CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 Dudley H. Sckoales 
 
°S 821.C44"i89l" Ver8 " y Librar >' 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924011199340 
 
Things Japanese 
 
 NOTES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH JAPAN 
 
 FOR THE USE OP TRAVELLERS AND OTHERS 
 
 BY 
 
 BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN 
 
 EMEEITITS PEOFESSO£ OF JAPANESE AND PHILOLOGT IU THE IMPERIAL 
 UUIVEBSITY OF JAPAIf 
 
 Second Edition Jjleuised and Enlarged 
 
 LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & Co.," Ltd. /f 
 
 > 
 -KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED. 
 
 YOKOHAMA ^ 
 SHANGHAI 
 HONGKONG 
 SINGAPORE J 
 
 1891 V 
 (all bights reserved) 
 
Comprendre les ckoses, c'est avoir &U dans les choses puis en Ure sorti; 
 il y faut done captwiU, puis dilwrance, illusion et disillusion, engoue- 
 ment et disabusement. Celui qui est encore sous le charme et celui qui 
 n'a pas subi le charme sont incomp&tents. On ne connait bien que cr 
 qu'on a cru puis jug&. Pour comprendre il faut Ure libre et ne V avoir 
 
 pas toujours iti Comprendre est plus difficile que juger, car c'est 
 
 entrer objectivement dans les conditions de ce qui est, tandis quejugee 
 c'est simplement imeitre une opinion mdwiduelle. 
 
 (H. F. AMIEL, Journal Intime.) 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This edition has been enlarged by the insertion of 
 over twenty new articles, while the old have been cor- 
 rected up to date and re-written in many parts. In 
 bringing the book afresh before the public, the author 
 would reiterate his thanks to many kind friends — 
 especially to Mr. W. B. Mason, by whose unwearying 
 assistance and advice every page has profited more or 
 less. The article on Archceology is from the pen of 
 Mr. W. G. Aston, C.M.G., being founded on the joint 
 investigations of that eminent scholar and Mr. W. 
 Gowland. The Abbe Felix Evrard, of the French 
 Legation at Tokyo, has contributed the article on 
 Roman Catholic Missions ; Mr. H. V. Henson, those on 
 Trade and Shipping ; Professor Milne, F.K.S., that on 
 Geology ; Mr. Samuel Tuke, that on Polo ; Mr. Mason, 
 those on Telegraphs, Chess, and the game of Go. 
 Mr. Y. Sannomiya, Vice-Grand-Master of Ceremonies 
 and Master of the Court of Her Majesty the Empress, 
 has furnished the materials for Decorations; Mr. E. 
 Masujima, of the Japanese Bar and of the Middle Tem- 
 ple, London, the materials for Law ; Mr. K. Fujikura, 
 late Chief Commissioner of Lighthouses, the materials 
 for Lighthouses ; Captain J. Ingles, E.N., for Navy ; Mr. 
 
Tl PBEFACE. 
 
 C. A. W. Pownall, for Railways; and Mr. Lafcadio 
 Hearn, for Pipes. The advice of Dr. Erwin Baelz, of 
 the Imperial University of Japan, has been sought on 
 various points connected with medicine, and valuable 
 criticisms on the first edition have been received from 
 Dr. Divers, F.E.S., Mr. E. A. Mowat, Judge of H.B.M.'s 
 Court for Japan, and Mr. E. H. Parker, of H.B.M.'s 
 Consular Service in China. The Map, now much im- 
 proved, is adapted from one of those in the "Atlas of 
 the Agricultural Productions of the Japanese Empire," 
 by permission of Professor T. Wada, Director of the 
 Imperial Geological Office in the Department of Agricul- 
 ture and Commerce. Various other friends have con- 
 tributed — one a fact, another a reference, yet another 
 & counsel. To all, best thanks. 
 
 Tokyo, 6th November, 1891. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, 
 
 To have lived through the transition stage of modern 
 Japan makes a man feel preternaturally old ; for here 
 he is in modern times, with the air full of talk about 
 Darwinism, and phonographs, and parliamentary in- 
 stitutions, and yet he can himself distinctly remember 
 the Middle Ages. The dear old samurai who first 
 initiated the present writer into the mysteries of the 
 Japanese language wore a cue and two swords. This 
 relic of feudalism now sleeps in Nirvana. His modern 
 successor, fairly fluent in English, and dressed in a 
 serviceable suit of dittos, might almost be a European, 
 save for a certain obliqueness of the eyes and scantiness 
 of beard. Old things pass away between a night and 
 a morning. The Japanese boast that they have done 
 in twenty years what it took Europe half as many 
 centuries to accomplish. Some even go further, and 
 twit us Westerns with falling behind in the race. Not 
 
2 INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEB. 
 
 long ago, a Japanese pamphleteer refused to argue out 
 a point of philosophy with a learned German resident 
 of Tokyo, on the score that Europeans, owing to their 
 antiquated Christian prejudices, were not capable of 
 discussing such matters impartially. 
 
 Thus does it come about that, having arrived in Japan 
 in 1873, we ourselves feel well-nigh four hundred years 
 old, and assume without more ado the two well-known 
 privileges of old age — garrulity and an authoritative air. 
 We are perpetually being asked questions about Japan. 
 Here then are the answers, put into the shape of a 
 dictionary, not- of words but of things, — or shall we 
 rather say a guide-book, less to places than to subjects ? 
 The old and the new will be found cheek by jowl. The 
 only thing that will not be found is padding ; for pad- 
 ding is unpardonable in any book on Japan, where the 
 subject-matter is so plentiful that the chief difficulty is 
 to know what to omit. 
 
 In order to enable the reader to supply deficiencies 
 and to form his own opinions, if haply he should be of 
 so unusual a turn of mind as to desire so> to do, we 
 have, at the end of almost every article, indicated the 
 names of trustworthy works bearing on the subject 
 treated in that article. For the rest, this little book 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. d 
 
 explains itself. Any reader who detects errors or omis- 
 sions in it will render the author an invaluable service 
 by writing to him to point them out. As a little en- 
 couragement in this direction, we will ourselves lead 
 the way by presuming to give each reader, especially 
 each globe-trotting reader, a small piece of advice. We 
 take it for granted, of course, that there are no Japanese 
 listening, and the advice is this : — 
 
 Whatever you do, don't expatiate, in the presence of 
 Japanese of the new school, on those old, quaint, and 
 beautiful things Japanese which rouse your most genuine 
 admiration. Antiquated persons do doubtless exist here 
 and there to whom Buddhist piety is precious ; others may 
 still secretly cherish the swords bequeathed to them" by 
 their knightly forefathers; quite a little coterie has 
 taken up with art ; and there are those who practise the 
 tea ceremonies, arrange flowers according to the tradi- 
 tional esthetic rules, and even perform the mediaeval 
 lyric dramas. But all this is merely a backwater. 
 Speaking generally, the educated Japanese have 
 clone with their past. They want to be some- 
 body else and something else than what they have 
 been and still partly are. When Sir Edwin Arnold 
 came to Tokyo, he was entertained at a ban- 
 
4 INTR0DTJC10EY CHAPTEE. 
 
 quet by a distinguished company including officials, 
 journalists, and professors, in fact, representative 
 modern Japanese of the best class. In returning 
 thanks for this hospitality, Sir Edwin made a speech 
 in which he lauded Japan to the skies — and lauded it 
 justly — as the nearest earthly approach to Paradise or 
 to Lotus-land — so fairy-like, said he, is its scenery, so 
 exquisite its art, so much more lovely still that almost 
 divine sweetness of disposition, that charm of demean- 
 our, that politeness humble without servility and ela- 
 borate without affectation, which place Japan high 
 above all other countries in nearly all those things 
 which make life worth living. (We do not give his 
 exact words, but we give the general drift.)— Now do 
 you think that the Japanese were satisfied with this 
 meed of praise ? Not a bit of it. Out comes an article 
 next morning in the chief paper which had been re- 
 presented at the banquet — an article acknowledging, 
 indeed, the truth of Sir Edwin's description, but point- 
 ing out that it conveyed, not praise, but condemnation 
 of the heaviest sort. Art forsooth, scenery, sweetness 
 of disposition ! cries this editor. Why did not Sir 
 Edwin praise us for huge industrial enterprises, for com- 
 mercial talent, for wealth, political sagacity, powerful 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 5 
 
 armaments ? Of course it is because he could not 
 honestly do so. He has gauged us at our true value, 
 and tells us in effect that we are pretty weaklings. 
 
 Yes, reader, we — we now mean our own little "we," 
 not the editorial " we " of the disappointed Japanese 
 journalist — we have seen this sort of thing over and 
 over again. We can even sympathise with it, or at 
 least try to do so. For after all, Japan must he 
 modernised if she is to continue to exist. Besides which, 
 our new European world of thought, of enterprise, of 
 gigantic scientific achievement, is as much a wonder- 
 world to the Japanese as Old Japan can ever be to us. 
 There is this difference, however. Old Japan is to 
 us a delicate little wonder-world of sylphs and fairies. 
 Europe and America, with their railways, their tele- 
 graphs, their gigantic commerce, their gigantic armies 
 and navies, their endless applied arts founded on 
 chemistry and mathematics, are to the Japanese a 
 wonder-world of irresistible genii and magicians. The 
 Japanese have, it is true, little or no appreciation of our 
 literature. They esteem us whimsical for attaching so 
 much importance as we do to poetry, to music, to re- 
 ligion, to speculative disquisitions. Our material great- 
 ness has completely dazzled them, as well it might. 
 
6 INTEODUCTOBY CHAPTEB. 
 
 They know aljso well enough— for every Eastern nation 
 knows it— that our Christian and humanitarian profes- 
 sions are really nothing hut bunkum. The history of 
 India, of Egypt, of Turkey, is no secret to them. More 
 familiar still is the sweet reasonableness of California's 
 treatment of the Chinese. They would be blind indeed, 
 did they not see that their only chance of safety lies in 
 the endeavour to be strong, and in the endeavour not to 
 be too different from the rest of mankind ; for the mob 
 of Western nations will tolerate eccentricity of ap- 
 pearance no more than will a mob of roughs. 
 
 . Indeed, scarcely any even among those who implore 
 the Japanese to remain as they are, refrain, as a matter 
 of fact, from urging them to make all sorts of changes. 
 "Japanese dress for ladies is simply perfection," we 
 hear one of these persons cry ; " only don't you think 
 that gloves might be added with advantage ? And then, 
 too, ought not something to be done with the skirt to 
 prevent it from opening in front, just for the sake of 
 decency, you know ? " — Says another, whose special 
 vanity is Japanese music (there is considerable distinc- 
 tion about this taste, for it is a rare one)— says he— - 
 " Now please keep your music from perishing. Keep 
 it just as it is, so curious to the archaeologist, so 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 7 
 
 beautiful, for all that the jeerers may say. There is 
 only one small thing which I would advise you to 
 do, and that is to harmonise it. Of course that 
 would change its character a little. But no one 
 would notice it, and the general effect would be im- 
 proved." — Yet another, an enthusiast for faience, 
 wishes Japanese decorative methods to be retained, but 
 to be applied to French forms, because no cup or plate 
 made in Japan is so perfectly round as are the products 
 of French kilns. A fourth delights in Japanese brocade, 
 but suggests new breadths, in order to suit making up 
 into European dresses. A fifth wants to keep Japanese 
 painting exactly as it is, but with the trivial addition of 
 perspective. A sixth — but a truce to the quoting of 
 these self-confuting absurdities. Put into plain English, 
 they mean, "Do so-and-so, only don't do it. Walk 
 north, and at the same time take care to proceed in a 
 southerly direction." 
 
 And can it be wondered at that the Japanese are 
 bewildered ? On the other hand, must it not be wondered 
 at that any one can expect either Japanese social 
 conditions or the Japanese arts to remain as they were 
 in the past ? All the causes which produced the Old 
 Japan of our dreams have vanished. Feudalism has 
 
8 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 gone, isolation has gone, beliefs have been shattered, 
 new idols have been set up, new and pressing needs 
 have arisen. In the place of chivalry there is indus- 
 trialism, in the place of a small class of aristocratic 
 native connoisseurs there is a huge and hugely ignorant 
 foreign public to satisfy. All the causes have changed, 
 and yet it is expected that the effects will remain as 
 heretofore ! 
 
 No. Old Japan is dead, and the only decent thing to 
 do with the corpse is to bury it. Then you can set up 
 a monument over it, and, if you like, come and worship 
 from time to time at the grave ; for that would be quite 
 " Japanesey." This little book is intended to be, as it 
 were, the epitaph recording the many and extraordinary 
 virtues of the deceased, — his virtues, but also his 
 frailties. For, more careful of fact than the generality 
 of epitaphists, we have ventured to speak out our whole 
 mind on almost every subject, and to call things by their 
 names, being persuaded that true appreciation is always 
 critical as well as kindly. 
 
THINGS JAPANESE. 
 
 Abacus. Learn to count on the abacus — the soroban, 
 as the Japanese call it — and you will often be able to save 
 a large percentage on your purchases. The abacus is that 
 instrument, composed of beads sliding on wires fixed in a 
 frame, with which many of us learnt the multiplication table 
 in early childhood. In Japan it is used, not only by children, 
 but by adults, who still mostly prefer it to our method of 
 figuring with pen and paper. As for mental arithmetic, that 
 does not exist in this archipelago. Tell any ordinary Japanese 
 to add 5 and 8 and 7 : he will flounder hopelessly, unless his 
 familiar friend, the abacus, is at hand. And here we come 
 round again to the practical advantage of being able to read 
 off at sight a number figured on this instrument. You have 
 been bargaining at a curio-shop, we will suppose. The 
 shopman has got perplexed. He refers to his list, and then 
 calculates on the instrument, which of course he takes for 
 granted that you do not understand, the lowest price for 
 which he can let you have the article in question. Then he 
 raises his head, and, with a bland smile, assures you that 
 the cost of it to himself was so and so, naming a price 
 considerably larger than the real one. You have the better 
 
10 Abdication. 
 
 of Mm, if you can read his figuring pf the sum. If you 
 cannot, ten to one he has the better of you. 
 
 The principle of the abacus is this : — Each of the five 
 beads in the broad lower division of the board represents 
 one unit, and each solitary bead in the narrow upper division 
 represents five units. Each vertical column is thus worth 
 ten units. Furthermore, each vertical column represents 
 units ten times greater than those in the column immediately 
 to the right of it, exactly as in our own system of notation 
 "by means of Arabic numerals. Any sum in arithmetic can 
 be done on the abacus, even to the extracting of square and 
 cube roots ; and Dr. Knott, the chief English, or to be quite 
 correct, the chief Scotch, writer on the subject, is of opinion 
 that Japanese methods excel ours in rapidity. Perhaps he is 
 a little enthusiastic. One can scarcely help thinking so of 
 an author who refers to a new Japanese method of long 
 division as " almost fascinating." The Japanese, it seems, 
 have not only a multiplication table, but a division table 
 besides. We confess that we do not understand the division 
 table, even with Dr. Knott's explanations. Indeed we will 
 confess more : we have never learnt the abacus at all. If we 
 recommend others to learn it, it is because we hope that, for 
 their own sake, they will do as we tell them and not do as 
 we do. Personally we have found one method of ciphering 
 enough, and a great deal more than enough, to poison the 
 happiness of one life-time. 
 
 Boole recommended. The Abacus, in its Historic anil Scientific 
 Aspects, hy Dr. C. G. Knott, F. E. S. E., printed in Vol. XIV. Part I. of the 
 Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 ex 
 
 Abdication. The abdication of monarchs, which is 
 :ceptional in Europe, has for many ages been the rule in 
 
Abdication. 11 
 
 Japan. It came into vogue in the seventh century together 
 with Buddhism, whose doctrines led men to retire from 
 worldly cares and pleasures into solitude and contemplation. 
 But it was made use of by unscrupulous ministers, who 
 placed infant puppets on the throne, and caused them to 
 abdicate on attaining to maturity. Thus it was a common 
 thing during the Middle Ages for three Mikados to be alive 
 at the same time — a boy on the throne, his father or brother 
 who had abdicated, and his grandfather or other relative wha 
 had abdicated also. From A.D. 987 to 991, there were as 
 many as four Mikados all alive together — Eeizei Tenno, who 
 had ascended the throne at the age of eighteen, and who 
 abdicated at twenty ; En-yu Tenno, emperor at eleven and 
 abdicated at twenty-six ; Kwazan Tenno, emperor at seven- 
 teen and abdicated at nineteen ; and Ichijo Tenno, who had 
 just ascended the throne as a little boy of seven. Under the 
 Mikado Go-Nijo (A.D. 1302 — 8) there were actually five 
 Mikados all alive together, namely Go-Nijo Tenno himself, 
 made emperor at seventeen, and his four abdicated prede- 
 cessors — Go-Fukakusa Tenno, emperor at four and abdicated 
 at seventeen ; Kameyama Tenno, emperor at eleven and 
 abdicated at twenty-six ; Go-Uda Tenno, emperor at eight 
 and abdicated at twenty-one ; and Fushimi Tenno, emperor 
 at twenty-three and abdicated the same year. Sometimes it 
 was arranged that the children of two rival branches of the 
 Imperial family should succeed each other alternately. This 
 it was, in part at least, which led to the civil war in the 
 fourteenth century between what were known as " the 
 Northern and Southern Courts ; " for it was of course im- 
 possible that so extraordinary an arrangement should long 
 be'adhered to without producing violent dissensions. 
 
12 Abdication. 
 
 After a time, it became so completely customary that the 
 monarch in name must not be monarch in fact, and vice 
 verM, that abdication, or rather deposition (for that is what 
 it practically amounted to), was almost a sine qud non of the 
 inheritance of such scanty shreds of authority as imperious 
 ministers still deigned to leave to their so-called lords and 
 masters. When a Mikado abdicated, he was said to ascend 
 to the rank of abdicated Mikado. It was no longer necessary, 
 as at an earlier period, to sham asceticism. The abdicated 
 Mikado surrounded himself with wives and a whole court, 
 and sometimes really helped to direct public affairs. Nor 
 was abdication confined to sovereigns. Heads of noble houses 
 abdicated too. In later times the middle and. lower classes 
 began to imitate their betters. Until the period .of the late 
 revolution, it was an almost universal custom for a man to 
 become wha,t is termed an inkyo after passing middle age. 
 Inkyo means literally " dwelling in retirement." He who 
 enters on this state gives over his property to his heirs, 
 generally resigns all office, and lives on the bounty of his 
 children, free to devote himself henceforth to pleasure or to 
 study. Old age being so extraordinarily honoured in Japan, 
 the inkyo has no reason to dread Lear's fate. He knows that 
 he will always be dutifully tended by sons who are not 
 waiting to find out " how the old man will cut up." The 
 new government of Japan is endeavouring to put a stop to 
 the practice of inkyo, as being barbarous because not Euro- 
 pean. But to the people at large it appears, on the contrary, 
 barbarous that a man should go on toiling and striving, when 
 past the time of life at which he is fitted to do good work. 
 
 Book recommeiidecL. The Gakushikaiin, by Walter Dening, 
 printed in Vol. XV. Part I. of the Aiiitic Transactions, p. 72, et seq. 
 
Adams. 13 
 
 Acupuncture. Acupuncture, one of the three great 
 nostrums of the practitioners of the Far East (the other two 
 being massage and the moxa), was brought over from China- 
 to Japan before the dawn of history. Dr. W. N. Whitney- 
 describes it as follows in his " Notes on the History of Medical 
 Progress in Japan," published in Vol. XII. Part IV. of the 
 "Asiatic Transactions," p. 354 : — 
 
 " As practised by the Japanese acupuncturists, the operation 
 consists in perforating the skin and underlying tissues to a 
 depth, as a rule, not exceeding one-half to three-quarters 
 of an inch, with fine needles of gold, silver, or steel. The 
 form and construction of these needles vary, but, generally 
 speaking, they are several inches long, and of an average 
 diameter of one forty-eighth of an inch. Each needle is 
 usually fastened into a handle, which is spirally grooved 
 from end to end. 
 
 " To perform the operation, the handle of the needle is 
 held lightly between the thumb and first finger of the left 
 hand, the point resting upon the spot to be punctured. A 
 slight blow is then given upon the head of the instrument 
 with a small mallet held in the right hand ; and the needle 
 is gently twisted until its point has penetrated to the desired 
 depth, where it is* left for a few seconds and then slowly 
 withdrawn, and the skin in the vicinity of the puncture 
 rubbed for a few moments. The number of perforations 
 range from one to twenty, and they are usually made in the 
 skin of the abdomen, although other portions of the body 
 are not unfrequently punctured." 
 
 Adams (Will). Will Adams, the first Englishman that 
 ever resided in Japan, was a native of Gillingham, near 
 
14 Adams. 
 
 Chatham, in the county of Kent. Having followed the sea 
 from his youth up, he took service, in the year 1598, as 
 "Pilot Maior of a fleets of five sayle," which had been 
 equipped by the Dutch East India Company for the purpose 
 of trading to Spanish America. From " Perow," a portion 
 of the storm-tossed fleet came on to " Iapon," arriving at a 
 port in the province of Bungo, not far from "Langasacke " 
 (Nagasaki), on the 19th April, 1600. Prom that time until 
 his death in May 1620, Adams remained in an exile, which, 
 though gilded, was none the less bitterly deplored. The 
 English pilot, brought first as a captive into the presence 
 of Ieyasu, who was then practically what Adams calls him, 
 " Emperour " of Japan, had immediately been recognised by 
 that shrewd judge of character as an able and an honest 
 man. That he and his nation were privately slandered to 
 Ieyasu by " the Iesuites and the Portingalls," who were at 
 that time the only other Europeans in the country, probably 
 did him more good than harm in the Japanese ruler's eyes. 
 He was retained at the Japanese court, and employed as a 
 shipbuilder, and also as a kind of diplomatic agent when 
 other English and Dutch traders began to arrive. In fact, it 
 was by his good offices that the foundations were laid both 
 of English trade in Japan and also of the more permanent 
 Dutch settlement. During his latter years he for a time 
 exchanged the Japanese service for that of the English 
 factory established by Captain John Saris at Firando (Hirado) 
 near Nagasaki ; and he made two voyages, one to the Loochoo 
 Islands and another to Siam. His constantly reiterated 
 desire to see his native land again, and his wife and children, 
 was to the last frustrated by adverse circumstances. So far 
 as the wife was concerned, he partially comforted himself, 
 
Adams. 15 
 
 sailor fashion, by taking another — a Japanese with whom he 
 lived comfortably for many years on the estate granted him 
 by Ieyaau at Hemi, where their two graves are shown to this 
 day. Hemi, at that time a separate village, has since become 
 a suburb of the bustling modern seaport, Yokosuka, and a 
 railway station now occupies the site of the old pilot's abode. 
 Another adventurer, who visited him there, describes Will 
 Adams's place thus : " This Phebe* is a Lordshipp geuen to 
 Capt. Adames pr. the ould Em'perour|-, to hym and his for 
 eaver, and confermed to his sonne, called Joseph. There is 
 above 100 farms, or howsholds, vppon it, besides others 
 vnder them, all which are his vassalls, and he hath power of 
 lyfe and death ouer them they being his slaues ; and he 
 hauing as absolute autboritie over them as any tono (or king) 
 in Japan hath over his vassales."' From further details it 
 would seem that he used his authority kindly, so that the 
 neighbours " reioiced (as it should seeme) of Captain Adames 
 retorne."» 
 
 Will Adams's letters have been published by the Hakluyt 
 Society in their " Memorials of Japon " (sic), and republished 
 in a cheaper form at the office of the " Japan Gazette," 
 Yokohama. They are • well- worth reading, both for the 
 life-like silhouette of the writer which stands out from their 
 quaintly spelt pages, and for the picture given by him of 
 Japan as it then was, when the land swarmed with Catholic 
 friars and Catholic converts, when no embargo had yet been 
 laid on foreign commerce, and when the native energy of the 
 Japanese people had not yet been emasculated by two centuries 
 and a half of bureaucracy and timid seclusion. 
 
 * Our author means Hemi. 
 t Ieyasu was then dead. 
 
16 Adoption. 
 
 Adoption. It is strange, but true, that you may often 
 go into a Japanese family, and find half a dozen persons 
 calling each other parent and child, brother and sister, uncle 
 and nephew, and yet being really either no blood relations at 
 all, or else relations in quite different degrees from those 
 conventionally assumed. Galton's books could never have 
 been written in Japan ; for though genealogies are carefully 
 kept, they mean nothing, at least from a scientific point of 
 view — so universal is the practice of adoption, from the top 
 of society to the bottom. This it is which explains such 
 apparent anomalies as a distinguished painter, potter, actor, 
 or what not, almost always having a son distinguished in the 
 same line, — he has simply adopted his best pupil. It also 
 explains the fact of Japanese families not dying out. 
 
 So completely has adoption become part and parcel of the 
 national life that Mr. Shigeno An-eki, the best recent 
 Japanese authority on the subject, enumerates no less than 
 ten different categories of adopted persons. Adoption is 
 resorted to, not only to prevent the extinction of families and 
 the consequent neglect of the spirits .of the departed, but also 
 in order to regulate the size of families. Thus, a man with 
 too many children hands over one or more of them to his 
 friends who have none. To adopt a person is also the 
 simplest way to leave him money, it not being usual in Japan 
 to nominate strangers as one's heirs. Formerly, too, it was 
 sometimes a means of money-making, not to the adopted, 
 but to the adopter. "It was customary" — so writes the 
 authority whom we quote below — "for the sons of the 
 court-nobles when they reached the age of majority to receive 
 an income from the Government. It often happened that 
 when an officer had a son who was, say, only two or three 
 
Adoption. 17 
 
 years old, be would adopt a lad who wait about fifteen (the 
 age of majority), and then apply for a grant of land or rice 
 for him ; after he had secured this, he would make his own 
 son the yosJii [adopted son] of the newly adopted youth, 
 and thus, when the former came of age, the officer was 
 entitled to apply for another grant of land." — With this may 
 be compared the plan often followed by business people at 
 the present day. A merchant adopts his head clerk, in order 
 to give him a personal interest in the firm. The clerk then 
 adopts his patron's son, with the understanding that he 
 himself is to retire in the latter's favour when the latter shall 
 be of a suitable age. If the clerk has a son, then perhaps 
 that son will be adopted by the patron's son. Thus a sort of 
 alternate headship is kept up, the surname always remaining 
 the same. 
 
 Since the late revolution, adoption has been a favourite 
 method of evading the conscription, as single sons are (or 
 were till recently) exempted from serving. Fond parents, 
 anxious to assist a favourite son to this exemption, would 
 cause him to be adopted by some childless friend. After a 
 few years, it might perhaps be possible to arrange for the 
 lad's return to his former family and resumption of his 
 original surname. 
 
 At the present moment the only way in which a foreigner 
 can become a Japanese is by getting a Japanese with a 
 daughter to adopt him, and then marrying the daughter. 
 This may sound like a joke, but it is not. It is a sober, legal 
 fact, recognised as such by the various judicial and consular 
 authorities. 
 
 We recommend, as a good occupation for a rainy day, the 
 endeavour to trace out the real relationships (in our European 
 
18 Ainos. 
 
 sense of the word) of some of the reader's Japanese servants 
 and friends. Unless we are much mistaken, this will prove 
 to be a puzzle of the highest order of difficulty. (See also 
 article on Marriage.) 
 
 Book recommended. The GalcusMleailn, by Walter Dening, 
 printed in Vol. XV. Part I. of the Asiatic Transactions, p. 72, et seq. 
 
 Ainos. The Ainos, called by themselves Ainu, that is 
 " men," are a very peculiar race, now inhabiting only the 
 northern island of Yezo, but formerly widely spread all over 
 the Japanese archipelago. The Japanese proper, arriving 
 from the south-west, gradually pressed the Ainos back towards 
 the east and north. In retreating, the aborigines left the 
 country strewn with place-names belonging to their own 
 language. Such are, for instance, Noto, the name of the big 
 promontory stretching out into the Sea of Japan (nottu means 
 " promontory" in Aino), the Tonegawa, or Eiver Tone, near 
 Tokyo (tanne is Aino for "long"), and hundreds of others. 
 So far as blood, however, is concerned, the Japanese have 
 been little, if at all, affected by Aino influence. The simple 
 reason is that the half-breeds die out. The Ainos are the 
 hairiest race in the whole world, their luxuriantly thick black 
 beards and hairy limbs giving them an appearance which 
 contrasts strangely with the smoothness of their Japanese 
 lords and masters. They are of sturdy build, and distin- 
 guished by a flattening of certain bones of the arm and leg 
 (the humerus and tibia), which has been observed nowhere 
 else except in the remains of some of the cave-men of Europe. 
 The women tattoo moustaches on their upper lip and 
 geometrical patterns on their hands. Both sexes are of a 
 mild and amiable disposition, but are terribly addicted to 
 
Ainos. 19 
 
 drunkenness. They are filthily dirty, the practice of bathing 
 being altogether unknown. 
 
 The Ainos were till recently accustomed to live on the 
 produce of the chase and the sea fisheries ; but both these 
 sources of subsistence have diminished since the settling of 
 the island by the Japanese. Consequently they no longer 
 hold up their heads as in former days, and notwithstanding 
 the well-intentioned efforts of a paternal government, they 
 are disappearing more rapidly under the influence of civilisa- 
 tion than they did during their long and bloody wars with 
 the Japanese and with each other, which only terminated in 
 the last century. At the present day they number about 
 15,000 souls, chiefly scattered along the coast. Their religion 
 is a simple nature-worship. The sun, wind, ocean, bear, 
 etc., are deified under the title of kamui, " god," and whittled 
 sticks are set up in their honour. The bear, though wor- 
 shipped, is also sacrificed and eaten with solemnities that 
 form the most original and picturesque feature of Aino life. 
 Some of the Aino tales are quaint. Most of them embody 
 an attempt to account for some natural phenomenon. The 
 following may serve as a specimen : — 
 
 ' WHY DOGS C Ay NOT SPEAK. 
 
 Formerly dogs could speak. Now they cannot. The reason is 
 that a dog belonging to a certain man a long time ago, inveigled 
 his master into the forest under the pretext of slwwing him game, 
 and there caused him to be devoured by a bear. Then the dog 
 went home to his master's widow, and lied to her, saying : " My 
 master has been killed by a bear. But when he was dying, he 
 commanded me to tell you to marry me in his stead." The 
 widow knew that the dog was lying. But he kept on wging 
 
20 Amusements. 
 
 her to marry him. So at last, in her grief and rage, she threw a- 
 handful of dust into his open mouth. This made him unable to 
 speak any more, and therefore no dogs can speak even to this very 
 day. 
 
 The Aino language is simple and harmonious. Its structure 
 in great measure resembles that of Japanese ; but there are 
 some few fundamental divergences, such, for instance, as the 
 possession of true pronouns. The vocabulary, too, is quite 
 distinct. The system of counting is extraordinarily cumbrous. 
 Thus, if a man wants to say that he is thirty-nine years old, 
 he must express himself thus : "I am nine, plus ten taken 
 from two score." In Mr. Batchelor's translation of Matthew 
 XII. 40, the phrase " forfy days and forty nights " is thus 
 . rendered : tokap rere ko tu hotne rere ko, kunne rere ko tu hotne 
 rere ko, that is " days three days two score three days, black 
 three days two score three days." The Ainos know nothing 
 of the use of letters. Tales like the one we have quoted, and 
 rude songs which are handed down orally from generation to 
 generation, form their only literature. 
 
 TSoolts recommended. Miss Bird's Vnheaten Tracks in Japan,. 
 Vol. II. gives the best popular account of the Amos. — Students are referred to the 
 First Memoir of the Literature College of the Imperial University of Japan, by 
 Chamberlain and Batchelor, for full details concerning Aino mythology, grammar, 
 place-names, etc. ; to the former writer's Aino Folk-Lore, in Vol. VI. Part I. of 
 the Folk-Lore Journal, to numerous papers by Batchelor scattered through the 
 Asiatic Transactions, to others by Penhallow in The Canadian Record of Science, 
 and to Studien iiber die Aino, by the younger Siebold. The Memoir above quoted 
 gives a fairly complete bibliography of Yezo and the Ainos.— The best Japanese 
 work on the subject is the Ezo Fuzoku Isan, published by the Kaitakushi in 1882. 
 It is in twenty volumes. 
 
 Amusements. The favourite amusements of the Japa- 
 nese are the ordinary theatre (shibai) ; the No theatre, (but 
 this is attended only by the aristocracy) ; wrestling matches, 
 — witnessing, not taking part in them ; dinners enlivened by 
 
Amusements. 21 
 
 the performances of singing and dancing-girls ; visits to 
 temples, as much for purposes of pleasure as of devotion ; 
 picnics to places noted for their scenery, and especially to 
 places noted for some particular blossom, such as the plum, 
 cherry, or wistaria. The Japanese also divert themselves by 
 composing verses in their own language and in Chinese, and 
 by playing chess, checkers, and various games of the " Mother 
 Goose" description, of which sugoroku is the chief. Ever 
 since the early days of foreign intercourse they have likewise 
 had certain kinds of cards, of which the hana-garuta, or 
 "flower-cards," are the most popular kind — so popular, 
 indeed, and seductive that there is an official veto on playing 
 the game for money. The cards are forty-eight in number, 
 four for each month of the year, the months being distinguished 
 by the flowers proper to them, and an extra value being 
 attached to one out of each set of four, which is further 
 distinguished by a bird or butterfly, and to a second which 
 is inscribed with a line of poetry. Three people take part 
 in the game, and there is a pool. The system of counting is 
 rather complicated, but the ideas involved are graceful. 
 
 Some of the above diversions are shared in by the ladies ; 
 but take it altogether, their mode of life is much duller than 
 that of their European sisters. Confucian ideas concerning 
 the subjection of women still obtain to a great extent. 
 Women are not, it is true, actually shut up, as in India ; but 
 it is considered that their true vocation is to sit at home. 
 Hence visiting is much less practised in Japan than with us. 
 It is further to be observed, to the credit of the Japanese, 
 that amusement, though permitted, is never exalted by them 
 to the rank of the great and serious business of life. In 
 England— at least among the upper classes— a man's shooting, 
 
22 Amusements. 
 
 fishing, and- tennis, a girl's dances, garden-parties, and; 
 country-house visitings, appear to be the centre round which 
 all the family plans revolve. In Japan; on the contrary^ 
 amusements are merely picked up by the way, and are all 
 the more appreciated.* 
 
 The above outline sketch, correct for the old days, nearly 
 correct for the present day, will probably require considerable 
 alteration in the near future. Poker, vingt et tin, horse- 
 racing, circuses, quadrilles, polkas, etc., etc., have begun to 
 establish their claims. Even shooting and lawn-tennis have 
 their Japanese devotees ; but for the most part, the interest 
 taken in field-sports is languid and not likely to endure. 
 Dancing parties in European style did not come into pro- 
 minence till the early eighties. For some time, the Japanese 
 ladies went to them in their own charming costume, and 
 merely to look on. They now incase themselves in European 
 corsets, don frills and furbelows, and join boldly in the fray. 
 Connoisseurs in such matters aver, however, that their 
 waltzing is not yet quite up to the mark. The aspect of a 
 modern Tokyo ball-room has been amusingly described both 
 by Pierre Loti in his Japoneries d'Automne (chapter entitled 
 Un Bal a Yeddo), and by Netto in his Papierschmctterlinge am 
 Japan. We have only room for one epigram of Netto's : 
 " At these festivities Japanese ladies and gentlemen are to be 
 seen taking part in the dancing, especially in the square 
 dances ; but most of them show by the expression of their 
 faces that they are making a sacrifice on the altar of 
 civilisation." 
 
 *A critic of the first edition, writing- in the "Hyogo Xews," has humorously 
 suggested that, hud the author been a merchant, he would have reversed this- 
 dictum, and have said that that which the Japanese merely picked up by the way 
 was hu tines* ! 
 
Archaeology. 23 
 
 The sports of Japanese children include kite-flying, top- 
 spinning, snow-balling, battledoor and shuttlecock, playing 
 with dolls, etc., etc,, — in fact, most of our old nursery friends, 
 but modified by the genius loci. (See also Article on Polo.) 
 
 Books recommended. Child-Life in Japan, by Mrs. Chaplin- 
 Ayrton.— -The Games and Sports of Japanese Children, by Rev. W. E. Griffis, in Vol. 
 n. of the Asiatic Transactions. — Hana-aioase (Japanese Cards), by Major-General 
 Palmer, R.E., in Vol. XIX. Part III. of the same. 
 
 ArcllSSOlogy. The remains of Japanese antiquity fall 
 naturally into two classes which it is in most cases easy to 
 distinguish from each other. The first consists of objects 
 connected with that early race of which only a small rem- 
 nant now exists in the Ainos of Yezo, but which at one time 
 probably occupied all the Japanese islands. The second 
 comprises the relics of the immigrants from the neighbour- 
 ing continent of Asia, whose descendants constitute the bulk 
 of the present Japanese nation. 
 
 To the former class belong a variety of objects familiar to 
 us in Europe, as stone implements and weapons. Some of 
 these are peculiar to Japan, though on the whole the re- 
 semblance to those found in more Western lands is very 
 striking. Flint celts are perhaps the most common type ; 
 and it is curious to note that in Japan, as in the British 
 Isles, the popular imagination has given them the name 
 of " thunder-bolts." Stone clubs, plain or adorned with 
 carvings, have been found in considerable numbers. One of 
 these described by Mr. Kanda measures 5 feet in length 
 and nearly 5 inches in diameter, and must have been a 
 truly formidable weapon when wielded by adequate hands. 
 There are also stones words, pestles, daggers, and a variety of 
 miscellaneous objects, some of unknown use. The material 
 
24 Archaeology. 
 
 of all these is polished stone. Chipped flints are not un- 
 known, but occur chiefly in the form of arrow or spear-heads 
 for which a high degree of workmanship was less necessary. 
 
 An interesting discovery was made in 1878 by Professor 
 Morse near the Omori station of the Tokyo-Yokohama rail- 
 way. He found that the railway cutting at this place passed 
 through mounds identical in character with the " kitchen - 
 middens" of Denmark, which have attracted so much atten- 
 tion in Europe. They contain shells in large quantities, 
 fragments of broken bones, implements of stone and horn, 
 and pottery of a special type which differs from the ancient 
 Japanese earthenware in being hand-made instead of turned 
 on a wheel, and also in shape and ornamentation. Human 
 bones are among those found, and Professor Morse thinks 
 that the way in which they have been broken is indicative 
 of cannibalism. 
 
 We know from history that the ancient Japanese were to 
 some extent pit-dwellers ; but no remains of such dwellings 
 are now known to exist. In Yezo, however, and the ad- 
 jacent islands, large numbers of pits which have been used 
 as human habitations are still to be seen. They are rect- 
 angular in shape, measuring about 20 feet by 15 feet, 
 and having a depth of 3 or 4 feet. In these were planted 
 posts, over which a roofing of thatch was placed. They 
 were probably occupied chiefly as winter habitations. Mr. 
 Milne thinks that they were made by a race who inhabited 
 Yezo and the northern parts of Japan before the Ainos, and 
 who were driven northwards by the encroachments of the 
 latter. The present inhabitants of the Kurile Islands he 
 believes to be their modem representatives. Both they and 
 the ancestors of the Ainos must have had a low type of 
 
Archaeology. 25 
 
 civilisation. They had no iron or even copper or bronze 
 implements, and were probably entirely unacquainted with 
 the art of agriculture. 
 
 The early history of the continental race which has peopled 
 Japan is wrapped in obscurity. "Whence and when they 
 came, and what was the character of their civilisation at the 
 period of their arrival, are questions to which only the vaguest 
 answers can be given. The earliest notices of them in 
 Chinese literature date from the first and second centuries of 
 the Christian era. It would appear that the Japanese were 
 then a much more advanced race than the Ainos ever be- 
 came. They were agriculturists, not merely hunters and 
 fishers, and were acquainted with the arts of weaving, 
 brewing, and building junks. They had a sovereign who 
 lived in a fortified palace of some architectural pretensions, 
 and their laws and customs are described as strict. There 
 were markets and a sort of postal communication. The 
 earlier notices speak of their having arrow-heads of bone, but 
 two centuries later iron arrow-heads are mentioned. It is 
 uncertain whether the Japanese brought with them fiom 
 their continental home the art of working in iron and other 
 metals. It is possible that all the metallurgical knowledge 
 which we find them in possession of at a later period was 
 really derived from China, and in that case there must have 
 been an interval during which they used stone implements ; 
 but of this we have no certain knowledge. There is little 
 or no evidence of a bronze age in Japan. 
 
 The archseological remains of the ancient Japanese may 
 be taken to date from a few centuries before the Christian 
 era. The most remarkable of these are sepulchral monuments 
 of their sovereigns and grandees, great numbers of which still 
 
26 Archaeology. 
 
 exist everywhere except in the more northern part of the 
 Main Island. They are most numerous in the Gokinai, i.e. 
 the five provinces near the ancient capitals of Nara and 
 Kyoto. The plain of Kawachi, in particular, is one vast 
 cemetery dotted over with huge tumuli. 
 
 These mounds vary in shape and character. The largest 
 are those known as m isasagi, the Japanese word for the tombs 
 of Emperors, Empresses, and Princes of the Blood. In the 
 most ancient times, say the Japanese antiquarians, the tombs 
 of the Mikados were simple mounds. At some unknown 
 period, however, perhaps a few centuries before the Christian 
 era, a highly specialised form of tumulus came into use for 
 this purpose, and continued for several hundreds of years 
 without much change. It consists of two mounds — one 
 conical, and the other of a triangular shape — merging into 
 each other in this form (o?), the whole being surrounded by a 
 moat, and sometimes by two concentric moats with a narrow 
 strip of land between. The interment took place in the 
 conical part, the other probably serving as a platform on 
 which were performed the rites in honour of the deceased. 
 Seen from the side, the appearance is that of a saddle-hill, 
 the conical part being slightly higher than the other. There 
 are sometimes two smaller mounds at the base of the larger 
 ones, filling up the angles where they meet. The slope of the 
 tumulus is not regular, but is broken up by terraces, on which 
 are placed in rows, at intervals of a few inches, curious 
 cylinders coarsely made of baked clay shaped in a mould, 
 and measuring from 1 to 2 feet in height and from 6 
 to 14 inches in diameter. They are buried in the earth, 
 their upper rims being just level with the surface. The 
 number of these cylinders is enormous, amounting in the 
 
Archaeology. 27 
 
 case of some of the larger misasagi to many thousands. 
 Their object can scarcely yet be said to have been definitively 
 ascertained. One purpose was no doubt to prevent the earth 
 of the mounds from being washed away by rain ; but the 
 Japanese tradition which connects thejn with an ancient 
 custom of burying alive a number of the retainers of a 
 deceased monarch in a ring round his grave, is probably 
 founded in fact. 
 
 It is related that in the 28th year of the Emperor Suinin 
 (B.C. 2 of the popular chronology), his brother died. All 
 his attendants were buried alive round the tumulus in a 
 standing position. For many days they died not, but day 
 and night wept and cried. The Mikado, hearing the sound 
 of their weeping, was sad and sorry in his heart, and com- 
 manded all his ministers to devise some plan by which this 
 custom, ancient though it was, should be discontinued for 
 the future. Accordingly when the Mikado died in A.D. 3, 
 workers in clay were sent for to Izumo, who made images of 
 men, horses, and various other things, which were set up 
 round the grave instead of living beings. This precedent was 
 followed in later times, and some of these figures still exist. 
 The Ueno Museum in Tokyo contains several specimens, and 
 one (of a man) has been secured for the Gowland collection 
 now in the British Museum. The cylinders above described 
 are similar to these images in material and workmanship, and 
 it is probable that they served as pedestals on which the 
 images were placed, though in view of their immense number, 
 this can hardly have been their only use. 
 
 The misasagi vary greatly in size. One measured by Mr. 
 Satow in Kozuke was 36 feet in height, 372 feet long, and 
 284 feet broad. But this is a comparatively small one. That 
 
28 Archaeology. 
 
 of the Emperor Ojin near Nara measures 2,312 yards round 
 the outer moat, and is some 60 feet in height. The 
 Emperor Nintoku's tomb near Sakai is still larger, and there 
 is a tumulus in Kawachi, known as the O-tsulca, or " Big 
 Mound," on the flank of which a good-sized village has been 
 built. 
 
 The misasagi are at present generally clothed with trees, 
 and form a favourite resting resort for the paddy -bird or 
 white egret, and other birds. Of late years these interest- 
 ing relics have been well-cared for by the Government, 
 at least those which are recognised as Imperial tombs. 
 They have been fenced round, and provided with honorary 
 gateways. Embassies are despatched once or twice a year 
 to worship at them. In former times, however, they 
 were much neglected, and there is reason to fear that few 
 have escaped desecration. A road has been run through 
 the misasagi of the Emperor Yuryaku, and on other double 
 mounds promising cabbage plantations have been seen 
 growing. 
 
 In some, perhaps in most cases, the misasagi contains a 
 large vault built of great unhewn stones without mortar. 
 The walls of the vault converge gradually towards the top, 
 which is then roofed in by enormous slabs of stone weighing 
 many tons each. The entrance was by means of a long, low 
 gallery, roofed with similar stones, and so constructed that its 
 right wall is in a line with the right wall of the vault. 
 During the later period of mound-building, the entrance to 
 this gallery always faced the south, — a practice which had its 
 origin in the Chinese notion that the north is the most 
 honourable quarter, and that the deceased should therefore 
 occupy that position in relation to the worshippers. Sar- 
 
Archseology. 29» 
 
 cophagi of stone and pottery have been found in some of the 
 misasagi. 
 
 Nobles and high officials were buried in simple conical 
 mounds 10 or 15 feet high, containing a vault similar to 
 those above described, but of smaller dimensions. An average 
 specimen of a group of thirty or forty situated near the western 
 shore of Lake Biwa, a few miles north of the town of Otsu, 
 measured as follows : — 
 
 Length — from 11 feet 8 inches below to 10 feet above. 
 Breadth — from 6 feet 6 inches below to 4 feet at top. 
 Height — 8 feet 9 inches. 
 
 GALLERY. 
 
 Breadth — 2 feet 9 inches. 
 Height — & feet. 
 Length — 10 feet. 
 
 The roof of the chamber consisted in this instance of three 
 large stones. 
 
 These tombs sometimes stand singly, but are more com- 
 monly found in groups of ten to forty or fifty. The 
 lower slope of a hill, just where it touches the plain, is a 
 favourite position for them. When the earth of these 
 mounds has been washed away, so that the massive blocks of 
 stone which form the roof protrude from the surface, they 
 present a striking resemblance to the dolmens of Europe, and 
 more especially to those megalithic monuments known in 
 France as allies convenes. The peasantry call them 
 iwa-ya, i.e. "rock-houses," and imagine that they were the 
 
30 Archaeology. 
 
 dwellings of their, remote ancestors, or that they were used as 
 refuges from a fiery rain which fell in ancient times. They 
 are little cared for by the Japanese, and in too many cases 
 have been used as quarries for the building materials which 
 they contain. Nearly all have been rifled at some period or 
 other. 
 
 During the eighth century of the Christian era, this style 
 of sepulture fell gradually into disuse under the influence of 
 Buddhist ideas. In the eyes of a Buddhist, vast costly 
 structures were not only a burden to the people, but were 
 objectionable as tending to foster false notions of the real 
 value of these mortal frames of ours. Many of the Mikados 
 were earnest devotees of Buddhism. Beginning with Gemmyo 
 Tenno in A.D. 715, along series of them abdicated the throne 
 in order to spend the remainder of their lives in pious 
 seclusion. In several cases, by their express desire, no 
 misasagi were erected over their remains, and some even 
 directed that their bodies should be cremated and the ashes 
 scattered to the winds. 
 
 It is remarkable that no inscriptions should be found in 
 connection with the tombs of this period, although the Japa- 
 nese became acquainted with Chinese writing early in the 
 fifth century, if not sooner. The tombs have, however, yielded 
 & large quantity of objects of antiquarian interest. Among 
 these, pottery perhaps stands first. The clay cylinders, the 
 .figures of men and horses, and earthenware sarcophagi have 
 been already noticed ; but numerous vases, pots, dishes, and 
 •other utensils have also been found. They are usually turned 
 on a wheel ; but there is no trace of glaze or colouring, and 
 they are of rather rude workmanship. The ornamentation 
 is simple, consisting of wavy lines round the vessel similar 
 
Archaeology. 31 
 
 to those seen round Egyptian water-bottles at the present 
 day, of circular grooves, or of parallel scorings, all made by 
 a wooden comb or pointed stick when the clay was in a wet 
 state. Many have " mat-markings," and the interior of the 
 larger articles is usually adorned with a pattern known as 
 the " Korean wheel." This consists of discs containing a 
 number of concentric circles overlapping one another. They 
 were produced by a wooden stamp one or two inches in 
 diameter, and the object may have been to render the clay 
 less liable to crack in baking. A stamp of this kind is 
 actually used in Korea at the present time. Fragments of 
 pottery with this mark may always be found in the vicinity 
 of a Japanese dolmen. There are vases of a more preten- 
 tious character, having groups of rude figures round the 
 upper part, and -pedestals pierced with curious triajigular 
 openings. These were probably sacrificial vases. The 
 Japanese pottery of this period is identical in shape, pattern, 
 and material with the more ancient earthenware of Korea, 
 from which country there is no doubt that the ceramic art of 
 Japan was derived. Eepresentative examples of it may be seen 
 in the Gowland collection in the British Museum, and the 
 Ueno Museum in Tokyo is rich in fine specimens. Other 
 antiquarian objects of this period are iron swords (straight 
 and one-edged), iron spear-heads, articles of armour often 
 adorned with gold and silver, mirrors of a mixed metal, horse- 
 gear — such as stirrups, bits etc.— ornaments, among which are 
 thick rings of gold, silver, or bronze, besides glass beads, etc. 
 All these are of good workmanship, and it is probable that 
 some of the articles are of Chinese origin. 
 
 The niagatama, or comma-shaped ornaments made of stone, 
 probably belong to a very early period of Japanese history. 
 
32 Architecture. 
 
 They formed part, no doubt, of the necklaces of polished 
 stone and clay beads which we know to have been worn by 
 Japanese sovereigns and nobles in ancient times. 
 
 Hooks recominLemietl. Notes on Japanese Archeology, by H. 
 von Siebold. The Shell-Heaps of Omori, by Professor B. Morse, published in 
 the Memoirs of the Science Department of the University of Tokio, Vol. I. Pt. I. 
 Notes on Ancient Stone Implements, etc. of Japan, by T. Kanda. A'otes on 
 Stone Implements from Otarv, and Hakodate, by John Milne, published in Vol. VIII. 
 Part I. of the Asiatic Transactions, and Ancient Sepulchral Mounds in Kdzuke, 
 by" Ernest Satow, in Part III. of the same Vol. The greatest native archaeologist 
 of the old school was Ninagawa who died a few years ago. Of living archasologists 
 who have formed themselves on European critical methods, the most eminent is a 
 young Mr. S. Tsuboi. 
 
 Architecture. The Japanese genius touches perfection 
 in small things. No other nation ever understood half so 
 well how to twist a spray of flowers into artistic line, how to 
 transform a little knob of ivory into a microcosm of quaint 
 humour, how to express a fugitive thought in half-a-dozen 
 dashes of the pencil. The massive, the spacious, the grand, 
 is less congenial to their mental attitude. Hence they achieve 
 less success in architecture than in the other arts. The 
 prospect of a Japanese city from a height is monotonous. 
 Not a tower, not a dome, not a minaret, nothing aspiring 
 heavenward, save in rare cases a painted pagoda half-hidden 
 amidst the trees which it barely tops — nothing but long, low 
 lines of thatch and tiles, even the Buddhist temple roofs being 
 but moderately raised above the rest, and even their curves 
 being only quaint and graceful, nowise imposing. It was a 
 true instinct that led Professor Morse to give to his charming 
 monograph on Japanese architecture the title of Japanese 
 Homes, the interest of Japanese buildings lying less in the 
 buildings themselves than in the odd domestic ways of their 
 denizens, and in the delightful little bits of ornamentation 
 that meet one at every turn — the elaborate metal fastenings, 
 
Architecture. 38 
 
 the carved friezes (ramma), the screens both sliding and 
 folding, the curiously ornamented tiles, the dainty gardens 
 with their dwarfed trees. What is true of the dwelling-houses 
 is true of the temples also. Nikko and Shiba are glorious, 
 not as architecture (in the sense in which we Europeans, the 
 inheritors of the Parthenon, of the Doges' Palace, and of 
 Lincoln Cathedral, understand the word architecture), but 
 for the elaborate geometrical figures, the bright flowers and 
 birds and fabulous beasts, with which the sculptor and painter 
 of wood has so lavishly adorned them. 
 
 The ordinary Japanese house is a light frame-work struc- 
 ture, whose thatched, shingled, or tiled roof, very heavy in 
 proportion, is supported on stones with slightly hollowed 
 tops, resting on the surface of the soil. There is no foun- 
 dation, as that word is understood by our architects. The 
 house stands on the ground, not partly in it. Singularity 
 number two : there are no walls — at least no continuous 
 walls. The side of the house, composed at night of wooden 
 sliding doors called amado, is stowed away in boxes during 
 the day-time. In summer, everything is thus open to the 
 outside air. In winter, semi-transparent paper slides, called 
 slwji, replace the wooden sliding doors during the day-time. 
 The rooms are divided from each other by opaque paper 
 screens, called fasuma or harahami, which run in grooves at 
 the top and bottom. By taking out these sliding screens, 
 several rooms can be turned into one. The floor of all the 
 living-rooms is covered with thick mats, made of rushes and 
 perfectly fitted together, so as to leave no interstices. As 
 these mats are always of the same size — six feet by three — it 
 is usual to compute the area of a room by the number of its 
 mats. Thus you speak of a six mat room, a ten mat room, 
 
34 Architecture. 
 
 etc. In the dwellings of the middle classes, rooms of eight, 
 of six, and of four and a half mats are those oftenest met 
 with. The kitchen and passages are not matted, but have a 
 wooden floor, which is kept brightly polished. But the 
 passages are few in a Japanese house, each room opening as 
 a rule into the others on either side. 
 
 When a house has a second storey, this generally covers but 
 a portion of the ground floor. The steps leading up to it 
 . resemble a ladder rather than a staircase. The best rooms in 
 a Japanese house are almost invariably at the back, where 
 also is the garden ; and they face south, so as to escape the 
 northern blast in winter and to get the benefit of the breeze 
 in summer, which then always blows from the south. They 
 generally have a recess or alcove, ornamented with a painted 
 or written scroll (kakemono) and a vase of flowers. Furniture 
 is conspicuous by its absence. There are no tables, no chairs, 
 . no wash-hand-stands, no pianoforte, — none of all those 
 thousand and one things which we cannot do without. The 
 necessity for bedsteads is obviated by quilts, which are 
 brought in at night and laid down wherever may happen to 
 be most convenient. No mahogany dining-table is required 
 in a family where each member is served separately on a 
 little lacquer tray. Cupboards are, for the most part, open- 
 ings in the wall, screened in by small paper slides — not 
 separate, movable entities. Whatever treasures the family 
 may possess are mostly stowed in an adjacent building, 
 known in the local English dialect as a " godown," that is, 
 a fire-proof storehouse with walls of mud or clay.* 
 
 These details will probably suggest a very uncomfortable 
 
 * " Godown " (pronounced go-dcnim, not god-own) is derived from the Malay word 
 gddong, " a warehouse." 
 
Architecture. 35 
 
 sum total ; and Japanese houses are supremely uncomfortable 
 to ninety-nine Europeans out of a hundred. Nothing to sit 
 on, nothing but a brazier to warm onself by and yet abund- 
 ant danger of fire, no solidity, no privacy, the deafening 
 clatter twice daily of the opening and shutting of the outer 
 wooden slides, draughts insidiously pouring in through in- 
 numerable chinks and crannies, darkness whenever heavy 
 rain makes it necessary to shut up one or more sides of the 
 house — to these and to various other enormities Japanese 
 houses must plead guilty. Two things, chiefly, are to be 
 said on the other side. First, these houses are cheap— an 
 essential point in a poor country. Secondly, the people who 
 live in them do not share our European ideas with regard to 
 comfort and discomfort. They do not miss fire-places or 
 stoves, never having realised the possibility of such elaborate 
 arrangements for heating. They do not mind draughts, 
 having been inured to them from infancy. In fact an elderly 
 diplomat, who, during his sojourn in a Japanese hotel, spent 
 well-nigh his whole time in the vain .endeavour to keep doors 
 shut and chinks patched up, used to exclaim to us, " Mais les ' 
 Japonais adorent les cowants d'air!" Furthermore, the 
 physicians who have studied Japanese dwelling-houses from 
 the point of view of hygiene, give them a clean bill of health. 
 Leaving this portion of the subject, which is a matter of 
 taste, not of argument, let us enquire into the origin of 
 Japanese architecture, which is a matter of research. Its 
 origin is twofold. The Japanese Buddhist temple comes 
 from India, being a modification of a Chinese modification of 
 the Indian original. The other Japanese styles are of native 
 growth. Shinto temples, Imperial palaces, and commoners' 
 dwelling-houses are alike developments of the simple hut of 
 
36 Architecture. 
 
 prehistoric times. Persons interested in archaeological re- 
 search may like to hear what Mr. Satow has to say on the 
 little-known subject of primeval Japanese architecture. He 
 says""- : — ' 
 
 " Japanese antiquarians tell us that in early times, be- 
 fore carpenter's tools had been invented, the dwellings 
 of the people who inhabited these islands were con- 
 structed of young trees with the bark on, fastened together 
 with ropes made of the rush suge (seiiyus maritimus), or 
 perhaps with the tough shoots of the wistaria (fuji), and 
 thatched with the grass called Jcay a. In modern buildings 
 the uprights of a house stand upon large stones laid on the 
 surface of the earth ; but this precaution against decay had 
 not occurred to the ancients, who planted the uprights in „ 
 holes dug in the ground. 
 
 " The ground plan of the hut was oblong, with four corner 
 uprights, and one in the middle of each of the four sides, 
 those in the sides which formed the ends being long enough 
 to support the ridge-pole. Other trees were fastened hori- 
 zontally from corner to corner, one set near the ground, one 
 near the top and one set on the top, the latter of which 
 formed what we call the wall-plates. Two large rafters- 
 whose upper ends crossed each other, were laid from the 
 wall-plates to the heads of the taller uprights. The ridge- 
 pole rested in the fork formed by the upper ends of the rafters 
 crossing each other. Horizontal poles were then laid along 
 each slope of the roof, one pair being fastened close up to the 
 exterior angles of the fork. The rafters were slender poles 
 or bamboos passed over the ridge-pole and fastened down on 
 
 * We quote from a paper entitled The SJiinto Temples of Ise y printed in Vol. II* 
 of tile Asiatic Transactions. 
 
Architecture. 37 
 
 oach end to the wall-plates. Next followed the process of 
 putting on the thatch. In order to keep this in its place two 
 trees were laid along the top, resting in the forks, and across 
 these two trees were placed short logs at equal distances, 
 which, being fastened to the poles in the exterior angle of the 
 forks by ropes passed through the thatch, bound the ridge of 
 the roof firmly together. 
 
 " The walls and doors were constructed of rough matting. 
 It is evident that some tool must have been used to cut the 
 trees to the required length, and for this purpose a sharpened 
 stone was probably employed. Such stone implements have 
 been found imbedded in the earth in various parts of Japan 
 in company with stone arrow-heads and clubs. Specimens 
 of the ancient style of building may even yet be seen in 
 remote parts of the country, not perhaps so much in the 
 habitations of the peasantry, as in sheds erected to serve a 
 temporary purpose. 
 
 " The architecture of the Shinto temples is derived from 
 the primeval hut, with more or less modification in propor- 
 tion to the influence of Buddhism in each particular case. 
 Those of the purest style retain the thatched roof, others are 
 covered with the thick shingling called hiu-ada-bulri, while 
 others have tiled and even coppered roofs. The projecting 
 ends of the rafters (called chirji) have been somewhat 
 lengthened, and carved more or less elaborately. At the 
 new temple at Kudanzaka, in Yedo, they are shown in the 
 proper position, projecting from the inside of the shingling ; 
 but in the majority of cases they merely consist of two pieces 
 of wood in the form of the letter X, which rest on the ridge 
 of the roof like a pack-saddle on a horse's back, — to make use 
 of a Japanese writer's comparison. The logs which kept the 
 
38 Architecture. 
 
 two trees laid on the ridge in tlieir place have taken the form 
 of short cylindrical pieces of timber tapering towards each 
 extremity, which have been compared by foreigners to cigars. 
 In Japanese they are called hatsuo-gi, from their resemblance 
 to the pieces of dried bonito sold under the name of katsno- 
 bushi. The two trees laid along the roof over the thatch are 
 represented by a single beam, called muna-osae, or '''roof- 
 presser.' " Planking has taken the place of the mats with 
 which the sides of the building were originally closed, and 
 the entrance is closed by a pair of folding doors turning, not 
 on hinges, but on what are, I believe, technically called 
 'journals.' The primeval hut had no flooring, but we find 
 that the shrine has a wooden floor raised some feet above 
 the ground, which arrangement necessitates a sort of balcony 
 all round, and a flight of steps up to the entrance. The 
 transformation is completed in some cases by the addition 
 of a quantity of ornamental metal-work in brass." 
 
 Mr. Satow's account of the palaces of early days is as 
 follows* : " The palace of the Japanese sovereign was a 
 wooden hut, with its pillars planted in the ground, instead of 
 being erected upon broad fiat stones as in modern buildings. 
 The whole frame-work, consisting of posts, beams, rafters, 
 door-posts, and window-frames, was tied together with cords 
 made by twisting the long fibrous stems of climbing plants, 
 such as Pnemria thunbergiana (kitzu) and Wistaria sinensis 
 (fuji.) The floor must have been low down, so that the 
 occupants of the building, as they squatted or lay on their 
 mats, were exposed to the stealthy attacks of venomous 
 snakes, which were probably far more numerous in the earliest 
 
 * See an elaborate paper on Ancient Japanese Rituals, in Vol. IX. Part II. of the 
 Asiatic Transactions. 
 
Architecture. 89 
 
 ages, when the country was for the most part uncultivated, 
 
 than at the present day There seems some reason to 
 
 think that the yuka, here translated floor, was originally 
 nothing but a couch which ran round the sides of the hut, 
 the rest of the space being simply a mud-floor, and that the 
 size of the couch was gradually increased until it occupied 
 the whole interior. The rafters projected upward beyond the 
 ridge-pole, crossing each other, as is seen in the roofs of 
 modern Shinto temples, whether their architecture be in 
 conformity with early traditions (in which case all the rafters 
 are so crossed) or modified in accordance with more advanced 
 principles of construction, and the crossed rafters retained 
 only as ornaments at the two ends of the ridge. The roof 
 was thatched, and perhaps had a gable at each end, with a 
 hole to allow the smoke of the wood-fire to escape," so that it 
 was possible for birds flying in and perching on the beams 
 overhead, to defile the food, or the fire with which it was 
 cooked." 
 
 To this description of Mr. Satow's, it should be added that 
 fences were in use, and that the wooden doors, sometimes 
 fastened by means of hooks, resembled those with which we 
 are familiar in Europe rather than the sliding, screen-like 
 doors of modern Japan. The windows seem to have been 
 mere holes. Rush-matting and rugs consisting of skins were 
 occasionally brought in to sit upon, and we even hear once or 
 twice of " silk rugs " being used for the same purpose by the 
 noble and wealthy. 
 
 Since 1870, the Japanese have begun to exchange their 
 own methods of building for what is locally termed " foreign 
 style," doubtless, as a former resident* has wittily observed, 
 
 ♦ Mr. E. G-. Holtham, in his Eight Tears in Japan. 
 
40 Armour. 
 
 because foreign to all known styles of architecture. This 
 " foreign style " is, indeed, not one, but multiform . There 
 is the rabbit-warren style, exemplified in the streets at 
 the back of the Ginza in Tokyo. There is the wooden 
 shanty or bathing-machine style, of which the capital 
 offers a wealth of examples. There is the cruet-stand 
 style, so strikingly exemplified in the Yokohama Custom- 
 House. The Brobdingnaggian pigeon-house style is re- 
 presented here and there both in wood and stone. Its chief 
 feature is having no windows — at leasts none to speak of. 
 After all, these things are Japan's misfortune, not her fault. 
 She has discovered Europe, architecturally speaking, at the 
 wrong moment. We cannot with any grace blame a nation 
 whom we have ourselves misled. If Japan's contemporary 
 efforts in architecture are worse even than ours, it is chiefly 
 because her people have less money to dispose of. 
 
 DBoolcs recommended. Japanese Somes, by Prof. E. S. Morse. — 
 Domestic Architecture in Japan, and Further Notes on Japanese Architecture, by 
 Josiah Conder, F.R.I.B.A., printed in the Transactions of the Royal Institute of 
 British Architects, 1S86-7. Both the above authors have illustrated their works 
 profusely, Prof Morse giving representations, not only of architectural details 
 proper, but of all the fittings and domestic articles of a middle-class Japanese 
 household. Mr. Conder gives drawings of temples and palaces — The Feudal 
 Mansions of Yedo, by T. P.. H. McClatchie, in Vol. VH. Part III. of the Asiatic 
 Transactions. This is a full description of the yashiki or daimyds' residences. — For 
 what the doctors "have to say about Japanese houses from a sanitary point of 
 view, see Drs. Seymour and Baelz, in Vol. XVII. Part II. pp. 17—21, of the Asiatic 
 Transactions. — There are other papers by Messrs McClatchie, Brunton, and 
 Cawley, more or less concerned with Japanese architecture, scattered through the 
 Asiatic Transactions. — See also Prof. Milne's paper On Construction in Earthquake 
 Countries, in Vol. XI. of the Transactions of the Seismological Society of Japan, and 
 the still more elaborate paper bearing the same title and forming the whole of 
 Vol. XIV. 
 
 Armour. Japanese armour might serve as a text for 
 those authors who love to discourse on the unchanging 
 character of the East. Our own Middle Ages witnessed 
 
Army. 41 
 
 revolutions in the style of armour as complete as any that 
 have taken place in the Paris fashions during the last three 
 hundred years. In Japan, on the contrary, from the begin- 
 ning of true feudalism in the twelfth century down to its 
 extinction in 1871, there was scarcely any change. The 
 older specimens are rather the better, rather the more 
 complete ; the newer are often rather heavier, owing to the 
 use of a greater number of plates and scales ; that is all. It 
 is true that in quite old times Japanese armour was still 
 imperfect. Cloth and the hides of animals seem to have 
 been the materials then employed. But metal armour had 
 already established itself in general use by the eighth cen- 
 tury of our era. The weapons, too, then known were the 
 same as a millennium later, with the exception of fire-arms, 
 which began to creep in during the sixteenth century in the 
 wake of intercourse with the early Portuguese adventurers. 
 Those who are interested in the subject, either theoretically 
 or as purchasers of suits of armour brought to them by curio- 
 vendors, will find a full description in the second part of 
 Conder's History of Japanese Costume, printed in Yol. IX. 
 Part III. of the Asiatic Transactions. They can there read 
 to their hearts' content about corselets, taces, greaves, mame- 
 lieres, brassarts, and many other deep matters not known 
 to the vulgar. 
 
 Army. For many centuries — say from A.D. 1200 to 
 1867 — " soldier " and " gentleman " {samurai) were con- 
 vertible terms. To fight was not only a duty but a pleasure, 
 in a state of society where the security of feudal possessions 
 depended on the strong arm of the baron himself and of his 
 trusty lieges. This was the order of things down to A.D. 
 
42 Army. 
 
 1600. Thenceforward, though peace reigned for two and a 
 half centuries] under the vigorous administration of the" 
 Tokugawa Shoguns," all the martial forms of an elder day 
 were kept up. They were suddenly shivered into atoms at 
 the beginning of the present Emperor's reign (A.D. 1868). 
 Military advisers were then called in, first from France and 
 then from Germany, the continental system of universal 
 conscription was introduced, uniforms of European cut re- 
 placed the picturesque but cumbersome trappings of the 
 old Japanese knight, and in a word, Japan — possessing, as 
 she has ever done, that warlike spirit which is the sine qua 
 non of all military excellence — Japan stands forth to-day with 
 an army, which, though small, would do not discredit to 
 many a country in Europe. According to the latest statistics, 
 the Japanese army comprises 228,848 men, all told. Of these, 
 113,229 form the reserve, and 53,137 the territorial army. 
 It is further necessary to deduct 1,263 for the gensdarmes, 
 1,559 for the military colony in Yezo, and 3,071 for the military 
 schools. The actual fighting strength of the army in or- 
 dinary times is thus between 56,000 and 57,000, or was so 
 on the 31st December, 1888, the date to which the statistics 
 refer. Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Ku- 
 rnamoto are the chief military stations in the Empire, with 
 garrisons of a little over 8,000 each. The Imperial Guard 
 contains between 5,000 and 6,000 men. The commander-in- 
 chief is His Imperial Highness Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, a 
 near kinsman of the Mikado's. 
 
 The new-comer may smile to see two or three Japanese 
 soldiers walking along hand in hand as if they were Dresden 
 shepherdesses. Otherwise their bearing conforms to Euro- 
 pean models. 
 
Art. 43 
 
 Art. The beginnings of Japanese art, as of almost all 
 things Japanese excepting cleanliness, can be traced to China 
 through Korea. Even after Japanese art had started on its 
 independent career, it refreshed its inspiration from time to 
 time by a careful study and imitation of Chinese models ; and 
 Chinese masterpieces still occupy in the estimation of Japanese 
 connoisseurs a place only hesitatingly allowed to the best 
 native works. Even Chinese subjects preponderate in the 
 classical schools of Japan. Speaking of the productions of 
 the classical Japanese painters, Dr. Anderson says : "It may 
 safely be asserted that not one in twenty of the productions 
 of these painters, who to the present day are considered to 
 represent the true genius of Japanese art, was inspired by the 
 works of nature as seen in their own beautiful country." 
 Whatever Indian, Persian, or Greek strain may be detected 
 in Japan came through Korea and China in the wake of Bud- 
 dhism, and is accordingly far less marked — if marked at 
 all — in genuinely native Japanese paintings and carvings 
 than in those archaic remains which, though often in- 
 accurately spoken of as Japanese, were really the handiwork 
 of Korean or Chinese artists or of their immediate pupils. 
 
 The most ancient painting now existing in Japan is a 
 Buddhist mural decoration in the temple of HdryCiji near 
 Nara, believed to date from A.D. 607 and to be the work of 
 a Korean priest. For more than two centuries longer, art 
 remained chiefly in Korean and Chinese priestly hands. 
 The first native painter of eminence was Kose-no-Kanaoka,. 
 a court noble who flourished from about A.D. 850 to 
 880, but scarcely any of whose works remain. That the 
 art of painting, especially on 'screens, was assiduously 
 cultivated at the Japanese Court during the ninth and tenth 
 
44 Art. 
 
 centuries, is proved by numerous references in literature. 
 But it was not till about the year 1000 that the Yamato Byu 
 (lit. "Japanese School"), the first concerning which we 
 have much positive knowledge, was established by an artist 
 named Motomitsu. This school contained within itself the 
 seed of most of the peculiarities that have characterised 
 Japanese art ever since, with its neglect of perspective, its 
 impossible mountains, its quaint dissection of roofless in- 
 teriors, its spirited burlesques of solemn processions, wherein 
 frogs, insects, or hobgoblins take the place of men. In the 
 thirteenth century this school assumed the name of the- Tosa 
 Byu, and confined itself thenceforward more and more to 
 classical subjects. Its former humorous strain had been 
 caught as early as the twelfth century by Toba Sojo, a rollick- 
 ing pries,t, who, about A.D. 1160, distinguished himself by 
 drawings coarse in both senses of the word, but full of verve 
 and drollery. These are the so-called Toba-e. Toba Sojo 
 founded a school. To found a school was de riyueur in Old 
 Japan, where originality was so little understood that it was 
 supposed that any eminent man's descendants or pupils, to 
 the twentieth generation, ought to be able to do the same 
 sort. of work as their ancestor had done. But none of the 
 jovial abbot's followers are worthy of mention alongside of 
 him. 
 
 The fifteenth century witnessed a powerful renaissance of 
 Chinesa^infiuence, and was the most glorious period of 
 Japanese painting. It is a strange coincidence that Italian 
 painting should then also have been at its zenith. But it is 
 apparently a coincidence only, there being no facts to warrant 
 us in assuming any influence of the one on the other. The 
 most famous names are those of the Buddhist priests Cho 
 
Art. 45 
 
 Densu and Josetsu. Cho Densu, the Fra Angelico of Japan, 
 restricted himself to religious subjects, while Josetsu painted 
 landscapes, figures, flowers, and birds. Both these great 
 artists died early in the century. They were succeeded by 
 Mitsunobu, the best painter of the Tosa School, and by 
 Sesshu, Shubun, and Kano Masanobu, all of whom were 
 founders of independent schools. The first Kano's son, Kano 
 Motonobn, was more eminent than his father. He handed 
 down the tradition to his own sons and grandsons, and the 
 Kano School continues to be, even at the present day, the 
 chief stronghold of classicism in Japan. By " classicism " 
 we mean partly a peculiar technique, partly an adherence to 
 Chinese methods, models, and subjects, such as portraits of 
 Chinese sages and delineations of Chinese landscapes, which 
 are represented of course not from nature but at second- 
 hand. 
 
