an old gray monk, fourscore years of age, and a native of Nagasaki. “He had spent,” says Kämpfer, “the greatest part of his life in holy pilgrimages, running up and down the country, and visiting almost all the temples of the Japanese empire. The superstitious vulgar had got such a high notion of his holiness, that even in his lifetime they canonized and reverenced him as a great saint, to the extent of worshipping his statue, which he caused to be carved of stone, exceeding in this even Alexander the Great, who had no divine honors paid him during his life. Those of his countrymen who were of our retinue did not fail to run thither to see and pay their respects to that holy man.”

The Dutch company lodged at Kanagawa, a town of six hundred houses, twenty-four miles from the capital. The coast of the bay appeared at low water to be of a soft clay, furnishing abundance of shell-fish and of certain sea-weeds, which were gathered and prepared for food. The road the next day (Tuesday, March 13), still hugging the shore, led on through a fruitful and populous district, in which were several fishing villages, the bay abounding with fish. As they approached Shinagawa, they passed a place of public execution, offering a show of human heads and bodies, some half putrefied and others half devoured—dogs, ravens, crows, and other ravenous beasts and birds, uniting to satisfy their appetites on these miserable remains.[24]

Shinagawa, immediately adjoining Yedo, of which it forms a sort of outer suburb, consisted of one long, irregular street, with the bay on the right and a hill on the left, on which stood some temples. Some few narrow streets and lanes turned off from the great one towards these temples, some of which were very spacious buildings, and all pleasantly seated, adorned within with gilt idols, and without with large carved images, curious gates, and staircases of stone leading up to them. One of them was remarkable for a magnificent tower, four stories high. “Though the Japanese,” says Kämpfer, “spare no trouble nor expense to adorn and beautify their temples, yet the best fall far short of that loftiness, symmetry, and stateliness, which is observable in some of our European churches.”

Having ridden upwards of two miles through Shinagawa, they stopped at a small inn, pleasantly seated on the seaside, from which they had a full view of the city and harbor of Yedo, crowded with many hundred ships and boats of all sizes and shapes. The smallest lay nearest the town, and the largest one or two leagues off, not being able to go higher by reason of the shallowing of the water. “Our Bugiō,” says Kämpfer, “quitted his norimono here and went on horseback, people of his extraction not being suffered to enter the capital in a norimono. We travelled near a mile to the end of the suburb of Shinagawa, and then entered the suburbs of Yedo, which are only a continuation of the former, there being nothing to separate them but a small guard-house. The bay comes here so close to the foot of the hill that there is but one row of small houses between it and the road, which, for some time, runs along the shore, but soon widens into several irregular streets of a considerable length, which, after about half an hour’s riding, became broader, more uniform, handsome, and regular, whence, and from the great throngs of people, we concluded that we were now got into the city. We kept to the great middle street, which runs northward across the whole city, though somewhat irregularly, passing over several stately bridges laid across small rivers and muddy canals, which run on our left towards the castle, and on our right towards the sea, as did also several streets turning off from the great one.

“The throng of people along this chief and middle street, which is about one hundred and twenty-five feet broad, is incredible. We met as we rode along many numerous trains of princes of the empire and great men at court, and ladies richly apparelled, carried in norimono; and, among other people, a company of firemen on foot, about one hundred in number, walking in much the same military order as ours do in Europe. They were clad in brown leather coats to defend them against the fire; and some carried long pikes, others fire-hooks, upon their shoulders. Their captain rode in the middle. On both sides of the street were multitudes of well-furnished shops of merchants and tradesmen, drapers, silk-merchants, druggists, idol-sellers, booksellers, glass-blowers, apothecaries, and others. A black cloth hanging down covers one half of the shop, of which the front projects a little way into the street, so as to expose to view curious patterns of the goods offered for sale. We took notice that scarce anybody here had curiosity enough to come out of his house to see us go by, as they had done in other places, probably because such a small retinue as ours had nothing remarkable or uncommon to amuse the inhabitants of so populous a city.

“Having rode above two miles along this great street, and passed by fifty other streets, which turned off on both sides, we at last turned in ourselves; and, coming to our inn, found our lodgings ready in the upper story of a back house, which had no other access but through a by-lane. We arrived at one in the afternoon, having completed our journey from Nagasaki in twenty-nine days.

“Yedo,[25] the residence of the emperor, the capital, and by much the largest city of the empire, is seated in the province Musashi, in 35° 32´ of northern latitude (according to Kämpfer’s observations), on a large plain, at the head of a gulf, plentifully stored with fish, crabs, and other shell-fish, but so shallow, with a muddy clay at the bottom, that no ships of bulk can come up to the city, but must be unladen a league or two below it.

“Towards the sea the city hath the figure of a half-moon, and the Japanese will have it to be seven of their miles (about sixteen English miles) long, five (twelve English) broad, and twenty (fifty English) in circumference. It is not enclosed with a wall, no more than other towns in Japan, but cut through by many broad canals, with ramparts raised on both sides, and planted at the top with rows of trees, not so much for defence as to prevent the fires—which happen here too frequently—from making too great a havoc.

“A large river, rising westward of the city, runs through it, and loses itself in the harbor. It sends off a considerable arm, which encompasses the castle, and thence falls into the harbor, in five different streams, every one of which hath its particular name, and a stately bridge over it. The chief, and most famous, of these bridges, two hundred and fifty-two feet in length, is called Nihonbashi, or the bridge of Japan, mention of which has already been made, as the point from which distances are reckoned all over the empire.

“Yedo is not built with that regularity which is observable in most other cities in Japan (particularly Miyako), and this because it swelled by degrees to its present bulk. However, in some parts the streets run regularly enough, cutting each other at right angles,—a regularity entirely owing to accidents of fire, whereby some hundred houses being laid in ashes at once, as, indeed, very frequently happens, the new street may be laid out upon what plan the builders please.” Many places, which have been thus destroyed by fire, were noticed by Kämpfer still lying waste. “The houses are small and low, built of fir wood, with thin clayed walls, divided into rooms by paper screens and lattices, the floors covered with mats, and the roofs with shavings of wood. The whole machine being thus but a composition of combustible matter, we need not wonder at the great havoc fires make in this country. Here, as elsewhere, almost every house hath a place under the roof, or upon it, where they constantly keep a tub full of water, with a couple of mats, which may be easily come at, even from without the house; by which precaution they often quench a fire in particular houses; but it is far from being sufficient to stop the fury of a raging flame which has got ground already, against which they know no better remedy but to pull down some of the neighboring houses which have not yet been reached, for which purpose whole companies of firemen patrol about the streets day and night.

“The city is well stocked with monks, temples, monasteries, and other religious buildings, which are seated in the best and pleasantest places, as they are, also, in Europe, and, I believe, in all other countries. The dwelling-houses of private monks are no ways different from those of the laity, excepting only that they are seated in some eminent conspicuous place, with some steps leading up to them, and a small temple or chapel hard by, or, if there be none, at least a hall, or large room, adorned with some few altars, on which stand several of their idols. There are, besides, many stately temples built to Amida, Shaka, Kwannon, and several other of their gods, not necessary to be particularly described here, as they do not differ much in form or structure from other temples erected to the same gods at Miyako, which we shall have an opportunity to view and describe more particularly upon our return to that city.

“There are many stately palaces in Yedo, as may be easily conjectured, by its being the residence of the emperor, and the abode of all the noble and princely families. They are distinguished from other houses by large court-yards and stately gates. Fine varnished staircases, of a few steps, lead up to the door of the house, which is divided into several magnificent apartments, all of a floor, they being not above one story high, nor adorned with towers, as the castles and palaces are where the princes and lords of the empire reside in their hereditary dominions.

“The city of Yedo is a nursery of artists, handicraftsmen, merchants, and tradesmen, and yet everything is sold dearer than anywhere else in the empire, by reason of the great concourse of people, and the number of idle monks and courtiers, as, also, the difficulty of importing provisions and other commodities.

“The political government of this city is much the same as at Nagasaki and Ōsaka. Two governors have the command of the town by turns, each for the space of one year. The chief subaltern officers are the Burgomasters, as the Dutch call them, or mayors, who have the command of particular quarters, and the Ottona, who have the inspection and subordinate command of single streets.

A Carpenter Shop

“The castle and residence of the emperor is seated about the middle of the city. It is of an irregular figure, inclining to the round, and hath five Japanese miles in circumference. It embraces two fore-castles, as one may call them, the innermost and third castle, which is properly the residence of the emperor, and two other strong, well fortified, but smaller castles at the sides, also some large gardens behind the imperial palace. I call these several divisions castles, because they are every one by itself, enclosed with walls and ditches.

“The first and outermost castle takes in a large spot of ground, which encompasses the second castle, and half the imperial residence, and is enclosed itself with walls and ditches, and strong, well-guarded gates. It hath so many streets, ditches, and canals, that I could not easily get a plan of it. Nor could I gather anything to my satisfaction out of the plans of the Japanese themselves.[26] In this outermost castle reside the princes of the empire, with their families, living in commodious and stately palaces, built in streets, with spacious courts, shut up by strong, heavy gates. The second castle takes in a much smaller spot of ground. It fronts the third, and residence of the emperor, and is enclosed by the first, but separated from both by walls, ditches, draw-bridges, and strong gates. The guard of this second castle is much more numerous than that of the first. In it are the stately palaces of some of the most powerful princes of the empire, the councillors of state, the prime ministers, chief officers of the crown, and such other persons who must give a more immediate attendance upon the emperor’s person.

“The castle itself, where the emperor resides, is seated somewhat higher than the others, on the top of a hill, which hath been purposely flatted for the imperial palace to be built upon it. It is enclosed with a thick, strong wall of freestone, with bastions standing out, much after the manner of the European fortifications. A rampart of earth is raised against the inside of this wall, and at the top of it stand, for ornament and defence, several long buildings and square guard-houses, built in form of towers, several stories high. Particularly the structures on that side where the imperial residence is are of an uncommon strength, all of freestone of an extraordinary size, which are barely laid upon each other, without being fastened either with mortar or braces of iron, which was done, they say, that, in case of earthquakes, which frequently happen in this country, the stones yielding to the shock, the wall itself should receive no damage.

“Within the palace a square white tower rises aloft above all other buildings. It is many stories high, adorned with roofs and other curious ornaments, which make the whole castle look, at a distance, magnificent beyond expression, amazing the beholders, as do, also, the many other beautiful bended roofs, with gilt dragons at the top, which cover the rest of the buildings within the castle.

“The side castles are very small, and more like citadels, without any outward ornament. There is but one passage to them, out of the emperor’s own residence, over a high, long bridge. Both are enclosed with strong, high walls, encompassed with broad, deep ditches, filled by the great river. In these two castles are bred up the imperial princes and princesses.

“Behind the imperial residence there is still a rising ground, beautified, according to the country fashion, with curious and magnificent gardens and orchards, which are terminated by a pleasant wood at the top of a hill, planted with two curious kinds of plane-trees, whose starry leaves, variegated with green, yellow, and red, are very pleasing to the eye, of which the Japanese affirm that one kind is in full beauty in spring, the other towards autumn.

“The palace itself hath but one story, which, however, is of a fine height. It takes in a large spot of ground, and hath several long galleries and spacious rooms, which, upon putting on or removing of screens, may be enlarged or brought into a narrower compass, as occasion requires, and are contrived so as to receive at all times a convenient and sufficient light. The chief apartments have each its particular name. Such are, for instance, the waiting-room, where all persons that are to be admitted to an audience, either of the emperor or his prime ministers of state, wait till they are introduced; the council-chamber, where the ministers of state and privy councillors meet upon business; the hall of thousand mats, where the emperor receives the homage and usual presents of the princes of the empire and ambassadors of foreign powers; several halls of audience; the apartments for the emperor’s household, and others. The structure of all these several apartments is exquisitely fine, according to the architecture of the country. The ceilings, beams, and pillars are of cedar, or camphor, or jeseriwood, the grain of which naturally runs into flowers and other curious figures, and is, therefore, in some apartments, covered only with a thin, transparent, layer of varnish, in others japanned, or curiously carved with birds and branched work, neatly gilt. The floor is covered with the finest white mats, bordered with gold fringes or bands; and this is all the furniture to be seen in the palaces of the emperor and princes of the empire.”

The 29th of March, the last of the second Japanese month, was appointed for the reception of the Dutch,—Makino Bingo-no-Kami, the emperor’s principal counsellor and favorite, being in a hurry to get rid of them, because on the fifth of the ensuing month he was to have the honor to treat the emperor at dinner, a favor which requires a good deal of time and vast preparations. “This Bingo,” says Kämpfer, “tutor to the reigning monarch before he came to the crown, is now his chief favorite, and the only person whom he absolutely confides in. At our audience it is he that receives the emperor’s words and commands from his own mouth, and addresses the same to us. He is near seventy years of age, a tall but lean man, with a long face, a manly and German-like countenance, slow in his actions, and very civil in his whole behavior. He hath the character of a just and prudent man, no ways given to ambition, nor inclined to revenge, nor bent upon heaping up immoderate riches—in short, of being altogether worthy of the great confidence and trust the emperor puts in him.”

CHAPTER XXXVII

The ministers of state and other great men at court, some of whom the Dutch were to visit, and to make presents to others, were the five chief councillors of state, called Gorōjū, or the five elderly men; four imperial deputy councillors of state; the three Jisha-bugyō, as they are called, that is, lords of the temple; the imperial commissioners, as the Dutch call them, described by Kämpfer as the emperor’s attorney-generals for the city of Yedo; the two governors of Yedo; and, last of all, that one of the governors of Nagasaki resident at Yedo.

“On the 29th of March,”[27] says Kämpfer, “the day appointed for our audience, the presents designed for his imperial majesty[28] were sent to court, to be there laid in due order on wooden tables, in the hall of hundred mats, as they call it, where the emperor was to view them. We followed soon after with a very inconsiderable equipage, clad in black silk cloaks, as garments of ceremony, attended by three stewards of the governors of Nagasaki, our Dōshin, or deputy Bugiō, two town messengers of Nagasaki, and an interpreter’s son, all walking on foot. We three Dutchmen and our second interpreter rode on horseback, behind each other, our horses led by grooms, who took them by the bridle. Our president, or captain, as the Japanese call him, came after us, carried in a norimono, and was followed by our old chief interpreter, carried in a kago. The procession was closed by the rest of our servants and retinue, walking a-foot at proper distances, so far as they were permitted to follow us.

“In this order we moved on towards the castle, and after about half an hour’s riding came to the first enclosure, which we found well fortified with walls and ramparts. This we entered over a large bridge across a broad river, on which we saw great numbers of boats and vessels. The entry is through two strong gates, with a small guard between them. Having passed through the second gate, we came to a large place, where we found another more numerous guard, which, however, seemed to be intended more for state than defence. The guard-room was hung about with cloth; pikes were planted in the ground near the entry, and within it was curiously adorned with gilt arms, lackered guns, pikes, shields, bows, arrows, and quivers. The soldiers on the ground were in good order, clad in black silk, each with two scymitars stuck in their girdle.

“Having passed across this first enclosure, riding between the houses and palaces of the princes and lords of the empire, built within its compass, we came to the second, which we found fortified much after the same manner, only the gates and inner guard and palaces were much more stately and magnificent. We left our norimono and kago here, as also our horses and servants, and were conducted across this second enclosure to the Tono-machi (Lord-street), which we entered over a long stone bridge; and having passed through a double bastion, and as many strong gates, and thence about twenty paces further through an irregular street, built, as the situation of the ground would allow it, with walls of an uncommon height on both sides, we came to the Hiakunimban, that is, guard of hundred men, or great guard of the castle. Here we were commanded to wait till we could be introduced to an audience, which we were told should be as soon as the great council of state was met in the palace. We were civilly received by the two captains of the guard, who treated us with tea and tobacco. Soon after, Kawaguchi Settsu-no-Kami (the governor of Nagasaki resident at Yedo) and the two commissioners came to compliment us, along with some gentlemen of the emperor’s court, who were strangers to us. Having waited about an hour, during which time most of the imperial councillors of state, old and young, went into the palace, some walking on foot, others carried in norimono, we were conducted through two stately gates, over a large square place, to the palace, to which there is an ascent of a few steps leading from the second gate. The place between the second gate and the front of the palace is but a few paces broad, and was then excessively crowded with throngs of courtiers and troops of guards.

“Thence we were conducted up two other staircases into a spacious room next to the entry on the right, being the place where all persons that are to be admitted to an audience wait till they are called in. It is a large and lofty room, but, when all the screens are put on, pretty dark, receiving but a sparing light from the upper windows of an adjoining room. It is otherwise richly furnished, according to the country fashion, and its gilt posts, walls, and screens are very pleasing to behold.

“Having waited here upwards of an hour, and the emperor having in the meanwhile seated himself in the hall of audience, Settsu-no-Kami and the two commissioners came in and conducted our president into the emperor’s presence, leaving us behind. As soon as he came thither, they cried out aloud, ‘Hollanda Captain!’ which was the signal for him to draw near and make his obeisance. Accordingly he crawled on his hands and knees to a place showed him between the presents, ranged in due order on one side, and the place where the emperor sat on the other, and then kneeling, he bowed his forehead quite down to the ground, and so crawled backwards like a crab, without uttering one single word. So mean and short a thing is the audience we have of this mighty monarch. Nor are there any more ceremonies observed in the audience he gives even to the greatest and most powerful princes of the empire; for, having been called into the hall, their names are cried out aloud; then they move on their hands and feet humbly and silently towards the emperor’s seat, and having showed their submission by bowing their forehead down to the ground, they creep back again in the same submissive posture.

Ploughing;

A Freight Cart

“The hall of audience is not in the least like that which hath been described and figured by Montanus in his ‘Memorable Embassies of the Dutch to the Emperors of Japan.’ The elevated throne, the steps leading up to it, the carpet pendent from it, the stately columns supporting the building which contains the throne, the columns between which the princes of the empire are said to prostrate themselves before the emperor, and the like, have all no manner of foundation but in that author’s fancy. The floor is covered with an hundred mats, all of the same size. Hence it is called Senjō-shiki, that is, The Hall of an Hundred Mats.[29] It opens on one side towards a small court, which lets in the light; on the opposite side it joins two other apartments, which are on this occasion laid open towards the same court, one of which is considerably larger than the other, and serves for the councillors of state when they give audience by themselves. The other is narrower, deeper, and one step higher than the hall itself. In this the emperor sits when he gives audience, raised only on a few carpets. Nor is it an easy matter to see him, the light reaching not quite so far as the place where he sits, besides that the audience is too short, and the person admitted to it, in so humble and submissive a posture that he cannot well have an opportunity to hold up his head and to view him. This audience is otherwise very awful and majestic, by reason chiefly of the silent presence of all the councillors of state, as also of many princes and lords of the empire, the gentlemen of his majesty’s bed-chamber, and other chief officers of his court, who line the hall of audience and all its avenues, sitting in good order, and clad in their garments of ceremony.

“Formerly all we had to do, at the emperor’s court, was completed by the captain’s paying the usual homage, after the manner above related. But, for about these twenty years last past, he and the rest of the Dutchmen that came up with the embassy to Yedo, were conducted deeper into the palace, to give the empress, and the ladies of her court, and the princesses of the blood, the diversion of seeing us. In this second audience the emperor and the ladies invited to it attend behind screens and lattices, but the councillors of state and other officers of the court sit in the open rooms in their usual and elegant order. As soon as the captain had paid his homage, the emperor retired into his apartment, and not long after we three Dutchmen were likewise called up and conducted, together with the captain, through several apartments, into a gallery curiously carved and gilt, where we waited about a quarter of an hour, and were then, through several other walks and galleries, carried further into a large room, where they desired us to sit down, and where several courtiers with shaved heads, being the emperor’s physicians, the officers of his kitchen, and some of the clergy, came to ask after our names, age, and the like; but gilt screens were quickly drawn before us, to deliver us from their throng and troublesome importunity.

“We stayed here about half an hour; meanwhile the court met in the imperial apartments, where we were to have our second audience, and whither we were conducted through several dark galleries. Along all these several galleries there was one continued row of lifeguardsmen, and nearer to the imperial apartments followed in the same row some great officers, who lined the front of the hall of audience, clad in their garments of ceremony, bowing their heads and sitting on their heels.

“The hall of audience consisted of several rooms looking towards a middle place, some of which were laid open towards the same, others covered by screens and lattices. Some were of fifteen mats, others of eighteen, and they were a mat higher or lower, according to the quality of the persons seated in the same. The middle place had no mats at all, they having been taken away, and was consequently the lowest, on whose floor, covered with neat varnished boards, we were commanded to sit down. The emperor and his imperial consort sat behind the lattices on our right. As I was dancing, at the emperor’s command, I had an opportunity twice of seeing the empress through the slits of the lattices, and took notice that she was of a brown and beautiful complexion, with black European eyes, full of fire, and from the proportion of her head, which was pretty large, I judged her to be a tall woman, and about thirty-six years of age. By lattices, I mean hangings made of reed, split exceedingly thin and fine, and covered on the back with a fine, transparent silk, with openings about a span broad, for the persons behind to look through. For ornament’s sake, and the better to hide the persons standing behind, they are painted with divers figures, though it would be impossible to see them at a distance when the light is taken off behind.

“The emperor himself was in such an obscure place that we should scarce have known him to be present had not his voice discovered him, which yet was so low, as if he purposely intended to be there incognito. Just before us, behind other lattices were the princes of the blood and the ladies of the empress and her court. I took notice that pieces of paper were put between the reeds, in some parts of the lattices, to make the openings wider, in order to a better and easier sight. I counted about thirty such papers, which made me conclude, that there was about that number of persons sitting behind.

“Bingo sat on a raised mat, in an open room by himself, just before us, towards our right, on which side the emperor sat behind the lattices. On our left, in another room, were the councillors of state of the first and second rank, sitting in a double row in good and becoming order. The gallery behind us was filled with the chief officers of the emperor’s court and the gentlemen of his bed-chamber. The gallery, which led into the room where the emperor was, was filled with the sons of some princes of the empire, then at court, the emperor’s pages and some priests. After this manner it was that they ordered the stage on which we were now to act.

“The commissioners for foreign affairs having conducted us into the gallery before the hall of audience, one of the councillors of state of the second rank came to receive us there and to conduct us to the above-described middle place, on which we were commanded to sit down, having first made our obeisances after the Japanese manner, creeping and bowing our heads to the ground, towards that part of the lattices behind which the emperor was. The chief interpreter sat himself a little forward, to hear more distinctly, and we took our places on his left hand, all in a row. After the usual obeisances, Bingo bid us welcome in the emperor’s name. The chief interpreter received the compliment from Bingo’s mouth, and repeated it to us. Upon this the ambassador made his compliment in the name of his masters, returning their most humble thanks to the emperor for having graciously granted the Dutch liberty of commerce. This the chief interpreter repeated in Japanese, having prostrated himself quite to the ground, and speaking loud enough to be heard by the emperor. The emperor’s answer was again received by Bingo, who delivered it to the chief interpreter, and he to us. He might have, indeed, received it himself from the emperor’s own mouth, and saved Bingo this unnecessary trouble; but I fancy that the words, as they flow out of the emperor’s mouth, are esteemed too precious and sacred for an immediate transit into the mouth of persons of a low rank.

“The mutual compliments being over, the succeeding part of this solemnity turned to a perfect farce. We were asked a thousand ridiculous and impertinent questions. They desired to know how old each of us was, and what was his name, which we were commanded to write upon a bit of paper, in anticipation of which we had provided ourselves with an European inkhorn. This paper, together with the inkhorn itself, we were commanded to give to Bingo, who delivered them both into the emperor’s hands, reaching them over below the lattice. The captain, or ambassador, was asked the distance of Holland from Batavia, and of Batavia from Nagasaki; also which of the two was the most powerful, the Director-general of the Dutch East India Company at Batavia, or the Prince of Holland? As for my own particular, the following questions were put to me. What external and internal distempers I thought the most dangerous and most difficult to cure? How I proceeded in the cure of cancerous humors and imposthumations of the inner parts? Whether our European physicians did not search after some medicine to render people immortal, as the Chinese physicians had done for many hundred years? Whether we had made any considerable progress in this search, and which was the last remedy conducive to long life that had been found out in Europe? To which I returned in answer, that very many European physicians had long labored to find out some medicine, which should have the virtue of prolonging human life and preserving people in health to a great age; and, having thereupon been asked which I thought the best, I answered, that I always took that to be the best which was found out last, till experience taught us a better; and being further asked, which was the last, I answered, a certain spirituous liquor, which could keep the humors of our body fluid and comfort the spirits. This general answer proved not altogether satisfactory; for I was quickly desired to let them know the name of this excellent medicine, upon which, knowing that whatever was esteemed by the Japanese had long and high-sounding names, I returned in answer it was the Sal volatile Oleosum Sylvii. This name was minuted down behind the lattices, for which purpose I was commanded to repeat it several times. The next question was, who it was that found it out, and where it was found out? I answered, Professor Sylvius, in Holland. Then they asked whether I could make it up. Upon this our resident whispered me to say no; but I answered, yes, I could make it up, but not here. Then it was asked whether it could be had at Batavia; and having returned, in answer, that it was to be had there, the emperor desired that it should be sent over by the next ships.

“The emperor, hitherto seated almost opposite to us, at a considerable distance, now drew nearer, and sat himself down on our right, behind the lattices, as near us as possible. He ordered us to take off our kappas, or cloaks, being our garments of ceremony; then to stand upright, that he might have a full view of us; again to walk, to stand still, to compliment each other, to dance, to jump, to play the drunkard, to speak broken Japanese, to read Dutch, to paint, to sing, to put our cloaks on and off. Meanwhile we obeyed the emperor’s commands in the best manner we could, I joining to my dance a love-song in High German. In this manner, and with innumerable such other apish tricks, we must suffer ourselves to contribute to the emperor’s and the court’s diversion. The ambassador, however, is free from these and the like commands, for, as he represents the authority of his masters, some care is taken that nothing should be done to injure or prejudice the same; and besides he showed so much gravity on his countenance and whole behavior, as was sufficient to convince the Japanese that he was not at all a fit person to have such ridiculous and comical commands laid upon him.

“Having been thus exercised for a matter of two hours, though with great apparent civility, some shaved servants came in and put before each of us a small table with Japanese victuals, and a couple of ivory sticks instead of knives and forks. We took and ate some little things, and our old chief interpreter, though scarce able to walk, was commanded to carry away the remainder for himself. We were then ordered to put on our cloaks again and to take our leave; which we gladly and without delay complied with, putting thereby an end to this second audience.[30] The imperial audience over, we were conducted back by the two commissioners to the waiting-room, where we took our leave of them also.

“It was now already three o’clock in the afternoon, and we had still several visits to make to the councillors of state of the first and second rank. Accordingly we left forthwith, saluted as we went by the officers of the great imperial guard, and made our round a-foot. The presents had been carried beforehand to every one’s house by our clerks. They consisted of some Chinese, Bengalese, and other silk stuffs, some linen, black serge, some yards of black cloth, gingangs, pelangs, and a flask of Tent wine.

“We were everywhere received by the stewards and secretaries with extraordinary civility, and treated with tea, tobacco, and sweetmeats as handsomely as the little time we had to spare would allow. The rooms where we were admitted to audience were filled behind the screens and lattices with crowds of spectators, who would fain have obliged us to show them some of our European customs and ceremonies, but could obtain nothing excepting only a short dance at Bingo’s house (who came home himself a back way), and a song from each of us at the youngest councillor’s of state. We then returned again to our kago and horses, and having got out of the castle, through the northern gate, went back to our inn another way, on the left of which we took notice that there were strong walls and ditches. It was just six in the evening when we got home, heartily tired.

“Friday, the 30th of March, we rode out again betimes, in the morning, to make some of our remaining visits. The presents, such as above described, were sent before us by our Japanese clerks, who took care to lay them on trays or tables, and to arrange them in good order, according to the country fashion. We were received at the entry of the house, by one or two of the principal domestics, and conducted to the apartment where we were to have our audience. The rooms round the hall of audience were everywhere crowded with spectators. As soon as we had seated ourselves we were treated with tea and tobacco. Then the steward of the household came in, or else the secretary, either alone or with another gentleman, to compliment us, and to receive our compliments, in his master’s name. The rooms were everywhere so disposed as to make us turn our faces towards the ladies, by whom we were very generously and civilly treated with cakes and several sorts of sweetmeats. We visited and made our presents, this day, to the two governors of Yedo, to the three ecclesiastical judges (or temple lords), and to the two commissioners for foreign affairs, who lived near a mile from each other, one in the southwest, the other in the northeast, part of the castle. They both profess themselves to be particular patrons of the Dutch, and received us accordingly with great pomp and magnificence. The street was lined with twenty men armed, who, with their long staffs, which they held on one side, made a very good figure, besides that they helped to keep off the throng of people from being too troublesome. We were received upon our entering the house and introduced to audience, much after the same manner as we had been in other places, only we were carried deeper into their palaces and into the innermost apartment, on purpose that we should not be troubled with numbers of spectators, and be at more liberty ourselves as well as the ladies who were invited to the ceremony. Opposite us, in the hall of audience, there were grated lattices, instead of screens, for the length of two mats (twelve feet) and upwards, behind which sat such numbers of women of the commissioner’s own family and their relations and friends, that there was no room left. We had scarce seated ourselves, when seven servants, well clad, came in, and brought us pipes and tobacco, with the usual apparatus for smoking. Soon after, they brought in something baked, laid on japanned trays, then some fish fried, all after the same manner, by the same number of servants, and always but one piece in a small dish; then a couple of eggs, one baked, the other boiled and shelled, and a glass of old, strong sake, standing between them. After this manner we were entertained for about an hour and a half, when they desired us to sing a song and to dance; the first we refused, but satisfied them as to the last. In the house of the first commissioner a drink made of sweet plums was offered us instead of sake. In the second commissioner’s house we were presented first of all with manjū bread,[31] in a brown liquor, cold, with some mustard-seed and radishes laid about the dish, and at last with some orange-peels with sugar, which is a dish given only upon extraordinary occasions, in token of fortune and good will. We then drank some tea, and having taken our leave, went back to our inn, where we arrived at five in the evening.”

(The following bills of fare are given in Kämpfer’s account of his second visit to Yedo: “At the first commissioner’s: 1. Tea. 2. Tobacco, with the whole set of instruments for smoking. 3. Philosophical or white syrup. 4. A piece of stienbrassen, a very scarce fish, boiled in a brown sauce. 5. Another dish of fish, dressed with bran-flower and spices. 6. Cakes of eggs rolled together. 7. Fried fish, presented on skewers of bamboo. 8. Lemon-peels with sugar.

“After every one of these dishes they made us drink a dish of sake, as good as ever I tasted. We were likewise presented twice, in dram cups, with wine made of plums, a very pleasant and agreeable liquor. Last of all, we were again presented with a cup of tea.

“At the second commissioner’s we were treated, after tea and tobacco, with the following things: 1. Two long slices of manjū, dipped into a brown sop or sauce, with some ginger. 2. Hard eggs. 3. Four common fish fried and brought in on bamboo skewers. 4. The stomachs of carps, salt, in a brown sauce. 5. Two small slices of a goose, roasted and warm, presented in unglazed earthen dishes.

“Good liquor was drank about plentifully, and the commissioner’s surgeon, who was to treat us, did not miss to take his full dose. Each guest was separately served with the above dishes on little tables or salvers, about a foot square and a few inches high.)

“On the 31st of March, we rode out again at ten in the morning, and went to the houses of the three governors of Nagasaki, two of whom were then absent on duty at Nagasaki. We presented them on this occasion only with a flask of Tent each, they having already received their other presents at Nagasaki. We were met by Settsu-no-kami, the one then at Yedo, just by the door of his house. He was attended by a numerous retinue and, having called both our interpreters to him, he commanded them to tell us his desire that we should make ourselves merry in his house. Accordingly we were received extraordinarily well, and desired to walk about and to divert ourselves in his garden, as being now in the house of a friend at Yedo, and not in the palace of our governor and magistrate at Nagasaki.[32] We were treated with warm dishes and tea, much after the same manner as we had been by the commissioners, and all the while civilly entertained by his own brother, and several persons of quality of his friends and relations.

Doll and Toy Shops

Entrance to Inari Temple
Views at Fushimi

“Having stayed about two hours, we went to Tonosama’s house, where we were conducted into the innermost and chief apartment, and desired twice to come nearer the lattices on both sides of the room. There were more ladies behind the screens here than, I think, we had as yet met with in any other place. They desired us, very civilly, to show them our clothes, the captain’s arms, rings, tobacco-pipes, and the like, some of which were reached them between or under the lattices. The person that treated us in the absent governor’s name, and the other gentlemen who were then present in the room, entertained us likewise very civilly, and we could not but take notice that everything was so cordial that we made no manner of scruple of making ourselves merry, and diverting the company each with a song. The magnificence of this family appeared fully by the richness and exquisiteness of this entertainment, which was equal to that of the first commissioner’s, but far beyond it in courteous civility and a free, open carriage. After an hour and a half we took our leave. The house of Tonosama is the furthermost to the north or northwest we were to go to, a mile and a half from our inn, but seated in by much the pleasantest part of the town, where there is an agreeable variety of hills and shrubbery. The family of Tubosama (?), the third governor, lives in a small, sorry house near the ditch which encompasses the castle. We met here but a few women behind a screen, who took up with peeping at us through a few holes, which they made as they sat down. The strong liquors, which we had been this day obliged to drink in larger quantities than usual, being by this time got pretty much into our heads, we made haste to return home, and took our leave as soon as we had been treated, after the usual manner, with tea and tobacco.”

Two or three days after followed the audience of leave preparatory to the return to Nagasaki. Of this Kämpfer gives much the fullest account in his narrative of his second visit to Yedo, which we follow here.

Having proceeded to the palace as at the first audience, after half an hour’s stay in the waiting-room, the “Captain Hollanda” was called in before the councillors of state, who directed one of the commissioners to read the usual orders to him, five in number, chiefly to the effect that the Dutch should not molest any of the boats or ships of the Chinese or the Lew Chewans trading to Japan, nor bring in any Portuguese or priests.

These orders being read, the director was presented with thirty gowns, laid on three of the Japanese wooden stands or salvers, which he crept upon all fours to receive, and in token of respect held one of the gowns over his head.

This ceremony over, the Dutch were invited to stay to dinner, which was served up in another room. Before each was placed a small table or salver, on which lay five fresh, hot, white cakes, as tough as glue, and two hollow cakes of two spans in circumference, made of flour and sprinkled with sesamum seeds. A small porcelain cup contained some bits of pickled salmon in a brown sauce, by the side of which lay two wooden chopsticks. Tea also was served up, but in “poor and sorry” brown dishes, and the tea itself proved to be little better than hot water. Fortunately the Dutch, seldom caught napping upon that point, had provided themselves, before leaving home in the morning, with “a good substantial breakfast”; and, besides, they had been treated in the guard-room with fresh manjū, and with sweet brown cakes of sugar and bean flour.

While they were eating this dinner, “so far from answering to the majesty and magnificence of so powerful a monarch, that a worse one could not have been had at any private man’s house,” several young noblemen busied themselves in examining their hats, coats, dress, etc. Dinner over, after half an hour in the waiting-room, they were conducted, through passages and galleries which they did not remember to have seen before, to the hall of audience, which, by a change in the position of some of the screens, presented quite a new appearance. They were put in the very same uncarpeted spot as at their first audience, and were again called upon, as then, to answer questions, dance, sing songs, and exhibit themselves. Among the persons called in were two physicians, with whom Kämpfer had some professional conversation; also several shaven priests, one of whom had an ulcer on his shin, as to which Kämpfer’s opinion was asked. As it was a fresh sore, and the inflammation about it slight, he judged it to be of no great consequence. At the same time he advised the patient not to be too familiar with sake, pretending to guess by his wound, what was obvious enough from his red face and nose, that he was given to drinking,—a shrewd piece of professional stratagem, which occasioned much laughter at the patient’s expense.

“This farce over, a salver was brought in for each guest, on which was placed the following Japanese dishes: 1. Two small, hollow loaves, sprinkled with sesamum seeds. 2. A piece of white, refined sugar, striped. 3. Five candied kernels of the kaki [persimmon] tree, not unlike almonds. 4. A flat slice of cake. 5. Two cakes, made of flour and honey, shaped like a tunnel, brown, thick, and somewhat tough. 6. Two slices of a dark reddish and brittle cake, made of bean flour and sugar. 7. Two slices of a rice flour cake, yellow and tough. 8. Two slices of another cake or pie, of which the inside seemed to be of quite a different substance from the crust. 9. A large manjū, boiled and filled with brown sugar, like treacle. Two smaller manjū, of the common bigness, dressed after the same manner. A few of these things were eaten, and the rest, according to the Japanese custom, were taken home by the interpreter, for whom they proved quite a load, especially as he was old and rheumatic.”

Having been dismissed with many ceremonies, they went next to the house of the acting governor of Yedo, who received them with great cordiality, and gave them an entertainment consisting of a cup of tea, boiled fish with a very good sauce, oysters boiled and brought in the shells, with vinegar, a dish which, it was intimated, had been prepared from the known fondness of the Dutch for it, several small slices of a roasted goose, fried fish and boiled eggs, with very good liquor served up between the dishes. Thence they went to the houses of the governors of Nagasaki, and returned home at night thoroughly tired out, but well satisfied with their reception.

Meanwhile, the customary presents began to come in, which, in case the director was at home, were presented and received in quite a formal manner,—a speech being made by the bearer and an answer returned, after which he was treated with tobacco, tea, sweetmeats, and Dutch liquors. Besides thirty gowns from the emperor, ten were sent by each of the five ordinary councillors, six by each of the four extraordinary councillors, five by each of the three lords of the temple, and two, “pretty sorry ones,” Kämpfer says, by each of the governors of Yedo,—in all, a hundred and twenty-three, of which those given by the emperor went to the Company, and all the rest to the director, constituting no inconsiderable perquisite.

A View of Fuji

It is the custom, on the return of the Dutch, when they reach Miyako, to take them to see some of the principal temples. The first one visited by Kämpfer was the Buddhist temple and convent, where the emperor lodges when he comes to visit the Dairi. The approach to this temple was a broad, level, gravel walk, half a mile in length, lined on both sides with the stately dwellings of the ecclesiastics attached to it. Having alighted and passed a lofty gateway, the visitors ascended to a large terrace, finely gravelled and planted with trees and shrubs. Passing two handsome structures, they ascended a beautiful stairway to a magnificent building, with a front superior to that of the imperial palace at Yedo. In the middle of the outermost hall was a chapel containing a large idol with curled hair, surrounded with smaller idols. On both sides were some smaller and less elaborate chapels; behind were two apartments for the emperor’s use, opening upon a small pleasure-garden at the foot of a mountain, clothed with a beautiful variety of trees and shrubs. Behind this garden, and on the ascent of the mountain, was a chapel dedicated to the predecessor of the reigning emperor, who had been deified under the name of Genyūin.

“The visitors were next conducted across a square to another temple, of the size of an ordinary European church, supported on thirty pillars, or rather fifty-six, including those of the gallery which surrounded it. These pillars were, however, but nine feet high, and of wood, and, with the beams and cornices, were painted some red, some yellow. The most striking feature of this building, which was entirely empty within, was its bended roofs, four in number, one over the other, of which the lowest and largest jutted over the gallery. There were said to be not less than twenty-seven temples within the enclosure of this monastery.

“Up the hill, near a quarter of a mile distant, was a large bell, which Kämpfer describes as rather superior in size to the smaller of the two great Moscow bells (which he had seen), rough, ill-cast, and ill-shaped. It was struck on the outside by a large wooden stick. The prior who, with a number of the monks, received and entertained the Dutch visitors was an old gentleman, of an agreeable countenance and good complexion, clad in a violet or dark purple-colored gown, with an alms bag in his hand richly embroidered with gold.

“The largest and most remarkable of the temples seen at Miyako was that called Daibutsu, on the road to Fushimi. It was enclosed by a high wall of freestone, the front blocks being near twelve feet square. A stone staircase of eight steps led up to the gateway, on either side of which stood a gigantic image, near twenty-four feet high, with-the face of a lion, but otherwise well-proportioned, black, or of a dark purple, almost naked, and placed on a pedestal six feet high. That on the left had the mouth open and one of the hands stretched out. The opposite one had the mouth shut and the hand close to the body. They were said to be emblems of the two first and chief principles of nature, the active and passive, the giving and taking, the opening and shutting, generation and corruption. Within the gateway were sixteen stone pillars on each side for lamps, a water basin, etc.; and on the inside of the enclosing wall was a spacious walk or gallery, open towards the interior space, but covered with a roof which was supported by two rows of pillars, about eighteen feet high and twelve feet distant from each other.

“Directly opposite the entrance, in the middle of the court, stood the temple, much the loftiest structure which Kämpfer had seen in Japan, with a double roof supported by ninety-four immense wooden pillars, of at least nine feet diameter, some of them of a single piece, but others of several trunks put together as in the case of the masts of our large ships, and all painted red.”

