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diff --git a/2184-h/2184-h.htm b/2184-h/2184-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3488332 --- /dev/null +++ b/2184-h/2184-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,16676 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella L. Bird</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .5em; + text-decoration: none;} + span.red { color: red; } + body {background-color: #ffffc0; } + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella L. Bird + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan + + +Author: Isabella L. Bird + + + +Release Date: September 12, 2019 [eBook #2184] +[This file was first posted on September 19, 1999] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1911 John Murray edition by David Price, +email ccx074@pglaf.org. Second proofing by Kate +Ruffell.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/cover.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Book cover" +title= +"Book cover" + src="images/cover.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/fpb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikkô" +title= +"The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikkô" + src="images/fps.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2>UNBEATEN TRACKS<br /> +IN JAPAN</h2> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">AN ACCOUNT +OF TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">INCLUDING VISITS TO THE ABORIGINES OF YEZO +AND</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE SHRINE OF NIKKÔ</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">BY ISABELLA L. BIRD<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AUTHOR OF ‘SIX MONTHS IN THE +SANDWICH ISLANDS’</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">‘A LADY’S LIFE IN THE ROCKY +MOUNTAINS’</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">ETC. ETC.</span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">WITH +ILLUSTRATIONS</span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON<br /> +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET<br /> +1911</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p><a name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +vi</span><span class="smcap">First Edition</span>,</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>January</i> 1905</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><i>Reprinted</i>,</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>June</i> 1907</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Second Edition</span> (1/-)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>October</i> 1911</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><a name="pagevii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. vii</span>To the Memory<br /> +OF<br /> +LADY PARKES,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">WHOSE KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">ARE AMONG</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">MY MOST TREASURED REMEMBRANCES OF +JAPAN,</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THIS VOLUME IS</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">GRATEFULLY AND REVERENTLY</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">DEDICATED.</span></p> +<h2><a name="pageix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +ix</span>PREFACE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Having</span> been recommended to leave +home, in April 1878, in order to recruit my health by means which +had proved serviceable before, I decided to visit Japan, +attracted less by the reputed excellence of its climate than by +the certainty that it possessed, in an especial degree, those +sources of novel and sustained interest which conduce so +essentially to the enjoyment and restoration of a solitary +health-seeker. The climate disappointed me, but, though I +found the country a study rather than a rapture, its interest +exceeded my largest expectations.</p> +<p>This is not a “Book on Japan,” but a narrative of +travels in Japan, and an attempt to contribute something to the +sum of knowledge of the present condition of the country, and it +was not till I had travelled for some months in the interior of +the main island and in Yezo that I decided that my materials were +novel enough to render the contribution worth making. From +Nikkô northwards my route was altogether off the beaten +track, and had never been traversed in its entirety by any +European. I lived among the Japanese, and saw their mode of +living, in regions unaffected by European contact. As a +lady travelling alone, and the first European lady who had been +seen in several districts through which my route lay, my +experiences differed more or less widely from those of preceding +travellers; and I am able to offer a fuller account of the +aborigines of Yezo, obtained by actual acquaintance <a +name="pagex"></a><span class="pagenum">p. x</span>with them, than +has hitherto been given. These are my chief reasons for +offering this volume to the public.</p> +<p>It was with some reluctance that I decided that it should +consist mainly of letters written on the spot to my sister and a +circle of personal friends, for this form of publication involves +the sacrifice of artistic arrangement and literary treatment, and +necessitates a certain amount of egotism; but, on the other hand, +it places the reader in the position of the traveller, and makes +him share the vicissitudes of travel, discomfort, difficulty, and +tedium, as well as novelty and enjoyment. The “beaten +tracks,” with the exception of Nikkô, have been +dismissed in a few sentences, but where their features have +undergone marked changes within a few years, as in the case of +Tôkiyô (Yedo), they have been sketched more or less +slightly. Many important subjects are necessarily passed +over.</p> +<p>In Northern Japan, in the absence of all other sources of +information, I had to learn everything from the people +themselves, through an interpreter, and every fact had to be +disinterred by careful labour from amidst a mass of +rubbish. The Ainos supplied the information which is given +concerning their customs, habits, and religion; but I had an +opportunity of comparing my notes with some taken about the same +time by Mr. Heinrich Von Siebold of the Austrian Legation, and of +finding a most satisfactory agreement on all points.</p> +<p>Some of the Letters give a less pleasing picture of the +condition of the peasantry than the one popularly presented, and +it is possible that some readers may wish that it had been less +realistically painted; but as the scenes are strictly +representative, and I neither made them nor went in search of +them, I offer them in the interests of truth, for they illustrate +the nature of a large portion of the material with which the +Japanese Government has to work in building up the New +Civilisation.</p> +<p>Accuracy has been my first aim, but the sources of error <a +name="pagexi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xi</span>are many, and +it is from those who have studied Japan the most carefully, and +are the best acquainted with its difficulties, that I shall +receive the most kindly allowance if, in spite of carefulness, I +have fallen into mistakes.</p> +<p>The Transactions of the English and German Asiatic Societies +of Japan, and papers on special Japanese subjects, including +“A Budget of Japanese Notes,” in the <i>Japan +Mail</i> and <i>Tôkiyô Times</i>, gave me valuable +help; and I gratefully acknowledge the assistance afforded me in +many ways by Sir Harry S. Parkes, K.C.B., and Mr. Satow of +H.B.M.’s Legation, Principal Dyer, Mr. Chamberlain of the +Imperial Naval College, Mr. F. V. Dickins, and others, whose +kindly interest in my work often encouraged me when I was +disheartened by my lack of skill; but, in justice to these and +other kind friends, I am anxious to claim and accept the fullest +measure of personal responsibility for the opinions expressed, +which, whether right or wrong, are wholly my own.</p> +<p>The illustrations, with the exception of three, which are by a +Japanese artist, have been engraved from sketches of my own or +Japanese photographs.</p> +<p>I am painfully conscious of the defects of this volume, but I +venture to present it to the public in the hope that, in spite of +its demerits, it may be accepted as an honest attempt to describe +things as I saw them in Japan, on land journeys of more than 1400 +miles.</p> +<p>Since the letters passed through the press, the beloved and +only sister to whom, in the first instance, they were written, to +whose able and careful criticism they owe much, and whose loving +interest was the inspiration alike of my travels and of my +narratives of them, has passed away.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">ISABELLA L. BIRD.</p> +<h2><a name="pagexiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xiii</span>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER I.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>First View of Japan—A Vision of +Fujisan—Japanese <i>Sampans</i>—“Pullman +Cars”—Undignified Locomotion—Paper +Money—The Drawbacks of Japanese Travelling</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">Pages <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>–7</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER II.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Sir Harry Parkes—An “Ambassador’s +Carriage”—Cart Coolies</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span>–9</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER III.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Yedo and Tôkiyô—The Yokohama +Railroad—The Effect of Misfits—The Plain of +Yedo—Personal Peculiarities—First Impressions of +Tôkiyô—H. B. M.’s Legation—An +English Home</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span>–14</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER IV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>“John Chinaman”—Engaging a +Servant—First Impressions of Ito—A Solemn +Contract—The Food Question</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>–20</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER V.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kwan-non Temple—Uniformity of Temple +Architecture—A <i>Kuruma</i> Expedition—A Perpetual +Festival—The <i>Ni-ô</i>—The Limbo of +Vanity—Heathen Prayers—Binzuru—A Group of +Devils—Archery Galleries—New Japan—An +<i>Élégante</i></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span>–31</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagexiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xiv</span>LETTER +VI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Fears—Travelling +Equipments—Passports—Coolie Costume—A Yedo +Diorama—Rice—Fields—Tea-Houses—A +Traveller’s Reception—The Inn at +Kasukabé—Lack of Privacy—A Concourse of +Noises—A Nocturnal Alarm—A Vision of +Policemen—A Budget from Yedo</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page32">32</a></span>–42</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +VI.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Coolie falls ill—Peasant Costume—Varieties +in Threshing—The Tochigi <i>Yadoya</i>—Farming +Villages—A Beautiful Region—An <i>In Memoriam</i> +Avenue—A Doll’s Street—Nikkô—The +Journey’s End—Coolie Kindliness</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page43">43</a></span>–50</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER VII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Japanese Idyll—Musical Stillness—My +Rooms—Floral Decorations—Kanaya and his +Household—Table Equipments</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>–53</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER VIII</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Beauties of Nikkô—The Burial of +Iyéyasn—The Approach to the Great Shrines—The +Yomei Gate—Gorgeous Decorations—Simplicity of the +Mausoleum—The Shrine of Iyémitsu—Religious Art +of Japan and India—An Earthquake—Beauties of +Wood-carving</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page54">54</a></span>–61</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER IX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Japanese Pack-Horse and Pack-Saddle—<i>Yadoya</i> +and Attendant—A Native Watering-Place—The Sulphur +Baths—A “Squeeze”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page62">62</a></span>–65</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER X.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Peaceful Monotony—A Japanese School—A Dismal +Ditty—Punishment—A Children’s Party—A +Juvenile Belle—Female Names—A Juvenile +Drama—Needlework—Caligraphy—Arranging +Flowers—Kanaya—Daily Routine—An Evening’s +Entertainment—Planning Routes—The God-shelf</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>–72</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +X.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Darkness visible—Nikkô Shops—Girls and +Matrons—Night and Sleep—Parental Love—Childish +Docility—Hair-dressing—Skin Diseases</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page73">73</a></span>–76</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagexv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xv</span>LETTER +X.—(<i>Completed</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Shops and Shopping—The Barber’s Shop—A +Paper Waterproof—Ito’s Vanity—Preparations for +the Journey—Transport and Prices—Money and +Measurements</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span>–79</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Comfort disappears—Fine Scenery—An +Alarm—A Farm-house—An unusual Costume—Bridling +a Horse—Female Dress and Ugliness—Babies—My +<i>Mago</i>—Beauties of the +Kinugawa—Fujihara—My +Servant—Horse-shoes—An absurd Mistake</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page80">80</a></span>–91</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Fantastic Jumble—The “Quiver” of +Poverty—The Water-shed—From Bad to Worse—The +Rice Planter’s Holiday—A Diseased Crowd—Amateur +Doctoring—Want of Cleanliness—Rapid +Eating—Premature Old Age</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span>–95</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +XII.—(<i>Concluded</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Japanese Ferry—A Corrugated Road—The Pass of +Sanno—Various Vegetation—An Unattractive +Undergrowth—Preponderance of Men</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>–98</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Plain of Wakamatsu—Light Costume—The +Takata Crowd—A Congress of Schoolmasters—Timidity of +a Crowd—Bad Roads—Vicious Horses—Mountain +Scenery—A Picturesque Inn—Swallowing a +Fish-bone—Poverty and Suicide—An +Inn-kitchen—England Unknown!—My Breakfast +Disappears</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page99">99</a></span>–105</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XIV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>An Infamous Road—Monotonous Greenery—Abysmal +Dirt—Low Lives—The Tsugawa +<i>Yadoya</i>—Politeness—A Shipping Port—A +“Barbarian Devil”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>–108</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagexvi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvi</span>LETTER +XV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Hurry—The Tsugawa Packet-boat—Running the +Rapids—Fantastic Scenery—The +River-life—Vineyards—Drying Barley—Summer +Silence—The Outskirts of Niigata—The Church Mission +House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page109">109</a></span>–112</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XVI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Abominable Weather—Insect Pests—Absence of +Foreign Trade—A Refractory River—Progress—The +Japanese City—Water Highways—Niigata +Gardens—Ruth Fyson—The Winter Climate—A +Population in Wadding</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>–119</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XVII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Canal-side at Niigata—Awful +Loneliness—Courtesy—Dr. Palm’s Tandem—A +Noisy <i>Matsuri</i>—A Jolting Journey—The Mountain +Villages—Winter Dismalness—An Out-of-the-world +Hamlet—Crowded Dwellings—Riding a +Cow—“Drunk and Disorderly”—An Enforced +Rest—Local Discouragements—Heavy Loads—Absence +of Beggary—Slow Travelling</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>–127</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XVIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Comely Kine—Japanese Criticism on a Foreign +Usage—A Pleasant Halt—Renewed Courtesies—The +Plain of Yonezawa—A Curious Mistake—The +Mother’s Memorial—Arrival at Komatsu—Stately +Accommodation—A Vicious Horse—An Asiatic +Arcadia—A Fashionable Watering-place—A +Belle—“Godowns”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span>–136</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XIX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Prosperity—Convict Labour—A New +Bridge—Yamagata—Intoxicating Forgeries—The +Government Buildings—Bad Manners—Snow +Mountains—A Wretched Town</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span>–142</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Effect of a Chicken—Poor Fare—Slow +Travelling—Objects of +Interest—<i>Kak’ké</i>—The Fatal +Close—A Great Fire—Security of the <i>Kuras</i></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>–145</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagexvii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvii</span>LETTER +XX.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lunch in Public—A Grotesque Accident—Police +Inquiries—Man or Woman?—A Melancholy Stare—A +Vicious Horse—An Ill-favoured Town—A +Disappointment—A <i>Torii</i></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page146">146</a></span>–151</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +XX.—(<i>Concluded</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Casual Invitation—A Ludicrous +Incident—Politeness of a Policeman—A Comfortless +Sunday—An Outrageous Irruption—A Privileged Stare</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page152">152</a></span>–154</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Necessity of Firmness—Perplexing +Misrepresentations—Gliding with the Stream—Suburban +Residences—The Kubota Hospital—A Formal +Reception—The Normal School</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page155">155</a></span>–158</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Silk Factory—Employment for Women—A Police +Escort—The Japanese Police Force</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page159">159</a></span>–160</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>“A Plague of Immoderate Rain”—A +Confidential Servant—Ito’s Diary—Ito’s +Excellences—Ito’s Faults—A Prophecy of the +Future of Japan—Curious Queries—Superfine +English—Economical Travelling—The Japanese Pack-horse +again</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page161">161</a></span>–164</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXIV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Symbolism of Seaweed—Afternoon Visitors—An +Infant Prodigy—A Feat in Caligraphy—Child +Worship—A Borrowed Dress—A +<i>Trousseau</i>—House Furniture—The Marriage +Ceremony</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page165">165</a></span>–169</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Holiday Scene—A <i>Matsuri</i>—Attractions +of the Revel—<i>Matsuri</i> Cars—Gods and +Demons—A Possible Harbour—A Village +Forge—Prosperity of <i>Saké</i> Brewers—A +“Great Sight”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page170">170</a></span>–174</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagexviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xviii</span>LETTER +XXVI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Fatigues of Travelling—Torrents and +Mud—Ito’s Surliness—The Blind +Shampooers—A Supposed Monkey Theatre—A Suspended +Ferry—A Difficult Transit—Perils on the +Yonetsurugawa—A Boatman Drowned—Nocturnal +Disturbances—A Noisy <i>Yadoya</i>—Storm-bound +Travellers—<i>Hai</i>! <i>Hai</i>!—More Nocturnal +Disturbances</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span>–182</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXVII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Good-tempered Intoxication—The Effect of +Sunshine—A tedious Altercation—Evening +Occupations—Noisy Talk—Social Gatherings—Unfair +Comparisons</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page183">183</a></span>–186</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXVIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Torrents of Rain—An unpleasant +Detention—Devastations produced by Floods—The Yadate +Pass—The Force of Water—Difficulties thicken—A +Primitive <i>Yadoya</i>—The Water rises</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page187">187</a></span>–192</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +XXVIII.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Scanty Resources—Japanese +Children—Children’s Games—A Sagacious +Example—A Kite Competition—Personal Privations</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page193">193</a></span>–196</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXIX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hope deferred—Effects of the Flood—Activity of +the Police—A Ramble in Disguise—The <i>Tanabata</i> +Festival—Mr. Satow’s Reputation</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page197">197</a></span>–199</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Lady’s Toilet—Hair-dressing—Paint and +Cosmetics—Afternoon Visitors—Christian Converts</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page200">200</a></span>–202</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Travel Curiosity—Rude Dwellings—Primitive +Simplicity—The Public Bath-house</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page203">203</a></span>–205</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagexix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xix</span>LETTER +XXXII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Hard Day’s Journey—An Overturn—Nearing +the Ocean—Joyful Excitement—Universal +Greyness—Inopportune Policemen—A Stormy +Voyage—A Wild Welcome—A Windy Landing—The +Journey’s End</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page206">206</a></span>–209</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Form and Colour—A Windy Capital—Eccentricities +in House Roof</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page212">212</a></span>–213</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXIV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ito’s Delinquency—“Missionary +Manners”—A Predicted Failure</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page214">214</a></span>–215</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Lovely Sunset—An Official Letter—A +“Front Horse”—Japanese Courtesy—The Steam +Ferry—Coolies Abscond—A Team of Savages—A Drove +of Horses—Floral Beauties—An Unbeaten Track—A +Ghostly Dwelling—Solitude and Eeriness</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page216">216</a></span>–230</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +XXXV.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Harmonies of Nature—A Good Horse—A Single +Discord—A Forest—Aino Ferrymen—“<i>Les +Puces</i>! <i>Les Puces</i>!”—Baffled +Explorers—Ito’s Contempt for Ainos—An Aino +Introduction</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page231">231</a></span>–233</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXVI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Savage Life—A Forest Track—Cleanly +Villages—A Hospitable Reception—The Chief’s +Mother—The Evening Meal—A Savage +<i>Séance</i>—Libations to the Gods—Nocturnal +Silence—Aino Courtesy—The Chief’s Wife</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page234">234</a></span>–243</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +XXXVI.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Supposed Act of Worship—Parental +Tenderness—Morning Visits.—Wretched +Cultivation—Honesty and Generosity—A +“Dug-out”—Female Occupations—The Ancient +Fate—A New Arrival—A Perilous Prescription—The +Shrine of Yoshitsuné—The Chief’s Return</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page244">244</a></span>–253</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagexx"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xx</span>LETTER +XXXVII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Barrenness of Savage Life—Irreclaimable +Savages—The Aino Physique—Female +Comeliness—Torture and Ornament—Child +Life—Docility and Obedience</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page254">254</a></span>–261</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +XXXVII.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aino Clothing—Holiday Dress—Domestic +Architecture—Household Gods—Japanese Curios—The +Necessaries of Life—Clay Soup—Arrow +Poison—Arrow Traps—Female Occupations—Bark +Cloth—The Art of Weaving</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page262">262</a></span>–272</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +XXXVII.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Simple Nature-Worship—Aino Gods—A Festival +Song—Religious Intoxication—Bear-Worship—The +Annual Saturnalia—The Future State—Marriage and +Divorce—Musical Instruments—Etiquette—The +Chieftainship—Death and Burial—Old Age—Moral +Qualities</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page273">273</a></span>–284</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXVIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Parting Gift—A Delicacy—Generosity—A +Seaside Village—Pipichari’s Advice—A Drunken +Revel—Ito’s Prophecies—The +<i>Kôckô’s</i> Illness—Patent +Medicines</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page285">285</a></span>–288</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXIX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Welcome Gift—Recent Changes—Volcanic +Phenomena—Interesting Tufa +Cones—Semi-strangulation—A Fall into a +Bear-trap—The Shiraôi Ainos—Horsebreaking and +Cruelty</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page289">289</a></span>–295</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER +XXXIX.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Universal Language—The Yezo +<i>Corrals</i>—A “Typhoon Rain”—Difficult +Tracks—An Unenviable Ride—Drying Clothes—A +Woman’s Remorse</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page296">296</a></span>–298</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XL.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>“More than Peace”—Geographical +Difficulties—Usu-taki—Swimming the Osharu—A +Dream of Beauty—A Sunset Effect—A Nocturnal +Alarm—The Coast Ainos</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page299">299</a></span>–305</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagexxi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxi</span>LETTER +XL.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Sea-shore—A “Hairy Aino”—A +Horse Fight—The Horses of Yezo—“Bad +Mountains”—A Slight Accident—Magnificent +Scenery—A Bleached Halting-Place—A Musty +Room—Aino “Good-breeding”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page306">306</a></span>–311</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XLI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Group of Fathers—The Lebungé +Ainos—The <i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>—A Family +Group—The Missing +Link—Oshamambé—Disorderly Horses—The +River Yurapu—The Seaside—Aino Canoes—The Last +Morning—Dodging Europeans</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page312">312</a></span>–319</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XLII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Pleasant Last Impressions—The Japanese +Junk—Ito Disappears—My Letter of Thanks</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page320">320</a></span>–321</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XLIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Pleasant Prospects—A Miserable +Disappointment—Caught in a Typhoon—A Dense +Fog—Alarmist Rumours—A Welcome at +Tôkiyô—The Last of the Mutineers</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page322">322</a></span>–324</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XLIV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Fine Weather—Cremation in Japan—The Governor +of Tôkiyô—An Awkward Question—An +Insignificant Building—Economy in Funeral +Expenses—Simplicity of the Cremation Process—The Last +of Japan</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page325">325</a></span>–328</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="pagexxiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxiii</span>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="GutSmall">PAGE</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikkô</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Frontispiece</i></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Fujisan</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Travelling Restaurant</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page5">5</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Japanese Man-Cart</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Lake Biwa Tea-House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page20">20</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Stone Lanterns</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Kuruma</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page35">35</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Road-Side Tea-House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Sir Harry’s Messenger</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page42">42</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kanaya’s House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page52">52</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Japanese Pack-Horse</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page63">63</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Attendant at Tea-House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page64">64</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Summer and Winter Costume</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page82">82</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Buddhist Priests</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page112">112</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Street and Canal</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page117">117</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Flowing Invocation</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page130">130</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Belle of Kaminoyama</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page135">135</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Torii</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Daikoku, the God of Wealth</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page154">154</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page176">176</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Lady’s Mirror</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page201">201</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><a name="pagexxiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxiv</span>Akita Farm-House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page204">204</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aino Store-House at Horobets</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page223">223</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aino Lodges. (<i>From a Japanese Sketch</i>)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page224">224</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aino Houses</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page234">234</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ainos at Home. (<i>From a Japanese Sketch</i>)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page235">235</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page238">238</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aino Store-House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page247">247</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ainos of Yezo</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page256">256</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>An Aino Patriarch</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page258">258</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tattooed Female Hand</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page260">260</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aino Gods</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page266">266</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Plan of an Aino House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page267">267</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Weaver’s Shuttle</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page270">270</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Hiogo Buddha</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page272">272</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Rokkukado</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page288">288</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>My Kuruma-Runner</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page305">305</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Temple Gateway at Isshinden</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page311">311</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Shôgun, Shiba, +Tôkiyô</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page323">323</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page326">326</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>LETTER +I.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">First View of Japan—A Vision of +Fujisan—Japanese Sampans—“Pullman +Cars”—Undignified Locomotion—Paper +Money—The Drawbacks of Japanese Travelling.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Oriental +Hotel</span>, <span class="smcap">Yokohama</span>,<br /> +<i>May</i> 21.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Eighteen</span> days of unintermitted +rolling over “desolate rainy seas” brought the +“City of Tokio” early yesterday morning to Cape King, +and by noon we were steaming up the Gulf of Yedo, quite near the +shore. The day was soft and grey with a little faint blue +sky, and, though the coast of Japan is much more prepossessing +than most coasts, there were no startling surprises either of +colour or form. Broken wooded ridges, deeply cleft, rise +from the water’s edge, gray, deep-roofed villages cluster +about the mouths of the ravines, and terraces of rice +cultivation, bright with the greenness of English lawns, run up +to a great height among dark masses of upland forest. The +populousness of the coast is very impressive, and the gulf +everywhere was equally peopled with fishing-boats, of which we +passed not only hundreds, but thousands, in five hours. The +coast and sea were pale, and the boats were pale too, their hulls +being unpainted wood, and their sails pure white duck. Now +and then a high-sterned junk drifted by like a phantom galley, +then we slackened speed to avoid exterminating a fleet of +triangular-looking fishing-boats with white square sails, and so +on through the grayness and dumbness hour after hour.</p> +<p>For long I looked in vain for Fujisan, and failed to see it, +<a name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>though I +heard ecstasies all over the deck, till, accidentally looking +heavenwards instead of earthwards, I saw far above any +possibility of height, as one would have thought, a huge, +truncated cone of pure snow, 13,080 feet above the sea, from +which it sweeps upwards in a glorious curve, very wan, against a +very pale blue sky, with its base and the intervening country +veiled in a pale grey mist. <a name="citation2"></a><a +href="#footnote2" class="citation">[2]</a> It was a +wonderful vision, and shortly, as a vision, vanished. +Except the cone of Tristan d’Acunha—also a cone of +snow—I never saw a mountain rise in such lonely majesty, +with nothing near or far to detract from its height and +grandeur. No wonder that it is a sacred mountain, and so +dear to the Japanese that their art is never <a +name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>weary of +representing it. It was nearly fifty miles off when we +first saw it.</p> +<p>The air and water were alike motionless, the mist was still +and pale, grey clouds lay restfully on a bluish sky, the +reflections of the white sails of the fishing-boats scarcely +quivered; it was all so pale, wan, and ghastly, that the +turbulence of crumpled foam which we left behind us, and our +noisy, throbbing progress, seemed a boisterous intrusion upon +sleeping Asia.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p2b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Fujisan" +title= +"Fujisan" + src="images/p2s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The gulf narrowed, the forest-crested hills, the terraced +ravines, the picturesque grey villages, the quiet beach life, and +the pale blue masses of the mountains of the interior, became +more visible. Fuji retired into the mist in which he +enfolds his grandeur for most of the summer; we passed Reception +Bay, Perry Island, Webster Island, Cape Saratoga, and Mississippi +Bay—American nomenclature which perpetuates the successes +of American diplomacy—and not far from Treaty Point came +upon a red lightship with the words “Treaty Point” in +large letters upon her. Outside of this no foreign vessel +may anchor.</p> +<p>The bustle among my fellow-passengers, many of whom were +returning home, and all of whom expected to be met by friends, +left me at leisure, as I looked at unattractive, unfamiliar +Yokohama and the pale grey land stretched out before me, to +speculate somewhat sadly on my destiny on these strange shores, +on which I have not even an acquaintance. On mooring we +were at once surrounded by crowds of native boats called by +foreigners <i>sampans</i>, and Dr. Gulick, a near relation of my +Hilo friends, came on board to meet his daughter, welcomed me +cordially, and relieved me of all the trouble of +disembarkation. These <i>sampans</i> are very +clumsy-looking, but are managed with great dexterity by the +boatmen, who gave and received any number of bumps with much good +nature, and without any of the shouting and swearing in which +competitive boatmen usually indulge.</p> +<p>The partially triangular shape of these boats approaches that +of a salmon-fisher’s punt used on certain British +rivers. Being floored gives them the appearance of being +absolutely flat-bottomed; but, though they tilt readily, they are +very safe, being heavily built and fitted together with singular +precision <a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +4</span>with wooden bolts and a few copper cleets. They are +<i>sculled</i>, not what we should call rowed, by two or four men +with very heavy oars made of two pieces of wood working on pins +placed on outrigger bars. The men scull standing and use +the thigh as a rest for the oar. They all wear a single, +wide-sleeved, scanty, blue cotton garment, not fastened or +girdled at the waist, straw sandals, kept on by a thong passing +between the great toe and the others, and if they wear any +head-gear, it is only a wisp of blue cotton tied round the +forehead. The one garment is only an apology for clothing, +and displays lean concave chests and lean muscular limbs. +The skin is very yellow, and often much tattooed with mythical +beasts. The charge for <i>sampans</i> is fixed by tariff, +so the traveller lands without having his temper ruffled by +extortionate demands.</p> +<p>The first thing that impressed me on landing was that there +were no loafers, and that all the small, ugly, kindly-looking, +shrivelled, bandy-legged, round-shouldered, concave-chested, +poor-looking beings in the streets had some affairs of their own +to mind. At the top of the landing-steps there was a +portable restaurant, a neat and most compact thing, with charcoal +stove, cooking and eating utensils complete; but it looked as if +it were made by and for dolls, and the mannikin who kept it was +not five feet high. At the custom-house we were attended to +by minute officials in blue uniforms of European pattern and +leather boots; very civil creatures, who opened and examined our +trunks carefully, and strapped them up again, contrasting +pleasingly with the insolent and rapacious officials who perform +the same duties at New York.</p> +<p>Outside were about fifty of the now well-known +<i>jin-ti-ki-shas</i>, and the air was full of a buzz produced by +the rapid reiteration of this uncouth word by fifty +tongues. This conveyance, as you know, is a feature of +Japan, growing in importance every day. It was only +invented seven years ago, and already there are nearly 23,000 in +one city, and men can make so much more by drawing them than by +almost any kind of skilled labour, that thousands of fine young +men desert agricultural pursuits and flock into the towns to make +draught-animals of themselves, though it is said that the average +duration of a man’s life after he takes to running is only +five years, and that the runners fall victims in large numbers to +<a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>aggravated +forms of heart and lung disease. Over tolerably level +ground a good runner can trot forty miles a day, at a rate of +about four miles an hour. They are registered and taxed at +8s. a year for one carrying two persons, and 4s. for one which +carries one only, and there is a regular tariff for time and +distance.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p5b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Travelling Restaurant" +title= +"Travelling Restaurant" + src="images/p5s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The <i>kuruma</i>, or jin-ri-ki-sha, <a +name="citation5"></a><a href="#footnote5" +class="citation">[5]</a> consists of a light perambulator body, +an adjustable hood of oiled paper, a velvet or cloth lining and +cushion, a well for parcels under the seat, two high slim wheels, +and a pair of shafts connected by a bar at the ends. The +body is usually lacquered and decorated according to its +owner’s taste. Some show little except polished +brass, others are altogether inlaid with shells known as +Venus’s ear, and <a name="page6"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 6</span>others are gaudily painted with +contorted dragons, or groups of peonies, hydrangeas, +chrysanthemums, and mythical personages. They cost from +£2 upwards. The shafts rest on the ground at a steep +incline as you get in—it must require much practice to +enable one to mount with ease or dignity—the runner lifts +them up, gets into them, gives the body a good tilt backwards, +and goes off at a smart trot. They are drawn by one, two, +or three men, according to the speed desired by the +occupants. When rain comes on, the man puts up the hood, +and ties you and it closely up in a covering of oiled paper, in +which you are invisible. At night, whether running or +standing still, they carry prettily-painted circular paper +lanterns 18 inches long. It is most comical to see stout, +florid, solid-looking merchants, missionaries, male and female, +fashionably-dressed ladies, armed with card cases, Chinese +compradores, and Japanese peasant men and women flying along Main +Street, which is like the decent respectable High Street of a +dozen forgotten country towns in England, in happy +unconsciousness of the ludicrousness of their appearance; racing, +chasing, crossing each other, their lean, polite, pleasant +runners in their great hats shaped like inverted bowls, their +incomprehensible blue tights, and their short blue over-shirts +with badges or characters in white upon them, tearing along, +their yellow faces streaming with perspiration, laughing, +shouting, and avoiding collisions by a mere shave.</p> +<p>After a visit to the Consulate I entered a <i>kuruma</i> and, +with two ladies in two more, was bowled along at a furious pace +by a laughing little mannikin down Main Street—a narrow, +solid, well-paved street with well-made side walks, kerb-stones, +and gutters, with iron lamp-posts, gas-lamps, and foreign shops +all along its length—to this quiet hotel recommended by Sir +Wyville Thomson, which offers a refuge from the nasal twang of my +fellow-voyagers, who have all gone to the caravanserais on the +Bund. The host is a Frenchman, but he relies on a Chinaman; +the servants are Japanese “boys” in Japanese clothes; +and there is a Japanese “groom of the chambers” in +faultless English costume, who perfectly appals me by the +elaborate politeness of his manner.</p> +<p>Almost as soon as I arrived I was obliged to go in search of +Mr. Fraser’s office in the settlement; I say <i>search</i>, +for there <a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +7</span>are no names on the streets; where there are numbers they +have no sequence, and I met no Europeans on foot to help me in my +difficulty. Yokohama does not improve on further +acquaintance. It has a dead-alive look. It has +irregularity without picturesqueness, and the grey sky, grey sea, +grey houses, and grey roofs, look harmoniously dull. No +foreign money except the Mexican dollar passes in Japan, and Mr. +Fraser’s compradore soon metamorphosed my English gold into +Japanese <i>satsu</i> or paper money, a bundle of yen nearly at +par just now with the dollar, packets of 50, 20, and 10 sen +notes, and some rouleaux of very neat copper coins. The +initiated recognise the different denominations of paper money at +a glance by their differing colours and sizes, but at present +they are a distracting mystery to me. The notes are pieces +of stiff paper with Chinese characters at the corners, near +which, with exceptionally good eyes or a magnifying glass, one +can discern an English word denoting the value. They are +very neatly executed, and are ornamented with the chrysanthemum +crest of the Mikado and the interlaced dragons of the Empire.</p> +<p>I long to get away into real Japan. Mr. Wilkinson, +H.B.M.’s acting consul, called yesterday, and was extremely +kind. He thinks that my plan for travelling in the interior +is rather too ambitious, but that it is perfectly safe for a lady +to travel alone, and agrees with everybody else in thinking that +legions of fleas and the miserable horses are the great drawbacks +of Japanese travelling.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>LETTER +II.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Sir Harry Parkes—An +“Ambassador’s Carriage”—Cart Coolies.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Yokohama</span>, +<i>May</i> 22.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">To-day</span> has been spent in making new +acquaintances, instituting a search for a servant and a pony, +receiving many offers of help, asking questions and receiving +from different people answers which directly contradict each +other. Hours are early. Thirteen people called on me +before noon. Ladies drive themselves about the town in +small pony carriages attended by running grooms called +<i>bettos</i>. The foreign merchants keep <i>kurumas</i> +constantly standing at their doors, finding a willing, +intelligent coolie much more serviceable than a lazy, fractious, +capricious Japanese pony, and even the dignity of an +“Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister +Plenipotentiary” is not above such a lowly conveyance, as I +have seen to-day. My last visitors were Sir Harry and Lady +Parkes, who brought sunshine and kindliness into the room, and +left it behind them. Sir Harry is a young-looking man +scarcely in middle life, slight, active, fair, blue-eyed, a +thorough Saxon, with sunny hair and a sunny smile, a sunshiny +geniality in his manner, and bearing no trace in his appearance +of his thirty years of service in the East, his sufferings in the +prison at Peking, and the various attempts upon his life in +Japan. He and Lady Parkes were most truly kind, and +encourage me so heartily in my largest projects for travelling in +the interior, that I shall start as soon as I have secured a +servant. When they went away they jumped into +<i>kurumas</i>, and it was most amusing to see the representative +of England hurried down the street in a perambulator with a +tandem of coolies.</p> +<p>As I look out of the window I see heavy, two-wheeled man-carts +drawn and pushed by four men each, on which nearly all <a +name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>goods, stones +for building, and all else, are carried. The two men who +pull press with hands and thighs against a cross-bar at the end +of a heavy pole, and the two who push apply their shoulders to +beams which project behind, using their thick, smoothly-shaven +skulls as the motive power when they push their heavy loads +uphill. Their cry is impressive and melancholy. They +draw incredible loads, but, as if the toil which often makes +every breath a groan or a gasp were not enough, they shout +incessantly with a coarse, guttural grunt, something like <i>Ha +huida</i>, <i>Ho huida</i>, <i>wa ho</i>, <i>Ha huida</i>, +etc.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p9b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Japanese Man-Cart" +title= +"Japanese Man-Cart" + src="images/p9s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>LETTER +III.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Yedo and Tôkiyô—The Yokohama +Railroad—The Effect of Misfits—The Plain of +Yedo—Personal Peculiarities—First Impressions of +Tôkiyô—H. B. M.’s Legation—An +English Home.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">H.B.M.’s <span +class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span class="smcap">Yedo</span>, +<i>May</i> 24.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> dated my letter Yedo, +according to the usage of the British Legation, but popularly the +new name of Tôkiyô, or Eastern Capital, is used, +Kiyôto, the Mikado’s former residence, having +received the name of Saikiô, or Western Capital, though it +has now no claim to be regarded as a capital at all. Yedo +belongs to the old régime and the Shôgunate, +Tôkiyô to the new régime and the Restoration, +with their history of ten years. It would seem an +incongruity to travel to <i>Yedo</i> by railway, but quite proper +when the destination is Tôkiyô.</p> +<p>The journey between the two cities is performed in an hour by +an admirable, well-metalled, double-track railroad, 18 miles +long, with iron bridges, neat stations, and substantial roomy +termini, built by English engineers at a cost known only to +Government, and opened by the Mikado in 1872. The Yokohama +station is a handsome and suitable stone building, with a +spacious approach, ticket-offices on our plan, roomy +waiting-rooms for different classes—uncarpeted, however, in +consideration of Japanese clogs—and supplied with the daily +papers. There is a department for the weighing and +labelling of luggage, and on the broad, covered, stone platform +at both termini a barrier with turnstiles, through which, except +by special favour, no ticketless person can pass. Except +the ticket-clerks, who are Chinese, and the guards and +engine-drivers, who are English, the officials are Japanese in +European dress. Outside the stations, instead of cabs, +there are <i>kurumas</i>, which carry luggage as well as +people. Only luggage in the <a name="page11"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 11</span>hand is allowed to go free; the rest +is weighed, numbered, and charged for, a corresponding number +being given to its owner to present at his destination. The +fares are—3d class, an <i>ichibu</i>, or about 1s.; 2d +class, 60 <i>sen</i>, or about 2s. 4d.; and 1st class, a +<i>yen</i>, or about 3s. 8d. The tickets are collected as +the passengers pass through the barrier at the end of the +journey. The English-built cars differ from ours in having +seats along the sides, and doors opening on platforms at both +ends. On the whole, the arrangements are Continental rather +than British. The first-class cars are expensively fitted +up with deeply-cushioned, red morocco seats, but carry very few +passengers, and the comfortable seats, covered with fine matting, +of the 2d class are very scantily occupied; but the 3d class vans +are crowded with Japanese, who have taken to railroads as readily +as to <i>kurumas</i>. This line earns about $8,000,000 a +year.</p> +<p>The Japanese look most diminutive in European dress. +Each garment is a misfit, and exaggerates the miserable +<i>physique</i> and the national defects of concave chests and +bow legs. The lack of “complexion” and of hair +upon the face makes it nearly impossible to judge of the ages of +men. I supposed that all the railroad officials were +striplings of 17 or 18, but they are men from 25 to 40 years +old.</p> +<p>It was a beautiful day, like an English June day, but hotter, +and though the <i>Sakura</i> (wild cherry) and its kin, which are +the glory of the Japanese spring, are over, everything is a +young, fresh green yet, and in all the beauty of growth and +luxuriance. The immediate neighbourhood of Yokohama is +beautiful, with abrupt wooded hills, and small picturesque +valleys; but after passing Kanagawa the railroad enters upon the +immense plain of Yedo, said to be 90 miles from north to south, +on whose northern and western boundaries faint blue mountains of +great height hovered dreamily in the blue haze, and on whose +eastern shore for many miles the clear blue wavelets of the Gulf +of Yedo ripple, always as then, brightened by the white sails of +innumerable fishing-boats. On this fertile and fruitful +plain stand not only the capital, with its million of +inhabitants, but a number of populous cities, and several hundred +thriving agricultural villages. Every foot of land which +can be seen from the railroad is cultivated by the most careful +spade husbandry, and much of it is irrigated for rice. +Streams <a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +12</span>abound, and villages of grey wooden houses with grey +thatch, and grey temples with strangely curved roofs, are +scattered thickly over the landscape. It is all homelike, +liveable, and pretty, the country of an industrious people, for +not a weed is to be seen, but no very striking features or +peculiarities arrest one at first sight, unless it be the crowds +everywhere.</p> +<p>You don’t take your ticket for Tôkiyô, but +for Shinagawa or Shinbashi, two of the many villages which have +grown together into the capital. Yedo is hardly seen before +Shinagawa is reached, for it has no smoke and no long chimneys; +its temples and public buildings are seldom lofty; the former are +often concealed among thick trees, and its ordinary houses seldom +reach a height of 20 feet. On the right a blue sea with +fortified islands upon it, wooded gardens with massive retaining +walls, hundreds of fishing-boats lying in creeks or drawn up on +the beach; on the left a broad road on which <i>kurumas</i> are +hurrying both ways, rows of low, grey houses, mostly tea-houses +and shops; and as I was asking “Where is Yedo?” the +train came to rest in the terminus, the Shinbashi railroad +station, and disgorged its 200 Japanese passengers with a +combined clatter of 400 clogs—a new sound to me. +These clogs add three inches to their height, but even with them +few of the men attained 5 feet 7 inches, and few of the women 5 +feet 2 inches; but they look far broader in the national costume, +which also conceals the defects of their figures. So lean, +so yellow, so ugly, yet so pleasant-looking, so wanting in colour +and effectiveness; the women so very small and tottering in their +walk; the children so formal-looking and such dignified +burlesques on the adults, I feel as if I had seen them all +before, so like are they to their pictures on trays, fans, and +tea-pots. The hair of the women is all drawn away from +their faces, and is worn in chignons, and the men, when they +don’t shave the front of their heads and gather their back +hair into a quaint queue drawn forward over the shaven patch, +wear their coarse hair about three inches long in a refractory +undivided mop.</p> +<p>Davies, an orderly from the Legation, met me,—one of the +escort cut down and severely wounded when Sir H. Parkes was +attacked in the street of Kiyôto in March 1868 on his way +to his first audience of the Mikado. Hundreds of +<i>kurumas</i>, and <a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +13</span>covered carts with four wheels drawn by one miserable +horse, which are the omnibuses of certain districts of +Tôkiyô, were waiting outside the station, and an +English brougham for me, with a running <i>betto</i>. The +Legation stands in Kôjimachi on very elevated ground above +the inner moat of the historic “Castle of Yedo,” but +I cannot tell you anything of what I saw on my way thither, +except that there were miles of dark, silent, barrack-like +buildings, with highly ornamental gateways, and long rows of +projecting windows with screens made of reeds—the feudal +mansions of Yedo—and miles of moats with lofty grass +embankments or walls of massive masonry 50 feet high, with +kiosk-like towers at the corners, and curious, roofed gateways, +and many bridges, and acres of lotus leaves. Turning along +the inner moat, up a steep slope, there are, on the right, its +deep green waters, the great grass embankment surmounted by a +dismal wall overhung by the branches of coniferous trees which +surrounded the palace of the Shôgun, and on the left sundry +<i>yashikis</i>, as the mansions of the <i>daimiyô</i> were +called, now in this quarter mostly turned into hospitals, +barracks, and Government offices. On a height, the most +conspicuous of them all, is the great red gateway of the +<i>yashiki</i>, now occupied by the French Military Mission, +formerly the residence of Ii Kamon no Kami, one of the great +actors in recent historic events, who was assassinated not far +off, outside the Sakaruda gate of the castle. Besides +these, barracks, parade-grounds, policemen, <i>kurumas</i>, carts +pulled and pushed by coolies, pack-horses in straw sandals, and +dwarfish, slatternly-looking soldiers in European dress, made up +the Tôkiyô that I saw between Shinbashi and the +Legation.</p> +<p>H.B.M.’s Legation has a good situation near the Foreign +Office, several of the Government departments, and the residences +of the ministers, which are chiefly of brick in the English +suburban villa style. Within the compound, with a brick +archway with the Royal Arms upon it for an entrance, are the +Minister’s residence, the Chancery, two houses for the two +English Secretaries of Legation, and quarters for the escort.</p> +<p>It is an English house and an English home, though, with the +exception of a venerable nurse, there are no English +servants. The butler and footman are tall Chinamen, with <a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>long +pig-tails, black satin caps, and long blue robes; the cook is a +Chinaman, and the other servants are all Japanese, including one +female servant, a sweet, gentle, kindly girl about 4 feet 5 in +height, the wife of the head “housemaid.” None +of the servants speak anything but the most aggravating +“pidgun” English, but their deficient speech is more +than made up for by the intelligence and service of the orderly +in waiting, who is rarely absent from the neighbourhood of the +hall door, and attends to the visitors’ book and to all +messages and notes. There are two real English children of +six and seven, with great capacities for such innocent enjoyments +as can be found within the limits of the nursery and +garden. The other inmate of the house is a beautiful and +attractive terrier called “Rags,” a Skye dog, who +unbends “in the bosom of his family,” but ordinarily +is as imposing in his demeanour as if he, and not his master, +represented the dignity of the British Empire.</p> +<p>The Japanese Secretary of Legation is Mr. Ernest Satow, whose +reputation for scholarship, especially in the department of +history, is said by the Japanese themselves to be the highest in +Japan <a name="citation14"></a><a href="#footnote14" +class="citation">[14]</a>—an honourable distinction for an +Englishman, and won by the persevering industry of fifteen +years. The scholarship connected with the British Civil +Service is not, however, monopolised by Mr. Satow, for several +gentlemen in the consular service, who are passing through the +various grades of student interpreters, are distinguishing +themselves not alone by their facility in colloquial Japanese, +but by their researches in various departments of Japanese +history, mythology, archæology, and literature. +Indeed it is to their labours, and to those of a few other +Englishmen and Germans, that the Japanese of the rising +generation will be indebted for keeping alive not only the +knowledge of their archaic literature, but even of the manners +and customs of the first half of this century.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>LETTER +IV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">“John Chinaman”—Engaging a +Servant—First Impressions of Ito—A Solemn +Contract—The Food Question.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">H.B.M.’s <span +class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span +class="smcap">Yedo</span>,<br /> +<i>June</i> 7.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">went</span> to Yokohama for a week to +visit Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn on the Bluff. Bishop and Mrs. +Burdon of Hong Kong were also guests, and it was very +pleasant.</p> +<p>One cannot be a day in Yokohama without seeing quite a +different class of orientals from the small, thinly-dressed, and +usually poor-looking Japanese. Of the 2500 Chinamen who +reside in Japan, over 1100 are in Yokohama, and if they were +suddenly removed, business would come to an abrupt halt. +Here, as everywhere, the Chinese immigrant is making himself +indispensable. He walks through the streets with his +swinging gait and air of complete self-complacency, as though he +belonged to the ruling race. He is tall and big, and his +many garments, with a handsome brocaded robe over all, his satin +pantaloons, of which not much is seen, tight at the ankles, and +his high shoes, whose black satin tops are slightly turned up at +the toes, make him look even taller and bigger than he is. +His head is mostly shaven, but the hair at the back is plaited +with a quantity of black purse twist into a queue which reaches +to his knees, above which, set well back, he wears a stiff, black +satin skull-cap, without which he is never seen. His face +is very yellow, his long dark eyes and eyebrows slope upwards +towards his temples, he has not the vestige of a beard, and his +skin is shiny. He looks thoroughly +“well-to-do.” He is not unpleasing-looking, but +you feel that as a Celestial he looks down upon you. If you +ask a question in a merchant’s office, or change your gold +into <i>satsu</i>, or take <a name="page16"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 16</span>your railroad or steamer ticket, or +get change in a shop, the inevitable Chinaman appears. In +the street he swings past you with a purpose in his face; as he +flies past you in a <i>kuruma</i> he is bent on business; he is +sober and reliable, and is content to “squeeze” his +employer rather than to rob him—his one aim in life is +money. For this he is industrious, faithful, self-denying; +and he has his reward.</p> +<p>Several of my kind new acquaintances interested themselves +about the (to me) vital matter of a servant interpreter, and many +Japanese came to “see after the place.” The +speaking of intelligible English is a <i>sine quâ non</i>, +and it was wonderful to find the few words badly pronounced and +worse put together, which were regarded by the candidates as a +sufficient qualification. Can you speak English? +“Yes.” What wages do you ask? +“Twelve dollars a month.” This was always said +glibly, and in each case sounded hopeful. Whom have you +lived with? A foreign name distorted out of all +recognition, as was natural, was then given. Where have you +travelled? This question usually had to be translated into +Japanese, and the usual answer was, “The Tokaido, the +Nakasendo, to Kiyôto, to Nikkô,” naming the +beaten tracks of countless tourists. Do you know anything +of Northern Japan and the Hokkaido? “No,” with +a blank wondering look. At this stage in every case Dr. +Hepburn compassionately stepped in as interpreter, for their +stock of English was exhausted. Three were regarded as +promising. One was a sprightly youth who came in a +well-made European suit of light-coloured tweed, a laid-down +collar, a tie with a diamond (?) pin, and a white shirt, so +stiffly starched, that he could hardly bend low enough for a bow +even of European profundity. He wore a gilt watch-chain +with a locket, the corner of a very white cambric +pocket-handkerchief dangled from his breast pocket, and he held a +cane and a felt hat in his hand. He was a Japanese dandy of +the first water. I looked at him ruefully. To me +starched collars are to be an unknown luxury for the next three +months. His fine foreign clothes would enhance prices +everywhere in the interior, and besides that, I should feel a +perpetual difficulty in asking menial services from an +exquisite. I was therefore quite relieved when his English +broke down at the second question.</p> +<p><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>The +second was a most respectable-looking man of thirty-five in a +good Japanese dress. He was highly recommended, and his +first English words were promising, but he had been cook in the +service of a wealthy English official who travelled with a large +retinue, and sent servants on ahead to prepare the way. He +knew really only a few words of English, and his horror at +finding that there was “no master,” and that there +would be no woman-servant, was so great, that I hardly know +whether he rejected me or I him.</p> +<p>The third, sent by Mr. Wilkinson, wore a plain Japanese dress, +and had a frank, intelligent face. Though Dr. Hepburn spoke +with him in Japanese, he thought that he knew more English than +the others, and that what he knew would come out when he was less +agitated. He evidently understood what I said, and, though +I had a suspicion that he would turn out to be the +“master,” I thought him so prepossessing that I +nearly engaged him on the spot. None of the others merit +any remark.</p> +<p>However, when I had nearly made up my mind in his favour, a +creature appeared without any recommendation at all, except that +one of Dr. Hepburn’s servants was acquainted with +him. He is only eighteen, but this is equivalent to +twenty-three or twenty-four with us, and only 4 feet 10 inches in +height, but, though bandy-legged, is well proportioned and +strong-looking. He has a round and singularly plain face, +good teeth, much elongated eyes, and the heavy droop of his +eyelids almost caricatures the usual Japanese peculiarity. +He is the most stupid-looking Japanese that I have seen, but, +from a rapid, furtive glance in his eyes now and then, I think +that the stolidity is partly assumed. He said that he had +lived at the American Legation, that he had been a clerk on the +Osaka railroad, that he had travelled through northern Japan by +the eastern route, and in Yezo with Mr. Maries, a botanical +collector, that he understood drying plants, that he could cook a +little, that he could write English, that he could walk +twenty-five miles a day, and that he thoroughly understood +getting through the interior! This would-be paragon had no +recommendations, and accounted for this by saying that they had +been burned in a recent fire in his father’s house. +Mr. Maries was not forthcoming, and more than this, I suspected +<a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>and +disliked the boy. However, he understood my English and I +his, and, being very anxious to begin my travels, I engaged him +for twelve dollars a month, and soon afterwards he came back with +a contract, in which he declares by all that he holds most sacred +that he will serve me faithfully for the wages agreed upon, and +to this document he affixed his seal and I my name. The +next day he asked me for a month’s wages in advance, which +I gave him, but Dr. H. consolingly suggested that I should never +see him again!</p> +<p>Ever since the solemn night when the contract was signed I +have felt under an incubus, and since he appeared here yesterday, +punctual to the appointed hour, I have felt as if I had a +veritable “old man of the sea” upon my +shoulders. He flies up stairs and along the corridors as +noiselessly as a cat, and already knows where I keep all my +things. Nothing surprises or abashes him, he bows +profoundly to Sir Harry and Lady Parkes when he encounters them, +but is obviously “quite at home” in a Legation, and +only allowed one of the orderlies to show him how to put on a +Mexican saddle and English bridle out of condescension to my +wishes. He seems as sharp or “smart” as can be, +and has already arranged for the first three days of my +journey. His name is Ito, and you will doubtless hear much +more of him, as he will be my good or evil genius for the next +three months.</p> +<p>As no English lady has yet travelled alone through the +interior, my project excites a very friendly interest among my +friends, and I receive much warning and dissuasion, and a little +encouragement. The strongest, because the most intelligent, +dissuasion comes from Dr. Hepburn, who thinks that I ought not to +undertake the journey, and that I shall never get through to the +Tsugaru Strait. If I accepted much of the advice given to +me, as to taking tinned meats and soups, claret, and a Japanese +maid, I should need a train of at least six pack-horses! As +to fleas, there is a lamentable concensus of opinion that they +are the curse of Japanese travelling during the summer, and some +people recommend me to sleep in a bag drawn tightly round the +throat, others to sprinkle my bedding freely with insect powder, +others to smear the skin all over with carbolic oil, and some to +make a plentiful use of dried and powdered flea-bane. All +admit, however, that these <a name="page19"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 19</span>are but feeble palliatives. +Hammocks unfortunately cannot be used in Japanese houses.</p> +<p>The “Food Question” is said to be the most +important one for all travellers, and it is discussed continually +with startling earnestness, not alone as regards my tour. +However apathetic people are on other subjects, the mere mention +of this one rouses them into interest. All have suffered or +may suffer, and every one wishes to impart his own experience or +to learn from that of others. Foreign ministers, +professors, missionaries, merchants—all discuss it with +becoming gravity as a question of life and death, which by many +it is supposed to be. The fact is that, except at a few +hotels in popular resorts which are got up for foreigners, bread, +butter, milk, meat, poultry, coffee, wine, and beer, are +unattainable, that fresh fish is rare, and that unless one can +live on rice, tea, and eggs, with the addition now and then of +some tasteless fresh vegetables, food must be taken, as the fishy +and vegetable abominations known as “Japanese food” +can only be swallowed and digested by a few, and that after long +practice. <a name="citation19"></a><a href="#footnote19" +class="citation">[19]</a></p> +<p>Another, but far inferior, difficulty on which much stress is +laid is the practice common among native servants of getting a +“squeeze” out of every money transaction on the road, +so that the cost of travelling is often doubled, and sometimes +trebled, according to the skill and capacity of the +servant. Three gentlemen who have travelled extensively +have given me lists of the prices which I ought to pay, varying +in different districts, and largely increased on the beaten track +of tourists, and Mr. Wilkinson has read these to Ito, who offered +an occasional remonstrance. Mr. W. remarked after the +conversation, which was in Japanese, that he thought I should +have to “look sharp after money matters”—a +painful prospect, as I have never been able to manage anybody in +my life, and shall surely have no control over this clever, +cunning Japanese youth, who on most points will be able to +deceive me as he pleases.</p> +<p>On returning here I found that Lady Parkes had made <a +name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>most of the +necessary preparations for me, and that they include two light +baskets with covers of oiled paper, a travelling bed or +stretcher, a folding-chair, and an india-rubber bath, all which +she considers as necessaries for a person in feeble health on a +journey of such long duration. This week has been spent in +making acquaintances in Tôkiyô, seeing some +characteristic sights, and in trying to get light on my tour; but +little seems known by foreigners of northern Japan, and a +Government department, on being applied to, returned an +itinerary, leaving out 140 miles of the route that I dream of +taking, on the ground of “insufficient information,” +on which Sir Harry cheerily remarked, “You will have to get +your information as you go along, and that will be all the more +interesting.” Ah! but how?</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p20b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"A Lake Biwa Tea-House" +title= +"A Lake Biwa Tea-House" + src="images/p20s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>LETTER +V.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Kwan-non Temple—Uniformity of Temple +Architecture—A <i>Kuruma</i> Expedition—A Perpetual +Festival—The Ni-ô—The Limbo of +Vanity—Heathen Prayers—Binzuru—A Group of +Devils—Archery Galleries—New Japan—An +Élégante.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">H.B.M.’s <span +class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span +class="smcap">Yedo</span>,<br /> +<i>June</i> 9.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Once</span> for all I will describe a +Buddhist temple, and it shall be the popular temple of Asakusa, +which keeps fair and festival the whole year round, and is +dedicated to the “thousand-armed” Kwan-non, the +goddess of mercy. Writing generally, it may be said that in +design, roof, and general aspect, Japanese Buddhist temples are +all alike. The sacred architectural idea expresses itself +in nearly the same form always. There is a single or +double-roofed gateway, with highly-coloured figures in niches on +either side; the paved temple-court, with more or fewer stone or +bronze lanterns; <i>amainu</i>, or heavenly dogs, in stone on +stone pedestals; stone sarcophagi, roofed over or not, for holy +water; a flight of steps; a portico, continued as a verandah all +round the temple; a roof of tremendously disproportionate size +and weight, with a peculiar curve; a square or oblong hall +divided by a railing from a “chancel” with a high and +low altar, and a shrine containing Buddha, or the divinity to +whom the chapel is dedicated; an incense-burner, and a few +ecclesiastical ornaments. The symbols, idols, and +adornments depend upon the sect to which the temple belongs, or +the wealth of its votaries, or the fancy of the priests. +Some temples are packed full of gods, shrines, banners, bronzes, +brasses, tablets, and ornaments, and others, like those of the +Monto sect, are so severely simple, that with scarcely an +alteration they might be used for Christian worship +to-morrow.</p> +<p><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>The +foundations consist of square stones on which the uprights +rest. These are of elm, and are united at intervals by +longitudinal pieces. The great size and enormous weight of +the roofs arise from the trusses being formed of one heavy frame +being built upon another in diminishing squares till the top is +reached, the main beams being formed of very large timbers put on +in their natural state. They are either very heavily and +ornamentally tiled, or covered with sheet copper ornamented with +gold, or thatched to a depth of from one to three feet, with fine +shingles or bark. The casing of the walls on the outside is +usually thick elm planking either lacquered or unpainted, and +that of the inside is of thin, finely-planed and bevelled +planking of the beautiful wood of the <i>Retinospora +obtusa</i>. The lining of the roof is in flat panels, and +where it is supported by pillars they are invariably circular, +and formed of the straight, finely-grained stem of the +<i>Retinospora obtusa</i>. The projecting ends of the +roof-beams under the eaves are either elaborately carved, +lacquered in dull red, or covered with copper, as are the joints +of the beams. Very few nails are used, the timbers being +very beautifully joined by mortices and dovetails, other methods +of junction being unknown.</p> +<p>Mr. Chamberlain and I went in a <i>kuruma</i> hurried along by +three liveried coolies, through the three miles of crowded +streets which lie between the Legation and Asakusa, once a +village, but now incorporated with this monster city, to the +broad street leading to the Adzuma Bridge over the Sumida river, +one of the few stone bridges in Tôkiyô, which +connects east Tôkiyô, an uninteresting region, +containing many canals, storehouses, timber-yards, and inferior +<i>yashikis</i>, with the rest of the city. This street, +marvellously thronged with pedestrians and <i>kurumas</i>, is the +terminus of a number of city “stage lines,” and +twenty wretched-looking covered waggons, with still more wretched +ponies, were drawn up in the middle, waiting for +passengers. Just there plenty of real Tôkiyô +life is to be seen, for near a shrine of popular pilgrimage there +are always numerous places of amusement, innocent and vicious, +and the vicinity of this temple is full of restaurants, +tea-houses, minor theatres, and the resorts of dancing and +singing girls.</p> +<p><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>A +broad-paved avenue, only open to foot passengers, leads from this +street to the grand entrance, a colossal two-storied +double-roofed <i>mon</i>, or gate, painted a rich dull red. +On either side of this avenue are lines of booths—which +make a brilliant and lavish display of their +contents—toy-shops, shops for smoking apparatus, and shops +for the sale of ornamental hair-pins predominating. Nearer +the gate are booths for the sale of rosaries for prayer, sleeve +and bosom idols of brass and wood in small shrines, amulet bags, +representations of the jolly-looking Daikoku, the god of wealth, +the most popular of the household gods of Japan, shrines, +memorial tablets, cheap <i>ex votos</i>, sacred bells, +candlesticks, and incense-burners, and all the endless and +various articles connected with Buddhist devotion, public and +private. Every day is a festival-day at Asakusa; the temple +is dedicated to the most popular of the great divinities; it is +the most popular of religious resorts; and whether he be +Buddhist, Shintôist, or Christian, no stranger comes to the +capital without making a visit to its crowded courts or a +purchase at its tempting booths. Not to be an exception, I +invested in bouquets of firework flowers, fifty flowers for 2 +<i>sen</i>, or 1d., each of which, as it slowly consumes, throws +off fiery coruscations, shaped like the most beautiful of snow +crystals. I was also tempted by small boxes at 2 <i>sen</i> +each, containing what look like little slips of withered pith, +but which, on being dropped into water, expand into trees and +flowers.</p> +<p>Down a paved passage on the right there is an artificial +river, not over clean, with a bridge formed of one curved stone, +from which a flight of steps leads up to a small temple with a +magnificent bronze bell. At the entrance several women were +praying. In the same direction are two fine bronze Buddhas, +seated figures, one with clasped hands, the other holding a +lotus, both with “The light of the world” upon their +brows. The grand red gateway into the actual temple courts +has an extremely imposing effect, and besides, it is the portal +to the first great heathen temple that I have seen, and it made +me think of another temple whose courts were equally crowded with +buyers and sellers, and of a “whip of small cords” in +the hand of One who claimed both the temple and its courts as His +“Father’s House.” Not with less <a +name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>righteous +wrath would the gentle founder of Buddhism purify the +unsanctified courts of Asakusa. Hundreds of men, women, and +children passed to and fro through the gateway in incessant +streams, and so they are passing through every daylight hour of +every day in the year, thousands becoming tens of thousands on +the great <i>matsuri</i> days, when the <i>mikoshi</i>, or sacred +car, containing certain symbols of the god, is exhibited, and +after sacred mimes and dances have been performed, is carried in +a magnificent, antique procession to the shore and back +again. Under the gateway on either side are the +<i>Ni-ô</i>, or two kings, gigantic figures in flowing +robes, one red and with an open mouth, representing the +<i>Yo</i>, or male principle of Chinese philosophy, the other +green and with the mouth firmly closed, representing the +<i>In</i>, or female principle. They are hideous creatures, +with protruding eyes, and faces and figures distorted and +corrupted into a high degree of exaggerated and convulsive +action. These figures guard the gates of most of the larger +temples, and small prints of them are pasted over the doors of +houses to protect them against burglars. Attached to the +grating in front were a number of straw sandals, hung up by +people who pray that their limbs may be as muscular as those of +the <i>Ni-ô</i>.</p> +<p>Passing through this gate we were in the temple court proper, +and in front of the temple itself, a building of imposing height +and size, of a dull red colour, with a grand roof of heavy iron +grey tiles, with a sweeping curve which gives grace as well as +grandeur. The timbers and supports are solid and of great +size, but, in common with all Japanese temples, whether Buddhist +or Shintô, the edifice is entirely of wood. A broad +flight of narrow, steep, brass-bound steps lead up to the porch, +which is formed by a number of circular pillars supporting a very +lofty roof, from which paper lanterns ten feet long are +hanging. A gallery runs from this round the temple, under +cover of the eaves. There is an outer temple, unmatted, and +an inner one behind a grating, into which those who choose to pay +for the privilege of praying in comparative privacy, or of having +prayers said for them by the priests, can pass.</p> +<p>In the outer temple the noise, confusion, and perpetual +motion, are bewildering. Crowds on clattering clogs pass in +<a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>and out; +pigeons, of which hundreds live in the porch, fly over your head, +and the whirring of their wings mingles with the tinkling of +bells, the beating of drums and gongs, the high-pitched drone of +the priests, the low murmur of prayers, the rippling laughter of +girls, the harsh voices of men, and the general buzz of a +multitude. There is very much that is highly grotesque at +first sight. Men squat on the floor selling amulets, +rosaries, printed prayers, incense sticks, and other wares. +<i>Ex votos</i> of all kinds hang on the wall and on the great +round pillars. Many of these are rude Japanese +pictures. The subject of one is the blowing-up of a steamer +in the Sumidagawa with the loss of 100 lives, when the donor was +saved by the grace of Kwan-non. Numbers of memorials are +from people who offered up prayers here, and have been restored +to health or wealth. Others are from junk men whose lives +have been in peril. There are scores of men’s queues +and a few dusty braids of women’s hair offered on account +of vows or prayers, usually for sick relatives, and among them +all, on the left hand, are a large mirror in a gaudily gilt frame +and a framed picture of the P. M. S. <i>China</i>! Above +this incongruous collection are splendid wood carvings and +frescoes of angels, among which the pigeons find a home free from +molestation.</p> +<p>Near the entrance there is a superb incense-burner in the most +massive style of the older bronzes, with a mythical beast rampant +upon it, and in high relief round it the Japanese signs of the +zodiac—the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, serpent, horse, +goat, monkey, cock, dog, and hog. Clouds of incense rise +continually from the perforations round the edge, and a +black-toothed woman who keeps it burning is perpetually receiving +small coins from the worshippers, who then pass on to the front +of the altar to pray. The high altar, and indeed all that I +should regard as properly the temple, are protected by a screen +of coarsely-netted iron wire. This holy of holies is full +of shrines and gods, gigantic candlesticks, colossal lotuses of +gilded silver, offerings, lamps, lacquer, litany books, gongs, +drums, bells, and all the mysterious symbols of a faith which is +a system of morals and metaphysics to the educated and initiated, +and an idolatrous superstition to the masses. In this +interior the light was dim, the lamps burned low, the <a +name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>atmosphere +was heavy with incense, and amidst its fumes shaven priests in +chasubles and stoles moved noiselessly over the soft matting +round the high altar on which Kwan-non is enshrined, lighting +candles, striking bells, and murmuring prayers. In front of +the screen is the treasury, a wooden chest 14 feet by 10, with a +deep slit, into which all the worshippers cast copper coins with +a ceaseless clinking sound.</p> +<p>There, too, they pray, if that can be called prayer which +frequently consists only in the repetition of an uncomprehended +phrase in a foreign tongue, bowing the head, raising the hands +and rubbing them, murmuring a few words, telling beads, clapping +the hands, bowing again, and then passing out or on to another +shrine to repeat the same form. Merchants in silk clothing, +soldiers in shabby French uniforms, farmers, coolies in +“vile raiment,” mothers, maidens, swells in European +clothes, even the <i>samurai</i> policemen, bow before the +goddess of mercy. Most of the prayers were offered rapidly, +a mere momentary interlude in the gurgle of careless talk, and +without a pretence of reverence; but some of the petitioners +obviously brought real woes in simple “faith.”</p> +<p>In one shrine there is a large idol, spotted all over with +pellets of paper, and hundreds of these are sticking to the wire +netting which protects him. A worshipper writes his +petition on paper, or, better still, has it written for him by +the priest, chews it to a pulp, and spits it at the +divinity. If, having been well aimed, it passes through the +wire and sticks, it is a good omen, if it lodges in the netting +the prayer has probably been unheard. The <i>Ni-ô</i> +and some of the gods outside the temple are similarly +disfigured. On the left there is a shrine with a screen, to +the bars of which innumerable prayers have been tied. On +the right, accessible to all, sits Binzuru, one of Buddha’s +original sixteen disciples. His face and appearance have +been calm and amiable, with something of the quiet dignity of an +elderly country gentleman of the reign of George III.; but he is +now worn and defaced, and has not much more of eyes, nose, and +mouth than the Sphinx; and the polished, red lacquer has +disappeared from his hands and feet, for Binzuru is a great +medicine god, and centuries of sick people have rubbed his face +and limbs, and then have rubbed their own. A young woman +went up to <a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +27</span>him, rubbed the back of his neck, and then rubbed her +own. Then a modest-looking girl, leading an ancient woman +with badly inflamed eyelids and paralysed arms, rubbed his +eyelids, and then gently stroked the closed eyelids of the +crone. Then a coolie, with a swelled knee, applied himself +vigorously to Binzuru’s knee, and more gently to his +own. Remember, this is the great temple of the populace, +and “not many rich, not many noble, not many mighty,” +enter its dim, dirty, crowded halls. <a name="citation27"></a><a +href="#footnote27" class="citation">[27]</a></p> +<p>But the great temple to Kwan-non is not the only sight of +Asakusa. Outside it are countless shrines and temples, huge +stone <i>Amainu</i>, or heavenly dogs, on rude blocks of stone, +large cisterns of stone and bronze with and without canopies, +containing water for the ablutions of the worshippers, cast iron +<i>Amainu</i> on hewn stone pedestals—a recent +gift—bronze and stone lanterns, a stone prayer-wheel in a +stone post, figures of Buddha with the serene countenance of one +who rests from his labours, stone idols, on which devotees have +pasted slips of paper inscribed with prayers, with sticks of +incense rising out of the ashes of hundreds of former sticks +smouldering before them, blocks of hewn stone with Chinese and +Sanskrit inscriptions, an eight-sided temple in which are figures +of the “Five Hundred Disciples” of Buddha, a temple +with the roof and upper part of the walls richly coloured, the +circular Shintô mirror in an inner shrine, a bronze +treasury outside with a bell, which is rung to attract the +god’s attention, a striking, five-storied pagoda, with much +red lacquer, and the ends of the roof-beams very boldly carved, +its heavy eaves fringed with wind bells, and its uppermost roof +terminating in a graceful copper spiral of great height, with the +“sacred pearl” surrounded by flames for its +finial. Near it, as near most temples, is an upright frame +of plain wood with tablets, on which are inscribed the names of +donors to the temple, and the amount of their gifts.</p> +<p>There is a handsome stone-floored temple to the south-east of +the main building, to which we were the sole visitors. <a +name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>It is lofty +and very richly decorated. In the centre is an octagonal +revolving room, or rather shrine, of rich red lacquer most +gorgeously ornamented. It rests on a frame of carved black +lacquer, and has a lacquer gallery running round it, on which +several richly decorated doors open. On the application of +several shoulders to this gallery the shrine rotates. It +is, in fact, a revolving library of the Buddhist Scriptures, and +a single turn is equivalent to a single pious perusal of +them. It is an exceedingly beautiful specimen of ancient +decorative lacquer work. At the back part of the temple is +a draped brass figure of Buddha, with one hand raised—a +dignified piece of casting. All the Buddhas have Hindoo +features, and the graceful drapery and oriental repose which have +been imported from India contrast singularly with the grotesque +extravagances of the indigenous Japanese conceptions. In +the same temple are four monstrously extravagant figures carved +in wood, life-size, with clawed toes on their feet, and <a +name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>two great +fangs in addition to the teeth in each mouth. The heads of +all are surrounded with flames, and are backed by golden +circlets. They are extravagantly clothed in garments which +look as if they were agitated by a violent wind; they wear +helmets and partial suits of armour, and hold in their right +hands something between a monarch’s sceptre and a +priest’s staff. They have goggle eyes and open +mouths, and their faces are in distorted and exaggerated +action. One, painted bright red, tramples on a writhing +devil painted bright pink; another, painted emerald green, +tramples on a sea-green devil, an indigo blue monster tramples on +a sky-blue fiend, and a bright pink monster treads under his +clawed feet a flesh-coloured demon. I cannot give you any +idea of the hideousness of their aspect, and was much inclined to +sympathise with the more innocent-looking fiends whom they were +maltreating. They occur very frequently in Buddhist +temples, and are said by some to be assistant-torturers to Yemma, +the lord of hell, and are called by others “The gods of the +Four Quarters.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p28b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Stone Lanterns" +title= +"Stone Lanterns" + src="images/p28s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The temple grounds are a most extraordinary sight. No +English fair in the palmiest days of fairs ever presented such an +array of attractions. Behind the temple are archery +galleries in numbers, where girls, hardly so modest-looking as +usual, smile and smirk, and bring straw-coloured tea in dainty +cups, and tasteless sweetmeats on lacquer trays, and smoke their +tiny pipes, and offer you bows of slender bamboo strips, two feet +long, with rests for the arrows, and tiny cherry-wood arrows, +bone-tipped, and feathered red, blue, and white, and smilingly, +but quite unobtrusively, ask you to try your skill or luck at a +target hanging in front of a square drum, flanked by red +cushions. A click, a boom, or a hardly audible +“thud,” indicate the result. Nearly all the +archers were grown-up men, and many of them spend hours at a time +in this childish sport.</p> +<p>All over the grounds booths with the usual charcoal fire, +copper boiler, iron kettle of curious workmanship, tiny cups, +fragrant aroma of tea, and winsome, graceful girls, invite you to +drink and rest, and more solid but less inviting refreshments are +also to be had. Rows of pretty paper lanterns decorate all +the stalls. Then there are photograph galleries, mimic +tea-gardens, <a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +30</span>tableaux in which a large number of groups of life-size +figures with appropriate scenery are put into motion by a +creaking wheel of great size, matted lounges for rest, stands +with saucers of rice, beans and peas for offerings to the gods, +the pigeons, and the two sacred horses, Albino ponies, with pink +eyes and noses, revoltingly greedy creatures, eating all day long +and still craving for more. There are booths for singing +and dancing, and under one a professional story-teller was +reciting to a densely packed crowd one of the old, popular +stories of crime. There are booths where for a few +<i>rin</i> you may have the pleasure of feeding some very ugly +and greedy apes, or of watching mangy monkeys which have been +taught to prostrate themselves Japanese fashion.</p> +<p>This letter is far too long, but to pass over Asakusa and its +novelties when the impression of them is fresh would be to omit +one of the most interesting sights in Japan. On the way +back we passed red mail carts like those in London, a squadron of +cavalry in European uniforms and with European saddles, and the +carriage of the Minister of Marine, an English brougham with a +pair of horses in English harness, and an escort of six +troopers—a painful precaution adopted since the political +assassination of Okubo, the Home Minister, three weeks ago. +So the old and the new in this great city contrast with and +jostle each other. The Mikado and his ministers, naval and +military officers and men, the whole of the civil officials and +the police, wear European clothes, as well as a number of +dissipated-looking young men who aspire to represent “young +Japan.” Carriages and houses in English style, with +carpets, chairs, and tables, are becoming increasingly numerous, +and the bad taste which regulates the purchase of foreign +furnishings is as marked as the good taste which everywhere +presides over the adornment of the houses in purely Japanese +style. Happily these expensive and unbecoming innovations +have scarcely affected female dress, and some ladies who adopted +our fashions have given them up because of their discomfort and +manifold difficulties and complications.</p> +<p>The Empress on State occasions appears in scarlet satin +<i>hakama</i>, and flowing robes, and she and the Court ladies +invariably wear the national costume. I have only seen two +<a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>ladies in +European dress; and this was at a dinner-party here, and they +were the wives of Mr. Mori, the go-ahead Vice-Minister for +Foreign Affairs, and of the Japanese Consul at Hong Kong; and +both by long residence abroad have learned to wear it with +ease. The wife of Saigo, the Minister of Education, called +one day in an exquisite Japanese dress of dove-coloured silk +<i>crêpe</i>, with a pale pink under-dress of the same +material, which showed a little at the neck and sleeves. +Her girdle was of rich dove-coloured silk, with a ghost of a pale +pink blossom hovering upon it here and there. She had no +frills or fripperies of any description, or ornaments, except a +single pin in her chignon, and, with a sweet and charming face, +she looked as graceful and dignified in her Japanese costume as +she would have looked exactly the reverse in ours. Their +costume has one striking advantage over ours. A woman is +perfectly <i>clothed</i> if she has one garment and a girdle on, +and perfectly <i>dressed</i> if she has two. There is a +difference in features and expression—much exaggerated, +however, by Japanese artists—between the faces of high-born +women and those of the middle and lower classes. I decline +to admire fat-faces, pug noses, thick lips, long eyes, turned up +at the outer corners, and complexions which owe much to powder +and paint. The habit of painting the lips with a +reddish-yellow pigment, and of heavily powdering the face and +throat with pearl powder, is a repulsive one. But it is +hard to pronounce any unfavourable criticism on women who have so +much kindly grace of manner.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>LETTER +VI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Fears—Travelling +Equipments—Passports—Coolie Costume—A Yedo +Diorama—Rice-Fields—Tea-Houses—A +Traveller’s Reception—The Inn at +Kasukabé—Lack of Privacy—A Concourse of +Noises—A Nocturnal Alarm—A Vision of +Policemen—A Budget from Yedo.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kasukabé</span>, <i>June</i> 10.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">From</span> the date you will see that I +have started on my long journey, though not upon the +“unbeaten tracks” which I hope to take after leaving +Nikkô, and my first evening alone in the midst of this +crowded Asian life is strange, almost fearful. I have +suffered from nervousness all day—the fear of being +frightened, of being rudely mobbed, as threatened by Mr. Campbell +of Islay, of giving offence by transgressing the rules of +Japanese politeness—of, I know not what! Ito is my +sole reliance, and he may prove a “broken +reed.” I often wished to give up my project, but was +ashamed of my cowardice when, on the best authority, I received +assurances of its safety. <a name="citation32"></a><a +href="#footnote32" class="citation">[32]</a></p> +<p>The preparations were finished yesterday, and my outfit +weighed 110 lbs., which, with Ito’s weight of 90 lbs., is +as much as can be carried by an average Japanese horse. My +two painted wicker boxes lined with paper and with waterproof +covers are convenient for the two sides of a pack-horse. I +have a folding-chair—for in a Japanese house there is +nothing but the floor to sit upon, and not even a solid wall to +lean against—an air-pillow for <i>kuruma</i> travelling, an +india-rubber bath, sheets, a blanket, and last, and more +important than all else, a canvas stretcher on light poles, which +can be put <a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +33</span>together in two minutes; and being 2½ feet high +is supposed to be secure from fleas. The “Food +Question” has been solved by a modified rejection of all +advice! I have only brought a small supply of +Liebig’s extract of meat, 4 lbs. of raisins, some +chocolate, both for eating and drinking, and some brandy in case +of need. I have my own Mexican saddle and bridle, a +reasonable quantity of clothes, including a loose wrapper for +wearing in the evenings, some candles, Mr. Brunton’s large +map of Japan, volumes of the Transactions of the English Asiatic +Society, and Mr. Satow’s Anglo-Japanese Dictionary. +My travelling dress is a short costume of dust-coloured striped +tweed, with strong laced boots of unblacked leather, and a +Japanese hat, shaped like a large inverted bowl, of light bamboo +plait, with a white cotton cover, and a very light frame inside, +which fits round the brow and leaves a space of 1½ inches +between the hat and the head for the free circulation of +air. It only weighs 2½ ounces, and is infinitely to +be preferred to a heavy pith helmet, and, light as it is, it +protects the head so thoroughly, that, though the sun has been +unclouded all day and the mercury at 86°, no other protection +has been necessary. My money is in bundles of 50 +<i>yen</i>, and 50, 20, and 10 <i>sen</i> notes, besides which I +have some rouleaux of copper coins. I have a bag for my +passport, which hangs to my waist. All my luggage, with the +exception of my saddle, which I use for a footstool, goes into +one <i>kuruma</i>, and Ito, who is limited to 12 lbs., takes his +along with him.</p> +<p>I have three <i>kurumas</i>, which are to go to Nikkô, +ninety miles, in three days, without change of runners, for about +eleven shillings each.</p> +<p>Passports usually define the route over which the foreigner is +to travel, but in this case Sir H. Parkes has obtained one which +is practically unrestricted, for it permits me to travel through +all Japan north of Tôkiyô and in Yezo without +specifying any route. This precious document, without which +I should be liable to be arrested and forwarded to my consul, is +of course in Japanese, but the cover gives in English the +regulations under which it is issued. A passport must be +applied for, for reasons of “health, botanical research, or +scientific investigation.” Its bearer must not light +fires in <a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +34</span>woods, attend fires on horseback, trespass on fields, +enclosures, or game-preserves, scribble on temples, shrines, or +walls, drive fast on a narrow road, or disregard notices of +“No thoroughfare.” He must “conduct +himself in an orderly and conciliating manner towards the +Japanese authorities and people;” he “must produce +his passport to any officials who may demand it,” under +pain of arrest; and while in the interior “is forbidden to +shoot, trade, to conclude mercantile contracts with Japanese, or +to rent houses or rooms for a longer period than his journey +requires.”