 The synthetic power, the quiet harmonious colouring, and 
 the free vigorous touch of these Japanese " old masters " 
 have justly excited the admiration of succeeding generations 
 of their countrymen. But the circle of ideas within which 
 the Sesshus, the Shubuns, the Kanos, and the other classical 
 Japanese painters move, is too narrow and peculiar for their 
 productions to be ever likely to gain much hold on the esteem 
 of Europe. European collectors — such men as Gonse, for 
 instance — have been looked down on by certain enthusiasts 
 in Japan for the preference which they evince for Hokusai 
 and the modern popular school ( Ukiyo-e Eyu) generally. It 
 is very bold of us to venture to express an opinion on such a 
 matter ; but we think that the instinct which led Gonse and 
 others to Hokusai led them right, — that Japanese art was 
 itself led to Hokusai by a legitimate and most fortunate 
 
46 Art. 
 
 process of development, that it was led out of the close 
 atmosphere of academical conventionality into the fresh air 
 of heaven. 
 
 To say this is not necessarily to deny to the old masters 
 superiority of another order. Cho Densu manifests a spiritu- 
 ality, Sesshu a genius for idealising Chinese scenes, Kano 
 Tan-yu a power to evoke beauty out of a few chaotic blotches, 
 all these and scores of their followers a certain aristocratic 
 distinction, to which the members of the popular school can 
 lay no claim. Grant the ideals of old Japan, grant Buddhism 
 and Chinese conventions, and you must grant the claims of 
 the worshippers of the old masters. But the world does not 
 grant these things. Chinese history and conventions, even 
 Buddhism itself, lie outside the main current of the world's 
 development, whereas the motives and manner of the popular 
 school appeal to all times and places. Hence, the world 
 being large and Japan being small, and influence on civilisa- 
 tion in general being more important than an isolated 
 perfection incapable of transformation or assimilation, there 
 can be little doubt that the popular school will retain its 
 exceptional place in European favour. 
 
 The beginning of the movement may be traced as far back 
 as the end of the sixteenth century in the person of Iwasa 
 Matahei, originally a pupil of the Tosa school and originator 
 of the droll sketches known as Otsu-e. But a whole century 
 elapsed before Hisbigawa Moronobu began to devote himself 
 to the illustration of books in colours and in popular realistic 
 style. Then, towards the close of the eighteenth century, 
 came Okyo, the founder of the style known as the Shijd Ryu, 
 from the street in Kyoto where the masters resided. Okyo 
 made a genuine effort to copy nature, instead of only talking 
 
Art. 47 
 
 about doing so, as bad been the habit of the older schools. 
 His astonishingly correct representations of fowls and fishes, 
 his pupil Sosen's portraitures of monkeys, and other striking 
 triumphs of detail were the result. But none of the members 
 of Okyo's school succeeded in disembarrassing themselves 
 altogether from the immemorial conventionalities of their 
 nation when combining various details into a large composi- 
 tion. Their naturalism, however, gave an immense impulse 
 to the popularisation of art. A whole cloud of artisan-artists 
 arose — no longer the representatives of privileged ancient 
 families, but commoners who drew pictures of the life around 
 them to suit the genuine taste of the public of their own time 
 and class. Art was released from its mediaeval Chinese 
 swaddling-clothes, and allowed to mix in the society of 
 living men and women. And what a quaint, picturesque 
 society it was — that of the time, say, between 1750 and 1850 
 — the " Old Japan " which all now know and appreciate, be- 
 cause the works of the Artisan School have carried its fame 
 round the world ! 
 
 The king of the artisan workers was he whom we call 
 Hokusai, though his real original name was Nakajima Tetsu- 
 jiro, and his noms de gum-re were legion. During the course 
 of an unusually long life (1760 — 1849), this man, whose only 
 possessions were his brush and his palette, poured forth a 
 continuous stream of novel and vigorous creations in the form 
 of illustrations to books and of separate coloured sheets — 
 illustrations and sheets which included, as Dr. Anderson 
 justly says, " the whole range of Japanese art motives, scenes 
 of history, drama, and novel, incidents in the daily life of his 
 own class, realisations of familiar objects of animal and 
 vegetable life, wonderful suggestions of the scenery of his 
 
48 Art. 
 
 beloved Yedo and its surroundings, and a hundred other in- 
 spirations that would require a volume to describe." Con- 
 temporary workers in the art of colour-printing were Toyo- 
 kuni, Kunisada, Shigenobu, Hiroshige, and others in plenty. 
 Then, in 1853, four years after Hokusai's death, came Com- 
 modore Perry, the mere threat of whose cannon shivered the 
 old civilisation of Japan into fragments. Japanese art 
 perished. Kyosai, who survived till 1889, was its last 
 genuine representative in an uncongenial age. His favourite 
 subjects had a certain grim appropriateness : — they were 
 ghosts and skeletons. Charity compels us to draw a veil over 
 the productions of many so-called painters, which, during the 
 last few years, have encumbered the shop-windows of Tokyo 
 and disfigured the walls of exhibitions got up in imitation 
 of European usage. They seem to be manufactured by the 
 gross. If not worth much, there are at least plenty of them. 
 Japanese art is distinguished by directness, facility, and 
 strength of line, a sort of bold dash due probably to the habit 
 of writing and drawing from the elbow, not from the wrist. 
 This, so to say, calligraphic quality is what gives a charm to 
 the merest rough Japanese sketch. It has been well re- 
 marked that if a Japanese artist's work be carried no farther 
 even than the outlines, you will still have something worthy 
 to be hung on your wall or inserted in your album. Japanese 
 art disregards the laws of perspective and of light and shadow. 
 Though sometimes faultlessly accurate in natural details, it 
 scorns to be tied down to such accuracy as to an ever-binding 
 rule. Even in the same picture — say, one of a bird perched 
 on a tree — you may have the bird exact in every detail, the 
 tree a sort of conventional shorthand symbol. Or you may 
 have a bamboo which is perfection, but part of it blurred by 
 
Art. 49 
 
 an artificial atmosphere which no meteorological eccentricity 
 could place where the painter has placed it ; or else two 
 sea-coasts one above another— each beautiful and poetical, 
 -only how in the world could they have got into such a rela- 
 tive position ?■ The Japanese artist does not trouble bis head 
 about such matters. He is, in his limited way, a poet, not 
 a photographer. Our painters of the impressionist school 
 undertake less to paint actual scenes than to render their own 
 feelings in presence of such scenes. The Japanese artist goes 
 a step further : he paints tbe feelings evoked by the memory 
 of the scenes, the feelings when one is between waking and 
 dreaming. He is altogether an idealist, and this at both 
 ends of the scale, the beautiful and the grotesque. Were 
 he able to work on a large canvas, a very great ideal art 
 might have been the result. But in art, as in literature, his 
 nation seems lacking in the genius, the breadth of view, 
 necessary for making grand combinations. It stops at the 
 small, the pretty, the isolated, the vignette. Hence the 
 admirable adaptability of Japanese art to decorative purposes. 
 In decoration, too, some of its more obvious defects retire 
 into the background. Who would look on the side of a tea- 
 pot for a rigid observance of perspective ? Still less in 
 miniature ivory carvings, such as the netsuhes, in the orna- 
 ments of sword-guards, the bas-reliefs on bronze vases, and 
 the patterns in pieces (and many of tbem are masterpieces) 
 of embroidery. As decoration for small surfaces, Japanese 
 art has already begun to conquer the world. In the days 
 before Japanese ideas became known to Europe, people there 
 used to consider it essential to have the patterns on plates, 
 cushions, and what not, arranged with geometrical accuracy. 
 If on the right hand there was a cupid looking to the left, 
 
50 Art. 
 
 then on the left hand there must be a cupid of exactly the 
 same size looking to the right, and the chief feature of the 
 design was invariably in the exact centre. The Japanese 
 artisan-artists have shown us that this mechanical symmetry 
 does not make for beauty. They have taught us the charm 
 of irregularity ; and if the world owe them but this one 
 lesson, Japan may yet be proud of what she has accomplished. 
 There exists, it is true, nowadays a small band of foreign 
 enthusiasts, who deny that the art of Japan is thus limited 
 in its scope and decorative rather than representative. 
 Having studied it with greater zeal and profit th&n they have 
 studied European art, they go so far as to put Japanese art on 
 a level with that of Greece and Italy. These enthusiasts 
 have performed and are still performing a useful function. 
 They are disseminating a knowledge of Japanese art abroad, 
 disseminating it, too, in Japan itself, where it had been 
 suffered to fall into neglect. But their cult of Japanese art 
 partakes of the nature of a religious faith, and, like other 
 religionists, they are apt to be deficient in the sense of 
 humour. They are much too much in earnest ever to smile 
 about such serious matters. For instance, one of these 
 apostles of japonism in art recently told the public that the 
 late painter Kyosai " was perhaps the greatest limner of 
 crows that Japan, nay the whole world, has produced." 
 Does this not remind you of the artist in whose epitaph it 
 was recorded that he was " the Raphael of cats ? " The 
 Japanese are undoubtedly Raphaels of fishes, and insects, 
 and flowers, and bamboo-stems swaying in the breeze ; and 
 they have given us charming fragments of idealised scenery. 
 But they have never succeeded in adequately transferring to 
 canvas " the human form divine ; " they have never made 
 
Art. 51 
 
 grand historical scenes live again before the eyes of posterity ; 
 they have never, like the early Italian masters, drawn away 
 men's hearts from earth to heaven in an ecstasy of adoration. 
 In a word, Japanese art, as Mr. Alfred East tersely said, 
 when lecturing on the subject in Tokyo, is " great in small 
 things, but small in great things." (See also Articles on 
 Architecture, Carving, Metal-work, Music, and Porcelain.) 
 
 N.B. A curious fact, to which, we have never seen attention 
 drawn, is that the Japanese language has no genuine native word 
 for " art." To translate the Eviropean term " fine art/' there has 
 recently been invented the compound hi-jutsu, by putting together 
 the two Chinese characters li jf;, " beautiful." and jutsu gf, " craft/' 
 "device," "legerdemain;" and there are two or three other such 
 compounds which make an approach to the meaning, but none that 
 satisfactorily cover it. The Japanese language is similarly devoid 
 of any satisfactory word for " nature." -The nearest equivalents are 
 seishitsu, "characteristic qualities/' bamimtsu, "all things/' tennen, 
 " spontaneously." This curious philological fact makes it difficult, 
 with the best will and skill in the world, to reproduce most of our 
 discussions on art and nature in a manner that shall be intelligible 
 to those Japanese who know no European language. 
 
 The lack of a, proper word for " art " is unquestionably a weak- 
 ness in Japanese. Perhaps the lack of a word for " nature " is a 
 strength. For does not the word " nature " in our Western tongues 
 serve to conceal, and therefore encourage, confusion of ideas ? When 
 we talk, for instance, of being " inspired by nature," what precise 
 sense can be attached to the phrase? Sometimes "nature" — 
 especially with a big N — is a kind of deistic synonym or euphemism 
 for the Creator, who becomes " she " for the nonce. At other times 
 it denotes His creatures. Sometimes it is the universe minus man; 
 sometimes it is man's impulses as opposed to his conscious acts. 
 Sometimes it sums up all that is reasonable and proper ; sometimes, 
 as in theological parlance, the exact reverse. The word " nature " 
 is a Proteus. It stands for everything in general and nothing in 
 
52 Asiatic Society of Japan. 
 
 particular, — impossible to define, and serving only as a will-o'-the- 
 wisp to mislead metaphysically minded persons. 
 
 Bootes recommended.' The foregoing article is founded chiefly 
 oil Dr. Wm, Anderson's great work, The Pictorial Arts of Japan, which, with its 
 companion work, the Catalogue of Japanese anil Chinese Paintings in the Sritish 
 Museum, is the best authority on the subject. Failing these, see the same author's 
 earlier History of Japanese Art, in "Vol. VII. Part IV. of the Asiatic Transactions, 
 The other most important book bearing on the subject is L*Art Japonais, by A. 
 Gonse. It is somewhat perplexing to decide what briefer and cheaper book to 
 recommend. Huish's handy little volume entitled Japan and its Art may 
 perhaps be mentioned. Great things are expected by Professor Fenollosa's nume- 
 rous friends from the exhaustive treatise on the subject which that learned 
 connoisseur is believed to be preparing. But so far we have from his pen nothing 
 but & Review of the Chapter on Painting in Gonse, printed in the Japan Weekly Mail 
 of the 12th July, 1881. None who are genuinely interested in Japanese art 
 should fail to get hold of this elaborate critique, wherein is pleaded, with full 
 knowledge of the subject, the cause of the Japanese old masters as against Hoku- 
 sai and the modern Popular School whom Gonse had championed. — See also Artis- 
 tic Japan, a now extinct illustrated journal, edited by S. Byng and to be obtained 
 in volume form, 
 
 Asiatic Society Of Japan, This society was founded 
 in October, 1872, for "the collection of information and the 
 investigation of subjects relating to Japan or other Asiatic- 
 countries." The two seats of the Society are Tokyo and 
 Yokohama. The entrance fee is $5, and the yearly fee like- 
 wise $5 to residents, but $3 to non-residents. It is also 
 optional to non-residents to become life-members by paying 
 the entrance fee and an additional sum of $16. Members' 
 are elected by the Council of the Society. Persons desirous 
 of becoming members should, therefore, apply to the Secre- 
 tary or to some other member of the Council. Members 
 receive the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 
 free, from the date of their election, and have the privilege 
 of purchasing back numbers at half-price. These are the 
 Asiatic Transactions, so often referred to in the course of 
 the present work. Scarcely a subject connected with Japan 
 but is to be found learnedly discussed in the pages of the 
 
Bathing. 53 
 
 Asiatic Transactions. A General Index to the Asiatic Trans- 
 actions, recently published by Messrs. Kelly and Walsh, of 
 Yokohama, is invaluable for reference. 
 
 Besides the Asiatic Society, there is in Tokyo a German 
 Society, entitled Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Natur- und Vol- 
 kerkunde Ostasiens, the scope of whose labours is closely 
 similar, and whose valuable Mittheilungen, or German 
 Asiatic Transactions, as we have ventured to call them 
 when quoting them, are strongly recommended to readers 
 familiar with the German language. This Society was 
 founded in 1873. 
 
 Bathing. Cleanliness is one of the few original items of 
 Japanese civilisation. Almost all other Japanese institutions 
 have their root in China, but not tubs. We read in the 
 Japanese mythology that the god Izanagi, on returning from 
 a visit to his dead wife in Hades, purified himself in the 
 waters of a stream. Ceremonial purifications continue to 
 form part of the Shinto ritual. But viewed generally, the 
 cleanliness in which the Japanese excel the rest of mankind 
 has nothing to do with godliness. They are clean for the 
 personal satisfaction of being clean. Their hot baths — for 
 they almost all bathe in very hot water of about 110° 
 Fahrenheit — also help to keep them warm in winter. For 
 though moderately hot water, gives a chilly reaction, this is 
 not the case when the water is extremely hot, neither is there 
 then any fear of catching cold. There are some eight hundred 
 public baths in the city of Tokyo, in which it is calculated 
 that three hundred thousand persons bathe daily, at a cost of 
 1 sen 3 rin (about a halfpenny of English money) per head. 
 A reduction of 3 rin is made for children. In addition to 
 this, every respectable private house has its own bath-room. 
 
54 Bathing. 
 
 Other cities and even villages are similarly provided. -Where 
 there are neither ba,thing establishments nor private bath- 
 rooms, the people take their tubs out-of-doors, unless indeed 
 a policeman, charged with carrying out the new regulations, 
 happens to be prowling about the neighbourhood ; for clean- 
 liness is more esteemed by the Japanese than our artificial 
 Western prudery. 
 
 Some Europeans have tried to pick holes in the Japanese 
 system, saying that the bathers put on their dirty clothes 
 when they have dried themselves. True, the Japanese of the 
 old school have nothing so perfect as our system of daily 
 renovated linen. But as the bodies even of the men of the 
 lowest class are constantly washed and scrubbed, it is hardly 
 to be supposed that their garments, though perhaps dusty 
 outside, can be very dirty within. A Japanese crowd is the 
 sweetest in the world. The charm of the Japanese system of 
 hot bathing is proved by the fact that almost all the foreigners 
 resident in the country abandon their cold tubs in its favour. 
 There seems, too, to be something in the climate which 
 renders hot baths healthier than cold. By persisting in the 
 use of cold water one man gets rheumatism, a second gets 
 fever, a third a never-ending continuance of colds and coughs. 
 So nearly all end by coming round to the Japanese plan, the 
 chief foreign contribution to its perfectionment being the use 
 of a separate bath by each person. In a Japanese family the 
 same bath does for all the members ; and as man is the 
 nobler sex, the gentlemen usually take it first, in the order 
 of their age or dignity, the ladies afterwards, and then the 
 younger children, the servants enjoying it last at a late hour 
 of the evening, unless indeed they be sent to a public bath- 
 house. 
 
Bibliography. 55 
 
 The Japanese passion for bathing leads all classes to make 
 extensive use of the hot mineral springs in which their 
 volcano-studded land abounds. Sometimes they carry their 
 enjoyment of this natural luxury to an almost incredible 
 extreme. At Kawanaka, a tiny spa not far from Ikao in the 
 province of Joshu — one of those places, of which there 
 are many in Japan, which look as if they were at the 
 very end of the world, so steep are the mountains shutting 
 them in on every side — the bathers stay in the water for a 
 month on end, with a stone on their lap to prevent them 
 . from floating in their sleep. The care-taker of the establish- 
 ment, a hale old man of seventy, stays in the bath during 
 the entire winter. To be sure, the water is, in this particu- 
 lar case, one or two degrees below blood-heat. Thus alone 
 is so strange a life rendered possible. In another case, some 
 of the inhabitants of a certain village famed for its hot springs 
 excused themselves to the present writer for their dirtiness 
 during the busy summer months : " For," said they, " we 
 have only time to bathe twice a day." " How often, then, 
 do you bathe in winter ? " " Oh ! about four or five times 
 daily. The children get into the bath whenever they feel 
 cold." 
 
 Sea-bathing was not formerly much practised ; but since 
 1885 the upper classes have taken greatly to it, in imitation 
 of European usage, and the coast is now studded with bathing 
 establishments under medical supervision. Oiso on the 
 Tokaido Eailway, and Ushibuse near Numazu, are the favourite 
 sea-side places of the gentry of Tokyo. 
 
 Bibliography. Leon Pages' Bibliographic Japonaise is 
 excellent, so far as it goes, for European books on Japan ; 
 
56 Blackening the Teeth, 
 
 but it only goes down to the year 1859. Though not a 
 regular bibliography, Mr. Satow's admirable article on Japa- 
 nese Literature in the American Cyclopadia gives the 
 titles of a considerable number of native Japanese books. 
 The GunsJw Ichiran, published in 1801, is the standard 
 Japanese authority on the subject ; but it is very imperfect, 
 the severely classical tastes of the compiler not having per- 
 mitted him to take any notice of novels and other modern 
 popular works. 
 
 Birthdays are not much observed in Japan, except that 
 rice mixed with red beans is eaten on the auspicious day. 
 All the little boys celebrate their yearly holiday on the 5th 
 May, and the little girls on the 3rd March, as explained in 
 the article on Children. From another point of view, the 
 1st January may be considered the universal birthday ; for 
 the Japanese do not wait till the actual anniversary of birth 
 has come round to call a person a year older, but date the 
 addition to his age from the first day of the year. Thus a 
 child born in December, 1891, will be called two years old 
 in January, 1892, when it is perhaps scarcely a month 
 old in reality. The sixty-first birthday is the only one 
 about which much fuss is made. This is because the old 
 man or woman, having lived through one revolution of the 
 sexagenary cycle, then begins a second round, which is in 
 itself an extraordinary event ; for the Japanese reckon youth 
 to last from birth to the age of twenty, middle age from 
 twenty to forty, and old age from forty to sixty. This latter 
 age corresponds to the Psalmist's " three score and ten," as 
 the natural term of human existence. 
 
 Blackening the Teeth. This ugly custom is at least 
 
Books on Japan. 57 
 
 as old as A.D. 920 ; but the reason for it is unknown. It 
 was finally prohibited in the case of men in the year 1870. 
 A black-toothed woman of the old school may, however, still 
 be seen from time to time even at the present day. Every 
 married woman in the land had her teeth blackened, until 
 the present Empress set the example of discontinuing the 
 practice. Fortunately, the efficacy of the preparation used 
 wears out after a few days, so that the ladies of Japan ex- 
 perienced no. difficulty in getting their mouths white again. 
 Mr. Mitford, in his amusing Tales of Old Japan, gives 
 the following recipe for tooth-blacking, as having been 
 supplied to him by a fashionable Yedo druggist :— " Take 
 three pints of water, and, having warmed it, add half a 
 teacupful of wine." Put into this mixture a quantity of red- 
 hot iron ; allow it to stand for five or six days, when there 
 will be a scum on the top of the mixture, which should then 
 be poured into a small teacup and placed near a fire. When 
 it is warm, powdered gall-nuts and iron filings should be 
 added to it, and the whole should be warmed again. The 
 liquid is then painted on to the teeth by means of a soft 
 feather brush, with more powdered gall-nuts and iron, and, 
 after several applications, the desired colour will be obtained." 
 
 - Books on Japan* Leon Pages, in his Bibliographic 
 Japonaise, enumerates seven hundred and fifteen works in 
 European languages bearing more or less directly on Japan. 
 Yet this list was published as far back as 1859, that is, 
 broadly speaking, before the world had turned its attention to 
 Japan at all. If there were seven hundred then, there must 
 be seventy times seven hundred now. In fact, not to have 
 
 * By " wine," must of course be meant Japanese take. 
 
58 Books on Japan. 
 
 written a book about Japan is fast becoming a title to distinc- 
 tion. The art of Japan, the history of Japan, the language, 
 folk-lore, botany, even -the earthquakes and the diseases of 
 Japan — each of "these, with many other subjects, has a little 
 library to itself. Then there are the works of an encyclopedic 
 character, and there are the books of travel. Some of the 
 latter possess great value, as photographing Japanese man- 
 ners for us at certain periods. Others are at the ordinary 
 low level of globe-trotting literature — twaddle enlivened by 
 statistics at second-hand. 
 
 We give references at the end of most of the articles of this 
 work to the chief authorities on each special subject. At the 
 risk of offending innumerable authors, we now venture to 
 pick out the following ten works (ten is the Japanese dozen), 
 as probably the most generally useful that are accessible 
 to English readers. Of course it is more than possible 
 that some of the really best have escaped our notice or our 
 memory. Anyhow, an imperfect list will perhaps be deemed 
 better than none at all : — 
 
 1. Dr. Eein's "Japan," with its sequel, "The Industries 
 op Japan."* No person wishing to study Japan seriously, 
 .can dispense with these admirable volumes. Of the two, 
 that on the Industries is the better : — agriculture, cattle- 
 raising, forestry, mines, lacquer-worl^metal-work, commerce, 
 everything, in fact, has been studied with a truly German 
 patience, and is set forth with a truly German thoroughness. 
 The other volume is occupied with the physiography of the 
 country, that is, its geography, fauna, flora, etc., with 
 
 * Though Dr. Rein is a German and his work was first published in the German 
 language, the English edition is to be preferred. For, writes the author in his 
 preface, " the English translation is based on a careful revision of the original, 
 and may be considered a new and improved edition of it." 
 
Books on Japan. 59 
 
 an account of the people both historical and ethnographical, 
 and with the topography of the various provinces. 
 
 2. " The Mikado's Empire," by the Rev. W. E. Griffis. 
 This is the book best calculated to give the general reader 
 just what he requires, and to give it to him in a manner 
 less technical than Rein's. The first part is devoted to 
 the history, the second to the author's personal experiences 
 and to Japanese life in modern days. The sixth edition 
 brings the story down to 1890. More than one reader of 
 cultivated taste has, indeed, complained of the author's 
 tendency to " gush," and of the occasional tawdriness of 
 his style.* But these faults are on the surface, and do not 
 touch the genuine value of the book. 
 
 3. "Japanese Girls and Women," by Miss Bacon. This 
 modest volume gives in a short compass the best account 
 that has yet been published of Japanese family life, — a 
 sanctum into which all travellers would fain pry, but of 
 which even most old residents know surprisingly little. 
 
 4. "Japan as it Was and Is," by Richard Hildreth, an 
 excellent book, in which the gist of what the various early 
 travellers have left us concerning Japan is woven together 
 into one continuous narrative, the exact text of the originals 
 being adhered to as much as possible. 
 
 5. The " Transactions of the Asiatic Society op Japan." 
 Almost every subject interesting to the student of Japanese 
 matters is treated of in the pages of these Transactions, 
 which have, for twenty years past, been the favourite 
 vehicle of publication for the researches of Satow, Aston, 
 Blakiston, Pryer, Geerts, Batchelor, Troup, and other eminent 
 
 * Thus the nose is spoken of as the " nasal ornament ; " a volcano in a state of 
 eruption is said to "ulcer its crater jaws ;" laughing is called an "explosion of 
 risibilities," etc., etc. 
 
60 Books on Japan. 
 
 scholars and specialists. Of course the Asiatic Transactions 
 are not light reading. They appeal rather to the serious 
 student, who will have nearly all that he requires if he joins 
 to a perusal of them that of Rein's work ; for the Asiatic 
 Transactions are strongest exactly where Rein is weakest, 
 namely, in questions of literature and history. Thus the 
 two supplement each other. 
 
 6. " Young Japan," by J. E. Black. Mr. Black was one 
 of the earliest foreign residents of Yokohama, and editor of 
 various newspapers both in English and in Japanese. His 
 book is, so to say, the diary of the foreign settlement at 
 Yokohama from 1858 to 1879, that is, during the two most 
 eventful decades of modern Japanese history. It records 
 events and impressions, not indeed with any great literary 
 skill, but with that particular vividness which contemporary 
 memoirs, jotted down from day to day, as the events they 
 describe are unfolding themselves, can alone possess. A 
 perusal of Young Japan will help fair-minded persons to 
 rate at their true value many of the generalisations of authors 
 of a later time or who have written at a distance. 
 
 7. " The Capital of the Tycoon," by Sir Rutherford 
 Alcock. Though published more than a quarter of a century 
 ago, and though, as narrative, it covers only the brief space 
 of three years (1859-1862), this book is still delightful and 
 profitable reading. In its pages we live with the fathers of 
 the men who rule Japan to-day. True, these men may 
 reject the application to their case of the proverb which says 
 "like father, likeson." But we foreign lookers-on, who perhaps 
 after all see something of the game, must be permitted to hold 
 a different opinion, and to believe that even in cases so 
 exceptional as Japan's, the political and social questions of a 
 
Books on Japan. 61 
 
 country can only then be fairly comprehended when its past is 
 constantly borne in mind. Sir Kutherford's book combines 
 the light touch of the skilled diplomat and man of the world 
 with the careful research of the genuine student. 
 
 8. " Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of Japanese 
 and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum," by 
 Dr. Wm. Anderson. Such a title does an injustice to 
 what is really an original and valuable book. Who would 
 think of spending $7.50 on a catalogue ? But this 
 so-called catalogue is really a mine of information on 
 numberless things Japanese. To begin with, it gives 
 a complete history of Japanese pictorial art. Then the 
 author's painstaking research, with the assistance of Mr. 
 Satow, into the "motives" of this art — drawn, as they are, 
 from the history of the country, from its religions, its 
 superstitions, its literature, its famous sites — has shed a flood 
 of light on these and many kindred subjects. Not that the 
 book is easy reading, or meant to be read at all continuously. 
 Still, the store of anecdotes which it contains will interest 
 every person, who, when confronted by a Japanese picture or 
 other objet d'art, prefers knowing what it is about to gaping 
 at it ignorantly. 
 
 9. " Tales of Old Japan," by A. B. Mitford. Love, 
 revenge, "the happy despatch," adventure by land and sea, 
 quaint fairy-tales, Buddhist sermons quainter still — in a 
 word, the whole picturesque life of Old Japan — these are the 
 things which Mr. Mitford gives us ; and he gives them in a 
 style that renders them doubly attractive. 
 
 10. " Unbeaten Tracks in Japan," by Miss Bird. Though 
 now more than ten years old, this remains, to our thinking, 
 the best English book of Japanese travel. The account of the 
 
62 Books on Japan. 
 
 Ainos in the second volume is specially valuable. Japan 
 however, has not yet found its Abb6 Hue. The book of 
 Japanese travel, the companion work to Hue's ever-delightful 
 
 - Empire Chinois, yet remains to be written, — the book that 
 shall tell us all about the beaten because most interesting 
 tracks, and tell it not only with the discrimination of a born 
 observer, but with the * authority of an old resident, such as 
 the good old Abb6 was. 
 
 Where one has hundreds of books to choose from, such a 
 list as the above might of course be indefinitely extended. 
 Percival Lowell's Soul of the Far East, for instance, starts 
 to our recollection at once, with its brilliant array of 
 
 -metaphysical epigrams. So also do Adams' History of Japan, 
 Mounsey's Satsuma Bebellion, Dickins' multifarious writings 
 on Japanese subjects, and, to turn to lighter literature, 
 / Pearson's amusing Flights Inside and Outside Paradise', whichA 
 is the book of all others to while away a rainy day at- a J 
 tea-house, Mrs. Smith's Verdant Simple in Japan, Dening's 
 Life of Hideyoshi and Japan in Days of Yore, and ever so 
 many more which we cannot enumerate. Then, too, there 
 are the books in foreign languages — such, for instance, as 
 Airoi Humbert's Le Japon et les Japonais, Bousquet's excellent 
 Le Japon de nos Jours, and Appert's useful little book of 
 reference, entitled Aneien Japon. Of Pierre Loti's books, 
 the opinion of the resident French community seems to be 
 that they are superficial and inaccurate. Nevertheless, the 
 illustrations to his Madame Ghrysantheme are very pretty, 
 and the letter-press is worth skimming through, though the 
 volume can in nowise be recommended either to misses or to 
 missionaries. What has struck us as the liveliest and best 
 of all popular books on Japan is in German. We mean 
 
Books on Japan, 63 
 
 Netto's Papierschmetterlinge aus Japan, with its delightful 
 illustrations and its epigrammatic test. With more serious 
 works, too, the Germans are naturally to the front. The 
 Mittheilungen of the German Asiatic Society .(Deutsche Gesell- 
 schaft fur Natur- unci Volkerkunde Ostasiens) are a mine of 
 information on matters scientific, legal, &c, &c. 
 
 Not content with the reality of Japan as it is or as it was, 
 some imaginative writers have begun to found novels on 
 Japanese subjects. We thus have books such as Arimas, 
 which is whimsical and clever, A Captive of Love, A Muramasa 
 Blade, Mito Yashiki, Honda the Samurai, and a dozen others 
 that we have never been able to make up our mind to dip 
 into. As for books of travel, there is literally no end to the 
 making of them. Almost every possible space of time, from 
 Seven Weeks in Japan to Eight Years in Japan and Nine 
 Years in Nipon, has furnished the title for a volume. 
 There are Expeditions to Japan, Sketches of Japan, Runs 
 in Japan, JinriMsha Fades in Japan, Journeys, Travels, 
 Trips, Excursions, Impressions, Letters, etc., etc., ad infinitum. 
 Many general books of travel have chapters devoted to 
 Japan. The best and liveliest is Miss Duncan's Social 
 Departure. For though the author revels in Japan as "a 
 many-tinted fairy-tale," the sense of humour which never 
 deserts her prevents her enthusiasm from degenerating into 
 mawkishne3S. Perhaps the most entertaining specimen of 
 globe-trotting literature of another calibre is that much older 
 book, Miss Margaretha Weppner's North Star and Southern 
 Cross. We do not wish to make any statement which 
 cannot be verified, and therefore we will not say that the 
 author is as mad as a March hare ; but the book is as funny 
 as if it had been written by a March hare. Her idee fixe 
 
64 Books on Japan. 
 
 seems to have been that every foreign man in Yokohama and 
 " Jeddo" meditated an assault on her. As for the Japanese, 
 she dismisses them as " disgusting creatures."* . 
 
 More edifying, if less amusing, than such works are the 
 various monographs on special subjects, particularly those on 
 art. Such are Gonse's UArt Japonais, Audsley and Bowes' 
 various publications on Keramic Art, Seals, and Enamels, 
 Franks' and Dresser's books, and above all, Anderson's 
 Pictorial Art of Japan, which is a magnificent work, con- 
 ceived in a critical spirit, written with competent knowledge, 
 and beautifully illustrated. Conder's Flowers of Japan, just 
 published, the younger Siebold's Notes on Japanese Archeo- 
 logy, and "the Transactions of the Seismological Society, may be 
 confidently recommended as the best treatises on their 
 respective subjects. Morse's Japanese Homes is a fascinating 
 account, not only of Japanese architecture, but of every tiny 
 
 * Here is a portion of this authoress's description- of Yokohama and its foreign 
 residents .— 
 
 " It will be well understood that the life of the European in Japan is, after all, 
 a wretched one. The senses and the animal appetite are abundantly provided 
 for j but the mind, the heart, and the soul are left totally destitute. There are 
 clubs, it is true, but at the time of my stay in Yokohama, they were mere gastro- 
 nomical resorts. The pure-minded men of the island live at home, where they can 
 enjoy just as much comfort as in the clubs, and are rarely seen in them, except 
 when dramatic companies, comedians, whistlers, or such people visit thia land. 
 A few of the better Europeans visit the club to kill time. 
 
 "I had occasion to remark during my stay in Yokohama that the perennial 
 monotony of the place, and the sensual life led there, have reduced many of them 
 to a state bordering on imbecility. It was difficult to believe that the drivelling 
 trash which they talked could have iis origin in the head at all. The eyes of 
 such men are dull, and they have a kind of idiotic stare. They see and hear only 
 what directly attracts the stomach and senses. It is useless moralising further 
 on this subject; but I cannot refrain from adding that the impression produced 
 upon a healthy mind by this portentous abasement is very disheartening. Often 
 when contemplating the superb scenery among which these depraved creatures 
 live, I have involuntarily exclaimed in the words of the poet 
 ' Though every prospect pleases, 
 And only man is vile.' " 
 
Books on Japan. 65 
 
 detail of Japanese domestic life, even down to the water- 
 bucket and the kitchen tongs. The only drawback is the 
 author's parti pris of viewing everything through rose-coloured 
 spectacles, which makes those who would fain be instructed 
 by him feel that they are listening to a special pleader rather 
 than to a judge. 
 
 Among books of reference, may be mentioned the collection 
 of Treaties and Conventions concluded between the Japanese 
 and various foreign governments, Bramsen's Chronological 
 Tables, by which the exact equivalent of any Japanese date can 
 be ascertained, the China Sea Directory, Vol. IV., giving in- 
 formation to mariners concerning the Japanese coast, the late 
 Mr. Geerts's book entitled Les Procluits de la Nature Japonaise 
 et Chinoise, the English translations of the various Codes, the 
 British Consular Trade Reports, the llesume Statistique de 
 V Empire du Japon, issued yearly for private distribution only, 
 and the annual reports of the various departments of the 
 'Imperial Government on such matters as education, railways, 
 posts, etc., etc. We advert to these, because not a few of 
 them appear in English as well as in the vernacular. 
 Several Japanese educated abroad have written books in 
 European languages. Such — to mention but one — is Nitobe's 
 monograph on The Intercourse between the United States and 
 Japan, recently published. Of books by early travellers, 
 the copious letters of the Jesuit missionaries, the Letters of 
 the English Pilot Will Adams, Kaempfer's History of 
 Japan, and the elder Siebold's encyclopedic productions 
 are the chief. But with the exception of Will Adams's 
 Letters, these are now all out of print, besides being 
 out of date. For the collector and the specialist they 
 undoubtedly possess permanent value, but they are scarcely to 
 
66 Botany. 
 
 be recommended to the general reader. 
 
 Botany. We have not the necessary space, even had 
 we the necessary ability, to enter into a particular de- 
 scription of that rich and wonderful Japanese flora, which 
 excites the imagination of the man of science as much as 
 ever Japanese works of art in porcelain, bronze, and lacquer 
 excited the imagination of the man of taste. We can only 
 draw attention to a few striking facts and theoretical con- 
 siderations, referring the reader for all details to Dr. Eein's , 
 masterly risumS of the subject, and to the works of Maxi- 
 mowicz, Savatier, Asa Gray, Sir Joseph Hooker, Ito Kei- 
 suke, and the other specialists whom Eein quotes. 
 
 The first impression made on any fairly observant person 
 landing in Japan is the extraordinary variety of the vegeta- 
 tion. He sees the pine of the north flourishing by the side 
 of the tropical bamboo. A rice-field, as in India, stretches 
 to his right. To his left will be a wheat or barley-field, 
 reminding him of Europe. And the same strange juxtapo- 
 sitions occur wherever he travels throughout the archi- 
 pelago. No wonder that the number of kfiown species of 
 trees and plants (exclusive of mosses and other low organ- 
 isms) rises to the enormous figure of two thousand seven 
 hundred and forty-three, distributed over an unusually 
 large number of genera, while it is almost certain that 
 further investigations will raise the figure considerably, 
 the northern portion of the country having been as yet 
 but imperfectly explored. Of forest-trees alone, Japan — or, 
 to be strictly accurate, the Japanese region, which includes 
 also Korea, Manchuria, and a portion of Northern China — 
 has a hundred and sixty-eight species divided among sixty- 
 six genera, as against the eighty-five species in thirty-three 
 
Botany. 67 
 
 genera of Europe. The Atlantic forest region of North 
 America is nearly as rich as Japan, having a hundred 
 and fifty-five species in sixty-six genera. The Pacific 
 forest region of North America is poorer even than Europe, 
 having but seventy-eight species in thirty-one genera. A 
 further very curious fact is that Eastern America and 
 Japan possess sixty-five genera in common. Evidently there 
 must be some powerful underlying cause connecting pheno- 
 mena apparently so capricious. Eein lays great stress on 
 the similarity of climatic conditions obtaining in Eastern 
 Asia and Eastern America, on the abundant rainfall 
 of Japan, and on the convenient stepping-stones for 
 vegetable immigrants formed by the Kurile Islands, Sagha- 
 lien, Oki, Iki, the Loochoos, and other islands both 
 to the west and south. May we not also accept Mr. 
 Wallace's theory, as propounded in his charming book, 
 Island Life, to the effect that the Glacial Epoch had 
 great influence in bringing about the present state of 
 things? When the climate of the north temperate re- 
 gions grew arctic, some of the trees and plants whose 
 habitat was there must have perished, but others doubtless 
 migrated in a southerly direction, where they could still 
 find sufficient warmth to sustain their existence. In 
 Europe, however, they were stopped — first by the barrier 
 of the Alps, and then by the still more effectual barrier 
 of the Mediterranean. On the Pacific slope of America, 
 they mostly perished owing to the extreme narrowness, 
 of their habitat, which allowed of no free emigration in 
 any direction. The conditions of Eastern America and 
 of Eastern Asia were altogether different. Here were 
 neither mountain ranges nor oceans to obstruct the south- 
 
68 Botany. 
 
 ward march of the vegetation as it retreated before the ice ; 
 and when the ice had disappeared, all the heat-loving forms, 
 safely preserved in the south, were able to return northward 
 again, a considerable remnant of the richer vegetation of an 
 earlier geological age being thus handed down to our own 
 days in these two favoured regions. 
 
 A consideration to which little attention has hitherto been 
 paid is the general identity of the Japanese flora with that of 
 the adjacent coast of Asia. It is probable that when Korea 
 shall have been thoroughly explored, not a few species now 
 designated as japonica will be found to be really continental 
 forms. It is already known that some of the plants now 
 most common in Japan have been introduced in histori- 
 cal times through human agency. Such are, to name but 
 two, the tea-plant and the orange-tree. The introduction of 
 the latter is mentioned by the Japanese poets of the eighth 
 century. The tea-plant came in with Buddhism. We were- 
 ourselves, we believe, the first to point out, some nine years 
 ago, the help which philology may give to natural science in 
 this field, by proving that plants and also animals now inha- 
 Biting Japan, but originally imported from China or Korea, 
 may often be detected in the Japanese language by their 
 slightly disfigured Chinese or Korean names. *■ 
 
 What we have for shortness' sake termed the Japanese 
 region, is named by Kein " the north-eastern monsoon 
 region," and is furthermore described by him as the "king- 
 dom of magnolias, camellias, and aralias." It coincides 
 very nearly in latitude with the region of the Mediterranean ; 
 but the character of the two is as different as can well be 
 
 * Asiatic Transactions, Vol. X. Supplement, p. lxx of Introduction to the Kojilci. 
 
Buddhism. 69 
 
 imagined. The Japanese region is the delight of the botanist. 
 The Mediterranean region, with its severer forms and more 
 sparing growth, better pleases the artist, who loves vegetation 
 less for its own sake than as a setting for the works of man. 
 
 Books recommended. Rein's Japan, pp. 135-174, is the best 
 for the general reader. The following are recommended only to specialists : — 
 Flora Japonica, by C. E. Thunberg. — Flora Japonica, by Siebold and Zaccarini, and 
 other works by Siebold. — Prolusio Flora Japonica, by F. A. G. Miquel. — Melanges 
 Biologiques, published in the Bulletin de V Academic Imperiale des Sciences de Si. 
 PUersbourg, by Mashnowicz and others. — Emtmeratio Plantarum, by Franchet and 
 Savatier. — Alr'the above, except Rein, are in Latin. — On the Botany of Japan, by Asa 
 Gray. — A Catalogue of Plants in the Botanic Garden, Tokyo, 1887. — Murray has written 
 on the Pines and Firs, Geerts on the Timber-trees {Asiatic Transactions, Vol. IV.), 
 etc., etc. Perhaps the most beautiful of these botanical monographs is that on 
 the Algae, by F. R. Kjellman and J. V. Petersen, entitled Om Japans Laminariaceer, 
 and published by the University of TFpsala. 
 
 Bran Bags. Soap, called shabon from the Spanish or 
 Portuguese word, has been slowly domiciled in Japan; 
 but bran bags (iiuka-buliuro) form the true national substitute 
 for it. A handful of bran sewn into a small linen bag makes 
 a deliciously soft washing material. For chapped hands in 
 winter it is invaluable. The bran bag must be changed 
 every day. 
 
 Bronze. See Metal-Work. 
 
 Buddhism. Many writers, from St. FrancisXavier down- 
 wards, have drawn attention to the superficial resemblances 
 between the Buddhistic and the Roman Catholic ceremonial 
 
 the flowers on the altar, the candles, the incense, the shaven 
 
 heads of the priests, the images, the processions. In point of 
 dogma, a whole world of thought separates Buddhism from 
 every form of Christianity. Knowledge, enlightenment, is the 
 condition of Buddhistic grace— not faith. Self-perfection- 
 
70 Buddhism. 
 
 ment is the means of salvation, not the vicarious sufferings of 
 a Eedeemer. Not eternal life is the end, and active participa- 
 tion in unceasing prayer and praise, but absorption into- 
 Nirvana (Jap. Nehati), practical annihilation. For Bud- 
 dhism teaches that existence is itself an evil, springing 
 from the double root of ignorance and the passions. In 
 logical conformity with this tenet, it ignores the existence 
 of a supreme God and Creator of worlds. There are, it is 
 true, gods in the cosmogony which Buddhism inherited from 
 Brahminism ; but they are less important than the Hotolce, or 
 Buddhas — men, that is, who have toiled upward through 
 successive stages of existence to the calm of perfect holiness. 
 
 These few remarks are designed merely to point the reader 
 along the true path of enquiry. It does not, of course, fall 
 within the scope of a manual devoted to things Japanese to 
 analyse the doctrines and practice of the great and com- 
 plicated Indian religion, which, commencing with the birth 
 of the Buddha Shaka Muni in the year B. C. 1027 (so say 
 the Chinese and Japanese Buddhists, but European scholars 
 prefer the date B. C. 653), gradually became the chief factor 
 in the religious life of all Eastern Asia. 
 
 Japan received Buddhism from Korea, which country had 
 obtained it from China. The account which the native his- 
 tory books give of the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, 
 is that a golden image of Buddha and some scrolls of the 
 scriptures were presented to the Mikado Kimmei by the King 
 of Hakusai, one of the Korean states, in A.D. 552. The 
 Mikado inclined to the acceptance of the new religion ; but 
 the majority of his council, conservative Shintoists, persuad- 
 ed him to reject the image from his court. The golden 
 Buddha was accordingly conferred upon one Soga-no-Iname, 
 
Buddhism. 71 
 
 who tamed his country-house into the first Buddhist temple 
 existing on the soil of Japan. A pestilence which shortly 
 broke out was attributed by the partisans of the old religion 
 to this foreign innovation. The temple was razed to the 
 ground ; but such dire calamities followed on this act of 
 sacrilege that it was soon allowed to be rebuilt. Buddhist 
 monks and nuns then flocked over from Korea in ever- 
 increasing numbers. Shdtoku Taishi, who was prince regent 
 under the Empress Suiko from A.D. 593 to A.D. 621, himself 
 attained almost to the rank of Buddhist saintship, and from 
 this time forward the new religion became established as the 
 chief religion of the land, though Shinto was never entirely 
 suppressed. All education was for centuries in Buddhist 
 hands, Buddhism introduced art, introduced medicine, mould- 
 ed the folk-lore of the country, created its dramatic poetry, 
 deeply influenced politics and every sphere of social and in- 
 tellectual activity. In a word, Buddhism was the teacher 
 under whose instruction the Japanese nation grew up. As a 
 nation, they are now grossly forgetful of this fact. Ask an 
 educated Japanese a question about Buddhism, and ten to 
 one he will smile in your face. A hundred to one that he 
 knows nothing about the subject, and glories in his nescience. 
 Chinese and Korean Buddhism was already broken up into 
 numerous sects and sub-sects when it reached Japan — sects, 
 too, all of which had come to differ very widely in their 
 teaching from that of the purer, simpler Southern Buddhism 
 of Ceylon and Siam. Japanese Buddhism follows what is 
 termed the " Great Vehicle " (Sanskrit Mahay ana, Jap. Lai- 
 jo), which contains many unwarranted accretions to the 
 original teaching of the Buddha. The chief sects now exist- 
 ing in Japan are the Tendai, Shingon, Jodo, and Zen, which 
 
72 Buddhism. 
 
 are of Chinese origin, the Shin (also called Ikko or Monto), 
 and the Niohiren or Hokke, both native Japanese sects 
 dating from the thirteenth century. 
 
 Japanese Buddhism has never yet been thoroughly stu'died, 
 but should, one would think, bo worthy the attention of some 
 competent investigator. It is a fact, curious but true, that 
 the Japanese have never been at the trouble to translate the 
 Buddhist canon into their own language. The priests use a 
 Chinese version, the laity no version at all nowadays, though, 
 to judge from the allusions scattered up and down Japanese 
 literature, they would seem to have been more given to 
 searching the scriptures a few hundred years ago. The Bud- 
 dhist religion was disestablished and disendowed during 
 the years 1871 — 4, a step taken in consequence of the 
 momentary ascendency of Shinto. At the present time 
 a faint struggle is being made by the Buddhist priest- 
 hood against rivals in comparison with whom Shinto is 
 insignificant : we mean the two great streams of European 
 thought — Christianity and science. A notable reception was 
 accorded in 1889 to Colonel Olcott, of esoteric and theo- 
 sophical fame. But it seems a foregone conclusion that 
 Japanese Buddhism is bound to perish in the encounter with 
 its younger and more energetic foes. 
 
 Books recommended. Perhaps the best short account of Bud- 
 dhism for the general reader is that entitled Buddhism, by Rhys Davids. This 
 work, though published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, is 
 quite free from Christian prejudice. A brief outline of Japanese Buddhism is 
 given in the latest edition of Murray's Handbook for Japan, together with a 
 descriptive list of the most popular gods and goddesses. Students should consult 
 Bunyiu Nanjio's Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, and Eitel's 
 invaluable Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary, also entitled Handbook for Students of 
 Chinese Buddhism. — Interesting speeimens of Japanese sermons may be found in 
 Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., and in J. M. James's Discourse on Infinite 
 Vision, printed in the Asiatic Transactions, Vol. VII. Part IV.— The tenets and the 
 
Capital Cities. 73 
 
 devotional literature of the Shin sect have been treated of by James Troup in 
 Vols. XTV. and XVII. of the Asiatic Transactions (the paper in the latter being 
 entitled The GobimsAo). This sect curiously illustrates the fact that a religion 
 may, with the lapse of time and by passing from nation to nation, end by becom- 
 ing almost the exact contrary of what it was at starting. At first sight, one 
 would imagine the Shin sect to be a travesty of Christianity rather than a 
 development of Buddhism. 
 
 Capital Cities. If the Japanese annals are to be trusted, 
 Japan has had no less than sixty capitals. This is to be 
 traced to the fact that in ancient days there was a super- 
 stitious dread of any place in which a person had died. The 
 sons of a dead man built themselves a new house. Hence, 
 too, the successor of a dead Mikado built himself a new 
 capital. Consequently the provinces of Yamato, Yamashiro, 
 Kawachi, and Settsu, which were the home and centre of the 
 early Japanese monarchy, are dotted with places, now mere 
 villages, sometimes indeed empty names, but once in the 
 proud position of capitals of the Empire. 
 
 In process of time, such perpetual changes proving in- 
 compatible with the needs of the more advanced civilisation 
 introduced from China and Korea, a tendency to keep the 
 court settled in one place made itself felt during the eighth 
 century of our era. Nara in Yamato remained the capital 
 for seven reigns, between the years 709 and 784. After 
 further wanderings, the court fixed itself at Kyoto in 794 ; 
 and this city continued, with few interruptions, to be the 
 residence of successive generations of Mikados till the year 
 1868, when it was abandoned in favour of Yedo (Tokyo), 
 which had been the capital of the Shoguns ever since the 
 year 1590. Kyoto, however, still nominally retains the rank 
 of a metropolis, as is indicated by its new name of Sai-kyo 
 or "western capital," in contradistinction to To-kyo, the 
 
74 Capital Cities. 
 
 " eastern capital." The new name, though little known to 
 foreigners, is in general use among the Japanese themselves. 
 
 The chief sights in and near Kyoto are the Mikado's 
 palace, the temples named Nishi Hongwanji, Chion-in, 
 Kiyomizu-dera, Gion, Gijpkakuji, Kinkakuji, Higashi Hon- 
 gwanji, San-ju-san-gen-do, and Inari-no-Jinja, Mount Hiei- 
 zan, Lake Biwa, Arashi-yama famous for its cherry-blossoms 
 in spring, and the rapids of the Katsura-gawa. Brocades 
 and embroidery generally are the products for which Kyoto 
 is chiefly noted. In the second rank come pottery, por- 
 celain, cloisonne^ and bronze. 
 
 Nara, whose charms have been sung by many a Japanese 
 poet from the eighth century onwards, is distinguished by 
 the almost English appearance of the park,which surrounds 
 the ancient Shinto temple of Kasuga, where the tame deer 
 crowd around the visitor to feed out of his hand. In Nara, 
 likewise, stands the great Buddhist temple of Todaiji, with 
 the colossal bronze image known as the Baibutsu, or " Great 
 Buddha," dating from the year 749. 
 
 Another of the old capitals, Kamakura, is distant only a 
 few miles from Yokohama. It was never inhabited by the 
 Mikados. It was the seat of the Shoguns from 1189 onwards, 
 and of the so-called Begents of the Hojo family during 
 the troublous Middle Ages. Kamakura, taken by storm and 
 burnt to the ground in 1455 and again in 1526, gradually 
 lost its importance. Woods and rice-fields now stretch 
 over the area that once afforded a home to more than a 
 million inhabitants, and little remains to tell of its ancient 
 splendour, save the great temple of Hachiman and the 
 magnificent bronze image of Buddha, perhaps' the grandest 
 of all Japanese works of art. (See also article on Tokyo.) 
 
Carving. 75 
 
 Carving. The earliest specimens of Japanese carving, 
 if we may so call objects more probably moulded by the 
 hand, are the rude clay figures of men and horses occasionally 
 found in the tumuli of Central and Eastern Japan (see 
 Article on Archeology). But the art made no progress till 
 the advent of Buddhism in the sixth century. A stone image 
 of the god Miroku was among the earliest gifts of the Court 
 of Korea to that of Japan. "Wooden images came also. The 
 Japanese themselves soon learnt to carve in both materials. 
 The huge figure of Jizo, hewn in relief on a block of andesite 
 on the way between Ashinoyu and Hakone, is a grand 
 example. Like so many other celebrated Japanese works of 
 unknown antiquity, it is referred by popular tradition to the 
 Buddhist saint, Kobo Daishi (ninth century), who is fabled 
 to have finished it in a single night. The art of wood-carving 
 has always been chiefly in Buddhist hands. Among the 
 finest specimens may be mentioned two sets of "temple 
 guardians " (Xi-o) at Nara, — one by a Korean artist of the be- 
 ginning of the seventh century, the other by Kwaikei, a native 
 sculptor who flourished about A.D. 1095, — and the charming 
 painted carvings of flowers and birds'in the Nikko temples 
 and in those at Shiba and Ueno in Tokyo, belonging to the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
 
 The Japanese sculptors have occasionally attempted por- 
 traiture. The seated figure of Ieyasu at Shiba is a good 
 example. But in sculpture, even more than in pictorial art, 
 the strength of the Japanese talent lies rather in decoration and 
 in small things than in representation and in great things. 
 The netsulces — a kind of ornament for the tobacco-pouch, 
 carved out of wood or ivory— are often marvels of minuteness, 
 and alive with a keen sense of humour and the grotesque. 
 
76 Cats. 
 
 The Japanese Phidias (if we may compare small people 
 with great) was Hidari Jingoro, born in A. D. 1594. The 
 two elephants and the sleeping cat in the mortuary chapel of 
 Ieyasu at Nikko are among the most celebrated productions 
 of his chisel. He died in 1634, leaving a flourishing school 
 and a reputation around which legend soon began to busy 
 itself. A horse which he had carved as an ex-voto, used, it 
 is averred, to leave its wooden tablet at night, and go 
 down to the meadow to graze. On another occasion 
 the artist, having seen a frail beauty in the street, became 
 so enamoured that on getting home he set about carving 
 her statue ; and between the folds of the statue's robe 
 he placed a mirror, which the girl had let drop and 
 which he had picked up. Thereupon the statue, Galatea- 
 like, came to life, and the two lovers were made supremely 
 happy. Now for the characteristically Japanese turn given 
 to the tale. The times were stormy, and it fell out that the 
 life of the daughter of the artist's lord had to be sacrificed. 
 The artist instantly cut off his living statue's head and sent 
 it to the enemy, who were taken in by the ruse which his 
 loyalty had prompted'. But a servant of his lord's, also 
 deceived, and believing that Hidari Jingoro had really killed 
 their lord's daughter, took his sword and cut off the sculptor's 
 right hand. Hence the name of Hidari Jingoro, that is, 
 " left-handed Jingoro." Probably Jingoro's left-handedness, 
 which undoubtedly gave him his nickname of Hidari, also 
 suggested the legend. 
 
 Boole recommended. Huisli's Japan and its Art, Chap. XIII. 
 
 Cats. As one of the first questions asked by every 
 observant tourist landing at Yokohama refers to the tailless 
 or more properly short-tailed Japanese cats, let it be known 
 
Chauvinism. 77 
 
 that the peculiarity is a natural one. The bones are all there, 
 but not normally developed ; hence the atrophied appearance 
 of the tail. It in true, however, that the habit of seeing only 
 tailless cats has engendered such a prejudice in their favour 
 that, should a litter chance to be born with one long-tailed 
 kitten, somebody will generally take upon himself to chop 
 the tail off to a respectable shortness. The popular objection 
 to long-tailed cats has doubtless been augmented by the 
 snake-like aspect of a normal cat's tail when waved from side 
 to side, and by the superstition that there exist cats furnished 
 with one or several long tails, and possessing the power of 
 bewitching human beings after the manner of foxes and 
 badgers (see Article on Demoniacal Possession). Note, how- 
 ever, that the objection to long-tailed cats does not prevail 
 throughout the entire Japanese Empire. It is confined- to- 
 certain provinces. 
 
 Among Europeans an irreverent person may' sometimes be 
 heard to describe an ugly, cross old woman as a cat. In 
 Japan, the land of topsy-turvydom, that nickname is col- 
 loquially applied to the youngest and most attractive, — the 
 singing-girls. The reason is that singing-girls bewitch men 
 with their artful, sham coy ways, like the magic cats alluded 
 to above. For a similar reason, fair women one degree 
 lower still in the scale are called foxes, while the male 
 buffoons or jesters whose talents help to make the fun fast 
 and furious at a spree are termed badgers. 
 
 Cha-nO-yil. See Tea Ceremonies. 
 
 Cfiauvillism. Japan has not escaped, in these latter 
 days, the wave of "jingo " feeling that has swept round the 
 world, making the smaller nationalities self-assertive and 
 
78 Chauvinism. 
 
 threatening the greater ones with disruption. For a few years, 
 no doubt, "foreign" and "good" were synonymous terms ; 
 the Japanese sat at the feet of the Western Gamaliel, and 
 treasured his slightest utterances as pearls of great price. 
 This state of things has passed away. The feeling now is, 
 ■" Japan for the Japanese, and let it be a Japanese Japan." 
 Foreign employes have been dismissed, and replaced by 
 natives. In the Diet, the other day — it was in the Upper 
 House, too — the metrical system of weights and measures 
 was opposed on the ground that the introduction of a foreign 
 standard would be a blot on the national escutcheon. 
 Not only has the national costume come back again to a 
 considerable extent, and interest in the native sports and in 
 the national antiquities been revived ; — the peculiar feature 
 of the present situation is that the Japanese are determined 
 to beat us on our own ground. Japan is to engross the trade 
 of the Pacific, to be the leader of Asia in modern warfare and 
 diplomacy, to found colonies in America. Japan, according 
 to some, is to revolutionise European painting. According 
 to others she will remodel philosophy ; for Europe is in- 
 curably superstitious, Japan essentially reasonable. Mr. 
 Inagaki, a well-known publicist who has lived abroad and 
 even published a book in English, writes articles to demon- 
 strate Japan's special fitness for originating new and important 
 views on international law. Mr. Kozaki believes that Japan is 
 
 the place where "the world-problem of Christianity is 
 
 being gradually solved ; " and numbers of leading Japanese 
 Christians hold with Mr. Yokoi, another distinguished convert, 
 that Japanese Christianity must develop a superior theology 
 of its own, and that European Christianity will in the future 
 have to look Japan-wards for support. Politicians take the 
 
Cherry-Blossom. 79 
 
 same line, mutatis mutandis. They point to the weary- 
 secular struggles, the bloody rebellions, through which the 
 West has slowly won its way to constitutional government, 
 whereas in Japan what has there been ? A grateful and 
 intelligent people accepting the free gift of self-government 
 from a wise and benevolent Sovereign. 
 
 Dai Nihon Banzai'. " Long live Great Japan ! " Japan is a 
 young nation— at least a rejuvenated nation — and youth will 
 be self-confident. The grey-beards must not wish it otherwise. 
 
 Cherry-Blossom, The Japanese cherry-tree (Cerasus 
 pseudo-cerasus, Lindley) is cultivated, not for its fruit, but 
 for its blossom. The cherry-blossom — sakura, as the Japanese 
 call it — is beyond comparison more lovely than anything 
 Europe has to show, and has always been to Japan what the 
 rose is to Western nations. Poets have sung it since the 
 earliest ages, and crowds still pour forth every year, as spring 
 comes round, to the chief places where avenues of it seem to 
 fill the air with clouds of the most delicate pink. Even 
 patriotism has adopted it, in contradistinction to the plum- 
 blossom (ume), which is believed to be of Chinese origin — 
 not, like the cherry-tree, a true native of Japan. The poet 
 Motoori exclaims : 
 
 Shikishima no 
 
 Yamato-gokoro wo 
 Hito towaba, 
 
 Asa-hi ni niou 
 
 Yama-zakura-bana '. 
 
 which, being interpreted, signifies " If one should enquire of 
 you concerning the spirit of a true Japanese, point to the 
 wild cherry-blossom shining in the sun." — Again a Japanese 
 
80 Chess. 
 
 proverb says : " The cherry is first among flowers, as the 
 warrior is first among men." 
 
 The cherry-blossoms are generally at their finest in Tokyo 
 about the 7th April. The places then best worth visiting are 
 Ueno Park, Sbiba Park, the long avenue of Mukojima and, 
 in the neighbouring country, Asuka-yama and Koganei. But 
 the most famous spots for cherry-blossoms in all Japan are 
 Yoshino amid the mountains of Yamato, and Arashi-yama 
 near Kyoto. 
 
 The Japanese are fond of preserving cherry-blossoms in 
 salt, and making a kind of tea out of them. The fragrance 
 of this infusion is delicious, but its taste is a bitter deception. 
 
 Ch.eSS. Japanese chess (shogi) was introduced from China 
 centuries ago ; and though it has diverged to some extent 
 from its Chinese prototype, the two games still have a feature 
 in common which distinguishes them from all other varieties. 
 It is this. The rank on which the pawns are usually posted 
 is occupied by only two pieces, called v'ao by the Chinese, 
 and hisha and kaku by the Japanese. Also, on either side of 
 the king are two pieces, called ssu in ; the Chinese, and kin 
 in the Japanese game. These perform the duty imposed on 
 the ferz or visir of the Persian Shatranj, which was the 
 equivalent of the modern queen. There is, of course, no 
 queen or piece of similar attributes in either Chinese or 
 Japanese chess. There are eighty-one squares on the Japa- 
 nese board, and the game is played with twenty pieces on 
 each side, distinguished not by a difference of colour, but 
 principally by the ideographs upon them. Though the move- 
 ments of the pieces resemble in most respects those followed 
 in the Western game, there are ramifications unknown to the 
 
Chess. 81 
 
 latter, introducing elements that would puzzle even a native 
 Morphy to trace the move which cost him a defeat. The 
 most important of these are the employment of the pieces 
 captured from the adversary to strengthen one's own game, 
 and the comparative facility with which the minor pieces can 
 attain to higher rank. 
 
 Chess is understood by nearly every one in Japan. The 
 very coolies at the corners of the streets improvise out of 
 almost anything around them materials with which to play, 
 and thus while away the tedium of waiting for employment. 
 But it is comparatively little patronised by the educated 
 classes, who hold its rival Go in much higher estimation. 
 O is the king, keima the knight, hisJia the rook, and Ttalcu the 
 bishop — or pieces having movements like them. Fu is the 
 pawn. The movements of the yari also resemble those of the 
 rook, but are confined to the single rank on which it stands. 
 Gin (silver) and ldn (gold) are not found in Western chess- 
 Gin moves one square diagonally at a time, also one square 
 forward. If removed from its original position, it can retreat 
 one square diagonally only. The kin, besides having similar 
 movements, has also the power of moving one square on each 
 side of itself, but it cannot return diagonally. The fu ad- 
 vances one square forward, and takes as it moves. When 
 any piece moves into the adversary's third row, it may be- 
 come a kin, in the same way as queening is effected in our 
 game. This is indicated by turning the piece over. Every 
 piece so promoted loses its original character, except the 
 hisha and kaku to which the movements of the kin are added. 
 As already indicated, a captured piece may be employed at 
 any time for either attack or defence. To checkmate with 
 the fu is a thing vetoed, or at least considered " bad form," in 
 
82 
 
 Children. 
 
 this non-dernocratic game ; neither is stillmate permissible in 
 Japanese chess. You wait' until the adversary makes a move 
 which admits of free action on your part. The object of the 
 game is, as with us, to checkmate the king. 
 The following is a diagram of the board : — 
 
 >< 
 
 
 >* 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 3> 
 
 so 
 o 
 
 S 1 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 s 
 
 c3 
 
 1 
 
 M 
 
 5 
 
 
 1*1 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 ft 
 
 
 b 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 ft 
 
 
 S 
 
 Ol 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 
 o 
 
 5 
 
 
 jjf 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 
 .a 
 
 s 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 
 S 
 
 CD 
 
 r 
 
 S 
 
 C 
 
 'S 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 ft 
 
 M 
 
 (3 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 W 
 
 
 
 *4 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 
 '3 
 
 TJool-cs recommended. Japanese Chess, by W. B. Mason, iii the 
 WesiwiiMSier Pajpers for 1875. — Has Japanische Sckachspiel, by V. Holtz, and Das 
 Schachspiel der Chinesen, by O. Mollendorff, ill the German Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 Children. Japan has been called " a paradise of 
 babies." The babies are indeed generally so good as to 
 help to make it a paradise for adults. They are well-man- 
 nered from the cradle, and the boys in particular are per- 
 fectly free from that gawky shyness which makes many 
 English boys, when in company, such afflictions both to 
 others and to themselves. The late Mrs. Chaplin-Ayrton 
 tried to explain the goodness of Japanese children by the 
 
Children. 83 
 
 fact of the furnitureless condition of Japanese houses. 
 There is nothing, she said, for them to wish to break, 
 nothing for them to be told not to touch. This is in- 
 genious. But may we not more simply attribute the 
 pleasing fact partly to the less robust health of the Japanese, 
 which results in a scantier supply of animal spirits ? In any 
 case, children's pretty ways and children's games add much 
 to the picturesqueness of Japanese life. Nothing perhaps 
 gives the streets a more peculiar cachet than the quaint custom 
 which obtains among the lower classes of strapping the babies 
 on to the backs of their slightly older brothers and sisters, so 
 that the juvenile population seems to consist of Siamese twins 
 of a new description. On the 3rd March every doll-shop in 
 Tokyo, Kyoto, and the other large cities is gaily decked with 
 what are called Hina Sama — tiny models both of people 
 and of things, the whole Japanese Court in miniature. This 
 is the, great yearly holiday of all the little girls. The boys' 
 holiday takes place on the 5th May, when the cities are 
 adorned with gigantic paper carps, floating in the air from 
 poles, after the manner of flags. The idea is that as the carp 
 swims up the river against the current, so will the sturdy 
 boy, overcoming all obstacles, make his way in the world and 
 rise to fame and fortune. 
 
 The unpleasant appearance of so many Japanese children's 
 heads is simply due to a form of eczema. The form is one 
 by no means unknown in Europe, and is easily curable in a 
 week. But as popular superstition invests these scabby 
 heads with a health-giving influence in later life, no attempt 
 is made to cure them. Probably shaving with dirty razors 
 has something to do with the disease ; for it generally ceases 
 when shaving stops, and has noticeably diminished since the 
 
84 Clans. 
 
 foreign custom of allowing children's hair to grow has begun 
 to gain ground. The Japanese custom is to shave an infant's 
 head on the seventh day after birth, only a tiny tuft on the 
 nape of the neck being left. During the next five or six 
 years, the mother may give rein to her fancy in the matter of 
 shaving her little one's head. Hence the various styles which 
 we see around us. Shaving is left off when a child goes to 
 school, instead of, as among Europeans, generally commencing 
 when he quits it. The Japanese lad's chin does not begin to 
 sport a few hairs for several years later. Japanese infants 
 are not weaned till they are two or three, sometimes not till 
 they are five years old. This is doubtless one cause of the 
 rapid aging of the mothers. 
 
 European parents may feel quite at ease about their little 
 ones' chance of health in this country. Medical authorities 
 declare the mortality among children of European race in 
 Japan to be exceptionally low. 
 
 Book rGCOinmended. Japanese Girls and Women, "by Miss A. M.- 
 Bacon, especially Chap. I. 
 
 Clans. This is the usual English translation of the 
 Japanese word han (jgf), which may also be rendered 
 " daimiate," that is, the territory and people subject to a 
 Daimyo, or territorial noble, in feudal Japan. The Japanese 
 clans differed from the Highland clans in the fact that all 
 the members of a clan did not claim a common origin or use 
 the same surname. But they were equally bound to their 
 lord by ties of love and implicit obedience, and to each other 
 by a .feeling of brotherhood. This feeling has survived the 
 abolition of feudalism in 1871. Ever since that time, the 
 members of the four great clans of Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa r 
 and Hizen have practically " run " the government of Japan, 
 
Classes of Society. 85 
 
 Her greatest modern statesman, Ito, her best-known minister 
 of foreign affairs, Inoue, and Yamagata, and Yamada, and 
 Aoki are all Choshu men, while such salient names as the two 
 Saigo's, Terashima, Yoshida, Mori, Okubo, Oyama, Kuroda, 
 and more or less the whole navy belong to the Satsuma elan. 
 The student of Japanese politics who will bear this fact in 
 mind, will find many things become clear to him which before 
 seemed complicated and illogical. Political questions are not 
 necessarily questions of principle. They may simply be 
 questions of personal or local interest. The present paramount 
 influence of the four clans of Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and 
 Hizen is partly an inheritance from olden times, partly the 
 result of the share which they took in restoring the Mikado 
 to his position as autocrat of the Empire in the revolution of 
 1868. The two strongest of the four are Satsuma and 
 Choshu, whence the term Sat-Cho, used to denote their 
 combination ; for in Japanese there is no vulgarity in cutting 
 off the tails of words. On the contrary, to do so is considered 
 an elegant imitation of the Chinese style, which is nothing if 
 not brief. The Satsuma men are credited with courage, the 
 Choshu men with sagacity. The former are soldiers and 
 sailors, men of dash and daring ; the latter are diplomats 
 and able administrators. 
 
 Classes Of Society. Modern Japanese society is divid- 
 ed into three classes, — the nobility (kwazoku), gentry (sJiizoku, 
 formerly called samurai), and common people (heimin). The 
 two former combined constitute five per cent., the common 
 people ninety-five per cent, of the entire population. Some 
 have used the word " caste " to denote these divisions ; but the 
 term is inappropriate, as there exists no impassable barrier be- 
 
86 Climate. 
 
 tween the different classes, nor yet anything approaching to- 
 Indian caste prejudice. The feeling only resembles that to 
 which we are accustomed in England, if indeed it is as strong. 
 Japanese official regulations tolerate no subterfuges in 
 matters of personal identity. Each citizen's name and 
 quality must be written up over his door on a wooden ticket. 
 Thus: "District of Azabu, Upper Timber Street, Nb. 8, 
 a Common Person of the Prefecture of Shizuoka, So-and-So 
 (the surname followed by the personal name)." 
 
 Climate. The exaggerated estimation in which the 
 climate of Japan is held by many of those who haVe had no 
 experience of it often prepares a bitter disappointment for 
 visitors, who find a climate far wetter than that of England 
 and subject to greater extremes of temperature. It should 
 be added that it also has more fine days.* 
 
 The best season is the autumn. From the latter part 
 of October to the end of the year, the sky is generally 
 clear and the atmosphere still, while during a portion of that 
 time (November), the forests display glorious tints of red and 
 gold, surpassed only in Canada and the United States. 
 During January, February, and March, snow occasionally 
 falls, but it rarely lies longer than a day or two. The 
 spring is trying, on account of the rain and the frequent 
 high winds, which often seriously interfere with the enjoy- 
 ment of the cherry, wistaria, peony, and other flowers, 
 in which the Japanese take such pride. True, the rain 
 is always pronounced exceptional. Never, it is alleged, 
 was so wet a season known before, . properly conducted 
 
 * Tokyo has 58.33 incites of yearly rainfall, as against 24.76 at Greenwich, bat 
 only 138. 7 rainy days as against 166. 1. 
 
Climate. 87 
 
 years admitting of no rain but in June and the first 
 week or two of July — the " rainy season " duly provided for 
 by the old Japanese calendar, in which not natives only, but 
 the foreign residents, exhibit a confidence which would be 
 touching were it not tiresome. Statistics * show, however, 
 that from April on to July inclusive nearly every other day 
 is rainy, while in the months flanking them on either side — 
 March and August — an average of slightly more than one 
 day in three is rainy. In September and October the average 
 number of rainy days rises again to one out of- every two. 
 The superstition about a special " rainy season " may be 
 due to the trying combination of dark skies with the first 
 heat of the year, making exercise wearisome when not 
 impossible. So penetrating is then the damp that it is im- 
 possible to keep things from mildew. Boots, books, cigar- 
 ettes, if put away for a day, appear next morning covered 
 with an incipient forest of whitish, greenish matter. No 
 match-box can be got to strike ; envelopes stick together 
 without being wetted ; gloves must be kept hermetically sealed 
 in bottles, or they will come out a mass of spots. The second 
 half of July and all August are hotter, but less damp, the rain 
 then falling rather in occasional heavy storms which last from 
 one to three days, and are followed by splendid weather. The 
 heat generally vanishes suddenly about the second week in 
 September, when the rain sets in with renewed energy and 
 lasts about a month. 
 