Within, the floor was paved with square flags of freestone,—a thing not seen elsewhere. There were many small, narrow doors running up to the first roof, but the interior, on account of its great height, the whole up to the second roof forming but one room, was very badly lighted. Nothing was to be seen within except an immense idol, sitting (not after the Japanese, but after the Indian manner, with the legs crossed before it) on a terete flower, supported by another flower, of which the leaves were turned upwards, the two being raised about twelve feet from the floor. The idol, which was gilt all over, had long ears, curled hair, a crown on the head, which appeared through the window over the first roof, with a large spot not gilt on the forehead. The shoulders, so broad as to reach from one pillar to another, a distance of thirty feet, were naked. The breast and body were covered with a loose piece of drapery. It held the right hand up, the left rested edgewise on the belly.

The Kwannon temple was a structure very long in proportion to its breadth. In the midst was a gigantic image of Kwannon, with thirty-six arms. Sixteen black images, bigger than life, stood round it, and on each side two rows of gilt idols with twenty arms each. On either side of the temple, running from end to end, were ten platforms rising like steps one behind the other, on each of which stood fifty images of Kwannon, as large as life,—a thousand in all, each on its separate pedestal, so arranged as to stand in rows of five, one behind the other, and all visible at the same time, each with its twenty hands. On the hands and heads of all these are placed smaller idols, to the number of forty or more; so that the whole number, thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three, according to the estimate of the Japanese, does not appear exaggerated.

Klaproth[33] gives some curious details as to these temples, derived from a Japanese Guide Book, such as is sold to visitants. The dimensions of the temple and of the image of Daibutsu, or the great Buddha, are given with great minuteness. The body is seventy-seven feet five and one-fourth inches high (Rhineland measure), and the entire statue with the lotus, eighty-nine feet eight and three-fourths inches. The head of the colossus protrudes through the roof of the saloon.[34]

At a little distance is a chapel called Mimitsuka, or “tomb of ears,” in which are buried the ears and noses of the Coreans who fell in the war carried on against them by Taikō-Sama, who had them salted and conveyed to Japan. The grand portico of the external wall of the temple is called Ni-ō-mon, “gate of the two kings.” On entering this vast portico, which is eighty-three and one-half feet high, on each side appears a colossal figure twenty-two feet in height, representing the two celestial kings, Aōn and Jugo, the usual porters at the Buddhist temples. Another edifice placed before the apartment of the great Buddha, contains the largest bell known in the world. It is seventeen feet two and one-half inches high, and weighs one million seven hundred thousand Japanese pounds (katties), equal to two million sixty-six thousand pounds English. Its weight is consequently five times greater than the great bell at Moscow. If this is the same bell described by Kämpfer, here is a remarkable discrepancy.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

Notwithstanding the lamentations uttered by Kämpfer in the name of the Dutch factors, the trade to Japan had by no means in his time reached its lowest level, and it was subjected soon after his departure to new and more stringent limitations.

In the year 1696 appeared a new kind of koban. The old koban was twenty carats eight and a half, and even ten, grains fine; that is, supposing it divided into twenty-four parts, twenty parts and a half were fine gold.[35] The new koban was thirteen carats six or seven grains fine, containing, consequently, only two-thirds as much gold as the old one, and yet the Dutch were required to receive it at the same rate of sixty-eight mas of silver.

The old koban had returned on the coast of Coromandel a profit of twenty-five per cent, the new produced a loss of fifteen or sixteen per cent; but some of the old koban being still paid over at the same rate as the new, some profits continued to be derived from the gold, till, in 1710, the Japanese made a still more serious change in their coin, by reducing the weight of the koban nearly one-half, from forty-seven kanderins (two hundred and seventy-four grains) to twenty-five kanderins (one hundred and forty-six grains), which, as the Dutch were still obliged to receive these new koban at the rate of sixty-eight mas, caused a loss of from thirty-four to thirty-six per cent. From this time the old koban passed as double koban, being reckoned at twice their former weight. The koban of the coinage of 1730 were about five per cent better than the preceding ones; but the Dutch trade continued rapidly to decline, especially after the exportation of copper was limited, in 1714, to fifteen thousand chests, or piculs, and, in 1721, to ten thousand piculs annually. From this time, two ships sufficed for the Dutch trade.

For thirty years previous to 1743, the annual gross profits on the Japanese trade had amounted to five hundred thousand florins (two hundred thousand dollars), and some years to six hundred thousand (two hundred and forty thousand dollars); but in 1743 they sunk below two hundred thousand florins (eighty thousand dollars), which was the annual cost of maintaining the establishment at Deshima.

Upon this occasion, a “Memoir on the Trade of Japan, and the Causes of its Decline,” was drawn up by Imhoff, at that time governor-general at Batavia, which affords information on the change in the value of the koban, and other matters relating to the Dutch trade to Japan, not elsewhere to be found.[36] It is apparent from his memoir that the trade was not managed with the sagacity which might have been expected from private merchants. The cargoes were ill assorted, and did not correspond to the requisitions of the Japanese. They, on the other hand, had repeatedly offered several new articles of export, which the Company had declined, because, in the old routine of their trade, no profitable market appeared for these articles at the prices asked for them.

The Dutch attempted to frighten the Japanese by threatening to close their factory altogether, but this did not produce much effect, and, since the date of Imhoff’s memoir, the factory appears not to have done much more than to pay its expenses. That the Japanese were not very anxious for foreign trade, appears by their having restricted the Chinese, previous to 1740, to twenty junks annually, and at a subsequent period to ten junks.

The Dutch imagined that the above-mentioned changes in the coins of Japan were made solely with a view to their trade and to curtail their profits. Raffles suggests, on the other hand, that this degradation of the Japanese coins was the natural result of the immense export of the precious metals, which, in the course of the two hundred years from 1540 to 1740, must have drained Japan of specie to the value of perhaps not less than two hundred millions of dollars. The exports of foreign nations, as we have seen, were almost entirely metallic, and the mines of Japan were by no means so productive as to be able to withstand this constant drain. The export of silver was first stopped. Then gold was raised to such a value as effectually to stop the exportation of that, and restrictions were, at the same time, put upon the exportation of copper. This sagacious conjecture of Raffles is confirmed by a tract on the Origin of the Riches of Japan, written, in 1708, by Arai Chikugo-no-Kami [Arai Hakuseki], a person of high distinction at the emperor’s court, of which the original was brought to Europe by Titsingh, and of which Klaproth has given a translation, in the second volume of the “Nouveau Journal Asiatique.” The author of this tract states, perhaps from official documents, the amount of gold and silver exported from Nagasaki, from 1611 to 1706, as follows: Gold, 6,192,600 koban; silver, 112,268,700 taels. Of this amount, 2,397,600 koban and 37,420,900 taels of silver had been exported since 1646. The exports of copper from 1663 to 1708 are stated at 1,114,446,700 katties.

This export is represented as having commenced in the time of Nobunaga,[37] when the mines of Japan had first begun to be largely productive, and, previous to 1611, to have been much greater than afterwards, which is ascribed by this author in part to the amounts sent out of the country, by the Catholic natives, to purchase masses for their souls. Much alarm is expressed lest, with the decreased product of the mines, and continual exportation, Japan should be reduced to poverty. Titsingh ascribes the origin of this tract to the extravagance of the reigning emperor, which it was desired to check by good advice; but the exportation of the precious metals by foreigners is evidently the point aimed at.

View of Hakone

Lake Biwa

“There goes out of the empire annually,” says this writer, “about one hundred and fifty thousand koban, or a million and a half in ten years. It is, therefore, of the highest importance to the public prosperity to put a stop to these exportations, which will end in draining us entirely. Nothing is thought of but the procuring foreign productions, expensive stuffs, elegant utensils, and other things not known in the good old times. Since Gongen, gold, silver, and copper have been abundantly produced; unfortunately the greater part of this wealth has gone for things we could have done quite as well without. The successors of Gongen ought to reflect upon this, in order that the wealth of the empire may be as lasting as the heavens and the earth.” Ideas like those broached in this tract seem to be the basis of the existing policy of Japan on the subject of foreign trade; and, independently of this, the failure of the Japanese mines renders any return to the old system of the Portuguese and Dutch traffic quite out of the question. Japan has no longer gold and silver to export, and if a new trade is to be established with her, it must be on an entirely new basis, the exports to consist of something else than metallic products.

CHAPTER XXXIX

From the time of Kämpfer’s departure from Deshima, of all the Dutch residents and visitors there, none, for a period of upwards of eighty years, favored the world with their observations. They went to Japan in pursuit of money, not to obtain knowledge, either for themselves or others.

At length, in 1775, Charles Peter Thunberg, a Swedish physician, naturalist, and traveller, to gain an opportunity of seeing Japan, obtained the same official situation which Kämpfer had held before him. Being an enthusiastic botanist, he was sent to the East by some wealthy merchants of Amsterdam to obtain new trees and plants, as well for the medical garden of that city as for their own private collections. Circumstances caused him to spend three years at the Cape of Good Hope, whence he proceeded to Batavia. He left that port June 20, 1775, and arrived off Nagasaki the 14th of the following August. From an experience of more than a hundred years, the Company reckoned on the loss of one out of every five ships sent to Japan, though care was taken to select the best and strongest vessels.[38]

The searches and examinations previous to landing were the same described by Kämpfer. Hitherto it had been usual to allow the captains of the vessels to pass at pleasure to and from their ships without being searched; they, with the directors of the Dutch factory, being the only persons exempt from that ceremony. The captains had taken advantage of this exemption to dress themselves out, for the convenience of smuggling, in a showy, blue silk, silver-laced coat, made very wide and large, in which dress they generally made three trips a day to and from Deshima, being often so loaded down with goods that they had to be supported by a sailor under each arm. Thunberg’s captain rigged himself out in the same style; but, much to his disappointment and that of the other Dutchmen, whose private goods the captains had been accustomed to smuggle for a commission, the Japanese officers who boarded the ship brought orders that the captain should dress like the rest; that he and the director also should be searched when they landed, and that the captain should either stop on board, or, if he landed, should remain on shore, being allowed to visit the ship only twice during her stay. “It was droll enough,” says Thunberg, “to see the astonishment which the sudden reduction in the size of our bulky captain excited in the major part of the ignorant Japanese, who before had always imagined that all our captains were actually as fat and lusty as they appeared to be.”

In the year 1772, one of the Dutch ships from Batavia, disabled in a violent storm, had been abandoned by her crew, who, in their haste, or believing that she would speedily sink, had neglected the standing order of the Company, in such cases, to set her on fire. Some days after she drifted to the Japanese shore, and was towed into the harbor of Nagasaki, when the Japanese found on board a number of chests marked with the names of the principal Dutch officers, and full of prohibited goods,—and it was to this discovery that the new order was ascribed.

The examination of the clothes and persons of all who passed to and from the ship was very strict. The large chests were emptied, and the sides, top, and bottom sounded to see if they were not hollow. Beds were ripped open and the feathers turned over. Iron spikes were thrust into the butter-tubs and jars of sweetmeats. A square hole was cut in the cheeses, and a thick, pointed wire thrust through them in every direction. Even some of the eggs brought from Batavia were broken, lest they might be shams in which valuables were concealed.

Formerly, according to Thunberg, the Dutch took the liberty to correct with blows the Japanese kuri employed as laborers on board the ships; but in his time this was absolutely prohibited. He adds, that the respect of the Japanese for the Dutch was a good deal diminished by observing “in how unfriendly and unmannerly a style they usually behave to each other, and the brutal treatment which the sailors under their command frequently experience from them, together with the oaths, curses, and blows with which the poor fellows are assailed by them.”

The interpreters would seem to have adopted, since the time of Kämpfer (as he makes no mention of it), the practice of medicine among their countrymen after the European manner. This made them very inquisitive as to matters of physic and natural history, and very anxious to obtain European books, which they studied diligently. Kämpfer speaks of the interpreters with great indignation as the most watchful and hateful of spies. Thunberg appears to have established very good terms with them. New restrictions, however, had been placed on their intercourse with the resident Dutchmen, whom, to prevent smuggling, they were not allowed to visit, except in company with one or two other officers.

Deshima, from Thunberg’s description of it, appears to have altered very little since Kämpfer’s residence there, though glass windows had lately been brought from Batavia, by some of the Dutch residents, as a substitute for the paper windows of the Japanese.

The permanent residents were now twelve or thirteen (there had been but seven in Kämpfer’s time), besides slaves brought from Batavia, of whom each Dutchman had one.

The goods sent out by the Company at the time of Thunberg’s visit were sugars (almost the only article of consumption which the Japanese do not produce for themselves), elephants’ teeth, sappan-wood for dyeing, tin, lead, bar-iron, fine chintzes of various sorts, Dutch broadcloths, shalloons, silks, cloves, tortoise-shell, China-root, and Costus Arabicus. The goods of private adventurers were saffron, Venice treacle, Spanish liquorice, rattans, spectacles, looking-glasses, watches, Ninjin-root or ginseng, and unicorns’ horns. This latter article, the horn of the Monodon monoceros, a product of the Greenland fishery, had been lately introduced. The Japanese ascribed to it wonderful virtues as a medicine, believing it to have the power to prolong life, strengthen the animal spirits, assist the memory, and cure all sorts of complaints. Thunberg had carried out as his venture thirty-seven katties (about fifty pounds) of this horn, which sold for five thousand and seventy-one taels, or upwards of six thousand dollars; so that, after paying the advances made to him at Batavia, he had a handsome surplus to expend in his favorite pursuit of natural history.

The genuine Chinese ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) sold at a price full as high as that of unicorn’s horn. The American article, being regarded as not genuine, was strictly prohibited, but was smuggled in to mix with the Chinese.[39]

Scientific works in the Dutch language, though not a regular article of sale, might be often exchanged to advantage with the interpreters.

The Company imported a quantity of silver coin, but private persons were not allowed to do so, though a profit might have been made on it. The sale by kamban continued exactly as Kämpfer had described it. No Japanese money came into the hands either of the Company or of individuals from the sale of their goods by kamban. They only acquired a credit, which they were able to exchange for Japanese articles.

The chief articles of export were copper, camphor, and lackered goods; porcelain, rice, sake, soy,[40] were also exported. The profits of this trade had been greatly curtailed. “Formerly,” says Thunberg, “it was so very profitable to individuals that hardly anybody but favorites were sent out as chiefs, and when these had made two voyages, it was supposed that they were rich enough to be able to live on the interest of their fortunes, and that, therefore, they ought to make room for others. At present a chief is obliged to make many voyages. His success is now no more to be envied, and his profits are thought to be very inconsiderable.”

Of the general enjoyment of a residence at Deshima Thunberg does not speak very highly. “An European that remains here is, in a manner, dead and buried in an obscure corner of the globe. He hears no news of any kind; nothing relative to war or other misfortunes and evils that plague and infest mankind; and neither the rumors of inland or foreign concerns delight or molest his ear. The soul possesses here one faculty only, which is the judgment (if, indeed, it be at all times in possession of that). The will is totally debilitated, and even dead, because, to an European there is no other will than that of the Japanese, by which he must exactly square his conduct.

“The European way of living is, in other respects, the same as in other parts of India, luxurious and irregular. Hence, just as at Batavia, we pay a visit every evening to the chief, after having walked several times up and down the two streets. These evening visits generally last from six o’clock till ten, and sometimes eleven or twelve at night, and constitute a very disagreeable way of life, fit only for such as have no other way of spending their time than droning over a pipe of tobacco and a bottle.”

The Europeans remaining at Deshima had each two or three handsome rooms, besides the store-rooms in the lower story. These they occupied without rent, the only expense being that of furnishing them. As the winter set in, the cold, with an easterly or northerly wind, was quite piercing, and they had fires of charcoal in a large copper kettle with a broad rim. Placed in the middle of the room it warmed the whole apartment for hours together. The looseness of the doors and windows prevented any ill consequences from the gases. As the residents all dined and supped at a common table, kept at the Company’s expense, their outlays did not amount to much—“except,” says Thunberg, “they squander away their money on the fair sex, or make expensive entertainments and give suppers to each other.”

The account which Thunberg gives of the Japanese mistresses of the Dutch is very much the same with that given by Kämpfer. These women, when spoken for to an officer appointed for that purpose, come attended by a little serving-maid,—one of the young apprentices of the houses to which they belonged,—who brought daily from the town her mistress’ food, made her tea, kept her things in order, and ran on errands. One of these female companions could not be had for less than three days, but might be kept a year, or even several years. The price was eight mas, or one dollar a day, besides her maintenance and presents of silk dresses, girdles, head-ornaments, etc. According to Thunberg, children were very seldom born of these connections. He was assured, but did not credit it, that if such a thing happened, the child, if a boy, would be murdered; and that, if a girl, it would be sent at fifteen to Batavia; but of this he knew of no instance. There was, in his time, one girl about six years old, born of a Japanese mother, living on the island with her father. Later accounts go to show that Dutch-Japanese children are by no means such rarities as Thunberg represents.[41]

The women painted their lips with colors, made of the Catharinus tinctorius, or bastard saffron, rubbed on little porcelain bowls. If laid on very thin, the lips appeared red; if thick, it gave them a violet hue, esteemed by the Japanese as the more beautiful. The married women were distinguished by blacking their teeth with a fœtid mixture, so corrosive that the lips had to be protected from it while it was laid on. It ate so deeply into the teeth that it took several days and much trouble to scrape it away. “To me at least,” says Thunberg, “a wide mouth with black shining teeth had an ugly and disagreeable appearance.” The married women distinguished themselves also by pulling out their eyebrows; and another distinction was that they knotted their girdles before, and the single women behind.

Thunberg noticed that venereal diseases, which he ascribed to European intercourse, were very common,[42] and he congratulated himself on the questionable service of having introduced the mercurial treatment.

As he had plenty of leisure and little taste for the Dutch fashion of killing time, he endeavored to find more rational and profitable employment. The residents were still allowed native servants, who, though not interpreters, had learned to speak the Dutch language. But the Dutch were strictly prohibited from learning the Japanese; and though the interpreters were sufficiently well inclined, Thunberg encountered many difficulties in his study of that language. It was only after many inquiries that he found at last an old dictionary, in the Latin, Portuguese, and Japanese, in quarto, containing nine hundred and six pages. The title-page was gone, but the book purported to have been compiled by the joint labors of the Jesuits at Japan, as well European as natives. It belonged to one of the interpreters, who possessed it as legacy from his ancestors, and he refused to sell it for any price.[43]

Afterwards, at Yedo, he saw a book in long quarto, about an inch thick, printed on Japanese paper, entirely in Japanese characters, except the title-page, which bore the imprint of the Jesuits, with the date, Nagasaki, A. D. 1598.

“Through incapacity in some and indolence in others,” the Dutch possessed no vocabulary of the Japanese, and all the knowledge the Dutch residents had of it did not go beyond calling by name a few familiar articles. Thunberg has annexed to his Travels a short Japanese vocabulary, but he does not appear to have made any great progress in the language.

With much difficulty he obtained, about the beginning of February, leave to botanize.[44] Every excursion cost him sixteen or eighteen taels, as he was obliged to feast from twenty to thirty Japanese officials, by whom he was always attended. On the neighboring hills he noticed many burying-grounds, containing tombstones of various forms, sometimes rough, but more frequently hewn, with letters, sometimes gilt, engraved upon them. Before these stones were placed vessels, made of large bamboos, containing water, with branches of flowers.

He also noticed, both around Nagasaki and afterwards on his journey to Yedo, the pits, or rather large earthen jars, sunk by the road-side for the collection of manure, both liquid and solid. To the fœtid exhalations from these open pits, and to the burning of charcoal without chimneys, he ascribed the red and inflamed eyes very common in Japan. In the gardens he saw growing the common red beet, the carrot, fennel, dill, anise, parsley, and asparagus; leeks, onions, turnips, radishes, lettuce, succory, and endive. Long ranges of sloping ground, at the foot of the mountains, were planted with the sweet potato. Attempts were also made to cultivate the common potato, but with little success. Several kinds of yams (Dioscoreæ) grew wild in the vicinity of Nagasaki, of which one species was used for food, and, when boiled, had a very agreeable taste.[45] Buckwheat, Windsor beans (Vicia faba), several species of French beans (Phascolus), and peas (Pisun sativum), were commonly cultivated; also, two kinds of cayenne pepper (Capsicum), introduced probably by the Portuguese. Tobacco was also raised, for the use and the name of which the Japanese were indebted to the Portuguese. He observed also hemp, the Acorus, strongly aromatic; a kind of ginger (Amomum miōga); the Mentha piperita; the Alcea rosea and Malva Mauritiana, cultivated for their flowers; the Celastrus alatus, a branch of which, stuck at a young lady’s door, is thought by the Japanese to have the power of making her fall in love with you; the common juniper-tree; the bamboo and the box, also the ivy; the China-root (Smilax China); wild figs, with small fruit like plums (Fiscus pumila and erecta); the pepper bush (Figara peperita); a species of madder (Rubia cordata), and several species of the Pologonum, used for dyeing. Also, two species of nettles, the bark of which furnished cordage and thread, and the seeds of one species an oil. The yellow flowers of the colewort (Brassica orientalis), which was largely cultivated for the oil afforded by its seeds, presented through the spring a beautiful appearance. This oil was used for lamps. Oil for food, used, however, but sparingly, was expressed from the Sesamum orientale and the mustard seed. Solid oils, for candles, were obtained from the nuts of the varnish-tree (Rhus vernix), and from those of the Rhus succedanea, the camphor-tree, the Melea azedarach, and the Camellia sasankwa.[46]

In striking fire a tinder is used made of the woolly part of the leaves of the common wormwood. The famous moxa [mogusa], spoken of hereafter, is a finer preparation of the same root. Instead of soap the meal of a species of bean is employed.

The bark of the Shikimi, or anise-tree (a near relation of the mangolia tribe, and whose flowers and leaves are much employed in religious ceremonies), is used as a time-measurer. A box a foot long is filled with ashes, in which are marked furrows, in parallel lines, strewed with fine powder of this bark. The lid being closed, with only a small hole left to supply air, the powder is set on fire at one end, and consumed very slowly, and the hours, marked beforehand on these furrows, are proclaimed in the daytime by striking the bells in the temples, and in the night by the watch striking together two pieces of wood. Another method of measuring time is by burning slow match, divided into knots to mark the hours. The Japanese also have a clock, the mechanism of which is described in a subsequent chapter.

“The first of January, according to custom,” says Thunberg, “most of the Japanese that had anything to do at the Dutch factory came to wish us a happy new year. Dressed in their holiday clothes, they paid their respects to the director, who invited them to dine with him. The victuals were chiefly dressed after the European manner, and, consequently, but few of the dishes were tasted by the Japanese. Of the soup they all partook, but of the other dishes, such as roasted pigs, hams, salad, cakes, tarts, and other pastries, they ate little or nothing, but put on a plate a little of every dish, and, when it was full, sent it home, labelled with the owner’s name; and this was repeated several times. Salt beef, and the like, which the Japanese do not eat, were set by, and used as a medicine. The same may be said of the salt butter, of which I was frequently desired to cut a slice for some of the company. It is made into pills, and taken daily in consumptions and other disorders. After dinner, warm sake was handed round, which was drank out of lackered wooden cups.

“On this festive occasion the director invited from the town several handsome girls, partly for the purpose of serving out the sake, and partly to dance and bear the girls company who were already on the island. After dinner, these girls treated the Japanese to several of their own country messes, placed on small square tables, which were decorated with an artificial fir-tree, the leaves of which were made of green silk, and in several places sprinkled over with white cotton, in imitation of the winter’s snow. The girls never presented the sake, standing, but, after their own fashion, sitting. In the evening they danced, and about five o’clock the company took their leave.”

The 19th of February, 1776, on which fell the beginning of the Japanese year, was celebrated according to the Japanese custom, all of them going visiting, dressed up in their holiday clothes, and wishing their neighbors joy; and, indeed, this interchange of congratulations is kept up, more or less, through the first month.

On the two last days of the year a general settlement of accounts takes place. Fresh credit is then given for six months, when a new settlement takes place. The rate of interest was high, ranging from eighteen to twenty per cent. Thunberg was told that, after new-year’s day, there was no right to demand settlement of the last year’s accounts.

Shortly after the Japanese new year, took place the trampling of images, which ceremony, according to the information obtained by Thunberg, was still performed by all the inhabitants of Nagasaki, exactly as in Kämpfer’s time.

On the 4th of March the director set out for the emperor’s court, accompanied, as usual, by the secretary of the factory, and by Thunberg as physician. In Kämpfer’s day these two latter persons had been obliged to make the journey on horseback, exposed to cold, rain, and all the inclemencies of the weather. Since then they had obtained the privilege of travelling in norimono, equally with the director. Dr. Thunberg seems to have been well satisfied with his vehicle, which he describes as both handsome and convenient. Each norimono traveller had with him a bottle of red wine, and another of Dutch ale, taken daily from the large stock provided for the journey, and preferred by the Europeans to tea, which they regarded as a “great relaxer of the stomach.” Each traveller had also an oblong lackered box, containing “a double slice of bread and butter.” In order to support the dignity of the Dutch East India Company, the bed equipage which they carried with them, consisting of coverlids, pillows, and mattresses, was covered with the richest open-work velvets and silks. Their retinue, on horseback and on foot, was numerous and picturesque. They were received everywhere with the honor and respect paid to the princes of the land; and, besides, says Thunberg, were so well guarded “that no harm could befall us, and, at the same time, so well attended that we had no more care upon our minds than a sucking child; the whole of our business consisting in eating and drinking, or in reading or writing for our amusement, in sleeping, dressing ourselves, and being carried about in our norimono.”

The Ear-Mound at Kyōtō

At setting out, each of the three Dutchmen received from the purveyor fifty taels, for their individual expenses. This was the first Japanese money which Thunberg had seen, and this, with other sums doled out to them from time to time, was chiefly spent in presents to their attendants. The disbursement on this score, at starting, amounted to ten taels each.

In the early part of their journey, they followed a somewhat different road from Kämpfer’s, all the way by land, not crossing either the bay of Ōmura, nor that of Shimabara. They passed, however, through Shiota, as Kämpfer had done, famous for its large water-jars, and visited the hot springs in that neighborhood, and also Saga, capital of the province of Hizen, remarkable for its handsome women, its rice and its fine porcelain. The roads were found such as Kämpfer had described them. Proceeding onward, still by Kämpfer’s route, they reached Kokura on the ninth of March. The following description of Japanese houses corresponds sufficiently well with that of Kämpfer, while it gives a rather more distinct, and somewhat less flattering, idea of them. “The houses are very roomy and commodious, and never more than two stories—at most twenty feet—high, of which the lower one is inhabited, and the upper serves for lofts and garrets, and is seldom occupied. The mode of building in this country is curious and peculiar. Every house occupies a great extent of ground, and is built in general of wood and plaster, and whitewashed on the outside so as to look exactly like stone. The beams all lie horizontal or stand perpendicular. Between these beams, which are square and far from thick, bamboos are interwoven, and the space filled up with clay, sand, and lime. The roofs are covered with tiles of a singular make, very thick and heavy. The more ordinary houses are covered with chips [shingles], on which are frequently laid heavy stones to secure them. In the villages and meaner towns I sometimes saw the sides of the houses, especially behind, covered with the bark of trees, which was secured by laths nailed on it to prevent the rain from damaging the wall.

“The whole house makes but one room, which can be divided according as it may be found necessary, or thought proper, into many smaller ones. This is done by moving slight partitions, consisting of wooden frames, pasted over with thick painted paper, which slide with great ease in grooves made in the beams of the floor and roof for that purpose. Such rooms were frequently partitioned off for us and our retinue, during our journey; and when a larger apartment was wanted for a dining-room, or any other purpose, the partitions were in an instant taken away. One could not see, indeed, what was done in the next room, but one frequently overheard the conversation that passed there.

“In each room there are two or more windows, which reach from the ceiling to within two feet of the floor. They consist of light frames which may be taken out, put in, and slid behind each other, at pleasure, in two grooves made for this purpose in the beams above and below them. They are divided by slender rods into panes of a parallelogrammatic form, sometimes to the number of forty, and pasted over on the outside with fine white paper, which is seldom if ever oiled, and admits a great deal of light, but prevents any one from seeing through it. The roof always projects a great way beyond the house, and sometimes has an addition which covers a small projecting gallery that stands before each window. From this little roof go slanting inwards and downwards several quadrangular frames, within which hang blinds made of rushes, which may be drawn up and let down, and serve not only to hinder people that pass by from looking into the house, but chiefly when it rains to prevent the paper windows from being damaged. There are no glass windows here; nor have I observed mother-of-pearl or muscovy talc (mica, or isinglass) used for this purpose.

“The houses have neither the elegant appearance nor the convenience and comfort of ours in Europe. The rooms are not so cheerful and pleasant, nor so warm in the winter, neither are they so safe in case of fire, nor so durable. Their semi-transparent paper windows, in particular, spoil the houses, as well in their inside as outside appearance. Neither chimneys nor stoves are known throughout the whole country, although the cold is very intense, and they are obliged to make fires in their apartments from October to March. The fires are made in copper kettles, of various sizes, with broad projecting edges. This mode of firing is liable, however, to this inconvenience, that the charcoal sometimes smokes, in consequence of which the apartment becomes dirty and black, and the eyes of the company suffer exceedingly.

“The floors are always covered with mats made of a fine species of rush (Juncus effusus), cultivated in low spots for that purpose, and interwoven with rice straw. These mats are from three to four inches thick, and of the same size throughout the country, viz., two yards long and one broad. The insides of the houses, both ceiling and walls, are covered with a handsome, thick paper, ornamented with various flowers. These hangings are either green, yellow, or white; and sometimes embellished with silver and gold. As the paper is greatly damaged by the smoke in winter, it is renewed every third or fifth year.[47]

“The furniture in this country is as simple as the style of building. Neither cupboards, bureaus, sofas, beds, tables, chairs, clocks, looking-glasses, nor anything else of the kind, is to be seen. To the greater part of these the Japanese are utter strangers. Their soft floor-mats serve them for chairs. A small table, or rather salver, about twelve inches square and four high, is set before each person in company at every meal, of which there are three a day. The food (rice, soup, and fish being the principal articles) is served in lackered wooden cups. Most other nations of the East sit with their legs laid across before them,—the Chinese and Japanese lay their feet under their bodies, and make a chair of their heels. When the hour of rest approaches, a soft mattress, stuffed with cotton, is spread out on the mats. The Japanese have no pillows, instead of which they use oblong lackered pieces of wood. With the above apparatus for sleeping, the Japanese bed-chamber is put in order, and he himself up and dressed, in the twinkling of an eye; as, in fact, scarcely a longer time is requisite for him to throw the gown over him, which serves for dress by day and bedclothes at night, and to gird it round his waist.

“Though mirrors do not decorate the walls, they are in general use at the toilet, made not of glass, but of a composition of copper and zinc highly polished, and fixed obliquely in a stand of wood made for that purpose. Cleanliness is a constant object with these people, and not a day passes in which they do not wash themselves, whether they are at home or on a journey. In all towns and villages, inns and private houses, there are baths.” He adds, however, what goes rather against this alleged cleanliness, that as the poor, to save expense, are accustomed to use water in which others have repeatedly bathed, they are apt in that way to take infectious disorders. Neither do their open manure vaults, placed by the roadsides and in the very fronts of their houses, agree so well with this eulogy.

At Kokura the Dutch bespoke, against their return, rice and charcoal for the factory at Deshima. Having crossed to Shimonoseki, they embarked, on the 12th of March, in a large Japanese junk, for Ōsaka; but, having made less than half the voyage, they encountered contrary winds, which drove them a long distance back, and detained them for near three weeks. The weather was so cold as to make fires comfortable, and colds and catarrhs, endemical to Japan from the changeability of its climate, were very prevalent. All this time they slept on board, but had several times an opportunity to go on shore to amuse themselves at the inns and temples, the Japanese sailors being always anxious to land in order to bathe.

The country all along this coast was mountainous, which was the reason of going by sea instead of by land, the land road being very difficult. This coast seemed, nevertheless, to be highly cultivated, the mountains in many places resembling beautiful gardens.

At the places where they landed, the children were very numerous. “I observed,” says Thunberg, “that the chastisement of children was very moderate. I very seldom heard them rebuked or scolded, and hardly ever saw them flogged or beaten, either in private families or on board the vessels; while, in more civilized and enlightened nations, these compliments abound.[48] In the schools one might hear the children read all at once, and so loud as almost to deafen one.”

Whenever the Japanese went on shore, they killed geese and ducks for the Dutchmen to eat; but at sea they had scruples about killing them, though in fine weather the Chinese teal (Anas galericulata), and several sorts of ducks, fairly covered the water, so as to look at a distance like great islands. But, though scrupulous themselves, they made no objections to Thunberg’s killing them; though, not being allowed the use of fire-arms, it does not appear how he did it.

At length, on the seventh of April, after a disagreeable and dangerous passage of twenty-six days, they reached the harbor of Hiōgo, whence the next day, partly by land and partly in small boats, they proceeded to Ōsaka. Here each of the travellers disbursed sixteen taels in presents to the captain and crew of the vessel, for the hire of which the sum of four hundred and eighty taels was paid by the East India Company. They stayed at Ōsaka only a single night, during which they bespoke from some merchants, who visited them[49] with samples, several articles, such as insects of copper, artificial trees varnished, fans of various kinds, writing paper, paper hangings, etc. They left Ōsaka early in the morning, by torchlight, and, following the same road which Kämpfer had taken, reached Miyako at night. “Except in Holland,” says Thunberg, “I never made so pleasant a journey as this, with regard to the beauty and delightful appearance of the country. The whole country, on both sides of us, as far as we could see, was nothing but a fertile field, and the whole of our long day’s journey extended through villages, of which one began where the other ended.”

The farmers were now preparing their lands for rice. The fields, by means of a raised border, lay almost entirely under water. This was the case even with those sides of the hills intended for rice. They were laid out in terraces, the water collected on the higher grounds being regulated by means of walls or dams, so as to be let on or shut off at pleasure. There were, also, reservoirs, constructed to retain the contents of the flooded streams, against occasions of drought. The rice was sown first very close and thick, and when about six inches high was transplanted into the fields, in tufts of several plants, placed about six inches apart. This was done by the women, who waded about in water at least six inches deep, the men having first turned up the ground with a hoe. Beautiful white herons followed the laborers, and cleared the fields of worms. The rice thus planted was reaped in November.

Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy

Fields of wheat, barley (used to feed the horses), buckwheat, East India kale (Brassica orientalis), and mustard (the two latter for oil) were also seen. These crops, planted in November or December, and ripe in May or June, were in beds about a foot broad, and separated from each other by a deep furrow or trench of about the same breadth. Sometimes they were planted across these narrow beds, and sometimes in two rows, lengthwise. Thunberg noticed that when the ear was about to put forth, the plants being grown to the height of a foot, the earth was taken out from the intervening trenches, and drawn up to the roots of the plants. About the same time, or a little earlier, the liquid manure collected in the jars already described, and mingled with all sorts of refuse, was carried out by the farmers, in large pails, and poured with a ladle on the roots of the plants; a method which avoids the waste incident to spreading the manure on unplanted fields, to be dried up by the sun, or to lose by evaporation its volatile salts and oily particles.

The fields were kept so free of weeds as to afford, much to Thunberg’s disappointment, very little chance to botanize. Animals were little used in agriculture. Only such of the rice-fields as lay low, and quite under water, were ploughed by oxen,—cows being kept for draft and breeding only, and never milked. The only wheel carriages seen were a few carts, and these only in and about Miyako, some with three wheels,[50] one before the other two, and some two-wheeled. These carts were long and narrow, the wheels, some with spokes and fellies, but without any tire, except a rope tied about them, and others of a solid piece, sawed from a log. They were drawn by an ox, by cows, or a buffalo. Horses were chiefly for the use of their princes, though occasionally employed by others for travelling and carrying burdens. They were not numerous, but Thunberg seems to make rather a close estimate in saying that all Japan has scarcely as many horses as a single province of Sweden. There was no occasion for meadows or pastures, the cattle and horses being fed at home all the year, so that all the land, not too steep or rocky for cultivation, was devoted to the raising of crops; nor did the fields require fences. All the manure of the animals kept was carefully preserved, old men and children following the horses of travellers, with a shell fastened to the end of a stick, and a basket in which to put what they collected. Of course the small number of domestic animals made it the more necessary to resort to the other means of providing manure already noticed.

A few swine were to be seen, but only in the neighborhood of Nagasaki. There were no sheep nor goats. A supply of these animals, and also of cattle and hogs, for the Dutch at Deshima, was brought annually from Batavia. Dogs, “the only idlers in the country,” were kept from superstitious motives, and cats were the general favorites of the women. Hens and ducks were kept about the houses, chiefly for their eggs, of which the Japanese make great use, boiled hard and chopped into small pieces.

CHAPTER XL

The travellers remained four days at Miyako, during which the accustomed visits were paid to the chief justice and to the two governors. A new advance of money was also made to them here, Thunberg’s share being three hundred taels, in gold koban, to be charged against the kamban money standing to his credit from the sale of his private goods, and to be laid out in the purchase of such rarities and merchandise as he chose. Here, again, the Dutch were waited on by the merchants, from whom they bespoke several articles in sowas (?) and lackered ware, to be ready against their return. Of these Japanese merchants, Thunberg observes that they are the only persons in the country, except the emperor, who can become rich, and that they sometimes accumulate very considerable sums; but they cannot, as in Europe, purchase titles, or raise themselves by their money to a higher rank. The position of the trading and manufacturing class seems, indeed, almost precisely the same with that which they held in Europe during the prevalence of feudal ideas.

Commerce, however, was free from any embarrassments by tolls or duties, and a considerable internal trade, of which Miyako was the centre (several annual fairs being held there), was carried on in tea, silk goods, porcelain, rice, lackered ware, etc.

Setting out from Miyako on the fourteenth of April, the travellers, in passing lake Ōtsu, were treated to a delicious fish, of the salmon kind, the largest of which seen by Thunberg weighed about ten pounds. Finding, in the course of their journey, that this species of fish was often served up, they ordered some to be smoked, against their return; but they did not prove equal to European salmon, either in size, fatness, or style of curing. The country still continued as populous as before. In the villages were many almond, peach, and apricot trees, which now presented a very beautiful appearance, blossoming on the bare branches before the leaves unfolded. These, as well as the plum, cherry, apple, and pear[51] trees, sometimes bore double flowers, upon which the Japanese put a high value.

The road having brought them to the sea-shore, Thunberg observed the Fucus saccharinus, called by the Japanese Kombu, or sometimes Noshi. Cleansed and dried, it is eaten, though very tough, either boiled or raw,—in the latter case cut into strips, which are folded in little squares, a considerable number of which are usually strewed on the little tables, or salvers, on which the complimentary presents, so common with the Japanese, are offered. These presents, generally of trifling value, are always accompanied with a complimentary paper (so called), folded in a peculiar manner, and having slips of this fucus pasted to both ends of it.

The mountain, Fuji, was now in sight, and presently the mountainous tract of Hakone was entered, separating the bays of Tōtōmi and Yedo. It took a day to cross these mountains, which were covered with bushes and forest trees, and were the only hills in Japan, except those close to Nagasaki, which Thunberg was permitted freely to wander over and examine. “This day,” he says, “I was seldom in my norimono; but in the same degree as I eased my bearers of their burden, I rendered the journey troublesome to the interpreters, and more particularly to the inferior officers, who, by rotation, were to follow my steps. I was not allowed, indeed, to go far out of the road, but having been previously used to run up rocks in the African mountains, I frequently got to a considerable distance before my anxious and panting followers, and thereby gained time to gather a great many of the most curious and scarcest plants, which had just begun to flower, and which I put in my handkerchief.”

Among the trees growing in this tract was the Thuya dolebrata, planted everywhere by the road-side, tall, straight, and with leaves of silver-white on their under sides,—in Thunberg’s opinion the handsomest of the fir tribe. There were no less than six peculiar species of maple, all of great beauty. Cedars (Cupressus japonica), a common tree throughout the country, grew here in great perfection. The straightest and tallest of the firs, their trunks ran up straight as a candle, and, being both light and very durable, the timber was employed for all sorts of constructions, and also for cabinet work, the veins showing to advantage when covered with varnish. The wood of this tree, next to the Pinus silvestris, is that most employed by carpenters, etc. He also observed several species of oaks,[52] the common barberry, in full blossom, several species of the Vaccinia, or whortleberry, a wild pear-tree, a shrub with leaves so rough that they are used for polishing by the joiners, the Oryris japonica, bearing its flowers at the middle of its leaves; also, several beautiful flowering shrubs, Viburna, with double as well as single flowers, two species of Spirea, the Citrus tripoliata, and the Gardenia Florida, of which the seed-vessels afforded a yellow dye. The dragon lily (Arum dracontium), and the edible species of the same plant (Arum esculentum), the eddo, or tania, of the West Indies, and taro, of the Sandwich Islands (Caladium in more recent classifications), were cultivated in some spots.