</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Nikkô</span>, <i>June</i> +13.—This is one of the paradises of Japan! It is a +proverbial saying, “He who has not seen Nikkô must +not use the word kek’ko” (splendid, delicious, +beautiful); but of this more hereafter. My attempt to write +to you from Kasukabé failed, owing to the onslaught of an +army of fleas, which compelled me to retreat to my stretcher, and +the last two nights, for this and other reasons, writing has been +out of the question.</p> +<p>I left the Legation at 11 a.m. on Monday and reached +Kasukabé at 5 p.m., the runners keeping up an easy trot +the whole journey of twenty-three miles; but the halts for +smoking and eating were frequent.</p> +<p>These kuruma-runners wore short blue cotton drawers, girdles +with tobacco pouch and pipe attached, short blue cotton shirts +with wide sleeves, and open in front, reaching to their waists, +and blue cotton handkerchiefs knotted round their heads, except +when the sun was very hot, when they took the flat flag discs, +two feet in diameter, which always hang behind <i>kurumas</i>, +and are used either in sun or rain, and tied them on their +heads. They wore straw sandals, which had to be replaced +twice on the way. Blue and white towels hung from the +shafts to wipe away the sweat, which ran profusely down the lean, +brown bodies. The upper garment always flew behind them, +displaying chests and backs elaborately tattooed with dragons and +fishes. Tattooing has recently been prohibited; but it was +not only a favourite adornment, but a substitute for perishable +clothing.</p> +<p>Most of the men of the lower classes wear their hair in a very +ugly fashion,—the front and top of the head being shaved, +the long hair from the back and sides being drawn up and <a +name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>tied, then +waxed, tied again, and cut short off, the stiff queue being +brought forward and laid, pointing forwards, along the back part +of the top of the head. This top-knot is shaped much like a +short clay pipe. The shaving and dressing the hair thus +require the skill of a professional barber. Formerly the +hair was worn in this way by the <i>samurai</i>, in order that +the helmet might fit comfortably, but it is now the style of the +lower classes mostly and by no means invariably.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p35b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"A Kuruma" +title= +"A Kuruma" + src="images/p35s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Blithely, at a merry trot, the coolies hurried us away from +the kindly group in the Legation porch, across the inner moat and +along the inner drive of the castle, past gateways and retaining +walls of Cyclopean masonry, across the second moat, along miles +of streets of sheds and shops, all grey, thronged with +foot-passengers and <i>kurumas</i>, with pack-horses loaded two +or three feet above their backs, the arches of their saddles red +and gilded lacquer, their frontlets of red leather, their +“shoes” straw sandals, their heads tied tightly to +the saddle-girth on <a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +36</span>either side, great white cloths figured with mythical +beasts in blue hanging down loosely under their bodies; with +coolies dragging heavy loads to the guttural cry of <i>Hai</i>! +<i>huida</i>! with children whose heads were shaved in hideous +patterns; and now and then, as if to point a moral lesson in the +midst of the whirling diorama, a funeral passed through the +throng, with a priest in rich robes, mumbling prayers, a covered +barrel containing the corpse, and a train of mourners in blue +dresses with white wings. Then we came to the fringe of +Yedo, where the houses cease to be continuous, but all that day +there was little interval between them. All had open +fronts, so that the occupations of the inmates, the +“domestic life” in fact, were perfectly +visible. Many of these houses were road-side <i>chayas</i>, +or tea-houses, and nearly all sold sweet-meats, dried fish, +pickles, <i>mochi</i>, or uncooked cakes of rice dough, dried +persimmons, rain hats, or straw shoes for man or beast. The +road, though wide enough for two carriages (of which we saw +none), was not good, and the ditches on both sides were +frequently neither clean nor sweet. Must I write it? +The houses were mean, poor, shabby, often even squalid, the +smells were bad, and the people looked ugly, shabby, and poor, +though all were working at something or other.</p> +<p>The country is a dead level, and mainly an artificial mud flat +or swamp, in whose fertile ooze various aquatic birds were +wading, and in which hundreds of men and women were wading too, +above their knees in slush; for this plain of Yedo is mainly a +great rice-field, and this is the busy season of rice-planting; +for here, in the sense in which we understand it, they do not +“cast their bread upon the waters.” There are +eight or nine leading varieties of rice grown in Japan, all of +which, except an upland species, require mud, water, and much +puddling and nasty work. Rice is the staple food and the +wealth of Japan. Its revenues were estimated in rice. +Rice is grown almost wherever irrigation is possible.</p> +<p>The rice-fields are usually very small and of all +shapes. A quarter of an acre is a good-sized field. +The rice crop planted in June is not reaped till November, but in +the meantime it needs to be “puddled” three times, +i.e. for all the people to turn into the slush, and grub out all +the weeds and tangled aquatic plants, which weave themselves from +tuft to <a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +37</span>tuft, and puddle up the mud afresh round the +roots. It grows in water till it is ripe, when the fields +are dried off. An acre of the best land produces annually +about fifty-four bushels of rice, and of the worst about +thirty.</p> +<p>On the plain of Yedo, besides the nearly continuous villages +along the causewayed road, there are islands, as they may be +called, of villages surrounded by trees, and hundreds of pleasant +oases on which wheat ready for the sickle, onions, millet, beans, +and peas, were flourishing. There were lotus ponds too, in +which the glorious lily, <i>Nelumbo nucifera</i>, is being grown +for the sacrilegious purpose of being eaten! Its splendid +classical leaves are already a foot above the water.</p> +<p>After running cheerily for several miles my men bowled me into +a tea-house, where they ate and smoked while I sat in the garden, +which consisted of baked mud, smooth stepping-stones, a little +pond with some goldfish, a deformed pine, and a stone +lantern. Observe that foreigners are wrong in calling the +Japanese houses of entertainment indiscriminately +“tea-houses.” A tea-house or <i>chaya</i> is a +house at which you can obtain tea and other refreshments, rooms +to eat them in, and attendance. That which to some extent +answers to an hotel is a <i>yadoya</i>, which provides sleeping +accommodation and food as required. The licenses are +different. Tea-houses are of all grades, from the +three-storied erections, gay with flags and lanterns, in the +great cities and at places of popular resort, down to the +road-side tea-house, as represented in the engraving, with three +or four lounges of dark-coloured wood under its eaves, usually +occupied by naked coolies in all attitudes of easiness and +repose. The floor is raised about eighteen inches above the +ground, and in these tea-houses is frequently a matted platform +with a recess called the <i>doma</i>, literally +“earth-space,” in the middle, round which runs a +ledge of polished wood called the <i>itama</i>, or “board +space,” on which travellers sit while they bathe their +soiled feet with the water which is immediately brought to them; +for neither with soiled feet nor in foreign shoes must one +advance one step on the matted floor. On one side of the +<i>doma</i> is the kitchen, with its one or two charcoal fires, +where the coolies lounge on the mats and take their food and +smoke, and on the other the family pursue their avocations. +In almost the <a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +38</span>smallest tea-house there are one or two rooms at the +back, but all the life and interest are in the open front. +In the small tea-houses there is only an <i>irori</i>, a square +hole in the floor, full of sand or white ash, on which the live +charcoal for cooking purposes is placed, and small racks for food +and eating utensils; but in the large ones there is a row of +charcoal stoves, and the walls are garnished up to the roof with +shelves, and the lacquer tables and lacquer and china ware used +by the guests. The large tea-houses contain the +possibilities for a number of rooms which can be extemporised at +once by sliding paper panels, called <i>fusuma</i>, along grooves +in the floor and in the ceiling or cross-beams.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p38b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Road-Side Tea-House" +title= +"Road-Side Tea-House" + src="images/p38s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>When we stopped at wayside tea-houses the runners bathed their +feet, rinsed their mouths, and ate rice, pickles, salt fish, and +“broth of abominable things,” after which they smoked +<a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>their tiny +pipes, which give them three whiffs for each filling. As +soon as I got out at any of these, one smiling girl brought me +the <i>tabako-bon</i>, a square wood or lacquer tray, with a +china or bamboo charcoal-holder and ash-pot upon it, and another +presented me with a <i>zen</i>, a small lacquer table about six +inches high, with a tiny teapot with a hollow handle at right +angles with the spout, holding about an English tea-cupful, and +two cups without handles or saucers, with a capacity of from ten +to twenty thimblefuls each. The hot water is merely allowed +to rest a minute on the tea-leaves, and the infusion is a clear +straw-coloured liquid with a delicious aroma and flavour, +grateful and refreshing at all times. If Japanese tea +“stands,” it acquires a coarse bitterness and an +unwholesome astringency. Milk and sugar are not used. +A clean-looking wooden or lacquer pail with a lid is kept in all +tea-houses, and though hot rice, except to order, is only ready +three times daily, the pail always contains cold rice, and the +coolies heat it by pouring hot tea over it. As you eat, a +tea-house girl, with this pail beside her, squats on the floor in +front of you, and fills your rice bowl till you say, “Hold, +enough!” On this road it is expected that you leave +three or four <i>sen</i> on the tea-tray for a rest of an hour or +two and tea.</p> +<p>All day we travelled through rice swamps, along a +much-frequented road, as far as Kasukabé, a good-sized but +miserable-looking town, with its main street like one of the +poorest streets in Tôkiyô, and halted for the night +at a large <i>yadoya</i>, with downstairs and upstairs rooms, +crowds of travellers, and many evil smells. On entering, +the house-master or landlord, the <i>teishi</i>, folded his hands +and prostrated himself, touching the floor with his forehead +three times. It is a large, rambling old house, and fully +thirty servants were bustling about in the <i>daidokoro</i>, or +great open kitchen. I took a room upstairs (i.e. up a steep +step-ladder of dark, polished wood), with a balcony under the +deep eaves. The front of the house upstairs was one long +room with only sides and a front, but it was immediately divided +into four by drawing sliding screens or panels, covered with +opaque wall papers, into their proper grooves. A back was +also improvised, but this was formed of frames with panes of +translucent paper, like our tissue paper, with sundry holes and +rents. This <a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>being done, I found myself the possessor of a room about +sixteen feet square, without hook, shelf, rail, or anything on +which to put anything—nothing, in short, but a matted +floor. Do not be misled by the use of this word +matting. Japanese house-mats, <i>tatami</i>, are as neat, +refined, and soft a covering for the floor as the finest +Axminster carpet. They are 5 feet 9 inches long, 3 feet +broad, and 2½ inches thick. The frame is solidly +made of coarse straw, and this is covered with very fine woven +matting, as nearly white as possible, and each mat is usually +bound with dark blue cloth. Temples and rooms are measured +by the number of mats they contain, and rooms must be built for +the mats, as they are never cut to the rooms. They are +always level with the polished grooves or ledges which surround +the floor. They are soft and elastic, and the finer +qualities are very beautiful. They are as expensive as the +best Brussels carpet, and the Japanese take great pride in them, +and are much aggrieved by the way in which some thoughtless +foreigners stamp over them with dirty boots. Unfortunately +they harbour myriads of fleas.</p> +<p>Outside my room an open balcony with many similiar rooms ran +round a forlorn aggregate of dilapidated shingle roofs and +water-butts. These rooms were all full. Ito asked me +for instructions once for all, put up my stretcher under a large +mosquito net of coarse green canvas with a fusty smell, filled my +bath, brought me some tea, rice, and eggs, took my passport to be +copied by the house-master, and departed, I know not +whither. I tried to write to you, but fleas and mosquitoes +prevented it, and besides, the <i>fusuma</i> were frequently +noiselessly drawn apart, and several pairs of dark, elongated +eyes surveyed me through the cracks; for there were two Japanese +families in the room to the right, and five men in that to the +left. I closed the sliding windows, with translucent paper +for window panes, called <i>shôji</i>, and went to bed, but +the lack of privacy was fearful, and I have not yet sufficient +trust in my fellow-creatures to be comfortable without locks, +walls, or doors! Eyes were constantly applied to the sides +of the room, a girl twice drew aside the <i>shôji</i> +between it and the corridor; a man, who I afterwards found was a +blind man, offering his services as a shampooer, came in and said +some (of course) unintelligible words, and the new noises were <a +name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>perfectly +bewildering. On one side a man recited Buddhist prayers in +a high key; on the other a girl was twanging a <i>samisen</i>, a +species of guitar; the house was full of talking and splashing, +drums and tom-toms were beaten outside; there were street cries +innumerable, and the whistling of the blind shampooers, and the +resonant clap of the fire-watchman who perambulates all Japanese +villages, and beats two pieces of wood together in token of his +vigilance, were intolerable. It was a life of which I knew +nothing, and the mystery was more alarming than attractive; my +money was lying about, and nothing seemed easier than to slide a +hand through the <i>fusuma</i> and appropriate it. Ito told +me that the well was badly contaminated, the odours were fearful; +illness was to be feared as well as robbery! So +unreasonably I reasoned! <a name="citation41"></a><a +href="#footnote41" class="citation">[41]</a></p> +<p>My bed is merely a piece of canvas nailed to two wooden +bars. When I lay down the canvas burst away from the lower +row of nails with a series of cracks, and sank gradually till I +found myself lying on a sharp-edged pole which connects the two +pair of trestles, and the helpless victim of fleas and +mosquitoes. I lay for three hours, not daring to stir lest +I should bring the canvas altogether down, becoming more and more +nervous every moment, and then Ito called outside the +<i>shôji</i>, “It would be best, Miss Bird, that I +should see you.” What horror can this be? I thought, +and was not reassured when he added, “Here’s a +messenger from the Legation and two policemen want to speak to +you.” On arriving I had done the correct thing in +giving the house-master my passport, which, according to law, he +had copied into his book, and had sent a duplicate copy to the +police-station, and this intrusion near midnight was as +unaccountable as it was unwarrantable. Nevertheless the +appearance of the two mannikins in European uniforms, with the +familiar batons and bull’s-eye lanterns, and with manners +which were respectful without being deferential, gave me +immediate relief. I should have welcomed twenty of their +species, for their presence assured me of the fact that I am +known and registered, and that a Government which, for <a +name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>special +reasons, is anxious to impress foreigners with its power and +omniscience is responsible for my safety.</p> +<p>While they spelt through my passport by their dim lantern I +opened the Yedo parcel, and found that it contained a tin of +lemon sugar, a most kind note from Sir Harry Parkes, and a packet +of letters from you. While I was attempting to open the +letters, Ito, the policemen, and the lantern glided out of my +room, and I lay uneasily till daylight, with the letters and +telegram, for which I had been yearning for six weeks, on my bed +unopened!</p> +<p>Already I can laugh at my fears and misfortunes, as I hope you +will. A traveller must buy his own experience, and success +or failure depends mainly on personal idiosyncrasies. Many +matters will be remedied by experience as I go on, and I shall +acquire the habit of feeling secure; but lack of privacy, bad +smells, and the torments of fleas and mosquitoes are, I fear, +irremediable evils.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p42b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Sir Harry’s Messenger" +title= +"Sir Harry’s Messenger" + src="images/p42s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>LETTER +VI.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Coolie falls ill—Peasant +Costume—Varieties in Threshing—The Tochigi +<i>yadoya</i>—Farming Villages—A Beautiful +Region—An <i>In Memoriam</i> Avenue—A Doll’s +Street—Nikkô—The Journey’s +End—Coolie Kindliness.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">By</span> seven the next morning the rice +was eaten, the room as bare as if it had never been occupied, the +bill of 80 <i>sen</i> paid, the house-master and servants with +many <i>sayo naras</i>, or farewells, had prostrated themselves, +and we were away in the <i>kurumas</i> at a rapid trot. At +the first halt my runner, a kindly, good-natured creature, but +absolutely hideous, was seized with pain and vomiting, owing, he +said, to drinking the bad water at Kasukabé, and was left +behind. He pleased me much by the honest independent way in +which he provided a substitute, strictly adhering to his bargain, +and never asking for a gratuity on account of his illness. +He had been so kind and helpful that I felt quite sad at leaving +him there ill,—only a coolie, to be sure, only an atom +among the 34,000,000 of the Empire, but not less precious to our +Father in heaven than any other. It was a brilliant day, +with the mercury 86° in the shade, but the heat was not +oppressive. At noon we reached the Toné, and I rode +on a coolie’s tattooed shoulders through the shallow part, +and then, with the <i>kurumas</i>, some ill-disposed pack-horses, +and a number of travellers, crossed in a flat-bottomed +boat. The boatmen, travellers, and cultivators, were nearly +or altogether without clothes, but the richer farmers worked in +the fields in curved bamboo hats as large as umbrellas, +<i>kimonos</i> with large sleeves not girt up, and large fans +attached to their girdles. Many of the travellers whom we +met were without hats, but shielded the front of the head by +holding a fan between it and the sun. Probably the +inconvenience of the national costume for working men partly +accounts for the <a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +44</span>general practice of getting rid of it. It is such +a hindrance, even in walking, that most pedestrians have +“their loins girded up” by taking the middle of the +hem at the bottom of the <i>kimono</i> and tucking it under the +girdle. This, in the case of many, shows woven, +tight-fitting, elastic, white cotton pantaloons, reaching to the +ankles. After ferrying another river at a village from +which a steamer plies to Tôkiyô, the country became +much more pleasing, the rice-fields fewer, the trees, houses, and +barns larger, and, in the distance, high hills loomed faintly +through the haze. Much of the wheat, of which they +don’t make bread, but vermicelli, is already being +carried. You see wheat stacks, ten feet high, moving +slowly, and while you are wondering, you become aware of four +feet moving below them; for all the crop is carried on +horses’ if not on human backs. I went to see several +threshing-floors,—clean, open spaces outside +barns,—where the grain is laid on mats and threshed by two +or four men with heavy revolving flails. Another method is +for women to beat out the grain on racks of split bamboo laid +lengthwise; and I saw yet a third practised both in the fields +and barn-yards, in which women pass handfuls of stalks backwards +through a sort of carding instrument with sharp iron teeth placed +in a slanting position, which cuts off the ears, leaving the +stalk unbruised. This is probably “the sharp +threshing instrument having teeth” mentioned by +Isaiah. The ears are then rubbed between the hands. +In this region the wheat was winnowed altogether by hand, and +after the wind had driven the chaff away, the grain was laid out +on mats to dry. Sickles are not used, but the reaper takes +a handful of stalks and cuts them off close to the ground with a +short, straight knife, fixed at a right angle with the +handle. The wheat is sown in rows with wide spaces between +them, which are utilised for beans and other crops, and no sooner +is it removed than <i>daikon</i> (<i>Raphanus sativus</i>), +cucumbers, or some other vegetable, takes its place, as the land +under careful tillage and copious manuring bears two, and even +three, crops, in the year. The soil is trenched for wheat +as for all crops except rice, not a weed is to be seen, and the +whole country looks like a well-kept garden. The barns in +this district are very handsome, and many of their grand roofs +have that concave sweep with which we are familiar in the +pagoda. <a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +45</span>The eaves are often eight feet deep, and the thatch +three feet thick. Several of the farm-yards have handsome +gateways like the ancient “lychgates” of some of our +English churchyards much magnified. As animals are not used +for milk, draught, or food, and there are no pasture lands, both +the country and the farm-yards have a singular silence and an +inanimate look; a mean-looking dog and a few fowls being the only +representatives of domestic animal life. I long for the +lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep.</p> +<p>At six we reached Tochigi, a large town, formerly the castle +town of a <i>daimiyô</i>. Its special manufacture is +rope of many kinds, a great deal of hemp being grown in the +neighbourhood. Many of the roofs are tiled, and the town +has a more solid and handsome appearance than those that we had +previously passed through. But from Kasukabé to +Tochigi was from bad to worse. I nearly abandoned Japanese +travelling altogether, and, if last night had not been a great +improvement, I think I should have gone ignominiously back to +Tôkiyô. The <i>yadoya</i> was a very large one, +and, as sixty guests had arrived before me, there was no choice +of accommodation, and I had to be contented with a room enclosed +on all sides not by <i>fusuma</i> but <i>shôji</i>, and +with barely room for my bed, bath, and chair, under a fusty green +mosquito net which was a perfect nest of fleas. One side of +the room was against a much-frequented passage, and another +opened on a small yard upon which three opposite rooms also +opened, crowded with some not very sober or decorous +travellers. The <i>shôji</i> were full of holes, and +often at each hole I saw a human eye. Privacy was a luxury +not even to be recalled. Besides the constant application +of eyes to the <i>shôji</i>, the servants, who were very +noisy and rough, looked into my room constantly without any +pretext; the host, a bright, pleasant-looking man, did the same; +jugglers, musicians, blind shampooers, and singing girls, all +pushed the screens aside; and I began to think that Mr. Campbell +was right, and that a lady should not travel alone in +Japan. Ito, who had the room next to mine, suggested that +robbery was quite likely, and asked to be allowed to take charge +of my money, but did not decamp with it during the night! I +lay down on my precarious stretcher before eight, but as the +night advanced the din of the house increased till <a +name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>it became +truly diabolical, and never ceased till after one. Drums, +tom-toms, and cymbals were beaten; <i>kotos</i> and +<i>samisens</i> screeched and twanged; <i>geishas</i> +(professional women with the accomplishments of dancing, singing, +and playing) danced,—accompanied by songs whose jerking +discords were most laughable; story-tellers recited tales in a +high key, and the running about and splashing close to my room +never ceased. Late at night my precarious +<i>shôji</i> were accidentally thrown down, revealing a +scene of great hilarity, in which a number of people were bathing +and throwing water over each other.</p> +<p>The noise of departures began at daylight, and I was glad to +leave at seven. Before you go the <i>fusuma</i> are slidden +back, and what was your room becomes part of a great, open, +matted space—an arrangement which effectually prevents +fustiness. Though the road was up a slight incline, and the +men were too tired to trot, we made thirty miles in nine +hours. The kindliness and courtesy of the coolies to me and +to each other was a constant source of pleasure to me. It +is most amusing to see the elaborate politeness of the greetings +of men clothed only in hats and <i>maros</i>. The hat is +invariably removed when they speak to each other, and three +profound bows are never omitted.</p> +<p>Soon after leaving the <i>yadoya</i> we passed through a wide +street with the largest and handsomest houses I have yet seen on +both sides. They were all open in front; their +highly-polished floors and passages looked like still water; the +<i>kakemonos</i>, or wall-pictures, on their side-walls were +extremely beautiful; and their mats were very fine and +white. There were large gardens at the back, with fountains +and flowers, and streams, crossed by light stone bridges, +sometimes flowed through the houses. From the signs I +supposed them to be <i>yadoyas</i>, but on asking Ito why we had +not put up at one of them, he replied that they were all +<i>kashitsukeya</i>, or tea-houses of disreputable +character—a very sad fact. <a name="citation46"></a><a +href="#footnote46" class="citation">[46]</a></p> +<p>As we journeyed the country became prettier and prettier, <a +name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>rolling up to +abrupt wooded hills with mountains in the clouds behind. +The farming villages are comfortable and embowered in wood, and +the richer farmers seclude their dwellings by closely-clipped +hedges, or rather screens, two feet wide, and often twenty feet +high. Tea grew near every house, and its leaves were being +gathered and dried on mats. Signs of silk culture began to +appear in shrubberies of mulberry trees, and white and sulphur +yellow cocoons were lying in the sun along the road in flat +trays. Numbers of women sat in the fronts of the houses +weaving cotton cloth fifteen inches wide, and cotton yarn, mostly +imported from England, was being dyed in all the +villages—the dye used being a native indigo, the +<i>Polygonum tinctorium</i>. Old women were spinning, and +young and old usually pursued their avocations with wise-looking +babies tucked into the backs of their dresses, and peering +cunningly over their shoulders. Even little girls of seven +and eight were playing at children’s games with babies on +their backs, and those who were too small to carry real ones had +big dolls strapped on in similar fashion. Innumerable +villages, crowded houses, and babies in all, give one the +impression of a very populous country.</p> +<p>As the day wore on in its brightness and glory the pictures +became more varied and beautiful. Great snow-slashed +mountains looked over the foothills, on whose steep sides the +dark blue green of pine and cryptomeria was lighted up by the +spring tints of deciduous trees. There were groves of +cryptomeria on small hills crowned by Shintô shrines, +approached by grand flights of stone stairs. The red gold +of the harvest fields contrasted with the fresh green and +exquisite leafage of the hemp; rose and white azaleas lighted up +the copse-woods; and when the broad road passed into the colossal +avenue of cryptomeria which overshadows the way to the sacred +shrines of Nikkô, and tremulous sunbeams and shadows +flecked the grass, I felt that Japan was beautiful, and that the +mud flats of Yedo were only an ugly dream!</p> +<p>Two roads lead to Nikkô. I avoided the one usually +taken by Utsunomiya, and by doing so lost the most magnificent of +the two avenues, which extends for nearly fifty miles along the +great highway called the Oshiu-kaido. Along the +Reiheishi-kaido, the road by which I came, it extends for <a +name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>thirty miles, +and the two, broken frequently by villages, converge upon the +village of Imaichi, eight miles from Nikkô, where they +unite, and only terminate at the entrance of the town. They +are said to have been planted as an offering to the buried +Shôguns by a man who was too poor to place a bronze lantern +at their shrines. A grander monument could not have been +devised, and they are probably the grandest things of their kind +in the world. The avenue of the Reiheishi-kaido is a good +carriage road with sloping banks eight feet high, covered with +grass and ferns. At the top of these are the cryptomeria, +then two grassy walks, and between these and the cultivation a +screen of saplings and brushwood. A great many of the trees +become two at four feet from the ground. Many of the stems +are twenty-seven feet in girth; they do not diminish or branch +till they have reached a height of from 50 to 60 feet, and the +appearance of altitude is aided by the longitudinal splitting of +the reddish coloured bark into strips about two inches +wide. The trees are pyramidal, and at a little distance +resemble cedars. There is a deep solemnity about this +glorious avenue with its broad shade and dancing lights, and the +rare glimpses of high mountains. Instinct alone would tell +one that it leads to something which must be grand and beautiful +like itself. It is broken occasionally by small villages +with big bells suspended between double poles; by wayside shrines +with offerings of rags and flowers; by stone effigies of Buddha +and his disciples, mostly defaced or overthrown, all wearing the +same expression of beatified rest and indifference to mundane +affairs; and by temples of lacquered wood falling to decay, whose +bells sent their surpassingly sweet tones far on the evening +air.</p> +<p>Imaichi, where the two stately aisles unite, is a long uphill +street, with a clear mountain stream enclosed in a stone channel, +and crossed by hewn stone slabs running down the middle. In +a room built over the stream, and commanding a view up and down +the street, two policemen sat writing. It looks a dull +place without much traffic, as if oppressed by the stateliness of +the avenues below it and the shrines above it, but it has a quiet +<i>yadoya</i>, where I had a good night’s rest, although my +canvas bed was nearly on the ground. We left early this +morning in drizzling rain, and went straight up hill <a +name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>under the +cryptomeria for eight miles. The vegetation is as profuse +as one would expect in so damp and hot a summer climate, and from +the prodigious rainfall of the mountains; every stone is covered +with moss, and the road-sides are green with the <i>Protococcus +viridis</i> and several species of <i>Marchantia</i>. We +were among the foothills of the Nantaizan mountains at a height +of 1000 feet, abrupt in their forms, wooded to their summits, and +noisy with the dash and tumble of a thousand streams. The +long street of Hachiishi, with its steep-roofed, deep-eaved +houses, its warm colouring, and its steep roadway with steps at +intervals, has a sort of Swiss picturesqueness as you enter it, +as you must, on foot, while your <i>kurumas</i> are hauled and +lifted up the steps; nor is the resemblance given by steep roofs, +pines, and mountains patched with coniferæ, altogether lost +as you ascend the steep street, and see wood carvings and quaint +baskets of wood and grass offered everywhere for sale. It +is a truly dull, quaint street, and the people come out to stare +at a foreigner as if foreigners had not become common events +since 1870, when Sir H. and Lady Parkes, the first Europeans who +were permitted to visit Nikkô, took up their abode in the +Imperial Hombô. It is a doll’s street with +small low houses, so finely matted, so exquisitely clean, so +finically neat, so light and delicate, that even when I entered +them without my boots I felt like a “bull in a china +shop,” as if my mere weight must smash through and +destroy. The street is so painfully clean that I should no +more think of walking over it in muddy boots than over a +drawing-room carpet. It has a silent mountain look, and +most of its shops sell specialties, lacquer work, boxes of +sweetmeats made of black beans and sugar, all sorts of boxes, +trays, cups, and stands, made of plain, polished wood, and more +grotesque articles made from the roots of trees.</p> +<p>It was not part of my plan to stay at the beautiful +<i>yadoya</i> which receives foreigners in Hachiishi, and I sent +Ito half a mile farther with a note in Japanese to the owner of +the house where I now am, while I sat on a rocky eminence at the +top of the street, unmolested by anybody, looking over to the +solemn groves upon the mountains, where the two greatest of the +Shôguns “sleep in glory.” Below, the +rushing Daiyagawa, swollen by the night’s rain, thundered +through a narrow gorge. <a name="page50"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 50</span>Beyond, colossal flights of stone +stairs stretch mysteriously away among cryptomeria groves, above +which tower the Nikkôsan mountains. Just where the +torrent finds its impetuosity checked by two stone walls, it is +spanned by a bridge, 84 feet long by 18 wide, of dull red +lacquer, resting on two stone piers on either side, connected by +two transverse stone beams. A welcome bit of colour it is +amidst the masses of dark greens and soft greys, though there is +nothing imposing in its structure, and its interest consists in +being the Mihashi, or Sacred Bridge, built in 1636, formerly open +only to the Shôguns, the envoy of the Mikado, and to +pilgrims twice a year. Both its gates are locked. +Grand and lonely Nikkô looks, the home of rain and +mist. <i>Kuruma</i> roads end here, and if you wish to go +any farther, you must either walk, ride, or be carried.</p> +<p>Ito was long away, and the coolies kept addressing me in +Japanese, which made me feel helpless and solitary, and +eventually they shouldered my baggage, and, descending a flight +of steps, we crossed the river by the secular bridge, and shortly +met my host, Kanaya, a very bright, pleasant-looking man, who +bowed nearly to the earth. Terraced roads in every +direction lead through cryptomerias to the shrines; and this one +passes many a stately enclosure, but leads away from the temples, +and though it is the highway to Chiuzenjii, a place of popular +pilgrimage, Yumoto, a place of popular resort, and several other +villages, it is very rugged, and, having flights of stone steps +at intervals, is only practicable for horses and pedestrians.</p> +<p>At the house, with the appearance of which I was at once +delighted, I regretfully parted with my coolies, who had served +me kindly and faithfully. They had paid me many little +attentions, such as always beating the dust out of my dress, +inflating my air-pillow, and bringing me flowers, and were always +grateful when I walked up hills; and just now, after going for a +frolic to the mountains, they called to wish me good-bye, +bringing branches of azaleas.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>LETTER +VII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Japanese Idyll—Musical +Stillness—My Rooms—Floral Decorations—Kanaya +and his Household—Table Equipments.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kanaya’s</span>, <span +class="smcap">Nikkô</span>, <i>June</i> 15.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">don’t</span> know what to write +about my house. It is a Japanese idyll; there is nothing +within or without which does not please the eye, and, after the +din of <i>yadoyas</i>, its silence, musical with the dash of +waters and the twitter of birds, is truly refreshing. It is +a simple but irregular two-storied pavilion, standing on a +stone-faced terrace approached by a flight of stone steps. +The garden is well laid out, and, as peonies, irises, and azaleas +are now in blossom, it is very bright. The mountain, with +its lower part covered with red azaleas, rises just behind, and a +stream which tumbles down it supplies the house with water, both +cold and pure, and another, after forming a miniature cascade, +passes under the house and through a fish-pond with rocky islets +into the river below. The grey village of Irimichi lies on +the other side of the road, shut in with the rushing Daiya, and +beyond it are high, broken hills, richly wooded, and slashed with +ravines and waterfalls.</p> +<p>Kanaya’s sister, a very sweet, refined-looking woman, +met me at the door and divested me of my boots. The two +verandahs are highly polished, so are the entrance and the stairs +which lead to my room, and the mats are so fine and white that I +almost fear to walk over them, even in my stockings. The +polished stairs lead to a highly polished, broad verandah with a +beautiful view, from which you enter one large room, which, being +too large, was at once made into two. Four highly polished +steps lead from this into an exquisite room at the back, which +Ito occupies, and another polished staircase into the bath-house +and garden. The whole front of <a name="page52"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 52</span>my room is composed of +<i>shôji</i>, which slide back during the day. The +ceiling is of light wood crossed by bars of dark wood, and the +posts which support it are of dark polished wood. The +panels are of wrinkled sky-blue paper splashed with gold. +At one end are two alcoves with floors of polished wood, called +<i>tokonoma</i>. In one hangs a <i>kakemono</i>, or +wall-picture, a painting of a blossoming branch of the cherry on +white silk—a perfect piece of art, which in itself fills +the room with freshness and beauty. The artist who painted +it painted nothing but cherry blossoms, and fell in the +rebellion. On a shelf in the other alcove is a very +valuable cabinet with sliding doors, on which peonies are painted +on a gold ground. A single spray of rose azalea in a pure +white vase hanging on one of the polished posts, and a single +iris in another, are the only decorations. The mats are +very fine and white, but the only furniture is a folding screen +with some suggestions of landscape in Indian <a +name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>ink. I +almost wish that the rooms were a little less exquisite, for I am +in constant dread of spilling the ink, indenting the mats, or +tearing the paper windows. Downstairs there is a room +equally beautiful, and a large space where all the domestic +avocations are carried on. There is a <i>kura</i>, or +fire-proof storehouse, with a tiled roof, on the right of the +house.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p52b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Kanaya’s House" +title= +"Kanaya’s House" + src="images/p52s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Kanaya leads the discords at the Shintô shrines; but his +duties are few, and he is chiefly occupied in perpetually +embellishing his house and garden. His mother, a venerable +old lady, and his sister, the sweetest and most graceful Japanese +woman but one that I have seen, live with him. She moves +about the house like a floating fairy, and her voice has music in +its tones. A half-witted servant-man and the sister’s +boy and girl complete the family. Kanaya is the chief man +in the village, and is very intelligent and apparently well +educated. He has divorced his wife, and his sister has +practically divorced her husband. Of late, to help his +income, he has let these charming rooms to foreigners who have +brought letters to him, and he is very anxious to meet their +views, while his good taste leads him to avoid Europeanising his +beautiful home.</p> +<p>Supper came up on a <i>zen</i>, or small table six inches +high, of old gold lacquer, with the rice in a gold lacquer bowl, +and the teapot and cup were fine Kaga porcelain. For my two +rooms, with rice and tea, I pay 2s. a day. Ito forages for +me, and can occasionally get chickens at 10d. each, and a dish of +trout for 6d., and eggs are always to be had for 1d. each. +It is extremely interesting to live in a private house and to see +the externalities, at least, of domestic life in a Japanese +middle-class home.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>LETTER +VIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Beauties of Nikkô—The Burial +of Iyéyasu—The Approach to the Great +Shrines—The Yomei Gate—Gorgeous +Decorations—Simplicity of the Mausoleum—The Shrine of +Iyémitsu—Religious Art of Japan and India—An +Earthquake—Beauties of Wood-carving.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kanaya’s</span>, <span +class="smcap">Nikkô</span>, <i>June</i> 21.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> been at Nikkô for nine +days, and am therefore entitled to use the word +“<i>Kek’ko</i>!”</p> +<p>Nikkô means “sunny splendour,” and its +beauties are celebrated in poetry and art all over Japan. +Mountains for a great part of the year clothed or patched with +snow, piled in great ranges round Nantaizan, their monarch, +worshipped as a god; forests of magnificent timber; ravines and +passes scarcely explored; dark green lakes sleeping in endless +serenity; the deep abyss of Kêgon, into which the waters of +Chiuzenjii plunge from a height of 250 feet; the bright beauty of +the falls of Kiri Furi, the loveliness of the gardens of +Dainichido; the sombre grandeur of the passes through which the +Daiyagawa forces its way from the upper regions; a gorgeousness +of azaleas and magnolias; and a luxuriousness of vegetation +perhaps unequalled in Japan, are only a few of the attractions +which surround the shrines of the two greatest Shôguns.</p> +<p>To a glorious resting-place on the hill-slope of Hotoké +Iwa, sacred since 767, when a Buddhist saint, called +Shôdô Shônin, visited it, and declared the old +Shintô deity of the mountain to be only a manifestation of +Buddha, Hidetada, the second Shôgun of the Tokugawa +dynasty, conveyed the corpse of his father, Iyéyasu, in +1617. It was a splendid burial. An Imperial envoy, a +priest of the Mikado’s family, court nobles from +Kivôto, and hundreds of <i>daimiyôs</i>, captains, <a +name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>and nobles of +inferior rank, took part in the ceremony. An army of +priests in rich robes during three days intoned a sacred classic +10,000 times, and Iyéyasu was deified by a decree of the +Mikado under a name signifying “light of the east, great +incarnation of Buddha.” The less important +Shôguns of the line of Tokugawa are buried in Uyeno and +Shiba, in Yedo. Since the restoration, and what may be +called the disestablishment of Buddhism, the shrine of +Iyéyasu has been shorn of all its glories of ritual and +its magnificent Buddhist paraphernalia; the 200 priests who gave +it splendour are scattered, and six Shintô priests +alternately attend upon it as much for the purpose of selling +tickets of admission as for any priestly duties.</p> +<p>All roads, bridges, and avenues here lead to these shrines, +but the grand approach is by the Red Bridge, and up a broad road +with steps at intervals and stone-faced embankments at each side, +on the top of which are belts of cryptomeria. At the summit +of this ascent is a fine granite <i>torii</i>, 27 feet 6 inches +high, with columns 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, offered by the +<i>daimiyô</i> of Chikuzen in 1618 from his own +quarries. After this come 118 magnificent bronze lanterns +on massive stone pedestals, each of which is inscribed with the +posthumous title of Iyéyasu, the name of the giver, and a +legend of the offering—all the gifts of +<i>daimiyô</i>—a holy water cistern made of a solid +block of granite, and covered by a roof resting on twenty square +granite pillars, and a bronze bell, lantern, and candelabra of +marvellous workmanship, offered by the kings of Corea and +Liukiu. On the left is a five-storied pagoda, 104 feet +high, richly carved in wood and as richly gilded and +painted. The signs of the zodiac run round the lower +story.</p> +<p>The grand entrance gate is at the top of a handsome flight of +steps forty yards from the <i>torii</i>. A looped white +curtain with the Mikado’s crest in black, hangs partially +over the gateway, in which, beautiful as it is, one does not care +to linger, to examine the gilded <i>amainu</i> in niches, or the +spirited carvings of tigers under the eaves, for the view of the +first court overwhelms one by its magnificence and beauty. +The whole style of the buildings, the arrangements, the art of +every kind, the thought which inspires the whole, are exclusively +Japanese, <a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +56</span>and the glimpse from the <i>Ni-ô</i> gate is a +revelation of a previously undreamed-of beauty, both in form and +colour.</p> +<p>Round the neatly pebbled court, which is enclosed by a bright +red timber wall, are three gorgeous buildings, which contain the +treasures of the temple, a sumptuous stable for the three sacred +Albino horses, which are kept for the use of the god, a +magnificent granite cistern of holy water, fed from the +Sômendaki cascade, and a highly decorated building, in +which a complete collection of Buddhist Scriptures is +deposited. From this a flight of steps leads into a smaller +court containing a bell-tower “of marvellous workmanship +and ornamentation,” a drum-tower, hardly less beautiful, a +shrine, the candelabra, bell, and lantern mentioned before, and +some very grand bronze lanterns.</p> +<p>From this court another flight of steps ascends to the Yomei +gate, whose splendour I contemplated day after day with +increasing astonishment. The white columns which support it +have capitals formed of great red-throated heads of the mythical +<i>Kirin</i>. Above the architrave is a projecting balcony +which runs all round the gateway with a railing carried by +dragons’ heads. In the centre two white dragons fight +eternally. Underneath, in high relief, there are groups of +children playing, then a network of richly painted beams, and +seven groups of Chinese sages. The high roof is supported +by gilded dragons’ heads with crimson throats. In the +interior of the gateway there are side-niches painted white, +which are lined with gracefully designed arabesques founded on +the <i>botan</i> or peony. A piazza, whose outer walls of +twenty-one compartments are enriched with magnificent carvings of +birds, flowers, and trees, runs right and left, and encloses on +three of its sides another court, the fourth side of which is a +terminal stone wall built against the side of the hill. On +the right are two decorated buildings, one of which contains a +stage for the performance of the sacred dances, and the other an +altar for the burning of cedar wood incense. On the left is +a building for the reception of the three sacred cars which were +used during festivals. To pass from court to court is to +pass from splendour to splendour; one is almost glad to feel that +this is the last, and that the strain on one’s capacity for +admiration is nearly over.</p> +<p><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>In the +middle is the sacred enclosure, formed of gilded trellis-work +with painted borders above and below, forming a square of which +each side measures 150 feet, and which contains the <i>haiden</i> +or chapel. Underneath the trellis work are groups of birds, +with backgrounds of grass, very boldly carved in wood and richly +gilded and painted. From the imposing entrance through a +double avenue of cryptomeria, among courts, gates, temples, +shrines, pagodas, colossal bells of bronze, and lanterns inlaid +with gold, you pass through this final court bewildered by +magnificence, through golden gates, into the dimness of a golden +temple, and there is—simply a black lacquer table with a +circular metal mirror upon it.</p> +<p>Within is a hall finely matted, 42 feet wide by 27 from front +to back, with lofty apartments on each side, one for the +Shôgun and the other “for his Holiness the +Abbot.” Both, of course, are empty. The roof of +the hall is panelled and richly frescoed. The +Shôgun’s room contains some very fine <i>fusuma</i>, +on which <i>kirin</i> (fabulous monsters) are depicted on a dead +gold ground, and four oak panels, 8 feet by 6, finely carved, +with the phoenix in low relief variously treated. In the +Abbot’s room there are similar panels adorned with hawks +spiritedly executed. The only ecclesiastical ornament among +the dim splendours of the chapel is the plain gold +<i>gohei</i>. Steps at the back lead into a chapel paved +with stone, with a fine panelled ceiling representing dragons on +a dark blue ground. Beyond this some gilded doors lead into +the principal chapel, containing four rooms which are not +accessible; but if they correspond with the outside, which is of +highly polished black lacquer relieved by gold, they must be +severely magnificent.</p> +<p>But not in any one of these gorgeous shrines did +Iyéyasu decree that his dust should rest. +Re-entering the last court, it is necessary to leave the +enclosures altogether by passing through a covered gateway in the +eastern piazza into a stone gallery, green with mosses and +hepaticæ. Within, wealth and art have created a +fairyland of gold and colour; without, Nature, at her stateliest, +has surrounded the great Shôgun’s tomb with a pomp of +mournful splendour. A staircase of 240 stone steps leads to +the top of the hill, where, above and behind all the stateliness +of the shrines raised in his honour, <a name="page58"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 58</span>the dust of Iyéyasu sleeps in +an unadorned but Cyclopean tomb of stone and bronze, surmounted +by a bronze urn. In front is a stone table decorated with a +bronze incense-burner, a vase with lotus blossoms and leaves in +brass, and a bronze stork bearing a bronze candlestick in its +mouth. A lofty stone wall, surmounted by a balustrade, +surrounds the simple but stately enclosure, and cryptomeria of +large size growing up the back of the hill create perpetual +twilight round it. Slant rays of sunshine alone pass +through them, no flower blooms or bird sings, only silence and +mournfulness surround the grave of the ablest and greatest man +that Japan has produced.</p> +<p>Impressed as I had been with the glorious workmanship in wood, +bronze, and lacquer, I scarcely admired less the masonry of the +vast retaining walls, the stone gallery, the staircase and its +balustrade, all put together without mortar or cement, and so +accurately fitted that the joints are scarcely affected by the +rain, damp, and aggressive vegetation of 260 years. The +steps of the staircase are fine monoliths, and the coping at the +side, the massive balustrade, and the heavy rail at the top, are +cut out of solid blocks of stone from 10 to 18 feet in +length. Nor is the workmanship of the great granite cistern +for holy water less remarkable. It is so carefully adjusted +on its bed that the water brought from a neighbouring cascade +rises and pours over each edge in such carefully equalised +columns that, as Mr. Satow says, “it seems to be a solid +block of water rather than a piece of stone.”</p> +<p>The temples of Iyémitsu are close to those of +Iyéyasu, and though somewhat less magnificent are even +more bewildering, as they are still in Buddhist hands, and are +crowded with the gods of the Buddhist Pantheon and the splendid +paraphernalia of Buddhist worship, in striking contrast to the +simplicity of the lonely Shintô mirror in the midst of the +blaze of gold and colour. In the grand entrance gate are +gigantic <i>Ni-ô</i>, the Buddhist Gog and Magog, vermilion +coloured, and with draperies painted in imitation of flowered +silk. A second pair, painted red and green, removed from +Iyémitsu’s temple, are in niches within the +gate. A flight of steps leads to another gate, in whose +gorgeous niches stand hideous monsters, in human form, +representing the gods of wind and thunder. Wind has crystal +eyes and a half-jolly, half-demoniacal expression. He is +painted green, and carries <a name="page59"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 59</span>a wind-bag on his back, a long sack +tied at each end, with the ends brought over his shoulders and +held in his hands. The god of thunder is painted red, with +purple hair on end, and stands on clouds holding thunderbolts in +his hand. More steps, and another gate containing the +Tennô, or gods of the four quarters, boldly carved and in +strong action, with long eye-teeth, and at last the principal +temple is reached. An old priest who took me over it on my +first visit, on passing the gods of wind and thunder said, +“We used to believe in these things, but we don’t +now,” and his manner in speaking of the other deities was +rather contemptuous. He requested me, however, to take off +my hat as well as my shoes at the door of the temple. +Within there was a gorgeous shrine, and when an acolyte drew +aside the curtain of cloth of gold the interior was equally +imposing, containing Buddha and two other figures of gilded +brass, seated cross-legged on lotus-flowers, with rows of petals +several times repeated, and with that look of eternal repose on +their faces which is reproduced in the commonest road-side +images. In front of the shrine several candles were +burning, the offerings of some people who were having prayers +said for them, and the whole was lighted by two lamps burning +low. On a step of the altar a much-contorted devil was +crouching uneasily, for he was subjugated and, by a grim irony, +made to carry a massive incense-burner on his shoulders. In +this temple there were more than a hundred idols standing in +rows, many of them life-size, some of them trampling devils under +their feet, but all hideous, partly from the bright greens, +vermilions, and blues with which they are painted. +Remarkable muscular development characterises all, and the +figures or faces are all in vigorous action of some kind, +generally grossly exaggerated.</p> +<p>While we were crossing the court there were two shocks of +earthquake; all the golden wind-bells which fringe the roofs rang +softly, and a number of priests ran into the temple and beat +various kinds of drums for the space of half an hour. +Iyémitsu’s tomb is reached by flights of steps on +the right of the chapel. It is in the same style as +Iyéyasu’s, but the gates in front are of bronze, and +are inscribed with large Sanskrit characters in bright +brass. One of the most beautiful of the many views is from +the uppermost gate of the temple. The <a +name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>sun shone on +my second visit and brightened the spring tints of the trees on +Hotoké Iwa, which was vignetted by a frame of dark +cryptomeria.</p> +<p>Some of the buildings are roofed with sheet-copper, but most +of them are tiled. Tiling, however, has been raised almost +to the dignity of a fine art in Japan. The tiles themselves +are a coppery grey, with a suggestion of metallic lustre about +it. They are slightly concave, and the joints are covered +by others quite convex, which come down like massive tubes from +the ridge pole, and terminate at the eaves with discs on which +the Tokugawa badge is emblazoned in gold, as it is everywhere on +these shrines where it would not be quite out of keeping. +The roofs are so massive that they require all the strength of +the heavy carved timbers below, and, like all else, they gleam +with gold, or that which simulates it.</p> +<p>The shrines are the most wonderful work of their kind in +Japan. In their stately setting of cryptomeria, few of +which are less than 20 feet in girth at 3 feet from the ground, +they take one prisoner by their beauty, in defiance of all rules +of western art, and compel one to acknowledge the beauty of forms +and combinations of colour hitherto unknown, and that lacquered +wood is capable of lending itself to the expression of a very +high idea in art. Gold has been used in profusion, and +black, dull red, and white, with a breadth and lavishness quite +unique. The bronze fret-work alone is a study, and the +wood-carving needs weeks of earnest work for the mastery of its +ideas and details. One screen or railing only has sixty +panels, each 4 feet long, carved with marvellous boldness and +depth in open work, representing peacocks, pheasants, storks, +lotuses, peonies, bamboos, and foliage. The fidelity to +form and colour in the birds, and the reproduction of the glory +of motion, could not be excelled.</p> +<p>Yet the flowers please me even better. Truly the artist +has revelled in his work, and has carved and painted with +joy. The lotus leaf retains its dewy bloom, the peony its +shades of creamy white, the bamboo leaf still trembles on its +graceful stem, in contrast to the rigid needles of the pine, and +countless corollas, in all the perfect colouring of passionate +life, unfold themselves amidst the leafage of the gorgeous +tracery. These carvings are from 10 to 15 inches deep, and +single feathers in <a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +61</span>the tails of the pheasants stand out fully 6 inches in +front of peonies nearly as deep.</p> +<p>The details fade from my memory daily as I leave the shrines, +and in their place are picturesque masses of black and red +lacquer and gold, gilded doors opening without noise, halls laid +with matting so soft that not a footfall sounds, across whose +twilight the sunbeams fall aslant on richly arabesqued walls and +panels carved with birds and flowers, and on ceilings panelled +and wrought with elaborate art, of inner shrines of gold, and +golden lilies six feet high, and curtains of gold brocade, and +incense fumes, and colossal bells and golden ridge poles; of the +mythical fauna, <i>kirin</i>, dragon, and <i>howo</i>, of +elephants, apes, and tigers, strangely mingled with flowers and +trees, and golden tracery, and diaper work on a gold ground, and +lacquer screens, and pagodas, and groves of bronze lanterns, and +shaven priests in gold brocade, and Shintô attendants in +black lacquer caps, and gleams of sunlit gold here and there, and +simple monumental urns, and a mountain-side covered with a +cryptomeria forest, with rose azaleas lighting up its solemn +shade.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>LETTER +IX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Japanese Pack-Horse and +Pack-Saddle—<i>Yadoya</i> and Attendant—A Native +Watering-Place—The Sulphur Baths—A +“Squeeze.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Yashimaya</span>, <span +class="smcap">Yumoto</span>, <span class="smcap">Nikkôzan +Mountains</span>,<br /> +<i>June</i> 22.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">To-day</span> I have made an experimental +journey on horseback, have done fifteen miles in eight hours of +continuous travelling, and have encountered for the first time +the Japanese pack-horse—an animal of which many unpleasing +stories are told, and which has hitherto been as mythical to me +as the <i>kirin</i>, or dragon. I have neither been kicked, +bitten, nor pitched off, however, for mares are used exclusively +in this district, gentle creatures about fourteen hands high, +with weak hind-quarters, and heads nearly concealed by shaggy +manes and forelocks. They are led by a rope round the nose, +and go barefoot, except on stony ground, when the <i>mago</i>, or +man who leads them, ties straw sandals on their feet. The +pack-saddle is composed of two packs of straw eight inches thick, +faced with red, and connected before and behind by strong oak +arches gaily painted or lacquered. There is for a girth a +rope loosely tied under the body, and the security of the load +depends on a crupper, usually a piece of bamboo attached to the +saddle by ropes strung with wooden counters, and another rope +round the neck, into which you put your foot as you scramble over +the high front upon the top of the erection. The load must +be carefully balanced or it comes to grief, and the <i>mago</i> +handles it all over first, and, if an accurate division of weight +is impossible, adds a stone to one side or the other. Here, +women who wear enormous rain hats and gird their <i>kimonos</i> +over tight blue trousers, both load the horses and lead +them. I dropped upon my loaded horse from the top of a +wall, the ridges, bars, tags, and knotted rigging of the saddle +<a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>being +smoothed over by a folded <i>futon</i>, or wadded cotton quilt, +and I was then fourteen inches above the animal’s back, +with my feet hanging over his neck. You must balance +yourself carefully, or you bring the whole erection over; but +balancing soon becomes a matter of habit. If the horse does +not stumble, the pack-saddle is tolerable on level ground, but +most severe on the spine in going up hill, and so intolerable in +going down that I was relieved when I found that I had slid over +the horse’s head into a mud-hole; and you are quite +helpless, as he does not understand a bridle, if you have one, +and blindly follows his leader, who trudges on six feet in front +of him.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p63b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Japanese Pack-Horse" +title= +"Japanese Pack-Horse" + src="images/p63s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The hard day’s journey ended in an exquisite +<i>yadoya</i>, beautiful within and without, and more fit for +fairies than for travel-soiled mortals. The <i>fusuma</i> +are light planed wood with a sweet scent, the matting nearly +white, the balconies polished pine. On entering, a smiling +girl brought me some plum-flower <a name="page64"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 64</span>tea with a delicate almond flavour, a +sweetmeat made of beans and sugar, and a lacquer bowl of frozen +snow. After making a difficult meal from a fowl of much +experience, I spent the evening out of doors, as a Japanese +watering-place is an interesting novelty.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p64b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Attendant at Tea-House" +title= +"Attendant at Tea-House" + src="images/p64s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>There is scarcely room between the lake and the mountains for +the picturesque village with its trim neat houses, one above +another, built of reddish cedar newly planed. The snow lies +ten feet deep here in winter, and on October 10 the people wrap +their beautiful dwellings up in coarse matting, <a +name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>not even +leaving the roofs uncovered, and go to the low country till May +10, leaving one man in charge, who is relieved once a week. +Were the houses mine I should be tempted to wrap them up on every +rainy day! I did quite the wrong thing in riding +here. It is proper to be carried up in a <i>kago</i>, or +covered basket.</p> +<p>The village consists of two short streets, 8 feet wide +composed entirely of <i>yadoyas</i> of various grades, with a +picturesquely varied frontage of deep eaves, graceful balconies, +rows of Chinese lanterns, and open lower fronts. The place +is full of people, and the four bathing-sheds were crowded. +Some energetic invalids bathe twelve times a day! Every one +who was walking about carried a blue towel over his arm, and the +rails of the balconies were covered with blue towels hanging to +dry. There can be very little amusement. The +mountains rise at once from the village, and are so covered with +jungle that one can only walk in the short streets or along the +track by which I came. There is one covered boat for +excursions on the lake, and a few <i>geishas</i> were playing the +<i>samisen</i>; but, as gaming is illegal, and there is no place +of public resort except the bathing-sheds, people must spend +nearly all their time in bathing, sleeping, smoking, and +eating. The great spring is beyond the village, in a square +tank in a mound. It bubbles up with much strength, giving +off fetid fumes. There are broad boards laid at intervals +across it, and people crippled with rheumatism go and lie for +hours upon them for the advantage of the sulphurous steam. +The temperature of the spring is 130° F.; but after the water +has travelled to the village, along an open wooden pipe, it is +only 84°. Yumoto is over 4000 feet high, and very +cold.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Irimichi</span>.—Before leaving +Yumoto I saw the <i>modus operandi</i> of a +“squeeze.” I asked for the bill, when, instead +of giving it to me, the host ran upstairs and asked Ito how much +it should be, the two dividing the overcharge. Your servant +gets a “squeeze” on everything you buy, and on your +hotel expenses, and, as it is managed very adroitly, and you +cannot prevent it, it is best not to worry about it so long as it +keeps within reasonable limits.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>LETTER +X.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Peaceful Monotony—A Japanese +School—A Dismal Ditty—Punishment—A +Children’s Party—A Juvenile Belle—Female +Names—A Juvenile +Drama—Needlework—Calligraphy—Arranging +Flowers—Kanaya—Daily Routine—An Evening’s +Entertainment—Planning Routes—The God-shelf.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Irimichi</span>, +Nikkô, <i>June</i> 23.</p> +<p>My peacefully monotonous life here is nearly at an end. +The people are so quiet and kindly, though almost too still, and +I have learned to know something of the externals of village +life, and have become quite fond of the place.</p> +<p>The village of Irimichi, which epitomises for me at present +the village life of Japan, consists of about three hundred houses +built along three roads, across which steps in fours and threes +are placed at intervals. Down the middle of each a rapid +stream runs in a stone channel, and this gives endless amusement +to the children, specially to the boys, who devise many ingenious +models and mechanical toys, which are put in motion by +water-wheels. But at 7 a.m. a drum beats to summon the +children to a school whose buildings would not discredit any +school-board at home. Too much Europeanised I thought it, +and the children looked very uncomfortable sitting on high +benches in front of desks, instead of squatting, native +fashion. The school apparatus is very good, and there are +fine maps on the walls. The teacher, a man about +twenty-five, made very free use of the black-board, and +questioned his pupils with much rapidity. The best answer +moved its giver to the head of the class, as with us. +Obedience is the foundation of the Japanese social order, and +with children accustomed to unquestioning obedience at home the +teacher has no trouble in securing quietness, attention, and +docility. There was almost a painful earnestness in the +old-fashioned <a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +67</span>faces which pored over the school-books; even such a +rare event as the entrance of a foreigner failed to distract +these childish students. The younger pupils were taught +chiefly by object lessons, and the older were exercised in +reading geographical and historical books aloud, a very high key +being adopted, and a most disagreeable tone, both with the +Chinese and Japanese pronunciation. Arithmetic and the +elements of some of the branches of natural philosophy are also +taught. The children recited a verse of poetry which I +understood contained the whole of the simple syllabary. It +has been translated thus:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Colour and perfume vanish away.<br /> +What can be lasting in this world?<br /> +To-day disappears in the abyss of nothingness;<br /> +It is but the passing image of a dream, and causes only a slight +trouble.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It is the echo of the wearied sensualist’s cry, +“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” and indicates +the singular Oriental distaste for life, but is a dismal ditty +for young children to learn. The Chinese classics, formerly +the basis of Japanese education, are now mainly taught as a +vehicle for conveying a knowledge of the Chinese character, in +acquiring even a moderate acquaintance with which the children +undergo a great deal of useless toil.</p> +<p>The penalties for bad conduct used to be a few blows with a +switch on the front of the leg, or a slight burn with the +<i>moxa</i> on the forefinger—still a common punishment in +households; but I understood the teacher to say that detention in +the school-house is the only punishment now resorted to, and he +expressed great disapprobation of our plan of imposing an added +task. When twelve o’clock came the children marched +in orderly fashion out of the school grounds, the boys in one +division and the girls in another, after which they quietly +dispersed.</p> +<p>On going home the children dine, and in the evening in nearly +every house you hear the monotonous hum of the preparation of +lessons. After dinner they are liberated for play, but the +girls often hang about the house with babies on their backs the +whole afternoon nursing dolls. One evening <a +name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>I met a +procession of sixty boys and girls, all carrying white flags with +black balls, except the leader, who carried a white flag with a +gilded ball, and they sang, or rather howled, as they walked; but +the other amusements have been of a most sedentary kind. +The mechanical toys, worked by water-wheels in the stream, are +most fascinating.</p> +<p>Formal children’s parties have been given in this house, +for which formal invitations, in the name of the house-child, a +girl of twelve, are sent out. About 3 p.m. the guests +arrive, frequently attended by servants; and this child, Haru, +receives them at the top of the stone steps, and conducts each +into the reception room, where they are arranged according to +some well-understood rules of precedence. Haru’s hair +is drawn back, raised in front, and gathered into a double loop, +in which some scarlet <i>crépe</i> is twisted. Her +face and throat are much whitened, the paint terminating in three +points at the back of the neck, from which all the short hair has +been carefully extracted with pincers. Her lips are +slightly touched with red paint, and her face looks like that of +a cheap doll. She wears a blue, flowered silk +<i>kimono</i>, with sleeves touching the ground, a blue girdle +lined with scarlet, and a fold of scarlet <i>crépe</i> +lies between her painted neck and her <i>kimono</i>. On her +little feet she wears white <i>tabi</i>, socks of cotton cloth, +with a separate place for the great toe, so as to allow the +scarlet-covered thongs of the finely lacquered clogs, which she +puts on when she stands on the stone steps to receive her guests, +to pass between it and the smaller toes. All the other +little ladies were dressed in the same style, and all looked like +ill-executed dolls. She met them with very formal but +graceful bows.</p> +<p>When they were all assembled, she and her very graceful +mother, squatting before each, presented tea and sweetmeats on +lacquer trays, and then they played at very quiet and polite +games till dusk. They addressed each other by their names +with the honorific prefix <i>O</i>, only used in the case of +women, and the respectful affix <i>San</i>; thus Haru becomes +O-Haru-San, which is equivalent to “Miss.” A +mistress of a house is addressed as <i>O-Kami-San</i>, and +<i>O-Kusuma</i>—something like “my +lady”—is used to married ladies. Women have no +surnames; thus you do not speak of Mrs. Saguchi, but of the <a +name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>wife of +Saguchi <i>San</i>; and you would address her as +<i>O-Kusuma</i>. Among the children’s names were +<i>Haru</i>, Spring; <i>Yuki</i>, Snow; <i>Hana</i>, Blossom; +<i>Kiku</i>, Chrysanthemum; <i>Gin</i>, Silver.</p> +<p>One of their games was most amusing, and was played with some +spirit and much dignity. It consisted in one child feigning +sickness and another playing the doctor, and the pompousness and +gravity of the latter, and the distress and weakness of the +former, were most successfully imitated. Unfortunately the +doctor killed his patient, who counterfeited the death-sleep very +effectively with her whitened face; and then followed the funeral +and the mourning. They dramatise thus weddings, +dinner-parties, and many other of the events of life. The +dignity and self-possession of these children are +wonderful. The fact is that their initiation into all that +is required by the rules of Japanese etiquette begins as soon as +they can speak, so that by the time they are ten years old they +know exactly what to do and avoid under all possible +circumstances. Before they went away tea and sweetmeats +were again handed round, and, as it is neither etiquette to +refuse them or to leave anything behind that you have once taken, +several of the small ladies slipped the residue into their +capacious sleeves. On departing the same formal courtesies +were used as on arriving.</p> +<p>Yuki, Haru’s mother, speaks, acts, and moves with a +charming gracefulness. Except at night, and when friends +drop in to afternoon tea, as they often do, she is always either +at domestic avocations, such as cleaning, sewing, or cooking, or +planting vegetables, or weeding them. All Japanese girls +learn to sew and to make their own clothes, but there are none of +the mysteries and difficulties which make the sewing lesson a +thing of dread with us. The <i>kimono</i>, <i>haori</i>, +and girdle, and even the long hanging sleeves, have only parallel +seams, and these are only tacked or basted, as the garments, when +washed, are taken to pieces, and each piece, after being very +slightly stiffened, is stretched upon a board to dry. There +is no underclothing, with its bands, frills, gussets, and +button-holes; the poorer women wear none, and those above them +wear, like Yuki, an under-dress of a frothy-looking silk +<i>crépe</i>, as simply made as the upper one. There +are circulating libraries here, as in most villages, and in the +evening both <a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +70</span>Yuki and Haru read love stories, or accounts of ancient +heroes and heroines, dressed up to suit the popular taste, +written in the easiest possible style. Ito has about ten +volumes of novels in his room, and spends half the night in +reading them.</p> +<p>Yuki’s son, a lad of thirteen, often comes to my room to +display his skill in writing the Chinese character. He is a +very bright boy, and shows considerable talent for drawing. +Indeed, it is only a short step from writing to drawing. +Giotto’s O hardly involved more breadth and vigour of touch +than some of these characters. They are written with a +camel’s-hair brush dipped in Indian ink, instead of a pen, +and this boy, with two or three vigorous touches, produces +characters a foot long, such as are mounted and hung as tablets +outside the different shops. Yuki plays the <i>samisen</i>, +which may be regarded as the national female instrument, and Haru +goes to a teacher daily for lessons on the same.</p> +<p>The art of arranging flowers is taught in manuals, the study +of which forms part of a girl’s education, and there is +scarcely a day in which my room is not newly decorated. It +is an education to me; I am beginning to appreciate the extreme +beauty of solitude in decoration. In the alcove hangs a +<i>kakemono</i> of exquisite beauty, a single blossoming branch +of the cherry. On one panel of a folding screen there is a +single iris. The vases which hang so gracefully on the +polished posts contain each a single peony, a single iris, a +single azalea, stalk, leaves, and corolla—all displayed in +their full beauty. Can anything be more grotesque and +barbarous than our “florists’ bouquets,” a +series of concentric rings of flowers of divers colours, bordered +by maidenhair and a piece of stiff lace paper, in which stems, +leaves, and even petals are brutally crushed, and the grace and +individuality of each flower systematically destroyed?</p> +<p>Kanaya is the chief man in this village, besides being the +leader of the dissonant squeaks and discords which represent +music at the Shintô festivals, and in some mysterious back +region he compounds and sells drugs. Since I have been here +the beautification of his garden has been his chief object, and +he has made a very respectable waterfall, a rushing stream, a +small lake, a rustic bamboo bridge, and several grass banks, <a +name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>and has +transplanted several large trees. He kindly goes out with +me a good deal, and, as he is very intelligent, and Ito is +proving an excellent, and, I think, a faithful interpreter, I +find it very pleasant to be here.</p> +<p>They rise at daylight, fold up the wadded quilts or +<i>futons</i> on and under which they have slept, and put them +and the wooden pillows, much like stereoscopes in shape, with +little rolls of paper or wadding on the top, into a press with a +sliding door, sweep the mats carefully, dust all the woodwork and +the verandahs, open the <i>amado</i>—wooden shutters which, +by sliding in a groove along the edge of the verandah, box in the +whole house at night, and retire into an ornamental projection in +the day—and throw the paper windows back. Breakfast +follows, then domestic avocations, dinner at one, and sewing, +gardening, and visiting till six, when they take the evening +meal.</p> +<p>Visitors usually arrive soon afterwards, and stay till eleven +or twelve. Japanese chess, story-telling, and the +<i>samisen</i> fill up the early part of the evening, but later, +an agonising performance, which they call singing, begins, which +sounds like the very essence of heathenishness, and consists +mainly in a prolonged vibrating “No.” As soon +as I hear it I feel as if I were among savages. +<i>Saké</i>, or rice beer, is always passed round before +the visitors leave, in little cups with the gods of luck at the +bottom of them. <i>Saké</i>, when heated, mounts +readily to the head, and a single small cup excites the +half-witted man-servant to some very foolish musical +performances. I am sorry to write it, but his master and +mistress take great pleasure in seeing him make a fool of +himself, and Ito, who is from policy a total abstainer, goes into +convulsions of laughter.</p> +<p>One evening I was invited to join the family, and they +entertained me by showing me picture and guide books. Most +Japanese provinces have their guide-books, illustrated by +wood-cuts of the most striking objects, and giving itineraries, +names of <i>yadoyas</i>, and other local information. One +volume of pictures, very finely executed on silk, was more than a +century old. Old gold lacquer and china, and some pieces of +antique embroidered silk, were also produced for my benefit, and +some musical instruments of great beauty, said to be more than +two centuries old. None of these treasures are kept in the +house, but in the <i>kura</i>, or fireproof storehouse, close +by. The rooms <a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +72</span>are not encumbered by ornaments; a single +<i>kakemono</i>, or fine piece of lacquer or china, appears for a +few days and then makes way for something else; so they have +variety as well as simplicity, and each object is enjoyed in its +turn without distraction.</p> +<p>Kanaya and his sister often pay me an evening visit, and, with +Brunton’s map on the floor, we project astonishing routes +to Niigata, which are usually abruptly abandoned on finding a +mountain-chain in the way with never a road over it. The +life of these people seems to pass easily enough, but Kanaya +deplores the want of money; he would like to be rich, and intends +to build a hotel for foreigners.</p> +<p>The only vestige of religion in his house is the +<i>kamidana</i>, or god-shelf, on which stands a wooden shrine +like a Shintô temple, which contains the memorial tablets +to deceased relations. Each morning a sprig of evergreen +and a little rice and <i>saké</i> are placed before it, +and every evening a lighted lamp.</p> +<h2><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>LETTER +X.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Darkness visible—Nikkô +Shops—Girls and Matrons—Night and +Sleep—Parental Love—Childish +Docility—Hair-dressing—Skin Diseases.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">don’t</span> wonder that the +Japanese rise early, for their evenings are cheerless, owing to +the dismal illumination. In this and other houses the lamp +consists of a square or circular lacquer stand, with four +uprights, 2½ feet high, and panes of white paper. A +flatted iron dish is suspended in this full of oil, with the pith +of a rush with a weight in the centre laid across it, and one of +the projecting ends is lighted. This wretched apparatus is +called an <i>andon</i>, and round its wretched “darkness +visible” the family huddles—the children to play +games and learn lessons, and the women to sew; for the Japanese +daylight is short and the houses are dark. Almost more +deplorable is a candlestick of the same height as the +<i>andon</i>, with a spike at the top which fits into a hole at +the bottom of a “farthing candle” of vegetable wax, +with a thick wick made of rolled paper, which requires constant +snuffing, and, after giving for a short time a dim and jerky +light, expires with a bad smell. Lamps, burning mineral +oils, native and imported, are being manufactured on a large +scale, but, apart from the peril connected with them, the +carriage of oil into country districts is very expensive. +No Japanese would think of sleeping without having an +<i>andon</i> burning all night in his room.</p> +<p>These villages are full of shops. There is scarcely a +house which does not sell something. Where the buyers come +from, and how a profit can be made, is a mystery. Many of +the things are eatables, such as dried fishes, 1½ inch +long, impaled on sticks; cakes, sweetmeats composed of rice, +flour, and very little sugar; circular lumps of rice dough, +called <i>mochi</i>; roots <a name="page74"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 74</span>boiled in brine; a white jelly made +from beans; and ropes, straw shoes for men and horses, straw +cloaks, paper umbrellas, paper waterproofs, hair-pins, +tooth-picks, tobacco pipes, paper <i>mouchoirs</i>, and numbers +of other trifles made of bamboo, straw, grass, and wood. +These goods are on stands, and in the room behind, open to the +street, all the domestic avocations are going on, and the +housewife is usually to be seen boiling water or sewing with a +baby tucked into the back of her dress. A lucifer factory +has recently been put up, and in many house fronts men are +cutting up wood into lengths for matches. In others they +are husking rice, a very laborious process, in which the grain is +pounded in a mortar sunk in the floor by a flat-ended wooden +pestle attached to a long horizontal lever, which is worked by +the feet of a man, invariably naked, who stands at the other +extremity.</p> +<p>In some women are weaving, in others spinning cotton. +Usually there are three or four together—the mother, the +eldest son’s wife, and one or two unmarried girls. +The girls marry at sixteen, and shortly these comely, rosy, +wholesome-looking creatures pass into haggard, middle-aged women +with vacant faces, owing to the blackening of the teeth and +removal of the eyebrows, which, if they do not follow betrothal, +are resorted to on the birth of the first child. In other +houses women are at their toilet, blackening their teeth before +circular metal mirrors placed in folding stands on the mats, or +performing ablutions, unclothed to the waist. Early the +village is very silent, while the children are at school; their +return enlivens it a little, but they are quiet even at play; at +sunset the men return, and things are a little livelier; you hear +a good deal of splashing in baths, and after that they carry +about and play with their younger children, while the older ones +prepare lessons for the following day by reciting them in a high, +monotonous twang. At dark the paper windows are drawn, the +<i>amado</i>, or external wooden shutters, are closed, the lamp +is lighted before the family shrine, supper is eaten, the +children play at quiet games round the <i>andon</i>; and about +ten the quilts and wooden pillows are produced from the press, +the <i>amado</i> are bolted, and the family lies down to sleep in +one room. Small trays of food and the <i>tabako-bon</i> are +always within reach of adult sleepers, and one grows quite +accustomed to hear the <a name="page75"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 75</span>sound of ashes being knocked out of +the pipe at intervals during the night. The children sit up +as late as their parents, and are included in all their +conversation.</p> +<p>I never saw people take so much delight in their offspring, +carrying them about, or holding their hands in walking, watching +and entering into their games, supplying them constantly with new +toys, taking them to picnics and festivals, never being content +to be without them, and treating other people’s children +also with a suitable measure of affection and attention. +Both fathers and mothers take a pride in their children. It +is most amusing about six every morning to see twelve or fourteen +men sitting on a low wall, each with a child under two years in +his arms, fondling and playing with it, and showing off its +physique and intelligence. To judge from appearances, the +children form the chief topic at this morning gathering. At +night, after the houses are shut up, looking through the long +fringe of rope or rattan which conceals the sliding door, you see +the father, who wears nothing but a <i>maro</i> in “the +bosom of his family,” bending his ugly, kindly face over a +gentle-looking baby, and the mother, who more often than not has +dropped the <i>kimono</i> from her shoulders, enfolding two +children destitute of clothing in her arms. For some +reasons they prefer boys, but certainly girls are equally petted +and loved. The children, though for our ideas too gentle +and formal, are very prepossessing in looks and behaviour. +They are so perfectly docile and obedient, so ready to help their +parents, so good to the little ones, and, in the many hours which +I have spent in watching them at play, I have never heard an +angry word or seen a sour look or act. But they are little +men and women rather than children, and their old-fashioned +appearance is greatly aided by their dress, which, as I have +remarked before, is the same as that of adults.</p> +<p>There are, however, various styles of dressing the hair of +girls, by which you can form a pretty accurate estimate of any +girl’s age up to her marriage, when the <i>coiffure</i> +undergoes a definite change. The boys all look top-heavy +and their heads of an abnormal size, partly from a hideous +practice of shaving the head altogether for the first three +years. After this the hair is allowed to grow in three +tufts, one over each ear, and the other at the back of the neck; +as often, however, a tuft is <a name="page76"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 76</span>grown at the top of the back of the +head. At ten the crown alone is shaved and a forelock is +worn, and at fifteen, when the boy assumes the responsibilities +of manhood, his hair is allowed to grow like that of a man. +The grave dignity of these boys, with the grotesque patterns on +their big heads, is most amusing.</p> +<p>Would that these much-exposed skulls were always smooth and +clean! It is painful to see the prevalence of such +repulsive maladies as <i>scabies</i>, scald-head, ringworm, sore +eyes, and unwholesome-looking eruptions, and fully 30 per cent of +the village people are badly seamed with smallpox.</p> +<h2><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>LETTER +X.—(<i>Completed</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Shops and Shopping—The Barber’s +Shop—A Paper Waterproof—Ito’s +Vanity—Preparations for the Journey—Transport and +Prices—Money and Measurements.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> had to do a little shopping +in Hachiishi for my journey. The shop-fronts, you must +understand, are all open, and at the height of the floor, about +two feet from the ground, there is a broad ledge of polished wood +on which you sit down. A woman everlastingly boiling water +on a bronze <i>hibachi</i>, or brazier, shifting the embers about +deftly with brass tongs like chopsticks, and with a baby looking +calmly over her shoulders, is the shopwoman; but she remains +indifferent till she imagines that you have a definite purpose of +buying, when she comes forward bowing to the ground, and I +politely rise and bow too. Then I or Ito ask the price of a +thing, and she names it, very likely asking 4s. for what ought to +sell at 6d. You say 3s., she laughs and says 3s. 6d.; you +say 2s., she laughs again and says 3s., offering you the +<i>tabako-bon</i>. Eventually the matter is compromised by +your giving her 1s., at which she appears quite delighted. +With a profusion of bows and “<i>sayo naras</i>” on +each side, you go away with the pleasant feeling of having given +an industrious woman twice as much as the thing was worth to her, +and less than what it is worth to you!</p> +<p>There are several barbers’ shops, and the evening seems +a very busy time with them. This operation partakes of the +general want of privacy of the life of the village, and is +performed in the raised open front of the shop. Soap is not +used, and the process is a painful one. The victims let +their garments fall to their waists, and each holds in his left +hand a lacquered tray to receive the croppings. The ugly +Japanese <a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +78</span>face at this time wears a most grotesque expression of +stolid resignation as it is held and pulled about by the +operator, who turns it in all directions, that he may judge of +the effect that he is producing. The shaving the face till +it is smooth and shiny, and the cutting, waxing, and tying of the +queue with twine made of paper, are among the evening sights of +Nikkô.</p> +<p>Lacquer and things curiously carved in wood are the great +attractions of the shops, but they interest me far less than the +objects of utility in Japanese daily life, with their ingenuity +of contrivance and perfection of adaptation and +workmanship. A seed shop, where seeds are truly idealised, +attracts me daily. Thirty varieties are offered for sale, +as various in form as they are in colour, and arranged most +artistically on stands, while some are put up in packages +decorated with what one may call a facsimile of the root, leaves, +and flower, in water-colours. A lad usually lies on the mat +behind executing these very creditable pictures—for such +they are—with a few bold and apparently careless strokes +with his brush. He gladly sold me a peony as a scrap for a +screen for 3 <i>sen</i>. My purchases, with this exception, +were necessaries only—a paper waterproof cloak, “a +circular,” black outside and yellow inside, made of square +sheets of oiled paper cemented together, and some large sheets of +the same for covering my baggage; and I succeeded in getting Ito +out of his obnoxious black wide-awake into a basin-shaped hat +like mine, for, ugly as I think him, he has a large share of +personal vanity, whitens his teeth, and powders his face +carefully before a mirror, and is in great dread of +sunburn. He powders his hands too, and polishes his nails, +and never goes out without gloves.</p> +<p>To-morrow I leave luxury behind and plunge into the interior, +hoping to emerge somehow upon the Sea of Japan. No +information can be got here except about the route to Niigata, +which I have decided not to take, so, after much study of +Brunton’s map, I have fixed upon one place, and have said +positively, “I go to Tajima.” If I reach it I +can get farther, but all I can learn is, “It’s a very +bad road, it’s all among the mountains.” Ito, +who has a great regard for his own comforts, tries to dissuade me +from going by saying that I shall lose mine, but, as these kind +people have ingeniously repaired my <a name="page79"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 79</span>bed by doubling the canvas and lacing +it into holes in the side poles, <a name="citation79"></a><a +href="#footnote79" class="citation">[79]</a> and as I have lived +for the last three days on rice, eggs, and coarse vermicelli +about the thickness and colour of earth-worms, this prospect does +not appal me! In Japan there is a Land Transport Company, +called <i>Riku-un-kaisha</i>, with a head-office in +Tôkiyô, and branches in various towns and +villages. It arranges for the transport of travellers and +merchandise by pack-horses and coolies at certain fixed rates, +and gives receipts in due form. It hires the horses from +the farmers, and makes a moderate profit on each transaction, but +saves the traveller from difficulties, delays, and +extortions. The prices vary considerably in different +districts, and are regulated by the price of forage, the state of +the roads, and the number of hireable horses. For a +<i>ri</i>, nearly 2½ miles, they charge from 6 to 10 +<i>sen</i> for a horse and the man who leads it, for a +<i>kuruma</i> with one man from 4 to 9 <i>sen</i> for the same +distance, and for baggage coolies about the same. [This +Transport Company is admirably organised. I employed it in +journeys of over 1200 miles, and always found it efficient and +reliable.] I intend to make use of it always, much against +Ito’s wishes, who reckoned on many a prospective +“squeeze” in dealings with the farmers.</p> +<p>My journey will now be entirely over “unbeaten +tracks,” and will lead through what may be called +“Old Japan;” and as it will be natural to use +Japanese words for money and distances, for which there are no +English terms, I give them here. A <i>yen</i> is a note +representing a dollar, or about 3s. 7d. of our money; a +<i>sen</i> is something less than a halfpenny; a <i>rin</i> is a +thin round coin of iron or bronze, with a square hole in the +middle, of which 10 make a <i>sen</i>, and 1000 a <i>yen</i>; and +a <i>tempo</i> is a handsome oval bronze coin with a hole in the +centre, of which 5 make 4 <i>sen</i>. Distances are +measured by <i>ri</i>, <i>chô</i>, and <i>ken</i>. +Six feet make one <i>ken</i>, sixty <i>ken</i> one +<i>chô</i>, and thirty-six <i>chô</i> one <i>ri</i>, +or nearly 2½ English miles. When I write of a road I +mean a bridle-path from four to eight feet wide, <i>kuruma</i> +roads being specified as such.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>LETTER +XI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Comfort disappears—Fine Scenery—An +Alarm—A Farm-house—An unusual Costume—Bridling +a Horse—Female Dress and Ugliness—Babies—My +<i>Mago</i>—Beauties of the +Kinugawa—Fujihara—My +Servant—Horse-shoes—An absurd Mistake.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Fujihara</span>, +<i>June</i> 24.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Ito’s</span> informants were +right. Comfort was left behind at Nikkô!</p> +<p>A little woman brought two depressed-looking mares at six this +morning; my saddle and bridle were put on one, and Ito and the +baggage on the other; my hosts and I exchanged cordial good +wishes and obeisances, and, with the women dragging my sorry mare +by a rope round her nose, we left the glorious shrines and solemn +cryptomeria groves of Nikkô behind, passed down its long, +clean street, and where the <i>In Memoriam</i> avenue is densest +and darkest turned off to the left by a path like the bed of a +brook, which afterwards, as a most atrocious trail, wound about +among the rough boulders of the Daiya, which it crosses often on +temporary bridges of timbers covered with branches and +soil. After crossing one of the low spurs of the +Nikkôsan mountains, we wound among ravines whose steep +sides are clothed with maple, oak, magnolia, elm, pine, and +cryptomeria, linked together by festoons of the redundant +<i>Wistaria chinensis</i>, and brightened by azalea and syringa +clusters. Every vista was blocked by some grand mountain, +waterfalls thundered, bright streams glanced through the trees, +and in the glorious sunshine of June the country looked most +beautiful.</p> +<p>We travelled less than a <i>ri</i> an hour, as it was a mere +flounder either among rocks or in deep mud, the woman in her +girt-up dress and straw sandals trudging bravely along, till <a +name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>she suddenly +flung away the rope, cried out, and ran backwards, perfectly +scared by a big grey snake, with red spots, much embarrassed by a +large frog which he would not let go, though, like most of his +kind, he was alarmed by human approach, and made desperate +efforts to swallow his victim and wriggle into the bushes. +After crawling for three hours we dismounted at the mountain farm +of Kohiaku, on the edge of a rice valley, and the woman counted +her packages to see that they were all right, and without waiting +for a gratuity turned homewards with her horses. I pitched +my chair in the verandah of a house near a few poor dwellings +inhabited by peasants with large families, the house being in the +barn-yard of a rich <i>saké</i> maker. I waited an +hour, grew famished, got some weak tea and boiled barley, waited +another hour, and yet another, for all the horses were eating +leaves on the mountains. There was a little stir. Men +carried sheaves of barley home on their backs, and stacked them +under the eaves. Children, with barely the rudiments of +clothing, stood and watched me hour after hour, and adults were +not ashamed to join the group, for they had never seen a foreign +woman, a fork, or a spoon. Do you remember a sentence in +Dr. Macgregor’s last sermon? “What strange +sights some of you will see!” Could there be a +stranger one than a decent-looking middle-aged man lying on his +chest in the verandah, raised on his elbows, and intently reading +a book, clothed only in a pair of spectacles? Besides that +curious piece of still life, women frequently drew water from a +well by the primitive contrivance of a beam suspended across an +upright, with the bucket at one end and a stone at the other.</p> +<p>When the horses arrived the men said they could not put on the +bridle, but, after much talk, it was managed by two of them +violently forcing open the jaws of the animal, while a third +seized a propitious moment for slipping the bit into her +mouth. At the next change a bridle was a thing unheard of, +and when I suggested that the creature would open her mouth +voluntarily if the bit were pressed close to her teeth, the +standers-by mockingly said, “No horse ever opens his mouth +except to eat or to bite,” and were only convinced after I +had put on the bridle myself. The new horses had a rocking +gait like camels, and I was glad to dispense with them at <a +name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>Kisagoi, a +small upland hamlet, a very poor place, with poverty-stricken +houses, children very dirty and sorely afflicted by skin +maladies, and women with complexions and features hardened by +severe work and much wood smoke into positive ugliness, and with +figures anything but statuesque.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p82b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Summer and Winter Costume" +title= +"Summer and Winter Costume" + src="images/p82s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>I write the truth as I see it, and if my accounts conflict +with those of tourists who write of the Tokaido and Nakasendo, of +Lake Biwa and Hakone, it does not follow that either is +inaccurate. But truly this is a new Japan to me, of which +no books have given me any idea, and it is not fairyland. +<a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>The men +may be said to wear nothing. Few of the women wear anything +but a short petticoat wound tightly round them, or blue cotton +trousers very tight in the legs and baggy at the top, with a blue +cotton garment open to the waist tucked into the band, and a blue +cotton handkerchief knotted round the head. From the dress +no notion of the sex of the wearer could be gained, nor from the +faces, if it were not for the shaven eyebrows and black +teeth. The short petticoat is truly barbarous-looking, and +when a woman has a nude baby on her back or in her arms, and +stands staring vacantly at the foreigner, I can hardly believe +myself in “civilised” Japan. A good-sized +child, strong enough to hold up his head, sees the world right +cheerfully looking over his mother’s shoulders, but it is a +constant distress to me to see small children of six and seven +years old lugging on their backs gristly babies, whose shorn +heads are frizzling in the sun and “wobbling” about +as though they must drop off, their eyes, as nurses say, +“looking over their heads.” A number of +silk-worms are kept in this region, and in the open barns groups +of men in nature’s costume, and women unclothed to their +waists, were busy stripping mulberry branches. The houses +were all poor, and the people dirty both in their clothing and +persons. Some of the younger women might possibly have been +comely, if soap and water had been plentifully applied to their +faces; but soap is not used, and such washing as the garments get +is only the rubbing them a little with sand in a running +stream. I will give you an amusing instance of the way in +which one may make absurd mistakes. I heard many stories of +the viciousness and aggressiveness of pack-horses, and was told +that they were muzzled to prevent them from pasturing upon the +haunches of their companions and making vicious snatches at +men. Now, I find that the muzzle is only to prevent them +from eating as they travel. Mares are used exclusively in +this region, and they are the gentlest of their race. If +you have the weight of baggage reckoned at one horse-load, though +it should turn out that the weight is too great for a weakly +animal, and the Transport agent distributes it among two or even +three horses, you only pay for one; and though our +<i>cortège</i> on leaving Kisagoi consisted of four small, +shock-headed mares who <a name="page84"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 84</span>could hardly see through their bushy +forelocks, with three active foals, and one woman and three girls +to lead them, I only paid for two horses at 7 <i>sen</i> a +<i>ri</i>.