 One striking peculiarity of the Japanese climate is the 
 constant prevalence of northerly winds in winter and of 
 southerly winds in summer. Rooms facing south are there- 
 fore the best all the year round, escaping, as they do, the 
 
 * See page 90. 
 
88 Climate. 
 
 icy blasts of January and February, and profiting by every 
 summer breeze. Another peculiarity is the lateness of all 
 the seasons, as compared with Europe. The grass, for 
 instance, which dies down during the cold, dry winter months, 
 does not become really fit for tennis-playing much before the 
 middle of May. On the other hand, winter is robbed of the 
 gloom of short afternoons by the beautiful clearness of the 
 sky down to the end of the year, and even throughout 
 January whenever it is not actually raining or snowing. 
 Travellers are recommended to choose the late autumn, 
 especially if they intend to content themselves with the 
 beaten tracks of Kyoto, Tokyo, Miyanoshita, Nikko, etc., 
 where the Buropeanisation of hotels has brought stoves in its 
 train ; for stoveless Japanese tea-houses are wofully chilly 
 places. April and May, notwithstanding a greater chance of 
 wet weather, will be better for the wilds and for mountain 
 climbing. There is then, too, neither cold nor heat to fear. 
 Japanese heat, after all, is not tropical, and many will enjoy 
 travelling throughout the summer months. 
 
 The foregoing description of the Japanese climate applies 
 to the Pacific seaboard of Central Japan, of which Tokyo is 
 fairly representative. But need we remind the reader that 
 Japan is a large country ? The northernmost Kuriles, now 
 Japanese territory, touch Kamchatka. The most southern 
 of the Loochoo Islands is scarcely a degree from the tropic 
 of Cancer. The climate at the extreme points of the empire 
 therefore differs widely from that of temperate Central Japan. 
 Speaking generally, the south-eastern slope of the great 
 central range of the Main Island — the slope facing the Pacific 
 Ocean and washed by the Kuroshio, or Gulf-Stream of 
 Eastern Asia — has a much more moderate climate than the 
 
Climate. 89 
 
 north-western slope, which faces the Sea of Japan, with 
 Siberia beyond. In Tokyo, on the Pacific side, what little 
 snow falls melts almost immediately. In the towns near the 
 Sea of Japan it lies three or four feet deep for weeks, and 
 drifts to a depth of fifteen to eighteen feet in the valleys. 
 But the summer in these same towns is, like the Tokyo 
 summer, oppressively hot. 
 
 Thunder-storms and unexpected showers are rare in 
 Japan, excepting in the mountainous districts. Fogs, too, 
 are rare south of Kinkwazan, about 38° 20' North. 
 Prom Kinkwazan right up the eastern coast of the Main 
 Island, all along Eastern Yezo, the Kuriles, and up as far 
 as Behring's Strait, thick fogs prevail during the cairn 
 summer months — fogs which are relieved only by furious 
 storms in autumn, and a wintry sea charged with ice. 
 The average number of typhoons passing over Japan 
 yearly is from four to five, of which Tokyo receives about 
 one. The months liable to typhoons are (in a decreasing 
 order of severity) September, August, October, and July. 
 Typhoons have, it is true, been experienced as early as the 
 end of March ; but this is a very rare exception. 
 
 The climate of Japan is stated by the highest medical 
 authority to be excellent for children, less so for adults, 
 the enormous amount of moisture rendering it depressing, 
 especially to persons of a nervous temperament and to 
 consumptive persons. Various causes, physical and social, 
 contribute to make Japan a less healthy country for female 
 residents of European race than for the men. 
 
 The following table gives the average of thirteen years' 
 observations (1876-1888), made by Mr. E. Knipping at the 
 Central Imperial Meteorological Observatory, Tokyo: 
 
90 
 
 Climate. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Cloisonne. 91 
 
 Books recommended. Mr. B. Knippinjr's various papers in 
 toe German Ariatie Tranwciiom and in the Annalen der UgirographU v„d 
 Meteorology, published at Berlin by the Imperial German Admiralty .-The China 
 Sea Directory, Vol. IV. 
 
 Cloisonne. The art of cloisonng enamelling first became 
 known in Japan some three hundred years ago ; but it has 
 only been brought to perfection within the last two decades. 
 The few examples in the Nij6 Palace at Kyoto are small and 
 extremely rough. Mr. Namikawa, the great cloisonne-maker 
 of Kyoto, will show visitors specimens that look antediluvian 
 in roughness and simplicity, but date back no further than 
 1873. 
 
 Need it be explained that cloisonne is a species of mosaic, 
 whose characteristic feature is a thin network of copper or 
 brass soldered on to a foundation of solid metal, the inter- 
 stices or cells of the network — the cloisons, as they are 
 technically called — being then filled in with enamel paste of 
 various colours, and the process completed by several 
 bakings, rubbings, and polishings, until the surface becomes 
 as smooth as it is hard ? Enamelling has also some- 
 times been applied in the same way to a porcelain basis ; 
 but the best connoisseurs condemn this innovation as 
 illegitimate, because unsuited to the nature of the material 
 employed. 
 
 Nagoya, Kyoto, and Tokyo, are the three great centres of 
 the enameller's art, — Nagoya, now outstripped by its larger 
 rivals, being the oldest of the three. The Tokyo and Kyoto 
 styles differ considerably from each other. While Namikawa 
 at Kyoto keeps en evidence the metallic contours of his lovely 
 floral and arabesque decorations, his namesake at Tokyo- 
 prides himself on rendering the cloisons invisible, thus pro- 
 
92 Confucianism. 
 
 during either pictures that might be mistaken for paintings 
 on porcelain, or else monochromatic effects also similar to 
 those observed in certain kinds of old Chinese porcelain. 
 The Tokyo school performs the greater tour de force. But 
 persons of true artistic temperament, who recognise that each 
 material has its natural limitations, to move gracefully within 
 which beseems genius better than overstepping them, will 
 surely prefer the productions of the Kyoto makers, whose 
 cloisonne 1 is honestly cloisonnl, but cloisonne 1 with a wealth 
 of ornament, an accuracy of design, a harmony of colour, 
 that are simply miraculous when one considers the character 
 of the material employed and the risks to which it is subject- 
 ed in the process of manufacture. These risks greatly en- 
 hance the price of cloisonne 1 ware, especially of the larger 
 monochromatic pieces. The purchaser of a vase or plaque 
 must pay not only for it, but for all the others that have been 
 inevitably spoilt in the endeavour to produce one flawless 
 piece. 
 
 Books recommended. Japanese Enamels, by J. L. Bowes.— The 
 Industties of Japan, by Dr. J. J. Rein, p. 4S8 et seq. 
 
 Confucianism. To describe in detail this Chinese 
 system of philosophy, does not belong to a work dealing with 
 things Japanese. Suffice it to say that Confucius, called 
 by the Japanese Koshi, abstained from all metaphysical 
 flights and devotional ecstasies. He confined himself to 
 practical details of morals and government, and took submis- 
 sion to parents and political rulers as the corner-stone of his 
 system. The result is a set of moral truths — some would 
 say truisms — of a very narrow scope, and of dry ceremonial 
 observances, political rather than personal. This Confucian 
 code of ethics has for ages satisfied the Far-Easterns of 
 
Confucianism. 93 
 
 China, Korea, and Japan, but would not have been endured 
 for a moment by the more eager, more speculative, more 
 tender European mind. 
 
 The Confucian Classics consist of what are called, in the 
 Japanese pronunciation, the Shi-sho Go-lnjo, that is " the 
 Four Books and the Five Canons." The Four Books are 
 " The Great Learning," " The Doctrine of the Mean," " The 
 Confucian Analects," and "The Sayings of Mencius." 
 Mencius, let it be noted, is much the most attractive of the 
 Chinese sages. He had an epigrammatic way about him 
 and a certain sense of humour, which give to many of his 
 utterances a strangely Western and modern ring. He was 
 also the first democrat of the ancient East — a democrat so 
 outspoken as to have at one time suffered exclusion from the 
 libraries of absolutistic Japan. The Five Canons consist of 
 " The Book of Changes," " The Book of Poetry," " The 
 Book of History," " The Canon of Bites," and " Spring and 
 Autumn " (annals of the state of Lu by Confucius). 
 
 Originally introduced into Japan early in the Christian era, 
 together with the other products of Chinese civilisation, the 
 Confucian philosophy lay dormant during the Middle Ages, 
 the period of the supremacy of Buddhism. It awoke with a 
 start in the early part of the seventeenth century, when 
 Ieyasu, the great warrior, ruler, and patron of learning, 
 caused the Confucian Classics to be printed in Japan for the 
 first time, During the two hundred and fifty years that 
 followed, the whole intellect of the country was moulded by 
 Confucian ideas. Confucius himself had, it is true, laboured 
 for the establishment of a centralised monarchy. But his 
 main doctrine of unquestioning submission to rulers and 
 parents fitted in perfectly with the feudal ideas of Old Japan ; 
 
94 Confucianism. 
 
 and tlie conviction of the paramount importance of such, 
 subordination lingers on a's an element of stability, in spite 
 of the recent social cataclysm which has involved Japanese 
 Confucianism, properly so-called, in the ruin of all other 
 Japanese institutions. 
 
 The most eminent Japanese names among the Confu- 
 cianists are Ito Jinsai and his son, Ifco Togai, at Kyoto ; Arai 
 Hakuseki, and Ogyft Sorai at Yedo. All four flourished 
 about the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century. They were merely expositors. No 
 Japanese had the originality — it would have been hooted 
 down as impious audacity — to develop the Confucian system 
 further, to alter or amend it. There are not even any 
 Japanese translations or commentaries worth reading. The 
 Japanese have, for the most part, contented themselves with 
 reprinting the text of the Classics themselves, and also the 
 text of the principal Chinese commentators (especially that 
 of Shushi, ^p), pointed with diacritical marks to facilitate 
 their perusal by Japanese students. The Chinese Classics 
 thus edited formed the chief vehicle of every boy's education 
 from the seventeenth century until the remodelling of the 
 system of public instruction on European lines after the 
 revolution of 1868. At present they have fallen into almost 
 total neglect, though phrases and allusions borrowed from 
 them still pass current in literature, and even to some extent 
 in the language of every-day life. Seido, the great temple 
 of Confucius in Tokyo, is now utilised as an Educational 
 Museum. 
 
 N. B. A friendly German critic of the first edition of this little 
 book thinks Confucius unfairly judged in the opening paragraph of 
 the foregoing article. "Confucianism anticipated modern agnosticism, 
 
Cormorant-Pishing. 95 
 
 on the one hand," says he ; " on the other — and this consideration 
 deserves special weight — it has formed the basis . of a social fabric 
 far more lasting than any other that the world has seen. The 
 endurance of the Papacy is often quoted in evidence of the truth 
 of Roman Catholicism. What then, of Confucianism with its still 
 higher antiquity ? " 
 
 There is much force in this objection ; and those who know China 
 most intimately seem to agree in attributing her marvellous vitality 
 and her power of assimilating barbarous tribes — both those she 
 conquers and those that conqvier her — to the fact that this great 
 ethical system has infused its strength into the national life and 
 practically rules the country. We incline to agree with our critic 
 as much as with ourselves. The best plan may perhaps be thus to 
 present both sides of a question which is too complicated for any 
 sweeping assertion about it to be wholly true. 
 
 Books recomniended. Dr. Legge's elaborate edition of The 
 Chinese Classic!', ill sis large volumes, and Vol. XVI. of the Sacred 'Books of the 
 East, containing the same writer's translation of the Book of Changes (T"i King). — 
 Coiifucianism, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, is a 
 much briefer manual of the subject, in popular form.— So far as we know, no study 
 has been made of the Japanese Confucianists. 
 
 Cormorant-Fishing. This strange method of fishing 
 is mentioned in a poem found in the Kojiki, a work com- 
 piled in A. D. 712, while the poem itself probably dates from 
 a far earlier age. The custom is kept up at the present day 
 in various districts of Japan, notably on the River Nagara, 
 near Gifu, in the province of Owari. 
 
 First catch your cormorant. " This," we are told by Mr. 
 G. E. Gregory in Vol. X. Part I. of the Asiatic Transac- 
 tions, — " This the people do by placing wooden images of 
 the birds in spots frequented by them, and covering the 
 surrounding branches and twigs with bird-lime, on settling 
 upon which they stick fast. After having in this manner 
 caught one cormorant, they place it among the bushes, 
 
96 Cormorant-Pishing. 
 
 instead of the image, and thus catch more." Mr. Gregory- 
 further says that the fishermen take such care of the birds 
 that they provide them with mosquito-nets during the 
 summer, in order to minister to their comfort ! Cormorant- 
 fishing always takes place at night and by torch-light. The 
 method pursued is thus described by Major-General Palmer, 
 E. E., in a letter to the Times, dated 17th July, 1889 : — 
 " There are, to begin with, four men in each of the seven 
 boats, one of whom, at the stern, has no duty but that of 
 managing his craft. In the bow stands the master, dis- 
 tinguished by the peculiar hat of his rank, and handling no 
 fewer than twelve trained birds with the surpassing skill and 
 coolness that have earned for the sportsmen of Gifu their 
 unrivalled pre-eminence. Amidships is another fisher, of the 
 second grade, who handles four birds only. Between them 
 is the fourth man, called halco, from the bamboo striking 
 instrument of that name, with which he makes the clatter 
 necessary for keeping the birds up to their work ; he also 
 encourages them by shouts and cries, looks after spare 
 apparatus, &c, and is ready to give aid if required. Each 
 cormorant wears at the base of its neck a metal ring, drawn 
 tight enough to prevent marketable fish from passing' below 
 it, but at the same time loose enough — for it is never 
 removed — to admit the smaller prey, which serves as food. 
 Bound the body is a cord, having attached to it at the middle 
 of the back a short strip of stiffish whalebone, by which the 
 great awkward bird may be conveniently lowered into the 
 water or lifted out when at work ; and to this whalebone is 
 looped a thin rein of spruce fibre, twelve feet long, and so far 
 wanting in pliancy as to minimize the chance of entangle- 
 ment. When the fishing ground is reached, the master 
 
Cormorant-Pishing. 97 
 
 lowers his twelve birds one by one into the stream and gathers 
 their reins into his left hand, manipulating the latter there- 
 after with his right as occasion requires. No. 2 does the 
 same with his four birds ; the kako starts in with his volleys 
 of noise ; and forthwith the cormorants set to at their work 
 in the heartiest and j oiliest way, diving and ducking with 
 wonderful swiftness as the astonished fish come flocking 
 towards the blaze of light. The master is now the busiest of 
 men. He must handle his twelve strings so deftly that, let the 
 birds dash hither and thither as they will, there shall be no 
 impediment or fouliug. He must have his eyes everywhere 
 and his hands following his eyes. Specially must he watch 
 for the moment when any of his flock is gorged — a fact 
 generally made known by the bird itself, which then swims 
 about in a foolish, helpless way, with its head and swollen 
 neck erect. Thereupon the master, shortening in on that 
 bird, lifts it aboard, forces its bill open with his left hand, 
 which still holds the rest of the lines, squeezes out the fish 
 with his right and starts the creature off on a fresh foray — 
 all this with such admirable dexterity and quickness that the 
 eleven birds still bustling about have scarce time to get things 
 into a tangle, and in another moment the whole team is 
 again perfectly in hand. 
 
 " As for the cormorants, they are trained when quite 
 young, being caught in winter with bird-lime on the coasts 
 of the neighbouring Owari ,Gulf, at their first emigration 
 southward from the summer haunts of the species on the 
 northern seaboard of Japan. Once trained, they work 
 well up to 15, often up to 19 or 20, years of age ; and, 
 though their keep in winter bears hardly on the masters, 
 they are very precious and profitable hunters during the 
 
98 Cormorant-Fishing. 
 
 five-months' season and well deserve the great care that is 
 lavished upon them. From four to eight good-sized fish, for 
 example, is the fair result of a single excursion for one bird, 
 which corresponds with an average of about 150 fish per 
 cormorant per hour, or 450 for the three hours occupied in 
 drifting down the whole course. Every bird in a flock has 
 and knows its number ; and one of the funniest things about 
 them is the quick-witted jealousy with which they invariably 
 insist, by all that cormorant language and pantomimic pro- 
 test can do, on due observance of the recognized rights be- 
 longing to their individual numbers. No. 1, or ' Ichi,' is the 
 doyen of the corps, the senior in years as well as rank. His 
 colleagues, according to their age, come after him in numer- 
 ical order. Ichi is the last to be put into the water and the 
 first to be taken out, the first to be fed, and the last to enter 
 the baskets in which, when work is over, the birds are carried 
 from the boats to their domicile. Ichi, when aboard, has the 
 post of honour at the eyes of the boat. He is a solemn, 
 grizzled old fellow, with a pompous, noli me tangere air that 
 is almost worthy of a Lord Mayor. The rest have place 
 after him, in succession of rank, alternately on either side of 
 the gunwale. If, haply, the lawful order of precedence be at 
 any time violated — if, for instance, No. 5 be put into the 
 water before No. 6, or No. 4 be placed above No. 2 — the 
 rumpus that forthwith arises in that family is a sight to see 
 and a sound to hear. 
 
 " But all this while we have been drifting down, with the 
 boats about us, to the lower end of the course, and are again 
 abreast of Gifu, where the whole squadron is beached. As 
 each cormorant is now taken out of the water, the master 
 can tell by its weight whether it has secured enough supper 
 
Cremation. 99 
 
 while engaged in the hunt ; failing which, he makes the de- 
 ficiency good by feeding it with the inferior fish of the catch. 
 At length all are ranged in their due order, facing outwards, 
 on the gunwale of each boat. And the sight of that array of 
 great ungainly sea-birds— shaking themselves, flapping their 
 wings, gawing, making their toilets, clearing their throats, 
 looking about them with a stare of stupid solemnity, and now 
 and then indulging in old-maidish tiffs with their neighbours 
 — is quite the strangest of its little class I have ever seen, 
 except perhaps the wonderful penguinry of the Falkland 
 Islands, whereat a certain French philosopher is said to have 
 even wept. Finally, the cormorants are sent off to bed, and 
 we ourselves follow suit." 
 
 Cremation. Cremation followed Buddhism into Japan 
 about A.D. 700, but never entirely superseded the older 
 Shinto custom of disposing of the dead by interment. Ludi- 
 crous as it may appear, cremation was first discontinued in 
 the case of the Mikados on the representations of a fishmonger 
 named Hachibei, who clamoured for the interment of the 
 Emperor Go-Komei in 1614. On the 18th July, 1873, crema- 
 tion was totally prohibited by the Government, whose members 
 seem to have had some confused notion as to the practice be- 
 ing un-European and therefore barbarous. Having discovered 
 that far from being un-European, cremation was the goal of 
 European reformers in such matters, they rescinded their pro- 
 hibition only twenty-two months later (23rd May, 1875). 
 There are now five cremation-grounds in Tokyo, namely 
 Kirigaya, Higurashi, Kameido, Ogi-Shinden, and Kami-Ochi- 
 ai. The usual charges for cremation according to the old 
 native style are : 1st class, $7 ; 2nd class, $2.50 ; 3rd class, 
 $1.50. But the good priest of whom we caused enquiry to 
 
100 Currency. 
 
 be made on this point, said that if we would keep the matter' 
 quiet, perhaps a slight reduction might be effected for a 
 friend. The charges for cremation according to the improved 
 European methods which have begun to come into vogue 
 during the last two or three years, are : 1st class, $7 ; 2nd 
 class, $4.50 ; 3rd class, $3. 
 
 It should be added that on the 19th June, 1874, a law was 
 passed against intramural interment, except in certain special 
 cases. It is still prohibited, unless when the body has been 
 cremated before burial. 
 
 Currency. The Japanese coinage consists of gold, silveiy 
 nickel, and copper ; but the gold is rarely seen, the currency 
 being on a silver basis. The chief circulating medium, how- 
 ever, is paper. The system is decimal, and the nomenclature- 
 as follows : — 
 
 1 yen (dollar) =100 sen. 
 
 1 sen (cent) == 10 rin. 
 
 1 rin = 10 mo (or mon). 
 
 1 mo = 10 slm. 
 
 1 shu = 10 Icotsu. 
 
 Government accounts do not take notice of any value 
 smaller than the rin ; but estimates by private tradesmen 
 often descend to mo and shu, which are incredibly minute 
 fractions of a farthing. No coins exist, however, to represent 
 these Lilliputian sums. There are silver pieces of 1 yen and 
 under, nickel pieces of 5 sen, copper pieces for lesser values, and 
 paper for various values great and small, from 20 sen upward. 
 The paper notes now in use are redeemable in silver, and 
 therefore stand at par. The large oblong brass pieces, with 
 a hole in the middle, enabling them to be strung on a string- 
 
Daimyo. 101 
 
 are called tempo, because coined during the period styled 
 Tempo (A. D. 1830— 1844). They are worth eight tin. The 
 smaller round coins, also having a hole in the middle, and 
 commonly known to foreigners as " cash," are worth, some 
 10 mo, some 15, some 20. No coins of this kind are now 
 produced. The style has been condemned, because not 
 sanctioned by European precedent. But what is there to 
 consult in such matters save convenience ? And let him who , 
 has handled a thousand coppers thus strung, and attempted 
 to handle a thousand loose, speak to the relative convenience 
 of the two methods. 
 
 The Imperial mint is situated at Osaka. It was started 
 under British auspices, but the last of the British employes 
 left in 1889. The manufactory of paper money is at Tokyo, 
 heing carried on at an institution called the Insatsu Kyoku, 
 which well deserves a visit. Both the silver coinage and 
 the paper notes possess great artistic merit. 
 
 Book recoramended. Abridged History of the Copper Coins of 
 .Japan, by Leon Van de Polder, printed in Vol. XIX. Part II. of the Asiatic 
 Transactions. 
 
 Cycle. "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of 
 Cathay," sings the laureate. But it has been pointed out 
 that after all, there is little difference between the two terms 
 of his comparison. The Chinese cycle, which the Japanese 
 have adopted for historical purposes, has but sixty years 
 (See Article on Time). 
 
 Daimyo. The Daimyos were the territorial lords or 
 barons of feudal Japan. The word means literally "great 
 name." Accordingly, during the Middle Ages, warrior 
 chiefs of lesser degree, corresponding, as one might say, 
 to our knights or baronets, were known by the correlative 
 
102 Dances. 
 
 title of Shomyd, that is, " small name." But this latter- 
 fell into disuse. Perhaps it did not sound grand enough to 
 be welcome to those who bore it. Under the Tokugawa- 
 dynasty, which ruled Japan from A.D. 1603 to 1867, the- 
 lowest Daimyos owned land assessed at ten thousand bales 
 of rice per annum, while the richest fief of all, that of Kaga, 
 was worth over a million bale's. The total number of the- 
 Daimyos in modern times was about three hundred. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the Daimyos were not the 
 only aristocracy in the land, though they were incomparably 
 the richest and the most important. In the shadow of the 
 Mikado's palace at Kyoto, poor but very proud of their 
 descent from gods and emperors, looking down on the feudal 
 Daimyo aristocracy as on a mere set of , military adventurers- 
 and parvenus, lived, or rather vegetated through centuries, 
 the Kuge, the legitimist aristocracy of Japan. The revolution 
 of 1868, in bringing about the fall of the Daimyos, gave the 
 Kuge an opportunity at last. With the restoration of the 
 Mikado to absolute power, they too emerged from obscurity ; 
 and on the creation of a new system of ranks and titles in 
 1884, they were not forgotten. The old Kuge took rank as 
 new dukes, marquises, and counts, and, what is more, they 
 were granted pensions. 
 
 Books x'econilTlellclecl. The Feudal System in Japan under tlie 
 Tokugawa Shoffuns, by J. H. Gubbins, printed in Vol. XV. Part II. of the Asiatic 
 Transaction*. Reference to Mr. Gubbins's learned essay will show that the subject 
 of Daimyos is not so simple as might appear at first sight.— T. R. H. McClatchie's 
 Feudal Mansions of Yedo, in Vol. VII. Part III. of the same, gives interesting 
 details of the "palaces" in which the Baimyds lived while attending on the 
 Shognn at Tedo, 
 
 Dances. Our one word ■" dance " is represented by two- 
 in Japanese— m«i and odori, the former being a general name 
 
Dances. 103 
 
 for the more ancient and, so to say, classical dances, the 
 latter for such as are newer and more popular. But the line 
 between the two classes is hard to draw, and both agree in 
 consisting mainly of posturing. Europeans dance with their 
 feet, — not to say their legs, — Japanese mainly with their arms. 
 The dress, or rather undress, of a European corps de ballet 
 would take away the breath of the least prudish Oriental. 
 
 One of the oldest Japanese dances is the Kagura, which 
 may still often be seen in the grounds of certain temples. 
 The performers wear masks and quaint gowns of real or 
 imitation damask. The original of the Kagura is said to have 
 been the dance by means of which, soon after the beginning 
 of the world, the Sun-Goddess was lured from a cavern into 
 which she had retired, thus plunging all creation in darkness. 
 The sacred dances at Nara and Ise belong to this category ; 
 but the he Ondo, sometimes mentioned by travellers is a 
 later profane invention, — apparently an adaptation of the 
 Qenroku Odori, a dance- that may still occasionally be seen on 
 the stage. 
 
 The Bon-odori, a popular dance which takes place on 
 certain days in summer all over provincial Japan, is believed 
 to have a Buddhist origin, though its first intention is far 
 from clear. The details vary from village to village ; but the 
 general feature of this dance is a large circle or wheel 
 of posturing peasants, who revolve to the sound of the song 
 sung and the£flute and drum played by a few of their 
 number in the middle. Kyoto and Tokyo, being too civil- 
 ised for such rustic exercises in which all share, do their 
 dancing by proxy. There, and in the other large towns, 
 the dancing girls {geisha) form a class apart. While one 
 or more of the girls dance, others play the banjo and sing 
 
104 Decorations. 
 
 the story ; for Japanese dances almost always represent some 
 story, they are not mere arabesques. Herein the intimate 
 connection that has always subsisted between dancing 
 and the drama finds its explanation, as will be better 
 understood by reference to the article on the Theatre. 
 The Kappore and the Shishi-mai, or Lion Dance, are 
 among those most often executed in the streets by strolling 
 performers. 
 
 The very newest of all forms of dancing in Japan is of 
 course that borrowed from Europe a few years ago. Its want 
 of dignity, together with certain disagreeable rumours to 
 which the unwonted meeting of the two sexes has given rise 
 from time to time, have caused the innovation to be looked at 
 askance by many who are otherwise favourable to European 
 manners and customs. A writer in the number for July, 
 1891, of an excellent periodical entitled Fuzoku Gwaho, says 
 that, whereas his imagination had painted a civilised ball- 
 room as a vision of fairy-land, its reality reminded him of 
 nothing so much as lampreys wriggling up to the surface of 
 the water, and (passes lui le mot) fleas hopping out of a bed. 
 
 Decorations. The heraldry of feudal Japan did not 
 include orders of knighthood, or decorations for military 
 and other service. Modern Japan adopted these things from 
 Europe in the year 1875. There are now six orders of 
 knighthood, namely, the Order of the Chrysanthemum, the 
 Order of the Paulownia, the Order of the Eising Sun, the 
 Order of the Sacred Treasure, the Order of the Crown, and 
 the Order of the Golden Falcon. The Order of the Crown 
 is for ladies only. All the orders are divided into various 
 classes. The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysan- 
 
Decorations. 105 
 
 themum is the highest honour which the Japanese Court can 
 bestow. It is, therefore, rarely bestowed on any but Eoyal 
 personages. The Order of the Eising Sun is the distinc- 
 tion most frequently conferred on foreign employes of the 
 Government for long and meritorious service, the class given 
 being usually the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth, according to 
 circumstances — rarely the second. The holder of such a 
 decoration, down to the sixth class inclusive, is, even though 
 he be a civilian, granted a military funeral— posthumous 
 honours which most decorated persons, we imagine, would 
 gladly exchange for a permanent passport enabling them to 
 travel and reside wherever they pleased in Japan while living. 
 
 We next come to the War Medal, of which there is but one 
 class. Conformably with the usage of European countries, 
 it is given only for foreign service, not for service in a civil 
 war. Those who took part in the Formosan expedition 
 gained it, not those who helped to put down the Satsuma 
 rebellion. After it ranks the Civil Medal, with three classes 
 distinguished by a red, blue, and green ribbon respectively. 
 Then there is the Yellow Ribbon Medal, conferred on those 
 who gave proof of patriotism by subscribing to the Coast 
 Defence Fund in 1887. It is divided into two classes, called 
 respectively Gold and Silver. More recent still is the Com- 
 memorative Medal struck in 1889 for distribution to those 
 who were present at the proclamation of the Constitution 
 on the 11th February of that year. There are two classes of 
 it — Gold for princes, Silver for lesser folk. 
 
 The Order of the Falcon, conferred for military merit only, 
 is the newest of all the Japanese, decorations. It was es- 
 tablished on the 11th February, 1890, in commemoration of 
 Jimmu TennO, the Eomulus of Japan. 
 
106 Demoniacal Possession. 
 
 Demoniacal Possession. Chinese notions concern- 
 ing the superhuman powers of the fox, and in a lesser degree 
 of the badger and the dog, entered Japan during the early 
 Middle Ages. One or two mentions of magic foxes occur in 
 the Vji Jui, a story-book of the eleventh century ; and 
 since that time the belief has spread and grown, till there is 
 not an old woman in the land — or, for the matter of that, 
 scarcely a man either — who has not some circumstantial fox 
 story to relate as having happened to some one who is at 
 least the acquaintance of an acquaintance. As recently as 
 1889, a tale was widely circulated and believed of a fox 
 having taken the shape of a railway train on the Tokyo- 
 Yokohama line. The phantom train seemed to be coming 
 towards a real train which happened to . be running in the 
 opposite direction, but yet never got any nearer to it. The 
 engine-driver of the real train, seeing all his signals to be 
 useless, put on a tremendous speed. The result was that 
 the phantom was at last caught up, when, lo and behold ! 
 nothing but a crushed fox was found beneath the engine- 
 wheels. 
 
 The name of such tales is legion. More curious and in- 
 teresting is the power with which these demon foxes are 
 credited of taking up their abode in human beings in a 
 manner similar to the phenomena of possession by evil 
 spirits, so often referred to in the New Testament. Dr. 
 Baelz, of the Imperial University of Japan, who has had 
 special opportunities of studying such cases in the hospital 
 under his charge, has kindly communicated to us some 
 remarks, of which the following is a risumi : — 
 
 " Possession by foxes (Idtsune-Uuld) is a form of nervous 
 disorder or delusion, not uncommonly observed in Japan. 
 
Demoniacal Possession. 107 
 
 Having entered a human being, sometimes through the 
 breast, more often through the space between the finger- 
 nails and the flesh, the fox lives a life of his own , apart from 
 the proper self of the person who is harbouring him. There 
 thus results a sort of double entity or double consciousness. 
 The person possessed hears and understands everything that 
 the fox inside says or thinks, and the two often engage in a 
 loud and violent dispute, the fox speaking in a voice al- 
 together different from that which is natural to the individual. 
 The only difference between the cases of possession mentioned 
 in the Bible and those observed in Japan is that here it is 
 almost exclusively women that are attacked — mostly women 
 of the lower classes. Among the predisposing conditions 
 may be mentioned a weak intellect, a superstitious turn of 
 mind, and such debilitating diseases as, for instance, typhoid 
 fever. Possession never occurs except in such subjects as 
 have heard of it already, and believe in the reality of its 
 existence. 
 
 " The explanation of the disorder is not so far to seek as 
 might be supposed. Possession is evidently related to 
 hysteria and to, the hypnotic phenomena which physiologists 
 have recently studied with so much care, the cause of all 
 alike being the fact that, whereas in healthy persons one 
 half of the brain alone is actively engaged— in right-handed 
 persons the left half of the brain, and in left-handed persons 
 the right — leaving the other half to contribute only in a 
 general manner to the function of thought, nervous excitement 
 arouses this other half, and the two — one the organ of the 
 usual self, the other the organ of the new pathologically 
 affected self — are set over against each other. The rationale 
 of possession is an auto-suggestion, an idea arising either 
 
108 Demoniacal Possession. 
 
 with apparent spontaneity or else from the subject-matter of 
 it being talked about by others in the patient's presence, and 
 then overmastering her weak mind exactly as happens in 
 hypnosis. In the same manner, the idea of the possibility of 
 cure will often actually effect the cure. The cure-worker 
 must be a person of strong mind and power of will, and must 
 enjoy the patient's full confidence. For this reason the 
 priests of the Nichiren sect, which is the most superstitious 
 and bigoted of Japanese Buddhist sects, are the most 
 successful expellers of foxes. Occasionally fits and screams 
 accompany the exit of the fox. In all cases — even when the 
 fox leaves quietly — great prostration remains for a day or two, 
 and sometimes the patient is unconscious of what has 
 happened. 
 
 " To mention but one among several cases, I was once 
 called in to a girl with typhoid fever. She recovered ; but 
 during her convalescence, she heard the women around her 
 talk of another woman who had a fox, and who would 
 ■doubtless do her best to pass it on to some one else, in order 
 to be rid of it. At that moment the girl experienced an 
 extraordinary sensation. The fox had taken possession of 
 her. All her efforts to get rid of him were vain. " He is 
 coming ! he is coming ! " she would cry, as a fit of the fox 
 drew near. " Oh ! what shall I do ? Here he is ! " And then, 
 in a strange, dry, cracked voice, the fox would speak, and 
 mock his unfortunate hostess. Thus matters continued for 
 three weeks, till a priest of the Nichiren sect was sent for. 
 The priest upbraided the fox sternly. The fox (always, of 
 course, speaking though the girl's mouth) argued on the 
 other side. At last he said : "lam tired of her. I ask no 
 better than to leave her. What will you give me for doing 
 
Demoniacal Possession. 109 
 
 so ?" The priest asked what he -would take. The fox replied, 
 naming certain cakes and other things, which, said he, must 
 be placed before the altar of such and such a temple, at 4 
 P.M. on such and such a day. The girl was conscious of the 
 words her lips were made to frame, but was powerless to say 
 anything in her own person. When the day and hour arrived, 
 the offerings bargained for were taken by her relations to the 
 place indicated, and the fox quitted the girl at that very hour. 
 
 " A curious scene of a somewhat similar nature may 
 occasionally be witnessed at Minobu, the romantically 
 situated chief temple of the Nichiren sect, some three days' 
 journey from Tokyo into the interior. There the people sit 
 praying for hours before the gigantic statues, of the ferocious 7 
 looking gods called Ni-o, which are fabled to have been 
 carried thither from Kamakura in a single night on the 
 back of the hero Asaina some six hundred years ago. The 
 devotees sway their bodies backwards and forwards, and 
 ceaselessly repeat the same invocation, Namu my oho renge 
 kyo! Namu myOhO renge kyo ! At last, to some of the 
 more nervous among them, wearied and excited as they 
 are, the statues' eyes seem suddenly to start into life, and 
 they themselves rise wildly, feeling a snake, or maybe a 
 tiger, inside their body, this unclean animal being regarded 
 as the physical incarnation of their sins. Then, with a 
 cry, the snake or serpent goes out of them, and they them- 
 selves are left fainting on the ground." — 
 
 So far Dr. Baelz. His account may be supplemented by 
 the remark that not only are there persons believed to be 
 possessed by foxes (kitsune-tsulci), but others believed to 
 possess foxes (kit.mne-mochi), in other words to be wizards or 
 witches commanding unseen powers of evil which they can 
 
no Demoniacal Possession. 
 
 turn loose at will upon their enemies. The following extract 
 from a Japanese newspaper (the Xichi-Nichi Shimbun of the 
 14th August, 1891) may serve to illustrate this point : — 
 
 " In the province of Izumo, more especially in its "Western 
 portion, there exists a peculiar custom called fox-owning, 
 which plays an important part in marriages and transfers of 
 landed property. When a marriage is being arranged be- 
 tween persons residing several leagues apart and unacquainted 
 with each other, enquiries into such points of family history 
 as a possible taint of leprosy or phthisis are subordinated to 
 the first grand question : is or is not the other party a fox- 
 owner ? To explain this term, we may say that fox-owning, 
 families are believed to have living with them a tribe of 
 small, weazle-like foxes to the number of seventy-five, called 
 human foxes, by whom they are escorted and protected wher- 
 ever they go, and who watch over their fields and prevent 
 outsiders from doing them any damage. Should, however, 
 any damage be done either through malice or ignorance, the 
 offender is at once possessed by the fox, who makes him 
 blurt out his crime and sometimes even procures his death. 
 So great is the popular fear of the fox-holders that any one 
 marrying into a fox-holding family, or buying land from 
 them, or failing to repay money borrowed from them, is con- 
 sidered to be a fox-holder too. The fox-holders are avoided 
 as if they were snakes or lizards. Nevertheless, no one ever 
 asks another point blank whether or not his family be a fox- 
 holding family ; for to do so might offend him, and the result 
 to the enquirer might be a visitation in the form of posses- 
 sion by a fox. The subject is therefore never alluded to in 
 the presence of a suspected party. All that is done is politely 
 to avoid him. 
 
Demoniacal Possession. in 
 
 " It should be noticed, moreover, that there are permanent 
 fox-holders and temporary fox-holders. The permanent fox- 
 holders silently search for families of a similar nature to 
 marry into, and can never on any account intermarry with 
 outsiders, whatever may be the inducement in the shape of 
 wealth or beauty. Their situation closely resembles that of 
 the pariahs and outcasts of former times. But even the 
 strictest rules will sometimes be broken through by love 
 which is a thing apart, and liaisons will be formed between 
 fox-holders and outsiders. When such an irremediable mis- 
 fortune takes place, parents will disown even their well- 
 beloved only son, and forbid him to cross their threshold for 
 the rest of his life. Temporary fox-holders are those who 
 have been expelled from the family for buying land from a 
 permanent fox-holder. These circumstances conspire to give 
 security to the fox -holders (whether such in truth or imagi- 
 nation we are not in a position to say) ; for no one will harm 
 them by so much as a hair's breadth. Therefore they are 
 all well-to-do ; some are even said to be among the most 
 affluent families in the province. The very poorest people 
 that have borrowed money from them will strain every nerve 
 to raise money to repay the loan, because failure to do so 
 would make others regard them as fox-holders and shun 
 them. The result of all this is that a nervous malady re- 
 sembling possession is much commoner in this province 
 than elsewhere, and that Dr. Shimamura, assistant-professor 
 at the Imperial University,* during his tour of inspection 
 there this summer, has come across no less than thirty-one 
 cases of it." 
 
 * Assistant, that is, to Dr. Baelz. 
 
112 Demoniacal Possession. 
 
 To this may be added that in the Oki Islands, off the 
 coast of Izumo, the superstition is modified in such wise that 
 dogs, not foxes, are the magic creatures. The human beings 
 in league with them are termed inu-gami-moclti, that is, 
 " dog-god holders." When the spirit of such a magic dog 
 goes forth on an errand of mischief, its body remains behind, 
 growing gradually weaker and sometimes dying and falling 
 to decay. When this happens, the spirit, on its return, takes 
 up its abode in the body of the wizard, who thereupon be- 
 comes more powerful than ever. Our informant was a 
 peasant from the Oki Islands, — the best authority on such a 
 point, because himself a believer and with no thesis to prove. 
 
 Oddly enough, we ourselves once. had to submit to exorcism 
 at the hands of Shinto priests. It was in the summer of 
 1879, the great cholera year, and we were accused by the 
 authorities of a certain village at which we desired to halt of 
 having brought the demon of cholera with us. For, true to 
 human nature, each town, each village, at that sad season, 
 always proclaimed itself spotless, while loudly accusing all 
 its neighbours of harbouring the . contagion. Accordingly, 
 after much parley, which took place in the drenching rain, 
 with night approaching and with the impossibility of finding 
 another shelter for many miles, some Shinto priests were 
 sent for. They arrived in their white vestments and curious- 
 ly curved hats, and bearing branches of trees in their hands. 
 They formed in two lines on either side of the way, and be- 
 tween them our little party of two Europeans and one 
 Japanese servant had to. walk. As we passed, the priests 
 waved the dripping branches over our heads, and struck us 
 on the back with naked swords. After that, we were sullenly 
 accorded a lodging for the night. To the honour of the 
 
Divorce. 113 
 
 Japanese government, let it be added that when we returned 
 to Tokyo and reported the affair, the village authorities were 
 at once deposed and another mayor and corporation set to 
 reign in their stead. Perhaps we ought to apologise for thus 
 obtruding our own personal adventures on the reader. We 
 have only hesitatingly done so, because it seems to us that 
 the exorcism of two Englishmen near the end of the nine- 
 teenth century is a little incident sufficiently strange to merit 
 being put on record. 
 
 As for badgers, they are players of practical jokes rather 
 than seriously wicked deceivers. One of their pranks is to 
 assume the shape of the moon ; but this they can only do 
 when the real moon is also in the sky. Another common 
 trick of theirs is to beat the tattoo on their stomach (taniiki 
 no hara-tsuzumi). In art they are generally represented thus 
 diverting themselves, with an enormously protuberant abdo- 
 men for all the world like a drum. 
 
 Divorce. Divorce, extremely common among the lower 
 classes in Japan, is comparatively rare among the upper 
 classes. Why, indeed, should a man take the trouble to get 
 divorced from an uncongenial wife, when any wife occupies 
 too inferior a position to be able to make herself a. serious 
 nuisance, and when society' has no objection to his keeping 
 any number of mistresses ? As for the actual law on the 
 subject, we have not been able to ascertain it, and are under 
 the impression that it is not well-defined. Until the time of 
 the late revolution, Confucian ideas on the subject modelled 
 the law. Now, according to Confucius, there are seven grounds 
 on which a man may divorce his wife. They are : disobe- 
 dience, barrenness, lewd conduct, jealousy, leprosy or any 
 
114 Dress. 
 
 other foul and incurable disease, talking too much, and 
 thievishness ; — in plain English, a man may send away his 
 wife whenever he gets tired of her. But her rights as against 
 him are less extensive. The new Law of Persons, published 
 in 1890 as part of the Civil Code, aims at bringing Japanese 
 usage into closer conformity with European ideas on this, as 
 on other subjects ; but it is not to go into force till 1893. 
 
 In the year 1889, the latest for which statistics have been 
 published, the proportion of divorces to marriages throughout 
 Japan was as follows : 
 
 Marriages : 8.65 per thousand of the entire population. 
 
 Divorces : 2.77 per thousand. 
 
 In other words, nearly one marriage out of every three 
 ended in a divorce. These figures show, however, a slight 
 improvement on the preceding year, when the statistics were 
 8.55 and 2.84 for the marriages and divorces respectively. 
 (See also Article on Mabbiage.) 
 
 Book recommended. Japanisches Familien- und Erbrecht, by Dr. 
 H. Weipert, in Heft 43 of tile German Asiatic Transactions, pp. 104 — 7. 
 
 Dolmens. See Abcimology. 
 
 Dress. It would take a folio volume elaborately illus- 
 trated to do justice to all the peculiarities of all the varieties 
 of Japanese costume. 
 
 Speaking generally, it may be said that the men are dressed 
 as follows. First comes, a loin-cloth (shita-obi) of bleached 
 muslin. Next to this a shirt (juban) of silk or cotton, to 
 which is added in winter an under-jacket (dogi) of like 
 material. Outside comes the gown (Jcimono), or in winter 
 two wadded gowns (shitagi and uieagi), kept in place by a 
 narrow sash (obi). On occasions of ceremony, there is worn 
 
Dress. • 115 
 
 furthermore a sort of broad pair of trousers, or perhaps we 
 should rather say a divided skirt, called hakama, and a stiff 
 coat called haori. The hakama and haori are invariably of 
 silk, and the haori is adorned with the wearer's crest in three 
 places. The head is mostly bare, but is sometimes covered 
 by a very large straw hat, while on the feet is a kind of sock, 
 named tali, reaching only to the ankle, and having a separate 
 compartment for the big toe. Of straw sandals there are two 
 kinds, the movable zuri used for light work, and the waraji 
 which are bound tightly round the feet and -used for hard 
 walking only. People of means wear only the tabi indoors, 
 and a pair of wooden clogs, called geta, out-of-doors. The 
 native costume of a Japanese gentleman is completed by a 
 fen. a parasol, and in his belt a pipe and tobacco-pouch. 
 Merchants also wear at their belt what is called a yatate — a 
 kind of portable ink-stand with a pen inside. A cheap 
 variety of the kimono, or gown, is the yukata, — a cotton 
 dressing-gown, originally meant for going to the bath in, but 
 now often worn indoors of an evening as a sort of deshabille. 
 
 Take it altogether, the Japanese gentleman's costume, and 
 that of the ladies as well, is a highly elegant and sanitary 
 one. The only disadvantage is that the flopping of the 
 kimono hinders a free gait. Formerly the Japanese gentleman 
 wore two swords, and his back hair was drawn forward in a 
 cue over the carefully shaven middle of the skull ; but both 
 these fashions are obsolete. The wearing of swords in public 
 was interdicted by law in 1876, and the whole gentry sub- 
 mitted without a blow. 
 
 Besides the loin-cloth, which is universal, the men of the 
 lower classes, such as coolies and navvies, wear a sort of 
 dark-coloured pinafore (hara-gake) over the bust, crossed with 
 
116 • Dress. 
 
 bands behind the back. They cover their legs with tight- 
 fitting drawers (momo-hild) and a sort of gaiters (kyahan). 
 Their coat, called shirushi-banten, is marked on the back with 
 a Chinese character or other sign to show by whom they are 
 employed. But jinrihisha-men wear the happi, which is not 
 thus marked — that is, when they wear anything ; for in the 
 country districts and in the hot weather, the loin-cloth is often 
 the sole garment of the common people, while the children 
 disport themselves in a state of nature. It is not unusual to 
 see a kerchief (hachimaki) tied over the brow, to prevent the 
 perspiration from running into the eyes. Travellers of the 
 middle and lower classes are often to be distinguished by 
 their Itimono being lifted up and shoved into the sash behind, 
 by a kind of silk drawers called patchi, by a sort of mitten or 
 hand-protector called tekko, and by a loose overcoat (kappa — 
 the word is a corruption of the Spanish capo). The peasants 
 wear a straw overcoat (mino) in rainy or snowy weather. 
 
 The Japanese costume for women is less different from 
 that of the men than is the case with us. Beneath all, 
 come two little aprons round the loins (koshimaki and suso- 
 yoke), then the shirt, and then the kimono or kimonos kept 
 in place by a thin belt (shita-jime). Over this is bound the 
 large sash (obi), which is the chief article of feminine 
 adornment. In order to hold it up, a sort of panier or 
 "improver" (obi-age) is placed underneath, while a hand- 
 some string (obi-dome) keeps it in position above. Japa- 
 nese women bestow lavish care on the dressing of their hair. 
 Their combs and hair-pins of tortoise-shell, coral, and other 
 costly materials often represent many months of their hus- 
 bands' salaries. Fortunately all these things, and even 
 dresses themselves, can be handed down from mother to 
 
Dress. 117 
 
 daughter, as jewels and lace may be in European lands, 
 Japanese ladies' fashions not changing quickly. 
 
 A Japanese lady's dress will often represent a value of 
 3S200, without counting the ornaments for her hair. A 
 woman of the smaller shop-keeping class may have on her, 
 when she goes out holiday-making, some $40 or $50 worth. 
 A gentleman will rarely spend on his clothes as much as he 
 lets his wife spend on hers. Perhaps he may not have on 
 more than §60 worth. Thence, through a gradual decline 
 in price, we come to the coolie's poor trappings, which may 
 represent as little as $5, or even $2, as he stands. 
 
 Children's dress is more or less a repetition in miniature of 
 that of their elders. Long swaddling-clothes are not in use. 
 Young children have, however, a bib. They wear a little 
 cap on their heads, and at their side hangs a charm-bag 
 (kinchaliu), made out of a bit of some bright-coloured 
 damask, containing a charm (mamori-fuda) supposed to pro- 
 tect them from being run over, washed away, etc. There is 
 also generally fastened somewhere about their little person a 
 metal ticket (maigo-fuda) with their name and address, as a 
 precaution against their getting lost. 
 
 Those having any acquaintance with Japan, either personal 
 or by hearsay, will understand that when we say that the 
 Japanese wear such and such things (in the present tense), 
 we speak of the native costume, which is still in fairly com- 
 mon use, though unfortunately no longer in universal use. 
 The undignified billycocks and pantaloons of the West are 
 slowly but surely supplanting the picturesque, aristocratic- 
 looking native garb, — a change for which the Government is 
 mainly responsible, as it obliges almost all officials to wear 
 European dress when on duty, and of course the inferior 
 
118 Dress. 
 
 classes ape their betters. Nor have the women, though 
 naturally more conservative, been altogether able to resist 
 the radicalism of their time and country. It seems scarcely 
 credible, but it is true, that the Japanese imagine their ap- 
 pearance to be improved when they exchange their own 
 costume for ours ; and they are angry with people who tell 
 them the contrary. In this, as in many other matters, their 
 former exquisite taste has died a sudden death. 
 
 It was a charming sight to see the Japanese ladies, so short 
 a time ago as the seventies and the early eighties, dressed in 
 their own costume — dressed, mind you, not merely having 
 clothes on. A bevy of them at a party — for they had begun 
 to come out and mix with Europeans in society — was a 
 symphony of greys and browns and other delicate hues of silk 
 and brocade, the faultless costume being matched by the coy 
 and at the same time perfectly natural and simple manner 
 and musical voice of the wearers. In 1886 the Court ordered 
 gowns from Paris — we beg pardon, from Berlin — likewise 
 corsets, and those European shoes in which a Japanese lady 
 finds it so hard to walk without looking as if she had taken 
 just a little drop too much. Of course the Court speedily 
 found imitators. Indeed, as a spur to the recalcitrant, a sort 
 of notification was issued, "recommending" the adoption of 
 European costume by the ladies of Japan. 
 
 In vain the local European press cried out against the 
 barbarism, in vain every foreigner of taste endeavoured 
 privately to persuade his Japanese friends not to let their 
 wives make guys of themselves, in vain Mrs. Cleveland and 
 the ladies of America wrote publicly to point out the dangers 
 with which tight lacing, and European fashions generally, 
 threaten the health of those who adopt them. The die was 
 
Dress. 119 
 
 cast when, on the 1st November, 1886, the Empress and 
 her ladies appeared in their new German dresses at a public 
 entertainment. The Empress herself would indeed look charm- 
 ing in any garb. Would one could say as much for all those 
 with her and for those that followed after ! The very highest 
 society of Tokyo contained, it is true,* from the beginning, a 
 few — a very few — women of whose dress Pierre Loti could 
 say without flattery, " toilette en somme qui set-ait de mise a 
 Paris et qui est vraiment Men portee." But the majority! No 
 caricature could do justice to the bad figures, the ill-fitting 
 garments, the screeching colours, that ran riot between 1886 
 and 1889. Since then there has been a slight wave of 
 reaction, in consequence of which not a few ladies lacking 
 either the means or the taste to do justice to European dress 
 have happily returned to the national costume. But that 
 such a reaction can be permanent will not be expected by 
 those onlookers who understand that the question of dress 
 does not stand on its own merits, but forms part and parcel 
 of a whole civilisation, which Japan could no longer reject if 
 she would. 
 
 And here comes in a curious consideration, which is that a 
 Japanese wife would seem to be treated more respectfully 
 by her husband when she is in European dress than when, 
 by retaining her national costume, she practically says to 
 him and to the world : " I belong to the old school, and 
 acknowledge the subjection of women as inferior creatures." 
 We have ourselves noticed the same lady walk into the room 
 after her husband when dressed a, la japonaise, but before 
 him when a, I'europeenne. This means a great deal. If one 
 has to endure the spectacle of tippets worked in stripes of 
 blue, yellow, purple, brick- red, and bottle-green, and of stays 
 
120 Earthquakes and Volcanoes. 
 
 worn upside down, it is at least some comfort to know that 
 these grim-looking garments have it in their power to produce 
 such mighty moral effects. 
 
 Earthquakes and Volcanoes. " Oh ! how I wish 
 I could feel an earthquake ! " is generally among the first 
 exclamations of the newly-landed European. " What a paltry 
 Sort of thing it is, considering the fuss people make about 
 it 1 " is generally his remark on his second earthquake (for 
 the first one he invariably sleeps through). But after the 
 fifth or sixth he never wants to feel another ; and his terror 
 of earthquakes grows with length of residence in an earth- 
 quake-shaken land, such as Japan has been from time 
 immemorial. Indeed, geologists tell us that much of Japan 
 would never have existed but for the seismic and volcanic 
 agency which has elevated whole districts above the ocean 
 by means of repeated eruptions. 
 
 The cause of earthquakes is still obscure. The learned 
 incline at present to the opinion that the causes may be 
 many and various ; but the general connection between 
 earthquakes and volcanoes is not contested. The " faulting " 
 which results from elevations and depressions of the earth's 
 surface, the infiltration of water to great depths and the 
 consequent generation of steam, the caving in of subterranean 
 hollows — hollows themselves produced in all probability by 
 chemical degradation — these and other causes have been 
 appealed to as the most probable. 
 
 One highly remarkable fact is that volcanic and earth- 
 quake-shaken regions are almost always adjacent to areas 
 of depression. The greatest area of depression in the 
 world is the Pacific basin; and accordingly round its 
 
Earthquakes and Volcanoes. 121 
 
 borders, from Kamchatka through the Kuriles to Japan, 
 thence through a line of small islands to the Philippines 
 and to Java, then eastward to New Zealand, and right up the 
 Western coast of South America, is grouped the mightiest 
 array of volcanoes that the world contains. Another fact of 
 interest is the greater occurrence of earthquakes during the 
 winter months. This has heen explained by Dr. Knott as 
 the result of " the annual periodicity of two well-known 
 meteorological phenomena — namely, snow accumulations 
 over continental areas, and barometric gradients."* 
 
 The Japanese, like most other nations, had perforce sub- 
 mitted to the ravages of earthquakes, without attempting to 
 investigate the causes of earthquakes scientifically. All they 
 had done was to collect anecdotes and superstitions con- 
 nected with the subject, one of the most popular of which 
 latter (popular indeed in many parts of the world besides 
 Japan) is that earthquakes are due to a large subterranean 
 fish, which wriggles about whenever it wakes up. As for 
 Japanese history, it is a concatenation of earthquake disas- 
 ters, exceeded only by those which have desolated South 
 America. 
 
 With the advent of the theoretically minded European, a 
 new era was inaugurated. A society named the Seismological 
 Society of Japan was started in the spring of 1880, chiefly 
 through the efforts of Professor John Milne, F. E. S., who 
 has ever since devoted all his energies to wrestling with the 
 problems which earthquakes, earth oscillations, earth cur- 
 rents, and seismic and volcanic phenomena generally, supply 
 in such perplexing quantity. Latterly, too, the Japanese 
 
 * See his learned paper on the subject in Vol. IX. Part I. of the Transactions 
 of the Seismological Society of Japan. 
 
122 Earthquakes and Volcanoes. 
 
 government has lent a helping hand by the establishment of 
 a chair of seismology in the Imperial University, and of 
 several hundreds of observing stations all over the empire — 
 an empire remember, dotted with no less than fifty-one active 
 volcanoes, and experiencing about five hundred shocks yearly. 
 Can earthquakes be prevented ? If they cannot be pre- 
 vented, can they at least be foretold ? Both these questions 
 must unfortunately be answered in the negative. Still, 
 certain practical results have been arrived at by Mr. Milne 
 and his fellow- workers, which are by no means to be despised. 
 It is now possible to make what is called a "seismic survey " 
 of any given plot of ground, and to indicate which localities 
 will be least liable to shocks. It lias also been shown that 
 the complete isolation of the foundations of a building from 
 the surface of the soil obtains for the building comparative 
 immunity from damage. The reason is that the surface 
 shakes more than the adjacent lower layers of the soil, just 
 as, if several billiard-balls be placed in a row, an impulse 
 given to the first one will make only the last one fly off, 
 while those in the middle remain nearly motionless. For 
 the same reason, it is dangerous to build near the edge of a 
 cliff. To architects, again, various hints have been given, 
 both from experience accumulated on the spot, and also from 
 that of Manila and other earthquake-shaken localities. The 
 passage from natural to artificial vibrations being obvious, 
 Professor Milne has been led on to the invention of a machine 
 which records, after the manner of a seismograph, the vibra- 
 tions of railway trains. This machine keeps an automatic 
 record of all the motions of a train, and serves to detect 
 irregularities occurring at crossings and points, as also those 
 due to want of ballast, defects in bridges, and so on. 
 
Education. 123 
 
 Thus, imperfect as it still is, imperfect as the nature of the 
 case may perhaps condemn it always to remain, the science 
 of seismology has already borne practical fruit in effecting a 
 a saving of tens of thousands of dollars. To those who are 
 interested in seismometers and seismographs, in earthquake 
 maps and earthquake catalogues, in seismic surveys, in 
 microseisms, earth tremors, earth pulsations, and generally 
 in earth physics, we recommend a perusal of the Transac- 
 tions of the Seismological Society of Japan, of which fifteen 
 volumes have been published, and of the volume entitled 
 Earthquakes by Professor Milne in the International 
 Scientific Series. Volume IX. Part II. of the Seismo- 
 logical Transactions is specially devoted to the volcanoes 
 of Japan, and contains a mass of statistics, anecdotes, his- 
 torical details, and illustrations — each individual volcano, 
 from the northernmost of the Kuriles down to Aso-San in 
 Kyushu, which is the largest crater in the world, being 
 treated of in detail. The Ansei Kembun Bolcu and the Ansei 
 Kembmi Shi are capitally illustrated Japanese accounts of the 
 great earthquake which wrecked Yedo in 1855. Lovers of 
 the ghastly will search long before they find anything more 
 to their taste than the delineations there given of men and 
 women precipitated out of windows, cut in two by falling 
 beams, bruised, smashed, imprisoned in cellars, overtaken by 
 tidal waves, or worse still, burnt alive in one of the great 
 fires caused by the sudden overturning of thousands of candles 
 and braziers all over the city. Truly these are gruesome 
 books. 
 
 Education. During the Middle Ages, education was in 
 the hands of the Buddhist priesthood. The temples were the 
 
124 Education. 
 
 schools, the subject most insisted on was the Buddhist Sutras. 
 The accession of the Tokugawa family to the Shogunate 
 •(A.D. 1603-1867) brought with it a change. The educated 
 classes became Confucianist. Accordingly the Confucian 
 Classics — the. "Four Books " and the " Five Canons "■ — were 
 installed in the place of honour, learnt by heart, expounded 
 as carefully as in China itself. Besides the Chinese Classics, 
 instruction was given in the native history and literature. 
 Some few ardent students picked their way through Dutch 
 books that had been begged, borrowed, or stolen from the 
 Hollanders at Nagasaki, or bought, for their weight in gold, 
 for the sake of the priceless treasures of medical and other 
 scientific knowledge known to be concealed in them. But 
 ' such devotees of European learning were forced to maintain 
 the greatest secrecy, and were hampered by almost incredible 
 difficulties. For the government of the day frowned on all 
 things foreign, and more than one zealous student expiated 
 by his death the crime of striving to increase knowledge. 
 
 With the revolution of 1868, the old system of education 
 crumbled away. Indeed, even before 1868 the learning of 
 foreign languages, especially English, had|been tacitly con- 
 nived at. A complete reform was initiated — a reform on 
 Western lines — and it was carried out at first chiefly under 
 American advice. The present Imperial University of Japan 
 is the representative and heir of several colleges which were 
 formed in Tokyo some twenty years ago — a Language College, 
 a Medical College, a College of Engineering. At the same 
 time, primary instruction was being placed on a new basis, x 
 and specially promising lads were sent across seas to acquire 
 Western learning at its source. When not allowed to go 
 .abroad, even well-born young men were happy to black the 
 
Education. 125 
 
 shoes of a foreign family, in the hope of being able to pick 
 up foreign languages and foreign manners. Some of the more 
 enterprising took French leave, and smuggled themselves on 
 board homeward-bound ships. This was how— to mention 
 but two well-known instances— the adventurous youths, Ito 
 and Inoue, entered on the career which has led them at last 
 to become ministers of state. 
 
 The University includes six faculties, namely, Law, Litera- 
 ture, Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Agriculture. The- 
 College of Medicine is under exclusively German influence, 
 though there are also Japanese professors. The other 
 colleges have professors of various nationalities, chiefly 
 Japanese, German, and English. The students number 
 over nine hundred. Other important educational esta- 
 blishments started and supported by the government are the 
 two Higher Normal Schools for boys and girls respectively,. 
 the Higher Commercial School, the Technical School, the 
 Nobles' School, the Naval and Military Academies, the 
 Musieial Academy, the Fine Arts School, the Blind and 
 Dumb School, and five Higher Middle Schools, of which one 
 is in Tokyo and four are in the provinces. Two other Higher 
 Middle Schools, in Satsuma and Choshu, derive their income 
 from funds granted by the ex-Daimyos of those provinces. 
 There are also numerous large private colleges, of which the 
 best-known is the Keid Oijihu. Its director, Mr. Fukuzawa, 
 is a power in the land. Writing with admirable clearness, 
 publishing a popular newspaper, not keeping too far ahead of 
 the times, in favour of Christianity to-day because its adoption 
 might gain for Japan the good-will of Western nations, all 
 eagerness for Buddhism to-morrow because Buddhist doctrines 
 can be better reconciled with those of evolution and develop- 
 
126 Education. 
 
 ment, pro and anti-foreign by turns, inquisitive, clever, not 
 overballasted with judicial calmness, this eminent private 
 schoolmaster, who might be minister of education, but who 
 has consistently refused all office, is the intellectual father of 
 half the young men who now fill the middle and lower posts 
 in the government of Japan. 
 
 From Mr. Fukuzawa, who leads Young Japan in ostenta- 
 tiously denying the importance of all religious dogmas, is 
 a long step to the missionaries, with whom school-teaching 
 is of course ancillary to proselytism. Among their scholastic 
 establishments, the Meiji Gakuin at Tokyo and the Doshisha 
 at Kyoto, both founded under American auspices, may be 
 selected for notice. The latter has recently been raised to 
 the status of a Christian University. 
 
 Female education is officially provided for by the High 
 School for Girls, the Peeresses' School, the Higher Normal 
 School for Girls, already referred to, etc., etc. Nor in even 
 the most cursory enumeration of the educational institutions 
 of the country, is it possible to omit a reference to the Edu- 
 cational Society of Japan, which, as perhaps the most 
 successful of all the many Japanese learned societies, does 
 honour to the judgment and management of its originator, 
 Mr. Tsuji Shinji, now and for many years past vice-minister 
 of education. 
 
 The leading idea of the Japanese Government in all its 
 educational improvements, is the desire to assimilate the 
 national ways of thinking to those of European countries. 
 How great a measure of success has already been attained, 
 •can be best gauged by comparing one of the surviving old- 
 fashioned literati of the Tempo period (A. D. 1830 — 1844) 
 with an intelligent young man of the new school, brought 
 
Education. 127 
 
 up at the University or at Mr. Fukuzawa's. The two seem 
 to belong to different worlds. At the same time it is clear 
 that no efforts, however arduous, can make the European- 
 isation complete. In effect, what is the situation ? All the 
 nations of the ^Yest have, broadly speaking, a common past, 
 a common fund of ideas, from which everything that they 
 have and everything that they are springs naturally, as part 
 of a correlated whole — one Eoman Empire in the background, 
 one Christian religion at the centre, one gradual emancipa- 
 tion, first from feudalism and next from absolutism, worked 
 out or now in process of being worked out together, one art, 
 one music, one kind of idiom, even though the words ex- 
 pressing it vary from land to land. Japan stands beyond 
 this pale, because her past has been lived through under con- 
 ditions altogether different. China is her Greece and Eome. 
 Her language is not Aryan, as even Eussia's is. Allu- 
 sions familiar from one end of Christendom to the other 
 require a whole chapter of commentary to make them at 
 all intelligible to a Japanese student, who often has not, 
 even then, any words corresponding to those which it is 
 sought to translate. So well is this fact understood by 
 Japanese educators, that it has been customary of late years 
 to impart most of the higher branches of knowledge through 
 the medium of the English language. This, however, is an 
 enormous additional weight hung round the student's neck. 
 For a Japanese to be taught through the medium of English, 
 is infinitely harder than it would be for English lads to be 
 taught through the medium of Latin, as Latin does not, 
 after all, differ so very widely in spirit from English. It is, 
 so to say, English in other words. But between English 
 and Japanese the gulf fixed is so wide and gaping that the 
 
128 Education. 
 
 student's mind must be for ever on the stretch. The simpler 
 and more idiomatic the English, the more it taxes his powers 
 of comprehension. 
 
 It is difficult to see any way out of this dilemma. All the 
 heartier, therefore, is the praise due to a body of educators 
 who fight on so bravely, and on the whole so successfully. 
 As for the typical Japanese student, he belongs to that class 
 of youths who are the schoolmaster's delight — quiet, intelli- 
 gent, deferential, studious almost to excess. His only marked 
 fault is a tendency common to all subordinates in Japan — a 
 tendency to wish to steer the ship himself. " Please, Sir, we 
 don't want to read American history any more. We want to 
 read how balloons are made." Such is a specimen of the 
 requests which every teacher in Japan must have had to 
 listen to over and over again. Herein lies a grave danger 
 for the future. Indeed, the danger is already at the gates. 
 Since 1888, there has sprung up a class of rowdy youths, 
 called soshi in Japanese — juvenile agitators who have taken 
 all politics to be their province, who obtrude their views and 
 their presence on ministers of state, and waylay — bludgeon 
 and knife in hand — those whose opinions on matters of public 
 interest happen to differ from their own. They are, in a 
 strangely modernised disguise, the representatives of the 
 wandering swashbucklers * of the old regime. Let us hope 
 that anarchy may never again visit Japan. If it does, it 
 will find in this class of youths an instrument ready fitted to 
 its hand. 
 
 Books recommended. The annual Report of the Minister of 
 State for Education, and the Calendars of the University and of the various other 
 educational institutions. See also Miss Bacon's Japanese Q-irls and Women. 
 
 * In Japanese, renin. 
 
Embroidery. 129 
 
 EE — EE. These letters which, to the perplexity of 
 European travellers, adorn the signboard of many forward- 
 ing agencies in modern Japan, stand for the English word 
 " express." 
 
 Embroidery. The reader may tire of being told of 
 each art in succession that it was imported into Japan from 
 China via Korea by Buddhist missionaries. But when such 
 is the fact, what can be done but state it ? The greatest 
 early Japanese artist in embroidery of whom memory has 
 been preserved was Chujo Hime, a Buddhist nun of noble 
 birth, who, according to the legend, was an incarnation of 
 Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy. After enduring relentless 
 persecution at the hands of a cruel stepmother, she retired 
 to the temple of Taema-dera in Yamato, where her grand 
 embroidered picture, or mandara as it is called, of the 
 Buddhist heaven with its many mansions, is still shown. The 
 gods themselves are said to have aided her in this work. 
 
 The embroidery and brocade and painted silks of more 
 modern days possess exquisite beauty. Quite a new inven- 
 tion is the biivdo yuzcn, in which ribbed , velvet is used as 
 the ground for pictures which are real works of art, the 
 velvet being parily cut, partly dyed, partly painted. Being 
 but a man, while some of his readers are sure to be ladies 
 whose sharp eyes would soon detect mistakes, the present 
 writer hesitates to enter into any further details on this 
 subject. He would only recommend all who can to visit the 
 Kyoto embroidery and velvet shops, and to take plenty of 
 money in their purse. There may be two opinions about 
 Japanese painting; there can be only one about Japanese 
 embroidery. 
 
130 English as she is Japped. 
 
 Note in passing, as an instance of topsy-turvydom, that 
 comparatively few Japanese embroiderers are women. All 
 the best pieces are the work of men and boys. 
 
 Employes. See Foreign Employes. 
 
 Empress. The Salic, law was only introduced into 
 Japan with the new Constitution of 1889. Before then, 
 several Empresses had sat on the throne, and one of them, 
 the Empress Jingo (excuse the name, ! English reader ! 
 it signifies " divine prowess "), ranks among the greatest 
 heroic figures of early Japanese legend (see article on 
 
 HlSTOEY AND MYTHOLOGY). 
 
 The present Empress is of course Empress Consort. Her 
 name is Haru-ko, correctly translated by Pierre Loti, in his 
 Japoneries d'Automne, as " l'lmp^ratrice Printemps." 
 
 Wisely abstaining from even the shadow of interference 
 in pohtics, this illustrious lady, daughter of a high noble 
 of the Court of Kyoto, devotes her life to learning and to 
 good works, hospitals in particular engrossing her attention. 
 The Red Cross Hospital at Akasaka in Tokyo, one of the 
 most spacious — one might well say luxurious — hospitals in 
 the East, was her creation, and the Charity Hospital at 
 Shiba in Tokyo also enjoys her munificent patronage. 
 
 English as she is Japped. English as she is spoke 
 
 and wrote in Japan forms quite an enticing study. It meets 
 
 one on landing, in such signboard inscriptions as 
 
 TAILOE NATiVE GOUNTEY. 
 
 DRAPER, MILLINER AND LADIES OUTFATTER. 
 
 Tlie Bibbons, the laces, the veils, the feelings.* 
 
 * Can the shopkeeper mean " frillings ? " 
 
English, as she is Japped.- 131 
 
 THE IMPROVED MILK. 
 
 TIME PIECE SNOP. 
 
 Photographist love. 
 
 The European monkey jacket make for the Jajmnese. 
 
 A GEOG SHOP, A POT HOUSE.* 
 
 To sell the insurable watch. 
 
 CNAIPS SNOP {for Chair Shop). 
 
 THE BEEBAE. 
 
 CARVER AND GILDER FOR SALE. 
 
 BEST PERFUMING WATER ANTI-FLEA. 
 
 CHEMINARY ENGLISH IS NIGHT t 
 
 and a hundred more. The thirsty soul, in particular, can 
 make himself merry, while he drinks, with such droll legends 
 on bottles as 
 
 FOGREN COUNTY WINES LITTLE SEAL. 
 
 St. JUILEN Bottled by BORDEAUX. 
 
 WORLD NAME WINE. 
 
 VIEUX NOURISSANT. SUPERIEUR 
 PRESERVED PROVISION. 
 
 NEIG. TWEIVENEIM 
 
 EXAMINE EIEN WINE 
 
 BONNE^VlANUFACTURE.OF 
 
 JNDO. COMPANY GXAMINE P!EN WINE VERY. 
 
 * This, by the way, over an excellent restaurant. 
 
 + This inscription is over an English night school at Nagoya, Cheminary s we 
 -suppose, represents the word "Seminary." 
 
132 
 
 English as she is Japped. 
 
 ,^ E ««/ 
 
 \ The efficacy of this Beer is to/ 
 ^ give the health and especi- 
 . ally the strength for 
 Stomach. The flavour is , 
 ^ so sweet and simple 
 that not injure for 
 much drink. 
 
 Eating, as well as drinking, offers opportunities' for 
 linguistic display. Here is a bill of' fare placed on the 
 table last summer at the Tonosawa Hotel. Premising that 
 the first two items are meant respectively for ""Fried Fish " 
 and " Omelette," we leave it to the ingenious reader to 
 decipher the rest. He must take our word for it . that the 
 whole is supposed to be in English. As an additional help, 
 it may be charitable to add that from Su to 1m pi ru (Stock 
 Beer) onwards, is what may be termed the wine card :* — 
 
 Fu ra i he shi 
 Oirni retsu 
 Tilrin hi chin 
 
 7 5 -f $■ 
 
 9 j. u< V 
 
 f * !• b f- * 
 
 * The characters on the right hand are a transliteration of the words into the- 
 Katakana, or Japanese syllabary. 
 
English as she is Japped. 133 
 
 Tikin ka tau retsu ?■ %■ v ■}} s> u v 
 
 Bi su te ki b" 7 7" ¥ 
 
 Ka re rai su » u 5 4 ^ 
 
 Dena *p _ ^. _ 
 
 Su fu 3^ £ 7 - 
 
 Be ro hesi j?x n ^. :, 
 
 Me n clii i ki su > v ?■ -f * * 
 
 Be ro chi ki n ;}f * « 9" ♦ a* 
 
 Ro su ehi ki n n ys. f- ■%■ z, 
 
 Ro su fu d 5 ^ t' 7 
 
 Su to ku pi ru .7, > 9 t° — «, 
 
 Ki ri 11 pi ru * 9 2^ h* — >u 
 
 Ame ri ka pi ru 7 j) 9 » b° — *• 
 
 Emu f e ri ya pi ru x. a -< it, t? — *■ 
 
 Bo to jjf _ t 
 
 Su ka chi urate z. a — ^- t? z*. %■ — 
 
 Many strange notices are stuck up and advertisements 
 •circulated. The following is the manner in which "Fragrant 
 Kozan Wine " is recommended to public attention : — 
 
 If health be not steady, heart is not active. Were heart active, 
 the deeds may be done. Among the means to preserve health, the 
 best way is to take in Kozan wine which is sold by us, because it is 
 to assist digestion and increase blood. Those who want the steady 
 health should drink Kozan wine. This wine is agreeable even 
 to the females and children who can not drink any spirit because it 
 is sweet. On other words, this pleases mouth and therefore, it is 
 very convenient medicine for nourishing. 
 