By night the sea-shore was again reached, at Odawara, whence two days’ journey took them to Yedo, where they arrived, on account of the delay in the sea voyage, at a period unusually late, but which Thunberg notes as an advantage, since it gave him, both going and returning, a better opportunity to observe the vegetation of the country. During the journey there had been rain sometimes, but not too often, and the cold had been such as occasionally to make fires very comfortable. The Japanese, he observed, bore the cold better than the rain, which did not altogether agree with their bare feet and heads. For the feet they used only slippers of rice straw,[53] left at the door whenever they entered a house, consisting of a sole, without upper leather or hind-piece (kept on by a thong, or strap, held fast between the toes), and soon soaked and spoiled by the rain, on which occasion, indeed, high wooden clogs were sometimes substituted. Ordinarily, even while travelling, no covering for the head was worn, but in hard rains they used an umbrella, a hat of plaited grass, and a cloak of oil-paper, for which the poorer class substituted a piece of straw matting, thrown over their backs.

The weather, during a stay of twenty-six days at Yedo, from April 28 to May 25, was often damp, almost every day cloudy, with sometimes drizzling, and sometimes heavy, rain. Several slight shocks of earthquake were felt. Several fires occurred, which were soon extinguished. A great fire, during the Dutch visit of 1772, had burned from noon till eight at night, spreading over a vast space, and making it necessary to remove the Dutch three times.

Down to the day of audience, which did not take place till the 18th of May, the Dutch were not suffered to go out. Numbers of persons obtained, however, permission to visit them. The first who called were five physicians and two astronomers, prompted especially by Thunberg’s scientific reputation, which the interpreters had noised abroad, and who were very inquisitive on various points of science. The questions of the astronomers related principally to eclipses, which it appeared they could not calculate to minutes, and frequently not even to hours; but besides the difficulty of carrying on this conversation through interpreters, another arose, from the fact that Thunberg’s astronomy had grown a little rusty, and that neither he nor the Japanese had any books to which they could refer.

In matters of medicine[54] he felt more at home, especially as two of the Japanese doctors could speak Dutch,—one of them tolerably well. They also had some knowledge of natural history, collected partly from Chinese and Dutch books, and partly from the Dutch physicians who had visited Yedo, but who frequently had not been very well able to instruct them, as they were often, to use Thunberg’s expression, “little better than horse-doctors.” One of the two Japanese, quite a young man, was the emperor’s body-physician; the other, somewhat older and better informed, was physician to one of the chief princes. Both were good-natured, acute, and lively. They attached themselves to Thunberg with great zeal, coming to see him every day, and often staying late at night. Though wearisome with their questions, yet so insinuating were they in their manners and anxious to learn, that our traveller found much pleasure in their society. They had a number of Dutch works on botany, medicine, and surgery, and Thunberg sold them some others. They were particularly struck with the fine set of surgical instruments which he had brought from Amsterdam and Paris. These medical friends were of great use to him in his studies in natural history. Among the botanical specimens which they brought him were the pine of Europe (Pinus abies), of which, as well as of the Pinus silvestris, he had seen several on his journey to court, the chestnut, which he saw afterwards at Miyako, on his return, and the walnut (Jugulans nigra). They also brought him a variety of ores and minerals, and specimens of fishes and insects.

Reeling

The Culture of the Worms
Scenes among the Silk Workers

The Japanese, he found, knew nothing of anatomy or physiology. They were ignorant of the circulation of the blood, feeling the pulse for a quarter of an hour, first in one arm and then in the other, not knowing that both beat alike. Bleeding they very seldom practised; of the use of mercury they knew nothing; and, notwithstanding what Thunberg relates of the cures effected under his direction, by the use of corrosive sublimate, it may be doubted how much benefit he conferred by the introduction of that remedy, or by the present which he made to his “beloved pupils” of “his silver-spring lancet,” with instructions how to use it.

The two great remedies of the Japanese are acupuncture and burning with the moxa [mogusa], the former chiefly practised in a violent colic endemic to the country. According to the Japanese theory, it is caused by wind, and to let out this wind several small holes—nine being a favorite number—are made with needles, prepared for the purpose, generally in the muscles of the stomach or abdomen, though other fleshy parts of the body are, in some cases, chosen for the operation. These needles are nearly as fine as a hair, made of gold and silver generally, but sometimes of steel, by persons who profess a particular skill in tempering them. The bony parts, nerves, and blood-vessels are carefully avoided, and while they are passed through the skin and muscle, they are twirled about in a peculiar manner. There are many practitioners who confine themselves to this practice alone.[55]

A still more favorite and universal remedy, employed quite as much for prevention as cure, is burning with the moxa [mogusa],—the finer woolly part of the young leaves of the wormwood (Artemisia), of which the coarser kind is used for ordinary tinder. It is procured by ribbing and beating the leaves till the green part separates and nothing remains but the wool, which is sorted into two kinds. When applied, it is made up in little cones, which, being placed on the part selected for the operation, are set fire to from the top. They burn very slowly, leaving a scar or blister on the skin, which, some time after, breaks and discharges. The operation is not very painful, except when repeated in the same place, as it sometimes is, or when applied to certain tender parts. It is thought very efficacious in pleurisies, toothache, gout, and rheumatism,—disorders which, like the colic above mentioned, are rapid in their operation, and of which the paroxysms tend to a speedy termination under any medical treatment or none at all. The Japanese have very elaborate treatises as to the effects produced by the moxa, according to the part to which it is applied, and its application forms a science and profession by itself. The fleshy parts, especially of the back, are ordinarily selected. It is used still more by way of prevention than for cure, every person, young and old, male and female, even prisoners in the jails, submitting to the operation at least once in six months[56]. Another remedy is friction, applied by certain professors, and which proves of great use in pains of the limbs, arising from the prevailing vicissitudes of the weather. Internal remedies are generally exhibited in the form of simple decoctions, diuretic or sudorific. Wonderful virtues are ascribed to certain drugs; and, on the whole, the Japanese appear, as in the use of unicorn’s horn and ginseng, to have been not less deluded by quack medicines and medical theories than more enlightened nations.[57]

The doctors, like the priests, are distinguished from other people by the fashion of wearing their hair. Thunberg states in one place that they shaved the whole head; in another, that they had the option of retaining all their hair, like the boys and women. According to Titsingh, physicians shave the head, and surgeons wear the hair. Of surgery, however, they know next to nothing.

All the male Japanese who are neither priests nor physicians, from the time the beard begins to grow, shave the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck. The little hair left about the neck and on the temples is well oiled, turned up in a cue, and tied with several rounds of white string made of paper. The hair above the tie is cut off, leaving about the length of a finger, which, being stiffened with a sort of pomatum, is so bent that the tip of it is made to stand against the crown of the head. This arrangement is strictly attended to, the head being shaved every day, that the stumps of the growing hair may not disfigure it.

Women who have parted with their husbands also shave their heads—at least Thunberg met with one such instance; but, in general, the women retain all their hair, which they make smooth with oil and mucilaginous substances, and either put close to the head all round, or else (in the case of single women and serving-maids) make it stand in puffs on each side of the face. The ends are fastened together in a knob at the crown of the head, just before which is stuck a large comb, made, in the case of the poorer people, of lackered boxwood, and among the richer of tortoise-shell. The rich wear also several long ornaments of tortoise-shell, stuck through this knob, which, with a few flowers, constitute the whole of their head decorations. “Vanity,” says Thunberg, “has not yet taken root among them to that degree as to induce them to wear rings or other ornaments in their ears. No caps, hats, or bonnets are worn, except a conical cap, made of reeds, when travelling. Otherwise the parasol or fan is all the shelter they use against the sun or the rain.”

The official visits are thus described by Thunberg: “We were dressed in the European fashion, but in costly silks, interwoven with silver and laced with gold. On account of the festivity of the day it was requisite for us to wear our swords and a very large black silk cloak. We were carried a considerable distance through the town before we arrived at the emperor’s residence. This is surrounded by fosses and stone walls, and separated by draw-bridges. It forms a considerable town of itself, and is said to be five leagues in circumference, comprising the emperor’s private palace, as also that of the hereditary prince, each separated from the other by wide fosses, stone walls, gates, and other bulwarks. In the outermost citadel, which was the largest of all, were large and handsome covered streets and great houses, which belonged to the princes of the country, the privy councillors, and other officers of state. Their numerous families, who were obliged likewise to remain at the court the whole year throughout, were also lodged here. At the first gate there was a strong guard. That at the second gate was said to consist of a thousand men.[58] As soon as we had passed through this gate, having previously quitted our norimono, we were conducted to an apartment, where we waited a full hour. At last, having obtained leave to approach the imperial palace, we passed through a long lane of soldiers, who were posted on both sides quite up to the door of the palace, all armed and well clothed.

“The emperor’s private palace was situated on an eminence, and although it consisted of one story only, still it was much higher than any other house, and covered a large tract of ground. We were immediately conducted into an antechamber, where we again waited at least an hour. Our officers sat down in the Japanese manner on one side, and the Dutchmen, together with the interpreters, on the other. It proved extremely fatiguing to us to sit in their manner; and, as we could not hold it out long thus, we put our legs out on one side and covered them with our long cloaks, which in this respect were of great service to us.

“The time we waited here did not appear long, as great numbers of people passed in and out, both in order to look at us and talk with us. We were visited by several princes of the country, but constantly incognito, though we could always perceive when they were coming, from the murmuring noise which was at first heard from the inner rooms, and the silence that ensued upon it. Their curiosity was carried to a great length in everything; but the chief employment they found for us was to let them see our mode of writing. We were thus induced to write something either on paper or on their fans. Some of them showed us fans on which the Dutch had formerly written, and which they had carefully treasured up as great rarities.

“At last the instant arrived when the ambassador was to have audience, at which the ceremony was totally different from that which was used in Kämpfer’s time, we remaining in the apartment into which we had been ushered.

“After the return of the ambassador we were again obliged to stay a long while in the antechamber, in order to receive the visits and answer the questions of several of the courtiers, several times during whose entrance a deep silence prevailed. Among these, it was said, his imperial majesty had likewise come incognito, in order to have a nearer view of the Dutch and their dress.[59] The interpreters and officers had spared no pains to find out, through the medium of their friends, everything that could tend to our information in this respect. The emperor was of a middle size, hale constitution, and about forty and odd years of age.

“At length, after all the visits were ended, we obtained leave to see several rooms in the palace, and also that in which the ambassador had had audience, and which has already been described.

“The ambassador was conducted by the outside of the anteroom and along a boarded passage to the audience-room, which opened by a sliding-door. The inner room consisted, in a manner, of three rooms, one a step higher than the other, and, according to the measure I took of them by my eye, when afterwards permitted to view them, of about ten paces each in length, so that the distance between the emperor and the ambassador might be about thirty paces. The emperor, as I was informed, stood during the audience, in the most interior part of the room, as did the hereditary prince likewise, at his right hand. To the right of this room was a large saloon, the floor of which was covered by a hundred mats, and hence called the hundred-mat saloon. It is six hundred feet long and three hundred broad,[60] and is occupied by the most dignified men of the empire, privy councillors, and princes, who all, on similar occasions, take their seats according to their different ranks and dignity. To the left, in the audience-room, lay the presents, sent beforehand, and piled up in heaps. The whole of the audience consists merely in this, that, as soon as the ambassador enters the room, he falls on his hands, lays his hand on the mat, and bows his head down to it, in the same manner as the Japanese themselves are used to testify their subjection and respect. After this the ambassador rises, and is conducted back to the anteroom the same way that he came.

“The rest of the rooms which we viewed had no furniture in them. The floors were covered with large and very white straw mats; the cornices and doors were handsomely lackered, and the locks, hinges, etc., well gilt.

“After having thus looked about us, we were conducted to the hereditary prince’s palace, which stood close by, and was separated only by a bridge. Here we were received and complimented in the name of the hereditary prince, who was not at home; after which we were conducted back to our norimono.

An Umbrella-Maker

A Charcoal Vender
Industrial Workers

“Although the day was already far advanced, and we had had sufficient time to digest our early breakfast, we were nevertheless obliged to pay visits to all the privy councillors, as well to the six ordinary as to the six extraordinary, at each of their respective houses. And as these gentlemen were not yet returned from court, we were received in the most polite manner by their deputies, and exhibited to the view of their ladies and children. Each visit lasted half an hour; and we were for the most part so placed in a large room that we could be viewed on all sides through thin curtains, without having the good fortune to get a sight of these court beauties, excepting at one place, where they made so free as not only to take away the curtain, but also desired us to advance nearer. In general we were received by two gentlemen in office, and at every place treated with green tea, the apparatus for smoking, and pastry, which was set before each of us, separately, on small tables. We drank sometimes a cup of the boiled tea, but did not touch the tobacco, and the pastry was taken home through the prudent care of our interpreters.

“I shall never forget the delightful prospect we had during these visits, from an eminence that commanded a view of the whole of this large and extensive town, which the Japanese affirm to be twenty-one leagues, or as many hours’ walk, in circumference. The evening drew nigh by the time that we returned, weary and worn out, to our inn.

“On the following day (May 19) we paid our respects to the temple lords, as they are called, the two governors of the town, and the two commissaries of strangers. A few days elapsed after this before we received our audience of leave. This was given, in a very summary manner, on the 23d following, and only before the lords in council appointed for this purpose. The intervening days were employed in receiving presents and preparing for our departure. At the audience of leave the gowns or Japanese dresses, intended as presents for the Dutch East India Company, were delivered. The presents destined for us were carried to our inns. Every ordinary privy councillor gives, the day after the audience of leave, ten gowns; every extraordinary privy councillor, six; every temple lord, five; and every commissary, and the governor of Nagasaki, two. Of these our banjoshu (the officers called by Kämpfer bugiō and deputy-bugiō,—the conductors of the journey) received two; the secretary and myself, two apiece; and the ambassador, four. The rest are packed up for the company’s account.”[61]

Of these gowns, the universal and almost only article of Japanese dress[62], Thunberg, in another place, gives the following account: “They are long and wide, and worn, one or more of them, by people of every age and condition in life. The rich have them of the finest silk, and the poor of cotton. The women wear them reaching down to their feet, and the women of quality frequently with a train. Those of the men come down to their heels; but travellers, together with soldiers and laboring people, either tuck them up or wear them so short that they only reach to their knees. The men generally have them made of plain silk of one color; but the silken stuffs worn by the women are flowered, sometimes in gold. In the summer they are either without any lining at all, or else with a thin lining only. In winter, by way of defence against the cold weather, they are quilted with cotton or silk wad. The men seldom wear many of them, but the women often from thirty to fifty or more, and all so thin that together they hardly weigh more than four or five pounds. The undermost serves for a shirt, and is therefore either white or bluish, and for the most part thin and transparent. All these gowns are fastened about the waist by a belt, which for the men is about the breadth of a hand, and for the women of twelve inches, and of such length as to go twice round the body, with a large knot and rose. The knot worn by the fair sex, which is larger than that worn by the men, shows immediately whether the woman is married or not; as the married women wear the knot before, and the single behind. The men fasten to this belt their sabres,[63] fan, tobacco pipe and pouch. The gowns are rounded off about the neck, without a cape, open before, and show the bare bosom, which is never covered, either with a handkerchief or anything else. The sleeves are ill-shaped, wide and long, the openings partly sewed up, so as to form a bag, into which they put their hands in cold weather, or use it as a pocket to hold their papers and other things.[64] Young girls, in particular, have the sleeves of their gowns so long as frequently to reach quite down to the ground. On account of the width of their garments, they are soon dressed and undressed, as they have nothing more to do than to untie their girdle and draw in their arms when the whole of their dress instantly falls off of itself. The gowns serve also for bedclothes. The common people, when at work, are frequently seen naked, with only a girdle about them, or with their gowns taken off the upper part of their bodies, and hanging down loose from their girdles. Men of a higher rank wear over the long gowns a shorter one, made of some thin stuff, such as gauze. As to the neck and sleeves of it, they are like those of the other, but it reaches only to the waist, and is not fastened with a girdle, but tied before and at the top with a string. This half-gown is sometimes of a yellow, but most frequently of a black color, and is laid aside at home, or in any place where no superior is present.”

As the Japanese ordinarily wear no covering for the legs, feet, or head, the above-described gowns constitute their entire dress, except upon occasions of ceremony, when a complimentary dress, or honor-gown, kamishimo as they call it, is added to it. This complimentary dress consists of a frock, generally of a blue stuff, with white flowers about half the length of the gown, and made much in the same way, but carried on each side back over the shoulders, so as to give a very broad-shouldered appearance to the wearer. To this, with persons of a certain rank, is added, as part of the dress of ceremony, a garment half breeches, half petticoat, as if it were a petticoat sewed up between the legs, but left open at the sides for two thirds their length, fastened about the waist by a band, and reaching to the ankles.

Before leaving Yedo, Thunberg purchased a number of botanical books, containing very indifferent figures of plants, as did another botanical work, in twenty thin octavo volumes, presented to him by one of his medical pupils. But a large printed[65] quarto, which he purchased, contained figures of Japanese fishes, engraved and colored in such superior style as to be able to compete with similar European works. He also procured, though the selling such things to strangers was strictly prohibited, a map of Japan, with plans of Yedo, Miyako, and Nagasaki, exactly like those brought away by Kämpfer, and engraved in his work. Just before his departure, at the request of his two pupils in medicine, he gave them a certificate in Dutch, of their proficiency, with which they were as highly delighted as ever a young doctor was with his diploma. A warm friendship had sprang up between him and them, and, even after Thunberg’s return to Europe, a correspondence was kept up and presents exchanged for some years, down at least to the publication of his travels.

According to Thunberg, the personages composing the imperial court were in his time so little known that very few people in the whole empire were acquainted with their names. M. Feith, the director whom he accompanied to Yedo, and who had been on the same embassy four times before, and had lived in Japan fourteen years, was obliged to confess at table, after their return to Batavia, being inquired of as to the name of the reigning emperor, that he did not know it, and never had heard it.[66] It was only through the friendship of his medical pupils at Yedo, and of the chief interpreter, that he obtained a knowledge of it, and also a list of the emperors since Kämpfer’s time, which he gives as follows:

1681, Tsunayoshi (reigning when Kämpfer left Japan, and for twelve or thirteen years previously).

1709, Iyenobu.

1713, Iyetsugu.

1716, Yoshimune.

1745, Iyeshige.

1760, Iyeharu,[67] who continued to reign at the time of Thunberg’s departure, being the forty-first in succession from Yoritomo, and ninth from Iyeyasu, otherwise Daifu-Sama, and Ōgosho-Sama, or, as he was called after his death, Gongen-Sama, by whom the reigning dynasty had been established.

Thunberg left Yedo on his return the 25th of May. The weather being rainy, they were a good deal molested by gnats, against which they had to protect themselves by gauze curtains. The Japanese fire-flies, so much more brilliant and active than the European glow-worm, were noticed with admiration.

At this season the first gathering was made of the tea-leaves, yet quite young and yielding the finer kinds of tea. He observed in some places the leaves carelessly spread before the houses on mats to dry. He also observed the farmers, in several places, threshing barley, wheat, and mustard seed on similar mats, with flails having three swingels, or sometimes by beating the ears against a tub. To separate the exterior husk from the rice, it was pounded by hand in a kind of mortar, or by means of a machine consisting of a number of pestles set in motion by a water-wheel, or by a man’s foot. After the wheat and barley were gathered, French beans (Phaseoli) were sown for a second crop. He observed many kinds of peas and beans cultivated, especially the Dolichos soia, not only used for making soy, but the chief ingredients of a soup, a daily dish with most classes. The Dolichos polystachos, which ran winding like scarlet beans, was employed for arbors. Its flowers, hanging down from long stalks, were very ornamental, and appeared in succession for a long period. He mentions, also, lettuce, melons both with red and white pulp, pumpkins, cucumbers, eaten both raw and pickled, gourds, employed for flasks, mushrooms, very much used, especially for soups and sauces, Seville and China oranges, lemons, shaddocks, medlars (Mespillus japonica), a large sort of persimmon (Dyosperos kaki), grapes, pomegranates, Spanish figs (Cactus ficus), chestnuts, and walnuts.[68] The condition of the Japanese farmer Thunberg contrasts very favorably with that of the Swedish agriculturalist, overloaded as the latter was with feudal burdens, though doubtless he knew better these burdens, which he indignantly enumerates, than he did the grievances of the Japanese cultivator.

At Ōsaka he saw the smelting of copper from the ores obtained in that neighborhood, and the method of casting it into bars. A mould was made for this purpose, by digging a hole in the ground a foot deep, across which were laid ten square iron bars, barely a finger’s breadth apart. A strip of sail-cloth was spread over these bars and forced down. The hole was then filled with water, and the melted metal, smelted from the ore, was dipped up in iron ladles and poured into this mould, thus forming each time ten or eleven thin plates. To this method of casting he ascribes its high color.

Thunberg had an opportunity of seeing Japanese plays, both at Ōsaka, on his return from Miyako, and at Nagasaki, during the annual Matsuri in honor of Suwa, which he attended. “The spectators,” he says, “sit in houses of different dimensions, on benches. Facing them, upon an elevated but small and narrow place, stands the theatre itself, upon which seldom more than one or two actors perform at a time. These are always dressed in a very singular manner, according as their own taste and fancy suggest, insomuch that a stranger would be apt to believe that they exhibited themselves not to entertain, but to frighten, the audience. Their gestures as well as their dress are strangely uncouth and extravagant, and consist in artificial contortions of the body, which it must have cost them much trouble to learn and perform. In general they represent some heroic exploit, or love story, of their idols and heroes, which are frequently composed in verse, and are sometimes accompanied with music. A curtain may, it is true, be let fall between the actors and the spectators, and some necessary pieces be brought forward upon the theatre; but in other respects these small theatres have no machinery nor decorations which can entitle them to be put in comparison with those of Europe.

Interior View of a Typical Japanese House

“When the Japanese wish at any time to entertain the Dutch, either in the town of Nagasaki, or more particularly during their journey to the imperial court, they generally provide a band of female dancers, for the amusement of their guests. These are generally young damsels, very superbly dressed, whom they fetch from the inns; sometimes young boys likewise are mixed among them. Such a dance requires always a number of persons, who turn and twine, and put themselves into a variety of artificial postures, in order to represent an amorous or heroic deed, without either speaking or singing. Their steps are, however, regulated by the music which plays to them. These girls are provided with a number of very fine and light gowns, made of silk, which they slip off one after another, during the dance, from the upper part of their body, so as frequently to leave them, to the number of a dozen together, suspended from the girdle which encircles their loins.”

Though the view taken by Thunberg of the Japanese presents them perhaps not quite so high in the scale of civilization as Kämpfer’s, yet he is scarcely less their admirer, coinciding, indeed, in this respect, with most of the Europeans who have left any memorials of their observations in Japan. He notes especially their courtesy, friendly disposition, ingenuity, love of knowledge, justice, honesty, frugality, cleanliness, and self-respect; and he emphatically repudiates the conclusion that, because the laws are severe and strictly executed, the people are therefore to be regarded as slaves. These laws are for the public good, and their severity ensures their observance. “The Japanese,” he tells us, “hate and detest the inhuman traffic in slaves carried on by the Dutch, and the cruelty with which these poor creatures are treated.”

In common with Kämpfer he admires and extols the immutability of the Japanese laws and customs; but this seems hardly so legitimate a subject of eulogy as the peace in which the empire is kept, the plenty which is said to prevail,[69] and its freedom as well from internal feuds, political or religious, as from foreign encroachments.

Thunberg’s “Flora Japonica” describes about a thousand species, of which upwards of three hundred were new. In the preface to it he speaks of the Japanese Islands as chiefly hills and valleys, with high mountains. Plains and meadows are rare. The soil is now clayey and now sandy. The summer heat is great, especially in July and August, sometimes one hundred degrees of Fahrenheit, and scarcely tolerable but for the breeze. In winter the thermometer, even in the most southern parts, falls many degrees below the freezing-point, especially with the wind from the north and west, with ice and snow, which on the highest mountains remains all the year round. The changes in the weather are great and sudden; violent storms with thunder and lightning are common. The rains are abundant throughout the year, and especially so in spring and summer, whence in part the fertility of Japan, mainly due, however, to careful cultivation.

CHAPTER XLI

Soon after Thunberg’s departure, he had a worthy successor in the person of Mr. Isaac Titsingh, the first director at Deshima since the time of Caron to whom we are indebted for any information about Japan. Born about 1740, Titsingh had entered early into the service of the Dutch East India Company. After seven years’ residence at Batavia, he was sent to Deshima, as director, where he arrived August 15, 1779, and remained till November 29, 1780, when he returned to Batavia. He came back again to Japan August 12, 1781, and remained till November 6, 1783, the war between Holland and England, growing out of the American revolution, having prevented the arrival of any ships from Batavia during the year 1782,—an event of which Titsingh took advantage to stipulate for a considerable advance in the price of Dutch imports, for a term of fifteen years. He reached Nagasaki a third time, August 18, 1784, but left again November 26 of the same year. During his first and second visits he made the journey to Yedo as Dutch ambassador, where he succeeded in making several friends, particularly Kuchiki Samon, prince of Tamba, who had learned Dutch, which he wrote tolerably well, with whom, and other Japanese friends, Titsingh kept up a correspondence for some time after leaving the country.

During his residence in Japan he made a valuable collection of Japanese curiosities, including many Japanese books, and he also brought home with him translations of some of these books, made by aid of Japanese interpreters attached to the factory at Deshima, whose interpretations, given viva voce, he wrote out in Dutch; for though Titsingh knew enough of Japanese for the purposes of conversation, he does not seem to have acquired the written language, nor to have been able to read Chinese, of which the characters are largely, and, indeed, chiefly, employed in most Japanese works of much pretensions. “I found,” he says, “among the interpreters belonging to our factory four individuals sufficiently well-informed for my purpose; a fifth had devoted himself chiefly to medicine, in which he had made rapid progress, in consequence of the instruction given to him by Dr. Thunberg. Far from finding them suspicious and reluctant, as Europeans are usually pleased to represent these persons, in order to palliate their own indolence, they manifested, on the contrary, an eagerness to procure for me every practicable information, to consult, in various matters beyond their capacity, the best-informed individuals among the magistrates and clergy, and to furnish me with books which might serve as a guide to my labors.”

After leaving Japan, Titsingh was governor at the Dutch factory at Chinsurah, in Bengal, where he became acquainted with Sir William Jones. In 1794 he was sent, with Van Braam, on a Dutch embassy to Pekin, with the design to counterwork the English embassy of Lord Macartney; but this residence in China was limited to a few months.

Returning to Europe, after a residence in the East of thirty-three years, Titsingh designed to publish the result of his Japanese researches, in both Dutch and French; but, before having done it, he died at Paris, in 1812, leaving his large fortune and his collections and manuscripts to an only child of his, by an Eastern woman, by whom the fortune was soon spent, and the manuscripts and curiosities sold and scattered, though some of them ultimately fell into appreciating hands.[70]

Among his translations, the one to which Titsingh ascribed the greatest importance was that of the “Nippon Ōdai Ichiran,” an abridged Japanese chronicle, from 600 B. C. to A. D. 1611, compiled in the year 1652, and printed at Miyako. Having been carefully compared by Klaproth with the original,—a task, as he says, from the manifold defects of Titsingh’s version, almost equivalent to a new translation,—and having been enriched with an introduction, a supplement and notes, this work was published in 1834, in French, at the expense of the Oriental Translation Fund, under the title of “Annales des Empereurs du Japan.”

Though highly valuable as a specimen of what Japanese histories are, and though Klaproth’s introduction and notes contain some curious information, this performance is, on the whole, exceedingly dry, while it adds but little to the abstract given by Kämpfer of this or some other similar work. A criticism which Titsingh himself makes upon it, in a letter to the prince of Tamba, to whom he had intended to dedicate his translation, is worthy of notice, as going to show how little, with all its formal precision of years and months, the earlier Japanese chronology is entitled to historical respect.

“Must we not suppose,” says Titsingh, “that the Japanese, so jealous of their neighbors, the Chinese, have, in writing their own history, endeavored to fill up many gaps in it by prolonging the reigns of their earlier Dairi? There is in your history a period of one thousand and sixty-one years occupied by the reigns of only sixteen Dairi. The duration of the life of Jimmu, of the reigns of Kōan, of Suijin, and the life of Ōjin, appear altogether improbable. The first died at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years. The second reigned one hundred and two years, the third ninety-nine years. The last lived one hundred and ten years. These statements are too extraordinary to be blindly believed. Grant, even, that a chaste and frugal way of living may have secured for these princes a very advanced age, but how does it happen that, after Nintoku Tennō (the seventeenth Dairi), none exceeded the ordinary limit of human life?

The Japanese still cling with tenacity to the formal recognition of the absolute rights of the Dairi. With as much warmth as a loyal Englishman would exhibit in maintaining the actual sovereignty of Queen Victoria, they insisted to Titsingh—and the same thing afterwards occurred to Golownin—that Europeans were mistaken in applying the term “emperor” to the Shōgun, the Dairi being the only legal emperor, and the Shōgun but an officer to whom the Dairi had entrusted the administration.[71]

The annual visit of the Shōgun to the Dairi, made in Caron’s time, had been discontinued; but mutual embassies are still exchanged, and the envoys sent from the Dairi are received by the Shōgun as if they were the Dairi himself. The Shōgun goes to meet them, and conducts them to the hall of audience, where he performs the kitō, bending before them till his head touches the mats, as if they were the very Dairi. This homage finished, the Shōgun resumes his rank, and the ambassadors then perform the kitō to him. During their stay they are entertained by two persons, who, from the allowance made for it, find this office very lucrative. The ambassadors also receive rich presents, not only at Yedo, but all along the route, and the attendance upon this service, even in an inferior capacity, is so lucrative as to be eagerly coveted by the poor courtiers of the Dairi. Titsingh encountered one of these embassies on his return from Yedo, in 1782, and was obliged to stop a whole day, and to lodge in a citizen’s house, all the horses, porters, and inns being taken up by the embassy. However poor and powerless, the courtiers of the Dairi still enjoy all the outward observances of superior rank. The first princes of the empire must pay them the homage of the kitō, and must lay aside their two swords in their presence. For this reason, these princes, in going and returning to Yedo, carefully avoid passing through Miyako.

A more interesting publication, from the manuscript of Titsingh, and one which appeared earlier, is “Memoirs of the Djogouns” [Shōguns], which had itself been preceded by a number of other pieces, translations and originals.[72] These memoirs profess to be compiled from Japanese manuscripts, of which Titsingh gives the following account: “Since the accession of Gongen, founder of the present dynasty, the printing of any work relating to the government has been prohibited. The curious, however, possess manuscript accounts of all the remarkable events that have occurred. These manuscripts are in great request. The conduct of persons of elevated rank is sometimes as freely censured in them as it would be in any country in Europe. The obstructions which the government throws in the way of the publication of historical works prevent these works from being known, and thus obviate whatever might make an obnoxious impression on the minds of the people, and endanger the interests of the reigning dynasty, as well as the tranquillity of the empire. From some of these manuscripts are extracted the particulars here submitted to the public. The Japanese, to whom they belong, keep them carefully concealed, so that it is difficult to procure a sight of them. If I was fortunate enough to obtain the communication of those from which I have extracted such curious notes, I am indebted for it to the ardent zeal with which my friends assisted me in all my researches.” M. Abel Rémusat, the learned Orientalist, who, at the request of the French publisher, prefixed some preliminary observations to this publication, observes that, “Thanks to the pains M. Titsingh has taken, we shall outstrip the Japanese themselves, and, by an extraordinary singularity, we shall be earlier and better informed than they concerning the events of their own history.” This publication in Europe of Japanese history is not, however, so much a singularity as M. Rémusat seems to suppose. The letters of the Jesuit missionaries furnished contemporary details of Japanese history extending over a period of more than seventy years, and including the establishment of the present system of government, far more full and authentic, we may well believe, than anything which the Japanese themselves possess, and far exceeding anything contained in this book of Titsingh’s whom M. Rémusat, perhaps in rather too complimentary a spirit, places on a level with Kämpfer, and in advance of Thunberg, as a contributor to our knowledge of Japan.

The memoirs of the Shōguns, made up of detached fragments, in general very jejune, contain, however, a few anecdotes, which serve to illustrate the ideas and manners of the Japanese. The Kubō-Sama reigning in Kämpfer’s time is stated to have been stabbed, in 1709, by his wife, a daughter of the Dairi, because, being childless, he persisted in selecting as his successor a person very disagreeable to all the princes—an act which causes her memory to be held in high honor.

One of the longest of these fragments relates to an alleged conspiracy, in the year 1767, against the reigning Shōgun, for which a number of persons suffered death. There is, also, an account of an extensive volcanic eruption, which took place in September, 1783, in the interior of the island of Nippon, in the province of Shinano, northwest of Yedo and north of Ōsaka. The mountain Asama vomited sand, ashes, and pumice-stones; the rivers flowing from it were heated boiling-hot, and their dammed-up waters inundated the country. Twenty-seven villages were swallowed up, and many people perished.

The councillor of state, Tanuma Yamashiro-no-Kami, was assassinated the next year (1784), in the emperor’s palace; but of this event, and of others connected with it, Titsingh gives a fuller explanation in his Introduction to the Japanese “Marriage Ceremonies.” He there informs us that “though many Japanese of the highest distinction, and intimately acquainted with matters of government, still consider Japan as the first empire of the world, and care but little for what passes out of it, yet such persons are denominated by the more enlightened I no uchi no Kayeru,—that is, ‘Frogs in a well,’—a metaphorical expression, which signifies that when they look up they can see no more of the sky than what the small circumference of the well allows them to perceive.” Of this more enlightened party was the extraordinary councillor, Matsudaira Tsu, who proposed, in 1769, the building of ships, and junks suitable for foreign voyages; but this plan was put a stop to by his death.

Tango-no-Kami, the governor of Nagasaki, one of this more liberal party, with whom Titsingh, while director, kept up a secret intercourse, proposed to him, in 1783, to bring carpenters from Batavia, to instruct the Japanese in building vessels, especially for the transport of copper from Ōsaki to Nagasaki, in which service many Japanese vessels had been lost, with their cargoes; but this Titsingh knew to be impossible, as skilful carpenters were too rare at Batavia to be spared. He therefore proposed to take with him, on his return to Batavia, a number of Japanese to be instructed there; but the prohibition against any native leaving the country proved an insurmountable obstacle. He then promised to have a model ship built at Batavia, and conveyed to Nagasaki, which was done by himself, on his last visit to Japan; but the assassination of Tanuma, above mentioned, which had happened during his absence at Batavia, put an end to all hopes that had been formed of a modification in the exclusive policy of the Japanese.

This Tanuma (uncle of the Shōgun) was, according to Titsingh’s account, a young man of uncommon merit and liberal ideas, and the anti-frog-in-a-well party flattered themselves that, when he should succeed his father, he would, as they expressed it, “widen the road.” After his appointment as extraordinary councillor, he and his father incurred, as Titsingh states, the hatred of the grandees of the court, by introducing various innovations, which the “Frogs in a well” censured as detrimental to the empire. It was to this feeling that his assassination was ascribed, a crime which put an end to the hopes which had begun to be entertained of seeing Japan opened to foreigners, and of its inhabitants being allowed to visit other countries.

The appetite for foreign knowledge which Thunberg had noticed was also observed by Titsingh. “During my residence in Japan,” so he writes in the above-quoted Introduction, “several persons of quality, at Yedo, Miyako, and Ōsaka, applied themselves assiduously to the acquisition of the Dutch language and the reading of our books. The prince of Satsuma, father-in-law of the present Shōgun, used our alphabet to express in his letters what he wished a third person not to understand. The surprising progress made by the prince of Tamba, by Katsuragawa Hozan, physician to the Shōgun, and Nakagawa Junan, physician to the prince of Wakasa,[73] and several others, enabled them to express themselves more clearly than many Portuguese born and bred among us at Batavia. Considering the short period of our residence [he means, apparently, the stay of the Dutch embassy] at Yedo, such proficiency cannot but excite astonishment and admiration. The privilege of corresponding with the Japanese, above mentioned, and of sending them back their answers corrected, without the letters being opened by the government, allowed through the special favor of the worthy governor, Tango-no-Kami, facilitated to them the learning of Dutch.”

In 1786, the reigning Shōgun, Iyeharu, died, and was succeeded by an adopted son, Iyenari, who was his distant cousin, being a great-grandson of his great-grandfather. This prince was married to a daughter of the prince of Satsuma, and that is stated to have been a principal reason for his adoption, it being the policy of the Shōguns thus to secure the attachment of the most powerful princes. The reigning family is thus allied to the princes of Kaga, Satsuma, Yechizen, Nagato, and Ōshū, while the houses of Owari, Kishū, and Mito are descended from the sons of Gongen, from among whom, in case of failure of heirs, the Shōgun is selected. These princes of the first class, notwithstanding the jealous supremacy of the emperors, still retain certain privileges. According to Titsingh, they enjoy absolute power in their own palaces, with the right of life and death over their dependents; nor, in case they commit crimes, has the emperor any authority to put them to death. He can only, with the Dairi’s assistance, compel them to resign in favor of their sons.

In 1788, a terrible fire occurred at Miyako, by which almost the entire city, including the palace of the Dairi, was destroyed. The particulars of this event were communicated to Titsingh by his Japanese correspondents.

Early in 1792, the summit of the Onsen-ga-Take (High mountain of warm springs), in the province of Hizen, west of Shimabara, sank entirely down. Torrents of boiling water issued from all parts of the deep cavity thus formed, and a vapor arose like thick smoke. Three weeks after, there was an eruption from a crater, about half a league from the summit. The lava soon reached the foot of the mountain, and in a few days the country was in flames for miles around. A month after, the whole island of Kiūshiū was shaken by an earthquake, felt principally, however, in the neighborhood of Shimabara. It reduced that part of the province of Higo opposite Shimabara to a deplorable condition, and even altered the whole outline of the coast, sinking many vessels which lay in the harbors. This is the event of the latest date mentioned by Titsingh. A plan of the eruption, furnished by one of his Japanese correspondents, also one of the eruption in Shinano in 1783, is given in the “Illustrations of Japan.”

The matter upon which Titsingh throws the most light is the marriage and funeral ceremonies of the Japanese, as to which he gives a translation, or rather an abridgment, of two Chinese works, received as authority in Japan, as to the etiquette to be observed on these occasions, at the same time noting the variations introduced by the Japanese.

The system of Japanese manners, being based on that of the Chinese, abounds in punctilios, and the higher the rank of the parties concerned, the more these punctilios are multiplied. This applies to marriages[74] as to other things. The treatise which Titsingh follows relates only to the marriages of what we should call the middle class (including merchants, artisans, etc.), who, though often possessed of considerable wealth, hold in Japan much the same subordinate position held prior to the French revolution by the corresponding class in France.

With persons of high rank, marriages are made entirely from family convenience; even with those of the middle class they are also much based on prudential considerations. Formerly, the bridegroom never saw the bride till she entered his house, which she does, preceded by a woman bearing a lantern, which originally served the bridegroom to catch his first glimpse of the bride, and, if he did not like her looks, the match might be broken off, and the bride sent home. “Such cases,” says Titsingh, “formerly occurred; but, at present, beauty is held in much less estimation than fortune and high birth,—advantages to which people would once have been ashamed to attach so much value, and the custom has been by degrees entirely laid aside, on account of the mortification which it must give to the bride. At present, when a young man has any intention of marrying a female, whom he deems likely, from the situation of her parents, to be a suitable match, he first seeks to obtain a sight of her. If he likes her person, a mediator, selected from among his married friends, is sent to negotiate a match. People of quality have neither lantern nor mediator, because the parents affiance the children in infancy, and marriage always follows. Should it so happen that the husband dislikes the wife, he takes as many concubines as he pleases. This is also the case among persons of the inferior classes. The children are adopted by the wife, who is respected in proportion to the number of which she is either the actual or nominal mother.”

Formerly the bride was not allowed, in case of the bridegroom’s death before the consummation of the nuptials, to marry again. A moving story is told of a romantic Japanese young lady, who, being urged by her friends to a second betrothal, to avoid such a sacrifice of her delicacy, cut off her hair, and, when that would not answer, her nose also. But this antique constancy has, in these latter depraved times,—depraved in Japan as well as elsewhere,—entirely disappeared, as well among the nobility as the common people.

The match having been agreed upon, the bridegroom’s father sends a present—nothing is done in Japan without presents—to the bride’s father. The bearer, accompanied by the mediator, delivers not only the presents and a written list or invoice of them, but a complimentary message also. For these presents a written receipt is given, and, three days after, the bearer and those who attended him are complimented by a counter present.