</p> +<p>My <i>mago</i>, with her toil-hardened, thoroughly +good-natured face rendered hideous by black teeth, wore straw +sandals, blue cotton trousers with a vest tucked into them, as +poor and worn as they could be, and a blue cotton towel knotted +round her head. As the sky looked threatening she carried a +straw rain-cloak, a thatch of two connected capes, one fastening +at the neck, the other at the waist, and a flat hat of flags, +2½ feet in diameter, hung at her back like a shield. +Up and down, over rocks and through deep mud, she trudged with a +steady stride, turning her kind, ugly face at intervals to see if +the girls were following. I like the firm hardy gait which +this unbecoming costume permits better than the painful shuffle +imposed upon the more civilised women by their tight skirts and +high clogs.</p> +<p>From Kohiaku the road passed through an irregular grassy +valley between densely-wooded hills, the valley itself timbered +with park-like clumps of pine and Spanish chestnuts; but on +leaving Kisagoi the scenery changed. A steep rocky tract +brought us to the Kinugawa, a clear rushing river, which has cut +its way deeply through coloured rock, and is crossed at a +considerable height by a bridge with an alarmingly steep curve, +from which there is a fine view of high mountains, and among them +Futarayama, to which some of the most ancient Shintô +legends are attached. We rode for some time within hearing +of the Kinugawa, catching magnificent glimpses of it +frequently—turbulent and locked in by walls of porphyry, or +widening and calming and spreading its aquamarine waters over +great slabs of pink and green rock, lighted fitfully by the sun, +or spanned by rainbows, or pausing to rest in deep shady pools, +but always beautiful. The mountains through which it forces +its way on the other side are precipitous and wooded to their +summits with coniferæ, while the less abrupt side, along +which the tract is carried, curves into green knolls in its lower +slopes, sprinkled with grand Spanish chestnuts scarcely yet in +blossom, with maples which have not yet lost the scarlet which +they wear in spring as well as autumn, and with many flowering +trees and shrubs which are new to me, and with an undergrowth <a +name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>of red +azaleas, syringa, blue hydrangea—the very blue of +heaven—yellow raspberries, ferns, clematis, white and +yellow lilies, blue irises, and fifty other trees and shrubs +entangled and festooned by the wistaria, whose beautiful foliage +is as common as is that of the bramble with us. The +redundancy of the vegetation was truly tropical, and the +brilliancy and variety of its living greens, dripping with recent +rain, were enhanced by the slant rays of the afternoon sun.</p> +<p>The few hamlets we passed are of farm-houses only, the +deep-eaved roofs covering in one sweep dwelling-house, barn, and +stable. In every barn unclothed people were pursuing +various industries. We met strings of pack-mares, tied head +and tail, loaded with rice and <i>saké</i>, and men and +women carrying large creels full of mulberry leaves. The +ravine grew more and more beautiful, and an ascent through a dark +wood of arrowy cryptomeria brought us to this village exquisitely +situated, where a number of miniature ravines, industriously +terraced for rice, come down upon the great chasm of the +Kinugawa. Eleven hours of travelling have brought me +eighteen miles!</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Ikari</span>, June 25.—Fujihara has +forty-six farm-houses and a <i>yadoya</i>—all dark, damp, +dirty, and draughty, a combination of dwelling-house, barn, and +stable. The <i>yadoya</i> consisted of a <i>daidokoro</i>, +or open kitchen, and stable below, and a small loft above, +capable of division, and I found on returning from a walk six +Japanese in extreme <i>déshabillé</i> occupying the +part through which I had to pass. On this being remedied I +sat down to write, but was soon driven upon the balcony, under +the eaves, by myriads of fleas, which hopped out of the mats as +sandhoppers do out of the sea sand, and even in the balcony, +hopped over my letter. There were two outer walls of hairy +mud with living creatures crawling in the cracks; cobwebs hung +from the uncovered rafters. The mats were brown with age +and dirt, the rice was musty, and only partially cleaned, the +eggs had seen better days, and the tea was musty.</p> +<p>I saw everything out of doors with Ito—the patient +industry, the exquisitely situated village, the evening +avocations, the quiet dulness—and then contemplated it all +from my balcony and read the sentence (from a paper in the +Transactions of the Asiatic Society) which had led me to devise +this journey, <a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +86</span>“There is a most exquisitely picturesque, but +difficult, route up the course of the Kinugawa, which seems +almost as unknown to Japanese as to foreigners.” +There was a pure lemon-coloured sky above, and slush a foot deep +below. A road, at this time a quagmire, intersected by a +rapid stream, crossed in many places by planks, runs through the +village. This stream is at once “lavatory” and +“drinking fountain.” People come back from +their work, sit on the planks, take off their muddy clothes and +wring them out, and bathe their feet in the current. On +either side are the dwellings, in front of which are much-decayed +manure heaps, and the women were engaged in breaking them up and +treading them into a pulp with their bare feet. All wear +the vest and trousers at their work, but only the short +petticoats in their houses, and I saw several respectable mothers +of families cross the road and pay visits in this garment only, +without any sense of impropriety. The younger children wear +nothing but a string and an amulet. The persons, clothing, +and houses are alive with vermin, and if the word squalor can be +applied to independent and industrious people, they were +squalid. Beetles, spiders, and wood-lice held a carnival in +my room after dark, and the presence of horses in the same house +brought a number of horseflies. I sprinkled my stretcher +with insect powder, but my blanket had been on the floor for one +minute, and fleas rendered sleep impossible. The night was +very long. The <i>andon</i> went out, leaving a strong +smell of rancid oil. The primitive Japanese dog—a +cream-coloured wolfish-looking animal, the size of a collie, very +noisy and aggressive, but as cowardly as bullies usually +are—was in great force in Fujihara, and the barking, +growling, and quarrelling of these useless curs continued at +intervals until daylight; and when they were not quarrelling, +they were howling. Torrents of rain fell, obliging me to +move my bed from place to place to get out of the drip. At +five Ito came and entreated me to leave, whimpering, +“I’ve had no sleep; there are thousands and thousands +of fleas!” He has travelled by another route to the +Tsugaru Strait through the interior, and says that he would not +have believed that there was such a place in Japan, and that +people in Yokohama will not believe it when he tells them of it +and of the costume of the women. He is “ashamed for a +foreigner <a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +87</span>to see such a place,” he says. His +cleverness in travelling and his singular intelligence surprise +me daily. He is very anxious to speak <i>good</i> English, +as distinguished from “common” English, and to get +new words, with their correct pronunciation and spelling. +Each day he puts down in his note-book all the words that I use +that he does not quite understand, and in the evening brings them +to me and puts down their meaning and spelling with their +Japanese equivalents. He speaks English already far better +than many professional interpreters, but would be more pleasing +if he had not picked up some American vulgarisms and +free-and-easy ways. It is so important to me to have a good +interpreter, or I should not have engaged so young and +inexperienced a servant; but he is so clever that he is now able +to be cook, laundryman, and general attendant, as well as courier +and interpreter, and I think it is far easier for me than if he +were an older man. I am trying to manage him, because I saw +that he meant to manage me, specially in the matter of +“squeezes.” He is intensely Japanese, his +patriotism has all the weakness and strength of personal vanity, +and he thinks everything inferior that is foreign. Our +manners, eyes, and modes of eating appear simply odious to +him. He delights in retailing stories of the bad manners of +Englishmen, describes them as “roaring out <i>ohio</i> to +every one on the road,” frightening the tea-house nymphs, +kicking or slapping their coolies, stamping over white mats in +muddy boots, acting generally like ill-bred Satyrs, exciting an +ill-concealed hatred in simple country districts, and bringing +themselves and their country into contempt and ridicule. <a +name="citation87"></a><a href="#footnote87" +class="citation">[87]</a> He is very anxious about my good +behaviour, and as I am equally anxious to be courteous everywhere +in Japanese fashion, and not to violate the general rules of +Japanese etiquette, I take his suggestions as to what I ought to +do and avoid in very good part, and my bows are growing more +profound every day! The people are so kind and courteous, +that it is truly brutal in foreigners not to be kind and +courteous to them. You will observe that I am entirely +dependent on Ito, not only for travelling arrangements, but for +making inquiries, gaining information, and even for +companionship, such as it is; and our being mutually embarked <a +name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>on a hard and +adventurous journey will, I hope, make us mutually kind and +considerate. Nominally, he is a Shintôist, which +means nothing. At Nikkô I read to him the earlier +chapters of St. Luke, and when I came to the story of the +Prodigal Son I was interrupted by a somewhat scornful laugh and +the remark, “Why, all this is our Buddha over +again!”</p> +<p>To-day’s journey, though very rough, has been rather +pleasant. The rain moderated at noon, and I left Fujihara +on foot, wearing my American “mountain dress” and +Wellington boots,—the only costume in which ladies can +enjoy pedestrian or pack-horse travelling in this +country,—with a light straw mat—the waterproof of the +region—hanging over my shoulders, and so we plodded on with +two baggage horses through the ankle-deep mud, till the rain +cleared off, the mountains looked through the mist, the augmented +Kinugawa thundered below, and enjoyment became possible, even in +my half-fed condition. Eventually I mounted a pack-saddle, +and we crossed a spur of Takadayama at a height of 2100 feet on a +well-devised series of zigzags, eight of which in one place could +be seen one below another. The forest there is not so dense +as usual, and the lower mountain slopes are sprinkled with noble +Spanish chestnuts. The descent was steep and slippery, the +horse had tender feet, and, after stumbling badly, eventually +came down, and I went over his head, to the great distress of the +kindly female <i>mago</i>. The straw shoes tied with wisps +round the pasterns are a great nuisance. The “shoe +strings” are always coming untied, and the shoes only wear +about two <i>ri</i> on soft ground, and less than one on +hard. They keep the feet so soft and spongy that the horses +can’t walk without them at all, and as soon as they get +thin your horse begins to stumble, the <i>mago</i> gets uneasy, +and presently you stop; four shoes, which are hanging from the +saddle, are soaked in water and are tied on with much coaxing, +raising the animal fully an inch above the ground. Anything +more temporary and clumsy could not be devised. The bridle +paths are strewn with them, and the children collect them in +heaps to decay for manure. They cost 3 or 4 <i>sen</i> the +set, and in every village men spend their leisure time in making +them.</p> +<p>At the next stage, called Takahara, we got one horse for the +baggage, crossed the river and the ravine, and by a steep <a +name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>climb reached +a solitary <i>yadoya</i> with the usual open front and +<i>irori</i>, round which a number of people, old and young, were +sitting. When I arrived a whole bevy of nice-looking girls +took to flight, but were soon recalled by a word from Ito to +their elders. Lady Parkes, on a side-saddle and in a +riding-habit, has been taken for a man till the people saw her +hair, and a young friend of mine, who is very pretty and has a +beautiful complexion, when travelling lately with her husband, +was supposed to be a man who had shaven off his beard. I +wear a hat, which is a thing only worn by women in the fields as +a protection from sun and rain, my eyebrows are unshaven, and my +teeth are unblackened, so these girls supposed me to be a foreign +man. Ito in explanation said, “They haven’t +seen any, but everybody brings them tales how rude foreigners are +to girls, and they are awful scared.” There was +nothing eatable but rice and eggs, and I ate them under the +concentrated stare of eighteen pairs of dark eyes. The hot +springs, to which many people afflicted with sores resort, are by +the river, at the bottom of a rude flight of steps, in an open +shed, but I could not ascertain their temperature, as a number of +men and women were sitting in the water. They bathe four +times a day, and remain for an hour at a time.</p> +<p>We left for the five miles’ walk to Ikari in a torrent +of rain by a newly-made path completely shut in with the +cascading Kinugawa, and carried along sometimes low, sometimes +high, on props projecting over it from the face of the +rock. I do not expect to see anything lovelier in +Japan.</p> +<p>The river, always crystal-blue or crystal-green, largely +increased in volume by the rains, forces itself through gates of +brightly-coloured rock, by which its progress is repeatedly +arrested, and rarely lingers for rest in all its sparkling, +rushing course. It is walled in by high mountains, +gloriously wooded and cleft by dark ravines, down which torrents +were tumbling in great drifts of foam, crashing and booming, boom +and crash multiplied by many an echo, and every ravine afforded +glimpses far back of more mountains, clefts, and waterfalls, and +such over-abundant vegetation that I welcomed the sight of a gray +cliff or bare face of rock. Along the path there were +fascinating details, composed of the manifold greenery which +revels in damp heat, ferns, mosses, <i>confervæ</i>, fungi, +trailers, shading <a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +90</span>tiny rills which dropped down into grottoes feathery +with the exquisite <i>Trichomanes radicans</i>, or drooped over +the rustic path and hung into the river, and overhead the finely +incised and almost feathery foliage of several varieties of maple +admitted the light only as a green mist. The spring tints +have not yet darkened into the monotone of summer, rose azaleas +still light the hillsides, and masses of cryptomeria give depth +and shadow. Still, beautiful as it all is, one sighs for +something which shall satisfy one’s craving for startling +individuality and grace of form, as in the coco-palm and banana +of the tropics. The featheriness of the maple, and the +arrowy straightness and pyramidal form of the cryptomeria, please +me better than all else; but why criticise? Ten minutes of +sunshine would transform the whole into fairyland.</p> +<p>There were no houses and no people. Leaving this +beautiful river we crossed a spur of a hill, where all the trees +were matted together by a very fragrant white honeysuckle, and +came down upon an open valley where a quiet stream joins the +loud-tongued Kinugawa, and another mile brought us to this +beautifully-situated hamlet of twenty-five houses, surrounded by +mountains, and close to a mountain stream called the Okawa. +The names of Japanese rivers give one very little geographical +information from their want of continuity. A river changes +its name several times in a course of thirty or forty miles, +according to the districts through which it passes. This is +my old friend the Kinugawa, up which I have been travelling for +two days. Want of space is a great aid to the +picturesque. Ikari is crowded together on a hill slope, and +its short, primitive-looking street, with its warm browns and +greys, is quite attractive in “the clear shining after +rain.” My halting-place is at the express office at +the top of the hill—a place like a big barn, with horses at +one end and a living-room at the other, and in the centre much +produce awaiting transport, and a group of people stripping +mulberry branches. The nearest <i>daimiyô</i> used to +halt here on his way to Tôkiyô, so there are two +rooms for travellers, called <i>daimiyôs</i>’ rooms, +fifteen feet high, handsomely ceiled in dark wood, the +<i>shôji</i> of such fine work as to merit the name of +fret-work, the <i>fusuma</i> artistically decorated, the mats +clean and fine, and in the alcove a sword-rack of old gold +lacquer. Mine is the inner <a name="page91"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 91</span>room, and Ito and four travellers +occupy the outer one. Though very dark, it is luxury after +last night. The rest of the house is given up to the +rearing of silk-worms. The house-masters here and at +Fujihara are not used to passports, and Ito, who is posing as a +town-bred youth, has explained and copied mine, all the village +men assembling to hear it read aloud. He does not know the +word used for “scientific investigation,” but, in the +idea of increasing his own importance by exaggerating mine, I +hear him telling the people that I am <i>gakusha</i>, <i>i.e.</i> +learned! There is no police-station here, but every month +policemen pay domiciliary visits to these outlying <i>yadoyas</i> +and examine the register of visitors.</p> +<p>This is a much neater place than the last, but the people look +stupid and apathetic, and I wonder what they think of the men who +have abolished the <i>daimiyô</i> and the feudal +<i>régime</i>, have raised the <i>eta</i> to citizenship, +and are hurrying the empire forward on the tracks of western +civilisation!</p> +<p>Since shingle has given place to thatch there is much to +admire in the villages, with their steep roofs, deep eaves and +balconies, the warm russet of roofs and walls, the quaint +confusion of the farmhouses, the hedges of camellia and +pomegranate, the bamboo clumps and persimmon orchards, and (in +spite of dirt and bad smells) the generally satisfied look of the +peasant proprietors.</p> +<p>No food can be got here except rice and eggs, and I am haunted +by memories of the fowls and fish of Nikkô, to say nothing +of the “flesh pots” of the Legation, and</p> +<blockquote><p>“—a sorrow’s crown of sorrow<br +/> +Is remembering happier things!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The mercury falls to 70° at night, and I generally awake +from cold at 3 a.m., for my blankets are only summer ones, and I +dare not supplement them with a quilt, either for sleeping on or +under, because of the fleas which it contains. I usually +retire about 7.30, for there is almost no twilight, and very +little inducement for sitting up by the dimness of candle or +<i>andon</i>, and I have found these days of riding on slow, +rolling, stumbling horses very severe, and if I were anything of +a walker, should certainly prefer pedestrianism.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>LETTER +XII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Fantastic Jumble—The +“Quiver” of Poverty—The Water-shed—From +Bad to Worse—The Rice Planter’s Holiday—A +Diseased Crowd—Amateur Doctoring—Want of +Cleanliness—Rapid Eating—Premature Old Age.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kurumatoge</span>, <i>June</i> 30.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the hard travelling of six +days the rest of Sunday in a quiet place at a high elevation is +truly delightful! Mountains and passes, valleys and rice +swamps, forests and rice swamps, villages and rice swamps; +poverty, industry, dirt, ruinous temples, prostrate Buddhas, +strings of straw-shod pack-horses; long, grey, featureless +streets, and quiet, staring crowds, are all jumbled up +fantastically in my memory. Fine weather accompanied me +through beautiful scenery from Ikari to Yokokawa, where I ate my +lunch in the street to avoid the innumerable fleas of the +tea-house, with a circle round me of nearly all the +inhabitants. At first the children, both old and young, +were so frightened that they ran away, but by degrees they +timidly came back, clinging to the skirts of their parents +(skirts, in this case, being a metaphorical expression), running +away again as often as I looked at them. The crowd was +filthy and squalid beyond description. Why should the +“quiver” of poverty be so very full? one asks as one +looks at the swarms of gentle, naked, old-fashioned children, +born to a heritage of hard toil, to be, like their parents, +devoured by vermin, and pressed hard for taxes. A horse +kicked off my saddle before it was girthed, the crowd scattered +right and left, and work, which had been suspended for two hours +to stare at the foreigner, began again.</p> +<p>A long ascent took us to the top of a pass 2500 feet in +height, a projecting spur not 30 feet wide, with a grand view of +mountains and ravines, and a maze of involved streams, which +unite in a vigorous torrent, whose course we followed <a +name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>for some +hours, till it expanded into a quiet river, lounging lazily +through a rice swamp of considerable extent. The map is +blank in this region, but I judged, as I afterwards found +rightly, that at that pass we had crossed the water-shed, and +that the streams thenceforward no longer fall into the Pacific, +but into the Sea of Japan. At Itosawa the horses produced +stumbled so intolerably that I walked the last stage, and reached +Kayashima, a miserable village of fifty-seven houses, so +exhausted that I could not go farther, and was obliged to put up +with worse accommodation even than at Fujihara, with less +strength for its hardships.</p> +<p>The <i>yadoya</i> was simply awful. The <i>daidokoro</i> +had a large wood fire burning in a trench, filling the whole +place with stinging smoke, from which my room, which was merely +screened off by some dilapidated <i>shôji</i>, was not +exempt. The rafters were black and shiny with soot and +moisture. The house-master, who knelt persistently on the +floor of my room till he was dislodged by Ito, apologised for the +dirt of his house, as well he might. Stifling, dark, and +smoky, as my room was, I had to close the paper windows, owing to +the crowd which assembled in the street. There was neither +rice nor soy, and Ito, who values his own comfort, began to speak +to the house-master and servants loudly and roughly, and to throw +my things about—a style of acting which I promptly +terminated, for nothing could be more hurtful to a foreigner, or +more unkind to the people, than for a servant to be rude and +bullying; and the man was most polite, and never approached me +but on bended knees. When I gave him my passport, as the +custom is, he touched his forehead with it, and then touched the +earth with his forehead.</p> +<p>I found nothing that I could eat except black beans and boiled +cucumbers. The room was dark, dirty, vile, noisy, and +poisoned by sewage odours, as rooms unfortunately are very apt to +be. At the end of the rice planting there is a holiday for +two days, when many offerings are made to Inari, the god of rice +farmers; and the holiday-makers kept up their revel all night, +and drums, stationary and peripatetic, were constantly beaten in +such a way as to prevent sleep.</p> +<p>A little boy, the house-master’s son, was suffering from +a very bad cough, and a few drops of chlorodyne which I gave <a +name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>him allayed +it so completely that the cure was noised abroad in the earliest +hours of the next morning, and by five o’clock nearly the +whole population was assembled outside my room, with much +whispering and shuffling of shoeless feet, and applications of +eyes to the many holes in the paper windows. When I drew +aside the <i>shôji</i> I was disconcerted by the painful +sight which presented itself, for the people were pressing one +upon another, fathers and mothers holding naked children covered +with skin-disease, or with scald-head, or ringworm, daughters +leading mothers nearly blind, men exhibiting painful sores, +children blinking with eyes infested by flies and nearly closed +with ophthalmia; and all, sick and well, in truly “vile +raiment,” lamentably dirty and swarming with vermin, the +sick asking for medicine, and the well either bringing the sick +or gratifying an apathetic curiosity. Sadly I told them +that I did not understand their manifold “diseases and +torments,” and that, if I did, I had no stock of medicines, +and that in my own country the constant washing of clothes, and +the constant application of water to the skin, accompanied by +friction with clean cloths, would be much relied upon by doctors +for the cure and prevention of similar cutaneous diseases. +To pacify them I made some ointment of animal fat and flowers of +sulphur, extracted with difficulty from some man’s hoard, +and told them how to apply it to some of the worst cases. +The horse, being unused to a girth, became fidgety as it was +being saddled, creating a <i>stampede</i> among the crowd, and +the <i>mago</i> would not touch it again. They are as much +afraid of their gentle mares as if they were panthers. All +the children followed me for a considerable distance, and a good +many of the adults made an excuse for going in the same +direction.</p> +<p>These people wear no linen, and their clothes, which are +seldom washed, are constantly worn, night and day, as long as +they will hold together. They seal up their houses as +hermetically as they can at night, and herd together in numbers +in one sleeping-room, with its atmosphere vitiated, to begin +with, by charcoal and tobacco fumes, huddled up in their dirty +garments in wadded quilts, which are kept during the day in close +cupboards, and are seldom washed from one year’s end to +another. The <i>tatami</i>, beneath a tolerably fair +exterior, swarm with insect life, and are receptacles of dust, +organic <a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +95</span>matters, etc. The hair, which is loaded with oil +and bandoline, is dressed once a week, or less often in these +districts, and it is unnecessary to enter into any details +regarding the distressing results, and much besides may be left +to the imagination. The persons of the people, especially +of the children, are infested with vermin, and one fruitful +source of skin sores is the irritation arising from this +cause. The floors of houses, being concealed by mats, are +laid down carelessly with gaps between the boards, and, as the +damp earth is only 18 inches or 2 feet below, emanations of all +kinds enter the mats and pass into the rooms.</p> +<p>The houses in this region (and I believe everywhere) are +hermetically sealed at night, both in summer and winter, the +<i>amado</i>, which are made without ventilators, literally +boxing them in, so that, unless they are falling to pieces, which +is rarely the case, none of the air vitiated by the breathing of +many persons, by the emanations from their bodies and clothing, +by the miasmata produced by defective domestic arrangements, and +by the fumes from charcoal <i>hibachi</i>, can ever be +renewed. Exercise is seldom taken from choice, and, unless +the women work in the fields, they hang over charcoal fumes the +whole day for five months of the year, engaged in interminable +processes of cooking, or in the attempt to get warm. Much +of the food of the peasantry is raw or half-raw salt fish, and +vegetables rendered indigestible by being coarsely pickled, all +bolted with the most marvellous rapidity, as if the one object of +life were to rush through a meal in the shortest possible +time. The married women look as if they had never known +youth, and their skin is apt to be like tanned leather. At +Kayashima I asked the house-master’s wife, who looked about +fifty, how old she was (a polite question in Japan), and she +replied twenty-two—one of many similar surprises. Her +boy was five years old, and was still unweaned.</p> +<p>This digression disposes of one aspect of the population. <a +name="citation95"></a><a href="#footnote95" +class="citation">[95]</a></p> +<h2><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>LETTER +XII.—(<i>Concluded</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Japanese Ferry—A Corrugated +Road—The Pass of Sanno—Various Vegetation—An +Unattractive Undergrowth—Preponderance of Men.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> changed horses at Tajima, +formerly a <i>daimiyô’s</i> residence, and, for a +Japanese town, rather picturesque. It makes and exports +clogs, coarse pottery, coarse lacquer, and coarse baskets.</p> +<p>After travelling through rice-fields varying from thirty yards +square to a quarter of an acre, with the tops of the dykes +utilised by planting dwarf beans along them, we came to a large +river, the Arakai, along whose affluents we had been tramping for +two days, and, after passing through several filthy villages, +thronged with filthy and industrious inhabitants, crossed it in a +scow. High forks planted securely in the bank on either +side sustained a rope formed of several strands of the wistaria +knotted together. One man hauled on this hand over hand, +another poled at the stern, and the rapid current did the +rest. In this fashion we have crossed many rivers +subsequently. Tariffs of charges are posted at all ferries, +as well as at all bridges where charges are made, and a man sits +in an office to receive the money.</p> +<p>The country was really very beautiful. The views were +wider and finer than on the previous days, taking in great sweeps +of peaked mountains, wooded to their summits, and from the top of +the Pass of Sanno the clustered peaks were glorified into +unearthly beauty in a golden mist of evening sunshine. I +slept at a house combining silk farm, post office, express +office, and <i>daimiyô’s</i> rooms, at the hamlet of +Ouchi, prettily situated in a valley with mountainous +surroundings, <a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +97</span>and, leaving early on the following morning, had a very +grand ride, passing in a crateriform cavity the pretty little +lake of Oyakê, and then ascending the magnificent pass of +Ichikawa. We turned off what, by ironical courtesy, is +called the main road, upon a villainous track, consisting of a +series of lateral corrugations, about a foot broad, with +depressions between them more than a foot deep, formed by the +invariable treading of the pack-horses in each other’s +footsteps. Each hole was a quagmire of tenacious mud, the +ascent of 2400 feet was very steep, and the <i>mago</i> adjured +the animals the whole time with <i>Hai</i>! <i>Hai</i>! +<i>Hai</i>! which is supposed to suggest to them that extreme +caution is requisite. Their shoes were always coming +untied, and they wore out two sets in four miles. The top +of the pass, like that of a great many others, is a narrow ridge, +on the farther side of which the track dips abruptly into a +tremendous ravine, along whose side we descended for a mile or so +in company with a river whose reverberating thunder drowned all +attempts at speech. A glorious view it was, looking down +between the wooded precipices to a rolling wooded plain, lying in +depths of indigo shadow, bounded by ranges of wooded mountains, +and overtopped by heights heavily splotched with snow! The +vegetation was significant of a milder climate. The +magnolia and bamboo re-appeared, and tropical ferns mingled with +the beautiful blue hydrangea, the yellow Japan lily, and the +great blue campanula. There was an ocean of trees entangled +with a beautiful trailer (<i>Actinidia polygama</i>) with a +profusion of white leaves, which, at a distance, look like great +clusters of white blossoms. But the rank undergrowth of the +forests of this region is not attractive. Many of its +component parts deserve the name of weeds, being gawky, ragged +umbels, coarse docks, rank nettles, and many other things which I +don’t know, and never wish to see again. Near the end +of this descent my mare took the bit between her teeth and +carried me at an ungainly gallop into the beautifully situated, +precipitous village of Ichikawa, which is absolutely saturated +with moisture by the spray of a fine waterfall which tumbles +through the middle of it, and its trees and road-side are green +with the <i>Protococcus viridis</i>. The Transport Agent +there was a woman. Women keep <i>yadoyas</i> and shops, and +cultivate farms as freely as men. Boards <a +name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>giving the +number of inhabitants, male and female, and the number of horses +and bullocks, are put up in each village, and I noticed in +Ichikawa, as everywhere hitherto, that men preponderate. <a +name="citation98"></a><a href="#footnote98" +class="citation">[98]</a></p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>LETTER +XIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Plain of Wakamatsu—Light +Costume—The Takata Crowd—A Congress of +Schoolmasters—Timidity of a Crowd—Bad +Roads—Vicious Horses—Mountain Scenery—A +Picturesque Inn—Swallowing a Fish-bone—Poverty and +Suicide—An Inn-kitchen—England Unknown!—My +Breakfast Disappears.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kurumatoge</span>, <i>June</i> 30.</p> +<p>A <span class="smcap">short</span> ride took us from Ichikawa +to a plain about eleven miles broad by eighteen long. The +large town of Wakamatsu stands near its southern end, and it is +sprinkled with towns and villages. The great lake of +Iniwashiro is not far off. The plain is rich and +fertile. In the distance the steep roofs of its villages, +with their groves, look very picturesque. As usual not a +fence or gate is to be seen, or any other hedge than the tall one +used as a screen for the dwellings of the richer farmers.</p> +<p>Bad roads and bad horses detracted from my enjoyment. +One hour of a good horse would have carried me across the plain; +as it was, seven weary hours were expended upon it. The day +degenerated, and closed in still, hot rain; the air was stifling +and electric, the saddle slipped constantly from being too big, +the shoes were more than usually troublesome, the horseflies +tormented, and the men and horses crawled. The rice-fields +were undergoing a second process of puddling, and many of the men +engaged in it wore only a hat, and a fan attached to the +girdle.</p> +<p>An avenue of cryptomeria and two handsome and somewhat gilded +Buddhist temples denoted the approach to a place of some +importance, and such Takata is, as being a large town with a +considerable trade in silk, rope, and <i>minjin</i>, and the +residence of one of the higher officials of the <i>ken</i> or +prefecture. The street is a mile long, and every house is a +shop. The <a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +100</span>general aspect is mean and forlorn. In these +little-travelled districts, as soon as one reaches the margin of +a town, the first man one meets turns and flies down the street, +calling out the Japanese equivalent of “Here’s a +foreigner!” and soon blind and seeing, old and young, +clothed and naked, gather together. At the <i>yadoya</i> +the crowd assembled in such force that the house-master removed +me to some pretty rooms in a garden; but then the adults climbed +on the house-roofs which overlooked it, and the children on a +palisade at the end, which broke down under their weight, and +admitted the whole inundation; so that I had to close the +<i>shôji</i>, with the fatiguing consciousness during the +whole time of nominal rest of a multitude surging outside. +Then five policemen in black alpaca frock-coats and white +trousers invaded my precarious privacy, desiring to see my +passport—a demand never made before except where I halted +for the night. In their European clothes they cannot bow +with Japanese punctiliousness, but they were very polite, and +expressed great annoyance at the crowd, and dispersed it; but +they had hardly disappeared when it gathered again. When I +went out I found fully 1000 people helping me to realise how the +crowded cities of Judea sent forth people clothed much as these +are when the Miracle-Worker from Galilee arrived, but not what +the fatigue of the crowding and buzzing must have been to One who +had been preaching and working during the long day. These +Japanese crowds, however, are quiet and gentle, and never press +rudely upon one. I could not find it in my heart to +complain of them except to you. Four of the policemen +returned, and escorted me to the outskirts of the town. The +noise made by 1000 people shuffling along in clogs is like the +clatter of a hail-storm.</p> +<p>After this there was a dismal tramp of five hours through +rice-fields. The moist climate and the fatigue of this +manner of travelling are deteriorating my health, and the pain in +my spine, which has been daily increasing, was so severe that I +could neither ride nor walk for more than twenty minutes at a +time; and the pace was so slow that it was six when we reached +Bangé, a commercial town of 5000 people, literally in the +rice swamp, mean, filthy, damp, and decaying, and full of an +overpowering stench from black, slimy ditches. The <a +name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>mercury was +84°, and hot rain fell fast through the motionless air. +We dismounted in a shed full of bales of dried fish, which gave +off an overpowering odour, and wet and dirty people crowded in to +stare at the foreigner till the air seemed unbreathable.</p> +<p>But there were signs of progress. A three days’ +congress of schoolmasters was being held; candidates for vacant +situations were being examined; there were lengthy educational +discussions going on, specially on the subject of the value of +the Chinese classics as a part of education; and every inn was +crowded.</p> +<p>Bangé was malarious: there was so much malarious fever +that the Government had sent additional medical assistance; the +hills were only a <i>ri</i> off, and it seemed essential to go +on. But not a horse could be got till 10 p.m.; the road was +worse than the one I had travelled; the pain became more acute, +and I more exhausted, and I was obliged to remain. Then +followed a weary hour, in which the Express Agent’s five +emissaries were searching for a room, and considerably after dark +I found myself in a rambling old over-crowded <i>yadoya</i>, +where my room was mainly built on piles above stagnant water, and +the mosquitoes were in such swarms as to make the air dense, and +after a feverish and miserable night I was glad to get up early +and depart.</p> +<p>Fully 2000 people had assembled. After I was mounted I +was on the point of removing my Dollond from the case, which hung +on the saddle horn, when a regular stampede occurred, old and +young running as fast as they possibly could, children being +knocked down in the haste of their elders. Ito said that +they thought I was taking out a pistol to frighten them, and I +made him explain what the object really was, for they are a +gentle, harmless people, whom one would not annoy without sincere +regret. In many European countries, and certainly in some +parts of our own, a solitary lady-traveller in a foreign dress +would be exposed to rudeness, insult, and extortion, if not to +actual danger; but I have not met with a single instance of +incivility or real overcharge, and there is no rudeness even +about the crowding. The <i>mago</i> are anxious that I +should not get wet or be frightened, and very scrupulous in +seeing that all straps and loose things are safe at the end of <a +name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>the +journey, and, instead of hanging about asking for gratuities, or +stopping to drink and gossip, they quickly unload the horses, get +a paper from the Transport Agent, and go home. Only +yesterday a strap was missing, and, though it was after dark, the +man went back a <i>ri</i> for it, and refused to take some +<i>sen</i> which I wished to give him, saying he was responsible +for delivering everything right at the journey’s end. +They are so kind and courteous to each other, which is very +pleasing. Ito is not pleasing or polite in his manner to +me, but when he speaks to his own people he cannot free himself +from the shackles of etiquette, and bows as profoundly and uses +as many polite phrases as anybody else.</p> +<p>In an hour the malarious plain was crossed, and we have been +among piles of mountains ever since. The infamous road was +so slippery that my horse fell several times, and the baggage +horse, with Ito upon him, rolled head over heels, sending his +miscellaneous pack in all directions. Good roads are really +the most pressing need of Japan. It would be far better if +the Government were to enrich the country by such a remunerative +outlay as making passable roads for the transport of goods +through the interior, than to impoverish it by buying ironclads +in England, and indulging in expensive western vanities.</p> +<p>That so horrible a road should have so good a bridge as that +by which we crossed the broad river Agano is surprising. It +consists of twelve large scows, each one secured to a strong +cable of plaited wistari, which crosses the river at a great +height, so as to allow of the scows and the plank bridge which +they carry rising and falling with the twelve feet variation of +the water.</p> +<p>Ito’s disaster kept him back for an hour, and I sat +meanwhile on a rice sack in the hamlet of Katakado, a collection +of steep-roofed houses huddled together in a height above the +Agano. It was one mob of pack-horses, over 200 of them, +biting, squealing, and kicking. Before I could dismount, +one vicious creature struck at me violently, but only hit the +great wooden stirrup. I could hardly find any place out of +the range of hoofs or teeth. My baggage horse showed great +fury after he was unloaded. He attacked people right and +left with his teeth, struck out savagely with his fore feet, +lashed <a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +103</span>out with his hind ones, and tried to pin his master up +against a wall.</p> +<p>Leaving this fractious scene we struck again through the +mountains. Their ranges were interminable, and every view +from every fresh ridge grander than the last, for we were now +near the lofty range of the Aidzu Mountains, and the +double-peaked Bandaisan, the abrupt precipices of Itoyasan, and +the grand mass of Miyojintaké in the south-west, with +their vast snow-fields and snow-filled ravines, were all visible +at once. These summits of naked rock or dazzling snow, +rising above the smothering greenery of the lower ranges into a +heaven of delicious blue, gave exactly that individuality and +emphasis which, to my thinking, Japanese scenery usually +lacks. Riding on first, I arrived alone at the little town +of Nozawa, to encounter the curiosity of a crowd; and, after a +rest, we had a very pleasant walk of three miles along the side +of a ridge above a rapid river with fine grey cliffs on its +farther side, with a grand view of the Aidzu giants, violet +coloured in a golden sunset.</p> +<p>At dusk we came upon the picturesque village of Nojiri, on the +margin of a rice valley, but I shrank from spending Sunday in a +hole, and, having spied a solitary house on the very brow of a +hill 1500 feet higher, I dragged out the information that it was +a tea-house, and came up to it. It took three-quarters of +an hour to climb the series of precipitous zigzags by which this +remarkable pass is surmounted; darkness came on, accompanied by +thunder and lightning, and just as we arrived a tremendous zigzag +of blue flame lit up the house and its interior, showing a large +group sitting round a wood fire, and then all was thick darkness +again. It had a most startling effect. This house is +magnificently situated, almost hanging over the edge of the +knife-like ridge of the pass of Kuruma, on which it is +situated. It is the only <i>yadoya</i> I have been at from +which there has been any view. The villages are nearly +always in the valleys, and the best rooms are at the back, and +have their prospects limited by the paling of the conventional +garden. If it were not for the fleas, which are here in +legions, I should stay longer, for the view of the Aidzu snow is +delicious, and, as there are only two other houses, one can +ramble without being mobbed.</p> +<p>In one a child two and a half years old swallowed a fish-bone +<a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>last +night, and has been suffering and crying all day, and the grief +of the mother so won Ito’s sympathy that he took me to see +her. She had walked up and down with it for eighteen hours, +but never thought of looking into its throat, and was very +unwilling that I should do so. The bone was visible, and +easily removed with a crochet needle. An hour later the +mother sent a tray with a quantity of cakes and coarse +confectionery upon it as a present, with the piece of dried +seaweed which always accompanies a gift. Before night seven +people with sore legs applied for “advice.” The +sores were all superficial and all alike, and their owners said +that they had been produced by the incessant rubbing of the bites +of ants.</p> +<p>On this summer day the country looks as prosperous as it is +beautiful, and one would not think that acute poverty could exist +in the steep-roofed village of Nojiri, which nestles at the foot +of the hill; but two hempen ropes dangling from a cryptomeria +just below tell the sad tale of an elderly man who hanged himself +two days ago, because he was too poor to provide for a large +family; and the house-mistress and Ito tell me that when a man +who has a young family gets too old or feeble for work he often +destroys himself.</p> +<p>My hostess is a widow with a family, a good-natured, bustling +woman, with a great love of talk. All day her house is open +all round, having literally no walls. The roof and solitary +upper room are supported on posts, and my ladder almost touches +the kitchen fire. During the day-time the large matted area +under the roof has no divisions, and groups of travellers and +<i>magos</i> lie about, for every one who has toiled up either +side of Kurumatogé takes a cup of “tea with +eating,” and the house-mistress is busy the whole +day. A big well is near the fire. Of course there is +no furniture; but a shelf runs under the roof, on which there is +a Buddhist god-house, with two black idols in it, one of them +being that much-worshipped divinity, Daikoku, the god of +wealth. Besides a rack for kitchen utensils, there is only +a stand on which are six large brown dishes with food for +sale—salt shell-fish, in a black liquid, dried trout +impaled on sticks, sea slugs in soy, a paste made of pounded +roots, and green cakes made of the slimy river +<i>confervæ</i>, pressed and dried—all ill-favoured +and unsavoury viands. This afternoon a man without clothes +was <a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +105</span>treading flour paste on a mat, a traveller in a blue +silk robe was lying on the floor smoking, and five women in loose +attire, with elaborate chignons and blackened teeth, were +squatting round the fire. At the house-mistress’s +request I wrote a eulogistic description of the view from her +house, and read it in English, Ito translating it, to the very +great satisfaction of the assemblage. Then I was asked to +write on four fans. The woman has never heard of +England. It is not “a name to conjure with” in +these wilds. Neither has she heard of America. She +knows of Russia as a great power, and, of course, of China, but +there her knowledge ends, though she has been at +Tôkiyô and Kiyotô.</p> +<p>July 1.—I was just falling asleep last night, in spite +of mosquitoes and fleas, when I was roused by much talking and +loud outcries of poultry; and Ito, carrying a screaming, +refractory hen, and a man and woman whom he had with difficulty +bribed to part with it, appeared by my bed. I feebly said I +would have it boiled for breakfast, but when Ito called me this +morning he told me with a most rueful face that just as he was +going to kill it it had escaped to the woods! In order to +understand my feelings you must have experienced what it is not +to have tasted fish, flesh, or fowl, for ten days! The +alternative was eggs and some of the paste which the man was +treading yesterday on the mat cut into strips and boiled! +It was coarse flour and buckwheat, so, you see, I have learned +not to be particular!</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +106</span>LETTER XIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">An Infamous Road—Monotonous +Greenery—Abysmal Dirt—Low Lives—The Tsugawa +<i>Yadoya</i>—Politeness—A Shipping Port—A +Barbarian Devil.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Tsugawa</span>, +<i>July</i> 2.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Yesterday’s</span> journey was one +of the most severe I have yet had, for in ten hours of hard +travelling I only accomplished fifteen miles. The road from +Kurumatogé westwards is so infamous that the stages are +sometimes little more than a mile. Yet it is by it, so far +at least as the Tsugawa river, that the produce and manufactures +of the rich plain of Aidzu, with its numerous towns, and of a +very large interior district, must find an outlet at +Niigata. In defiance of all modern ideas, it goes straight +up and straight down hill, at a gradient that I should be afraid +to hazard a guess at, and at present it is a perfect quagmire, +into which great stones have been thrown, some of which have +subsided edgewise, and others have disappeared altogether. +It is the very worst road I ever rode over, and that is saying a +good deal! Kurumatogé was the last of seventeen +mountain-passes, over 2000 feet high, which I have crossed since +leaving Nikkô. Between it and Tsugawa the scenery, +though on a smaller scale, is of much the same character as +hitherto—hills wooded to their tops, cleft by ravines which +open out occasionally to divulge more distant ranges, all +smothered in greenery, which, when I am ill-pleased, I am +inclined to call “rank vegetation.” Oh that an +abrupt scaur, or a strip of flaming desert, or something salient +and brilliant, would break in, however discordantly, upon this +monotony of green!</p> +<p>The villages of that district must, I think, have reached the +lowest abyss of filthiness in Hozawa and Saikaiyama. Fowls, +dogs, horses, and people herded together in sheds black <a +name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>with wood +smoke, and manure heaps drained into the wells. No young +boy wore any clothing. Few of the men wore anything but the +<i>maro</i>, the women were unclothed to their waists and such +clothing as they had was very dirty, and held together by mere +force of habit. The adults were covered with inflamed bites +of insects, and the children with skin-disease. Their +houses were dirty, and, as they squatted on their heels, or lay +face downwards, they looked little better than savages. +Their appearance and the want of delicacy of their habits are +simply abominable, and in the latter respect they contrast to +great disadvantage with several savage peoples that I have been +among. If I had kept to Nikkô, Hakone, Miyanoshita, +and similar places visited by foreigners with less time, I should +have formed a very different impression. Is their spiritual +condition, I often wonder, much higher than their physical +one? They are courteous, kindly, industrious, and free from +gross crimes; but, from the conversations that I have had with +Japanese, and from much that I see, I judge that their standard +of foundational morality is very low, and that life is neither +truthful nor pure.</p> +<p>I put up here at a crowded <i>yadoya</i>, where they have +given me two cheerful rooms in the garden, away from the +crowd. Ito’s great desire on arriving at any place is +to shut me up in my room and keep me a close prisoner till the +start the next morning; but here I emancipated myself, and +enjoyed myself very much sitting in the <i>daidokoro</i>. +The house-master is of the <i>samurai</i>, or two-sworded class, +now, as such, extinct. His face is longer, his lips +thinner, and his nose straighter and more prominent than those of +the lower class, and there is a difference in his manner and +bearing. I have had a great deal of interesting +conversation with him.</p> +<p>In the same open space his clerk was writing at a lacquer desk +of the stereotyped form—a low bench with the ends rolled +over—a woman was tailoring, coolies were washing their feet +on the <i>itama</i>, and several more were squatting round the +<i>irori</i> smoking and drinking tea. A coolie servant +washed some rice for my dinner, but before doing so took off his +clothes, and the woman who cooked it let her <i>kimono</i> fall +to her waist before she began to work, as is customary among +respectable women. The house-master’s wife and Ito +talked <a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +108</span>about me unguardedly. I asked what they were +saying. “She says,” said he, “that you +are very polite—for a foreigner,” he added. I +asked what she meant, and found that it was because I took off my +boots before I stepped on the matting, and bowed when they handed +me the <i>tabako-bon</i>.</p> +<p>We walked through the town to find something eatable for +to-morrow’s river journey, but only succeeded in getting +wafers made of white of egg and sugar, balls made of sugar and +barley flour, and beans coated with sugar. Thatch, with its +picturesqueness, has disappeared, and the Tsugawa roofs are of +strips of bark weighted with large stones; but, as the houses +turn their gable ends to the street, and there is a promenade the +whole way under the eaves, and the street turns twice at right +angles and terminates in temple grounds on a bank above the +river, it is less monotonous than most Japanese towns. It +is a place of 3000 people, and a good deal of produce is shipped +from hence to Niigata by the river. To-day it is thronged +with pack-horses. I was much mobbed, and one child formed +the solitary exception to the general rule of politeness by +calling me a name equivalent to the Chinese <i>Fan Kwai</i>, +“foreign;” but he was severely chidden, and a +policeman has just called with an apology. A slice of fresh +salmon has been produced, and I think I never tasted anything so +delicious. I have finished the first part of my land +journey, and leave for Niigata by boat to-morrow morning.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +109</span>LETTER XV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Hurry—The Tsugawa +Packet-boat—Running the Rapids—Fantastic +Scenery—The River-life—Vineyards—Drying +Barley—Summer Silence—The Outskirts of +Niigata—The Church Mission House.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Niigata</span>, +<i>July</i> 4.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> boat for Niigata was to leave +at eight, but at five Ito roused me by saying they were going at +once, as it was full, and we left in haste, the house-master +running to the river with one of my large baskets on his back to +“speed the parting guest.” Two rivers unite to +form a stream over whose beauty I would gladly have lingered, and +the morning, singularly rich and tender in its colouring, ripened +into a glorious day of light without glare, and heat without +oppressiveness. The “packet” was a +stoutly-built boat, 45 feet long by 6 broad, propelled by one man +sculling at the stern, and another pulling a short broad-bladed +oar, which worked in a wistaria loop at the bow. It had a +croquet mallet handle about 18 inches long, to which the man gave +a wriggling turn at each stroke. Both rower and sculler +stood the whole time, clad in umbrella hats. The fore part +and centre carried bags of rice and crates of pottery, and the +hinder part had a thatched roof which, when we started, sheltered +twenty-five Japanese, but we dropped them at hamlets on the +river, and reached Niigata with only three. I had my chair +on the top of the cargo, and found the voyage a delightful change +from the fatiguing crawl through quagmires at the rate of from 15 +to 18 miles a day. This trip is called “running the +rapids of the Tsugawa,” because for about twelve miles the +river, hemmed in by lofty cliffs, studded with visible and sunken +rocks, making several abrupt turns and shallowing in many places, +hurries a boat swiftly downwards; and it is <a +name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>said that +it requires long practice, skill, and coolness on the part of the +boatmen to prevent grave and frequent accidents. But if +they are rapids, they are on a small scale, and look anything but +formidable. With the river at its present height the boats +run down forty-five miles in eight hours, charging only 30 +<i>sen</i>, or 1s. 3d., but it takes from five to seven days to +get up, and much hard work in poling and towing.</p> +<p>The boat had a thoroughly “native” look, with its +bronzed crew, thatched roof, and the umbrella hats of all its +passengers hanging on the mast. I enjoyed every hour of the +day. It was luxury to drop quietly down the stream, the air +was delicious, and, having heard nothing of it, the beauty of the +Tsugawa came upon me as a pleasant surprise, besides that every +mile brought me nearer the hoped-for home letters. Almost +as soon as we left Tsugawa the downward passage was apparently +barred by fantastic mountains, which just opened their rocky +gates wide enough to let us through, and then closed again. +Pinnacles and needles of bare, flushed rock rose out of luxuriant +vegetation—Quiraing without its bareness, the Rhine without +its ruins, and more beautiful than both. There were +mountains connected by ridges no broader than a horse’s +back, others with great gray buttresses, deep chasms cleft by +streams, temples with pagoda roofs on heights, sunny villages +with deep-thatched roofs hidden away among blossoming trees, and +through rifts in the nearer ranges glimpses of snowy +mountains.</p> +<p>After a rapid run of twelve miles through this enchanting +scenery, the remaining course of the Tsugawa is that of a broad, +full stream winding marvellously through a wooded and tolerably +level country, partially surrounded by snowy mountains. The +river life was very pretty. Canoes abounded, some loaded +with vegetables, some with wheat, others with boys and girls +returning from school. <i>Sampans</i> with their white +puckered sails in flotillas of a dozen at a time crawled up the +deep water, or were towed through the shallows by crews +frolicking and shouting. Then the scene changed to a broad +and deep river, with a peculiar alluvial smell from the quantity +of vegetable matter held in suspension, flowing calmly between +densely wooded, bamboo-fringed banks, just high enough to conceal +the surrounding country. No houses, or <a +name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>nearly +none, are to be seen, but signs of a continuity of population +abound. Every hundred yards almost there is a narrow path +to the river through the jungle, with a canoe moored at its +foot. Erections like gallows, with a swinging bamboo, with +a bucket at one end and a stone at the other, occurring +continually, show the vicinity of households dependent upon the +river for their water supply. Wherever the banks admitted +of it, horses were being washed by having water poured over their +backs with a dipper, naked children were rolling in the mud, and +cackling of poultry, human voices, and sounds of industry, were +ever floating towards us from the dense greenery of the shores, +making one feel without seeing that the margin was very +populous. Except the boatmen and myself, no one was awake +during the hot, silent afternoon—it was dreamy and +delicious. Occasionally, as we floated down, vineyards were +visible with the vines trained on horizontal trellises, or bamboo +rails, often forty feet long, nailed horizontally on cryptomeria +to a height of twenty feet, on which small sheaves of barley were +placed astride to dry till the frame was full.</p> +<p>More forest, more dreams, then the forest and the abundant +vegetation altogether disappeared, the river opened out among low +lands and banks of shingle and sand, and by three we were on the +outskirts of Niigata, whose low houses,—with rows of stones +upon their roofs, spread over a stretch of sand, beyond which is +a sandy roll with some clumps of firs. Tea-houses with many +balconies studded the river-side, and pleasure-parties were +enjoying themselves with <i>geishas</i> and <i>saké</i>, +but, on the whole, the water-side streets are shabby and tumble +down, and the landward side of the great city of western Japan is +certainly disappointing; and it was difficult to believe it a +Treaty Port, for the sea was not in sight, and there were no +consular flags flying. We poled along one of the numerous +canals, which are the carriage-ways for produce and goods, among +hundreds of loaded boats, landed in the heart of the city, and, +as the result of repeated inquiries, eventually reached the +Church Mission House, an unshaded wooden building without +verandahs, close to the Government Buildings, where I was most +kindly welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Fyson.</p> +<p><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>The +house is plain, simple, and inconveniently small; but doors and +walls are great luxuries, and you cannot imagine how pleasing the +ways of a refined European household are after the eternal +babblement and indecorum of the Japanese.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p112b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Buddhist Priests" +title= +"Buddhist Priests" + src="images/p112s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h3><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +113</span><span class="smcap">Itinerary</span> of <span +class="smcap">Route</span> from <span +class="smcap">Nikkô</span> to <span +class="smcap">Niigata</span><br /> +(Kinugawa Route.)</h3> +<p>From Tôkiyô to</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p>No. of houses.</p> +</td> +<td><p><i>Ri</i>.</p> +</td> +<td><p><i>Chô</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Nikkô</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">36</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kohiaku</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kisagoi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Fujihara</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">46</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Takahara</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">15</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ikari</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">25</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Nakamiyo</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Yokokawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Itosawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">38</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kayashima</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">57</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tajima</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">250</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Toyonari</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">120</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Atomi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ouchi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ichikawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">22</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Takata</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">420</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Bangé</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">910</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Katakado</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">50</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Nosawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">306</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Nojiri</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">110</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kurumatogé</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hozawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">14</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Torige</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Sakaiyama</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tsugawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">615</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Niigata</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">50,000 souls</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Ri</i>. 101</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>About 247 miles.</p> +<h2><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +114</span>LETTER XVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Abominable Weather—Insect +Pests—Absence of Foreign Trade—A Refractory +River—Progress—The Japanese City—Water +Highways—Niigata Gardens—Ruth Fyson—The Winter +Climate—A Population in Wadding.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Niigata</span>, +<i>July</i> 9.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> spent over a week in +Niigata, and leave it regretfully to-morrow, rather for the sake +of the friends I have made than for its own interests. I +never experienced a week of more abominable weather. The +sun has been seen just once, the mountains, which are thirty +miles off, not at all. The clouds are a brownish grey, the +air moist and motionless, and the mercury has varied from 82° +in the day to 80° at night. The household is afflicted +with lassitude and loss of appetite. Evening does not bring +coolness, but myriads of flying, creeping, jumping, running +creatures, all with power to hurt, which replace the day +mosquitoes, villains with spotted legs, which bite and poison one +without the warning hum. The night mosquitoes are +legion. There are no walks except in the streets and the +public gardens, for Niigata is built on a sand spit, hot and +bare. Neither can you get a view of it without climbing to +the top of a wooden look-out.</p> +<p>Niigata is a Treaty Port without foreign trade, and almost +without foreign residents. Not a foreign ship visited the +port either last year or this. There are only two foreign +firms, and these are German, and only eighteen foreigners, of +which number, except the missionaries, nearly all are in +Government employment. Its river, the Shinano, is the +largest in Japan, and it and its affluents bring down a +prodigious volume of water. But Japanese rivers are much +choked with sand and shingle washed down from the +mountains. In all that I have seen, except those which are +physically limited by walls of hard <a name="page115"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 115</span>rock, a river-bed is a waste of +sand, boulders, and shingle, through the middle of which, among +sand-banks and shallows, the river proper takes its devious +course. In the freshets, which occur to a greater or less +extent every year, enormous volumes of water pour over these +wastes, carrying sand and detritus down to the mouths, which are +all obstructed by bars. Of these rivers the Shinano, being +the biggest, is the most refractory, and has piled up a bar at +its entrance through which there is only a passage seven feet +deep, which is perpetually shallowing. The minds of +engineers are much exercised upon the Shinano, and the Government +is most anxious to deepen the channel and give Western Japan what +it has not—a harbour; but the expense of the necessary +operation is enormous, and in the meantime a limited ocean +traffic is carried on by junks and by a few small Japanese +steamers which call outside. <a name="citation115a"></a><a +href="#footnote115a" class="citation">[115a]</a> There is a +British Vice-Consulate, but, except as a step, few would accept +such a dreary post or outpost.</p> +<p>But Niigata is a handsome, prosperous city of 50,000 +inhabitants, the capital of the wealthy province of Echigo, with +a population of one and a half millions, and is the seat of the +<i>Kenrei</i>, or provincial governor, of the chief law courts, +of fine schools, a hospital, and barracks. It is curious to +find in such an excluded town a school deserving the designation +of a college, as it includes intermediate, primary, and normal +schools, an English school with 150 pupils, organised by English +and American teachers, an engineering school, a geological +museum, splendidly equipped laboratories, and the newest and most +approved scientific and educational apparatus. The +Government Buildings, which are grouped near Mr. Fyson’s, +are of painted white wood, and are imposing from their size and +their innumerable glass windows. There is a large hospital +<a name="citation115b"></a><a href="#footnote115b" +class="citation">[115b]</a> arranged by a European doctor, with a +medical <a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +116</span>school attached, and it, the <i>Kenchô</i>, the +<i>Saibanchô</i>, or Court House, the schools, the +barracks, and a large bank, which is rivalling them all, have a +go-ahead, Europeanised look, bold, staring, and tasteless. +There are large public gardens, very well laid out, and with +finely gravelled walks. There are 300 street lamps, which +burn the mineral oil of the district.</p> +<p>Yet, because the riotous Shinano persistently bars it out from +the sea, its natural highway, the capital of one of the richest +provinces of Japan is “left out in the cold,” and the +province itself, which yields not only rice, silk, tea, hemp, +<i>ninjin</i>, and indigo, in large quantities, but gold, copper, +coal, and petroleum, has to send most of its produce to Yedo +across ranges of mountains, on the backs of pack-horses, by roads +scarcely less infamous than the one by which I came.</p> +<p>The Niigata of the Government, with its signs of progress in a +western direction, is quite unattractive-looking as compared with +the genuine Japanese Niigata, which is the neatest, cleanest, and +most comfortable-looking town I have yet seen, and altogether +free from the jostlement of a foreign settlement. It is +renowned for the beautiful tea-houses, which attract visitors +from distant places, and for the excellence of the theatres, and +is the centre of the recreation and pleasure of a large +district. It is so beautifully clean that, as at +Nikkô, I should feel reluctant to walk upon its well-swept +streets in muddy boots. It would afford a good lesson to +the Edinburgh authorities, for every vagrant bit of straw, stick, +or paper, is at once pounced upon and removed, and no rubbish may +stand for an instant in its streets except in a covered box or +bucket. It is correctly laid out in square divisions, +formed by five streets over a mile long, crossed by very numerous +short ones, and is intersected by canals, which are its real +roadways. I have not seen a pack-horse in the streets; +everything comes in by boat, and there are few houses in the city +which cannot have their goods delivered by canal very near to +their doors. These water-ways are busy all day, but in the +early morning, when the boats come in loaded with the vegetables, +without which the people could not exist for a day, the bustle is +indescribable. The cucumber boats just now are the great +sight. The canals are <a name="page117"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 117</span>usually in the middle of the +streets, and have fairly broad roadways on both sides. They +are much below the street level, and their nearly perpendicular +banks are neatly faced with wood, broken at intervals by flights +of stairs. They are bordered by trees, among which are many +weeping willows; and, as the river water runs through them, +keeping them quite sweet, and they are crossed at short intervals +by light bridges, they form a very attractive feature of +Niigata.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p117b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Street and Canal" +title= +"Street and Canal" + src="images/p117s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The houses have very steep roofs of shingle, weighted with +stones, and, as they are of very irregular heights, and all turn +the steep gables of the upper stories streetwards, the town has a +picturesqueness very unusual in Japan. The deep verandahs +are connected all along the streets, so as to form a sheltered +promenade when the snow lies deep in winter. With its +canals with their avenues of trees, its fine public gardens, and +clean, picturesque streets, it is a really attractive town; but +its improvements are recent, and were only lately completed by <a +name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>Mr. +Masakata Kusumoto, now Governor of Tôkiyô. +There is no appearance of poverty in any part of the town, but if +there be wealth, it is carefully concealed. One marked +feature of the city is the number of streets of dwelling-houses +with projecting windows of wooden <i>slats</i>, through which the +people can see without being seen, though at night, when the +<i>andons</i> are lit, we saw, as we walked from Dr. +Palm’s, that in most cases families were sitting round the +<i>hibachi</i> in a <i>déshabillé</i> of the +scantiest kind.</p> +<p>The fronts are very narrow, and the houses extend backwards to +an amazing length, with gardens in which flowers, shrubs, and +mosquitoes are grown, and bridges are several times repeated, so +as to give the effect of fairyland as you look through from the +street. The principal apartments in all Japanese houses are +at the back, looking out on these miniature landscapes, for a +landscape is skilfully dwarfed into a space often not more than +30 feet square. A lake, a rock-work, a bridge, a stone +lantern, and a deformed pine, are indispensable; but whenever +circumstances and means admit of it, quaintnesses of all kinds +are introduced. Small pavilions, retreats for tea-making, +reading, sleeping in quiet and coolness, fishing under cover, and +drinking <i>saké</i>; bronze pagodas, cascades falling +from the mouths of bronze dragons; rock caves, with gold and +silver fish darting in and out; lakes with rocky islands, streams +crossed by green bridges, just high enough to allow a rat or frog +to pass under; lawns, and slabs of stone for crossing them in wet +weather, grottoes, hills, valleys, groves of miniature palms, +cycas, and bamboo; and dwarfed trees of many kinds, of purplish +and dull green hues, are cut into startling likenesses of beasts +and creeping things, or stretch distorted arms over tiny +lakes.</p> +<p>I have walked about a great deal in Niigata, and when with +Mrs. Fyson, who is the only European lady here at present, and +her little Ruth, a pretty Saxon child of three years old, we have +been followed by an immense crowd, as the sight of this fair +creature, with golden curls falling over her shoulders, is most +fascinating. Both men and women have gentle, winning ways +with infants, and Ruth, instead of being afraid of the crowds, +smiles upon them, bows in Japanese fashion, speaks to them in +Japanese, and seems a little disposed to leave her <a +name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>own people +altogether. It is most difficult to make her keep with us, +and two or three times, on missing her and looking back, we have +seen her seated, native fashion, in a ring in a crowd of several +hundred people, receiving a homage and admiration from which she +was most unwillingly torn. The Japanese have a perfect +passion for children, but it is not good for European children to +be much with them, as they corrupt their morals, and teach them +to tell lies.</p> +<p>The climate of Niigata and of most of this great province +contrasts unpleasantly with the region on the other side of the +mountains, warmed by the gulf-stream of the North Pacific, in +which the autumn and winter, with their still atmosphere, bracing +temperature, and blue and sunny skies, are the most delightful +seasons of the year. Thirty-two days of snow-fall occur on +an average. The canals and rivers freeze, and even the +rapid Shinano sometimes bears a horse. In January and +February the snow lies three or four feet deep, a veil of clouds +obscures the sky, people inhabit their upper rooms to get any +daylight, pack-horse traffic is suspended, pedestrians go about +with difficulty in rough snow-shoes, and for nearly six months +the coast is unsuitable for navigation, owing to the prevalence +of strong, cold, north-west winds. In this city people in +wadded clothes, with only their eyes exposed, creep about under +the verandahs. The population huddles round <i>hibachis</i> +and shivers, for the mercury, which rises to 92° in summer, +falls to 15° in winter. And all this is in latitude +37° 55′—three degrees south of Naples!</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +120</span>LETTER XVII</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Canal-side at Niigata—Awful +Loneliness—Courtesy—Dr. Palm’s Tandem—A +Noisy <i>Matsuri</i>—A Jolting Journey—The Mountain +Villages—Winter Dismalness—An Out-of-the-world +Hamlet—Crowded Dwellings—Riding a +Cow—“Drunk and Disorderly”—An Enforced +Rest—Local Discouragements—Heavy Loads—Absence +of Beggary—Slow Travelling.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Ichinono</span>, +<i>July</i> 12.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Two</span> foreign ladies, two fair-haired +foreign infants, a long-haired foreign dog, and a foreign +gentleman, who, without these accompaniments, might have escaped +notice, attracted a large but kindly crowd to the canal side when +I left Niigata. The natives bore away the children on their +shoulders, the Fysons walked to the extremity of the canal to bid +me good-bye, the <i>sampan</i> shot out upon the broad, swirling +flood of the Shinano, and an awful sense of loneliness fell upon +me. We crossed the Shinano, poled up the narrow, embanked +Shinkawa, had a desperate struggle with the flooded Aganokawa, +were much impeded by strings of nauseous manure-boats on the +narrow, discoloured Kajikawa, wondered at the interminable melon +and cucumber fields, and at the odd river life, and, after hard +poling for six hours, reached Kisaki, having accomplished exactly +ten miles. Then three <i>kurumas</i> with trotting runners +took us twenty miles at the low rate of 4½ <i>sen</i> per +<i>ri</i>. In one place a board closed the road, but, on +representing to the chief man of the village that the traveller +was a foreigner, he courteously allowed me to pass, the Express +Agent having accompanied me thus far to see that I “got +through all right.” The road was tolerably populous +throughout the day’s journey, and the farming villages +which extended much of the way—Tsuiji, Kasayanagê, +Mono, and Mari—were neat, and many of the farms had bamboo +fences to screen them from the road. <a +name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>It was, on +the whole, a pleasant country, and the people, though little +clothed, did not look either poor or very dirty. The soil +was very light and sandy. There were, in fact, “pine +barrens,” sandy ridges with nothing on them but spindly +Scotch firs and fir scrub; but the sandy levels between them, +being heavily manured and cultivated like gardens, bore splendid +crops of cucumbers trained like peas, melons, vegetable marrow, +<i>Arum esculentum</i>, sweet potatoes, maize, tea, tiger-lilies, +beans, and onions; and extensive orchards with apples and pears +trained laterally on trellis-work eight feet high, were a novelty +in the landscape.</p> +<p>Though we were all day drawing nearer to mountains wooded to +their summits on the east, the amount of vegetation was not +burdensome, the rice swamps were few, and the air felt drier and +less relaxing. As my runners were trotting merrily over one +of the pine barrens, I met Dr. Palm returning from one of his +medico-religious expeditions, with a tandem of two naked coolies, +who were going over the ground at a great pace, and I wished that +some of the most staid directors of the Edinburgh Medical +Missionary Society could have the shock of seeing him! I +shall not see a European again for some weeks. From Tsuiji, +a very neat village, where we changed <i>kurumas</i>, we were +jolted along over a shingly road to Nakajo, a considerable town +just within treaty limits. The Japanese doctors there, as +in some other places, are Dr. Palm’s cordial helpers, and +five or six of them, whom he regards as possessing the rare +virtues of candour, earnestness, and single-mindedness, and who +have studied English medical works, have clubbed together to +establish a dispensary, and, under Dr. Palm’s instructions, +are even carrying out the antiseptic treatment successfully, +after some ludicrous failures!</p> +<p>We dashed through Nakajo as <i>kuruma</i>-runners always dash +through towns and villages, got out of it in a drizzle upon an +avenue of firs, three or four deep, which extends from Nakajo to +Kurokawa, and for some miles beyond were jolted over a damp +valley on which tea and rice alternated, crossed two branches of +the shingly Kurokawa on precarious bridges, rattled into the town +of Kurokawa, much decorated with flags and lanterns, where the +people were all congregated at a shrine where there was much +drumming, and a few girls, much <a name="page122"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 122</span>painted and bedizened, were dancing +or posturing on a raised and covered platform, in honour of the +god of the place, whose <i>matsuri</i> or festival it was; and +out again, to be mercilessly jolted under the firs in the +twilight to a solitary house where the owner made some difficulty +about receiving us, as his licence did not begin till the next +day, but eventually succumbed, and gave me his one upstairs room, +exactly five feet high, which hardly allowed of my standing +upright with my hat on. He then rendered it suffocating by +closing the <i>amado</i>, for the reason often given, that if he +left them open and the house was robbed, the police would not +only blame him severely, but would not take any trouble to +recover his property. He had no rice, so I indulged in a +feast of delicious cucumbers. I never saw so many eaten as +in that district. Children gnaw them all day long, and even +babies on their mothers’ backs suck them with +avidity. Just now they are sold for a <i>sen</i> a +dozen.</p> +<p>It is a mistake to arrive at a <i>yadoya</i> after dark. +Even if the best rooms are not full it takes fully an hour to get +my food and the room ready, and meanwhile I cannot employ my time +usefully because of the mosquitoes. There was heavy rain +all night, accompanied by the first wind that I have heard since +landing; and the fitful creaking of the pines and the drumming +from the shrine made me glad to get up at sunrise, or rather at +daylight, for there has not been a sunrise since I came, or a +sunset either. That day we travelled by Sekki to Kawaguchi +in <i>kurumas</i>, i.e. we were sometimes bumped over stones, +sometimes deposited on the edge of a quagmire, and asked to get +out; and sometimes compelled to walk for two or three miles at a +time along the infamous bridle-track above the river Arai, up +which two men could hardly push and haul an empty vehicle; and, +as they often had to lift them bodily and carry them for some +distance, I was really glad when we reached the village of +Kawaguchi to find that they could go no farther, though, as we +could only get one horse, I had to walk the last stage in a +torrent of rain, poorly protected by my paper waterproof +cloak.</p> +<p>We are now in the midst of the great central chain of the +Japanese mountains, which extends almost without a break for 900 +miles, and is from 40 to 100 miles in width, broken up <a +name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>into +interminable ranges traversable only by steep passes from 1000 to +5000 feet in height, with innumerable rivers, ravines, and +valleys, the heights and ravines heavily timbered, the rivers +impetuous and liable to freshets, and the valleys invariably +terraced for rice. It is in the valleys that the villages +are found, and regions more isolated I have never seen, shut out +by bad roads from the rest of Japan. The houses are very +poor, the summer costume of the men consists of the <i>maro</i> +only, and that of the women of trousers with an open shirt, and +when we reached Kurosawa last night it had dwindled to trousers +only. There is little traffic, and very few horses are +kept, one, two, or three constituting the live stock of a large +village. The shops, such as they are, contain the barest +necessaries of life. Millet and buckwheat rather than rice, +with the universal <i>daikon</i>, are the staples of diet The +climate is wet in summer and bitterly cold in winter. Even +now it is comfortless enough for the people to come in wet, just +to warm the tips of their fingers at the <i>irori</i>, stifled +the while with the stinging smoke, while the damp wind flaps the +torn paper of the windows about, and damp draughts sweep the +ashes over the <i>tatami</i> until the house is hermetically +sealed at night. These people never know anything of what +we regard as comfort, and in the long winter, when the wretched +bridle-tracks are blocked by snow and the freezing wind blows +strong, and the families huddle round the smoky fire by the +doleful glimmer of the <i>andon</i>, without work, books, or +play, to shiver through the long evenings in chilly dreariness, +and herd together for warmth at night like animals, their +condition must be as miserable as anything short of grinding +poverty can make it.</p> +<p>I saw things at their worst that night as I tramped into the +hamlet of Numa, down whose sloping street a swollen stream was +running, which the people were banking out of their houses. +I was wet and tired, and the woman at the one wretched +<i>yadoya</i> met me, saying, “I’m sorry it’s +very dirty and quite unfit for so honourable a guest;” and +she was right, for the one room was up a ladder, the windows were +in tatters, there was no charcoal for a <i>hibachi</i>, no eggs, +and the rice was so dirty and so full of a small black seed as to +be unfit to eat. Worse than all, there was no Transport +Office, the hamlet did <a name="page124"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 124</span>not possess a horse, and it was only +by sending to a farmer five miles off, and by much bargaining, +that I got on the next morning. In estimating the number of +people in a given number of houses in Japan, it is usual to +multiply the houses by five, but I had the curiosity to walk +through Numa and get Ito to translate the tallies which hang +outside all Japanese houses with the names, number, and sexes of +their inmates, and in twenty-four houses there were 307 +people! In some there were four families—the +grand-parents, the parents, the eldest son with his wife and +family, and a daughter or two with their husbands and +children. The eldest son, who inherits the house and land, +almost invariably brings his wife to his father’s house, +where she often becomes little better than a slave to her +mother-in-law. By rigid custom she literally forsakes her +own kindred, and her “filial duty” is transferred to +her husband’s mother, who often takes a dislike to her, and +instigates her son to divorce her if she has no children. +My hostess had induced her son to divorce his wife, and she could +give no better reason for it than that she was lazy.</p> +<p>The Numa people, she said, had never seen a foreigner, so, +though the rain still fell heavily, they were astir in the early +morning. They wanted to hear me speak, so I gave my orders +to Ito in public. Yesterday was a most toilsome day, mainly +spent in stumbling up and sliding down the great passes of Futai, +Takanasu, and Yenoiki, all among forest-covered mountains, deeply +cleft by forest-choked ravines, with now and then one of the +snowy peaks of Aidzu breaking the monotony of the ocean of +green. The horses’ shoes were tied and untied every +few minutes, and we made just a mile an hour! At last we +were deposited in a most unpromising place in the hamlet of +Tamagawa, and were told that a rice merchant, after waiting for +three days, had got every horse in the country. At the end +of two hours’ chaffering one baggage coolie was produced, +some of the things were put on the rice horses, and a steed with +a pack-saddle was produced for me in the shape of a plump and +pretty little cow, which carried me safely over the magnificent +pass of Ori and down to the town of Okimi, among rice-fields, +where, in a drowning rain, I was glad to get shelter with a +number of coolies by a wood-fire till another pack-cow was +produced, and we walked on through <a name="page125"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 125</span>the rice-fields and up into the +hills again to Kurosawa, where I had intended to remain; but +there was no inn, and the farm-house where they take in +travellers, besides being on the edge of a malarious pond, and +being dark and full of stinging smoke, was so awfully dirty and +full of living creatures, that, exhausted as I was, I was obliged +to go on. But it was growing dark, there was no Transport +Office, and for the first time the people were very slightly +extortionate, and drove Ito nearly to his wits’ end. +The peasants do not like to be out after dark, for they are +afraid of ghosts and all sorts of devilments, and it was +difficult to induce them to start so late in the evening.</p> +<p>There was not a house clean enough to rest in, so I sat on a +stone and thought about the people for over an hour. +Children with scald-head, <i>scabies</i>, and sore eyes +swarmed. Every woman carried a baby on her back, and every +child who could stagger under one carried one too. Not one +woman wore anything but cotton trousers. One woman reeled +about “drunk and disorderly.” Ito sat on a +stone hiding his face in his hands, and when I asked him if he +were ill, he replied in a most lamentable voice, “I +don’t know what I am to do, I’m so ashamed for you to +see such things!” The boy is only eighteen, and I +pitied him. I asked him if women were often drunk, and he +said they were in Yokohama, but they usually kept in their +houses. He says that when their husbands give them money to +pay bills at the end of a month, they often spend it in +<i>saké</i>, and that they sometimes get +<i>saké</i> in shops and have it put down as rice or +tea. “The old, old story!” I looked at +the dirt and barbarism, and asked if this were the Japan of which +I had read. Yet a woman in this unseemly costume firmly +refused to take the 2 or 3 <i>sen</i> which it is usual to leave +at a place where you rest, because she said that I had had water +and not tea, and after I had forced it on her, she returned it to +Ito, and this redeeming incident sent me away much comforted.</p> +<p>From Numa the distance here is only 1½ <i>ri</i>, but +it is over the steep pass of Honoki, which is ascended and +descended by hundreds of rude stone steps, not pleasant in the +dark. On this pass I saw birches for the first time; at its +foot we entered Yamagata <i>ken</i> by a good bridge, and shortly +reached <a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +126</span>this village, in which an unpromising-looking +farm-house is the only accommodation; but though all the rooms +but two are taken up with silk-worms, those two are very good and +look upon a miniature lake and rockery. The one objection +to my room is that to get either in or out of it I must pass +through the other, which is occupied by five tobacco merchants +who are waiting for transport, and who while away the time by +strumming on that instrument of dismay, the <i>samisen</i>. +No horses or cows can be got for me, so I am spending the day +quietly here, rather glad to rest, for I am much exhausted. +When I am suffering much from my spine Ito always gets into a +fright and thinks I am going to die, as he tells me when I am +better, but shows his anxiety by a short, surly manner, which is +most disagreeable. He thinks we shall never get through the +interior! Mr. Brunton’s excellent map fails in this +region, so it is only by fixing on the well-known city of +Yamagata and devising routes to it that we get on. Half the +evening is spent in consulting Japanese maps, if we can get them, +and in questioning the house-master and Transport Agent, and any +chance travellers; but the people know nothing beyond the +distance of a few <i>ri</i>, and the agents seldom tell one +anything beyond the next stage. When I inquire about the +“unbeaten tracks” that I wish to take, the answers +are, “It’s an awful road through mountains,” or +“There are many bad rivers to cross,” or “There +are none but farmers’ houses to stop at.” No +encouragement is ever given, but we get on, and shall get on, I +doubt not, though the hardships are not what I would desire in my +present state of health.</p> +<p>Very few horses are kept here. Cows and coolies carry +much of the merchandise, and women as well as men carry heavy +loads. A baggage coolie carries about 50 lbs., but here +merchants carrying their own goods from Yamagata actually carry +from 90 to 140 lbs., and even more. It is sickening to meet +these poor fellows struggling over the mountain-passes in evident +distress. Last night five of them were resting on the +summit ridge of a pass gasping violently. Their eyes were +starting out; all their muscles, rendered painfully visible by +their leanness, were quivering; rills of blood from the bite of +insects, which they cannot drive away, <a +name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>were +literally running all over their naked bodies, washed away here +and there by copious perspiration. Truly “in the +sweat of their brows” they were eating bread and earning an +honest living for their families! Suffering and hard-worked +as they were, they were quite independent. I have not seen +a beggar or beggary in this strange country. The women were +carrying 70 lbs. These burden-bearers have their backs +covered by a thick pad of plaited straw. On this rests a +ladder, curved up at the lower end like the runners of a +sleigh. On this the load is carefully packed till it +extends from below the man’s waist to a considerable height +above his head. It is covered with waterproof paper, +securely roped, and thatched with straw, and is supported by a +broad padded band just below the collar bones. Of course, +as the man walks nearly bent double, and the position is a very +painful one, he requires to stop and straighten himself +frequently, and unless he meets with a bank of convenient height, +he rests the bottom of his burden on a short, stout pole with an +L-shaped top, carried for this purpose. The carrying of +enormous loads is quite a feature of this region, and so, I am +sorry to say, are red stinging ants and the small gadflies which +molest the coolies.</p> +<p>Yesterday’s journey was 18 miles in twelve hours! +Ichinono is a nice, industrious hamlet, given up, like all +others, to rearing silk-worms, and the pure white and sulphur +yellow cocoons are drying on mats in the sun everywhere.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +128</span>LETTER XVIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Comely Kine—Japanese Criticism on a +Foreign Usage—A Pleasant Halt—Renewed +Courtesies—The Plain of Yonezawa—A Curious +Mistake—The Mother’s Memorial—Arrival at +Komatsu—Stately Accommodation—A Vicious +Horse—An Asiatic Arcadia—A Fashionable +Watering-place—A Belle—“Godowns.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kaminoyama</span>.</p> +<p>A <span class="smcap">severe</span> day of mountain travelling +brought us into another region. We left Ichinono early on a +fine morning, with three pack-cows, one of which I rode [and +their calves], very comely kine, with small noses, short horns, +straight spines, and deep bodies. I thought that I might +get some fresh milk, but the idea of anything but a calf milking +a cow was so new to the people that there was a universal laugh, +and Ito told me that they thought it “most +disgusting,” and that the Japanese think it “most +disgusting” in foreigners to put anything “with such +a strong smell and taste” into their tea! All the +cows had cotton cloths, printed with blue dragons, suspended +under their bodies to keep them from mud and insects, and they +wear straw shoes and cords through the cartilages of their +noses. The day being fine, a great deal of rice and +<i>saké</i> was on the move, and we met hundreds of +pack-cows, all of the same comely breed, in strings of four.</p> +<p>We crossed the Sakuratogé, from which the view is +beautiful, got horses at the mountain village of Shirakasawa, +crossed more passes, and in the afternoon reached the village of +Tenoko. There, as usual, I sat under the verandah of the +Transport Office, and waited for the one horse which was +available. It was a large shop, but contained not a single +article of European make. In the one room a group of women +and children sat round the fire, and the agent sat as <a +name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>usual with +a number of ledgers at a table a foot high, on which his +grandchild was lying on a cushion. Here Ito dined on seven +dishes of horrors, and they brought me <i>saké</i>, tea, +rice, and black beans. The last are very good. We had +some talk about the country, and the man asked me to write his +name in English characters, and to write my own in a book. +Meanwhile a crowd assembled, and the front row sat on the ground +that the others might see over their heads. They were dirty +and pressed very close, and when the women of the house saw that +I felt the heat they gracefully produced fans and fanned me for a +whole hour. On asking the charge they refused to make any, +and would not receive anything. They had not seen a +foreigner before, they said, they would despise themselves for +taking anything, they had my “honourable name” in +their book. Not only that, but they put up a parcel of +sweetmeats, and the man wrote his name on a fan and insisted on +my accepting it. I was grieved to have nothing to give them +but some English pins, but they had never seen such before, and +soon circulated them among the crowd. I told them truly +that I should remember them as long as I remember Japan, and went +on, much touched by their kindness.</p> +<p>The lofty pass of Utsu, which is ascended and descended by a +number of stone slabs, is the last of the passes of these +choked-up ranges. From its summit in the welcome sunlight I +joyfully looked down upon the noble plain of Yonezawa, about 30 +miles long and from 10 to 18 broad, one of the gardens of Japan, +wooded and watered, covered with prosperous towns and villages, +surrounded by magnificent mountains not altogether timbered, and +bounded at its southern extremity by ranges white with snow even +in the middle of July.</p> +<p>In the long street of the farming village of Matsuhara a man +amazed me by running in front of me and speaking to me, and on +Ito coming up, he assailed him vociferously, and it turned out +that he took me for an Aino, one of the subjugated aborigines of +Yezo. I have before now been taken for a Chinese!</p> +<p>Throughout the province of Echigo I have occasionally seen a +piece of cotton cloth suspended by its four corners from four +bamboo poles just above a quiet stream. Behind <a +name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>it there is +usually a long narrow tablet, notched at the top, similar to +those seen in cemeteries, with characters upon it. +Sometimes bouquets of flowers are placed in the hollow top of +each bamboo, and usually there are characters on the cloth +itself. Within it always lies a wooden dipper. In +coming down from Tenoko I passed one of these close to the road, +and a Buddhist priest was at the time pouring a dipper full of +water into it, which strained slowly through. As he was +going our way we joined him, and he explained its meaning.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p130b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Flowing Invocation" +title= +"The Flowing Invocation" + src="images/p130s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>According to him the tablet bears on it the +<i>kaimiyô</i>, or posthumous name of a woman. The +flowers have the same significance as those which loving hands +place on the graves <a name="page131"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 131</span>of kindred. If there are +characters on the cloth, they represent the well-known invocation +of the Nichiren sect, <i>Namu miô hô ren gé +kiô</i>. The pouring of the water into the cloth, +often accompanied by telling the beads on a rosary, is a +prayer. The whole is called “The Flowing +Invocation.” I have seldom seen anything more +plaintively affecting, for it denotes that a mother in the first +joy of maternity has passed away to suffer (according to popular +belief) in the Lake of Blood, one of the Buddhist hells, for a +sin committed in a former state of being, and it appeals to every +passer-by to shorten the penalties of a woman in anguish, for in +that lake she must remain until the cloth is so utterly worn out +that the water falls through it at once.