 Japan ixsted of Coffee.* 
 
 More men is not got dropsg of the legs who us this coffee, which is 
 ■contain nourish. 
 
 * I.e. being interpreted, " a Japanese substitute for coffee." 
 
134 English as she is Japped. 
 
 The following notice was stuck up not long ago in one of 
 the hotels at Kyoto : 
 
 Notice to the Dealees. 
 
 On the dinning-time nobody shall be eirter to the dinning-room, and 
 drowing-rooin without the guests' allow. Any dealer shall be honest- 
 ly his trade, of course the sold one shall be prepare to make up the 
 safe package. 
 
 The reader may be curious to know who "the sold one " 
 here referred to is. Might it not perhaps be the purchaser ?' 
 No ; at least that is not what the hotel-keeper wished to sug- 
 gest. By translating back literally into Japanese idiom, we 
 reach his meaning, which is that the merchant who sells the 
 things must undertake furthermore to pack them securely. 
 
 " NO-TIES. 
 
 Our tooth is a very important organ for human life and counten- 
 ance as you know; therefore when it is attack by disease or injury, 
 artificial tooth is also very useful. 
 
 I am engage to the Dentistry and I will make for your purpose." 
 NOTICE. 
 
 YOKOHAMA COOLIE CONTRACTED COMPANY, LIMITED. 
 
 The object of the company is to evacuate an evil conducts 
 of the coolies which had been practiced during many years, 
 while we will reform their bad circumstances, and solicit, we 
 hope, the patronage of the Public generally having already 
 had the permission of the Government for the institutions of the 
 Company. As the object is the above, we will open the works very 
 quickly and kindly as we possible, without any measure more or less, 
 the coolie being dressed in the same cloth and same hat as the sign. 
 We should established the branch offices in the important places for 
 our Customer's convenience, and sometimes will send an officer as am 
 
English as she is Japped. 135 
 
 examiner, in order to engage the works very more attentively. Now 
 we will write down the outline of the Business as following : — 
 
 BUSINESS. 
 
 1- — Transactions of general goods relating to |Marine, land and 
 house removal. 
 
 2. — Water wort, a sewer cleaner, etc. 
 
 3 — Farm-cultivator, Gardener. 
 
 4. — A accompaning Man in going and coming of funeral rite and 
 Marriage ceremonies. 
 
 5. — Going around as an inspector, night watch etc. 
 
 REJECTION 
 
 1. — Do not give the money the coolie at once. 
 
 2. — Do not pay money one who has no stampticket of the company. 
 
 NINSOKUKWAISHA, 
 No. 36, Nichome Sakaiclio, Yokohama. 
 
 A native " Guide for Visitors to Atami," published during 
 the current year, informs us that the geyser there was dis- 
 covered by a priest named 2Ian-gwan who made many improve- 
 ments on the springs. Before that day, the springs boiled out in 
 
 the sea, and was a suffering to aquatic families If a 
 
 people can not come to Atami is better to bathe in that water once 
 or twice a day, and take good exercise in clean airs. By 
 " aquatic families," let it be noted, the writer means, not — 
 as might perhaps be supposed — the fishermen, but the fishes. 
 
 Letters offer some of the choicest specimens of English as 
 she is Japped. We select a few epistolary gems, only changing 
 the proper names. The first is from a young man who 
 entered into familiar relations with the family of a certain 
 consul, in order to perfect his English. 
 
136 English as she is Japped. 
 
 Saga. August 18th. 
 
 Robert Fanshaw Esq. 
 
 G. B. Consul. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I am very glad to hear that you and your family are very well and I 
 am also quite well as usual, but my grandfather's disease is very severe 
 without changing as customary. I fear that it is a long time since I have 
 pay a visit to you. I wishyour pardon to get away my remote crime. We 
 have only a few hot in Saga as well as summer is over, and we feel to be 
 very cool in morning and evening. Sometimes we have an earthquake 
 here at now, but the mens was afright no more. 
 
 I grieves that a terrible accident took place in the school of military 
 Saga. The story of it, a scholar had put to death some colleague with a 
 greate stick on the floor and a doctor of anatomy dissected immediately 
 with dead disciple, then all pupils of school were now to question its 
 matter in the judgement seat ; but do not it decide yet. 
 
 XSnequivocal matter would speak you of kind letter. 
 
 I am, dc, 
 
 K. TANAKA. 
 
 The next specimen is a request for a lift in the official 
 
 service. 
 
 18th July. 
 My dear teacher, 
 
 I am very glad to send you a letter. About three month has elapsed 
 since I parted from you. I did not offer any words to congratulate your 
 healthy ; please excuse me. 
 
 " To drink the water of a same river " an adage tells " is heavenly 
 fate." This shows that we ought to be friendly even m the case of smallest 
 connection of any ciroumstances. It seems very valuable. Much more T 
 studid under your care. I must say many thanks, nay I must recompense 
 your favour. As you said, school is only a inland sea where the small 
 afflictions of wind and waves, are met with, and I reached to the other side 
 by a sinall compass of knowledge which you gave me much of the power, 
 and now I began to sail a great ocean of the world where the whirl-wind 
 
 P. T. 0. 
 
English as she is Japped. 137 
 
 and water-spout are met unexpectedly. I thought I would go on by the 
 aid of your's, but ah ! I must tell you a farewell, so I felt that I missed 
 the important compass for the voyage, and at the same time many distresses 
 surround me. But to amuse my heart i/o» told me that you would not 
 forget my complains I called out my valour and I left my small nephew, 
 in Tohyo, to go alone. 
 
 If you would befriend me to return to Tokyo, I can study much of my 
 aims and then I will be glad that I got the light-house on the dark night 
 of voyage by which I would reach beyond the ocean. 
 
 I am waiting every clay for it delineating air-castle in my heart. I 
 have many to tell you but I cant now. I am studing English every day 
 but there is no teacher. Moreover I feel inconvenient. 
 
 This is my first letter for foreigner so I am sure this letter should 
 contain many mistakes ; please read it over with supposition and let me 
 know the style at any time. The furious summer is increasing its heat. 
 Please take yourself love and I wish your healthy and happily. When 
 you sat in leisure remember that a curious wit is waiting for something 
 in Osaka. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 B. YAMADA. 
 
 Tokyo, January 1st, 1890. 
 "Dear Sir" 
 
 New year very happy. I salute prudently for your all. I had been 
 several districts since July of last year. Now, here, my head is mingled 
 up with several admirations by the first voyage to abroad ; but anyhow I 
 feel very lionizing, interesting, profitable for experiment, by sailing about 
 there and here. Though I exercised Enylish diligently, yet I'm very 
 clumsiness for translation, dialogue, composition, elocution and all other. 
 It is a great shamefulness really, but I don't abandon English hence-forlh, I 
 swear to learn it perseveringly, even if in the lucubration. 
 
 Tendering you my sympathetic joy of your decoration. 
 
 I am yours affectionathj, 
 
 M. T8VDA. 
 
138 English as she is Japped. 
 
 " China " having been set as a theme in a Tokyo school, 
 one student disposed summarily of the hereditary rivals of 
 his race by remarking that 
 
 Chinese gentlemen adjourn their tales and clutches so long as 
 they are able. The people are all liars. 
 
 Another young essayist was more diffuse, and let us hope 
 got better marks. 
 
 Here is an old man whose body is very large; he is about four 
 thousand years of age and China is his name. His autobiography 
 tells me that he was born in early times in Eastern Asia. He was 
 a simple baby smiling with amiable face in the primitive cradle; 
 and as a young man, he progressed hopefully. "When he was full 
 grown he accomplished many bright acts ; he married a sweet lady 
 who conceived the beautiful children of the arts and sciences. Bu* 
 by and bye he became old, lame, blind and decrepit. 
 
 I must feel sorry for the sad fate of an old teacher or neighbour 
 of mine. Why his gleamy grew gloomy ? "What compassion I feel 
 for him ! 
 
 There are many smokes of the opium but not holy blood of the 
 cross. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF THE ENGLISHMAN. 
 
 The England which occupied of the largest and greatest dominion 
 which rarely can be. The Englishman works with a very powerful 
 hands and the long legs and even the eminenced mind, his chin is 
 so strong as decerved iron. He are not allowed it to escape if he 
 did siezed something. Being spread his dominion is dreadfully 
 extensive so that his countryman boastally say " the sun are never 
 sets on our doininions." The Testamony of English said that he 
 that lost the common sense, he never any benefit though he had 
 gained the complete world. The English are cunning institutioned 
 to establish a great empire of the Paradise. The Englishman 
 always' said to the another nation "give me your land and I will 
 
English as she is Japped. 139 
 
 give you my Testimony." So it is not a robbed but exchanged as 
 the Englishman always confide the object to be pure and the order 
 to be holy and they reproach him if any them are killed to death 
 with the contention of other man. (I shall continue the other 
 time.) 
 
 Tbe young essayist hits us rather hard — doesn't he ? — when 
 he drags into the garish light of day our little foible for 
 giving a " Testimony " in exchange for " the another na- 
 tion's land." 
 
 A recent writer, who prefixes an English preface to an 
 interesting " Collection of Registered Trade Marks," observes 
 that The society in niuteentk century is always going to be 
 ciciliijed, and so all things are also improved. The rnuse 
 being of course reckoned among " civiliging " influences, 
 a little volume has been published at Tokyo with the object 
 of inducting the Far-Eastern mind into the mysteries of 
 English verse. It is entitled Xeie of Pom and Song the English 
 and Japanese. Occasionally Japanese youths themselves, like 
 Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, " drop into poetry." 
 
 The Watekfall at Yobo, neak Lake Biwa. 
 
 The name is well-known by the all, 
 The graceful scene from old to now ; 
 Not only scene but waterfall 
 With silver colour, sail-like bow. 
 
 It's thundering shakes country round, 
 Dash'd in a cloud of water. 
 Small silver balls on loftily send 
 Heavy mist and ceaseless shower. 
 
 It comes far up the mountain to 
 Below, a flow of water, then 
 
140 English as she is Japped. 
 
 A river, with the branches two 
 Bunning quietly to the ocean. 
 
 Oh ; gentle, gentle, very poor boy, 
 His rumd so obey father's sake, 
 A sweet sake, Thou, spout out by, 
 How joyful tears on face he take. 
 
 Once and once emperor's visit, 
 Matter was pleasant, and in sure 
 Emperor's mind joyful was set : 
 Honourable name to the year. 
 
 The latter part of this poem is somewhat discursive. The 
 
 following — so far as we apprehend its obscurities through the 
 
 mist of poetic license — would appear to be a dithyramb in 
 
 praise of woman, who is apostrophised as the cement of 
 
 ■society, or, to use the youthful bard's own realistic expression, 
 
 " social glue." 
 
 Her Glee. 
 
 The purest flame, the hottest heat 
 
 Is Woman's Power ever earth ; 
 "Which mighty black and pale down beat, 
 
 And made the Eden, place of birth. 
 
 Of what ? of what ? can thou tell me ? 
 
 A birth of Noble, High, value — 
 The station He destined for thee — 
 
 Of woman, Mother, Social Glue. 
 
 Let her be moved from earth, to try. 
 
 What dark mist overhelms human Bace ! 
 Let Lady claim with all the cry : — 
 
 " Can you still hold and hold your peace ? " 
 
 How sweet, how mirthful, gay is Name ! 
 
 What boon, thing, may exceed in kind ? 
 Would She be praised, entolled— not Shame : 
 
 Tie Pale, of Both, to bound, to bind. 
 
English as she is Japped. 141 
 
 And now, Japanese readers, if haply any such favour this 
 little book with their perusal, rise not in your wrath, to 
 indict us of treachery and unkindness. We mean nothing 
 against the honour of Japan. But finding Tokyo life dull 
 on the whole, we solace ourselves by a little innocent 
 laughter at an innocent foible whenever we can find one to 
 laugh at. You yourselves could doubtless make up, on 
 the subject of Japanese as she is Englished, an article which 
 should be no less comical — an article which should tran- 
 scribe the first painful lispings in " globe-trotterese," and the 
 perhaps still funnier, because more pretentious, efforts of those 
 of us who think ourselves rather adepts in Japanese as 
 spoken by the upper circles. For our own part, we can feel 
 our heavy British accent dragging down to earth every light- 
 winged syllable of Japanese as we pronounce it. We laugh 
 at ourselves for this. Why should we not laugh at you 
 when occasion offers ? There is only one style of English 
 as she is Japped which calls, not for laughter, but for the 
 severest blame, — the style exemplified in soi-disant educa- 
 tional works, such as Conversations in English and Japanese 
 for . Merchant irlio the English Language, — English Letter 
 Writer, for the Gentlemen who regard on the Commercial and an 
 Official, — Enylishand. Japanies. Xames of Letteps, and the 
 other productions whereby shameless scribblers make money 
 out of unsophisticated students. And yet these curiosities of 
 literature are too grotesque for at least the European reader 
 to be long angry with them. One of the funniest, entitled 
 The Practical use of Conversation for Police Authorities, was pub- 
 lished at Osaka in 1886. After giving " Cordinal number," 
 " Official Tittle," " Parts of the Body " such as " a gung,*" 
 
 * The Japanese translation shows that " gum " is the word, intended. 
 
142 English as she is Japped. 
 
 "ajow," "the mustaoheo," diseases such as "a caucer," 
 "blind," " a ginddiness," " the megrim," " a throat wen," 
 and other words useful to policemen, the compiler arrives at 
 "Misseranious subjects," which take the form of conversations, 
 some of them real masterpieces. Here is one between a 
 representative of " the force " and an English blue-jacket : — 
 
 What countryman are you ? 
 
 I am a sailor belonged to the Golden-Eagle, the English man- 
 of-war. 
 
 "Why do you strike this Jinrikisha-man ? 
 
 He told me impolitely. 
 
 "What does he told you impolitely ? 
 
 He insulted me saing loudly " the Sailor the Sailor " when I am 
 passing here. 
 
 Do you striking this man for that ? 
 
 Yes. 
 
 But do not strike him for it is forbided 
 
 I strike him no more. 
 
 J- j|; ?* $Z %Z %L 
 
 Have you any proof for the robber should be entirely inside origin, 
 but not outside ? 
 
 Yes : I have. 
 
 Please explain it. 
 
 There left the hands and the foot-prints on the rail of the fence 
 elected between the next door and No . 
 
 The suspicious one is the cook in the next door. 
 
 The author teaches his policemen, not only to converse, 
 but to moralise. Thus : 
 
 Japanese Police Force consists of nice young men. 
 
 But I regret that their attires are not perfectly neat. 
 
 When a constable come in conduct with a people he shall be polite 
 and tender in his manner of speaking and movement. 
 
 If he will terrify or scold the people with enormous voice, he will 
 become himself an object of fear for the people. 
 
Esotericism. 143 
 
 Civilized people is meek, but barbarous peoples is vain and baugty. 
 
 A cloud-like writing of Chinese character, and performance of the 
 Chinese poem, or cross hung on the breast, would no more worthy, 
 to pretend others to avail himself to be a great man. 
 
 Those Japanese who aquired a little of foreign language, think 
 that they have the knowledge of foreign countries, as Chinese, 
 English or French, there is nothing hard to success what they 
 attempt. 
 
 They would imitate themselves to Cassar, the ablest hero of Borne, 
 who has been raised the army against his own country, crossing the 
 river Eabicon. 
 
 A gleam of diffidence seems to cross the police mind when 
 one policeman says to the other " You speak the English 
 very well," and the other replies " You jest." 
 
 Books recommended. Those mentioned in the text. See also 
 Chap. VII of Miss Duncan's delightful book, A Social Departure, for a side- 
 splitting specimen of the dialect under consideration. 
 
 Esotericism. When an Englishman hears the word 
 " esoteric " mentioned, the first thing, probably, that comes 
 into his head is Buddhism, the second the name of Mr. 
 Sinnett or of the late Madame Blavatsky. Matters stand 
 somewhat differently in Japan. Not religion only, but every 
 art here is or has been esoteric — poetry, music, porcelain- 
 making, fencing, even bone-setting, and cookery itself. 
 Esotericism is not a unique mystery shrouding a special 
 class of subjects. It is a general attitude of the mind at 
 a certain stage, and a very natural attitude too, if one 
 takes the trouble to look into it. Ordinary men do not wear 
 their hearts on their sleeves for daws to peck at. Why should 
 an artist do so with his art ? Why should he desecrate his 
 art by initiating unworthy persons into its principles ? Nor 
 is it merely a question of advisability, or of delicacy and good 
 
144 Esotericism. 
 
 taste. It is a'question of possibility and imposibility. Only 
 sympathetic pupils are fitted by nature to understand certain 
 things ; and certain things can only be taught by word of 
 mouth, and when the spirit moves one. Moreover, there 
 comes in the question of money. Esoteric teaching of the 
 lower arts may be said to have performed, in old days, the 
 function of our modern system of patents. 
 
 Such are, it would seem, the chief headings of the subject, 
 considered in the abstract. Fill them out, if you please, by 
 further reflection and further research ; and if you wish to 
 talk to your Japanese friends about esotericism, remember 
 the fascinating words, liiden, "secret tradition;" hijitsu, 
 "secret art;" and olnuji, "inner mysteries," which play a 
 notable part in Japanese history and literature. 
 
 Many are the stories told of the faithful constancy with 
 which initiation into hidden mysteries has been sought. 
 Early in the tenth century there lived a great musician, a 
 nobleman named Haktiga-no-Sammi. But one Semi-Maro 
 was a greater musician still. He dwelt in retirement, with 
 no other companion but his lute, and there was a melody of 
 which he alone had the secret. Hakuga — as he may be 
 styled for shortness' sake — went every evening for three years 
 to listen at Semi's gate, but in vain. At last, one autumn 
 night, when the wind was soughing through the sedges, and 
 the moon was half-hidden by a cloud, Hakuga heard the 
 magic strains begin, and, when they ceased, he heard the 
 player exclaim, " Alas ! that there should be none to whom 
 I might hand on this precious possession ! " Thereupon 
 Hakuga took courage. He entered the hermitage, prostrated 
 himself, declared his name and rank, and humbly implored 
 to be received by Semi as his disciple. This Semi consented 
 
Esotericisna. 145 
 
 to, and gradually revealed to him all the innermost recesses 
 of his art. — According to Mr. E. H. Parker, this story, like 
 many another Japanese story, is but the echo of a far older 
 Chinese tradition. But whether true or false, whether native 
 or foreign, it is a favourite motive with Japanese painters. 
 
 Undoubtedly authentic, and very different in its tenor, is 
 the tale of Kato Tamikichi, a manufacturer of porcelain at 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century. His master, Tsu- 
 gane Bunzaeuion, who owned a kiln in the province of Owari, 
 envied the skill of the Karatsu porcelain-makers in the use 
 of blue and white, and was determined to penetrate their 
 secret. Accordingly he succeeded in arranging a marriage 
 between one of his pupils, Kato Tamikichi, and the daughter 
 of the chief of the Karatsu people. Kato, thus taken into 
 the family in so distant a province, was regarded as one of 
 themselves and admitted into their fullest confidence. Things 
 went on quietly for years, during which he became the father 
 of several children. At last, one day, Kato expressed a long- 
 ing desire to revisit the scenes of his childhood and to enquire 
 after his old master. Nothing doubting, the Karatsu people 
 let him go. But when he reached Owari, he disclosed to his 
 former master all that he had learnt at Karatsu, the con- 
 sequence of which was that the Owari porcelain was greatly 
 improved, and obtained an immense sale in the neighbouring 
 market of Osaka, the richest in the empire. When this came 
 to the ears of the Karatsu people, they were so much enraged 
 that they caused Kato's wife and children to be crucified. 
 He himself died a raving lunatic. 
 
 Since the latter part of the Middle Ages, the general 
 prevalence among the upper classes of luxury, idleness, and 
 a superstitious veneration for the past, even in trivial mat- 
 
146 Esotericism. 
 
 ters, together with a love of mystery, produced the most 
 puerile whims. For instance, the court nobles at Kyoto kept 
 to themselves, with all the apparatus of esotericism, the 
 interpretation of the names of three birds and of three trees 
 mentioned in an ancient book of poetry called the Kokinshu. 
 No sacrament could have been more jealously guarded from 
 impious hands, or rather lips. But when the great scholar, 
 Motoori, disdaining all mumbo-jumbo, brought the light of 
 true philological criticism to bear on the texts in question, 
 lo and behold ! one of the mysterious birds proved to be none 
 other then the familiar wagtail, the second remained difficult 
 to fix accurately, and the third name was not that of any 
 particular species, but merely a general expression signifying 
 the myriad little birds that twitter in spring. The three 
 mysterious trees were equally common-place. 
 
 Foolish as the three bird secret was (and it was but one 
 among a hundred such), it had the power to save the life of 
 a brave general, Hosokawa Yusai, who, being besieged in 
 A. D. 1600 by a son of the famous ruler Hideyoshi, was on 
 the point of seeing his garrison starved into a surrender. 
 This came to the ears of the Mikado ; and His Majesty, 
 knowing that Hosokawa was not only a warrior, but a learned 
 man, well-versed in the mysteries of the Kokinshu — three 
 birds and all — and fearing that this inestimable store of 
 erudition might perish with him and be lost to the world 
 for ever, exerted his personal influence to such good effect 
 that an edict was issued commanding the attacking army to 
 retire. 
 
 Viewed from a critical standpoint, Chinese and Japanese 
 esoterics well deserve thorough investigation by some com- 
 petent hand. We ourselves do not think that much would 
 
Eta. 147 
 
 be added thereby to the world's store of wisdom. But we 
 do think that a flood of light would be shed upon some of the 
 most curious nooks and crannies of the human mind. 
 
 Eta. The origin of the eta, or Japanese pariahs, is 
 altogether obscure. Some see in them the descendants of 
 Korean captives, brought to Japan during the wars of the 
 latter part of the sixteenth century. By others they are 
 considered to be the illegitimate descendants of the celebrated 
 generalissimo Yoritomo, who lived as far back as the twelfth 
 century.' Even the etymology of the name is a subject of 
 dispute among the learned, some of whom believe it to be 
 from the Chinese characters JH|J eta, "defilement abundant," 
 while others derive it from e-tori gflK, " food-catchers," in 
 allusion to the slaughtering of cattle and other animals, 
 which, together with skinning such animals, digging crimi- 
 nals' graves, and similar degrading occupations, constituted 
 their means of livelihood. We ourselves incline to date back 
 the first gradual organisation of the eta as a separate class to 
 a very early period indeed — say the seventh or eighth century 
 — when the introduction of Buddhism had caused all those 
 who were connected in any way with the taking of life to be 
 looked on with horror and disdain. 
 
 The legal distinction between the eta and other persons 
 of the lower orders was abolished on the 12th October, 1871, 
 at which time the official census gave 287,111 as the number 
 of eta properly so-called, and 982,800 as the total number of 
 ■outcasts of all descriptions. Scorn of the eta has naturally 
 survived the abolition of their legal disabilites. It is a 
 favourite theme of contemporary novelists, one of whom, 
 Encho, has excellently adapted the plot of Wilkie Collins's 
 
148 Exterritoriality. 
 
 New Magdalen to the Japanese life of our day, by substituting: 
 for the courtesan of the English original a girl who had 
 degraded herself by marrying an eta. 
 
 Bool*: recommended. The Eta Maklcn and the Hatamoto, inYol.. 
 I. of Mitford's Tales of Old Japan. 
 
 EurasiailS. Half-castes are often called Eurasians, from 
 their being half-iftwopeans and half- Asiatics or Asians. They 
 are as a rule delicate, and the girls are often pretty, though 
 always betraying in their eyes the secret of their mixed origin. 
 Eurasians usually resemble the Japanese mother rather than, 
 the European father, in accordance with the general physio- 
 logical law whereby the fair parent gives way to the dark. 
 The time that has elapsed since Japanese Eurasians began to 
 be numerous is not long enough to inform us whether 
 this mixed race will endure, or whether, as so often happens 
 in such cases, it will die out in the third or fourth generation. 
 
 Exterritoriality. Exterritoriality, or extra-territori- 
 ality, as it is called by extra-particular speakers, is the exemption 
 of the foreigners residing in a country from the jurisdiction of 
 the law-courts of that country. This exemption exists both 
 in China and Japan. Thus, if an Englishman commits a 
 theft, he is tried, not by any Japanese judge, but by the- 
 nearest British consular court. ' In civil cases where one- 
 party is a Japanese and the other a foreigner, the suit is 
 carried into the court of the defendant's nationality. If I 
 want to sue a Japanese, I must sue him in a Japanese court ; 
 but a Japanese sues me in the British court. A corollary to 
 this is that the interior of Japan remains closed to foreign 
 residence and foreign trade,--even to foreign travel except 
 with passports issued for brief periods, it being evidently 
 
Fairy-Tales. 149 
 
 undesirable that a country should harbour persons not 
 amenable to its laws. Foreigners are therefore restricted to 
 Yokohama, Kobe, and the other " Treaty Ports." 
 
 Exterritoriality, claimed thirty years ago as the only 
 modus rivendi which could render the existence of civilised 
 Christian beings endurable in the Japan of those days, has 
 since then been violently assailed by some as unjust to Japan, 
 whose independent sovereign rights it is held to infringe. 
 Thus, the partisans of exterritoriality found their arguments 
 on alleged practical utility, whereas its opponents argue 
 deductively from considerations of abstract right. 
 
 Fairy-Tales. The Japanese have plenty of fairy-tales ; 
 but the greater number can be traced to a Chinese, and 
 several of these again to a Buddhist, that is, to an Indian, 
 source. Among the most popular are Urashima, Momotaro, 
 The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab, The Tongue-Cut 
 Sparrow, The House's. Wedding, The Old Man who Made the 
 Tress to Blossom, The Crackling Mountain and The Lucky 
 Tea-Kettle. 
 
 Though' it is convenient to speak of these stories as " fairy- 
 tales," fairies properly so-called do not appear in them. 
 Instead of fairies, there are goblins and devils, together with 
 foxes, cats, and badgers, possessed of superhuman powers 
 for working evil. We feel that we are in a fairy-land al- 
 together foreign to that which gave Europe " Cinderella" 
 and " Puss in Boots," — no less foreign to that which pro- 
 duced the gorgeously complicated marvels of the "Arabian 
 Nights." 
 
 Sooks TOCOmmend ed. The Japanese Fairy -Tale Scries, published 
 by the Kobunsha, Tokyo. — Mil ford's Tales of Old Japan, latter part of Vol. I. — 
 <Jriffis's Japanese Fairy TI'oTld. — Olden Time Tales for Little People. 
 
150 Fans. 
 
 Fans. Incidental mention of fans occurs in the oldest 
 official annals of the country. Thus, under date 763 A.D., 
 we read of Imperial permission being granted to a courtier to- 
 bring his staff and fan into the palace precincts, on the score 
 of age and infirmity. Apparently fans were then tabooed by 
 strict etiquette, which is remarkable, as they afterwards be- 
 came an indispensable adjunct of Court dress for both sexes. 
 
 Fans are of two kinds, — two chief kinds, that is, for there- 
 is an immense number of minor varieties, — the round fan not 
 capable of being shut (uchiwa), and the folding fan (ogi). 
 The fans of early days would seem to have been all of the- 
 non-folding type. . The Japanese pride themselves on being 
 the inventors of the folding fan, which they assert to have 
 been borrowed from them by the Chinese as late as the time 
 of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). A noble lady, widow 
 of the youthful hero Atsumori,* is credited with the idea- 
 At the temple of Mieido in Kyoto, whither she had retired to 
 hide her grief under the garb of a nun, she cured the abbot 
 of a fever by fanning him with a paper folding fan, over which 
 she mutterred incantations ; and to the present day the 
 priests of this temple are considered special adepts in the 
 manufacture of fans, whence the name of Mieidd adopted by 
 many fan-shops all over the empire. 
 
 Of the less common varieties of the fan, perhaps the 
 strangest are the giant kinds carried at the festival of the 
 Sun-Goddess in Ise and by the firemen of Kyoto, and; 
 especially the war-fans formerly used by military commanders- 
 to point with and give force to their orders. Iron was the 
 material usually employed, and the ornamentation consisted 
 
 * For an outline of Atsutnori's touching story, sec Muiray's " Handbook to 
 Japan," 3rd edit., p. 42, under the heading Kmnagai Kaozmie. 
 
Pans. 151 
 
 on one side of a red sun on a gold ground, and on the 
 other of a silver moon and stars on a black or dark 
 blue ground. Ordinary fans are made of paper pasted 
 over split bamboo. Japanese fans excel in cheapness as 
 in elegance, ten cents being the usual price for a folding 
 fan, threa or four cents for one of the non-folding kind. 
 Fans are used as bellows ; they are even used as trays to 
 hand things on. A man of the lower class will often 
 hold a partially opened fan in front of his mouth when 
 addressing a superior, so as to obviate the possibility of 
 his breath or spittle defiling the superior's face ; but to fan 
 oneself vigorously in the presence of a superior is not good 
 manners. 
 
 To attempt a description of the quaint and poetical conceits 
 with which Japanese fan-makers adorn their wares, would be 
 to embark on a list of almost all the art-motives of the 
 country; for nearly all — ■ excepting perhaps religion — are 
 drawn on. The little picture is often accompanied by a 
 verse of poetry in black or gold letters, or else there is only 
 the poetry and no picture. 
 
 Fans have been extensively used as vehicles for advertise- 
 ments ; but the -Japanese advertiser of the older school 
 generally disarmed criticism by the, so to say, apologetic 
 moderation with which he practised that most detestable 
 of all arts or rather artifices. In these Jin de Steele 
 days, however, when Europeanisation has corrupted every- 
 thing, one has much to suffer from while fanning oneself 
 on a hot day. Art has surely sounded its lowest depths 
 when it comes to pourtraying a lager beer bottle on one 
 side of a fan, and to providing a railway time-table on 
 the other. 
 
152 Fashionable Crazes. 
 
 Fashionable Crazes. Japan stood still so long that 
 
 the has now to move quickly and often, to make up for lost 
 time. Every year or two there is a new craze, over which 
 the nation, or at least that part of the nation which resides 
 in Tokyo, goes wild for a season. The chief crazes witnessed 
 during the last seventeen years are as follows : — - 
 
 1873. This was the rabbit' year.' There were none of these 
 little quadrupeds in Japan. Hence, when imported as 
 curiosities, they fetched incredible prices. As much as 
 $1,000 was sometimes paid for a single specimen. Specu- 
 lations in $400 and $500 rabbits were of daily occurrence. 
 In the following year, 1874, the government put a capitation 
 tax on rabbits, the price fell in consequence from dollars to 
 <?ents, and the luckless rabbit -gamblers were ruined in a 
 moment. 
 
 1874-5. Cock-fighting. 
 
 1876-7. The omoto (Eliodca japonica), a plant with bright 
 red berries. 
 
 1882-3. Printing dictionaries and other works by sub- 
 scription. Many of these literary enterprises tinned out to 
 be fraudulent, and had to be dealt with by the police. About 
 1883 was also the great time for founding^societies, learned 
 and otherwise. 
 
 1884. Boating on the Eiver Sumida. 
 
 1885. Velocipedes, and the Bhodea japonicn again ; also 
 whist, which the Japanese call toromvv, a corruption of our 
 word " trump." 
 
 1885-7. Waltzing and gigantic funerals. During these 
 years there was also, in official circles, an epidemic of what 
 was locally known as " the German measles." 
 
 1887. Mesmerism, table-turning, and planchette. 
 
Festivals. 153 
 
 1888. Wrestling, in which the then prime minister, Count 
 Kuroda, led the fashion. 
 
 1889. Joint stock companies. A general revival of all 
 native Japanese amusements, Japanese costume, anti-foreign 
 agitation, etc. This was the great year of reaction. 
 
 Festivals. The holidays observed officially are : — 
 
 Jax. 1, 3, 5. — New Year. 
 
 Jan. 30. — Death of Komei Tenno, the late Mikado, A.D. 
 1867. 
 
 Feb. 11. — Accession of Jimmu Tenno, the first Mikado, 
 B-C. 660. Promulgation of the Constitution, A.D. 1889. 
 
 March 21. — Spring Festival of the Imperial ancestors, — an 
 adaptation of the Buddhist Hirjan, or Equinoctial festival of 
 the dead, who are supposed to cross the ocean of existence 
 and reach the other {hi) shore (gait), that is, Nirvana: 
 
 April 3. — Death of Jimmu Tenno. 
 
 Sept. 23. — Autumn Festival of the Imperial ancestors. 
 
 Oct. 17. — Offering of first-fruits to the Shinto gods. 
 
 Nov. 3. — Birthday of the present Mikado. 
 
 Nov. 23. — The Mikado tastes the first-fruits offered to his 
 ancestors. 
 
 The observance of most of these holidays is as modern as 
 the flags that are flown and the salutes that are fired in their 
 honour. The occasions of them may serve as a measure of 
 the all-engrossing importance of the Imperial House since the 
 revolution. There is another set of holidays of more ancient 
 institution, which, though perhaps less observed year by 
 year, still live on in the thoughts and usages of the people, 
 and especially in their dinners, as. tlie defeat of the Spanish 
 Armada does in our English Michaelmas goose. The chief 
 
154 Festivals. 
 
 dates a"re as" follows, and it is most convenient to begin the 
 enumeration, more Japcmico, at the end : — 
 
 Dec. 13. — This day is called Koto-hajime, that is, " the 
 beginning of things," because such preparations for New 
 Year as house-cleaning, decorating, and the pounding of rice 
 for cakes (mochi), are then taken in hand. People eat o-koto- 
 jiru on this day, — a kind of stew whose ingredients are 
 generally red beans, potatoes, mushrooms, sliced fish, and a 
 root called honnyakii; Presents of money are made to ser- 
 vants by their masters at this time of year. 
 
 Dec. 22. — The winter solstice (Toji). Doctors then wor- 
 ship the Chinese Esculapius. 
 
 Jan. 1.-8 — Termed the Sun-ga-niclu, or "three days" of 
 New Year, when the people eat a stew called xoni. In Tokyo 
 this stew consists of rice-cakes and greens boiled in fish gravy. 
 
 Jan. 7. — This day is termed Nana-kusa, or the Seven 
 Herbs, because in early times the Court and people used then 
 to go out to pluck parsley and six other edible herbs, — a 
 custom, to which the poets make frequent allusion. Bice- 
 gruel, or congee flavoured with greens, is the appropriate dish- 
 (About the 9th January, the people resume their ordinary 
 work). 
 
 Jan. 15-16.— The end of the New Year holidays. The 16th 
 is the Hukunin no Yudo-iri, or Prentices Holiday Home. 
 Rice-gruel mixed with red beans is eaten. 
 
 Jan. 2Q. — Kura-biraki, that is, the day on which godowns 
 are first opened. This is, however, more a name than a fact. 
 Zoni is the dish of the day. 
 
 Setsubun is the name of a movable feast occuring some- 
 times late in January, sometimes early in February, on the 
 eve of the first day of spring, old calendar. Beans are 
 
Festivals. 155 
 
 scattered about the house on the evening of this day in order 
 to scare away demons, and of these beans each person present 
 eats one more than the number of the years of his age. 
 
 N. B. Azuki-meshi, that is, rice mixed with red beans, is eaten on 
 the 1st, 15th, and 2Sth of each month, these being the so-called san- 
 jitsu, or " three days." On the 30th, people eat buckwheat vermicelli 
 (misoka-soba) . 
 
 The First Day of the Horse (Hatsu-wna) in Februaey, con- 
 sequently a movable feast. This day is sacred to the Fox- 
 Goddess Inari. For the little that is known of this deity, 
 see Murray's Handbook for Japan, 3rd edit., pp. 29 and 298. 
 
 March 3. — The Girl's Festival (Jumino Sekku), when every 
 town is decked out with dolls. It is also called Tlina Atatsuri, 
 that is, the Feast of Dolls. A sweet drink called shiro-zah- is 
 partaken of on this day. 
 
 March 17. — This and the next six days are the already 
 mentioned great Buddhist equinoctial festival of Higan. On 
 the actual day of the equinox, the sun is believed to whirl 
 . round and round at sunset. 
 
 April 8. — Buddha's Birthday. Images of the infant Bud- 
 dha {Tanju- Shako) are set up in the temples for worshippers to 
 pour liquorice tea (ama-cha) over with a ladle. This tea 
 is then bought, and either partaken of at home in order to 
 kill the worms that cause various internal diseases, or placed 
 near the pillars of the house to prevent ants and other insect 
 pests from entering. 
 
 May 5. — The Boy's Festival {Tango no Sckku), when such 
 warlike toys as bows and arrows are sold, and gigantic paper 
 fishes are flown from the houses, as explained on p. 83. Ex- 
 cept New Year, this is of all Japanese festivals the one whose 
 outward signs are most effective. 
 
156 Festivals. 
 
 June 22. — Geshi, or the summer solstice. 
 
 July l.—Tanabatct. The idea of this festival is most 
 poetical. See last paragraph, of the article on Sun, Moon, 
 and Stars. 
 
 July 13-16. — This is the great Buddhist festival of Bon, 
 which is often called by foreigners the Feast of Lanterns, but 
 might better be rendered as All Souls' Day. The spirits of 
 dead ancestors then visit the altar sacred to them in each house- 
 hold, and special offerings of food are made to them, The 
 living restrict themselves to maigre dishes as far as possible. 
 The ceremony of " opening the river'' (kaiva-biraki), as it is 
 termed, generally takes place in To.kyo about this time. The 
 spectacle is a delightful one. Half the town goes out on the 
 River Sumida in boats gaily decked with lanterns, while 
 fireworks and music add to the gaiety of the evening. The 
 rural population of most parts of the empire celebrate the 
 festival by a dance known as Bon-odori (see p. 103). — 
 It is usual for masters to fee their servants at the Bon 
 season. This should-be done not later than the 13th. 
 
 July 1G. — A second prentices' holiday. 
 
 The Boyo no Iri, or " first of the dog-days," and the Boyd 
 Saburo, or " third dog-day," are kept by the eating of peculiar 
 cakes. The third dog-day is considered by the peasantry a 
 turning-point in the life of the crops. Eels are eaten on any 
 day of the Bull {Boyd no ushi) that may occur during this 
 period of greatest heat. 
 
 September 9. — The ChdyO no Sckku, a holiday whose 
 appropriate dish is rice mixed with chestnuts. 
 
 September 20th. — The autumn equinox. 
 
 October 20. — The festival of Ebisu-ho, so called after one 
 of the Gods of Luck, the only one of all the eight million 
 
Festivals. 157 
 
 gods to remain at large during October, which is called the 
 "godless month" (Kawi-n.i-zuki), because all the other gods 
 then desert their proper shrines, and go off to the great temple 
 of Izumo. The reason for Ebisu's not accompanying them 
 is that, being deaf, he does not hear their summons. On 
 this day tradesmen sell off their surplus stock, and give 
 entertainments to their customers, correspondents, etc., as an 
 amends — so it is half -jocularly said — for cheating them 
 during the rest of the twelvemonth. At present, -when all 
 such antique customs are falling into desuetude, the 20th 
 October has come to be regarded rather as a day for what 
 are called hmshinlanii, — social gatherings, that is, of the 
 members of a guild, political coterie, learned society, and 
 so forth. 
 
 November has several Shinto festivals. The most notable 
 of these, held in honour of the Goddess of the Kitchen- 
 range (Hettsui no Kami), and termed Fuigo Mntsuri, or the 
 Feast of Bellows, takes place on the 8th. Fires are then 
 also lighted in honour of Inari and other deities in the courts 
 of Shinto temples, — the reason, so far as Inari is concerned, 
 being the assistance rendered by that deity to the famous 
 sword-smith Kokaji, for whom she blew the bellows while he 
 was forging a sword for an ancient Mikado. 
 
 November 15. — This is the day on which children who have 
 reached the age of three are supposed to leave off having 
 their heads shaved. It is accordingly called Kami-uki, that 
 is, "hair-leaving," but corresponds to no actual reality, at 
 least in modern times. The Kasuhi-zome, or " first veiling " 
 of girls aged five, and the Haknma-gi, or " first trowsering " 
 of boys aged five, formerly took place on the same day ; but 
 these too are now empty names. 
 
158 Festivals. 
 
 Deo. 8th. — The Hari no Kuyo, a festival at which women 
 repose themselves from the constant, use of the needle by 
 entertaining the other members of the household, — they, and 
 not the men, directing matters for the nonce. 
 
 Thus ends the year. The adoption of the. European 
 calendar in 1873 tended to disorganise the old Japanese 
 round of festivals ; for New Year now comes five or six weeks 
 earlier than formerly, and the association of each holiday with 
 a special season was destroyed. How go out and search for 
 spring herbs on the 7th January, when winter weather is 
 just beginning, instead of showing signs of drawing to an end ? 
 Confronted with this difficulty, usage has vacillated. For 
 the most part the old date has been retained, notwithstanding 
 the change" thus caused in the actual day. To take the 
 instance just alluded to, the 7tli of the 1st moon, which 
 would formerly have fallen somewhere about the middle or 
 end of February, is retained as the 7th January. In other 
 cases the actual day is retained, irrespective of the date to 
 which it may correspond in tbe new calendar ; but this en- 
 tails a fresh calculation every year, the old calendar having 
 been lunar and irregular in several respects, not simply a 
 fixed number of days behind ours, as, for instance, the 
 Eussian calendar is. A third plan has been to strike an 
 average, making the date of each festival exactly one 
 month later than formerly, though the actual day becomes 
 about a fortnight earlier. Thus the festival of the 7th day 
 of the 7th moon, old style, is in some places celebrated on 
 the present 7th August, though really falling somewhere 
 about the 20th August, if the calculation be properly worked 
 out. Energetic holiday-makers will even celebrate the same 
 festival twice — first according to the new calendar and then 
 
Filial Piety. 159 
 
 according to the old, so as to be sure of keeping on good 
 terms with the invisible powers that be. Altogether, there is 
 great confusion and discrepancy of usage, making it likely 
 that independent European enquirers will arrive at varying 
 results, as there is no longer any authority to appeal to, and 
 each place is a law unto itself. 
 
 The list given above does not of course pretend to be ex- 
 haustive. There are local as well as general festivals, and 
 these local festivals have great importance in their special 
 localities. Such are the Qion festival at Kyoto, and the 
 Samio and K«nda festivals at Tokyo. Gioii and Sanno take 
 place in the middle of July, Kandu in the middle of September. 
 All three are distinguished by processions, of which the chief 
 feature is a train of triumphal or rather mythological cars, 
 called dashi by the Tokyo people, yama or lwlio by the people 
 of Kyoto. We have not been able to ascertain precisely the 
 origin and significance of this custom, which seems doomed 
 to disappear, as the height of the cars has been found to inter- 
 fere with the telegraph, telephone, and electric light wires that 
 now spread their web over the great cities. 
 
 Ttoola recomiucnded. Admloffia Qiapponetr, by Antelmo Severi- 
 ni, gives details that may interest the student of folklore and superstitions. 
 
 Filial Piety." Filial piety is the virtue par excellence of 
 China and Japan. From it springs loyalty |- which is but tbe 
 childlike obedience of a subject to the Emperor, who is re- 
 garded, in Chinese phrase, as " the father and mother of his 
 people." On these two fundamental virtues the whole fabric 
 of society is reared. Accordingly, one of the gravest dangers 
 to Japan at tbe present time arises from the sudden impor- 
 
 * In Japanese, id, or more popularly, oya-Tcoko. 
 t In Japanese, chu t or chunhin. 
 
160 Filial Piety. 
 
 tation of our less patriarchal Western ideas on these points. 
 The traditional basis of morality is sapped. 
 
 There are no greater favourites with the people of Japan 
 
 than the " Four-and-Twenty Paragons of Filial Piety" 
 
 (Ni-ju-shi Ko), whose quaint acts of virtue Chinese legend 
 
 records. For instance, one of the Paragons had a cruel 
 
 stepmother who was very fond of fish. Never repining at 
 
 her harsh treatment of him, he lay down .naked on the frozen 
 
 surface of a lake. The warmth of his body melted a hole in 
 
 the ice, at which two carp came up to breathe. These he 
 
 caught and set before his stepmother. Another Paragon, 
 
 though of tender years and having a delicate skin, insisted 
 
 on sleeping uncovered at night, in order that the mosquitoes 
 
 should fasten on him alone, and allow his parents to slumber 
 
 undisturbed. A third, who was very poor, determined to 
 
 bury his own child alive, in order to have more food wherewith 
 
 to support his aged mother, but was rewarded by heaven 
 
 with the discovery of a vessel filled with gold, on which the 
 
 whole family lived happily ever after. A fourth, who was of 
 
 the female sex, enabled her father to escape, while she clung 
 
 to the jaws of the tiger which was about to devour him. But 
 
 the drollest of all is the story of Eoraishi. This Paragon? 
 
 though seventy years old, used to dress in baby's clothes and 
 
 sprawl about upon the floor. His object was piously to delude 
 
 his parents, who were really over ninety years of age, into 
 
 the idea that they could not be so very old after all, seeing 
 
 that they still had such a puerile son. 
 
 Those readers who wish to learn all about the remaining 
 nineteen Paragons should consult Anderson's Catalogue of 
 Japanese and Chinese Paintings, page 171, where also an 
 illustration of each is given. The Japanese have established a 
 
Fires. 161 
 
 set of " Four-and- Twenty Native Paragons " (Honcho Ni-ju-shi 
 Ku) of their own, but these are less popular. 
 
 The first question a European will probably ask on being 
 told of the lengths to which filial piety is carried in the Far- 
 East is : how can the parents be so stony-hearted as to think of 
 allowing their children thus to sacrifice themselves ? But 
 such a consideration never occurs to a Chinese or Japanese 
 mind. That children should sacrifice themselves to their 
 parents is, in the Far-Eastern view of things, a principle as 
 indisputable as the duty of men to cede the best of everything 
 to women is with us. Far-Eastern parents accept their 
 children's sacrifices much as our women accept the front seat — 
 with thanks perhaps, but as a matter of course. No text in 
 the Bible raises so much prejudice here against Christianity 
 as that which commands a man to leave his father and mother 
 and cleave to his wife : "There! you see it," exclaims the 
 anti- Christian Japanese, pointing to the passage, " I always 
 said that it was an immoral religion." 
 
 Fires were formerly so common in Japan's wood and 
 paper cities, that the nickname of " Yedo blossoms " was 
 applied to the flames which in winter almost nightly lit up 
 the metropolis with fantastic lustre. So completely did this 
 destructive agency establish itself as a national institution, 
 that a whole vocabulary grew up to express every shade 
 of meaning in matters fiery. The Japanese language has 
 special terms for an incendiary fire, an accidental fire, a fire 
 starting from one's own house, a fire caught from next door, 
 a fire which one shares with others, a fire which is burning 
 to an end, the flame of a fire, anything— for instance, a 
 brazier — from which a fire may arise, the side from which to 
 
162 Fires. 
 
 attack a fire in order to extinguish it, a visit of condolence 
 after a fire, and so on. We have not given half.* Were all 
 records except the linguistic record destroyed, one would 
 still be able to divine how terrible an enemy fire had been 
 to Japanese comfort and Japanese antiquities. Fire insurance, 
 be it observed, was not among the words connected with fire 
 in Old Japan. It dates only from the new regime, being 
 Europe's contribution to the vocabulary. But of course the 
 practice of fire insurance can gain vogue but slowly ; for what 
 capitalists will find it worth their while to assume rislcs so 
 heavy, even supposing the people, who are mostly poor and who 
 grudge actual expenditure in the present for a problematical 
 return in the future, to be willing purchasers of policies ? 
 
 To Ooka, the Japanese Solomon, who was mayor and judge 
 of Yedo early in the eighteenth century, belongs the credit of 
 having organised the fire-brigades which form so useful and 
 picturesque a feature of Yedo life. Since his day, fire engines 
 of European make have been brought into use. Moreover, 
 the number of conflagrations has been much diminished of 
 late years by the gradual introduction of brick buildings and 
 of wider streets, and by stricter police control. Even, there- 
 fore, granting the possible truth of the popular assertion that 
 in some parts of Tokyo houses were only expected to 
 survive three years, that state of things happily belongs 
 to the past. Still, fire is an ever-dreaded foe. It is a foe at 
 whose entry into the city the carpenters, unless they are 
 greatly maligned, have frequently connived, because it brings 
 them work ; and the peculiar dress and antics of the firemen 
 
 * Here are the Japanese originals of the above terms for the benefit of the 
 curious : ttukebi, gosdbi, jikwa, moraibi, mishe, shitabi, kinote t hinomoto, k»Bhi-ktichi, 
 kwaji-mimai. Fire insurance, mentioned just below, is kwaxai-Koke*. 
 
Flowers. 163 
 
 are things which no visitors to Japan should miss a chance 
 of seeing. Every year, on the 4th January, the firemen 
 parade the streets with their tall, light ladders, and give a 
 gymnastic performance gratis. 
 
 The most famous of all the many great Yedo fires was 
 that of 1657, when nearly half the city was destroyed and 
 over 107,000 persons are said to have perished in the flames. 
 The government undertook the necessary gigantic interment, 
 for which the grounds of what is now known as the temple 
 of Eko-in were selected, and priests from all the Buddhist 
 sects were called together to hold a seven days' service for 
 the benefit of the souls of the departed. Wrestling-matches 
 are now. held in the same place — a survival apparently of 
 festivals formerly religious, which consisted in bringing holy 
 images from the provinces to be worshipped awhile by the 
 Yedo folk and thus collect money for the temple, which could 
 not rely on the usual means of support,, namely, gifts from 
 the relations of the dead, the fire of 1657 having been so de- 
 structive as to sweep away whole families. 
 
 Flowers. An enemy has said that Japanese flowers 
 have no scent. The assertion is incorrect : witness the 
 plum-blossom, the wild rose, and the many sweet-smelling 
 lilies and orchids. But granting even — for the sake of 
 argument, if for nothing more — that the fragrance of flowers 
 greets one less often in Japan than at home, it must be allowed 
 •on the other side that the Japanese show a more genuine 
 appreciation of flowers than we do. The whole population 
 turns out several times in the year for no other purpose than 
 to visit places which are noted for certain kinds of blossoms. 
 It is round these that the national holiday-makings of the 
 
164 Flowers. 
 
 most holiday-loving of nations revolve, and no visitor to Japan 
 should fail to see one or other — all, if possible — of these 
 charming flower festivals. The principal flowers cultivated 
 in Tokyo are : — 
 
 The plum-blossom, which comes into flower about the end 
 of January, and lasts on into March ; 
 
 the cherry-blossom, first half of April ; 
 
 the azalea, mid-April ; 
 
 the tree-peony, end of April or beginning of May ; 
 
 the wistaria, first week in June ; 
 
 the convolvulus, end of July and beginning of August - r 
 
 the lotus, early in August ; 
 
 the chrysanthemum, first three weeks of November.; 
 
 the maple (for the Japanese include bright leaves under the 
 general designation of flowers), all November. 
 
 The Japanese care but little for some flowers which to- 
 Europeans commend themselves as the fairest, and they make- 
 much of others which we should scarcely notice. All sorts 
 of considerations come into play besides mere " look-see " (if 
 we may for once be allowed to use a convenient . Pidjin- 
 English term). The insignificant blossom of the straggling 
 lespedeza shrub is a favourite, on account of ancient poetie 
 fables touching the amours of the lespedeza, as a fair maiden, 
 and of the stag her lover. The camellia is neglected, because 
 it is considered unlucky. It is considered unlucky, because its 
 red blossoms fall off whole in a way which reminds people — 
 at least it reminds Japanese people — of decapitated heads. 
 And so on in other cases. Of wild-flowers generally the 
 Japanese take little account, which is strange ; for the hills 
 and valleys of their beautiful country bear them in profusion. 
 
 A very curious sight is to be seen at Dangozaka in Tokyo- 
 
Flowers. 165 
 
 at the proper season. It consists of chrysanthemums worked 
 into all sorts of shapes — men and gods, boats, bridges, 
 castles, etc., etc. Generally some historical or mythological 
 scene is pourtrayed, or else some tableau from a popular 
 drama. There, too, may be seen very fine chrysanthemums 
 ait naturel, though not quite such fine ones as the elite of 
 Tokyo society is admitted to gaze on once a year in the old 
 palace at Akasaka, after having once seen which no one will 
 again speak of the chrysanthemums at the Temple in London. 
 The mere variety is amazing. There is not only every 
 colour, but every shape. Some of the blossoms are immense 
 — larger across than a man's hand can stretch. Some are 
 like large snow-balls — the petals all smooth, and turned in 
 -one on the top of the other. Others resemble the tousled 
 head of a Scotch terrier. Some have long filaments stretched 
 out like star-fish, and some, as if to counterbalance the 
 giants, have their petals atrophied into mere drooping hairs. 
 But the strangest thing of all is to see five or six kinds, of 
 various colours and sizes, growing together on the same 
 plant — a nosegay with only one stem — the result of judicious 
 grafting. Of the same kind of blossoms, as many as six 
 hundred odd have been known to be produced on one plant. 
 In other cases the triumph is just the opposite way. The 
 whole energies of a plant are made to concentrate on the 
 production of a single blossom. But then what a blossom ! 
 A tawny, dishevelled monster, perhaps, called " Sleepy Head" 
 (for each variety has some quaint name), or else the "Golden 
 Dew," or the " White Dragon," or the " Fisher's Lantern " 
 — a dark russet this — or the " Bobe of Feathers," a richly 
 clustering pink and white, or loveliest of all, the " Starlit 
 Night" — a delicately fretted creature, looking like Iceland 
 
166 Flowers. 
 
 moss covered with hoar-frost. Such results are obtained only 
 by the accumulated toil of years, and especially by care, 
 repeated many times daily, during the seven months that 
 precede the period of blossoming. Such care is amply 
 rewarded ; for the chrysanthemum is a flower which will last 
 several weeks if duly sheltered from the early frosts. 
 * Bouquet-making is not left in Japan as it is in Europe, to 
 individual caprice. Europeans are, in this respect, wild 
 children of nature. The Japanese have made an art of it, 
 not to say a science. Indeed, they invoke the aid of 
 Confucianism itself, and arrange flowers philosophically, with 
 due regard to the active and passive principles of nature, and 
 in obedience to certain traditional rules which have been. 
 jealously handed down in the various flower-schools ever 
 since Sen-no-Bikyu first set the art on its present basis in 
 the sixteenth century of our era. It is well-worth the while 
 of any man of taste to peruse Mr. Conder's beautifully 
 illustrated work on this subject. Whatever may be thought 
 of the so-called flower philosophy, the reader will at least 
 have gained acquaintance with a graceful and intricate art, 
 and with a curious chapter in the history of the human mind. 
 Linear effect, and a certain balance or proportion achieved 
 by means of studied irregularity, are the key-note and the 
 dominant of Japanese floral compositions. The guiding 
 principle is not contrast of colour. 
 
 An enthusiastic local critic, who is up to the ears in love 
 with all things Japanese, opines that the Japanese linear 
 arrangement of stems and leaves stands " at an immeasura- 
 ble height above the barbaric massing of colours that 
 constitutes the whole of the corresponding art in the West." 
 Such a verdict will scarcely find acceptance with those who- 
 
Pood. 167 
 
 esteem colour to be nature's most glorious gift to man, and 
 the grouping of colours (unless we set above it the grouping 
 of sounds in music) to be the most divine of human arts. 
 Still, Japanese floral design offers a subject as charming as it 
 is original. If not, as its more zealous and intolerant 
 sectaries claim, the way of treating flowers, at least it is a 
 way, a totally new way ; and we are greatly mistaken if it 
 and Japanese gardening do not soon make many European 
 converts. The very fldwer-pots are delightful, with their 
 velvety blue and white designs. 
 
 Book recommended. The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral 
 Arrangement, by Josiah Uonder. See also a preliminary article by the same author 
 in Vol. X VXi. Part 11. of the Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 Food. Like most other nations, the Japanese take three 
 meals a day — one on rising in the morning, one at noon, and 
 one at about sunset. Much the same sort of food is partaken 
 of at all these meals, but breakfast is lighter than the other 
 two. The staple is rice — which is replaced by millet or some 
 other cheaper grain in the poorer country districts, — rice with 
 fish and eggs, and vegetables either fresh or pickled. Beans, 
 in particular, are in constant requisition. 
 
 Buddhism has left its impress here, as on everything in 
 Japan. To Buddhism was due the abandonment of a meat 
 diet, now over a thousand years ago. The permission to 
 eat fish, though that too entailed the taking of life, which 
 is contrary to strict Buddhist tenets, seems to have -been 
 a concession to human frailty. Pious frauds, moreover, 
 came to the rescue. One may even now see the term 
 " mountain whale " (ijama-kujira) written up over certain 
 eating-houses, which means that venison is there for sale. 
 The logical process is this : — A whale is a fish. Fish may 
 be eaten. Therefore, if you call venison " mountain whale," 
 
168 Food. 
 
 you may eat venison. Of course no actual prohibition against 
 eating flesh, such as existed under the old regime, exists 
 now. But the custom of abstaining from it remains pretty 
 general ; and though beef and pork were introduced at the 
 time of the late revolution, along with Herbert Spencer's 
 philosophy and French chassepots, recent statistics show that 
 meat-eating is again on the wane. So is bread-eating, which 
 was the rage among the lowest class in 1890. The piles of 
 loaves then displayed at every little' cook-stall in Tokyo, for 
 the delectation of jinrikisha-men and other coolies, have 
 vanished and been replaced by victuals of the orthodox 
 Japanese type. 
 
 Of beverages the chief are tea, which is taken without 
 sugar or milk, and sake, an alcoholic liquor prepared from 
 rice, whose taste has been ' not inaptly compared to that of 
 weak sherry which has been kept in a beer-bottle. It is 
 generally taken hot, and at the beginning of dinner. Only 
 when the drinking-bout is over, is the rice brought in. 
 
 The following is a specimen of the bill of fare at a Japanese 
 banquet. The reader must understand that everything is 
 served in small portions, as each guest has a little table to 
 himself, in front of which he squats on the floor : — 
 
 Preliminary Course, served with sake : — suimono, that is, a 
 kind of bean-curd soup ; kuchi-tori, a relish, such as an 
 omelette, or chestnuts boiled soft and sweet, or kamaboko, 
 which is fish pounded and then rolled into little balls and 
 baked ; sashimi, minced raw fish ; hachi-zakana, a fine, large 
 fish, either boiled with salt or boiled with soy ; uma-ni, bils of 
 fish or sometimes fowl, boiled with lotus-roots or potatoes in 
 soy and in a sort of liqueur called mirin ; su-no-monc, sea- 
 ears or sea-slugs t served with vinegar; chawan, a thin fish 
 
Pood. 169 
 
 soup with mushrooms, or else chawan-mushi, a thick custardy 
 soup. 
 
 First Cotjkse (Zembu) : — shim, soup which may be made 
 of bean-curd, of fish, of sea-weed or of some other material ; 
 o him, boiled fish, either alone or floating in soup ; tsubo, 
 sea- weed or some other appetiser, boiled in a small deep bowl 
 or cup ; namasit, raw fish cut in slices, and served with 
 vinegar and cold stewed vegetables ; aemono, a sort of salad 
 made with bean sauce or pounded sesamum seeds ; yalcimono, 
 raw fish (although the name means " broiled "), served in a 
 bamboo basket, but generally only looked at and not eaten ; 
 ko-no-mono, pickled vegetables, such as egg-plant, cabbage- 
 leaves, or the strong-smelling raddish [daihon), which is as 
 great a terror to the noses of most foreigners as European 
 cheese is to the noses of most Japanese. 
 
 Second Course (A7 no zen) : — soup, raw fish (but only if 
 none has been served in the first course), and rice. 
 
 Such banquets as the above are of course not given 
 every day. At smaller dinners not more than half such 
 a menu would be represented. Quiet well-to-do people, liv- 
 ing at home, may have a couple of dishes at each meal — 
 a broiled fish perhaps, and some soup, or else an omelette, 
 besides pickles to help the rice down with. The Oriental 
 abstemiousness which figures so largely in travellers' tales, 
 is no part of real Japanese manners. To make up for the 
 comparativeness lightness and monotony of their food, the 
 Japanese take plenty of it. It is the custom, too, to set food 
 before a guest, at whatever time of day he calls. On such 
 occasions sola is in request — a sort of buckwheat vermicelli, 
 served with soy and the sweet liqueur called mirin ; or else 
 shiruko, that is, rice-cakes with a sauce made of red beans 
 
170 Pood. 
 
 and sugar ; or sushi, rice-cakes plastered over with fish or 
 with seaweed on which vinegar has been sprinkled. Even 
 when these things are not given — and among the European- 
 ised upper classes they are a good deal abandoned — tea and 
 cakes are always set before every guest. Many of the Japa- 
 nese cakes and sugar-plums are pleasant eating. They atone 
 to some extent for the absence of puddings and for the 
 singular poorness of Japanese fruit. 
 
 Japanese dishes fail to satisfy European cravings. After a 
 Japanese dinner, you have simultaneously a feeling of fulness 
 and a feeling of having eaten nothing that will do you any 
 good. The food is clean, admirably free from grease, often 
 pretty to look at. But try to live on it — no ! The Japanese, 
 doubtless, being to the manner born, prefer their own rice 
 and other dishes for a continuance. At the same time, they 
 do not object to an occasional dinner in European style. 
 Experts say that Japanese food, though poor in nitrogen and 
 especially in fat, is rich in carbon, and amply sufficient to 
 support life, provided the muscles be kept in action, but that 
 it is indigestible and even deleterious to those who spend 
 their time squatting on the mats at home. This accounts 
 for the healthy looks of the coolies, and for the too often 
 dyspeptic and feeble bodily habit of the upper classes, who 
 take little or no exercise. 
 
 There is a circumstance connected with Japanese dinners 
 that must strike every one who has seen a refectory where 
 numbers of students, monks, soldiers, or other persons under 
 discipline are fed, — the absence of clatter arising from the 
 absence of knives and forks and spoons. A hundred boys 
 may be feeding themselves with the help of chopsticks, and 
 yet you might almost hear a pin drop in the room. 
 
Foreign Employes in Japan. 171 
 
 Foreign Employes in Japan. Since the day when 
 
 Mendez Pinto discovered Japan in 1542, Western in- 
 fluence began to filter into the archipelago. Mosquito-nets 
 date from then, and sponge-cake (called kasutcira from the 
 word Castille), and of course Christianity. Would that all 
 the Portuguese and Spanish friars of those days had been 
 Christians in fact as well as in name, — humble, unworldly 
 missionaries instead of disputatious intriguers ! Japan was 
 perfectly willing to be converted until she saw that conver- 
 sion meant conquest, and thereupon shut her doors in their 
 face. But for this circumstance, she might have entered 
 the comity of Western nations three centuries ago, and have 
 started nearly fair with them in the race of modern civilisa- 
 tion. Next came the Dutch, whose useful influence is often 
 underrated. To mention nothing else, it was they who 
 weaned the Japanese from a pharmacopoeia of dragons' teeth, 
 snake-skins, and the like, and taught them at least the rudi- 
 ments of anatomy and of a rational system of medicine. 
 
 But foreign influence became an overwhelming force only 
 when the country had been opened in 1854, indeed, properly 
 speaking, only in the sixties. From that time dates the ap- 
 pearance in this country of a new figure — the foreign employS ; 
 and the foreign employe is the creator of New Japan. To the 
 Japanese Government belongs the credit of conceiving the 
 idea and admitting the necessity of the great change, furnish- 
 ing the wherewithal, engaging the men, and profiting by their 
 labours, resembling in this a wise patient who calls in the 
 best available physician and assists him by every means in 
 his power. The foreign employes have been the physician, to 
 whom belongs the credit of working the marvellous cure 
 which we all see. One set of Englishmen — indeed at first 
 
172 Foreign Employes in Japan. 
 
 a single Englishman, — took the navy in hand, and trans- 
 formed junk manners and methods into those of a modern 
 man-of-war. Another undertook the mint, with the result 
 that Oriental confusion made way for a uniform coinage 
 equal to any in the world. No'less a feat than the reform 
 of the entire educational system was chiefly the work of a 
 handful of Americans. A Frenchman has codified Japanese 
 law, Germans have for years directed the whole higher medical 
 instruction of the country, and the large steamers of the 
 principal steamship company are still commanded by foreign 
 captains of various nationalities. The posts, the telegraphs, 
 the railways, the army, the trigonometical survey, improved 
 mining methods, prison reform, sanitary reform, cotton 
 and paper mills, chemical laboratories, water- works and 
 harbour works ; — all are the creation of the foreign em- 
 ploySs of the Japanese Government. Nor must it be sup- 
 posed that foreigners have been mere supervisors. It has 
 been a case of off coats, of actual manual work, of example 
 as well as precept. Technical men have shown their 
 Japanese employers how to do technical things, the name 
 of chef de bureau, captain, foreman, or what not, being 
 indeed generally painted on a Japanese figure-head, but the 
 real power behind each little throne being the foreign adviser 
 or practical man. 
 
 It is hard to see how matters could have been otherwise, 
 for it takes longer to get a Japanese educated abroad than to 
 engage a foreigner ready made. Moreover, even when tech- 
 nically educated, tbe Japanese will, for linguistic and other- 
 reasons, have more difficulty in keeping up with the progress 
 of rapidly developing arts and sciences, such as most Euro- 
 pean arts and sciences are. Similar causes have produced simi- 
 
Foreign Employes in Japan. ITS' 
 
 lar results'.in other parts of the world, though on a smaller 
 scale — in Spanish America, for example. The only curious 
 point is that while Japanese progress has been so often and 
 so rapturously expatiated upon, the agents of that progress 
 have been almost uniformly overlooked. To take but one 
 example among many, the ingenious " Travelling Commis- 
 sioner " of the Pall Hall Gazette, Mr. Henry Norman, in his 
 lively letters on Japan published three or four years ago, tells 
 the story of Japanese education under the fetching title of " A 
 Nation at School ; " but the impression left is that they have 
 been their own schoolmasters. In another letter on " Japan 
 in Arms," he discourses concerning " the Japanese military 
 re-organisers," the Yokosuka dockyard, and other matters, 
 but omits to mention that the re-organisers were Frenchmen, 
 and that the Yokosuka dockyard was also a French creation. 
 Similarly when treating of the development of the Japanese 
 newspaper press, he ignores the fact that it owed its origin 
 to an Englishman, which would surely have been an item 
 worth recording. 
 
 These letters, apparently so full and so frank, really so 
 deceptive, are, as we have said, but one instance among 
 many of the way in which popular writers on Japan travesty 
 history by ignoring the part which foreigners have played 
 and still play. The reasons of this are not far to seek. A 
 wonderful tale will please folks at a distance all the better 
 if made more wonderful still. Japanese progress traced to 
 its causes and explained by reference to the means employed, 
 is not nearly such fascinating reading as when represented in 
 the guise of a fairy creation sprung from nothing, like Alad- 
 din's palace. Many good people enjoy nothing so much as 
 unlimited sugar and superlatives ; and the Japanese have- 
 
174 Foreign Employes in Japan. 
 
 really done so much, that it seems scarcely, stretching 
 the truth to make out that they have done the impos- 
 sible. Then, too, they are such pleasant hosts, and 
 the foreign employes are not always inclined to he hosts 
 at all to the literary and journalistic globe-trotter, who 
 thirsts for facts and statistics, subject always to the 
 condition that he shall be free to bend the facts and 
 statistics to his own theories, and demonstrate to old 
 residents that their opinions are simply a mass of pre- 
 judice. There is nothing picturesque in the foreign employe. 
 With his club, and his tennis-ground and his brick house, 
 and his wife's piano, and the rest of the European 
 ■entourage which he strives to create around him in order 
 sometimes to forget his exile, he strikes a false note. 
 The esthetic and literary globe-trotter would fain revel 
 in a tea-tray existence for tlie nonce, because the very 
 moment he tires of it, he can pack and be off. The foreign 
 employ^ cannot treat life so jauntily, for he has to make 
 his living ; and when a man is forced to live in Lotus- 
 land, it is Lotus-land no longer. Hence an irreconcilable 
 feud between the foreign employes in Japan and those 
 literary gentlemen who paint Japan in the brilliant hues 
 of their own imagination. For our part, we see no excuse 
 — even from a literary point of view — for inaccuracy in 
 this matter. Japan is surely fair enough, her people are 
 attractive enough, her progress has been remarkable enough, 
 for plenty of praise to remain, even when all just deduc- 
 tions are made and credit awarded to those who have helped 
 her to her present position. Why exaggerate ? Japan can 
 afford to borrow Cromwell's word, and say, " Paint me as 
 lam!" 
 
Forty-Seven Ronins. 175 
 
 Forfeits. The Japanese play various games of forfeits, 
 which they call ken, sitting in a little circle and flinging out 
 their fingers, after the manner of the Italian mora. The 
 most popular kind of ken is the kitsune-ken, or " fox-forfeit," 
 in which various positions of the fingers represent a fox, a 
 man, and a gun. The man can use the gun, the gun can kill 
 the fox, the fox can deceive the man ; but the man cannot 
 kill the fox without the gun, nor the fox use the gun against 
 the man. Hence a number of combinations. Another variety 
 of the game of forfeits is the tomo-se, or "follow me," in 
 which the beaten player has to walk round the room after the 
 conqueror, with something on his back, as if he were the con- 
 queror's baggage coolie. The dance called by foreigners 
 " John Kino " is a less reputable member of the same family 
 of games. * 
 
 Forty-Seven Ronins. Asano, Lord of Ako, while at 
 Yedo in attendance on the Shogun, was entrusted with the 
 carrying out of one of the' greatest state ceremonies of those 
 times — nothing less than the reception and entertainment of 
 an envoy from the Mikado. Now Asano was not so well- 
 versed in such matters as in the duties of a warrior. Accord- 
 ingly he took counsel with another nobleman, named Kira, 
 whose vast knowledge of ceremonies and court etiquette was 
 equalled only by the meanness of his disposition. Resenting 
 honest Asano's neglect to fee him for the information which 
 he had grudgingly imparted, he twitted and jeered at him for 
 a country lout unworthy the name of Dahnyo. At last, he 
 actually went so far as to order Asano to bend down and 
 
 * " John Kino " seems to be a corruption of chon Ici-na or choi H-na, " just come 
 here ! " 
 
176 Forty-Seven Eonin. 
 
 fasten up his foot-gear for him. Asano, long-suffering though 
 he was, could not brook such an insult. Drawing his sword r 
 he slashed the insolent wretch in the face, and would have 
 made an end of him, had he not sought safety in flight. 
 The palace — for this scene took place within the precincts 
 of the palace — was of course soon in an uproar. Thus to 
 degrade its majesty by a private brawl was a crime punishable 
 with death and confiscation. Asano was condemned to per- 
 form haraklri that very evening, his castle was forfeited, his 
 family declared extinct, and all the members of his clan 
 disbanded: — in ( JapanGse parlance they became renins, literally 
 " wave-men," that is, wanderers, fellows without a lord and 
 without a home. This was in the month of April, 1701. 
 
 So far the first act. Act two is the vengeance. Oishi 
 Kuranosuke, the senior retainer of the dead Daimyd, deter- 
 mines to revenge him, andconsults with forty-six others of his 
 most trusty fellow-lieges as to the ways and means. All are 
 willing to lay down their lives in the attempt. The difficulty 
 is to elude the vigilance of the government. For mark one 
 curious point : the vendetta, though imperatively prescribed 
 by custom, was forbidden by law, somewhat as duelling 
 now is. in certain Western countries. Not to take vengeance 
 on an enemy involved social ostracism. On the other 
 hand, to take it involved capital punishment. But not to take 
 it was an idea which never entered the head of any chivalrous 
 Japanese. 
 
 After many secret consultations, it was determined among, 
 the Eonins that they should separate and dissemble. Several , 
 of them took to plying trades. They became carpenters, 
 smiths, and merchants in various cities, by which means 
 some of their number gained access to Kira's mansion, and 
 
Forty-Seven Ronin. 177 
 
 learnt many of the intricacies of its corridors and gardens. 
 Oishi himself, the head of the faithful band, went to Kyoto, 
 •where he plunged into a course of drunkenness and debau- 
 chery. He even discarded his wife and children, and took 
 a harlot to live with him. Thus was their enemy, to whom 
 full reports of all these doings were brought by spies, lulled 
 at last into complete security. Then suddenly, on the night 
 of the 30th January, 1703, during a violent snow-storm, the 
 attack was made. The Forty-Seven Ronins forced the gate 
 of Kira's mansion, slew his retainers, and dragged forth the 
 high-born but chicken-hearted wretch from an outhouse in 
 which he had sought to hide himself behind a lot of firewood 
 and charcoal. Respectfully, as befits a mere gentleman when 
 addressing a great noble, the leader of the band requested 
 Kira to perform harakiri, thus giving him the chance of dying 
 by his own hand and so saving his honour. But Kira was 
 afraid, and there was nothing for it but to kill him like the 
 scoundrel that he was. 
 