The following articles are then got ready at the bride’s house by the way of outfit: A white wedding-dress, embroidered with gold or silver; four other dresses, one with a red, a second with a black ground, one plain white; a fourth plain yellow; a number of gowns, both lined and single, and all the other requisites of a wardrobe, as girdles, bathing-gowns, under robes, both fine and coarse, a thick-furred robe for a bed-gown; a mattress to sleep on; bedclothes; pillows; gloves; carpets; bed-curtains; a silk cap; a furred cotton cap; long and short towels; a cloak; a covering for a norimono; a bag with a mixture of bran, wheat, and dried herbs, to be used in washing the face; also a bag of tooth-picks, some skeins of thin twine, made of twisted paper, for tying up the hair; a small hand-mirror; a little box of medicines; a small packet of the best columbac, for painting the lips; several kinds of paper for doing up packages; also paper for writing letters; a koto (a kind of harp); a samisen (a sort of guitar); a small chest for holding paper; an inkhorn; a pin-cushion; several sorts of needles; a box of combs; a mirror with its stand; a mixture for blacking the teeth (the distinguishing mark of married women in Japan, some blackening them the moment they are married, and others when they become pregnant); curling-tongs for the hair; scissors; a letter-case; a case of razors; several small boxes, varnished or made of osier; dusters; a case of articles for dressing the hair; an iron for smoothing linen; a large osier basket to hold the linen; a tub with handles; a small dagger, with a white sheath, in a little bag (thought to drive away evil spirits and to preserve from infectious exhalations,—a quality ascribed also to the swords worn by the men); complimentary cards, made of paper, variously colored, and gilt or silvered at the ends, to tie round presents; noshi, a species of edible sea-weed, of which small pieces are attached to every congratulatory present; silk thread; a small tub to hold flax; several slender bamboos, used in hanging out clothes to dry; circular fans; common fans; fire-tureens; and—what certainly ought to form a part of the bridal outfit of our city belles—a small bench for supporting the elbows when the owner has nothing to do! Several books are also added, poems and stories, moral precepts, a book on the duties of woman in the married state, and another—the very one we are now giving an abstract of—on the etiquette of the marriage ceremony. Two different kinds of dressing-tables are also provided, containing many of the above-mentioned articles; also a number of other housekeeping utensils.

When these things are ready, the mediator and his wife are invited to the house of the bride’s father, and entertained there. A lucky day is selected for sending the above-mentioned articles, accompanied by a written list, to the bridegroom’s house. The mediator is present to assist in receiving them, and a formal receipt is given, as well as refreshments and presents to the bearers in proportion to the value of the articles brought.

On the day fixed for the marriage, an intelligent female servant of the second class[75] is sent to the house of the bride to attend her, and the bride’s father, having invited all his kinsfolk, entertains them previous to the bride’s departure.

The bridal party sets out in norimono, the mediator’s wife first, then the bride, then the bride’s mother, and, finally, her father. The mediator has already preceded them to the bridegroom’s house. The bride is dressed in white (white being the color for mourning among the Japanese), being considered as thenceforward dead to her parents.

If all the ceremonies are to be observed, there should be stationed, at the right of the entrance to the house of the bridegroom, an old woman, and on the left an old man, each with a mortar containing some rice-cakes. As the bride’s norimono reaches the house, they begin to pound their respective mortars, the man saying, “A thousand years!” the woman, “Ten thousand!”—allusions to the reputed terms of life of the crane and the tortoise thus invoked for the bride. As the norimono passes between them, the man pours his cakes into the woman’s mortar, and both pound together. What is thus pounded is moulded into two cakes, which are put one upon another and receive a conspicuous place in the toko[76] of the room where the marriage is to be celebrated.

A Scene in the House of a Noble
From Official History of Japan

The norimono is met within the passage by the bridegroom, who stands in his dress of ceremony ready to receive it. There is also a woman seated there with a lantern, and several others behind her. It was, as already mentioned, by the light of this lantern that formerly the groom first saw his bride, and, if dissatisfied with her, exercised his right of putting a stop to the ceremony. The bride, on seeing the bridegroom, reaches to him, through the front window of her norimono, her mamori,[77] and he hands it to a female servant who takes it into the apartment prepared for the wedding and hangs it up. The bride is also led to her apartment, the woman with the lantern preceding.

The marriage being now about to take place, the bride is led by one of her waiting-women into the room where it is to be celebrated, and is seated there with two female attendants on either side. The bridegroom then leaves his room and comes into this apartment. No other persons are present except the mediator and his wife. The formality of the marriage consists in drinking sake after a particular manner. The sake is poured out by two young girls, one of whom is called the male butterfly, and the other the female butterfly,—appellations derived from their susu, or sake-jugs, each of which is adorned with a paper-butterfly. As these insects always fly about in pairs, it is intended to intimate that so the husband and wife ought to be continually together. The male butterfly always pours out the sake to be drank, but, before doing so, turns a little to the left, when the female butterfly pours from her jug a little sake into the jug of the other, who then proceeds to pour out for the ceremony. For drinking it, three bowls are used, placed on a tray or waiter, one within the other. The bride takes the uppermost, holds it in both hands, while some sake is poured into it, sips a little, three several times, and then hands it to the groom. He drinks three times in like manner, puts the bowl under the third, takes the second, hands it to be filled, drinks out of it three times, and passes it to the bride. She drinks three times, puts the second bowl under the first, takes the third, holds it to be filled, drinks three times, and then hands it to the groom, who does the same, and afterwards puts this bowl under the first. This ceremony constitutes the marriage. The bride’s parents, who meanwhile were in another room, being informed that this ceremony is over, come in, as do the bridegroom’s parents and brothers, and seat themselves in a certain order. The sake, with other refreshments interspersed, is then served, by the two butterflies, to these relations of the married parties in a prescribed order, indicated by the mediator; the two families, by this ceremony, extending, as it were, to each other the alliance already contracted between the bride and bridegroom.

Next follows the delivery of certain presents on the part of the bride to the bridegroom, his relatives, and the servants of the household. These are brought by a female, who arranges them in order in an adjoining room, and hands written lists of them to the mediator, who passes it to the bridegroom’s father, who, having received the paper, returns thanks, then reads the lists aloud, and again returns thanks.

The bridegroom then presents the bride with two robes, one with a red and the other with a black ground, embroidered with gold or silver. The bride retires, puts on these robes, and again returns. Refreshments of a peculiar kind then follow, the bride, to spare her bashfulness, being suffered to eat in a room by herself.

This entertainment over, the parents of the bride prepare to leave her. They are accompanied by those of the bridegroom, and by the bride herself, to the door; the bridegroom with two servants bears candles, shows the way, and takes leave with compliments.

Sometimes the bridegroom proceeds, that same night, with his parents and the mediator, to the house of the bride’s father, where the contracting of relationship by drinking sake is again gone through with, the bride remaining behind in her husband’s house, where she is meanwhile entertained by his brothers. On this occasion the father of the bride presents his new son-in-law with a sabre. Presents are also delivered on the part of the bridegroom to the bride’s relations.

The feasting over, the bridegroom and his parents return home, and are received at the door by the bride.

In making the bed for the bride, her pillow is placed towards the north (the practice followed with the dead, for she is thenceforward to be considered as dead to her parents). Such is stated to have been the ancient custom, though now generally disused.

The beds having been prepared, the bride is conducted to hers by one of the women appointed to attend her, and the same person introduces the bridegroom into the apartment. The young couple are waited on by the male and female butterflies. One of the bride’s women sleeps secretly in the adjoining chamber.

The bridal chamber is abundantly furnished with all the numerous articles of the Japanese toilet, including a greater or less quantity, according to their rank, of wearing apparel, hung on movable racks or clothes-horses.

In families of the rank of the governors of Nagasaki the bride is portioned with twelve robes, each upon a distinct horse; namely, a blue robe, for the first month, embroidered with fir-trees or bamboos; a sea-green robe for the second month, with cherry flowers and buttercups; a robe of light red, for the third month, with willows and cherry-trees; a robe of pearl color, for the fourth month, embroidered with the cuckoo, and small spots representing islands; a robe of faint yellow, for the fifth month, embroidered with waves and sword-grass; a robe of bright orange, for the sixth month, embroidered with melons and with an impetuous torrent,—the rainy season falling in this and the previous month; a white robe, for the seventh month, with kikyō flowers, white and purple; a red robe, for the eighth month, sprinkled with sloe-leaves; a violet robe, for the ninth month, embroidered with flowers of the Chrysanthemum indicum [Kiku], a very splendid flower; an olive-colored robe, for the tenth month, with representations of a road and ears of rice cut off; a black robe, for the eleventh month, embroidered with emblems of ice and icicles; a purple robe for the twelfth month, embroidered with emblems of snow. Beyond some personal outfit of this sort, it is said not to be the custom to portion daughters.

Next morning the young couple take a warm bath, and then breakfast together. Soon after numerous presents come in, of which a careful account is kept; the bride also receives visits of congratulation. The day after, all the bridegroom’s people are treated with cakes in the apartment of the bride; and rice-cake, put up in boxes, is sent to all the near relations who did not attend the wedding.

After the expiration of three days the bride pays a visit to her parents preceded by a present from her husband, one corresponding to which is sent back when the bride returns. All the preceding ceremonies over, the bride, accompanied by her mother-in-law, or some aged female relative, pays a visit to all who have sent her presents, thanks them, and offers a suitable return,—a supply of suitable presents for this purpose having been provided for her before she left her father’s house. Seven days after the wedding, the bridegroom and four or five of his intimate friends are invited by the parents of the bride to a grand entertainment. A few days after, the bridegroom invites the relatives of the bride to a similar entertainment, and so the matrimonial solemnities terminate.

The Japanese have two ways of disposing of the dead,—dosō, or interment; kwasō, or burning,—and persons about to die generally state which method they prefer.

Of the funeral ceremonies[78] observed at Nagasaki, Titsingh gives the following account: The body, after being carefully washed by a favorite servant, and the head shaved, is clothed according to the state of the weather, and (if a female, in her best apparel) exactly as in life, except that the sash is tied, not in a bow, but strongly fastened with two knots, to indicate that it is never more to be loosed. The body is then covered with a piece of linen, folded in a peculiar manner, and is placed on a mat in the middle of the hall, the head to the north. Food is offered to it, and all the family lament.

After being kept for forty-eight hours, the body is placed on its knees in a tub-shaped coffin, which is enclosed in a square, oblong box, or bier, the top of which is roof-shaped, called kwan. Two ihai are also prepared,—wooden tablets of a peculiar shape and fashion, containing inscriptions commemorative of the deceased, the time of his decease, and the name given to him since that event.

The ihai and kwan, followed by the eldest son and the family, servants, friends, and acquaintances, are borne in a procession, with flags, lanterns, etc., to one of the neighboring temples, whence, after certain ceremonies, in which the priests take a leading part, they are carried, by the relatives only, to the grave, where a priest, while waiting their arrival, repeats certain hymns. The moment they are come, the tub containing the body is taken out of the kwan and deposited in the grave, which is then filled with earth and covered with a flat stone, which again is covered with earth, and over the whole is placed the kwan and one of the ihai, which is removed at the end of seven weeks, to make room for the hiseki,[79] or gravestone. If the deceased had preferred to be burnt, the kwan is taken to the summit of one of two neighboring mountains, on the top of each of which is a sort of furnace, prepared for this purpose, enclosed in a small hut. The coffin is then taken from the kwan, and, being placed in the furnace, a great fire is kindled. The eldest son is provided with an earthen urn, in which first the bones and then the ashes are put, after which the mouth of the urn is sealed up. While the body is burning, a priest recites hymns. The urn is then carried to the grave, and deposited in it, and, the grave being filled up, the kwan is placed over it.

The eldest son and his brothers are dressed in white, in garments of undyed hempen stuff, as are the bearers, and all females attending the funeral, whether relatives or not; the others wear their usual dresses. The females are carried in norimono, behind the male part of the procession, which proceeds on foot, the nearest relatives coming first. The eldest daughter takes precedence of the wife. The eldest son and heir, whether by blood or adoption, who is the chief mourner, wears also a broad-brimmed hat, of rushes, which hang about his shoulders, and in this attire does not recognize nor salute anybody.

It is a remarkable circumstance that relatives in the ascending line and seniors never attend the funerals of their junior kindred, nor go into mourning for them. Thus, if the second son should die, neither father, mother, uncle, aunt, elder brother, nor elder sister would attend the funeral.

The laboring classes are not required to go into mourning; yet some of them do for two, three, or four days. With them the burial takes place after twenty-four hours. With the upper class the mourning is fixed at fifty days. It used to be twice that time, but is said to have been cut down by Iyeyasu (founder of the reigning dynasty), that the business of the public functionaries might suffer the less interruption. Persons in mourning stay at home, abstain from animal food of any description, and from sake, and neither cut their nails nor shave their heads.

One of the ihai is left, as has been mentioned, at the grave; the other, during the period of mourning, is set up in the best apartment of the house of the deceased. Sweetmeats, fruit, and tea are placed before it, and morning, noon, and night food is offered to it, served up as to a living person. Two candles, fixed in candlesticks, burn by it night and day, and a lighted lantern is hung up on either side. The whole household, of both sexes, servants included, pray before it morning and evening. This is kept up for seven weeks, and during each week, from the day of the death, a priest attends and reads hymns for an hour before the ihai. He is each time supplied with ornaments, and paid a fee of from five to six mas.

During these seven weeks the son goes every day, be the weather what it may, and says a prayer by the grave. He wears his rush hat, through which he can see without being seen, speaks to nobody, and is dressed in white. With this exception, and a ceremonious visit, in the third, fourth, or fifth week, to the relatives and friends, he remains in his house, with the door fastened. It is customary to erect a small hut near the grave, in which a servant watches, noting down the names of all who come to visit it.

When the seven weeks are over, the mourner shaves and dresses, opens his door, and goes, if an officer, to inform the governor that his days of mourning are over. He next pays a complimentary visit to all who attended the funeral, or have visited the grave, sending them also a complimentary present. The hiseki, or gravestone (almost precisely like those in use with us), is placed over the grave, and two ihai, varnished black and superbly gilt, are provided, one of which is sent to a temple. The other remains at home, kept in a case in a small apartment appropriated for that purpose, in which are kept the ihai of all the ancestors of the family. It is customary every morning, after rising and dressing, to take the ihai out of its case, and to burn a little incense before it, bowing the head in token of respect.

A Japanese Bed

Though the wearing of white garments and other formalities of the special mourning, called imi, cease at the end of fifty days at the longest, bright colors are not to be worn, or a Shintō temple to be entered, for thirteen months, and this is called buku. For a husband, imi lasts thirty days and buku thirteen months; for a wife, imi twenty days and buku three months; for grandparents and uncles, the periods are thirty days and five months; for an eldest brother or sister, or aunt on the father’s side, and great-grandparents, twenty days and three months; for great-great-grandparents and aunts on the mother’s side, fathers and mothers-in-law, brother-in-law or sister-in-law, or eldest grandchild, ten days and one month; for other grandchildren, and for cousins of either sex, and their children, three days and seven days. For children under the age of seven years, whatever the relationship, there is no mourning.

The great dignitaries must wear mourning for the Shōgun; all officers, civil and military, for their princes; and whoever derives his subsistence from another must mourn for him as for a father. Pupils also must mourn for their teacher, education being esteemed equivalent to a livelihood. The sons of a mother repudiated by her husband and expelled from his house mourn for her as if dead.

In case of persons holding office, who die suddenly without previously having resigned in favor of their heirs, it is not unusual to bury them the night after their death, in a private manner. The death, though whispered about, is not officially announced. The heir, who dresses and acts as usual, notifies the authorities that his father is sick and wishes to resign. Having obtained the succession, he soon after announces his father’s death, and the formal funeral and mourning then take place.

The honors paid to deceased parents do not terminate with the mourning. Every month, on the day of the ancestor’s decease, for fifty, or even for a hundred years, food, sweetmeats, and fruit are set before the ihai. One hundred days after the decease of a father or mother, an entertainment is to be given to all the intimate friends, including the priest who presided at the funeral. This is to be repeated a year from the death; and again on the third, seventh, thirteenth, twenty-fifth, thirty-third, fiftieth, hundredth, and hundred and fiftieth anniversary, and so on, as long as the family exists. To secure the due payment to themselves of funeral honors, those who have no sons of their own adopt one. If any accident, fortunate or disastrous, happens to the family, it is formally communicated to the ihai, such as the birth of a child, a safe return from a journey, etc. In case of floods or fires, the ihai must be saved in preference to everything else, their loss being regarded as the greatest of misfortunes.

The fifteenth day of the seventh Japanese month is a festival, devoted to the honor of parents and ancestors. Every Japanese whose parents are still living considers this a happy day. People regale themselves and their children with fish. Married sons and daughters, or adopted sons, send presents to their parents. On the evening of the 13th, the ihai are taken from their cases, and a repast set before them of vegetables and the fruits then ripening. In the middle is set a vase, in which perfumes are burnt, and other vases containing flowers. The next day, meals of rice, tea, and other food are regularly served to the ihai, as to living guests.

Towards evening, lanterns, suspended from long bamboos, are lighted before each hiseki, or gravestone, and refreshments are also placed there. This is repeated on the fifteenth. Before daylight of the sixteenth the articles placed at the graves are packed into small boats of straw, provided with sails of paper or cloth, which are earned in procession, with vocal and instrumental music and loud cries, to the waterside, where they are launched, by way of dismissing the souls of the dead, who are supposed now to return to their graves. “This festival,” says Titsingh, speaking of its celebration at Nagasaki, “produces a highly picturesque effect. Outside the town, the view of it from the island Deshima is one of the most beautiful. The spectator would almost imagine that he beheld a torrent of fire pouring from the hill, owing to the immense number of small boats that are carried to the shore to be turned adrift on the sea. In the middle of the night, and when there is a brisk wind, the agitation of the water causing all these lights to dance to and fro, produces an enchanting scene. The noise and bustle in the town, the sound of gongs and the voices of the priests, combine to form a discord that can scarcely be conceived. The whole bay seems to be covered with ignes fatui. Though these barks have sails of paper, or stronger stuff, very few of them pass the place where our ships lie at anchor. In spite of the guards, thousands of paupers rush into the water to secure the small copper coin and other things placed in them. Next day, they strip the barks of all that is left, and the tide carries them out to sea. Thus terminates this ceremony.”[80]

CHAPTER XLII

Till comparatively a recent period Europe was very much in the dark as to the geography of northeastern Asia. Through the explorations and conquests of the Russians, Kamtchatka (long before visited by the Japanese) first became known to Europeans, about the year 1700. The exploration of the Kurile Islands, stretching from the southern point of that peninsula, led the Russians towards Japan. In 1713, the Cossack Kosierewski reached Kunajiri (the twentieth Kurile, according to the Russian reckoning, beginning from Kamtchatka), close to the northeastern coast of Yezo, and claimed by the Japanese. In 1736, Spagenburg, a Dane in the Russian service, visited all the southern Kuriles, coasted the island of Yezo, made the land of Nippon, and entered several harbors on its eastern coast. These explorations were renewed by Potonchew in 1777; but it was not till 1787 that La Perouse obtained for Europe the first distinct knowledge of the outline of the Sea of Japan, of the relative situations of Sakhalin and Yezo, and of the strait between them, which still bears his name.

In 1791, the “Argonaut,” an English ship employed in the fur trade on the northwest coast of America, made the western coast of Japan, and attempted to trade; but she was immediately surrounded by lines of boats; all intercourse with the shore was prevented, and she was dismissed with a gratuitous supply of wood and water. In 1795-97, Captain Broughton, in an English exploring vessel, coasted the southern and eastern shore of Yezo, sailed among the southern Kuriles, and touched at several places on the southern part of Sakhalin. Besides the natives, he found a few Japanese, who treated him with much attention, but were very anxious for his speedy departure. Japanese officers came from Yezo, expressly to look after him, to restrict his communications, and to send him off, with all civility indeed, but as speedily as possible.

Previous to Broughton’s voyage, Russia had already made a first attempt at a commercial and diplomatic intercourse with Japan. The crew of a Japanese vessel, shipwrecked in the Sea of Okhotsk, had been saved by the Russians, about 1782, and taken to Irkutsk, in Siberia, where they lived for ten years. At length the governor of Siberia was directed, by the empress Catherine II, to send home these Japanese, and with them an envoy, not as from her, but from himself. Lieutenant Laxman, selected for this purpose, sailed from Okhotsk in the autumn of 1792, landed on the northern coast of Yezo, and passed the winter there. The next summer he entered the harbor of Hakodate, on the northern coast of the Strait of Sangar. From that town he travelled by land to the city of Matsumae, three days’ journey to the west, and the chief Japanese settlement on the island, the authorities of which, after communicating with Yedo, delivered to him a paper to the following effect: “That although it was ordained by the laws of Japan, that any foreigners landing anywhere on the coast, except at Nagasaki, should be seized and condemned to perpetual imprisonment; yet, considering the ignorance of the Russians, and their having brought back the shipwrecked Japanese, they might be permitted to depart, on condition of never approaching, under any pretence, any part of the coast except Nagasaki. As to the Japanese brought back, the government was much obliged to the Russians; who, however, were at liberty to leave them or take them away again, as they pleased, it being the law of Japan that such persons ceased to be Japanese, and became the subjects of that government into whose hands destiny had cast them. With respect to commercial negotiations, those could only take place at Nagasaki; and a paper was sent authorizing a Russian vessel to enter that port for that purpose; but as the Christian worship was not allowed in Japan, any persons admitted into Nagasaki must carefully abstain from it.”

Laxman was treated with great courtesy, though kept in a sort of confinement; he was supported, with his crew, by the Japanese authorities, while he remained, and was dismissed with presents and an ample supply of provisions, for which no payment would be received.

Here the matter rested for several years, but into a school for teaching navigation, which Catherine II established at Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, she introduced a professorship of the Japanese language, the professors being taken from among the Japanese shipwrecked from time to time on the coast of Siberia. Meanwhile, even the Dutch commerce to Japan had undergone some new restrictions. Whether from the prevalence of the “frog-in-a-well” policy, or from apprehensions, as it was said, of the exhaustion of the copper mines, the Dutch in 1790 were limited to a single ship annually, while to accommodate their expenditures to this diminished trade, the hitherto yearly embassy to Yedo was to be sent only once in four years, though annual presents to the emperor and his officers were still required as before.

The occupation of Holland by the French armies not only exposed Dutch vessels to capture by the English, it cost Holland several of her eastern colonies, and thus placed new obstacles in the way of the Japanese trade. It was no doubt to diminish the danger of capture by the British, that, in the year 1797, the ship despatched from Batavia sailed under the American flag, and carried American papers, while the commander, one Captain Stewart, though in reality an Englishman from Madras or Bengal, passed for an American, and his ship as the “Eliza,” of New York. That the crew of this vessel spoke English, and not Dutch, was immediately noticed by the interpreters at Nagasaki, and produced a great sensation among the Japanese officials; but at last, after vast difficulty, they were made to understand that though the crew spoke English, they were not “the English,” but of another nation, and, what was a still more essential point, that they had nothing to do with the trade, but were merely hired to bring the goods in order to save them from capture; as a result of which explanation it was finally agreed that the “Eliza” should be considered as a Dutch ship.

The same vessel and captain returned again the next year; but in leaving the harbor for Batavia, loaded with camphor and copper, she struck a hidden rock, and sunk. The first scheme hit upon for raising the vessel was to send down divers to discharge the copper; but two of them lost their lives from the suffocating effect of the melting camphor, and this scheme had to be abandoned. Heavily laden as she was, every effort at raising her proved abortive, till at last the object was accomplished by a Japanese fisherman, who volunteered his services. He fastened to each side of the sunken vessel some fifteen of the Japanese boats used in towing, and a large Japanese coasting craft to the stern, and, taking advantage of a stiff breeze and a spring tide, dragged the sunken vessel from the rock, and towed her into a spot where, upon the ebbing of the tide, she could be discharged without difficulty. For this achievement the fisherman was raised, by the prince of Hizen, to which province he belonged, to the rank of a noble, being privileged to wear two swords, and to take as his insignia or arms a Dutch hat and two tobacco pipes.

Threshing and Cleaning Grain

Coolies in a Rice Field

Women carrying Rice
The Cultivation of Grain

When repaired and reloaded, the “Eliza” sailed again; but being dismasted in a storm, returned to refit, by reason of which she was detained so long, that the ship of 1799, also under American colors, and this time it would seem a real American, the “Franklin,” Captain Devereux, arrived at Nagasaki, and was nearly loaded before Captain Stewart was ready to sail. In this ship of 1799 came out, to be stationed as an officer at the factory, Heer Hendrick Doeff, who remained there for the next seventeen years, and to whose “Recollections of Japan,” written in Dutch, and published in Holland in 1835, we are greatly indebted for what we know of the occurrences in Japan during that period. It was, however, a very unfortunate circumstance, tending considerably to diminish the value of his book, that all his papers were lost by the foundering of the ship in which he sailed from Batavia for Holland, in 1819, the crew and passengers escaping barely with their lives; after which he allowed near fifteen years more to pass before he drew upon his memory for the materials of his book, which was only published at length to correct some misapprehensions, upon matters personal to himself, likely to arise, as he feared, from publications which preceded his own. His book, indeed, is mainly devoted to the defence of the Dutch nation and the affairs of the factory, against the strictures of Raffles and others, throwing only some incidental light upon the Japanese, the knowledge of whom, so far as it is accessible to residents at Deshima, had indeed been pretty well exhausted by previous writers.

Captain Stewart, refusing to wait for the other ship, set sail at once; but he did not arrive at Batavia. He reappeared, however, the next year at Nagasaki, representing himself as having been shipwrecked, with the loss of everything; but as having found a friend at Manila, who had enabled him to buy and lade the brig in which he had now come back, for the purpose, as he said, of discharging, out of the sale of her cargo, his debt due to the factory for the advances made for the repairs of his lost vessel. Heer Wadenaar, the director, saw, however, or thought he saw, in this proceeding, a scheme for gaining a commercial footing at Nagasaki, independent of the regular trade from Batavia. He caused the goods to be sold and applied to the discharge of Stewart’s debt; but he declined to furnish any return cargo for the brig, and he arrested Stewart, and sent him a prisoner to Batavia; whence, however, soon after his arrival there, he made his escape. He reappeared again at Nagasaki in 1803, still under the American flag, but coming now from Bengal and Canton, with a cargo of Indian and Chinese goods. He solicited permission to trade and to supply himself with water and oil. With these latter he was gratuitously furnished, but liberty to trade was refused, and he was compelled to depart; nor was anything further heard of him. Doeff seems to have supposed him a real American, and his last expedition an American adventure; but in a pamphlet on Java and its trade, published at Batavia in 1800, by Heer Hagendorp, and quoted by Raffles in his history of Java, Stewart is expressly stated to have been an Englishman from Madras or Bengal,—a statement which seems to be confirmed by his coming from Bengal on his last arrival at Nagasaki, and a fact as to which Hagendorp, who held a high official position, would not have been likely to be mistaken.[81]

The next circumstance of importance mentioned by Doeff was the arrival in October, 1804, in the harbor of Nagasaki, of a Russian vessel, commanded by Captain Krusenstern, and having on board Count Resanoff, sent as ambassador from the Czar, in somewhat late prosecution of the negotiation commenced by Laxman in 1792. This vessel brought back a number of shipwrecked Japanese,[82] and her coming had been notified to the governor of Nagasaki, through the medium of the Dutch authorities at Batavia and Deshima. There are two Russian narratives of this expedition, one by Krusenstern, the other by Langsdorff, who was attached to the embassy. Both ascribe the failure of the mission to the jealous opposition of the Dutch. Doeff, on the contrary, insists that he did everything he could—for by this time he was director—to aid the Russians, and that they had only to blame their own obstinacy in refusing to yield to the demands of the Japanese.

The dispute began upon the very first boarding of the Russian ship, on which occasion the Japanese officers took the Dutch director with them. Resanoff consented to give up his powder, but insisted upon retaining his arms; he also refused those prostrations which the boarding-officers demanded as representatives of the emperor. These points were referred to Yedo; but, meantime (Doeff says, through his solicitations) the ship with the arms on board was permitted to anchor. The Dutch and Russians were allowed to pass the first evening together, but afterwards they were jealously separated, though they contrived to keep up an occasional intercourse through the connivance of the interpreters. The annual ship from Batavia, this year Dutch, then at Deshima, was removed to another and distant berth. When she left, no letters were allowed to be sent by the Russians, except a bare despatch, first inspected by the governor, notifying the ambassador’s arrival, and the health of his company. Nor were the Dutch allowed in passing even to return the salutation of the Russians. The Dutch captain put his trumpet to his lips, but was under strict orders from the director not to speak a word,—a discourtesy, as they thought it, which the Russians highly resented. Of the Russians, none were allowed to land till two months and a half after their arrival, the matter having first been referred to Yedo. Finally, a fish-house, on a small island, closely hedged in with bamboos, so that nothing could be seen, was fitted up for the ambassador. All the arms were given up, except the swords of the officers and the muskets of seven soldiers who landed with the ambassador, but who had no powder. The ship was constantly surrounded by guard-boats.

After a detention of near six months, a commissioner from Yedo made his appearance, with the emperor’s answer. The ambassador, having been carried on shore in the barge of the prince of Hizen, was conveyed to the governor’s house in the norimono of the Dutch director, borrowed for the occasion; but all his suite had to walk, and, in order that they might see nothing, the doors and windows of the houses, wherever they passed, were closed; the street gates were fastened, and the inhabitants were ordered to keep at home. A second interview took place the next day, when a flat refusal was returned to all the ambassador’s requests, and even the presents for the emperor were declined.

In the midst of all these annoyances everything was done with the greatest show of politeness. The emperor’s answer, which Doeff was called upon to assist in translating into Dutch, placed the refusal to receive the ambassador or his presents on the ground that, if they were received, it would be necessary to send back an ambassador with equal presents, to which not only the great poverty of the Japanese was an obstacle, but also the strict law, in force for a hundred and fifty years past, against any Japanese subject or vessel going to foreign countries. It was also stated that Japan had no great wants, and little occasion for foreign productions, of which the Dutch and Chinese already brought as much as was required, and that any considerable trade could only be established by means of an intercourse between foreigners and Japanese, which the laws strictly forbade.

The ambassador did not depart without bitter reproaches against Doeff, whom he charged as the author of his miscarriage. He arrived at Okhotsk in May, 1805, afterwards passed over to Sitka, on the American coast, and the next year, having returned again to Okhotsk, despatched two small Russian vessels to make reprisals on the Japanese. They landed on the coast of Sakhalin, in the years 1806 and 1807, plundered a Japanese settlement, loaded their vessels with the booty, carried off several Kurile and two Japanese prisoners, and left behind written notifications, in Russian and French, that this had been done in revenge for the slights put upon Resanoff.[83]

In 1805 and 1806, Klaproth, the learned Orientalist, passed some months at Irkutsk, as secretary to a Russian embassy to China. He found the Japanese professorship, established there by Catherine II, filled by a Japanese, who had embraced the Greek religion, and, from him and the books which he furnished, Klaproth acquired such knowledge as he had of the Japanese tongue.

In the spring of 1806, Deoff made his first journey to Yedo. In the arrangements of the journey and the audience, there seems to have been no change since the time of Thunberg. While he was at Yedo a tremendous fire broke out. It began, at a distance from his lodgings, at ten in the morning. At one the Dutch took the alarm, and began to pack. At three they fled. “On issuing into the street,” says Doeff, “we saw everything in flames. There was great danger in endeavoring to escape before the wind, in the same direction taken by the fire. We, therefore, took a slanting direction, through a street already burning, and thus succeeded in reaching an open field. It was studded with the standards of princes whose dwellings had been destroyed, and whose wives and children had fled thither for refuge. We followed their example, and marked out a spot with our Dutch flags. We had now a full view of the fire, and never did I see anything so terrific. The terrors of this ocean of flame were enhanced by the heart-rending cries of the fugitive women and children.” The fire raged till noon the next day, when it was extinguished by a fall of rain.[84] The Dutch learned from their host, that, within five minutes after they left, the fire took his house, and destroyed everything—as an indemnity for which, the Dutch East India Company allowed him annually for three years from twelve to fourteen hundred-weight of sugar. The palaces of thirty-seven princes had been destroyed. The weight of fugitives broke down the famous Nihonbashi, or bridge of Japan, so that, besides those burned to death, many were drowned, including a daughter of the prince of Awa. Twelve hundred lives were said to have been lost.

On this occasion the Dutch were greatly aided by a wealthy Japanese merchant, who sent forty men to assist them in removing. He lost his shop, or store, and a warehouse, containing a hundred thousand pounds of spun silk, yet the day after the fire was engaged in rebuilding his premises.

The Dutch, burnt out of their inn, were lodged at first in the house of the governor of Nagasaki; but, four days after, procured a new inn. This was in a more public place than the old obscure lodging. The appearance of the Dutch on the balcony attracted crowds of curious spectators, and soon drew out an order, from the governor of Yedo, that they should keep within doors. But Doeff refused to obey this order, on the ground that, during their entire embassy, the Dutch were under the authority only of the governor of Nagasaki; and in this position he was sustained by that personage.

After the audience the Dutch received many visits, particularly from physicians and astronomers. On the subject of astronomy Doeff was more puzzled than even Thunberg had been, for, since Thunberg’s time, the Japanese would seem to have made considerable advances in that science. They had a translation of La Lande’s astronomy, and the chief astronomer, Takaro Sampei (?) (to whom Doeff, at his special request for a name, gave that of Globius, and who proved, on subsequent occasions, a good friend of the Dutch), could calculate eclipses with much precision. To a grandson of one of Thunberg’s medical friends, who was also a physician, Doeff gave the name of Johannis Botanicus. The honor of a Dutch name, exceedingly coveted by the Japanese, was solicited even by the prince of Satsuma and his secretary. Being attacked with colic on his return from Yedo, Doeff submitted to the Japanese remedy of acupuncture; but he does not give any high idea of its efficacy.

Two accounts current of the trade of Japan for the years 1804 and 1806, published by Raffles, will serve to show its condition at this time. The articles sent to Japan were sugar, spices, woollens, cottons, tin, lead, quicksilver, sapan-wood, saffron, liquorice, elephant’s-teeth, catechu, and ducatoons, sugar forming about half the cargo in value. The prime cost at Batavia was, in 1804, 211,896, in 1806, 161,008 rix dollars, to which were to be added freight and charges at Batavia, amounting in 1804 to 150,000, in 1806 to 106,244 rix dollars, making the whole cost in 1804, 361,807, in 1806, 266,252 rix dollars. The sales at Deshima amounted in 1804 to 160,378, in 1806 to 108,797 rix dollars; but this included, in 1804, 3,333 rix dollars from old goods, and, in 1806, 5,428 rix dollars borrowed of the Japanese to complete the cargo. From these amounts were to be deducted the expenses of the establishment at Deshima, and loss in weight on the sugar, viz., in 1804, 67,952,[85] and in 1806, 39,625 rix dollars, leaving to be employed in the purchase of copper and camphor, in 1804, 92,426, in 1806, 69,172 rix dollars, to which were added 13,125 rix dollars from the sale of old goods. The copper brought back by the ship of 1804 having been coined at Batavia, the entire profit of the voyage amounted to 507,147 rix dollars, but the larger part of this profit belonged, in fact, to the mint, the copper being coined at a rate above its intrinsic value. In 1808, the copper being sold, the balance in favor of the voyage was but 175,505 rix dollars, deducting the amount borrowed in Japan. It was only the low rate at which copper was furnished by the Japanese government that enabled these voyages to pay.

The Processes of Weighing and Pounding Rice

In 1807, the “Eclipse,” of Boston, chartered at Canton by the Russian American Company, for Kamtchatka and the northwest coast of America, entered the bay of Nagasaki under Russian colors,[86] and was towed to the anchorage by an immense number of boats. A Dutchman came on board, and advised them to haul down their colors, as the Japanese were much displeased with Russia. The Japanese declined to trade, and asked what the ship wanted. Being told water and fresh provisions, they sent on board a plentiful supply of fish, hogs, vegetables, and tubs of water, for which they would take no pay. Finding that no trade was to be had, on the third day the captain lifted his anchors, and was towed to sea by near a hundred boats.

In October, 1808, about the time that the annual Dutch vessel was expected, a ship appeared off Nagasaki, under Dutch colors, and, without any suspicion, two Dutchmen of the factory, followed by the usual Japanese officers in another boat, proceeded to board her. The Dutchmen were met by a boat from the vessel, and were requested in Dutch to come into it. Upon their proposal to wait for the Japanese boat, the strangers boarded them with drawn cutlasses, and forced them on board the ship, which proved to be the English frigate “Phaeton,” Captain Pellew. The Japanese rowed back with the news of what had happened, by which Nagasaki and all its officers were thrown into a state of the greatest agitation.

While the governor of Nagasaki was exchanging messages with director Doeff as to what could be the meaning of this occurrence, Captain Pellew, who was in search of the annual Dutch ship, stood directly into the harbor, without a pilot. The director, fearing to be himself taken, fled, with the other Dutchmen, to the governor’s house. “In the town,” he says, “everything was in frightful embarrassment and confusion. The governor was in a state of indescribable wrath, which fell, in the first instance, upon the Japanese officers for having returned without the Dutchmen, or information as to what nation the ship belonged to. Before I could ask him a question, he said to me, with fury in his face, ‘Be quiet, director; I shall take care that your people are restored.’ But the governor soon learned, to his consternation, that at the harbor guard-house, where a thousand men ought to have been stationed, there were only sixty or seventy, and those uncommanded.”

After a while came a letter from one of the detained Dutchmen, in these words: “A ship is arrived from Bengal. The captain’s name is Pellew; he asks for water and provisions.” The governor was little disposed to yield to this demand, and, about midnight, his secretary waited on Doeff to inform him that he was going to rescue the prisoners. Being questioned as to the manner how, he replied, “Your countrymen have been seized by treachery; I shall, therefore, go alone, obtain admission on board by every demonstration of friendship, seek an interview with the captain, and, on his refusal to deliver his prisoners, stab him first, and then myself.” It cost Doeff a good deal of trouble to dissuade the secretary and the governor from this wild scheme. The plan finally adopted was to manage to detain the ship till vessels and men could be collected to attack her.

The next afternoon one of the detained Dutchmen brought on shore the following epistle from the English captain: “I have ordered my own boat to set Goseman on shore, to procure me provisions and water; if he does not return with such before evening, I will sail in to-morrow early, and burn the Japanese and Chinese vessels in the harbor.” The provisions and water were furnished, though the Japanese were very unwilling to have Goseman return on board. This done, the two Dutchmen were dismissed.

The governor, however, was still intent upon calling the foreign ship to account. One scheme was to prevent her departure by sinking vessels, laden with stones, in the channel. The prince of Ōmura proposed to burn her, by means of boats filled with reeds and straw, offering himself to lead; but while these schemes were under discussion, the frigate weighed and sailed out of the harbor. The affair, however, had a tragical ending. Within half an hour after her departure, the governor, to save himself from impending disgrace, cut himself open, as did several officers of the harbor-guard. The prince of Hizen, though resident at Yedo at the time, was imprisoned a hundred days, for the negligence of his servants in the maintenance of the guard, and was also required to pay an annual pension to the son of the self-executed governor, whom Doeff, on again visiting Yedo in 1810, found to be in high favor at court.[87]

Up to 1809,[88] the ships from Batavia had arrived regularly; but from that time till 1818 neither goods nor news reached the lonely Dutchmen at Deshima. The first and second failure they bore with some resignation, looking confidently forward to the next year; “but, alas!” says our by this time very thirsty, and somewhat ragged, director, “it passed away without relief or intelligence, either from Europe or Batavia! All our provision from Java was by this time consumed. Butter we had not seen since the supply of 1807, for the ship “Goede Frouw” (good wife, but not good housewife) “had brought us none in 1809. To the honor of the Japanese, I must acknowledge that they did everything in their power to supply our special wants.... The inspector, Shige Dennozen, among others, gave himself much trouble to distil gin for us, for which purpose I supplied him with a still-kettle and a tin worm, which I chanced to possess. He had tolerable success, but could not remove the resinous flavor of the juniper. The corn spirit (whiskey), which he managed to distil, was excellent. As we had also been without wine since the supply of 1807, with the exception of a small quantity brought by the “Goede Frouw,” he likewise endeavored to press it for us from the wild grapes of the country, but with less success. He obtained, indeed, a red and fermented liquor, but it was not wine. I myself endeavored to make beer; and, with the help of the domestic dictionaries of Chaud and Bays, I got so far as to produce a whitish liquor, with something of the flavor of the white beer of Haerlem, but which would not keep above four days, as I could not make it work sufficiently, and had no bitter with which to flavor it. Our great deficiency was in the articles of shoes and winter clothing. We procured Japanese slippers of straw, and covered the instep with undressed leather, and thus draggled along the street. Long breeches we manufactured from an old carpet which I had by me. Thus we provided for our wants as well as we could. There was no distinction among us. Every one who had saved anything threw it into the common stock, and we thus lived under a literal community of goods.”

Great was the delight of our disconsolate director, when, in the spring of 1813, two vessels appeared in the offing of Nagasaki, displaying the Dutch flag, and making the private signals agreed upon in 1809. A letter was brought on shore, announcing the arrival from Batavia of Heer Waardenaar, Doeff’s predecessor as director, to act as warehouse master, of Heer Cassa, to succeed Doeff as director, and of three assistants or clerks. A Japanese officer and one of the Dutch clerks were sent on board. The Japanese speedily returned, saying that he had recognized Waardenaar, who had declined, however, to deliver his papers except to Doeff personally, and that all the officers spoke English, whence he concluded that the ships must be chartered Americans. Doeff went on board, and was received by Waardenaar with such evident embarrassment, that Doeff declined to open the package of papers which he presented, except at Deshima, whither he was accompanied by Waardenaar. This package being opened was found to contain a paper signed “Raffles, Lieutenant-governor of Java and its Dependencies,” appointing Waardenaar and a Dr. Ainslie commissioners in Japan. In reply to his question, “Who is Raffles?” Doeff learned that Holland had been annexed to France, and Java occupied by the English. But the annexation of Holland to France, Doeff patriotically refused to believe, and, in spite of all the efforts of Waardenaar to shake his resolution, he declined obedience to an order coming from a colony in hostile occupation.