</p> +<p>Where the mountains come down upon the plain of Yonezawa there +are several raised banks, and you can take one step from the +hillside to a dead level. The soil is dry and gravelly at +the junction, ridges of pines appeared, and the look of the +houses suggested increased cleanliness and comfort. A walk +of six miles took us from Tenoko to Komatsu, a beautifully +situated town of 3000 people, with a large trade in cotton goods, +silk, and <i>saké</i>.</p> +<p>As I entered Komatsu the first man whom I met turned back +hastily, called into the first house the words which mean +“Quick, here’s a foreigner;” the three +carpenters who were at work there flung down their tools and, +without waiting to put on their <i>kimonos</i>, sped down the +street calling out the news, so that by the time I reached the +<i>yadoya</i> a large crowd was pressing upon me. The front +was mean and unpromising-looking, but, on reaching the back by a +stone bridge over a stream which ran through the house, I found a +room 40 feet long by 15 high, entirely open along one side to a +garden with a large fish-pond with goldfish, a pagoda, dwarf +trees, and all the usual miniature adornments. +<i>Fusuma</i> of wrinkled blue paper splashed with gold turned +this “gallery” into two rooms; but there was no +privacy, for the crowds climbed upon the roofs at the back, and +sat there patiently until night.</p> +<p>These were <i>daimiyô’s</i> rooms. The posts +and ceilings were ebony and gold, the mats very fine, the +polished alcoves decorated with inlaid writing-tables and +sword-racks; spears nine feet long, with handles of lacquer +inlaid with Venus’ ear, <a name="page132"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 132</span>hung in the verandah, the washing +bowl was fine inlaid black lacquer, and the rice-bowls and their +covers were gold lacquer.</p> +<p>In this, as in many other <i>yadoyas</i>, there were +<i>kakémonos</i> with large Chinese characters +representing the names of the Prime Minister, Provincial +Governor, or distinguished General, who had honoured it by +halting there, and lines of poetry were hung up, as is usual, in +the same fashion. I have several times been asked to write +something to be thus displayed. I spent Sunday at Komatsu, +but not restfully, owing to the nocturnal croaking of the frogs +in the pond. In it, as in most towns, there were shops +which sell nothing but white, frothy-looking cakes, which are +used for the goldfish which are so much prized, and three times +daily the women and children of the household came into the +garden to feed them.</p> +<p>When I left Komatsu there were fully sixty people inside the +house and 1500 outside—walls, verandahs, and even roofs +being packed. From Nikkô to Komatsu mares had been +exclusively used, but there I encountered for the first time the +terrible Japanese pack-horse. Two horridly fierce-looking +creatures were at the door, with their heads tied down till their +necks were completely arched. When I mounted the crowd +followed, gathering as it went, frightening the horse with the +clatter of clogs and the sound of a multitude, till he broke his +head-rope, and, the frightened <i>mago</i> letting him go, he +proceeded down the street mainly on his hind feet, squealing, and +striking savagely with his fore feet, the crowd scattering to the +right and left, till, as it surged past the police station, four +policemen came out and arrested it; only to gather again, +however, for there was a longer street, down which my horse +proceeded in the same fashion, and, looking round, I saw +Ito’s horse on his hind legs and Ito on the ground. +My beast jumped over all ditches, attacked all foot-passengers +with his teeth, and behaved so like a wild animal that not all my +previous acquaintance with the idiosyncrasies of horses enabled +me to cope with him. On reaching Akayu we found a horse +fair, and, as all the horses had their heads tightly tied down to +posts, they could only squeal and lash out with their hind feet, +which so provoked our animals that the baggage horse, by a series +of jerks and rearings, divested himself of Ito and most of the +baggage, and, as I dismounted <a name="page133"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 133</span>from mine, he stood upright, and my +foot catching I fell on the ground, when he made several vicious +dashes at me with his teeth and fore feet, which were happily +frustrated by the dexterity of some <i>mago</i>. These +beasts forcibly remind me of the words, “Whose mouth must +be held with bit and bridle, lest they turn and fall upon +thee.”</p> +<p>It was a lovely summer day, though very hot, and the snowy +peaks of Aidzu scarcely looked cool as they glittered in the +sunlight. The plain of Yonezawa, with the prosperous town +of Yonezawa in the south, and the frequented watering-place of +Akayu in the north, is a perfect garden of Eden, “tilled +with a pencil instead of a plough,” growing in rich +profusion rice, cotton, maize, tobacco, hemp, indigo, beans, +egg-plants, walnuts, melons, cucumbers, persimmons, apricots, +pomegranates; a smiling and plenteous land, an Asiatic Arcadia, +prosperous and independent, all its bounteous acres belonging to +those who cultivate them, who live under their vines, figs, and +pomegranates, free from oppression—a remarkable spectacle +under an Asiatic despotism. Yet still Daikoku is the chief +deity, and material good is the one object of desire.</p> +<p>It is an enchanting region of beauty, industry, and comfort, +mountain girdled, and watered by the bright Matsuka. +Everywhere there are prosperous and beautiful farming villages, +with large houses with carved beams and ponderous tiled roofs, +each standing in its own grounds, buried among persimmons and +pomegranates, with flower-gardens under trellised vines, and +privacy secured by high, closely-clipped screens of pomegranate +and cryptomeria. Besides the villages of Yoshida, +Semoshima, Kurokawa, Takayama, and Takataki, through or near +which we passed, I counted over fifty on the plain with their +brown, sweeping barn roofs looking out from the woodland. I +cannot see any differences in the style of cultivation. +Yoshida is rich and prosperous-looking, Numa poor and +wretched-looking; but the scanty acres of Numa, rescued from the +mountain-sides, are as exquisitely trim and neat, as perfectly +cultivated, and yield as abundantly of the crops which suit the +climate, as the broad acres of the sunny plain of Yonezawa, and +this is the case everywhere. “The field of the +sluggard” has no existence in Japan.</p> +<p><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>We +rode for four hours through these beautiful villages on a road +four feet wide, and then, to my surprise, after ferrying a river, +emerged at Tsukuno upon what appears on the map as a secondary +road, but which is in reality a main road 25 feet wide, well +kept, trenched on both sides, and with a line of telegraph poles +along it. It was a new world at once. The road for +many miles was thronged with well-dressed foot-passengers, +<i>kurumas</i>, pack-horses, and waggons either with solid +wheels, or wheels with spokes but no tires. It is a capital +carriage-road, but without carriages. In such civilised +circumstances it was curious to see two or four brown skinned men +pulling the carts, and quite often a man and his wife—the +man unclothed, and the woman unclothed to her waist—doing +the same. Also it struck me as incongruous to see telegraph +wires above, and below, men whose only clothing consisted of a +sun-hat and fan; while children with books and slates were +returning from school, conning their lessons.</p> +<p>At Akayu, a town of hot sulphur springs, I hoped to sleep, but +it was one of the noisiest places I have seen. In the most +crowded part, where four streets meet, there are bathing sheds, +which were full of people of both sexes, splashing loudly, and +the <i>yadoya</i> close to it had about forty rooms, in nearly +all of which several rheumatic people were lying on the mats, +<i>samisens</i> were twanging, and <i>kotos</i> screeching, and +the hubbub was so unbearable that I came on here, ten miles +farther, by a fine new road, up an uninteresting strath of +rice-fields and low hills, which opens out upon a small plain +surrounded by elevated gravelly hills, on the slope of one of +which Kaminoyama, a watering-place of over 3000 people, is +pleasantly situated. It is keeping festival; there are +lanterns and flags on every house, and crowds are thronging the +temple grounds, of which there are several on the hills +above. It is a clean, dry place, with beautiful +<i>yadoyas</i> on the heights, and pleasant houses with gardens, +and plenty of walks over the hills. The people say that it +is one of the driest places in Japan. If it were within +reach of foreigners, they would find it a wholesome health +resort, with picturesque excursions in many directions.</p> +<p>This is one of the great routes of Japanese travel, and it is +interesting to see watering-places with their habits, amusements, +<a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>and +civilisation quite complete, but borrowing nothing from +Europe. The hot springs here contain iron, and are strongly +impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen. I tried the +temperature of three, and found them 100°, 105°, and +107°. They are supposed to be very valuable in +rheumatism, and they attract visitors from great distances. +The police, who are my frequent informants, tell me that there +are nearly 600 people now staying here for the benefit of the +baths, of which six daily are usually taken. I think that +in rheumatism, as in some other maladies, the old-fashioned +Japanese doctors pay <a name="page136"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 136</span>little attention to diet and habits, +and much to drugs and external applications. The benefit of +these and other medicinal waters would be much increased if +vigorous friction replaced the dabbing with soft towels.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p135b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Belle of Kaminoyama" +title= +"The Belle of Kaminoyama" + src="images/p135s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>This is a large <i>yadoya</i>, very full of strangers, and the +house-mistress, a buxom and most prepossessing widow, has a truly +exquisite hotel for bathers higher up the hill. She has +eleven children, two or three of whom are tall, handsome, and +graceful girls. One blushed deeply at my evident +admiration, but was not displeased, and took me up the hill to +see the temples, baths, and <i>yadoyas</i> of this very +attractive place. I am much delighted with her grace and +<i>savoir faire</i>. I asked the widow how long she had +kept the inn, and she proudly answered, “Three hundred +years,” not an uncommon instance of the heredity of +occupations.</p> +<p>My accommodation is unique—a <i>kura</i>, or godown, in +a large conventional garden, in which is a bath-house, which +receives a hot spring at a temperature of 105°, in which I +luxuriate. Last night the mosquitoes were awful. If +the widow and her handsome girls had not fanned me perseveringly +for an hour, I should not have been able to write a line. +My new mosquito net succeeds admirably, and, when I am once +within it, I rather enjoy the disappointment of the hundreds of +drumming blood-thirsty wretches outside.</p> +<p>The widow tells me that house-masters pay 2 <i>yen</i> once +for all for the sign, and an annual tax of 2 <i>yen</i> on a +first-class <i>yadoya</i>, 1 <i>yen</i> for a second, and 50 +cents for a third, with 5 <i>yen</i> for the license to sell +<i>saké</i>.</p> +<p>These “godowns” (from the Malay word +<i>gadong</i>), or fire-proof store-houses, are one of the most +marked features of Japanese towns, both because they are white +where all else is grey, and because they are solid where all else +is perishable.</p> +<p>I am lodged in the lower part, but the iron doors are open, +and in their place at night is a paper screen. A few things +are kept in my room. Two handsome shrines from which the +unemotional faces of two Buddhas looked out all night, a fine +figure of the goddess Kwan-non, and a venerable one of the god of +longevity, suggested curious dreams.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +137</span>LETTER XIX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Prosperity—Convict Labour—A New +Bridge—Yamagata—Intoxicating Forgeries—The +Government Buildings—Bad Manners—Snow +Mountains—A Wretched Town.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kanayama</span>, +<i>July</i> 16.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Three</span> days of travelling on the +same excellent road have brought me nearly 60 miles. +Yamagata <i>ken</i> impresses me as being singularly prosperous, +progressive, and go-ahead; the plain of Yamagata, which I entered +soon after leaving Kaminoyama, is populous and highly cultivated, +and the broad road, with its enormous traffic, looks wealthy and +civilised. It is being improved by convicts in dull red +<i>kimonos</i> printed with Chinese characters, who correspond +with our ticket-of-leave men, as they are working for wages in +the employment of contractors and farmers, and are under no other +restriction than that of always wearing the prison dress.</p> +<p>At the Sakamoki river I was delighted to come upon the only +thoroughly solid piece of modern Japanese work that I have met +with—a remarkably handsome stone bridge nearly +finished—the first I have seen. I introduced myself +to the engineer, Okuno Chiuzo, a very gentlemanly, agreeable +Japanese, who showed me the plans, took a great deal of trouble +to explain them, and courteously gave me tea and sweetmeats.</p> +<p>Yamagata, a thriving town of 21,000 people and the capital of +the <i>ken</i>, is well situated on a slight eminence, and this +and the dominant position of the <i>kenchô</i> at the top +of the main street give it an emphasis unusual in Japanese +towns. The outskirts of all the cities are very mean, and +the appearance of the lofty white buildings of the new Government +Offices above the low grey houses was much of a surprise. +The streets of Yamagata are broad and clean, and it has good +shops, among which are long rows selling nothing but ornamental +iron kettles <a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +138</span>and ornamental brasswork. So far in the interior +I was annoyed to find several shops almost exclusively for the +sale of villainous forgeries of European eatables and drinkables, +specially the latter. The Japanese, from the Mikado +downwards, have acquired a love of foreign intoxicants, which +would be hurtful enough to them if the intoxicants were genuine, +but is far worse when they are compounds of vitriol, fusel oil, +bad vinegar, and I know not what. I saw two shops in +Yamagata which sold champagne of the best brands, Martel’s +cognac, Bass’ ale, Medoc, St. Julian, and Scotch whisky, at +about one-fifth of their cost price—all poisonous +compounds, the sale of which ought to be interdicted.</p> +<p>The Government Buildings, though in the usual confectionery +style, are improved by the addition of verandahs; and the +<i>Kenchô</i>, <i>Saibanchô</i>, or Court House, the +Normal School with advanced schools attached, and the police +buildings, are all in keeping with the good road and obvious +prosperity. A large two-storied hospital, with a cupola, +which will accommodate 150 patients, and is to be a medical +school, is nearly finished. It is very well arranged and +ventilated. I cannot say as much for the present hospital, +which I went over. At the Court House I saw twenty +officials doing nothing, and as many policemen, all in European +dress, to which they had added an imitation of European manners, +the total result being unmitigated vulgarity. They demanded +my passport before they would tell me the population of the +<i>ken</i> and city. Once or twice I have found fault with +Ito’s manners, and he has asked me twice since if I think +them like the manners of the policemen at Yamagata!</p> +<p>North of Yamagata the plain widens, and fine longitudinal +ranges capped with snow mountains on the one side, and broken +ranges with lateral spurs on the other, enclose as cheerful and +pleasant a region as one would wish to see, with many pleasant +villages on the lower slopes of the hills. The mercury was +only 70°, and the wind north, so it was an especially +pleasant journey, though I had to go three and a half <i>ri</i> +beyond Tendo, a town of 5000 people, where I had intended to +halt, because the only inns at Tendo which were not +<i>kashitsukeya</i> were so occupied with silk-worms that they +could not receive me.</p> +<p><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>The +next day’s journey was still along the same fine road, +through a succession of farming villages and towns of 1500 and +2000 people, such as Tochiida and Obanasawa, were frequent. +From both these there was a glorious view of Chôkaizan, a +grand, snow-covered dome, said to be 8000 feet high, which rises +in an altogether unexpected manner from comparatively level +country, and, as the great snow-fields of Udonosan are in sight +at the same time, with most picturesque curtain ranges below, it +may be considered one of the grandest views of Japan. After +leaving Obanasawa the road passes along a valley watered by one +of the affluents of the Mogami, and, after crossing it by a fine +wooden bridge, ascends a pass from which the view is most +magnificent. After a long ascent through a region of light, +peaty soil, wooded with pine, cryptomeria, and scrub oak, a long +descent and a fine avenue terminate in Shinjô, a wretched +town of over 5000 people, situated in a plain of rice-fields.</p> +<p>The day’s journey, of over twenty-three miles, was +through villages of farms without <i>yadoyas</i>, and in many +cases without even tea-houses. The style of building has +quite changed. Wood has disappeared, and all the houses are +now built with heavy beams and walls of laths and brown mud mixed +with chopped straw, and very neat. Nearly all are great +oblong barns, turned endwise to the road, 50, 60, and even 100 +feet long, with the end nearest the road the +dwelling-house. These farm-houses have no paper windows, +only <i>amado</i>, with a few panes of paper at the top. +These are drawn back in the daytime, and, in the better class of +houses, blinds, formed of reeds or split bamboo, are let down +over the opening. There are no ceilings, and in many cases +an unmolested rat snake lives in the rafters, who, when he is +much gorged, occasionally falls down upon a mosquito net.</p> +<p>Again I write that Shinjô is a wretched place. It +is a <i>daimiyô’s</i> town, and every +<i>daimiyô’s</i> town that I have seen has an air of +decay, partly owing to the fact that the castle is either pulled +down, or has been allowed to fall into decay. Shinjô +has a large trade in rice, silk, and hemp, and ought not to be as +poor as it looks. The mosquitoes were in thousands, and I +had to go to bed, so as to be out of their reach, before I had +finished my wretched meal of sago and <a name="page140"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 140</span>condensed milk. There was a +hot rain all night, my wretched room was dirty and stifling, and +rats gnawed my boots and ran away with my cucumbers.</p> +<p>To-day the temperature is high and the sky murky. The +good road has come to an end, and the old hardships have begun +again. After leaving Shinjô this morning we crossed +over a steep ridge into a singular basin of great beauty, with a +semicircle of pyramidal hills, rendered more striking by being +covered to their summits with pyramidal cryptomeria, and +apparently blocking all northward progress. At their feet +lies Kanayama in a romantic situation, and, though I arrived as +early as noon, I am staying for a day or two, for my room at the +Transport Office is cheerful and pleasant, the agent is most +polite, a very rough region lies before me, and Ito has secured a +chicken for the first time since leaving Nikkô!</p> +<p>I find it impossible in this damp climate, and in my present +poor health, to travel with any comfort for more than two or +three days at a time, and it is difficult to find pretty, quiet, +and wholesome places for a halt of two nights. Freedom from +fleas and mosquitoes one can never hope for, though the last vary +in number, and I have found a way of “dodging” the +first by laying down a piece of oiled paper six feet square upon +the mat, dusting along its edges a band of Persian insect powder, +and setting my chair in the middle. I am then insulated, +and, though myriads of fleas jump on the paper, the powder +stupefies them, and they are easily killed. I have been +obliged to rest here at any rate, because I have been stung on my +left hand both by a hornet and a gadfly, and it is badly +inflamed. In some places the hornets are in hundreds, and +make the horses wild. I am also suffering from inflammation +produced by the bites of “horse ants,” which attack +one in walking. The Japanese suffer very much from these, +and a neglected bite often produces an intractable ulcer. +Besides these, there is a fly, as harmless in appearance as our +house-fly, which bites as badly as a mosquito. These are +some of the drawbacks of Japanese travelling in summer, but worse +than these is the lack of such food as one can eat when one +finishes a hard day’s journey without appetite, in an +exhausting atmosphere.</p> +<p><i>July</i> 18.—I have had so much pain and fever from +stings <a name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +141</span>and bites that last night I was glad to consult a +Japanese doctor from Shinjô. Ito, who looks twice as +big as usual when he has to do any “grand” +interpreting, and always puts on silk <i>hakama</i> in honour of +it, came in with a middle-aged man dressed entirely in silk, who +prostrated himself three times on the ground, and then sat down +on his heels. Ito in many words explained my calamities, +and Dr. Nosoki then asked to see my “honourable +hand,” which he examined carefully, and then my +“honourable foot.” He felt my pulse and looked +at my eyes with a magnifying glass, and with much sucking in of +his breath—a sign of good breeding and +politeness—informed me that I had much fever, which I knew +before; then that I must rest, which I also knew; then he lighted +his pipe and contemplated me. Then he felt my pulse and +looked at my eyes again, then felt the swelling from the hornet +bite, and said it was much inflamed, of which I was painfully +aware, and then clapped his hands three times. At this +signal a coolie appeared, carrying a handsome black lacquer chest +with the same crest in gold upon it as Dr. Nosoki wore in white +on his <i>haori</i>. This contained a medicine chest of +fine gold lacquer, fitted up with shelves, drawers, bottles, +etc. He compounded a lotion first, with which he bandaged +my hand and arm rather skilfully, telling me to pour the lotion +over the bandage at intervals till the pain abated. The +whole was covered with oiled paper, which answers the purpose of +oiled silk. He then compounded a febrifuge, which, as it is +purely vegetable, I have not hesitated to take, and told me to +drink it in hot water, and to avoid <i>saké</i> for a day +or two!</p> +<p>I asked him what his fee was, and, after many bows and much +spluttering and sucking in of his breath, he asked if I should +think half a <i>yen</i> too much, and when I presented him with a +<i>yen</i>, and told him with a good deal of profound bowing on +my part that I was exceedingly glad to obtain his services, his +gratitude quite abashed me by its immensity.</p> +<p>Dr. Nosoki is one of the old-fashioned practitioners, whose +medical knowledge has been handed down from father to son, and +who holds out, as probably most of his patients do, against +European methods and drugs. A strong prejudice against +surgical operations, specially amputations, exists throughout +Japan. With regard to the latter, people think that, as +they <a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +142</span>came into the world complete, so they are bound to go +out of it, and in many places a surgeon would hardly be able to +buy at any price the privilege of cutting off an arm.</p> +<p>Except from books these older men know nothing of the +mechanism of the human body, as dissection is unknown to native +science. Dr. Nosoki told me that he relies mainly on the +application of the <i>moxa</i> and on acupuncture in the +treatment of acute diseases, and in chronic maladies on friction, +medicinal baths, certain animal and vegetable medicines, and +certain kinds of food. The use of leeches and blisters is +unknown to him, and he regards mineral drugs with obvious +suspicion. He has heard of chloroform, but has never seen +it used, and considers that in maternity it must necessarily be +fatal either to mother or child. He asked me (and I have +twice before been asked the same question) whether it is not by +its use that we endeavour to keep down our redundant +population! He has great faith in <i>ginseng</i>, and in +rhinoceros horn, and in the powdered liver of some animal, which, +from the description, I understood to be a tiger—all +specifics of the Chinese school of medicines. Dr. Nosoki +showed me a small box of “unicorn’s” horn, +which he said was worth more than its weight in gold! As my +arm improved coincidently with the application of his lotion, I +am bound to give him the credit of the cure.</p> +<p>I invited him to dinner, and two tables were produced covered +with different dishes, of which he ate heartily, showing most +singular dexterity with his chopsticks in removing the flesh of +small, bony fish. It is proper to show appreciation of a +repast by noisy gulpings, and much gurgling and drawing in of the +breath. Etiquette rigidly prescribes these performances, +which are most distressing to a European, and my guest nearly +upset my gravity by them.</p> +<p>The host and the <i>kôchô</i>, or chief man of the +village, paid me a formal visit in the evening, and Ito, <i>en +grande tenue</i>, exerted himself immensely on the +occasion. They were much surprised at my not smoking, and +supposed me to be under a vow! They asked me many questions +about our customs and Government, but frequently reverted to +tobacco.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +143</span>LETTER XX.</h2> +<blockquote><p>The Effect of a Chicken—Poor Fare—Slow +Travelling—Objects of +Interest—<i>Kak’ké</i>—The Fatal +Close—A Great Fire—Security of the <i>Kuras</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Shingoji</span>, +<i>July</i> 21.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Very</span> early in the morning, after my +long talk with the <i>Kôchô</i> of Kanayama, Ito +wakened me by saying, “You’ll be able for a long +day’s journey to-day, as you had a chicken +yesterday,” and under this chicken’s marvellous +influence we got away at 6.45, only to verify the proverb, +“The more haste the worse speed.” Unsolicited +by me the <i>Kôchô</i> sent round the village to +forbid the people from assembling, so I got away in peace with a +pack-horse and one runner. It was a terrible road, with two +severe mountain-passes to cross, and I not only had to walk +nearly the whole way, but to help the man with the <i>kuruma</i> +up some of the steepest places. Halting at the exquisitely +situated village of Nosoki, we got one horse, and walked by a +mountain road along the head-waters of the Omono to Innai. +I wish I could convey to you any idea of the beauty and wildness +of that mountain route, of the surprises on the way, of views, of +the violent deluges of rain which turned rivulets into torrents, +and of the hardships and difficulties of the day; the scanty fare +of sun-dried rice dough and sour yellow rasps, and the depth of +the mire through which we waded! We crossed the Shione and +Sakatsu passes, and in twelve hours accomplished fifteen +miles! Everywhere we were told that we should never get +through the country by the way we are going.</p> +<p>The women still wear trousers, but with a long garment tucked +into them instead of a short one, and the men wear a cotton +combination of breastplate and apron, either without anything +else, or over their <i>kimonos</i>. The descent to Innai <a +name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>under an +avenue of cryptomeria, and the village itself, shut in with the +rushing Omono, are very beautiful.</p> +<p>The <i>yadoya</i> at Innai was a remarkably cheerful one, but +my room was entirely <i>fusuma</i> and <i>shôji</i>, and +people were peeping in the whole time. It is not only a +foreigner and his strange ways which attract attention in these +remote districts, but, in my case, my india-rubber bath, +air-pillow, and, above all, my white mosquito net. Their +nets are all of a heavy green canvas, and they admire mine so +much, that I can give no more acceptable present on leaving than +a piece of it to twist in with the hair. There were six +engineers in the next room who are surveying the passes which I +had crossed, in order to see if they could be tunnelled, in which +case <i>kurumas</i> might go all the way from Tôkiyô +to Kubota on the Sea of Japan, and, with a small additional +outlay, carts also.</p> +<p>In the two villages of Upper and Lower Innai there has been an +outbreak of a malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called +<i>kak’ké</i>, which, in the last seven months, has +carried off 100 persons out of a population of about 1500, and +the local doctors have been aided by two sent from the Medical +School at Kubota. I don’t know a European name for +it; the Japanese name signifies an affection of the legs. +Its first symptoms are a loss of strength in the legs, +“looseness in the knees,” cramps in the calves, +swelling, and numbness. This, Dr. Anderson, who has studied +<i>kak’ké</i> in more than 1100 cases in +Tôkiyô, calls the sub-acute form. The chronic +is a slow, numbing, and wasting malady, which, if unchecked, +results in death from paralysis and exhaustion in from six months +to three years. The third, or acute form, Dr. Anderson +describes thus. After remarking that the grave symptoms set +in quite unexpectedly, and go on rapidly increasing, he +says:—“The patient now can lie down no longer; he +sits up in bed and tosses restlessly from one position to +another, and, with wrinkled brow, staring and anxious eyes, dusky +skin, blue, parted lips, dilated nostrils, throbbing neck, and +labouring chest, presents a picture of the most terrible distress +that the worst of diseases can inflict. There is no +intermission even for a moment, and the physician, here almost +powerless, can do little more than note the failing pulse and +falling temperature, and wait for the <a name="page145"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 145</span>moment when the brain, paralysed by +the carbonised blood, shall become insensible, and allow the +dying man to pass his last moments in merciful +unconsciousness.” <a name="citation145"></a><a +href="#footnote145" class="citation">[145]</a></p> +<p>The next morning, after riding nine miles through a quagmire, +under grand avenues of cryptomeria, and noticing with regret that +the telegraph poles ceased, we reached Yusowa, a town of 7000 +people, in which, had it not been for provoking delays, I should +have slept instead of at Innai, and found that a fire a few hours +previously had destroyed seventy houses, including the +<i>yadoya</i> at which I should have lodged. We had to wait +two hours for horses, as all were engaged in moving property and +people. The ground where the houses had stood was +absolutely bare of everything but fine black ash, among which the +<i>kuras</i> stood blackened, and, in some instances, slightly +cracked, but in all unharmed. Already skeletons of new +houses were rising. No life had been lost except that of a +tipsy man, but I should probably have lost everything but my +money.</p> +<h2><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +146</span>LETTER XX.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Lunch in Public—A Grotesque +Accident—Police Inquiries—Man or Woman?—A +Melancholy Stare—A Vicious Horse—An Ill-favoured +Town—A Disappointment—A <i>Torii</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Yusowa</span> is a specially +objectionable-looking place. I took my lunch—a +wretched meal of a tasteless white curd made from beans, with +some condensed milk added to it—in a yard, and the people +crowded in hundreds to the gate, and those behind, being unable +to see me, got ladders and climbed on the adjacent roofs, where +they remained till one of the roofs gave way with a loud crash, +and precipitated about fifty men, women, and children into the +room below, which fortunately was vacant. Nobody +screamed—a noteworthy fact—and the casualties were +only a few bruises. Four policemen then appeared and +demanded my passport, as if I were responsible for the accident, +and failing, like all others, to read a particular word upon it, +they asked me what I was travelling for, and on being told +“to learn about the country,” they asked if I was +making a map! Having satisfied their curiosity they +disappeared, and the crowd surged up again in fuller force. +The Transport Agent begged them to go away, but they said they +might never see such a sight again! One old peasant said he +would go away if he were told whether “the sight” +were a man or a woman, and, on the agent asking if that were any +business of his, he said he should like to tell at home what he +had seen, which awoke my sympathy at once, and I told Ito to tell +them that a Japanese horse galloping night and day without +ceasing would take 5½ weeks to reach my county—a +statement which he is using lavishly as I go along. These +are such queer crowds, so silent and gaping, and they remain +motionless for hours, the wide-awake babies on the <a +name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +147</span>mothers’ backs and in the fathers’ arms +never crying. I should be glad to hear a hearty aggregate +laugh, even if I were its object. The great melancholy +stare is depressing.</p> +<p>The road for ten miles was thronged with country people going +in to see the fire. It was a good road and very pleasant +country, with numerous road-side shrines and figures of the +goddess of mercy. I had a wicked horse, thoroughly +vicious. His head was doubly chained to the saddle-girth, +but he never met man, woman, or child, without laying back his +ears and running at them to bite them. I was so tired and +in so much spinal pain that I got off and walked several times, +and it was most difficult to get on again, for as soon as I put +my hand on the saddle he swung his hind legs round to kick me, +and it required some agility to avoid being hurt. Nor was +this all. The evil beast made dashes with his tethered head +at flies, threatening to twist or demolish my foot at each, flung +his hind legs upwards, attempted to dislodge flies on his nose +with his hind hoof, executed capers which involved a total +disappearance of everything in front of the saddle, squealed, +stumbled, kicked his old shoes off, and resented the feeble +attempts which the <i>mago</i> made to replace them, and finally +walked in to Yokote and down its long and dismal street mainly on +his hind legs, shaking the rope out of his timid leader’s +hand, and shaking me into a sort of aching jelly! I used to +think that horses were made vicious either by being teased or by +violence in breaking; but this does not account for the malignity +of the Japanese horses, for the people are so much afraid of them +that they treat them with great respect: they are not beaten or +kicked, are spoken to in soothing tones, and, on the whole, live +better than their masters. Perhaps this is the secret of +their villainy—“Jeshurun waxed fat and +kicked.”</p> +<p>Yokote, a town of 10,000 people, in which the best +<i>yadoyas</i> are all non-respectable, is an ill-favoured, +ill-smelling, forlorn, dirty, damp, miserable place, with a large +trade in cottons. As I rode through on my temporary biped +the people rushed out from the baths to see me, men and women +alike without a particle of clothing. The house-master was +very polite, but I had a dark and dirty room, up a bamboo ladder, +and it swarmed with fleas and mosquitoes to an exasperating +extent. <a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +148</span>On the way I heard that a bullock was killed every +Thursday in Yokote, and had decided on having a broiled steak for +supper and taking another with me, but when I arrived it was all +sold, there were no eggs, and I made a miserable meal of rice and +bean curd, feeling somewhat starved, as the condensed milk I +bought at Yamagata had to be thrown away. I was somewhat +wretched from fatigue and inflamed ant bites, but in the early +morning, hot and misty as all the mornings have been, I went to +see a Shintô temple, or <i>miya</i>, and, though I went +alone, escaped a throng.</p> +<p>The entrance into the temple court was, as usual, by a +<i>torii</i>, which consisted of two large posts 20 feet high, +surmounted with cross beams, the upper one of which projects +beyond the posts and frequently curves upwards at both +ends. The whole, as is often the case, was painted a dull +red. This <i>torii</i>, or “birds’ rest,” +is said to be so called because the fowls, which were formerly +offered but not sacrificed, were accustomed to perch upon +it. A straw rope, with straw tassels and strips of paper +hanging from it, the special emblem of Shintô, hung across +the gateway. In the paved court there were several handsome +granite lanterns on fine granite pedestals, such as are the +nearly universal accompaniments of both Shintô and Buddhist +temples.</p> +<p>After leaving Yakote we passed through very pretty country +with mountain views and occasional glimpses of the snowy dome of +Chokaizan, crossed the Omono (which has burst its banks and +destroyed its bridges) by two troublesome ferries, and arrived at +Rokugo, a town of 5000 people, with fine temples, exceptionally +mean houses, and the most aggressive crowd by which I have yet +been asphyxiated.</p> +<p>There, through the good offices of the police, I was enabled +to attend a Buddhist funeral of a merchant of some wealth. +It interested me very much from its solemnity and decorum, and +Ito’s explanations of what went before were remarkably +distinctly given. I went in a Japanese woman’s dress, +borrowed at the tea-house, with a blue hood over my head, and +thus escaped all notice, but I found the restraint of the scanty +“tied forward” <i>kimono</i> very tiresome. Ito +gave me many injunctions as to what I was to do and avoid, which +I carried out faithfully, being nervously anxious to avoid +jarring on the <a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +149</span>sensibilities of those who had kindly permitted a +foreigner to be present.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p149b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Torii" +title= +"Torii" + src="images/p149s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The illness was a short one, and there had been no time either +for prayers or pilgrimages on the sick man’s behalf. +When death occurs the body is laid with its head to the north (a +position that the living Japanese scrupulously avoid), near a +folding screen, between which and it a new <i>zen</i> is placed, +on which are a saucer of oil with a lighted rush, cakes of +uncooked rice dough, and a saucer of incense sticks. The +priests directly after death choose the <i>kaimiyô</i>, or +posthumous name, write it on a tablet of white wood, and seat +themselves by the corpse; his <i>zen</i>, bowls, cups, etc., are +filled with vegetable food and are placed by his side, the +chopsticks being put on the wrong, <i>i.e.</i> the left, side of +the <i>zen</i>. At the end of forty-eight hours the corpse +is arranged for the coffin by being washed with warm water, and +the priest, while saying certain prayers, shaves the head. +In all cases, rich or poor, the dress is of the usual make, but +of pure white linen or cotton.</p> +<p>At Omagori, a town near Rokugo, large earthenware jars <a +name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>are +manufactured, which are much used for interment by the wealthy; +but in this case there were two square boxes, the outer one being +of finely planed wood of the <i>Retinospora obtusa</i>. The +poor use what is called the “quick-tub,” a covered +tub of pine hooped with bamboo. Women are dressed for +burial in the silk robe worn on the marriage day, <i>tabi</i> are +placed beside them or on their feet, and their hair usually flows +loosely behind them. The wealthiest people fill the coffin +with vermilion and the poorest use chaff; but in this case I +heard that only the mouth, nose, and ears were filled with +vermilion, and that the coffin was filled up with coarse +incense. The body is placed within the tub or box in the +usual squatting position. It is impossible to understand +how a human body, many hours after death, can be pressed into the +limited space afforded by even the outermost of the boxes. +It has been said that the rigidity of a corpse is overcome by the +use of a powder called <i>dosia</i>, which is sold by the +priests; but this idea has been exploded, and the process remains +incomprehensible.</p> +<p>Bannerets of small size and ornamental staves were outside the +house door. Two men in blue dresses, with pale blue +over-garments resembling wings received each person, two more +presented a lacquered bowl of water and a white silk +<i>crêpe</i> towel, and then we passed into a large room, +round which were arranged a number of very handsome folding +screens, on which lotuses, storks, and peonies were realistically +painted on a dead gold ground. Near the end of the room the +coffin, under a canopy of white silk, upon which there was a very +beautiful arrangement of artificial white lotuses, rested upon +trestles, the face of the corpse being turned towards the +north. Six priests, very magnificently dressed, sat on each +side of the coffin, and two more knelt in front of a small +temporary altar.</p> +<p>The widow, an extremely pretty woman, squatted near the +deceased, below the father and mother; and after her came the +children, relatives, and friends, who sat in rows, dressed in +winged garments of blue and white. The widow was painted +white; her lips were reddened with vermilion; her hair was +elaborately dressed and ornamented with carved shell pins; she +wore a beautiful dress of sky-blue silk, with a <i>haori</i> of +fine white <i>crêpe</i> and a scarlet <i>crêpe</i> +girdle embroidered in gold, and looked like a bride on her +marriage day rather than a widow. <a +name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>Indeed, +owing to the beauty of the dresses and the amount of blue and +white silk, the room had a festal rather than a funereal +look. When all the guests had arrived, tea and sweetmeats +were passed round; incense was burned profusely; litanies were +mumbled, and the bustle of moving to the grave began, during +which I secured a place near the gate of the temple grounds.</p> +<p>The procession did not contain the father or mother of the +deceased, but I understood that the mourners who composed it were +all relatives. The oblong tablet with the “dead +name” of the deceased was carried first by a priest, then +the lotus blossom by another priest, then ten priests followed, +two and two, chanting litanies from books, then came the coffin +on a platform borne by four men and covered with white drapery, +then the widow, and then the other relatives. The coffin +was carried into the temple and laid upon trestles, while incense +was burned and prayers were said, and was then carried to a +shallow grave lined with cement, and prayers were said by the +priests until the earth was raised to the proper level, when all +dispersed, and the widow, in her gay attire, walked home +unattended. There were no hired mourners or any signs of +grief, but nothing could be more solemn, reverent, and decorous +than the whole service. [I have since seen many funerals, +chiefly of the poor, and, though shorn of much of the ceremony, +and with only one officiating priest, the decorum was always most +remarkable.] The fees to the priests are from 2 up to 40 or +50 <i>yen</i>. The graveyard, which surrounds the temple, +was extremely beautiful, and the cryptomeria specially +fine. It was very full of stone gravestones, and, like all +Japanese cemeteries, exquisitely kept. As soon as the grave +was filled in, a life-size pink lotus plant was placed upon it, +and a lacquer tray, on which were lacquer bowls containing tea or +<i>saké</i>, beans, and sweetmeats.</p> +<p>The temple at Rokugo was very beautiful, and, except that its +ornaments were superior in solidity and good taste, differed +little from a Romish church. The low altar, on which were +lilies and lighted candles, was draped in blue and silver, and on +the high altar, draped in crimson and cloth of gold, there was +nothing but a closed shrine, an incense-burner, and a vase of +lotuses.</p> +<h2><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +152</span>LETTER XX.—(<i>Concluded</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Casual Invitation—A Ludicrous +Incident—Politeness of a Policeman—A Comfortless +Sunday—An Outrageous Irruption—A Privileged +Stare.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> a wayside tea-house, soon after +leaving Rokugo in <i>kurumas</i>, I met the same courteous and +agreeable young doctor who was stationed at Innai during the +prevalence of <i>kak’ke</i>, and he invited me to visit the +hospital at Kubota, of which he is junior physician, and told Ito +of a restaurant at which “foreign food” can be +obtained—a pleasant prospect, of which he is always +reminding me.</p> +<p>Travelling along a very narrow road, I as usual first, we met +a man leading a prisoner by a rope, followed by a +policeman. As soon as my runner saw the latter he fell down +on his face so suddenly in the shafts as nearly to throw me out, +at the same time trying to wriggle into a garment which he had +carried on the crossbar, while the young men who were drawing the +two <i>kurumas</i> behind, crouching behind my vehicle, tried to +scuttle into their clothes. I never saw such a picture of +abjectness as my man presented. He trembled from head to +foot, and illustrated that queer phrase often heard in Scotch +Presbyterian prayers, “Lay our hands on our mouths and our +mouths in the dust.” He literally grovelled in the +dust, and with every sentence that the policeman spoke raised his +head a little, to bow it yet more deeply than before. It +was all because he had no clothes on. I interceded for him +as the day was very hot, and the policeman said he would not +arrest him, as he should otherwise have done, because of the +inconvenience that it would cause to a foreigner. He was +quite an elderly man, and never recovered his spirits, but, as +soon as a turn of the road took us out of the policeman’s +sight, the two <a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +153</span>younger men threw their clothes into the air and +gambolled in the shafts, shrieking with laughter!</p> +<p>On reaching Shingoji, being too tired to go farther, I was +dismayed to find nothing but a low, dark, foul-smelling room, +enclosed only by dirty <i>shôji</i>, in which to spend +Sunday. One side looked into a little mildewed court, with +a slimy growth of <i>Protococcus viridis</i>, and into which the +people of another house constantly came to stare. The other +side opened on the earthen passage into the street, where +travellers wash their feet, the third into the kitchen, and the +fourth into the front room. Even before dark it was alive +with mosquitoes, and the fleas hopped on the mats like +sand-flies. There were no eggs, nothing but rice and +cucumbers. At five on Sunday morning I saw three faces +pressed against the outer lattice, and before evening the +<i>shôji</i> were riddled with finger-holes, at each of +which a dark eye appeared. There was a still, fine rain all +day, with the mercury at 82°, and the heat, darkness, and +smells were difficult to endure. In the afternoon a small +procession passed the house, consisting of a decorated palanquin, +carried and followed by priests, with capes and stoles over +crimson chasubles and white cassocks. This ark, they said, +contained papers inscribed with the names of people and the evils +they feared, and the priests were carrying the papers to throw +them into the river.</p> +<p>I went to bed early as a refuge from mosquitoes, with the +<i>andon</i>, as usual, dimly lighting the room, and shut my +eyes. About nine I heard a good deal of whispering and +shuffling, which continued for some time, and, on looking up, saw +opposite to me about 40 men, women, and children (Ito says 100), +all staring at me, with the light upon their faces. They +had silently removed three of the <i>shôji</i> next the +passage! I called Ito loudly, and clapped my hands, but +they did not stir till he came, and then they fled like a flock +of sheep. I have patiently, and even smilingly, borne all +out-of-doors crowding and curiosity, but this kind of intrusion +is unbearable; and I sent Ito to the police station, much against +his will, to beg the police to keep the people out of the house, +as the house-master was unable to do so. This morning, as I +was finishing dressing, a policeman appeared in my room, +ostensibly to apologise for the behaviour of the people, but in +reality to have <a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +154</span>a privileged stare at me, and, above all, at my +stretcher and mosquito net, from which he hardly took his +eyes. Ito says he could make a <i>yen</i> a day by showing +them! The policeman said that the people had never seen a +foreigner.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p154b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Daikoku, the God of Wealth" +title= +"Daikoku, the God of Wealth" + src="images/p154s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +155</span>LETTER XXI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Necessity of Firmness—Perplexing +Misrepresentations—Gliding with the Stream—Suburban +Residences—The Kubota Hospital—A Formal +Reception—The Normal School.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kubota</span>, +<i>July</i> 23.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">arrived</span> here on Monday afternoon +by the river Omono, what would have been two long days’ +journey by land having been easily accomplished in nine hours by +water. This was an instance of forming a plan wisely, and +adhering to it resolutely! Firmness in travelling is +nowhere more necessary than in Japan. I decided some time +ago, from Mr. Brunton’s map, that the Omono must be +navigable from Shingoji, and a week ago told Ito to inquire about +it, but at each place difficulties have been started. There +was too much water, there was too little; there were bad rapids, +there were shallows; it was too late in the year; all the boats +which had started lately were lying aground; but at one of the +ferries I saw in the distance a merchandise boat going down, and +told Ito I should go that way and no other. On arriving at +Shingoji they said it was not on the Omono at all, but on a +stream with some very bad rapids, in which boats are broken to +pieces. Lastly, they said there was no boat, but on my +saying that I would send ten miles for one, a small, +flat-bottomed scow was produced by the Transport Agent, into +which Ito, the luggage, and myself accurately fitted. Ito +sententiously observed, “Not one thing has been told us on +our journey which has turned out true!” This is not +an exaggeration. The usual crowd did not assemble round the +door, but preceded me to the river, where it covered the banks +and clustered in the trees. Four policemen escorted me +down. The voyage of forty-two miles was delightful. +The <a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +156</span>rapids were a mere ripple, the current was strong, one +boatman almost slept upon his paddle, the other only woke to bale +the boat when it was half-full of water, the shores were silent +and pretty, and almost without population till we reached the +large town of Araya, which straggles along a high bank for a +considerable distance, and after nine peaceful hours we turned +off from the main stream of the Omono just at the outskirts of +Kubota, and poled up a narrow, green river, fringed by +dilapidated backs of houses, boat-building yards, and rafts of +timber on one side, and dwelling-houses, gardens, and damp +greenery on the other. This stream is crossed by very +numerous bridges.</p> +<p>I got a cheerful upstairs room at a most friendly +<i>yadoya</i>, and my three days here have been fully occupied +and very pleasant. “Foreign food”—a good +beef-steak, an excellent curry, cucumbers, and foreign salt and +mustard, were at once obtained, and I felt my “eyes +lightened” after partaking of them.</p> +<p>Kubota is a very attractive and purely Japanese town of 36,000 +people, the capital of Akita <i>ken</i>. A fine mountain, +called Taiheisan, rises above its fertile valley, and the Omono +falls into the Sea of Japan close to it. It has a number of +<i>kurumas</i>, but, owing to heavy sand and the badness of the +roads, they can only go three miles in any direction. It is +a town of activity and brisk trade, and manufactures a silk +fabric in stripes of blue and black, and yellow and black, much +used for making <i>hakama</i> and <i>kimonos</i>, a species of +white silk <i>crêpe</i> with a raised woof, which brings a +high price in Tôkiyô shops, <i>fusuma</i>, and +clogs. Though it is a castle town, it is free from the +usual “deadly-lively” look, and has an air of +prosperity and comfort. Though it has few streets of shops, +it covers a great extent of ground with streets and lanes of +pretty, isolated dwelling-houses, surrounded by trees, gardens, +and well-trimmed hedges, each garden entered by a substantial +gateway. The existence of something like a middle class +with home privacy and home life is suggested by these miles of +comfortable “suburban residences.” Foreign +influence is hardly at all felt, there is not a single foreigner +in Government or any other employment, and even the hospital was +organised from the beginning by Japanese doctors.</p> +<p><a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>This +fact made me greatly desire to see it, but, on going there at the +proper hour for visitors, I was met by the Director with +courteous but vexatious denial. No foreigner could see it, +he said, without sending his passport to the Governor and getting +a written order, so I complied with these preliminaries, and 8 +a.m. of the next day was fixed for my visit Ito, who is lazy +about interpreting for the lower orders, but exerts himself to +the utmost on such an occasion as this, went with me, handsomely +clothed in silk, as befitted an “Interpreter,” and +surpassed all his former efforts.</p> +<p>The Director and the staff of six physicians, all handsomely +dressed in silk, met me at the top of the stairs, and conducted +me to the management room, where six clerks were writing. +Here there was a table, solemnly covered with a white cloth, and +four chairs, on which the Director, the Chief Physician, Ito, and +I sat, and pipes, tea, and sweetmeats, were produced. After +this, accompanied by fifty medical students, whose intelligent +looks promise well for their success, we went round the hospital, +which is a large two-storied building in semi-European style, but +with deep verandahs all round. The upper floor is used for +class-rooms, and the lower accommodates 100 patients, besides a +number of resident students. Ten is the largest number +treated in any one room, and severe cases are treated in separate +rooms. Gangrene has prevailed, and the Chief Physician, who +is at this time remodelling the hospital, has closed some of the +wards in consequence. There is a Lock Hospital under the +same roof. About fifty important operations are annually +performed under chloroform, but the people of Akita <i>ken</i> +are very conservative, and object to part with their limbs and to +foreign drugs. This conservatism diminishes the number of +patients.</p> +<p>The odour of carbolic acid pervaded the whole hospital, and +there were spray producers enough to satisfy Mr. Lister! At +the request of Dr. K. I saw the dressing of some very severe +wounds carefully performed with carbolised gauze, under spray of +carbolic acid, the fingers of the surgeon and the instruments +used being all carefully bathed in the disinfectant. Dr. K. +said it was difficult to teach the students the extreme +carefulness with regard to minor details which is required in the +antiseptic treatment, which he regards as one <a +name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>of the +greatest discoveries of this century. I was very much +impressed with the fortitude shown by the surgical patients, who +went through very severe pain without a wince or a moan. +Eye cases are unfortunately very numerous. Dr. K. +attributes their extreme prevalence to overcrowding, defective +ventilation, poor living, and bad light.</p> +<p>After our round we returned to the management room to find a +meal laid out in English style—coffee in cups with handles +and saucers, and plates with spoons. After this pipes were +again produced, and the Director and medical staff escorted me to +the entrance, where we all bowed profoundly. I was +delighted to see that Dr. Kayabashi, a man under thirty, and +fresh from Tôkiyô, and all the staff and students +were in the national dress, with the <i>hakama</i> of rich +silk. It is a beautiful dress, and assists dignity as much +as the ill-fitting European costume detracts from it. This +was a very interesting visit, in spite of the difficulty of +communication through an interpreter.</p> +<p>The public buildings, with their fine gardens, and the broad +road near which they stand, with its stone-faced embankments, are +very striking in such a far-off <i>ken</i>. Among the +finest of the buildings is the Normal School, where I shortly +afterwards presented myself, but I was not admitted till I had +shown my passport and explained my objects in travelling. +These preliminaries being settled, Mr. Tomatsu Aoki, the Chief +Director, and Mr. Shude Kane Nigishi, the principal teacher, both +looking more like monkeys than men in their European clothes, +lionised me.</p> +<p>The first was most trying, for he persisted in attempting to +speak English, of which he knows about as much as I know of +Japanese, but the last, after some grotesque attempts, accepted +Ito’s services. The school is a commodious +Europeanised building, three stories high, and from its upper +balcony the view of the city, with its gray roofs and abundant +greenery, and surrounding mountains and valleys, is very +fine. The equipments of the different class-rooms surprised +me, especially the laboratory of the chemical class-room, and the +truly magnificent illustrative apparatus in the natural science +class-room. Ganot’s “Physics” is the text +book of that department.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +159</span>LETTER XXII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Silk Factory—Employment for +Women—A Police Escort—The Japanese Police Force.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kubota</span>, +<i>July</i> 23.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My</span> next visit was to a factory of +handloom silk-weavers, where 180 hands, half of them women, are +employed. These new industrial openings for respectable +employment for women and girls are very important, and tend in +the direction of a much-needed social reform. The striped +silk fabrics produced are entirely for home consumption.</p> +<p>Afterwards I went into the principal street, and, after a long +search through the shops, bought some condensed milk with the +“Eagle” brand and the label all right, but, on +opening it, found it to contain small pellets of a brownish, +dried curd, with an unpleasant taste! As I was sitting in +the shop, half stifled by the crowd, the people suddenly fell +back to a respectful distance, leaving me breathing space, and a +message came from the chief of police to say that he was very +sorry for the crowding, and had ordered two policemen to attend +upon me for the remainder of my visit. The black and yellow +uniforms were most truly welcome, and since then I have escaped +all annoyance. On my return I found the card of the chief +of police, who had left a message with the house-master +apologising for the crowd by saying that foreigners very rarely +visited Kubota, and he thought that the people had never seen a +foreign woman.</p> +<p>I went afterwards to the central police station to inquire +about an inland route to Aomori, and received much courtesy, but +no information. The police everywhere are very gentle to +the people,—a few quiet words or a wave of the hand are +sufficient, when they do not resist them. They belong to +the <a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +160</span><i>samurai</i> class, and, doubtless, their naturally +superior position weighs with the <i>heimin</i>. Their +faces and a certain <i>hauteur</i> of manner show the indelible +class distinction. The entire police force of Japan numbers +23,300 educated men in the prime of life, and if 30 per cent of +them do wear spectacles, it does not detract from their +usefulness. 5600 of them are stationed at Yedo, as from +thence they can be easily sent wherever they are wanted, 1004 at +Kiyôto, and 815 at Osaka, and the remaining 10,000 are +spread over the country. The police force costs something +over £400,000 annually, and certainly is very efficient in +preserving good order. The pay of ordinary constables +ranges from 6 to 10 <i>yen</i> a month. An enormous +quantity of superfluous writing is done by all officialdom in +Japan, and one usually sees policemen writing. What comes +of it I don’t know. They are mostly intelligent and +gentlemanly-looking young men, and foreigners in the interior are +really much indebted to them. If I am at any time in +difficulties I apply to them, and, though they are disposed to be +somewhat <i>de haut en bas</i>, they are sure to help one, except +about routes, of which they always profess ignorance.</p> +<p>On the whole, I like Kubota better than any other Japanese +town, perhaps because it is so completely Japanese and has no air +of having seen better days. I no longer care to meet +Europeans—indeed I should go far out of my way to avoid +them. I have become quite used to Japanese life, and think +that I learn more about it in travelling in this solitary way +than I should otherwise.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +161</span>LETTER XXIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">“A Plague of Immoderate +Rain”—A Confidential Servant—Ito’s +Diary—Ito’s Excellences—Ito’s +Faults—Prophecy of the Future of Japan—Curious +Queries—Superfine English—Economical +Travelling—The Japanese Pack-horse again.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kubota</span>, +<i>July</i> 24.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> here still, not altogether +because the town is fascinating, but because the rain is so +ceaseless as to be truly “a plague of immoderate rain and +waters.” Travellers keep coming in with stories of +the impassability of the roads and the carrying away of +bridges. Ito amuses me very much by his remarks. He +thinks that my visit to the school and hospital must have raised +Japan in my estimation, and he is talking rather big. He +asked me if I noticed that all the students kept their mouths +shut like educated men and residents of Tôkiyô, and +that all country people keep theirs open. I have said +little about him for some time, but I daily feel more dependent +on him, not only for all information, but actually for getting +on. At night he has my watch, passport, and half my money, +and I often wonder what would become of me if he absconded before +morning. He is not a good boy. He has no moral sense, +according to our notions; he dislikes foreigners; his manner is +often very disagreeable; and yet I doubt whether I could have +obtained a more valuable servant and interpreter. When we +left Tôkiyô he spoke fairly good English, but by +practice and industrious study he now speaks better than any +official interpreter that I have seen, and his vocabulary is +daily increasing. He never uses a word inaccurately when he +has once got hold of its meaning, and his memory never +fails. He keeps a diary both in English and Japanese, and +it shows much painstaking observation. He reads it to me +sometimes, <a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +162</span>and it is interesting to hear what a young man who has +travelled as much as he has regards as novel in this northern +region. He has made a hotel book and a transport book, in +which all the bills and receipts are written, and he daily +transliterates the names of all places into English letters, and +puts down the distances and the sums paid for transport and +hotels on each bill.</p> +<p>He inquires the number of houses in each place from the police +or Transport Agent, and the special trade of each town, and notes +them down for me. He takes great pains to be accurate, and +occasionally remarks about some piece of information that he is +not quite certain about, “If it’s not true, +it’s not worth having.” He is never late, never +dawdles, never goes out in the evening except on errands for me, +never touches <i>saké</i>, is never disobedient, never +requires to be told the same thing twice, is always within +hearing, has a good deal of tact as to what he repeats, and all +with an undisguised view to his own interest. He sends most +of his wages to his mother, who is a +widow—“It’s the custom of the +country”—and seems to spend the remainder on +sweetmeats, tobacco, and the luxury of frequent shampooing.</p> +<p>That he would tell a lie if it served his purpose, and would +“squeeze” up to the limits of extortion, if he could +do it unobserved, I have not the slightest doubt. He seems +to have but little heart, or any idea of any but vicious +pleasures. He has no religion of any kind; he has been too +much with foreigners for that. His frankness is something +startling. He has no idea of reticence on any subject; but +probably I learn more about things as they really are from this +very defect. In virtue in man or woman, except in that of +his former master, he has little, if any belief. He thinks +that Japan is right in availing herself of the discoveries made +by foreigners, that they have as much to learn from her, and that +she will outstrip them in the race, because she takes all that is +worth having, and rejects the incubus of Christianity. +Patriotism is, I think, his strongest feeling, and I never met +with such a boastful display of it, except in a Scotchman or an +American. He despises the uneducated, as he can read and +write both the syllabaries. For foreign rank or position he +has not an atom of reverence or value, but a great deal of both +for Japanese <a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +163</span>officialdom. He despises the intellects of women, +but flirts in a town-bred fashion with the simple tea-house +girls.</p> +<p>He is anxious to speak the very best English, and to say that +a word is slangy or common interdicts its use. Sometimes, +when the weather is fine and things go smoothly, he is in an +excellent and communicative humour, and talks a good deal as we +travel. A few days ago I remarked, “What a beautiful +day this is!” and soon after, note-book in hand, he said, +“You say ‘a beautiful day.’ Is that +better English than ‘a devilish fine day,’ which most +foreigners say?” I replied that it was +“common,” and “beautiful” has been +brought out frequently since. Again, “When you ask a +question you never say, ‘What the d—l is it?’ +as other foreigners do. Is it proper for men to say it and +not for women?” I told him it was proper for neither, +it was a very “common” word, and I saw that he erased +it from his note-book. At first he always used +<i>fellows</i> for men, as, “Will you have one or two +<i>fellows</i> for your <i>kuruma</i>?” +“<i>fellows</i> and women.” At last he called +the Chief Physician of the hospital here a <i>fellow</i>, on +which I told him that it was slightly slangy, and at least +“colloquial,” and for two days he has scrupulously +spoken of man and men. To-day he brought a boy with very +sore eyes to see me, on which I exclaimed, “Poor little +fellow!” and this evening he said, “You called that +boy a fellow, I thought it was a bad word!” The +habits of many of the Yokohama foreigners have helped to +obliterate any distinctions between right and wrong, if he ever +made any. If he wishes to tell me that he has seen a very +tipsy man, he always says he has seen “a fellow as drunk as +an Englishman.” At Nikkô I asked him how many +legal wives a man could have in Japan, and he replied, +“Only one lawful one, but as many others +(<i>mekaké</i>) as he can support, just as Englishmen +have.” He never forgets a correction. Till I +told him it was slangy he always spoke of inebriated people as +“tight,” and when I gave him the words +“tipsy,” “drunk,” +“intoxicated,” he asked me which one would use in +writing good English, and since then he has always spoken of +people as “intoxicated.”</p> +<p>He naturally likes large towns, and tries to deter me from +taking the “unbeaten tracks,” which I +prefer—but when he finds me immovable, always concludes his +arguments with the <a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +164</span>same formula, “Well, of course you can do as you +like; it’s all the same to me.” I do not think +he cheats me to any extent. Board, lodging, and travelling +expenses for us both are about 6s. 6d. a day, and about 2s. 6d. +when we are stationary, and this includes all gratuities and +extras. True, the board and lodging consist of tea, rice, +and eggs, a copper basin of water, an <i>andon</i> and an empty +room, for, though there are plenty of chickens in all the +villages, the people won’t be bribed to sell them for +killing, though they would gladly part with them if they were to +be kept to lay eggs. Ito amuses me nearly every night with +stories of his unsuccessful attempts to provide me with animal +food.</p> +<p>The travelling is the nearest approach to “a ride on a +rail” that I have ever made. I have now ridden, or +rather sat, upon seventy-six horses, all horrible. They all +stumble. The loins of some are higher than their shoulders, +so that one slips forwards, and the back-bones of all are +ridgy. Their hind feet grow into points which turn up, and +their hind legs all turn outwards, like those of a cat, from +carrying heavy burdens at an early age. The same thing +gives them a roll in their gait, which is increased by their +awkward shoes. In summer they feed chiefly on leaves, +supplemented with mashes of bruised beans, and instead of straw +they sleep on beds of leaves. In their stalls their heads +are tied “where their tails should be,” and their +fodder is placed not in a manger, but in a swinging bucket. +Those used in this part of Japan are worth from 15 to 30 +<i>yen</i>. I have not seen any overloading or +ill-treatment; they are neither kicked, nor beaten, nor +threatened in rough tones, and when they die they are decently +buried, and have stones placed over their graves. It might +be well if the end of a worn-out horse were somewhat accelerated, +but this is mainly a Buddhist region, and the aversion to taking +animal life is very strong.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +165</span>LETTER XXIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Symbolism of Seaweed—Afternoon +Visitors—An Infant Prodigy—A Feat in +Caligraphy—Child Worship—A Borrowed Dress—A +<i>Trousseau</i>—House Furniture—The Marriage +Ceremony.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kubota</span>, +<i>July</i> 25.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> weather at last gives a hope of +improvement, and I think I shall leave to-morrow. I had +written this sentence when Ito came in to say that the man in the +next house would like to see my stretcher and mosquito net, and +had sent me a bag of cakes with the usual bit of seaweed +attached, to show that it was a present. The Japanese +believe themselves to be descended from a race of fishermen; they +are proud of it, and Yebis, the god of fishermen, is one of the +most popular of the household divinities. The piece of +seaweed sent with a present to any ordinary person, and the piece +of dried fish-skin which accompanies a present to the Mikado, +record the origin of the race, and at the same time typify the +dignity of simple industry.</p> +<p>Of course I consented to receive the visitor, and with the +mercury at 84°, five men, two boys, and five women entered my +small, low room, and after bowing to the earth three times, sat +down on the floor. They had evidently come to spend the +afternoon. Trays of tea and sweetmeats were handed round, +and a <i>labako-bon</i> was brought in, and they all smoked, as I +had told Ito that all usual courtesies were to be punctiliously +performed. They expressed their gratification at seeing so +“honourable” a traveller. I expressed mine at +seeing so much of their “honourable” country. +Then we all bowed profoundly. Then I laid Brunton’s +map on the floor and showed them my route, showed them the +Asiatic Society’s Transactions, and how we read from left +to right, instead of <a name="page166"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 166</span>from top to bottom, showed them my +knitting, which amazed them, and my Berlin work, and then had +nothing left. Then they began to entertain me, and I found +that the real object of their visit was to exhibit an +“infant prodigy,” a boy of four, with a head shaven +all but a tuft on the top, a face of preternatural thoughtfulness +and gravity, and the self-possessed and dignified demeanour of an +elderly man. He was dressed in scarlet silk <i>hakama</i>, +and a dark, striped, blue silk <i>kimono</i>, and fanned himself +gracefully, looking at everything as intelligently and +courteously as the others. To talk child’s talk to +him, or show him toys, or try to amuse him, would have been an +insult. The monster has taught himself to read and write, +and has composed poetry. His father says that he never +plays, and understands everything just like a grown person. +The intention was that I should ask him to write, and I did +so.</p> +<p>It was a solemn performance. A red blanket was laid in +the middle of the floor, with a lacquer writing-box upon +it. The creature rubbed the ink with water on the inkstone, +unrolled four rolls of paper, five feet long, and inscribed them +with Chinese characters, nine inches long, of the most +complicated kind, with firm and graceful curves of his brush, and +with the ease and certainty of Giotto in turning his O. He +sealed them with his seal in vermilion, bowed three times, and +the performance was ended. People get him to write +<i>kakemonos</i> and signboards for them, and he had earned 10 +<i>yen</i>, or about £2, that day. His father is +going to travel to Kiyôto with him, to see if any one under +fourteen can write as well. I never saw such an exaggerated +instance of child worship. Father, mother, friends, and +servants, treated him as if he were a prince.</p> +<p>The house-master, who is a most polite man, procured me an +invitation to the marriage of his niece, and I have just returned +from it. He has three “wives” himself. +One keeps a <i>yadoya</i> in Kiyôto, another in Morioka, +and the third and youngest is with him here. From her +limitless stores of apparel she chose what she considered a +suitable dress for me—an under-dress of sage green silk +<i>crêpe</i>, a <i>kimono</i> of soft, green, striped silk +of a darker shade, with a fold of white <i>crêpe</i>, +spangled with gold at the neck, and a girdle of sage green corded +silk, with the family badge here and there <a +name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>upon it in +gold. I went with the house-master, Ito, to his disgust, +not being invited, and his absence was like the loss of one of my +senses, as I could not get any explanations till afterwards.</p> +<p>The ceremony did not correspond with the rules laid down for +marriages in the books of etiquette that I have seen, but this is +accounted for by the fact that they were for persons of the +<i>samurai</i> class, while this bride and bridegroom, though the +children of well-to-do merchants, belong to the +<i>heimin</i>.</p> +<p>In this case the <i>trousseau</i> and furniture were conveyed +to the bridegroom’s house in the early morning, and I was +allowed to go to see them. There were several girdles of +silk embroidered with gold, several pieces of brocaded silk for +<i>kimonos</i>, several pieces of silk <i>crêpe</i>, a +large number of made-up garments, a piece of white silk, six +barrels of wine or <i>saké</i>, and seven sorts of +condiments. Jewellery is not worn by women in Japan.</p> +<p>The furniture consisted of two wooden pillows, finely +lacquered, one of them containing a drawer for ornamental +hairpins, some cotton <i>futons</i>, two very handsome silk ones, +a few silk cushions, a lacquer workbox, a spinning-wheel, a +lacquer rice bucket and ladle, two ornamental iron kettles, +various kitchen utensils, three bronze <i>hibachi</i>, two +<i>tabako-bons</i>, some lacquer trays, and <i>zens</i>, china +kettles, teapots, and cups, some lacquer rice bowls, two copper +basins, a few towels, some bamboo switches, and an inlaid lacquer +<i>étagère</i>. As the things are all very +handsome the parents must be well off. The +<i>saké</i> is sent in accordance with rigid +etiquette.</p> +<p>The bridegroom is twenty-two, the bride seventeen, and very +comely, so far as I could see through the paint with which she +was profusely disfigured. Towards evening she was carried +in a <i>norimon</i>, accompanied by her parents and friends, to +the bridegroom’s house, each member of the procession +carrying a Chinese lantern. When the house-master and I +arrived the wedding party was assembled in a large room, the +parents and friends of the bridegroom being seated on one side, +and those of the bride on the other. Two young girls, very +beautifully dressed, brought in the bride, a very +pleasing-looking creature dressed entirely in white silk, with a +veil of white silk covering her from head to foot. The +bridegroom, who was already seated in the middle of the room near +its upper part, did not <a name="page168"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 168</span>rise to receive her, and kept his +eyes fixed on the ground, and she sat opposite to him, but never +looked up. A low table was placed in front, on which there +was a two-spouted kettle full of <i>saké</i>, some +<i>saké</i> bottles, and some cups, and on another there +were some small figures representing a fir-tree, a plum-tree in +blossom, and a stork standing on a tortoise, the last +representing length of days, and the former the beauty of women +and the strength of men. Shortly a <i>zen</i>, loaded with +eatables, was placed before each person, and the feast began, +accompanied by the noises which signify gastronomic +gratification.</p> +<p>After this, which was only a preliminary, the two girls who +brought in the bride handed round a tray with three cups +containing <i>saké</i>, which each person was expected to +drain till he came to the god of luck at the bottom.</p> +<p>The bride and bridegroom then retired, but shortly reappeared +in other dresses of ceremony, but the bride still wore her white +silk veil, which one day will be her shroud. An old gold +lacquer tray was produced, with three <i>saké</i> cups, +which were filled by the two bridesmaids, and placed before the +parents-in-law and the bride. The father-in-law drank three +cups, and handed the cup to the bride, who, after drinking two +cups, received from her father-in-law a present in a box, drank +the third cup, and then returned the cup to the father-in-law, +who again drank three cups. Rice and fish were next brought +in, after which the bridegroom’s mother took the second +cup, and filled and emptied it three times, after which she +passed it to the bride, who drank two cups, received a present +from her mother-in-law in a lacquer box, drank a third cup, and +gave the cup to the elder lady, who again drank three cups. +Soup was then served, and then the bride drank once from the +third cup, and handed it to her husband’s father, who drank +three more cups, the bride took it again, and drank two, and +lastly the mother-in-law drank three more cups. Now, if you +possess the clear-sightedness which I laboured to preserve, you +will perceive that each of the three had inbibed nine cups of +some generous liquor! <a name="citation168"></a><a +href="#footnote168" class="citation">[168]</a></p> +<p>After this the two bridesmaids raised the two-spouted <a +name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 169</span>kettle and +presented it to the lips of the married pair, who drank from it +alternately, till they had exhausted its contents. This +concluding ceremony is said to be emblematic of the tasting +together of the joys and sorrows of life. And so they +became man and wife till death or divorce parted them.</p> +<p>This drinking of <i>saké</i> or wine, according to +prescribed usage, appeared to constitute the “marriage +service,” to which none but relations were bidden. +Immediately afterwards the wedding guests arrived, and the +evening was spent in feasting and <i>saké</i> drinking; +but the fare is simple, and intoxication is happily out of place +at a marriage feast. Every detail is a matter of etiquette, +and has been handed down for centuries. Except for the +interest of the ceremony, in that light it was a very dull and +tedious affair, conducted in melancholy silence, and the young +bride, with her whitened face and painted lips, looked and moved +like an automaton.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +170</span>LETTER XXV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Holiday Scene—A +<i>Matsuri</i>—Attractions of the +Revel—<i>Matsuri</i> Cars—Gods and Demons—A +Possible Harbour—A Village Forge—Prosperity of +<i>Saké</i> Brewers—A “Great Sight.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Tsugurata</span>, <i>July</i> 27.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Three</span> miles of good road thronged +with half the people of Kubota on foot and in <i>kurumas</i>, red +vans drawn by horses, pairs of policemen in <i>kurumas</i>, +hundreds of children being carried, hundreds more on foot, little +girls, formal and precocious looking, with hair dressed with +scarlet <i>crépe</i> and flowers, hobbling toilsomely +along on high clogs, groups of men and women, never intermixing, +stalls driving a “roaring trade” in cakes and +sweetmeats, women making <i>mochi</i> as fast as the buyers ate +it, broad rice-fields rolling like a green sea on the right, an +ocean of liquid turquoise on the left, the grey roofs of Kubota +looking out from their green surroundings, Taiheisan in deepest +indigo blocking the view to the south, a glorious day, and a +summer sun streaming over all, made up the cheeriest and most +festal scene that I have seen in Japan; men, women, and children, +vans and <i>kurumas</i>, policemen and horsemen, all on their way +to a mean-looking town, Minato, the junk port of Kubota, which +was keeping <i>matsuri</i>, or festival, in honour of the +birthday of the god Shimmai. Towering above the low grey +houses there were objects which at first looked like five +enormous black fingers, then like trees with their branches +wrapped in black, and then—comparisons ceased; they were a +mystery.</p> +<p>Dismissing the <i>kurumas</i>, which could go no farther, we +dived into the crowd, which was wedged along a mean street, +nearly a mile long—a miserable street of poor tea-houses +and poor shop-fronts; but, in fact, you could hardly see the +street <a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +171</span>for the people. Paper lanterns were hung close +together along its whole length. There were rude +scaffoldings supporting matted and covered platforms, on which +people were drinking tea and <i>saké</i> and enjoying the +crowd below; monkey theatres and dog theatres, two mangy sheep +and a lean pig attracting wondering crowds, for neither of these +animals is known in this region of Japan; a booth in which a +woman was having her head cut off every half-hour for 2 +<i>sen</i> a spectator; cars with roofs like temples, on which, +with forty men at the ropes, dancing children of the highest +class were being borne in procession; a theatre with an open +front, on the boards of which two men in antique dresses, with +sleeves touching the ground, were performing with tedious +slowness a classic dance of tedious posturings, which consisted +mainly in dexterous movements of the aforesaid sleeves, and +occasional emphatic stampings, and utterances of the word +<i>Nô</i> in a hoarse howl. It is needless to say +that a foreign lady was not the least of the attractions of the +fair. The <i>cultus</i> of children was in full force, all +sorts of masks, dolls, sugar figures, toys, and sweetmeats were +exposed for sale on mats on the ground, and found their way into +the hands and sleeves of the children, for no Japanese parent +would ever attend a <i>matsuri</i> without making an offering to +his child.</p> +<p>The police told me that there were 22,000 strangers in Minato, +yet for 32,000 holiday-makers a force of twenty-five policemen +was sufficient. I did not see one person under the +influence of <i>saké</i> up to 3 p.m., when I left, nor a +solitary instance of rude or improper behaviour, nor was I in any +way rudely crowded upon, for, even where the crowd was densest, +the people of their own accord formed a ring and left me +breathing space.</p> +<p>We went to the place where the throng was greatest, round the +two great <i>matsuri</i> cars, whose colossal erections we had +seen far off. These were structures of heavy beams, thirty +feet long, with eight huge, solid wheels. Upon them there +were several scaffoldings with projections, like flat surfaces of +cedar branches, and two special peaks of unequal height at the +top, the whole being nearly fifty feet from the ground. All +these projections were covered with black cotton cloth, from +which branches of pines protruded. In the middle three +small <a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +172</span>wheels, one above another, over which striped white +cotton was rolling perpetually, represented a waterfall; at the +bottom another arrangement of white cotton represented a river, +and an arrangement of blue cotton, fitfully agitated by a pair of +bellows below, represented the sea. The whole is intended +to represent a mountain on which the Shintô gods slew some +devils, but anything more rude and barbarous could scarcely be +seen. On the fronts of each car, under a canopy, were +thirty performers on thirty diabolical instruments, which rent +the air with a truly infernal discord, and suggested devils +rather than their conquerors. High up on the flat +projections there were groups of monstrous figures. On one +a giant in brass armour, much like the <i>Niô</i> of temple +gates, was killing a revolting-looking demon. On another a +<i>daimiyô’s</i> daughter, in robes of cloth of gold +with satin sleeves richly flowered, was playing on the +<i>samisen</i>. On another a hunter, thrice the size of +life, was killing a wild horse equally magnified, whose hide was +represented by the hairy wrappings of the leaves of the +<i>Chamærops excelsa</i>. On others highly-coloured +gods, and devils equally hideous, were grouped +miscellaneously. These two cars were being drawn up and +down the street at the rate of a mile in three hours by 200 men +each, numbers of men with levers assisting the heavy wheels out +of the mud-holes. This <i>matsuri</i>, which, like an +English fair, feast, or revel, has lost its original religious +significance, goes on for three days and nights, and this was its +third and greatest day.</p> +<p>We left on mild-tempered horses, quite unlike the fierce +fellows of Yamagata <i>ken</i>. Between Minato and Kado +there is a very curious lagoon on the left, about 17 miles long +by 16 broad, connected with the sea by a narrow channel, guarded +by two high hills called Shinzan and Honzan. Two Dutch +engineers are now engaged in reporting on its capacities, and if +its outlet could be deepened without enormous cost it would give +north-western Japan the harbour it so greatly needs. +Extensive rice-fields and many villages lie along the road, which +is an avenue of deep sand and ancient pines much contorted and +gnarled. Down the pine avenue hundreds of people on +horseback and on foot were trooping into Minato from all the +farming villages, glad in the glorious sunshine which succeeded +four days of rain. There were hundreds of <a +name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>horses, +wonderful-looking animals in bravery of scarlet cloth and lacquer +and fringed nets of leather, and many straw wisps and ropes, with +Gothic roofs for saddles, and dependent panniers on each side, +carrying two grave and stately-looking children in each, and +sometimes a father or a fifth child on the top of the +pack-saddle.</p> +<p>I was so far from well that I was obliged to sleep at the +wretched village of Abukawa, in a loft alive with fleas, where +the rice was too dirty to be eaten, and where the +house-master’s wife, who sat for an hour on my floor, was +sorely afflicted with skin disease. The clay houses have +disappeared and the villages are now built of wood, but Abukawa +is an antiquated, ramshackle place, propped up with posts and +slanting beams projecting into the roadway for the entanglement +of unwary passengers.</p> +<p>The village smith was opposite, but he was not a man of +ponderous strength, nor were there those wondrous flights and +scintillations of sparks which were the joy of our childhood in +the Tattenhall forge. A fire of powdered charcoal on the +floor, always being trimmed and replenished by a lean and grimy +satellite, a man still leaner and grimier, clothed in goggles and +a girdle, always sitting in front of it, heating and hammering +iron bars with his hands, with a clink which went on late into +the night, and blowing his bellows with his toes; bars and pieces +of rusty iron pinned on the smoky walls, and a group of idle men +watching his skilful manipulation, were the sights of the Abukawa +smithy, and kept me thralled in the balcony, though the whole +clothesless population stood for the whole evening in front of +the house with a silent, open-mouthed stare.</p> +<p>Early in the morning the same melancholy crowd appeared in the +dismal drizzle, which turned into a tremendous torrent, which has +lasted for sixteen hours. Low hills, broad rice valleys in +which people are puddling the rice a second time to kill the +weeds, bad roads, pretty villages, much indigo, few passengers, +were the features of the day’s journey. At Morioka +and several other villages in this region I noticed that if you +see one large, high, well-built house, standing in enclosed +grounds, with a look of wealth about it, it is always that of the +<i>saké</i> brewer. A bush denotes the manufacture +as <a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 174</span>well +as the sale of <i>saké</i>, and these are of all sorts, +from the mangy bit of fir which has seen long service to the +vigorous truss of pine constantly renewed. It is curious +that this should formerly have been the sign of the sale of wine +in England.</p> +<p>The wind and rain were something fearful all that +afternoon. I could not ride, so I tramped on foot for some +miles under an avenue of pines, through water a foot deep, and, +with my paper waterproof soaked through, reached Toyôka +half drowned and very cold, to shiver over a <i>hibachi</i> in a +clean loft, hung with my dripping clothes, which had to be put on +wet the next day. By 5 a.m. all Toyôka +assembled, and while I took my breakfast I was not only the +“cynosure” of the eyes of all the people outside, but +of those of about forty more who were standing in the +<i>doma</i>, looking up the ladder. When asked to depart by +the house-master, they said, “It’s neither fair nor +neighbourly in you to keep this great sight to yourself, seeing +that our lives may pass without again looking on a foreign +woman;” so they were allowed to remain!</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +175</span>LETTER XXVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Fatigues of Travelling—Torrents and +Mud—Ito’s Surliness—The Blind +Shampooers—A Supposed Monkey Theatre—A Suspended +Ferry—A Difficult Transit—Perils on the +Yonetsurugawa—A Boatman Drowned—Nocturnal +Disturbances—A Noisy Yadoya—Storm-bound +Travellers—<i>Hai</i>! <i>Hai</i>!—More +Nocturnal Disturbances.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Odaté</span>, <i>July</i> 29.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> been suffering so much from +my spine that I have been unable to travel more than seven or +eight miles daily for several days, and even that with great +difficulty. I try my own saddle, then a pack-saddle, then +walk through the mud; but I only get on because getting on is a +necessity, and as soon as I reach the night’s halting-place +I am obliged to lie down at once. Only strong people should +travel in northern Japan. The inevitable fatigue is much +increased by the state of the weather, and doubtless my +impressions of the country are affected by it also, as a hamlet +in a quagmire in a gray mist or a soaking rain is a far less +delectable object than the same hamlet under bright +sunshine. There has not been such a season for thirty +years. The rains have been tremendous. I have lived +in soaked clothes, in spite of my rain-cloak, and have slept on a +soaked stretcher in spite of all waterproof wrappings for several +days, and still the weather shows no signs of improvement, and +the rivers are so high on the northern road that I am storm-bound +as well as pain-bound here. Ito shows his sympathy for me +by intense surliness, though he did say very sensibly, +“I’m very sorry for you, but it’s no use saying +so over and over again; as I can do nothing for you, you’d +better send for the blind man!”</p> +<p>In Japanese towns and villages you hear every evening a man +(or men) making a low peculiar whistle as he walks along, and in +large towns the noise is quite a nuisance. It is made <a +name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>by blind +men; but a blind beggar is never seen throughout Japan, and the +blind are an independent, respected, and well-to-do class, +carrying on the occupations of shampooing, money-lending, and +music.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p176b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak" +title= +"Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak" + src="images/p176s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>We have had a very severe journey from Toyôka. +That day the rain was ceaseless, and in the driving mists one +could see little but low hills looming on the horizon, pine +barrens, scrub, and flooded rice-fields; varied by villages +standing along roads which were quagmires a foot deep, and where +the clothing was specially ragged and dirty. Hinokiyama, a +village of <i>samurai</i>, on a beautiful slope, was an +exception, with its fine detached houses, pretty gardens, +deep-roofed gateways, grass and stone-faced terraces, and look of +refined, quiet comfort. Everywhere there was a quantity of +indigo, as is necessary, for nearly all the clothing of the lower +classes is blue. Near a large village we were riding on a +causeway through the rice-fields, Ito on the pack-horse in front, +when we met a number of children returning from school, who, on +getting near us, turned, ran away, and even jumped into the +ditches, screaming as they ran. The <i>mago</i> ran after +them, caught the hindmost boy, and dragged him back—the boy +scared and struggling, the man laughing. The boy said that +they thought that Ito was a monkey-player, <i>i.e.</i> the keeper +of a monkey theatre, I a big ape, and the poles of my bed the +scaffolding of the stage!</p> +<p>Splashing through mire and water we found that the people of +Tubiné wished to detain us, saying that all the ferries +were <a name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +177</span>stopped in consequence of the rise in the rivers; but I +had been so often misled by false reports that I took fresh +horses and went on by a track along a very pretty hillside, +overlooking the Yonetsurugawa, a large and swollen river, which +nearer the sea had spread itself over the whole country. +Torrents of rain were still falling, and all out-of-doors +industries were suspended. Straw rain-cloaks hanging to dry +dripped under all the eaves, our paper cloaks were sodden, our +dripping horses steamed, and thus we slid down a steep descent +into the hamlet of Kiriishi, thirty-one houses clustered under +persimmon trees under a wooded hillside, all standing in a +quagmire, and so abject and filthy that one could not ask for +five minutes’ shelter in any one of them. Sure +enough, on the bank of the river, which was fully 400 yards wide, +and swirling like a mill-stream with a suppressed roar, there was +an official order prohibiting the crossing of man or beast, and +before I had time to think the <i>mago</i> had deposited the +baggage on an islet in the mire and was over the crest of the +hill. I wished that the Government was a little less +paternal.</p> +<p>Just in the nick of time we discerned a punt drifting down the +river on the opposite side, where it brought up, and landed a +man, and Ito and two others yelled, howled, and waved so lustily +as to attract its notice, and to my joy an answering yell came +across the roar and rush of the river. The torrent was so +strong that the boatmen had to pole up on that side for half a +mile, and in about three-quarters of an hour they reached our +side. They were returning to Kotsunagi—the very place +I wished to reach—but, though only 2½ miles off, the +distance took nearly four hours of the hardest work I ever saw +done by men. Every moment I expected to see them rupture +blood-vessels or tendons. All their muscles quivered. +It is a mighty river, and was from eight to twelve feet deep, and +whirling down in muddy eddies; and often with their utmost +efforts in poling, when it seemed as if poles or backs must +break, the boat hung trembling and stationary for three or four +minutes at a time. After the slow and eventless tramp of +the last few days this was an exciting transit. Higher up +there was a flooded wood, and, getting into this, the men aided +themselves considerably by hauling by the trees; but when we got +out of <a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +178</span>this, another river joined the Yonetsurugawa, which +with added strength rushed and roared more wildly.</p> +<p>I had long been watching a large house-boat far above us on +the other side, which was being poled by desperate efforts by ten +men. At that point she must have been half a mile off, when +the stream overpowered the crew and in no time she swung round +and came drifting wildly down and across the river, broadside on +to us. We could not stir against the current, and had large +trees on our immediate left, and for a moment it was a question +whether she would not smash us to atoms. Ito was livid with +fear; his white, appalled face struck me as ludicrous, for I had +no other thought than the imminent peril of the large boat with +her freight of helpless families, when, just as she was within +two feet of us, she struck a stem and glanced off. Then her +crew grappled a headless trunk and got their hawser round it, and +eight of them, one behind the other, hung on to it, when it +suddenly snapped, seven fell backwards, and the forward one went +overboard to be no more seen. Some house that night was +desolate. Reeling downwards, the big mast and spar of the +ungainly craft caught in a tree, giving her such a check that +they were able to make her fast. It was a saddening +incident. I asked Ito what he felt when we seemed in peril, +and he replied, “I thought I’d been good to my +mother, and honest, and I hoped I should go to a good +place.”</p> +<p>The fashion of boats varies much on different rivers. On +this one there are two sizes. Ours was a small one, +flat-bottomed, 25 feet long by 2½ broad, drawing 6 inches, +very low in the water, and with sides slightly curved +inwards. The prow forms a gradual long curve from the body +of the boat, and is very high.</p> +<p>The mists rolled away as dusk came on, and revealed a lovely +country with much picturesqueness of form, and near Kotsunagi the +river disappears into a narrow gorge with steep, sentinel hills, +dark with pine and cryptomeria. To cross the river we had +to go fully a mile above the point aimed at, and then a few +minutes of express speed brought us to a landing in a deep, tough +quagmire in a dark wood, through which we groped our lamentable +way to the <i>yadoya</i>. A heavy mist came on, and the +rain returned in torrents; the <i>doma</i> was ankle <a +name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>deep in +black slush. The <i>daidokoro</i> was open to the roof, +roof and rafters were black with smoke, and a great fire of damp +wood was smoking lustily. Round some live embers in the +<i>irori</i> fifteen men, women, and children were lying, doing +nothing, by the dim light of an <i>andon</i>. It was +picturesque decidedly, and I was well disposed to be content when +the production of some handsome <i>fusuma</i> created +<i>daimiyô’s</i> rooms out of the farthest part of +the dim and wandering space, opening upon a damp garden, into +which the rain splashed all night.