 That done, the little band formed in order, and marched 
 (day having now dawned) to the temple of Sengakuji at the 
 other end of the city. On their way thither, the people all 
 flocked out to praise their doughty deed, a great Baimyo whose 
 palace they passed sent out refreshments to them with mes- 
 sages of sympathy, and at the temple they were received by 
 the abbot in person. There they laid on their lord's grave, 
 which stood in the temple-grounds, the head of the emeny by 
 whom he had been so grievously wronged. Then came the 
 official sentence, condemning them all to commit harakiri. 
 This they did separately, in the mansions of the various 
 Daimyos to whose care they had been entrusted for the last 
 few days of their lives, and then they also were buried in the 
 
178 ' Fuji. 
 
 same temple grounds, where their tombs can be seen to this 
 day. The enthusiastic admiration of a whole people during 
 two centuries has been the reward of their obedience to the 
 ethical code of their time and country. 
 
 ISoolcs recommended. The Forty-Seven Eonins, the first story in 
 Mitford's Tales of Old Japan. Mr. Mitf ord gives, in his charming style, various 
 picturesque details which want of space forces us to omit, — Dickins's Chiushingura 
 or the Loyal League is a translation of the popular play founded on the story of 
 the Ronins. — There is a whole literature on the subject, both native and European. 
 Of native hooks, the X-ro-ha Bunko is the one best worth reading. It is easy, 
 graphic, and obtainable everywhere. In it and its sequel, the Yuki no Akebono, 
 the adventures of each of the Forty-Seven RQnins are traced out separately, the 
 result being a' complete picture of Japanese life a hundfeu and ninety years ago. 
 It should, however, be remembered that these works belong rather to the cata- 
 logue of historical novels than to that of history proper. 
 
 Fuji. A fat and infuriated tourist has branded Fuji in 
 print as " that disgusting mass of humbug and ashes." The 
 Japanese poet Kada-no-Azuma-Maro was more diplomatic, 
 when he simply said (we render his elegant verse into flat 
 English prose) : " The mountain- which I found higher to 
 climb than I had heard, than I had thought, than I had seen, 
 — was Fuji's peak.* " 
 
 But such adverse, or at best cold, criticism is rare. Natives 
 and foreigners^ artists and holiday-makers, alike fall down in 
 adoration before the wondrous mountain which stands utterly 
 alone in its union o grace and majesty. During the Middle 
 Ages, when Fuji's volcanic fires were more active than at 
 present, a' commonplace of the poets was to liken the ardour 
 of their love to that which lit up the mountain-top with 
 
 * Kikishi yori mo 
 Omoiihi yori mo 
 Mishi yori mo 
 Noborite takaki 
 Yaimt wa Fuji no ne. 
 
Fuji. 179 
 
 flame. Another poet earlier still — lie lived before the time 
 of Alfred — sings as follows : 
 
 There on the border, where the land of Kai* 
 Doth touch the frontier of Suruga's land, 
 A beauteous province stretched on either hand, 
 See Fusiyama rear his head on high ! 
 
 The clouds of heaven in reverent wonder pause, 
 Nor may the birds those giddy heights assay 
 Where melt thy snows amid thy fires away, 
 Or thy fierce fires lie quenched beneath thy snows. 
 
 What name might fitly tell, what accents sing, 
 Thine awful, godlike grandeur ? 'Tis thy breast 
 That holdeth Narusawa's flood at rest, 
 Thy side whence Fujikawa's waters spring. 
 
 Great Fusiyama, towering to the sky ! 
 A treasure art thou giv'n to mortal man, 
 A God-Protector watching o'er Japan : — 
 On thee forever let me feast mine eye. 
 
 But enough of poetry. The surveyors tell us that Fuji is 
 12,365 feet high — an altitude easy to remember, if we take 
 for memoria lechnica the twelve months and the three hundred 
 and sixty-five days of the year.f The geologists inform us 
 that Fuji is a young volcano, to which fact may be ascribed 
 the as yet almost unsullied perfection of its shape. The be- 
 ginning of degradation is the hump on the south side, called 
 Hoei-zan from the name of the period when it was formed by 
 the most recent eruption of which history tells. This erup- 
 tion lasted with intervals from the lGth December, 1707, to 
 the 22nd January, 1708. The geologists further assure us 
 that Fuji had several predecessors in the same vicinity — 
 Mounts Futago, Komagatake, and others in the Hakone 
 
 * Pronounced so as to rhyme with "high." 
 
 t Other measurements give about 100 feet more or less. 
 
180 Fuji. 
 
 district, being volcanoes long since extinct. Futago, indeed,. 
 still has a crater -which deserves a visit, so perfect is its shape 
 and so thickly carpeted is it with moss and shrubs. 
 
 Philology is the science that can tell us least ; for no con- 
 . sensus of opinion has yet been reached as to the origin of the 
 name of Fuji — anciently Fuzi or Fuzhi. Fuji-san, the current 
 popular name, simply means " Mount Fuji," san being Chi- 
 nese for " mountain." Fuji-no-yama, the form preferred in 
 poetry, means " the mountain of Fuji " in pure Japanese ; and 
 the Europeanisedform Fusiyama is a corruption of this latter. 
 But what is the etymology of Fuji itself? The Chinese 
 characters give us no clue. Sometimes the name is written 
 ^C~, "not two," that is, "unrivalled," "peerless;" some- 
 times "Z-.fi, "not dying," "deathless:" — and with this 
 latter transcription is connected a pretty legend ahout the 
 elixir of life having been taken to the summit of the moun- 
 tain in days of yore. Others write it s ±, that is, "rich 
 scholar," a more prosaic rendering but no whit more- 
 trustworthy. Probably Fuji is hot Japanese at all. It 
 might be a corruption of Huehi or Fuchi, the Aino name of 
 the goddess of fire ; for down to times almost historical, the- 
 country round Fuji formed part cf Aino-land, and all Eastern 
 Japan is strewn with names of Aino origin. We, however, 
 prefer the suggestion of Mr. Nagata Hosei, the most learned: 
 of living Japanese authorities on Aino, who would derive 
 Fuji from the Aino verb push, " to burst forth," — an appel- 
 lation which might have been appropriately given either to- 
 the mountain itself as a volcano, or more probably still to the 
 chief river flowing down from it, the dangerous Fvji-kawa ; 
 for the general Aino practice is to leave even conspicuous 
 mountains unnamed, but carefully to name all the rivers- 
 
Fuji. 181 
 
 'The letter-changes from Aino push to classical Fud are 
 according to Japanese rule, whereas the change from Huchi 
 to Fuzi would be abnormal. The very circumstance, too, of 
 the former etymology appealing less to the imagination is 
 really in its favour. 
 
 A Japanese tradition (of which, however, there is no 
 written notice earlier than A.D. 1G52) affirms that Fuji 
 ■arose from the earth in a single night some time about 300 
 B.C., while Lake Biwa near Kyoto sank simultaneously. 
 May we not here have an echo of some early eruption, which 
 resulted in the formation, not indeed of Lake Biwa distant a 
 hundred and forty miles, but of one of the numerous small 
 lakes at the foot of the mountain ? 
 
 The following miscellaneous items will perhaps interest 
 some readers : — Fuji is inhabited by a lovely goddess named 
 Ko-no-hana-suliu-ya-hime, which, being interpreted, means 
 " the Princess who makes the Blossoms of the Trees to 
 Flower." She is also called Sengen or Asama. — The 
 peasants of the neighbouring provinces often speak of Fuji 
 simply as O Yuma, " the Honourable Mountain," or " the 
 Mountain," instead of mentioning its proper name. — One 
 of Hokusai's best picture-books is his Fuji HyalcJcei, or 
 Hundred Vitus of Fmiijama, executed when he had. 
 reached the age of seventy-six. In it, the grand mountain 
 stands depicted from every point of view and under every 
 possible circumstance and a few impossible ones;. for in- 
 stance, the artist gives us Fuji in process of being ascended 
 by a dragon. Copies of this book are common, but good 
 ones are rather scarce. — According to a popular superstition, 
 the sand brought down during the day by the tread of pil- 
 grims' feet re-ascends spontaneously at.night.— The moun- 
 
182 Funerals. 
 
 tain is divided into ten stations, and formerly no woman was 
 allowed to climb higher than the eighth. Lady Parkes was 
 the first woman to tread the summit. This was in October,. 
 1867. — Steam sufficiently hot to cook an egg still issues 
 from several spots on the crater lip. — The Japanese have 
 enriched their language by coining words for special aspects 
 of their favourite mountain. Thus kagami-Fvji, literally 
 l l mirror Fuji," means the reflection of Fuji in Lake Hakone. 
 Kai;e-Fuji, or " shadow Fuji," denotes a beautiful phenome- 
 non, — the great shadow cast by the cone at sunrise on the 
 sea of clouds and mist below. Hid ari- Fuji, " left-handed 
 Fuji," is the name given to the mountain at the village of 
 Nango, for the reason that that is the only place on the 
 Tokaido where, owing to a sharp twist in the road, Fuji 
 appears on the left hand of the traveller bound from Tokyo 
 to Kyoto, instead of on his right. — Over ten thousand persons 
 ascended Fuji in 1891, of whom some two hundred and thirty 
 were foreigners. These figures are somewhat under the 
 average of previous years. 
 
 The foregoing items are merely jotted down haphazard, as 
 specimens of the lore connected with Japan's most famous 
 volcano. To do justice to it geologically, botanically, histori- 
 cally, archffiologically, would require a monograph at least as 
 long as this volume. 
 
 Book recommended. Murray's Handbook for, Tapav,\). Mint scj. 
 
 Funerals. Till recently all funerals were in the hands 
 of the Buddhist hierarchy,— even the funerals of Shinto 
 priests themselves ; but now the Shintoists are allowed to 
 bury their own dead. The Shinto coffin resembles that used 
 in Europe. The Buddhist coffin is small and square, and 
 
Gardens. 183 
 
 the corpse is fitted into it in a squatting posture with the 
 head bent to the knees, — a custom which some derive from 
 the devout habit of sitting rapt in religious meditation, while 
 others see in it a symbolical representation, in the last earthly 
 scene, of the position of the unborn child in its mother's 
 womb. Further outward and visible signs whereby to 
 distinguish a Buddhist from a Shinto funeral, are, in the 
 former, the bare shaven heads of the Buddhist priests and the 
 dark blue coats of the coffin-bearers ; in the latter, the plain 
 white garb of the coffin-bearers, the ShintS priests' non- 
 shaven heads and curious hats, and the flags and branches of 
 trees borne in the procession. The use of large bouquets of 
 flowers is common to both, and both religions have elaborate 
 funeral services. Notwithstanding the reverence of the 
 Japanese for their departed ancestors, it is not customary in 
 Japan, as it is with us, to uncover when a funeral procession 
 goes by. (See also Article on Archeology.) 
 
 ISoolt recommended. Japanese Funeral Rites, by A. H. Lay, in 
 Vol. XIX. Part HI. of the Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 Gardens. A garden without flowers may sound like a 
 contradiction in terms. But it is a fact that many Japanese 
 gardens are of that kind, the object which the Japanese land- 
 scape gardener sets before him being to produce something 
 park-like, — to suggest some famous natural scene, in which 
 flowers may or may not appear, according to the circum- 
 stances of the case. When they do, they are generally 
 grouped together in beds or under shelter, and removed as 
 soon as their season of bloom is over, more after the manner 
 of a European flower-show. In this way are obtained hor- 
 ticultural triumphs, such as are described in the article on 
 Flowers. Triumphs of another kind are achieved by dwarfing. 
 
184 Gardens. 
 
 Thus you may see a pine-tree or a maple, sixty years old and 
 perfect in every part, but not more than a foot high. Japa- 
 nese gardeners are also very skilful in transplanting large 
 trees. A judicious treatment of the accessory roots during a 
 couple of years enables massive, aged trees to be removed 
 from place to place, so that a Japanese nouveau riche can 
 raise up anything — even an ancestral park — on whatever spot 
 he fancies. 
 
 Japanese landscape gardening is one of the fine arts. Ever 
 since the middle of the fifteenth century, generations of 
 artists have been busy perfecting it, elaborating and refining 
 over and over again the principles handed down by their 
 predecessors, until it has come to be considered a mystery as 
 well as an art, and is furnished — not to say encumbered — 
 with a vocabulary more complicated and recondite than any 
 one who has not perused some of the native treatises on the 
 subject can well imagine. There is a whole set of names for 
 different sorts of garden lanterns, another for water-basins, 
 another for fences (one authority enumerates nineteen kinds 
 of screen fences alone), another — and this is a very important 
 subject — for those large stones, which, according to Japanese 
 ideas, constitute the skeleton of the whole composition. 
 
 Then, too, there are rules for every detail ; and different 
 schools of the art or science of gardening have rules diamet- 
 rically opposed to each other. For instance, larger trees are 
 planted and larger hills made by one school in the front 
 portion of a garden, and smaller ones in the further portions, 
 with the object of exaggerating the perspective and thus 
 making the gardeu look bigger than it really is. Another 
 school teaches the direct contrary. Suggestion is largely 
 used, as when part of a small lake is so adroitly hidden as to 
 
Geography. 185 
 
 give the idea of greater size in the part unseen, or as when a 
 meander of pebbles is made to represent a river-bed. Every- 
 thing, in fact, has a reason — generally an abstruse reason. 
 / Gardens are supposed to be capable of symbolising abstract 
 j ideas, such as peace, chastity, old age, etc. The following 
 ' passage from the authority quoted below will show how the 
 garden of a certain Buddhist abbot is made to convey the 
 idea of the power of divine truth : — " This garden consists 
 almost entirely of stones arranged in a fanciful and irregular 
 manner in a small enclosure, the sentiment expressed de- 
 pending for its value upon acquaintance with the following 
 Buddhist legend, somewhat reminding us of the story of 
 ■Saint Francis and the birds. A certain monk Daita, ascend- 
 ing a hillock and collecting stones, began to preach to them 
 the secret precepts of Buddha, and so miraculous was the 
 effect of the wondrous truths which he told that even the 
 lifeless stones bowed in reverent assent. Thereupon the 
 Saint placed thsm upon the ground around him, and con- 
 secrated them as the ' Nodding Stones.' " 
 
 Book l-eeommended.. The Art of Landscape Gardening in Japan, 
 by Josian Conder, printed in Vol. XIV. Part II. of the Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 Geisha. See Singing-girls. 
 
 Geography, The boundaries o'f Japan have expanded 
 greatly in the course of ages. The central and western por- 
 tions of the Main Island, together with Shikoku, Kyushu, and 
 the lesser islands of Iki, Tsushima, Oki, Awaji, and perhaps 
 Sado, formed the Japan of early historic days, say of the 
 eighth century after Christ. At that time the Ainos, though 
 already in full retreat northwards, still held the Main Island 
 as far as the 38th or 39th parallel of latitude. They were 
 
186 Geography. 
 
 soon driven across the Straits of Tsugaru into Yezo, -which 
 island was itself gradually conquered during the period 
 extending from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. In 
 the eighteenth century a portion of Saghalien was added to 
 Japanese territory. But a discussion having arisen on this 
 subject between Japan and Eussia, the weaker of the two 
 powers naturally went to the wall. Saghalien, with its 
 valuable coal-fields and fisheries, was ceded to Eussia by the 
 treaty of St. Petersburg in 1875, and the barren, storm-swept 
 Kurile Islands were obtained in exchange. Meanwhile, the 
 Loochoo and Bonin Islands had been added to the Japanese 
 possessions, which thus, in their present and furthest extent, 
 stretch from Kamchatka on the North, (lat. 50° 56') to 
 Formosa on the South (lat. 24° 6'), and from 122"' 45' to 156° 
 32' of longitude East of Greenwich. 
 
 Japan proper — that is, omitting Yezo, the Kuriles, the 
 Loochoos, and the Bonins — consists of three large islands, 
 of which one, the largest or Main Island, has no name 
 in popular, use, while the other two are called respec- 
 tively Shikoku and Kyushu, together with the small 
 islands of Sado, Oki, Tsushima, and a multitude of smaller 
 ones still. The largest island is separated from the 
 two next in size by the celebrated Inland Sea, for 
 which latter also there is no generally current Japa- 
 nese name. The area of the entire Japanese empire is 
 between 146,000 and 147,000 square miles. Hardly twelve 
 per cent of this total area is cultivated, or indeed cultivable. 
 By far the greater portion of it is covered by mountains, many 
 of which are volcanoes, either active or extinct. Fuji itself 
 ■was in eruption as late as January, A.D. 1708. Of recently 
 active volcanoes, we may mention Asama, Shirane-San, and 
 
Geography. 187 
 
 Bandai-San in Eastern Japan, Tries Island (Osliima) not far 
 from the entrance to Yokohama harbour, Aso-San in Kyushu, 
 which lias the largest crater in the world, and the beautifully 
 shaped Koma-ga-take, near Hakodate. Others, extinct or 
 quiescent, are Ontake, Hakusan, Tateyama, Nantai-zan, 
 Chokai-zan, Iide-san, Ganju-san, and Iwalri-yama on the 
 Main Island, and Sakura-jima, Kirishima-yama, and On- 
 sen-ga-take in Kyushu, The grandest mountain mass in 
 Japan is the Shinano-Hida range — granite giants of from 
 8,000 to 10,000 feet in height. 
 
 Owing to the narrowness of the country, most Japanese 
 streams are rather torrents than rivers. The rivers best 
 worth mentioning are the Kitakami, the Abukuma, the Tone, 
 the Tenryu, and the Kiso, flowing into the Pacific Ocean, the 
 Shinano-gawa flowing into the Sea of Japan, and the Ishikari 
 in Yezo. Most of the smaller streams have no general name, 
 but change their name every few miles on passing from 
 village to village. 
 
 Lake Biwa near Kyoto is the largest lake, the nest being- 
 Lake Inawashiro, on whose northern shore rises the ill- 
 omened volcano, Bandai-San. The so-called lakes to the 
 north-east of Tokyo are but shallow lagoons formed by the 
 retreating sea. The most important straits are the Strait of 
 La Perouse between Yezo and Saghalien, the Strait of 
 Tsugaru between Yezo and the Main Island, the Kii Channel 
 (Linschoten Strait) between the Main Island and Eastern 
 Shikoku, the Bungo Channel between Western Shikoku and 
 Kyushu, and the Strait of Shimonoseld between the south- 
 western extremity of the Main Island and Kyushu. The 
 most noteworthy gulfs or bays are Volcano Bay in Southern 
 Yezo, Aomori Bay at the northern extremity of the Main 
 
188 Geography. 
 
 Island, Sendai Bay in the north-east, the Gulfs of Tokyo, 
 Sagami, Surnga, Owari, aud Kagoshima facing south, and 
 the Bay of Toyama between, the peninsula of- Noto and the 
 mainland. 
 
 Of peninsulas the chief are Noto, jutting out into the Sea 
 of Japan, and Kazusa-Boshii and Izu, not far from Tokyo on 
 the Pacific Ocean side. It is an interesting fact that both 
 Noto and Izu, words meaningless in Japanese — mere place- 
 names — can be traced back to terms still used by the Ainos 
 to designate the idea of a "promontory" or "peninsula." 
 Finally, even so rapid a sketch as this cannot pass over the. 
 waterfalls of Nikko, of Kami-Ide near Fuji, of Nachi in 
 Kishu, and of Kobe. Still less must we forget the mighty 
 river hi the sea — the Kurcsbio, or " Black Current" — which, 
 flowing northwards from the direction of Formosa and the 
 Philippine Islands, warms the southern and south-eastern 
 coasts of Japan much as the Gulf Stream warms the coasts 
 of western Europe. 
 
 There are two current divisions of the soil of the empire — 
 an older and more popular one into provinces (Jcuni), of which 
 there are eighty-four in all, and a recent, purely administrative 
 one into prefectures {ken), of which at the present moment, 
 October, 1891 (for the number has suffered numerous changes), 
 there are forty-three. Owing to the extensive use made of 
 the Chinese language in Japan, most of the provinces have 
 two names, — one native Japanese, the other Chinese. Thus 
 the provinces to the north and west of Tokyo marked Kotsuke, 
 Shinano, and Kai on our map, are also called Joshu, Shinshu, 
 and Koshu respectively, the syllable shti (iffl) signifying 
 " province " in Chinese. The south-western province marked 
 Nagato in the map bears the alternative name of Choshu, 
 
Geology. 189 
 
 and forms part of the prefecture of Yamaguchi, which also 
 includes the province of Suwo. To add to the perplexities of 
 the foreign student, groups of provinces receive special names 
 in popular and historical- parlance. Such, are, for instance, 
 the Go-Kinai, or "Five Home Provinces," consisting of the 
 Eyoto-Nara-Osaka district, and the Kwanto which includes 
 all the provinces of the East. The three chief cities (sum-pa) 
 of Japan are Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, which belong to no 
 prefecture and are governed separately. Other important 
 towns are Nagoya in the province of Owari, Kanazawa in 
 Kaga, Fukui in Echizen, Hiroshima in Aki, Sendai in 
 Eikuzen, Toku|hima in Awa (Island of Shikoku), Wakayama 
 in Kishu, Toyama in Etchu, Kagoshhna in Satsuma*, Kuma- 
 moto in Higo, Okayama in Bizen, Sakai in Izumi, and 
 Fukuoka in Chikuzen — all with a population of over 40,000 
 souls. The " open ports " of Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, 
 Niigata, and Hakodate have each over 40,000 inhabitants. 
 
 ASooIiS recommended. Eein's Japan.— The Geography of Japan, 
 by Ernest Satow, printed in Vol. I. of the Asiatic Transactions. — The China Sea 
 Directory, Vol XV. — Whitney's Dictionary of Roads, Toicns, and Villages in Japan. 
 
 Geology. It is popularly supposed that Japan entirely 
 consists, or almost entirely consists, of volcanic rocks. 
 Such a supposition is true for the Kurile Islands, partial- 
 ly true for the northern half of the Main Island and 
 for Kyushu. But for the remainder of the country, that is, 
 the southern half of the Main Island and Shikoku, the sup- 
 position is quite without support. 
 
 The backbone of the country consists of primitive gneiss 
 and schists. Amongst the latter, in Shikoku, there is an 
 extremely interesting rock consisting largely of piedmontite. 
 Overlying these amongst the Palaeozoic rocks, we meet in 
 
190 Geology. • 
 
 many parts of Japan -with slates and other rocks possibly of 
 Cambrian or Silurian age. Trilobites have been discovered 
 in Eikuzen. Carboniferous rocks are represented by moun- 
 tain masses of Fusulina and other limestones. There is also 
 amongst the Paleozoic group an interesting series of red 
 slates containing Radiolaria. 
 
 Mesozoic Eocks are represented by slates containing Am- 
 monites and Monotis, evidently of Triassic age, rocks contain- 
 ing Ammonites Bucldandi of Liassic age, a series of beds .rich 
 in plants of Jurassic, age, and beds of Cretaceous age con- 
 taining Trirjonia and many other fossils. 
 
 The Cainozoic or Tertiary system forms a fpnge round the 
 coasts of many portions of Japan. It chiefly consists of 
 stratified volcanic tuffs rich in coal, lignite, fossilised plants, 
 and an invertebrate fauna. Diatomaceous earth exists at 
 several places in Yezo. In the alluvium which covers all, 
 have been discovered the remains of several species of ele- 
 phants, which, according to Dr. Edmund Naumann, are of 
 Indian origin. 
 
 The most common eruptive rock is andesite. Such rocks 
 as basalt, diorite, and trachyte are comparatively rare. 
 Quartz porphyry, quartzless porphyry, and granite are large- 
 ly developed. 
 
 The most extensively worked mineral in Japan is coal, large 
 deposits of which exist near Nagasaki in the south, and at 
 Poronai and other places in Yezo at the northern extremity 
 of the empire. Not only is the output sufficient to supply 
 Japan, but considerable quantities are shipped to Hongkong 
 and ports in China. Copper is largely found, and the anti- 
 mony production is among the most notable in the world. 
 From one of the mines in Shikoku come the wonderful 
 
Globe-trotters. 191 
 
 crystals of antiniouite, which are such conspicuous objects in 
 the raineralogical cabinets of Europe and -America. Silver 
 is extensively mined ; but the production of other metals, for 
 instance, gold and tin, is relatively small. 
 
 Bootes 1'eoonillleixaLecl. Die Kaiserliehe Geologisclie Meichsamtalt 
 von Japan, by T. Wada — Veher den Ban and die Entstehung der Japanischen Inseln, 
 by E. ^\s.\mis.nn.— Catalogue of Japanese Minerals contained in the Imperial College 
 of Engineering, TolcgS, by J. ililne.— Let Produits de la Nature Japonaise et Ckinoise, 
 by A. J. C. Geerts. — JUaitakushi Reports, by Benjamin S. Lyman. — Bulletin of the 
 Geological Survey of Japan. 
 
 Globe-trotters have been described, once for all, by Mr. 
 Netto in a passage of his Papier-Schmetterlinge am Japan, of 
 which the following is a faithful translation : — 
 
 " Globe-trotter is the technical designation of a genus 
 which, like the phylloxera and the Colorado beetle, had 
 scarcely received any notice till recent times, but whose 
 importance justifies us in devoting a few lines to it. It may 
 be subdivided, for the most part, into the following species :— 
 
 "1. Globe-trotter communis. Sun-helmet, blue glasses, 
 scant luggage, celluloid collars. His object is a maximum 
 of travelling combined with a minimum of expense. He 
 presents himself to you with some suspicious introduction or 
 other, accepts with ill-dissembled glee your lukewarm invita- 
 tion to him to stay, generally appears too late at meals, 
 makes daily enquiries concerning jinrihisha fares, frequently 
 invokes your help as interpreter to smooth over money diffi- 
 culties between himself and the jinrikisha-men, offers honest 
 curio-dealers who have the entree to your house one-tenth of 
 the price they ask, and loves to occupy your time, not indeed 
 by gaining information from you about Japan (all that sort 
 of thing he knows already much more thoroughly than you do), 
 but by giving you information about India, China, and 
 
192 Globe-trotters. 
 
 America, — places with which you are possibly as familiar as 
 he. When the time of his departure approaches, you must 
 proyide him with introductions even for places which he has 
 no present intention of visiting, but which he might visit. 
 You will be kind enough, too, to have his purchases here 
 packed up, — but, mind, very carefully, You will also see 
 after freight and insurance, and despatch the boxes to the 
 address in Europe which he leaves with you. Furthermore, 
 you will no doubt not mind purchasing and seeing to the 
 packing of a few sundries which he himself has not had time 
 to look after. 
 
 " 2. Globe-trotter scientificus. Spectacles, .microscope, a 
 few dozen note-books, alcohol, arsenical acid, seines, butterfly- 
 nets, other nets. He travels for special scientific purposes, 
 mostly natural-historical (if zoological, then woe betide you!). 
 You have to escort him on all sorts of visits to Japanese 
 officials, in order to procure admittance for him to collections, 
 museums, and libraries. You have to invite him to meet 
 Japanese savants of various degrees, and to serve as inter- 
 preter on each such occasion. You have to institute re- 
 searches concerning ancient Chinese books, to discover and 
 engage the services of translators, draughtsmen, flayers and 
 stuffers of specimens. Your spare room gradually develops 
 into a museum of natural history, a fact which you can smell 
 at the very threshold. In this case too the packing, passing 
 through the custom-house, and despatching of the collections 
 falls to your lot ; and happy are you if the objects arrive at 
 home in a good state of preservation, and you have not to 
 learn later on that such and such an oversight in packing 
 has caused ' irreparable ' losses. Certain it is that, for 
 years after, you will be reminded from time to time of your 
 
Globe-trotters. 193 
 
 inquisitive guest by letters wherein he requests you to give 
 him the details of some scientific speciality whose domain is 
 disagreeably distant from your own, or to procure for him 
 some creature or other which is said to have been observed 
 in Japan at some former period. 
 
 " 3. Globe-trotter etegans. Is provided with good introduc- 
 tions from his government, generally stops at a legation, is 
 interested in shooting, and allows the various charms of the 
 country to induce him to prolong his stay. 
 
 " 4. Globe-trotter independens. Travels in a steam-yacht, 
 generally accompanied by his family. Chief goal of bis 
 journey : an audience of the Mikado. 
 
 " 5. Globe-trotter princeps. Princes or other dignitaries 
 recognisable by their numerous suite, and who undertake the 
 round journey (mostly on a man-of-war) either for political 
 reasons or for purposes of self -instruction. This species is 
 useful to the foreign residents, in so far as the receptions and 
 fetes given in their honour create an agreeable diversion 
 
 " We might complete our collection by the description 
 of a few other species, e.g., the Globe-trotter desperatus, who 
 expends his uttermost farthing on a ticket to Japan with 
 the hope of making a fortune there, but who, finding no 
 situation, has at last to be carted home by some cheap 
 opportunity at the expense of his fellow-countrymen. Fur- 
 thermore might be noticed the Globe-trotter dolosus, who 
 travels under some high-sounding name and with a doubtful 
 banking account, merely in order to put as great a distance 
 as possible betwixt himself and the home police. Likewise 
 the Globe-trotter locustus, the species that travels in swarms, 
 perpetually dragged around the universe by Cook and the 
 likes of Cook .... Last, but not least, just a word for 
 
194 Go. 
 
 the Globe-trotter amabilis, a species which is fortunately not 
 wanting and which is always welcome. I mean the old 
 friends and the. new, whose memory lives fresh in the minds 
 of our small community, connected as it is with the recollec- 
 tion of happy hours spent together. Their own hearts will 
 tell them that not they, but others, are pointed at in the above 
 perhaps partly too harsh description." 
 
 Go, properly gomoku narabe, often with little appro- 
 priateness termed " checkers " by European writers, is the 
 most popular of the indoor pastimes of the Japanese, — a 
 very different affair from the simple game known to Euro- 
 peans as Goban or Gobang, the name of the board on which go 
 is played. It is the great resource of most of the visitors to the 
 hot springs and other health-resorts, being often played from 
 morning till night, save for the intervals devoted to eating 
 and bathing. Go clubs and professors of the art are found in 
 all the larger cities, where, too, blind players may occasionally 
 be met with. Go may with justice be considered more 
 difficult than chess. There is in it more scope for sustained 
 effort, and one false move does not put a player hors-de-combat, 
 as is so often the case in our Western games of skill. 
 
 Go was introduced into Japan from China by Shimo- 
 michi-no-Mabi, commonly known as Kibi Daijin, who flourish- 
 ed during the reign of the Emperor Shomu (A.D. 724-756). 
 In the middle of the seventeenth century, a noted pla.yer, called 
 Honnimbo, was summoned from Kyoto to entertain the Chi- 
 nese ambassador then at the court of the Shogun, from which 
 time forward special Go players were always retained by the 
 Shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty. 
 
 Go is played on a square wooden board. Nineteen straight 
 
Go. 195 
 
 lines crossing- each other at right angles make three hundred 
 and sixty-one we, or crosses, at the points of intersection. 
 These may be occupied by a hundred and eighty white and a 
 hundred and eighty-one black stones (ishi, as they are termed, 
 in Japanese). The object of the game is to obtain posses- 
 sion of the largest portion of the board. This is done by 
 securing such positions as can be most easily defended from 
 the adversary's onslaughts. There are nine spots on the 
 board, called seimoku, supposed to represent the chief celestial 
 bodies, while the white and black stones represent day and 
 night, and the number of crosses the three hundred and sixty 
 degrees of latitude, exclusive of the central one, which is 
 called taikyohu, that is, the Primordial Principle of the 
 Universe. There are likewise nine degrees — or classes as we 
 should term them — of proficiency in the game, beginning 
 with number one as the lowest and ending with number nine 
 as the highest point of excellence attainable. 
 
 In playing, if the combatants are equally matched, they 
 take the white stones alternately ; if unequal, the weaker 
 always takes the black, and odds are also given by allowing 
 him to occupy several or all of the nine spots or vantage 
 points on the board — that is, to place stones upon them at 
 the outset. A description of how the game proceeds would 
 be of little utility here, it being so complicated as to make 
 the personal instruction of a teacher indispensable. Very 
 few foreigners have succeeded in getting beyond a rudi- 
 mentary knowledge of this interesting game. We know only 
 of one, a German named Korschelt, who has taken out a 
 diploma of proficiency. 
 
 The easy Japanese game, called Gohancj, which was in- 
 troduced into England a few years ago, is played on the Go 
 
196 Government. 
 
 board and with the go-ishi, or round black and white stones. 
 The object of the game is to be the first in getting five stones 
 in a row in any direction. 
 
 Book recommended, Elaborate details will be found in O. Kor- 
 achelt's essay on Das Go-Spiel, published in Parts 21—24 of the German Asiatic- 
 Transactions. 
 
 GodoWHS, See Abchitectuke. 
 
 Government. In theory the Mikado, — heaven-descend- 
 ed, absolute, infallible, — has always been the head and 
 fountain of all power. It belongs to him by a divine right, 
 which none have ever dreamt of disputing. The single and 
 sufficient rule of life for subjects is implicit, unquestioning 
 obedience, as to the mandates of a god. The comparatively 
 democratic doctrines of the Chinese sages, according to whom 
 " the people are the most important element in a nation, and 
 the sovereign is the lightest," have ever been viewed with 
 horror by the Japanese, to whom the antiquity and the abso- 
 lute power of their Imperial line are badges of perfection on 
 which they never weary of descanting. A study of Japanese 
 history shows, however, that the Mikado has rarely exercised 
 much of bis power in practice. Almost always it has been 
 wielded in his name, often sorely against his will, by the 
 members of some ambitious house, which has managed to 
 possess itself of supreme influence over the affairs of state. 
 Thus, the Fujiwara family soon after the civilisation of the 
 country by Buddhism, then the Taira, the Minamoto, and 
 the Hojo during the Middle Ages, and the Tokugawa in 
 modern times, held the reins of state in succession. Under 
 these greatest families were numerous families of lesser 
 though still high degree, the Daimyos ; — in other words, 
 
Government. 197 
 
 the polity was feudal. Even since the revolution of 1868, 
 whose avowed object was to restore the Mikado to his 
 pristine absolutism, it seems to be allowed on all hands 
 that at least a large share of the reality of power has-lain 
 with the two great great clans of Satsuma and Choshu, 
 while the aim of the two clans next in influence — Tosa 
 and Hizen — has been to put themselves in Satsuma and 
 Choshu's place. In February, 1889, there was granted a 
 Constitution, which established a Diet consisting of two 
 houses, and laid the foundation of a new order of things, a 
 certain measure of control over public affairs being thenceforth 
 vested in the nobility and in those gentlemen and commoners 
 whose property qualification entitles them to vote or to be 
 voted for. Those possessing this privilege form a little over 
 one per cent of the whole population. A certain measure of 
 popular control over local affairs was also granted in 1889. 
 The first meeting of the Diet took place in the winter of 
 1890-1891, and was somewhat stormy. The members of the 
 lower honse-^-three hundred in all — receive each a yearly 
 allowance of !jp800. 
 
 The administration is divided into ten departments, namely, 
 the Imperial Household, the Army, the Navy, the Interior, 
 Foreign Affairs, Justice, Finance, Education, Commerce- 
 Agriculture, and Communications (that is, Posts, Telegraphs, 
 etc.), each presided over by a minister of state. These, with 
 the exception of the minister of the Household Department, 
 constitute the Cabinet. The Cabinet is responsible only to 
 the Emperor, by whom also each minister is appointed and 
 dismissed at will. Besides the Cabinet, there is a Privy 
 Council, whose function is to tender advice. There are three 
 capital cities, Tokyo, Kyoto, and* Osaka, each, with its strip 
 
198 Government. 
 
 of adjacent country, administered by a governor. The rest 
 of the empire is divided into prefectures. An unusually 
 large proportion of the revenue is raised by land taxation. 
 
 Viewed from an English or American point of view, the 
 Japanese are a much-governed people, officials being nume- 
 rous, their authority great, and all sorts of things which 
 with us are left to private enterprise being here in the 
 hands of government. But possibly there may be no such 
 contrast between Japan and the nations of Continental 
 Europe. It is not either half of Anglo-Saxondom . that 
 attracts the eyes of the ruling class of contemporary Japan. 
 Their cynosure is Imperial Germany. 
 
 In any case, and whatever its shortcomings, this oligarchy 
 has guided Japan with admirable skill and courage through 
 the perils of the last five-and-twenty years. The nation may 
 have — probably has — further changes in store for it. One 
 thing is certain : — these changes will all be along that road 
 leading westward which the men of 1868 were the first to 
 open out. Excellent persons from home, who remember the 
 Stuarts and the Legitimists and Don Carlos, sometimes ask 
 whether there may not be a Japanese reaction in favour of 
 feudalism. No, never — not till the sun stops shining and 
 water begins to flow uphill. 
 
 !Coo]cs. reoommcndod. Japan, uy Walter DicUson, gives perhaps 
 the fullest account ot the government in feudal days. — Count Ito's Commentaries 
 on the Constitution of the Empire of Japan possess exceptional interest as the 
 utterances of the man who was chiefly instrumental in framing that constitution. 
 The historical statements in the Commentaries must, however, he received 
 with great caution, the Count being less of a historian than of a statesman. To 
 take hut one instance among several : — in the authorised English version, all the 
 Empresses are converted into Emperors. Thus we find " the Emperor Suiko," "the 
 Emperor Genshoy" and so on, which is exactly as if an English constitutional 
 historian should refer to "the Emperor Maud" or "King Elizabeth "! There 
 seems, too, to be a tendency throughout to minimise the differences that separate 
 
Harakiri. 199 
 
 ancient from modern times. Along with the Commentaries, ore printed the text 
 of the Constitution itself and several other important documents of i. cognate 
 churiicter. 
 
 Harakiri. Need we say that harakiri was for centuries 
 the Japanese method par excellence of committing suicide? 
 Indeed the time-honoured custom cannot yet be said to be 
 quite extinct, for at least two instances of it have come to 
 light during the current year. One was that of a young man 
 called Ohara Takeyoshi, a lieutenant in the Yezo militia, who 
 ripped himself up in front of the graves of his ancestors at 
 the temple of Saitokuji in Tokyo. Following the usual 
 routine in such cases, Lieutenant Ohara left a paper setting 
 forth the motives of nis act, the only innovation being that 
 this document was directed to be forwarded to the Tokyo 
 News Agency for publication in all the newspapers. The 
 writer, it seems, had brooded for eleven years over the like- 
 lihood of Russian encroachment in the northern portion of 
 the Japanese empire, and feeling that his living words and 
 efforts were doomed to fruitlessness, resolved to try what his 
 death might effect. In this particular instance no result was 
 obtained. Nevertheless Ohara's self-sacrifice, its origin in 
 political considerations, and the expectation that an appeal 
 from the grave would move men's hearts more surely than 
 any arguments urged by a living voice, — all' this was in 
 complete accord with Japanese ways of thinking. The 
 government has at last, in the summer of 1891, felt 
 itself constrained to issue an ordinance prohibiting costly 
 funerals and other posthumous honours to deceased criminals. 
 Nisbino Buntaro, the Shinto fanatic who assassinated the 
 minister of education, Viscount Mori, on the day of the 
 proclamation of the Constitution in 1889, and who him- 
 
200 Harakiri. 
 
 self perished in the fray, has been worshipped almost as 
 a god, his tomb has been constantly decked with flowers, in- 
 cense burnt before it, verses hung over it, pilgrimages made 
 to it. The would-be assassin of Count Okuma met with 
 scarcely less glorification. Even women are found ready to 
 commit harakiri or otherwise destroy themselves for political 
 reasons, and the memory of each suicide for any cause is held 
 in religious reverence. 
 
 Harakiri has sometimes been translated " the happy dis- 
 patch," but the original Japanese' is less euphemistic. It 
 means "belly-cutting;" and that is what the operation 
 actually consists in, neither more nor less. Or rather, no : 
 there is more. In modern times, at least, people not having 
 always succeeded in making away with themselves expedi- 
 tiously by this method, it became usual for a friend — a best 
 man, as one might say — to stand behind the chief actor in 
 the tragedy. When the latter thrust his dirk into himself, 
 the friend at once chopped off his head.- 
 
 Harakiri is not an aboriginal Japanese custom. It was 
 evolved gradually during the Middle Ages. The cause of it 
 is probably to be sought in the desire, on the part of van- 
 quished warriors, to avoid the humiliation of falling into 
 their enemies' hands alive. Thus the custom would come to 
 be characteristic of the military class, in other words, of the 
 feudal nobility and gentry. From being a custom, it next 
 developed into a privilege. At a date difficult to fix, but 
 which was probably not later than A.D. 1500, noblemen and 
 gentlemen (that is, Dnimyos and samurai) began to be exempt- 
 ed from the indignity of being put to death by the common 
 executioner, like malefactors of the baser sort. They were 
 allowed to commit harakiri instead, the time and place being 
 
Heraldry. 201 
 
 notified to them officially, and officials being sent to witness 
 the ceremony. 
 
 It is an odd fact that the Japanese word haraldri, so well- 
 known all over the world, is but little used by the Japanese 
 themselves. The Japanese almost alwajs prefer to employ, 
 the synonym seppuku, which they consider more elegant 
 because it is derived from the Chinese. After all, they are 
 not singular in this matter. Do not we ourselves say " abdo- 
 men," when what we mean is plain Saxon — well, we will 
 not shock ears polite by mentioning the word again. Lati- 
 nisms in English, " Chinesisms " in Japanese, cover a 
 multitude of sins. 
 
 Books recommended. The whole subject is elaborately de- 
 scribed in Appendix A to the Tale's of Old Japan, by A. B. Mitford, who himself 
 had the rare, the gruesome, opportunity of seeing haraklri performed. — Our 
 own Romanised Japanese Reader, Extract No. 63, gives a literal translation of a 
 native account of the harakiri of Asano, Lord of Ako, whose death was so drama- 
 tically avenged by the famous " Forty-Seven Honins." 
 
 Heraldry. In Japan, as iu Europe, feudalism produced 
 the " nobyl and gentyl sciaunce " of heraldry, though the 
 absence of such powerful stimuli as tournaments and the 
 crusades prevented Japanese heraldry from developing to the 
 same high degree of complexity as the heraldry of the 
 West. Most of the great Baimyds possessed three crests or 
 badges (mon), the lesser Daimyos had two, ordinary samurai 
 one. These served in time of war to adorn the breastplate, 
 the helmet, and the flag. In time of peace the crest was 
 worn, as indeed it still is by those who retain the native garb, 
 in five places on the upper garment, namely, at the back of 
 the neck, on each sleeve, and on each breast. Various other 
 articles were marked with it, such as lanterns, travelling- 
 cases (what modern curio-dealers call " Daimyo boxes"), 
 
202 History and Mythology. 
 
 etc., etc. The Imperial family has two crests, — the sixieeri- 
 petalled chrysanthemum (kikit no go mon), and the leaves and 
 flowers of the paulownia (kiri no go mon). The crest of the 
 Tokugawa dynasty of Shdguns was three asarum leaves, 
 whose points meet in the centre. The bamboo, the rose, the 
 peony, even the radish (daikon), have furnished crests for 
 noble families. Other favourite " motives " are birds, butter- 
 flies, running water, fans, feathers, ladders, bridle-bits, Chi- 
 nese characters, and geometrical designs. One small Daimyo, 
 named Aoki, had for his crest the summit of Fuji, with 
 its trifurcated peak issuing from the clouds. The great 
 Shimazu family of Satsuma has the cross within a circle. 
 Flags and banners of various shapes and sizes have been in 
 use from the earliest ages. The present national flag — a red 
 ball on a white ground — was only formally adopted in the 
 year 1859. But it is a very ancient badge, intended to 
 represent the rising sun, and therefore highly appropriate to 
 Japan, as the most eastern of all lands. 
 
 Boolts rocom mended. Japanese Hcraldiy, by T. E. H. HcClatohie, 
 printed in Vol. V. of the Asiatic Transactions. Our account is a precis of Mc- 
 Clatchie's essay. — Appert's Ancien Japov, in which all the Xtaimyos' crests are 
 beautifully figured. 
 
 History and Mythology. To the eye of the critical 
 investigator, Japanese history properly so-called opens only 
 in the latter part of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth 
 century after Christ, when the gradual spread of Chinese 
 'culture, filtering in through Korea, had sufficiently dispelled 
 the gloom of original barbarism to allow of the keeping of 
 records. 
 
 The whole question of the credibility of the early history 
 of Japan has been carefully -gone into during the last ten 
 
History and Mythology. 203 
 
 years by Aston and others, with the result that the first date 
 pronounced trustworthy is A. D. 461, and it is discovered 
 that even the annals of the sixth century are to be re- 
 ceived with caution. We have ourselves no doubt of the 
 justice of this negative criticism, and can only stand in 
 amazement at the simplicity of most European writers, who 
 have accepted, without sifting them, the uncritical statements 
 of the Japanese annalists. One eminent German professor, 
 the late Dr. Hoffmann, actually discusses the hour of Jimmu 
 Tenno's accession in the year 660 B. C, which is much as if 
 one should gravely compute in cubic inches the size of the 
 pumpkin which Cinderella's fairy godmother turned into a 
 coach and six. How comes it that profound erudition so 
 often lacks the salt of humour and the guidance of common 
 sense ? 
 
 Be this as it may, criticism is not at all a " Japanesey " 
 thing ; and as Japanese art and literature contain frequent 
 allusions to the early history (so-called) of the country, the 
 chief outlines of this history, as preserved in the works 
 entitled Eojiki and Xihunyi, both dating from the eighth 
 century after Christ, may here be given. We include the 
 mythology under the same heading, for the reason that it is 
 absolutely impossible to separate the two. Why, indeed, 
 attempt to do so, where both are equally fabulous ? 
 
 Before, then, the beginning of the world of men, there 
 existed numerous generations of gods. The last of these 
 " divine generations," as they are termed, were a brother 
 and sister, named respectively Izanagi and Izanami, who, 
 uniting in marriage, gave birth to the various islands of the 
 Japanese archipelago and to a great number of additional 
 gods and goddesses. The birth of the God of Fire caused 
 
204 History and Mythology. 
 
 Izanami's death, and the most striking episode of the whole 
 Japanese mythology ensues, when her husband, Orpheus-like, 
 visits her at the gate of the under-world to implore her to 
 return to him. She would fain do so, and bids him wait 
 while she takes counsel with the deities of the place. But 
 he, impatient at her long tarrying, breaks off one of the teeth 
 of the comb in, his hair, lights it and goes in, only to find her 
 a hideous mass of putrefaction, in the midst of which are 
 seated the eight Gods of Thunder. Eight, be it observed, is 
 the mystic number of the Japanese, as six is the mystic 
 number of the Ainos whom their ancestors drove out. 
 
 Eeturning to' south-western Japan, Izanagi purifies him- 
 self by bathing in a stream, and as'he does so, fresh deities 
 are born from each article of clothing that he throws . down 
 on the river-bank, and from each part of his person. One of 
 these deities was the Sun-Goddess Ama-terasu, who was 
 born from his left eye, while the Moon-God sprang from his 
 right eye, and the last born of all, Susanoo, whose name 
 means " the Impetuous Male," was born from his nose. Be- 
 tween these three children their father divides the inheritance 
 of the universe. 
 
 At this point the story loses its unity. The Moon-God is 
 no more heard of, and the traditions concerning the Sun- 
 Goddess diverge from those concerning the Impetuous Male 
 Deity in a manner which is productive of inconsistencies in 
 the rest of the mythology. The Sun-Goddess and the Im- 
 petuous Male Deity have a violent quarrel, and at last the 
 latter breaks a hole in the roof of the hall in Heaven, where 
 his sister is sitting at work with 'her "celestial weaving- 
 maidens," and through it lets fall " a heavenly piebald horse 
 which he had flayed with a backward flaying." The con- 
 
History and Mythology. 205 
 
 sequences of this impious act were so disastrous that the 
 Sun-Goddess withdrew for a season into a cave, from which 
 the rest of the eight hundred myriad deities with difficulty 
 allured her. The Impetuous Male Deity was thereupon 
 banished, and the Sun-Goddess remained mistress of the 
 field. Yet, strange to say, she thenceforward retires into the 
 background, and the most bulky section of the mythology 
 consists of stories concerning the Impetuous Male Deity and 
 his descendants, who are* represented as the monarchs of 
 Japan, or rather of the province of Izumo. The Impetuous 
 Male Deity himself, whom his father had charged with the 
 dominion of the sea, never assumes that rule, but first has a 
 curiously told amorous adventure and an encounter with an 
 eight-forked serpent in -Izumo, and afterwards reappears as 
 the capricious and filthy deity of Hades, who, however, 
 seems to retain some authority over the land of the living, as 
 he invests his descendant of the sixth generation with the 
 sovereignty of Japan. 
 
 Of this latter personage a whole cycle of stories is told, all 
 centring in the province of Izumo. We learn of his con- 
 versations with a hare and with a mouse, of the prowess and 
 cleverness which he displayed on the occasion of a visit to 
 his ancestor in Hades, which is in this cycle of traditions a 
 much less mysterious place than the Hades visited by Iza- 
 nagi, of his amours, of his triumph over his eighty brethren, 
 of his reconciliation with his jealous consort, and of his 
 numerous descendants. We hear too of a Lilliputian deity, 
 who comes across the sea to request this monarch of Izumo 
 to share the kingdom with him. 
 
 This last-mentioned legend repeats itself in the sequel. 
 The Sun-Goddess resolves to bestow the sovereignty of Japan 
 
206 History and Mythology. 
 
 on a child of .whom it is doubtful whether he were born of her 
 or of her brother, the Impetuous Male Deity. Three embas- 
 sies are sent from Heaven to Izumo to arrange matters ; but 
 it is only a fourth that is successful, the final ambassadors 
 obtaining the submission of the monarch or deity of Izumo, 
 who surrenders his throne and promises to serve the new 
 dynasty (apparently in the under-world) if a palace or temple 
 be built for him and he be appropriately worshipped. There- 
 upon the child of the deity whom the Sun-Goddess bad 
 originally chosen descends to earth — not to Izumo in the 
 north-west, as the logical sequence of the story would lead 
 one to expect — but to the peak of a mountain in the'south- 
 western island of Kyushu. 
 
 Here follows a quaint tale accounting for the odd appear- 
 ance of the bScJi e-de-m er, and another to account for the short- 
 ness of the lives of mortals, after which we are told of the 
 birth under peculiar circumstances of the heaven -descended 
 deity's three sons. Two of these, Hoderi and Hoori, whose 
 names may be Englished as " Fire-Shine " and " Fire- 
 Fade," are the heroes of a very curious legend, which includes 
 an elaborate account of a visit paid by the latter to the palace 
 of the God of Ocean, and of a curse or spell which gained for 
 him the victory over his elder brother, and enabled him to 
 dwell peacefully in his palace at Takachiho for the space of 
 five hundred and eigbty years — the first statement resembling 
 a date which the Japanese historians vouchsafe. Fire-Fade's 
 son married his own aunt, and was the father of four children, 
 one of whom, " treading on the crest of the waves, crossed 
 over to the Eternal Land," while a second " went into the 
 sea-plain," and the two others moved eastward, fighting with 
 the chiefs of Kibi and Yamato, having adventures with gods 
 
History and Mythology. 207 
 
 both with and without tails, . being assisted by a miraculous 
 sword and a gigantic crow, and naming the various places 
 they passed through after incidents in their own career. One 
 of these brothers was Kamu-Yamato-Iware-Biko, who (the 
 other having died before him) is accounted the first human 
 Emperor of Japan — the first Mikado. The posthumous name 
 of Jimmu Tenno was given to him more than fourteen 
 centuries after the date which the historians assign for his 
 decease. 
 
 Henceforth Yamato, which had scarcely been mentioned 
 before, and the provinces adjacent to it, become the centre 
 of the story, and Izumo again emerges into importance. A 
 very indecent love-tale forms a bridge which unites the 
 various fragments of the mythology ; and the " Great Deity 
 of Miwa," who is identified with the deposed monarch of 
 Izumo, appears on the scene. Indeed, during the rest of 
 the story, this " Great Deity of Miwa " and his colleague the 
 " Small August Deity " (Sukuna-Mi-Kami), the deity Izasa- 
 Wake, the three Water-Gods of Sumi, and the " Great Deity 
 of Kazuraki" form, with the Sun-Goddess and with a certain 
 divine sword preserved at the temple of Isonokami in Yamato, 
 the only objects of worship specially named, the other gods 
 and goddesses being no more heard of. This portion of the 
 story is closed by an account of the troubles which inaugurated 
 the reign of Jimmu's successor, Suisei Tenno, and then 
 occurs a blank of (according to the accepted chronology) five 
 hundred years, during which absolutely nothing is related 
 excepting- dreary genealogies, the place where each sovereign 
 dwelt and where he was buried, and the age to which he 
 lived — this after the minute details which had been given 
 concerning the previous gods or monarchs down to Suisei 
 
208 History and Mythology. 
 
 inclusive. It should likewise be noted that the average age 
 of the first seventeen nionarohs (counting Jinxmu Tenno as 
 the first), is nearly ninety-six years if we follow the KojiM, 
 and over a hundred if we follow the accepted chronology 
 which is based chiefly on the divergent statements contained 
 in the Nihongi. The age of several of the monarchs exceeds 
 a hundred and twenty years. 
 
 The above-mentioned lapse of a blank period of five centu- 
 ries brings us to the reign of the emperor known to history 
 by the name of Sujin Tenno, whose life of one hundred and 
 sixty-eight years (one hundred and twenty according to the 
 Niliongi) is supposed to have immediately preceded the Chris- 
 tian era. In this reign, the former monarch of Izumo or 
 god of Miwa again appears and produces a pestilence, of the 
 manner of staying which Sujin is warned in a dream. 
 
 In the following reign an elaborate legend, involving a 
 variety of circumstances as miraculous as any in the earlier 
 portion of the mythology, again centres in the necessity of 
 pacifying the great god of Izumo ; and this, with details of 
 internecine strife in the Imperial family, of the sovereign's 
 amours, and of the importation of the orange from the 
 " Eternal Land," brings us to the cycle of traditions of 
 which Yamato-Take, a son of the Emperor Keiko, is the 
 hero. This- prince, after assassinating one of his brothers, 
 accomplishes the task of subduing both western and eastern 
 Japan ; and notwithstanding certain details unacceptable to 
 European taste, his story, taken as a whole, is one of the 
 most pleasing in Japanese legend. He performs marvels of 
 valour, disguises himself as a woman in order to slay the 
 brigands, is the possessor of a magic sword and fire-striker, 
 has a devoted wife who stills the fury of the sea by sitting 
 
History and Mythology. 209 
 
 down upon its surface, has encounters with a deer and with 
 a boar who are really gods in disguise, and finally dies on 
 hia way westward before he can reach his Lome in Yamato. 
 His death is followed by a highly mythological account of 
 the laying to rest of the white bird into which he ended by 
 being transformed. 
 
 The succeeding reign is a blank, and the next transports 
 us without a word of warning to quite another scene. The 
 •sovereign's home is now in Kyushu — the south- westernmost 
 island of the Japanese archipelago; — and four of the gods, 
 through the medium of the sovereign's consort, who is known 
 to posterity as the Empress Jingo, reveal the existence of the 
 land of Korea, of which, however, this is not the first mention 
 in the histories. The Mikado disbelieves the divine message, 
 and is punished with death for his incredulity. But the Em- 
 press, after a special consultation between her prime minister 
 and the gods, and the performance of various religious 
 ceremonies, marshals her fleet, and, with the assistance of 
 the fishes both great and small and of a miraculous wave, 
 reaches Shiragi (one of the ancient divisions of Korea), and 
 subdues it. She then returns to Japan, the legend ending 
 with a curiously naive tale of how she sat a-fishing one day 
 on a shoal in the River Ogawa in Kyushu, with threads 
 picked out of her skirt for lines. The date of the conquest 
 of Korea, according to the orthodox chronology, is A. D. 
 200. 
 
 The next episode is the warrior-empress's voyage up to 
 Yamato — another joint in the story, by means of which the 
 Yamato cycle of legends and the Kyushu cycle are brought 
 into apparent unity. The Nihongi has even improved upon 
 this by making Jingo's" husband dwell in Yamato at the 
 
210 History and Mythology. 
 
 beginning of his reign and only remove to Kyushu later, so 
 that if the less skilfully elaborated Kojlki had not been 
 preserved, the tangled skein of the tradition would have been 
 still more difficult to unravel. The Empress's army aofeats 
 the troops raised by the native kings or princes, who are 
 represented as her step-sons, and from that time forward 
 the story runs on in a single channel, with Yamato as its 
 scene of action. 
 
 China likewise is now first mentioned, books are said to 
 have been brought over from the mainland, and we hear of 
 the gradual introduction of various useful arts. Even the 
 annals of the reign of Jingo's son, Ojin Tenno, however, 
 during which this civilising impulse from abroad is said to 
 have commenced, are not free from details as miraculous as 
 any in the earlier portions of the history. The monarch 
 himself is said to have lived a hundred and thirty years, 
 while his successor lived eighty-three (according to the 
 Nihongi, Ojin lived a hundred and ten, and his successor 
 Nintoku reigned eighty-seven years). It is not till the next 
 reign that the miraculous ceases, a fact which significantly 
 coincides with the time at which, says the Nihongi, " historio- 
 graphers were first appointed to all the provinces to record 
 words and events, and forward archives from all directions." 
 
 This brings us to the beginning of the fifth century of our 
 era, just three centuries before the compilation of the annals 
 that have come down to us, but only two centuries before the 
 compilation of the first history of which mention has been 
 preserved. From that time forward the story in the Knjiki, 
 though not well told, gives us some very curious pictures, and 
 reads as if it were trustworthy. It is tolerably full for a few 
 reigns, after which it again dwindles into mere genealogies, 
 
History and Mythology. 211 
 
 ending with the death of the Empress Suiko in A. D. 628. 
 The XiJtongi, on the contrary, gives full details as far as A.D. 
 701, that is, to -within nineteen years of the date of its 
 compilation. 
 
 The reader -who has followed this summary, or who will 
 take the trouble to study the original Japanese texts for him- 
 self, will perceive that there is no break in the story — at least 
 110 chronological break — and no break between the fabulous 
 and the real, unless it be iu the fifth century of our era, or 
 more than a thousand years later than the date usually 
 assumed as the starting-point of authentic Japanese history. 
 The only breaks are — not chronological — but topographical. 
 
 This fact of the continuity of the Japanese mythology and 
 history has been fully recognised by the leading native com- 
 mentators, whose opinions are those considered orthodox by 
 modern Shintoists, and they draw from it the conclusion that 
 everything in the standard national histories must be accepted 
 as literal truth — the supernatural equally with the natural. 
 But the general habit of the more sceptical Japanese of the pre- 
 sent day, that is to say, of ninety-nine out of every hundred 
 of the educated, is to reject or rather to ignore the legends of 
 the gods, while implicitly believing the legends of the 
 emperors, from Jimmu Tenno, in B. C. 660, downwards. 
 For so arbitrary a distinction there is not the shadow of 
 justification. The so-called history of Jimmu the first 
 •earthly Mikado, of Jingo the conqueress of Korea, of Yamato- 
 take, and of the rest, stands or falls by exactly the same 
 criterion as the legends of the creator and creatress Izanagi 
 and Izanami. Both sets of tales are told in the same books, 
 in the same style, and with an almost equal amount of 
 supernatural detail. The so-called historical part is as 
 
212 History and Mythology. 
 
 devoid as the other of all contemporary evidence. It is 
 contradicted by the more trustworthy, because contem- 
 porary, Chinese and Korean records, and — to turn from 
 negative to positive testimony — can be proved in some 
 particulars to rest on actual forgery. For instance, .the ficti- 
 tious nature of the calendars employed to calculate the early 
 dates for about thirteen centuries (from B. C. 660 onward) 
 lias not altogether escaped the notice even of the Japanese 
 themselves, and has been clearly exposed for European 
 readers by that careful investigator, the late Mr. Wm. Bram- 
 sen, who says, when discussing them in the Introduction to 
 his Japanese Chronological Tables, " It is hardly too severe 
 to style this one of the greatest literary frauds ever per- 
 petrated." 
 
 But a truce to this discussion. We have only entered into- 
 it because the subject, though perhaps dry, is at least new, 
 and because one's patience is worn out by seeing book after 
 book glibly quote the so-called dates of early Japanese history 
 as if they were solid truth, instead of being the merest haphaz- 
 ard guesses and baseless imaginings of a later age. Arrived 
 at A. D. 600, we stand on terra firma, and can afford to push 
 on more quickly. 
 
 About that time occurred the greatest event of Japanese 
 history, the conversion o,f the nation to Buddhism (approx- 
 imately A. D. 552 — 621). So far as can be gathered from 
 the accounts of the early Chinese travellers, Chinese civilisa- 
 tion had slowly — very slowly — been gaining ground in the- 
 archipelago ever since the third century after Christ. But 
 when the Buddhist missionaries crossed the water, all Chinese 
 institutions followed them and came in with a rush. Math- 
 ematical instruments and calendars were introduced ; books 
 
History and Mythology. 213 
 
 began to be written (the earliest that has survived, and in- 
 deed nearly the earliest of all, is the already-mentioned Koji- 
 ki, dating from A. D. 712) ; the custom of abdicating the 
 throne in order to spend old age in prayer was adopted — a 
 custom which, more than anything else, led to the effacemenfc 
 of the Mikado's authority during the Middle Ages. 
 
 Sweeping changes in political arrangements began to be 
 made in the year 645, and before the end of the eighth 
 century, the government had been entirely remodelled on 
 the Chinese centralised bureaucratic plan, with a regular 
 system of ministers responsible to the sovereign, who, as 
 *' Son of Heaven," was theoretically absolute. In practice 
 this absolutism lasted but a short time, because the entourage 
 and mode of life of the Mikados were not such as to make of 
 them able rulers. They passed their time surrounded only 
 by women and priests, oscillating between indolence and de- 
 bauchery, between poetastering and gorgeous temple services. 
 This was the brilliant age of Japanese classical literature, 
 which lived and moved and had its being in the atmosphere 
 of an effeminate court. The Fujiwara family engrossed the 
 power of the state during this early epoch (A. D. 670 — 1050). 
 While their sons held all the great posts of government, the 
 daughters were married to puppet emperors. 
 
 The next change resulted from the impatience of the al- 
 ways manly and warlike Japanese gentry at the sight of this 
 sort of petticoat government. The great clans of Taira and 
 Minamoto arose, and struggled for and alternately held the 
 reins of power during the second half of the eleventh and the 
 whole of the twelfth century. Japan was now converted into 
 a camp ; her institutions were feudalised. The real master 
 of the empire was he who, strongest with his sword and bow 
 
214 History and Mythology. 
 
 and heading the most numerous host, could partition out 
 the land among the chief barons, his retainers. By the 
 final overthrow 'of the Taira family at the sea-fight of 
 Dan-no-Ura in A. D. 1185, Yoritorno, the chief of the Mi- 
 namotos, rose to supreme power, and obtained from the 
 Court at Kyoto the title of Shogun, literally " Generalissi- 
 mo," which had till then been applied in its proper meaning 
 to those generals who were sent from time to time to subdue 
 the Ainos or rebellious provincials, but which thenceforth 
 took to itself a special sense, somewhat as the word Imperator 
 (also meaning originally " general ") did in Eome. The 
 coincidence is striking. So is the contrast. For, as Imperial 
 Eome never ceased to be theoretically a republic, Japan 
 contrariwise, though practically and indeed avowedly ruled 
 by the Shoguns from A. D. 1190 to 1867, always re- 
 tained the Mikado as theoretical head of the state, de- 
 scendant of the Sun-Goddess, fountain of all honour. There 
 never were two emperors, acknowledged as such, one spiritual 
 and one secular, as has been so often asserted by European 
 writers. There never was but one emperor— an emperor 
 powerless it is true, seen only by the women who attended 
 him, often a mere infant in arms, who was discarded on 
 reaching adolescence for another infant in arms. Still, he 
 was the theoretical head of the state, whose authority was 
 merely delegated to the Shogun as, so to say, Mayor of the 
 Palace. 
 
 By a curious parallelism of destiny, the Shogunate itself 
 more than once showed signs of fading away from substance 
 into shadow. Yoritomo's descendants did not prove worthy 
 of him, and for more than a century (A. D. 1205 — 1333) the 
 real authority was wielded by the so-called "Regents "of 
 
History and Mythology. 215 
 
 the Hojo family, while their liege-lords, the Shoguns, though 
 keeping a nominal court at Kamakura, were for all that 
 period little better than empty names. So completely were 
 the Hojos masters of the whole country, that they actually 
 had their deputy governors at Kyoto and in Kyushu in the 
 south-west, and thought nothing of banishing Mikados to 
 distant islands. Their rule was made memorable by the 
 repulse of the Mongol fleet sent by Kublai Khan with the 
 purpose of adding Japan to his gigantic dominions. This 
 was at the end of the thirteenth century, since which time 
 Japan has never been attacked from without. 
 
 During the fourteenth century, even the dowager-like calm 
 of the Court of Kyoto was broken by internecine strife; Two 
 branches of the Imperial house, supported each by different 
 feudal chiefs, disputed the crown. One was called the 
 Hokucho, or "Northern Court," the other the Nancho, or 
 " Southern Court." After lasting some sixty years, this 
 contest terminated in A. D. 1392 by the triumph of the 
 Northern dynasty, whose cause the powerful Ashikaga family 
 had espoused. From 1338 to 15G5, the Ashikiigas ruled 
 Japan as Shoguns. Their Court was a centre of elegance, at 
 which painting flourished, and the lyric drama, and the tea 
 ceremonies, and the highly intricate arts of gardening and 
 flower arrangement. But they allowed themselves to sink 
 into effeminacy and sloth, as the Mikados had done before 
 them ; and political authority, after being for some time 
 administered less by them than in their name, fell from them 
 altogether in 1597. 
 
 Meanwhile Japan had been discovered by the Portuguese 
 (A. D. 1542) ; and the imprudent conduct of the Portuguese 
 and Spanish friars) bateren, as they were called — a corrup- 
 
216 History and Mythology. 
 
 tion of the word padre) made of the Christian religion an 
 additional source of discord. Japan fell into utter anarchy. 
 Each baron in his fastness was a law unto himself. Then, 
 in the latter half of the sixteenth century, there arose 
 successively three great men — Ota Nobunaga, the Taiko* 
 Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The first of these con- 
 ceived the idea of centralising all the authority of the state in 
 a single person ; the second, Hideyoshi, who has been called 
 the Napoleon of Japan, actually put the idea into practice, 
 and joined the invasion of Korea (A. D. 1592—^1598) to his 
 domestic triumphs. Death overtook him in 1598, while he 
 was revolving no less a scheme than the conquest of China. 
 Ieyasu, setting Hideyoshi's youthful son aside, stepped into 
 the vacant place. An able general, unsurpassed as a diplomat 
 and administrator, he first quelled all the turbulent barons, 
 then bestowed a considerable portion of their lands on his 
 own kinsmen and dependents, and either broke or balanced, 
 by a judicious distribution of other fiefs over different provinces 
 of the empire, the might of those greater feudal lords, such 
 as Satsuma and Choshu, whom it was impossible to put al- 
 together out of the way. The Court of Kyoto was treated by 
 him respectfully, and investiture as Shogun for himself and 
 his heirs duly obtained from the Mikado. 
 
 In order further to break the might of the Daimyos, Ieyasu 
 compelled them to live at Yedo, which he had chosen for his 
 capital in 1590, during six months of the year, and to leave 
 their wives and families there as hostages during the other 
 half. What Ieynsu sketched out, the third Shogun of his 
 
 "The word taikt> (:fe§fl). which means " great councillor," was the recognised 
 title of a retired regent (ktoambahu) ; but being rarely applied to any except 
 Hideyoshi, it has almost come to form part of his name. 
 
History and Mythology. 217 
 
 line, Iemitsu, perfected. From that time forward, " Old 
 Japan," as we know it from the Dutch accounts, from art, 
 from the stage, was crystallised for two hundred and fifty 
 years — the Old Japan of isolation (for Iemitsu shut the coun- 
 try up to prevent complications with the Spaniards and 
 Portuguese), the Old Japan of picturesque feudalism, of 
 harakiri, of a society ranged in castes and orders and officered 
 by spies, the Old Japan of an ever-increasing skill in lacquer 
 and porcelain, of aristocratic punctilio, of supremely exquisite 
 taste. 
 
 Unchangeable to the outward eye of contemporaries, Japan 
 had not passed a hundred years under the Tokugawa rigime 
 before the seeds of the disease which finally killed that rigime 
 were sown. Strangely enough, the instrument of destruction 
 was historical research. Ieyasu himself had been a great 
 patron of literature. His grandson, the second Prince of 
 Mito, inherited his taste. Under the auspices of this Japanese 
 Mtecenas, a school of literati arose to whom the antiquities of 
 their country were all in all — Japanese poetry and romance, 
 as against the "Chinese Classics ; the native religion, Shinto, 
 as against the foreign religion, Buddhism ; hence, by an 
 inevitable extension, the ancient legitimate dynasty of the 
 Mikados, as against the upstart Shoguns. Of course this 
 political portion of the doctrine of the literary party was kept 
 in the background at first ; for those were not days when 
 opposition to the existing government could be expressed or 
 even hinted at without danger. But nevertheless it gradually 
 grew in importance, so that, when Commodore Perry came 
 with his big guns (A. D. 1853 — 4), he found a government 
 already tottering to its fall, many who cared little for the 
 Mikado's abstract rights, caring a great deal for the chance 
 
218 History and Mythology. 
 
 of aggrandising their own families at the Shogun's expense. 
 
 The Shogun yielded to the demands of Perry and of the 
 representatives of the other foreign powers — England, 
 France, Eussia — who' followed in Perry's train, and con- 
 sented to open Yokohama, Hakodate, and certain other 
 ports to foreign trade and residence (1857 — 9). He even 
 sent embassies to the United States and to Europe in 1860 
 and 1861. The knowledge of the outer world possessed by 
 the Court of Yedo, though not extensive, was sufficient to 
 assure the Shogun and his advisers that it was vain to refuse 
 what the Western powers claimed. The Court of Kyoto had 
 no means of acquiring even this modicum of worldly wisdom. 
 According to its view, Japan, " the land of the gods," should 
 never be polluted by outsiders, the ports should be closed 
 again, and the "barbarians " expelled at any hazard. 
 
 What specially tended to complicate matters at this crisis 
 was the independent action of certain Duimyos. One of them, 
 the Prince of Choshu, -acting, as is believed, under secret in- 
 structions from the Court of Kyoto, fired on ships belonging 
 to France, Holland, and the United States — this, too, at the 
 very moment (1863) when the Shogun's government, placed 
 between foreign aggression and home tumult, as between 
 hammer and anvil, was doing its utmost to effect by diplo- 
 macy the departure of the foreigners whom it had been 
 driven to admit a few years before. The consequence of this 
 act was what is called "the Shimonoseki Affair," namely, 
 the bombardment of Shimonoseki, Choshu's chief sea-port, 
 by the combined fleets of the powers that had been insulted, 
 together with Great Britain which espoused their cause on 
 the ground of the solidarity of all foreign interests in Japan. 
 An indemnity of $3,000,000 was exacted, which, though 
 
History and Mythology. 219 
 
 doubtless no feather, broke the Shogunate's back. The Sho- 
 gun Iemochi attempted to punish Choshu for the humiliation 
 which he had brought on Japan, but failed, was himself de- 
 feated by the latter's troops, and died. Hitotsubashi, the last 
 of his line, succeeded him. But the Court of Kyoto, prompt- 
 ed by the great Daimyos of Choshu and Satsuma, suddenly 
 decided on the abolition of the Shogunate. The Shogun 
 submitted to the decree, and those of his followers who did 
 not were routed — first at Fushimi near Kyoto (17th January, 
 1868), then at Ueno in Yedo (4ih July, 1868), then in Aizu 
 (6th November, 1868), and lastly at Hakodate (27th June, 
 1869), where some of them had endeavoured to set up an in- 
 dependent republic. 
 