His mind thus made up, Doeff called in the Japanese interpreters, and communicated to them the true state of the case. Alarmed for their own safety, they made to Waardenaar frightful representations of the probable massacre of the crews and burning of the vessels, should this secret go any further,—especially considering the hostile feelings towards the English, excited by the proceedings of the “Phaeton” in 1808; and finally the commissioners were persuaded to enter into an arrangement by which Doeff was to remain as director, and was to proceed to dispose of the cargoes as usual, first paying out of the proceeds the debt which, since 1807, the factory had been obliged to contract for its sustenance. Ainslee was also to remain as factory physician, but passing as an American.[89]

The cost of the cargoes, as given by Raffles, with freight and charges, amounted to two hundred and seventy-three thousand one hundred and fifty Spanish dollars. Out of the proceeds in Japan had to be paid forty-eight thousand six hundred and forty-eight dollars, debts of the factory; and twenty-five thousand dollars for copper to make up the cargo, bought of Doeff at a higher rate than was paid the Japanese. There were left at the factory four thousand six hundred and eighty-eight dollars in cash, and fifteen thousand dollars in woollens, and advances were made to persons on board, to be repaid in Batavia, to the amount of three thousand six hundred and seventy-eight dollars; thus swelling the whole expenses to three hundred and seventy thousand one hundred and sixty-four dollars; whereas the copper and camphor of the return cargo produced only three hundred and forty-two thousand one hundred and twenty-six dollars, thus leaving an outgo on the voyage of twenty-eight thousand and thirty-eight dollars, which the credits in Japan and Batavia were hardly sufficient to balance. These ships carried out an elephant as a present to the emperor; but, though it excited great curiosity, the Japanese declined to receive it, alleging the difficulty of transporting it to Yedo.

In 1814, a single ship was sent from Batavia with Heer Cassa again on board. He brought tidings of the insurrection in Europe against France, and relied upon the probable speedy restoration of Java as an argument for inducing Doeff to submit temporarily to the English,—an object which Sir Stamford Raffles had very much at heart. When Doeff refused, Cassa resorted to intrigue. He gained over two of the interpreters, through whom he endeavored to induce at Yedo a refusal to allow Doeff (whose term of office had already been so unusually protracted) to remain any longer as director. Doeff, however, got wind of this intrigue, frightened the two interpreters by threatening to tell the whole story to the governor of Nagasaki, and finally carried the day. He paid, however, rather dearly for his obstinacy, as Raffles sent no more ships, and director Doeff was obliged to pass three years more without either goods or news, cooped up and kept on short allowance in his little island, with the satisfaction, however, that there, if nowhere else in the world, the flag of Holland still continued to wave.

The Japanese government, obliged to advance the means for the support of the factory, did not leave the director entirely idle. He was set to work, with the aid of ten Japanese interpreters, in compiling a Dutch and Japanese dictionary, for the use of the Japanese men of science and the imperial interpreters. A copy of this work was deposited in the imperial library at Yedo; another, made by Doeff for his own use, lost, with all his other papers and effects, on his return to Europe. The original rough draft of the work was found afterwards, however, at Deshima, by Herr Fisscher, and having made a transcript, though less perfect than the original, he brought it home in 1829, and deposited it in the royal museum at Amsterdam.[90]

A Coolie with Straw Raincoat

Thunberg, as we have seen, could hear nothing of semi-Dutch children born in Japan. There were such, however, in Doeff’s time; and it appears, from an incidental remark of his, that although no birth was allowed to take place at Deshima, yet that the Japanese female inmates of the factory were permitted to nurse their infants in the houses of their Dutch fathers. At a very early age, however, these children were taken away to be educated as pure Japanese, being allowed to visit their fathers only at certain specified intervals. The fathers, however, were expected to provide for them, and to obtain for them, by purchase, some government office.

CHAPTER XLIII

While, by the first interruption of the communication with Batavia, Doeff and his companions were secluded at Deshima, a number of Europeans were held in a still stricter imprisonment at the northern extremity of Japan.

Captain Golownin, an educated and intelligent Russian naval officer, had been commissioned in 1811, as commander of the sloop of war “Diana,” to survey the southern Kurile Islands, in which group the Russians include both Sakhalin and Yezo, which they reckon as the twenty-first and twenty-second Kuriles. At the southern extremity of Etorofu, the nineteenth Kurile, some Japanese were first met with (July 13). Soon after, Golownin, with two officers, four men, and a Kurile interpreter, having landed at a bay on the southern end of Kunashiri, the twentieth Kurile, where the Japanese had a settlement and a garrison, they were invited into the fort, and made prisoners. Thence they were taken, partly by water and partly by land, to Hakodate, already mentioned as a Japanese town at the southern extremity of Yezo. This journey occupied four weeks, in which, by Golownin’s calculation, they travelled between six and seven hundred miles. The Japanese stated it at two hundred and fifty-five of their leagues. The route followed was along the east coast of the island. Every two miles or so there was a populous village, from all of which extensive fisheries were carried on, evidently the great business of the inhabitants. The fish were caught in great nets, hundreds at once. The best were of the salmon species, but every kind of marine animal was eaten. The gathering of sea-weeds for food (of the kind called by the Russians sea-cabbage[91]) also constituted a considerable branch of industry. In the northern villages the inhabitants were principally native Kuriles, with a few Japanese officers. Within a hundred and twenty or thirty miles of Hakodate the villages were inhabited entirely by Japanese, and were much larger and handsomer than those further north, having gardens and orchards, and distinguished by their scrupulous neatness; but even the Kurile inhabitants of Yezo were far superior in civilization and comforts to those of the more northern islands belonging to Russia.

When first seized by the Japanese, the Russians were bound with cords, some about the thickness of a finger, and others still smaller. They were all tied exactly alike (according to the prescribed method for binding those arrested on criminal charges), the cords for each having the same number of knots and nooses, and all at equal distances. There were loops round their breasts and necks; their elbows were drawn almost into contact behind their backs, and their hands were firmly bound together. From these fastenings proceeded a long cord, the end of which was held by a Japanese, who, on the slightest attempt to escape, had only to pull it to make the elbows come in contact with great pain, and so to tighten the noose about the neck as almost to produce strangulation. Their legs were also tied together above the ankles and above the knees. Thus tied, they were conveyed all the way to Hakodate, having the choice, for the land part of the route, either to be carried in a rude sort of palanquin formed of planks, on which they were obliged to lie flat, or to walk, which they generally preferred as less irksome, and for which purpose the cords about the ankles were removed, and those above the knees loosened. The cords were drawn so tight as to be very painful, and even after a while to cut into the flesh; yet, though in all other respects the Japanese seemed inclined to consult the comfort of the prisoners, they would not, for the first six or seven days, be induced to loosen them, of which the chief reason turned out to be their apprehension lest the prisoners might commit suicide,—that being the Japanese resource under such extremities.

Their escort consisted of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men. Two Japanese guides from the neighboring villages, changed at each new district, led the way, bearing handsomely-carved staves. Then came three soldiers, then Captain Golownin with a soldier on one side, and on the other an attendant with a twig to drive off the gnats, which were troublesome, and against which his bound hands prevented him from defending himself. Behind came an officer holding the ends of the ropes by which the prisoner was bound, then a party of Kuriles, bearing his kago, followed by another relief party. The other captives followed, one by one, escorted in the same manner. Finally came three soldiers, and a number of Japanese and Kurile servants carrying provisions and baggage. Each of the escort had a wooden tablet, suspended from his girdle, on which were inscribed his duties and which prisoner he was stationed with; and the commanding officer had a corresponding list of the whole. The prisoners had the same fare with the escort,—three meals a day, generally of rice boiled to a thick gruel, two pieces of pickled radish[92] for seasoning, soup made of radishes or various wild roots and herbs, a kind of macaroni, and a piece of broiled or boiled fish. Sometimes they had stewed mushrooms, and each a hard-boiled egg. Their general drink was very indifferent tea, without sugar, and sometimes sake. Their conductors frequently stopped at the villages to rest, or to drink tea and smoke tobacco, and they also rested for an hour after dinner. They halted for the night an hour or two before sunset, usually in a village with a small garrison. They were always conducted first to the front of the house of the officer in command, and were seated on benches covered with mats, when the officer came out to inspect them. They were then taken to a neat house (which generally, when they first entered, was hung round with striped cotton cloth), and were placed together in one apartment, the ends of their ropes being fastened to iron hooks in the walls. Their boots and stockings were pulled off, and their feet bathed in warm water with salt in it. For bedding they had the Japanese mattresses—quilts with a thick wadding—folded double.

After the first six or seven days their bonds were loosened, and they got on more comfortably. The Japanese took the greatest care of their health, not allowing them to wet their feet, carrying them across the shallowest streams, and furnishing them with quilted Japanese gowns as a protection against the rain.

At Hakodate they were received by a great crowd, among which were several persons with silk dresses mounted on horses with rich caparisons. “Both sides of the road,” says Golownin, “were crowded with spectators, yet every one behaved with the utmost decorum. I particularly marked their countenances, and never once observed a malicious look, or any sign of hatred towards us, and none showed the least disposition to insult us by mockery or derision.” He had observed the same thing in the villages through which they had passed, where the prisoners had received, as they did afterwards, from numerous individuals, many touching instances of commiseration and sympathy.

At Hakodate they were confined in a prison, a high wooden enclosure, or fence, surrounded by an earthen wall somewhat lower (and on their first approach to it hung with striped cloth),[93] inside of which was a long, barn-like building. Within this building were a number of small apartments, scarcely six feet square, formed of thick spars, and exactly like cages, in which the prisoners were shut up, the passages and other spaces being occupied by the guards.[94] Their food was much worse than on the journey (probably Japanese prison fare), boiled rice, soup of warm water and grated radish, a handful of finely chopped young onions with boiled beans, and one or two pickled cucumbers or radishes. Instead of the radish-soup, puddings of bean-meal and rancid fish-oil were sometimes served. Very rarely they had half a fish, with soy. Their drink was warm water, and occasionally bad tea.

Their only means of communicating with the Japanese had been, at first, a Kurile, one of the prisoners, who knew a little Russian, and probably about as much Japanese. At Hakodate another interpreter presented himself; but he, a man of fifty, naturally stupid, and knowing nothing of any European language, except a little Russian, did not prove much better.

The second day they were conducted through the streets, by a guard of soldiers (the prisoners each with a rope round his waist held by a Japanese), to a fort or castle, which was surrounded by palisades and an earthen wall. Within was a court-yard, in the centre of which was a brass cannon on a badly constructed carriage. From this court-yard Golownin, and after him each of the others, was conducted through a wide gate, which was immediately shut behind them, into a large hall, of which half had a pavement of small stones. The other half had a floor, or platform, raised three feet from the ground, and covered with curiously wrought mats. The hall was fifty or sixty feet long, of equal breadth, eighteen feet high, and divided by movable screens, neatly painted, from other adjoining rooms. There were two or three apertures for windows, with paper instead of glass, admitting an obscure, gloomy light. The governor sat on the floor, in the middle of the elevated platform, with two secretaries behind him. On his left (the Japanese place of honor) was the next in command; on his right, another officer; on each side of these, other officers of inferior rank. They all sat, in the Japanese fashion, with their legs folded under them, two paces apart, clothed in black dresses, their short swords in their girdles, and their longer ones lying at their left. The new interpreter sat on the edge of the raised floor, and an inferior officer at each of the corners of it. On the walls hung irons for securing prisoners, ropes, and various instruments of punishment. The Russian prisoners stood in front of the raised floor, the officers in a line, the sailors behind. The Kurile was seated on the stones. They underwent a very rigorous and particular examination, all their answers being written down. The questions related to their birthplaces; their families (and, when it appeared that they came from different towns, how it happened that they served on board the same ship); the burden and force of their vessel; their own rank; their object; their route since leaving St. Petersburg, which they were required to trace on a chart, etc., etc.

Coolies carrying Bamboo Baskets; An Irrigation System

An Irrigation System
Farm Scenes

Among other things, the governor remarked that Laxman (who had visited Japan in 1792) wore a long tail, and covered his hair with flour; whereas the prisoners (powder and queues having gone out of fashion in the interval) had their hair cut short and unpowdered; and he asked if some change of religion had not taken place in Russia. When told that in Russia there was no connection between religion and the way of wearing the hair, the Japanese laughed, but expressed great surprise that there should not be some express law on the subject.

Eighteen days after, they had a second examination, on which occasion a letter, of which the Japanese wanted an interpretation, was delivered to them. It had been sent on shore from their ship along with their baggage, expressing a determination to return to Okhotsk for reinforcements, and never to quit the coast of Japan till the prisoners were rescued. This reexamination was continued for two days, in which many inquiries were made about Chwostoff, and the papers he had left behind him, one of which was produced. The Russian prisoners tried to make out that the proceedings of Chwostoff were without authority from the Russian government; but the Japanese evidently did not believe them.

After one or two more examinations they were removed to Matsumae, guarded, as before, by soldiers, but furnished with horses, as well as litters or kagos, on or in which the prisoners were suffered to ride, the Japanese, however, retaining the end of a rope by which they were still bound. Near Matsumae, they were shown a battery on a high hill, intended to command the harbor, but ill adapted for that purpose. It had three or four small brass pieces on carriages, and an eighteen or a twenty-four pounder, apparently cast in Europe, mounted on cross-beams. Matsumae lies on a large, open bay, with four fathoms of water at low tide; and according to the Japanese, is about two hundred of their leagues (five hundred miles) from Yedo, the land journey thither, after crossing the strait, being made in twenty-three days.

A great crowd collected to see them enter the town, ropes being stretched to keep the passage clear. Confined in a prison much like the one at Hakodate, and close under the ramparts of the castle, they underwent many more examinations before the bugiō or governor of Matsumae. The inquisitiveness of their questioners, which seemed to be without limit, proved a great torment to the Russians, and sometimes put them into a passion; but the Japanese were always cool and polite. They were supplied with much better food than at Hakodate, fresh and salt fish, boiled or fried in poppy-seed oil, with soy for sauce. They also had, after the winter set in, flesh of sea-dogs, hares, and bears, and attempts were even made to cook for them after the Russian fashion. For drink they had tea[95] and warm sake. They were furnished with warm clothing, both their own which had been sent on shore for them; and Japanese gowns, for which a tailor was sent to measure them; and, when the weather grew colder, they had hearths, after the Japanese fashion, made in the prison, at a little distance from each cage, on which charcoal fires were kept burning. A physician visited them daily to look after their health, and if anything serious appeared he brought a consulting physician with him.

After a time their accommodations were much improved. Instead of confinement in separate cages, they had a large room covered with mats. A young man, named Murakami Teisuke, was now brought to them, whom they were requested to instruct in the Russian language. He proved a very apt scholar, made rapid progress, soon learned to speak, read and write Russian, and became very much attached to his instructors. They in their turn learned something of Japanese; but it was forbidden to teach them the written characters. Teisuke was exceedingly anxious to collect statistical information concerning Russia. A Japanese man of science, who had an English sextant, a compass, a case of mathematical instruments, etc., also paid them a visit. He knew how to find the latitude by observing the sun’s altitude at noon, using in his calculations some tables obtained, as he said, from a Dutch book; and he was exceedingly anxious to gain additional information, especially how to find the longitude by lunar observations; but this, for want of the necessary tables, the Russians, much to his disgust, were unable to teach him.

The first snow fell about the middle of October, but soon melted. The winter set in about the middle of November, with deep snows, which lasted till April.

As the spring opened they were permitted to take walks and excursions in the vicinity of the town, and were presently removed to a house, composed of three apartments, separated by screens; but were still closely watched and guarded. Tired of this confinement, of which they could see no end, the Russians succeeded in getting out of their prison, and in gaining the mountains back of the town, whence they descended to the coast, hoping to find some means of escape by sea. But, after seven days’ wanderings and many sufferings, they were retaken. The island was found to be composed of steep hills, separated by precipitous ravines, with hardly any plain land, except near the coast. The interior was uninhabited, except by wood-cutters employed in getting timber and preparing charcoal.

When retaken, they were confined in the common jail of the town, but their accommodations were not worse than they had been in the other two prisons. No ill-will was shown towards them by any of the officials, not even by those whose lives their flight had endangered. The soldier who was held the most responsible for their escape, and who had been degraded in consequence to the rank of a common servant, showed even more alacrity than before in their behalf. In a month or two they were removed back to their former prison, where they were visited the next spring (1814) by an interpreter of the Dutch language, who had come from Yedo, and by a learned man from the same capital, who was indeed no other than Doeff’s astronomer Globius, but known to the Russians as Adachi Sanai, both of whom desired to learn the Russian language. The interpreter, a young man of twenty-seven, and already acquainted with the rules of European grammar, made rapid progress, and soon applied himself to translate a treatise on vaccination, which one of the returned Japanese had brought from Russia. The astronomer busied himself in translating a Russian school treatise on arithmetic, carried to Japan by one of the Japanese conveyed home by Laxman in 1792. It was evident that he had considerable mathematical learning. The Japanese astronomers had made decided progress since the time of Thunberg. Globius understood the Copernican system, was acquainted with the orbit and satellites of Uranus; knew the nature and doctrine of sines and tangents, and was familiar with the difference between the old and new styles. He assured Golownin that the Japanese could calculate eclipses with much exactness, and he studied with great attention a treatise on physics, which, with other books, had been sent on shore in Golownin’s chest.

Nor were the Japanese without knowledge of the revolutions going on in Europe. The Russians were told the news of the taking of Moscow, brought to Nagasaki by the two vessels from Batavia; but with patriotism equal to that shown by Doeff, in relation to the annexation of Holland to France, they refused to believe it. The Japanese gave them a minute description of these two vessels, and also of the elephant which they brought, his length, height, thickness, food, etc. A native of Sumatra, the keeper of the elephant, was described with equal minuteness.

Teisuke, whom Golownin had taught Russian, was found to be quite a free-thinker, both in politics and religion; but, in general, the Japanese seemed very superstitious, of which, presently, we shall see some instances.

The soldiers Golownin observed to be of two classes, those of the local administration, and others whom he calls imperial soldiers, and who appear, by his description, to be precisely the same with those whom Kämpfer describes under the name of Dōshin, as attached to the service of the governor of Nagasaki, and indeed, this same name, in a modified form, is given to them by Golownin. They took precedence of the others, and were so handsomely clothed and equipped as to be mistaken at first for officers. The profession of arms, like most others in Japan, is hereditary. The arms of the soldiers, besides the two swords, were matchlocks,—which, when they fired, they placed, not against the shoulder, but the right cheek,—bows and arrows, and long pikes, heavy and inconvenient.

They could all read, and spent much time in reading aloud, which they did much in the same droning, half-chanting tone in which the psalms are read at funerals in Russia. Great surprise was expressed that the Russian sailors were unable to read and write; and, also, that but one Russian book was found in the officer’s baggage, and that on much worse paper, and much worse bound, than those they had in French and other languages. It was shrewdly asked if the Russians did not know how to print books?

Playing at cards and draughts was a very common amusement. The cards were at first known to the Japanese by their European names, and were fifty-two in the pack. Owing, however, to the pecuniary losses—for the Japanese were great gamesters—and fatal disputes to which cards gave rise, they were strictly prohibited. But this law was evaded by the invention of a pack of forty-eight cards much smaller than those of Europe. Their game at draughts was extremely difficult and complicated. They made use of a large board, and four hundred men, which they moved about in many directions, and which were liable to be taken in various ways. The Russian sailors played at draughts in the European way, which the Japanese soon learned to imitate, so that the game, and the Russian terms employed in playing it, soon became familiar throughout the city of Matsumae.

The following anecdote throws some light on Japanese domestic relations: “Our interpreter, Uyehara Kumajirō (this was the first interpreter), visited us the day after the marriage of his daughter, and having mentioned the marriage, said that he had wept very much. ‘Why wept,’ said we, ‘since on such occasions it is usual only to rejoice?’ ‘Certainly,’ he answered, ‘I should have rejoiced, were I but convinced that the man will love my daughter and make her happy; but, as the contrary often happens in the married state, a father who gives his daughter to a husband cannot be indifferent, for fear of future misfortunes.’ He spoke this with tears in his eyes, and in a voice which affected us.”

Of the value which the Japanese put upon female society the following curious instance occurred. The prisoners’ meals were at one time superintended by an old officer of sixty, who was very civil, and frequently consoled them with assurances that they should be sent home. One day he brought them three portraits of Japanese ladies, richly dressed, which, after examining, they handed back; but the old man insisted they should keep them, and, when asked why, he observed that, when time hung heavy on their hands, they might console themselves by looking at them!

For the first fortnight of the new year all business was suspended. Nothing was thought of except visiting and feasting. In the latter half of the month the more industrious resumed their employments. All who can, procure new clothes on this occasion, and the Japanese insisted upon furnishing their prisoners in the same way. “Custom requires,” says Golownin, “that each person should visit all his acquaintances in the place in which he resides, and send letters of congratulation to those who are at a distance. Our interpreters and guards were accordingly employed, for some days previous to the festival, in writing letters of that kind and visiting-cards. On the latter the names of the person from whom the card comes, and for whom it is intended, are written, and the opportunity by which it is presented is also noted. Teisuke translated for us one of his congratulatory letters, addressed to the officer at Kunashiri by whom we had been entrapped, and which was to the following effect: “Last year you were happy, and I greatly desire that this new year you may enjoy good health, and experience happiness and prosperity in every undertaking. I still respect you as formerly, and request that you will not forget me.

Teisuke.”

It is evident, from Golownin’s narrative, that the houses, furniture, and domestic arrangement, at Matsumae, notwithstanding the coldness of the climate, differed in nothing from those in use in the more southerly islands. The Japanese, Golownin observed, were, compared with the Russians, very small eaters. They were also much more temperate in drinking, it being looked upon as disgraceful to be drunk in the daytime, or at any time, extraordinary festivities excepted.

Repairing Wooden Clogs

Repairing Tatami

Late in the summer following the capture of Golownin and his companions, the “Diana,” now under the command of Captain Rikord, came back to Kunashiri. Of the two Japanese seized by Chwostoff, one had died. The other, who called himself Ryōzayemon, Rikord had on board, along with six other Japanese, lately shipwrecked on Kamtschatka, hoping to exchange these seven for the seven Russians. On reaching the bay where Golownin had been taken, he saw a new battery of fourteen guns. All the buildings were covered with striped cloth, the boats were drawn up on the shore, and not a person appeared.

Ryōzayemon, in his six years’ captivity, had learned some Russian, and he was employed to write a short letter from Captain Rikord to the commander on shore, stating his having brought back the seven Japanese, and requesting the restoration of his countrymen. From some circumstances, the good faith of Ryōzayemon was suspected, and the contents of the letter written by him rather distrusted; still it was finally sent on shore by one of the Japanese, upon whom the batteries fired as he landed, and who returned no more.

Three days after, a second Japanese was sent with a written message in the Russian language; but he came back, saying that the governor had refused to receive it, and that he had been himself thrust out of the castle. As a last resource, Ryōzayemon—who represented himself as a merchant, and a person of some consequence, though in fact he had been only a fishing agent—was sent on shore, with another Japanese, on his promise to return with such information as he could obtain. He did return, without the other, and stated that the Russians were all dead. Sent on shore to obtain in writing a confirmation of this verbal statement, he came back no more.

Rikord now determined to seize any Japanese vessel that might be entering or leaving the harbor. A large Japanese ship soon appeared, from which, as the Russian boats approached her, several of her crew of sixty men jumped into the water. Nine were drowned, some escaped to the shore, and others were picked up by the Russian boats. The captain, who was taken on board the “Diana,” appeared, from his rich yellow dress, his swords, and other circumstances, to be a person of distinction. Being interrogated in Japanese, of which Rikord had picked up a little from Ryōzayemon, he answered with great frankness that his name was Takataya Kahei, that he was the owner of ten ships, and bound from Yetorofu (the nineteenth Kurile) to Hakodate with a cargo of dried fish, but had been obliged by contrary winds to put into the bay of Kunashiri.

Being shown the letter written by Ryōzayemon, he exclaimed, “Captain Moor[96] and five Russians are now in the city of Matsumae.” This information was hardly credited, and Rikord finally resolved to convey his captive to Kamtschatka, hoping, in the course of the winter, to obtain through him some information respecting the fate of the Russians, and the views of the Japanese government, especially as he seemed far superior to any of the Japanese with whom they had hitherto met, and therefore more likely to understand the policy of those who ruled in Japan.

“I informed him,” says Rikord, “that he must hold himself in readiness to accompany me to Russia, and explained the circumstances which compelled me to make such an arrangement. He understood me perfectly, and when I proceeded to state my belief that Captain Golownin, Mr. Moor, and the rest of the Russian prisoners had been put to death, he suddenly interrupted me, exclaiming, ‘That is not true. Captain Moor and five Russians are living in Matsumae, where they are well treated, and enjoy the freedom of walking about the city, accompanied by two officers.’ When I intimated that we intended to take him with us, he replied, with astonishing coolness, ‘Well, I am ready’; and merely requested that, on our arrival in Russia, he might continue to live with me. This I promised he should do, and likewise that I would carry him back to Japan in the ensuing year. He then seemed perfectly reconciled to his unlooked-for destiny.

“The four Japanese, who still remained on board the ship, understood not a word of Russian, and were, besides, so afflicted with the scurvy[97] that they would, in all probability, have perished had they wintered in Kamtschatka. I therefore thought it advisable to set them at liberty, and, having furnished them with every necessary, I ordered them to be put on shore, hoping that they would, in gratitude, give a good account of the Russians to their countrymen.[98] In their stead, I determined to take four seamen from the Japanese vessel, who might be useful in attending on Kahei, to whom I left the choice of the individuals. He earnestly entreated that none of the seamen might be taken, observing that they were extremely stupid, and that he feared they would die of grief, owing to the dread they entertained of the Russians. The earnestness of his solicitations led me in some measure to doubt that our comrades were really living in Matsumae, and I repeated, in a decided manner, my determination to take four of the seamen. He then begged that I would accompany him to his ship. When he went on board, he assembled the whole of his crew in the cabin, and, having seated himself on a long cushion, which was placed on a fine mat, requested that I would take my place beside him. The sailors all knelt down (seated themselves on their heels?) before us, and he delivered a long speech, in which he stated that it would be necessary for some of them to accompany us to Russia.

“Here a very affecting scene was exhibited. A number of the seamen approached him, with their heads bent downwards, and, with great eagerness, whispered something to him. Their countenances were all bathed in tears; even Kahei, who had hitherto evinced calmness and resolution, seemed now to be deeply distressed, and began to weep. I for some time hesitated to carry my resolution into effect, and was only induced to adhere to it by the consideration that I would hereafter have the opportunity of interrogating each individual separately, and probably thereby ascertaining whether or not our comrades were really alive in Matsumae. I had, however, in other respects, no reason to repent of this determination, for the Japanese merchant, who was accustomed to live in a style of Asiatic luxury, would have experienced serious inconvenience on board our vessel without his Japanese attendants, two of whom were always, by turns, near his person.

“Kahei, and the sailors he selected, soon behaved as though our ship had been their own, and we, on our side, employed every means to convince them that we considered the Japanese, not as a hostile, but as a friendly nation, with whom our good understanding was only accidentally interrupted.

“The same day we received on board, at my invitation, from the captured vessel, a Japanese lady, who had been the inseparable companion of Kahei on his voyage from Hakodate, his place of residence, to Etorofu. She was extremely desirous of seeing our ship, and the strange people and polite enemies, as she styled us, and to witness our friendly intercourse with her countrymen. A Japanese lady was also, to us, no slight object of curiosity. When she came on board, she appeared very timid and embarrassed. I requested Kahei to conduct her into my cabin, and, as she advanced, I took her by the other hand. On reaching the cabin-door, she wished to take off her straw shoes; but, as there were neither mats nor carpets in my cabin, I explained to her, by signs, that this singular mark of politeness might be dispensed with among us.

“On entering the cabin, she placed both hands on her head, with the palms outwards, and saluted us by bending her body very low. I conducted her to a chair, and Kahei requested her to sit down. Fortunately for this unexpected visitor, there was on board our vessel a young and handsome woman, the wife of our surgeon’s mate. The Japanese lady seemed highly pleased on being introduced to her, and they quickly formed an intimacy. Our countrywoman endeavored to entertain the foreigner with what the women of all countries delight in—she showed her her trinkets. Our visitor behaved with all the ease of a woman of fashion; she examined the ornaments with great curiosity, and expressed her admiration by an agreeable smile. But the fair complexion of our countrywoman seemed most of all to attract her attention. She passed her hands over the Russian woman’s face, as though she suspected it had been painted, and, with a smile, exclaimed, ‘Yoi! yoi!’ which signifies good. I observed that our visitor was somewhat vain of her new ornaments, and I held a looking-glass before her that she might see how they became her. The Russian lady placed herself immediately behind her, in order to show her the difference of their complexions, when she immediately pushed the glass aside, and said, ‘-Warui! warui!’—not good. She might herself have been called handsome; her face was of the oval form, her features regular, and her little mouth, when open, disclosed a set of shining black lackered teeth. Her black eyebrows, which had the appearance of having been pencilled, overarched a pair of sparkling dark eyes, which were by no means deeply seated. Her hair was black, and rolled up in the form of a turban, without any ornament, except a few small tortoise-shell combs. She was about the middle size, and elegantly formed. Her dress consisted of six wadded silk garments, similar to our night-gowns, each fastened round the lower part of the waist by a separate band, and drawn close together from the girdle downwards. They were all of different colors, the outer one black. Her articulation was slow, and her voice soft. Her countenance was expressive and interesting, and she was, altogether, calculated to make a very agreeable impression. She could not be older than eighteen. We entertained her with fine green tea and sweetmeats, of which she ate and drank moderately. On her taking leave, I made her some presents, with which she appeared to be much pleased. I hinted to our countrywoman that she should embrace her, and when the Japanese observed what was intended, she ran into her arms, and kissed her with a smile.”

The Japanese merchant, at Rikord’s request, wrote a letter to the commander at Kunashiri, detailing the state of affairs. No answer was returned, and when an attempt was made to land for water, the boats were fired upon, as was the “Diana” herself, whenever she approached the shore; but the aim was so bad as to excite the derision of the Russians.

During the winter passed in Kamtschatka, the Japanese merchant continued to gain in the good opinion of his captors, whose language he so far mastered as to be able to converse in it even on abstract subjects. He seemed to interest himself much in arranging the misunderstanding between the Russian and Japanese governments, and expressed his wish, which he said was shared by others of his class, to see a commercial intercourse opened between the two nations; and it was at his suggestion that Rikord sent to the governor of Irkutsk for a disavowal of the hostile acts of Chwostoff.

Kahei remained in good health and spirits till the middle of winter, when the death of two of his Japanese attendants greatly affected him. He became melancholy and peevish, asserted that he had the scurvy, and told the surgeon he should certainly die; but his real disorder was home-sickness, aggravated by apprehensions of being detained at Okhotsk, whither Rikord had intended to sail before proceeding to Japan, in order to get the disavowal above referred to. As Kahei’s assistance seemed essential, Rikord, fearing lest he might die, resolved to sail direct for Japan as soon as the vessel could be cut from the ice,—a resolution by which Kahei’s spirits were greatly raised.

They arrived in Kunashiri bay in June, 1813. The buildings were, as formerly, concealed by striped cotton cloth, but no guns were fired, and not a living being was to be seen. When the two Japanese sailors were about to be sent on shore, Rikord, somewhat excited at their master’s declining to pledge himself for their return, bade them say to the governor, that if he prevented them from returning, or sent back no information, their master should be carried to Okhotsk, whence some ships of war should immediately come to demand the liberation of the Russians.

“At these words,” says Rikord, “Kahei changed countenance, but said, with much calmness, ‘Commander of the imperial ship’—he always addressed me thus on important occasions—‘thou counsellest rashly. Thy orders to the governor of Kunashiri seem to contain much, but according to our laws they contain little. In vain dost thou threaten to carry me to Okhotsk; my men may be detained on shore, but neither two, nor yet two thousand sailors can answer for me. Therefore I give thee previous notice that it will not be in thy power to take me to Okhotsk. But tell me whether it be under these conditions only that my sailors are to be sent on shore?’ ‘Yes,’ said I; ‘as commander of a ship of war, I cannot under these circumstances act otherwise.’

The Doctor’s Call

Hair-Dressing

A Blind Masseur
Scenes in the Home

“‘Well,’ replied he, ‘allow me to give my sailors my last and most urgent instructions, as to what they must communicate from me to the governor of Kunashiri.’ He then rose up—for during this conversation he sat, according to the Japanese custom, with his legs under him—and addressed me very earnestly in the following terms: ‘You know enough of Japanese to understand all that I may say in plain and easy words to my sailors. I would not wish you to have any ground to suspect me of hatching base designs.’ He then sat down again, when his sailors approached him on their knees, and hanging down their heads, listened with deep attention to his words. He reminded them circumstantially of the day on which they were carried on board the ‘Diana,’ of the manner in which they had been treated on board that ship and in Kamtschatka, of their having inhabited the same house with me, and being carefully provided for, of the death of their two countrymen, notwithstanding all the attention bestowed upon them by the Russian physician, and, finally, that the ship had hastily returned to Japan on account of his own health. All this he directed them faithfully to relate, and concluded with the warmest commendations of me, and earnest expressions of gratitude for the care that I had taken of him by sea and on land. He then sank into a deep silence and prayed, after which he delivered to the sailor whom he most esteemed, his picture to be conveyed to his wife, and his large sabre, which he called his paternal sword, to be presented to his only son and heir. This solemn ceremony being finished, he stood up, and with a frank and indeed very cheerful expression of countenance, asked for some brandy to treat his sailors at parting. He drank with them, and accompanied them on deck, when they were landed, and proceeded without interruption towards the fortress.”

Rikord was a good deal troubled and alarmed at the air and manner of Kahei; and finally, after consulting with his officers concluded to dismiss him unconditionally, trusting to his honor for his doing his best to procure the release of the Russians.

Kahei was greatly delighted at this mark of confidence, though he declined to go on shore till the next day, as it would not conform to Japanese ideas of etiquette for him to land on the same day with his sailors. He confessed to Rikord that he had been greatly wounded by the threat to carry him to Okhotsk. It was not consistent with Japanese ideas, that a man of his position should remain a prisoner in a foreign country, and he had therefore made up his mind to prevent it by cutting himself open. He had accordingly cut off the tuft of hair from his head,—and he showed that it was gone,—and had laid it in the box with his picture; it being customary with those about to die honorably, by their own hands, in a distant place, to send this token to their friends, who bury the tuft of hair with all the ceremonies which they would have bestowed upon the body. And he even intimated that previous to doing this execution on himself, he might first have stabbed Rikord and the next in command.

Kahei exerted himself with the greatest energy in the matter of the negotiation, and he soon was able to produce a letter, in the hand-writing of Golownin, and signed by him and Moor, but which the jealousy of their keepers had limited to the simple announcement that they were alive and well at Matsumae. Afterwards one of the imprisoned Russian sailors was brought on board the ship, being sent from Matsumae for that purpose; but, though allowed to spend his days on board the “Diana,” he was required to return to the fort every night. In spite, however, of all the watchfulness of the Japanese, he had brought sewed up in his jacket a letter from Golownin, in which he recommended prudence, civility, candor, and especially patience, and entreated that no letters nor anything else should be sent him which might cause him to be tormented with questions and translations.

The Japanese would not deliver up their prisoners till the “Diana” first sailed to Okhotsk, and brought from the authorities there a formal written disavowal of the hostilities of Chwostoff. At Okhotsk was found the letter from the governor of Irkutsk, previously sent for at Kahei’s suggestion, and with this document and another letter from the commander at Okhotsk, the “Diana” reached Hakodate towards the end of October.

“As we approached the town,” says Rikord, “we observed that cloth was hung out only at a few places on the hill, or near it, and not over the whole buildings, as at Kunashiri. With the assistance of our telescopes, we observed six of these screens of cloth, probably intended to conceal fortifications. There were, beside, five new fortifications at short distances from each other, and from two to three hundred fathoms from the shore.

“We no sooner entered the roads than we were surrounded by a number of boats, of all descriptions and sizes, filled with the curious of both sexes. A European ship must indeed have been to them an object of uncommon interest; for, as far as I could ascertain, they had seen none since they were visited twenty-two years before by Laxman.[99] Many of the inhabitants, therefore, had never beheld a European vessel of any kind, and still less a ship of war; they accordingly thronged about us in vast numbers, and their curiosity frequently gave rise to disputes among themselves. The Dōshin (soldiers), who were stationed in the watch-boats, continually called to them to keep at a further distance; but so great was the confusion that, though the people generally showed great respect to the soldiers, their orders were on this occasion disregarded. The military, therefore, were under the necessity of using the iron batons which they wear fastened to their girdles by long silken strings. They spared neither rank nor sex; old persons alone experienced their indulgence, and we had various opportunities of observing that the Japanese, in all situations, pay particular respect to old age. In this case blows were freely dealt out to the young, of every description, who ventured to disobey the commands of the soldiers, and we were at length delivered from a multitude of visitors, who would have subjected us to no small degree of inconvenience.”

Kahei came on board the next morning, and the letter from the governor of Okhotsk was given to him to be transmitted to the governor of Matsumae; but Captain Rikord refused to deliver the other letter, except in person. After much negotiation the ceremonial for an interview was arranged. The Japanese even conceded that the ten men who landed with Rikord as his guard of honor should be allowed to take their muskets with them; he, on his part, agreeing to land in the Japanese governor’s barge, and, before entering the audience chamber, to substitute, instead of his boots, shoes, which Kahei undertook to pass off as leather stockings. Rikord had for his interpreter a Japanese whom he had brought from Okhotsk, sent thither from Irkutsk, and who bore the Russian name of Kesseleff. The Japanese had Teisuke, who had learnt Russian of Golownin. The governor of Matsumae, Hattori-Bingo-no-kami, was represented on this occasion by the governor of Hakodate, and by an academician sent for the express purpose of making observations on the Russian ship of war, and collecting particulars respecting European science,—no other, indeed, than Doeff’s friend, “Globius.”

The letter of the governor of Irkutsk was delivered, with great formality, in a box covered with purple cloth. Rikord took it out, read the address aloud, and returned it. Kesseleff, Rikord’s interpreter, then handed the box to Teisuke, who raised it above his head, and placed it in the hands of the junior commissioner, who delivered it to the senior commissioner, who promised to deliver it to the bugiō, or governor. An entertainment followed of tea and sweetmeats, during which a Japanese was placed beside Rikord to receive and hand to him his share of the eatables.

From the moment of the departure of the “Diana” for Okhotsk, Golownin and his companions had begun to be treated rather as guests than prisoners. They were soon conveyed back to Hakodate, and at length, after a confinement of more than two years, were delivered up to Rikord, with a paper of which the following are the material parts:

In all this business the efforts of Kahei had been indefatigable. At first he was treated by his own countrymen with the suspicion and reserve extended to all, even native Japanese, who come from a foreign country. For a long time he was not permitted to visit Golownin. A guard was set over him, and even his friends and relations could not see him except in presence of an imperial soldier. In fact, according to the Japanese laws, as a person just returned from a foreign country, he ought to have been allowed no correspondence at all with his friends. The governor of Hakodate, having a letter for him from his only son, said not a word to him about it, but having sent for him to convey a letter from Golownin on board the “Diana,” while walking up and down the room, threw his son’s letter towards him, as if it had been a piece of waste paper taken out of his sleeve accidentally with the other letter, and then turned his back to give him time to pick it up.[100]

Kahei’s abduction had thrown his family into great distress. A celebrated priest, or spirit-medium, at Hakodate, to the question whether he ever would return, had answered, “Kahei will return the ensuing summer, with two of his companions; the remaining two have perished in a foreign land.” This answer was communicated to Golownin, who laughed at it; but when, on Kahei’s return, it appeared that two of his Japanese attendants had actually died, the Japanese believers were greatly edified, and highly indignant at Golownin’s persistence in maintaining that there was more of luck than foresight in the prophecy. Kahei’s wife—another probably than the young female with whom we are already acquainted—in her grief made a vow to go on a pilgrimage through the whole of Japan; and Kahei assured Captain Rikord that scarcely had she returned from her pilgrimage, when she received his letter from Kunashiri, announcing his return.

Kahei had a bosom friend, who, on learning his fate, divided his large property among the poor, and took up his residence in the mountains as a hermit. As appeared on various occasions, Kahei was a strict disciplinarian, and very punctilious. He had a daughter, whom, owing to some misconduct, he had discarded. She was dead to him, so he said; and to Rikord, to whom he had told the story, and who had taken an interest in the girl, he had insisted that a reconciliation would be inconsistent with his honor. Yet, to show his hermit friend that in the way of self-sacrifice he was not to be outdone, he made up his mind to the great effort of calling his daughter into life, and forgiving her. His friend would, he said, when this communication was made to him, at once understand it.