</p> +<p>The solitary spoil of the day’s journey was a glorious +lily, which I presented to the house-master, and in the morning +it was blooming on the <i>kami-dana</i> in a small vase of +priceless old Satsuma china. I was awoke out of a sound +sleep by Ito coming in with a rumour, brought by some travellers, +that the Prime Minister had been assassinated, and fifty +policemen killed! [This was probably a distorted version of +the partial mutiny of the Imperial Guard, which I learned on +landing in Yezo.] Very wild political rumours are in the +air in these outlandish regions, and it is not very wonderful +that the peasantry lack confidence in the existing order of +things after the changes of the last ten years, and the recent +assassination of the Home Minister. I did not believe the +rumour, for fanaticism, even in its wildest moods, usually owes +some allegiance to common sense; but it was disturbing, as I have +naturally come to feel a deep interest in Japanese affairs. +A few hours later Ito again presented himself with a bleeding cut +on his temple. In lighting his pipe—an odious +nocturnal practice of the Japanese—he had fallen over the +edge of the fire-pot. I always sleep in a Japanese +<i>kimona</i> to be ready for emergencies, and soon bound up his +head, and slept again, to be awoke early by another deluge.</p> +<p>We made an early start, but got over very little ground, owing +to bad roads and long delays. All day the rain came down in +even torrents, the tracks were nearly impassable, my horse fell +five times, I suffered severely from pain and exhaustion, and +almost fell into despair about ever reaching the sea. In +these wild regions there are no <i>kago</i> or <i>norimons</i> to +be had, and a pack-horse is the only conveyance, and yesterday, +having abandoned my own saddle, I had the bad <a +name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 180</span>luck to get +a pack-saddle with specially angular and uncompromising peaks, +with a soaked and extremely unwashed <i>futon</i> on the top, +spars, tackle, ridges, and furrows of the most exasperating +description, and two nooses of rope to hold on by as the animal +slid down hill on his haunches, or let me almost slide over his +tail as he scrambled and plunged up hill.</p> +<p>It was pretty country, even in the downpour, when white mists +parted and fir-crowned heights looked out for a moment, or we +slid down into a deep glen with mossy boulders, lichen-covered +stumps, ferny carpet, and damp, balsamy smell of pyramidal +cryptomeria, and a tawny torrent dashing through it in gusts of +passion. Then there were low hills, much scrub, immense +rice-fields, and violent inundations. But it is not +pleasant, even in the prettiest country, to cling on to a +pack-saddle with a saturated quilt below you and the water slowly +soaking down through your wet clothes into your boots, knowing +all the time that when you halt you must sleep on a wet bed, and +change into damp clothes, and put on the wet ones again the next +morning. The villages were poor, and most of the houses +were of boards rudely nailed together for ends, and for sides +straw rudely tied on; they had no windows, and smoke came out of +every crack. They were as unlike the houses which +travellers see in southern Japan as a “black hut” in +Uist is like a cottage in a trim village in Kent. These +peasant proprietors have much to learn of the art of +living. At Tsuguriko, the next stage, where the Transport +Office was so dirty that I was obliged to sit in the street in +the rain, they told us that we could only get on a <i>ri</i> +farther, because the bridges were all carried away and the fords +were impassable; but I engaged horses, and, by dint of British +doggedness and the willingness of the <i>mago</i>, I got the +horses singly and without their loads in small punts across the +swollen waters of the Hayakuchi, the Yuwasé, and the +Mochida, and finally forded three branches of my old friend the +Yonetsurugawa, with the foam of its hurrying waters whitening the +men’s shoulders and the horses’ packs, and with a +hundred Japanese looking on at the “folly” of the +foreigner.</p> +<p>I like to tell you of kind people everywhere, and the two +<i>mago</i> were specially so, for, when they found that I was +pushing on to Yezo for fear of being laid up in the interior +wilds, they <a name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +181</span>did all they could to help me; lifted me gently from +the horse, made steps of their backs for me to mount, and +gathered for me handfuls of red berries, which I ate out of +politeness, though they tasted of some nauseous drug. They +suggested that I should stay at the picturesquely-situated old +village of Kawaguchi, but everything about it was mildewed and +green with damp, and the stench from the green and black ditches +with which it abounded was so overpowering, even in passing +through, that I was obliged to ride on to Odaté, a +crowded, forlorn, half-tumbling-to-pieces town of 8000 people, +with bark roofs held down by stones.</p> +<p>The <i>yadoyas</i> are crowded with storm-staid travellers, +and I had a weary tramp from one to another, almost sinking from +pain, pressed upon by an immense crowd, and frequently bothered +by a policeman, who followed me from one place to the other, +making wholly unrighteous demands for my passport at that most +inopportune time. After a long search I could get nothing +better than this room, with <i>fusuma</i> of tissue paper, in the +centre of the din of the house, close to the <i>doma</i> and +<i>daidokoro</i>. Fifty travellers, nearly all men, are +here, mostly speaking at the top of their voices, and in a +provincial jargon which exasperates Ito. Cooking, bathing, +eating, and, worst of all, perpetual drawing water from a well +with a creaking hoisting apparatus, are going on from 4.30 in the +morning till 11.30 at night, and on both evenings noisy mirth, of +alcoholic inspiration, and dissonant performances by +<i>geishas</i> have added to the din.</p> +<p>In all places lately <i>Hai</i>, “yes,” has been +pronounced <i>Hé</i>, <i>Chi</i>, <i>Na</i>, +<i>Né</i>, to Ito’s great contempt. It sounds +like an expletive or interjection rather than a response, and +seems used often as a sign of respect or attention only. +Often it is loud and shrill, then guttural, at times little more +than a sigh. In these <i>yadoyas</i> every sound is +audible, and I hear low rumbling of mingled voices, and above all +the sharp <i>Hai</i>, <i>Hai</i> of the tea-house girls in full +chorus from every quarter of the house. The habit of saying +it is so strong that a man roused out of sleep jumps up with +<i>Hai</i>, <i>Hai</i>, and often, when I speak to Ito in +English, a stupid Hebe sitting by answers <i>Hai</i>.</p> +<p>I don’t want to convey a false impression of the noise +here. It would be at least three times as great were I in +equally <a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +182</span>close proximity to a large hotel kitchen in England, +with fifty Britons only separated from me by paper +partitions. I had not been long in bed on Saturday night +when I was awoke by Ito bringing in an old hen which he said he +could stew till it was tender, and I fell asleep again with its +dying squeak in my ears, to be awoke a second time by two +policemen wanting for some occult reason to see my passport, and +a third time by two men with lanterns scrambling and fumbling +about the room for the strings of a mosquito net, which they +wanted for another traveller. These are among the ludicrous +incidents of Japanese travelling. About five Ito woke me by +saying he was quite sure that the <i>moxa</i> would be the thing +to cure my spine, and, as we were going to stay all day, he would +go and fetch an operator; but I rejected this as emphatically as +the services of the blind man! Yesterday a man came and +pasted slips of paper over all the “peep holes” in +the <i>shôji</i>, and I have been very little annoyed, even +though the <i>yadoya</i> is so crowded.</p> +<p>The rain continues to come down in torrents, and rumours are +hourly arriving of disasters to roads and bridges on the northern +route.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +183</span>LETTER XXVII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Good-tempered Intoxication—The Effect of +Sunshine—A tedious Altercation—Evening +Occupations—Noisy Talk—Social Gathering—Unfair +Comparisons.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Shirasawa</span>, <i>July</i> 29.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Early</span> this morning the rain-clouds +rolled themselves up and disappeared, and the bright blue sky +looked as if it had been well washed. I had to wait till +noon before the rivers became fordable, and my day’s +journey is only seven miles, as it is not possible to go farther +till more of the water runs off. We had very limp, +melancholy horses, and my <i>mago</i> was half-tipsy, and sang, +talked, and jumped the whole way. <i>Saké</i> is +frequently taken warm, and in that state produces a very noisy +but good-tempered intoxication. I have seen a good many +intoxicated persons, but never one in the least degree +quarrelsome; and the effect very soon passes off, leaving, +however, an unpleasant nausea for two or three days as a warning +against excess. The abominable concoctions known under the +names of beer, wine, and brandy, produce a bad-tempered and +prolonged intoxication, and <i>delirium tremens</i>, rarely known +as a result of <i>saké</i> drinking, is being introduced +under their baleful influence.</p> +<p>The sun shone gloriously and brightened the hill-girdled +valley in which Odaté stands into positive beauty, with +the narrow river flinging its bright waters over green and red +shingle, lighting it up in glints among the conical hills, some +richly wooded with <i>coniferæ</i>, and others merely +covered with scrub, which were tumbled about in picturesque +confusion. When Japan gets the sunshine, its forest-covered +hills and garden-like valleys are turned into paradise. In +a journey of 600 miles there has hardly been a patch of country +which would not have been beautiful in sunlight.</p> +<p><a name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>We +crossed five severe fords with the water half-way up the +horses’ bodies, in one of which the strong current carried +my <i>mago</i> off his feet, and the horse towed him ashore, +singing and capering, his drunken glee nothing abated by his cold +bath. Everything is in a state of wreck. Several +river channels have been formed in places where there was only +one; there is not a trace of the road for a considerable +distance, not a bridge exists for ten miles, and a great tract of +country is covered with boulders, uprooted trees, and logs +floated from the mountain sides. Already, however, these +industrious peasants are driving piles, carrying soil for +embankments in creels on horses’ backs, and making ropes of +stones to prevent a recurrence of the calamity. About here +the female peasants wear for field-work a dress which pleases me +much by its suitability—light blue trousers, with a loose +sack over them, confined at the waist by a girdle.</p> +<p>On arriving here in much pain, and knowing that the road was +not open any farther, I was annoyed by a long and angry +conversation between the house-master and Ito, during which the +horses were not unloaded, and the upshot of it was that the man +declined to give me shelter, saying that the police had been +round the week before giving notice that no foreigner was to be +received without first communicating with the nearest police +station, which, in this instance, is three hours off. I +said that the authorities of Akita <i>ken</i> could not by any +local regulations override the Imperial edict under which +passports are issued; but he said he should be liable to a fine +and the withdrawal of his license if he violated the rule. +No foreigner, he said, had ever lodged in Shirasawa, and I have +no doubt that he added that he hoped no foreigner would ever seek +lodgings again. My passport was copied and sent off by +special runner, as I should have deeply regretted bringing +trouble on the poor man by insisting on my rights, and in much +trepidation he gave me a room open on one side to the village, +and on another to a pond, over which, as if to court mosquitoes, +it is partially built. I cannot think how the Japanese can +regard a hole full of dirty water as an ornamental appendage to a +house.</p> +<p>My hotel expenses (including Ito’s) are less than 3s. +a-day, and in nearly every place there has been a cordial desire +that <a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span>I +should be comfortable, and, considering that I have often put up +in small, rough hamlets off the great routes even of Japanese +travel, the accommodation, <i>minus</i> the fleas and the odours, +has been surprisingly excellent, not to be equalled, I should +think, in equally remote regions in any country in the world.</p> +<p>This evening, here, as in thousands of other villages, the men +came home from their work, ate their food, took their smoke, +enjoyed their children, carried them about, watched their games, +twisted straw ropes, made straw sandals, split bamboo, wove straw +rain-coats, and spent the time universally in those little +economical ingenuities and skilful adaptations which our people +(the worse for them) practise perhaps less than any other. +There was no assembling at the <i>saké</i> shop. +Poor though the homes are, the men enjoy them; the children are +an attraction at any rate, and the brawling and disobedience +which often turn our working-class homes into bear-gardens are +unknown here, where docility and obedience are inculcated from +the cradle as a matter of course. The signs of religion +become fewer as I travel north, and it appears that the little +faith which exists consists mainly in a belief in certain charms +and superstitions, which the priests industriously foster.</p> +<p>A low voice is not regarded as “a most excellent +thing,” in man at least, among the lower classes in +Japan. The people speak at the top of their voices, and, +though most words and syllables end in vowels, the general effect +of a conversation is like the discordant gabble of a +farm-yard. The next room to mine is full of storm-bound +travellers, and they and the house-master kept up what I thought +was a most important argument for four hours at the top of their +voices. I supposed it must be on the new and important +ordinance granting local elective assemblies, of which I heard at +Odaté, but on inquiry found that it was possible to spend +four mortal hours in discussing whether the day’s journey +from Odaté to Noshiro could be made best by road or +river.</p> +<p>Japanese women have their own gatherings, where gossip and +chit-chat, marked by a truly Oriental indecorum of speech, are +the staple of talk. I think that in many things, specially +in some which lie on the surface, the Japanese are greatly our +superiors, but that in many others they are immeasurably behind +us. In living altogether among this courteous, industrious, +<a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>and +civilised people, one comes to forget that one is doing them a +gross injustice in comparing their manners and ways with those of +a people moulded by many centuries of Christianity. Would +to God that we were so Christianised that the comparison might +always be favourable to us, which it is not!</p> +<p><i>July</i> 30.—In the room on the other side of mine +were two men with severe eye-disease, with shaven heads and long +and curious rosaries, who beat small drums as they walked, and +were on pilgrimage to the shrine of Fudo at Megura, near Yedo, a +seated, flame-surrounded idol, with a naked sword in one hand and +a coil of rope in the other, who has the reputation of giving +sight to the blind. At five this morning they began their +devotions, which consisted in repeating with great rapidity, and +in a high monotonous key for two hours, the invocation of the +Nichiren sect of Buddhists, <i>Namu miyô hô ren ge +Kiyô</i>, which certainly no Japanese understands, and on +the meaning of which even the best scholars are divided; one +having given me, “Glory to the salvation-bringing +Scriptures;” another, “Hail, precious law and gospel +of the lotus flower;” and a third, “Heaven and +earth! The teachings of the wonderful lotus flower +sect.” <i>Namu amidu Butsu</i> occurred at intervals, +and two drums were beaten the whole time!</p> +<p>The rain, which began again at eleven last night, fell from +five till eight this morning, not in drops, but in streams, and +in the middle of it a heavy pall of blackness (said to be a total +eclipse) enfolded all things in a lurid gloom. Any +detention is exasperating within one day of my journey’s +end, and I hear without equanimity that there are great +difficulties ahead, and that our getting through in three or even +four days is doubtful. I hope you will not be tired of the +monotony of my letters. Such as they are, they represent +the scenes which a traveller would see throughout much of +northern Japan, and whatever interest they have consists in the +fact that they are a faithful representation, made upon the spot, +of what a foreigner sees and hears in travelling through a large +but unfrequented region.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +187</span>LETTER XXVIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Torrents of Rain—An unpleasant +Detention—Devastations produced by Floods—The Yadate +Pass—The Force of Water—Difficulties thicken—A +Primitive Yadoya—The Water rises.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Ikarigaseki</span>, <span class="smcap">Aomori +Ken</span>, <i>August</i> 2.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> prophecies concerning +difficulties are fulfilled. For six days and five nights +the rain has never ceased, except for a few hours at a time, and +for the last thirteen hours, as during the eclipse at Shirasawa, +it has been falling in such sheets as I have only seen for a few +minutes at a time on the equator. I have been here +storm-staid for two days, with damp bed, damp clothes, damp +everything, and boots, bag, books, are all green with +mildew. And still the rain falls, and roads, bridges, +rice-fields, trees, and hillsides are being swept in a common +ruin towards the Tsugaru Strait, so tantalisingly near; and the +simple people are calling on the forgotten gods of the rivers and +the hills, on the sun and moon, and all the host of heaven, to +save them from this “plague of immoderate rain and +waters.” For myself, to be able to lie down all day +is something, and as “the mind, when in a healthy state, +reposes as quietly before an insurmountable difficulty as before +an ascertained truth,” so, as I cannot get on, I have +ceased to chafe, and am rather inclined to magnify the advantages +of the detention, a necessary process, as you would think if you +saw my surroundings!</p> +<p>The day before yesterday, in spite of severe pain, was one of +the most interesting of my journey. As I learned something +of the force of fire in Hawaii, I am learning not a little of the +force of water in Japan. We left Shirasawa at noon, as it +looked likely to clear, taking two horses and three men. It +is beautiful scenery—a wild valley, upon which a number of +lateral ridges descend, rendered strikingly picturesque by <a +name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>the dark +pyramidal cryptomeria, which are truly the glory of Japan. +Five of the fords were deep and rapid, and the entrance on them +difficult, as the sloping descents were all carried away, leaving +steep banks, which had to be levelled by the mattocks of the +<i>mago</i>. Then the fords themselves were gone; there +were shallows where there had been depths, and depths where there +had been shallows; new channels were carved, and great beds of +shingle had been thrown up. Much wreckage lay about. +The road and its small bridges were all gone, trees torn up by +the roots or snapped short off by being struck by heavy logs were +heaped together like barricades, leaves and even bark being in +many cases stripped completely off; great logs floated down the +river in such numbers and with such force that we had to wait +half an hour in one place to secure a safe crossing; hollows were +filled with liquid mud, boulders of great size were piled into +embankments, causing perilous alterations in the course of the +river; a fertile valley had been utterly destroyed, and the men +said they could hardly find their way.</p> +<p>At the end of five miles it became impassable for horses, and, +with two of the <i>mago</i> carrying the baggage, we set off, +wading through water and climbing along the side of a hill, up to +our knees in soft wet soil. The hillside and the road were +both gone, and there were heavy landslips along the whole +valley. Happily there was not much of this exhausting work, +for, just as higher and darker ranges, densely wooded with +cryptomeria, began to close us in, we emerged upon a fine new +road, broad enough for a carriage, which, after crossing two +ravines on fine bridges, plunges into the depths of a magnificent +forest, and then by a long series of fine zigzags of easy +gradients ascends the pass of Yadate, on the top of which, in a +deep sandstone cutting, is a handsome obelisk marking the +boundary between Akita and Aomori <i>ken</i>. This is a +marvellous road for Japan, it is so well graded and built up, and +logs for travellers’ rests are placed at convenient +distances. Some very heavy work in grading and blasting has +been done upon it, but there are only four miles of it, with +wretched bridle tracks at each end. I left the others +behind, and strolled on alone over the top of the pass and down +the other side, where the road is blasted out of rock of a vivid +<a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 189</span>pink and +green colour, looking brilliant under the trickle of water. +I admire this pass more than anything I have seen in Japan; I +even long to see it again, but under a bright blue sky. It +reminds me much of the finest part of the Brunig Pass, and +something of some of the passes in the Rocky Mountains, but the +trees are far finer than in either. It was lonely, stately, +dark, solemn; its huge cryptomeria, straight as masts, sent their +tall spires far aloft in search of light; the ferns, which love +damp and shady places, were the only undergrowth; the trees flung +their balsamy, aromatic scent liberally upon the air, and, in the +unlighted depths of many a ravine and hollow, clear bright +torrents leapt and tumbled, drowning with their thundering bass +the musical treble of the lighter streams. Not a traveller +disturbed the solitude with his sandalled footfall; there was +neither song of bird nor hum of insect.</p> +<p>In the midst of this sublime scenery, and at the very top of +the pass, the rain, which had been light but steady during the +whole day, began to come down in streams and then in +sheets. I have been so rained upon for weeks that at first +I took little notice of it, but very soon changes occurred before +my eyes which concentrated my attention upon it. The rush +of waters was heard everywhere, trees of great size slid down, +breaking others in their fall; rocks were rent and carried away +trees in their descent, the waters rose before our eyes; with a +boom and roar as of an earthquake a hillside burst, and half the +hill, with a noble forest of cryptomeria, was projected outwards, +and the trees, with the land on which they grew, went down heads +foremost, diverting a river from its course, and where the +forest-covered hillside had been there was a great scar, out of +which a torrent burst at high pressure, which in half an hour +carved for itself a deep ravine, and carried into the valley +below an avalanche of stones and sand. Another hillside +descended less abruptly, and its noble groves found themselves at +the bottom in a perpendicular position, and will doubtless +survive their transplantation. Actually, before my eyes, +this fine new road was torn away by hastily improvised torrents, +or blocked by landslips in several places, and a little lower, in +one moment, a hundred yards of it disappeared, and with them a +fine bridge, which was deposited aslant across the torrent lower +down.</p> +<p><a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 190</span>On +the descent, when things began to look very bad, and the +mountain-sides had become cascades bringing trees, logs, and +rocks down with them, we were fortunate enough to meet with two +pack-horses whose leaders were ignorant of the impassability of +the road to Odaté, and they and my coolies exchanged +loads. These were strong horses, and the <i>mago</i> were +skilful and courageous. They said if we hurried we could +just get to the hamlet they had left, they thought; but while +they spoke the road and the bridge below were carried away. +They insisted on lashing me to the pack-saddle. The great +stream, whose beauty I had formerly admired, was now a thing of +dread, and had to be forded four times without fords. It +crashed and thundered, drowning the feeble sound of human voices, +the torrents from the heavens hissed through the forest, trees +and logs came crashing down the hillsides, a thousand cascades +added to the din, and in the bewilderment produced by such an +unusual concatenation of sights and sounds we stumbled through +the river, the men up to their shoulders, the horses up to their +backs. Again and again we crossed. The banks being +carried away, it was very hard to get either into or out of the +water; the horses had to scramble or jump up places as high as +their shoulders, all slippery and crumbling, and twice the men +cut steps for them with axes. The rush of the torrent at +the last crossing taxed the strength of both men and horses, and, +as I was helpless from being tied on, I confess that I shut my +eyes! After getting through, we came upon the lands +belonging to this village—rice-fields with the dykes burst, +and all the beautiful ridge and furrow cultivation of the other +crops carried away. The waters were rising fast, the men +said we must hurry; they unbound me, so that I might ride more +comfortably, spoke to the horses, and went on at a run. My +horse, which had nearly worn out his shoes in the fords, stumbled +at every step, the <i>mago</i> gave me a noose of rope to clutch, +the rain fell in such torrents that I speculated on the chance of +being washed off my saddle, when suddenly I saw a shower of +sparks; I felt unutterable things; I was choked, bruised, +stifled, and presently found myself being hauled out of a ditch +by three men, and realised that the horse had tumbled down in +going down a steepish hill, and that I had gone over his +head. To climb <a name="page191"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 191</span>again on the soaked <i>futon</i> was +the work of a moment, and, with men running and horses stumbling +and splashing, we crossed the Hirakawa by one fine bridge, and +half a mile farther re-crossed it on another, wishing as we did +so that all Japanese bridges were as substantial, for they were +both 100 feet long, and had central piers.</p> +<p>We entered Ikarigaseki from the last bridge, a village of 800 +people, on a narrow ledge between an abrupt hill and the +Hirakawa, a most forlorn and tumble-down place, given up to +felling timber and making shingles; and timber in all its +forms—logs, planks, faggots, and shingles—is heaped +and stalked about. It looks more like a lumberer’s +encampment than a permanent village, but it is beautifully +situated, and unlike any of the innumerable villages that I have +ever seen.</p> +<p>The street is long and narrow, with streams in stone channels +on either side; but these had overflowed, and men, women, and +children were constructing square dams to keep the water, which +had already reached the <i>doma</i>, from rising over the +<i>tatami</i>. Hardly any house has paper windows, and in +the few which have, they are so black with smoke as to look worse +than none. The roofs are nearly flat, and are covered with +shingles held on by laths and weighted with large stones. +Nearly all the houses look like temporary sheds, and most are as +black inside as a Barra hut. The walls of many are nothing +but rough boards tied to the uprights by straw ropes.</p> +<p>In the drowning torrent, sitting in puddles of water, and +drenched to the skin hours before, we reached this very primitive +<i>yadoya</i>, the lower part of which is occupied by the +<i>daidokoro</i>, a party of storm-bound students, horses, fowls, +and dogs. My room is a wretched loft, reached by a ladder, +with such a quagmire at its foot that I have to descend into it +in Wellington boots. It was dismally grotesque at +first. The torrent on the unceiled roof prevented Ito from +hearing what I said, the bed was soaked, and the water, having +got into my box, had dissolved the remains of the condensed milk, +and had reduced clothes, books, and paper into a condition of +universal stickiness. My kimono was less wet than anything +else, and, borrowing a sheet of oiled paper, I lay down in it, +till roused up in half an hour by Ito shrieking above the din on +the roof <a name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +192</span>that the people thought that the bridge by which we had +just entered would give way; and, running to the river bank, we +joined a large crowd, far too intensely occupied by the coming +disaster to take any notice of the first foreign lady they had +ever seen.</p> +<p>The Hirakawa, which an hour before was merely a clear, rapid +mountain stream, about four feet deep, was then ten feet deep, +they said, and tearing along, thick and muddy, and with a fearful +roar,</p> +<blockquote><p>“And each wave was crested with tawny +foam,<br /> + Like the mane of a chestnut +steed.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Immense logs of hewn timber, trees, roots, branches, and +faggots, were coming down in numbers. The abutment on this +side was much undermined, but, except that the central pier +trembled whenever a log struck it, the bridge itself stood +firm—so firm, indeed, that two men, anxious to save some +property on the other side, crossed it after I arrived. +Then logs of planed timber of large size, and joints, and much +wreckage, came down—fully forty fine timbers, thirty feet +long, for the fine bridge above had given way. Most of the +harvest of logs cut on the Yadate Pass must have been lost, for +over 300 were carried down in the short time in which I watched +the river. This is a very heavy loss to this village, which +lives by the timber trade. Efforts were made at a bank +higher up to catch them as they drifted by, but they only saved +about one in twenty. It was most exciting to see the grand +way in which these timbers came down; and the moment in which +they were to strike or not to strike the pier was one of intense +suspense. After an hour of this two superb logs, fully +thirty feet long, came down close together, and, striking the +central pier nearly simultaneously, it shuddered horribly, the +great bridge parted in the middle, gave an awful groan like a +living thing, plunged into the torrent, and re-appeared in the +foam below only as disjointed timbers hurrying to the sea. +Not a vestige remained. The bridge below was carried away +in the morning, so, till the river becomes fordable, this little +place is completely isolated. On thirty miles of road, out +of nineteen bridges only two remain, and the road itself is +almost wholly carried away!</p> +<h2><a name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +193</span>LETTER XXVIII.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Scanty Resources—Japanese +Children—Children’s Games—A Sagacious +Example—A Kite Competition—Personal Privations.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Ikarigaseki</span>.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> well-nigh exhausted the +resources of this place. They are to go out three times a +day to see how much the river has fallen; to talk with the +house-master and <i>Kôchô</i>; to watch the +children’s games and the making of shingles; to buy toys +and sweetmeats and give them away; to apply zinc lotion to a +number of sore eyes three times daily, under which treatment, +during three days, there has been a wonderful amendment; to watch +the cooking, spinning, and other domestic processes in the +<i>daidokoro</i>; to see the horses, which are also actually in +it, making meals of green leaves of trees instead of hay; to see +the lepers, who are here for some waters which are supposed to +arrest, if not to cure, their terrible malady; to lie on my +stretcher and sew, and read the papers of the Asiatic Society, +and to go over all possible routes to Aomori. The people +have become very friendly in consequence of the eye lotion, and +bring many diseases for my inspection, most of which would never +have arisen had cleanliness of clothing and person been attended +to. The absence of soap, the infrequency with which +clothing is washed, and the absence of linen next the skin, cause +various cutaneous diseases, which are aggravated by the bites and +stings of insects. Scald-head affects nearly half the +children here.</p> +<p>I am very fond of Japanese children. I have never yet +heard a baby cry, and I have never seen a child troublesome or +disobedient. Filial piety is the leading virtue in Japan, +and unquestioning obedience is the habit of centuries. The +arts and threats by which English mothers cajole or frighten <a +name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 194</span>children +into unwilling obedience appear unknown. I admire the way +in which children are taught to be independent in their +amusements. Part of the home education is the learning of +the rules of the different games, which are absolute, and when +there is a doubt, instead of a quarrelsome suspension of the +game, the fiat of a senior child decides the matter. They +play by themselves, and don’t bother adults at every +turn. I usually carry sweeties with me, and give them to +the children, but not one has ever received them without first +obtaining permission from the father or mother. When that +is gained they smile and bow profoundly, and hand the sweeties to +those present before eating any themselves. They are gentle +creatures, but too formal and precocious.</p> +<p>They have no special dress. This is so queer that I +cannot repeat it too often. At three they put on the +<i>kimono</i> and girdle, which are as inconvenient to them as to +their parents, and childish play in this garb is grotesque. +I have, however, never seen what we call child’s +play—that general abandonment to miscellaneous impulses, +which consists in struggling, slapping, rolling, jumping, +kicking, shouting, laughing, and quarrelling! Two fine boys +are very clever in harnessing paper carts to the backs of beetles +with gummed traces, so that eight of them draw a load of rice up +an inclined plane. You can imagine what the fate of such a +load and team would be at home among a number of snatching +hands. Here a number of infants watch the performance with +motionless interest, and never need the adjuration, +“Don’t touch.” In most of the houses +there are bamboo cages for “the shrill-voiced +Katydid,” and the children amuse themselves with feeding +these vociferous grasshoppers. The channels of swift water +in the street turn a number of toy water-wheels, which set in +motion most ingenious mechanical toys, of which a model of the +automatic rice-husker is the commonest, and the boys spend much +time in devising and watching these, which are really very +fascinating. It is the holidays, but “holiday +tasks” are given, and in the evenings you hear the hum of +lessons all along the street for about an hour. The school +examination is at the re-opening of the school after the +holidays, instead of at the end of the session—an +arrangement which shows an honest desire to discern the permanent +gain made by the scholars.</p> +<p><a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 195</span>This +afternoon has been fine and windy, and the boys have been flying +kites, made of tough paper on a bamboo frame, all of a +rectangular shape, some of them five feet square, and nearly all +decorated with huge faces of historical heroes. Some of +them have a humming arrangement made of whale-bone. There +was a very interesting contest between two great kites, and it +brought out the whole population. The string of each kite, +for 30 feet or more below the frame, was covered with pounded +glass, made to adhere very closely by means of tenacious glue, +and for two hours the kite-fighters tried to get their kites into +a proper position for sawing the adversary’s string in +two. At last one was successful, and the severed kite +became his property, upon which victor and vanquished exchanged +three low bows. Silently as the people watched and received +the destruction of their bridge, so silently they watched this +exciting contest. The boys also flew their kites while +walking on stilts—a most dexterous performance, in which +few were able to take part—and then a larger number gave a +stilt race. The most striking out-of-door games are played +at fixed seasons of the year, and are not to be seen now.</p> +<p>There are twelve children in this <i>yadoya</i>, and after +dark they regularly play at a game which Ito says “is +played in the winter in every house in Japan.” The +children sit in a circle, and the adults look on eagerly, +child-worship being more common in Japan than in America, and, to +my thinking, the Japanese form is the best.</p> +<p>From proverbial philosophy to personal privation is rather a +descent, but owing to the many detentions on the journey my small +stock of foreign food is exhausted, and I have been living here +on rice, cucumbers, and salt salmon—so salt that, after +being boiled in two waters, it produces a most distressing +thirst. Even this has failed to-day, as communication with +the coast has been stopped for some time, and the village is +suffering under the calamity of its stock of salt-fish being +completely exhausted. There are no eggs, and rice and +cucumbers are very like the “light food” which the +Israelites “loathed.” I had an omelette one +day, but it was much like musty leather. The Italian +minister said to me in Tôkiyô, “No question in +Japan is so solemn as that of food,” and <a +name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 196</span>many others +echoed what I thought at the time a most unworthy +sentiment. I recognised its truth to-day when I opened my +last resort, a box of Brand’s meat lozenges, and found them +a mass of mouldiness. One can only dry clothes here by +hanging them in the wood smoke, so I prefer to let them mildew on +the walls, and have bought a straw rain-coat, which is more +reliable than the paper waterproofs. I hear the hum of the +children at their lessons for the last time, for the waters are +falling fast, and we shall leave in the morning.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +197</span>LETTER XXIX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Hope deferred—Effects of the +Flood—Activity of the Police—A Ramble in +Disguise—The <i>Tanabata</i> Festival—Mr. +Satow’s Reputation.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kuroishi</span>, +<i>August</i> 5.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> all the waters did not fall +as was expected, and I had to spend a fourth day at +Ikarigaseki. We left early on Saturday, as we had to travel +fifteen miles without halting. The sun shone on all the +beautiful country, and on all the wreck and devastation, as it +often shines on the dimpling ocean the day after a storm. +We took four men, crossed two severe fords where bridges had been +carried away, and where I and the baggage got very wet; saw great +devastations and much loss of crops and felled timber; passed +under a cliff, which for 200 feet was composed of fine columnar +basalt in six-sided prisms, and quite suddenly emerged on a great +plain, on which green billows of rice were rolling sunlit before +a fresh north wind. This plain is liberally sprinkled with +wooded villages and surrounded by hills; one low range forming a +curtain across the base of Iwakisan, a great snow-streaked dome, +which rises to the west of the plain to a supposed height of 5000 +feet. The water had risen in most of the villages to a +height of four feet, and had washed the lower part of the mud +walls away. The people were busy drying their +<i>tatami</i>, <i>futons</i>, and clothing, reconstructing their +dykes and small bridges, and fishing for the logs which were +still coming down in large quantities.</p> +<p>In one town two very shabby policemen rushed upon us, seized +the bridle of my horse, and kept me waiting for a long time in +the middle of a crowd, while they toilsomely <i>bored</i> through +the passport, turning it up and down, and holding it <a +name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>up to the +light, as though there were some nefarious mystery about +it. My horse stumbled so badly that I was obliged to walk +to save myself from another fall, and, just as my powers were +failing, we met a <i>kuruma</i>, which by good management, such +as being carried occasionally, brought me into Kuroishi, a neat +town of 5500 people, famous for the making of clogs and combs, +where I have obtained a very neat, airy, upstairs room, with a +good view over the surrounding country and of the doings of my +neighbours in their back rooms and gardens. Instead of +getting on to Aomori I am spending three days and two nights +here, and, as the weather has improved and my room is remarkably +cheerful, the rest has been very pleasant. As I have said +before, it is difficult to get any information about anything +even a few miles off, and even at the Post Office they cannot +give any intelligence as to the date of the sailings of the mail +steamer between Aomori, twenty miles off, and +Hakodaté.</p> +<p>The police were not satisfied with seeing my passport, but +must also see me, and four of them paid me a polite but +domiciliary visit the evening of my arrival. That evening +the sound of drumming was ceaseless, and soon after I was in bed +Ito announced that there was something really worth seeing, so I +went out in my <i>kimono</i> and without my hat, and in this +disguise altogether escaped recognition as a foreigner. +Kuroishi is unlighted, and I was tumbling and stumbling along in +overhaste when a strong arm cleared the way, and the house-master +appeared with a very pretty lantern, hanging close to the ground +from a cane held in the hand. Thus came the phrase, +“Thy word is a light unto my feet.”</p> +<p>We soon reached a point for seeing the festival procession +advance towards us, and it was so beautiful and picturesque that +it kept me out for an hour. It passes through all the +streets between 7 and 10 p.m. each night during the first week in +August, with an ark, or coffer, containing slips of paper, on +which (as I understand) wishes are written, and each morning at +seven this is carried to the river and the slips are cast upon +the stream. The procession consisted of three monster drums +nearly the height of a man’s body, covered with horsehide, +and strapped to the drummers, end upwards, and thirty small +drums, all beaten rub-a-dub-dub without <a +name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +199</span>ceasing. Each drum has the <i>tomoyé</i> +painted on its ends. Then there were hundreds of paper +lanterns carried on long poles of various lengths round a central +lantern, 20 feet high, itself an oblong 6 feet long, with a front +and wings, and all kinds of mythical and mystical creatures +painted in bright colours upon it—a transparency rather +than a lantern, in fact. Surrounding it were hundreds of +beautiful lanterns and transparencies of all sorts of fanciful +shapes—fans, fishes, birds, kites, drums; the hundreds of +people and children who followed all carried circular lanterns, +and rows of lanterns with the <i>tomoyé</i> on one side +and two Chinese characters on the other hung from the eaves all +along the line of the procession. I never saw anything more +completely like a fairy scene, the undulating waves of lanterns +as they swayed along, the soft lights and soft tints moving aloft +in the darkness, the lantern-bearers being in deep shadow. +This festival is called the <i>tanabata</i>, or <i>seiseki</i> +festival, but I am unable to get any information about it. +Ito says that he knows what it means, but is unable to explain, +and adds the phrase he always uses when in difficulties, +“Mr. Satow would be able to tell you all about +it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +200</span>LETTER XXX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Lady’s +Toilet—Hair-dressing—Paint and +Cosmetics—Afternoon Visitors—Christian Converts.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kuroishi</span>, +<i>August</i> 5.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> is a pleasant place, and my +room has many advantages besides light and cleanliness, as, for +instance, that I overlook my neighbours and that I have seen a +lady at her toilet preparing for a wedding! A married girl +knelt in front of a black lacquer toilet-box with a spray of +cherry blossoms in gold sprawling over it, and lacquer uprights +at the top, which supported a polished metal mirror. +Several drawers in the toilet-box were open, and toilet +requisites in small lacquer boxes were lying on the floor. +A female barber stood behind the lady, combing, dividing, and +tying her hair, which, like that of all Japanese women, was +glossy black, but neither fine nor long. The coiffure is an +erection, a complete work of art. Two divisions, three +inches apart, were made along the top of the head, and the lock +of hair between these was combed, stiffened with a bandoline made +from the <i>Uvario Japonica</i>, raised two inches from the +forehead, turned back, tied, and pinned to the back hair. +The rest was combed from each side to the back, and then tied +loosely with twine made of paper. Several switches of false +hair were then taken out of a long lacquer box, and, with the aid +of a quantity of bandoline and a solid pad, the ordinary smooth +chignon was produced, to which several loops and bows of hair +were added, interwoven with a little dark-blue +<i>crêpe</i>, spangled with gold. A single, thick, +square-sided, tortoiseshell pin was stuck through the whole as an +ornament.</p> +<p>The fashions of dressing the hair are fixed. They vary +with the ages of female children, and there is a slight +difference <a name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +201</span>between the <i>coiffure</i> of the married and +unmarried. The two partings on the top of the head and the +chignon never vary. The amount of stiffening used is +necessary, as the head is never covered out of doors. This +arrangement will last in good order for a week or +more—thanks to the wooden pillow.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p201b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"A Lady’s Mirror" +title= +"A Lady’s Mirror" + src="images/p201s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The barber’s work was only partially done when the hair +was dressed, for every vestige of recalcitrant eyebrow was +removed, and every downy hair which dared to display itself on +the temples and neck was pulled out with tweezers. This +removal of all short hair has a tendency to make even the natural +hair look like a wig. Then the lady herself took a box of +white powder, and laid it on her face, ears, and neck, till her +skin looked like a mask. With a camel’s-hair brush +she then applied some mixture to her eyelids to make the bright +eyes look brighter, the teeth were blackened, or rather +reblackened, with a feather brush dipped in a solution of +gall-nuts <a name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +202</span>and iron-filings—a tiresome and disgusting +process, several times repeated, and then a patch of red was +placed upon the lower lip. I cannot say that the effect was +pleasing, but the girl thought so, for she turned her head so as +to see the general effect in the mirror, smiled, and was +satisfied. The remainder of her toilet, which altogether +took over three hours, was performed in private, and when she +reappeared she looked as if a very unmeaning-looking wooden doll +had been dressed up with the exquisite good taste, harmony, and +quietness which characterise the dress of Japanese women.</p> +<p>A most rigid social etiquette draws an impassable line of +demarcation between the costume of the virtuous woman in every +rank and that of her frail sister. The humiliating truth +that many of our female fashions are originated by those whose +position we the most regret, and are then carefully copied by all +classes of women in our country, does not obtain credence among +Japanese women, to whom even the slightest approximation in the +style of hair-dressing, ornament, or fashion of garments would be +a shame.</p> +<p>I was surprised to hear that three “Christian +students” from Hirosaki wished to see me—three +remarkably intelligent-looking, handsomely-dressed young men, who +all spoke a little English. One of them had the brightest +and most intellectual face which I have seen in Japan. They +are of the <i>samurai</i> class, as I should have known from the +superior type of face and manner. They said that they heard +that an English lady was in the house, and asked me if I were a +Christian, but apparently were not satisfied till, in answer to +the question if I had a Bible, I was able to produce one.</p> +<p>Hirosaki is a castle town of some importance, 3½ +<i>ri</i> from here, and its <i>ex-daimiyô</i> supports a +high-class school or college there, which has had two Americans +successively for its headmasters. These gentlemen must have +been very consistent in Christian living as well as energetic in +Christian teaching, for under their auspices thirty young men +have embraced Christianity. As all of these are well +educated, and several are nearly ready to pass as teachers into +Government employment, their acceptance of the “new +way” may have an important bearing on the future of this +region.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +203</span>LETTER XXXI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Travelling Curiosity—Rude +Dwellings—Primitive Simplicity—The Public +Bath-house.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kuroishi</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Yesterday</span> was beautiful, and, +dispensing for the first time with Ito’s attendance, I took +a <i>kuruma</i> for the day, and had a very pleasant excursion +into a <i>cul de sac</i> in the mountains. The one drawback +was the infamous road, which compelled me either to walk or be +mercilessly jolted. The runner was a nice, kind, merry +creature, quite delighted, Ito said, to have a chance of carrying +so great a sight as a foreigner into a district in which no +foreigner has even been seen. In the absolute security of +Japanese travelling, which I have fully realised for a long time, +I look back upon my fears at Kasukabé with a feeling of +self-contempt.</p> +<p>The scenery, which was extremely pretty, gained everything +from sunlight and colour—wonderful shades of cobalt and +indigo, green blues and blue greens, and flashes of white foam in +unsuspected rifts. It looked a simple, home-like region, a +very pleasant land.</p> +<p>We passed through several villages of farmers who live in very +primitive habitations, built of mud, looking as if the mud had +been dabbed upon the framework with the hands. The walls +sloped slightly inwards, the thatch was rude, the eaves were deep +and covered all manner of lumber; there was a smoke-hole in a +few, but the majority smoked all over like brick-kilns; they had +no windows, and the walls and rafters were black and shiny. +Fowls and horses live on one side of the dark interior, and the +people on the other. The houses were alive with unclothed +children, and as I repassed in the evening unclothed men and +women, nude to their waists, were <a name="page204"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 204</span>sitting outside their dwellings with +the small fry, clothed only in amulets, about them, several big +yellow dogs forming part of each family group, and the faces of +dogs, children, and people were all placidly contented! +These farmers owned many good horses, and their crops were +splendid. Probably on <i>matsuri</i> days all appear in +fine clothes taken from ample hoards. They cannot be so +poor, as far as the necessaries of life are concerned; they are +only very “far back.” They know nothing better, +and are contented; but their houses are as bad as any that I have +ever seen, and the simplicity of Eden is combined with an amount +of dirt which makes me sceptical as to the performance of even +weekly ablutions.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p204b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Akita Farm-House" +title= +"Akita Farm-House" + src="images/p204s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Upper Nakano is very beautiful, and in the autumn, when its +myriads of star-leaved maples are scarlet and crimson, against a +dark background of cryptomeria, among which a <a +name="page205"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 205</span>great white +waterfall gleams like a snow-drift before it leaps into the black +pool below, it must be well worth a long journey. I have +not seen anything which has pleased me more. There is a +fine flight of moss-grown stone steps down to the water, a pretty +bridge, two superb stone <i>torii</i>, some handsome stone +lanterns, and then a grand flight of steep stone steps up a +hillside dark with cryptomeria leads to a small Shintô +shrine. Not far off there is a sacred tree, with the token +of love and revenge upon it. The whole place is +entrancing.</p> +<p>Lower Nakano, which I could only reach on foot, is only +interesting as possessing some very hot springs, which are +valuable in cases of rheumatism and sore eyes. It consists +mainly of tea-houses and <i>yadoyas</i>, and seemed rather +gay. It is built round the edge of an oblong depression, at +the bottom of which the bath-houses stand, of which there are +four, only nominally separated, and with but two entrances, which +open directly upon the bathers. In the two end houses women +and children were bathing in large tanks, and in the centre ones +women and men were bathing together, but at opposite sides, with +wooden ledges to sit upon all round. I followed the +<i>kuruma</i>-runner blindly to the baths, and when once in I had +to go out at the other side, being pressed upon by people from +behind; but the bathers were too polite to take any notice of my +most unwilling intrusion, and the <i>kuruma</i>-runner took me in +without the slightest sense of impropriety in so doing. I +noticed that formal politeness prevailed in the bath-house as +elsewhere, and that dippers and towels were handed from one to +another with profound bows. The public bath-house is said +to be the place in which public opinion is formed, as it is with +us in clubs and public-houses, and that the presence of women +prevents any dangerous or seditious consequences; but the +Government is doing its best to prevent promiscuous bathing; and, +though the reform may travel slowly into these remote regions, it +will doubtless arrive sooner or later. The public +bath-house is one of the features of Japan.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +206</span>LETTER XXXII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Hard Day’s Journey—An +Overturn—Nearing the Ocean—Joyful +Excitement—Universal Greyness—Inopportune +Policemen—A Stormy Voyage—A Wild Welcome—A +Windy Landing—The Journey’s End.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Hakodaté</span>, <span +class="smcap">Yezo</span>, August, 1878.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> journey from Kuroishi to +Aomori, though only 22½ miles, was a tremendous one, owing +to the state of the roads; for more rain had fallen, and the +passage of hundreds of pack-horses heavily loaded with salt-fish +had turned the tracks into quagmires. At the end of the +first stage the Transport Office declined to furnish a +<i>kuruma</i>, owing to the state of the roads; but, as I was not +well enough to ride farther, I bribed two men for a very moderate +sum to take me to the coast; and by accommodating each other we +got on tolerably, though I had to walk up all the hills and down +many, to get out at every place where a little bridge had been +carried away, that the <i>kuruma</i> might be lifted over the +gap, and often to walk for 200 yards at a time, because it sank +up to its axles in the quagmire. In spite of all +precautions I was upset into a muddy ditch, with the +<i>kuruma</i> on the top of me; but, as my air-pillow fortunately +fell between the wheel and me, I escaped with nothing worse than +having my clothes soaked with water and mud, which, as I had to +keep them on all night, might have given me cold, but did +not. We met strings of pack-horses the whole way, carrying +salt-fish, which is taken throughout the interior.</p> +<p>The mountain-ridge, which runs throughout the Main Island, +becomes depressed in the province of Nambu, but rises again into +grand, abrupt hills at Aomori Bay. Between Kuroishi and +Aomori, however, it is broken up into low ranges, scantily +wooded, mainly with pine, scrub oak, and the dwarf <a +name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +207</span>bamboo. The <i>Sesamum ignosco</i>, of which the +incense-sticks are made, covers some hills to the exclusion of +all else. Rice grows in the valleys, but there is not much +cultivation, and the country looks rough, cold, and +hyperborean.</p> +<p>The farming hamlets grew worse and worse, with houses made +roughly of mud, with holes scratched in the side for light to get +in, or for smoke to get out, and the walls of some were only +great pieces of bark and bundles of straw tied to the posts with +straw ropes. The roofs were untidy, but this was often +concealed by the profuse growth of the water-melons which trailed +over them. The people were very dirty, but there was no +appearance of special poverty, and a good deal of money must be +made on the horses and <i>mago</i> required for the transit of +fish from Yezo, and for rice to it.</p> +<p>At Namioka occurred the last of the very numerous ridges we +have crossed since leaving Nikkô at a point called +Tsugarusaka, and from it looked over a rugged country upon a +dark-grey sea, nearly landlocked by pine-clothed hills, of a rich +purple indigo colour. The clouds were drifting, the colour +was intensifying, the air was fresh and cold, the surrounding +soil was peaty, the odours of pines were balsamic, it looked, +felt, and smelt like home; the grey sea was Aomori Bay, beyond +was the Tsugaru Strait,—my long land-journey was +done. A traveller said a steamer was sailing for Yezo at +night, so, in a state of joyful excitement, I engaged four men, +and by dragging, pushing, and lifting, they got me into Aomori, a +town of grey houses, grey roofs, and grey stones on roofs, built +on a beach of grey sand, round a grey bay—a +miserable-looking place, though the capital of the +<i>ken</i>.</p> +<p>It has a great export trade in cattle and rice to Yezo, +besides being the outlet of an immense annual emigration from +northern Japan to the Yezo fishery, and imports from +Hakodaté large quantities of fish, skins, and foreign +merchandise. It has some trade in a pretty but not valuable +“seaweed,” or variegated lacquer, called Aomori +lacquer, but not actually made there, its own speciality being a +sweetmeat made of beans and sugar. It has a deep and +well-protected harbour, but no piers or conveniences for +trade. It has barracks and the usual Government buildings, +but there was no time to learn anything about it,—only a +short half-hour for getting my <a name="page208"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 208</span>ticket at the <i>Mitsu Bishi</i> +office, where they demanded and copied my passport; for snatching +a morsel of fish at a restaurant where “foreign food” +was represented by a very dirty table-cloth; and for running down +to the grey beach, where I was carried into a large <i>sampan</i> +crowded with Japanese steerage passengers.</p> +<p>The wind was rising, a considerable surf was running, the +spray was flying over the boat, the steamer had her steam up, and +was ringing and whistling impatiently, there was a scud of rain, +and I was standing trying to keep my paper waterproof from being +blown off, when three inopportune policemen jumped into the boat +and demanded my passport. For a moment I wished them and +the passport under the waves! The steamer is a little old +paddle-boat of about 70 tons, with no accommodation but a single +cabin on deck. She was as clean and trim as a yacht, and, +like a yacht, totally unfit for bad weather. Her captain, +engineers, and crew were all Japanese, and not a word of English +was spoken. My clothes were very wet, and the night was +colder than the day had been, but the captain kindly covered me +up with several blankets on the floor, so I did not suffer. +We sailed early in the evening, with a brisk northerly breeze, +which chopped round to the south-east, and by eleven blew a gale; +the sea ran high, the steamer laboured and shipped several heavy +seas, much water entered the cabin, the captain came below every +half-hour, tapped the barometer, sipped some tea, offered me a +lump of sugar, and made a face and gesture indicative of bad +weather, and we were buffeted about mercilessly till 4 a.m., when +heavy rain came on, and the gale fell temporarily with it. +The boat is not fit for a night passage, and always lies in port +when bad weather is expected; and as this was said to be the +severest gale which has swept the Tsugaru Strait since January, +the captain was uneasy about her, but being so, showed as much +calmness as if he had been a Briton!</p> +<p>The gale rose again after sunrise, and when, after doing sixty +miles in fourteen hours, we reached the heads of Hakodaté +Harbour, it was blowing and pouring like a bad day in +Argyllshire, the spin-drift was driving over the bay, the Yezo +mountains loomed darkly and loftily through rain and mist, and +wind and thunder, and “noises of the northern sea,” +gave <a name="page209"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 209</span>me +a wild welcome to these northern shores. A rocky head like +Gibraltar, a cold-blooded-looking grey town, straggling up a +steep hillside, a few <i>coniferæ</i>, a great many grey +junks, a few steamers and vessels of foreign rig at anchor, a +number of <i>sampans</i> riding the rough water easily, seen in +flashes between gusts of rain and spin-drift, were all I saw, but +somehow it all pleased me from its breezy, northern look.</p> +<p>The steamer was not expected in the gale, so no one met me, +and I went ashore with fifty Japanese clustered on the top of a +decked <i>sampan</i> in such a storm of wind and rain that it +took us 1½ hours to go half a mile; then I waited +shelterless on the windy beach till the Customs’ Officers +were roused from their late slumbers, and then battled with the +storm for a mile up a steep hill. I was expected at the +hospitable Consulate, but did not know it, and came here to the +Church Mission House, to which Mr. and Mrs. Dening kindly invited +me when I met them in Tôkiyô. I was unfit to +enter a civilised dwelling; my clothes, besides being soaked, +were coated and splashed with mud up to the top of my hat; my +gloves and boots were finished, my mud-splashed baggage was +soaked with salt water; but I feel a somewhat legitimate triumph +at having conquered all obstacles, and having accomplished more +than I intended to accomplish when I left Yedo.</p> +<p>How musical the clamour of the northern ocean is! How +inspiriting the shrieking and howling of the boisterous +wind! Even the fierce pelting of the rain is home-like, and +the cold in which one shivers is stimulating! You cannot +imagine the delight of being in a room with a door that will +lock, to be in a bed instead of on a stretcher, of finding +twenty-three letters containing good news, and of being able to +read them in warmth and quietness under the roof of an English +home!</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h3><a name="page210"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +210</span><span class="smcap">Itinerary</span> of <span +class="smcap">Route</span> from <span +class="smcap">Niigata</span> to <span +class="smcap">Aomori.</span></h3> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: center">No. of Houses.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: center"><i>Ri</i>.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: center"><i>Chô</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kisaki</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">56</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tsuiji</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">209</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kurokawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">215</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hanadati</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kawaguchi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Numa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tamagawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Okuni</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">210</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kurosawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">17</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ichinono</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Shirokasawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">42</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tenoko</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">120</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Komatsu</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">513</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Akayu</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">350</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kaminoyama</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">650</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Yamagata</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21,000 souls</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tendo</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1,040</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tateoka</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">307</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tochiida</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">217</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">33</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Obanasawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">506</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ashizawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">70</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Shinjô</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1,060</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kanayama</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">165</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Nosoki</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">37</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Innai</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">257</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Yusawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1,506</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">35</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Yokote</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2,070</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rokugo</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1,062</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Shingoji</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">209</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kubota</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">36,587 souls</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">16</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Minato</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2,108</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><a name="page211"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +211</span>Abukawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">163</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">33</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ichi Nichi Ichi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">306</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kado</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">151</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hinikoyama</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">396</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tsugurata</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">186</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">14</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tubiné</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">153</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kiriishi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">31</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">14</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kotsunagi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">47</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">16</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tsuguriko</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">136</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Odaté</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1,673</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">23</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Shirasawa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">71</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ikarigaseki</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">175</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kuroishi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1,176</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Daishaka</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">43</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Shinjo</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">51</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aomori</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Ri</i> 153</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>About 368 miles.</p> +<p>This is considerably under the actual distance, as on several +of the mountain routes the <i>ri</i> is 56 <i>chô</i>, but +in the lack of accurate information the <i>ri</i> has been taken +at its ordinary standard of 36 <i>chô</i> throughout.</p> +<h2><a name="page212"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +212</span>LETTER XXXIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Form and Colour—A Windy +Capital—Eccentricities in House Roofs.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Hakodaté</span>, <span +class="smcap">Yezo</span>, August 13, 1878</p> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> a tremendous bluster for two +days the weather has become beautifully fine, and I find the +climate here more invigorating than that of the main +island. It is Japan, but yet there is a difference +somehow. When the mists lift they reveal not mountains +smothered in greenery, but naked peaks, volcanoes only recently +burnt out, with the red ash flaming under the noonday sun, and +passing through shades of pink into violet at sundown. +Strips of sand border the bay, ranges of hills, with here and +there a patch of pine or scrub, fade into the far-off blue, and +the great cloud shadows lie upon their scored sides in indigo and +purple. Blue as the Adriatic are the waters of the +land-locked bay, and the snowy sails of pale junks look whiter +than snow against its intense azure. The abruptness of the +double peaks behind the town is softened by a belt of +cryptomeria, the sandy strip which connects the headland with the +mainland heightens the general resemblance of the contour of the +ground to Gibraltar; but while one dreams of the western world a +<i>kuruma</i> passes one at a trot, temple drums are beaten in a +manner which does not recall “the roll of the British +drum,” a Buddhist funeral passes down the street, or a +man-cart pulled and pushed by four yellow-skinned, little-clothed +mannikins, creaks by, with the monotonous grunt of <i>Ha +huida</i>.</p> +<p>A single look at Hakodaté itself makes one feel that it +is Japan all over. The streets are very wide and clean, but +the houses are mean and low. The city looks as if it had +just recovered from a conflagration. The houses are nothing +but <a name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +213</span>tinder. The grand tile roofs of some other cities +are not to be seen. There is not an element of permanence +in the wide, and windy streets. It is an increasing and +busy place; it lies for two miles along the shore, and has +climbed the hill till it can go no higher; but still houses and +people look poor. It has a skeleton aspect too, which is +partially due to the number of permanent +“clothes-horses” on the roofs. Stones, however, +are its prominent feature. Looking down upon it from above +you see miles of grey boulders, and realise that every roof in +the windy capital is “hodden doun” by a weight of +paving stones. Nor is this all. Some of the flatter +roofs are pebbled all over like a courtyard, and others, such as +the roof of this house, for instance, are covered with sod and +crops of grass, the two latter arrangements being precautions +against risks from sparks during fires. These paving stones +are certainly the cheapest possible mode of keeping the roofs on +the houses in such a windy region, but they look odd.</p> +<p>None of the streets, except one high up the hill, with a row +of fine temples and temple grounds, call for any notice. +Nearly every house is a shop; most of the shops supply only the +ordinary articles consumed by a large and poor population; either +real or imitated foreign goods abound in Main Street, and the +only novelties are the furs, skins, and horns, which abound in +shops devoted to their sale. I covet the great bear furs +and the deep cream-coloured furs of Aino dogs, which are cheap as +well as handsome. There are many second-hand, or, as they +are called, “curio” shops, and the cheap lacquer from +Aomori is also tempting to a stranger.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +214</span>LETTER XXXIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Ito’s +Delinquency—“Missionary Manners”—A +Predicted Failure.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Hakodaté</span>, <span +class="smcap">Yezo</span>.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> enjoying Hakodaté so +much that, though my tour is all planned and my arrangements are +made, I linger on from day to day. There has been an +unpleasant <i>éclaircissement</i> about Ito. You +will remember that I engaged him without a character, and that he +told both Lady Parkes and me that after I had done so his former +master, Mr. Maries, asked him to go back to him, to which he had +replied that he had “a contract with a lady.” +Mr. Maries is here, and I now find that he had a contract with +Ito, by which Ito bound himself to serve him as long as he +required him, for $7 a month, but that, hearing that I offered +$12, he ran away from him and entered my service with a +lie! Mr. Maries has been put to the greatest inconvenience +by his defection, and has been hindered greatly in completing his +botanical collection, for Ito is very clever, and he had not only +trained him to dry plants successfully, but he could trust him to +go away for two or three days and collect seeds. I am very +sorry about it. He says that Ito was a bad boy when he came +to him, but he thinks that he cured him of some of his faults, +and that he has served me faithfully. I have seen Mr. +Maries at the Consul’s, and have arranged that, after my +Yezo tour is over, Ito shall be returned to his rightful master, +who will take him to China and Formosa for a year and a half, and +who, I think, will look after his well-being in every way. +Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn, who are here, heard a bad account of the +boy after I began my travels and were uneasy about me, but, +except for this original lie, I have no fault to find with him, +and his Shintô creed has not <a name="page215"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 215</span>taught him any better. When I +paid him his wages this morning he asked me if I had any fault to +find, and I told him of my objection to his manners, which he +took in very good part and promised to amend them; +“but,” he added, “mine are just missionary +manners!”</p> +<p>Yesterday I dined at the Consulate, to meet Count Diesbach, of +the French Legation, Mr. Von Siebold, of the Austrian Legation, +and Lieutenant Kreitner, of the Austrian army, who start +to-morrow on an exploring expedition in the interior, intending +to cross the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea on the +southern coast and measure the heights of some of the +mountains. They are “well found” in food and +claret, but take such a number of pack-ponies with them that I +predict that they will fail, and that I, who have reduced my +luggage to 45 lbs., will succeed!</p> +<p>I hope to start on my long-projected tour to-morrow; I have +planned it for myself with the confidence of an experienced +traveller, and look forward to it with great pleasure, as a visit +to the aborigines is sure to be full of novel and interesting +experiences. Good-bye for a long time.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page216"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +216</span>LETTER XXXV. <a name="citation216"></a><a +href="#footnote216" class="citation">[216]</a></h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Lovely Sunset—An Official +Letter—A “Front Horse”—Japanese +Courtesy—The Steam Ferry—Coolies Abscond—A Team +of Savages—A Drove of Horses—Floral Beauties—An +Unbeaten Track—A Ghostly Dwelling—Solitude and +Eeriness.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Ginsainoma</span>, <span class="smcap">Yezo</span>, +<i>August</i> 17.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> once again in the wilds! +I am sitting outside an upper room built out almost over a lonely +lake, with wooded points purpling and still shadows deepening in +the sinking sun. A number of men are dragging down the +nearest hillside the carcass of a bear which they have just +despatched with spears. There is no village, and the busy +clatter of the <i>cicada</i> and the rustle of the forest are the +only sounds which float on the still evening air. The +sunset colours are pink and green; on the tinted water lie the +waxen cups of great water-lilies, and above the wooded heights +the pointed, craggy, and altogether naked summit of the volcano +of Komono-taki flushes red in the sunset. Not the least of +the charms of the evening is that I am absolutely alone, having +ridden the eighteen miles from Hakodaté without Ito or an +attendant of any kind; have unsaddled my own horse, and by means +of much politeness and a dexterous use of Japanese substantives +have secured a good room and supper of rice, eggs, and black +beans for myself and a mash of beans for my horse, which, as it +belongs to the <i>Kaitakushi</i>, and has the dignity of iron +shoes, is entitled to special consideration!</p> +<p>I am not yet off the “beaten track,” but my +spirits are rising with the fine weather, the drier atmosphere, +and the freedom of Yezo. Yezo is to the main island of +Japan what <a name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +217</span>Tipperary is to an Englishman, Barra to a Scotchman, +“away down in Texas” to a New Yorker—in the +rough, little known, and thinly-peopled; and people can locate +all sorts of improbable stories here without much fear of being +found out, of which the Ainos and the misdeeds of the ponies +furnish the staple, and the queer doings of men and dogs, and +adventures with bears, wolves, and salmon, the embroidery. +Nobody comes here without meeting with something queer, and one +or two tumbles either with or from his horse. Very little +is known of the interior except that it is covered with forest +matted together by lianas, and with an undergrowth of scrub +bamboo impenetrable except to the axe, varied by swamps equally +impassable, which give rise to hundreds of rivers well stocked +with fish. The glare of volcanoes is seen in different +parts of the island. The forests are the hunting-grounds of +the Ainos, who are complete savages in everything but their +disposition, which is said to be so gentle and harmless that I +may go among them with perfect safety.</p> +<p>Kindly interest has been excited by the first foray made by a +lady into the country of the aborigines; and Mr. Eusden, the +Consul, has worked upon the powers that be with such good effect +that the Governor has granted me a <i>shomon</i>, a sort of +official letter or certificate, giving me a right to obtain +horses and coolies everywhere at the Government rate of 6 +<i>sen</i> a <i>ri</i>, with a prior claim to accommodation at +the houses kept up for officials on their circuits, and to help +and assistance from officials generally; and the Governor has +further telegraphed to the other side of Volcano Bay desiring the +authorities to give me the use of the Government <i>kuruma</i> as +long as I need it, and to detain the steamer to suit my +convenience! With this document, which enables me to +dispense with my passport, I shall find travelling very easy, and +I am very grateful to the Consul for procuring it for me.</p> +<p>Here, where rice and tea have to be imported, there is a +uniform charge at the <i>yadoyas</i> of 30 <i>sen</i> a day, +which includes three meals, whether you eat them or not. +Horses are abundant, but are small, and are not up to heavy +weights. They are entirely unshod, and, though their hoofs +are very shallow and grow into turned-up points and other +singular shapes, they go over rough ground with facility at a +scrambling <a name="page218"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +218</span>run of over four miles an hour following a leader +called a “front horse.” If you don’t get +a “front horse” and try to ride in front, you find +that your horse will not stir till he has another before him; and +then you are perfectly helpless, as he follows the movements of +his leader without any reference to your wishes. There are +no <i>mago</i>; a man rides the “front horse” and +goes at whatever pace you please, or, if you get a “front +horse,” you may go without any one. Horses are cheap +and abundant. They drive a number of them down from the +hills every morning into <i>corrals</i> in the villages, and keep +them there till they are wanted. Because they are so cheap +they are very badly used. I have not seen one yet without a +sore back, produced by the harsh pack-saddle rubbing up and down +the spine, as the loaded animals are driven at a run. They +are mostly very poor-looking.</p> +<p>As there was some difficulty about getting a horse for me the +Consul sent one of the <i>Kaitakushi</i> saddle-horses, a +handsome, lazy animal, which I rarely succeeded in stimulating +into a heavy gallop. Leaving Ito to follow with the +baggage, I enjoyed my solitary ride and the possibility of +choosing my own pace very much, though the choice was only +between a slow walk and the lumbering gallop aforesaid.</p> +<p>I met strings of horses loaded with deer hides, and overtook +other strings loaded with <i>saké</i> and manufactured +goods and in each case had a fight with my sociably inclined +animal. In two villages I was interested to see that the +small shops contained lucifer matches, cotton umbrellas, boots, +brushes, clocks, slates, and pencils, engravings in frames, +kerosene lamps, <a name="citation218"></a><a href="#footnote218" +class="citation">[218]</a> and red and green blankets, all but +the last, which are unmistakable British “shoddy,” +being Japanese imitations of foreign manufactured goods, more or +less cleverly executed. The road goes up hill for fifteen +miles, and, after passing Nanai, a trim Europeanised village in +the midst of fine crops, one of the places at which the +Government is making acclimatisation and other agricultural +experiments, it fairly enters <a name="page219"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 219</span>the mountains, and from the top of a +steep hill there is a glorious view of Hakodaté Head, +looking like an island in the deep blue sea, and from the top of +a higher hill, looking northward, a magnificent view of the +volcano with its bare, pink summit rising above three lovely +lakes densely wooded. These are the flushed scaurs and +outbreaks of bare rock for which I sighed amidst the smothering +greenery of the main island, and the silver gleam of the lakes +takes away the blindness from the face of nature. It was +delicious to descend to the water’s edge in the dewy +silence amidst balsamic odours, to find not a clattering grey +village with its monotony, but a single, irregularly-built house, +with lovely surroundings.</p> +<p>It is a most displeasing road for most of the way; sides with +deep corrugations, and in the middle a high causeway of earth, +whose height is being added to by hundreds of creels of earth +brought on ponies’ backs. It is supposed that +carriages and waggons will use this causeway, but a shying horse +or a bad driver would overturn them. As it is at present +the road is only passable for pack-horses, owing to the number of +broken bridges. I passed strings of horses laden with +<i>saké</i> going into the interior. The people of +Yezo drink freely, and the poor Ainos outrageously. On the +road I dismounted to rest myself by walking up hill, and, the +saddle being loosely girthed, the gear behind it dragged it round +and under the body of the horse, and it was too heavy for me to +lift on his back again. When I had led him for some time +two Japanese with a string of pack-horses loaded with deer-hides +met me, and not only put the saddle on again, but held the +stirrup while I remounted, and bowed politely when I went +away. Who could help liking such a courteous and kindly +people?</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Mori</span>, +<span class="smcap">Volcano Bay</span>, <i>Monday</i>.</p> +<p>Even Ginsainoma was not Paradise after dark, and I was +actually driven to bed early by the number of mosquitoes. +Ito is in an excellent humour on this tour. Like me, he +likes the freedom of the <i>Hokkaidô</i>. He is much +more polite and agreeable also, and very proud of the +Governor’s <i>shomon</i>, with which he swaggers into +hotels and Transport Offices. I never get on so well as +when he arranges for me. Saturday <a +name="page220"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 220</span>was grey +and lifeless, and the ride of seven miles here along a sandy road +through monotonous forest and swamp, with the volcano on one side +and low wooded hills on the other, was wearisome and +fatiguing. I saw five large snakes all in a heap, and a +number more twisting through the grass. There are no +villages, but several very poor tea-houses, and on the other side +of the road long sheds with troughs hollowed like canoes out of +the trunks of trees, containing horse food. Here nobody +walks, and the men ride at a quick run, sitting on the tops of +their pack-saddles with their legs crossed above their +horses’ necks, and wearing large hats like coal-scuttle +bonnets. The horses are infested with ticks, hundreds upon +one animal sometimes, and occasionally they become so mad from +the irritation that they throw themselves suddenly on the ground, +and roll over load and rider. I saw this done twice. +The ticks often transfer themselves to the riders.</p> +<p>Mori is a large, ramshackle village, near the southern point +of Volcano Bay—a wild, dreary-looking place on a sandy +shore, with a number of <i>jôrôyas</i> and +disreputable characters. Several of the yadoyas are not +respectable, but I rather like this one, and it has a very fine +view of the volcano, which forms one point of the bay. Mori +has no anchorage, though it has an unfinished pier 345 feet +long. The steam ferry across the mouth of the bay is here, +and there is a very difficult bridle-track running for nearly 100 +miles round the bay besides, and a road into the interior. +But it is a forlorn, decayed place. Last night the inn was +very noisy, as some travellers in the next room to mine hired +<i>geishas</i>, who played, sang, and danced till two in the +morning, and the whole party imbibed <i>saké</i> +freely. In this comparatively northern latitude the summer +is already waning. The seeds of the blossoms which were in +their glory when I arrived are ripe, and here and there a tinge +of yellow on a hillside, or a scarlet spray of maple, heralds the +glories and the coolness of autumn.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Yubets</span>. <span +class="smcap">Yezo</span>.</p> +<p>A loud yell of “steamer,” coupled with the +information that “she could not wait one minute,” +broke in upon <i>gô</i> and everything else, and in a +broiling sun we hurried down to the pier, and with a heap of +Japanese, who filled two <i>scows</i>, were <a +name="page221"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 221</span>put on +board a steamer not bigger than a large decked steam launch, +where the natives were all packed into a covered hole, and I was +conducted with much ceremony to the forecastle, a place at the +bow 5 feet square, full of coils of rope, shut in, and left to +solitude and dignity, and the stare of eight eyes, which +perseveringly glowered through the windows! The steamer had +been kept waiting for me on the other side for two days, to the +infinite disgust of two foreigners, who wished to return to +Hakodaté, and to mine.</p> +<p>It was a splendid day, with foam crests on the wonderfully +blue water, and the red ashes of the volcano, which forms the +south point of the bay, glowed in the sunlight. This +wretched steamer, whose boilers are so often “sick” +that she can never be relied upon, is the only means of reaching +the new capital without taking a most difficult and circuitous +route. To continue the pier and put a capable good steamer +on the ferry would be a useful expenditure of money. The +breeze was strong and in our favour, but even with this it took +us six weary hours to steam twenty-five miles, and it was eight +at night before we reached the beautiful and almost land-locked +bay of Mororan, with steep, wooded sides, and deep water close to +the shore, deep enough for the foreign ships of war which +occasionally anchor there, much to the detriment of the +town. We got off in over-crowded <i>sampans</i>, and +several people fell into the water, much to their own +amusement. The servants from the different <i>yadoyas</i> +go down to the jetty to “tout” for guests with large +paper lanterns, and the effect of these, one above another, +waving and undulating, with their soft coloured light, was as +bewitching as the reflection of the stars in the motionless +water. Mororan is a small town very picturesquely situated +on the steep shore of a most lovely bay, with another height, +richly wooded, above it, with shrines approached by flights of +stone stairs, and behind this hill there is the first Aino +village along this coast.</p> +<p>The long, irregular street is slightly picturesque, but I was +impressed both with the unusual sight of loafers and with the +dissolute look of the place, arising from the number of +<i>jôrôyas</i>, and from the number of <i>yadoyas</i> +that are also haunts of the vicious. I could only get a +very small room in a very poor and dirty inn, but there were no +mosquitoes, and I got a good <a name="page222"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 222</span>meal of fish. On sending to +order horses I found that everything was arranged for my +journey. The Governor sent his card early, to know if there +were anything I should like to see or do, but, as the morning was +grey and threatening, I wished to push on, and at 9.30 I was in +the <i>kuruma</i> at the inn door. I call it the +<i>kuruma</i> because it is the only one, and is kept by the +Government for the conveyance of hospital patients. I sat +there uncomfortably and patiently for half an hour, my only +amusement being the flirtations of Ito with a very pretty +girl. Loiterers assembled, but no one came to draw the +vehicle, and by degrees the dismal truth leaked out that the +three coolies who had been impressed for the occasion had all +absconded, and that four policemen were in search of them. +I walked on in a dawdling way up the steep hill which leads from +the town, met Mr. Akboshi, a pleasant young Japanese surveyor, +who spoke English and stigmatised Mororan as “the worst +place in Yezo;” and, after fuming for two hours at the +waste of time, was overtaken by Ito with the horses, in a boiling +rage. “They’re the worst and wickedest coolies +in all Japan,” he stammered; “two more ran away, and +now three are coming, and have got paid for four, and the first +three who ran away got paid, and the Express man’s so +ashamed for a foreigner, and the Governor’s in a furious +rage.”</p> +<p>Except for the loss of time it made no difference to me, but +when the <i>kuruma</i> did come up the runners were three such +ruffianly-looking men, and were dressed so wildly in bark cloth, +that, in sending Ito on twelve miles to secure relays, I sent my +money along with him. These men, though there were three +instead of two, never went out of a walk, and, as if on purpose, +took the vehicle over every stone and into every rut, and kept up +a savage chorus of “<i>haes-ha</i>, <i>haes-hora</i>” +the whole time, as if they were pulling stone-carts. There +are really no runners out of Hakodaté, and the men +don’t know how to pull, and hate doing it.</p> +<p>Mororan Bay is truly beautiful from the top of the +ascent. The coast scenery of Japan generally is the +loveliest I have ever seen, except that of a portion of windward +Hawaii, and this yields in beauty to none. The irregular +grey town, with a grey temple on the height above, straggles +round the little bay on a steep, wooded terrace; hills, densely +wooded, and with a <a name="page223"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +223</span>perfect entanglement of large-leaved trailers, descend +abruptly to the water’s edge; the festoons of the vines are +mirrored in the still waters; and above the dark forest, and +beyond the gleaming sea, rises the red, peaked top of the +volcano. Then the road dips abruptly to sandy swellings, +rising into bold headlands here and there; and for the first time +I saw the surge of 5000 miles of unbroken ocean break upon the +shore. Glimpses of the Pacific, an uncultivated, swampy +level quite uninhabited, and distant hills mainly covered with +forest, made up the landscape till I reached Horobets, a mixed +Japanese and Aino village built upon the sand near the sea.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p223b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Aino Store-House at Horobets" +title= +"Aino Store-House at Horobets" + src="images/p223s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>In these mixed villages the Ainos are compelled to live at a +respectful distance from the Japanese, and frequently out-number +them, as at Horobets, where there are forty-seven Aino and only +eighteen Japanese houses. The Aino village looks larger +than it really is, because nearly every house has a <i>kura</i>, +raised six feet from the ground by wooden stilts. When I am +better acquainted with the houses I shall describe them; at +present I will only say that they do not resemble the Japanese +houses so much as the Polynesian, as they are made of reeds very +neatly tied upon a wooden framework. They have small +windows, and roofs of a very great height, and steep pitch, with +the thatch in a series of very neat frills, and the ridge <a +name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 224</span>poles +covered with reeds, and ornamented. The coast Ainos are +nearly all engaged in fishing, but at this season the men hunt +deer in the forests. On this coast there are several names +compounded with <i>bets</i> or <i>pets</i>, the Aino for a river, +such as Horobets, Yubets, Mombets, etc.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p224b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Aino Lodges (from a Japanese Sketch)" +title= +"Aino Lodges (from a Japanese Sketch)" + src="images/p224s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>I found that Ito had been engaged for a whole hour in a +violent altercation, which was caused by the Transport Agent +refusing to supply runners for the <i>kuruma</i>, saying that no +one in Horobets would draw one, but on my producing the +<i>shomon</i> I was at once started on my journey of sixteen +miles with three Japanese lads, Ito riding on to Shiraôi to +get my room ready. I think that the Transport Offices in +Yezo are in Government hands. In a few minutes three Ainos +ran out of a house, took the <i>kuruma</i>, and went the whole +stage without stopping. They took a boy and three saddled +horses along with them to bring them back, and rode and hauled +alternately, two youths always attached to the shafts, and a man +pushing behind. <a name="page225"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 225</span>They were very kind, and so +courteous, after a new fashion, that I quite forgot that I was +alone among savages. The lads were young and beardless, +their lips were thick, and their mouths very wide, and I thought +that they approached more nearly to the Eskimo type than to any +other. They had masses of soft black hair falling on each +side of their faces. The adult man was not a pure +Aino. His dark hair was not very thick, and both it and his +beard had an occasional auburn gleam. I think I never saw a +face more completely beautiful in features and expression, with a +lofty, sad, far-off, gentle, intellectual look, rather that of +Sir Noël Paton’s “Christ” than of a +savage. His manner was most graceful, and he spoke both +Aino and Japanese in the low musical tone which I find is a +characteristic of Aino speech. These Ainos never took off +their clothes, but merely let them fall from one or both +shoulders when it was very warm.</p> +<p>The road from Horobets to Shiraôi is very solitary, with +not more than four or five houses the whole way. It is +broad and straight, except when it ascends hills or turns inland +to cross rivers, and is carried across a broad swampy level, +covered with tall wild flowers, which extends from the high beach +thrown up by the sea for two miles inland, where there is a lofty +wall of wooded rock, and beyond this the forest-covered mountains +of the interior. On the top of the raised beach there were +Aino hamlets, and occasionally a nearly overpowering stench came +across the level from the sheds and apparatus used for extracting +fish-oil. I enjoyed the afternoon thoroughly. It is +so good to have got beyond the confines of stereotyped +civilisation and the trammels of Japanese travelling to the +solitude of nature and an atmosphere of freedom. It was +grey, with a hard, dark line of ocean horizon, and over the weedy +level the grey road, with grey telegraph-poles along it, +stretched wearisomely like a grey thread. The breeze came +up from the sea, rustled the reeds, and waved the tall plumes of +the <i>Eulalia japonica</i>, and the thunder of the Pacific +surges boomed through the air with its grand, deep bass. +Poetry and music pervaded the solitude, and my spirit was +rested.</p> +<p>Going up and then down a steep, wooded hill, the road appeared +to return to its original state of brushwood, and the <a +name="page226"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 226</span>men stopped +at the broken edge of a declivity which led down to a shingle +bank and a foam-crested river of clear, blue-green water, +strongly impregnated with sulphur from some medicinal springs +above, with a steep bank of tangle on the opposite side. +This beautiful stream was crossed by two round poles, a foot +apart, on which I attempted to walk with the help of an Aino +hand; but the poles were very unsteady, and I doubt whether any +one, even with a strong head, could walk on them in boots. +Then the beautiful Aino signed to me to come back and mount on +his shoulders; but when he had got a few feet out the poles +swayed and trembled so much that he was obliged to retrace his +way cautiously, during which process I endured miseries from +dizziness and fear; after which he carried me through the rushing +water, which was up to his shoulders, and through a bit of swampy +jungle, and up a steep bank, to the great fatigue both of body +and mind, hardly mitigated by the enjoyment of the ludicrous in +riding a savage through these Yezo waters. They dexterously +carried the <i>kuruma</i> through, on the shoulders of four, and +showed extreme anxiety that neither it nor I should get +wet. After this we crossed two deep, still rivers in scows, +and far above the grey level and the grey sea the sun was setting +in gold and vermilion-streaked green behind a glorified mountain +of great height, at whose feet the forest-covered hills lay in +purple gloom. At dark we reached Shiraôi, a village +of eleven Japanese houses, with a village of fifty-one Aino +houses, near the sea. There is a large <i>yadoya</i> of the +old style there; but I found that Ito had chosen a very pretty +new one, with four stalls open to the road, in the centre one of +which I found him, with the welcome news that a steak of fresh +salmon was broiling on the coals; and, as the room was clean and +sweet and I was very hungry, I enjoyed my meal by the light of a +rush in a saucer of fish-oil as much as any part of the day.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Sarufuto</span>.