 The government of the country was reorganised during 
 1867 — 8, nominally on the basis of a pure absolutism, with 
 the Mikado as sole wielder of all authority both legislative 
 and executive. Thus the literary party had triumphed. All 
 their dreams were realised. They were henceforth to have 
 Japan for the Japanese. . The Shogunate, which had admit- 
 ted the hated barbarian, was no more. Even their hope of 
 supplanting Buddhism by the old national religion, Shinto, 
 was in great measure accomplished. They believed that not 
 only European innovations, but everything — even Japanese 
 — that was newer than A. D. 503, would be forever swept 
 away. Things were to go back to what they had been in the 
 primitive ages, when Japan was really "the land of the 
 gods." 
 
 From this dream they were soon roughly wakened. The 
 shrewd clansmen of Satsuma and Choshu, who had humour- 
 ed the- ignorance of the Court and the fads of the scholars 
 only as long as their common enemy, the Shogunate, re- 
 
220 History and Mythology. 
 
 mained in existence, now turned round, and declared in 
 favour, not merely of foreign intercourse, but of the European- 
 isation of their own country. History has never witnessed 
 a more sudden volte-face. History has never witnessed a wiser 
 one. We foreigners, being mere lookers-on, may no doubt 
 sometimes regret the substitution of common-place European 
 ways for the glitter, the glamour of picturesque Orientalism. 
 But can ib be doubtful which of the two civilisations is the 
 higher, both materially and intellectually ? And does not 
 the whole experience of the last three hundred years go to 
 prove that no Oriental state which retains distinctively 
 Oriental institutions can hope to keep its territory free from 
 Western aggression ? What of India ? What even of Chi- 
 na ? And what was Commodore Perry's visit but a threat 
 to the effect that if Japan chose to remain Oriental, she 
 should not be allowed to remain her own mistress ? From 
 the moment when the intelligent samurai of the leading 
 clans realised that the Europeanisation of the country was 
 a question of life and death, they (for to this day the govern- 
 ment has continued practically in their hands) have never 
 ceased carrying on the work of reform and progress. 
 
 The following are some of the chief measures and events of 
 the last twenty years :— 
 
 1871. The daimiates abolished and prefectures established 
 in their stead — in other words, a centralised bureaucracy 
 substituted for feudalism. The disestablishment of Buddhism 
 begun. The social disabilities of the pariah class (the so-called 
 eta and hinin) removed. Posts and telegraphs introduced. 
 Mint opened at Osaka. 
 
 1872. First railway. Conscription law. Law against 
 nudity in cities. 
 
History and Mythology. 221 
 
 1873. This year was specially fruitful in pro-foreign mea- 
 sures. The European calendar was introduced ; the persecuted 
 Catholics were released ; vaccination, photography, European 
 dress for officials, meat-eating, etc., etc., came into vogue. 
 
 1874. Saga rebellion. Formosan expedition. 
 
 1875. Establishment of the Mitsubishi Steam Ship Com- 
 pany. Provincial governors first summoned to Tokyo for 
 consultation. Saghalien ceded to Eussia in exchange for the 
 Kurile Islands. Establishment of orders of knighthood. 
 
 1876. Treaty with Korea. Higo rebellion. Commutation 
 of the samurai's pensions. Edict against the wearing of swords 
 by the samurai (took effect from 1st January, 1877). 
 
 1877. Satsuma rebellion under Saigo Takamori, who had 
 been a loyalist leader in the revolutionary war, but who took 
 umbrage at the ultra-European leanings of his colleagues. 
 Eeduction of land-tax from 3 to 2J per cent. First National 
 Industrial Exhibition at Ueno in Tokyo. 
 
 1878. Murder of Minister Okubo. Military mutiny at the 
 Takebashi Barracks, Tokyo. Development of commercial 
 enterprise by the establishment of the Bourse and the Tokyo 
 Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 1879. Dispute with China concerning Loochoo. Loochooan 
 king brought captive to Tokyo, and his kingdom annexed. 
 Various distinguished foreigners visit Japan, notably ex- 
 President- Grant. 
 
 1880. Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, 
 published. Prefectural assemblies established. Stringent 
 regulations concerning public meetings. 
 
 1881. Discontent of the liberals at the Imperial Rescript 
 deferring the adoption of constitutional government till 1890. 
 
222 History and Mythology. 
 
 Trouble in Yezo arising from the winding up of the Kaitakushi 
 (Colonisation Department). 
 
 1882. Political excitement. Organisation of the present 
 Liberal and Eadical parties (Kaishinto and Jiyuto). Trouble 
 with Korea. 
 
 1883. Establishment of the Supreme Court of Justice. 
 
 1884. Insurrection prompted by the radicals of the pre- 
 fecture of Saitama. Creation of orders of nobility on the 
 European pattern. English introduced in the curriculum of 
 the common schools. 
 
 1885. Eeforms in the method of administration, reduction 
 in the number of officials, highest offices filled by new men, 
 such as Ito, Inoue, etc. These changes are locally known as 
 the 0-jishin, that is, "the Great Earthquake." — Formation 
 of the Japan Steam Ship Company (Nippon Yusen Kwaisha). 
 
 1885 — 7. The second most violent attack of the " foreign 
 fever." European music, dancing, athletics, card-playing, 
 velocipede-riding, etc., etc., all came in with a rush, as did 
 European dress for Japanese ladies. Predominance of German 
 influence. 
 
 1886. Dissatisfaction of the radicals. Trouble with China 
 arising from a sailors' brawl at Nagasaki. Terrible mortality 
 from cholera. 
 
 1887. Count Inoue's negotiations for Treaty Eevision fall 
 through. Passing of the " Peace Preservation Act," whereby 
 many radicals, especially "those of the Tosa clan, were banished 
 from the capital. This year witnessed the beginning of a 
 reaction in favour of native ways and dress. 
 
 1888. Eruption of the volcano, Bandai-San. 
 
 1889. A constitution promulgated whereby Japan, hitherto 
 an absolute monarchy, becomes a constitutional monarchy 
 
History and Mythology. 22s 
 
 after the pattern of Prussia and other continental European 
 states. Establishment of local self-government. Treaty 
 ratified with Mexico. Treaties concluded with other western 
 powers, but not ratified. The chauvinistic feeling developed 
 after the failure of the negotiations for treaty revision in 1887 
 gains in intensity, resulting during 1889-90 in several 
 murderous assaults both on foreigners and on Japanese 
 statesmen believed to entertain pro-foreign views. The 
 foreign community of Yokohama protests against an un- 
 conditional surrender of " Treaty rights." This so incenses 
 the Japanese, that the houses of prominent residents have to 
 be guarded day and night by special constables. 
 
 1890. Opening of the first Diet, in accordance with the 
 terms of the Constitution. 
 
 1891. Eeductions in public expenditure and in the number 
 of officials. All Japan in a ferment over a murderous attack 
 on the Czarewitch, who was visiting Otsu, a town on the 
 shores of Lake Biwa. Second session of the Diet to take 
 place in the late autumn. 
 
 * ^s ^ s|s % i}i ^t # * ^ 4c 
 
 It is not possible to conclude this sketch of Japanese history 
 by the usual formula, "Books Recommended," — for the 
 reason that there are none to recommend. The chapters 
 devoted to history in the works of Griffis, Bein, etc., hold, it 
 is true, a respectable position as embodying the usual tradi- 
 tional account of the subject. Adams' work, too, is good in 
 its way, though the title, " A History of Japan," is a 
 misnomer. The book is, in fact, an account of the foreign 
 relations of the Japanese government since 1868. But a 
 critical history of Japan remains to be written — a work which 
 
224 History and Mythology. 
 
 should do for every century what Mr. Aston has done for the 
 earliest centuries only.* Here more than anywhere else is 
 it necessary to listen at back-doors, to peep through conven- 
 tional fences, and to sift native evidence by the light of 
 foreign testimony. We should know next to nothing of what 
 may be termed the Catholic episode qf the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, had we access to none but the official 
 Japanese sources. How can we trust those same sources 
 when they deal with times yet more remote ? There seems 
 little doubt that the ruling powers at any given time manipu- 
 lated both the. more ancient records and the records of their 
 own age, in order to suit their own private ends. Sometimes, 
 indeed, the process may have been almost unconscious. The 
 Japanese themselves are beginning to awake to these con- 
 siderations. Mr. Shigeno An-eki, for instance, the greatest 
 living authority on Japanese history, has undertaken to prove 
 how certain historical episodes were "cooked" under the 
 Tokugawa dynasty of Shoguns. A little reflection will show 
 that*such manipulations of history are likely to be the rule 
 rather than the exception in Asiatic countries. The love of 
 truth for truth's sake is not a general human characteristic, 
 but one of the exceptional traits of the modern European 
 mind, developed slowly by many causes, chiefly by those 
 habits of accuracy which physical science does so much to 
 foster. The concern of ancient peoples and of Asiatic peoples 
 has always been, not so much truth as edification. Outside 
 Europe and her colonies it is easy to manipulate records, 
 because such manipulation shocks no one deeply, because the 
 people are told nothing about the matter, and because, even 
 
 * See his essay entitled Early Japanese Sistory, printed in Vol. XVI. Part i! of 
 the Asiatic Transactions. 
 
Incense Parties. 225 
 
 if they were told, they have neither the means nor the in- 
 clination to he critical. 
 
 Incense Parties. There is an elaborate ceremonial 
 called Kiki-Jw, or "incense-sniffing," that has been a favourite 
 ever since A. D. 1500, and still counts its votaries among 
 esthetically minded persons. The gist of it is this : — The 
 host produces, from among a score of different kinds of in- 
 cense, five kinds, to each of which he affixes at pleasure some 
 new name founded on a literary allusion, and each name 
 receives a number. The various kinds are then burnt in 
 irregular order, sometimes in combinations of two or three 
 kinds ; and the guests have to write down the corresponding 
 numbers on slips of paper by means of certain signs symbolical 
 of the chapters in a celebrated classical romance called Genji 
 MonogataH. He who guesses best wins a prize. When the 
 nose gets jaded by much smelling, it is restored to normal 
 discrimination by means of vinegar. 
 
 All this will sound to the Anglo-Saxon reader like an 
 innocent, not to say insipid, little jeu tie sociSte, such 
 as might suggest itself to a party of school-girls. But re- 
 member that Old Japan was in its childhood— its second 
 childhood. The art, the science, the mystery of incense- 
 sniffing was practised by priests, Duimyos, and other re- 
 verend seigniors. The incense-burners and other utensils 
 employed were rare works of art, the meetings were conduct- 
 ed with grave etiquette, serious treatises have been written 
 on the subject, — in a word, incense-sniffing, coming next to 
 the tea ceremonies in the estimation of men of taste, was a 
 pastime at once erudite and aristocratic, and one which no 
 Japanese would ever have thought of joking about. Nor in- 
 
226 Ise. 
 
 deed need a European joke about it. Have we not rather 
 cause for wonder, perplexity, almost awe, in the spectacle of 
 a nation's taste and intellect going off on such devious tracks 
 as this incense-sniffing and the still more intricate tea cere- 
 monies, and on bouquets arranged philosophically, and gardens 
 representing the cardinal virtues ? Such strict rules, such 
 grave faces, such gigantic terminologies, so much ado about 
 nothing ! 
 
 This article, read together with the articles on Esotbricism 
 and the Tea Ceremonies and the latter half of those on 
 Flowers and Gardens, will afford a glimpse into a singular 
 phase of the Oriental character, — its proneness to dwell on 
 subjects simply because they are old and mysterious, its love 
 of elaborately conceived methods of killing time. 
 
 / Ise. Ise has been termed the Mecca of Japan, because it 
 
 / is the site of the two chief temples (Daijinyu) of Shinto, the 
 
 j aboriginal Japanese religion. Properly speaking, Ise is the 
 
 name, not of a town or of a temple, but of a province. The 
 
 name of the town nearest to the temples is Yamada. 
 
 To the student of Japanese history and religion, the word 
 Ise is in itself a magnet. But it may be a question whether 
 the ordinary tourist would be repaid by going out of his way 
 to visit the temples of a creed which binds itself to the 
 severest architectural simplicity — white pine-wood and a 
 thatch of rushes, no carvings, no paintings, no images, nothing 
 but an immense antiquity, and even that only in the sense of 
 historic continuity ; for immemorial custom decrees that the 
 two shrines shall be razed to the ground and rebuilt once 
 every twenty years in precisely the same style. The wood of 
 the old temples is, on such occasions, hewn into a myriad 
 
Japan. 227 
 
 pieces, and distributed as relics to tlie faithful. The temples 
 were last rebuilt in 1889. The deities chiefly worshipped at 
 Ise are the Sun-Goddess Ama-terasu, and 2'oyo-itke-bime the 
 Goddess of Food. Viscount Mori, once Japanese representa- 
 tive at Washington and afterwards in Loudon, perished by 
 the hand of a Shinto fanatic on the 11th February, 1889, for 
 the crime of having lifted with his walking-stick the curtain 
 which hides the chief shrine from vulgar gaze. 
 
 Books recommended. The Shint/s Temples of Ise, by Ernest 
 fiatow, in Vol. II. of the Asiatic Transactions. — Miss Bird's Unbeaten Tracks in 
 Japan, Voi. II, p. 278, et seq. — The Japan Daily Mail of the 2Srd and 24th October, 
 18S9, contained an elaborate accoant of the consecration of the new temples, from 
 the pen of Major-General Palmer, R. E. 
 
 Japan. Our word " Japan," and the Japanese Nihon or- 
 Nippon, are alike corruptions of Jih-pSn, the Chinese pronun- 
 ciation of the characters H &, literally " sun-origin," that 
 is, " the place the sun comes from," — a name given to Japan 
 by the Chinese on account of the position of the archipelago 
 to the east of their own country. Marco Polo's Zipangu and 
 the poets' Cipango are from the same Chinese compound, with 
 the addition of the word kuo W, which means " country." 
 
 The name Nihon (" Japan ") seems to have been first 
 officially used by the Japanese government in A. D. 670. 
 Before that time, the usual native designation of the country 
 was Yamato, properly the name of one of the central provinces. 
 Yamato and O-mi-Jcuni, that is, "the Great August Country," 
 are the names still preferred in poetry and belles-lettres. 
 Japan has other ancient names, some of which are of learned 
 length and thundering sound, for instance, Toyo-ashi-icara- 
 no-chi-akl-no-naga-i-ho-aki-no-mizu-ho-no-kuni, that is, " the- 
 Luxuriant - Eeed - Plains - the - Land-of - Fresh-Rice - Ears-of-a- 
 Thousand-Autumns-of-Long-Five-Hundred- Autumns." But 
 
228 Japanese People. 
 
 we shall not detain the reader with an enumeration of them. 
 Any further curiosity on this head may be satisfied by con- 
 sulting the pages of the Kojihi. (See Asiatic Transactions,. 
 Vol. X. Supplement.) 
 
 Japanese People (Characteristics of the). Any 
 
 account of the characteristics of a people must deal with two 
 main points, namely, physical characteristics and mental 
 characteristics. We will first say a few words about the 
 physical characteristics, referring those who desire exhaus- 
 tive information to Dr. Baelz's admirable monograph entitled 
 Die Eorperlichen Eigenschaften dcr Japaner, printed in Parts- 
 28 and 32 of the German Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 I. Physical Characteristics. As stated in the Article 
 entitled Bace, the Japanese are Mongols, that is, they are 
 distinguished by a yellowish skin, straight black hair, scanty 
 beard, almost total absence of hair on the arms, legs, and 
 chest, broadish prominent cheek-bones, and more . or less 
 obliquely set eyes. These, with the other characteristics to 
 be mentioned presently, are common both to the more; 
 slenderly built, oval-faced aristocracy, and to pudding-faced 
 Gombei, the "Hodge" of Japanese Arcadia. Compared" 
 with people of European race, the average Japanese has a 
 long body and short legs, a large skull with a tendency to 
 prognathism (projecting jaws), a flat nose, coarse hair, scanty 
 eye-lashes, puffy eyelids, a sallow complexion, and a low 
 stature. The average stature of Japanese men is about the 
 same as the average stature of European women. The 
 women are proportionately smaller. The lower classes are 
 mostly strong, with well-developed arms, legs, and chests. 
 The upper classes are too often weakly. 
 
Japanese People. 229 
 
 The above description will perhaps not be considered flat- 
 tering. But it is not ours ; it is the doctors'. Then, too, 
 ideals of beauty differ from land to land. We Anglo-Saxons 
 consider ourselves a handsome race. But what are we still, 
 in the eyes of the majority of the Japanese people, but a 
 set of big, red, hairy barbarians with green eyes ? 
 
 The Japanese women are, on the whole, handsomer than 
 the men, and have, besides, pretty manners and charming , 
 voices.* Village beauties are rare, most girls of the lower 
 class with any pretentions to good looks being, as it would 
 seem, sent out to service at tea-houses in the towns, or else 
 early obtaining husbands. Japanese children, with their 
 dainty little ways and old-fashioned appearance, always in- 
 sinuate themselves into the affections of foreign visitors. 
 Old and young alike are remarkable for quietness of demean- 
 our. The gesticulations of a Southern European fill them 
 with amazement, not to say contempt, and fidgetting of every 
 kind is foreign to their nature. 
 
 The Japanese age earlier than we do. It has also been 
 asserted that they are less long-lived. But this -is doubtful. 
 If statistics may be trusted, the number of octogenarians, 
 nonagenarians, and even centenarians is fairly high. In 
 Japan, as in other countries, the number of very old women 
 considerably exceeds that of the very old men. The diseases 
 which make most havoc are consumption, diseases of the 
 digestive organs, and the peculiar affection called Kakke, of 
 
 * For a detailed analysis of the Japanese standard of female beauty, see Miss 
 Bacon's Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 58-60, where also the tine remark is 
 made that foreigners residing long in Japan find their standard gradually change, 
 "and see, to their own surprise, that their countrywomen look ungainly, fierce, 
 aggressive, and awkward among the small, mild, shrinking, and graceful 
 Japanese ladies." 
 
280 Japanese People. 
 
 which an account will be found in a separate article. The 
 Japanese have less highly strung nerves than we Europeans. 
 Hence they endure pain more calmly, and meet death with 
 comparative indifference.* 
 
 II. Mental Characteristics. The tape-line, the weighing- 
 machine, the craniometer, and the hospital returns give means 
 of ascertaining a nation's physical characteristics which 
 almost any one can apply and which none may dispute. Far 
 different is it when we try to gauge the phenomena of mind. 
 Does a new-comer venture on the task ? He is set down as 
 a sciolist, a man without experience — the one thing declared 
 needful. Does an old resident hold forth, expecting his 
 experience to command attention ? The Globe-trotter jour- 
 nalisticus from London, or maybe the cultured Bostonian 
 literary critic, jumps upon him, tells him that living too long 
 in one place has given him mental myopia, in other words 
 has rendered his judgment prejudiced and worthless. The 
 late Mr. Gifford Palgrave said in the present writer's hearing 
 that an eight weeks' residence was the exact time qualifying 
 an intelligent man to write about Japan. A briefer period 
 (such was his ruling) was sure to produce superficiality, while 
 a longer period induced a wrong mental focus. By a curious 
 coincidence, eight weeks was the exact space of time during 
 
 * We have classed indifference to death aniong the physical characteristics, be- 
 cause none can doubt that a less sensitive nervous system must at least tend in that 
 direction. It is possible, however, that opinions and beliefs have had some in- 
 fluence in the matter. Most Japanese are cither agnostics looking forward to no 
 hereafter, or they are Buddhists ; and Buddhism is a tolerant, hopeful creed, 
 promising rest at last to. all, even though it may have to be purchased by the 
 wicked at the price of numerous transmigrations. Christianity, on the other 
 hand, with its terrible doctrine of final and hopeless perdition, may have steeped 
 in a still more sombre hue the naturally excitable and self -questioning European 
 mind. The Greeks and Romans appear to have braved death with an indifference 
 to which few moderns can attain. 
 
Japanese People. 281 
 
 which Mr. Palgrave had been in Japan when he delivered 
 himself of this oracle. 
 
 Again, are you in the Japanese service, and do you praise 
 Japan ? Then you must be a sycophant. Do you find fault 
 with it? "Ah! don't you know ? " it will be said, "when 
 they renewed his engagement the other day, they cut his 
 salary down $50 a month." Worst of all is it if you are a 
 Yokohama merchant. Then you are informed flatly that you 
 are an ignoramus, a " dollar-grinder," and that, as you 
 never see any Japanese of the better class, but only coolies 
 and hucksters, what you are pleased to call your opinion is a 
 mere impertinence worth less than nothing. 
 
 All things considered, the would-be critic of Japanese 
 mind, manners, and morals has a thankless task before him. 
 The present writer feels that he cannot hope to escape being 
 classed in some one or other of the above-named categories 
 of pariahs not fit to have an opinion of their own. He has, 
 therefore, decided to express none at all, but simply to quote 
 the opinions of others. Perhaps he may thus avoid blame 
 and unpleasantness. He has chosen the opinions impartially, 
 or rather he has not chosen them, but taken them anyhow, 
 as they happened to come uppermost in his box of scraps. 
 He has not, it is true, thought fit to include all or any of the 
 absurdities of the casual passer-by ; — one French count, for 
 instance, a stripling of twenty, who spent just three months 
 in the country and then wrote a book about it, sums up his 
 acquired wisdom in the tremendous .assertion, " Le Japonais 
 n' est pas intelligent." Of recent trash of this kind there is 
 enough to fill many volumes. But who would care to read 
 it ? The opinions which we quote will be seen to be in some 
 cases judgments of the people, in others judgments of the 
 
232 Japanese People. 
 
 country. But it is not practicable to separate one class from 
 the other : — 
 
 "This nation is the delight of my soul." (St. Francis 
 Xaviek, middle of sixteenth century.) 
 
 " The people of this Hand of Iapon are good of nature, 
 curteous aboue measure and valiant in warre : their iustice 
 is seuerely executed without any partialitie vpon transgressors 
 of the law. They are gouerned in great ciuilitie. I meane, 
 not a land better gouerned in the world by ciuill policie. The 
 people be verie superstitious in their religion, and are of 
 diuers opinions." — This last sentence does not fit the present 
 day. No one now accuses the Japanese of superstitious reli- 
 gionism. Our author is again in touch with modern times 
 when he speaks of " the peopell veri subiect to thear gouver- 
 nours and superiores." 
 (Will Adams, early in the seventeenth century.) 
 
 "Bold heroic revengeful, desirous of 
 
 fame, very industrious and enured to hardships, 
 
 great lovers of civility and good manners, and very nice in 
 keeping themselves, their cloaths and houses, clean" and 
 
 neat As to all sorts of handicrafts, either curious or 
 
 useful, they are wanting neither proper materials, nor industry 
 and application, and so far is it, that they should have any 
 occasion to send for masters from abroad, that they rather 
 exceed all other nations in ingenuity and neatness of work- 
 manship, particularly in brass, gold, silver and copper 
 
 Now if we proceed farther to consider the Japanese, with 
 regard to sciences and the embellishments of our mind, 
 Philosophy perhaps will be found wanting. The Japanese 
 indeed are not so far enemies to this Science, as to banish 
 
Japanese People. 233 
 
 the Country those who cultivate it, but they think it an 
 amusement proper for monasteries, where the monks leading 
 an idle lazy life, have little else to trouble their heads about. 
 However, this relates chiefly to the speculative part, for as to 
 the moral part, they hold it in great esteem, as being of a 
 
 higher and divine origin I confess indeed, that they 
 
 are wholly ignorant of musick, so far as it is a science built 
 upon certain precepts of harmony. They likewise know 
 nothing of mathematicks, more especially of its deeper and 
 speculative parts. No body ever cultivated these sciences 
 but we Europeans, nor did any other nations endeavour to 
 embellish the mind with the clear light of mathematical and 
 
 demonstrative reasoning They profess a great respect 
 
 and veneration for their Gods, and worship them in various 
 ways : And I think I may affirm, that in the practice of 
 virtue, in purity of life, and outward devotion, they far out-do 
 the Christians : Careful for the Salvation of their Souls, 
 scrupulous to excess in the expiation of their crimes, and 
 
 extremely desirous of future happiness Their Laws and 
 
 Constitutions are excellent, and strictly observed, severe 
 penalties being put upon the least transgression of any." 
 (Engelbert Kaempfer, end of seventeenth century.) 
 
 Sir Rutherford Alcock, one of the most acute writers on 
 Japan, is also one of the most difficult to quote from, as his 
 whole book, The Capital of the Tycoon, is one continued criti- 
 cism of the Japan of his time (about 1860), and one would 
 like to quote it all. Here are a couple of his witty sayings : 
 
 " (Japan) is a very paradise of babies." 
 
 " There is a mistake somewhere, and the result is that in 
 one of the most beautiful and fertile countries in the whole 
 
234 Japanese People. 
 
 world the flowers have no scent, the birds no song, and 
 the fruit and vegetables no flavour. One of my colleagues 
 gave the characteristics of the country in another triology, 
 which I am bound to say was not inferior in accuracy, if 
 less poetical. ' Women wearing no crinoline, houses har- 
 bouring no bugs, and the country no lawyers.' The last is 
 perhaps the most astonishing of the whole." 
 
 Sir Eutherford speaks in his preface of " the incorrigible 
 tendency of the Japanese to withhold from foreigners or 
 disguise the truth on all matters great and small." Yet he 
 allows that they are " a nation of thirty millions of as 
 industrious, kindly, and well-disposed people as any in the 
 world." — Their ait, too, rouses his admiration, though he 
 makes a reservation to the effect that there are some depart- 
 ments in which they have failed to produce anything to be 
 named in the same day with the works of the great artists of 
 Europe. " Perhaps in nothing," says he, "are the Japanese 
 to be more admired than for the wonderful genius they dis- 
 play in arriving at the greatest possible results with the 
 simplest means, and the smallest possible expenditure of time 
 and labour or material. The tools by which they produce 
 their finest works are the simplest, and often the rudest that 
 can be conceived. Wherever in the fields or the workshops 
 nature supplies a force, the Japanese is sure to lay it under 
 contribution, and make it do his work with the least expense 
 "to himself of time, money, and labour. To such a pitch of 
 perfection is this carried, that it strikes every observer as one 
 of the moral characteristics of the race, indicating no mean 
 degree of intellectual capacity and cultivation." 
 
 " In moral character, the average Japanese is frank, honest, 
 
Japanese People. 235 
 
 faithful, kind, gentle, courteous, confiding, affectionate, filial, 
 loyal. Love of truth for its own sake, chastity, temperance, 
 are not characteristic virtues." (Eev. W. E. Griffis, in 
 The Mikado's Empire.) 
 
 " Surely, for happiness, gentleness, and sobriety, for soft- 
 voiced and always smiling chatter, for the blessed faculty of 
 
 inhaling healthful enjoyment from the simplest things 
 
 no other country can even profess to show the match of a 
 
 festival crowd in Japan Police in such a throng, it 
 
 seems to us, can have no more to do than the lilies of the 
 valley." (Major- General Palmer, R. E., in the Japan 
 Daily Mail.) 
 
 "They seem to me like a soft reflection of Latin types, 
 without the Latin force, and brilliancy, and passion — some- 
 what as in dreams the memory of people we have known 
 becomes smilingly aerial and imponderable." (Lafcadio 
 Hearn, in a letter to the present writer. — In another letter 
 he writes as follows :) " More and more, watching the happy 
 life of these people, I doubt whether our civilisation is morally 
 all we believe it to be. I cannot help thinking that what 
 Kaempfer so long ago said about the Japanese holds good to- 
 day, — that ' they far outdo the Christians.' And perhaps our 
 moralists, with their Semitic ideas about original sin, are 
 responsible for a very serious misrepresentation when they 
 allege that because the Japanese ideas of sexual morals are 
 different from our own, they are really much worse. Judging 
 from what I have witnessed behind the scenes of city life 
 abroad, they are much better on the whole in practice, 
 though not perhaps in theory." 
 
236 Japanese People. 
 
 In discussing their Japanese neighbours, the foreign 
 residents frequently advert to the matter-of-fact way of look- 
 ing at things which characterises all the nations that have 
 come under Chinese influence. The Editor of the "Japan 
 Mail " recently drew an acute distinction between the 
 matter-of-fact Japanese and the practical European, in- 
 stancing the calculations of a recent pamphleteer, anent a 
 projected line of railway, the probable yearly profits of which 
 were worked out to decimals of a cent ! The matter-of-fact 
 Japanese calculator simply transferred to his pamphlet the 
 figures that came out on his abacus. The practical (because 
 also tbeoretical) European knows that such apparent exactness 
 is illusory. 
 
 Here are a few shorter dicta on the land and its people : — 
 " Calm and imperturbably polite." (John E. Black, in 
 Young Japan.) 
 
 " The land of disappointments." (An old resident in 
 Japanese service.) 
 
 " I found the country a study rather than a rapture." 
 Miss Bird, in Unbeaten Tracks in Japan.) 
 
 " The land of gentle manners and fantastic arts." (Sir 
 Edwin Arnold, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.) — The 
 same author says of the Japanese people : " They have the 
 nature rather of birds or butterflies than of ordinary human 
 
 beings They will not and cannot take life au grand 
 
 sirieux" 
 
 " The land indeed of the sunrise, but also the land of the 
 
Japanese People. 237 
 
 sunset of romance." (Cuet Netto, in Papierschmetterlinge 
 aus Japan.) 
 
 " Le Japon d'aujourd'hui c'est tine traduction mal 'faite." 
 (A Eesident Diplomat, quoted in one of Mk. Henry Nobman's 
 letters on Japan to the Pall-Mali Gazette.) 
 
 " Japan is a Capua." (A globe-trotter.) 
 
 "A pocket-country, compact and complete in its neat 
 smallness." (Hon. Lewis Wingfield, in The Wanderings of 
 a Globe-Trotter.) 
 
 Pierre Loti, in his Madame Chrysantheme and Japoneries 
 d'Automne, emphasises over and over again one particular 
 aspect of Japanese life — its smallness, its quaintness, its 
 comicality. Here are just a few samples of the adjectives 
 which he sows broad-cast over his pages, almost exhausting 
 the resources of the French language in that particular line : 
 petit, bizarre, disparate, heterogene, invraisemblable, mignon, 
 bariole, extravagant, inimaginable, frele, monstrueux, grotesque, 
 mievre, exotique, lilliputien, miniscule, maniere, etc., etc. 
 The houses are all maisonnettes ; each garden is, not a 
 jardin, but a jardinet ; each meal a dinette, each inscrip- 
 tion a grifonnage. The Kobe- Kyoto railway is, un drole de 
 petit cliemin de fer, qui n'a pas Voir sirieux, qui fait I'effet 
 d'une chose pour rire, comme toutes les choses japonaises. — Of 
 course there is an element of truth in all this. Query : is it 
 the whole truth ? Pierre Loti's final and sweeping con- 
 demnation of poor Japan, as he was preparing to set sail, is 
 as follows : Je le trouve petit, vieillot, a bout de sang et a bout de 
 seve; j'ai conscience de son antiquitS antediluvienne ; de sa momi- 
 
238 Japanese People. 
 
 Jication de tant de siecles — qui va bientdt finir dans le grotesque et 
 la bouffonnerie pitoyable, au contact des nouveaute's d'occident. — 
 Criticism of this bitter and unfruitful kind sets one musing on 
 the question whether, after all, it is Japan herself that is so 
 much at fault, or whether it may not rather be her French 
 critic that is bloodless and sapless, too blas& to retain any share 
 in that gift of sympathetic insight which is the first quali- 
 fication for the understanding of any complex subject. 
 
 People are fond of drawing comparisons between the Chi- 
 nese and the Japanese. Almost all seem agreed that the 
 "Japanese are much the pleasanter race to live with — clean, 
 kindly, artistic. On the other hand, the Chinese are univer- 
 sally allowed to be far more trustworthy. " I know," says 
 a late Manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in 
 Shanghai, " of no people in the world I would sooner trust 
 
 than the Chinese merchant or banker For the last 
 
 twenty-five years the bank has been doing a very large busi- 
 ness with Chinese in Shanghai, amounting, I should say, to 
 hundreds of millions of taels, and we have never met with 
 a defaulting Chinaman." — Woefully different from this is 
 the tale told by the European bankers and merchants in 
 Japan. They complain, it is true, not so much of actual, 
 wilful dishonesty — though of that, too, they affirm there is 
 plenty — as of pettiness, constant shilly-shallying, unbusiness- 
 likeness almost passing belief. Hence the wide divergence 
 between the impressions of the holiday-making tourist, and 
 the opinions formed by the. commercial communities at the 
 open ports. Japan, the globe-trotter's paradise, is also the 
 grave of the merchant's hopes. Another deep-seated dif- 
 ference between the Chinese and the Japanese is that the 
 former have race pride, the latter national vanity. The 
 
Japanese People. 239 
 
 Chinese care nothing for China as a political unit, an abstrac- 
 tion, an ideal to die for if need be ; but they are neverthe- 
 less inalienably wedded to every detail of their ancestral 
 civilisation. The Japanese, though they have twice at 
 intervals of a millenium thrown everything national over- 
 board, are intense rationalists in the abstract. In fact, 
 patriotism may be said to be their only remaining ideal. 
 No Chinese but glories in the outward . badges of his race ; 
 no Japanese but would be delighted to pass for a Euro- 
 pean, in order to beat Europeans on their own ground. The 
 Japanese, too, are brave ; they are also unpractical. The 
 Chinese, eminently practical folks, follow the doctrine that 
 
 He who fights and runs away, 
 
 Will live to fight another day. 
 
 The characteristic in which the Chinese and Japanese most 
 agree (and other Far-Eastern peoples, — the Koreans for 
 example, — agree in it also) is materialism. That is where 
 the false note is ' struck, which, when long residence has 
 produced familiarity, jars on European nerves and prevents 
 true intellectual sympathy. 
 
 Mr. Walter Dening, whose acquaintance with modern 
 Japanese literature and with the men who produce it is pro- 
 bably unrivalled, writes as follows : 
 
 " It is well-known that one of the most marked charac- 
 teristics of the Japanese mind is its lack of interest in 
 metaphysical, psychological, and ethical controversy of all 
 kinds. It is seldom you can get them to pay sufficient at- 
 tention to such questions to admit of their understanding 
 even their main outlines." And again : — 
 
 "Neither their past history nor their prevailing tastes 
 show any tendency to idealism. They are lovers of the 
 
240 Japanese People. 
 
 practical and the real : neither the fancies of Goethe nor the 
 reveries of Hegel are to their liking. Our poetry and our 
 philosophy and the rnind that appreciates them are alike the 
 result of a network of subtle influences to which the Japanese 
 are comparative strangers. It is maintained by some, and 
 we think justly, that the lack of idealism in the Japanese 
 mind renders the life of even the most cultivated a mechanical, 
 humdrum affair when compared with that of Westerns. The 
 Japanese cannot understand why our controversialists should 
 wax so fervent over psychological, ethical, religious, and 
 philosophical questions, failing to perceive that this fervency 
 is the result of the intense interest taken in fuch subjects* 
 The charms that the cultured Western mind finds in the 
 world of fancy and romance, in questions themselves,, 
 irrespective of their practical bearings, is for the most part 
 unintelligible to the Japanese." 
 
 One more quotation only. It is from the Eev. G. M. 
 Mbacham, a missionary of many years standing, and resumes 
 what hundreds of residents have thought and said : — 
 
 " A few months do not suffice to give a correct under- 
 standing of the situation, though the visitor should enjoy 
 the kind attention and guidance of high officials. There are 
 perhaps no people under heaven who know better the happy 
 art of entertaining their guests, and none perhaps who succeed 
 better in preoccupying them with their views. Indeed, the 
 universal experience of these who remain long enough in 
 this country to see beneath the surface is that first impressions 
 are very deceitful." 
 
 To sum up : the average judgment formed by those who 
 have lived some time among the Japanese, seems to resolve 
 
Jinrikisha. 241 
 
 itself into three principal items on the credit side, which are 
 cleanliness, kindliness, and a refined artistic taste, and three 
 items on the debit side, namely, vanity, unbusinesslike 
 habits, and an incapacity for appreciating abstract ideas. 
 
 So far this little symposium (that is the fashionable word, 
 is it not ?) on the mental characteristics of the Japanese. 
 Anyone who thinks it not full enough or not representative 
 enough, is earnestly requested to contribute to it, either 
 from his personal experience or from his reading. (See also 
 Article on Woman). 
 
 Books recommended, The Soul of the Far 'East, by Percival 
 Lowell, written to prove that the Japanese mind is impersonal. Excepting a 
 short paper by Mr. Dening, in Yol. SEX. of the Asiatic Transactions, we are 
 acquainted with no other work treating explicitly of the mental characteristics of 
 the Japanese ; but to residents in Japan the Rev. Arthur H. Smith's book entitled 
 Chinese Characteristics should prove fruitful reading, by way both of likeness and 
 of contrast. 
 
 Jinrikisha, The origin of the jinrikisha is, to use a 
 grandiloquent phrase, shrouded in obscurity. One native 
 account attributes the spark of invention to a paralytic old 
 gentleman of Kyoto, who, some time before 1868, finding his 
 palanquin uncomfortable, took to a little cart instead. 
 According to another version, one Akiha Daisuke, of Tokyo, 
 was the inventor, about 1870, but the first official application 
 to be allowed to manufacture jinrildshas was made about the 
 same time by a man called Takayama Kosaku. The usual 
 foreign version is that an American named Goble, half- 
 cobbler and half-missionary, was the person to suggest the 
 idea of a modified perambulator somewhere about 1867 ; and 
 this has the support of Mr. Black, the author of " Young 
 Japan." In any case, the invention, once made, found wide- 
 spread favour. There are now over 38,000 jinrihishas in 
 
242 Kaempfer. 
 
 Tokyo alone ; and the ports of China and of the Malay 
 peninsula, as well as Japan, owe to the jinrildsha a fruitful 
 source of employment for their teeming coolie population and 
 of comfort for the well-to-do residents. 
 
 The compound word jin-riki-sha (A il M) means literally 
 " man-power-vehicle," that is, a vehicle pulled by a man, or, 
 as the late Mr. Baber wittily suggested, a " Pull-man-car." 
 Some have imagined sha to be a corruption of the 
 English " car." This is quite erroneous. Sha is a good old 
 Chinese word. The poor word jinrikisha itself suffers many 
 things at the hands of Japanese and foreigners alike. The 
 Japanese generally cut off its tail and call it jinriki, or else 
 they translate the Chinese syllable sha into their own 
 language, and call it kuruma. The English cut off its head 
 and maltreat the vowels, pronouncing it rickshaw. One En- 
 glish dictionary actually gives it as jenny rickshaw ! 
 
 The total cost of the outfit of a jinrikisha-m&n — coat, 
 drawers, hat, and lantern all complete, as per the Toky5 
 police regulations of October, 1889 — is estimated at $4. His 
 usual pay is from 7 to 15 cents per ri (2£ miles English). 
 The heroes of the jinrikisha world are two men called 
 Mukobata and Kitaga, who in May, 1891, saved the life of 
 the Czarewitch from an assassin's sword, and were forth- 
 with almost smothered under the rewards and honours that 
 poured down upon them, alike from the Mikado, the Czare- 
 witch, and the Czar. 
 
 Kaempfer. If Marco Polo was the first to bring the 
 existence of such a country as Japan to the knowledge of 
 Europeans, and Mendez Pinto the first to tread its shores, 
 Engelbert Kaempfer (1651 — 1716) may truly be called its 
 
Kaempfer. 243 
 
 scientific discoverer. A native of Lenigow in Westphalia, he 
 travelled while a youth in North Germany, Holland, and 
 Poland. At the age of thirty-two he joined the Swedish 
 diplomatic service as secretary of legation, in which capacity 
 he proceeded through Eussia and Tartary to the court of 
 Ispahan. Eager for a sight of yet more distant lands, he 
 then entered the service of the Dutch East India Company in 
 ±he capacity of surgeon, sailed from Orcnuz to Batavia in 
 1688, and thence vifi Siam to Japan, where he arrived in the 
 month of September, 1690. At that time, the Dutch were 
 the only Christian nation permitted to trade with Japan, and 
 «ven they were confined to Deshima — a part of Nagasaki — 
 where jealous care was taken by the authorities to keep them 
 in ignorance of all Japanese matters. A yearly journey to 
 Yedo to make obeisance before the Shogun was the only 
 change in their monotonous existence. 
 
 Kaempfer remained in Japan but two years and two 
 .months. Yec, in this short period and under these disad- 
 vantageous circumstances, he compiled a work which for 
 the first time gave the world fairly accurate information 
 concerning the history, geography, religious beliefs, manners 
 and customs, and natural productions of the mysterious 
 Island Empire. Returning to Europe in 1694, Kaempfer 
 settled, first at Leyden and then in his native town, where 
 he employed himself in writing his two celebrated works, 
 the History of Japan and the Avicenitates Exotica, in practis- 
 ing as a physician, and in quarrelling with the odious wife 
 whose bad temper is said to have aggravated the fits of colic 
 which ended in his death. 
 
 The History of Japan appeared, strange to say, first in an 
 English translation in 1727—8 ; then in Latin (1728), Dutch 
 
244 Kakke. 
 
 (1729), and French (1729). All these were translated from 
 the English version. Lastly, in 1777, came a German 
 edition — not exactly the German original, because Kaempfer's 
 style was so terribly dry and involved as to make the book- 
 sellers fear that it would disgust even the .German public, 
 long-suffering as the German public is in that respect. The 
 diction was accordingly modernised and touched up. Hence- 
 Kaempfer's work has never appeared in Kaempfer's words. 
 Copies of all the editions are now rare, and fetch high prices- 
 at auction. 
 
 Kakke. Kakke is the same disease as that known in> 
 India and the Malay peninsula under the name of ben-ben, 
 and may be defined in popular language as a sort of paralysis,, 
 as it is characterised by loss of motive power and by numb- 
 ness, especially in the' extremities. It is often accompanied 
 by dropsy. All these symptoms are due to a degeneration of 
 the nerves, which is the main anatomical feature of the- 
 complaint. In severe cases it affects the heart, and may 
 then become rapidly fatal. But the usual course of the 
 disease extends over several months, and mostly ends in 
 recovery. But he who has had one attack may expect 
 another after an interval of a year or two. Some persons have 
 had as many as ten or even twenty attacks, all setting in 
 with the warm weather and disappearing in the autumn. 
 Kakke attacks with special frequency and virulence young 
 and otherwise healthy men — women much less often, scarcely 
 ever indeed except during pregnancy and after childbirth. 
 Children of both sexes enjoy almost absolute immunity. 
 The disease springs, in the opinion of the best authori- 
 ties, not from actual malaria, as has been sometimes. 
 
Kakke. 245 
 
 imagined, but from a climatic influence resembling malaria. 
 It should, however, be stated that others have sought its 
 origin in the national diet — some in rice, some in fish. In 
 favour of this latter view is to be set the consideration 
 that the peasantry, who often cannot afford either rice or fish, 
 and have to eat barley or millet instead, suffer much less 
 than the townsfolk, and the further fact that great improve- 
 ment in this respect has been observed in the health of the 
 Japanese navy ever since Dr. Takaki, I.J.N. , introduced a 
 meat diet for the seamen. 
 
 The origin of Kakke remains unexplained ; but its compara- 
 tive frequency in low alluvial situations, and the notable 
 influence of crowding in propagating it, would tend to show 
 that it is of an infectious character, even had we not the 
 knowledge of its recent wide diffusion consequent on the 
 opening up of new and improved methods of communication. 
 Whether the disease is indigenous or imported, is a question 
 that cannot yet be answered. The first mention of it occurs 
 two hundred years ago. Then, and till about forty years ago, 
 it was confined to a few ports on the Pacific coast of Japan 
 and to some large cities in constant communication with 
 those ports, such as Kyoto ; and in all these localities bar- 
 racks, schools, and prisons were the places most affected. 
 The construction of railways, steamers, and carriage roads has 
 turned Kakke- from a local into a national scourge. Re- 
 stricting itself no longer to low situations, it has invaded 
 almost the entire country, the visitation being in some cases 
 mysterious, in others clearly traceable to the residence of 
 Kakke patients, who, having been sent to the hills for change 
 of air, have left a legacy of their disease to the inhabitants. 
 
 Books recommended. Kak'lcc, by Dr. Wm. Anderson, printed 
 
246 Eurile Islands. 
 
 in Vol. VI. Part I. of the Asiatic Transactions (also published in pamphlet 
 form). — Infeciionskrankheiten in Japan, by Dr. E. Baelz, in the German Asiatic 
 Transactions, Vol. III. p. 301.— Die Japanische Kak-he, by Dr. B. Scheube.— ffSo- 
 graphisch-meMcinische Studien, by Dr. Wernich ; and others in European languages, 
 besides reports in Japanese by Drs. Takaki and Miura. 
 
 Kakemono. The Kakemono, or hanging scroll, is the 
 form in which Japanese paintings are usually mounted. It 
 takes the place of the framed picture of Europe ; but the 
 number of kakemonos displayed in any single room is limited 
 to one, a pair, or a set of three. Custom has moreover fixed 
 on the tokonoma, or alcove, as the only part of the room in 
 which 'these scrolls shall be hung, and prescribes rigid rules 
 for the dimensions and other details of the mounting. 
 
 The invention of this method of showing off pictures and 
 preserving them — for when not displayed, the kakemono is 
 always tightly rolled up and stored away — goes back to very 
 early Chinese days. Sometimes the kakemono contains, in- 
 stead of a picture, some valued specimen of calligraphy. For 
 Far-Eastern painting is a sort of writing, and the writing a 
 sort of painting, and calligraphic skill is no less esteemed 
 than skill in the painter's art. 
 
 The galcu is another method of Japanese mounting for 
 pictures, which more closely resembles the framed picture of 
 Europe, but occupies quite a subsidiary place. 
 
 Uool*: recoilliiieiiclefli- Anderson's Pictorial Arts of Japan, Part I. 
 pp. 116-120, where every detail of the mounting is explained. 
 
 Eana. See Wbiting. 
 
 Kurile Islands. The Kuriles are a long chain of is- 
 lands—rocky and useless for the most part — stretching for 
 some ten degrees of latitude between Kamchatka and Yezo. 
 Their name is of Eussian origin, and means " the smokers," 
 
Lacquer. 247 
 
 in allusion to the many active volcanoes which they contain. 
 Originally inhabited by a shifting population of Ainos and 
 perhaps men oJ some other native race, the Kuriles attracted 
 the cupidity of the Cossacks who conquered Kamchatka at 
 the end of the seventeenth century. At that time the islands 
 swarmed with fur-bearing animals, now ruthlessly hunted to 
 the verge of extinction. Gradually the whole group passed 
 under Russian sway, though the government of Yedo always 
 asserted its right to the southernmost portion of the chain. 
 At last, by the treaty of St. Petersburg, concluded in 1875, 
 the Kuriles were formally ceded by Eussia to Japan, in 
 exchange for the far more valuable territory of southern 
 Saghalien, which had till then been claimed as a Japanese 
 possession. 
 
 Book recommended. Unfortunately, the best work on the history 
 of the Kuriles is buried in the Russian language. It is a paper by A. Polonsky, in 
 Vol. TV. of the Memoirs of the Ethnographical Section of the Geographical Society 
 of St- Petersburg, entitled Kurilui. — The Kuriles have been exhaustively discussed 
 from a geographical and geological point of view by Professor Mihie, in Vol. IX. 
 Part XT. pp. 125 — 170, of the Transactions of the Seismological Society of Japan. 
 
 Kyoto. See Capital Cities. 
 
 Lacquer. It is acknowledged by all connoisseurs that 
 in the art of lacquer the Japanese far surpass their teachers, 
 the Chinese. This may be partly because the lacquer- tree, 
 though also apparently introduced from China, finds in 
 Japan a more congenial climate ; but we shall scarcely err 
 in attributing the superiority chiefly to the finer esthetic 
 instincts of the Japanese. So exactly did lacquer-work suit 
 their taste and talent, that they were already producing 
 triumphs in this branch of art at an epoch when England 
 was still rent by the barbarous struggles of the Heptarchy. 
 
 Appreciation of lacquer is a taste which has to be ac- 
 
248 Lacquer. 
 
 quired, but which, when acquired, grows upon one, and 
 places the best lacquer in the category of almost sacred 
 things. To show a really tine piece casually to a new- 
 comer, or to send it home as a gift to one of the uncultivat- 
 ed natives of Europe or America, is, as the Japanese proverb 
 says, "like giving guineas to a cat." He will take it up 
 for an instant, just glance at it, say " What a pretty little 
 thing ! " and put it down again, imagining it to be worth at 
 most a couple of dollars. Not improbably it cost a hundred, 
 and was the outcome of years of patient toil and marvellous 
 art. 
 
 The chapter on lacquer in Eein's Industries of Japan 
 is one of the fullest in that painstaking work. Eein spent 
 five months in acquiring a knowledge of the art himself. Mr. 
 J. J. Quin, too, of the British Consular Service in Japan, 
 qualified himself by study under a practical teacher, and was 
 able to send to the Eoyal Museum at Kew an exhaustive 
 collection illustrative of every implement and process em- 
 ployed, from the knives and gloves used by the lacquer- 
 tappers to the most perfect specimens of the gold lacquerer's 
 art. His researches are embodied, partly in a paper printed 
 in Vol. IX. of the Asiatic Transactions, partly in a Report by 
 Her Majesty's Acting Consul at Hakodate. Most of the facts 
 in the following short account are taken from one or other of 
 these two authorities. 
 
 The material employed is the sap which exudes from the 
 lacquer-tree (Rhus vernicifera) when incised. This tapping for 
 lacquer, as it may perhaps be called, affords a means of liveli- 
 hood to a special class of men, who, on the approach of mild 
 weather in April, spread all over the northern provinces of 
 the empire, where the best lacquer-trees grow, and continue 
 
Lacquer. 249 
 
 their operations on into the autumn. The age of the tree, 
 the season when the tree is tapped, and the treatment to 
 which the sap is afterwards subjected — as, for instance, by 
 being mixed with iron filings, turpentine, or charred wood — 
 produce widely different kinds of lacquer, which are accord- 
 ingly appropriated to different uses. Every species of lacquer 
 turns black on exposure to the light ; and it is a fact, 
 mysterious but undoubtedly authentic, that lacquer dries 
 most quickly in a damp atmosphere. The damper the atmos- 
 phere and the darker the room, so much the more quickly 
 will the lacquer dry. 
 
 Many kinds of material admit of being lacquered. On 
 metal, in particular, very pleasing results have been obtained. 
 But the favourite material is wood, and the best kinds of 
 wood for the purpose are the Junoki (Chamsecyparis obtusa) 
 and kiri (Paulownia imperialis). The woods of the Crypto- 
 meria japonica (sugi) and Planera japonica (lceyal-i) are those 
 most -used for general purposes, such as common bowls, trays, 
 etc. The Japanese constantly employ lacquer utensils to 
 hold boiling soups, alcoholic drinks, and even burning cigar- 
 ash. But so strong is the substance, that it suffers little 
 if any damage from such apparently rough treatment. 
 
 .The process of lacquering is complicated and tedious. To 
 begin with, the surface of the wood is covered with triturated 
 hemp and glue, and then the first coating of lacquer is 
 applied, only to be itself covered with the very finest hempen 
 cloth. Numerous coatings of various qualities of lacquer are 
 laid on this as a foundation. A careful drying intervenes 
 between each coating, and a partial rubbing off with a 
 whetstone follows each drying. A powder formed of calcined 
 deer's horn serves in most • cases to give the final polish. 
 
250 Lacquer. 
 
 But all this process, of which we have merely indicated the 
 bare outlines, is itself but a preparatory one if the object is to 
 produce one of those beautiful gold lacquered boxes which the 
 word "lacquer" generally calls up in the mind of the 
 European collector. We give Quin's account of gold lacquer 
 nearly in full : 
 
 "Hika-makiye (Flat gold lacquer). When it is desired 
 to apply flat gold lacquer to an article that has received the 
 plain coats, as related, the process is as follows : — 
 
 " A thin species of paper, prepared with sizing made of 
 glue and alum, is used. On this paper the design required 
 to be transmitted to the lacquered article is drawn. On the 
 reverse of this paper, the outline is lightly traced in lacquer — 
 previously roasted over live charcoal to prevent its drying — 
 with a very fine brush made of rat's hair. This paper is 
 then laid on the article to be lacquered, and is rubbed with a 
 spatula made of Hinoki or whalebone, where the lacquer has 
 been applied, and on removing the paper the design is 
 observed lightly traced in lacquer. 
 
 " To make it perfectly plain, this is rubbed over very 
 lightly' with a piece of cotton wool, charged with finely 
 powdered whetstone, or tin ; this brings the pattern out 
 white. From one tracing, upwards of twenty impressions 
 can be taken off, and when that is no longer possible, from 
 the lacquer having become used up, it only requires a 
 fresh tracing over the same paper to reproduce the design 
 ad infinitum. This tracing does not dry, owing to the 
 lacquer used for the* purpose having been roasted, as pre- 
 viously mentioned, and can be wiped off at any time. 
 
 "The pattern thus traced out is then filled in with 
 groundwork lacquer, with a brush made of hare's hair, 
 
Lacquer. 251 
 
 great care being taken not to touch or paint out the ori- 
 ginal tracing line. This is then powdered over with fine 
 gold dust, silver dust, or tin dust, according to the quality 
 of the ware. This dust is applied with a piece of cotton 
 wool, charged with the material to be used, and the article 
 is then gently dusted with a very soft brush made from the 
 long winter coat of a white horse, to remove any loose 
 metal dust that might adhere to the article, aiid to slightly 
 smoothen the surface. If the article under manufacture 
 is large, only a small portion is done at a time, and it is 
 at once enclosed in an air-tight press, so as to prevent any 
 dust or outside matter adhering to the freshly lacquered 
 surface. At the proper time, when the lacquer has suffici- 
 ently hardened, the article, is taken out, and the part over 
 which the gold dust has been sprinkled, receives a coat of 
 transparent varnish (Suki-urnshi), laid on with a hare's hair 
 brush, and a further portion is prepared with a coating of 
 gold dust, as on the previous day : the article is again 
 closed up in the air-tight damp press as before, till dry. 
 When the portion which has received the second coat of 
 lacquer over the gold dust is quite hard, it is rubbed smooth 
 with a piece of hard charcoal made from camellia wood or 
 HonoU, until the whole is level with the surrounding parts. 
 Then it is rubbed with the finger and some finely powdered 
 whetstone and deer's horn, with the smallest quantity of 
 oil, till it attains a fine polish. If upon this surface any 
 further work takes place, such as the veining of leaves, or 
 the painting of stamens, etc., of flowers, these are traced in 
 lacquer and covered with gold dust, and when dry the final 
 polish is given with the finger and powdered deer's horn. 
 The above is the usual mode of making flat gold lacquer. 
 
252 Lacquer. 
 
 " Togi-dashi (Bringing out by Polishing). This style 
 consists in applying to the plain lacquered article the design 
 required, in the same manner as in Hira-maldye. The whole 
 surface of the article then receives a coat either of black 
 lacquer or transparent lacquer, which, when dry, is ground 
 down with Honoki charcoal till the pattern shows out. It 
 is then polished off in the same manner with deer's horn 
 and oil, on the point of the finger. For making Togi-dashi, 
 gold dust of a slightly coarser quality is used than for ordi- 
 nary Hira-maldye. 
 
 " Taka-makiye (Raised Gold Lacqueb). The first and 
 second processes are the same as when making fiat lac- 
 quer, but instead of gold dust, finely powdered camellia 
 charcoal is shaken over the freshly lacquered surface. After 
 drying, the article is carefully dusted with a soft rag to 
 remove any loose charcoal powder, and the parts are further 
 washed with a brush and water, to bring out the fine lines, 
 etc. Some Yoshino lacquer is then rubbed on the charcoal 
 surface with a piece of cotton wool, a coating of SabiJco 
 applied, and the article set to dry in the damp press. After- 
 wards the surface is ground smooth with Honoki charcoal, 
 and a further rubbing is given with camellia charcoal pow- 
 dered, on a piece of cotton cloth. A coating of Taka-mald 
 lacquer is then given, and the article is put again in the 
 press to dry : on removing it, the process of grinding with 
 Honold and powdered camellia charcoal is repeated. Yoshino 
 lacquer is then rubbed on with a piece of cotton wool as 
 before, and the article is again set to dry. When taken out, 
 it is polished smooth with powdered whetstone on the point 
 of the finger, a coat of Shita-maki, or groundwork lacquer, 
 given, and then the gold powder is applied, — for small work 
 
Language. 253 
 
 ■with a fine brush, and for large work shaken through a quill 
 with muslin over one end. The article is then again to set 
 to dry, and the remainder of the process is the same as for 
 flat lacquer. 
 
 "According as the lacquer is to be more or less raised, 
 two or more ccats of Taka-mahi lacquer have to be given, 
 till the required height is obtained, and it is at this period 
 of the process that the shape of the hills, rocks, trees, or 
 flowers is worked out." 
 
 So far Mr. Quin. It should be added that much of the 
 so-called gold or siver lacquer is really manufactured with 
 the aid of bronze and tin, especially at the present time, 
 when cheapness and quantity are insisted on by a foreign 
 public whose taste is imperfectly educated. At the same 
 time, specimens worthy of the best age still continue to be 
 produced. Competent critics assert that Shibata Zeshin, 
 who died only during the present year, was probably the 
 greatest lacquer artist that ever lived. — The lacquer poison, 
 of which so much has been said by travellers, is never fatal, 
 though it is extremely painful in some cases. Blood to the 
 head, swelling, violent itching and burning, and occasionally 
 small festering boils are the symptoms. Lacquer in any 
 stage, except when perfectly dry, is capable of producing it. 
 Only one item more. If you possess any specimens of 
 good lacquer, be careful to dust them with a fine old silk cloth. 
 A common cluster will scratch them. Some of the best 
 collections in Europe have been ruined by bad treatment. 
 
 Language. It is still doubtful under what family of 
 languages Japanese should be classed. In structure, though 
 not to any appreciable extent in vocabulary, it closely resem- 
 
254 Language. 
 
 bles Korean ; and both it and Korean may possibly be related 
 to Mongol and to Manchu, and may therefore lay claim 
 to be included in the so-called "Altaic" group. In any 
 case, Japanese is what philologists term an agglutina- 
 tive language, that is to say, it builds up its words and 
 grammatical forms by means of suffixes loosely soldered to 
 the root or stem, which is invariable. Though not origin- 
 ally related to Chinese, Japanese has adopted an enormous 
 number of Chinese words, such words having naturally fol- 
 lowed Chinese civilisation into the archipelago. Even at 
 the present day, the Japanese language has recourse to 
 Chinese for terms to indicate all such new things and ideas 
 as "telegram," "velocipede," "photograph," "democracy," 
 " limited liability," etc,, etc., much as we ourselves have 
 recourse to Latin and Greek. 
 
 The fundamental rule of Japanese syntax is that qualifying 
 words precede the word they qualify. Thus the adjective or 
 genitive precedes the noun which it defines, the adverb 
 precedes the verb, and explanatory or dependent clauses 
 precede the principal clause. The object likewise precedes 
 the verb. The predicative verb or adjective of each clause is 
 placed at the end of that clause, the predicative verb or 
 adjective of the main clause rounding off the entire sentence, 
 which is often, even in familiar conversation, extremely long 
 and complicated. The following is an example of Japanese 
 construction : — 
 
 Kono goro ni itarimasMte, 
 This period at having-arrived, 
 
 Bukkyo to mosu mono 
 
 Euddhism that {they) say thing 
 
 wa, tada hato-jimmin no 
 as-for, merely low~cliiss-people 's 
 
 " At the present day 
 Buddhism has sunk 
 into being the belief 
 of the lower classes 
 
Language. 
 
 255 
 
 shinjiru. tokoro to natte, 
 
 believing place that having-become t 
 
 chuto ijo de 
 
 middle-class thence-upicards in 
 
 wa sono dari wo wakimae- 
 as-for, its reason (accus.) discerning- 
 
 teru hito ga sukunaku ; shumon 
 are people (nom.) being-few, religion 
 
 to ieba, soshiki no toki 
 
 that if-one-says, funeral-rite's time 
 
 bakari ni mochiiru koto no 
 only in employ thing 's 
 
 yo ni omoimasu. 
 manner in {they) think. 
 
 only. Few persons 
 in the middle and 
 upper classes under- 
 stands its raison d'Ure, 
 most of them fancy- 
 ing that religion is a 
 thing which comes 
 into, play only at 
 funeral services." 
 
 This one example may suffice to show how widely different 
 (compared with Europe) are the channels in which Japa- 
 nese thought flows. Nor is it merely that the idioms differ, 
 but that the same circumstances do not draw from Japa- 
 nese speakers remarks similar to those which they would 
 draw from European speakers. In accidence, also the 
 dissimilarity is remarkable. Japanese nouns have no gender 
 or number, Japanese adjectives no degrees of comparison, 
 Japanese verbs no persons. On the other hand, the verbs 
 have pecular complications of their own. They have a 
 negative voice, and forms to indicate causation and poten- 
 tiality. There is also an elaborate system of honorifics, 
 which replaces to a certain extent the use of persons in the 
 verb and makes good the absence of personal pronouns. 
 
 The Japanese vocabulary, though extraordinarily rich and 
 constantly growing, is honourably deficient in terms of abuse. 
 It affords absolutely no means of cursing and swearing. A 
 less excellent negative quality is the absence of personification, 
 — a characteristic so deep-seated and all-pervading as to 
 interfere even with the use of neuter nouns in combination 
 with transitive verbs. Thus this language rejects all such 
 
256 Language. 
 
 expressions as " the heat makes me feel languid," " despair 
 drove him to commit suicide," "science warns us against 
 over-crowding," " quarrels degrade those who engage in 
 them," etc., etc. One must say, "being hot, Ffeel languid," 
 " having lost hope, he killed himself," " on considering, we 
 find that the fact of people's crowding together is unhealthy," 
 and so on, — the idea being rendered no doubt, but at the 
 expense of verve and pieturesqueness. Nor can any one fully 
 realise how picturesque our European languages are, how 
 saturated with metaphor and lit up with fancy, until he 
 has familiarised himsellf with one of the tamer tongues 
 of the Far-East. Poetry of course suffers more than prose 
 from this defect of the language. No Japanese Wordsworth 
 could venture on such metaphorical lines as 
 
 " If Thought and Love desert us, from that day 
 Let us break ofi all commerce with the Muse : 
 With Thought and Love companions of our way — 
 Whate'er the senses take or may refuse, — 
 The Mind's internal heaven sliall shed tier dews 
 Of inspiration on the humblest lay." 
 
 In fact, most metaphors and allegories are incapable of so 
 much as intelligible explanation to Par-Eastern minds. 
 
 Japanese — with its peculiar grammar, its still uncertain 
 affinities, its ancient literature — is a language worthy of 
 more attention than it has yet received. We say language, 
 but languages would be more strictly correct, the modern 
 colloquial speech having diverged from the old classical 
 tongue almost to the same extent as Italian has diverged 
 from Latin. The Japanese still employ in their books, and 
 even in correspondence and advertisements, a dialect which 
 is partly classical and partly artificial. This is what is term- 
 
Law. 257 
 
 ed the " Written Language." The student is therefore 
 confronted with a double task. Add to this the necessity of 
 committing to memory two syllabaries, one of which has many 
 variant forms, and at least four thousand Chinese ideographs 
 in forms standard and cursive, — ideographs, too, most of 
 which are susceptible of three or four different readings ac- 
 cording to circumstances, — add further that all these kinds 
 of written symbols are apt to be encountered pell-mell on the 
 same page, and the task of mastering Japanese becomes 
 almost Herculean. Fortunately the pronunciation is easy, 
 and there is no difficulty in acquiring a smattering that will 
 greatly enhance the pleasure and comfort of those who reside 
 or travel in the country. (See also Articles on Literature and 
 Writing). 
 
 Books recoininenclecl.. The foregoing article is partly condensed 
 from the present writer's Handbook of Colloquial Japanese. See also Imbrie's English- 
 Japanese Etymology. — The best book on the classical language is Aston's Grammar 
 of the Japanese Written Language. — The best Japanese-English Dictionary is that 
 compiled by Dr. Hepburn. It is published in two forms — a larger giving the Chinese 
 characters and numerous examples, and a smaller for the pocket. Satow and 
 Ishibashi's small dictionary is to be preferred for English-Japanese. Gubbins's 
 Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese Words, now in course of publication, is specially 
 valuable to students of the modern literary style. Plaut's Japanisehes Leselmch, 
 which reaches us as these sheets are passing through the press, seems very good. 
 Of the numerous grammars of Japanese composed in former days by European 
 scholars who had never visited Japan, the most remarkable is that by the late Dr. 
 J. J. Hoffman, of Le.r den. The grammar of the old Jesuit Father Rodriguez is also 
 interesting to the specialist. 
 
 Law. Dutifully obedient to authority and not naturally 
 litigious, the Japanese are nevertheless becoming a nation 
 of lawyers. No branch of study is more popular than law 
 •with the young men of the present generation. Besides being 
 often a stepping-stone to office, it seems to have for them a 
 sort of abstract and theoretical interest ; for (and more's the 
 pity) Japanese law has at no time been the genuine outcome 
 
258 Law. 
 
 of the national life, as English law, for instance, is the out- 
 come of English national life — a historical development fit- 
 ting itself to the needs of the' nation as a well-made glove fits 
 the hand. Twelve hundred years ago Japan borrowed Chinese 
 law wholesale. She is borrowing French and German law 
 wholesale to-day. ~ There are now two parties — a pro-codifi- 
 cation party and an anti-codification party. The former is the 
 party in power, being backed by the statesmen who see in 
 European codes for Japan a pre-requisite of fair treatment of 
 Japan by European nations. The point of view of the anti- 
 codification party is : " Japan for the Japanese. Our laws 
 must suit our people. They must not be mere handles for obtain- 
 ing treaty revision. Wait to codify until the national courts, 
 interpreting national needs, shall have evolved precedents of 
 their own. French and German codes are alien things, me- 
 chanically superimposed on our Japanese ways of thought 
 and modes of life, which are not in touch with foreign civili- 
 sations and the laws that have sprung from them." 
 
 Which of these parties is in the right ? The an ti- codifica- 
 tion party founds itself on history, on natural development. 
 On the other band, might it not be plausibly argued that, 
 wholesale imitation and the adoption of foreign ways having 
 always been Japan's method of proceeding, and being there- 
 fore a sort of inverted originality of her own, the pro-codifica- 
 tionists are, in effect, more truly inheritors of the national 
 tradition than the so-called nationalists ? It is of course out of 
 the question that any opinion we, as ignorant laymen, may hold 
 on such a subject can be worth anything. Our only object 
 is to present both sides, and to present them briefly. 
 
 The new codes resulting from the legislative activity of the 
 present reign are : (1) the Criminal Code and the Code of 
 
Law. 259, 
 
 Criminal Procedure, drafted by M. Boissonnade de Fontarabie 
 on the basis of the Code Napoleon, with modifications sug- 
 gested by the old Japanese Criminal Law ; these were pub- 
 lished in 1880, and came into force in 1882 ; the Code of 
 Criminal Procedure was, however, revised in 1890, in order 
 that it might be uniform with the Code of Civil Procedure, 
 according to the provisions of (2) the Law of the Organisa- 
 tion of Judicial Courts, promulgated in the month of Feb- 
 ruary, 1890, and put into force on the 1st November of the 
 same year ; (3) the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, 
 and the Commercial Code, published in 1890 ; of these the 
 Code of Civil Procedure went into effect at once, the other two 
 will not do so until January, 1893. Though not actually 
 entitled codes, we may also include : (4) the Constitution, 
 with its attendant laws regarding the Imperial House, the 
 Diet, and Finance ; (5) the Laws for the Exercise of Local 
 Self-Government ; and (6) divers statutes on miscellaneous 
 subjects, the most prominent of which are banking, promis- 
 sory notes, and bills of exchange. The draft of the revised 
 Criminal Law was introduced into the Diet at its session of 
 1890—91. 
 
 Crimes, as classified in the Japanese Criminal Code, are of 
 ihree kinds, namely : (1) crimes against the state or the Im- 
 perial Family, and in violation of the public credit, policy, peace, 
 health, etc. ; (2) crimes against person and property ; (3) police 
 offences. There is also a subdivision of (1) and (2) into major 
 and minor crimes. 
 
 The punishments for major crimes are : (1) death by 
 hanging ; (2) deportation with or without hard labour, for 
 life or for a term of years ; (3) imprisonment with or with- 
 out hard labour, for life or for a term of years. The punish- 
 
260 Law. 
 
 merits for minor crimes include confinement with or with- 
 out hard labour, and fine3. The punishments for police- 
 offences are detention for from one to ten days without hard 
 labour, and fines varying from 5 sen to $1.95. The Court 
 which tries persons accused of major crimes consists of three 
 judges, that for minor crimes of one judge or three according 
 to the gravity of the charge, and that for police offences of 
 one juge de paix.* Contrary to Western usage, an appeal is 
 allowed in the case of major crimes for a trial of facts. 
 Capital punishments are carried out in the presence of a 
 procurator. They are now extremely rare. Criminals con- 
 demned to deportation are generally sent io the Island of 
 Yezo, where they sometimes work in the mines. The 
 ordinary prisons are situated in various parts of the empire,, 
 and number one hundred and ninety-three. 
 
 A person who has suffered injury by crime lodges his 
 complaint at a police-office or with the procurator of any 
 court having jurisdiction over the crime in question. Police- 
 men can arrest an offender whose crime was committed in 
 their presence, or which the complainant avers to have 
 actually seen committed. In all other cases they can arrest- 
 by warrant only. Bail is allowed at the discretion of the 
 judge, but only after reference to the procurator who has 
 taken up the case. Accused persons are often kept in prison 
 for a considerable time before trial, and no lawyer is allowed 
 to be present at the preliminary examination, which also is- 
 often long delayed. The law promulgated in February, 1890, 
 relative to the organisation of judicial courts, embodied the 
 usage developed since the establishment of the courts in 
 
 * The system being French, it seems advisable to retain the French terms in 
 cases where there is no exact, or no generally current, English equivalent. 
 
Law. 261 
 
 1872, but introduced at the same time certain changes bor- 
 rowed rather from German than from French sources. 
 
 The history and nature of modern Japanese legal institu- 
 tions is, very briefly, as follows. Down to 1872, the judicial 
 department had united in itself the functions of chief law- 
 court and chief executive office for the transaction of judicial 
 business throughout the land, the same staff of officials 
 serving for both purposes. In that year, however, a separa- 
 tion took place. Judges, procurators, a judicial police for 
 the arrest of prisoners, avouis, avocats, and notaries were 
 established, as also separate judicial courts and a law school. 
 The pattern copied was French. Since that time numerous 
 changes have taken place. At present the courts are divided 
 into local courts (presided over by jxtges de paix), district or 
 provincial courts, courts of appeal, and a supreme court 
 (cour de cassation), all of which have jurisdiction both in 
 criminal and civil suits. Each of these courts has branch 
 offices established to accommodate suitors, regard being had 
 to population and to the area of jurisdiction. The local 
 courts Lave jurisdiction over police offences and such minor 
 crimes as the procurators may deem it proper to punish 
 with a lighter kind of punishment adjudged by one of those 
 courts; the district courts have jurisdiction over crimes, 
 besides acting as courts of preliminary investigation ; the 
 appeal courts hear new trials ; the supreme court hears 
 criminal appeals on matters of law. All crimes of whatever 
 sort, except police offences, are as a rule subjected to pre- 
 liminary examination before actual trial. When, however, 
 the charge is perfectly clear of doubt, the procurators ask for 
 an immediate trial in the case of minor crimes. The con- 
 ducting of criminal cases, from the very beginning down to 
 
262 Law. 
 
 the execution of the criminal, if he be condemned to suffer 
 death, rests with the procurator, who unites in his own per- 
 son the functions of public prosecutor and of grand jury. 
 
 The present judiciary consists partly of men trained under 
 the old pre-European regime, partly of graduates of the Law 
 College of the Imperial University and of the private law 
 colleges, of which there are six in Tokyo and eight altogether 
 in the empire. About a thousand young men graduate 
 yearly. Lawyers are bound to pass a certain examination 
 before being admitted to practise at the bar ; but it is of 
 a very theoretical nature, and is likely to be soon revis- 
 ed. The new law concerning the constitution of courts 
 requires candidates for judgeships to pass two competitive 
 examinations, unless they are graduates of the University, 
 in which case they need only pass the second of the two, 
 after having served as probationary judges for a term of 
 three years. Judges are appointed for life. Their salaries 
 vary from $700 to $4,000 per annum, subject to certaiu 
 reductions effected in 1891 as a consequence of the policy of 
 retrenchment resolved on by the Diet. The presidents of 
 courts are, however, more highly remunerated. The president 
 of the supreme court receives $5,500, and is of shinnin rank.* 
 The chief procurator receives $5,000, and is of cJwhmin rank. ' 
 
 The system of trial, as well in civil as in criminal cases, 
 is inquisitorial. It was so in Old Japan, and is so in 
 France, whence modern Japanese law comes. Formerly no 
 convictions were made except on confession by the prisoner. 
 Hence an abundant use of torture, now happily abolished, 
 
 * All officials are classified into four ranks, shinnin, chohtnin, sonin, and liunnin. 
 The thinnin are the highest of all, receiving their nomination from the Emperor 
 himself. 
 