Scene in a Common School

During Kahei’s absence his mercantile affairs had prospered, and before Rikord’s departure he brought on board the “Diana,” with all the evidence of paternal pride, his son, who seemed, indeed, to be a promising youth. He was very liberal in his distribution of silk and cotton wadded dresses to the crew, to all of whom he gave one or more, to his favorites the best ones, taking especial care to remember the cook. He then begged to be allowed to treat them. “Sailors, captain,” so he said to Rikord, “are all alike, whether Russian or Japanese. They are all fond of a glass; and there is no danger in the harbor of Hakodate.” So the sailors had a night of it, being plentifully supplied with sake and Japanese tobacco.

Though he refused all presents of value, as being indeed prohibited by Japanese law, Kahei accepted with pleasure a Russian tea-set, as it would enable him, in entertaining his friends, to call to mind his Russian hosts; and he expressed much regret that the custom of his country did not allow him to invite Rikord to his own house. Finally, he brought a number of boats to help tow the “Diana” out of the harbor.

This is the only full-length portrait we possess of a Japanese merchant; and, if it represents the class, the fraternity have reason to be proud of their Japanese brethren. “The class of merchants in Japan,” says Golownin, “is very extensive and rich, but not held in honor. The merchants have not the right to bear arms;[101] but though their profession is not respected, their wealth is; for this, as in Europe, supplies the place of talents and dignity, and attains privileges and honorable places. The Japanese told us that their officers of state and men of rank behave themselves outwardly with great haughtiness to the merchants, but in private are very familiar with the rich ones, and are often under great obligations to them. We had with us for some time a young officer, who was the son of a rich merchant, and who, as the Japanese said, owed his rank not to his own merit, but to his father’s gold. Thus, though the laws do not favor the mercantile profession, yet wealth raises it; for even in Japan, where the laws are so rigorously enforced, they are often weighed down by the influence of gold.”

CHAPTER XLIV

Great was the delight of Heer Doeff, when, in the year 1817, two vessels arrived at last from Batavia, bringing news of its restoration to the Dutch; also—what was hardly less welcome—a supply of butter, wine, and other European creature comforts; together with goods for renewing the trade, and a decoration of the order of the Lion for Doeff, whose conduct in holding out against the English had been highly approved in Holland.

On board these ships were several women, among others the wife of Herr Blomhoff, appointed to succeed Doeff as director, who had with her an infant child. This novelty greatly disturbed the Japanese. It was with the utmost difficulty that permission was obtained for the wife of the new director to land; her remaining was a thing not to be listened to, and she was obliged to leave her husband and to return to Batavia in the departing ships.[102]

Shortly after this renewal of the old Dutch intercourse, a new English attempt was made at commerce with Japan. Captain Gordon of the British navy, entered, in June, 1818, the bay of Yedo, in a little trading brig, from Okhotsk, of sixty-five tons’ burden. He was immediately visited by two officers, to whom he said that he had come merely to obtain permission to return with a cargo of goods for sale. They insisted upon unshipping his rudder, and required all his arms to be given up. The vessel was then surrounded by a circle of some twenty boats, and beyond by a circle of sixty larger ones, besides two or three junks, mounting a number of guns. Two interpreters came on board, one speaking Dutch, the other some Russian, and both a little English. They inquired if the vessel belonged to the East India Company, if the English were friends of the Dutch, and if Captain Golownin was at Okhotsk. They asked after the king of Holland, the king of France, and Bonaparte. They knew the names and uses of the various nautical instruments, and said that the best were made at London. In a subsequent visit they told Captain Gordon that permission could not be granted for his trading to Japan, as by their laws all foreign intercourse was interdicted, except at Nagasaki, and there only allowed with the Dutch and Chinese, and he was requested to depart the moment the wind was fair. The interpreters declined any presents, being prohibited, they said, from accepting any. Captain Gordon was much struck with the polite and affable conduct of the Japanese, both towards him and towards each other. Everything that had been taken on shore was carefully returned, and thirty boats were sent to tow the vessel out of the bay. The shores were lined with spectators, and as soon as the guard-boats had left, not less than two thousand visitors came on board in succession, all eager to barter for trifles.[103]

In 1820, J. F. Van Overmeer Fisscher arrived at Nagasaki, as a member of the factory. He resided there for seven years, and after his return to Holland published, in 1833, a work in the Dutch language, entitled “Contributions towards a Knowledge of the Japanese Empire,” embellished with engravings from Japanese drawings, so superior to former specimens as to give occasion for some suspicion of aid from the European engraver.

In 1822, Fisscher accompanied Blomhoff in the quadrennial embassy to Yedo, which, from its long intermission, appears to have excited unusual attention. It had been proposed to make the embassy annual, as formerly; but to this change the Japanese authorities would not assent. Fisscher’s account of the journey does not differ materially from that given by Kämpfer and Thunberg. The entrance into Yedo, notwithstanding the absence of carriages, reminded him, from the noise and the throng of people, of the commercial parts of London. The shops had signs, as in Europe; the goods were exhibited from the doors and windows under the charge of boys, who rivalled each other in calling by loud cries the attention of purchasers. Long before entering Shinagawa, they found themselves in the midst of a vast crowd, marching along broad streets, paved at the sides, formed of houses, regularly built, among which were many large buildings. From the suburb to their hotel, called Nagasakiya, and in the immediate vicinity of the palace, it was two hours’ march; and, as the palace was said to occupy a space half a Japanese mile in diameter, Fisscher estimates the diameter of the whole city at not less than five or six hours’ walk at an ordinary step.

After the audience and the official visits were over, the Dutch spent twelve days in receiving visits. Among the crowds who obtained the privilege of seeing them, were several princes or their secretaries, and many savans, Doeff’s Globius among the rest. Several of these visitors had more or less knowledge of the Dutch language, and great eagerness was exhibited to obtain new scientific information. To a party given to the Dutch by the master of the mint and the conductor of the embassy, many of the Japanese guests came rigged out in Dutch clothes; and as these had been collected through long intervals and preserved as curiosities, they presented a very grotesque and antique appearance.[104] Fisscher’s own party were laid under contribution in the same way, their lady visitors unpacking and rummaging their trunks, and putting them to the necessity of giving away some of the most valuable articles. The greater part, however, were content with a few words written on their fans.

Mr. G. F. Meylan, who first arrived in Japan shortly after Fisscher left it, and who subsequently died there, as director, has also contributed something to our knowledge of Japan, by a thin volume published in 1830, like Fisscher’s, in the Dutch language, with the title of “Japan; presented in Sketches of the Manners and Customs of that Realm, especially of the Town of Nagasaki.” One of the most original things in Meylan’s book is his apology for the custom of the Dutch in taking female companions from the Nagasaki tea-houses. None of the male Japanese servants are allowed to remain in Deshima over night. “How, then,” plaintively asks Mr. Meylan, “could the Dutch residents otherwise manage to procure any domestic comfort in the long nights of winter,—their tea-water, for instance,—were it not for these females?” He passes a high eulogy upon their strict fidelity and affectionate activity; and indeed the connection appears to be regarded by them not so much in the light in which we see it, as in that of a temporary marriage. The female inmates of the Japanese tea-houses hold, indeed, in the estimation of their own people, a very different position from that which our manners would assign to them; since not only is the custom of frequenting these houses, as places of relaxation and amusement, general among the men, but sometimes, according to Fisscher, they even take their wives along with them.

Of the personal charms of these wives, with their teeth blackened, their eyebrows shaven, their faces white, Fisscher does not give a very high idea. The concubines do not shave their eyebrows, but the custom of blackening the teeth is so common as to be adopted by all females above the age of eighteen. The immoderate use of the warm bath causes them to look, at twenty-five, at least ten years older. Not content with the natural burdens of child-bearing, they augment them by several absurd customs, one of which is the wearing, during pregnancy, of a tight girdle round the body.

The works of Fisscher and Meylan are chiefly valuable for the confirmation they give of Kämpfer’s accounts, and as showing the Japanese very little altered from what they were when he described them. A visitant to Japan, and a writer of much higher pretensions, is Dr. Philipp Franz von Siebold, who was sent out, in 1823, commissioned by the Dutch government, to make all possible investigations, as well into the language, literature, and institutions, as into the natural history of the country. The Japanese interpreters understood Dutch so well as to detect his foreign accent, but they were satisfied with the explanation that he was a Dutch mountaineer. He availed himself, as Kämpfer had done, of all means that offered to elude the restrictive laws; and he found, like Thunberg and Titsingh, a certain number of the natives very anxious to obtain information, and by no means unwilling secretly to impart it.

In 1826, he accompanied Van Sturlen, the director, on the quadrennial journey to Yedo, taking with him a young native physician, a native artist, and several servants to assist his researches into natural history. Following, as Fisscher had done, nearly or quite in Kämpfer’s old route, he saw, in the passage across Kiūshiū, the same old camphor-tree, as flourishing, apparently, as it had been a hundred and thirty-five years before, but with a hollow in its trunk large enough to hold fifteen men. He visited the same hot springs, and descended some sixty feet into the coal mine, near Kokura, mentioned by Kämpfer. He saw only one thin seam of coal, but was told of thicker ones below,—an account which the coal drawn up seemed to confirm.

The Wedding Ceremony

At Yedo he met with many Japanese physicians, astronomers, and others, of whose acquisitions he speaks with much respect.

Besides the other means, already pointed out, of measuring time, he saw in use there Chinese clepsydras, or water-clocks; but the method most relied upon for scientific purposes was a clock of which the idea was derived from one introduced into China by the Jesuit Ricci, and brought thence to Japan. This clock is worked by two balances, one to act by day and the other by night. The arm of each balance is notched, to accord with the variations in the length of the hours. At the summer solstice the weights are hung respectively upon the outermost notch of the day-balance, and upon the innermost notch of the night-balance. At intervals of six days, four hours and twelve minutes, both weights are moved; that of the day-balance a notch inward, that of the night-balance a notch outward, until at the winter solstice their original positions are reversed.

After Siebold’s return to Nagasaki, he continued diligently to follow out his object, keeping up, through means of the interpreters, a correspondence with his Yedo friends. In the course of five years he had not only made large collections for the government of specimens in natural history, but also, on his own account, of Japanese books and other curiosities, besides acquiring a considerable knowledge of the language. His collections in natural history had been shipped to Batavia; he was preparing himself to follow, when an unlucky disclosure took place. The imperial astronomer, notwithstanding the law to the contrary, had secretly sent him a copy of a new map of Japan, lately constructed on European principles. One of the draftsmen employed in making it having quarrelled with the astronomer, informed against him, in consequence of which the astronomer, his servants, the interpreters, several of Siebold’s pupils, and other Japanese suspected of being concerned in this affair, were arrested and subjected to a strict examination. Siebold himself was called upon to give up the map; and, when he hesitated about it, underwent a domiciliary visit, followed by an order to consider himself under arrest, and prohibition to leave Japan until the investigation was terminated. Finding thus not only the fruits of his own labor, but the lives of his Japanese friends in danger, he made a full confession as to the map, endeavoring thus to remove suspicions and to preserve some other documents in his possession, of which the Japanese yet had no knowledge, and which might have compromised other persons not yet suspected. Studiously concealing the connection of the Dutch government with his mission, he thought it best to represent himself as simply a private inquirer, whose researches into natural history and the physical sciences might be no less useful to the Japanese than they were interesting to himself. Of the particulars of this affair no account has ever been published. It is said that some of his Japanese friends found it necessary to cut themselves open, but Siebold himself was speedily released, with his entire collections, which he brought with him to Holland, and by means of which he converted his residence at Leyden into a very curious Japanese museum.

The fruits of his researches, so far as zoölogy is concerned, and of those of Dr. Burger, left behind as his successor, have been published by the labors of some distinguished naturalists, and under the patronage of the king of Holland, in a very splendid and expensive work, called “Fauna Japonica,” with colored plates of most of the animals described, and in the preparation of which the native works on the subject were largely consulted. This work includes three lizards, two tortoises, six snakes, eleven of the frog family, three hundred and fifty-nine fishes (Siebold describes the Japanese as a nation of fish-eaters), besides several whales, and two hundred and two birds. The principal quadrupeds, natives of Japan, and described in it, are a small deer, an antelope, in the most southern parts an ape, a wolf, a bear, and in Yezo another more ferocious species, like the Rocky Mountain bear, a wild hog, two foxes, and a number of smaller animals. There is no animal of the cat kind, except the domestic cat. The dogs used for hunting appear to be indigenous. There are pet house-dogs, derived from China, and troops of street-dogs—belonging to no individual, but denizens of particular streets—of a mongrel breed between the two.

The “Flora Japonica,” prepared by Zaccarini, from Siebold’s collection containing descriptions and drawings of one hundred and twenty-four remarkable plants, was interrupted by the death of that botanist, as was also another, less costly, but fuller enumeration of Japanese plants, arranged in natural families. The latter work, so far as completed, contains four hundred and seventy-eight genera, and eight hundred and forty-seven species. Siebold states that, of five hundred plants most remarkable for ornament or utility, at least half are of foreign origin, chiefly from China.

Siebold’s observations, during his residence in Japan, upon other subjects than natural history, have been principally embraced in a publication in numbers, originally in German, but a French translation of parts of which has appeared, entitled “Nippon, or Archives for the Description of Japan.” This work, projected like most of Siebold’s publications, on an extensive scale, contains many translations from Japanese historical works, and exhibits a great deal of erudition; at the same time it is diffuse, confused, incoherent, introducing a great deal of matter with only a remote bearing on the subject; and, whatever light it may throw upon some particular points, not, on the whole, adding a great deal to the knowledge we previously had of Japan, so far, at least, as the general reader would be likely to take an interest in it.[105]

The same year in which Siebold was released, a party of English convicts, on their way to Australia in the brig “Cyprus,” mutinied and got possession of the vessel. After cruising about for five months, being in great distress for wood and water, they anchored on the coast of Japan; but they were fired at from the shore, and obliged to depart without accomplishing their object.

Not long after this occurrence, three Japanese, the only survivors of the crew of a junk, driven by storms across the Pacific, landed on Queen Charlotte’s Island, on the northwest coast of America. They were seized by the natives, but were redeemed by an agent of the English Fur Company, at the mouth of Columbia River, and sent to England. From England they were carried to Macao, where they were placed in the family of Mr. Gutzlaff, the missionary. Some time after, four other Japanese, who had been wrecked on the Philippines, were brought to Macao.

The return of these men to their homes seemed a good opportunity for opening a communication with Japan, as well for mercantile as for missionary purposes, and an American mercantile house at Macao fitted out the brig “Morrison” for that purpose, in which sailed one of the partners, Dr. Parker, a missionary physician, and Mr. S. W. Williams, one of the editors of the “Chinese Repository,” and afterwards Chinese interpreter to Commodore Perry’s squadron. At Lew Chew [Riūkiū], where the vessel touched, Mr. Gutzlaff also came on board.

On the 27th of July, 1837, the chain of islands was made leading up to the bay of Yedo, up which the “Morrison” proceeded some thirty miles, to Uraga, the west coast of the bay rising hill above hill, and the view terminating in the lofty peak of Fuji. Near Uraga, many of the hills were cultivated in terraces, but the general aspect of the shores was bleak and barren. Just above, the passage was narrowed by two points of land projecting from opposite directions.

Having anchored about three quarters of a mile from the shore, the ship was soon visited by a number of boats. Their crews, some two hundred in number, and evidently of the lower class, hardly seemed to understand the Chinese writing in which provisions, water, and a government officer to communicate with, were asked for. They seemed, however, to invite a landing; but during the night cannon were planted on the nearest eminence, and, though the firing was unskilful, the “Morrison” was obliged to weigh. She was pursued by three gun-boats, each with thirty or forty men, which bore down upon her, firing swivels; but when she lay to, to wait for them, they retired. A piece of canvas, on which was painted, in Chinese, that a foreign ship desired to return some shipwrecked natives, and to obtain some provisions and water, was thrown overboard; but, though it was picked up, no notice was taken of it. The Japanese on board, who had recognized the shores of their country with delight, were much mortified at the result, which they ascribed in part to their not having been allowed to communicate with their countrymen.

For the purpose of making a second experiment, on the 20th of August the “Morrison” entered the bay of Kagoshima, in the principality of Satsuma. The shores, rising gradually from the water, were under high cultivation. A boat from the ship boarded a Japanese fishing vessel, and proceeded to a little village, where they found the people in great commotion. The “Morrison” followed, and when opposite the village, was visited by a richly dressed officer, with a number of almost naked attendants. He stated that, supposing the ship to be a pirate, preparations had been made to fire on her; but, satisfied by the representations of the Japanese on board of the true state of the case, he received, with much apparent interest, the despatches prepared for the prince of Satsuma and the emperor, which he promised to deliver to a superior officer. He left a pilot on board; a supply of water was sent, and the ship was visited by many boat-loads of people, superior in appearance to those seen in the bay of Yedo; but they brought nothing to sell.

The despatches were soon brought back by several officers, the superior officer, it was stated, declining to receive them. They added that the depositions of the Japanese passengers, who had landed for the purpose of giving them, had been forwarded to Kagoshima, and that a superior officer might be expected from that city. Provisions were promised, and that the vessel should be towed higher up the bay; early in the morning of the twelfth, the crew of a fishing-boat communicated to the Japanese on board a rumor that the ship was to be expelled. Warlike preparations were soon seen on shore, in strips of blue and white canvas stretched from tree to tree. The Japanese on board stated, with rueful faces, that these preparations portended war; nor, according to their description, were these cloth batteries so contemptible as they might seem, as four or five pieces of heavy canvas, loosely stretched, one behind another, at short intervals, would weaken the force of, indeed almost stop, a cannon ball.

Officers on horseback, and several hundred soldiers, soon made their appearance, and a fire of musketry and artillery was commenced. The anchor was weighed, and the sails set, but there was no wind. For eighteen hours the ship was exposed, without any means of offering resistance, to two fires from opposite sides of the bay, which was from three to five miles broad, till at last she was with difficulty conducted clear of the shoals and past the forts.

All hope of friendly intercourse, or of returning the men, was now abandoned. The poor fellows suffered severely at this unexpected extinction of their prospect of revisiting their families. They expressed great indignation at the conduct of their countrymen, and two of them shaved their heads entirely in token, as it was understood, of having renounced their native soil. As it was not deemed expedient to go to Nagasaki, where the Japanese on board expressed their determination not to land, the “Morrison” returned to Macao.[106]

In 1843, probably in consequence of this visit of the “Morrison,” the Japanese authorities promulgated an edict, of which the following is a translation, as given by the Dutch at Deshima, who were requested to communicate to the other European nations,—the first attempt ever made to employ their agency for that purpose.

A Buddhist Funeral

The British opium war in China, of the progress of which the Japanese were well informed, if it increased the desire of the English to gain access to Japan, did not, by any means, diminish the Japanese dread of foreigners.[107]

In 1845, the British surveying frigate “Saramang” entered the harbor of Nagasaki. As she approached she was surrounded by numerous guard-boats, from one of which a letter was handed, in Dutch and French, directing her to anchor off the entrance, till visited by the authorities. The Japanese officers who came on board stated that they had been apprised of this intended visit by the Dutch, and that they were acquainted with the recent visit of the “Saramang” to the Lew Chew and other islands, and of her operations there.

With great difficulty permission was obtained to land, in order to make some astronomical observations, but the officers earnestly begged that this might not be repeated till they could consult their superiors; nor were they willing that the vessel should leave till such consultation had taken place. They asked, for this purpose, a stay of two days. The captain offered to wait four days, if they would allow his observations to be continued; but this they declined, urging as a reason their own danger of punishment. The vessel was freely supplied with such provisions as she needed, and the British officers were strongly impressed with the demeanor of the Japanese, as at once dignified and respectful.

That same year, the American whaleship “Mercator,” Captain Cooper, while cruising among the northern islands of the Japanese group, fell in with a sinking junk, from which she took eleven Japanese sailors, and as many more from a rock to which they had escaped. Captain Cooper proceeded with these rescued men to the bay of Yedo, and on anchoring there was surrounded by near four hundred armed boats, which took the ship in tow, took all the arms out of her, and carried her in front of a neighboring town, probably Odawara. Here she was guarded for three days, being all the while an object of curiosity to great crowds. Orders presently came from Yedo, in these words:

Immediately upon the receipt of this order, the ship was abundantly supplied with provisions, her arms were returned, and she was towed out of the bay by a file of boats more than a mile long. It would seem that since the visit of the “Morrison,” a fleet of guard-boats had been provided to take the bay of Yedo in charge.

Commodore Biddle, sent soon after to the China Seas, with a considerable American naval force, was instructed, among other things, to ascertain if the ports of Japan were accessible. With this object in view, with the “Columbus” ship of the line, and “Vincennes” frigate, he anchored (July 20, 1848) in the bay of Yedo. Before the ships reached their anchorage, an officer with a Dutch interpreter came on board to inquire their object. He was told that the vessels came as friends to ascertain whether Japan had, like China, opened her ports to foreign trade; and, if she had, to negotiate a treaty of commerce. The officer requested that this statement should be reduced to writing, for transmission to the higher authorities. He also stated that all needed supplies would be furnished, but refused permission to land, and even wished to stop the passing of boats between the two vessels; but as the commodore would not agree to this, he did not persist in it. The vessel was soon surrounded by a multitude of boats, and as many Japanese as wished were allowed to come on board, both as a proof of friendship and to let them see the strength of the ships.

Another officer, apparently of higher rank, came on board the following morning. He stated that foreign ships, on arriving in Japan, were required to give up their arms; but when told that only trading vessels could be expected to do that, he appeared to be satisfied. The emperor’s reply might be expected, he said, in five or six days. He was offered copies in Chinese of the late English, French, and American treaties with China, but declined to receive them, as did all the other Japanese officers to whom they were offered. To explain the concourse of guard-boats about the ship, he pretended that they were only waiting in readiness to tow the ships, if needed. These boats followed the ships’ boats when sent at some distance for sounding, but did not offer to molest them, nor did the crews of the ships’ boats make any attempt to land.

The Japanese, who had undertaken to water the ships, sent off the first day less than two hundred gallons, and the next day not so much. As this was less than the daily consumption, the commodore stated that if they went on so, he should send his own boats. This was by no means acceptable, and in the next two days they furnished twenty-one thousand gallons.

On the 28th, an officer with a suite of eight persons came on board with the emperor’s letter, which, as translated by the Dutch interpreter, read thus:

The Japanese original, as translated at Canton, first into Chinese and from Chinese into English, runs as follows:

This paper, which had neither address, signature, nor date, was enclosed in an open envelope, on which was written, “Explanatory Edict.” With respect to the delivery of it, the following circumstance occurred, which will best be stated in the words of the commodore’s despatch:

“I must now communicate an occurrence of an unpleasant character. On the morning that the officer came down in the junk with the emperor’s letter, I was requested to go on board the junk to receive it. I refused, and informed the interpreter that the officer must deliver on board this ship any letter that had been entrusted him for me. To this the officer assented; but added, that my letter having been delivered on board the American ship, he thought the emperor’s letter should be delivered on board the Japanese vessel. As the Japanese officer, though attaching importance to his own proposal, had withdrawn it as soon as I objected to it, I concluded that it might be well for me to gratify him, and I informed the interpreter that I would go on board the junk, and there receive the letter. The interpreter then went on board the junk, and in an hour afterwards I went alongside in the ship’s boat, in my uniform. At the moment that I was stepping on board, a Japanese on the deck of the junk gave me a blow or push, which threw me back into the boat. I immediately called to the interpreter to have the man seized, and then returned to the ship.” The interpreter and a number of Japanese followed, who expressed great concern at what had happened, and who succeeded in convincing the commodore that his intention of coming on board had not been understood. They offered to inflict any punishment he chose on the offender; but as to that matter he referred them to the laws of Japan; and being satisfied that it was an individual act, without authority from the officers, he concluded to be satisfied.[108] What interpretation was put upon his conduct by the Japanese will presently appear.

A Shintō Funeral

At the very moment that these ships were thus unceremoniously sent away, eight American sailors were imprisoned in Japan, though possibly the fact was not then known at Yedo. They had escaped from the wreck of the whaleship “Lawrence,” to one of the Japanese Kuriles, where they had landed early in June. After an imprisonment of several months, they were taken to Matsumae, and finally to Nagasaki. One of them, in an attempt to escape, was killed. At last, after seventeen months’ confinement, they were given up to the Dutch at Deshima, and sent to Batavia in the ship of 1847. According to an account signed by the mate and published in the Serampore “Free Press,” their usage had been very hard.

On the 28th of July, the day preceding the departure of the two American ships from the bay of Yedo, two French ships of war, the frigate “Cleopatra,” commanded by Admiral Cecille, and a corvette, on a surveying expedition, entered the harbor of Nagasaki, for the purpose, as the admiral stated, of letting the Japanese know that the French, too, had great ships of war; but being surrounded by boats and refused all intercourse with the shore, they departed within twenty-four hours. In consequence of these visits the Dutch at length communicated to the French and American governments copies of the edict of 1843, concerning the return of shipwrecked Japanese, and surveys of the Japanese coast, already given.

In September, 1848, fifteen foreign seamen arrived at Nagasaki, forwarded from Matsumae in a Japanese junk, from which they were carried in close kago to a temple prepared for their residence, and around which a high palisade was erected, no communication with them being allowed. Indeed, it was not without a good deal of difficulty that the director of the Dutch factory obtained leave to send them some articles of food and clothing. As none of the sailors understood Dutch, the Japanese officers who had them in charge found it difficult to communicate with them,—to aid in which the Dutch director was finally called in. Eight of the men, according to their own account, were Americans, all quite young, and seven of them Sandwich-Islanders. They stated themselves to have escaped from the wreck of the American whaler, “Ladoga,” which, according to their account, had struck a shoal in the Sea of Japan, and gone to pieces. The director wished to send them to Batavia in the annual Dutch vessel, then about to sail, but for this a reference to Yedo was necessary, which would take forty days, much beyond the time fixed by the Japanese rule for the departure of the ship.

These facts having been communicated, under date of January 27, 1849, by the Dutch consul at Canton to the American commissioner there, Captain Geisenger, in command on that station, despatched the sloop-of-war “Preble,” Commander Glyn, to Nagasaki, to bring away these sailors.

Glyn touched at Lew Chew, where he learned from the Rev. B. J. Bettelheim,[109] a missionary resident there, that very exaggerated reports had reached these islands of chastisement inflicted upon an American officer who had visited Yedo in a “big” ship. The missionary seemed even to think that these reports were not without their influence upon the authorities of Lew Chew, as the cause of a “want of accommodation” exhibited in their conduct towards the “Preble,”—a piece of information which had its influence in leading Captain Glyn to assume a very decided tone in his subsequent intercourse with the authorities of Nagasaki.

The “Preble” made the land off Nagasaki on the 17th of April. Japanese boats, which soon came alongside, threw on board a bamboo, in the split of which were papers containing the customary notification to foreign vessels, as to their anchorage, and the conduct they were to observe, and certain questions which they were to answer. These papers (in English, with some Dutch variations) were verbatim as follows:

The ship was soon after boarded by a Japanese interpreter with seven men, who gave directions in English as to her anchorage; but, as the captain persisted in selecting his own ground, the officer yielded. To another officer, who came on board to learn what he wanted, he stated his object, which led to many inquiries. The vessel was surrounded by guard-boats, and the usual offer was made of supplies, which were refused unless payment would be accepted. To an officer who came on board the next day, Captain Glyn complained of these guard-boats; and he gave him also a letter to the governor of Nagasaki, stating his object. The same officer having returned on the 22d, but only with promises of a speedy answer, Captain Glyn remonstrated with warmth. Finally, on the 26th, through the intervention of the Dutch director, who, being sick himself, sent one of his subordinates on board, the sailors were delivered up without waiting to send to Yedo, as had been proposed. The day before, a curious memorandum in Japanese Dutch, a sort of journal or history of the prisoners since their capture, was handed to the captain, who was very hard-pressed to say whether he would sail as soon as he received them. Another memorandum in Dutch was also handed to him, to the effect that, as all shipwrecked mariners were sent home by the Chinese or Dutch, this special sending for them was not to be allowed.

It appears, from the statements of the men, that they were, in fact, deserters, having left the Ladoga near the Straits of Sangar. At a village on the coast of Yezo, where they landed, they were supplied with rice and firewood, but while they stayed were guarded by soldiers, and surrounded by a cloth screen, as if to keep them from seeing the country. Landing two days after at another village, they were detained as prisoners, and were confined in a house guarded by soldiers; but for some time were amused by promises that they should be released and furnished with a boat. Disappointed in this expectation, two of them escaped, but were speedily recaptured. A quarrel taking place between them, one of them was shut up in a cage, and two others, having made a second escape, after being retaken were shut up with him. A new quarrel happening in the cage, one of the prisoners was taken out and severely whipped. Two months after their capture, the whole number were put in a junk, the three close prisoners in one cage, the twelve others in another, and forwarded to Nagasaki. They were lodged at first in a palisaded and guarded house, and were subjected to several interrogations, being flattered with hopes of being sent home in the Dutch vessel then in the harbor. In order to get on board her, McCoy (who described himself as twenty-three years old, and born in Philadelphia, and who appears to have been the most intelligent of the party) made a third escape. Japanese jails, he observed, might do well enough for Japanese, but could not hold Americans. Being retaken, he was tied,—much as described in Golownin’s narrative,—put into a sort of stocks, and repeatedly examined under suspicion of being a spy. Thence he was taken to the common prison and confined by himself for three weeks; but, on threatening to starve himself, and refusing to eat for three days, he was restored to his companions, it would seem, through the intercession of the Dutch director, who endeavored to persuade the men to wait patiently, and not to quarrel among themselves.

After a month’s longer detention, a new escape was planned, but only McCoy and two others succeeded in getting out. Being retaken they were tied, put in the stocks, and finally all were sent to the common prison, where they had very hard usage. It was stated, and no doubt truly enough, in the Dutch memorandum, respecting their treatment, handed in by the Japanese, that they gave so much trouble that the authorities hardly knew what to do with them. One of the Americans died, and one of the Sandwich-Islanders hung himself. McCoy, who had learned considerable Japanese, was secretly informed of the arrival of the “Preble” by one of the guards with whom he had established an intimacy.

At the same time with these men another seaman from an American whaler was delivered up, who had landed a month or two later on some still more northerly Japanese island. As this man, named McDonald, and who described himself as twenty-four years old, and born at Astoria, in Oregon, had made no attempt at escaping, he had no occasion to complain of severity. In fact, he lived in clover, the Japanese having put him to use as a teacher of English. The very interpreter who boarded the “Preble” had been one of his scholars. All these men stated that they had been required to trample on the crucifix as a proof that they were not Portuguese, that reason being suggested to them when they showed some reluctance to do it.

McCoy mentioned, and others confirmed it, that when he threatened the Japanese guards with vengeance from some American ship of war, they told him that they had no fears of that, as the year before, at the city of Yedo, a common soldier had knocked down an American commander, and no notice had been taken of it. McCoy and the others strenuously denied having ever heard this story (evidently referring to the occurrence described in a preceding page) before it was thus mentioned to them by the Japanese.

McDonald, before his release, was requested by the Japanese to describe the relative rank of the commander of the “Preble,” by counting down in the order of succession from the highest chief in the United States. Like a true republican, he began with the people; but the Japanese, he says, could make nothing of that. He then enumerated the grades of president, secretary of the navy, commodore, post captain, and commander, which latter rank, being that of the officer in question, seemed so elevated as rather to excite the surprise of his auditors.

Five weeks after the departure of the “Preble,” on the 29th of May, Commander Matheson, in the British surveying ship “Mariner,” anchored in the bay of Yedo, off the town of Uraga, and three miles higher up, according to his statement, than any other vessel had been allowed to proceed. As he entered the bay, he was met by ten boats. A paper was handed up, in Dutch and French, requesting him not to anchor, nor cruise in the bay; but when the Japanese found he was determined to proceed, they offered to tow him. During the night he was watched by boats and from the shore. Having a Japanese interpreter on board, he communicated the object of his visit, and sent his card on shore to the governor of the town, with a note in Chinese, proposing to wait upon him; to which the governor replied that it was contrary to the law for foreigners to land, and that he should lose his life if he allowed Captain Matheson to come on shore, or to proceed any higher up the bay.

Scenes in Japanese Cemeteries

The survey of the anchorage having been completed, Matheson proceeded, on the 31st, to the bay of Shimoda, on the other side of the promontory of Izu, where he spent five days in surveying, and was detained two days longer by the weather. After the second day, he was visited by an interpreter, who understood Dutch, and by two officers from Uraga, apparently spies on each other, to watch his proceedings; and finally an officer of rank, from a town thirteen miles off, came on board. There were three fishing villages at the anchorage, and he landed for a short time, but the Japanese officers followed, begging and entreating him to go on board again. The ship was supplied with plenty of fish, and boats were furnished to tow her out.

In 1850, the Japanese sent to Batavia, in the annual Dutch ship, three American sailors who had been left in 1848 on one of the Kurile Islands, also thirty-one other sailors belonging to the English whaling-ship Edmund, of Robertstown, wrecked on the coast of Yezo. At the same time, probably in consequence of the numerous recent visits to their coasts, the Dutch were requested to give notice to other nations, that although it had been determined, in 1842, to furnish with necessary supplies such foreign vessels as arrived on the coast in distress, this was not to be understood as indicating the least change as to the policy of the rigorous exclusion of foreigners.[111]

CHAPTER XLV

We have seen in the last chapter how the whale fishery, on the one hand, and the opening of China to foreign trade, on the other, had more and more drawn attention to Japan; in the conduct of whose functionaries, however, no indication appeared of any disposition to abandon their ancient exclusive policy. It has even been asserted[112] that a new Shōgun [Iyeyoshi], who had succeeded in 1837 (after a fifty years’ reign on the part of his predecessor), had imposed new restrictions on foreign products, and, by special encouragement to home productions of similar kinds, had endeavored to supersede the necessity of receiving anything from abroad. It is certain that the Dutch trade rather diminished than increased. The amount of that trade, from 1825 to 1833, inclusive, is stated by Jancigny, from official returns, or those reputed to be such, at 289,150 florins ($115,620) for importations, and 702,675 florins ($281,078) for exportations. In 1846, the importations reached only 231,117 fr. ($92,446), and the exportations 552,319 fr. ($220,927); and those of the preceding year had been about the same. The private trade, and the attempts at smuggling connected with it, were very narrowly watched. Within the preceding ten years, one interpreter had been executed, and another had been driven to cut himself open, in consequence of complicity in smuggling. The private trade had been farmed out, for the benefit of those interested in it, at 30,000 fl. ($12,000) annually,—the amount at which Kämpfer had reckoned the profits from that source of the director alone. Among the Dutch imports upon government account, woollens, silks, velvets, cotton goods, gold, silver, tin, lead, mercury, and a few other articles are mentioned. Sugar, formerly a leading article, no longer appears on the list. The returns continued to be exclusively in camphor and copper, the latter furnished by the Japanese government at the old rates, much below the current price, by which advantage alone was the Dutch trade sustained. Among the private importations were spices, chemicals, and a great variety of Paris trinkets, for which various Japanese manufactures and products were taken in exchange.

The Chinese trade had declined not less than that of the Dutch. The ten junks a year, to which it was now restricted, all came from Sha-po (not far from Chusan), half of them in January and the other half in August—their cargoes, which include a great variety of articles, being partly furnished by private merchants who come over in them, but chiefly by a commercial company at Sha-po, for whom the captains of the junks act as supercargoes. Except as to some trifling articles, this trade seems, like that of the Dutch, to be pretty much in the hands of the government, who, or some privileged company under them, purchase the imports and furnish a return cargo to each junk, two fifths in copper and the remainder in other articles. The Chinese, however, still continued to be allowed much more liberty than the Dutch of personal intercourse with the inhabitants of Nagasaki.

The settlement of California, the new trade opened thence with China, and the idea of steam communication across the Pacific, for which the coal of Japan might be needed, combined with the extension of the whale fishery in the Northern Japanese seas to increase the desire in America for access to the ports of Japan. Shortly after the visit of the “Preble,” the American government resolved to send an envoy thither, backed by such a naval force as would ensure him a respectful hearing—the cases of Biddle and Glyn seeming to prove that the humoring policy could not be relied upon and that the only way to deal successfully with the Japanese was to show a resolution not to take no for an answer.

Accordingly, Mr. Webster, as Secretary of State, prepared a letter from the President to the Emperor of Japan; also a letter of instructions to the American naval commander in the China seas, to whom it was resolved to entrust the duty of envoy, and whose force was to be strengthened by additional ships. The sailing, however, of these ships was delayed till after Mr. Webster’s death; and in the mean time Commodore Matthew C. Perry was selected as the head of the expedition. A new letter,[113] dated November 5, 1852, addressed from the State Department to the Secretary of the Navy, thus defined its objects:

“1. To effect some permanent arrangement for the protection of American seamen and property wrecked on these islands, or driven into their ports by stress of weather.

“2. The permission to American vessels to enter one or more of their ports, in order to obtain supplies of provisions, water, fuel, &c.; or, in case of disasters, to refit so as to enable them to prosecute their voyage. It is very desirable to have permission to establish a dépôt for coal, if not on one of the principal islands, at least on some small, uninhabited one, of which it is said there are several in their vicinity.

“3. The permission to our vessels to enter one or more of their ports for the purpose of disposing of their cargoes by sale or barter.”

The mission was to be of a pacific character, as the President had no power to declare war; yet the show of force was evidently relied upon as more likely than anything else to weigh with the Japanese. The Dutch government, it was stated, had instructed their agents at Deshima to do all they could to promote the success of the expedition. Indeed, if we may believe Jancigny,[114] who speaks from information obtained during a residence at Batavia in 1844-45, the King of Holland had, as long ago as that time, addressed a letter to the Emperor of Japan, urging him to abandon the policy of exclusion. The letter of instructions disavowed any wish to obtain exclusive privileges; but, as a matter of policy, nothing was to be said about other nations.

A new letter to the Emperor of Japan was also prepared in the following terms:

Players at the Game of “Go”

Furnished with these orders, and this letter splendidly engrossed and enclosed in a gold box of the value of a thousand dollars, and provided also with a variety of presents, Commodore Perry, towards the end of 1852, sailed from the United States in the steam-frigate “Mississippi,” and, after touching at Madeira and the Cape of Good Hope, arrived at Hong Kong in April, 1853, whence he proceeded to Shanghai. The dispersion of the vessels of the squadron, delay in the arrival of others from the United States, difficulty in obtaining coal, and the claim of the American merchants in China, in consideration of existing civil commotions, to the protecting presence of a naval force, caused some delays. But, at length, after touching at Lew Chew [Riūkiū], and making a visit to the Bonin Islands,[116] Perry, with the steam-frigate “Susquehanna,” now the flag-ship, the “Mississippi,” and the sloops-of-war “Plymouth” and “Saratoga,” made Cape Izu about daybreak on the 8th of July. Many rumors had been current on the coast of China of extensive warlike preparations by the Japanese, aided by the Dutch, and the squadron was fully prepared for a hostile reception. Perry had made up his mind, instead of attempting to conciliate by yielding, to stand upon his dignity to the utmost, to allow no petty annoyances, and to demand as a right, instead of soliciting as a favor, the courtesies due from one civilized nation to another.

The promontory constituting the province of Izu appeared, as the vessels ran along it, to be a group of high mountains, their summits scarred with slides, and their sides mostly wooded, though here and there a cultivated spot could be seen. By noon the ships reached Cape Sagami, which separates the inner from the outer bay of Yedo. The shores of this point rose in abrupt bluffs two hundred feet high, with green dells running down to the waterside. Further off were groves and cultivated fields, and mountains in the distance.

Leaving behind some twelve or fifteen Japanese boats, which put off from Cape Sagami to intercept them, the vessels stood up through the narrowest part of the bay, not more than five to eight miles wide, but expanding afterwards to fifteen miles, having now also in sight the eastern shore, forming a part of the province of Awa.[117]

Within half an hour after passing Cape Sagami, they made another bold promontory from the west, forming a second entrance to the upper bay. In the bight formed by it lay the town of Uraga, visible from the ships, which, sounding their way, anchored within a mile and a half of the promontory,—a mile or more in advance of the anchorage ground of the “Columbus” and “Vincennes.”

As the ships dropped their anchors two or three guns or mortars were fired from the second promontory, and four or five boats put off. They were of unpainted wood, very sharp, their greatest breadth well towards the stern, and propelled with great rapidity by tall, athletic rowers, naked, save a cloth about the loins, who shouted lustily as they pulled. In the stem of each boat was a small flag, with three horizontal stripes, the middle one black, the others white, and about it were four or five well-dressed men with two swords in their girdles.

Some parley took place before anybody was admitted on board, that favor being refused except to the person highest in authority in the town. The conversation was carried on in Dutch, which the Japanese interpreter spoke very well; and, from what he said, it was evident that the vessels had been expected. After a long parley, in which the high rank of the commodore, and the necessity of his being met by persons of corresponding rank, were very much insisted upon, an officer, representing himself as second in command at the town in sight, was admitted on board. The commodore, however, declined to see him in person, and turned him over to Mr. Contee, the flag lieutenant, who, assisted by the two interpreters—one for Dutch, the other for Chinese[118]—had a long interview with him and his interpreter in the cabin. He was told that the object of the expedition was to deliver a letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor, and that some high officer must be sent on board to receive it; also, that the squadron would not submit to be watched and guarded, after the Japanese fashion, but that all the guard-boats must withdraw. The officer, as usual, was very inquisitive. He wanted to know whether the vessels came from Boston, New York, or Washington, how many men they had, etc., etc.; but these questions he was given to understand were regarded as impertinent.