</p> +<p>The night was too cold for sleep, and at daybreak, hearing a +great din, I looked out, and saw a drove of fully a hundred +horses all galloping down the road, with two Ainos on horseback, +and a number of big dogs after them. Hundreds of <a +name="page227"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 227</span>horses run +nearly wild on the hills, and the Ainos, getting a large drove +together, skilfully head them for the entrance into the corral, +in which a selection of them is made for the day’s needs, +and the remainder—that is, those with the deepest sores on +their backs—are turned loose. This dull rattle of +shoeless feet is the first sound in the morning in these Yezo +villages. I sent Ito on early, and followed at nine with +three Ainos. The road is perfectly level for thirteen +miles, through gravel flats and swamps, very monotonous, but with +a wild charm of its own. There were swampy lakes, with wild +ducks and small white water-lilies, and the surrounding levels +were covered with reedy grass, flowers, and weeds. The +early autumn has withered a great many of the flowers; but enough +remains to show how beautiful the now russet plains must have +been in the early summer. A dwarf rose, of a deep crimson +colour, with orange, medlar-shaped hips, as large as crabs, and +corollas three inches across, is one of the features of Yezo; and +besides, there is a large rose-red convolvulus, a blue campanula, +with tiers of bells, a blue monkshood, the <i>Aconitum +Japonicum</i>, the flaunting <i>Calystegia soldanella</i>, purple +asters, grass of Parnassus, yellow lilies, and a remarkable +trailer, whose delicate leafage looked quite out of place among +its coarse surroundings, with a purplish-brown campanulate +blossom, only remarkable for a peculiar arrangement of the +pistil, green stamens, and a most offensive carrion-like odour, +which is probably to attract to it a very objectionable-looking +fly, for purposes of fertilisation.</p> +<p>We overtook four Aino women, young and comely, with bare feet, +striding firmly along; and after a good deal of laughing with the +men, they took hold of the <i>kuruma</i>, and the whole seven +raced with it at full speed for half a mile, shrieking with +laughter. Soon after we came upon a little tea-house, and +the Ainos showed me a straw package, and pointed to their open +mouths, by which I understood that they wished to stop and +eat. Later we overtook four Japanese on horseback, and the +Ainos raced with them for a considerable distance, the result of +these spurts being that I reached Tomakomai at noon—a wide, +dreary place, with houses roofed with sod, bearing luxuriant +crops of weeds. Near this place is the volcano of Tarumai, +a calm-looking, grey cone, whose skirts are draped <a +name="page228"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 228</span>by tens of +thousands of dead trees. So calm and grey had it looked for +many a year that people supposed it had passed into endless rest, +when quite lately, on a sultry day, it blew off its cap and +covered the whole country for many a mile with cinders and ashes, +burning up the forest on its sides, adding a new covering to the +Tomakomai roofs, and depositing fine ash as far as Cape Erimo, +fifty miles off.</p> +<p>At this place the road and telegraph wires turn inland to +Satsuporo, and a track for horses only turns to the north-east, +and straggles round the island for about seven hundred +miles. From Mororan to Sarufuto there are everywhere traces +of new and old volcanic action—pumice, tufas, +conglomerates, and occasional beds of hard basalt, all covered +with recent pumice, which, from Shiraôi eastwards, conceals +everything. At Tomakomai we took horses, and, as I brought +my own saddle, I have had the nearest approach to real riding +that I have enjoyed in Japan. The wife of a Satsuporo +doctor was there, who was travelling for two hundred miles +astride on a pack-saddle, with rope-loops for stirrups. She +rode well, and vaulted into my saddle with circus-like dexterity, +and performed many equestrian feats upon it, telling me that she +should be quite happy if she were possessed of it.</p> +<p>I was happy when I left the “beaten track” to +Satsuporo, and saw before me, stretching for I know not how far, +rolling, sandy <i>machirs</i> like those of the Outer Hebrides, +desert-like and lonely, covered almost altogether with dwarf +roses and campanulas, a prairie land on which you can make any +tracks you please. Sending the others on, I followed them +at the Yezo <i>scramble</i>, and soon ventured on a long gallop, +and revelled in the music of the thud of shoeless feet over the +elastic soil; but I had not realised the peculiarities of Yezo +steeds, and had forgotten to ask whether mine was a “front +horse,” and just as we were going at full speed we came +nearly up with the others, and my horse coming abruptly to a full +stop, I went six feet over his head among the rose-bushes. +Ito looking back saw me tightening the saddle-girths, and I never +divulged this escapade.</p> +<p>After riding eight miles along this breezy belt, with the sea +on one side and forests on the other, we came upon Yubets, a +place which has fascinated me so much that I intend <a +name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 229</span>to return +to it; but I must confess that its fascinations depend rather +upon what it has not than upon what it has, and Ito says that it +would kill him to spend even two days there. It looks like +the end of all things, as if loneliness and desolation could go +no farther. A sandy stretch on three sides, a river +arrested in its progress to the sea, and compelled to wander +tediously in search of an outlet by the height and mass of the +beach thrown up by the Pacific, a distant forest-belt rising into +featureless, wooded ranges in shades of indigo and grey, and a +never-absent consciousness of a vast ocean just out of sight, are +the environments of two high look-outs, some sheds for fish-oil +purposes, four or five Japanese houses, four Aino huts on the top +of the beach across the river, and a grey barrack, consisting of +a polished passage eighty feet long, with small rooms on either +side, at one end a gravelled yard, with two quiet rooms opening +upon it, and at the other an immense <i>daidokoro</i>, with dark +recesses and blackened rafters—a haunted-looking +abode. One would suppose that there had been a special +object in setting the houses down at weary distances from each +other. Few as they are, they are not all inhabited at this +season, and all that can be seen is grey sand, sparse grass, and +a few savages creeping about.</p> +<p>Nothing that I have seen has made such an impression upon me +as that ghostly, ghastly fishing-station. In the long grey +wall of the long grey barrack there were many dismal windows, and +when we hooted for admission a stupid face appeared at one of +them and disappeared. Then a grey gateway opened, and we +rode into a yard of grey gravel, with some silent rooms opening +upon it. The solitude of the thirty or forty rooms which +lie between it and the kitchen, and which are now filled with +nets and fishing-tackle, was something awful; and as the wind +swept along the polished passage, rattling the <i>fusuma</i> and +lifting the shingles on the roof, and the rats careered from end +to end, I went to the great black <i>daidokoro</i> in search of +social life, and found a few embers and an <i>andon</i>, and +nothing else but the stupid-faced man deploring his fate, and two +orphan boys whose lot he makes more wretched than his own. +In the fishing-season this barrack accommodates from 200 to 300 +men.</p> +<p>I started to the sea-shore, crossing the dreary river, and <a +name="page230"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 230</span>found open +sheds much blackened, deserted huts of reeds, long sheds with a +nearly insufferable odour from caldrons in which oil had been +extracted from last year’s fish, two or three Aino huts, +and two or three grand-looking Ainos, clothed in skins, striding +like ghosts over the sandbanks, a number of wolfish dogs, some +log canoes or “dug-outs,” the bones of a wrecked +junk, a quantity of bleached drift-wood, a beach of dark-grey +sand, and a tossing expanse of dark-grey ocean under a dull and +windy sky. On this part of the coast the Pacific spends its +fury, and has raised up at a short distance above high-water mark +a sandy sweep of such a height that when you descend its seaward +slope you see nothing but the sea and the sky, and a grey, +curving shore, covered thick for many a lonely mile with +fantastic forms of whitened drift-wood, the shattered wrecks of +forest-trees, which are carried down by the innumerable rivers, +till, after tossing for weeks and months along with</p> +<blockquote><p> “—wrecks of ships, +and drifting<br /> + spars +uplifting<br /> + On the desolate, rainy seas:<br /> +Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,<br /> + On the shifting<br /> +Currents of the restless main;”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>the “toiling surges” cast them on Yubets beach, +and</p> +<blockquote><p>“All have found repose again.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A grim repose!</p> +<p>The deep boom of the surf was music, and the strange cries of +sea-birds, and the hoarse notes of the audacious black crows, +were all harmonious, for nature, when left to herself, never +produces discords either in sound or colour.</p> +<h2><a name="page231"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +231</span>LETTER XXXV.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Harmonies of Nature—A Good +Horse—A Single Discord—A Forest—Aino +Ferrymen—“<i>Les Puces</i>! <i>Les +Puces</i>!”—Baffled Explorers—Ito’s +Contempt for Ainos—An Aino Introduction.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Sarufuto</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">No</span>! Nature has no +discords. This morning, to the far horizon, +diamond-flashing blue water shimmered in perfect peace, outlined +by a line of surf which broke lazily on a beach scarcely less +snowy than itself. The deep, perfect blue of the sky was +only broken by a few radiant white clouds, whose shadows trailed +slowly over the plain on whose broad bosom a thousand corollas, +in the glory of their brief but passionate life, were drinking in +the sunshine, wavy ranges slept in depths of indigo, and higher +hills beyond were painted in faint blue on the dreamy sky. +Even the few grey houses of Yubets were spiritualised into +harmony by a faint blue veil which was not a mist, and the loud +croak of the loquacious and impertinent crows had a cheeriness +about it, a hearty mockery, which I liked.</p> +<p>Above all, I had a horse so good that he was always trying to +run away, and galloped so lightly over the flowery grass that I +rode the seventeen miles here with great enjoyment. Truly a +good horse, good ground to gallop on, and sunshine, make up the +sum of enjoyable travelling. The discord in the general +harmony was produced by the sight of the Ainos, a harmless people +without the instinct of progress, descending to that vast tomb of +conquered and unknown races which has opened to receive so many +before them. A mounted policeman started with us from +Yubets, and rode the whole way here, keeping exactly to my pace, +but never speaking a word. We forded one broad, deep river, +and crossed another, partly by fording <a +name="page232"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 232</span>and partly +in a scow, after which the track left the level, and, after +passing through reedy grass as high as the horse’s ears, +went for some miles up and down hill, through woods composed +entirely of the <i>Ailanthus glandulosus</i>, with leaves much +riddled by the mountain silk-worm, and a ferny undergrowth of the +familiar <i>Pteris aquilina</i>. The deep shade and +glancing lights of this open copsewood were very pleasant; and as +the horse tripped gaily up and down the little hills, and the sea +murmur mingled with the rustle of the breeze, and a glint of +white surf sometimes flashed through the greenery, and +dragonflies and butterflies in suits of crimson and black velvet +crossed the path continually like “living flashes” of +light, I was reminded somewhat, though faintly, of windward +Hawaii. We emerged upon an Aino hut and a beautiful placid +river, and two Ainos ferried the four people and horses across in +a scow, the third wading to guide the boat. They wore no +clothing, but only one was hairy. They were superb-looking +men, gentle, and extremely courteous, handing me in and out of +the boat, and holding the stirrup while I mounted, with much +natural grace. On leaving they extended their arms and +waved their hands inwards twice, stroking their grand beards +afterwards, which is their usual salutation. A short +distance over shingle brought us to this Japanese village of +sixty-three houses, a colonisation settlement, mainly of +<i>samurai</i> from the province of Sendai, who are raising very +fine crops on the sandy soil. The mountains, twelve miles +in the interior, have a large Aino population, and a few Ainos +live near this village and are held in great contempt by its +inhabitants. My room is on the village street, and, as it +is too warm to close the <i>shôji</i>, the aborigines stand +looking in at the lattice hour after hour.</p> +<p>A short time ago Mr. Von Siebold and Count Diesbach galloped +up on their return from Biratori, the Aino village to which I am +going; and Count D., throwing himself from his horse, rushed up +to me with the exclamation, <i>Les puces</i>! <i>les +puces</i>! They have brought down with them the chief, +Benri, a superb but dissipated-looking savage. Mr. Von +Siebold called on me this evening, and I envied him his fresh, +clean clothing as much as he envied me my stretcher and +mosquito-net. They have suffered terribly from fleas, +mosquitoes, and <a name="page233"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +233</span>general discomfort, and are much exhausted; but Mr. Von +S. thinks that, in spite of all, a visit to the mountain Ainos is +worth a long journey. As I expected, they have completely +failed in their explorations, and have been deserted by +Lieutenant Kreitner. I asked Mr. Von S. to speak to Ito in +Japanese about the importance of being kind and courteous to the +Ainos whose hospitality I shall receive; and Ito is very +indignant at this. “Treat Ainos politely!” he +says; “they’re just dogs, not men;” and since +he has regaled me with all the scandal concerning them which he +has been able to rake together in the village.</p> +<p>We have to take not only food for both Ito and myself, but +cooking utensils. I have been introduced to Benri, the +chief; and, though he does not return for a day or two, he will +send a message along with us which will ensure me +hospitality.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page234"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +234</span>LETTER XXXVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Savage Life—A Forest Track—Cleanly +Villages—A Hospitable Reception—The Chief’s +Mother—The Evening Meal—A Savage +<i>Séance</i>—Libations to the Gods—Nocturnal +Silence—Aino Courtesy—The Chief’s Wife.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Aino Hut</span>, +<span class="smcap">Biratori</span>, <i>August</i> 23.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p234b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Aino Houses" +title= +"Aino Houses" + src="images/p234s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> in the lonely Aino land, and I +think that the most interesting of my travelling experiences has +been the living for three days and two nights in an Aino hut, and +seeing and sharing the daily life of complete savages, who go on +with their ordinary occupations just as if I were not among +them. <a name="page235"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +235</span>I found yesterday a most fatiguing and over-exciting +day, as everything was new and interesting, even the extracting +from men who have few if any ideas in common with me all I could +extract concerning their religion and customs, and that through +an interpreter. I got up at six this morning to write out +my notes, and have been writing for five hours, and there is +shortly the prospect of another savage +<i>séance</i>. The distractions, as you can imagine, +are many. At this moment a savage is taking a cup of +<i>saké</i> by the fire in the centre of the floor. +He salutes me by extending his hands and waving them towards his +face, and then dips a rod in the <i>saké</i>, and makes +six libations to the god—an upright piece of wood with a +fringe of shavings planted in the floor of the room. Then +he waves the cup several times towards himself, makes other <a +name="page236"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 236</span>libations +to the fire, and drinks. Ten other men and women are +sitting along each side of the fire-hole, the chief’s wife +is cooking, the men are apathetically contemplating the +preparation of their food; and the other women, who are never +idle, are splitting the bark of which they make their +clothes. I occupy the guest seat—a raised platform at +one end of the fire, with the skin of a black bear thrown over +it.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p235b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Ainos at Home. (From a Japanese Sketch)" +title= +"Ainos at Home. (From a Japanese Sketch)" + src="images/p235s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>I have reserved all I have to say about the Ainos till I had +been actually among them, and I hope you will have patience to +read to the end. Ito is very greedy and self-indulgent, and +whimpered very much about coming to Biratori at all,—one +would have thought he was going to the stake. He actually +borrowed for himself a sleeping mat and <i>futons</i>, and has +brought a chicken, onions, potatoes, French beans, Japanese +sauce, tea, rice, a kettle, a stew-pan, and a rice-pan, while I +contented myself with a cold fowl and potatoes.</p> +<p>We took three horses and a mounted Aino guide, and found a +beaten track the whole way. It turns into the forest at +once on leaving Sarufuto, and goes through forest the entire +distance, with an abundance of reedy grass higher than my hat on +horseback along it, and, as it is only twelve inches broad and +much overgrown, the horses were constantly pushing through +leafage soaking from a night’s rain, and I was soon wet up +to my shoulders. The forest trees are almost solely the +<i>Ailanthus glandulosus</i> and the <i>Zelkowa keaki</i>, often +matted together with a white-flowered trailer of the Hydrangea +genus. The undergrowth is simply hideous, consisting mainly +of coarse reedy grass, monstrous docks, the large-leaved +<i>Polygonum cuspidatum</i>, several umbelliferous plants, and a +“ragweed” which, like most of its gawky fellows, +grows from five to six feet high. The forest is dark and +very silent, threaded by this narrow path, and by others as +narrow, made by the hunters in search of game. The +“main road” sometimes plunges into deep bogs, at +others is roughly corduroyed by the roots of trees, and +frequently hangs over the edge of abrupt and much-worn +declivities, in going up one of which the baggage-horse rolled +down a bank fully thirty feet high, and nearly all the tea was +lost. At another the guide’s pack-saddle lost its +balance, and man, horse, and saddle went over the slope, pots, +pans, and packages flying after them. At another time my +horse <a name="page237"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +237</span>sank up to his chest in a very bad bog, and, as he was +totally unable to extricate himself, I was obliged to scramble +upon his neck and jump to <i>terra firma</i> over his ears.</p> +<p>There is something very gloomy in the solitude of this silent +land, with its beast-haunted forests, its great patches of +pasture, the resort of wild animals which haunt the lower regions +in search of food when the snow drives them down from the +mountains, and its narrow track, indicating the single file in +which the savages of the interior walk with their bare, noiseless +feet. Reaching the Sarufutogawa, a river with a treacherous +bottom, in which Mr. Von Siebold and his horse came to grief, I +hailed an Aino boy, who took me up the stream in a +“dug-out,” and after that we passed through Biroka, +Saruba, and Mina, all purely Aino villages, situated among small +patches of millet, tobacco, and pumpkins, so choked with weeds +that it was doubtful whether they were crops. I was much +surprised with the extreme neatness and cleanliness outside the +houses; “model villages” they are in these respects, +with no litter lying in sight anywhere, nothing indeed but dog +troughs, hollowed out of logs, like “dug-outs,” for +the numerous yellow dogs, which are a feature of Aino life. +There are neither puddles nor heaps, but the houses, all trim and +in good repair, rise clean out of the sandy soil.</p> +<p>Biratori, the largest of the Aino settlements in this region, +is very prettily situated among forests and mountains, on rising +ground, with a very sinuous river winding at its feet and a +wooded height above. A lonelier place could scarcely be +found. As we passed among the houses the yellow dogs +barked, the women looked shy and smiled, and the men made their +graceful salutation. We stopped at the chief’s house, +where, of course, we were unexpected guests; but Shinondi, his +nephew, and two other men came out, saluted us, and with most +hospitable intent helped Ito to unload the horses. Indeed +their eager hospitality created quite a commotion, one running +hither and the other thither in their anxiety to welcome a +stranger. It is a large house, the room being 35 by 25, and +the roof 20 feet high; but you enter by an ante-chamber, in which +are kept the millet-mill and other articles. There is a +doorway in this, but the inside is pretty dark, and Shinondi, +taking my hand, raised the reed curtain bound with hide, <a +name="page238"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 238</span>which +concealed the entrance into the actual house, and, leading me +into it, retired a footstep, extended his arms, waved his arms +inwards three times, and then stroked his beard several times, +after which he indicated by a sweep of his hand and a beautiful +smile that the house and all it contained were mine. An +aged woman, the chief’s mother, who was splitting bark by +the fire, waved her hands also. She is the queen-regnant of +the house.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p238b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle" +title= +"Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle" + src="images/p238s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Again taking my hand, Shinondi led me to the place of honour +at the head of the fire—a rude, movable platform six feet +long by four broad, and a foot high, on which he laid an +ornamental mat, apologising for not having at that moment a +bearskin wherewith to cover it. The baggage was speedily +brought in by several willing pairs of hands; some reed mats +fifteen feet long were laid down upon the very coarse ones which +covered the whole floor, and when they saw Ito putting up my +stretcher they hung a fine mat along the rough wall to conceal +it, and suspended another on the beams of the roof for a +canopy. The alacrity and instinctive hospitality with which +these men rushed about to make things comfortable <a +name="page239"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 239</span>were very +fascinating, though comfort is a word misapplied in an Aino +hut. The women only did what the men told them.</p> +<p>They offered food at once, but I told them that I had brought +my own, and would only ask leave to cook it on their fire. +I need not have brought any cups, for they have many lacquer +bowls, and Shinondi brought me on a lacquer tray a bowl full of +water from one of their four wells. They said that Benri, +the chief, would wish me to make his house my own for as long as +I cared to stay, and I must excuse them in all things in which +their ways were different from my own. Shinondi and four +others in the village speak tolerable Japanese, and this of +course is the medium of communication. Ito has exerted +himself nobly as an interpreter, and has entered into my wishes +with a cordiality and intelligence which have been perfectly +invaluable; and, though he did growl at Mr. Von Siebold’s +injunctions regarding politeness, he has carried them out to my +satisfaction, and even admits that the mountain Ainos are better +than he expected; “but,” he added “they have +learned their politeness from the Japanese!” They +have never seen a foreign woman, and only three foreign men, but +there is neither crowding nor staring as among the Japanese, +possibly in part from apathy and want of intelligence. For +three days they have kept up their graceful and kindly +hospitality, going on with their ordinary life and occupations, +and, though I have lived among them in this room by day and +night, there has been nothing which in any way could offend the +most fastidious sense of delicacy.</p> +<p>They said they would leave me to eat and rest, and all retired +but the chief’s mother, a weird, witch-like woman of +eighty, with shocks of yellow-white hair, and a stern +suspiciousness in her wrinkled face. I have come to feel as +if she had the evil eye, as she sits there watching, watching +always, and for ever knotting the bark thread like one of the +Fates, keeping a jealous watch on her son’s two wives, and +on other young women who come in to weave—neither the +dulness nor the repose of old age about her; and her eyes gleam +with a greedy light when she sees <i>saké</i>, of which +she drains a bowl without taking breath. She alone is +suspicious of strangers, and she thinks that my visit bodes no +good to her tribe. I <a name="page240"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 240</span>see her eyes fixed upon me now, and +they make me shudder.</p> +<p>I had a good meal seated in my chair on the top of the +guest-seat to avoid the fleas, which are truly legion. At +dusk Shinondi returned, and soon people began to drop in, till +eighteen were assembled, including the sub-chief and several very +grand-looking old men, with full, grey, wavy beards. Age is +held in much reverence, and it is etiquette for these old men to +do honour to a guest in the chief’s absence. As each +entered he saluted me several times, and after sitting down +turned towards me and saluted again, going through the same +ceremony with every other person. They said they had come +“to bid me welcome.” They took their places in +rigid order at each side of the fireplace, which is six feet +long, Benri’s mother in the place of honour at the right, +then Shinondi, then the sub-chief, and on the other side the old +men. Besides these, seven women sat in a row in the +background splitting bark. A large iron pan hung over the +fire from a blackened arrangement above, and Benri’s +principal wife cut wild roots, green beans, and seaweed, and +shred dried fish and venison among them, adding millet, water, +and some strong-smelling fish-oil, and set the whole on to stew +for three hours, stirring the “mess” now and then +with a wooden spoon.</p> +<p>Several of the older people smoke, and I handed round some +mild tobacco, which they received with waving hands. I told +them that I came from a land in the sea, very far away, where +they saw the sun go down—so very far away that a horse +would have to gallop day and night for five weeks to reach +it—and that I had come a long journey to see them, and that +I wanted to ask them many questions, so that when I went home I +might tell my own people something about them. Shinondi and +another man, who understood Japanese, bowed, and (as on every +occasion) translated what I said into Aino for the venerable +group opposite. Shinondi then said “that he and +Shinrichi, the other Japanese speaker, would tell me all they +knew, but they were but young men, and only knew what was told to +them. They would speak what they believed to be true, but +the chief knew more than they, and when he came back he might +tell me differently, and then I should think that they had spoken +lies.” I said that no one who <a +name="page241"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 241</span>looked into +their faces could think that they ever told lies. They were +very much pleased, and waved their hands and stroked their beards +repeatedly. Before they told me anything they begged and +prayed that I would not inform the Japanese Government that they +had told me of their customs, or harm might come to them!</p> +<p>For the next two hours, and for two more after supper, I asked +them questions concerning their religion and customs, and again +yesterday for a considerable time, and this morning, after +Benri’s return, I went over the same subjects with him, and +have also employed a considerable time in getting about 300 words +from them, which I have spelt phonetically of course, and intend +to go over again when I visit the coast Ainos. <a +name="citation241"></a><a href="#footnote241" +class="citation">[241]</a></p> +<p>The process was slow, as both question and answer had to pass +through three languages. There was a very manifest desire +to tell the truth, and I think that their statements concerning +their few and simple customs may be relied upon. I shall +give what they told me separately when I have time to write out +my notes in an orderly manner. I can only say that I have +seldom spent a more interesting evening.</p> +<p>About nine the stew was ready, and the women ladled it into +lacquer bowls with wooden spoons. The men were served +first, but all ate together. Afterwards <i>saké</i>, +their curse, was poured into lacquer bowls, and across each bowl +a finely-carved “saké-<i>stick</i>” was +laid. These sticks are very highly prized. The bowls +were waved several times with an inward motion, then each man +took his stick and, dipping it into the <i>saké</i>, made +six libations to the fire and several to the +“god”—a wooden post, with a quantity of spiral +white shavings falling from near the top. The Ainos are not +affected by <i>saké</i> nearly so easily as the +Japanese. They took it cold, it is true, but each drank +about three times as much as would have made a <a +name="page242"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 242</span>Japanese +foolish, and it had no effect upon them. After two hours +more talk one after another got up and went out, making profuse +salutations to me and to the others. My candles had been +forgotten, and our <i>séance</i> was held by the fitful +light of the big logs on the fire, aided by a succession of chips +of birch bark, with which a woman replenished a cleft stick that +was stuck into the fire-hole. I never saw such a strangely +picturesque sight as that group of magnificent savages with the +fitful firelight on their faces, and for adjuncts the flare of +the torch, the strong lights, the blackness of the recesses of +the room and of the roof, at one end of which the stars looked +in, and the row of savage women in the background—eastern +savagery and western civilisation met in this hut, savagery +giving and civilisation receiving, the yellow-skinned Ito the +connecting-link between the two, and the representative of a +civilisation to which our own is but an “infant of +days.”</p> +<p>I found it very exciting, and when all had left crept out into +the starlight. The lodges were all dark and silent, and the +dogs, mild like their masters, took no notice of me. The +only sound was the rustle of a light breeze through the +surrounding forest. The verse came into my mind, “It +is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of +these little ones should perish.” Surely these simple +savages are children, as children to be judged; may we not hope +as children to be saved through Him who came “not to judge +the world, but to save the world”?</p> +<p>I crept back again and into my mosquito net, and suffered not +from fleas or mosquitoes, but from severe cold. Shinondi +conversed with Ito for some time in a low musical voice, having +previously asked if it would keep me from sleeping. No +Japanese ever intermitted his ceaseless chatter at any hour of +the night for a similar reason. Later, the chief’s +principal wife, Noma, stuck a triply-cleft stick in the +fire-hole, put a potsherd with a wick and some fish-oil upon it, +and by the dim light of this rude lamp sewed until midnight at a +garment of bark cloth which she was ornamenting for her lord with +strips of blue cloth, and when I opened my eyes the next morning +she was at the window sewing by the earliest daylight. She +is the most intelligent-looking of all the women, but looks sad +and almost stern, and speaks seldom. Although <a +name="page243"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 243</span>she is the +principal wife of the chief she is not happy, for she is +childless, and I thought that her sad look darkened into +something evil as the other wife caressed a fine baby boy. +Benri seems to me something of a brute, and the mother-in-law +obviously holds the reins of government pretty tight. After +sewing till midnight she swept the mats with a bunch of twigs, +and then crept into her bed behind a hanging mat. For a +moment in the stillness I felt a feeling of panic, as if I were +incurring a risk by being alone among savages, but I conquered +it, and, after watching the fire till it went out, fell asleep +till I was awoke by the severe cold of the next day’s +dawn.</p> +<h2><a name="page244"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +244</span>LETTER XXXVI.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Supposed Act of Worship—Parental +Tenderness—Morning Visits—Wretched +Cultivation—Honesty and Generosity—A +“Dug-out”—Female Occupations—The Ancient +Fate—A New Arrival—A Perilous Prescription—The +Shrine of Yoshitsuné—The Chief’s Return.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I crept from under my net much +benumbed with cold, there were about eleven people in the room, +who all made their graceful salutation. It did not seem as +if they had ever heard of washing, for, when water was asked for, +Shinondi brought a little in a lacquer bowl, and held it while I +bathed my face and hands, supposing the performance to be an act +of worship! I was about to throw some cold tea out of the +window by my bed when he arrested me with an anxious face, and I +saw, what I had not observed before, that there was a god at that +window—a stick with festoons of shavings hanging from it, +and beside it a dead bird. The Ainos have two meals a day, +and their breakfast was a repetition of the previous +night’s supper. We all ate together, and I gave the +children the remains of my rice, and it was most amusing to see +little creatures of three, four, and five years old, with no +other clothing than a piece of pewter hanging round their necks, +first formally asking leave of the parents before taking the +rice, and then waving their hands. The obedience of the +children is instantaneous. Their parents are more +demonstrative in their affection than the Japanese are, caressing +them a good deal, and two of the men are devoted to children who +are not their own. These little ones are as grave and +dignified as Japanese children, and are very gentle.</p> +<p>I went out soon after five, when the dew was glittering in the +sunshine, and the mountain hollow in which Biratori stands was +looking its very best, and the silence of the place, even <a +name="page245"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 245</span>though the +people were all astir, was as impressive as that of the night +before. What a strange life! knowing nothing, hoping +nothing, fearing a little, the need for clothes and food the one +motive principle, <i>saké</i> in abundance the one +good! How very few points of contact it is possible to +have! I was just thinking so when Shinondi met me, and took +me to his house to see if I could do anything for a child sorely +afflicted with skin disease, and his extreme tenderness for this +very loathsome object made me feel that human affections were the +same among them as with us. He had carried it on his back +from a village, five miles distant, that morning, in the hope +that it might be cured. As soon as I entered he laid a fine +mat on the floor, and covered the guest-seat with a +bearskin. After breakfast he took me to the lodge of the +sub-chief, the largest in the village, 45 feet square, and into +about twenty others all constructed in the same way, but some of +them were not more than 20 feet square. In all I was +received with the same courtesy, but a few of the people asked +Shinondi not to take me into their houses, as they did not want +me to see how poor they are. In every house there was the +low shelf with more or fewer curios upon it, but, besides these, +none but the barest necessaries of life, though the skins which +they sell or barter every year would enable them to surround +themselves with comforts, were it not that their gains represent +to them <i>saké</i>, and nothing else. They are not +nomads. On the contrary, they cling tenaciously to the +sites on which their fathers have lived and died. But +anything more deplorable than the attempts at cultivation which +surround their lodges could not be seen. The soil is little +better than white sand, on which without manure they attempt to +grow millet, which is to them in the place of rice, pumpkins, +onions, and tobacco; but the look of their plots is as if they +had been cultivated ten years ago, and some chance-sown grain and +vegetables had come up among the weeds. When nothing more +will grow, they partially clear another bit of forest, and +exhaust that in its turn.</p> +<p>In every house the same honour was paid to a guest. This +seems a savage virtue which is not strong enough to survive much +contact with civilisation. Before I entered one lodge the +woman brought several of the finer mats, and arranged <a +name="page246"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 246</span>them as a +pathway for me to walk to the fire upon. They will not +accept anything for lodging, or for anything that they give, so I +was anxious to help them by buying some of their handiwork, but +found even this a difficult matter. They were very anxious +to give, but when I desired to buy they said they did not wish to +part with their things. I wanted what they had in actual +use, such as a tobacco-box and pipe-sheath, and knives with +carved handles and scabbards, and for three of these I offered +2½ dollars. They said they did not care to sell +them, but in the evening they came saying they were not worth +more than 1 dollar 10 cents, and they would sell them for that; +and I could not get them to take more. They said it was +“not their custom.” I bought a bow and three +poisoned arrows, two reed-mats, with a diamond pattern on them in +reeds stained red, some knives with sheaths, and a bark cloth +dress. I tried to buy the <i>saké</i>-sticks with +which they make libations to their gods, but they said it was +“not their custom” to part with the +<i>saké</i>-stick of any living man; however, this morning +Shinondi has brought me, as a very valuable present, the stick of +a dead man! This morning the man who sold the arrows +brought two new ones, to replace two which were imperfect. +I found them, as Mr. Von Siebold had done, punctiliously honest +in all their transactions. They wear very large earrings +with hoops an inch and a half in diameter, a pair constituting +the dowry of an Aino bride; but they would not part with +these.</p> +<p>A house was burned down two nights ago, and +“custom” in such a case requires that all the men +should work at rebuilding it, so in their absence I got two boys +to take me in a “dug-out” as far as we could go up +the Sarufutogawa—a lovely river, which winds tortuously +through the forests and mountains in unspeakable +loveliness. I had much of the feeling of the ancient +mariner—</p> +<blockquote><p>“We were the first<br /> +Who ever burst<br /> + Into that silent sea.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>For certainly no European had ever previously floated on the +dark and forest-shrouded waters. I enjoyed those hours +thoroughly, for the silence was profound, and the faint blue <a +name="page247"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 247</span>of the +autumn sky, and the soft blue veil which +“spiritualised” the distances, were so exquisitely +like the Indian summer.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p247b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Aino Store-House" +title= +"Aino Store-House" + src="images/p247s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The evening was spent like the previous one, but the hearts of +the savages were sad, for there was no more <i>saké</i> in +Biratori, so they could not “drink to the god,” and +the fire and the post with the shavings had to go without +libations. There was no more oil, so after the strangers +retired the hut was in complete darkness.</p> +<p>Yesterday morning we all breakfasted soon after daylight, and +the able-bodied men went away to hunt. Hunting and fishing +are their occupations, and for “indoor recreation” +they <a name="page248"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +248</span>carve tobacco-boxes, knife-sheaths, +<i>saké</i>-sticks, and shuttles. It is quite +unnecessary for them to do anything; they are quite contented to +sit by the fire, and smoke occasionally, and eat and sleep, this +apathy being varied by spasms of activity when there is no more +dried flesh in the <i>kuras</i>, and when skins must be taken to +Sarufuto to pay for <i>saké</i>. The women seem +never to have an idle moment. They rise early to sew, +weave, and split bark, for they not only clothe themselves and +their husbands in this nearly indestructible cloth, but weave it +for barter, and the lower class of Japanese are constantly to be +seen wearing the product of Aino industry. They do all the +hard work, such as drawing water, chopping wood, grinding millet, +and cultivating the soil, after their fashion; but, to do the men +justice, I often see them trudging along carrying one and even +two children. The women take the exclusive charge of the +<i>kuras</i>, which are never entered by men.</p> +<p>I was left for some hours alone with the women, of whom there +were seven in the hut, with a few children. On the one side +of the fire the chief’s mother sat like a Fate, for ever +splitting and knotting bark, and petrifying me by her cold, +fateful eyes. Her thick, grey hair hangs in shocks, the +tattooing round her mouth has nearly faded, and no longer +disguises her really handsome features. She is dressed in a +much ornamented bark-cloth dress, and wears two silver beads tied +round her neck by a piece of blue cotton, in addition to very +large earrings. She has much sway in the house, sitting on +the men’s side of the fire, drinking plenty of +<i>saké</i>, and occasionally chiding her grandson +Shinondi for telling me too much, saying that it will bring harm +to her people. Though her expression is so severe and +forbidding, she is certainly very handsome, and it is a European, +not an Asiatic, beauty.</p> +<p>The younger women were all at work; two were seated on the +floor weaving without a loom, and the others were making and +mending the bark coats which are worn by both sexes. Noma, +the chief’s principal wife, sat apart, seldom +speaking. Two of the youngest women are very +pretty—as fair as ourselves, and their comeliness is of the +rosy, peasant kind. It turns out that two of them, though +they would not divulge it before men, speak Japanese, and they +prattled to Ito with great vivacity and merriment, the ancient +Fate <a name="page249"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +249</span>scowling at them the while from under her shaggy +eyebrows. I got a number of words from them, and they +laughed heartily at my erroneous pronunciation. They even +asked me a number of questions regarding their own sex among +ourselves, but few of these would bear repetition, and they +answered a number of mine. As the merriment increased the +old woman looked increasingly angry and restless, and at last +rated them sharply, as I have heard since, telling them that if +they spoke another word she should tell their husbands that they +had been talking to strangers. After this not another word +was spoken, and Noma, who is an industrious housewife, boiled +some millet into a mash for a mid-day lunch. During the +afternoon a very handsome young Aino, with a washed, +richly-coloured skin and fine clear eyes, came up from the coast, +where he had been working at the fishing. He saluted the +old woman and Benri’s wife on entering, and presented the +former with a gourd of <i>saké</i>, bringing a greedy +light into her eyes as she took a long draught, after which, +saluting me, he threw himself down in the place of honour by the +fire, with the easy grace of a staghound, a savage all +over. His name is Pipichari, and he is the chief’s +adopted son. He had cut his foot badly with a root, and +asked me to cure it, and I stipulated that it should be bathed +for some time in warm water before anything more was done, after +which I bandaged it with lint. He said “he did not +like me to touch his foot, it was not clean enough, my hands were +too white,” etc.; but when I had dressed it, and the pain +was much relieved, he bowed very low and then kissed my +hand! He was the only one among them all who showed the +slightest curiosity regarding my things. He looked at my +scissors, touched my boots, and watched me, as I wrote, with the +simple curiosity of a child. He could speak a little +Japanese, but he said he was “too young to tell me +anything, the older men would know.” He is a +“total abstainer” from <i>saké</i>, and he +says that there are four such besides himself among the large +number of Ainos who are just now at the fishing at Mombets, and +that the others keep separate from them, because they think that +the gods will be angry with them for not drinking.</p> +<p>Several “patients,” mostly children, were brought +in during the afternoon. Ito was much disgusted by my +interest in <a name="page250"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +250</span>these people, who, he repeated, “are just +dogs,” referring to their legendary origin, of which they +are not ashamed. His assertion that they have learned +politeness from the Japanese is simply baseless. Their +politeness, though of quite another and more manly stamp, is +savage, not civilised. The men came back at dark, the meal +was prepared, and we sat round the fire as before; but there was +no <i>saké</i>, except in the possession of the old woman; +and again the hearts of the savages were sad. I could +multiply instances of their politeness. As we were talking, +Pipichari, who is a very “untutored” savage, dropped +his coat from one shoulder, and at once Shinondi signed to him to +put it on again. Again, a woman was sent to a distant +village for some oil as soon as they heard that I usually burned +a light all night. Little acts of courtesy were constantly +being performed; but I really appreciated nothing more than the +quiet way in which they went on with the routine of their +ordinary lives.</p> +<p>During the evening a man came to ask if I would go and see a +woman who could hardly breathe; and I found her very ill of +bronchitis, accompanied with much fever. She was lying in a +coat of skins, tossing on the hard boards of her bed, with a +matting-covered roll under her head, and her husband was trying +to make her swallow some salt-fish. I took her dry, hot +hand—such a small hand, tattooed all over the +back—and it gave me a strange thrill. The room was +full of people, and they all seemed very sorry. A medical +missionary would be of little use here; but a medically-trained +nurse, who would give medicines and proper food, with proper +nursing, would save many lives and much suffering. It is of +no use to tell these people to do anything which requires to be +done more than once: they are just like children. I gave +her some chlorodyne, which she swallowed with difficulty, and +left another dose ready mixed, to give her in a few hours; but +about midnight they came to tell me that she was worse; and on +going I found her very cold and weak, and breathing very hard, +moving her head wearily from side to side. I thought she +could not live for many hours, and was much afraid that they +would think that I had killed her. I told them that I +thought she would die; but they urged me to do something more for +her, and as a last hope I gave her some brandy, <a +name="page251"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 251</span>with +twenty-five drops of chlorodyne, and a few spoonfuls of very +strong beef-tea. She was unable, or more probably +unwilling, to make the effort to swallow it, and I poured it down +her throat by the wild glare of strips of birch bark. An +hour later they came back to tell me that she felt as if she were +very drunk; but, going back to her house, I found that she was +sleeping quietly, and breathing more easily; and, creeping back +just at dawn, I found her still sleeping, and with her pulse +stronger and calmer. She is now decidedly better and quite +sensible, and her husband, the sub-chief, is much +delighted. It seems so sad that they have nothing fit for a +sick person’s food; and though I have made a bowl of +beef-tea with the remains of my stock, it can only last one +day.</p> +<p>I was so tired with these nocturnal expeditions and anxieties +that on lying down I fell asleep, and on waking found more than +the usual assemblage in the room, and the men were obviously agog +about something. They have a singular, and I hope an +unreasonable, fear of the Japanese Government. Mr. Von +Siebold thinks that the officials threaten and knock them about; +and this is possible; but I really think that the +<i>Kaitaikushi</i> Department means well by them, and, besides +removing the oppressive restrictions by which, as a conquered +race, they were fettered, treats them far more humanely and +equitably than the U.S. Government, for instance, treats the +North American Indians. However, they are ignorant; and one +of the men, who had been most grateful because I said I would get +Dr. Hepburn to send some medicine for his child, came this +morning and begged me not to do so, as, he said, “the +Japanese Government would be angry.” After this they +again prayed me not to tell the Japanese Government that they had +told me their customs and then they began to talk earnestly +together.</p> +<p>The sub-chief then spoke, and said that I had been kind to +their sick people, and they would like to show me their temple, +which had never been seen by any foreigner; but they were very +much afraid of doing so, and they asked me many times “not +to tell the Japanese Government that they showed it to me, lest +some great harm should happen to them.” The sub-chief +put on a sleeveless Japanese war-cloak to go up, and he, +Shinondi, Pipichari, and two others accompanied me. <a +name="page252"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 252</span>It was a +beautiful but very steep walk, or rather climb, to the top of an +abrupt acclivity beyond the village, on which the temple or +shrine stands. It would be impossible to get up were it not +for the remains of a wooden staircase, not of Aino +construction. Forest and mountain surround Biratori, and +the only breaks in the dense greenery are glints of the shining +waters of the Sarufutogawa, and the tawny roofs of the Aino +lodges. It is a lonely and a silent land, fitter for the +<i>hiding</i> place than the <i>dwelling</i> place of men.</p> +<p>When the splendid young savage, Pipichari, saw that I found it +difficult to get up, he took my hand and helped me up, as gently +as an English gentleman would have done; and when he saw that I +had greater difficulty in getting down, he all but insisted on my +riding down on his back, and certainly would have carried me had +not Benri, the chief, who arrived while we were at the shrine, +made an end of it by taking my hand and helping me down +himself. Their instinct of helpfulness to a foreign woman +strikes me as so odd, because they never show any courtesy to +their own women, whom they treat (though to a less extent than is +usual among savages) as inferior beings.</p> +<p>On the very edge of the cliff, at the top of the zigzag, +stands a wooden temple or shrine, such as one sees in any grove, +or on any high place on the main island, obviously of Japanese +construction, but concerning which Aino tradition is +silent. No European had ever stood where I stood, and there +was a solemnity in the knowledge. The sub-chief drew back +the sliding doors, and all bowed with much reverence, It was a +simple shrine of unlacquered wood, with a broad shelf at the +back, on which there was a small shrine containing a figure of +the historical hero Yoshitsuné, in a suit of inlaid brass +armour, some metal <i>gohei</i>, a pair of tarnished brass +candle-sticks, and a coloured Chinese picture representing a +junk. Here, then, I was introduced to the great god of the +mountain Ainos. There is something very pathetic in these +people keeping alive the memory of Yoshitsuné, not on +account of his martial exploits, but simply because their +tradition tells them that he was kind to them. They pulled +the bell three times to attract his attention, bowed three times, +and made six libations of <i>saké</i>, without which +ceremony he cannot be <a name="page253"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 253</span>approached. They asked me to +worship their god, but when I declined on the ground that I could +only worship my own God, the Lord of Earth and Heaven, of the +dead and of the living, they were too courteous to press their +request. As to Ito, it did not signify to him whether or +not he added another god to his already crowded Pantheon, and he +“worshipped,” i.e. bowed down, most willingly before +the great hero of his own, the conquering race.</p> +<p>While we were crowded there on the narrow ledge of the cliff, +Benri, the chief, arrived—a square-built, broad-shouldered, +elderly man, strong as an ox, and very handsome, but his +expression is not pleasing, and his eyes are bloodshot with +drinking. The others saluted him very respectfully, but I +noticed then and since that his manner is very arbitrary, and +that a blow not infrequently follows a word. He had sent a +message to his people by Ito that they were not to answer any +questions till he returned, but Ito very tactfully neither gave +it nor told me of it, and he was displeased with the young men +for having talked to me so much. His mother had evidently +“peached.” I like him less than any of his +tribe. He has some fine qualities, truthfulness among +others, but he has been contaminated by the four or five +foreigners that he has seen, and is a brute and a sot. The +hearts of his people are no longer sad, for there is +<i>saké</i> in every house to-night.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page254"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +254</span>LETTER XXXVII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Barrenness of Savage Life—Irreclaimable +Savages—The Aino Physique—Female +Comeliness—Torture and Ornament—Child +Life—Docility and Obedience.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Biratori</span>, +<span class="smcap">Yezo</span>, <i>August</i> 24.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">expected</span> to have written out my +notes on the Ainos in the comparative quiet and comfort of +Sarufuto, but the delay in Benri’s return, and the +non-arrival of the horses, have compelled me to accept Aino +hospitality for another night, which involves living on tea and +potatoes, for my stock of food is exhausted. In some +respects I am glad to remain longer, as it enables me to go over +my stock of words, as well as my notes, with the chief, who is +intelligent and it is a pleasure to find that his statements +confirm those which have been made by the young men. The +glamour which at first disguises the inherent barrenness of +savage life has had time to pass away, and I see it in all its +nakedness as a life not much raised above the necessities of +animal existence, timid, monotonous, barren of good, dark, dull, +“without hope, and without God in the world;” though +at its lowest and worst considerably higher and better than that +of many other aboriginal races, and—must I say +it?—considerably higher and better than that of thousands +of the lapsed masses of our own great cities who are baptized +into Christ’s name, and are laid at last in holy ground, +inasmuch as the Ainos are truthful, and, on the whole, chaste, +hospitable, honest, reverent, and kind to the aged. +Drinking, their great vice, is not, as among us, in antagonism to +their religion, but is actually a part of it, and as such would +be exceptionally difficult to eradicate.</p> +<p>The early darkness has once again come on, and once again the +elders have assembled round the fire in two long <a +name="page255"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 255</span>lines, with +the younger men at the ends, Pipichari, who yesterday sat in the +place of honour and was helped to food first as the newest +arrival, taking his place as the youngest at the end of the +right-hand row. The birch-bark chips beam with fitful +glare, the evening <i>saké</i> bowls are filled, the +fire-god and the garlanded god receive their libations, the +ancient woman, still sitting like a Fate, splits bark, and the +younger women knot it, and the log-fire lights up as magnificent +a set of venerable heads as painter or sculptor would desire to +see,—heads, full of—what? They have no history, +their traditions are scarcely worthy the name, they claim descent +from a dog, their houses and persons swarm with vermin, they are +sunk in the grossest ignorance, they have no letters or any +numbers above a thousand, they are clothed in the bark of trees +and the untanned skins of beasts, they worship the bear, the sun, +moon, fire, water, and I know not what, they are uncivilisable +and altogether irreclaimable savages, yet they are attractive, +and in some ways fascinating, and I hope I shall never forget the +music of their low, sweet voices, the soft light of their mild, +brown eyes, and the wonderful sweetness of their smile.</p> +<p>After the yellow skins, the stiff horse hair, the feeble +eyelids, the elongated eyes, the sloping eyebrows, the flat +noses, the sunken chests, the Mongolian features, the puny +physique, the shaky walk of the men, the restricted totter of the +women, and the general impression of degeneracy conveyed by the +appearance of the Japanese, the Ainos make a very singular +impression. All but two or three that I have seen are the +most ferocious-looking of savages, with a physique vigorous +enough for carrying out the most ferocious intentions, but as +soon as they speak the countenance brightens into a smile as +gentle as that of a woman, something which can never be +forgotten.</p> +<p>The men are about the middle height, broad-chested, +broad-shouldered, “thick set,” very strongly built, +the arms and legs short, thick, and muscular, the hands and feet +large. The bodies, and specially the limbs, of many are +covered with short bristly hair. I have seen two boys whose +backs are covered with fur as fine and soft as that of a +cat. The heads and faces are very striking. The +foreheads are very high, broad, and prominent, and at first sight +give one the impression <a name="page256"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 256</span> +<a href="images/p256b.jpg"> +<img class='clearcenter' alt= +"Ainos of Yezo" +title= +"Ainos of Yezo" + src="images/p256s.jpg" /> +</a><a name="page257"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 257</span>of +an unusual capacity for intellectual development; the ears are +small and set low; the noses are straight but short, and broad at +the nostrils; the mouths are wide but well formed; and the lips +rarely show a tendency to fulness. The neck is short, the +cranium rounded, the cheek-bones low, and the lower part of the +face is small as compared with the upper, the peculiarity called +a “jowl” being unknown. The eyebrows are full, +and form a straight line nearly across the face. The eyes +are large, tolerably deeply set, and very beautiful, the colour a +rich liquid brown, the expression singularly soft, and the +eyelashes long, silky, and abundant. The skin has the +Italian olive tint, but in most cases is thin, and light enough +to show the changes of colour in the cheek. The teeth are +small, regular, and very white; the incisors and “eye +teeth” are not disproportionately large, as is usually the +case among the Japanese; there is no tendency towards +prognathism; and the fold of integument which conceals the upper +eyelids of the Japanese is never to be met with. The +features, expression, and aspect, are European rather than +Asiatic.</p> +<p>The “ferocious savagery” of the appearance of the +men is produced by a profusion of thick, soft, black hair, +divided in the middle, and falling in heavy masses nearly to the +shoulders. Out of doors it is kept from falling over the +face by a fillet round the brow. The beards are equally +profuse, quite magnificent, and generally wavy, and in the case +of the old men they give a truly patriarchal and venerable +aspect, in spite of the yellow tinge produced by smoke and want +of cleanliness. The savage look produced by the masses of +hair and beard, and the thick eyebrows, is mitigated by the +softness in the dreamy brown eyes, and is altogether obliterated +by the exceeding sweetness of the smile, which belongs in greater +or less degree to all the rougher sex.</p> +<p>I have measured the height of thirty of the adult men of this +village, and it ranges from 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6½ +inches. The circumference of the heads averages 22.1 +inches, and the arc, from ear to ear, 13 inches. According +to Mr. Davies, the average weight of the Aino adult masculine +brain, ascertained by measurement of Aino skulls, is 45.90 ounces +avoirdupois, a brain weight said to exceed that of all the races, +Hindoo and Mussulman, on the Indian plains, and that of <a +name="page258"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 258</span>the +aboriginal races of India and Ceylon, and is only paralleled by +that of the races of the Himalayas, the Siamese, and the Chinese +Burmese. Mr. Davies says, further, that it exceeds the mean +brain weight of Asiatic races in general. Yet with all this +the Ainos are a stupid people!</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p258b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"An Aino Patriarch" +title= +"An Aino Patriarch" + src="images/p258s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Passing travellers who have seen a few of the Aino women on +the road to Satsuporo speak of them as very ugly, but as making +amends for their ugliness by their industry and conjugal +fidelity. Of the latter there is no doubt, but I am not <a +name="page259"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 259</span>disposed to +admit the former. The ugliness is certainly due to art and +dirt. The Aino women seldom exceed five feet and half an +inch in height, but they are beautifully formed, straight, lithe, +and well-developed, with small feet and hands, well-arched +insteps, rounded limbs, well-developed busts, and a firm, elastic +gait. Their heads and faces are small; but the hair, which +falls in masses on each side of the face like that of the men, is +equally redundant. They have superb teeth, and display them +liberally in smiling. Their mouths are somewhat wide, but +well formed, and they have a ruddy comeliness about them which is +pleasing, in spite of the disfigurement of the band which is +tattooed both above and below the mouth, and which, by being +united at the corners, enlarges its apparent size and +width. A girl at Shiraôi, who, for some reason, has +not been subjected to this process, is the most beautiful +creature in features, colouring, and natural grace of form, that +I have seen for a long time. Their complexions are lighter +than those of the men. There are not many here even as dark +as our European brunettes. A few unite the eyebrows by a +streak of tattooing, so as to produce a straight line. Like +the men, they cut their hair short for two or three inches above +the nape of the neck, but instead of using a fillet they take two +locks from the front and tie them at the back.</p> +<p>They are universally tattooed, not only with the broad band +above and below the mouth, but with a band across the knuckles, +succeeded by an elaborate pattern on the back of the hand, and a +series of bracelets extending to the elbow. The process of +disfigurement begins at the age of five, when some of the +sufferers are yet unweaned. I saw the operation performed +on a dear little bright girl this morning. A woman took a +large knife with a sharp edge, and rapidly cut several horizontal +lines on the upper lip, following closely the curve of the very +pretty mouth, and before the slight bleeding had ceased carefully +rubbed in some of the shiny soot which collects on the mat above +the fire. In two or three days the scarred lip will be +washed with the decoction of the bark of a tree to fix the +pattern, and give it that blue look which makes many people +mistake it for a daub of paint. A child who had this second +process performed yesterday has her lip fearfully swollen and +inflamed. The latest victim held her <a +name="page260"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 260</span>hands +clasped tightly together while the cuts were inflicted, but never +cried. The pattern on the lips is deepened and widened +every year up to the time of marriage, and the circles on the arm +are extended in a similar way. The men cannot give any +reason for the universality of this custom. It is an old +custom, they say, and part of their religion, and no woman could +marry without it. Benri fancies that the Japanese custom of +blackening the teeth is equivalent to it; but he is mistaken, as +that ceremony usually succeeds marriage. They begin to +tattoo the arms when a girl is five or six, and work from the +elbow downwards. They expressed themselves as very much +grieved and tormented by the recent prohibition of +tattooing. They say the gods will be angry, and that the +women can’t marry unless they are tattooed; and they +implored both Mr. Von Siebold and me to intercede with the +Japanese Government on their behalf in this respect. They +are less apathetic on this than on any subject, and repeat +frequently, “It’s a part of our religion.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p260b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Tattooed Female Hand" +title= +"Tattooed Female Hand" + src="images/p260s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The children are very pretty and attractive, and their faces +give promise of an intelligence which is lacking in those of the +adults. They are much loved, and are caressing as well as +caressed. The infants of the mountain Ainos have seeds of +millet put into their mouths as soon as they are born, and those +of the coast Ainos a morsel of salt-fish; and whatever be the +hour of birth, “custom” requires that they shall not +be fed until a night has passed. They are not weaned until +they are at least three years old. Boys are preferred to +girls, but both are highly valued, and a childless wife may be +divorced.</p> +<p>Children do not receive names till they are four or five years +<a name="page261"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 261</span>old, and +then the father chooses a name by which his child is afterwards +known. Young children when they travel are either carried +on their mothers’ backs in a net, or in the back of the +loose garment; but in both cases the weight is mainly supported +by a broad band which passes round the woman’s +forehead. When men carry them they hold them in their +arms. The hair of very young children is shaven, and from +about five to fifteen the boys wear either a large tonsure or +tufts above the ears, while the girls are allowed to grow hair +all over their heads.</p> +<p>Implicit and prompt obedience is required from infancy; and +from a very early age the children are utilised by being made to +fetch and carry and go on messages. I have seen children +apparently not more than two years old sent for wood; and even at +this age they are so thoroughly trained in the observances of +etiquette that babies just able to walk never toddle into or out +of this house without formal salutations to each person within +it, the mother alone excepted. They don’t wear any +clothing till they are seven or eight years old, and are then +dressed like their elders. Their manners to their parents +are very affectionate. Even to-day, in the chief’s +awe-inspiring presence, one dear little nude creature, who had +been sitting quietly for two hours staring into the fire with her +big brown eyes, rushed to meet her mother when she entered, and +threw her arms round her, to which the woman responded by a look +of true maternal tenderness and a kiss. These little +creatures, in the absolute unconsciousness of innocence, with +their beautiful faces, olive-tinted bodies,—all the darker, +sad to say, from dirt,—their perfect docility, and absence +of prying curiosity, are very bewitching. They all wear +silver or pewter ornaments tied round their necks by a wisp of +blue cotton.</p> +<p>Apparently the ordinary infantile maladies, such as +whooping-cough and measles, do not afflict the Ainos fatally; but +the children suffer from a cutaneous affection, which wears off +as they reach the age of ten or eleven years, as well as from +severe toothache with their first teeth.</p> +<h2><a name="page262"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +262</span>LETTER XXXVII.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Aino Clothing—Holiday +Dress—Domestic Architecture—Household +Gods—Japanese Curios—The Necessaries of +Life—Clay Soup—Arrow +Poison—Arrow-Traps—Female Occupations—Bark +Cloth—The Art of Weaving.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Aino</span> clothing, for savages, is +exceptionally good. In the winter it consists of one, two, +or more coats of skins, with hoods of the same, to which the men +add rude moccasins when they go out hunting. In summer they +wear kimonos, or loose coats, made of cloth woven from the split +bark of a forest tree. This is a durable and beautiful +fabric in various shades of natural buff, and somewhat resembles +what is known to fancy workers as “Panama +canvas.” Under this a skin or bark-cloth vest may or +may not be worn. The men wear these coats reaching a little +below the knees, folded over from right to left, and confined at +the waist by a narrow girdle of the same cloth, to which is +attached a rude, dagger-shaped knife, with a carved and engraved +wooden handle and sheath. Smoking is by no means a general +practice; consequently the pipe and tobacco-box are not, as with +the Japanese, a part of ordinary male attire. +Tightly-fitting leggings, either of bark-cloth or skin, are worn +by both sexes, but neither shoes nor sandals. The coat worn +by the women reaches half-way between the knees and ankles, and +is quite loose and without a girdle. It is fastened the +whole way up to the collar-bone; and not only is the Aino woman +completely covered, but she will not change one garment for +another except alone or in the dark. Lately a Japanese +woman at Sarufuto took an Aino woman into her house, and insisted +on her taking a bath, which she absolutely refused to do till the +bath-house had been made quite private by means of screens. +On the Japanese <a name="page263"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +263</span>woman going back a little later to see what had become +of her, she found her sitting in the water in her clothes; and on +being remonstrated with, she said that the gods would be angry if +they saw her without clothes!</p> +<p>Many of the garments for holiday occasions are exceedingly +handsome, being decorated with “geometrical” +patterns, in which the “Greek fret” takes part, in +coarse blue cotton, braided most dexterously with scarlet and +white thread. Some of the handsomest take half a year to +make. The masculine dress is completed by an apron of +oblong shape decorated in the same elaborate manner. These +handsome savages, with their powerful physique, look remarkably +well in their best clothes. I have not seen a boy or girl +above nine who is not thoroughly clothed. The +“jewels” of the women are large, hoop earrings of +silver or pewter, with attachments of a classical pattern, and +silver neck ornaments, and a few have brass bracelets soldered +upon their arms. The women have a perfect passion for every +hue of red, and I have made friends with them by dividing among +them a large turkey-red silk handkerchief, strips of which are +already being utilised for the ornamenting of coats.</p> +<p>The houses in the five villages up here are very good. +So they are at Horobets, but at Shiraôi, where the +aborigines suffer from the close proximity of several grog shops, +they are inferior. They differ in many ways from any that I +have before seen, approaching most nearly to the grass houses of +the natives of Hawaii. Custom does not appear to permit +either of variety or innovations; in all the style is the same, +and the difference consists in the size and plenishings. +The dwellings seem ill-fitted for a rigorous climate, but the +same thing may be said of those of the Japanese. In their +houses, as in their faces, the Ainos are more European than their +conquerors, as they possess doorways, windows, central +fireplaces, like those of the Highlanders of Scotland, and raised +sleeping-places.</p> +<p>The usual appearance is that of a small house built on at the +end of a larger one. The small house is the vestibule or +ante-room, and is entered by a low doorway screened by a heavy +mat of reeds. It contains the large wooden mortar and +pestle with two ends, used for pounding millet, a wooden +receptacle <a name="page264"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +264</span>for millet, nets or hunting gear, and some bundles of +reeds for repairing roof or walls. This room never contains +a window. From it the large room is entered by a doorway, +over which a heavy reed-mat, bound with hide, invariably +hangs. This room in Benri’s case is 35 feet long by +25 feet broad, another is 45 feet square, the smallest measures +20 feet by 15. On entering, one is much impressed by the +great height and steepness of the roof, altogether out of +proportion to the height of the walls.</p> +<p>The frame of the house is of posts, 4 feet 10 inches high, +placed 4 feet apart, and sloping slightly inwards. The +height of the walls is apparently regulated by that of the reeds, +of which only one length is used, and which never exceed 4 feet +10 inches. The posts are scooped at the top, and heavy +poles, resting on the scoops, are laid along them to form the top +of the wall. The posts are again connected twice by +slighter poles tied on horizontally. The wall is double; +the outer part being formed of reeds tied very neatly to the +framework in small, regular bundles, the inner layer or wall +being made of reeds attached singly. From the top of the +pole, which is secured to the top of the posts, the framework of +the roof rises to a height of twenty-two feet, made, like the +rest, of poles tied to a heavy and roughly-hewn ridge-beam. +At one end under the ridge-beam there is a large triangular +aperture for the exit of smoke. Two very stout, +roughly-hewn beams cross the width of the house, resting on the +posts of the wall, and on props let into the floor, and a number +of poles are laid at the same height, by means of which a +secondary roof formed of mats can be at once extemporised, but +this is only used for guests. These poles answer the same +purpose as shelves. Very great care is bestowed upon the +outside of the roof, which is a marvel of neatness and +prettiness, and has the appearance of a series of frills being +thatched in ridges. The ridge-pole is very thickly covered, +and the thatch both there and at the corners is elaborately laced +with a pattern in strong peeled twigs. The poles, which, +for much of the room, run from wall to wall, compel one to stoop, +to avoid fracturing one’s skull, and bringing down spears, +bows and arrows, arrow-traps, and other primitive property. +The roof and rafters are black and shiny from wood smoke. +Immediately under them, at one <a name="page265"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 265</span>end and one side, are small, square +windows, which are closed at night by wooden shutters, which +during the day-time hang by ropes. Nothing is a greater +insult to an Aino than to look in at his window.</p> +<p>On the left of the doorway is invariably a fixed wooden +platform, eighteen inches high, and covered with a single mat, +which is the sleeping-place. The pillows are small stiff +bolsters, covered with ornamental matting. If the family be +large there are several of these sleeping platforms. A pole +runs horizontally at a fitting distance above the outside edge of +each, over which mats are thrown to conceal the sleepers from the +rest of the room. The inside half of these mats is plain, +but the outside, which is seen from the room, has a diamond +pattern woven into it in dull reds and browns. The whole +floor is covered with a very coarse reed-mat, with interstices +half an inch wide. The fireplace, which is six feet long, +is oblong. Above it, on a very black and elaborate +framework, hangs a very black and shiny mat, whose superfluous +soot forms the basis of the stain used in tattooing, and whose +apparent purpose is to prevent the smoke ascending, and to +diffuse it equally throughout the room. From this framework +depends the great cooking-pot, which plays a most important part +in Aino economy.</p> +<p>Household gods form an essential part of the furnishing of +every house. In this one, at the left of the entrance, +there are ten white wands, with shavings depending from the upper +end, stuck in the wall; another projects from the window which +faces the sunrise, and the great god—a white post, two feet +high, with spirals of shavings depending from the top—is +always planted in the floor, near the wall, on the left side, +opposite the fire, between the platform bed of the householder +and the low, broad shelf placed invariably on the same side, and +which is a singular feature of all Aino houses, coast and +mountain, down to the poorest, containing, as it does, Japanese +curios, many of them very valuable objects of antique art, though +much destroyed by damp and dust. They are true curiosities +in the dwellings of these northern aborigines, and look almost +solemn ranged against the wall. In this house there are +twenty-four lacquered urns, or tea-chests, or seats, each +standing two feet high on four small legs, shod with engraved <a +name="page266"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 266</span>or filigree +brass. Behind these are eight lacquered tubs, and a number +of bowls and lacquer trays, and above are spears with inlaid +handles, and fine Kaga and Awata bowls. The lacquer is +good, and several of the urns have <i>daimiyô’s</i> +crests in gold upon them. One urn and a large covered bowl +are beautifully inlaid with Venus’ ear. The great +urns are to be seen in every house, and in addition there are +suits of inlaid armour, and swords with inlaid hilts, engraved +blades, and <i>répoussé</i> scabbards, for which a +collector would give almost anything. No offers, however +liberal, can tempt them to sell any of these antique +possessions. “They were presents,” they say in +their low, musical voices; “they were presents from those +who were kind to our fathers; no, we cannot sell them; they were +presents.” And so gold lacquer, and pearl inlaying, +and gold niello-work, and <i>daimiyô’s</i> crests in +gold, continue to gleam in the smoky darkness of their +huts. Some of these <a name="page267"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 267</span>things were doubtless gifts to their +fathers when they went to pay tribute to the representative of +the Shôgun and the Prince of Matsumæ, soon after the +conquest of Yezo. Others were probably gifts from +<i>samurai</i>, who took refuge here during the rebellion, and +some must have been obtained by barter. They are the one +possession which they will not barter for <i>saké</i>, and +are only parted with in payment of fines at the command of a +chief, or as the dower of a girl.</p> +<p> +<a href="images/p266b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Aino Gods" +title= +"Aino Gods" + src="images/p266s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p><a name="page268"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +268</span>Except in the poorest houses, where the people can only +afford to lay down a mat for a guest, they cover the coarse mat +with fine ones on each side of the fire. These mats and the +bark-cloth are really their only manufactures. They are +made of fine reeds, with a pattern in dull reds or browns, and +are 14 feet long by 3 feet 6 inches wide. It takes a woman +eight days to make one of them. In every house there are +one or two movable platforms 6 feet by 4 and 14 inches high, +which are placed at the head of the fireplace, and on which +guests sit and sleep on a bearskin or a fine mat. In many +houses there are broad seats a few inches high, on which the +elder men sit cross-legged, as their custom is, not squatting +Japanese fashion on the heels. A water-tub always rests on +a stand by the door, and the dried fish and venison or bear for +daily use hang from the rafters, as well as a few skins. +Besides these things there are a few absolute +necessaries,—lacquer or wooden bowls for food and +<i>saké</i>, a chopping-board and rude chopping-knife, a +cleft-stick for burning strips of birch-bark, a triply-cleft +stick for supporting the potsherd in which, on rare occasions, +they burn a wick with oil, the component parts of their rude +loom, the bark of which they make their clothes, the reeds of +which they make their mats,—and the inventory of the +essentials of their life is nearly complete. No iron enters +into the construction of their houses, its place being supplied +by a remarkably tenacious fibre.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p267b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Plan of an Aino House" +title= +"Plan of an Aino House" + src="images/p267s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>I have before described the preparation of their food, which +usually consists of a stew “of abominable +things.” They eat salt and fresh fish, dried fish, +seaweed, slugs, the various vegetables which grow in the +wilderness of tall weeds which surrounds their villages, wild +roots and berries, fresh and dried venison and bear; their +carnival consisting of fresh bear’s flesh and +<i>saké</i>, seaweed, mushrooms, and anything they can +get, in fact, which is not poisonous, mixing everything up +together. They use a wooden spoon for stirring, and eat +with chopsticks. They have only two regular meals a day, +but eat very heartily. In addition to the eatables just +mentioned they have a thick soup made from a putty-like clay +which is found in one or two of the valleys. This is boiled +with the bulb of a wild lily, and, after much of the clay has +been allowed to settle, the liquid, which is very thick, is +poured off. In the north, a <a name="page269"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 269</span>valley where this earth is found is +called Tsie-toi-nai, literally +“eat-earth-valley.”</p> +<p>The men spend the autumn, winter, and spring in hunting deer +and bears. Part of their tribute or taxes is paid in skins, +and they subsist on the dried meat. Up to about this time +the Ainos have obtained these beasts by means of poisoned arrows, +arrow-traps, and pitfalls, but the Japanese Government has +prohibited the use of poison and arrow-traps, and these men say +that hunting is becoming extremely difficult, as the wild animals +are driven back farther and farther into the mountains by the +sound of the guns. However, they add significantly, +“the eyes of the Japanese Government are not in every +place!”</p> +<p>Their bows are only three feet long, and are made of stout +saplings with the bark on, and there is no attempt to render them +light or shapely at the ends. The wood is singularly +inelastic. The arrows (of which I have obtained a number) +are very peculiar, and are made in three pieces, the point +consisting of a sharpened piece of bone with an elongated cavity +on one side for the reception of the poison. This point or +head is very slightly fastened by a lashing of bark to a fusiform +piece of bone about four inches long, which is in its turn lashed +to a shaft about fourteen inches long, the other end of which is +sometimes equipped with a triple feather and sometimes is +not.</p> +<p>The poison is placed in the elongated cavity in the head in a +very soft state, and hardens afterwards. In some of the +arrow-heads fully half a teaspoonful of the paste is +inserted. From the nature of the very slight lashings which +attach the arrow-head to the shaft, it constantly remains fixed +in the slight wound that it makes, while the shaft falls off.</p> +<p>Pipichari has given me a small quantity of the poisonous +paste, and has also taken me to see the plant from the root of +which it is made, the <i>Aconitum Japonicum</i>, a monkshood, +whose tall spikes of blue flowers are brightening the brushwood +in all directions. The root is pounded into a pulp, mixed +with a reddish earth like an iron ore pulverised, and again with +animal fat, before being placed in the arrow. It has been +said that the poison is prepared for use by being buried in the +earth, but Benri says that this is needless. They claim for +it <a name="page270"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 270</span>that +a single wound kills a bear in ten minutes, but that the flesh is +not rendered unfit for eating, though they take the precaution of +cutting away a considerable quantity of it round the wound.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p270b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Weaver’s Shuttle" +title= +"Weaver’s Shuttle" + src="images/p270s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Dr. Eldridge, formerly of Hakodaté, obtained a small +quantity of the poison, and, after trying some experiments with +it, came to the conclusion that it is less virulent than other +poisons employed for a like purpose, as by the natives of Java, +the Bushmen, and certain tribes of the Amazon and Orinoco. +The Ainos say that if a man is accidentally wounded by a poisoned +arrow the only cure is immediate excision of the part.</p> +<p>I do not wonder that the Government has prohibited +arrow-traps, for they made locomotion unsafe, and it is still +unsafe a little farther north, where the hunters are more out of +observation than here. The traps consist of a large bow +with a poisoned arrow, fixed in such a way that when the bear +walks over a cord which is attached to it he is simultaneously +transfixed. I have seen as many as fifty in one +house. The simple contrivance for inflicting this silent +death is most ingenious.</p> +<p>The women are occupied all day, as I have before said. +They look cheerful, and even merry when they smile, and are not +like the Japanese, prematurely old, partly perhaps because their +houses are well ventilated, and the use of charcoal is +unknown. I do not think that they undergo the unmitigated +drudgery which falls to the lot of most savage women, though they +work hard. The men do not like them to speak to strangers, +however, and say that their place is to work and <a +name="page271"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 271</span>rear +children. They eat of the same food, and at the same time +as the men, laugh and talk before them, and receive equal support +and respect in old age. They sell mats and bark-cloth in +the piece, and made up, when they can, and their husbands do not +take their earnings from them. All Aino women understand +the making of bark-cloth. The men bring in the bark in +strips, five feet long, having removed the outer coating. +This inner bark is easily separated into several thin layers, +which are split into very narrow strips by the older women, very +neatly knotted, and wound into balls weighing about a pound +each. No preparation of either the bark or the thread is +required to fit it for weaving, but I observe that some of the +women steep it in a decoction of a bark which produces a brown +dye to deepen the buff tint.</p> +<p>The loom is so simple that I almost fear to represent it as +complicated by description. It consists of a stout hook +fixed in the floor, to which the threads of the far end of the +web are secured, a cord fastening the near end to the waist of +the worker, who supplies, by dexterous rigidity, the necessary +tension; a frame like a comb resting on the ankles, through which +the threads pass, a hollow roll for keeping the upper and under +threads separate, a spatula-shaped shuttle of engraved wood, and +a roller on which the cloth is rolled as it is made. The +length of the web is fifteen feet, and the width of the cloth +fifteen inches. It is woven with great regularity, and the +knots in the thread are carefully kept on the under side. <a +name="citation271"></a><a href="#footnote271" +class="citation">[271]</a> It is a very slow and fatiguing +process, and a woman cannot do much more than a foot a day. +The weaver sits on the floor with the whole arrangement attached +to her waist, and the loom, if such it may be called, on her +ankles. It takes long practice before she can supply the +necessary tension by spinal rigidity. As the work proceeds +she drags herself almost imperceptibly nearer the hook. In +this house and other large ones two or three women bring in their +webs in the morning, fix their hooks, and weave all day, while +others, who have not equal advantages, put their hooks in the +ground and weave in the sunshine. The web and loom can be +bundled up in two <a name="page272"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +272</span>minutes, and carried away quite as easily as a knitted +soft blanket. It is the simplest and perhaps the most +primitive form of hand-loom, and comb, shuttle, and roll, are all +easily fashioned with an ordinary knife.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p272b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"A Hiogo Buddha" +title= +"A Hiogo Buddha" + src="images/p272s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page273"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +273</span>LETTER XXXVII.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Simple Nature-Worship—Aino +Gods—A Festival Song—Religious +Intoxication—Bear-Worship—The Annual +Saturnalia—The Future State—Marriage and +Divorce—Musical Instruments—Etiquette—The +Chieftainship—Death and Burial—Old Age—Moral +Qualities.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> cannot be anything more vague +and destitute of cohesion than Aino religious notions. With +the exception of the hill shrines of Japanese construction +dedicated to Yoshitsuné, they have no temples, and they +have neither priests, sacrifices, nor worship. Apparently +through all traditional time their <i>cultus</i> has been the +rudest and most primitive form of nature-worship, the attaching +of a vague sacredness to trees, rivers, rocks, and mountains, and +of vague notions of power for good or evil to the sea, the +forest, the fire, and the sun and moon. I cannot make out +that they possess a trace of the deification of ancestors, though +their rude nature worship may well have been the primitive form +of Japanese Shintô. The solitary exception to their +adoration of animate and inanimate nature appears to be the +reverence paid to Yoshitsuné, to whom they believe they +are greatly indebted, and who, it is supposed by some, will yet +interfere on their behalf. <a name="citation273"></a><a +href="#footnote273" class="citation">[273]</a> Their +gods—that is, the outward symbols of their <a +name="page274"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 274</span>religion, +corresponding most likely with the Shintô +<i>gohei</i>—are wands and posts of peeled wood, whittled +nearly to the top, from which the pendent shavings fall down in +white curls. These are not only set up in their houses, +sometimes to the number of twenty, but on precipices, banks of +rivers and streams, and mountain-passes, and such wands are +thrown into the rivers as the boatmen descend rapids and +dangerous places. Since my baggage horse fell over an +acclivity on the trail from Sarufuto, four such wands have been +placed there. It is nonsense to write of the religious +ideas of a people who have none, and of beliefs among people who +are merely adult children. The traveller who formulates an +Aino creed must “evolve it from his inner +consciousness.” I have taken infinite trouble to +learn from themselves what their religious notions are, and +Shinondi tells me that they have told me all they know, and the +whole sum is a few vague fears and hopes, and a suspicion that +there are things outside themselves more powerful than +themselves, whose good influences may be obtained, or whose evil +influences may be averted, by libations of +<i>saké</i>.</p> +<p>The word worship is in itself misleading. When I use it +of these savages it simply means libations of <i>saké</i>, +waving bowls and waving hands, without any spiritual act of +deprecation or supplication. In such a sense and such alone +they worship the sun and moon (but not the stars), the forest, +and the sea. The wolf, the black snake, the owl, and +several other beasts and birds have the word <i>kamoi</i>, god, +attached to them, as the wolf is the “howling god,” +the owl “the bird of the gods,” a black snake the +“raven god;” but none of these things are now +“worshipped,” wolf-worship having quite lately died +out. Thunder, “the voice of the gods,” inspires +some fear. The sun, they say, is their best god, and the +fire their next best, obviously the divinities from whom their +greatest <a name="page275"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +275</span>benefits are received. Some idea of gratitude +pervades their rude notions, as in the case of the +“worship” paid to Yoshitsuné, and it appears +in one of the rude recitations chanted at the Saturnalia which in +several places conclude the hunting and fishing +seasons:—</p> +<p>“To the sea which nourishes us, to the forest which +protects us, we present our grateful thanks. You are two +mothers that nourish the same child; do not be angry if we leave +one to go to the other.</p> +<p>“The Ainos will always be the pride of the forest and of +the sea.”</p> +<p>The solitary act of sacrifice which they perform is the +placing of a worthless, dead bird, something like a sparrow, near +one of their peeled wands, where it is left till it reaches an +advanced stage of putrefaction. “To drink for the +god” is the chief act of “worship,” and thus +drunkenness and religion are inseparably connected, as the more +<i>saké</i> the Ainos drink the more devout they are, and +the better pleased are the gods. It does not appear that +anything but <i>saké</i> is of sufficient value to please +the gods. The libations to the fire and the peeled post are +never omitted, and are always accompanied by the inward waving of +the <i>saké</i> bowls.</p> +<p>The peculiarity which distinguishes this rude mythology is the +“worship” of the bear, the Yezo bear being one of the +finest of his species; but it is impossible to understand the +feelings by which it is prompted, for they worship it after their +fashion, and set up its head in their villages, yet they trap it, +kill it, eat it, and sell its skin. There is no doubt that +this wild beast inspires more of the feeling which prompts +worship than the inanimate forces of nature, and the Ainos may be +distinguished as bear-worshippers, and their greatest religious +festival or Saturnalia as the Festival of the Bear. Gentle +and peaceable as they are, they have a great admiration for +fierceness and courage; and the bear, which is the strongest, +fiercest, and most courageous animal known to them, has probably +in all ages inspired them with veneration. Some of their +rude chants are in praise of the bear, and their highest eulogy +on a man is to compare him to a bear. Thus Shinondi said of +Benri, the chief, “He is as strong as a bear,” and +the old Fate praising Pipichari called him “The young +bear.”</p> +<p><a name="page276"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 276</span>In +all Aino villages, specially near the chief’s house, there +are several tall poles with the fleshless skull of a bear on the +top of each, and in most there is also a large cage, made +grid-iron fashion, of stout timbers, and raised two or three feet +from the ground. At the present time such cages contain +young but well-grown bears, captured when quite small in the +early spring. After the capture the bear cub is introduced +into a dwelling-house, generally that of the chief, or sub-chief, +where it is suckled by a woman, and played with by the children, +till it grows too big and rough for domestic ways, and is placed +in a strong cage, in which it is fed and cared for, as I +understand, till the autumn of the following year, when, being +strong and well-grown, the Festival of the Bear is +celebrated. The customs of this festival vary considerably, +and the manner of the bear’s death differs among the +mountain and coast Ainos, but everywhere there is a general +gathering of the people, and it is the occasion of a great feast, +accompanied with much <i>saké</i> and a curious dance, in +which men alone take part.</p> +<p>Yells and shouts are used to excite the bear, and when he +becomes much agitated a chief shoots him with an arrow, +inflicting a slight wound which maddens him, on which the bars of +the cage are raised, and he springs forth, very furious. At +this stage the Ainos run upon him with various weapons, each one +striving to inflict a wound, as it brings good luck to draw his +blood. As soon as he falls down exhausted, his head is cut +off, and the weapons with which he has been wounded are offered +to it, and he is asked to avenge himself upon them. +Afterwards the carcass, amidst a frenzied uproar, is distributed +among the people, and amidst feasting and riot the head, placed +upon a pole, is worshipped, i.e. it receives libations of +<i>saké</i>, and the festival closes with general +intoxication. In some villages it is customary for the +foster-mother of the bear to utter piercing wails while he is +delivered to his murderers, and after he is slain to beat each +one of them with a branch of a tree. [Afterwards at Usu, on +Volcano Bay, the old men told me that at their festival they +despatch the bear after a different manner. On letting it +loose from the cage two men seize it by the ears, and others +simultaneously place a long, stout pole across the nape of its +neck, upon which a <a name="page277"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +277</span>number of Ainos mount, and after a prolonged struggle +the neck is broken. As the bear is seen to approach his +end, they shout in chorus, “We kill you, O bear! come back +soon into an Aino.”] When a bear is trapped or +wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic or +propitiatory ceremony. They appear to have certain rude +ideas of metempsychosis, as is evidenced by the Usu prayer to the +bear and certain rude traditions; but whether these are +indigenous, or have arisen by contact with Buddhism at a later +period, it is impossible to say.</p> +<p>They have no definite ideas concerning a future state, and the +subject is evidently not a pleasing one to them. Such +notions as they have are few and confused. Some think that +the spirits of their friends go into wolves and snakes; others, +that they wander about the forests; and they are much afraid of +ghosts. A few think that they go to “a good or bad +place,” according to their deeds; but Shinondi said, and +there was an infinite pathos in his words, “How can we +know? No one ever came back to tell us!” On +asking him what were bad deeds, he said, “Being bad to +parents, stealing, and telling lies.” The future, +however, does not occupy any place in their thoughts, and they +can hardly be said to believe in the immortality of the soul, +though their fear of ghosts shows that they recognise a +distinction between body and spirit.</p> +<p>Their social customs are very simple. Girls never marry +before the age of seventeen, or men before twenty-one. When +a man wishes to marry he thinks of some particular girl, and asks +the chief if he may ask for her. If leave is given, either +through a “go-between” or personally, he asks her +father for her, and if he consents the bridegroom gives him a +present, usually a Japanese “curio.” This +constitutes betrothal, and the marriage, which immediately +follows, is celebrated by carousals and the drinking of much +<i>saké</i>. The bride receives as her dowry her +earrings and a highly ornamented <i>kimono</i>. It is an +essential that the husband provides a house to which to take his +wife. Each couple lives separately, and even the eldest son +does not take his bride to his father’s house. +Polygamy is only allowed in two cases. The chief may have +three wives; but each must have her separate house. Benri +<a name="page278"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 278</span>has two +wives; but it appears that he took the second because the first +was childless. [The Usu Ainos told me that among the tribes +of Volcano Bay polygamy is not practised, even by the +chiefs.] It is also permitted in the case of a childless +wife; but there is no instance of it in Biratori, and the men say +that they prefer to have one wife, as two quarrel.</p> +<p>Widows are allowed to marry again with the chief’s +consent; but among these mountain Ainos a woman must remain +absolutely secluded within the house of her late husband for a +period varying from six to twelve months, only going to the door +at intervals to throw <i>saké</i> to the right and +left. A man secludes himself similarly for thirty +days. [So greatly do the customs vary, that round Volcano +Bay I found that the period of seclusion for a widow is only +thirty days, and for a man twenty-five; but that after a +father’s death the house in which he has lived is burned +down after the thirty days of seclusion, and the widow and her +children go to a friend’s house for three years, after +which the house is rebuilt on its former site.]</p> +<p>If a man does not like his wife, by obtaining the +chief’s consent he can divorce her; but he must send her +back to her parents with plenty of good clothes; but divorce is +impracticable where there are children, and is rarely if ever +practised. Conjugal fidelity is a virtue among Aino women; +but “custom” provides that, in case of +unfaithfulness, the injured husband may bestow his wife upon her +paramour, if he be an unmarried man; in which case the chief +fixes the amount of damages which the paramour must pay; and +these are usually valuable Japanese curios.