Law. 263 
 
 and a tendency, even in civil cases, to find against the defen- 
 dant, although the theory is that the defendant must be 
 presumed to be in the right until actually proved the con- 
 trary. In this characteristic, Japan but conforms to her 
 Continental models, and indeed to the universal usage of 
 mankind with the solitary exception of the English. The 
 judge conducts the trial alone. All questions by counsel 
 must be put through him. Counsel do not so much defend 
 their clients as represent them. They even testify for their 
 clients, strange as such a thing must sound to English ears. 
 Another peculiarity — at least according to English notions, 
 though we believe that something similar exists in France — 
 is that husband and wife, parent and child, master and 
 servant, are prohibited from appearing as witnesses against 
 each other. At the same time, they are not entirely ex- 
 cluded from the examination. The code of criminal proce- 
 dure draws a fine distinction, excluding them as witnesses, 
 but admitting them as "referees" — we can think of no 
 better equivalent for the difficult Japanese term scmhonin, 
 % 3j A. A sankonin is a witness and yet not an authoritative 
 witness, a sort of second-rate witness, if one might so phrase 
 it. The idea is, of course, that persons thus related are 
 likely to be prejudiced in each other's favour, and that their 
 testimony should accordingly be allowed little weight in 
 comparison with that of others more probably impartial. 
 Witnesses are sworn, though not exactly in the European 
 manner. The oath is rather a solemn asseveration, and is 
 entirely unconnected with any religious sanction. It is in 
 the form of a written document, to which the person sworn 
 affixes his seal. The proceedings at a trial are all com- 
 mitted to writing, but not in the actual words used, as Japa- 
 
264 Lighthouses. 
 
 nese custom is averse to the employment of the colloquial for 
 literary purposes. The gist of the questions and answers, is 
 therefore translated into the book style'. 
 
 Needless to say that the -above is the merest shadowy out- 
 line of a vast subject. Transformed, revolutionised as it has 
 been, Japanese law nevertheless retains not a few curious 
 features of its own, which would interest both the legal 
 specialist and the student of history and sociology. In 
 departments of legal activity the new codes regulating which 
 are not yet put into force, the customary law of an earlier 
 date is still followed, though variously modified by the appli- 
 cation, more or less tentative, of foreign principles of juris- 
 prudence. Land tenure and all such family matters as 
 succession, marriage, adoption, etc., in which it is most 
 difficult to effect sudden changes, belong to this category. 
 
 DBoofcs recommended. Ignorant as we are of law, the 
 foregoing article must be considered as proceeding from our informant, Mr. 
 R. Masujima, of the Japanese Bar and of the Middle Temple, London. All 
 that we have done has been to put into shape and abridge the information 
 which he kindly supplied. — Little has yet been written on the new laws of 
 the present day. For an account of the earlier or traditional law, may 
 be recommended Weipert's " Japaniehes Fatnilien- nnd Ei-brccht," . published 
 in Part 43 of the German Asiatic Translations, and the various other works 
 in English and German which he enumerates on p. 85 of his own elaborate 
 essay. To these may be added Masujima's paper On the Jitguin or Japanese 
 Legal Seal, printed in Vol. XVII. Part II. of the Asiatic Translations, and 
 Oubbins's Report on Taxation in Japan, with a Supplementary Paper on Land Tenure. 
 See also Notes on Land Tenure and Local Institutums in Old Japan, by Dr. 
 D. B. Simmons and Prof. J. H. Wigmore, in Vol. XIX. Part I. of the Asiatic Trans- 
 actions.— 'Shows who can read Japanese should refer to the Saiban Suishi 
 (S ¥U W f(s)> a periodical founded, by Mr. Masujima in 18F6 for the purpose of 
 reporting law cases, there being no other system of reporting in use. This periodical 
 reports the decisions of the supreme court, the chief business of that court being to 
 see to the uniform administration of the law throughout the empire, with regard 
 to principle as well as to practice. 
 
 Lighthouses. The Imperial Japanese Lighthouse Bu- 
 reau, which is among the best-organised branches of the 
 
Lighthouses. 265 
 
 public service, owed its inception to Sir Harry Parkes, one of 
 , whose earliest actions, on the restoration of the Mikado to 
 absolute power in 1868, was to represent to the Japanese 
 government the necessity of properly lighting the dangerous 
 coast of this archipelago, if foreign trade was to be success- 
 fully carried on. Indeed, he had already approached the 
 Shogun's advisers on the same subject as far back as 1866, 
 with the result that M. Verny, a French engineer then 
 occupied in building the dockyard at Yokosuka, was charged 
 with the erection of four lighthouses in the neighbourhood 
 of Yedo — one at Kwannonzaki, one at Jogashima, one at 
 Nojima, and one between the Shinagawa forts. But it was 
 not till 1868 that lighthouse work was taken in hand syste- 
 matically by men specially trained for the purpose. In that 
 year the Board of Trade, on Sir Harry Parkes's recommenda- 
 tion, sent out both the necessary apparatus and the necessary 
 personnel, with Mr. B. H. Brunton as engineer-in-chief. By 
 November, 1875, when Sir Harry was invited to make a tour 
 of inspection along the coast, over thirty lighthouses were 
 already in working order. From that time forward, there 
 has been constant advance, the Japanese coast being now one 
 of the best-lighted in the world. 
 
 Japan remained, so to say, at school in this matter for some 
 twelve or thirteen years, after which time the English light- 
 house-keepers and most of the other foreign employes were 
 discharged. But though dispensing with the foreign personnel 
 about 1880, and though strongly urged in 1884 by patriotic 
 petitioners to cut down all foreign influence root and branch, 
 and to erect lighthouses with regard to the needs of native 
 shipping exclusively, the government has wisely refused to 
 subscribe to such a jingo policy. The instructions for light- 
 
266 Lighthouses. 
 
 house-keepers remain, as in the past, those of the Scottish 
 Board of Northern Lights, modified in certain respects so as 
 to suit the peculiarities of the Japanese service. The dioptric 
 apparatus which is used in most of the Japanese light- 
 houses is still imported from France, though the clock- 
 work and other machinery are manufactured in Japan. 
 The chief tangible result of the movement of 1884 was the 
 appointment of a permanent committee of officials of the 
 Naval Department and of the Department of Communica-/ 
 tions, whose business it is to decided on plans of lighthouse 
 extension. The lighting of the remoter portions of the Island 
 of Yezo has heen the work of the last few years, and there 
 are plans for no less than ninety-seven new lighthouses, to 
 be erected at a cost of one and a half million dollars — some 
 on outlying islands such as the Kuriles and Loochoos, some 
 to supplement deficiencies in the lighting of Japan proper. 
 The total number of lighthouses at present in working order 
 is seventy-nine, and six new ones will probably be completed 
 before the close of the year. These are all of the latest 
 European pattern; and there are a number of other local 
 lighthouses in old-fashioned Japanese style. 
 
 In addition to lighthouses, the bureau has established 
 lightships, buoys, and beacons. There is also a system of 
 fog-signals, chiefly from Kinkwasan northward on the Main 
 Island, and on the east coast of Yezo, those portions of the 
 country being specially subject to fogs. 
 
 Books recommended. List of the Japanese Lighthouses, Lightships, 
 'Buoys, and Beacons, published annually by the Department of Communications, and 
 containing a map.— The only full account of the progress of lighthouse work in 
 Japan is, so far as we know, that contained in a history of the Department of 
 Public Works, composed in the Japanese lauguase and entitled Kslushs Enkaku. 
 Hokokn (X SB -mf 83 W- Wl S)- More detailed statistics are to be found in the 
 Kotu TokeisH (I gg gg ff §j;), but they only go down to 1884. The Kdtushe 
 Enkaku Hokoku goes one year further. 
 
Literature. 267 
 
 Literature. We hear of one or two Japanese books 
 as having been composed in the seventh century of the 
 Christian era, shortly after the spread of a knowledge of the 
 Chinese ideographs in Japan had rendered a written literature 
 possible. The earliest work, however, that has come down 
 to us is the Eojihi, or " Record of Ancient Matters," dating 
 from the year 712. This work has sometimes been called 
 the Bible of the Japanese, because it contains the mythology 
 and earliest history of the nation ; but it gives no moral or 
 religious precepts. It was followed in A. D. 720 by the 
 Nilwngi, or " Chronicles of Japan," a more pretentious work 
 written in Chinese, the Latin of that age and country. In 
 about A. D. 760 came the 2Ian-yoshu, or " Collection of a 
 Myriad Leaves." It is an anthology of the most ancient 
 poems of the language, and is invaluable as a repertory of 
 facts and allusions interesting to the philologist, the archaeolo- 
 gist, and the historian. Its poetical merit is also rated very 
 high by the orthodox native critics, who are unacquainted 
 with any literature but their own, unless it be the Chinese. 
 From that time forward the literary stream has never ceased. 
 It has flowed in a double channel — that of books in the native 
 language, and that of books written hi Classical Chinese. 
 Chinese has been generally preferred for grave subjects — law, 
 for instance, and history ; Japanese for poetry, romance, and 
 other branches of belles-lettres. Mr. Satow, following the 
 native authorities, classes Japanese literature under sixteen 
 heads, which are : 
 
 I. Standard Histories. Besides the Kojiki and Nilwngi 
 already mentioned, the most important standard history is 
 the Dai Nihonshi. This huge work in one hundred volumes 
 was compiled at the end of the seventeenth century by a 
 
268 Literature. 
 
 whole company of Japanese and Chinese men of learning, 
 under the general superintendence of the second Prince of 
 Mito, who was a munificent patron of literature. 
 
 II. Miscellaneous Historical Works, that is, histories 
 written by private persons and therefore devoid of official 
 sanction. Such are the Mitsu Kagami, the Geinpei Seisiiiki, 
 the Heihe Monogatari, the Taiheiki, and a host of others, 
 concluding with the Nihon Gwaishi, which, a few years ago, 
 was in every educated person's hands, and which, by its 
 fanatically imperialist sentiments, contributed in no small 
 measure to bring about the fall of the Shogunate. — All 
 Japanese histories are written in a style which repels the 
 European reader. They are, for the most part, annals rather 
 than histories properly so-called. Mr. Satow's translation of 
 the first five books of the Nihon Gwaishi should be glanced 
 through by any one who doubts this assertion. He will find 
 it almost impossible to bring himself to believe that a book so 
 intolerably dry could ever have fired a whole nation with 
 enthusiasm. That it did so is one of the curiosities of 
 literature. 
 
 III. Laws. . The Ego no Gige and the Engi-sliiJd are the 
 works in this division which are most often quoted. 
 
 IV. Biography. 
 
 V: Poetry. (See Article on this subject.) 
 
 VI. Classical Bomances. This is the most curious depart- 
 ment of standard Japanese literature, lifting, as it does, the 
 curtain from the long-forgotten life of the Japanese Court of 
 the tenth and eleventh centuries of our era. The lords and 
 ladies of those days step out before us, with all the frivolity 
 but also with all the elegance of their narrow aristocratic 
 existence, which was bounded by the horizon of the old 
 
Literature. 269 
 
 capital, Kyoto. We have their poetastering, their amorous 
 intrigues of course, their interminable moon-gazings and 
 performances on the flute, even minute descriptions of their 
 dresses and of the parties they gave — one among many 
 witnesses to the fact that a large proportion of the authors 
 were women. The earliest book commonly classed among 
 the romances is more properly a fairy-tale ; for it deals with 
 the adventures of a maiden who was exiled from the moon to 
 this our workaday world. It is entitled Taketori Monogatari, 
 or the " Bamboo-cutter's Eomance," because the maiden 
 was discovered in a section of bamboo, where she lay spark- 
 ling like gold. To mention but three or four more out of a 
 hundred, there are the Utsubo Monogatari and the Ise Mono- 
 gatari, both attributed to the tenth century, the Konjaku 
 Monogatari, with its sequel the Uji Jui, which are collections 
 of shorter tales, and the Qenji Monogatari, which dates from 
 the year 1004, and is the most celebrated of all, chiefly on 
 account of its ornate style. 
 
 VII. Miscellanies. These books are a sort of olla poddda 
 of the thoughts of their authors — jotted down without any 
 attempt at classification, but with a great deal of literary 
 chiselling. The two miscellanies most to be recommended 
 are the Mukura no Soshi, by a court lady named Sei Shonagon 
 who flourished in the eleventh century, and the Tsurezme- 
 Gusa by a Buddhist monk who died in the year 1350. 
 
 VIII. Diaries. Of these, the Hojoki is probably the one 
 which the student will find most interesting. Like the 
 Tsurezure-Gusa, it is the work of a Buddhist monk. The 
 author describes the calamities of his times, and expatiates on 
 the superiority of life in a hermit's cell to that which he 
 had previously led amidst worldly vanities. It dates from 
 
270 Literature. 
 
 about the year 1200. The Murasaki Shikibu Niki, which is 
 the diary of the most celebrated of Japanese authoresses, is 
 remarkable as being probably the hardest book to construe in 
 the Japanese language. 
 
 IX. Travels. Under this heading, the bibliographers 
 class many works which might more advantageously be 
 ■counted among the Diaries, as not only are they diaries in 
 fact, but are entitled so by their authors. . The easiest and 
 most attractive of the Japanese classics is to be found in this 
 division. It is entitled the Tosa Niki, that is, " Diary of 
 [a Voyage Home from] Tosa." It dates from the year 935. 
 
 Travels are the least voluminous department of Japanese 
 literature. How should it accord with the fitness of things 
 in this stay-at-home country to have a Sir John Maundeville 
 or a Captain Cook ? 
 
 X. Dramas. These are treated of in the Article on the 
 Theatre. 
 
 XI. Dictionaries and Works on Philology. The best 
 native dictionaries of Classical Japanese are the Wakun no 
 Sltiori and the Gagen Shuran. But both are unfortunately 
 fragmentary. The recently published Genkai, or " Sea of 
 Words," aims at greater completeness. The fullest native 
 grammar is the Eotoba no CJukamichi, by Minamoto-no- 
 Shigetane. The chief writers of the old school on general 
 philological subjects are Mabuchi (died 1769), Motoori (died 
 1801), and Hirata (died 1843). In Motoori's works the 
 Classical Japanese language reached its acme of perfection. 
 Specially remarkable are, among his greater undertakings, 
 the standard commentary on the Kojiki, entitled Kojiki Ben, 
 and, among his lighter essays, the Tama-Gatsuma containing 
 jottings on all sorts of subjects, philogical and otherwise. 
 
Literature. 271 
 
 XII. Topography. The newer and more popular public- 
 ations of this class are really the best, though they are less 
 esteemed by the Japanese literati than are other works bear- 
 ing the stamp of higher antiquity. These popular topogra- 
 phical "works are illustrated guide-books to the various 
 provinces of the empire, and are known under the collective 
 name of Meislid Zue. They are by various authors of the 
 present century, but are all constructed on a uniform plan, 
 somewhat resembling that of our county histories, though 
 more discursive and better adapted to the practical needs of 
 travellers. 
 
 XIII. Literature or the Shinto Religion. Chief works : 
 the KojiM Den, already mentioned under another heading — 
 for indeed it is one of the corner-stones of Japanese literature 
 — and Hirata's still only half-published magnum opus, entitled 
 Eoshi Den. This latter is remarkable for its extraordinary 
 elaborateness and for the vast erudition of its author. Un- 
 fortunately Hirata was very bigoted as well as very learned. 
 Consequently the reader must be always on his guard, so as 
 to distinguish how much really belongs to Shinto and how 
 much to Hirata himself ; for Hirata never scrupled to garble 
 a sacred text, if he could thereby support his own views as to 
 what the sacred writers ought to mean. Extremely interesting 
 to the specialist are the ancient Shinto rituals termed Norito, 
 round which a mass of modern commentary has gathered. 
 A remarkable peculiarity of this section of Japanese literature 
 is the attempt made by its authors to use pure Japanese only, 
 without any admixture of the Chinese element. 
 
 XIV. Buddhist Literature. This division comprises sin- 
 gularly few works of merit, Buddhism having found an 
 uncongenial soil in the Japanese mind. We do not know 
 
272 Literature. 
 
 of any Japanese Buddhist book that takes, either in literature 
 or popularity, a place at all comparable to that taken among 
 ourselves by the "Imitation of Christ," the English Prayer- 
 Book, or the " Pilgrim's Progress." Shinto, though immea- 
 surably inferior to Buddhism as a religion, must be Admitted 
 to have carried off from its rival all the literary laurels on 
 Japanese soil. Besides the Buddhists proper, there is a school 
 of moralists calling themselves Dotokusha, founded partly on 
 Buddhism, partly on Confucianism, 'partly on utilitarian 
 common sense. Some of their Dowa, or " Moral Discourses," 
 have a certain interest. But the best things in this line are 
 two collections of moral aphorisms entitled Jitsu-Go Eyo, or 
 "Teaching of the Words of Truth,' - and Doji Eyo, or 
 "Teaching for Children." 
 
 XV. Modern Fiction. Japan's greatest modern novel- 
 ist, in the opinion of the Japanese themselves, is Bakin 
 (1767 — 1848), the most widely popular of whose two hun- 
 dred and ninety works is the Hakkenden, or " Tale of Eight 
 Dogs," itself consisting of no less than a hundred and six 
 volumes. Though Japanese volumes are smaller than ours, 
 the Hakkenden is a gigantic production. Another univer- 
 sally popular novel is the Hiza-Kitriye, by an author who 
 writes under the name of Jippensha Ikku. In our opinion 
 it is, with some of the lyric dramas (No no Utai), the ' 
 cleverest outcome of the Japanese pen. In it are relat- 
 ed with a Babelaisian coarseness, but also with a Babelaisian 
 verve and humour, the adventures of two men called Yajiro- 
 bei and Kidahachi as they travel along the Tokaido from 
 Yedo to Kyoto. The impecunious heroes walk most of the 
 way, whence the title of Hiza-Eurige, which may be roughly 
 rendered " Shanks's Mare." The author of this work oc- 
 
Literature. 273 
 
 cupies in literature a place akin to that winch Hokusai 
 occupies in art. Warmly appreciated by the common people, 
 who have no preconceived theories to "live up to," both 
 Hokusai and Jippensha Ikku are admitted but grudgingly by 
 the local dispensers of fame to a place in the national Wal- 
 halla. They must look abroad for the appreciation of critics 
 taking a wider view of the proper functions of literature and 
 art. Gravity, severe classicism, conformity to established 
 rules and methods— such have hitherto constituted the canon 
 of orthodox Japanese literary judgment. Many Japanese 
 novels are of the historical kind. The most interesting of 
 these is the I-ro-ha Bunko, by one Tamenaga Shunsui, which, 
 with its sequel, the Yuld no Akebono, gives the lives of each 
 of the celebrated Forty-Seven Renins. The Ool-a Meiyo 
 Seidan is another book of this class much to be recommend- 
 ed to the student for its interest and its easy style. It 
 purports to be an authentic account of numbers of causes 
 celebres tried by Ooka, the Japanese Solomon, who flourished 
 early in the eighteenth century. 
 
 XVI. Miscellaneous Literatuke, including cyclopaedias, 
 works on industries, sciences, arts, and inventions, works on 
 Confucianism,- works on Japanese and Chinese antiquities, 
 and on a hundred other subjects. Under this heading, the 
 popular moral treatises of Kaibara and Arai Hakuseki, Con- 
 fucianists of the seventeenth century, call for particular 
 notice, partly because the ideas are those that long moulded 
 Japanese society, partly because the easy, flowing style of 
 these books specially fits them for the*student's use. 
 
 To the foregoing enumeration borrowed from Mr. Satow, 
 we venture to add one item more, namely : — 
 
 XVII. Eubopeanised Literature. The recent opening of 
 
274 Literature. 
 
 the country was the death-blow to Japanese literature proper. 
 True, thousands of books and pamphlets still pour annually 
 from the press — more, probably, than at any previous time. 
 But the greater number are either translations of European 
 works, or else works conveying European ideas. It is but 
 natural and right that this should be so. Immense civilising 
 effects in every department of scientific activity are being 
 produced by the contemporary school of Europeanised 
 authors, with Fukuzawa, Nishi Shu, Kato Hiroyuki, Toyama 
 Masakazu, and a dozen other eminent men leading the van. 
 But of course their translations, adaptations, and imitations 
 interest Western readers, who are in possession of the orig- 
 inals, less than do the books written under the old regime. 
 Even Japanese novel-writing proceeds nowadays a I'eu- 
 ropeenne. Not methods alone are borrowed wholesale, but 
 even plots, the proper names which occur in the stories being 
 slightly japonised, as Shimizu for Smith, Eisa for Eliza, 
 and details being altered so as to suit Japanese social con- 
 ditions. Sometimes a more ambitious style of historical 
 romance is attempted. We would willingly wager ten 
 thousand to one that not a single reader of these pages could 
 ever guess the hero of the most popular Japanese work of 
 fiction that has appeared during the present reign. It is — 
 Epaminondas ! The work in question, entitled Eeikoku Bi- 
 dan, takes the whole field of Theban politics for its subject- 
 matter. That not a few of the allusions may be transferred 
 without much difficulty to modern Japanese politics, is doubt- 
 less one reason for the immense sale it has had. The author, 
 Yano Fumio, was able to take a trip to Europe and to build 
 himself a fine house with the proceeds. Another successful 
 novel, the Kajin no Kigu, has its opening scene laid in the 
 
Literature. 275 
 
 Capitol at Washington, where one of the characters — a 
 Japanese — reads aloud to his companion the Declaration of 
 Independence. The Carlists, the wicked English who robbed 
 Egypt of her native prince Arabi Pasha, etc., etc., all appear 
 in kaleidoscopic variety in the pages of this work, which, by 
 a curious contradiction-, is written in the most classical Chinese 
 style. Among more serious and influential productions may 
 be mentioned " The Opening of Japan 1 " by Shimada Saburo, 
 " The Main Points of Japanese History 2 " by Saga Shosaku, 
 " The Japan of the Future 3 " by Tokutomi Iiehiro, " A 
 Treatise on the Constitution*" by Ono Azusa, the Constitu- 
 tion itself with Count Ito's Commentary, Nakamura's excel- 
 lent translations of Smiles' "Self-Help" and Mill upon 
 " Liberty ;" together with such more recent scholastic works 
 as Mikami and Takatsu's" "History of Japanese Litera- 
 ture 5 " Otsuki's new dictionary entitled " The Sea of Words 6 " 
 And Taguchi's encyclopaedia entitled " A Dictionary of Japan- 
 ese Society 7 " But the work which undoubtedly did more 
 than any other singlo factor to mould Japan into its present 
 shape was " The Condition of Western Countries 8 " by the 
 veteran Fukuzawa — a book now over two decades old. 
 
 And now it may be asked : What is the value of this 
 Japanese literature — so ancient, so voluminous, locked up 
 in so recondite a written character ? We repeat what we 
 have already said of the " Collection of a Myriad Leaves " — 
 that it is invaluable to the philologist, the archaeologist, the 
 historian, the student of curious manners doomed to disappear. 
 We may add that there are some clever and many pretty 
 
 (1) KaiJioku Shimatm. (2) Aihon Shiks. (3) Shsrai no Nihon. 
 
 (4) Kdkken Hanron. (6) Kihon Bungdku Shi. (6) Genhai. 
 
 (7) XFihon Shakicai Jii. (8) SeiyO Jija. 
 
276 Literature. 
 
 things in it. The Tosa Niki, for instance, .is charming — 
 charming in its simplicity, its good taste, its love of scenery 
 and of children. The Makura no Soshi has numerous touches 
 of wit and delicate satire. Some of the lyric dramas are 
 remarkable poems. Some of the Lilliputian odes in the- 
 " Songs Ancient and Modern " sparkle like tiny dew-drops in 
 the sun. For Jippensha Ikku, the Kabelais cf Japan, we 
 have already expressed our warm admiration. On the -other 
 hand, much of that which the Japanese themselves prize 
 most highly in their literature seems intolerably flat and 
 insipid to the European taste. The romances — most of 
 them — are every bit as dull as the histories, though in another 
 way. The histories are too curt, the romances too long- 
 winded. If the authoress of the Qenji Monogatari, though 
 lauded to the skies by her compatriots, has been branded by 
 Georges Bousquet as cette ennuyeuse Scudery japonaise, she 
 surely richly deserves it. And what shall we say of Bakin,. 
 on whom her mantle has fallen in modern times — Bakin 
 and his Halcltenden, which every Japanese has read and re-read 
 till he knows it almost by heart ? " How inimitable ! " cries 
 the enraptured Japanese reader, "how truly excellent!"' 
 " Excellent, yes ! " the European retorts, " excellent to send 
 one to sleep, which its interminable accounts of the impossible 
 adventures of eight knights, who personify the eight cardinal 
 virtues through the labyrinth of a hundred and six volumes ! "' 
 Sum total : what Japanese literature most lacks is genius- 
 It lacks thought, logical grasp, depth, breadth, and many- 
 sidedness. It is too timorous, too narrow to compass great 
 things. Perhaps the Court atmosphere and predominantly 
 feminine influence in which it was nursed for the first few 
 centuries of its existence stifled it, or else the fault may have 
 
Little Spring. 277 
 
 lain with the Chinese formalism in which it grew up. But 
 we suspect that there was some original sin of weakness as 
 well. Otherwise the clash of India and China with old 
 mythological Japan, of Buddhism with Shinto, of imperialism 
 with feudalism, and of all with Christianity in the sixteenth 
 century and with Dutch ideas a little later, would have 
 produced more important results. If Japan has given us no 
 music, so also has she given us no immortal verse. But 
 Japanese literature has occasional graces, and is fall of 
 incidental scientific interest. The intrepid searcher for facts 
 and " curios " will, therefore, be rewarded if he has the 
 courage to devote to it the study of many years. A certain 
 writer has said that " it should be left to a few missionaries 
 to plod their way through the wilderness of the Chinese 
 language -to the deserts of Chinese literature." Such a 
 sweeping condemnation is unjust in the case of Chinese. It 
 would be unjust in that of Japanese also, even with all 
 deductions made. 
 
 Sooks recommended. An elaborate article on Japanese Litera- 
 ture, by Ernest Satow, in Vol. IX. of Ripley and Dana's American Cyclopaedia. — 
 On the Various Styles used in Japanese Literature, by B. H. Chamberlain, printed 
 in Vol. XIII. Part I. of the Asiatic Transactions. — The following translations or 
 summaries of Japanese works are easily accessible : — An Ancient Japanese Classic 
 (the Torn Nihi), by W. G. Aston, in Vol. Ill, Part II; A Literary Lady of Old Japan, 
 by the same, in Vol, XVI. Part IH. ; Ancient Japanese Bituals, by Ernest Satow, 
 in Vols. VXT. and IX. ; the Gobitnsho (a Buddhist book), by James Troup, in Vol. 
 X V JLL. Part I. ; The Kojiki, by B. H. Chamberlain, in the Supplement to Vol. X. 
 and other translations by the same, in other volumes of the Asiatic Transactions — 
 An English paraphrase of the Genji Monogatari, by Suematsu Keneho.— There are 
 also some interesting translations by Eby and others in a now extinct magazine, 
 the Chrysanthemum. See also the works of Hoffmann, Pfizmaier, de Rosny, Puini, 
 Turrettini, Severini, and Lange, and the Articles on Moral Maxims, Poetht, and 
 Womas in the present work. 
 
 Little Spring. Ko-haru, or "the Little Spring," is the 
 Japanese name for the Indian Summer — those beauteous 
 weeks in November and December, when the burden and 
 
278 Loochoo. 
 
 heat of the year are over, when the sky is constantly blue 
 and the atmosphere golden, and the maple-trees (to borrow 
 a favourite expression of the Japanese poets) put on' their 
 damask robes. 
 
 LoocllOO. Loochoo : — pronounced Ditchu by the natives 
 and tfyuhyu by the Japanese — is, in its widest acceptation, 
 the general name of several groups of islands stretching 
 nearly the whole way between the southernmost outlying 
 islets of the Japanese archipelago and the north-eastern ex- 
 tremity of Formosa. But it is usually restricted in practice 
 to the central group, the chief members of which are 
 Amami-Oshima and Okinawa-shima. This group is of 
 coral formation, and lies between 127° and 130° longitude 
 east of Greenwich, and between 26° and 28° 30' of north 
 latitude. Tc this position it owes a mild climate, marred 
 only by the extreme violence of occasional typhoons during 
 the summer months. The soil is so fertile as to produce 
 two crops of rice yearly. 
 
 In race and language the Loochooans are closely allied 
 to the Japanese, but for many centuries the two peoples 
 seem not to have communicated with each other. The veil 
 lifts in A. D. 1187 with the accession of King Shunten, 
 said to have been a son of Tametomo, the famous Japa- 
 nese archer. It is recorded that the Loochooans first sent 
 an ambassador with presents to the Shogun of Japan in the 
 year 1451, that they discontinued such presents or tribute 
 at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and were 
 chastised for this neglect by the then Prince of Satsuma. 
 Loochoo continued to be a sub-fief of Satsuma, but with a 
 ruler bearing the title of king, until the time of the Japa- 
 
Loochoo. 279 
 
 nese revolution of 1868. Meanwhile the Loocliooans, who 
 had obtained their civilisation from China, also paid tribute 
 to the Chinese court, and received investiture for their 
 kinglets from Peking. The little kingdom thus faced two 
 ways, so that trouble was bound to ensue. An embassy 
 was sent to Tokyo in 1878, to endeavour to arrange matters 
 in such wise that, the double protectorate might be main- 
 tained, — China being, as the envoys said, honoured by the 
 Loochooans as their father, and Japan as their mother. 
 But the Japanese Government refused to admit this claim. 
 The Loochooan king was brought captive to Tokyo in 
 1879, and the archipelago was organised into a Japanese 
 prefecture under the title of Okinawa-Ken. This change, 
 though intensely disagreeable to the little insular court and 
 aristocracy, who forfeited most of their privileges, is said to 
 have been beneficial to the people at large. 
 
 The Loochooans — even the men — are distinguished in 
 appearance by a top-knot of hair, through which they pass 
 a large pin or skewer of gold, silver, or copper, according to 
 their rank. Formerly corpses, instead of being interred at 
 once, were left to decay either in a provisional grave or in a 
 stream of water, and it was only after three years that the 
 last funeral rites were performed. This custom has happily 
 fallen into disuse. The capital of Loochoo is Shuri, whose 
 port is Nafa, called by the Japanese Okinawa. The chief 
 products are rice and sugar, the latter of which is the main 
 staple of commerce. The area of the islands has been 
 roughly estimated at 1,000 square miles, and the population 
 at 170,000. The Loochoos may easily be reached from 
 Kobe vid the Inland Sea and Kagoshima. The steamer 
 first visits the island of Amami-Oshima, and then proceeds 
 
280 Luck. 
 
 to Nafa, wHere it stops three days. The round trip from 
 Kobe and back takes seventeen days. 
 
 Books recommended. A Voyage of Discovery to Corea andLoochoo, 
 by Captain Basil Hall, H.N., London, 1818.— Notes regarding the Principality of 
 Loochoo, by J. H. Gubbins, printed in the Journal of the Society of Arts for the 3rd 
 June, 1881.— Die Liu-Tciu, Insel Amami-Oshima, by Dr. L. Doederlein, printed in. 
 Parts 23, 24, and 25 of the German Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 Luck (Gods Of). The Seven Gods of Luck (Shiehi- 
 Fuhu-Jin) are : Fukurokuju, distinguished by a preternatural- 
 ly long head, and typifying longevity and wisdom ; Daikoku, 
 whose rice-bales show him to be the god of wealth ; Ebisu* 
 bearing a fish, and serving as the patron of honest work ; 
 Hofcei, with an enormous naked abdomen, a bag on his 
 back and a fan in his hand, and signifying contentment 
 and good nature ; Bishamon, the impersonation of war, clad 
 in armour, and bearing a spear and a toy pagoda ; Beuten, 
 the goddess of love, distinguished by being the only female 
 in the assemblage ; and Jurojin a sort of repetition of 
 Fukurokuju, both being often accompanied by a stag and a 
 crane. 
 
 The Seven Gods of Luck have been swept together from 
 many incongruous souices — Japanese Shintoism, Chinese 
 Taoism, Indian Buddhism and Brahmanism. Their union 
 in one group is the result of nothing more recondite than 
 popular ignorance and confusion of ideas, and can be traced 
 no further back than the time of Iejasu (about A. D. 1600). 
 The reader will find in Anderson's Catalogue of Japanese 
 and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum, pages 27 — 
 46, a full discussion of the origin and attributes of these 
 divinities, and will be surprised to discover how slender 
 is the basis on which their modern popularity has been 
 reared. 
 
Marriage. 281 
 
 Maps. Much the best detailed map of Japan is that now 
 heing published in sections by the Geological Office of the 
 Imperial Department of Agriculture and Commerce, and 
 obtainable of Messrs. Kelly and Walsh at Yokohama. The 
 Yokohama section is particularly useful, including, as it does, 
 many of the localities most frequently visited by pleasure- 
 seekers, such as Kamakura, Enoshima, Miyanoshita, etc. 
 Also to be recommended is Hassenstein's German atlas of 
 eight sectional maps, all completed. Sections III. and IV. 
 which take in Central Japan, from the Inland Sea on the west 
 to beyond Tokyo and Nikko on the east and north, are the most 
 generally useful. It is only to be , regretted that the author 
 should have considered the usual method of spelling Japanese 
 not good enough for him, and should accordingly have evol- 
 ved a new one from the depths of his own inner consciousness. 
 Are not Japanese names hard enough already ? What travel- 
 ler — what resident even — can be expected to recognise, say, 
 the town of Cboshi under the disguise of " Tsosi," or Hachijo 
 under "Fatsidjio?" 
 
 Other maps worthy of mention are Standford's " Library 
 Map of Japan," compiled by E. Knipping, and Farsari's little 
 map, entitled " The Environs of Yokohama." The Fuji-mi 
 Ju-san Shu, or " Thirteen Provinces round Fusiyama," is the 
 best of the old-fasbioned Japanese maps. The distances are 
 given in figures, and the roads are clearly indicated. The 
 father of Japanese cartography was Ino Chukei (born A.D. 
 1744), of whose life and labours Or. Knott has given a short 
 account in Vol. XVI. Part II. of the Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 Marriage. In everything relating to marriage, the dif- 
 ference between East and West is still very strongly mark- 
 
£82 Marriage. 
 
 eel. Marriage among the Japanese is less of a personal, and 
 more of a family affair than it is in Western lands. Eeligion 
 has no say in the matter, and the law regards it from a dif- 
 ferent point of view. An Englishman chooses his wife him- 
 self ; but the English law, though perfectly neutral during 
 this initial stage of the proceedings, steps in as soon 
 as the knot is tied, and imperiously forbids its severance 
 except in case of gross misconduct by one of the parties. Japa- 
 nese marriages, on the contrary, are arranged by the two fami- 
 lies, and the step is less solemn and not irrevocable, the Japa- 
 nese law remaining as neutral at the end as at the beginning. 
 For though marriage is a legal contract while it lasts, it 
 may, like other contracts, be terminated by the joint request 
 and consent of the contracting parties. Divorce, too, at the 
 request of one party — generally the man — is easy to -obtain. 
 The way things are managed is this. When their child — 
 be it boy or girl — has reached a marriageable age, the duty 
 of the parents is to secure a suitable partner. Custom, how- 
 ever, rules that the conduct of the affair must be entrusted 
 to a middleman (iiakoclo)— some discreet married friend, who 
 not only negotiates the marriage, but remains through life 
 a sort of godfather to the young couple, a referee to whom 
 disputes may be submitted for arbitration. Having fixed on 
 an eligible parti, the middleman arranges for what is termed 
 the mi-ai, literally, the " mutual seeing " — a meeting at 
 which the lovers (if persons unknown to each other may be 
 so styled) are allowed to see, sometimes even to speak to 
 each other, and thus estimate each other's merits. In strict 
 etiquette, the interview should take place either at the 
 middleman's own residence, or at some other private house 
 designated by the parents on both sides. But among the 
 
Marriage. 283 
 
 middle and lower classes, a picnic, a party to the theatre, or 
 a visit to a temple often serves the purpose. If the man 
 objects to the girl or the girl to the man after the " mutual 
 seeing," there is an end of the matter, in theory at least. 
 But in practice the young pesple are in their parents' hands, 
 to do as their parents may ordain. The girl, in particular, 
 is a nobody in the matter. It is not for girls to have opinions. 
 
 If both parties are satisfied with what they have seen of 
 each other, gifts consisting of clothes, or of money to purchase 
 clothes, and of certain kinds of fish and edible seaweed, are 
 exchanged between them. This exchange of presents is 
 called yuino. It corresponds to betrothal, and is binding — 
 if not in actual law, at any rate in custom. The presents 
 once exchanged, neither party can draw back. A lucky day 
 is then chosen for the wedding. When it comes, the bride, 
 dressed all in white, the colour of mourning — to signify that 
 she dies to her own family, and that she will never leave her 
 husband's house but as a corpse— is borne away at nightfall 
 to her new home, escorted by the middleman and his wife. 
 The parental house is swept out on her departure, and in 
 former days a bonfire was lighted at the gate — ceremonies 
 indicative of the purification necessary after the removal of a 
 dead person. 
 
 The wedding, which takes place immediately after the 
 bride's arrival at the house of her husband's parents, is of 
 the nature of a dinner-party. The distinguishing feature of 
 it is what is termed the san-san leu-do, that is, literally, 
 "three three, nine times," because both the bridegroom and 
 the bride drink three times out of each of three wine-cups 
 of different sizes, making nine times in all — or rather they 
 do not drink, but only lift the cup to their lips. Another 
 
284 Marriage. 
 
 essential part of the ceremony is the changing of garments. 
 The bride, on reaching her new home, changes her white 
 dress for one given to her by her husband. But immedi- 
 ately after the ceremonial drinking-bout, and while the 
 guests are still assembled at the feast, she retires and 
 puts on a coloured dress, brought with her from her 
 parents' house. The bridegroom changes his dress at the 
 same time in another apartment.* At the conclusion of 
 the feast, the newly married couple are led into the 
 bridal chamber by the middleman and his wife, whereupon 
 they pledge each other in nine more cups of wine. It is 
 significant that the husband, as lord and master, now 
 drinks first. At the earlier stage of the proceedings the 
 bride drank first, in her quality of guest. This ends the 
 wedding ceremony. 
 
 A few days later — strictly speaking, it should be on the 
 third day — a visit is paid by the couple to the bride's parents. 
 This is termed her sato-gaeri, or " return home." On this 
 occasion, she wears a dress presented to her by her husband's 
 family. Meantime the necessary notice has been given to 
 the authorities, which is the only legal form to be observed. 
 It consists in a request to the district office by the head of 
 the family to which the girl formerly belonged, that her entry 
 of registration may be transferred to the office within whose 
 jurisdiction her husband, or the head of her husband's family, 
 if the husband himself be not a householder, has his domicile. 
 An official intimation of the transfer follows this request, 
 and all is then in order. When the new Civil Code comes 
 into force in 1893, some further technical formalities will be 
 
 * Some men are now married in European evening dress, in which case no 
 change takes place. 
 
Marriage. 285 
 
 necessary,— formalities, however, that will not essentially 
 affect the nature of the institution ; for even the Japanese are 
 conservatives in their chief social customs. 
 
 The above is the usual form of marriage. In some cases, 
 however, the bridegroom is adopted into the bride's family,, 
 instead of the bride into the bridegroom's. This takes place 
 mostly when a parent has only a daughter, or daughters, but 
 no son. In order to preserve the family intact — due regard 
 being had to the circumstance that no female can be its legal 
 head — it is then necessary to adopt a son-in-law, who, literally 
 becoming a son in the eyes of the law, drops his own surname 
 and takes that of his wife. None but poor men are generally 
 willing to place themselves in such a false position. 
 
 Amongst the lower classes, ceremonies and considerations 
 of all kinds are often honoured only in the breach. Many of 
 the so-called marriages of plebeians are mere concubinage 
 founded on mutual convenience. This accounts for the 
 " boy " and the cook — to their foreign master's increasing 
 astonishment — being found to bring home a new wife almost 
 as often as they bring home a new saucepan. Such laxity 
 would never be tolerated in well-bred circles. 
 
 When it is added that a Japanese bride has no brides- 
 maids, that the young couple go off on no honeymoon, that 
 a Japanese wife is not only supposed to obey her husband, 
 but actually does so, that the husband, if well enough off, 
 probably has a concubine besides and makes no secret of it, 
 indeed often keeps her in the same house with his wife, and 
 that the mother-in-law, with us a terror to the man, is not 
 only a terror but a daily and hourly cross to the girl— for in 
 nine cases out of ten, the girl has to live with her husband's 
 family and be at the beck and call of his relations — when due 
 
286 Marriage. 
 
 consideration is given to all these circumstances, it -will be 
 seen that marriage in Japan is a vastly different thing, 
 socially as well as legally, from marriage in England or the 
 United States. The reader will be still more firmly persuaded 
 of this truth, if he will take the trouble to glance at the 
 Articles on Divorce and on Woman. He will see that in this 
 part of the world it is a case, not of place aux dames but place 
 ■aux messieurs.* 
 
 The men, having everything their own way, naturally 
 marry young. SpeaMng broadly, there are no bachelors in 
 Japan. For the same reason, there, are no old maids. The 
 girls are married off without being consulted, and they accept 
 their fate as a matter of course, because their mothers and 
 grandmothers, ever since the beginning of the world, accepted 
 a like fate before them. One love marriage we have heard 
 of, — >one in eighteen years ! But then both the young people 
 had been brought up in America. Accordingly they took the 
 reins into their own hands, to the great scandal of all their 
 friends and relations. 
 
 It would be interesting, were it possible, to ascertain 
 statistically the effect on morality of early marriage as prac- 
 tised in this part of the world. Our impression is that the 
 
 * May the writer be permitted here to record a little experience of his own? In 
 hie " Introduction to the Kojihi" he had drawn attention to the inferior place held 
 by women in ancient as in modern Japan, Some years ago (April, 1888), six of the 
 chief literati of the old school did him the honour to translate this " Introduction " 
 into Japanese, with a running commentary. They patted him on the hack for many 
 things ; hut when they reached the observation anent the subjection of women, their 
 wrath exploded. " The subordination of women to men," so runs this commentary, 
 f ' is an extremely correct custom. To think the contrary is to harbour European 
 
 . prejudice For the man to take precedence over the woman, is the grand law 
 
 of heaven and earth. To ignore this, and to talk of the contrary as barbarous, is 
 absurd." — It does not fall to every one's lot to be anathematised by half-a-dozen 
 Japanese literary popes— and that, too, merely for taking the part of the ladies! 
 
Maru. 287 
 
 good results anticipated from such a custom by certain 
 European reformers do not show themselves here in practice. 
 Not that wider intercourse with the people bears out the 
 casual observer's harsh judgment on the standard of Japanese 
 female morality. Japanese ladies are every whit as chaste 
 as their Western sisters. But so far as we have been 
 able to observe, the only effect of early marriage on the men 
 is to change the date of their wild-oats sowing, making it 
 come after wedlock instead of before. 
 
 Book recommended, Japanete Girls and Women, by Miss 
 Bacon. 
 
 Maru. It is often asked : What does the word Maru 
 mean, in the names of ships — as Tokyo Maru, Sagami Maru, 
 Koryo Maru, etc. ? The answer is that the origin of the term 
 is obscure. Maru means " round," but how came ships by 
 so inappropriate a name ? 
 
 The first thing to note is that in former times ships 
 had not the monopoly of the name. Swords, musical 
 instruments of various lands, pieces of armour, dogs, hawks, 
 and the concentric sections of castles, were called maiu 
 also. The probability is that two distinct words — maru 
 and niaro — have flowed into one and so got confused. To 
 name the concentric sections of a castle maru, "round" 
 was but natural. The word maro, on the other hand, is an 
 archaic term of endearment. Hence its use in such ancient 
 proper names as Tamura-Maro, a great general who subdued 
 the Ainos ; Abe-no-Kakamaro, an eminent Chinese scholar of 
 the eighth century ; Okina-Maro, a favourite dog of the Mikado 
 Ichijo, and so on. The warrior's pet sword, the sportsman's 
 favourite dog or hawk, the oarsman's boat, would naturally 
 
288 Massage. 
 
 come to be distinguished by the same half-personal name, 
 much as the English sailor or engineer calls his ship or 
 locomotive " she." When the ancient word Maro ceased 
 to be understood, it would easily slide into the more familiar 
 Maru, by the alteration of the final vowel, o and u being par- 
 ticularly apt to interchange in Japanese. 
 
 Observe that Maru is used of merchant-vessels only. 
 Men-of-war take Kan instead, as Maya Kan, Asama Kan. 
 Kan is originally a Chinese word meaning " war-vessel." 
 It is now pronounced Ian in China itself, and is no longer there 
 used in the same sense. 
 
 Massage. Massage is the technical name, in use- 
 among doctors, for, that process of rubbing the skin and 
 kneading the muscles which in common language is called 
 shampooing. Massage has for centuries played a great 
 r61e in Japanese medicine — it, acupuncture, and the moxa 
 being universally credited with more than all the many 
 virtues which Holloway, among ourselves, claims for his 
 pills, and "Mother Seigel " for her syrup. The sham- 
 pooers, popularly known as ammo- san, also occupy a con- 
 spicuous place in Japanese social life. Immemorial custom 
 limits the profession to the blind, who thus support their 
 families, instead of, as is mostly the case in Western 
 countries, being a burden to them. Such sums are they 
 enabled to accumulate, that they often turn money-lenders as 
 well. 
 
 Till recently — that is, until about the year 1870 — all 
 shampooers in Japan formed one immense guild under 
 two provosts, one of whom lived at Yedo, the other at 
 Kyoto. This guild possessed various legal privileges, and 
 
Metal-Work. 289 
 
 admittance to it took place on the passing of certain tests 
 and the payment of fees. It was divided into several 
 grades, the rise from grade to grade being conditioned by 
 new tests and higher fees. For the highest grade to which 
 any ordinary blind mortal could aspire — the grade next 
 under that of provost — a fee of $1,000 was exacted. This 
 organisation is now fast falling into decay ; but the melan- 
 choly whistle of the blind shampooer, as he slowly feels his 
 way along the streets at night, staff in hand, is still one of 
 the characteristic sounds of every Japanese village. 
 
 Massage is much to be recommended to tired pedestrians 
 and to persons suffering from lumbago, rheumatism, and 
 other pains and aches. The Japanese shampooers, however, 
 make the mistake of shampooing down instead of shampooing 
 up. A portion of the good done is thus neutralised, one 
 object of scientific massage being to help back towards the 
 centre the blood which is lingering in the superficial veins. 
 
 Boole recomrn.end.edL. Dr. W. N. Whitney's Notes ore the History 
 of Medical Progress in Japan, published in Vol. XII. Part IV. of the Asiatic 
 Transactions, p. 331. 
 
 Metal- Work. Bronze was introduced into Japan from 
 China via Korea, and the Japanese still call it ' ' the Chinese 
 metal " (Kaia-kane). But it is the metal in which Japanese 
 art over a thousand years ago was already winning its 
 brightest laurels. The chief forms are the mirror, the temple 
 bell, the gong, the vase (originally intended for the adornment 
 of Buddhist altars), the lantern, and the colossal representa- 
 tion of divine personages. The grandest example of such 
 colossal bronze-casting is the Daibutsu (literally, "great 
 Buddha") at Kamakura, which dates from the thirteenth 
 century. He who has time should visit the Daibutsu 
 
290 Metal-Work. 
 
 repeatedly; for, like St. Peter's and several other of the 
 greatest works of art and of nature, it fails to produce its full 
 effect on a first or even on a second visit ; but the impression 
 it produces grows on the beholder each time that he gazes 
 afresh at the calm, intellectual, passionless face, which seems 
 to concentrate in itself the whole philosophy of the Buddhist 
 religion — the triumph of mind over sense, of eternity over 
 fleeting time, of the enduring majesty of Nirvana over the 
 trivial prattle, the transitory agitations of mundane existence. 
 Armour is another use to which metal (iron and steel) was 
 put from the very earliest ages. The best examples of iron 
 and steel armour date from the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries. The best swords date from the same time. The 
 ornamental sword-hilts, guards, etc., date only from the 
 sixteenth century onwards. The eighteenth and nine- 
 teenth centuries have been the most fruitful epoch for 
 the production of small bronze objects, whose chief raison 
 d'etre is ornament, such as clasps, paper-weights, small 
 figures of animals, mouth-pieces for pipes, and vases intended 
 for dwelling-rooms — not for Buddhist altars, as in earlier 
 days. The gold and silver work of the Japanese is less 
 remarkable than their bronzes ; but in enamel — especially in 
 what is known as cloisonne enamel — they are beyond all 
 praise. This branch forms also a noticeable exception to 
 the general decay of Japanese art since the opening of the 
 country. Never was more marvellous cloisonne work seen 
 than is turned out to-day from the shops of Tokyo and Kyoto. 
 (See also articles on Armour, CloisonnA, Mirrors, and 
 Swords.) 
 
 Books recommended. Rein's Industries of Japan, pp. 436 and 
 488. — L'Art Japonais, by L. Gonse. — Ornamental Arts of Japan, by Audsley. — Japan 
 and its AH, by Huish. — Japan, by C. Dresser. 
 
Mikado. 291 
 
 Mikado. Though this is the name by which the whole 
 outer world knows the sovereign of Japan, it is not that now 
 used in Japan itself, except in poetry and on great occasions. 
 The Japanese have got into the habit of calling their sover- 
 eign by such alien Chinese titles as Tenshi, " the Son of 
 Heaven ; " Ten-o, or Tenno, " the Heavenly Emperor," Shitjd, 
 "the Supreme Master." His designation in the official 
 translations of modern public documents into English is 
 " Emperor." But we do not anticipate that this is likely to 
 supersede, in literary and colloquial European usage, the 
 traditional title of " Mikado, " # which is at once ancient, 
 sonorous, and distinctively Japanese. 
 
 The etymology of the word Mikado is not quite clear. 
 Some — and theirs is the current opinion — trace it to mi, 
 "august," and kado, a "gate," reminding one of the " Sub- 
 lime Porte " of Turkey. Mr. Satow prefers to derive it from 
 mika, an archaic word for "great," and to, " a place." In 
 either case the word is one indicative of the highest respect, as 
 it is but natural that the name used by the Japanese of old to 
 designate their heaven-descended sovereign should be. The 
 word Zlikado is often employed to denote the monarch's Court 
 as well as the monarch himself, such double usage being one 
 of the peculiar features of Japanese grammar. 
 
 The antiquity of the Imperial Family of Japan is unparal- 
 leled. The Japanese themselves claim that after endless 
 ages passed in higher spheres, it began its earthly career 
 with the first human monarch, Jimmu Tenno, in the year 
 660 before Christ. From this, historical criticism bids us 
 subtract more than a millennium, as Japanese history does 
 not become a record of solid facts till the fifth or sixth 
 century after Christ. It should also be pointed out that the 
 
292 Mikado. 
 
 succession has by no means followed those strict rules which 
 Europe considers necessary for legitimacy. Many Mikados, 
 even down to quite recent times, have been the sons of con- 
 cubines. Others have been merely adopted from some re- 
 lated branch. Still, all deductions made, the family as such 
 stands forth proudly as the oldest reigning family in the 
 world. We know positively that it has reigned ever since 
 the dawn of history in this archipelago, and that even 
 then it was considered of immemorial age. The fact is 
 peculiarly striking if we reflect upon the usually brief life 
 of Oriental dynasties. Little* wonder, therefore, all things 
 considered, if a religious reverence for the Imperial line 
 is as axiomatic in Japan, as completely removed beyond 
 all doubt or controversy, as is the doctrine of the equal 
 rights and duties of all men in the democratic societies of the 
 West. 
 
 The present Mikado was born on the 3rd November, 
 1852, and succeeded to the throne in 1867. His name 
 is Mutsuhito ; but this name is scarcely ever mentioned, 
 and is probably not even known to the great majority of 
 the nation. In Japan the Emperor is simply the Emperor, 
 — not a personality, an almost familiar individuality, as 
 Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm, for instance, are to 
 us. To future generations of Japanese the present monarch 
 will probably be known as Meiji Tenno, the word Tenno 
 meaning Emperor, and Meiji being the chronological des- 
 ignation of the years comprised in his reign. The reign 
 itself will doubtless stand out in Japanese history as 
 prominently as those which witnessed Japan's first great 
 revolution, — her conversion to Buddhism and Chinese civili- 
 sation. 
 
Mineral Springs. 293 
 
 Mineral Springs. Japan, the land of volcanoes and 
 earthquakes, is naturally rich in mineral springs ; and the 
 Japanese, -with their passion for bathing, make the fullest 
 use of them. The most noted of the many hundreds of 
 Japanese spas are : for sulphur baths, Kusatsu, Ashinoyu, 
 Yumoto near Nikko, Yumoto near Hakone, and Unzen near 
 Nagasaki ; for iron baths, Ikao and Arima ; for salt baths, 
 Atami and Isobe. Miyanoshita, one of those best-known to 
 foreigners, has only traces of salt and soda. Its waters may 
 therefore be used without medical advice, simply for pleasure's 
 sake. There are powerful iron and sulphur springs at 
 Ojigoku (lit. "big hell"), some four miles beyond Miyano- 
 shita, at which it is intended to establish baths on a large 
 scale. The crater of Shirane-san in the province of Kotsuke 
 has a pool so rich in hydrochloric acid (2J per cent according 
 to Dr. Divers, F.E.S.) that it may be administered as an 
 excellent lemonade in the treatment of stomach and other 
 affections. But speaking generally, sulphur, iron sulphate, 
 and salt are everywhere the chief minerals found in the 
 Japanese springs. Except the Hirano water used for Seltzer, 
 very few contain carbonic acid gas. Few are cold ; few are 
 efficacious, like Vichy and Karlsbad, in diseases of the 
 stomach and liver. On the other hand, the Kusatsu waters 
 probably stand alone in the world by reason of their double 
 character, consisting, as they do, of cold .corrosively acid 
 water and nearly boiling sulphur water. The cures which, by 
 virtue of their temperature and their mineral acids, sulphur, 
 and arsenic, they are capable of working, when mixed, upon 
 syphilitic persons and on those afflicted with the severer 
 forms of rheumatism are little short of miraculous. The 
 Japanese have a proverb to the effect that love is the 
 
294 Mineral Springs. 
 
 ■only grave distemper against which. Kusatsu can effect 
 nothing. 
 
 In many cases a spring is famous in its own neighbourhood 
 only. But it then almost invariably gains in one way what 
 it loses in another. The good country folk for twenty miles 
 around consider it a panacea for all the ills to which flesh is 
 heir. It is impossible to* picture to oneself anything more 
 grotesquely dissimilar to an Ems or a Homburg than one of 
 these tiny spas, perched — say — amidst the mountains of 
 Shinshu or Etchu, and visited only by Japanese of the most 
 old-fashioned type and most limited means — where, instead 
 of a table d'hote, each guest is served in his own poor room 
 with a bowl of rice or maybe millet, a fid of salted egg-plant, 
 and perhaps, on high days and holidays, a small broiled fish. 
 Even this is luxury to the state of things existing in some 
 remote districts, where the peasant invalids come, bringing 
 their own rice and their own bedding with them on pack- 
 horses, and pay only three cents a day for lodging, for the 
 use of the mineral spring, and a titbit or two at each meal to - 
 help the rice down. 
 
 In opposition to all European sanitary ideas, the mineral 
 springs of Japan are used at very high temperatures. In- 
 valids enter baths of from 110° to 115° Fahrenheit, and their 
 healthy friends go in with them for the sake of killing time 
 agreeably. At Kusatsu the temperature of the baths is 
 higher still. It ranges from 120° to 130° Fahrenheit ; and 
 as the first effect of the waters is to bring ovit sores all over 
 the body, even if there were none before, the sufferings 
 of those condemned to "make a- cure" may be imagined. 
 So excruciating is the agony, that experience has dictated a 
 peculiar device for meeting it : the bathers are subjected to 
 
Mirrors. 295 
 
 military discipline. The squad of unfortunates approaches 
 the bath to the sound of the trumpet, they wet their scalp 
 and forehead at another trumpet blast, in order to prevent a 
 rush of blood to the head, and so on throughout the perform- 
 ance, notice being given to them of the passing of the minutes 
 while they sit boiling, with a view to keeping up their courage 
 by the knowledge that the ordeal will soon be over. The 
 whole life at Kusatsu is so strange that he whose stomach is 
 not easily upset by nasty sights would do well to go and 
 inspect it. To squeamish persons we say most emphatically : 
 " Stay away ! " 
 
 Mirrors. Japanese mirrors are circular, and are made 
 of metal — generally of bronze coated on the front with an 
 amalgam of tin and quicksilver beautifully polished. The 
 back is adorned in relief with flowers, birds, or Chinese 
 characters, and there is a handle on one side, the general 
 appearance being that of a sort of handsome metal fan. 
 
 An extraordinary peculiarity characterises some of these 
 Japanese mirrors : sunlight reflected from their face displays 
 a luminous image of the design on their back ! So strange 
 a phenomenon has naturally attracted the attention of men 
 of science. After much speculation, it has been clearly 
 proved by Professors Ayrton and Perry to arise from the fact 
 that the curvature of the face of the mirror over the plain 
 part of the back is greater than over the design. The mirror 
 is cast flat, and then rendered convex before being polished, 
 by being so strongly scratched with an iron tool as to cause 
 a buckling of the metal into a convex form, this convexity 
 being afterwards increased by rubbing in mercury repeatedly. 
 The effect of both these processes is greater on the thinner 
 
296 Missions. 
 
 parts of the mirror than on the parts over the raised design. 
 Hence the unequal convexity, which gives the reflection of 
 the design from the face of the mirror. 
 
 Books recommended. On the Magic Mirrors of Japan, by Pro- 
 fessors Ayrton and Perry, in the Proceedings of the Eoyal Society, Vol, XXVTE. pp. 
 127 — 142. Expansion produced by Amalgamation, same authors, in the Philosophical 
 Magazine, Vol. XXII. p. 327. ■ 
 
 Missions. (I. Roman Catholic.) The Catholic religion 
 was first preached in Japan about the middle of the sixteenth 
 century. Contemporary documents inform us that this im- 
 portant event was brought about in the following manner. 
 While St. Francis Xavier was evangelising India and the 
 Sunda Islands, a_Japanese fugitive named Anjiro, a native of 
 Kagoshima, was introduced to him. Anjiro met with a kind 
 reception, and having accompanied Xavier to Goa, was there 
 baptised together with his two servants. This was in A. D. 
 1548. Xavier then formed the design of evangelising Japan, 
 — a design which was confirmed in the following year, when 
 the Saint, who happened to be at Malacca, received tidings 
 from some Portuguese merchants of a supernatural occurrence 
 which had brought into prominence the marvellous virtues 
 of the Cross, and of the desire expressed by the Prince of 
 Satsuma to send for Christian preachers and learn from their 
 lips the truths of religion. 
 
 Xavier at once embarked for Japan, accompanied by his 
 three Japanese neophytes. He arrived at Kagoshima on the 
 15th August, 1549, where he was received with distinguished 
 courtesy by the prince, and forthwith began to preach the 
 Gospel. During the two years and a half of his residence in 
 Japan, he visited Hirado, Yamaguchi, and Kyoto. The 
 numerous wonderful cures which he effected gave such weight 
 
Missions. 297 
 
 to his words, that he had the consolation of being able to 
 found in various places Christian communities animated with 
 a zeal which led them to constitute themselves missionaries 
 to the households of their friends and kinsmen. The con- 
 verts were drawn from all classes alike. Noblemen, Buddhist 
 priests, men of learning, embraced the faith with the same 
 alacrity as did the poor and ignorant. By the year 1582 the 
 whole Island of Amakusa, and the greater part of the Goto 
 Islands and of the daimiates of Omura and Yamaguchi were 
 Christian. Christianity flourished likewise in Kyoto, and 
 the holy name of Jesus was carried into the furthest provinces 
 of the north. The total number of Japanese professing the 
 Faith at that period is estimated at over six hundred thousand 
 souls. The apostolate was exercised by a hundred and thirty- 
 eight European missionaries. They belonged without excep- 
 tion to the Society of Jesus ; and their activity, inspired by 
 the loftiest motives, had the most beneficial influence on the 
 people of Japan. 
 
 A noteworthy feature of this nascent church is to be 
 found in the embassies sent by the Christian princes to 
 Eome, to wait on the head of the Church Catholic. The 
 first of these embassies, organised by the Lords of Bungo, 
 Arima, and Omura, left Japan early in 1582, and reached 
 Borne in 1585. It was received with the greatest honours, 
 as well by the Sovereign Pontiff himself as by the other 
 European princes. The Japanese princes, in their letters 
 to the Pope, expressed their heartful gratitude for the hap- 
 piness vouchsafed to them of knowing Christ, and entreated 
 His Holiness to look with favour on themselves and on all 
 the Christians of their dominions. 
 
 Such was the happy situation of the Christian Church in 
 
298 Missions. 
 
 Japan, when peril was suddenly conjured up by the jealousy 
 subsisting between the Portuguese and the Spanish "traders, 
 who, in order to compass each other's ruin, began to libel 
 each other to the Japanese authorities. At this juncture 
 Toyotomi Hideyoshi — better known under the name of Taiko 
 Sama — had, after a long series of civil wars, become Mayor 
 of the Palace. Vainglorious to excess, he wished to see 
 himself worshipped after the fashion of one of the ancient 
 Japanese conquerors. The wrath of this ruler was roused, 
 in A.D. 1587, by a tale brought to his ears of the bravado of 
 a certain Portuguese captain,* whereupon he issued an edict 
 banishing all the missionaries, most of whom were Portuguese 
 by birth. Thanks, however, to the missionaries' own prudence, 
 the storm was stayed. They abstained from appearing in 
 public, and remained shut up in their colleges, busy with the 
 compilation and publication of books both religious and 
 philological, and with the education of a native priesthood. 
 Until the breaking out of the persecution of 1596, the work 
 of evangelisation continued to proceed apace. The new 
 converts numbered about ten thousand yearly, though all 
 were fully aware of the risk to which they exposed themselves 
 by embracing the Catholic faith. 
 
 At length the persecution came. The cause of it is to be 
 sought, partly in the indiscreet zeal of the newly landed 
 Franciscans and Dominicans, who were mostly Spaniards, 
 and therefore disposed,' as well from national as from sectional 
 religious reasons, to look with an unfriendly eye on their 
 predecessors, the Portuguese Jesuits, partly in the slanders 
 
 * " The king, my master," so he is reported to have said, " begins hy sending 
 priests who win over the people ; and when this is done, he despatches his troops 
 to join the native Christians, and the conquest is easy and complete. " 
 
Missions. 299 
 
 circulated against all Christians by the Buddhist priests. 
 The trial was one of fire and blood. History has no more 
 edifying page than that which tells of the courage with which 
 the neophytes met their doom. 
 
 Happily for the Church of Japan, the authority of the 
 Mayor of the Palace was not respected equally in all the 
 provinces of the empire. If in those districts which were 
 more specially subject to him, his edicts were carried out 
 with punctuality and rigour, the Daimyos of certain other 
 provinces did not fear to connive at the profession of Christ- 
 ianity in their domains. Some even went so far as openly to 
 protect it. An example of this occurred in 1614, the very 
 year in which more than sixty missionaries were expelled from 
 Japan and nine Christian churches were destroyed at 
 Nagasaki. In this year it was that Date Masamune, Daimyo 
 of Sendai, despatched an embassy to the Pope and to the 
 King of Spain. The embassy consisted of a Franciscan 
 monk, Father Sotelo, of one of Date's vassals named 
 Hashikura Piokuemon, and of some fifty persons of lesser 
 degree, all of whom were baptised during the voyage. Date, 
 in his letter to the Pope, begged that a number of missionaries 
 might be sent to preach the Gospel in his domains. 
 
 At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Japanese 
 Christians numbered about one million, — the fruit of half a 
 century of apostolic labour accomplished in the midst of 
 comparative peace. Another half-century of persecution was 
 about to ruin this flourishing church, to cut off its pastors, 
 more than two hundred of whom suffered martyrdom, and to 
 leave its laity without the offices of religion. In vain did the 
 Christians attempt secrecy and endeavour to conceal a few 
 priests. A price was set on the priests' heads, and their 
 
300 Missions. 
 
 enemies, the more surely to discover both them and their 
 native converts, had recourse to denunciation by spies and to 
 the infamous obligation of trampling on the cross.* The 
 edicts ordering these measures remained in force for over two 
 centuries. 
 
 Nevertheless the Church of Japan was not forgotten. The 
 Jesuit Father Sidotti and others, nothing daunted, dis- 
 embarked on the Japanese coast at intervals during the 
 eighteenth century, but were at once thrown into prison. 
 In 1846 the Pope nominated a bishop and several mission- 
 aries, who took up their station in the neighbouring Loochoo 
 Islands, and entered Japan on the signing of the treaties of 
 1858. These men had the joy, in 1865, to discover several 
 Christian communities round about Nagasaki, surviving the 
 ruin of the church of their forefathers over two centuries 
 before. They had preserved certain prayers, the rite of 
 baptism, and a few books. But if these Christian communities 
 survived, the persecuting spirit survived also. In 1867 all 
 those Christians — and they numbered over four thousand — 
 who refused to forswear their faith, were torn fi'om their 
 native villages and distributed over various provinces of the 
 empire, where they were kept as prisoners by the respective 
 Daimyos. After six years of exile, they were at length set at 
 liberty in 1873. The Church of Japan, thus restored, is now 
 slowly but surely developing, thanks to the toleration enjoyed 
 under the Imperial Government. 
 
 The Church of Japan was governed from 1846 to 1877 by 
 a single bishop, from 1877 to 1888 by two bishops, from 1888 
 
 * Specimens of the crosses used for this purpose are preserved in the Museum 
 at Ueno, Tokyo. They are little plates of yellow copper, on which are represented 
 in relief the Passion of Our Lord and other sacred scenes. 
 
Missions. 301 
 
 by three, and since July 1891 by four, whose respective resi- 
 dences are at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagasaki, and Hakodate. The 
 Catholic population of the empire amounted, on the 15th 
 August 1891, to 44,300 souls, as against 42,370 in 1890, 
 40,538 in 1889, 37,745 in 1888, and 35,886 in 1887. They 
 are grouped in 325 congregations, spread more or less all 
 over the country, but most thickly in the island of Kyushu. 
 The clergy consists — besides the 4 bishops— of 78 European 
 missionaries and 15 Japanese priests. There are also 17 
 European teachers and 65 nuns (of whom 59 are European 
 and 6 Japanese), busy in teaching, and having the manage- 
 ment of 7 schools and 18 homes for orphans. The mission- 
 aries are assisted by 332 catechists. 
 
 II. Anglican. The Church of England, in conjunction 
 with the Episcopal Churches of America and Canada, has mis- 
 sions collectively designated by the title of Nihon Sti Kokwai, 
 or the Church of Japan. The origin of this church goes back 
 to the year 1859, when two American clergymen settled in 
 Nagasaki. There are now two bishops — one American and 
 one English — some thirty-six foreign and sixteen Japanese 
 priests and deacons, and forty foreign lay workers of both 
 sexes, besides a large body of Japanese catechists, and over 
 four thousand Church members. The increase of members, 
 which was slow for many years, has in the last five been 
 rapid. 1 The affairs of the Church are managed by a synod 
 consisting of the bishops and delegates from the clergy and 
 laity both foreign and Japanese. It meets at present once 
 in two years. The aim of the Church is to be in communion 
 with, but not in subjection to the Churches of England and 
 America, — in fact, to occupy in Japan much the same 
 
302 Missions. 
 
 position as the Anglican Church occupies in the United 
 
 States. 
 
 III. Protestant. In 1859, shortly after the arrival of the 
 earliest Anglican missionaries, representatives of the Ameri- 
 can Presbyterian and Dutch Eeformed Churches landed in 
 Japan, and the Protestant missions have ever since continued 
 to be chiefly in American hands. The first baptism took place 
 in 1864, the first native church was organised at Yokohama in, 
 1872, and the first church building was consecrated in 1875. 
 In 1872 the work of Biblical translation, till then hindered 
 by want of sufficient familiarity with the language, was 
 vigorously undertaken. It should be added that the 
 existence of several Chinese versions, which all educated 
 Japanese could read, rendered the necessity for a version 
 in the vernacular less urgent than would have been the 
 case in other lands. A complete version of the New Testa- 
 ment was published in 1880, of the Old Testament in 1887. 
 Meanwhile the opposition of the .government to Christiani- 
 ty faded away, and the number of converts increased — 
 slowly at first, for in 1872 no more than ten persons 
 had been baptised, but afterwards by leaps and bounds. 
 Besides actual evangelising work, much general school 
 work has been engaged in, sometimes with the en- 
 lightened object 'of sapping the secular outposts of Japa- 
 nese religious error, sometimes rather as a means towards 
 obtaining a passport to enable the bearer to reside in 
 the interior. The venerable Dr. Hepburn and others 
 have also combined the art of healing bodies with that of 
 curing souls. 
 
 The leading Protestant denominations that have missions 
 
Missions. 303 
 
 in Japan may be classified under four heads, which we notice 
 m the order of their local importance : — 
 
 The - Presbyterians, representing seven religious societies, 
 number 54 male and 48 female missionaries,* whose labours 
 are aided by those of 45 ordained and 91 unordained Japanese 
 fellow-workers — the whole force being distributed over 71 
 organised churches, besides many out-stations. In 1890 (the 
 last year for which statistics are available), the communicants 
 numbered over 10,600, and contributed during that year a 
 sum of $16,658. They supported 4 boarding schools for boys 
 and 11 for girls, together with 6 day-schools, the aggregate 
 number of scholars being 1,359. To them belongs the Meiji 
 Gakuin, the most important Christian College in Tokyo. 
 The various Presbyterian bodies — American and Scotch — 
 amalgamated in the year 1877 into a single church, which is 
 now known as the Nikon Kirisuto Kyohwai, or Church 
 of Christ in Japan, and which, no longer insisting on such 
 standards of doctrine as the Canons of the Synod of Dort, 
 the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Shorter Catechism, 
 or the Heidelberg Catechism, confines itself to a much 
 simpler "Confession of Faith," consisting mainly of the 
 Apostles Creed. 
 
 The Congregationalists represent almost exclusively one 
 body, — the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions. In 1890 there were 52 male and 32 female workers 
 on the staff, besides 27 ordained and 78 unordained Japanese. 
 There are 64 organised churches, more than half of which are 
 self-supporting, and 9,146 members, who in 1890 contributed 
 
 * If the "wives of married missionaries be included in the enumeration, the 
 number of female missionaries in this and the other Protestant missions is con- 
 siderably increased. 
 
304 Missions. 
 
 $28,660. This mission has excelled in school enterprise. 
 To it belong the Doshisha, — a Christian University in Kyoto 
 which numbers over 500 students even in these days of 
 reaction — and 23 other teaching institutions, with an aggre- 
 gate of over 2,000 scholars. 
 
 The Methodists represent four American societies and one 
 Canadian, and consist of 52 male and 50 female missionaries, 
 42 ordained Japanese fellow-workers, 83 organised churches, 
 and 6,600 members, who contributed in 1890 nearly $16,000. 
 The Methodists have 19 boarding-schools and 18 day-schools, 
 with a total of over 2,900 scholars. The Central Mission 
 Tabernacle in Tokyo is one of the results of their zeal. 
 
 The Baptists represent one English and four American 
 societies, and number 24 male and 18 female missionaries, 
 with 7 ordained and 39 unordained Japanese workers in 19 
 organised churches, with a membership of over 1,500, who 
 in 1890 contributed $845. 
 
 Besides the above, must be mentioned the Society of 
 Friends ; furthermore the American and London Religious 
 Tract Societies, which have joint head-quarters at Tokyo, and 
 the Young Men's Christian Association of America, whose agent 
 in Japan has secured a large sum of money for the erection 
 of an institution in Tokyo. 
 
 Numerous as are the Protestant bodies labouring on Japa- 
 nese soil, and widely as they differ from each other in doctrine, 
 fairness requires it to be stated that they rarely, if ever, make 
 Japan the scene of sectarian strife. The tendency has been 
 rather to minimise differences, — a tendency strikingly ex- 
 emplified in the amalgamation of the various Presbyterian 
 churches, and also in the nearly consummated union of these 
 with the Congregationalists. There are, however, denomina- 
 
Missions. 805 
 
 tions standing outside this pale, — the Unitarians and the 
 Universalists, who, though but insignificant in numbers and 
 late of appearing on the scene, are a thorn in the side of the 
 Orthodox. The Unitarians first came to Japan in 1889, the 
 Universalists in 1890. Before this, as far back as 1885 — a 
 German pastor of rationalistic views had arrived. He has 
 since then been joined by others, and they have opened a 
 theological school and organised small churches in Tokyo 
 and Yokohama, both for the Japanese and for their own 
 countrymen, who had till that time dispensed with religious 
 ministrations. These "Liberal Churches" endeavour to 
 rally to their side the best elements of Buddhist piety. 
 