Seeing the determination evinced, the Japanese officer, by name Nakashima Saburosuke, Yoriki of the governor of Uraga, returned on shore, taking back his official notifications in French, Dutch, and English, addressed to ships arriving on the coast (like those given p. 267), which the lieutenant refused to receive. He was followed by the boats, which, after that, kept at a respectful distance. He came back in about an hour to excuse his superior from receiving the letter addressed to the emperor. He spoke of Nagasaki as the proper place for foreign ships to touch at, and doubted if the letter would be answered; but all this was cut short by the assurance that if his superior did not send for the letter, the ships would proceed still higher up the bay to deliver it themselves; upon which information, much agitated, he stipulated for permission to return in the morning. As he departed, looking at the long gun in the cabin, he exclaimed, with an interrogative look, “Paixhan?” showing that the Japanese were not ignorant of the modern improvements in gunnery any more than of American geography.

It was noticed that, towards night, the boatmen put on their Japanese gowns, most of them blue, with white stripes on the sleeves, meeting angular-wise on the shoulders, and with a symbol or badge on the back. Others wore gowns of red and white stripes, with a black lozenge upon the back. A few had broad bamboo hats, like a shallow basin inverted; but most of them were bareheaded. The officers wore light and beautifully lackered hats, with a gilded symbol in front.

During the night watch-fires blazed along the coast, and bells were heard sounding the hours. The next morning (Saturday), Koyama Yezaimon, first in command at the town, came on board, and made another attempt to beg off from receiving the letter to the emperor. Finally, he proposed to send to Yedo for permission, and was allowed three days to do it in.

Meanwhile surveying parties from the ships ran up the bay a distance of four miles, finding everywhere from thirty to forty fathoms of water. They sounded round the bight within which the ships lay, keeping about a cable’s length from the shore, and finding five fathoms. Yezaimon represented that this survey was against the Japanese laws, but was told that, if forbidden by the laws of Japan it was commanded by the laws of America. On approaching the forts, of which there were five, two apparently of recent construction, the soldiers, armed with matchlocks, came out; but, as the boats drew near, they retired again. These forts were very feeble, mounting only fourteen guns in the whole, none larger than nine-pounders. Of soldiers, about four hundred were seen, many of them armed with spears. There was also, as usual, a great show of canvas screens; but, on the whole, the warlike means of the Japanese seemed contemptible. From the town to the end of the promontory, a distance of a mile and a half, was an unbroken line of villages. At least a hundred small craft lay in the harbor. The hills behind, some five hundred feet high, were dotted with pines and other trees. In the morning and evening, when the air was clear, Mount Fuji might be seen in the west, sixty miles distant. The presence of the American ships did not seem to disturb the coasting trade. Sixty or seventy large junks, besides hundreds of boats and fishing-smacks, daily passed up and down the bay, to and from Yedo.

On Monday, the 11th, the same surveying party proceeded up the bay some ten miles, followed by the “Mississippi.” They were constantly met by government boats, the officers on board which urged them by signs to return, but of which they took no notice. Deep soundings were everywhere obtained, with a bottom of soft mud. A deep bay was found on the western shore, with good and safe anchoring ground.

In the evening Yezaimon returned on board, well pleased, apparently, to be able to give information of the probability of good news from Yedo, but rather troubled at the explorations by the boats. The flag lieutenant, with whom he had his interviews, describes him as “a gentleman, clever, polished, well-informed, a fine, large man, about thirty-four, of most excellent countenance, taking his wine freely, and a boon companion.”

The next day (the 12th) he brought information that the emperor would send down a high officer to receive the letter. No answer would be given immediately, but one would be forwarded through the Dutch or Chinese. This latter proposition the commodore treated as an insult. As, however, if he waited for an answer, excuses might easily be found for protracting his stay in an inconvenient manner, and at last wearying him out, he agreed to allow time for its preparation, and to return to receive it. The following Thursday (the 14th) was appointed for the interview with the commissioners appointed to receive the letter, which was to take place two miles south of the town, at a picturesque spot, on the left side of a narrow valley, extending inland from the head of the bight. Its retired situation, and the facility it afforded for the display of a military force, were probably the motives of its selection.

At the hour appointed for the meeting, as the two steamers approached the spot, long lines of canvas walls were seen stretching, crescent-wise, quite round the head of the bight, and in front files of soldiers with a multitude of brilliant banners. Near the centre of the crescent were nine tall standards, with broad scarlet pennons, in the rear of which could be seen the roof of the house prepared for the interview. On the right, a line of fifty or sixty boats was drawn up, parallel to the beach, each with a red flag at its stern.

The foremost files of the Japanese soldiers stood about a hundred yards from the beach, in somewhat loose and straggling order. The greater part were behind the canvas screens. There were a number of horses to be seen, and in the background a body of cavalry. The Japanese stated the number of troops at five thousand. On the slope of the hill, near the village, was collected a crowd of spectators, of whom many were women.

The “No” Dance

Chrysanthemum Figures
Theatrical Representations

As soon as the steamers dropped their anchors, they were approached by two boats, containing their former visitors, the first and second officers of the town, with the interpreters, very richly dressed in silk brocade, bordered with velvet, and having on their garments of ceremony. The steamers lay with their broadsides to the shore, ready for action in case of treachery. Fifteen launches and cutters were got ready, from which three hundred and twenty persons, officers, seamen, marines, and musicians, were landed on an extemporaneous jetty which the Japanese had formed of bags of sand. Last of all the commodore landed with due formality, when the whole body, preceded by the Japanese officers and interpreters, marched to the house of reception, carrying with them the president’s letter, the box which held it wrapped in scarlet cloth, as was also that containing the letter of credence. In front of the houses prepared for the interview were two old brass four-pounders, apparently Spanish, and on each side a company of soldiers, those on one side armed with matchlocks, those on the other with old Tower muskets, with flint locks and bayonets. The reception building was a temporary structure, evidently put up for the occasion. The first apartment, about forty feet square, was of canvas. The floor was covered with white cotton cloth, with a pathway of red felt leading across to a raised inner apartment, wholly carpeted with the same red felt. This apartment, of which the front was entirely open, was hung with fine cloth, stamped with the imperial symbols in white on a ground of violet. On the right was a row of arm-chairs for the commodore and his staff. On the opposite side sat the two commissioners appointed to receive the letters, and who were announced by the interpreters as the princes of Izu and Iwami [Toda Izu-no-kami, and Ido Iwami-no-kami, Bugiōs of Uraga]. The former was a man about fifty, with a very pleasing and intelligent face. The latter was older by fifteen years or so, wrinkled with age, and of looks much less prepossessing. Both were splendidly dressed, in heavy robes of silk tissue, elaborately ornamented with threads of gold and silver. As the commodore entered, both rose and bowed gravely, but immediately resumed their seats and remained silent and passive as statues.

At the end of the room was a large scarlet-lackered box, standing on gilded feet, beside which Yezaimon and one of the interpreters knelt, at the same time signifying that all things were ready for the reception of the letters. They were brought in, and the boxes containing them being opened so as to display the writing and the golden seals, they were placed upon the scarlet box, and along with them translations in Dutch and Chinese, as well as an English transcript. The prince of Iwami then handed to the interpreters, who gave it to the commodore, an official receipt in Japanese, to which the interpreter added a Dutch translation, which translated literally into English was as follows:

The commodore remarked, when this receipt was delivered to him, that he should return again, probably in April or May, for an answer. “With all the ships?” asked the interpreter. “Yes, and probably with more,” was the reply. Nothing more was said on either side. As the commodore departed, the commissioners rose and remained standing, and so the interview ended, without a single word uttered on their part.

The Japanese officers of the town, with the Japanese interpreters, accompanied the American party back to the “Susquehanna,” whose machinery they examined with much interest. When off the town, they were set ashore; but the steamers, to show how lightly the injunction to leave was regarded, proceeded up the bay, and anchored a short distance above the point reached by the “Mississippi.” In spite of the solicitude of the Japanese officers, who came again on board, the whole bight between the promontory of Uraga and another north of it was carefully surveyed. At the head a river was found. The shores were studded with villages, whose inhabitants offered to the surveying party cold water, and peaches from their gardens. To the place where the steamers lay the name was given of “American anchorage.”

The next day (Friday, the 15th) the “Mississippi” proceeded on an excursion ten miles further up, and reached, as was supposed, within eight or ten miles of the capital. On the western shore were seen two large towns. On the extremity of a cape in front, some four miles distant, stood a tall white tower, like a lighthouse. Three or four miles beyond was a crowd of shipping, supposed to be the anchorage of Shinagawa, the southern suburb of Yedo. At the point where the steamer put about, she had twenty fathoms of water. On Saturday, the 16th, the vessels moved to a new anchorage, five or six miles down the bay, and much nearer the shore, and here the surveying operations were renewed. The same day an interchange of presents took place with Yezaimon, who, however, was induced to accept those offered to him only by the positive refusal of his own, except on that condition. Thus pressed, he finally took them, except some arms—articles, he said, which the Japanese neither gave nor received. In the afternoon he came again, in excellent humor, his conduct probably having been approved on shore, bringing a quantity of fowls, in light wicker coops, and three or four thousand eggs, in boxes, for which a box of garden-seeds was accepted in return.

The next day, 17th, and the tenth since their arrival, the vessels weighed and stood for Lew Chew, the bay being covered with boats, to witness their departure.[119]

Commodore Perry spent the remainder of the year on the coast of China, keeping one vessel, however, at Lew Chew, and prosecuting the survey of the Bonin Islands. Shortly after his visit, the Shōgun died, and an attempt was made to take advantage of that circumstance to delay or prevent the return of the American ships. A communication, forwarded to Batavia by the Dutch ship that left Nagasaki in November, and communicated by the Dutch governor-general at Batavia to the commodore, represented that the necessary mourning for the deceased sovereign, and other arrangements consequent on his death, as well as the necessity of consulting all the princes, must necessarily delay the answer to the president’s letter, and suggested the danger of confusion, or “broil,” should the squadron come back at so unseasonable a moment.

Undeterred, however, by this representation, on the 12th of February, 1854, Commodore Perry reappeared in the bay of Yedo, with three steam frigates, four sloops-of-war, and two store-ships, and the steamers taking the sailing vessels in tow, they all moved up to the American anchorage.

About two weeks were spent here in fixing upon a place to negotiate, the Japanese importuning the commodore to go back to Kamakura, twenty miles below Uraga, or, at least, to the latter place, while he insisted upon going to Yedo. As he declined to yield, and caused the channel to be sounded out within four miles of Yedo, they proposed, as the place of meeting, the village of Yokohama,[120] containing about ten thousand people, and situated on the shore, just opposite the anchorage of the ships. To this the commodore agreed, and the ships drew in and moored in line, with broadsides bearing upon the shore, and covering an extent of five miles.

“On the 8th of March,” says a letter dated on board the “Vandalia,” and published in the New York “Journal of Commerce,” “the day appointed for the first meeting, about nine hundred officers, seamen, and marines, armed to the teeth, landed, and, with drums beating and colors flying, were drawn up on the beach, ready to receive the commodore. As soon as he stepped on shore the bands struck up, salutes were fired, the marines presented arms, and, followed by a long escort of officers, he marched up between the lines and entered the house erected by the Japanese expressly for the occasion. Thousands of Japanese soldiers crowded the shore and the neighboring elevations, looking on with a good deal of curiosity and interest. The house was nothing but a plain frame building, hastily put up, containing one large room—the audience hall—and several smaller, for the convenience of attendants, etc. The floor was covered with mats, and very pretty painted screens adorned the sides. Long tables and benches, covered with red woollen stuff, placed parallel to each other, three handsome braziers, filled with burning charcoal, on the floor between them, and a few violet-colored crape hangings suspended from the ceiling, completed the furniture of the room. As we entered, we took our seats at one of the tables. The Japanese commissioners soon came in, and placed themselves opposite to us, at the other table; while behind us both, seated on the floor on their knees[121] (their usual position, for they do not use chairs), was a crowd of Japanese officers, forming the train of the commissioners.

“The business was carried on in the Dutch language, through interpreters, of whom they have several who speak very well, and two or three who speak a little English. They were on their knees, between the commissioners and the commodore. Our interpreter was seated by the side of the latter. It was curious to see the intolerable ceremony observed by them, quite humiliating to a democratic republican. A question proposed had to pass first through the interpreters, and then through several officers ascending in rank, before it could reach the commissioners, every one bowing his forehead to the floor before he addressed his superior. Refreshments were served in elegantly lackered dishes; first of all, tea, which, as in China, is the constant beverage; then different kinds of candy and sponge cake (they are excellent confectioners, and very fond of sugar); lastly, oranges and a palatable liquor distilled from rice, called sake. A flimsy banquet like this was not very agreeable to such hungry individuals as we, and we were the more disappointed, for, the Japanese using only chopsticks, we had, previously to coming ashore, taken the precaution, as we shrewdly thought, to provide ourselves with knives and forks. Imagine, then, our chagrin when finding nothing substantial upon which to employ them. What was left on our plates was wrapped in paper, and given to us to carry away, according to the usual custom in Japan.

“The commissioners were intelligent-looking men, richly dressed in gay silk petticoat pantaloons, and upper garments resembling in shape ladies’ short gowns. Dark-colored stockings, and two elegant swords pushed through a twisted silk girdle, finished the costume. Straw sandals are worn, but are always slipped off upon entering a house. They do not cover the head, the top and front part of which is shaved, and the back and side hair, being brought up, is tied so as to form a tail, three or four inches long, that extends forward upon the bald pate, terminating about half way between the apex and the forehead. It is a very comfortable fashion, and, were it not for the quantity of grease used in dressing it, would be a very cleanly one.

“Two audiences a week were held, at which the same programme was performed as related above, except that we fared more luxuriously.[122] Becoming better acquainted with our taste, they feasted us with a broth made of fish, boiled shrimps, hard-boiled eggs, and very good raw oysters. At one of the interviews (March 13), the presents from our government were delivered. They consisted of cloths, agricultural implements, fire-arms, etc., and a beautiful locomotive, tender, and passenger-car, one-fourth the ordinary size, which we put in motion on a circular track, at the rate of twenty miles an hour. A mile of magnetic telegraph was also erected on shore, and put in operation. The Japanese were more interested in it than anything else, but never manifested any wonder. So capable are they of concealing and controlling their feelings, that they would examine the guns, machinery, etc., of the steamers, without expressing the slightest astonishment. They are a much finer-looking race than the Chinese—intelligent, polite, and hospitable, but proud, licentious, unforgiving, and revengeful.”

The death of a marine afforded an opportunity, at the first meeting with the commissioners, of demanding a burying-place. It was proposed to send the body to Nagasaki; but, as the commodore would not listen to that, a spot was assigned near one of their temples, and in view of the ships, where the body was buried, with all the forms of the English church service, after which the Japanese surrounded the grave with a neat enclosure of bamboo.

A formal letter of reply to the propositions contained in the letters delivered at the former visit, repeated the story of a change of succession, and the necessity of delays. The justice, however, of the demands in relation to shipwrecked seamen, wood, water, provisions, and coal, was conceded; but five years were asked before opening a new harbor, the Americans, in the mean time, to resort to Nagasaki.

Japanese Wrestlers

Of Nagasaki, however, the commodore would not hear, nor of any restrictions like those imposed on the Dutch and Chinese at that port. He demanded three harbors, one in Nippon, one in Yezo, and a third in Lew Chew. As to the two last, the Japanese pleaded that they were very distant countries, and only partially subject to the emperor, especially the last, upon which the commodore did not insist. In Nippon he asked for Uraga, and for Matsumae in Yezo, but acceded to the Japanese offer of Shimoda and Hakodate, having first sent a ship to examine the former.

The commissioners were exceedingly tenacious, even upon points of phraseology, but gave evidence of acting in entire good faith, and the commodore conceded everything which did not seem absolutely essential. The extent of the liberty to be allowed to American visitors was one of the greatest difficulties.

Shortly before the treaty was concluded, the commodore gave an entertainment on board the “Powhatan” to the Japanese officials, about seventy in all. In conformity to their customs, two tables were spread, one in the cabin for the commissioners and the captains of the fleet, another on deck for the inferior officers. “They did full justice,” says the letter-writer already quoted, “to American cookery, and were exceedingly fond of champagne, under the influence of which they became so very merry and familiar that one of them vigorously embraced the commodore, who, until his epaulets began to suffer in the struggle, was very good-naturedly disposed to endure it.”

Three copies of the treaty, in Japanese, signed by the commissioners, were delivered to the commodore, for which he exchanged three copies in English, signed by himself, with Dutch and Chinese translations. This method was adopted to satisfy the commissioners, who alleged that no Japanese could lawfully put his name to any document written in a foreign language. The TREATY was as follows:

“Article III.—Whenever ships of the United States are thrown or wrecked on the coast of Japan, the Japanese vessels will assist them, and carry their crews to Shimoda or Hakodate, and hand them over to their countrymen appointed to receive them. Whatever articles the shipwrecked men may have preserved shall likewise be restored; and the expenses incurred in the rescue and support of Americans and Japanese who may thus be thrown upon the shores of either nation are not to be refunded.

“Article IV.—Those shipwrecked persons, and other citizens of the United States, shall be free as in other countries, and not subjected to confinement, but shall be amenable to just laws.

“Article V.—Shipwrecked men, and other citizens of the United States, temporarily living at Shimoda and Hakodate, shall not be subject to such restrictions and confinement as the Dutch and Chinese are at Nagasaki; but shall be free at Shimoda to go where they please within the limits of seven Japanese miles (or ri) from a small island in the harbor of Shimoda, marked on the accompanying chart, hereto appended; and shall, in like manner, be free to go where they please at Hakodate, within limits to be defined after the visit of the United States squadron to that place.

“Article VI.—If there be any other sort of goods wanted, or any business which shall require to be arranged, there shall be careful deliberation between the parties in order to settle such matters.

“Article VII.—It is agreed that ships of the United States resorting to the ports open to them, shall be permitted to exchange gold and silver coin, and articles of goods, for other articles of goods under such regulations as shall be temporarily established by the Japanese government for that purpose. It is stipulated, however, that the ships of the United States shall be permitted to carry away whatever articles they are unwilling to exchange.

The day after the signing of the treaty a number of presents were sent on board for the president, the commodore, and other officers of the squadron.

In agreeing to negotiate at Yokohama, Commodore Perry had stated his intention to carry the ships, at some future time, close up to Yedo, and to anchor them there, “as well to do honor to his imperial majesty by salutes as to be in full view of the palace, and convenient to be visited by such of the court as may desire to examine the steamers.” Accordingly, on the 8th of April, to the great distress of the Japanese officials, he got under way; but, as the Japanese interpreters threatened to cut themselves open if he proceeded, he presently turned about and took a lower anchorage down the bay. The published official letters of the commander say nothing of this movement; the letters from the fleet, published in the newspapers, do not agree as to how far up the commodore went. According to one letter, Yedo was full in sight.

On the 18th of April the fleet sailed for Shimoda, one of the ports granted in the treaty, of which a letter dated on board the “Powhatan,” and published in the New York “Tribune,” gives this account:

Shimoda is situated near Cape Fògu [?], sixty miles west from Point Sagami, at the entrance of the bay of Yedo. It is a good, commodious harbor, well sheltered by hills several hundred feet high, with a rock within the entrance which affords a still more protected anchorage. The town, of about one thousand houses, is situated at the northwestern end of the harbor, on the banks of a small stream flowing down through a fertile valley, which is often not more than half a mile wide, but sometimes widens to one and a half miles. Several little brooks offer good watering-places for the ships. The larger Japanese junks mostly anchor at Kakizaki, a village of about three hundred houses, on the northeastern end and opposite Shimoda. There are eight temples, some of which are very large, in the town, and little chapels (miya) on almost every eminence, and by the roadsides.

“The country is exceedingly picturesque, and resembles very much the lower ranges of the Alps. Along the little river of Shimoda are many villages, and numbers of rice-mills stamp and grind along its banks. About six miles above the bay this river separates into several branches. Following either of them, you pass through numerous gorges and glens, and finally reach the barren tops of mountains, some three thousand feet high. Their summits and the narrow tablelands are covered with bushy grass, among which a certain berry, upon which pheasants and partridges feed, grows very plentifully.

“In one of the larger temples a place has been arranged for the daguerreotype, and Mr. Brown is actively at work. He has obtained many very fine daguerreotypes of the Japanese, and will have a fine collection to show when he reaches home. Mr. Heine continues his sketching, drawing, painting, gunning, skinning, pressing, and preserving plants. Lieutenants Murray, Bent, Whiting, Nicholson, etc., etc., have been busily engaged in the survey, and deserve no small credit for their exertions and the important results they have obtained.”

Of this visit to Shimoda, the officer of the “Vandalia” already quoted thus speaks:

“Here we were permitted to go on shore and ramble about in a circuit for ten miles, much to our delight as we all felt the want of exercise. Excepting at Yokohama, where we were not allowed to go far from the audience house, we had not been on shore since we left Lew Chew. They watched us very closely at first, sending guards of soldiers to accompany us, shutting the shops, and concealing the women; but in a few days these restrictions were removed, and we were left undisturbed to wander where we pleased. The town, containing eight thousand people, is pleasantly situated in a well-cultivated valley, surrounded by high hills that conceal from view the entrance to its safe and picturesque harbor. The streets are wide and straight, and the better class of houses two stories high, plastered, and roofed with elegant tiles.[124] The interior is kept very clean and neat, and the rooms, covered with mats, are separated from each other by sliding screens, that are closed or removed at pleasure. There are no chimneys in Japan. A charcoal fire is built in a little sandpit in the middle of the floor, around which the family are usually found seated on their knees (qu. heels?), drinking tea and smoking their pipes. Not a chair or any other piece of furniture can be seen. Tubs of water are kept in front of each house, as well as on the roofs, in readiness against any fire, for conflagrations are so frequent and extensive that whole towns are sometimes burnt down.

“The temples, chiefly Buddhist, are beautifully situated in the suburbs. The entrance to them leads generally through rows of elegant trees and wild camellias. They are large, plain structures, with high, peaked roofs, resembling the houses pictured on Chinese porcelain. In the space immediately in front is a large bell for summoning the faithful, a stone reservoir of holy water, and several roughly hewn stone idols. The doorway is ornamented with curious-looking dragons and other animals, carved in wood. Upon entering, there is nothing special about the buildings worth noting, the naked sides and exposed rafters having a gloomy appearance. The altar is the only object that attracts attention. It so much resembles the Roman Catholic, that I need not describe it. Some of the idols on these altars are so similar to those I have seen in the churches in Italy, that if they were mutually translated I doubt whether either set of worshippers would discover the change. The priests count beads, shave their heads, and wear analogous robes, and the service is attended by the ringing of bells, the lighting of candles, and the burning of incense. In fact, except that the cross is nowhere to be seen, one could easily imagine himself within a Roman Catholic place of worship.

“I saw some very pretty girls here. They understand the art of applying rouge and pearl powder, as well as some of our ladies at home. The married women have a horrid and disgusting fashion of staining their teeth black.”

Commodore Perry

After remaining three weeks at Shimoda, which soon after was made an imperial city, the sailing-vessels departed for Hakodate, followed a few days after by the steamers. Of the island of Ōshima, near the entrance of the bay of Yedo, and close to which the “Powhatan” passed, the “Tribune” correspondent gives the following description:

“About noon we were within three miles of the island of Ōshima, and had a fine opportunity of observing the traces of volcanic action which it presents. The whole island is one immense volcano, the top of which has fallen in and formed a great basin, which incessantly belches forth white smoke and ashes. The edges of the crater are black, as if charred by fire, and on the southwestern side of the island a stream of lava reaches from the summit to the sea. Some large crevices continue still smoking, and others are filled with ashes. A bluff near the sea, about two hundred feet high, appears to be of recent formation, for the bushes and trees along the edges of the lava have a yellow, burnt appearance. The slopes of the mountain are covered with luxuriant vegetation; and there are two towns, one on a narrow table-land, and the other on the top of a steep cliff, near a suspicious-looking crater. There is said to be a third village on the northwestern side of the island.”[125]

Of Hakodate, in the island of Matsumae, already known to us by Golownin’s description, which the squadron visited in the month of May, the same letter affords the following account:

“Hakodate is another Gibraltar. It has the same long, low isthmus, ending in the same mighty rock, with another city sitting at its feet. The bay is seven or eight miles wide, with an entrance of two or three miles in width; it is deep enough for ships-of-the-line to approach within a mile of the shore, and its clayey bottom, free from rocks or shoals, affords excellent anchorage, while it is defended from the sea by a sand-bank, a prolongation of the isthmus. Behind the bay the land is quite level, but at the distance of six or eight miles it rises into a range of hills from one to three thousand feet high. These hills, still covered with snow, send down several streams to the bay, furnishing the best of water for ships. The plain is finely cultivated, and fishing villages line the shore. We took fish plentifully,—one day twenty buckets, with more than twenty fine salmon, some weighing fifteen pounds.

“The city has, I should guess, about four thousand houses, and perhaps five times as many inhabitants. The two main streets are parallel, and run along the foot of the mountain. Narrower streets run from the wharves up the mountain, crossing both the principal streets, one of which is about thirty feet higher than the other. The lower of these is almost as broad as Broadway, and infinitely cleaner. The houses on it are well built; most of them have two stories, with shops on the ground floor. The manner of building reminds one very strongly of Switzerland. A flat, projecting roof is covered with shingles, which are fastened by long poles, with stones laid upon them; broad galleries run quite around the upper story; before the door is a little wooden porch; this, too, with projecting gable, which, as well as the pillars that support it, are often adorned with rich carving. The temples, one of which is at least two hundred and fifty feet square, are profusely ornamented with carvings. Dragons, horses, bulls, and hares figure largely, but tortoises and cranes carry the day.”

From Hakodate, where the intercourse with the local officials was entirely satisfactory, the ships returned to Shimoda, where, according to an appointment previously made, the commodore met the four commissioners, and three new ones, with whom he proceeded to negotiate the following Additional Regulations:

Another important matter, in which the Japanese seem entirely to have carried the day, was the settlement of the value of the American coins to be received in payment for goods and supplies—a subject referred to a commission composed of two United States pursers and nine Japanese.

The Japanese circulating medium was found to consist of old kas, round, with a square hole in the middle, like the Chinese cash, but thinner, and containing more iron; of four-kas pieces, in weight equal to less than two of the others, probably, Kämpfer’s double zeni; but principally of a new coin rated at one hundred kas,—apparently a substitute for the strings of kas mentioned by Kämpfer and others. These are oval-shaped pieces of copper, about the size and shape of a longitudinal section of an egg, introduced within a recent period, and weighing only as much as seven of the old kas (or, compared with our cents, a little less than two of them). This over-valuation has, of course, driven the old kas out of circulation, and made this depreciated coin the integer of the currency. At the same time, it has raised the nominal value of everything, as is evident in the case of silver and gold. Instead of one thousand kas to the tael of silver, the rate in former times, the government, which appears to have the monopoly of the mines, sells silver bullion for manufacturing use at two thousand two hundred and fifty kas for the tael,—a rate fixed probably under some less depreciated state of the currency. But when coined, a tael’s weight of silver is reckoned in currency at six thousand four hundred kas, that is, at six tael and four mas, or precisely the valuation, in Kämpfer’s time, of the gold koban; and as the ichibu of his day, that is, one fourth part, as the word signifies in Japanese, represented sixteen hundred kas in real weight of silver, so the ichibu of the present day, of which there is both a silver and a gold one, represents sixteen hundred kas of currency. The bullion price of gold in Japan is only eight and a half times that of silver instead of sixteen times, as with us; while in currency the difference in value is only about as one to three and a half, the price in silver, or copper hundred-kas pieces, of a tael’s weight of gold bullion being nineteen taels, and the same when coined passing as twenty-three taels, seven mas and five kanderin. Besides the gold ichibu, the Japanese are represented as having three other gold coins, thin, oval pieces, of the currency value respectively of one, ten, and twenty taels;[126] also a coin, made of gold and silver, worth half an ichibu, or eight hundred-kas pieces, and a small silver piece, worth a quarter of an ichibu, or four hundred-kas pieces.

The Japanese commissioners insisted that our coin was but bullion to them, the effect of which is to put our silver dollar, so far as payments in Japan are concerned, precisely on a level with their silver ichibu, which weighs only one third as much. Our gold coins, compared with their gold coins, stand better, the relative weight of our gold dollar and their gold ichibu being as 65.33 to 52.25; but as the copper hundred-kas piece is their standard, and as its value in relation to gold is rated so much higher than with us, our gold dollar, estimated in this way, becomes worth only eight hundred and thirty-six kas, or little more than eight and a third hundred-kas pieces, or not much more than half an ichibu; the effect of all which is to give the Japanese government, through whose hands all payments are made, a profit, after recoinage, of sixty-six per cent, upon all payments in American coin. As the Japanese commissioners would not depart from this scheme, the commission dissolved without coming to any agreement on this point. But the supplies furnished to the squadron were paid for at the rate insisted upon by the Japanese; nor can private traders, as matters stand, expect any better terms.

The rates of pilotage at Shimoda were fixed at fifteen dollars for vessels drawing over eighteen feet, five dollars for vessels drawing less than thirteen feet, and ten dollars for those of intermediate size; only half of these rates to be paid in case of anchorage in the outer harbor. Water was to be furnished at fourteen hundred kas the boat-load, the ship finding casks. Wood was to be delivered on board at seven thousand two hundred kas per cube of five American feet.

The price put by the Japanese upon a few tons of inferior coal, brought to Shimoda, amounted, at their rate of exchange, to twenty-eight dollars the ton. It did not appear that coal was anywhere else mined except at the spot visited by Kämpfer and Siebold near Kokura, and another mine in the province of Awa, in the island Shikoku.

The business thus completed, a parting entertainment was given on board the “Mississippi”; and, after an interchange of presents, the vessels on the 26th of June took their departure. Stopping at Lew Chew, Commodore Perry negotiated a compact with the authorities of that island, which, from all the information he could obtain, he concluded to be a nearly independent sovereignty.

Within fifteen days after Commodore Perry’s departure from Shimoda, the clipper ship “Lady Pierce,” from San Francisco, fitted out for the express purpose of being the first American ship to arrive in Japan after the opening of commercial relations, entered the bay of Yedo, with the owner, Silas E. Burrows, on board.

He had with him a Japanese seaman, the sole survivor of a crew of fifteen men, belonging to a junk which had been blown out to sea, and was picked up near the Sandwich Islands, after having drifted about for seven months. This man, who is represented as quite intelligent, and who had resided for some time at San Francisco, was received with lively demonstrations of pleasure by his countrymen.

The Reception of Commodore Perry by the Japanese Emperor

With a party of the Uraga officials on board, the “Lady Pierce” proceeded to within ten miles of Yedo, and her owners expressed a desire to anchor off that city; but this was objected to by the officers, who said, “It is not good; Commodore Perry did not go there, and we hope you will not.”

During the stay of the vessel, every part of her was crowded with visitors; and although at one time there must have been several thousands in and around the ship, and although everything, silverware included, was thrown open to their inspection, not a single article was stolen.

Large presents of silk, porcelain, lackered ware, etc., were made to Mr. Burrows, who, however, was informed that henceforward no foreign intercourse would be permitted with Yedo, but that all vessels must proceed either to Shimoda or Hakodate. Mr. Burrows himself proceeded to Shimoda, but does not seem to have formed a very high idea of the prospects of trade there.[127]

On the 18th of September, the steam-frigate “Susquehanna” again appeared at Shimoda, on her way home via the Sandwich Islands, followed on the 21st by the “Mississippi”; three days after which, the “Susquehanna” left, and the “Mississippi” on the 1st of October. The reception given to the officers of both ships was very cordial, and their intercourse both with officials and the towns-people was almost entirely free from any marks of that restraint and apparent suspicion exhibited on former occasions. Besides an interchange of visits and dinners, several Japanese officials attended, on a Sunday, divine service on board the “Susquehanna.”

“Many of us,” writes an officer of the “Mississippi,” “entered houses very frequently, and sat down with the people to smoke or drink tea. One day the sound of a guitar attracted me, and I found an olive girl, of some fifteen or sixteen years, who, not perceiving my presence, continued her play. It was a strange tune, wild and melancholy, and often abruptly interrupted by harsh accords. After a while some women that had assembled around us made the girl aware of my presence; she threw down her instrument and began to cry, and I could not induce her to play again. The guitar was made of wood, with the exception of the upper lid. Of the three strings, two were in the octave, the middle one giving the fifth. The strings were not touched by the fingers, but with a flat piece of horn, held between the thumb and third finger of the right hand, in shape not unlike the one painters use to clean their palettes and mix their colors.

“On another occasion I heard a young man playing a flute. This instrument was of the most primitive description, consisting only of a piece of hollow bamboo, bored with seven finger-holes, and the hole for the mouth. The tunes were very strange, and appeared to me more like a mass of confused sounds, than a regular harmony.[128]

“At the beginning of the new moon, I saw in several houses a sort of domestic worship. A number of women had assembled before the shrine of the household god, and, divided in two parties, were singing hymns, one party alternately answering the other. Their song was accompanied by strokes upon a little bell or gong, with a small wooden hammer; and, as the bells were of different tones, the effect was by no means unpleasant.”

“There are a number of temples near Shimoda,” writes an officer of the “Susquehanna,” “and attached to each is a graveyard. At one of these, situated near a village, there is a place set apart for Americans. Here Dr. Hamilton was buried, being laid by the side of two others who had died on the second visit of the ships. Each grave has its appropriate stone, as with us, and by many of them are evergreens set in vases, or joints of bamboo, containing water. Cups of fresh water are also set by the graves, and to these, birds of dazzling plumage and delightful song come and drink. The graves of the Americans were not forgotten.”

The officers were permitted to go into the country any distance they wished, and the country people were found pleasant and sociable; but upon this second visit the advantages of Shimoda as a place of trade, or the prospects of traffic under the treaty, do not seem to have struck the visitors very favorably. “The harbor,” writes an officer of the “Susquehanna” to the “Tribune,” “is a small indentation of land, running northeast and southwest, about a half-mile in extent, and is capable of holding five or six vessels of ordinary size. It is, however, entirely unprotected from the southwest winds, which bring with them a heavy sea, and which renders the anchorage very unsafe. With the wind from the north and the east, the vessel rides at her ease at her anchorage. Good wood and sweet water, as well as a few provisions, were obtained from the authorities, for the use of the ships, at the most extravagant prices. Numerous articles, such as lackered and China ware, of a very fine and delicate quality, and far superior to that manufactured in China, were purchased by the officers; but every article had to pass through the hands of the Japanese officers, and the amount due the merchants had to be paid, not to them but to the Japanese officials who had been appointed for that very purpose by the mayor of the city and the governor of the province. This article of the treaty will be most scrupulously enforced; and this is decidedly its worst feature.”

“Shimoda,” writes another officer, “does not appear well calculated, upon the whole, for a place of trade, and it can never become an active commercial town. Neither is it a manufacturing town. This, added to the fact that the harbor is a bad one, will make it appear evident that the Japanese commissioners got the better of us in the treaty, as far as this place is concerned.

“The surrounding country (wherever nature will permit it) is highly cultivated. The valley of the creek is broad and well tilled, yielding rice, millet, Egyptian corn and maize.[129] The ears produced by the last are very small, being not more than from two to four inches in length. Sweet potatoes and the eggplant are also raised in great abundance. There are no horses about Shimoda, and bullocks are made to supply their places. Provisions, with the exception of eggs and vegetables, cannot be obtained here. The shark and bonito are the only large fish found in the harbor. Small fish are plentiful, and they seem to form almost the only article of food of the inhabitants, besides rice.”

The following description of the houses at Shimoda, by Mr. S. Wells Williams, will serve to illustrate the descriptions of Japanese houses already given from Kämpfer and Thunberg, and will show how little, as to that matter, Japan has altered since their time:

“The houses in Shimoda are built merely of pine boards, or of plaster thickly spread over a wattled wall of laths, the interstices of which are filled in with mud. In some cases these modes of construction are combined—the front and rear being of boards, or sliding panels, and the sides of mud. When thoroughly dried, the mud is whitewashed, and the plain surface worked into round ridges, three inches high, crossing each other diagonally from the roof to the ground; the ridges are then washed blue, and give the exterior a checker-board look, which, though singular, is more lively than a blue mud wall. The plaster is excellent, and these walls appear very solid and rather pretty when new; at a distance one would even think them to be stone; but after a few years the ridges loosen, the rain insinuates itself beneath the outer coating, and the whole begins to scale and crack off, disclosing the mud and rushes, and then the tenement soon falls to pieces. Still the progress of decay is not so rapid as one would think, judging only by the nature of the materials, and the walls are well protected by the projecting eaves. No bricks are used in building, nor are square tiles for floors seen; and the manner of making walls common in southern China, by beating sanded clay into wooden moulds, is unknown.

“Some of the best houses and temples have stone foundations, a few only of which are made of dressed stone. Half a dozen or more storehouses occur, faced entirely with slabs of stone, and standing detached from other buildings, and are doubtless fire-proof buildings. There are no cellars under the houses; the floors are raised on sleepers only two feet above the beaten ground, and uniformly covered with straw mats stuffed with chaff, or grass an inch thick. The frames are of pine, the joists four or five inches square, and held together by the flooring of the attic, as well as the plates and ridge-pole. The houses and shops join each other on the sides, with few exceptions, leaving the front and rear open. There is no uniformity in the width of the lots, the fronts of some shops extending twenty, thirty, or more feet along the street, while intermediate ones are mere stalls not over ten feet wide.

“The shops succeed each other without any regular order as to their contents, those of the same sort not being arranged together, as is often the case in China. The finer wares are usually kept in drawers, so that, unless one is well acquainted with the place, he cannot easily find the goods he seeks. The eaves of the houses project about four feet from the front and are not over eight feet from the ground; the porch thus made furnishes a covered place for arranging crockery, fruits, etc., for sale, trays of trinkets on a movable stall, baskets of grain, or other coarse articles, to attract buyers. The entrance is on one side, and the path leads directly through to the rear. The wooden shutters of shops are all removed in the daytime, and the paper windows closed, or thrust aside, according to the weather. On a pleasant day the doors are open, and in lieu of the windows a screen is hung midway so as to conceal the shopman and his customer from observation, while those goods placed on the stand are still under his eye. A case, with latticed or wire doors, to contain the fine articles of earthen ware, a framework, with hooks and shelves, to suspend iron utensils or wooden ware, or a movable case of drawers, to hold silks, fine lackered ware, or similar goods, constitute nearly all the furniture of the shops. Apothecaries’ shops are hung with gilded signs and paper placards, setting forth the variety and virtues of their medicines, some of which are described as brought from Europe. The partition which separates the shop from the dwelling is sometimes closed, but more usually open; and a customer has, generally speaking, as much to do with the mistress as the master of the establishment. When he enters, his straw sandals are always left on the ground as he steps on the mats and squats down to look at the goods, which are then spread out on the floor. A foreigner has need of some thoughtfulness in this particular, as it is an annoyance to a Japanese to have his mats soiled by dirty feet, or broken through by coarse shoes.

Scene in the Harbor of Uraga

“The rear of the building is appropriated to the family. Here the domestic operations are all carried on; here the family take their meals in the day; here, on the same mats, do they sleep at night; receiving visitors and dressing the children are also done here, and sometimes the cooking too. Usually this latter household task is performed in the porch in the rear, or in an out-house, so that the inmates are not so much annoyed with smoke as they are in Hakodate. No arrangements for warming the dwelling are to be found, except that of hand-braziers placed in the middle of the room with lighted charcoal, around which the family gather. In most of the houses there is a garret, reached by a ladder,—a dark and small apartment, where some goods can be stored, or servants can be lodged. There is not a house in the town whose occupants have arranged this attic with windows and stairways to make it a pleasant room; a few such were, however, seen near the capital, at Kanagawa, and in its vicinity.

“The roofs of all the best buildings are hipped, and covered with bluish tiling, each tile being about eight inches square, shaped somewhat like a wedge; the thick side is so made that, when laid on the rafters, it laps sideways over the thin edge of the adjoining tile in the next row, and thus forms gutters somewhat like the Chinese roofs. They are washed in alternate rows of white and blue, which, with the checkered walls, imparts a lively aspect, and contrasts pleasantly with the more numerous dingy thatched roofs. The thatched roofs are made of a species of Arundo, grown and prepared for this purpose, and answering admirably as a cheap and light covering to the wooden tenements occupied by most of the people. It is matted into a compact mass eighteen inches thick, as it is laid on, and then the surface and the sides are neatly sheared. The ridge-pole is protected by laying the thatch over a row of hoops that enclose it enough to overlap the edges on both slopes, and prevent the rain finding entrance. One cannot feel surprise at the ravages fires make in Japanese towns, where the least wind must blow the flame upon such straw coverings, which, like a tinder-box, would ignite at the first spark. Wires are stretched along the ridges of some of the tiled roofs in Shimoda to prevent birds from resting on the houses.