</p> +<p>The old and blind people are entirely supported by their +children, and receive until their dying day filial reverence and +obedience.</p> +<p>If one man steals from another he must return what he has +taken, and give the injured man a present besides, the value of +which is fixed by the chief.</p> +<p>Their mode of living you already know, as I have shared it, +and am still receiving their hospitality. +“Custom” enjoins the exercise of hospitality on every +Aino. They receive all strangers as they received me, +giving them of their best, placing them in the most honourable +place, bestowing gifts upon them, <a name="page279"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 279</span>and, when they depart, furnishing +them with cakes of boiled millet.</p> +<p>They have few amusements, except certain feasts. Their +dance, which they have just given in my honour, is slow and +mournful, and their songs are chants or recitative. They +have a musical instrument, something like a guitar, with three, +five, or six strings, which are made from sinews of whales cast +up on the shore. They have another, which is believed to be +peculiar to themselves, consisting of a thin piece of wood, about +five inches long and two and a half inches broad, with a pointed +wooden tongue, about two lines in breadth and sixteen in length, +fixed in the middle, and grooved on three sides. The wood +is held before the mouth, and the tongue is set in motion by the +vibration of the breath in singing. Its sound, though less +penetrating, is as discordant as that of a Jew’s harp, +which it somewhat resembles. One of the men used it as an +accompaniment of a song; but they are unwilling to part with +them, as they say that it is very seldom that they can find a +piece of wood which will bear the fine splitting necessary for +the tongue.</p> +<p>They are a most courteous people among each other. The +salutations are frequent—on entering a house, on leaving +it, on meeting on the road, on receiving anything from the hand +of another, and on receiving a kind or complimentary +speech. They do not make any acknowledgments of this kind +to the women, however. The common salutation consists in +extending the hands and waving them inwards, once or oftener, and +stroking the beard; the formal one in raising the hands with an +inward curve to the level of the head two or three times, +lowering them, and rubbing them together; the ceremony concluding +with stroking the beard several times. The latter and more +formal mode of salutation is offered to the chief, and by the +young to the old men. The women have no +“manners!”</p> +<p>They have no “medicine men,” and, though they are +aware of the existence of healing herbs, they do not know their +special virtues or the manner of using them. Dried and +pounded bear’s liver is their specific, and they place much +reliance on it in colic and other pains. They are a healthy +race. In this village of 300 souls, there are no +chronically <a name="page280"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +280</span>ailing people; nothing but one case of bronchitis, and +some cutaneous maladies among children. Neither is there +any case of deformity in this and five other large villages which +I have visited, except that of a girl, who has one leg slightly +shorter than the other.</p> +<p>They ferment a kind of intoxicating liquor from the root of a +tree, and also from their own millet and Japanese rice, but +Japanese <i>saké</i> is the one thing that they care +about. They spend all their gains upon it, and drink it in +enormous quantities. It represents to them all the good of +which they know, or can conceive. Beastly intoxication is +the highest happiness to which these poor savages aspire, and the +condition is sanctified to them under the fiction of +“drinking to the gods.” Men and women alike +indulge in this vice. A few, however, like Pipichari, +abstain from it totally, taking the bowl in their hands, making +the libations to the gods, and then passing it on. I asked +Pipichari why he did not take <i>saké</i>, and he replied +with a truthful terseness, “Because it makes men like +dogs.”</p> +<p>Except the chief, who has two horses, they have no domestic +animals except very large, yellow dogs, which are used in +hunting, but are never admitted within the houses.</p> +<p>The habits of the people, though by no means destitute of +decency and propriety, are not cleanly. The women bathe +their hands once a day, but any other washing is unknown. +They never wash their clothes, and wear the same by day and +night. I am afraid to speculate on the condition of their +wealth of coal-black hair. They may be said to be very +dirty—as dirty fully as masses of our people at home. +Their houses swarm with fleas, but they are not worse in this +respect than the Japanese <i>yadoyas</i>. The mountain +villages have, however, the appearance of extreme cleanliness, +being devoid of litter, heaps, puddles, and untidiness of all +kinds, and there are no unpleasant odours inside or outside the +houses, as they are well ventilated and smoked, and the salt fish +and meat are kept in the godowns. The hair and beards of +the old men, instead of being snowy as they ought to be, are +yellow from smoke and dirt.</p> +<p>They have no mode of computing time, and do not know their own +ages. To them the past is dead, yet, like other <a +name="page281"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 281</span>conquered +and despised races, they cling to the idea that in some far-off +age they were a great nation. They have no traditions of +internecine strife, and the art of war seems to have been lost +long ago. I asked Benri about this matter, and he says that +formerly Ainos fought with spears and knives as well as with bows +and arrows, but that Yoshitsuné, their hero god, forbade +war for ever, and since then the two-edged spear, with a shaft +nine feet long, has only been used in hunting bears.</p> +<p>The Japanese Government, of course, exercises the same +authority over the Ainos as over its other subjects, but probably +it does not care to interfere in domestic or tribal matters, and +within this outside limit despotic authority is vested in the +chiefs. The Ainos live in village communities, and each +community has its own chief, who is its lord paramount. It +appears to me that this chieftainship is but an expansion of the +paternal relation, and that all the village families are ruled as +a unit. Benri, in whose house I am, is the chief of +Biratori, and is treated by all with very great deference of +manner. The office is nominally for life; but if a chief +becomes blind, or too infirm to go about, he appoints a +successor. If he has a “smart” son, who he +thinks will command the respect of the people, he appoints him; +but if not, he chooses the most suitable man in the +village. The people are called upon to approve the choice, +but their ratification is never refused. The office is not +hereditary anywhere.</p> +<p>Benri appears to exercise the authority of a very strict +father. His manner to all the men is like that of a master +to slaves, and they bow when they speak to him. No one can +marry without his approval. If any one builds a house he +chooses the site. He has absolute jurisdiction in civil and +criminal cases, unless (which is very rare) the latter should be +of sufficient magnitude to be reported to the Imperial +officials. He compels restitution of stolen property, and +in all cases fixes the fines which are to be paid by +delinquents. He also fixes the hunting arrangements and the +festivals. The younger men were obviously much afraid of +incurring his anger in his absence.</p> +<p>An eldest son does not appear to be, as among the Japanese, a +privileged person. He does not necessarily inherit the +house <a name="page282"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +282</span>and curios. The latter are not divided, but go +with the house to the son whom the father regards as being the +“smartest.” Formal adoption is practised. +Pipichari is an adopted son, and is likely to succeed to +Benri’s property to the exclusion of his own +children. I cannot get at the word which is translated +“smartness,” but I understand it as meaning general +capacity. The chief, as I have mentioned before, is allowed +three wives among the mountain Ainos, otherwise authority seems +to be his only privilege.</p> +<p>The Ainos have a singular dread of snakes. Even their +bravest fly from them. One man says that it is because they +know of no cure for their bite; but there is something more than +this, for they flee from snakes which they know to be +harmless.</p> +<p>They have an equal dread of their dead. Death seems to +them very specially “the shadow fear’d of +man.” When it comes, which it usually does from +bronchitis in old age, the corpse is dressed in its best +clothing, and laid upon a shelf for from one to three days. +In the case of a woman her ornaments are buried with her, and in +that of a man his knife and <i>saké</i>-stick, and, if he +were a smoker, his smoking apparatus. The corpse is sewn up +with these things in a mat, and, being slung on poles, is carried +to a solitary grave, where it is laid in a recumbent +position. Nothing will induce an Aino to go near a +grave. Even if a valuable bird or animal falls near one, he +will not go to pick it up. A vague dread is for ever +associated with the departed, and no dream of Paradise ever +lights for the Aino the “Stygian shades.”</p> +<p>Benri is, for an Aino, intelligent. Two years ago Mr. +Dening of Hakodaté came up here and told him that there +was but one God who made us all, to which the shrewd old man +replied, “If the God who made you made us, how is it that +you are so different—you so rich, we so poor?” +On asking him about the magnificent pieces of lacquer and +inlaying which adorn his curio shelf, he said that they were his +father’s, grandfather’s, and +great-grandfather’s at least, and he thinks they were gifts +from the <i>daimiyô</i> of Matsumae soon after the conquest +of Yezo. He is a grand-looking man, in spite of the havoc +wrought by his intemperate habits. There is plenty of room +in the house, and this morning, when I asked him to <a +name="page283"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 283</span>show me the +use of the spear, he looked a truly magnificent savage, stepping +well back with the spear in rest, and then springing forward for +the attack, his arms and legs turning into iron, the big muscles +standing out in knots, his frame quivering with excitement, the +thick hair falling back in masses from his brow, and the fire of +the chase in his eye. I trembled for my boy, who was the +object of the imaginary onslaught, the passion of sport was so +admirably acted.</p> +<p>As I write, seven of the older men are sitting by the +fire. Their grey beards fall to their waists in rippled +masses, and the slight baldness of age not only gives them a +singularly venerable appearance, but enhances the beauty of their +lofty brows. I took a rough sketch of one of the +handsomest, and, showing it to him, asked if he would have it, +but instead of being amused or pleased he showed symptoms of +fear, and asked me to burn it, saying it would bring him bad luck +and he should die. However, Ito pacified him, and he +accepted it, after a Chinese character, which is understood to +mean good luck, had been written upon it; but all the others +begged me not to “make pictures” of them, except +Pipichari, who lies at my feet like a staghound.</p> +<p>The profusion of black hair, and a curious intensity about +their eyes, coupled with the hairy limbs and singularly vigorous +physique, give them a formidably savage appearance; but the +smile, full of “sweetness and light,” in which both +eyes and mouth bear part, and the low, musical voice, softer and +sweeter than anything I have previously heard, make me at times +forget that they are savages at all. The venerable look of +these old men harmonises with the singular dignity and courtesy +of their manners, but as I look at the grand heads, and reflect +that the Ainos have never shown any capacity, and are merely +adult children, they seem to suggest water on the brain rather +than intellect. I am more and more convinced that the +expression of their faces is European. It is truthful, +straightforward, manly, but both it and the tone of voice are +strongly tinged with pathos.</p> +<p>Before these elders Benri asked me, in a severe tone, if I had +been annoyed in any way during his absence. He feared, he +said, that the young men and the women would crowd about me +rudely. I made a complimentary speech in return, and <a +name="page284"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 284</span>all the +ancient hands were waved, and the venerable beards were stroked +in acknowledgment.</p> +<p>These Ainos, doubtless, stand high among uncivilised +peoples. They are, however, as completely irreclaimable as +the wildest of nomad tribes, and contact with civilisation, where +it exists, only debases them. Several young Ainos were sent +to Tôkiyô, and educated and trained in various ways, +but as soon as they returned to Yezo they relapsed into savagery, +retaining nothing but a knowledge of Japanese. They are +charming in many ways, but make one sad, too, by their stupidity, +apathy, and hopelessness, and all the sadder that their numbers +appear to be again increasing; and as their physique is very +fine, there does not appear to be a prospect of the race dying +out at present.</p> +<p>They are certainly superior to many aborigines, as they have +an approach to domestic life. They have one word for +<i>house</i>, and another for <i>home</i>, and one word for +husband approaches very nearly to house-band. Truth is of +value in their eyes, and this in itself raises them above some +peoples. Infanticide is unknown, and aged parents receive +filial reverence, kindness, and support, while in their social +and domestic relations there is much that is praiseworthy.</p> +<p>I must conclude this letter abruptly, as the horses are +waiting, and I must cross the rivers, if possible, before the +bursting of an impending storm.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page285"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +285</span>LETTER XXXVIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Parting Gift—A +Delicacy—Generosity—A Seaside +Village—Pipichari’s Advice—A Drunken +Revel—Ito’s Prophecies—The +<i>Kôchô’s</i> Illness—Patent +Medicines.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Sarufuto</span>, +<span class="smcap">Yezo</span>, <i>August</i> 27.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">left</span> the Ainos yesterday with +real regret, though I must confess that sleeping in one’s +clothes and the lack of ablutions are very fatiguing. +Benri’s two wives spent the early morning in the laborious +operation of grinding millet into coarse flour, and before I +departed, as their custom is, they made a paste of it, rolled it +with their unclean fingers into well-shaped cakes, boiled them in +the unwashed pot in which they make their stew of +“abominable things,” and presented them to me on a +lacquer tray. They were distressed that I did not eat their +food, and a woman went to a village at some distance and brought +me some venison fat as a delicacy. All those of whom I had +seen much came to wish me good-bye, and they brought so many +presents (including a fine bearskin) that I should have needed an +additional horse to carry them had I accepted but one-half.</p> +<p>I rode twelve miles through the forest to Mombets, where I +intended to spend Sunday, but I had the worst horse I ever rode, +and we took five hours. The day was dull and sad, +threatening a storm, and when we got out of the forest, upon a +sand-hill covered with oak scrub, we encountered a most furious +wind. Among the many views which I have seen, that is one +to be remembered. Below lay a bleached and bare sand-hill, +with a few grey houses huddled in its miserable shelter, and a +heaped-up shore of grey sand, on which a brown-grey sea was +breaking with clash and boom in long, white, ragged lines, with +all beyond a confusion of surf, surge, <a +name="page286"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 286</span>and mist, +with driving brown clouds mingling sea and sky, and all between +showing only in glimpses amidst scuds of sand.</p> +<p>At a house in the scrub a number of men were drinking +<i>saké</i> with much uproar, and a superb-looking Aino +came out, staggered a few yards, and then fell backwards among +the weeds, a picture of debasement. I forgot to tell you +that before I left Biratori, I inveighed to the assembled Ainos +against the practice and consequences of +<i>saké</i>-drinking, and was met with the reply, +“We must drink to the gods, or we shall die;” but +Pipichari said, “You say that which is good; let us give +<i>saké</i> to the gods, but not drink it,” for +which bold speech he was severely rebuked by Benri.</p> +<p>Mombets is a stormily-situated and most wretched cluster of +twenty-seven decayed houses, some of them Aino, and some +Japanese. The fish-oil and seaweed fishing trades are in +brisk operation there now for a short time, and a number of Aino +and Japanese strangers are employed. The boats could not +get out because of the surf, and there was a drunken +debauch. The whole place smelt of <i>saké</i>. +Tipsy men were staggering about and falling flat on their backs, +to lie there like dogs till they were sober,—Aino women +were vainly endeavouring to drag their drunken lords home, and +men of both races were reduced to a beastly equality. I +went to the <i>yadoya</i> where I intended to spend Sunday, but, +besides being very dirty and forlorn, it was the very centre of +the <i>saké</i> traffic, and in its open space there were +men in all stages of riotous and stupid intoxication. It +was a sad scene, yet one to be matched in a hundred places in +Scotland every Saturday afternoon. I am told by the +<i>Kôchô</i> here that an Aino can drink four or five +times as much as a Japanese without being tipsy, so for each +tipsy Aino there had been an outlay of 6s. or 7s., for +<i>saké</i> is 8d. a cup here!</p> +<p>I had some tea and eggs in the <i>daidokoro</i>, and altered +my plans altogether on finding that if I proceeded farther round +the east coast, as I intended, I should run the risk of several +days’ detention on the banks of numerous “bad +rivers” if rain came on, by which I should run the risk of +breaking my promise to deliver Ito to Mr. Maries by a given +day. I do not surrender this project, however, without an +equivalent, for <a name="page287"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +287</span>I intend to add 100 miles to my journey, by taking an +almost disused track round Volcano Bay, and visiting the coast +Ainos of a very primitive region. Ito is very much opposed +to this, thinking that he has made a sufficient sacrifice of +personal comfort at Biratori, and plies me with stories, such as +that there are “many bad rivers to cross,” that the +track is so worn as to be impassable, that there are no +<i>yadoyas</i>, and that at the Government offices we shall +neither get rice nor eggs! An old man who has turned back +unable to get horses is made responsible for these stories. +The machinations are very amusing. Ito was much smitten +with the daughter of the house-master at Mororan, and left some +things in her keeping, and the desire to see her again is at the +bottom of his opposition to the other route.</p> +<p><i>Monday</i>.—The horse could not or would not carry me +farther than Mombets, so, sending the baggage on, I walked +through the oak wood, and enjoyed its silent solitude, in spite +of the sad reflections upon the enslavement of the Ainos to +<i>saké</i>. I spent yesterday quietly in my old +quarters, with a fearful storm of wind and rain outside. +Pipichari appeared at noon, nominally to bring news of the sick +woman, who is recovering, and to have his nearly healed foot +bandaged again, but really to bring me a knife sheath which he +has carved for me. He lay on the mat in the corner of my +room most of the afternoon, and I got a great many more words +from him. The house-master, who is the +<i>Kôchô</i> of Sarufuto, paid me a courteous visit, +and in the evening sent to say that he would be very glad of some +medicine, for he was “very ill and going to have +fever.” He had caught a bad cold and sore throat, had +bad pains in his limbs, and was bemoaning himself ruefully. +To pacify his wife, who was very sorry for him, I gave him some +“Cockle’s Pills” and the trapper’s remedy +of “a pint of hot water with a pinch of cayenne +pepper,” and left him moaning and bundled up under a pile +of <i>futons</i>, in a nearly hermetically sealed room, with a +<i>hibachi</i> of charcoal vitiating the air. This morning +when I went and inquired after him in a properly concerned tone, +his wife told me very gleefully that he was quite well and had +gone out, and had left 25 <i>sen</i> for some more of the +medicines that I had given him, so with great gravity I put up +some of Duncan <a name="page288"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +288</span>and Flockhart’s most pungent cayenne pepper, and +showed her how much to use. She was not content, however, +without some of the “Cockles,” a single box of which +has performed six of those “miraculous cures” which +rejoice the hearts and fill the pockets of patent medicine +makers!</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p288b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Rokkukado" +title= +"The Rokkukado" + src="images/p288s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page289"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +289</span>LETTER XXXIX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Welcome Gift—Recent +Changes—Volcanic Phenomena—Interesting Tufa +Cones—Semi-strangulation—A Fall into a +Bear-trap—The Shiraôi Ainos—Horsebreaking and +Cruelty.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Old +Mororan</span>, <span class="smcap">Volcano Bay</span>, <span +class="smcap">Yezo</span>,<br /> +<i>September</i> 2.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the storm of Sunday, Monday +was a grey, still, tender day, and the ranges of wooded hills +were bathed in the richest indigo colouring. A canter of +seventeen miles among the damask roses on a very rough horse only +took me to Yubets, whose indescribable loneliness fascinated me +into spending a night there again, and encountering a wild +clatter of wind and rain; and another canter of seven miles the +next morning took me to Tomakomai, where I rejoined my +<i>kuruma</i>, and after a long delay, three trotting Ainos took +me to Shiraôi, where the “clear shining after +rain,” and the mountains against a lemon-coloured sky, were +extremely beautiful; but the Pacific was as unrestful as a guilty +thing, and its crash and clamour and the severe cold fatigued me +so much that I did not pursue my journey the next day, and had +the pleasure of a flying visit from Mr. Von Siebold and Count +Diesbach, who bestowed a chicken upon me.</p> +<p>I like Shiraôi very much, and if I were stronger would +certainly make it a basis for exploring a part of the interior, +in which there is much to reward the explorer. Obviously +the changes in this part of Yezo have been comparatively recent, +and the energy of the force which has produced them is not yet +extinct. The land has gained from the sea along the whole +of this part of the coast to the extent of two or three miles, +the old beach with its bays and headlands being a marked feature +of the landscape. This new formation appears <a +name="page290"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 290</span>to be a +vast bed of pumice, covered by a thin layer of vegetable mould, +which cannot be more than fifty years old. This pumice fell +during the eruption of the volcano of Tarumai, which is very near +Shiraôi, and is also brought down in large quantities from +the interior hills and valleys by the numerous rivers, besides +being washed up by the sea. At the last eruption pumice +fell over this region of Yezo to a medium depth of 3 feet 6 +inches. In nearly all the rivers good sections of the +formation may be seen in their deeply-cleft banks, broad, +light-coloured bands of pumice, with a few inches of rich, black, +vegetable soil above, and several feet of black sea-sand +below. During a freshet which occurred the first night I +was at Shiraôi, a single stream covered a piece of land +with pumice to the depth of nine inches, being the wash from the +hills of the interior, in a course of less than fifteen +miles.</p> +<p>Looking inland, the volcano of Tarumai, with a bare grey top +and a blasted forest on its sides, occupies the right of the +picture. To the left and inland are mountains within +mountains, tumbled together in most picturesque confusion, +densely covered with forest and cleft by magnificent ravines, +here and there opening out into narrow valleys. The whole +of the interior is jungle penetrable for a few miles by shallow +and rapid rivers, and by nearly smothered trails made by the +Ainos in search of game. The general lie of the country +made me very anxious to find out whether a much-broken ridge +lying among the mountains is or is not a series of tufa cones of +ancient date; and, applying for a good horse and Aino guide on +horseback, I left Ito to amuse himself, and spent much of a most +splendid day in investigations and in attempting to get round the +back of the volcano and up its inland side. There is a +great deal to see and learn there. Oh that I had +strength! After hours of most tedious and exhausting work I +reached a point where there were several great fissures emitting +smoke and steam, with occasional subterranean detonations. +These were on the side of a small, flank crack which was smoking +heavily. There was light pumice everywhere, but nothing +like recent lava or scoriæ. One fissure was +completely lined with exquisite, acicular crystals of sulphur, +which perished with a touch. Lower down there were two hot +springs with a deposit of sulphur round their margins, and +bubbles of gas, <a name="page291"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +291</span>which, from its strong, garlicky smell, I suppose to be +sulphuretted hydrogen. Farther progress in that direction +was impossible without a force of pioneers. I put my arm +down several deep crevices which were at an altitude of only +about 500 feet, and had to withdraw it at once, owing to the +great heat, in which some beautiful specimens of tropical ferns +were growing. At the same height I came to a hot +spring—hot enough to burst one of my thermometers, which +was graduated above the boiling point of Fahrenheit; and tying up +an egg in a pocket-handkerchief and holding it by a stick in the +water, it was hard boiled in 8½ minutes. The water +evaporated without leaving a trace of deposit on the +handkerchief, and there was no crust round its margin. It +boiled and bubbled with great force.</p> +<p>Three hours more of exhausting toil, which almost knocked up +the horses, brought us to the apparent ridge, and I was delighted +to find that it consisted of a lateral range of tufa cones, which +I estimate as being from 200 to 350, or even 400 feet high. +They are densely covered with trees of considerable age, and a +rich deposit of mould; but their conical form is still admirably +defined. An hour of very severe work, and energetic use of +the knife on the part of the Aino, took me to the top of one of +these through a mass of entangled and gigantic vegetation, and I +was amply repaid by finding a deep, well-defined crateriform +cavity of great depth, with its sides richly clothed with +vegetation, closely resembling some of the old cones in the +island of Kauai. This cone is partially girdled by a +stream, which in one place has cut through a bank of both red and +black volcanic ash. All the usual phenomena of volcanic +regions are probably to be met with north of Shiraôi, and I +hope they will at some future time be made the object of careful +investigation.</p> +<p>In spite of the desperate and almost overwhelming fatigue, I +have enjoyed few things more than that “exploring +expedition.” If the Japanese have no one to talk to +they croon hideous discords to themselves, and it was a relief to +leave Ito behind and get away with an Aino, who was at once +silent, trustworthy, and faithful. Two bright rivers +bubbling over beds of red pebbles run down to Shiraôi out +of the back country, and my directions, which were translated to +the Aino, <a name="page292"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +292</span>were to follow up one of these and go into the +mountains in the direction of one I pointed out till I said +“Shiraôi.” It was one of those exquisite +mornings which are seen sometimes in the Scotch Highlands before +rain, with intense clearness and visibility, a blue atmosphere, a +cloudless sky, blue summits, heavy dew, and glorious sunshine, +and under these circumstances scenery beautiful in itself became +entrancing.</p> +<p>The trailers are so formidable that we had to stoop over our +horses’ necks at all times, and with pushing back branches +and guarding my face from slaps and scratches, my thick dogskin +gloves were literally frayed off, and some of the skin of my +hands and face in addition, so that I returned with both bleeding +and swelled. It was on the return ride, fortunately, that +in stooping to escape one great liana the loop of another grazed +my nose, and, being unable to check my unbroken horse +instantaneously, the loop caught me by the throat, nearly +strangled me, and in less time than it takes to tell it I was +drawn over the back of the saddle, and found myself lying on the +ground, jammed between a tree and the hind leg of the horse, +which was quietly feeding. The Aino, whose face was very +badly scratched, missing me, came back, said never a word, helped +me up, brought me some water in a leaf, brought my hat, and we +rode on again. I was little the worse for the fall, but on +borrowing a looking-glass I see not only scratches and abrasions +all over my face, but a livid mark round my throat as if I had +been hung! The Aino left portions of his bushy locks on +many of the branches. You would have been amused to see me +in this forest, preceded by this hairy and formidable-looking +savage, who was dressed in a coat of skins with the fur outside, +seated on the top of a pack-saddle covered with a deer hide, and +with his hairy legs crossed over the horse’s neck—a +fashion in which the Ainos ride any horses over any ground with +the utmost serenity.</p> +<p>It was a wonderful region for beauty. I have not seen so +beautiful a view in Japan as from the river-bed from which I had +the first near view of the grand assemblage of tufa cones, +covered with an ancient vegetation, backed by high mountains of +volcanic origin, on whose ragged crests the red ash was blazing +vermilion against the blue sky, with a foreground of bright +waters flashing through a primeval forest. The <a +name="page293"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 293</span>banks of +these streams were deeply excavated by the heavy rains, and +sometimes we had to jump three and even four feet out of the +forest into the river, and as much up again, fording the +Shiraôi river only more than twenty times, and often making +a pathway of its treacherous bed and rushing waters, because the +forest was impassable from the great size of the prostrate +trees. The horses look at these jumps, hold back, try to +turn, and then, making up their minds, suddenly plunge down or +up. When the last vestige of a trail disappeared, I signed +to the Aino to go on, and our subsequent +“exploration” was all done at the rate of about a +mile an hour. On the openings the grass grows stiff and +strong to the height of eight feet, with its soft reddish plumes +waving in the breeze. The Aino first forced his horse +through it, but of course it closed again, so that constantly +when he was close in front I was only aware of his proximity by +the tinkling of his horse’s bells, for I saw nothing of him +or of my own horse except the horn of my saddle. We tumbled +into holes often, and as easily tumbled out of them; but once we +both went down in the most unexpected manner into what must have +been an old bear-trap, both going over our horses’ heads, +the horses and ourselves struggling together in a narrow space in +a mist of grassy plumes, and, being unable to communicate with my +guide, the sense of the ridiculous situation was so overpowering +that, even in the midst of the mishap, I was exhausted with +laughter, though not a little bruised. It was very hard to +get out of that pitfall, and I hope I shall never get into one +again. It is not the first occasion on which I have been +glad that the Yezo horses are shoeless. It was through this +long grass that we fought our way to the tufa cones, with the red +ragged crests against the blue sky.</p> +<p>The scenery was magnificent, and after getting so far I longed +to explore the sources of the rivers, but besides the many +difficulties the day was far spent. I was also too weak for +any energetic undertaking, yet I felt an intuitive perception of +the passion and fascination of exploring, and understood how +people could give up their lives to it. I turned away from +the tufa cones and the glory of the ragged crests very sadly, to +ride a tired horse through great difficulties; and the animal was +so thoroughly done up that I had to walk, or rather <a +name="page294"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 294</span>wade, for +the last hour, and it was nightfall when I returned, to find that +Ito had packed up all my things, had been waiting ever since noon +to start for Horobets, was very grumpy at having to unpack, and +thoroughly disgusted when I told him that I was so tired and +bruised that I should have to remain the next day to rest. +He said indignantly, “I never thought that when you’d +got the <i>Kaitakushi kuruma</i> you’d go off the road into +those woods!” We had seen some deer and many +pheasants, and a successful hunter brought in a fine stag, so +that I had venison steak for supper, and was much comforted, +though Ito seasoned the meal with well-got-up stories of the +impracticability of the Volcano Bay route.</p> +<p>Shiraôi consists of a large old <i>Honjin</i>, or +<i>yadoya</i>, where the <i>daimiyô</i> and his train used +to lodge in the old days, and about eleven Japanese houses, most +of which are <i>saké</i> shops—a fact which supplies +an explanation of the squalor of the Aino village of fifty-two +houses, which is on the shore at a respectful distance. +There is no cultivation, in which it is like all the fishing +villages on this part of the coast, but fish-oil and fish-manure +are made in immense quantities, and, though it is not the season +here, the place is pervaded by “an ancient and fish-like +smell.”</p> +<p>The Aino houses are much smaller, poorer, and dirtier than +those of Biratori. I went into a number of them, and +conversed with the people, many of whom understand +Japanese. Some of the houses looked like dens, and, as it +was raining, husband, wife, and five or six naked children, all +as dirty as they could be, with unkempt, elf-like locks, were +huddled round the fires. Still, bad as it looked and smelt, +the fire was the hearth, and the hearth was inviolate, and each +smoked and dirt-stained group was a family, and it was an advance +upon the social life of, for instance, Salt Lake City. The +roofs are much flatter than those of the mountain Ainos, and, as +there are few store-houses, quantities of fish, +“green” skins, and venison, hang from the rafters, +and the smell of these and the stinging of the smoke were most +trying. Few of the houses had any guest-seats, but in the +very poorest, when I asked shelter from the rain, they put their +best mat upon the ground, and insisted, much to my distress, on +my walking over it in muddy boots, saying, “It is Aino +custom.” Ever, <a name="page295"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 295</span>in those squalid homes the broad +shelf, with its rows of Japanese curios, always has a +place. I mentioned that it is customary for a chief to +appoint a successor when he becomes infirm, and I came upon a +case in point, through a mistaken direction, which took us to the +house of the former chief, with a great empty bear cage at its +door. On addressing him as the chief, he said, “I am +old and blind, I cannot go out, I am of no more good,” and +directed us to the house of his successor. Altogether it is +obvious, from many evidences in this village, that Japanese +contiguity is hurtful, and that the Ainos have reaped abundantly +of the disadvantages without the advantages of contact with +Japanese civilisation.</p> +<p>That night I saw a specimen of Japanese horse-breaking as +practised in Yezo. A Japanese brought into the village +street a handsome, spirited young horse, equipped with a Japanese +<i>demi-pique</i> saddle, and a most cruel gag bit. The man +wore very cruel spurs, and was armed with a bit of stout board +two feet long by six inches broad. The horse had not been +mounted before, and was frightened, but not the least +vicious. He was spurred into a gallop, and ridden at full +speed up and down the street, turned by main force, thrown on his +haunches, goaded with the spurs, and cowed by being mercilessly +thrashed over the ears and eyes with the piece of board till he +was blinded with blood. Whenever he tried to stop from +exhaustion he was spurred, jerked, and flogged, till at last, +covered with sweat, foam, and blood, and with blood running from +his mouth and splashing the road, he reeled, staggered, and fell, +the rider dexterously disengaging himself. As soon as he +was able to stand, he was allowed to crawl into a shed, where he +was kept without food till morning, when a child could do +anything with him. He was “broken,” effectually +spirit-broken, useless for the rest of his life. It was a +brutal and brutalising exhibition, as triumphs of brute force +always are.</p> +<h2><a name="page296"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +296</span>LETTER XXXIX.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Universal Language—The Yezo +Corrals—A “Typhoon Rain”—Difficult +Tracks—An Unenviable Ride—Drying Clothes—A +Woman’s Remorse.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> morning I left early in the +<i>kuruma</i> with two kind and delightful savages. The +road being much broken by the rains I had to get out frequently, +and every time I got in again they put my air-pillow behind me, +and covered me up in a blanket; and when we got to a rough river, +one made a step of his back by which I mounted their horse, and +gave me nooses of rope to hold on by, and the other held my arm +to keep me steady, and they would not let me walk up or down any +of the hills. What a blessing it is that, amidst the +confusion of tongues, the language of kindness and courtesy is +universally understood, and that a kindly smile on a savage face +is as intelligible as on that of one’s own +countryman! They had never drawn a <i>kuruma</i>, and were +as pleased as children when I showed them how to balance the +shafts. They were not without the capacity to originate +ideas, for, when they were tired of the frolic of pulling, they +attached the <i>kuruma</i> by ropes to the horse, which one of +them rode at a “scramble,” while the other merely ran +in the shafts to keep them level. This is an excellent +plan.</p> +<p>Horobets is a fishing station of antique and decayed aspect, +with eighteen Japanese and forty-seven Aino houses. The +latter are much larger than at Shiraôi, and their very +steep roofs are beautifully constructed. It was a miserable +day, with fog concealing the mountains and lying heavily on the +sea, but as no one expected rain I sent the <i>kuruma</i> back to +Mororan and secured horses. On principle I always go to the +<i>corral</i> myself to choose animals, if possible, without sore +backs, but the choice is often between one with a mere raw <a +name="page297"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 297</span>and others +which have holes in their backs into which I could put my hand, +or altogether uncovered spines. The practice does no +immediate good, but by showing the Japanese that foreign opinion +condemns these cruelties an amendment may eventually be brought +about. At Horobets, among twenty horses, there was not one +that I would take,—I should like to have had them all +shot. They are cheap and abundant, and are of no +account. They drove a number more down from the hills, and +I chose the largest and finest horse I have seen in Japan, with +some spirit and action, but I soon found that he had tender +feet. We shortly left the high-road, and in torrents of +rain turned off on “unbeaten tracks,” which led us +through a very bad swamp and some much swollen and very rough +rivers into the mountains, where we followed a worn-out track for +eight miles. It was literally “<i>foul</i> +weather,” dark and still, with a brown mist, and rain +falling in sheets. I threw my paper waterproof away as +useless, my clothes were of course soaked, and it was with much +difficulty that I kept my <i>shomon</i> and paper money from +being reduced to pulp. Typhoons are not known so far north +as Yezo, but it was what they call a “typhoon rain” +without the typhoon, and in no time it turned the streams into +torrents barely fordable, and tore up such of a road as there is, +which at its best is a mere water-channel. Torrents, +bringing tolerable-sized stones, tore down the track, and when +the horses had been struck two or three times by these, it was +with difficulty that they could be induced to face the rushing +water. Constantly in a pass, the water had gradually cut a +track several feet deep between steep banks, and the only +possible walking place was a stony gash not wide enough for the +two feet of a horse alongside of each other, down which water and +stones were rushing from behind, with all manner of trailers +matted overhead, and between avoiding being strangled and +attempting to keep a tender-footed horse on his legs, the ride +was a very severe one. The poor animal fell five times from +stepping on stones, and in one of his falls twisted my left wrist +badly. I thought of the many people who envied me my tour +in Japan, and wondered whether they would envy me that ride!</p> +<p>After this had gone on for four hours, the track, with a +sudden dip over a hillside, came down on Old Mororan, a <a +name="page298"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 298</span>village of +thirty Aino and nine Japanese houses, very unpromising-looking, +although exquisitely situated on the rim of a lovely cove. +The Aino huts were small and poor, with an unusual number of bear +skulls on poles, and the village consisted mainly of two long +dilapidated buildings, in which a number of men were mending +nets. It looked a decaying place, of low, mean lives. +But at a “merchant’s” there was one delightful +room with two translucent sides—one opening on the village, +the other looking to the sea down a short, steep slope, on which +is a quaint little garden, with dwarfed fir-trees in pots, a few +balsams, and a red cabbage grown with much pride as a +“foliage plant.”</p> +<p>It is nearly midnight, but my bed and bedding are so wet that +I am still sitting up and drying them, patch by patch, with +tedious slowness, on a wooden frame placed over a charcoal +brazier, which has given my room the dryness and warmth which are +needed when a person has been for many hours in soaked clothing, +and has nothing really dry to put on. Ito bought a chicken +for my supper, but when he was going to kill it an hour later its +owner in much grief returned the money, saying she had brought it +up and could not bear to see it killed. This is a wild, +outlandish place, but an intuition tells me that it is +beautiful. The ocean at present is thundering up the beach +with the sullen force of a heavy ground-swell, and the rain is +still falling in torrents.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page299"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +299</span>LETTER XL.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">“More than +Peace”—Geographical +Difficulties—Usu-taki—Swimming the Osharu—A +Dream of Beauty—A Sunset Effect—A Nocturnal +Alarm—The Coast Ainos.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Lebungé</span>, <span class="smcap">Volcano +Bay</span>, <span class="smcap">Yezo</span>,<br /> +<i>September</i> 6.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Weary wave and dying blast<br /> +Sob and moan along the shore,<br /> + All is peace at +last.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">And</span> more than peace. It was a +heavenly morning. The deep blue sky was perfectly +unclouded, a blue sea with diamond flash and a +“many-twinkling smile” rippled gently on the golden +sands of the lovely little bay, and opposite, forty miles away, +the pink summit of the volcano of Komono-taki, forming the +south-western point of Volcano Bay, rose into a softening veil of +tender blue haze. There was a balmy breeziness in the air, +and tawny tints upon the hill, patches of gold in the woods, and +a scarlet spray here and there heralded the glories of the +advancing autumn. As the day began, so it closed. I +should like to have detained each hour as it passed. It was +thorough enjoyment. I visited a good many of the Mororan +Ainos, saw their well-grown bear in its cage, and, tearing myself +away with difficulty at noon, crossed a steep hill and a wood of +scrub oak, and then followed a trail which runs on the amber +sands close to the sea, crosses several small streams, and passes +the lonely Aino village of Maripu, the ocean always on the left +and wooded ranges on the right, and in front an apparent bar to +farther progress in the volcano of Usu-taki, an imposing +mountain, rising abruptly to a height of nearly 3000 feet, I +should think.</p> +<p>In Yezo, as on the main island, one can learn very little +about any prospective route. Usually when one makes an <a +name="page300"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 300</span>inquiry a +Japanese puts on a stupid look, giggles, tucks his thumbs into +his girdle, hitches up his garments, and either professes perfect +ignorance or gives one some vague second-hand information, though +it is quite possible that he may have been over every foot of the +ground himself more than once. Whether suspicion of your +motives in asking, or a fear of compromising himself by +answering, is at the bottom of this I don’t know, but it is +most exasperating to a traveller. In Hakodaté I +failed to see Captain Blakiston, who has walked round the whole +Yezo sea-board, and all I was able to learn regarding this route +was that the coast was thinly peopled by Ainos, that there were +Government horses which could be got, and that one could sleep +where one got them; that rice and salt fish were the only food; +that there were many “bad rivers,” and that the road +went over “bad mountains;” that the only people who +went that way were Government officials twice a year, that one +could not get on more than four miles a day, that the roads over +the passes were “all big stones,” etc. etc. So +this Usu-taki took me altogether by surprise, and for a time +confounded all my carefully-constructed notions of +locality. I had been told that the one volcano in the bay +was Komono-taki, near Mori, and this I believed to be eighty +miles off, and there, confronting me, within a distance of two +miles, was this grand, splintered, vermilion-crested thing, with +a far nobler aspect than that of “<i>the</i>” +volcano, with a curtain range in front, deeply scored, and +slashed with ravines and abysses whose purple gloom was unlighted +even by the noon-day sun. One of the peaks was emitting +black smoke from a deep crater, another steam and white smoke +from various rents and fissures in its side—vermilion +peaks, smoke, and steam all rising into a sky of brilliant blue, +and the atmosphere was so clear that I saw everything that was +going on there quite distinctly, especially when I attained an +altitude exceeding that of the curtain range. It was not +for two days that I got a correct idea of its geographical +situation, but I was not long in finding out that it was not +Komono-taki! There is much volcanic activity about +it. I saw a glare from it last night thirty miles +away. The Ainos said that it was “a god,” but +did not know its name, nor did the Japanese who were living under +its shadow. At some distance from it in <a +name="page301"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 301</span>the +interior rises a great dome-like mountain, Shiribetsan, and the +whole view is grand.</p> +<p>A little beyond Mombets flows the river Osharu, one of the +largest of the Yezo streams. It was much swollen by the +previous day’s rain; and as the ferry-boat was carried away +we had to swim it, and the swim seemed very long. Of +course, we and the baggage got very wet. The coolness with +which the Aino guide took to the water without giving us any +notice that its broad, eddying flood was a swim, and not a ford, +was very amusing.</p> +<p>From the top of a steepish ascent beyond the Osharugawa there +is a view into what looks like a very lovely lake, with wooded +promontories, and little bays, and rocky capes in miniature, and +little heights, on which Aino houses, with tawny roofs, are +clustered; and then the track dips suddenly, and deposits one, +not by a lake at all, but on Usu Bay, an inlet of the Pacific, +much broken up into coves, and with a very narrow entrance, only +obvious from a few points. Just as the track touches the +bay there is a road-post, with a prayer-wheel in it, and by the +shore an upright stone of very large size, inscribed with +Sanskrit characters, near to a stone staircase and a gateway in a +massive stone-faced embankment, which looked much out of keeping +with the general wildness of the place. On a rocky +promontory in a wooded cove there is a large, rambling house, +greatly out of repair, inhabited by a Japanese man and his son, +who are placed there to look after Government interests, exiles +among 500 Ainos. From among the number of rat-haunted, +rambling rooms which had once been handsome, I chose one opening +on a yard or garden with some distorted yews in it, but found +that the great gateway and the <i>amado</i> had no bolts, and +that anything might be appropriated by any one with dishonest +intentions; but the house-master and his son, who have lived for +ten years among the Ainos, and speak their language, say that +nothing is ever taken, and that the Ainos are thoroughly honest +and harmless. Without this assurance I should have been +distrustful of the number of wide-mouthed youths who hung about, +in the listlessness and vacuity of savagery, if not of the +bearded men who sat or stood about the gateway with children in +their arms.</p> +<p><a name="page302"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 302</span>Usu +is a dream of beauty and peace. There is not much +difference between the height of high and low water on this +coast, and the lake-like illusion would have been perfect had it +not been that the rocks were tinged with gold for a foot or so +above the sea by a delicate species of <i>fucus</i>. In the +exquisite inlet where I spent the night, trees and trailers +drooped into the water and were mirrored in it, their green, +heavy shadows lying sharp against the sunset gold and pink of the +rest of the bay; log canoes, with planks laced upon their +gunwales to heighten them, were drawn upon a tiny beach of golden +sand, and in the shadiest cove, moored to a tree, an antique and +much-carved junk was “floating double.” Wooded, +rocky knolls, with Aino huts, the vermilion peaks of the volcano +of Usu-taki redder than ever in the sinking sun, a few Ainos +mending their nets, a few more spreading edible seaweed out to +dry, a single canoe breaking the golden mirror of the cove by its +noiseless motion, a few Aino loungers, with their +“mild-eyed, melancholy” faces and quiet ways suiting +the quiet evening scene, the unearthly sweetness of a temple +bell—this was all, and yet it was the loveliest picture I +have seen in Japan.</p> +<p>In spite of Ito’s remonstrances and his protestations +that an exceptionally good supper would be spoiled, I left my +rat-haunted room, with its tarnished gilding and precarious +<i>fusuma</i>, to get the last of the pink and lemon-coloured +glory, going up the staircase in the stone-faced embankment, and +up a broad, well-paved avenue, to a large temple, within whose +open door I sat for some time absolutely alone, and in a +wonderful stillness; for the sweet-toned bell which vainly chimes +for vespers amidst this bear-worshipping population had +ceased. This temple was the first symptom of Japanese +religion that I remember to have seen since leaving +Hakodaté, and worshippers have long since ebbed away from +its shady and moss-grown courts. Yet it stands there to +protest for the teaching of the great Hindu; and generations of +Aino heathen pass away one after another; and still its bronze +bell tolls, and its altar lamps are lit, and incense burns for +ever before Buddha. The characters on the great bell of +this temple are said to be the same lines which are often graven +on temple bells, and to possess the dignity of twenty-four +centuries:</p> +<blockquote><p><a name="page303"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +303</span>“All things are transient;<br /> +They being born must die,<br /> +And being born are dead;<br /> +And being dead are glad<br /> +To be at rest.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The temple is very handsome, the baldachino is superb, and the +bronzes and brasses on the altar are specially fine. A +broad ray of sunlight streamed in, crossed the matted floor, and +fell full upon the figure of Sakya-muni in his golden shrine; and +just at that moment a shaven priest, in silk-brocaded vestments +of faded green, silently passed down the stream of light, and lit +the candles on the altar, and fresh incense filled the temple +with a drowsy fragrance. It was a most impressive +picture. His curiosity evidently shortened his devotions, +and he came and asked me where I had been and where I was going, +to which, of course, I replied in excellent Japanese, and then +stuck fast.</p> +<p>Along the paved avenue, besides the usual stone trough for +holy water, there are on one side the thousand-armed Kwan-non, a +very fine relief, and on the other a Buddha, throned on the +eternal lotus blossom, with an iron staff, much resembling a +crozier, in his hand, and that eternal apathy on his face which +is the highest hope of those who hope at all. I went +through a wood, where there are some mournful groups of graves on +the hillside, and from the temple came the sweet sound of the +great bronze bell and the beat of the big drum, and then, more +faintly, the sound of the little bell and drum, with which the +priest accompanies his ceaseless repetition of a phrase in the +dead tongue of a distant land. There is an infinite pathos +about the lonely temple in its splendour, the absence of even +possible worshippers, and the large population of Ainos, sunk in +yet deeper superstitions than those which go to make up popular +Buddhism. I sat on a rock by the bay till the last pink +glow faded from Usu-taki and the last lemon stain from the still +water; and a beautiful crescent, which hung over the wooded hill, +had set, and the heavens blazed with stars:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Ten thousand stars were in the sky,<br /> + Ten thousand in the sea,<br /> +And every wave with dimpled face,<br /> + That leapt upon the air,<br /> +<a name="page304"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 304</span>Had +caught a star in its embrace,<br /> + And held it trembling there.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The loneliness of Usu Bay is something wonderful—a house +full of empty rooms falling to decay, with only two men in +it—one Japanese house among 500 savages, yet it was the +only one in which I have slept in which they bolted neither the +<i>amado</i> nor the gate. During the night the +<i>amado</i> fell out of the worn-out grooves with a crash, +knocking down the <i>shôji</i>, which fell on me, and +rousing Ito, who rushed into my room half-asleep, with a vague +vision of blood-thirsty Ainos in his mind. I then learned +what I have been very stupid not to have learned before, that in +these sliding wooden shutters there is a small door through which +one person can creep at a time called the <i>jishindo</i>, or +“earthquake door,” because it provides an exit during +the alarm of an earthquake, in case of the <i>amado</i> sticking +in their grooves, or their bolts going wrong. I believe +that such a door exists in all Japanese houses.</p> +<p>The next morning was as beautiful as the previous evening, +rose and gold instead of gold and pink. Before the sun was +well up I visited a number of the Aino lodges, saw the bear, and +the chief, who, like all the rest, is a monogamist, and, after +breakfast, at my request, some of the old men came to give me +such information as they had. These venerable elders sat +cross-legged in the verandah, the house-master’s son, who +kindly acted as interpreter, squatting, Japanese fashion, at the +side, and about thirty Ainos, mostly women, with infants, sitting +behind. I spent about two hours in going over the same +ground as at Biratori, and also went over the words, and got some +more, including some synonyms. The <i>click</i> of the +<i>ts</i> before the <i>ch</i> at the beginning of a word is +strongly marked among these Ainos. Some of their customs +differ slightly from those of their brethren of the interior, +specially as to the period of seclusion after a death, the +non-allowance of polygamy to the chief, and the manner of killing +the bear at the annual festival. Their ideas of +metempsychosis are more definite, but this, I think, is to be +accounted for by the influence and proximity of Buddhism. +They spoke of the bear as their chief god, and next the sun and +fire. They said that they no longer worship the wolf, and +that though they call the volcano and many other things +<i>kamoi</i>, or god, they do <a name="page305"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 305</span>not worship them. I +ascertained beyond doubt that worship with them means simply +making libations of <i>saké</i> and “drinking to the +god,” and that it is unaccompanied by petitions, or any +vocal or mental act.</p> +<p>These Ainos are as dark as the people of southern Spain, and +very hairy. Their expression is earnest and pathetic, and +when they smiled, as they did when I could not pronounce their +words, their faces had a touching sweetness which was quite +beautiful, and European, not Asiatic. Their own impression +is that they are now increasing in numbers after diminishing for +many years. I left Usu sleeping in the loveliness of an +autumn noon with great regret. No place that I have seen +has fascinated me so much.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p305b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"My Kuruma-Runner" +title= +"My Kuruma-Runner" + src="images/p305s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page306"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +306</span>LETTER XL.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Sea-shore—A “Hairy +Aino”—A Horse Fight—The Horses of +Yezo—“Bad Mountains”—A Slight +Accident—Magnificent Scenery—A Bleached +Halting-Place—A Musty Room—Aino +“Good-breeding.”</p> +<p>A <span class="smcap">charge</span> of 3 <i>sen</i> per +<i>ri</i> more for the horses for the next stage, because there +were such “bad mountains to cross,” prepared me for +what followed—many miles of the worst road for horses I +ever saw. I should not have complained if they had charged +double the price. As an almost certain consequence, it was +one of the most picturesque routes I have ever travelled. +For some distance, however, it runs placidly along by the +sea-shore, on which big, blue, foam-crested rollers were +disporting themselves noisily, and passes through several Aino +hamlets, and the Aino village of Abuta, with sixty houses, rather +a prosperous-looking place, where the cultivation was +considerably more careful, and the people possessed a number of +horses. Several of the houses were surrounded by +bears’ skulls grinning from between the forked tops of high +poles, and there was a well-grown bear ready for his doom and +apotheosis. In nearly all the houses a woman was weaving +bark-cloth, with the hook which holds the web fixed into the +ground several feet outside the house. At a deep river +called the Nopkobets, which emerges from the mountains close to +the sea, we were ferried by an Aino completely covered with hair, +which on his shoulders was wavy like that of a retriever, and +rendered clothing quite needless either for covering or +warmth. A wavy, black beard rippled nearly to his waist +over his furry chest, and, with his black locks hanging in masses +over his shoulders, he would have looked a thorough savage had it +not been for the exceeding sweetness of his smile and eyes. +The Volcano Bay Ainos are far more hairy than the mountain <a +name="page307"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 307</span>Ainos, but +even among them it is quite common to see men not more so than +vigorous Europeans, and I think that the hairiness of the race as +a distinctive feature has been much exaggerated, partly by the +smooth-skinned Japanese.</p> +<p>The ferry scow was nearly upset by our four horses beginning +to fight. At first one bit the shoulders of another; then +the one attacked uttered short, sharp squeals, and returned the +attack by striking with his fore feet, and then there was a +general mêlée of striking and biting, till some ugly +wounds were inflicted. I have watched fights of this kind +on a large scale every day in the <i>corral</i>. The +miseries of the Yezo horses are the great drawback of Yezo +travelling. They are brutally used, and are covered with +awful wounds from being driven at a fast “scramble” +with the rude, ungirthed pack-saddle and its heavy load rolling +about on their backs, and they are beaten unmercifully over their +eyes and ears with heavy sticks. Ito has been barbarous to +these gentle, little-prized animals ever since we came to Yezo; +he has vexed me more by this than by anything else, especially as +he never dared even to carry a switch on the main island, either +from fear of the horses or their owners. To-day he was +beating the baggage horse unmercifully, when I rode back and +interfered with some very strong language, saying, “You are +a bully, and, like all bullies, a coward.” Imagine my +aggravation when, at our first halt, he brought out his +note-book, as usual, and quietly asked me the meaning of the +words “bully” and “coward.” It was +perfectly impossible to explain them, so I said a bully was the +worst name I could call him, and that a coward was the meanest +thing a man could be. Then the provoking boy said, +“Is bully a worse name than devil?” “Yes, +far worse,” I said, on which he seemed rather crestfallen, +and he has not beaten his horse since, in my sight at least.</p> +<p>The breaking-in process is simply breaking the spirit by an +hour or two of such atrocious cruelty as I saw at Shiraôi, +at the end of which the horse, covered with foam and blood, and +bleeding from mouth and nose, falls down exhausted. Being +so ill used they have all kinds of tricks, such as lying down in +fords, throwing themselves down head foremost and rolling over +pack and rider, bucking, and resisting attempts to make them go +otherwise than in single file. Instead of bits they <a +name="page308"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 308</span>have bars +of wood on each side of the mouth, secured by a rope round the +nose and chin. When horses which have been broken with bits +gallop they put up their heads till the nose is level with the +ears, and it is useless to try either to guide or check +them. They are always wanting to join the great herds on +the hillside or sea-shore, from which they are only driven down +as they are needed. In every Yezo village the first sound +that one hears at break of day is the gallop of forty or fifty +horses, pursued by an Aino, who has hunted them from the +hills. A horse is worth from twenty-eight shillings +upwards. They are very sure-footed when their feet are not +sore, and cross a stream or chasm on a single rickety plank, or +walk on a narrow ledge above a river or gulch without fear. +They are barefooted, their hoofs are very hard, and I am glad to +be rid of the perpetual tying and untying and replacing of the +straw shoes of the well-cared-for horses of the main +island. A man rides with them, and for a man and three +horses the charge is only sixpence for each 2½ +miles. I am now making Ito ride in front of me, to make +sure that he does not beat or otherwise misuse his beast.</p> +<p>After crossing the Nopkobets, from which the fighting horses +have led me to make so long a digression, we went right up into +the “bad mountains,” and crossed the three tremendous +passes of Lebungétogé. Except by saying that +this disused bridle-track is impassable, people have scarcely +exaggerated its difficulties. One horse broke down on the +first pass, and we were long delayed by sending the Aino back for +another. Possibly these extraordinary passes do not exceed +1500 feet in height, but the track ascends them through a dense +forest with most extraordinary abruptness, to descend as +abruptly, to rise again sometimes by a series of nearly +washed-away zigzags, at others by a straight, ladder-like ascent +deeply channelled, the bottom of the trough being filled with +rough stones, large and small, or with ledges of rock with an +entangled mass of branches and trailers overhead, which render it +necessary to stoop over the horse’s head while he is either +fumbling, stumbling, or tumbling among the stones in a gash a +foot wide, or else is awkwardly leaping up broken rock steps +nearly the height of his chest, the whole performance consisting +of a series of scrambling jerks at the rate of a mile an +hour.</p> +<p><a name="page309"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 309</span>In +one of the worst places the Aino’s horse, which was just in +front of mine, in trying to scramble up a nearly breast-high and +much-worn ledge, fell backwards, nearly overturning my horse, the +stretcher poles, which formed part of his pack, striking me so +hard above my ankle that for some minutes afterwards I thought +the bone was broken. The ankle was severely cut and +bruised, and bled a good deal, and I was knocked out of the +saddle. Ito’s horse fell three times, and eventually +the four were roped together. Such are some of the +<i>divertissements</i> of Yezo travel.</p> +<p>Ah, but it was glorious! The views are most +magnificent. This is really Paradise. Everything is +here—huge headlands magnificently timbered, small, deep +bays into which the great green waves roll majestically, great, +grey cliffs, too perpendicular for even the most adventurous +trailer to find root-hold, bold bluffs and outlying stacks +cedar-crested, glimpses of bright, blue ocean dimpling in the +sunshine or tossing up wreaths of foam among ferns and trailers, +and inland ranges of mountains forest-covered, with tremendous +gorges between, forest filled, where wolf, bear, and deer make +their nearly inaccessible lairs, and outlying battlements, and +ridges of grey rock with hardly six feet of level on their +sinuous tops, and cedars in masses giving deep shadow, and sprays +of scarlet maple or festoons of a crimson vine lighting the +gloom. The inland view suggested infinity. There +seemed no limit to the forest-covered mountains and the unlighted +ravines. The wealth of vegetation was equal in luxuriance +and entanglement to that of the tropics, primeval vegetation, on +which the lumberer’s axe has never rung. Trees of +immense height and girth, specially the beautiful <i>Salisburia +adiantifolia</i>, with its small fan-shaped leaves, all matted +together by riotous lianas, rise out of an impenetrable +undergrowth of the dwarf, dark-leaved bamboo, which, dwarf as it +is, attains a height of seven feet, and all is dark, solemn, +soundless, the haunt of wild beasts, and of butterflies and +dragonflies of the most brilliant colours. There was light +without heat, leaves and streams sparkled, and there was nothing +of the half-smothered sensation which is often produced by the +choking greenery of the main island, for frequently, far below, +the Pacific flashed in all its sunlit beauty, and occasionally we +came down unexpectedly <a name="page310"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 310</span>on a little cove with abrupt +cedar-crested headlands and stacks, and a heavy surf rolling in +with the deep thunder music which alone breaks the stillness of +this silent land.</p> +<p>There was one tremendous declivity where I got off to walk, +but found it too steep to descend on foot with comfort. You +can imagine how steep it was, when I tell you that the deep +groove being too narrow for me to get to the side of my horse, I +dropped down upon him from behind, between his tail and the +saddle, and so scrambled on!</p> +<p>The sun had set and the dew was falling heavily when the track +dipped over the brow of a headland, becoming a waterway so steep +and rough that I could not get down it on foot without the +assistance of my hands, and terminating on a lonely little bay of +great beauty, walled in by impracticable-looking headlands, which +was the entrance to an equally impracticable-looking, +densely-wooded valley running up among densely-wooded +mountains. There was a margin of grey sand above the sea, +and on this the skeleton of an enormous whale was +bleaching. Two or three large “dug-outs,” with +planks laced with stout fibre on their gunwales, and some +bleached drift-wood lay on the beach, the foreground of a +solitary, rambling, dilapidated grey house, bleached like all +else, where three Japanese men with an old Aino servant live to +look after “Government interests,” whatever these may +be, and keep rooms and horses for Government officials—a +great boon to travellers who, like me, are belated here. +Only one person has passed Lebungé this year, except two +officials and a policeman.</p> +<p>There was still a red glow on the water, and one horn of a +young moon appeared above the wooded headland; but the loneliness +and isolation are overpowering, and it is enough to produce +madness to be shut in for ever with the thunder of the +everlasting surf, which compels one to raise one’s voice in +order to be heard. In the wood, half a mile from the sea, +there is an Aino village of thirty houses, and the appearance of +a few of the savages gliding noiselessly over the beach in the +twilight added to the ghastliness and loneliness of the +scene. The horses were unloaded by the time I arrived, and +several courteous Ainos showed me to my room, opening on a small +courtyard with a heavy gate. The room was musty, and, <a +name="page311"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 311</span>being +rarely used, swarmed with spiders. A saucer of fish-oil and +a wick rendered darkness visible, and showed faintly the dark, +pathetic faces of a row of Ainos in the verandah, who retired +noiselessly with their graceful salutation when I bade them +good-night. Food was hardly to be expected, yet they gave +me rice, potatoes, and black beans boiled in equal parts of brine +and syrup, which are very palatable. The cuts and bruises +of yesterday became so very painful with the cold of the early +morning that I have been obliged to remain here.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p311b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Temple Gateway at Isshinden" +title= +"Temple Gateway at Isshinden" + src="images/p311s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page312"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +312</span>LETTER XLI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A Group of Fathers—The Lebungé +Ainos—The <i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>—A Family +Group—The Missing +Link—Oshamambé—Disorderly Horses—The +River Yurapu—The Seaside—Aino Canoes—The Last +Morning—Dodging Europeans.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Hakodaté</span>, <i>September</i> 12.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Lebungé</span> is a most +fascinating place in its awful isolation. The house-master +was a friendly man, and much attached to the Ainos. If +other officials entrusted with Aino concerns treat the Ainos as +fraternally as those of Usu and Lebungé, there is not much +to lament. This man also gave them a high character for +honesty and harmlessness, and asked if they might come and see me +before I left; so twenty men, mostly carrying very pretty +children, came into the yard with the horses. They had +never seen a foreigner, but, either from apathy or politeness, +they neither stare nor press upon one as the Japanese do, and +always make a courteous recognition. The bear-skin housing +of my saddle pleased them very much, and my boots of unblacked +leather, which they compare to the deer-hide moccasins which they +wear for winter hunting. Their voices were the lowest and +most musical that I have heard, incongruous sounds to proceed +from such hairy, powerful-looking men. Their love for their +children was most marked. They caressed them tenderly, and +held them aloft for notice, and when the house-master told them +how much I admired the brown, dark-eyed, winsome creatures, their +faces lighted with pleasure, and they saluted me over and over +again. These, like other Ainos, utter a short screeching +sound when they are not pleased, and then one recognises the +savage.</p> +<p>These Lebungé Ainos differ considerably from those of +the <a name="page313"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +313</span>eastern villages, and I have again to notice the +decided sound or <i>click</i> of the <i>ts</i> at the beginning +of many words. Their skins are as swarthy as those of +Bedaween, their foreheads comparatively low, their eyes far more +deeply set their stature lower, their hair yet more abundant, the +look of wistful melancholy more marked, and two, who were +unclothed for hard work in fashioning a canoe, were almost +entirely covered with short, black hair, specially thick on the +shoulders and back, and so completely concealing the skin as to +reconcile one to the lack of clothing. I noticed an +enormous breadth of chest, and a great development of the muscles +of the arms and legs. All these Ainos shave their hair off +for two inches above their brows, only allowing it there to +attain the length of an inch. Among the well-clothed Ainos +in the yard there was one smooth-faced, smooth-skinned, +concave-chested, spindle-limbed, yellow Japanese, with no other +clothing than the decorated bark-cloth apron which the Ainos wear +in addition to their coats and leggings. Escorted by these +gentle, friendly savages, I visited their lodges, which are very +small and poor, and in every way inferior to those of the +mountain Ainos. The women are short and thick-set, and most +uncomely.</p> +<p>From their village I started for the longest, and by +reputation the worst, stage of my journey, seventeen miles, the +first ten of which are over mountains. So solitary and +disused is this track that on a four days’ journey we have +not met a human being. In the Lebungé valley, which +is densely forested, and abounds with fordable streams and +treacherous ground, I came upon a grand specimen of the +<i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>, which, at a height of three feet +from the ground, divides into eight lofty stems, none of them +less than 2 feet 5 inches in diameter. This tree, which +grows rapidly, is so well adapted to our climate that I wonder it +has not been introduced on a large scale, as it may be seen by +everybody in Kew Gardens. There is another tree with +orbicular leaves in pairs, which grows to an immense size.</p> +<p>From this valley a worn-out, stony bridle-track ascends the +western side of Lebungétogé, climbing through a +dense forest of trees and trailers to a height of about 2000 +feet, where, contented with its efforts, it reposes, and, with +only slight ups and <a name="page314"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 314</span>downs, continues along the top of a +narrow ridge within the seaward mountains, between high walls of +dense bamboo, which, for much of that day’s journey, is the +undergrowth alike of mountain and valley, ragged peak, and rugged +ravine. The scenery was as magnificent as on the previous +day. A guide was absolutely needed, as the track ceased +altogether in one place, and for some time the horses had to +blunder their way along a bright, rushing river, swirling rapidly +downwards, heavily bordered with bamboo, full of deep holes, and +made difficult by trees which have fallen across it. There +Ito, whose horse could not keep up with the others, was lost, or +rather lost himself, which led to a delay of two hours. I +have never seen grander forest than on that two days’ +ride.</p> +<p>At last the track, barely passable after its recovery, dips +over a precipitous bluff, and descends close to the sea, which +has evidently receded considerably. Thence it runs for six +miles on a level, sandy strip, covered near the sea with a dwarf +bamboo about five inches high, and farther inland with red roses +and blue campanula.</p> +<p>At the foot of the bluff there is a ruinous Japanese house, +where an Aino family has been placed to give shelter and rest to +any who may be crossing the pass. I opened my +<i>bentô bako</i> of red lacquer, and found that it +contained some cold, waxy potatoes, on which I dined, with the +addition of some tea, and then waited wearily for Ito, for whom +the guide went in search. The house and its inmates were a +study. The ceiling was gone, and all kinds of things, for +which I could not imagine any possible use, hung from the +blackened rafters. Everything was broken and decayed, and +the dirt was appalling. A very ugly Aino woman, hardly +human in her ugliness, was splitting bark fibre. There were +several <i>irori</i>, Japanese fashion, and at one of them a +grand-looking old man was seated apathetically contemplating the +boiling of a pot. Old, and sitting among ruins, he +represented the fate of a race which, living, has no history, and +perishing leaves no monument. By the other <i>irori</i> +sat, or rather crouched, the “<span class="smcap">Missing +Link</span>.” I was startled when I first saw +it. It was—shall I say?—a man, and the mate, I +cannot write the husband, of the ugly woman. It was about +fifty. The lofty Aino brow had been made still loftier by +shaving the head for three inches above it. The hair hung, +<a name="page315"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 315</span>not in +shocks, but in snaky wisps, mingling with a beard which was grey +and matted. The eyes were dark but vacant, and the face had +no other expression than that look of apathetic melancholy which +one sometimes sees on the faces of captive beasts. The arms +and legs were unnaturally long and thin, and the creature sat +with the knees tucked into the armpits. The limbs and body, +with the exception of a patch on each side, were thinly covered +with fine black hair, more than an inch long, which was slightly +curly on the shoulders. It showed no other sign of +intelligence than that evidenced by boiling water for my +tea. When Ito arrived he looked at it with disgust, +exclaiming, “The Ainos are just dogs; they had a dog for +their father,” in allusion to their own legend of their +origin.</p> +<p>The level was pleasant after the mountains, and a canter took +us pleasantly to Oshamambé, where we struck the old road +from Mori to Satsuporo, and where I halted for a day to rest my +spine, from which I was suffering much. Oshamambé +looks dismal even in the sunshine, decayed and dissipated, with +many people lounging about in it doing nothing, with the dazed +look which over-indulgence in <i>saké</i> gives to the +eyes. The sun was scorching hot, and I was glad to find +refuge from it in a crowded and dilapidated <i>yadoya</i>, where +there were no black beans, and the use of eggs did not appear to +be recognised. My room was only enclosed by +<i>shôji</i>, and there were scarcely five minutes of the +day in which eyes were not applied to the finger-holes with which +they were liberally riddled; and during the night one of them +fell down, revealing six Japanese sleeping in a row, each head on +a wooden pillow.</p> +<p>The grandeur of the route ceased with the mountain-passes, but +in the brilliant sunshine the ride from Oshamambé to Mori, +which took me two days, was as pretty and pleasant as it could +be. At first we got on very slowly, as besides my four +horses there were four led ones going home, which got up fights +and entangled their ropes, and occasionally lay down and rolled; +and besides these there were three foals following their mothers, +and if they stayed behind the mares hung back neighing, and if +they frolicked ahead the mares wanted to look after them, and the +whole string showed a combined inclination to dispense with their +riders and join the many herds <a name="page316"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 316</span>of horses which we passed. It +was so tedious that, after enduring it for some time I got +Ito’s horse and mine into a scow at a river of some size, +and left the disorderly drove to follow at leisure.</p> +<p>At Yurapu, where there is an Aino village of thirty houses, we +saw the last of the aborigines, and the interest of the journey +ended. Strips of hard sand below high-water mark, strips of +red roses, ranges of wooded mountains, rivers deep and shallow, a +few villages of old grey houses amidst grey sand and bleaching +driftwood, and then came the river Yurapu, a broad, deep stream, +navigable in a canoe for fourteen miles. The scenery there +was truly beautiful in the late and splendid afternoon. The +long blue waves rolled on shore, each one crested with light as +it curled before it broke, and hurled its snowy drift for miles +along the coast with a deep booming music. The glorious +inland view was composed of six ranges of forest-covered +mountains, broken, chasmed, caverned, and dark with timber, and +above them bald, grey peaks rose against a green sky of singular +purity. I longed to take a boat up the Yurapu, which +penetrates by many a gorge into their solemn recesses, but had +not strength to carry my wish.</p> +<p>After this I exchanged the silence or low musical speech of +Aino guides for the harsh and ceaseless clatter of +Japanese. At Yamakushinoi, a small hamlet on the sea-shore, +where I slept, there was a sweet, quiet <i>yadoya</i>, +delightfully situated, with a wooded cliff at the back, over +which a crescent hung out of a pure sky; and besides, there were +the more solid pleasures of fish, eggs, and black beans. +Thus, instead of being starved and finding wretched +accommodation, the week I spent on Volcano Bay has been the best +fed, as it was certainly the most comfortable, week of my travels +in northern Japan.</p> +<p>Another glorious day favoured my ride to Mori, but I was +unfortunate in my horse at each stage, and the Japanese guide was +grumpy and ill-natured—a most unusual thing. +Otoshibé and a few other small villages of grey houses, +with “an ancient and fish-like smell,” lie along the +coast, busy enough doubtless in the season, but now looking +deserted and decayed, and houses are rather plentifully sprinkled +along many parts of the shore, with a wonderful profusion of +vegetables and flowers <a name="page317"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 317</span>about them, raised from seeds +liberally supplied by the <i>Kaitakushi</i> Department from its +Nanai experimental farm and nurseries. For a considerable +part of the way to Mori there is no track at all, though there is +a good deal of travel. One makes one’s way +fatiguingly along soft sea sand or coarse shingle close to the +sea, or absolutely in it, under cliffs of hardened clay or yellow +conglomerate, fording many small streams, several of which have +cut their way deeply through a stratum of black volcanic +sand. I have crossed about 100 rivers and streams on the +Yezo coast, and all the larger ones are marked by a most +noticeable peculiarity, i.e. that on nearing the sea they turn +south, and run for some distance parallel with it, before they +succeed in finding an exit through the bank of sand and shingle +which forms the beach and blocks their progress.</p> +<p>On the way I saw two Ainos land through the surf in a canoe, +in which they had paddled for nearly 100 miles. A river +canoe is dug out of a single log, and two men can fashion one in +five days; but on examining this one, which was twenty-five feet +long, I found that it consisted of two halves, laced together +with very strong bark fibre for their whole length, and with high +sides also laced on. They consider that they are stronger +for rough sea and surf work when made in two parts. Their +bark-fibre rope is beautifully made, and they twist it of all +sizes, from twine up to a nine-inch hawser.</p> +<p>Beautiful as the blue ocean was, I had too much of it, for the +horses were either walking in a lather of sea foam or were +crowded between the cliff and the sea, every larger wave breaking +over my foot and irreverently splashing my face; and the surges +were so loud-tongued and incessant, throwing themselves on the +beach with a tremendous boom, and drawing the shingle back with +them with an equally tremendous rattle, so impolite and noisy, +bent only on showing their strength, reckless, rude, self-willed, +and inconsiderate! This purposeless display of force, and +this incessant waste of power, and the noisy self-assertion in +both, approach vulgarity!</p> +<p>Towards evening we crossed the last of the bridgeless rivers, +and put up at Mori, which I left three weeks before, and I was +very thankful to have accomplished my object without +disappointment, disaster, or any considerable discomfort. +Had <a name="page318"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 318</span>I +not promised to return Ito to his master by a given day, I should +like to spend the next six weeks in the Yezo wilds, for the +climate is good, the scenery beautiful, and the objects of +interest are many.</p> +<p>Another splendid day favoured my ride from Mori to +Togénoshita, where I remained for the night, and I had +exceptionally good horses for both days, though the one which Ito +rode, while going at a rapid “scramble,” threw +himself down three times and rolled over to rid himself from +flies. I had not admired the wood between Mori and +Ginsainoma (the lakes) on the sullen, grey day on which I saw it +before, but this time there was an abundance of light and shadow +and solar glitter, and many a scarlet spray and crimson trailer, +and many a maple flaming in the valleys, gladdened me with the +music of colour. From the top of the pass beyond the lakes +there is a grand view of the volcano in all its nakedness, with +its lava beds and fields of pumice, with the lakes of Onuma, +Konuma, and Ginsainoma, lying in the forests at its feet, and +from the top of another hill there is a remarkable view of windy +Hakodaté, with its headland looking like Gibraltar. +The slopes of this hill are covered with the <i>Aconitum +Japonicum</i>, of which the Ainos make their arrow poison.</p> +<p>The <i>yadoya</i> at Togénoshita was a very pleasant +and friendly one, and when Ito woke me yesterday morning, saying, +“Are you sorry that it’s the last morning? I +am,” I felt we had one subject in common, for I was very +sorry to end my pleasant Yezo tour, and very sorry to part with +the boy who had made himself more useful and invaluable even than +before. It was most wearisome to have Hakodaté in +sight for twelve miles, so near across the bay, so far across the +long, flat, stony strip which connects the headland upon which it +is built with the mainland. For about three miles the road +is rudely macadamised, and as soon as the bare-footed horses get +upon it they seem lame of all their legs; they hang back, +stumbling, dragging, edging to the side, and trying to run down +every opening, so that when we got into the interminable main +street I sent Ito on to the Consulate for my letters, and +dismounted, hoping that as it was raining I should not see any +foreigners; but I was not so lucky, for first I met Mr. Dening, +and then, seeing the Consul and Dr. Hepburn coming down the road, +<a name="page319"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +319</span>evidently dressed for dining in the flag-ship, and +looking spruce and clean, I dodged up an alley to avoid them; but +they saw me, and did not wonder that I wished to escape notice, +for my old <i>betto’s</i> hat, my torn green paper +waterproof, and my riding-skirt and boots, were not only splashed +but <i>caked</i> with mud, and I had the general look of a person +“fresh from the wilds.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Itinerary</span> of <span +class="smcap">Tour</span> in <span +class="smcap">Yezo</span>.</h3> +<p>Hakodaté to</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td colspan="2"><p>No. of Houses.</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p>Jap.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Aino.</p> +</td> +<td><p><i>Ri</i>.</p> +</td> +<td><p><i>Chô</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ginsainoma</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Mori</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">105</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Mororan</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">57</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Horobets</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">47</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Shiraôi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">51</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">32</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tomakomai</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">38</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Yubets</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Sarufuto</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">63</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Biratori</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">53</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Mombets</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>From Horobets to</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p>Jap.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Aino.</p> +</td> +<td><p><i>Ri</i>.</p> +</td> +<td><p><i>Chô</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Old Mororan</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">30</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Usu</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">99</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lebungé</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">22</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Oshamambé</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">56</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">38</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Yamakushinai</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Otoshibé</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Mori</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">105</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">29</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Togénoshita</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">55</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hakodaté</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">37,000 souls</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">29</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>About 358 English miles.</p> +<h2><a name="page320"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +320</span>LETTER XLII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Pleasant Last Impressions—The Japanese +Junk—Ito Disappears—My Letter of Thanks.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Hakodaté</span>, <span +class="smcap">Yezo</span>, <i>September</i> 14, 1878.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> is my last day in Yezo, and +the sun, shining brightly over the grey and windy capital, is +touching the pink peaks of Komono-taki with a deeper red, and is +brightening my last impressions, which, like my first, are very +pleasant. The bay is deep blue, flecked with violet +shadows, and about sixty junks are floating upon it at +anchor. There are vessels of foreign rig too, but the wan, +pale junks lying motionless, or rolling into the harbour under +their great white sails, fascinate me as when I first saw them in +the Gulf of Yedo. They are antique-looking and picturesque, +but are fitter to give interest to a picture than to battle with +stormy seas.</p> +<p>Most of the junks in the bay are about 120 tons burthen, 100 +feet long, with an extreme beam, far aft, of twenty-five +feet. The bow is long, and curves into a lofty stem, like +that of a Roman galley, finished with a beak head, to secure the +forestay of the mast. This beak is furnished with two +large, goggle eyes. The mast is a ponderous spar, fifty +feet <a name="page321"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +321</span>high, composed of pieces of pine, pegged, glued, and +hooped together. A heavy yard is hung amidships. The +sail is an oblong of widths of strong, white cotton artistically +“<i>puckered</i>,” not sewn together, but laced +vertically, leaving a decorative lacing six inches wide between +each two widths. Instead of reefing in a strong wind, a +width is unlaced, so as to reduce the canvas vertically, not +horizontally. Two blue spheres commonly adorn the +sail. The mast is placed well abaft, and to tack or veer it +is only necessary to reverse the sheet. When on a wind the +long bow and nose serve as a head-sail. The high, square, +piled-up stern, with its antique carving, and the sides with +their lattice-work, are wonderful, together with the +extraordinary size and projection of the rudder, and the length +of the tiller. The anchors are of grapnel shape, and the +larger junks have from six to eight arranged on the fore-end, +giving one an idea of bad holding-ground along the coast. +They really are much like the shape of a Chinese +“small-footed” woman’s shoe, and look very +unmanageable. They are of unpainted wood, and have a +wintry, ghastly look about them. <a name="citation321"></a><a +href="#footnote321" class="citation">[321]</a></p> +<p>I have parted with Ito finally to-day, with great +regret. He has served me faithfully, and on most common +topics I can get much more information through him than from any +foreigner. I miss him already, though he insisted on +packing for me as usual, and put all my things in order. +His cleverness is something surprising. He goes to a good, +manly master, who will help him to be good and set him a virtuous +example, and that is a satisfaction. Before he left he +wrote a letter for me to the Governor of Mororan, thanking him on +my behalf for the use of the <i>kuruma</i> and other +courtesies.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page322"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +322</span>LETTER XLIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Pleasant Prospects—A Miserable +Disappointment—Caught in a Typhoon—A Dense +Fog—Alarmist Rumours—A Welcome at +Tôkiyô—The Last of the Mutineers.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">H. B. M.’s <span +class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span class="smcap">Yedo</span>, +<i>September</i> 21.</p> +<p>A <span class="smcap">placid</span> sea, which after much +disturbance had sighed itself to rest, and a high, steady +barometer promised a fifty hours’ passage to Yokohama, and +when Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn and I left Hakodaté, by +moonlight, on the night of the 14th, as the only passengers in +the <i>Hiogo Maru</i>, Captain Moore, her genial, pleasant +master, congratulated us on the rapid and delightful passage +before us, and we separated at midnight with many projects for +pleasant intercourse and occupation.</p> +<p>But a more miserable voyage I never made, and it was not until +the afternoon of the 17th that we crawled forth from our cabins +to speak to each other. On the second day out, great heat +came on with suffocating closeness, the mercury rose to 85°, +and in lat. 38° 0′ N. and long. 141° +30′ E. we encountered a “typhoon,” otherwise a +“cyclone,” otherwise a “revolving +hurricane,” which lasted for twenty-five hours, and +“jettisoned” the cargo. Captain Moor has given +me a very interesting diagram of it, showing the attempts which +he made to avoid its vortex, through which our course would have +taken us, and to keep as much outside it as possible. The +typhoon was succeeded by a dense fog, so that our fifty-hour +passage became seventy-two hours, and we landed at Yokohama near +upon midnight of the 17th, to find traces of much disaster, the +whole low-lying country flooded, the railway between Yokohama and +the capital impassable, great anxiety about the rice crop, the +air full of alarmist rumours, and paper money, which was about +par when I arrived in May, at a discount of <a +name="page323"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 323</span> +<a href="images/p323b.jpg"> +<img class='clearcenter' alt= +"Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Shôgun, Shiba, +Tôkiyô" +title= +"Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Shôgun, Shiba, +Tôkiyô" + src="images/p323s.jpg" /> +</a><a name="page324"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 324</span>13 +per cent! In the early part of this year (1880) it has +touched 42 per cent.</p> +<p>Late in the afternoon the railroad was re-opened, and I came +here with Mr. Wilkinson, glad to settle down to a period of rest +and ease under this hospitable roof. The afternoon was +bright and sunny, and Tôkiyô was looking its +best. The long lines of <i>yashikis</i> looked handsome, +the castle moat was so full of the gigantic leaves of the lotus, +that the water was hardly visible, the grass embankments of the +upper moat were a brilliant green, the pines on their summits +stood out boldly against the clear sky, the hill on which the +Legation stands looked dry and cheerful, and, better than all, I +had a most kindly welcome from those who have made this house my +home in a strange land.</p> +<p>Tôkiyô is tranquil, that is, it is disturbed only +by fears for the rice crop, and by the fall in +<i>satsu</i>. The military mutineers have been tried, +popular rumour says tortured, and fifty-two have been shot. +The summer has been the worst for some years, and now dark heat, +moist heat, and nearly ceasless rain prevail. People have +been “rained up” in their summer quarters. +“Surely it will change soon,” people say, and they +have said the same thing for three months.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page325"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +325</span>LETTER XLIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Fine Weather—Cremation in +Japan—The Governor of Tôkiyô—An Awkward +Question—An Insignificant Building—Economy in Funeral +Expenses—Simplicity of the Cremation Process—The Last +of Japan.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">H. B. M.’s <span +class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span class="smcap">Yedo</span>, +<i>December</i> 18.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> spent the last ten days +here, in settled fine weather, such as should have begun two +months ago if the climate had behaved as it ought. The time +has flown by in excursions, shopping, select little +dinner-parties, farewell calls, and visits made with Mr. +Chamberlain to the famous groves and temples of Ikegami, where +the Buddhist bishop and priests entertained us in one of the +guest-rooms, and to Enoshima and Kamakura, “vulgar” +resorts which nothing can vulgarise so long as Fujisan towers +above them.</p> +<p>I will mention but one “sight,” which is so far +out of the beaten track that it was only after prolonged inquiry +that its whereabouts was ascertained. Among Buddhists, +specially of the Monto sect, cremation was largely practised till +it was forbidden five years ago, as some suppose in deference to +European prejudices. Three years ago, however, the +prohibition was withdrawn, and in this short space of time the +number of bodies burned has reached nearly nine thousand +annually. Sir H. Parkes applied for permission for me to +visit the Kirigaya ground, one of five, and after a few delays it +was granted by the Governor of Tôkiyô at Mr. +Mori’s request, so yesterday, attended by the Legation +linguist, I presented myself at the fine <i>yashiki</i> of the +Tôkiyô <i>Fu</i>, and quite unexpectedly was admitted +to an audience of the Governor. Mr. Kusamoto is a well-bred +gentleman, and his face expresses the energy and ability which he +has given proof of possessing. He wears his European +clothes becomingly, and <a name="page326"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 326</span>in attitude, as well as manner, is +easy and dignified. After asking me a great deal about my +northern tour and the Ainos, he expressed a wish for candid +criticism; but as this in the East must not be taken literally, I +merely ventured to say that the roads lag behind the progress +made in other directions, upon which he entered upon explanations +which doubtless apply to the past road-history of the +country. He spoke of cremation and its +“necessity” in large cities, and terminated the +interview by requesting me to dismiss my interpreter and +<i>kuruma</i>, as he was going to send me to Meguro in his own +carriage with one of the Government interpreters, adding very +courteously that it gave him pleasure to show this attention to a +guest of the British Minister, “for whose character and +important services to Japan he has a high value.