“In the rear yards, attached to a large number of the dwellings, are out-houses, and sometimes, as in the lodging-houses, additional sleeping-rooms. Kitchen-gardens are not unfrequently seen, and more rarely fancy fish-ponds, dwarfed trees, and even stone carvings. A family shrine, made like a miniature house, containing images of penates and lares, is met with in most of the yards. Only a few of them are adorned with large trees, and still fewer of them exhibit marks of care or taste, presenting in this respect an observable contrast to the neatness of the houses. High hedges or stone walls separate these yards when they are contiguous, but the depth of the lots is usually insufficient to allow room for both the opposite dwellings the luxury of a garden.

“There is not much variety in the structure of the various buildings in Shimoda, and their general appearance denotes little enterprise or wealth. The paper windows and doors, not a few of them dirty and covered with writing, or torn by children to take a peep inside, impart a monotonous aspect to the streets. Dyers’, carpenters’, blacksmiths’, stone-cutters’, and some other shops, have latticed fronts to admit more light, which are elevated above the observation of persons passing by. In front of those dwellings occupied by officials, a white cotton curtain, three feet wide, is stretched along the whole length of the porch, having the coat of arms of the occupant painted on it in black; the names of the principal lodgers are also stuck on the door-posts. Signs are mostly written on the doors, as the windows are drawn aside during the day; but only a portion of the shops have any. Lodging-houses, barbers’ shops, restaurants, or tea-houses, apothecaries, and a few others, are almost always indicated by signs. One dealer in crockery and lackered ware has the sign of a celebrated medicine placed on a high pole, and, the more to attract attention, has written the name in foreign letters. As in China, placards for medicines were the most conspicuous of all, but none are pasted upon blank walls; all are suspended in the shops. However, no dwelling or shop is left unprotected from the ill-usage of malignant spirits, every one having a written or printed charm or picture (sometimes a score or more) over the door to defend the inmates from evil.”

In the interval between Commodore Perry’s first and second visits to the bay of Yedo, Nagasaki was visited by a Russian squadron. On the 7th of September, 1854, just before the last visit of the “Mississippi” and “Susquehanna” to Shimoda, a British squadron of three steamers and a frigate arrived at Nagasaki under Admiral Sterling. These British vessels, which found the annual Dutch trading-ship, two large Chinese junks, also a Dutch steamer, lying in the harbor, encountered the usual reception, being served with notices, surrounded with boats, and denied liberty to land. At length, however, after a deal of negotiation and threats to proceed to Yedo, it was agreed to furnish supplies, tea, rice, pigs, etc., and to receive payment through the Dutch. On the 15th the admiral landed, and was conducted in state to the governor’s house. The guard-boats were withdrawn, and the men were allowed to land on an island to recreate themselves. Other interviews followed, presents were interchanged, and, on the 19th, the squadron left. These particulars are drawn from the published letter of a medical officer on board, who describes the supplies furnished as very good, and the Japanese soy as cheap and nice, but who does not seem to have relished the sake, which he likens in taste to acetate of ammonia water.

The American war-steamer “Powhatan” visited Shimoda February 21, 1855, to complete the exchange of ratification, which done, she sailed again two days after. The town of Shimoda was found in a state of desolation and ruin, from the effects of a disastrous earthquake, on the 23d of December previous, in which the Russian frigate “Diana,” then lying in the harbor to complete the pending negotiations, was so damaged as to have sunk in attempting to make a neighboring port for repairs. Ōsaka and Yedo were reported to have suffered severely, and Yedo still more from a subsequent fire.

CHAPTER XLVI

The success of the Americans in forming a treaty with Japan led to negotiations on the part of the Dutch, by which the narrow privileges enjoyed by that nation were considerably extended. By this treaty, which was signed January 30, 1856, the ports open to the Americans were opened also to the Dutch. They were allowed to exercise their religion, and to bring their wives and children to Japan. They were authorized to trade directly with Japanese merchants, and to hold free intercourse at Deshima with other foreigners. They, in their turn, undertook to supply the Japanese with a war steamer, and to give them instruction in naval matters.

In August, 1856, the United States steamer “San Jacinto” arrived at Shimoda, bringing out Mr. Townsend Harris, a merchant of New York, who had been appointed consul to Japan; as it proved, a very judicious selection.[130] A temple near Shimoda was appointed for his residence, but the whole circumstances of his reception showed that the Japanese dislike of foreign intercourse remained almost as strong as ever. They had taken some steps, however, to execute the treaty. They had built a stone landing-place at Shimoda, had brought from the mines several hundred tons of coal, and had constructed a large bazaar for the sale to Americans of Japanese wares. But it was very apparent that Shimoda, from its situation, never could become a place of much trade; while the necessity of purchasing through a Japanese official, and the low valuation put upon American wares, as estimated in Japanese currency, were additional obstacles.

Mr. Harris obtained the confidence and good-will of the authorities at Shimoda, and succeeded in negotiating a convention, in March, 1857, by which American citizens were allowed to reside at Shimoda and Hakodate, and to trade at Nagasaki; and by which, also, it was hoped that the currency difficulty would be arranged.

Mr. Harris had brought with him a letter from the president to the emperor, and at length, after much importunity and more than a year’s delay, he obtained leave to visit Yedo to deliver it. Yedo is only eighty miles by land from Shimoda, yet it took several days to make the journey. Mr. Harris thus describes it in a private letter:

“My train numbered some one hundred and fifty persons, composed of guards, norimono-bearers, cooks, grooms, shoe-bearers, cane-bearers, fan-bearers, and last, though not least, a standard-bearer, and a large number of coolies. I had permitted the Japanese to arrange and dress my train according to their ideas of propriety, and what they conceived was due to the representative of the President of the United States. My guards, each with two swords in the girdle, and clad in new silk dresses, as they swelled and strutted about, appeared to be ‘mightily uplifted in heart,’ while they and my bearers and grooms appeared to have ‘broken out’ all over their bodies with ‘spread eagles,’ as the back, breast, and sleeves of their dresses were sprinkled over with the arms of the United States, which were neatly painted on them. I performed the journey partly on horseback, and partly in a norimono, which is the Japanese name for a palanquin. The Japanese norimono will compare with the celebrated iron cage of Cardinal Balue, of France, in which the poor inmate could neither lie down nor stand up. In the norimono the Japanese kneel and place their feet close together, and then sit on their heels; if they wish to repose themselves they lean forward, and rest the chin on their knees, so that the body and limbs form three horizontal folds or piles—a position that they assume and keep without annoyance, from long practice, and from the great flexibility of their joints, but which is almost unattainable by a white man, and is absolutely unendurable.

“I had a norimono made for me seven feet long, and in it I put a mattress and pillows, which made it as comfortable as the Indian palanquin; but, of all modes of travelling, the camel, the elephant, and the palanquin are the most fatiguing.

“On the morning of Monday, November 23, I started for a long-desired goal of my wishes. Four lads, with small bamboo wands, led the way as harbingers, and their voices sounded quite musical as they sang the Japanese words for ‘clear the way,’ ‘kneel down,’ ‘kneel down.’ Next followed a Japanese officer on horseback; then came a large lackered tablet, bearing my name and titles in immense Chinese characters. The tablet was supported by two huge transparent lanterns, which bore similar inscriptions. (When I halted, the tablet was placed in front of my quarters, and at night the lanterns were lighted and hung up over the gate of the house.) Next came a stout fellow, bearing the ‘stars and stripes,’ with four guards. I followed, either on horseback or in my norimono, and attended by twelve guards. Next came Mr. Heusken (interpreter), and after him I do not recollect how it was arranged, except that the Vice-Governor brought up the rear.

“For the first three days the route was entangled among mountains and deep ravines which compose the peninsula of Izu. The path (for it could not be called a road) was narrow, and in many places was formed by cutting steps in the Fufa rocks, and sometimes it ran over mountains four thousand feet high. On the second day I reached Ugashima, and as I emerged from the gorges of Mount Amagi, I had my first view of ‘Fuji Yama,’ the ‘Matchless Mountain.’ The sight was grand beyond description. As viewed from the Temple at Ugashima, the mountain appears to be entirely isolated, and shoots up in a glorious and perfect cone ten thousand feet high! It was covered with snow, and in a bright sunlight it glittered like frosted silver. For the two nights I was lodged in temples, which had been fitted up for me with new bath-rooms, and other appliances to contribute to my comfort. On the evening of the third day I arrived at Mishima, a town on the Tōkaidō or great East Road, and from thence to Yedo the road is wide and good. On the great roads of Japan nice buildings are erected for the accommodation of the princes when they travel; they are called Honjin; and it was in them that I had my quarters for the remainder of my journey.

“My first day’s journey on the Tō-kai-dō was over the mountain Hakone, which is some four thousand and five hundred feet high.

Townsend Harris

“The passage of Mount Hakone was not completed until after nightfall; but I did not regret being belated, as it afforded me the novel sight of my train brilliantly lighted by a large number of huge bamboo torches. As the train twisted and turned among the descents of the mountain, it looked like the tail of a huge fiery dragon. On reaching the plain I was met by the authorities of the city of Odawara, and a whole army of lanterns, of all imaginable sizes and colors, each being decorated with the arms of its owner, and the whole forming an ensemble that was lively and pleasing. I passed Sunday, the 29th of November, at Kawasaki. From my first arrival in Japan up to the present day, I have always refused to transact any business or to travel on Sunday. I soon got the Japanese to understand my motive, and I am sure it has increased their respect for me.

“The roads were all repaired, and cleanly swept, on the whole of my route, before I passed; bridges were put in order, and many new ones built; all travel on the road was stopped, so that I did not see those crowds of travellers, priests, nuns, etc., described by Kämpfer; the shops in all the towns and villages were closed (except cook-shops and tea-houses), and the inhabitants, clad in their holiday clothes, knelt on mats spread in front of their houses; not a sound was heard, nor a gesture indicative of curiosity seen; all was respectful silence. The people were ordered to cast down their eyes as I passed, as I was too high even to be looked at; but this order was only partially obeyed, for the dear daughters of Eve would have a peep, regardless of consequences. The authorities of the towns and villages met me at their boundaries, and saluted me by kneeling and ‘knocking head’; they then led the way through their little jurisdictions, and took leave by similar prostrations.

“On Monday, the 30th of November, I made my entry into Yedo. My followers put on their kamishimo, or dresses of ceremony, decorated with any quantity of eagles.

“I should not have known when I passed the line which separates Shinagawa from Yedo, had the spot not been pointed out to me, as the houses form a continuous street for some miles before you reach the actual boundary of the city. From the gate by which I entered the city to my quarters was about seven miles. The streets of Yedo are divided into sections of one hundred and twenty yards, by gates and palisades of strong timber. This enables the police to isolate any portion of the city, or any line running through it, and thus prevent the assembling of crowds or mobs. When we approached a gate, it was opened, and as soon as the rear had passed through, it was closed. The gates of all the cross streets were also kept closed. I could see immense crowds beyond the gates, but the people on our actual line of march were those only that occupied the buildings on the route. Notwithstanding all this, the number that assembled was prodigious. The centre of the way was kept clear, and the crowd kept back by ropes stretched along each side of the street. The assemblage was composed of men, women, and children, of all ranks and conditions—the women being the larger number. I estimated the two lines of people that extended along the way, from my entrance into the city to the place provided for my residence, to have been full three hundred thousand. Yet in all this vast concourse I did not hear a word, except the constant cry of the harbingers, Sátu, sátu![?].

“You may think it impossible that silence could have been maintained among so large a number of women, but I assure you it was so.

“The house prepared for me was situated within the fourth circle of the castle, or aristocratic portion of the city, and large enough to accommodate five hundred persons, in the Japanese manner.

“On my arrival I was warmly welcomed by my good friend the Prince of Shinano [Inouye Shinano-no-kami], who showed me the various provisions that had been made for my accommodation and comfort, and which included chairs, tables, bedsteads, etc., none of which are used by the Japanese.

“The following day the Prince of Tamba [Toki Tamba-no-kami] visited me in great state. He said he came as a ‘special embassador’ from the Emperor to congratulate me on my arrival, and to ask after my health. After receiving these compliments, and making a suitable reply, the Prince pointed to a large box, which he said was a present to me from his Majesty. I found the box contained five large trays of bon-bons, weighing one hundred pounds.

“I subsequently visited the hereditary Prince of Hotta [Hotta Bitchū-no-kami], Chief of the great Council of State and Minister for Foreign Affairs. The visit was a pleasant one, and the arrangements for my audience were completed. I gave the Prince a copy of my intended speech to the Emperor, and before I left, he gave a copy of the reply the Emperor would make to me. By this arrangement, the speeches being both translated beforehand, we would be enabled to dispense with the presence of interpreters at the audience. On the Monday week after my arrival, I set out for the Palace. My train blazed out in new silk dresses, and my guard wore their breeches rolled up to the middle of the thigh. You must know that the wearing of breeches in Japan is a mark of high rank, or, if worn by an inferior, that he is in the service of one of the highest rank. A new flag, made of Japanese crape, was carried before me. This flag is the first foreign banner that was ever carried through this great city, and I mean to preserve it as a precious relic. The distance from my residence to the Palace was over two miles. On arriving at the bridge over the third moat, or ditch, all my train left their horses and norimono, and proceeded on foot. I continued in my norimono, and was carried over three moats, and through as many fortified gateways, up to the gate of the Palace itself. I was received at the entrance by two chamberlains, who, having ‘knocked head,’ conducted me to an apartment where I found a chair for my use. Tea, bon-bons, and other refreshments, were often offered to me. A large number of the princes came to be presented to me. At length I was told the Emperor was ready to receive me. I passed through a large hall, in which some three hundred to four hundred of the high nobles of Japan, all dressed in their court dresses, were kneeling, and as silent and as motionless as statues; and from this hall I entered the audience-chamber. At this moment a chamberlain called out, in a loud voice, ‘Merrican Embassador,’ and the Prince of Shinano threw himself down and crawled along as I walked in. Mr. Heusken, my secretary, who carried the President’s letter, halted to the entrance; I advanced up the room, making three bows as I proceeded, and halted at the head of two lines of men, who were prostrate on their faces; those on my right were the five members of the Council of State, with the Prince of Bitchū at their head and those on the left were three brothers of the Emperor.

“His Majesty was seated on a chair placed on a dais, elevated some three feet above the floor of the chamber. He was dressed in yellow silk, and wore a black lackered cap that utterly defies description. After a short pause, I made my address to him; and, after a similar pause, he replied to me in a clear and pleasant voice. When the Emperor had finished, Mr. Heusken brought the President’s letter to me. I removed the silk cover (striped, red and white), opened the box, and displayed the writing to the Prince of Bitchū, who now stood up. Then, closing the box, I handed it to the Prince, who placed it on a lackered stand, prepared for the purpose. Mr. Heusken having returned to his place, and the Prince being again prostrate, the Emperor bowed to me, smiling pleasantly at the same time. This ended my audience, and I backed out of the room, making three bows as I retired.

“The usual dress of the Japanese nobles is of silk; but the court dress is made of a coarse yellow glass-cloth, and for a coronet they wear a black lackered affair that looks like a distracted night-cap. I did not see a single gem, jewel, or ornament of any kind, on the person of the Emperor, or on those of his courtiers, who comprised the great nobility of Japan.

“From the audience-chamber I was taken to another room, when I found the five great Councillors of State, who, having been presented to me, congratulated me on my audience, and expressed their wonder and astonishment at what they called my ‘greatness of heart.’ When I asked for an explanation, they said that they were filled with admiration to see me stand erect, look the awful ‘Tycoon’ [Taikun] in the face, speak plainly to him, hear his reply—and all this without any trepidation, or any ‘quivering of the muscles of the side.’ I write all this to let you see that the Japanese princes understand the use of court compliments. I was then shown a present of fifteen silken robes from his Majesty, and was taken to a room where a banquet, set out on sixty trays, twelve inches high, was prepared for my single stomach. There was food enough for one hundred hungry men!

“You must know that the dinner-trays (like the breeches) are a mark of rank in Japan; and the rank indicated by the height of the trays, which vary from three to twelve inches in height. Again, if the trays are lackered it diminishes the honor connected with the actual height of the tray, for it indicates that it can be used on another occasion; but if it be made of unpainted cypress wood, the honor is complete, for it says, as plain as words can do, ‘You are so sublime in your rank that no one can dare to eat from a tray that you have used!’ My attention was particularly called both to the height of the trays, and to the flattering fact, that, ‘by a special edict,’ they were made of unvarnished wood. You must know that this same dinner had been the subject of grave discussion, both in Shimoda and in Yedo. They were very anxious that I should eat at the Palace. I replied that I would do so cheerfully, provided a person or persons of suitable rank would eat with me; but said that self-respect would forbid my eating at a table where my host or his representative declined to sit down. When I had admired the very neat arrangement of the banquet, I was again asked to sit down. I then said, ‘Say to his Majesty that I thank him for his offered entertainment.’ At last the whole affair was sent to my quarters, where I distributed it among my Shimoda followers.

“After the exhibition of the dinner I was reconducted to the room I first entered, and, after I had drank of the celebrated ‘powdered tea,’ I left, being conducted to the entrance by the two chamberlains, who knocked head with all the force that was due to one who had ‘seen the king, and yet lived.’ By the way, I forgot to state that the old formula of an audience, which was ‘kneel down,’ ‘knock head, so that the by-standers can hear your skull crack,’ if it ever did exist at the court at Yedo, was not used in my case. A faint request was made to me, at Shimoda, that I would kneel, but I told them the request was offensive, and must not be repeated. That ended it.

“My return to Shimoda was on a steamer presented to the Japanese by the Dutch.”

In April, 1858, Mr. Harris returned again to Yedo, and after three months spent in arguing with the Japanese that it would be impossible for them to maintain their policy of isolation, he succeeded in negotiating a new treaty. By this treaty, the port of Kanagawa, present Yokohama, a suburb of Yedo, was substituted for Shimoda as a place for American trade and residence; and in 1860, Hiōgo, the harbor of the most commercial city of Ōsaka, was also to be opened to them. American residents were to enjoy religious freedom, and the privilege of direct trade with the Japanese merchants. The right to have an ambassador resident at Yedo was also included; a position since filled by Mr. Harris himself.

Within a few weeks after the negotiation of this treaty, Lord Elgin, British commissioner to China and Japan, arrived at Shimoda with a considerable British squadron. Mr. Harris went on board his ship, and accompanied him to the Bay of Yedo. On the 20th of August, a treaty was signed with the Japanese by Lord Elgin, on the basis of the American treaty. It contained the additional provision,—of which we also have the benefit to render the clause of our treaty giving us all privileges bestowed on other nations,—that no export duty should be charged higher than twenty per cent; certain articles, including cotton and woollen goods, to be admitted at five per cent. On the 9th of October, a similar treaty was signed with Baron Gros, who had visited Yedo as French commissioner. Similar privileges, it is understood, are granted to the Dutch and Russians.

With the signing of these treaties the Japanese authorities may be considered as having yielded the point of the re-establishment of foreign intercourse. But a great difference of opinion as to this policy is understood still to exist among the nobles and princes of the Empire; and it is not impossible that these concessions to foreigners may lead to internal commotions.

By one of the articles of this new treaty, negotiated by Mr. Harris, the Japanese agreed to send an embassy to Washington, as bearers of the Emperor’s ratification. The fulfilment of this promise was for some time delayed, partly, perhaps, by reason of the caution and slowness characteristic of Japanese policy, but principally, it is supposed, on account of the strong opposition of a large party of the princes and nobles to the new scheme of foreign intercourse. At length, however, on the 27th of February, 1860, the ambassadors, three in number, with a suite of seventy-three persons, embarked on board the United States steamer, the “Powhatan,” the American government having undertaken to convey them to the United States, and to carry them back again. The “Kanrin-maru,” a war steamer of two hundred and fifty tons, built for the Japanese by the Dutch, and manned with a Japanese crew of seventy men, arrived at San Francisco on the 14th of March, after a passage of forty days from the Bay of Yedo, to give notice of the approach of the ambassadors. The “Powhatan,” after touching at the Sandwich Islands, reached Panama on the 25th of April. The ambassadors, with their attendants, were immediately conveyed on the railroad to Aspinwall, where, the next day, they embarked on board the U.S. steamer “Roanoke,” lying there to receive them. The “Roanoke” sailed for New York, but on arriving at Sandy Hook she was ordered to Norfolk, it having been determined that the embassy should be first received at Washington. At Norfolk the Japanese were transferred to the steamer “Philadelphia.” They reached Washington on the 14th of May, disembarked at the Navy Yard, and were then conveyed to quarters which had been provided for them at Willard’s Hotel. To protect them against imposition, and to provide for their comfort and security, three navy officers who had visited Japan were appointed to the general oversight of the embassy while it remained in this country. On the 14th they visited General Cass, the Secretary of State, and on the next day had a formal audience from the President. Though received as ministers plenipotentiary, their powers appeared to be limited to an exchange of the ratifications of the treaty, and to obtaining information as to the relative value of Japanese and foreign coins,—a point which still remained unsettled in Japan, and was the occasion of much complaint on the part of the foreign residents.

Junks

The New Battleship Mikasa
The Old and the New

The Japanese remained in Washington till the 8th of June, spending their time in visits to the various public buildings, and a good deal of it in shopping, for which many of them seemed to have a great fancy. After passing through Baltimore, where they remained one night only, they spent a week in Philadelphia, where the Mint and its processes were special objects of interest. From Philadelphia they went on to New York, where they were received at the Battery by an escort of five or six thousand men of the New York militia, and conveyed through an immense crowd to the quarters which had been provided for them at the Metropolitan Hotel. Here they remained for two weeks, and on the 1st of July embarked on board the United States steam-frigate “Niagara,” to return to Japan by the Cape of Good Hope, being thus the first of their nation to make the circumnavigation of the globe.

The time of their stay in this country was limited by express orders brought with them from Japan, and they declined the numerous invitations which they received to visit other cities, and also an excursion which the government had planned to the Falls of Niagara. The short time they had to spend was no doubt more advantageously employed by restricting their observations to two or three places. Of the seventy-six persons, of which the embassy and its suite were composed, forty-six filled the position of attendants or servants to the remaining twenty, though some of them, directly attached to the person of the three ambassadors, were far above the rank of ordinary menials. The three ambassadors, though they bore the title of princes, were understood not to belong to the small class of hereditary nobles, but to owe their titles to the positions which they hold in the Emperor’s service. Among the seventeen persons next in rank to the ambassadors were a treasurer, having charge of the finances of the embassy,—though, except as to such purchases as they made, this office was a sinecure; a marshal, so to speak, charged with oversight and government of the servants; several secretaries, interpreters, and doctors, and others who might be called attachés. There was no priest or chaplain, nor any appearance of any formal worship. The three ambassadors affected a good deal of reserve; the others were inclined to sociability; but their ignorance of the language, and the necessity that all communications should undergo a double interpretation from English to Dutch, and then into Japanese, or vice versa, was a great obstacle to the communication of ideas.

In New York, besides their visits to public places and institutions, the more curious of the Japanese were taken to visit a number of large manufactories of various kinds, in several of which they exhibited a good deal of interest. They made a good many purchases, and received a good many presents, the manufacturers of various articles hoping in this way to open a market for their wares in Japan.

Though a good deal pressed upon at times by over-curious crowds, their reception was everywhere of the most kindly character, and can hardly fail to leave upon them a strong impression of American good-will.

Since the negotiation of the recent treaties, a number of Americans and Englishmen, agents of mercantile houses, have established themselves at the open ports. A few cargoes of Japanese products have been shipped, but the trade is still in its infancy, and the extent to which it can be carried remains very problematical.

APPENDIX — Note A (From Clement’s “Handbook of Modern Japan”) PROVINCES BY CIRCUITS — Note B BIBLIOGRAPHY — Note C USE OF FIRE-ARMS IN THE EAST — Note D FERNAM MENDEZ PINTO — Note E EARLIEST ENGLISH AND DUTCH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST—GOA — Note F JAPANESE DARING AND ADVENTURE EXTERIOR TO THE LIMITS OF JAPAN — Note G (From Clement’s “Handbook of Modern Japan”) LIST OF JAPANESE YEAR PERIODS[1] — Note H — Note I OMITTED DOCUMENTS — I. Letter of the Emperor Iyeyasu (Ōgosho-Sama) to the king of England—(James I.). [133] — II. An ordinance of the Emperor of Japan sent to all the governors of the maritime districts to prevent the landing of Portuguese: [134] — III. Letter from Louis XIV to the Emperor of Japan: [135]

The following list gives in detail the divisions of Japan into Provinces (Kuni), according to “Circuits”:

Nihombashi, Tōkyō

Even the inhabitants of southern India, notwithstanding the long intercourse carried on with them by Arab traders from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and the invasions of their country by Mahometans from the north, seem to have been mainly indebted for their first possession of fire-arms to Europeans; as witness the following extract from Rickard Eden’s translation, first published in 1576, of the “Navigations and Voyages of Lewis Vertomanus, Gentleman, of the city of Rome, to the Regions of Arabia, Egypt, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and East India, both within and without the river Ganges, &c., in the year of our Lord, 1503,” contemporary, that is, with the earliest Portuguese expeditions: “Entering into the city of Calicut, we found there two Christians, born in the city of Milan; the one named John Maria, the other Peter Antonio. These were jewellers, and came from Portugal with the king’s license to buy precious stones. When I had found these men I rejoiced more than I am able to express. At our first meeting them, seeing to be white men (for we went naked, after the manner of the inhabitants), I asked them if they were Christians. They said yea. Then said I that I was also a Christian, by the grace of God. Then, taking me by my hand, they brought me to their house, where, for joy of our meeting, we could scarcely satisfy ourselves with tears, embracing and kissing; for it seemed now to me a strange thing to hear men speak mine own language, or to speak it myself. Shortly after, I asked them if they were in favor with the king of Calicut. We are, said they, in great favor with him, and very familiar. Then again I asked them what they were minded to do. We desire, said they, to return to our country, but we know not the means how. Then, said I, return the same way that you came. Nay, said they, that may not be; for we are fled from the Portugals, because we have made many pieces of great ordinance and other guns for the king of Calicut, and therefore we have good cause to fear; and now especially, for that the navy of Portugal will shortly be here. I answered that if I might escape to the city of Canonor, I doubted not but that I would get their pardon of the governor of the navy. There is small hope of mercy, said they, we are so famous and well known to many other kings in the way, which favor the Portugals, and lay wait to take us. In which their talk I perceived how fearful a thing is a guilty conscience, and called to remembrance the saying of the poet:

‘Multa male timeo, qui feci multa proterve.’

That is, ‘I fear much evil because I have done much evil.’ For they had not only made many such pieces of artillery for the infidels, to the great damage of Christians, and contempt of the holy name of Christ and his religion, but had also taught the idolaters both the making and use of them; and at my being there I saw them give a model or mould to certain idolaters, whereby they might make brazen pieces, of such bigness that one of them may receive the charge of a hundred and five tankards (cantoros) of powder. At the same time, also, there was a Jew, which had made a very fair brigantine, and four great pieces of artillery of iron. But God shortly afterwards gave him his due reward; for, when he went to wash him in the river, he was drowned.”

Nor did the two Christians escape much better. The Portuguese commander agreed to pardon them; but, in attempting to escape to him, they were killed. Maffei, in his Indian History, refers to the aid which the native princes derived from these and other Christian renegadoes.

The ill fortune of which Pinto complained as having pursued him through life did not spare him even after he was laid in the grave, the narrative of his adventures which he left behind him having been assailed by the wits and critics with hardly less ferocity than poor Pinto himself was while alive by the corsairs, infidels, and barbarians, with whom he came in contact. He is indeed chiefly known to English readers by an ill-natured fling of Congreve, who, in his “Love for Love,” makes one of his characters address another in those oft-quoted words: “Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude!” It is said also that Cervantes, three or four years before whose death Pinto’s book was published, speaks of him somewhere as the “prince of liars.” I have not been able to find the passage; but likely enough Cervantes might have been a little vexed to find his “Persiles and Sigismunda,” a romance, under the guise of a book of travels, first published about the time with Pinto’s book, so much outdone by what claimed to be a true narrative of real adventures.

As Pinto, however, in spite of all his ill luck, found, in writing his memoirs, some topics of consolation, so also his character as an author and a narrator has by no means been left entirely in the lurch. Though little read now, he has enjoyed, in his day, a popularity such as few authors attain to. To the first edition of his “Peregrinations,” in the original Portuguese, succeeded others in 1678, 1711, and 1725; and second, third, and fourth editions are compliments which Portugal very rarely pays to her authors. A Spanish translation appeared at Madrid in 1620, in which, however, great and very unwarrantable liberties were taken by the translator. A French translation was published at Paris in 1628, and an English translation in 1663. To the Spanish and French translations defences of Pinto’s veracity are prefixed, and both passed through several editions. Purchas, who gives a synopsis of that part of Pinto’s book relating to China and Japan, strongly defends his credibility, observing that he little spares his own company and nation, but often and eagerly lays open their vices. “I find in him,” says Purchas, “little boasting, except of other nations, none at all of himself, but as if he intended to express God’s glory, and man’s merit of nothing but misery. And, however it seems incredible to remember such infinite particulars as this book is full of, yet an easy memory holdeth strong impressions of good and bad, especially new-whetted, filed, furbushed, with so many companions in misery, their best music in their chains and wanderings being the mutual recounting of things seen, done, and suffered. More marvel is it, if a liar, that he should not forget himself and contradict his own relations.

“I would not have an author rejected for fit speeches framed by the writer, in which many historians have taken liberty; nor if sometimes he doth mendacia dicere (say false things), so as that he doth not mentiri (lie); as I will not sware but of himself he might mistake, and by others be misled. The Chinese might, in relating their rarities to him, enlarge and de magnis majora loqui (exaggerate things really great), so as he still might be religious in a just and true delivery of what himself hath seen, and belei not his own eyes.... All China authors, how diversified in their lines, yet all concur in a certain centre of Admiranda Sinarum (admirable things of the Chinese)[131], which if others have not so largely related as this, they may thank God they paid not so dear a price to see them; and, for me, I will rather believe, where reason evicts not, ejectione firma (with a firm ejection), than seek to see at the author’s rate; and if he hath robbed the altars of truth, as he did those of the Calumplay idols, yet, in Pekin equity, we will not cut off his thumbs (according to Nanquin rigor), upon bare surmise, without any evidence against him.”

The countries in which Pinto’s adventures chiefly lay, still remain, for the most part, very little known; but the more they have been explored, the more has the general correctness of Pinto’s statements been admitted. The editor of the great French collection, “Annales des Voyages,” who gives a full abstract of Pinto, remarks that, having had occasion, in preparing the volume of that work on China, to consult all accessible works about that country, he had been more and more confirmed in his opinion of the reality of Pinto’s adventures and the general correctness of his memory. Rémusat, the eminent Chinese scholar, cites Pinto as good authority for facts, and it was, I believe, by his procurement, or that of the “Société Asiatique,” that the French translation of his travels was reprinted at Paris in 1830.

Prior to the first Dutch and English India voyages, both Englishmen and Dutchmen had reached India, some by way of Lisbon and the Cape of Good Hope, others over land. Pinto speaks of Christians of various nations as among the adventurers with whom he acted. Hackluyt gives (Vol. II) a letter written by Thomas Stevens, an English Jesuit, dated in 1579, at Goa, which he had reached by way of Lisbon and the Cape of Good Hope. This curious letter was addressed by Stevens, who was attached to that very seminary of St. Paul (or the Holy Faith), of which we have had occasion to make mention, to his father in England. Hackluyt also gives in the same volume some very interesting memorials of the adventures of John Newbury, who, attended by Ralph Fitch, Story, a painter, Leeds, a jeweller, and others, was sent over land in 1583, simultaneously with the first English attempts at exploration and settlement in North America, by some London merchants of the Turkey company, as bearer of letters from Queen Elizabeth to Zelabdim Echabar, king of Cambia (Ackbar, the Great Mogul) and to the king of China—both which letters, proposing trade and commerce, Hackluyt gives at length. Newbury proceeded by way of Ormus, which he had visited before, and where he found merchants of almost all nations, not Portuguese only, but Frenchmen, Flemings, Germans, Hungarians, Greeks, Armenians, Turks, Arabs, Jews, Persians, Muscovites, and especially Italians, who seem by this time to have recovered a great share of the trade to the East. By one of these Italians Newbury and his company were accused as spies of Don Antonio (the claimant as against Philip II, of the Portuguese throne, and at that time a refugee in England). The fact also that Drake, in his recent voyage round the world, had, while at the Moluccas, fired two shots at a Portuguese galleon, was alleged against them. They were sent prisoners to the viceroy at Goa; but, by the good offices of the English Jesuit, Stevens, above-mentioned, and of John Huigen Van Linschoten, a Dutchman in the service of the archbishop, they were released on giving sureties not to depart without leave of the viceroy, which sureties they procured by placing goods in the hands of certain parties who became bound for them.

Story, the painter, had indeed previously procured his discharge by joining the Jesuits of St. Paul, where he was admitted as a probationer, and was employed in painting the church. The others, finding that the viceroy would not discharge their sureties, left secretly, or, as Fitch expresses it, “ran from thence,” April, 1585, and, passing to Golconda, travelled north to Agra, then the capital of the Great Mogul. Here Leeds, the jeweller, entered into the Mogul’s service, who gave him “a house, five slaves, and every day six S. S. (qu. sequins?) in money.” Newbury went from Agra to Lahore, expecting to go thence to Persia, and, by way of Aleppo and Constantinople, to reach England; and he sent Fitch meanwhile to Bengal and Pegu, promising to meet him in Bengal in two years in a ship from England. Fitch passed on to Benares, and thence to Bengal, and November 28, 1586, sailed for Pegu, whence the next year he proceeded to Malacca. Returning again, in 1588, to Pegu, he went thence to Bengal in the following November; whence, in February, 1589, he took shipping for Cochin, touching at Ceylon on the way, a “brave island,” where he spent five days. At Cochin he stayed eight months before he could get a passage to Goa. From Goa he proceeded to Ormus, whence, by way of Basora, Mosul, and Aleppo, he reached England April 29, 1591.

Linschoten, mentioned above, who had arrived at Goa in 1583, from Lisbon, as one of the archbishop’s suite, returned to Holland in 1589, where he published his travels in 1595,—the first Dutch account of the East. From him we learn that Story, the painter, after the departure of his companions, grew sick of the cloister of St. Paul, and, as he had not yet taken the vows, left and set up as a painter in Goa, where he had abundant employment, and, “in the end, married a mestizo’s daughter of the town, so that he made his account to stay there while he lived,”—the first permanent English resident in Hindoostan.

A Modern Street Scene in Tōkyō

There is in the “Asiatic Journal,” for December, 1838, a very striking description of the present ruinous state of the once splendid and magnificent city of Goa. It has been abandoned for Pongi, now known as New Goa, six miles nearer the sea, and the present seat of the shrunken Portuguese viceroyalty. The only inhabitants of Old Goa are a few hundred monks, nuns, and their attendants, attached to the splendid churches and monasteries still standing, among which towers conspicuous the church of the Jesuits, in a beautiful chapel attached to which is the monument of St. Francis Xavier. His body, removed thither from the college of St. Paul, in which it was first placed, reposes upon a sarcophagus or bier of Italian marble, faced with bronzes, representing his missionary labors, and enclosed in a shrine of brass and silver. It is alleged still to be in as good preservation as ever, and is occasionally exhibited in public. The last of these exhibitions was in 1783.

The same Davis who had been Houtman’s pilot in the first voyage to the East Indies sailed from England in 1604, as master of the “Tiger,” a ship of two hundred and forty tons. While on her course from Bantam to Batavia, the “Tiger” encountered a little junk of seventy tons, with ninety Japanese on board, “most of them in too gallant a habit for sailors.” They had left home, as it turned out, in a larger vessel, which had been “pirating along the coast of China and Cambodia,”—much the same business, by the way, in which the “Tiger” was herself engaged,—but, having lost their vessel by shipwreck, they had seized upon this little junk, laden with rice, and were trying to reach Japan in it. In hopes to get some information out of them, they were entertained for two days with “gifts and feasting”; but, at the same time, their junk was searched for treasure which might be concealed under the rice. While part of the “Tiger’s” men were employed in this search, the Japanese made a desperate attempt to get possession of that ship. Davis himself was killed in the first surprise, but the Japanese were finally forced into the cabin, where, by breaking down a bulkhead, some of the ship’s guns, loaded with bullets and case shot, were brought to bear upon them. They disdained to ask quarter, and all perished from effects of the shot except one, who jumped into the sea. The narrative of this affair, given by Purchas (Pilg., Part 1, p. 137), and apparently written by an officer of the “Tiger,” winds up as follows: “The Japanese are not suffered to land in any port of India with weapons, being accounted a people so desperate and daring that they are feared in all places where they come.”

In conformity to this character of the Japanese is the account given by Floris, cape merchant of the “Globe,” an English ship, which touched at Siam in 1612, while performing the voyage mentioned Vol. I, p. 207 of the text. A short time previously, two hundred and eighty Japanese, the slave-soldiers of a principal Siamese noble, who had been put to death by the royal authority, had revenged their master by seizing on the king of Siam, whom they compelled to subscribe to such terms as they dictated, “after which, they had departed with great treasure, the Siamese not being able to right themselves.”[132]

The good service rendered to the Portuguese by Japanese mercenaries at the siege of Malacca, in 1606, is mentioned in the text, Vol. I, p. 182. It appears, from a curious tract concerning the Philippines, preserved by Thevenot, that when De Silva, governor of those islands, undertook, in 1608, to drive the Dutch from the Moluccas, he was obliged to send to Japan for saltpetre, metal, and even for founders to cast cannon. A body of Japanese formed, in 1619, a part of the Dutch garrison in their fort at Jacatara (named about that time Batavia), while besieged by the natives on the island, and blockaded at the same time by an English squadron, as mentioned Vol. I, p. 237 of the text. Of the Japanese settled on the island of Amboyna, and involved with the English in the massacre there, mention is made Vol. I, p. 240. Haganaar, who was at Cambodia in 1637, found among the inhabitants of that city seventy or eighty families of Japanese, whom he describes as not daring to return to their own country, with which, however, they carried on trade, by means of Chinese ships. They were in great favor with the king of Cambodia, to whom they had rendered valiant assistance in suppressing a dangerous rebellion, and were greatly feared by the other inhabitants of the city, whether Chinese or Malays. To this day one of the channels of the great river of Cambodia is known as “Japanese river”—a name given, indeed, on some maps, to the main river itself, and probably taking its origin from this Japanese colony.

The conquest of the Lew Chew [Riūkiū] Islands, by the king of Satsuma, took place about 1610; and, much about the same time, some Japanese made an establishment on the island of Formosa, for the purpose of trading with the Chinese; but in this they were soon superseded by the Dutch. The narrative of Nuyts’ affair, as given in the text (Vol. I, p. 252), is derived from a detailed account appended in “Voyages au Nord,” Tom. IV., to Caron’s Memoir, addressed to Colbert, on opening an intercourse with Japan; but, from a paper embodied in the Voyage of Rechteren (“Voyages des Indes,” Tom. V.), and written, apparently, in 1632, by a person on the spot, it would appear that the conduct of Nuyts, instead of being prompted by personal antipathy, was merely an attempt to exclude the Japanese from the trade with the Chinese, and to engross it for the Dutch East India Company; “a desire good in itself,” so this writer observes, “but which should have been pursued with greater precaution and prudence.”

In the Chinese writings, the Japanese figure as daring pirates; but, as the appellation bestowed on them is equally applied to other eastern and southeastern islanders, it is not so easy to say to whose credit or discredit the exploits referred to by these Chinese writers actually belong.

The names of these periods are made by the various combinations of 68 Chinese words of good omen.

(From Clement’s “Handbook of Modern Japan”)

Chronological Table of Emperors and Empresses[1]

[Note 1: Go is a prefix signifying the second of the name.]

INDEX

BOOKS ON JAPANESE SUBJECTS — FOOTNOTES:

A HANDBOOK OF MODERN JAPAN

By Ernest W. Clement. With two maps and over sixty illustrations from photographs. Fourth Edition. Cloth, 12mo. $1.40 net.

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ARTS AND CRAFTS OF OLD JAPAN

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FAR EASTERN IMPRESSIONS

Japan, Corea, and China. By Ernest F. G. Hatch, M. P. With three maps and eighty-eight illustrations from photographs. Cloth, 12mo. $1.40 net.

KAKEMONO

Japanese sketches. By A. Herbage Edwards. With frontispiece. Cloth, 8vo. $1.75 net.

THE MAKERS OF JAPAN

By J. Morris. A series of biographies of great Japanese statesmen and soldiers. With twenty-four illustrations. Large 8vo. $3.00 net.

McDONALD OF OREGON

A Tale of Two Shores. By Eva Emery Dye. The chronicle of the earliest Japanese refugees to land in America, and of the first Americans who visited Japan, later to act as interpreters to Perry. Illustrated by W. J. Enright. 8vo. $1.50.

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