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p326b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido" +title= +"Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido" + src="images/p326s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>An hour’s drive, with an extra amount of yelling from +the <a name="page327"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +327</span><i>bettos</i>, took us to a suburb of little hills and +valleys, where red camellias and feathery bamboo against +backgrounds of cryptomeria contrast with the grey monotone of +British winters, and, alighting at a farm road too rough for a +carriage, we passed through fields and hedgerows to an erection +which looks too insignificant for such solemn use. +Don’t expect any ghastly details. A longish building +of “wattle and dab,” much like the northern +farmhouses, a high roof, and chimneys resembling those of the +“oast houses” in Kent, combine with the rural +surroundings to suggest “farm buildings” rather than +the “funeral pyre,” and all that is horrible is left +to the imagination.</p> +<p>The end nearest the road is a little temple, much crowded with +images, and small, red, earthenware urns and tongs for sale to +the relatives of deceased persons, and beyond this are four rooms +with earthen floors and mud walls; nothing noticeable about them +except the height of the peaked roof and the dark colour of the +plaster. In the middle of the largest are several pairs of +granite supports at equal distances from each other, and in the +smallest there is a solitary pair. This was literally all +that was to be seen. In the large room several bodies are +burned at one time, and the charge is only one <i>yen</i>, about +3s. 8d., solitary cremation costing five <i>yen</i>. +Faggots are used, and 1s. worth ordinarily suffices to reduce a +human form to ashes. After the funeral service in the house +the body is brought to the cremation ground, and is left in +charge of the attendant, a melancholy, smoked-looking man, as +well he may be. The richer people sometimes pay priests to +be present during the burning, but this is not usual. There +were five “quick-tubs” of pine hooped with bamboo in +the larger room, containing the remains of coolies, and a few +oblong pine chests in the small rooms containing those of +middle-class people. At 8 p.m. each “coffin” is +placed on the stone trestles, the faggots are lighted underneath, +the fires are replenished during the night, and by 6 a.m. that +which was a human being is a small heap of ashes, which is placed +in an urn by the relatives and is honourably interred. In +some cases the priests accompany the relations on this last +mournful errand. Thirteen bodies were burned the night +before my visit, but there was not the slightest odour in or <a +name="page328"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 328</span>about the +building, and the interpreter told me that, owing to the height +of the chimneys, the people of the neighbourhood never experience +the least annoyance, even while the process is going on. +The simplicity of the arrangement is very remarkable, and there +can be no reasonable doubt that it serves the purpose of the +innocuous and complete destruction of the corpse as well as any +complicated apparatus (if not better), while its cheapness places +it within the reach of the class which is most heavily burdened +by ordinary funeral expenses. <a name="citation328"></a><a +href="#footnote328" class="citation">[328]</a> This morning +the Governor sent his secretary to present me with a translation +of an interesting account of the practice of cremation and its +introduction into Japan.</p> +<p><i>S.S.</i> “<i>Volga</i>,” Christmas Eve, +1878.—The snowy dome of Fujisan reddening in the sunrise +rose above the violet woodlands of Mississippi Bay as we steamed +out of Yokohama Harbour on the 19th, and three days later I saw +the last of Japan—a rugged coast, lashed by a wintry +sea.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p> +<h2><a name="page329"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +329</span>INDEX.</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Abukawa</span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span>; village +forge, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page173">173</a></span>.</p> +<p>Abuta, Aino village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page306">306</a></span>.</p> +<p>Adzuma bridge, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page22">22</a></span>.</p> +<p>Agano river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page102">102</a></span>.</p> +<p>Aganokawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p>A Hiogo Buddha, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page272">272</a></span>.</p> +<p>Aidzu mountains, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>; plain, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p> +<p>Aino farmhouse, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page204">204</a></span>; storehouses, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page223">223</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page247">247</a></span>; lodges, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page224">224</a></span>; +chief, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page233">233</a></span> <i>et seq.</i>; house, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page234">234</a></span>; +millet-mill and pestle, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page238">238</a></span>; patriarch, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page258">258</a></span>; gods, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page265">265</a></span>; +urns, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page265">265</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page266">266</a></span>; house, plan of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page267">267</a></span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Ainos</span>, the hairy, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page225">225</a></span>; +superb-looking, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page232">232</a></span>; huts, life in, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page234">234</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page235">235</a></span>; at home, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page235">235</a></span>; +model villages, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page237">237</a></span>; hospitality, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page237">237</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page278">278</a></span>; +politeness, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page239">239</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page250">250</a></span>; witch-like woman, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page239">239</a></span>; reverence +for age, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page240">240</a></span>; salutation, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page240">240</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>; +truthfulness, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page240">240</a></span>; chief’s wife, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page242">242</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page243">243</a></span>; children, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page244">244</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page260">260</a></span>; +tenderness to a sick child, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page245">245</a></span>; occupations, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page247">247</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page248">248</a></span>; women, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page248">248</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page258">258</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page259">259</a></span>; +Pipichari, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page249">249</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page287">287</a></span>; sick woman, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page251">251</a></span>; fear of +Japanese Government, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page251">251</a></span>; shrine, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page252">252</a></span>; handsome +chief, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page253">253</a></span>; qualities, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page254">254</a></span>; no +history, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page255">255</a></span>; physique, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page255">255</a></span>; of Yezo, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page256">256</a></span>; +European resemblances, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page257">257</a></span>; savage look, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page257">257</a></span>; height, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page257">257</a></span>; +tattooing, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page259">259</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page260">260</a></span>; children, obedience of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page261">261</a></span>; clothing, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page262">262</a></span>; +jewellery, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page263">263</a></span>; houses, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page263">263</a></span>–265; +household gods, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page265">265</a></span>; Japanese curios, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page265">265</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page266">266</a></span>; mats, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page268">268</a></span>; +food, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page268">268</a></span>; bows and arrows, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page269">269</a></span>; +arrow-traps, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page269">269</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page270">270</a></span>; weaving, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page271">271</a></span>; no +religion, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page273">273</a></span>; libations, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page274">274</a></span>; +recitation, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page275">275</a></span>; solitary act of sacrifice, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>; +bear-worship, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page275">275</a></span>; Festival of the Bear, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page277">277</a></span>; ideas of a +future state, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page277">277</a></span>; social customs, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page277">277</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page278">278</a></span>; marriage +and divorce, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page278">278</a></span>; amusements, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>; musical +instruments, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page279">279</a></span>; manners, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>; health, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page280">280</a></span>; +intoxication, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page280">280</a></span>; uncleanly habits, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page280">280</a></span>; office of +chief, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page281">281</a></span>; eldest son, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page281">281</a></span>; dread of +snakes, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page282">282</a></span>; fear of death, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page282">282</a></span>; appearance +of old men, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page283">283</a></span>; domestic life, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page284">284</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ainos, coast, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page304">304</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page305">305</a></span>; Lebungé, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page313">313</a></span>.</p> +<p>Akayu, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page132">132</a></span>; horse fair, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>; sulphur +springs, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page134">134</a></span>; bathing sheds, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>; +<i>yadoya</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page134">134</a></span>.</p> +<p>Akita farm-house, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page204">204</a></span>.</p> +<p>A kuruma, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page35">35</a></span>.</p> +<p>A lady’s mirror, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p> +<p>A Lake Biwa tea-house, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page20">20</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Amado</i>, or wooden shutters, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Amainu</i>, or heavenly dogs, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Andon</i>, the, or native lamp, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>.</p> +<p>Aomori Bay, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page207">207</a></span>; town, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page207">207</a></span>; lacquer, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page207">207</a></span>.</p> +<p>Arai river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page122">122</a></span>.</p> +<p>Arakai river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>; mode of crossing, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p> +<p>Araya, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page156">156</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="page330"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +330</span>Archery galleries at Asakusa, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>.</p> +<p>Architecture, temple, uniformity of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>.</p> +<p>Arrow-traps, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page269">269</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page270">270</a></span>.</p> +<p>Asakusa, temple of Kwan-non at, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span>; sights of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>; its +novelties, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>.</p> +<p>Asiatic Arcadia, an, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p> +<p>Attendant at tea-house, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page64">64</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Baggage</span> coolies in distress, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span>.</p> +<p>Bandaisan, the double-peaked, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p> +<p>Bangé, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page100">100</a></span>; congress of schoolmasters, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>; stampede, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page101">101</a></span>.</p> +<p>Barbarism and ignorance, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span>.</p> +<p>Barber, female, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page200">200</a></span>.</p> +<p>Barbers’ shops, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span>.</p> +<p>Bargaining, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span>.</p> +<p>Bear, Festival of the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page275">275</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page277">277</a></span>.</p> +<p>Beggary, absence of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page127">127</a></span>.</p> +<p>Benri, chief of the Ainos, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page233">233</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page240">240</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page241">241</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page281">281</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page283">283</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Bettos</i>, or running-grooms, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span>.</p> +<p>Binzuru, the medicine god, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>.</p> +<p>Biratori, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page234">234</a></span>; situation of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page237">237</a></span>.</p> +<p>Blind men in Japan, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p> +<p>Boats, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page178">178</a></span>.</p> +<p>Bone, a, extracted, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page104">104</a></span>.</p> +<p>Booths, various, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>.</p> +<p>Boys and girls, a procession of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page68">68</a></span>.</p> +<p>British doggedness, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page180">180</a></span>.</p> +<p>Buddhist priests, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page112">112</a></span>.</p> +<p>Burial, a splendid, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page54">54</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page55">55</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Caligraphy</span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>.</p> +<p>Canoes, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page317">317</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Chaya</i> and <i>yadoya</i>, distinction between, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Chayas</i>, or tea-houses, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page36">36</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span>.</p> +<p>Cheating a policeman, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page152">152</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page153">153</a></span>.</p> +<p>Children, Japanese, docility of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span>.</p> +<p>Children’s parties, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page68">68</a></span>; names, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>; games, amusing, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>; dignity and +self-possession, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>; etiquette, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p> +<p>Chinamen in Yokohama, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>.</p> +<p>Chlorodyne, cures effected by, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page94">94</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page250">250</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page251">251</a></span>.</p> +<p>Chôkaizan, snow mountain, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span>.</p> +<p>Christian converts, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page202">202</a></span>.</p> +<p>Cleanliness, want of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page94">94</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span>.</p> +<p>Climate of Niigata, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page119">119</a></span>.</p> +<p>Clogs, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>.</p> +<p>“Cockle’s Pills,” <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page287">287</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Coiffure</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page200">200</a></span>.</p> +<p>Coolies, baggage, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page126">126</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page127">127</a></span>.</p> +<p>Corrals, Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page296">296</a></span>.</p> +<p>Country, a pretty, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page180">180</a></span>.</p> +<p>Cow, riding a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p> +<p>Cows, cotton cloths on, for protection, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span>.</p> +<p>Cremation, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page325">325</a></span>; building for the purpose, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page327">327</a></span>; mode of +burning, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page327">327</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Daikoku</span>, the god of wealth, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page154">154</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Daimiyô</i>, or feudal princes, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page13">13</a></span> <i>et +seq.</i></p> +<p>Dainichido, gardens of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page54">54</a></span>.</p> +<p>Daiya river, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page49">49</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>.</p> +<p>Dinner, Japanese etiquette at, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page142">142</a></span>.</p> +<p>Dirt and disease, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>–95.</p> +<p>Distinction between costume of moral and immoral women, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page202">202</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ditty, a dismal, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page67">67</a></span>.</p> +<p>Doctors, Japanese, prejudice against surgical operations, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>.</p> +<p>Dogs, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page86">86</a></span>; yellow, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page237">237</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Doma</i>, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span>.</p> +<p>Dr. Palm and his tandem, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p> +<p>Dress, female, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page83">83</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page84">84</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Earthquake</span>, shocks of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span>; effect on +priests, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page59">59</a></span>.</p> +<p>Eden, a garden of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Élégante</i>, a Japanese, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page31">31</a></span>.</p> +<p>England unknown, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page105">105</a></span>.</p> +<p>Entrance to shrine of Seventh Shôgun, Shiba, +Tôkiyô, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page323">323</a></span>.</p> +<p>Equipments, travelling, list of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page33">33</a></span>.</p> +<p>Etiquette, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p> +<p>Excess of males over females, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page98">98</a></span>.</p> +<p>Excursion, solitary, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page203">203</a></span>.</p> +<p>Expedition, an, entertaining account of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page328">328</a></span>, +<i>note</i>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Fair</span>, perpetual, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>.</p> +<p>Farm-houses, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page203">203</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page204">204</a></span>.</p> +<p>Female hand, tattooed, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page260">260</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ferry, a Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p> +<p>Festival, the Tanabata, at Kuroishi, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span>; of the +Bear, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page275">275</a></span>.</p> +<p>Fleas, consensus of opinion as to, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span>.</p> +<p>Flowers, art of arranging, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page70">70</a></span>.</p> +<p>Flowers of Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page227">227</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="page331"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +331</span>“Flowing Invocation,” the, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page131">131</a></span>.</p> +<p>“Food Question,” the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p> +<p>Forgeries of European eatables and drinkables, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span>.</p> +<p>“Front-horse,” a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page218">218</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page228">228</a></span>.</p> +<p>Funeral, a Shôgun’s, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page54">54</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page55">55</a></span>; Buddhist, at Rokugo, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>; the coffin +or box, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page150">150</a></span>; procession, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>.</p> +<p>Fujihari, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page85">85</a></span>; dirt and squalor at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>; primitive +Japanese dog in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page86">86</a></span>; fleas, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page86">86</a></span>.</p> +<p>Fujisan, first view of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>; from a village on the +Tôkaidô, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page326">326</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Fusuma</i>, or sliding paper panels, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span>.</p> +<p>Fyson, Mrs., and Ruth, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page118">118</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page119">119</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Games</span>, children’s, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>.</p> +<p>Gardens, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page118">118</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Geishas</i>, or dancing-girls, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ginsainoma, Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page216">216</a></span>.</p> +<p>God-shelf, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page72">72</a></span>.</p> +<p>Gods, Aino household, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page265">265</a></span>.</p> +<p>Guide-books, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Hachiishi</span>, its doll street, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span>; specialties +of its shops, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page49">49</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Hai</i>, “yes,” <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page181">181</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hair-dressing, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Hakodaté</span>, external aspect, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page212">212</a></span>; +peculiar roofs, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page213">213</a></span>; junks, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page320">320</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page321">321</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hakodaté harbour, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page208">208</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hepburn, Dr., <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page16">16</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Hibachi</i>, or brazier, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hinokiyama village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hirakawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page191">191</a></span>; destruction of bridge, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page192">192</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hirosaki, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page202">202</a></span>.</p> +<p>Home-life in Japan, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>.</p> +<p>Home occupations, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span>.</p> +<p>Honoki, pass of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page125">125</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hornets, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page140">140</a></span>.</p> +<p>Horobets village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page223">223</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page296">296</a></span>.</p> +<p>Horse, a wicked, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span>.</p> +<p>Horse-ants, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page140">140</a></span>.</p> +<p>Horse-breaking, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page295">295</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page307">307</a></span>.</p> +<p>Horse-fights, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page307">307</a></span>.</p> +<p>Horses, treatment of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page164">164</a></span>; in Yezo, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page218">218</a></span>; drove of, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page226">226</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page227">227</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hotel expenses, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page184">184</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hot springs, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page89">89</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page290">290</a></span>.</p> +<p>House, a pleasant, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>.</p> +<p>Houses, scenes in the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span>; hermetically sealed, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>; numbers in, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p> +<p>Hozawa village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Ichikawa</span> pass, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>; glorious +view, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>; +village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page97">97</a></span>; waterfall, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ichinono hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page127">127</a></span>.</p> +<p>Idyll, a Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page151">151</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ikari, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page90">90</a></span>; the people at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ikarigaseki, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page191">191</a></span>; detention at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span>–196; +occupation, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page193">193</a></span>; kite-flying, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>; games, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>.</p> +<p>Imaichi, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page48">48</a></span>.</p> +<p>Inari, the god of rice-farmers, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>.</p> +<p>Infant prodigy, an, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page166">166</a></span>.</p> +<p>Iniwashiro lake, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page99">99</a></span>.</p> +<p>Innai, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>; Upper and Lower, malady at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>; +description of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page145">145</a></span>.</p> +<p>Insect pests at Niigata, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>.</p> +<p>Invocation, the flowing, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page129">129</a></span>–131.</p> +<p>Irimichi, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>; a “squeeze” at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>; village of, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>; school +at, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Irori</i>, the <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span>.</p> +<p>Isshinden, temple gateway at, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page311">311</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Itama</i>, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ito, first impressions of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>, taking a “squeeze,” +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>; +personal vanity, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page78">78</a></span>; ashamed, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span>; cleverness +and intelligence, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page87">87</a></span>; a zealous student, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page87">87</a></span>; intensely +Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page87">87</a></span>; a Shintôist, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span>; particularly +described, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page161">161</a></span>; excellent memory, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span>; keeps a +diary, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page161">161</a></span>; characteristics, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>; prophecy, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>; +patriotism, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page162">162</a></span>; an apt pupil, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>; fairly +honest, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page164">164</a></span>; surliness, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>; +delinquency, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page214">214</a></span>; selfishness, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page236">236</a></span>; smitten, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page287">287</a></span>; +cruelty, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page307">307</a></span>; parting, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page321">321</a></span>.</p> +<p>Itosawa, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>.</p> +<p>Itoyasan precipices, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p> +<p>Iwakisan plain, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page197">197</a></span>; snow mountain, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page197">197</a></span>.</p> +<p>Iyémitsu, temple of, at Nikkô, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>.</p> +<p>Iyéyasu’s tomb at Nikkô, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Japan</span>, first view of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>; Chinamen in, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span>; tiling +in, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>; +home-life <a name="page332"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +332</span>in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>; excess of males over females in the +empire of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page98">98</a></span>; freedom from insult and incivility +in, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page101">101</a></span>; +barbarism and ignorance in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span>; winter evenings in, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page123">123</a></span>; divorce +in, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>; +absence of mendicancy in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page127">127</a></span>; convict labour in, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; drawbacks +of travelling in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page140">140</a></span>; firmness in travelling necessary +in, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>; +police force in, and cost of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page160">160</a></span>; blind men in, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>; effect of +sunshine in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page183">183</a></span>; evening occupations in, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page185">185</a></span>; rain in, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span>; +cremation in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page325">325</a></span>–327.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Japanese</span> restaurant, portable, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>; +paper-money, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>; man-cart, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>; railroad and +railway station, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span>; railway cars, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>; in European +dress, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>; +clogs, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span>; +temple architecture, uniformity of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span>; temples, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page55">55</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page302">302</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page303">303</a></span>; lanterns, +stone, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>; +booths, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>; temple grounds and archery +galleries, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page29">29</a></span>; +<i>éléganté</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page31">31</a></span>; passport, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page33">33</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>; tattooing, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>; tea, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>; +threshing, varieties in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page44">44</a></span>; inquisitiveness, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span>; +dancing-girls, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>; idyll, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>; masonry, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>; +wood-carving, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page60">60</a></span>; watering-place, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>; school, a +village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>—punishments at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>; +children’s parties, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page68">68</a></span>; names, female, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>; etiquette, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>; +needle-work and garments, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>; circulating libraries, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>; games, +children’s, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page195">195</a></span>; children’s names, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>; caligraphy, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>; +guide-books, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>; recreations, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>; lamp, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>; shops, +articles sold in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span>; parental love, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>; +hair-dressing, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page201">201</a></span>; children, docility of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>; +barbers’ shops, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span>; bargaining, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>; money, +current, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page79">79</a></span>; female dress, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page83">83</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page84">84</a></span>; dog, +primitive, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page86">86</a></span>; rivers, change of names of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span>; ferry, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page96">96</a></span>; policemen, +<span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page100">100</a></span>—vigilance of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page197">197</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>; mountain +scenery, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>; gardens, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page118">118</a></span>; doctors, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>; dirt +and barbarism, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page123">123</a></span>; houses, tables outside of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page124">124</a></span>—numbers in, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>; baggage +coolies, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page126">126</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page127">127</a></span>; cows, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span>; criticism +on a foreign usage, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span>; pack-horse, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>; doctors +and rheumatism, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page136">136</a></span>—their prejudice against +surgical operations, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page141">141</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page142">142</a></span>; gentleman, agreeable, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; convicts, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; love +of foreign intoxicants, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page138">138</a></span>; doctor, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>;—his +treatment and fee, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page141">141</a></span>; etiquette at dinner, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>; men and +women, costume of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>; crowd, curiosity of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page146">146</a></span>; treatment +of the dead, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span>; silk factory, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>; horses, +treatment of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page218">218</a></span>; belief as to their descent, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page165">165</a></span>; visitors, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page165">165</a></span>; +infant prodigy, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page166">166</a></span>; marriage, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>; trousseau, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>; +furniture, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page167">167</a></span>; marriage ceremony, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span>; holiday +scene, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page170">170</a></span>; festivals, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>; gods and +demons, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page172">172</a></span>; village forge, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span>; +travelling, fatigues of, of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span>—ludicrous incidents of, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span>; +boats, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page178">178</a></span>; kindness, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span>; +conversation, effect of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span>; home occupations, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page185">185</a></span>; devotions, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span>; +children, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page193">193</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page194">194</a></span>; kite flying and games, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>; toilet, a +lady’s, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page200">200</a></span>; <i>coiffure</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>; +hair-dressing, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page200">200</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page201">201</a></span>; female barber, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>; +lady’s mirror, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page201">201</a></span>; farm-houses, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page203">203</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page204">204</a></span>; +bath-houses, politeness in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page205">205</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page218">218</a></span>; imitations of foreign +manufactured British goods, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page218">218</a></span>; horse-breaking, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page295">295</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page307">307</a></span>; road-post, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page301">301</a></span>; +Paradise, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page309">309</a></span>; canoes, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page317">317</a></span>; junks, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page320">320</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page321">321</a></span>.</p> +<p>Jin-ri-ki-shas, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page5">5</a></span> (see <i>Kuruma</i>).</p> +<p><i>Jishindo</i>, or “earthquake door,” <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page304">304</a></span>.</p> +<p>Junks, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page320">320</a></span>.</p> +<p>“John Chinaman,” <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page16">16</a></span>.</p> +<p>Journey, an experimental, on horseback, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span>.</p> +<p>Juvenile belle and her costume, a, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><i>Kaimiyô</i>, or posthumous name, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kaitakushi saddle-horse, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page218">218</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kajikawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Kakemonos</i>, or wall-pictures, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Kak’ké</i>, a Japanese disease, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="page333"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +333</span><i>Kamidana</i>, the, or god-shelf, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kaminoyama, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page134">134</a></span>; hot springs, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>; the belle +of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>; +<i>yadoya</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page136">136</a></span>; <i>kura</i>, or godown, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kanaya, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page50">50</a></span>; his house, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>; floral +decorations, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page52">52</a></span>; table equipments, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kanayama, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page140">140</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kasayanagê, farming village, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Kashitsukeya</i>, disreputable houses, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kasukabé, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>; the <i>yadoya</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>; lack of +privacy, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span>; a night alarm, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>.</p> +<p>Katakado hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page102">102</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kawaguchi village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page122">122</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page181">181</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kayashima, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>; discomfort, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span>; a boy cured, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page94">94</a></span>; a +diseased crowd, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page94">94</a></span>; habits and food of the natives, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page94">94</a></span>; houses +hermetically sealed, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Kenrei</i>, or provincial governor, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Kimono</i>, the, or gown for both sexes, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span> <i>et +seq.</i></p> +<p>Kinugawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page84">84</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page89">89</a></span>; beauty of scenery on its banks, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kiri Furi, the falls of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page54">54</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kiriishi hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kisagoi, a poor place, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page82">82</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kisaki, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kite competition, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page195">195</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Kôchô</i>, or chief man of the village, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kohiaku, mountain farm of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page81">81</a></span>.</p> +<p>Komatsu, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span>; spacious room and luxurious +appointments, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span>; frogs, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>; runaway +pack-horse, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page132">132</a></span>.</p> +<p>Komoni-taki volcano, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page216">216</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kotsunagi, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kubota, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page155">155</a></span>; brisk trade, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>; suburban +residences, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page156">156</a></span>; hospital, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page157">157</a></span>–158; +public buildings, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page158">158</a></span>; Normal School, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page158">158</a></span>; silk +factory, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page159">159</a></span>; police escort, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>; afternoon +visitors, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page165">165</a></span>; infant prodigy, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>; Japanese +wedding, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page167">167</a></span>–169.</p> +<p><i>Kura</i>, or fire-proof storehouse, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kuroishi, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page198">198</a></span>; festival at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kurokawa, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span>; <i>matsuri</i> at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page122">122</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kurosawa, poverty and dulness, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page123">123</a></span>; dirt and barbarism, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Kuruma</i>, the, or jin-ri-ki-sha, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page35">35</a></span> <i>et +seq.</i></p> +<p>Kuruma pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Kuruma</i>-runners, costume of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kurumatogé, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span>; inn on the hill, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span>; bone +extracted, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page104">104</a></span>; hostess, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>; the road +from, infamous, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>; pass, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p> +<p>Kusamoto, Mr., <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page325">325</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page326">326</a></span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Kwan-non</span>, temple of, at Asakusa, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>; +perpetual fair, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span>; the <i>Ni-ô</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>; votive +offerings, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page25">25</a></span>; the high altar, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>; prayers and +pellets, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>; Binzuru, the medicine god, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>; +<i>Amainu</i>, or heavenly dogs, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>; stone lanterns, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>; revolving +shrine, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span>; temple grounds and archery +galleries, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page29">29</a></span>; booths, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Lagoon</span>, curious, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span>.</p> +<p>Lake of Blood, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span>.</p> +<p>Lamp, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page73">73</a></span>.</p> +<p>Land Transport Company, or <i>Riku-un-kaisha</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page79">79</a></span>.</p> +<p>Lanterns, stone, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span>.</p> +<p>Lebungé, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page310">310</a></span>; its isolation, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page312">312</a></span>; Ainos; +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page312">312</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page313">313</a></span>.</p> +<p>Lebungétogé passes, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page308">308</a></span>.</p> +<p>Legation, the British, at Yedo, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page13">13</a></span>.</p> +<p>Libraries, circulating, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page70">70</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ludicrous incident, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page152">152</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><i>Mago</i>, the, or leader of a pack-horse, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page84">84</a></span>.</p> +<p>Maladies, repulsive, prevalence of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>.</p> +<p>Man-carts, two-wheeled, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mari, farming-village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Maro</i>, or loin-cloth, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>.</p> +<p>Marriage, a Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page167">167</a></span>; trousseau and furniture, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>; ceremony, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span>.</p> +<p>Masonry, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page58">58</a></span>.</p> +<p>Matsuhara village, mistake at, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page129">129</a></span>.</p> +<p>Matsuka river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Matsuri</i> at Minato, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page171">171</a></span>; classic dance, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>; cars, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>.</p> +<p>Medicine god, the, at Asakusa, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mihashi, or Sacred Bridge, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page50">50</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Mikoshi</i>, or sacred car, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p>Millet-mill and pestle, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page238">238</a></span>.</p> +<p>Minato, the junk port of Kubota, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page170">170</a></span>; <i>matsuri</i> at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>; sobriety +and order, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page171">171</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mirror, a lady’s, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="page334"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +334</span>“<span class="smcap">Missing link</span>,” +the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page314">314</a></span>.</p> +<p>Miyojintaké, snow-fields and ravines, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mogami river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mombets, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page286">286</a></span>; scenes at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page286">286</a></span>.</p> +<p>Money, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>; current, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page79">79</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mono, farming village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p>Moore, Captain, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page322">322</a></span>.</p> +<p>Moral lesson, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page36">36</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mori village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page317">317</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page318">318</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page220">220</a></span>.</p> +<p>Morioka village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page173">173</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mororan, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page221">221</a></span>; bay, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page222">222</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mororan, Old, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page297">297</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page298">298</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mountain scenery, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mud-flat or swamp of Yedo, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page36">36</a></span>.</p> +<p>My <i>kuruma</i>-runner, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page305">305</a></span>.</p> +<p>Myself in a straw rain-cloak, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Nakajo</span>, Japanese doctors at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nakano, Lower, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page205">205</a></span>; bath-houses, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page205">205</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nakano, Upper, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page204">204</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page205">205</a></span>.</p> +<p>Names, female, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p> +<p>Namioka, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page207">207</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nanai, Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page218">218</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nantaizan mountains, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page49">49</a></span>.</p> +<p>Needle-work, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p> +<p>Night-alarm, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page41">41</a></span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Niigata</span>, landward side +disappointing, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page111">111</a></span>; Church Mission House, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page111">111</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page112">112</a></span>; itinerary +of route from Nikkô to, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span>; a Treaty Port, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span>; insect +pests, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>; without foreign trade, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span>; its river, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span>; +population, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page115">115</a></span>; hospital and schools, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span>; gardens, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>; +beautiful tea-houses, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page116">116</a></span>; cleanliness, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>; +water-ways, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page116">116</a></span>; houses, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page117">117</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page118">118</a></span>; climate, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span>; to +Aomori, itinerary of route from, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page210">210</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page211">211</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nikkôsan mountains, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page80">80</a></span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Nikkô</span>, “sunny +splendour,” <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page54">54</a></span>; its beauties, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span>; the Red +Bridge, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page55">55</a></span>; the Yomei Gate, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span>; the mythical +<i>Kirin</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page56">56</a></span>; the <i>haiden</i> or chapel, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>; the +Shôgun’s room, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span>; the Abbot’s room, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>; the great +staircase, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span>; Iyéyasu’s tomb, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>; temples of +Iyémetsu, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page58">58</a></span>; gigantic <i>Ni-ô</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>; Buddha, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span>; the +Tennô, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page59">59</a></span>; wood-carving, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page61">61</a></span>; shops, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>; houses, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>; to +Niigata, itinerary of route from, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Ni-ô</i>, the, at Asakusa, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nocturnal disturbance, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page179">179</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nojiri village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page104">104</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nopkobets river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page306">306</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nosoki, Dr., <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page141">141</a></span>; lotion and febrifuge, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>; +old-fashioned practitioner, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page142">142</a></span>; at dinner, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nosoki village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p> +<p>Nozawa town, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p> +<p>Numa hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page123">123</a></span>; crowded dwellings, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Obanasawa</span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p> +<p>Odaté, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page181">181</a></span>; <i>yadoyas</i>, nocturnal +disturbances at, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page181">181</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page182">182</a></span>.</p> +<p>Okawa stream, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page90">90</a></span>.</p> +<p>Okimi, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p> +<p>Omagori, manufacture of earthenware jars for interment, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>.</p> +<p>Omono river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page156">156</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ori pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p> +<p>Oshamambé, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page315">315</a></span>.</p> +<p>Osharu river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page301">301</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ouchi hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p> +<p>Oyakê lake, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Pack-cows</span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span>.</p> +<p>Pack-horse, the Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page62">62</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page63">63</a></span>; a vicious, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page102">102</a></span>.</p> +<p>Pack-saddle, description of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page62">62</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page63">63</a></span>.</p> +<p>Packet-boat, “running the rapids” of Tsugawa, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>.</p> +<p>Palm, Dr., his tandem, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p> +<p>Paper-money, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p> +<p>Parental love, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span>.</p> +<p>Parkes, Sir Harry and Lady, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span>.</p> +<p>Parting, a regretful, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page50">50</a></span>.</p> +<p>Passport, travelling, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page33">33</a></span>; regulations of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page33">33</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p> +<p>Peasant costume, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page43">43</a></span>.</p> +<p>Pellets and prayers, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>.</p> +<p>Picture and guidebooks, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>.</p> +<p>Pipicharo, the Aino, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page249">249</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page250">250</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page252">252</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page287">287</a></span>; a “total abstainer,” +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page249">249</a></span>.</p> +<p>Poison and arrow-traps, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page269">269</a></span>.</p> +<p>Priests, Buddhist, fees to, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page151">151</a></span>.</p> +<p>Prospect, a painful, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Queries</span>, curious, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>.</p> +<p>“Quiver of poverty,” the, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page92">92</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><a name="page335"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 335</span><span +class="smcap">Rain-cloak</span>, straw, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p> +<p>Reception, a formal, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page157">157</a></span>.</p> +<p>Reiheishi-kaido, an “In memoriam” avenue, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page48">48</a></span>.</p> +<p>Restaurant, portable, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>.</p> +<p>Rice, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page36">36</a></span>.</p> +<p>Rivers, Japanese, change of names of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span>.</p> +<p>Road-side tea-house, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span>.</p> +<p>Rokkukado, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page288">288</a></span>.</p> +<p>Rokugo, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span>; Buddhist funeral at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>; temple at, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Saikaiyama</span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sakamoki river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span>; handsome bridge at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sakatsu pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Saké</i>, the national drink, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page168">168</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span>; effects +of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span>; +libations of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page274">274</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sakuratogé river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page309">309</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page313">313</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Samisen</i>, the national female instrument, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Sampans</i>, or native boats, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page3">3</a></span>; mode of sculling, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sanno pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sarufuto, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page231">231</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sarufutogawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page237">237</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page246">246</a></span>.</p> +<p>Satow, Mr. Ernest, Japanese Secretary of Legation, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>; his +reputation, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page199">199</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Satsu</i>, or paper money, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p> +<p>Savage life at Biratori, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page234">234</a></span>–236.</p> +<p>School, a village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>; lessons and punishments, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>.</p> +<p>Science, native, dissection unknown to, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>.</p> +<p>Scramble, a Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page228">228</a></span>.</p> +<p>Seaweed, symbolism of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page165">165</a></span>.</p> +<p>Seed shop, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page78">78</a></span>.</p> +<p>Servant, engaging a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page16">16</a></span>–18.</p> +<p>Shinagawa or Shinbashi village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shinano river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page115">115</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shingoji, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page153">153</a></span>; rude intrusion, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shinjô, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span>; trade, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>; +discomforts, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page140">140</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shinkawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shione pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shirakasawa, mountain village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span>; graceful act at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page129">129</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shiraôi village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page226">226</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page289">289</a></span>; volcanic phenomena, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page290">290</a></span>; hot +spring, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page291">291</a></span>; lianas, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page292">292</a></span>; beautiful +scenery, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page292">292</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page293">293</a></span>; bear-trap, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page293">293</a></span>; houses, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page294">294</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shirawasa, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page183">183</a></span>; eclipse at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shiribetsan mountain, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page301">301</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shoes, straw, a nuisance, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page88">88</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Shôji</i>, or sliding screens, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shopping, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shops, Japanese, articles sold in, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shrine, revolving, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span>.</p> +<p>Shrines, beauty of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page60">60</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sight, a strange, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page81">81</a></span>.</p> +<p>Silk factory, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page159">159</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sir Harry’s messenger, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page42">42</a></span>.</p> +<p>Skin-diseases, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page76">76</a></span>.</p> +<p>Solitary ride, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page216">216</a></span>–219.</p> +<p>Springs, hot, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p>“Squeeze,” a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span>.</p> +<p>Stone lanterns, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span>.</p> +<p>Storm, effects of a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page188">188</a></span>.</p> +<p>Straw rain-cloak, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page176">176</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span>.</p> +<p>Straw shoes for horses, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page88">88</a></span>.</p> +<p>Street, a clean, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page49">49</a></span>.</p> +<p>Street and canal, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page117">117</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sulphur spring at Yumoto, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span>.</p> +<p>Sumida river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page22">22</a></span>.</p> +<p>Summer and winter costume, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page82">82</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Taiheisan</span> mountain, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tajima, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p> +<p>Takadayama mountain, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page88">88</a></span>.</p> +<p>Takahara, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page88">88</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page89">89</a></span>; hot springs, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p>Takata, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page99">99</a></span>; general aspect, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>; policemen +at, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page100">100</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tamagawa hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tarumai volcano, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page227">227</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page228">228</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Tatami</i>, or house mats, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tattooing, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page259">259</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page260">260</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tea, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Teishi</i>, or landlord, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>.</p> +<p>Temple architecture, uniformity of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tendo town, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page138">138</a></span>.</p> +<p>Threshing, varieties in, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page44">44</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tochigi, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page45">45</a></span>; the <i>yadoya</i> and +<i>shôji</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page45">45</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tochiida, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p> +<p>Togénoshita, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page318">318</a></span>.</p> +<p>Toilet, a lady’s, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page200">200</a></span>; hair-dressing, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span>; paint and +cosmetics, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page201">201</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page202">202</a></span>; mirror, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="page336"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 336</span><span +class="smcap">Tôkiyô</span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>; first +impressions, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>; the British Legation, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page13">13</a></span>; Kwan-non +temple of Asakusa, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span>; a perpetual fair, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>; archery +galleries, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page29">29</a></span>; western innovations, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>; tranquillity +of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page324">324</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Tokonoma</i>, or floors of polished wood, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tomakomai, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page227">227</a></span>.</p> +<p>Toné, river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page43">43</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Torii</i>, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span>.</p> +<p>Toyôka village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page174">174</a></span>.</p> +<p>Transport, prices, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page79">79</a></span>; agent, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p> +<p>Travelling equipments, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page33">33</a></span>; passports, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page33">33</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p> +<p>Travelling, slow, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tsugawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>; <i>yadoya</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page107">107</a></span>; town, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page108">108</a></span>; +packet-boat, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page109">109</a></span>; “running the rapids,” +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>; +fantastic scenery, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page110">110</a></span>; river-course, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>; +river-life, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page110">110</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tsuguriko, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page180">180</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tsuiji, farming village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tsukuno, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page134">134</a></span>.</p> +<p>Tufa cones, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page290">290</a></span>.</p> +<p>“Typhoon,” a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page322">322</a></span>.</p> +<p>“Typhoon rain,” a, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page297">297</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Udonosan</span> snow-fields, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p> +<p>Universal greyness, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page207">207</a></span>; language, the, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page296">296</a></span>.</p> +<p>Unpleasant detention, an, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page187">187</a></span>.</p> +<p>Usu, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page302">302</a></span>; temple, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page302">302</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page303">303</a></span>; bay, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page304">304</a></span>; Aino +lodges at, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page304">304</a></span>.</p> +<p>Usu-taki volcano, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page300">300</a></span>.</p> +<p>Utsu pass, view from, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page129">129</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Vegetation</span>, tropical, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>.</p> +<p>Village life, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page47">47</a></span>.</p> +<p>Vineyards on the Tsugawa, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page111">111</a></span>.</p> +<p>Volcano Bay, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page220">220</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Wakamatsu</span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span>.</p> +<p>Watering-place, a native, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span>.</p> +<p>Waterproof cloak, a paper, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page78">78</a></span>.</p> +<p>Water-shed, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>.</p> +<p>Welcome, a wild, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page208">208</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page209">209</a></span>.</p> +<p>Wilkinson, Mr., <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p> +<p>Winter dismalness, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page123">123</a></span>.</p> +<p>Women, employment for, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page159">159</a></span>.</p> +<p>Wood-carving at Nikkö, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page60">60</a></span>.</p> +<p>Worship, a supposed act of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page244">244</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Yadate</span> Pass, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page188">188</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span>; the force +of water, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page189">189</a></span>; landslips, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span>.</p> +<p><i>Yadoya</i>, or hotel, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page45">45</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page48">48</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page63">63</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page85">85</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page100">100</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page101">101</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page122">122</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page123">123</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page136">136</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page156">156</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page178">178</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page179">179</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page181">181</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page191">191</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page195">195</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page217">217</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page220">220</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page226">226</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page280">280</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page294">294</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page315">315</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page316">316</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page318">318</a></span>; taxes on, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yamagata <i>ken</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page125">125</a></span>; prosperous, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; plain, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; +convict labour at, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span>; town, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; its +streets, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span>; forgeries of eatables and +drinkables, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page138">138</a></span>; public buildings, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span>; vulgarity +of policemen, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page138">138</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yamakushinoi hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page316">316</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yedo city, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span> (<i>see</i> Tôkiyô); +gulf of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page11">11</a></span>; plain of, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Yezo</span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page216">216</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page217">217</a></span>; itinerary of tour in, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page319">319</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yokohama, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page3">3</a></span>; <i>sampans</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page3">3</a></span>; portable +restaurant, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>; <i>kurumas</i>, or jin-ri-ki-shas, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>; +man-carts, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span>; railway station and fares, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>; Chinamen, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yokokawa, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span>; filth and squalor, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page92">92</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yokote, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span>; discomfort, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>; +Shintô temple, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span>; <i>torii</i>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yomei Gate, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page56">56</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yonetsurugawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span>; exciting transit, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page178">178</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yonezawa plain, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page129">129</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yoshida, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yoshitsuné, shrine of, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page252">252</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page253">253</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page273">273</a></span>, <i>note</i>.</p> +<p>Yubets, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page228">228</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page289">289</a></span>; a ghostly dwelling at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page229">229</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yuki, her industry, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yumoto village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span>; bathing sheds at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yurapu, Aino village, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page316">316</a></span>; river, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page316">316</a></span>.</p> +<p>Yusowa, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page145">145</a></span>; fire at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>; lunch in +public, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page146">146</a></span>; accident at, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page146">146</a></span>; curiosity +of crowd, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page146">146</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><i>Zen</i>, or small table, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page53">53</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">PRINTED AT +THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET.</span></p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote2"></a><a href="#citation2" +class="footnote">[2]</a> This is an altogether exceptional +aspect of Fujisan, under exceptional atmospheric +conditions. The mountain usually looks broader and lower, +and is often compared to an inverted fan.</p> +<p><a name="footnote5"></a><a href="#citation5" +class="footnote">[5]</a> I continue hereafter to use the +Japanese word <i>kuruma</i> instead of the Chinese word +<i>Jin-ri-ki-sha</i>. <i>Kuruma</i>, literally a wheel or +vehicle, is the word commonly used by the <i>Jin-ri-ki-sha</i> +men and other Japanese for the “man-power-carriage,” +and is certainly more euphonious. From <i>kuruma</i> +naturally comes <i>kurumaya</i> for the <i>kuruma</i> runner.</p> +<p><a name="footnote14"></a><a href="#citation14" +class="footnote">[14]</a> Often in the later months of my +residence in Japan, when I asked educated Japanese questions +concerning their history, religions, or ancient customs, I was +put off with the answer, “You should ask Mr. Satow, he +could tell you.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote19"></a><a href="#citation19" +class="footnote">[19]</a> After several months of +travelling in some of the roughest parts of the interior, I +should advise a person in average health—and none other +should travel in Japan—not to encumber himself with tinned +meats, soups, claret, or any eatables or drinkables, except +Liebig’s extract of meat.</p> +<p><a name="footnote27"></a><a href="#citation27" +class="footnote">[27]</a> I visited this temple alone many +times afterwards, and each visit deepened the interest of my +first impressions. There is always enough of change and +novelty to prevent the interest from flagging, and the mild, but +profoundly superstitious, form of heathenism which prevails in +Japan is nowhere better represented.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32"></a><a href="#citation32" +class="footnote">[32]</a> The list of my equipments is +given as a help to future travellers, especially ladies, who +desire to travel long distances in the interior of Japan. +One wicker basket is enough, as I afterwards found.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41"></a><a href="#citation41" +class="footnote">[41]</a> My fears, though quite natural +for a lady alone, had really no justification. I have since +travelled 1200 miles in the interior, and in Yezo, with perfect +safety and freedom from alarm, and I believe that there is no +country in the world in which a lady can travel with such +absolute security from danger and rudeness as in Japan.</p> +<p><a name="footnote46"></a><a href="#citation46" +class="footnote">[46]</a> In my northern journey I was very +frequently obliged to put up with rough and dirty accommodation, +because the better sort of houses were of this class. If +there are few sights which shock the traveller, there is much +even on the surface to indicate vices which degrade and enslave +the manhood of Japan.</p> +<p><a name="footnote79"></a><a href="#citation79" +class="footnote">[79]</a> I advise every traveller in the +ruder regions of Japan to take a similar stretcher and a good +mosquito net. With these he may defy all ordinary +discomforts.</p> +<p><a name="footnote87"></a><a href="#citation87" +class="footnote">[87]</a> This can only be true of the +behaviour of the lowest excursionists from the Treaty Ports.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95"></a><a href="#citation95" +class="footnote">[95]</a> Many unpleasant details have +necessarily been omitted. If the reader requires any +apology for those which are given here and elsewhere, it must be +found in my desire to give such a faithful picture of peasant +life, as I saw it in Northern Japan, as may be a contribution to +the general sum of knowledge of the country, and, at the same +time, serve to illustrate some of the difficulties which the +Government has to encounter in its endeavour to raise masses of +people as deficient as these are in some of the first +requirements of civilisation.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98"></a><a href="#citation98" +class="footnote">[98]</a> The excess of males over females +in the capital is 36,000, and in the whole Empire nearly half a +million.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115a"></a><a href="#citation115a" +class="footnote">[115a]</a> By one of these, not fitted up +for passengers, I have sent one of my baskets to Hakodaté, +and by doing so have come upon one of the vexatious restrictions +by which foreigners are harassed. It would seem natural to +allow a foreigner to send his personal luggage from one Treaty +Port to another without going through a number of formalities +which render it nearly impossible, but it was only managed by Ito +sending mine in his own name to a Japanese at Hakodaté +with whom he is slightly acquainted.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115b"></a><a href="#citation115b" +class="footnote">[115b]</a> This hospital is large and well +ventilated, but has not as yet succeeded in attracting many +in-patients; out-patients, specially sufferers from ophthalmia, +are very numerous. The Japanese chief physician regards the +great prevalence of the malady in this neighbourhood as the +result of damp, the reflection of the sun’s rays from sand +and snow, inadequate ventilation and charcoal fumes.</p> +<p><a name="footnote145"></a><a href="#citation145" +class="footnote">[145]</a> <i>Kak’ké</i>, by +William Anderson, F.R.C.S. Transactions of English Asiatic +Society of Japan, January 1878.</p> +<p><a name="footnote168"></a><a href="#citation168" +class="footnote">[168]</a> I failed to learn what the +liquor was which was drunk so freely, but as no unseemly effects +followed its use, I think it must either have been light wine, or +light <i>saké</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote216"></a><a href="#citation216" +class="footnote">[216]</a> I venture to present this +journal letter, with a few omissions, just as it was written, +trusting that the interest which attaches to aboriginal races and +little-visited regions will carry my readers through the +minuteness and multiplicity of its details.</p> +<p><a name="footnote218"></a><a href="#citation218" +class="footnote">[218]</a> The use of kerosene in matted +wooden houses is a new cause of conflagrations. It is not +possible to say how it originated, but just before Christmas 1879 +a fire broke out in Hakodaté, which in a few hours +destroyed 20 streets, 2500 houses, the British Consulate, several +public buildings, the new native Christian church, and the church +Mission House, leaving 11,000 people homeless.</p> +<p><a name="footnote241"></a><a href="#citation241" +class="footnote">[241]</a> I went over them with the Ainos +of a remote village on Volcano Bay, and found the differences in +pronunciation very slight, except that the definiteness of the +sound which I have represented by Tsch was more strongly +marked. I afterwards went over them with Mr. Dening, and +with Mr. Von Siebold at Tôkiyô, who have made a +larger collection of words than I have, and it is satisfactory to +find that we have represented the words in the main by the same +letters, with the single exception that usually the sound +represented by them by the letters <i>ch</i> I have given as +<i>Tsch</i>, and I venture to think that is the most correct +rendering.</p> +<p><a name="footnote271"></a><a href="#citation271" +class="footnote">[271]</a> I have not been able to obtain +from any botanist the name of the tree from the bark of which the +thread is made, but suppose it to be a species of +<i>Tiliaceæ</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote273"></a><a href="#citation273" +class="footnote">[273]</a> Yoshitsuné is the most +popular hero of Japanese history, and the special favourite of +boys. He was the brother of Yoritomo, who was appointed by +the Mikado in 1192 <i>Sei-i Tai Shôgun</i> +(barbarian-subjugating great general) for his victories, and was +the first of that series of great Shôguns whom our European +notions distorted into “Temporal Emperors” of +Japan. Yoshitsuné, to whom the real honour of these +victories belonged, became the object of the jealousy and hatred +of his brother, and was hunted from province to province, till, +according to popular belief, he committed <i>hara-kiri</i>, after +killing his wife and children, and his head, preserved in +<i>saké</i>, was sent to his brother at Kamakura. +Scholars, however, are not agreed as to the manner, period, or +scene of his death. Many believe that he escaped to Yezo +and lived among the Ainos for many years, dying among them at the +close of the twelfth century. None believe this more firmly +than the Ainos themselves, who assert that he taught their +fathers the arts of civilisation, with letters and numbers, and +gave them righteous laws, and he is worshipped by many of them +under a name which signifies Master of the Law. I have been +told by old men in Biratori, Usu, and Lebungé, that a +later Japanese conqueror carried away the books in which the arts +were written, and that since his time the arts themselves have +been lost, and the Ainos have fallen into their present +condition! On asking why the Ainos do not make vessels of +iron and clay as well as knives and spears, the invariable answer +is, “The Japanese took away the books.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote321"></a><a href="#citation321" +class="footnote">[321]</a> The duty paid by junks is 4s. +for each twenty-five tons, by foreign ships of foreign shape and +rig £2 for each 100 tons, and by steamers £3 for each +100 tons.</p> +<p><a name="footnote328"></a><a href="#citation328" +class="footnote">[328]</a> The following very inaccurate +but entertaining account of this expedition was given by the +<i>Yomi-uri-Shimbun</i>, a daily newspaper with the largest, +though not the most aristocratic, circulation in +Tôkiyô, being taken in by the servants and +tradespeople. It is a literal translation made by Mr. +Chamberlain. “The person mentioned in our +yesterday’s issue as ‘an English subject of the name +of Bird’ is a lady from Scotland, a part of England. +This lady spends her time in travelling, leaving this year the +two American continents for a passing visit to the Sandwich +Islands, and landing in Japan early in the month of May. +She has toured all over the country, and even made a five +months’ stay in the Hokkaidô, investigating the local +customs and productions. Her inspection yesterday of the +cremation ground at Kirigaya is believed to have been prompted by +a knowledge of the advantages of this method of disposing of the +dead, and a desire to introduce the same into England(!) On +account of this lady’s being so learned as to have +published a quantity of books, His Excellency the Governor was +pleased to see her yesterday, and to show her great civility, +sending her to Kirigaya in his own carriage, a mark of attention +which is said to have pleased the lady much(!)”</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 2184-h.htm or 2184-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/2184 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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