 IV. The Orthodox Bussian Chuech, presided over by 
 Bishop Nicolai, and served by 26 priests and deacons of 
 whom all but four are natives, has had a mission in Japan 
 ever since the year 1861. It numbers over 1,700 baptised 
 converts, and claims a total following of over 18,000. The 
 Russian cathedral, which was opened for worship in 1891, is 
 the only ecclesiastical edifice in Tokyo with any pretensions 
 to splendour. From the eminence on which it, stands, it 
 seems to dominate the whole city. 
 
 V. General Considerations. To those who can look back 
 thirty years, or even only twenty years, the change in the 
 position of Christianity in Japan is most striking, indeed 
 well-nigh incredible. Then it was perilous for a Japanese to 
 confess Jesus. Now such confession is rather fashionable 
 than otherwise. Then it was hard work for a missionary to 
 obtain a native teacher. Now there are hundreds of ordained 
 and unordained native preachers and teachers of Christianity. 
 The old proclamation, which, since A. D. 1638, had prohibit- 
 ed the religion of Jesus as "a corrupt sect," was still posted 
 
306 Missions. 
 
 on the notice-boards of the public thoroughfares as late as 
 1873. The government now openly tolerates the building of 
 churches and the performance of Christian funeral rites, 
 though we are not aware of the old an ti- Christian laws having 
 ever been formally repealed. The danger is now, not from 
 persecution, but from worldly-minded favour. Some of the 
 leaders of Japanese thought, while professing themselves per- 
 sonally indifferent to all religions, have cold-bloodedly ad- 
 vocated the adoption of Christianity as a school of morals and 
 music, and as likely to be advantageous in political negotia- 
 tions with the powers of the West. To make all Japan 
 Christian by edict some fine morning, may not be on the 
 programme of the Japanese statesmen of the hour. But .that 
 something of the kind should happen within the next twenty 
 years, is not nearly so unlikely as many things that have 
 actually happened in this land of realised improbabilities. 
 True, since 1888 the churches have experienced their share 
 of that reactionary movement which has swept over Japa- 
 nese society, causing hostility not only to foreigners 
 themselves, but to the ideas which the foreigners come to 
 Japan to implant. Christianity has suffered with the rest. 
 But these things are no more than a ripple on the surface. 
 There is no real change of purpose in the national mind. 
 
 Having begun prophesying, we may as well continue. Our 
 second prophecy is that the Christians of Japan will be oc- 
 cupied with questions of morals and practice — the temperance 
 question, for instance, and Sunday observance — rather than 
 with subtle doctrinal theories, the Japanese mind being too 
 essentially unspeculative for the fine distinctions of the theo- 
 logians to have any charm for it, much less for it to seek to 
 split new hairs for itself. The failure of Buddhist metaphy- 
 
Moral Maxims. 307 
 
 sical abstractions to take any hold of the national sympathies, 
 is a finger-post in history pointing to what may be. expected 
 in the future. People will never greatly excite themselves 
 .about beliefs that sit lightly on them ; and Japanese beliefs 
 have always sat lightly. Has not the whole attitude of the 
 Far-Eastern mind with regard to the supernatural been aptly 
 described as one of " politeness towards possibilities ? " 
 
 Books recommended. (I. Catholic.) Histoire de la Religion 
 Chretienne au Japon, by Father Crasset. — Histoire du Christianisme dans VRmpire 
 da Japon, by Father Charlevoix. — Histoire de la Religion Chretienne au Japon, by 
 Leon Pages. — The above are general accounts, or resumes of the subject. See also 
 Hildreth's Japan as it Was and Is. — The literature of Catholicism in Japan is very 
 voluminous, beginning with the Jesuits* Letters in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries, and coming down to the special treatises by Leon Pages (e. g., Let 
 Vingt-SLc Hartyrs Japonais and La Persecution des ChrUiens au Japon), Satow, and 
 • others. Satow's researches are, for the most part, scattered through the volumes 
 ■of the Asiatic Transactions; but one of his most interesting essays, entitled The 
 Jesuit Hission Press in Japan from 1.591 to 1610, giving extracts and fac-similes, 
 was printed privately as a separate work. 
 
 (II. Protestant.) The Proceedings of the Osalca Conference of 1883. — Rev. H. 
 Loomis's Statistics of Missions, published yearly. — The Reports of the various mis- 
 sionary societies. 
 
 Moral Maxims. Few Japanese books are more likely 
 to please the foreign student than two small volumes of 
 practical ethics, entitled respectively Jitsugo Eyo, or " Teach- 
 ing of the Words of Truth," and Ddji Kyo, or " Teaching for 
 the Young." They are ascribed to Buddhist abbots of the 
 ninth century ; but the doctrine of both has a Confucian no 
 less than a Buddhistic flavour. Both were for many ages as 
 familiar to the youth of Japan as the Sermon on the Mount 
 is to us. The following may serve as specimens : — 
 
 " Treasures that are laid up in a garner decay: treasures 
 that are laid up in the mind do not decay. 
 
 f j " Though thou sbouldst heap up a thousand pieces of gold : J J 
 I they would not be so precious as one day of study. 
 
308 Moral Maxims. 
 
 a 
 
 " If thou, being poor, enter into the abode of the wealthy - 
 remember, that his riches are more fleeting than the flower 
 nipped by the hoarfrost. 
 
 / "If thou be born in the poor man's hovel, but have J 
 
 \ wisdom : then shalt thou be like the lotus-flower growing out \„ 
 \ ■ V 
 
 of the mud. ' 
 
 " Thy father and' thy mother are like heaven and earth i 
 thy teacher and thy lord are like- the sun and moon. 
 
 " Other kinsfolk may be likened unto the rushes : hus- 
 bands and wives are but as useless stones.* 
 
 ,'f " He that loveth iniquity beckoneth to misfortune : it is,. 
 Uas it were, the echo answering to the voice. 
 
 " He that practiseth righteousness receiveth a blessing : it 
 cometh as surely as the shadow followeth after the man. 
 
 " Be reverent when thou goest past a grave : alight from 
 thine horse when' thou goest past a Shinto shrine. 
 
 " When thou art near a Buddhist temple or pagoda, thou 
 shalt not commit any unclean act : when thou readest the 
 sacred writings, thou shalt do nothing unseemly. 
 
 " Human ears are listening at the wall: speak no calumny,, 
 even in secret. 
 
 " Human eyes look down from the heavens : commit no 
 wrong, however hidden. 
 
 * According to the Confucian ethical code, which the Japanese adopted, a man's 
 parents, his teacher, and his lord claim his life-long service, his wife standing on 
 an immeasurably lower plane. 
 
Moral Maxims. 309 
 
 " When a hasty word hath once been spoken : a team of 
 four horses may pursue, but cannot bring it back. 
 
 if " The flaw in a mace of white jade may be ground away : jj 
 \but the flaw of an evil word cannot be ground away. 
 
 (^ " Calamity and prosperity have no gate : they are there Jj 
 only whither men invite them. 
 
 " From the evils sent by heaven there is deliverance: from 
 the evils we bring upon ourselves there is no escape. 
 
 " The Gods punish fools, not to slay but to chasten them : 
 the teacher smiteth his disciple, not from hatred but to make 
 him better. 
 
 " Though the sins committed by the wise man be great, 
 he shall not fall into hell : though the sins committed by the 
 fool be small, he shall surely fall into hell. 
 
 " Life, with birth and death, is not enduring : and ye 
 should haste to yearn after Nirvana. 
 
 " The body, with its passions, is not pure : and ye should 
 swiftly search after intelligence. 
 
 " Above all things, men must practise charity : it is by 
 almsgiving that wisdom is fed. 
 
 " Less than all things, men must grudge money : it is by 
 riches that wisdom is hindered." 
 
 Bootes recommended. Full translation of the Deji Kyo in Vol. 
 IX. Part m. of the' "Asiatic Transactions," and of the Jitmgo Kys in the 
 "' Cornhill Magazine " for August, 1876. 
 
310 
 
 Mourning. 
 
 Mourning. The Japanese, like other nations under- 
 Chinese influence, are very strict on the subject of mourning. 
 Formerly three mourning codes (Bukhi Ryo) prevailed 
 simultaneously. Of these one was for Shinto priests, 
 another for the Kyoto nobility, and yet another for the- 
 Daimyds and samurai. The last alone has survived, and its 
 prescriptions are followed by all the well-to-do classes. 
 Mourning, be it remarked, consists of two things — the- 
 wearing of mourning garments, and abstinence from 
 animal food. This premised, the following table is self- 
 explanatory : — 
 
 
 Garments. 
 
 Food. 
 
 
 Great-great-grandparents* 
 
 ...30 days 
 
 10 days 
 
 Great-grandparents* 
 
 90 „ 
 
 20 „ 
 
 Grandparents* 
 
 ...150 „ 
 
 30 , 
 
 
 Eeal parents 
 
 13 months 
 
 50 , 
 
 
 Adopted parents 
 
 ... 13 „ 
 
 50 , 
 
 
 Step-parents 
 
 30 days 
 
 10 , 
 
 
 Father's legitimate wife \ 
 
 .. 30 „ 
 
 10 , 
 
 
 Divorced mother 
 
 150 „ 
 
 30 , 
 
 
 (Woman's) parents-in-law 
 
 .. 50 „ 
 
 20 , 
 
 
 Uncle and aunt* 
 
 90 „ 
 
 20 , 
 
 
 Husband ... 
 
 .. 13 months 
 
 50 , 
 
 
 Wife 
 
 90 days 
 
 20 , 
 
 
 Brothers and sisters 
 
 .. 90 „• 
 
 20 , 
 
 
 Half-brothers and sisters* 
 
 .. 30 „ 
 
 10 „ 
 
 
 * On the paternal side. The inferior position occupied in the East by women 
 causes a considerable reduction to be made in the period of mourning for cor- 
 responding 1 relatives on the maternal side, A maternal grandfather, for instance. 
 is only mourned for during 90 days, a maternal uncle during 30 days. 
 
 t A man's legitimate wife ia the " legal mother " of his children by concubines 
 Such children mourn their " legal mother's " death during the period indicated in 
 the text. 
 
Mourning. 311 
 
 Garments. Food. 
 
 Eldest son 90 days 20 days 
 
 Other children 30 „ 10 
 
 Eldest son's eldest son SO ,, 10 
 
 Other grandchildren 10 ,, 3 
 
 Adopted son 30 ,, 10 
 
 Nephews and nieces 7 ,, 3 
 
 First cousins 7 ,, 3 
 
 Infants under three months are not mourned for, and the 
 period of mourning for children is greatly reduced if they are 
 under seven years of age. 
 
 Whenever a death occurs in the family of an official, he 
 must at once report it to the department to which he is 
 attached. The theory is that he should remain at home 
 during the whole of the proper period of mourning. But as 
 this would cause inconvenience in practice, he is always 
 absolved from the operation of the rule, and ordered to 
 " attend office though in mourning." Whenever any mem- 
 ber of the Imperial Family dies, a notification is issued 
 prohibiting all sound of music throughout the land for the 
 space of three days, and sometimes for a longer period if the 
 deceased personage stood very near the throne. 
 
 Periodical visits to the grave of the deceased — haka- 
 mairi, as they are termed — form an essential part of the 
 Japanese system of mourning. The days prescribed by 
 custom for these visits are the seventh day after decease, 
 the fourteenth, twenty-first, thirty-fifth, forth-ninth, and 
 hundredth ; then the first anniversary, the third anniversary, 
 the seventh, thirteenth, seventeenth, twenty-third, twenty- 
 seventh, thirty-third, thirty-seventh, fiftieth, and hundredth. 
 On the more important of these occasions Buddhist ser- 
 
312 Moxa. 
 
 vices are performed, for instance, on the first and third 
 anniversaries. By some, especially among the poorer class, 
 the whole of this extensive programme proves to be impossible 
 of fulfilment, and even in the upper classes not a few are 
 now to be found who sensibly imitate Europe by moderating 
 the outward symbols of grief ; but the seventh and thirty- 
 fifth days and the first and third anniversaries are never 
 neglected. Observe that all these numbers are calculated 
 according to the old Japanese " inclusive " system of reckon- 
 ing, which reduces by one every number except one itself. 
 Thus the so-called thirty-fifth day is really the thirty-fourth, 
 the so-called third anniversary is really the second, and so on. 
 
 Moxa. " Moxa " is one of the few Japanese words that 
 have found their way into the English language. It is pro- 
 perly mogusa, a contraction of moe-kusa, that is " the burning 
 herb,''— a name given to the plant which we call "mugwort," 
 on account of the use to which it is put. It is employed as 
 a cautery, little fragments of it being rolled into a cone, and 
 then applied to the body and set fire to. 
 
 In the old Chinese and Japanese system of medicine, burn- 
 ing with the moxa was considered a panacea for almost every 
 human ill. It was prescribed for fainting fits, nose-bleeding, 
 rheumatism, and a hundred other ailments. A woman 
 unable to bear the pangs of child-birth was to be relieved by 
 having three places burnt with it on the little toe of her right 
 foot. In addition to this, the moxa was used as a punish- 
 ment for children, many being burnt — generally on the back 
 — when more than usually naughty. This practice, which is 
 not yet quite obsolete, accounts for some at least of the 
 cicatrices on the naked backs and legs of jinrikisJia-mea and 
 
Music. 313 
 
 other coolies. There is a well-known story of a child, who, 
 having committed arson, and rendered himself thereby liable, 
 under the former severe law of the realm, to be burnt alive, 
 was dragged out with impressive pomp to the place of execu- 
 tion, but let off at the last moment with an unusually severe 
 application of the nioxa. 
 
 Book recommended. Whitney's Notes on the History of Medical 
 Progress in Japan, published in Vol. XII. Part IV. of the Asiatic Transactions, 
 ■especially p. 289 et seq., from which some of our statements have been taken. 
 
 Music. Music, if tbat beautiful word may be allowed to 
 fall so low as to denote the strummings and squealings of 
 Orientals, is supposed to have existed in Japan ever since 
 mythological times. But Japanese music as at present 
 known — its lutes, flutes, drums, and fiddles of various sorts 
 — came over from China, like most other things good and 
 bad, in the train of Buddhism. The koto, a sort of lyre which 
 is the most highly esteemed of modern instruments, was 
 gradually evolved from earlier Chinese models and perfected 
 in the first half of the seventeenth century by Yatsubashi, 
 who has been styled the father of modern Japanese music. 
 The samisen, or banjo, now the favourite instrument of the 
 singing-girls and of the lower classes generally, was apparently 
 introduced from Manila as recently as the year 1700. 
 
 The perfection of Japanese classical music may be heard 
 at Tokyo from the Band of Court Musicians attached to the 
 Bureau of Bites. Having said that it may be heard, we 
 hasten to add that it cannot be heard often by ordinary 
 mortals. The easiest way to get a hearing of it is to attend 
 one of the concerts given by the Musical Society of Japan 
 (an association founded in 1886 for the cultivation of both 
 Japanese and European music), at which the Court Musicians 
 
314 Music. 
 
 occasionally perform. A more curious ceremony still is the 
 performance by these same musicians, at certain Shinto 
 festivals,- of a silent concert. Both stringed and wind instru- 
 ments are used in this concert. But it is held that the 
 sanctity of the occasion would be profaned, were any sound to 
 fall on unworthy ears. Therefore, though all the motions of 
 playing are gone through, no strains are actually emitted ! 
 This is but one among many instances of the strange vagaries 
 of the Japanese musical art, and of the extreme esoteric 
 secrecy in which the families hereditarily entrusted with the 
 handing down of that art shroud their knowledge.* 
 
 The chanting of the Buddhist liturgy, also, at certain 
 temple services is considered classical. This chanting has 
 been held by some to resemble the Ambrosian and early 
 Gregorian tones ; but local colouring is sufficiently provided 
 for, inasmuch as each performer utters the strain in the key 
 that best suits the pitch of his own voice. For all this clas- 
 sical music there exists a notation — a notation which is ex- 
 tremely complicated. There is none for the more popular 
 instruments — for the samiscn and IcolcyU, and even in many 
 cases for the koto. An attempt was made to introduce one 
 about the middle of the last century ; but the teachers of 
 those instruments, deeming their means of livelihood threa- 
 
 * The existence of these "silent concerts" has been doubted by a recent 
 European investigator. Never having heard, orrathei- seen, any ourselves, we 
 describe them on the authority of Mr. Isawa, who, in a private communication on 
 the subject, reminds us that such esoteric mysteries would not willingly be 
 alluded to by their old-fashioned possessors, least of all in reply to the scientific 
 enquiries of a foreigner, and that the very explanations givon — supposing any to 
 be given— would probably be couched in ambiguous language. We may add that 
 some mystery is made about certain tunes for such common instruments as the 
 koto and samiaen, only those persons being allowed to play them who have studied 
 and paid money to receive diplomas. 
 
Music. 815 
 
 tened, successfully opposed the innovation, much as codifica- 
 tion is opposed by English lawyers. 
 
 It may seem odd that so fundamental a question as the 
 nature of the Japanese scale should still be a matter of 
 debate. Yet so it is. According to Dr. Muller, one of the 
 earliest and most interesting writers on the subject, this scale 
 consists, properly speaking, of five notes of the harmonic 
 minor scale, the fourth and seventh being omitted, because, 
 as there are five recognised colours, five planets, five ele- 
 ments, five viscera, and soon, there must also be five notes 
 in music — a method of reasoning novel perhaps to Euro- 
 pean ears, but only too familiar to students of Chinese and 
 Japanese literature. Mr. Piggott thinks the Japanese scale 
 is our descending minor scale pure and simple. But Drs. 
 Knott and DuBois by no means agree to this, and Dr. 
 Divers twits Mr. Piggott with setting aside the peculiari- 
 ties that distinguish the Japanese from the European system 
 instead of accounting for them. The late Mr. Ellis's opinion 
 on the subject will be found in his paper mentioned below. 
 But Mr. Isawa, the greatest Japanese authority on music, 
 says, in a private communication addressed to us, that Mr. 
 Ellis has been misled on some important points by his having 
 given too much weight to the performances of an ignorant 
 woman at the " Japanese Village " in London. As well, 
 says Mr. Isawa, take a jinrikisha-ma.n for referee in questions 
 of grammar and diction, as such a woman for an authority on 
 delicate matters of musical intervals. According to Mr. 
 Isawa, the second, fourth, and sixth in the classical music of 
 Japan, are identical with the same intervals of the modern 
 European scale, but the third (major third) is sharper, and 
 the seventh flatter. The popular or smnisen scale is different. 
 
316 Music. 
 
 Like the scale of mediaeval Europe — we still quote Mr. Isawa 
 — it lias for its chief peculiarity a semitone above the tonic, 
 which is one among various reasons for believing the samisen, 
 together with its scale, to have found its way here from the 
 Spaniards at Manila, and not from Loochoo according to the 
 •current Japanese opinion. 
 
 Be the scale what it may, the effect of Japanese music is, 
 not to soothe, but to exasperate beyond all endurance, the 
 European breast. Miss Bacon, in her charming book entitled 
 ■Japanese Girls and Women, demurely remarks: "It seems 
 to me quite fortunate that the musical art is not more 
 generally practised." That is what every one thinks, though 
 most Europeans of the stronger sex would use considerably 
 stronger expressions to relieve their feelings on the matter. 
 Japanese music employs only common time. Harmony it 
 has none. It knows nothing of our distinction of modes, 
 and therefore, as a writer on the subject has pointed 
 out, it lacks alike the vigour and majesty of the major 
 mode, the plaintive tenderness of the minor, and the mar- 
 vellous effects of light and shade which arise from the 
 alternations of the two. Perhaps this is the reason why 
 the Japanese themselves are so indifferent to the subject. 
 One never hears a party of Japanese talking seriously about 
 music ; musical questions are never discussed in the news- 
 papers ; no one goes to a temple service 
 
 " Not for the doctrine, but the music there ; " 
 a Japanese Bayreuth is unthinkable. Men "on the spree" 
 send for singing girls chiefly in order to ogle and chaff them, 
 and to help along the entertainment by a little noise. To 
 &sk the name of the composer of any tune the girls are sing- 
 ing, is a thing that would never enter their heads. 
 
Names. 317 
 
 Still, of course pathology is as legitimate a study as 
 physiology. Those, therefore, who wish to investigate more 
 minutely the ways and means whereby injury is inflicted 
 on sensitive ears should consult the authorities enumerated 
 below, especially Mr. Piggott's paper and those immediately 
 following it in the same number of the Asiatic 'Transactions* 
 where will be found capital illustrations of Japanese musical 
 instruments, together with specimens of tunes transcribed 
 into the European notation, so far — for that is one of the 
 points in dispute — as such transcription is possible. 
 
 Books recommended. On the Musical Scales of Various Xations, 
 by A. J. Ellis, F.R.f., printed in the Journal of the Society of Arts for the 27th 
 March, 1885. — Some Japanese Musical Intervals, by Rev. Dr. Yeeder, in Vol. VII. 
 Part II. of the Asiatic Transactions. — On Primitive Music, especially that of Japan, 
 by Rev. Dr. Syle, in Vol. V. Part I. ot the same.— The Music of the Japanese, by P. 
 T. Piggott; The Geklein Musical Scale, by Dr. F. DuBois; Remarks on Japanese 
 Musical Scales, by Dr. C. G. Knott,— all in Vol. XIX. Part II. of the Asiatic 
 Transactions. — Einige Xotizen iiber die Japavische Mt'sik, by Dr. Midler, in Vol. I. 
 of the German Asiatic Transaction*. "For specimens of Japanese music transcribed 
 into the European musical notation and with the words of the songs in Roman 
 character, see a small book published in 1888 by the Tokyo Academy of Music, 
 and entitled Collection of Japanese Koto Music. The most delicate-minded need 
 not fear having their morals tainted by strumming through this little volume, 
 as the editors make a point of telling us in their preface that in this their edition of 
 the old Koto music, " for those words and tunes occuring therein, which nre liable 
 to offend the public feelings on account of their vulgarity and meanness, pure 
 and elegant ones have been substituted, thus preventing their baneful effects upon 
 the social character." At the same time, the few entirely new compositions of 
 their own which the compilers have ventured to add, have all " been prepared 
 with a care not to injure that virtue which is inherent in our old Koto music." 
 Historical accuracy is thus as perfectly safeguarded as taste and morals. — An 
 elaborate work by Hr. Piggott on The Music and Musical Instruments of Japan is 
 announced as in preparation. 
 
 Mythology. See History. 
 
 Names. The Japanese have more than one kind of sur- 
 name, more than one kind of Christian (or should we say 
 heathen ?) name, besides nicknames, noms-de-guerre, and even. 
 posthumous names. The subject is a labyrinth. We merely 
 
318 Names. 
 
 sketch out the following as a clue to guide the student in 
 threading his way through it. He will find, then, that there 
 are: — ■ 
 
 1. The kabane or sei, a very ancient and aristocratic sort 
 of family name, but now so widely diffused as to include 
 several surnames in the narrower sense of the word. The 
 grand old names of Hinamoto, Fujiwara, Tachibana, are ka- 
 bane. 
 
 2. The uji or myGji, our surname, and dating like it only 
 from niediaaval times. Most names of this class are originally 
 nothing more than the names of the localities in which the 
 families bearing them resided, as Yama-moto, "foot of the 
 mountain ; " Ta-naka, " among the rice-fields ; " Matsu-mura, 
 "pine-tree village." 
 
 3. The zokiimyd or tsushd, literally, " common name." It 
 corresponds pretty closely to our Christian name. Very often 
 such names end in taro for an eldest son, in jiro for a second, 
 in saburo for a third, and so on down to juro for a tenth son, 
 as Gentaro, Tsunejiro, etc.; or else these distinctive termina- 
 tions are used alone without any prefix. They mean re- 
 spectively "big male," "second male," "third male," and 
 so on. Other sokuwyu end in enwn, suke, nojo, bci — words 
 formerly serving to designate cprtain offices, but now quite 
 obsolete in their original acceptation. 
 
 4. The minor i or jitsumyo, that- is, "true name," also 
 corresponding to our Christian name. Examples of it are 
 Masashige, Yoshisada, Tamotsu, Kaka. Until recently, the 
 jitsumyo had a certain importance attached to it and a mystery 
 shrouding it. It was used only on solemn occasions, especial- 
 ly in combination with the kabane, as Fujiwara no Yoritsugu 
 («o="of"). Since the late revolution, there has been a 
 
Names. 819 
 
 tendency to let No. 1 retreat into the background, to make 
 No. 2 equivalent to the European surname, and to assimilate 
 Nos. 3 and 4, both being employed indiscriminately as 
 equivalents of the European Christian name. If a man keeps 
 No. 3, he drops No. 4, and vice versa. — The classes of names 
 next to be mentioned, though all existing in full force, are 
 less important than the first four classes. 
 
 5. The azana, translated " nickname," for want of a better 
 equivalent. Such are Kunteki, Bmirin, Sotan, Sakitsu. Chi- 
 nese scholars specially affect these, which are not vulgar, 
 like our nicknames, but on the contrary, highly elegant. 
 
 6. The go. Xom de guerre is the nearest European equi- 
 valent, but almost every Japanese of a literary or artistic 
 bent has one. Indeed he may have several. Some of the 
 Japanese names most familiar to foreign ears are merely such 
 noms de guerre, assumed and dropped at will, for instance, 
 Hokusai (who had half-a-dozen others), Okyo, and Bakin. 
 Authors and painters are in the habit of giving fanciful 
 names to their residences, and then they themselves are 
 called after their residences, as Basho-an (" banana hermit- 
 age "), Sur.unoya-no-Aruji (" master of the house with a 
 bell "). Such names often end in Dvjin, Sanjin, Koji, Okina, 
 that is, "hermit," "mountaineer," " retired "scholar," "aged 
 man." 
 
 7. The haimyo and gago. These are but varieties of the 
 ijo, adopted by comic poets and by painters. 
 
 8. The geimyo, " artistic name," adopted by singing and 
 dancing-girls, actors, story-tellers, and other professional 
 amusers of the public. Thus, Ichikawa Banjuro is not the 
 real name, but only the hereditary " artistic name," of the 
 most celebrated of living Japanese actors. To his friends in 
 
320 Name. 
 
 private life, he is Mr. Horikoshi Shu (Horikoshi is the myoji, 
 No. 2 ; Shu is the jitsumyu, No. 4). 
 
 9. The okuri-na, or posthumous honorific appellation of 
 exalted personages. These are the names by which all the 
 Mikados are known to history — names which they never bore 
 during their lives. Jimmu TennS and Komei Tenno are 
 examples. 
 
 10. The homyo or kaimyo, a posthumous appellation chosen 
 by the Buddbist priests for each believer immediately after 
 death, and inscribed on the funeral tablet. Such names end 
 in in, kqji, shinsJii, sJiinjo, Doji, etc., according to the age, sex, 
 rank, and sect of the deceased. 
 
 It is characteristic of Japanese ways that the native friend 
 who assisted in the above classification, never thought of 
 mentioning women's names (yobi-na), which we will call No. 
 11. These are generally taken from the name of some flower or 
 other graceful natural object, and are preceded by the word o, 
 "honourable." Thus we have Kiku, "Chrysanthemum;" 
 Take, " Bamboo ; " Gin, " Silver ; " Hani, " Spring- 
 time," etc., etc. But if the name has more than two 
 syllables, the honorific prefix is dropped. 
 
 It was formerly the custom for a man to change his name 
 at any crisis of his career. It is still unfortunately the custom 
 for places to do so. Hundreds of place-names have been 
 altered since the revolution of 1868, to the dire confusion of 
 geographical and historical studies. The change of Yedo to 
 Tokyo is only the best-known of these. The idea, which is 
 an old Chinese one, is to emphasise by the adoption of a new 
 name some new departure in the fortunes of a city, village, 
 mountain, school, etc. It is as if we should have changed 
 the name of London and other places at the Reformation, or 
 
Navy. 321 
 
 of Eton when the new Latin grammar was introduced. 
 Another peculiarity is what may be termed the transmission 
 of names. A teacher, for instance, hands on his own nom dc 
 guerre to a favourite pupil, in order to help to start him in 
 popular favour. In this manner a bit of faience may be 
 signed " Kenzan," and yet not be by the original potter 
 Kenzan at all. In many cases only a part of the name is 
 given or adopted. The Suoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty 
 offer a good example of this remarkable custom. The name 
 of the founder of, the house being. leyasu, his successors 
 styled themselves lemitsu, letsuna, Ienobu, and so on. 
 
 Now were we, or were we not, right in the statement with 
 which we set out, that Japanese names are a labyrinth ? 
 
 Nara. See Capital Cities. 
 
 Naturalisation. See third paragraph of p. 17. 
 
 Navy. The foundation of the Japanese navy dates from 
 the last days of the Shogunate, when the services of a small 
 party of British naval officers and men, under the leadership 
 of Commander Tracey, E. N., were obtained through the 
 instrumentality of Sir Harry Parkes, then British minister at 
 Yedo. This was in September, 1867. Five months later, 
 the revolution which precipitated the Shogun from his throne 
 broke out, and the naval mission, as it was termed, was 
 withdrawn, first to Yokohama, and then home to England. 
 During the troublous times which ensued, some of the greater 
 Daimycs devoted all their energies to military matters. One 
 of them, the Prince of Hizen, eager to possess a navy of his 
 own, engaged Lieutenant Hawes, of the Royal Marines, as 
 gunnery instructor on board a vessel named the Ryiijd Kan ; 
 
322 Navy. 
 
 and this officer, who had an unusual talent for organisation, 
 and who occupied himself, both on board the Ryujo Kan and 
 later on in other positions, with many things besides gunnery 
 and the training of the marines, may be considered the real 
 father of the Japanese navy. 
 
 In the year 1873, when all storms were over and the 
 Mikado had long been restored to absolute power, the British 
 government ent the services of a second naval mission, 
 headed by Commander Douglas, R. N., and consisting of 
 thirty officers and men. A naval college was built in Tokyo, 
 and instruction in all the necessary branches was commenced 
 in earnest, young officers and seamen being drafted off from 
 time to time to the various ships, so as to constitute, as it 
 were, a leaven by which a practical knowledge of naval 
 matters should be spread. The drill was formed on the 
 model of the English Naval Gunnery School, and the 
 excellence of the system can be traced to the present day. 
 The second naval mission left Japan after six years' service. 
 The Japanese government has, however, generally retained 
 one or two English officers in its employ, either to help on 
 board the training-ships, or to superintend the higher educa- 
 tion of the officers, and to keep the Japanese navy abreast of 
 modern improvements. Dockyard work has been until 
 recently in French hands. M. Bertin, the famous French 
 shipbuilder, spent several years in Japan. 
 
 From the latest statistical reports, the personnel of the 
 navy at present consists of 12,500 men, including reserves, 
 of whom 1,100 are officers, and 400 are cadets under training, 
 the total increase during the last two years being about 2,000. 
 The materiel of the fleet consists of twenty-three sea-going 
 steam-vessels, including one iron-clad, a few modern fast 
 
Navy. 323 
 
 cruisers, several coast defence vessels and cruisers of an older 
 type. The "mosquito fleet" consists of one or two fast 
 despatch vessels and some 19 torpedo boats. Besides the 
 above, there are various smaller craft useful for coast defence. 
 The present building programme is approaching comple- 
 tion ; and the largest ship ever built in Japan, a coast 
 defence ship, or second class battle-ship, of 4,160 tons, 
 was launched at Yokosuka in March last, by the Emperor. 
 A 20 knot second class cruiser was completed at Glasgow, and 
 arrived in Japan in May, while two coast defence ships 
 and a torpedo-catcher are now being built in France. Two 
 cruisers and five torpedo-boats are in course of construction 
 in Japan. It has further been proposed to add four more 
 fast, cruisers of different dimensions. 
 
 A cruising fleet of nine powerful ships is kept in com- 
 mission, to show the flag at foreign ports and to serve 
 as a school for naval manoeuvres and gunnery practice. 
 Some of these vessels attain a speed of eighteen knots, and 
 carry modern high velocity guns. The remainder are of the 
 corvette type of ten years ago, and were built in Japan. 
 
 The principal dockyard is at Yokosuka in the Gulf of 
 Tokyo, which is the head-quarters of the Japanese navy. 
 The " territorial system " is, however, now being put in 
 force ; and fom> additional naval stations have been chosen 
 at different points on the coast. These are Kure in the 
 Inland Sea, Sasebo some forty miles from Nagasaki, Maizuru 
 on the west coast, and Mororan in the Island of Yezo. 
 Complements of ships, stores, and personnel have already 
 been allotted to the first two of tbese stations, and at Kure 
 one large dock is open for the reception of ships. 
 
 The instruction of the senior officers is carried on at the 
 
324 Newspapers. 
 
 Naval Academy in Tokyo — corresponding roughly to Green- 
 wich — that of the cadets at the Naval College at Etajima in 
 the Inland Sea, which corresponds to the "Britannia." 
 There are also Naval Medical and Paymasters' ' Schools in 
 Tokyo. The engineer students are at present provided 
 for in the Naval College. 
 
 As for the men, the original intention was to raise them by- 
 conscription, as the army is raised ; but practical considera- 
 tions have resulted in manning the ships chiefly by volunteers. 
 The naval estimates amount, in round numbers, to £1,000,000. 
 But there is also a special naval loan, in the absence of which 
 it would have been impossible to bring the service up to the 
 necessary standard of efficiency. Coast defence, too, has been 
 assisted by the subscriptions of private individuals. Every 
 branch of the Japanese navy is in a state which reflects the 
 greatest credit on the Imperial authorities. 
 
 3E5oolc recommended. Kaigun Rehishi, or "History of the Navy,'* 
 by Count Katsu Awa, formerly minister of marine. — 9 Vols, in Japanese. 
 
 Newspapers. The founder of Japanese journalism was 
 an Englishman, Mr. John Black, one of the earliest foreign 
 residents of Yokohama. Before his time there no doubt 
 existed street-criers (yomi-uri), who hawked small sheets 
 roughly struck off from wooden blocks whenever some horrid 
 murder or other interesting event took place. Then, in 1871, 
 appeared a small quasi-journalistic venture, entitled the 
 Shimbim Zasshi, believed to be inspired by Kido, a then pro- 
 minent politician. But Mr. Black's Nisshin Shinjishi, started 
 in 1872, was the first newspaper worthy of the name — the 
 first to give leading articles and to comment seriously on 
 political affairs. The seed once sown, Japanese journalism 
 grew apace. There are now no less than six hundred and 
 
Newspapers. 325 
 
 forty-eight newspapers, magazines, journals of societies, etc., 
 published in the empire. The most important news- 
 papers appearing in the capital are the Kwampo, or 
 " Official Gazette ; " the Tokyo Sliimpo and the Kokkai, 
 semi-official ; the Xihon and the Chusei Nippo, conservative 
 and anti-foreign ; the Mainichi Shimbun (shimbun means 
 "newspaper"), Yomi-wi Shimbun, and Yubin HSnld Shimbun, 
 liberal ; the JiyTi and JUinken Shimbun, radical ; the 
 Xichi-Xichi Shimbun, opportunist ; the Jiji Sliimpo, Choya 
 Shimbun, Kokumin Shimbun, and Keisei Shimpo, independent. 
 The tastes of the lower classes are catered for by the 
 Asalii Shimbun, 2liydko Shimbun, Eaishin Shimbun, and several 
 more. Among the magazines, politics and literature are 
 represented by the Kokumin no Tomo, Christianity by the 
 Fiikugo Zasshi and several others, red-hot Chauvinism by the 
 Ajia, criticism by the Shuppan Geppyo, satire and humour by 
 the Maru-Maru Chimbun, or Japanese "Punch." Particularly 
 interesting to foreign students is the Fuzolcu GiuahG, or 
 " Illustrated Eecord of Manners and Customs," which teems 
 with information on things new and old. The names of 
 Fukuzawa Yukichi, Seki Naohiko, Shimada Saburo, Takata 
 Sanae, Tokutomi Iichiro, and Kuga Minoru may be mentioned 
 among those of the leading Tokyo journalists. 
 
 Newspapers, like books, are published in what is called the 
 " Written Language," — a literary dialect considerably re- 
 moved from the colloquial both in grammar and in voca- 
 bulary, the simple plan of writing as one speaks having not 
 yet approved itself to the taste of any Far-Eastern nation. 
 But though the style of Japanese newspapers is not popular, 
 their prices are. Most of the larger journals charge only two 
 cents (less than a penny) for a single copy, and from forty 
 
326 Newspapers. 
 
 to fifty cents per month ; the smaller journals, one and a 
 half cent for a single copy, and thirty cents per month. 
 Several bave rough illustrations. Most now have feuilletons 
 devoted to the publication of novels in serial form. 
 
 The Japanese press-laws are rigorous, and the censors dis- 
 play much zeal in the execution of their duty. Is it matter 
 for surprise if the newspaper writers resort to allegory, to 
 double entente, and to every kind of ingenious device, in the 
 hope — the not always successful hope — of conveying, by hook 
 or by crook, more than meets the ear, without running foul 
 of the police ? Is it surprising that they sometimes lament 
 their fate in the most piteous terms ? The following extract 
 from the Nichi-Nichi Shimbun, which is by no means a radical 
 sheet or given to exaggeration, exposes the situation in a 
 simple and truthful manner. It formed part of a leading- 
 article published on the 8th September, 1889 : — 
 
 "Newspapers and magazines," says the editor, " are con- 
 fronted by a special danger — the danger, namely, of suspen- 
 sion when their words are held to be prejudicial to public 
 order, and a suspension, too, against which there is no appeal. 
 Article XIX of the Newspaper Regulations now in force says 
 that ' When a newspaper has printed matter winch is con- 
 sidered* ' prejudicial to public order or subversive of public 
 morality, the minister of state for the interior is empowered 
 to suspend its publication either totally or temporarily.' Nor" 
 is there a word said in the Eegulations of any standard 
 whereby the prejudicial or non-prejudicial character of a 
 statement or argument is to be determined. It is sufficient 
 
 * The italics are in the original,— or rather the original has what in Japanese 
 corresponds to italics, viz. a series of dots placed alongside the characters which, 
 the writer desires to emphasise. 
 
Newspapers. 327 
 
 that the official in question should determine, in accordance 
 with his own individual opinion, that the statement or 
 argument is thus prejudicial to public order, for a newspaper 
 to incur at any moment the penalty of suspension either total 
 or temporary.* It is indisputable that the authorities are 
 empowered by the law of the land to act thus. The Con- 
 stitution itself gives them this power. The result is that 
 we writers for the press are constantly obliged, on taking 
 our pen in hand, to keep to ourselves seven or eight out of 
 every ten opinions which we would fain express." 
 
 The most striking commentary on the above extract is the 
 fact that during the month following the proclamation of the 
 Constitution, newspapers were suspended at the rate of two a 
 week. It appears, from a careful perusal of the Official 
 Gazette, wherein all such matters are regularly chronicled, 
 that the total number of newspaper suspensions during the 
 year 1889 was forty-three, giving an average of one every 
 eight or nine days ; that in 1890 it was sixteen, an average of 
 one about every twenty-three days ; and that in the first half 
 of 1891 it was thirty-four, an average of one every five or six 
 days. The period of suspension varied from five days to 
 eighty-nine days, the average in 1891 being about three 
 weeks. Some of the newspapers thus punished never appear- 
 ed again — whether because totally suppressed, or because 
 long suspension ruined their finances, we are unable to say. 
 The second half of 1891 seems to be following in the foot- 
 steps of the first half. On the 8th August the Japan Mail 
 informed its readers that ten newspapers were then under the 
 ban of suspension throughout the empire ; and as these sheets 
 
 * Another cause for the suspension of a newspaper is disrespect to the Imperial 
 Family or to officials. 
 
328 Newspapers. 
 
 pass through the press, two of the leading, Tokyo newspapers, 
 — the 'Nippon and the Yomi-uri Shimbun — and one magazine 
 — the Kwassekai — are similarly fettered. 
 
 Imprisonment for press offences is very common. In 
 March, 1890, an offending editor was condemned to captivity 
 for no less a term than four years and a half. So openly has 
 imprisonment come to be reckoned among the inevitable in- 
 cidents of a journalistic career, that most papers employ 
 what is called " a prison editor," that is, a man who, though 
 nominally editor-in-chief, has little or nothing to do but to 
 go to prison when the paper gets into trouble. The real 
 editor, meanwhile, remains an uncrowned king, figuring on 
 the books simply as a contributor. In fact, the traditional 
 Japanese fondness for dual offices has cropped up again in 
 modern guise. Formerly there was an Emperor de jure and 
 an Emperor de facto, tbere were nominal Daimyos and the 
 Daimyos' right-hand men with whom lay all the actual 
 power. Now there are real editors and dummy prison 
 editors. 
 
 But let us be just. There is one consideration, which 
 must in fairness be advanced on the other side. It is this : 
 interference with liberty of speech and printing probably 
 galls a Japanese much less than it would those to whom such 
 liberty is part of their native air. These restrictive measures 
 are not, historically speaking, retrograde measures, that is, 
 they do not come after better things in the past. Under the 
 old feudal regime, not only did liberty of speech not exist in 
 fact : the right to some measure of it was not so much as 
 recognised in theory, nor would the men who made the 
 revolution of 1868 have dallied with the idea for a moment 
 in their then frame of mind. They would have shuddered at 
 
Nobility. 329 
 
 it as sacrilege. The idea has entered Japan more recently, 
 in the wake of English and American text-books for schools 
 and of Anglo-Saxon ideas generally. That there should 
 now be a cry for more, only shows that something has 
 already been obtained. 
 
 The foreign press at the " Treaty Ports " is almost entirely 
 in English hands. The newspapers there published are render- 
 ed more interesting than the majority of non-metropolitan 
 journals by the constant and striking changes in Japanese 
 politics and social life that have to be chronicled. Think 
 what a paradise for the journalist must a country be where 
 the administrative organisation has been re-cast ten times 
 in twenty-four years, and everything else revolves in similar 
 kaleidoscopic fashion ! 
 
 N6. See Theatee. 
 
 Nobility. The Japanese nobility may be called very old 
 or very new, according to tlie way one looks at it. In its 
 present form it dates from the 7th July, 1884, when the 
 Chinese titles of ho, ho'-', haku, shi, and dan, corresponding 
 respectively to our duke (or prince), marquis, count, viscount, 
 and baron, were bestowed by Imperial edict on a number of 
 distinguished persons. But there had been an aristocracy 
 before. Properly speaking, there had been two — the Kuge 
 who were descended from the younger sons of ancient 
 Mikados, and the Daimyos who were the feudal lords lifted 
 to title and wealth by the sword and by the favour of the 
 Shoguns. When feudalism fell, the Daimyos lost their 
 
 * These two W», though chancing to sound alike, are different words written 
 with different Chinese characters. The first is & (Chinese kung), the second is Ofc 
 (Chinese hou). 
 
330 Numerical Categories. 
 
 territorial titles, and were amalgamated with the Kuge under 
 the designation of KwazoJcu, or "flowery families," which is 
 still the current name for noblemen generally, irrespective of 
 what their particular grade may be. 
 
 These aristocrats by birth formed the nucleus of the new 
 nobility of 1884, among the five grades of which they were 
 distributed according to their historical and other claims to 
 distinction. To them was added a number of new men, 
 eminent for their . talents or for services rendered to the 
 Imperial cause. The members of the nobility receive pensions 
 from the civil list. They are also placed under special 
 restrictions. For instance, they may not marry without 
 government permission. On the other hand, the new Con- 
 stitution grants to a certain number of them the privilege of 
 sitting in the upper house of the Imperial Diet. 
 
 Numerical Categories. Number has long exercised 
 a peculiar fascination over the Far-Eastern mind. European 
 languages, no doubt, have such expressions as "the Four 
 Cardinal Virtues " and '"' the Seven Deadly Sins ; " but it is 
 not part of our mental disposition to divide up and parcel 
 out almost all things visible and invisible into numerical 
 categories fixed by unchanging custom, as is the case among 
 the nations from India eastward. The Chinese speak of 
 their " Three Eeligions," of " the Three Forms of Obedience," 
 "the Four Classics," "the Five Duties," " the Eight Dia- 
 grams," " the Four-and-Twenty Paragons of Filial Piety," 
 whole pages of their books of reference being devoted to lists 
 of expressions of this kind. The Japanese have followed 
 suit. They have adopted most of the Chinese numerical 
 categories, and have invented new ones of their own. 
 
Numerical Categories. 331 
 
 Here are a dozen of the commonest, chosen from among 
 many scores : — 
 
 The Three Views (=. Wj, namely, Matsushima near Sendai 
 in the North, Miyajima in the Inland Sea, and Ama-no- 
 Hashidate on the Sea of Japan. These are considered the 
 three most beautiful places in the empire. 
 
 The Thkee Divine Poets (?P 1R H i$), namely Kaki-no- 
 moto - no - Hitomaro, Sunriyoshi-no-Kami, and Tama-tsu- 
 Shima. 
 
 The Theee Capitals and Frvis Open Pokts (= M E M). 
 The former are Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka ; the latter are 
 Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, Niigata, and .Hakodate. 
 
 The Four Heavenly Kings (CS JZ 3:). Originally an Indian 
 Buddhist category, the term is applied in Japan to various 
 sets of four great warriors. For instance, Sakai, Sakakibara, 
 Ii, and Honda were the Four Heavenly Kings, in other 
 words, the four eminent generals, who helped to put the 
 Tokugawa dynasty of Shoguns on .the throne. 
 
 The Five Festivals (2£ fS ft). They are the 7th January, 
 the 3rd March, the 5th May, the 7th July, and the 9th 
 September (See article on Festivals). 
 
 " The Seven Herbs" (-t; W). Different authorities give 
 different lists. 
 
 " The Eight Views " (A Jft). Following an old Chinese 
 precedent, almost every picturesque neighbourhood in Japan 
 has its eight views. The best-known are " the Eight Views 
 of Lake Omi " (Omi Hahhei), which are enumerated as 
 follows : — the autumn moon seen from Ishiyama, the evening 
 snow on Hirayama, the sunset at Seta, the evening bell of 
 Miidera, the boats sailing back from Yabase, the bright sky 
 ■with a breeze at Awazu, rain by night at Karasaki, and the 
 
332 Paper. 
 
 ■wild geese alighting at Katata. Pretty and thoroughly 
 Oriental ideas — are they not ? 
 
 " The Eight Great Islands " (ic A Jll), namely, the eight 
 largest islands of the Japanese archipelago, hence in poetry 
 Japan itself. 
 
 " The One-and-Twenty Geeat Anthologies " (— + — ■Jz 
 SI). These are the standard collections of Japanese classical 
 poetry, brought together by Imperial command during the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 " The Three-and-Thirty Places " (5 + H Br) sacred to 
 Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy. 
 
 " The Six-and-Thibty Poetical Geniuses " (= 1" ^ SR Ml). 
 A full list of their names is given in Anderson's Catalogue 
 of Japanese and Chinese Paintings, page 145. 
 
 "The Fifty-three Stages" (s.-f-S.^?) on the Tokaido. 
 Though the railway has done away with the old Tokaido 
 journey, these fifty-three stages still remain a favourite 
 subject of popular pictorial art. 
 
 Paintnig. See Art. 
 
 Paper. The Japanese use paper for a score of purposes 
 to which we in the West have never thought of putting it, 
 one reason being that their process of manufacture leaves 
 uncut the long fibres of the bark from which the paper is 
 made, and consequently renders it much tougher than ours. 
 Fans, screens, and lanterns, sometimes even clothes, are made 
 of paper. A sheet of nice, soft paper does duty for a pocket- 
 handkerchief. Paper replaces glass windows, and even to a 
 certain extent the walls that with us separate room from room. 
 Japanese hous'emaids do their dusting with little brooms 
 made of strips of paper ; and dumps of soft paper serve, 
 
Paper. 383 
 
 instead of lint, to arrest bleeding. Oil-paper is used for 
 making umbrellas, rain-coats, tobacco-pouches, and air- 
 cushions, as well as for protecting parcels from the wet in a 
 manner of which no European paper is capable. Paper torn 
 into strips and twisted takes the place of string in a hundred 
 small domestic uses. We have even seen the traces of a 
 harness mended with it, though we are bound to say that 
 the result, with a restive horse, was not altogether satisfac- 
 tory. Then too there is the so-called leather paper, which is 
 used for boxes and more recently for dados and hangings, 
 and the crape paper now familiar abroad as a material 
 for doilies and illustrated books. Japanese writing-paper, 
 properly so called, lends itself admirably to the native 
 brush, but not to our pointed pens, which stick and 
 splutter in its porous fibre. But a factory at Tokyo 
 now turns oat large quantities of note-paper sufficiently 
 sized and glazed for European use, and remarkable 
 for its untearable quality. Correspondents should, how- 
 ever, abstain from committing to this medium any com- 
 munication delicate in its nature and liable to be pried into 
 by indiscreet eyes ; for the envelopes can be opened with 
 perfect ease, and shut again without any evidence remaining 
 of their having been tampered with. Other machine-made 
 paper similar to that of Europe is also now manufactured 
 for the printing of books and newspapers. This has the 
 advantage of being able to receive an impression on both 
 sides, whereas Japanese paper, owing to its porosity, admits 
 of being printed on one side only. 
 
 Several plants and trees contribute their bark to the 
 manufacture of Japanese paper. The paper mulberry 
 (Broussonetia papyri/era) is the most important of these ; 
 
384 Parkes. 
 
 but the one most easily recognised by the unlearned is the 
 Edgewortlua papyri/era, which has the peculiarity that its 
 branches always divide into three at every articulation, 
 whence the Japanese name of mitsu-mata, or " the three forks." 
 
 Uoolt VCConiJliellcl-ecl, Rein's Industries of Japan, p.' 3S9 et gsq. 
 The description is full and elaborate. 
 
 Parkes. Born at BirclriU's Hall, near Walsall, Stafford- 
 shire, in 1828, Sir Harry Parkes was left an orphan at the 
 age of five, and came out to Canton, when still a lad, to be 
 under the charge of his kinsman, the Bev. Charles Gutzlaff, 
 a missionary and consular interpreter well-known for his 
 writings on Chinese subjects. Parkes thus acquired at an 
 early age that intimate knowledge of the Chinese language 
 and of the Oriental character, which helped to make of him 
 England's most trusty and able servant in the Far-East for a 
 period of forty-three years, that is, until his death as British 
 Minister to the Court of Peking, in 1885. Beginning as what 
 would now be termed a student interpreter on the staff of 
 Sir Henry Pottinger during the first China War of 1842, he 
 occupied in turn most of the Chinese consular posts, notably 
 that of Canton, where he was appointed Commissioner during 
 the occupation of the city by the British troops. He was 
 also instrumental in negotiating a treaty with Siam. But 
 the most striking episode of his life was his capture by the 
 Chinese during the war of 1860, when, together with a few 
 companions he was sent by Lord Elgin under a flag of truce 
 to sign a convention of peace with Prince Tsai, the Chinese 
 Emperor's nephew, but was treacherously seized, cast into a 
 dungeon, and put to the torture. Most of the party fell 
 victims to Chinese barbarity; but Sir Harry's unflinching 
 resolution triumphed equally over torture and over diplomatic 
 
Parkes. 335 
 
 wiles, and he was eventually set free. In 1865 he was 
 appointed Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary 
 to the Court of Yedo, which post lie continued to hold till 
 1883, when he was promoted to Peking. His career in 
 Japan coincided with the most stirring years of modern 
 Japanese history. He even helped to mould that history. 
 When, at the beginning of the civil war of 1868, all his 
 diplomatic colleagues were inclined to support the Shogun, 
 Sir Harry, better informed than they as to the historical 
 rights of the Mikado and the growing national feeling in 
 favour of supporting those rights, threw the whole weight of 
 British influence into the loyal side against the rebels. 
 
 Sir Harry was always a staunch supporter of his country's 
 commercial interests, and a believer in the " gunboat policy " 
 of his master, Lord Palmerston. His outspoken threats earned 
 for him the dread and dislike of the Japanese during his so- 
 journ in Japan. But no sooner had he quitted Tokyo, than 
 they began to acknowledge that his high-handed policy had 
 been founded in reason. On his death soon after, a long 
 telegram of condolence was sent to London by Count Inoue, 
 then minister for foreign affairs, saying : " His Imperial 
 Majesty's Government cannot but feel great grief at the death 
 of one who has contributed so much to the improvement and 
 progress of this country, and whose long residence has won 
 so many friends among Japanese officials." The respect felt 
 for his talents was more pithily, if less diplomatically, ex- 
 pressed by a high Japanese official who said to a friend of 
 the present writer : "Sir Harry Parkes was the only foreigner 
 in Japan whom we could not twist round our little finger." 
 
 Book recommended, No biography of Sir Harry Parkes has yet 
 appeared, hut Sir H. B. Lock's Pergonal Narrative of Events in China, 1860, may he 
 recommended for the episode of his captivity. 
 
336 Perry. 
 
 Perry (Commodore). Matthew Calbraith Perry, 
 Commodore in the United States Navy, was born at New- 
 port, Ehode Island, in the year 1794, and died at New York 
 in 1858. In the naval circles of his day, Perry's name was 
 well-known as that of an upright and energetic officer ; but 
 his title to lasting fame rests on his having been the man 
 who opened Japan to the world. Various attempts, Ameri- 
 can and others, had been previously made in order to attain 
 an end so desirable on commercial grounds, so. necessary for 
 the protection of shipwrecked mariners. Liberalism, too, 
 was then in the air. Unrestricted international intercourse 
 was at that time regarded by all Christian nations as an in- 
 disputable right, a sacred duty. Americans could with some 
 good grace, or at least without breach of logic, insist on the 
 door of Eastern Asia being flung open to them ; for they had 
 not yet begun to barricade themselves behind a Chinese wall 
 of exclusiveness. 
 
 In July, 1853, Commodore Perry's fleet anchored off Ura- 
 ga, a port at the entrance of Yedo Bay. Setting aside all 
 the obstacles which Japanese astuteness sought to place 
 in his way, Perry delivered to the representatives of the 
 Shogun the letter of President Fillimore demanding the es- 
 tablishment of international relations. Then he steamed 
 away to Loochoo and China. Next spring he returned for an 
 answer. The answer took the shape of Japan's first foreign 
 treaty, which was signed at Kanagawa on the 31st March, 
 1854. By this treaty the ports of Shirnoda and Hakodate 
 were opened to American trade, and good treatment promised 
 to shipwrecked American mariners. Such were the first- 
 fruits of the triumph over Japan's stubborn refusal to recog- 
 nise the existence of the outside world. Treaties with the 
 
Perry. 887 
 
 other nations of Christendom, and a revolution which, after 
 plunging Japan into confusion and bloodshed, has regenerat- 
 ed on Western lines all her institutions, ideas, and aims — 
 this, which it takes so few words to say, but which implies so 
 much, is the result of what Perry was instrumental in doing. 
 Many things precious to the lover of art and antiquity perish- 
 ed in the process. For Old Japan was like an oyster : — to 
 open it was to kill it. 
 
 Perry being thus a hero, fancy and myth have already 
 begun to gather round his name. Patriotic writers have 
 discoursed on " the moral grandeur of his peaceful triumph," 
 and have even gone so far as to try to get people to believe 
 that the Japanese are proud of having been made to knuckle 
 under to him. Perry's was a peaceful triumph only in a 
 catachrestical sense, analogous to that of Napoleon's maxim 
 that " Providence is on the side of the big battalions." To 
 speak plainly, Perry triumphed by frightening the weak, 
 ignorant, utterly unprepared, and insufficiently armed Japa- 
 nese out of their senses. If he did not use his cannon, it 
 was only because his preparations for using them and his 
 threats of using them were too evidently genuine to be safely 
 disregarded by those who lay at his mercy. His own 
 " Narrative " is explicit on this point. ' Nor shall we, at 
 least, blame him. Perry was a naval officer, and he acted 
 with the vigour of a naval officer, carrying out the orders of 
 his superiors, and at the same time bringing to bear on the 
 situation the tact of a born diplomatist. The event shows 
 that the " gunboat policy," so often decried by amiable but 
 misinformed persons, is really and truly a policy well-Suited 
 to certain times and places — to circumstances in which all 
 other methods of action are liable to be interpreted to mean 
 
838 Pidjin-Japanese. 
 
 weakness. Might is right in many cases. The gunboat 
 policy is the only one which is understood by a semi-civilised 
 Oriental power, such as Japan then was and remained for 
 several years after. We therefore give Perry all honour. As 
 for the sentimental gloss which has been laid over his 
 actions, few will probably be found to pay any heed to it. 
 
 Books recommended. Narrativeof the Expedition of am American 
 Squadron under Commodore Perry, by Perry and Hawks, Vol. I. — Matthew Calbraith 
 Perry, by Rev. W. B. Griffis. 
 
 Philosophy. The Japanese have never had a philosophy 
 of their own. Formerly they bowed down before the shrine 
 of Confucius. They now bow down before the shrine of 
 Herbert Spencer. 
 
 Pidjin-Japanese. In China, where the native language 
 is very difficult to pick up, and the natives themselves have a 
 decided talent for learning foreign tongues, the speech of the 
 most numerous body of foreigners — the English — has come 
 to be the medium of intercourse. It is not pure English, but 
 English in that modified form known as " Pidjin-English.* 
 In Japan, where the conditions are reversed, we have " Pidjin- 
 Japanese " as the patois in which new-comers soon learn to 
 make known their wants to coolies and tea-hpuse girls , and which 
 serves even as the vehicle for grave commercial transactions 
 at the open ports. A Yokohama resident of old days, Mr. 
 Hoffman Atkinson, made up a most entertaining little book 
 on this subject, entitling it Exercises in the Yokohama Dialect. 
 But its humour cannot be fully appreciated except by those 
 to whom real Japanese is familiar. 
 
 In the dialect under consideration, a "lawyer" is called 
 
 • " Pidgin " is believed to be a corruption of tbe word " business." 
 
Pilgrimages. 389 
 
 nonsul-bobbery-shto, a " dentist " is ha-dailcustm (literally 
 " tooth carpenter "), a lighthouse " is fune-haiken-sarampan- 
 nai-rosoku, a " marine insurance surveyor " is sarampan-fune- 
 Iiaiken-danna-san, and so on. We wish it were possible for 
 us to give the Pidjin-English version of the Lord's prayer, 
 beginning Otottsan nikai arimas ; but reverence forbids. 
 
 Pilgrimages. The reputation of most Japanese shrines 
 is bounded by a somewhat narrow horizon. The Yedo 
 folk — the Eastern Japanese — make pilgrimages to Narita, 
 and up Fuji and Oyama. Devout natives of the central 
 provinces round Kyoto repair to the great monastery of 
 Koya-san, or perform what is termed the " tour of the holy 
 places of Yamato " (Yamato-meguri), including such celebrated 
 temples as Miwa, Hase, and Tonomine ; and they also con- 
 stitute the majority of the pilgrims to the shrine of the Sun- 
 Goddess in Ise. The religious centre of Shikoku is a place 
 called Kompira or Kotohira ; in the North that rank belongs 
 to the sacred island of Kinkwazan, while the Inland Sea has 
 another sacred and most lovely island— Miyajima — where 
 none are ever allowed either to be born or to die, and where 
 the tame deer, protected by Buddhist piety, come and eat 
 out of the stranger's hand. But some of the greatest shrines 
 have branches in other provinces. Kompira has a branch in 
 most Japanese cities ; the great Kyoto temple to the Fox- 
 Goddess Inari has a branch in almost every village. Again 
 there are shrines whose very nature is multiple. Such, for 
 instance, are the Thirty-Three Holy Places of Kwannon, the 
 Goddess of Mercy. 
 
 Pilgrimages are generally of a social nature. There exist 
 innumerable pious associations called ko or koju, whose 
 
840 Pilgrimages. 
 
 members contribute each, a cent a month, and then, when 
 the proper time of year comes round, a certain number of 
 persons are chosen by lot to represent the rest at the shrine 
 of their devotion, all expenses being defrayed out of the com- 
 mon fund. When these representatives form a considerable 
 band, one of them, who has made the pilgrimage before, 
 acts as leader and cicerone, recounting to his gaping audience 
 the legend of each minor shrine that is passed on the way, 
 and otherwise assisting and controlling the brethren. The 
 inns to be put up at on the road are mostly fixed by custom, 
 a flag or wooden board inscribed with the name of the 
 pilgrim association being hung up over the entrance. Inns 
 are proud to display many such authentic signs of constant 
 patronage, and visitors to Japan will often notice establish- 
 ments whose whole front is thus adorned. As a general rule, 
 the pilgrims wear no special garb ; but those bound for Fuji, 
 Ontake, or other high mountains, may be distinguished by 
 their white clothes and very broad and sloping straw hats. 
 While making the ascent, they often ring a bell and chant 
 an invocation which, being interpreted, signifies, " May our 
 six senses be pure, and the weather on the honourable moun- 
 tain be fair."* 
 
 The Japanese, as has been often remarked, take their 
 religion lightly. Narita, Ise, and other favourite goals of 
 piety are equally noted for the distractions which they pro- 
 vide of an evening. Nor is much enquiry made into the 
 doctrines held at any special shrine. Kompira was Buddhist 
 and is now Shinto, having been made so by order of govern- 
 
 * Jlolekon Shojd O Yama Kaiaei. The six senses, according to the Buddhists, are 
 the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and heart'. The. pilgrims repeat the invoca- 
 tion, for the most part, without understanding it, as most of the words are 
 Chinese. 
 
Pilgrimages. 841 
 
 :ment during the present reign. But the pilgrims flock there 
 all the same, the sanctity of the name of the shrine over- 
 balancing any lapses in the theology of the priests. Nor need 
 this be matter for wonderment, seeing that the pilgrim 
 ranks are recruited almost exclusively from the peasant 
 and artisan classes, whose members do not so much as realise 
 that Buddhism and Shinto are two separate cults, but are 
 prepared to pay equal respect to all the superhuman powers 
 that be. When tradesmen of any standing join a pilgrim 
 association, they mostly do so in order to extend their busi- 
 ness connection and to see new places cheaply and sociably. 
 
 People who remember the " good old times," assert that 
 pilgrimages are on the wane. Probably this is true. The 
 influence of religion has been weakened by the infiltration 
 •of Western ideas of " progress " and material civilisation. 
 Then, too, taxation weighs far more heavily than of yore, so 
 that there is less money to spend on non-essentials. Still, over 
 ten thousand persons, mostly pilgrims, went up Fuji this sum- 
 mer ; and the concourse of worshippers at the temple of Ike- 
 gami is so great that on the 12th and 13th October, 1891 (that 
 being the annual festival), over 21,000 persons alighted at the 
 little country railway station where the daily average is only 
 350. Many, doubtless, were mere holiday-makers, and the 
 scene in the grounds was that of a great holiday-making. 
 The happy crowds trot off to amuse themselves, and just 
 do a little bit of praying incidently, — give a tap at the 
 gong, and fling a copper into the box — so as to be sure of 
 being on the right side. They are ten thousand miles away 
 from Benares, and from Mecca, and from the Scotch Kirk. 
 
 The holy objects which Japanese pilgrims go out for to see 
 ;and to bow down down before, belong exactly to the same 
 
342 Pipes; 
 
 category as the holy objects of Christian devotion, modified 
 only by local colouring. Minute fragments of the cremated 
 body of a Buddha (these are called shari), foot-prints of a 
 Buddha, images and pictures by famous ancient saints such 
 as the Abbot Kobo Daishi and Prince Shotoku Taishi, whose 
 activity in this direction was phenomenal if legend can at all 
 be trusted — holy swords, holy garments, wells that never run 
 dry, statues so life-like that when struck by an impious hand 
 blood has been known to flow from the wound, — these things 
 and things like these form the Japanese equivalents of St. 
 Januarius's Blood, and Our Lady of Lourdes, and the Holy 
 Coat of Treves,' which latter, as we pen these lines, thousands 
 of the faithful in Europe — educated as well as uneducated — 
 are pouring forth to venerate. 
 
 r 
 
 Pipes. The diminutive pipes of modern Japan are but one 
 among the innumerable instances of the tendency of Japanese 
 taste towa-rds small things. To judge from the old .pictures 
 that have been preserved, the first Japanese pipes must have- 
 been as large as walking-sticks, whereas those now used give 
 a man but three whiffs. After the third whiff, the wee pellet 
 of ignited tobacco becomes a fiery ball, loose, and ready to 
 leap from the pipe at a breath ; and wherever it falls, it 
 pierces holes like a red-hot shot. But the expert Japanese 
 smoker rarely thus disgraces himself. He at once empties the 
 contents of the mouthpiece into a section of bamboo (haifuki), 
 which is kept for the purpose, somewhat after the fashion of 
 a spittoon. Not so the foreigner ambitious of Japonising 
 himself. lie begins his new smoking career by burning 
 small round holes in everything near him — the mats, the 
 cushions, and especially his own clothes. 
 
Pipes. 843 
 
 The pipe may be made either of metal only, or of bamboo 
 w.ith metal at either end, — the bowl and the mouthpiece. 
 The metal commonly employed is brass, but silver is more 
 fashionable ; and as massive silver would be inconveniently 
 heavy, the plan followed is to engrave and inlay it elaborately, 
 thereby both lightening the article and beautifying it. A 
 really fine pipe may cost as much as thirty dollars, and will 
 be handed down as an heirloom. A friend of the present 
 writer has collected over a hundred sorts, ranging from such 
 artistic triumphs down to the three cent pipe of the navvy or 
 the navvy's wife, — for in smoking, if in nothing else, Japanese 
 manners sanction complete equality between the sexes. 
 
 Around the pipe as an evolutionary centre, a whole intricate 
 and elegant little world of smoking furniture and smoking 
 etiquette has come into existence. There is the tabaho-ire, 
 or tobacco-pouch — as far removed in its dainty beauty from 
 the cheap gutta-percha atrocities of Europe as a butterfly is 
 from a blunderbuss — the netsuke, or carved button, used to 
 attack the pouch to the owner's girdle, and above all the 
 tabako-bon, or smoking-box, which contains a brazier and 
 other implements. In aristocratic houses the smoking-box 
 is sometimes lacquered, and the brazier is of plated or solid 
 silver. A specially light and graceful kind is that invented 
 for use in theatres, and arranged so as to be easily carried in 
 the hand. The smoker before whom, on a winter's day, is 
 placed — let us say — a handsome bronze brazier to warm his 
 hands and light his pipe at, must not empty the pipe into it 
 by knocking the metal head upon the rim. He must insert 
 the leather flap of his tobacco-pouch between the pipe head 
 and the brazier, so as to prevent the tapping of the former 
 from making a dent in the bronze. The introduction of 
 
S44 Pipes. 
 
 European costume among the upper classes has caused 
 certain modifications in the smoking paraphernalia. The 
 tobacco-pouch has been reshaped so as to accommodate itself 
 to a breast or side-pocket, and the little pipe itself has been 
 shortened so as to be enclosed in the pouch much as a pencil 
 is enclosed in a pocket-book. The old plan was for the pipe 
 to be carried at the girdle in a case of its own. These 
 innovations have happily not, as in so many other cases, 
 been attended by loss of beauty. On the contrary, charmingly 
 designed things have sprung into existence, and are all the 
 more interesting for their novelty. 
 
 To clean a Japanese pipe is an art in itself. One plan is 
 to heat the pipe head in the charcoal of the brazier, and then 
 blow out the refuse ; but this method corrodes the metal of a 
 fine pipe. Such must be cleaned by means of a twist Qcoyori) 
 of fine, tough paper, which is passed up the stem and pulled 
 out through the head, the operation being repeated until all 
 the nicotine has been removed. An industry worth mention- 
 ing in this connection is that of the workmen who replace 
 worn-out bamboo pipe-stems by new ones of any desired 
 length. The stems are now often beautifully speckled 
 in imitation of tortoise-shell, porcupine quills, and other 
 things. 
 
 Must it be revealed, in conclusion, that in vulgar circles 
 the pipe, besides its legitimate use, occasionally serves as a 
 domestic rod ? The child, or possibly the daughter-in-laW, who 
 has given cause for anger to that redoubtable empress, the 
 Obasan, or " Granny," before whom the whole household 
 tremble?, may receive a severe blow from the metal-tipped 
 pipe, or even a whole volley, after which the old lady resumes 
 her smoke. 
 
Poetry; 345 
 
 Poetry. Japanese poetry is more interesting than Japa- 
 nese prose, for the reason that it is more original, less per- 
 meated by adventitious Chinese elements. Chinese poetry 
 has rhyme, parallelism, and an intricate arrangement of 
 words according to their " tones." Of all this, the Japanese 
 know nothing. From the dawn of history to the present day, 
 Japanese verse has simply consisted of alternate lines of five 
 and seven syllables, with generally an additional line of seven 
 syllables at the end. Occasionally a Japanese poem will be 
 half a page or a page in length. But the immense majority 
 are tiny odes of thirty-one syllables, the lines being arranged 
 thus : 5,7,5,7,7. The first three lines of such an ode, or uta, 
 is called the kauri no hu, or " upper hemistich ; " the second 
 is the shiino no ku, or ''lower hemistich." A slight pause is 
 always made between the two in reciting. Thus : 
 
 (5) Hototogisu 
 
 (7) Nakitsuru lcata wo 
 
 (5) Nagamureba — 
 
 (7) Tada ari-ake no 
 
 (7) Tsuki %o nokoreru* 
 
 That is, literally rendered, 
 
 " When I gaze towards the place where the cuckoo has 
 been singing — nought remains but the moon in the early 
 dawn." 
 
 The favourite subjects of the Japanese muse are the 
 flowers, -the birds, the snow, the moon, the falling leaves in 
 
 * Some critic, very learned in everything but Japanese, will perhaps say that the 
 first and fifth, and the second and fourth lines of this little poem do rhyme together, 
 after all. We would remind him that rhyme is an intentional likeness of sounds, 
 not an accidental likeness, and that Buch accidental concurrences are not to bo 
 prevented in a language which, like Japanese, has but six finals, namely, the five 
 vowels a, e t i, o, u, and the consonant m. No rhyme is perceived in any such cases 
 by the Japanese themselves. 
 
346 Poetry. 
 
 autumn, the mists on the mountains, — in fact, the outward 
 aspect of nature, — love of course, and the shortness of human 
 life. Many of our Western commonplaces are conspicuously 
 absent : no Japanese poet has expatiated on the beauties of 
 sunset or starlight,- or has penned sonnets to his mistress's 
 eyebrows, or even so much as alluded to her eyes ; much less 
 would he be so improper as to hint at kissing her. Japanese 
 poetry has commonplaces of its own, however ; and rules 
 from winch there is no appeal prescribe the manner in which 
 each subject is to be treated. One rule of general application 
 places a veto on the employment of Chinese words, — a cir- 
 cumstance which narrowly limits the range of thought and 
 expression, seeing that more than half the words in the 
 language, and nearly all those denoting abstractions and 
 delicate shades of meaning, are of Chinese origin. 
 
 Many Japanese odes are mere exclamations — words out- 
 lining a picture for the imagination, not making any assertion 
 for the logical intellect. Take, for instance, the following, 
 written by an anonymous poet a thousand years ago : 
 
 Shira-kumo ni 
 
 Heme ucIii-lcawasM 
 Tobu hari no — 
 
 Kazu sae miyuru 
 
 AM no yo mo tsuM ! 
 
 That is, 
 
 " The moon on an autumn night, making visible the very 
 number of the wild-geese that fly past with wings intercrossed 
 in the white clouds." — Such a manner of expression may 
 seem strange at first, but its charm grows upon one. 
 
 With the doubtful exception of the No, or classical Dramas, 
 all the genuine poetry of Japan is lyrical. The Japanese 
 
Poetry. 847 
 
 have also burlesque or comic stanzas. Even their serious 
 poetry admits of plays upon words, and of another ornament 
 named " pillow-words " (malcura-kotoba). These are words 
 devoid of meaning themselves, but serving as props for other 
 significant words to rest on. Acrostics, anagrams, and 
 palindromes are well-known to the Japanese, all such conceits 
 having come in early in the Middle Ages. To the end of 
 the ninth century may be traced the institution of the 
 poetical tournaments known as uta-muase, which originated 
 in China about A. D. 760. A favourite game at these 
 tournaments, called renga, wherein one person composes the 
 second hemistich of a verse and another person has to provide 
 it with a first hemistich, seems to date from the eleventh 
 century. The liohlcu, an ultra-lilliputian kind of poem having 
 but seventeen syllables (5, 7, 5), is of more modern origin. 
 
 The twin stars of early Japanese poetry are Hitomaro 
 and Akahito, both of whom loved and sang during the 
 opening years of the eighth century. Perhaps the most 
 illustrious next to them — illustrious not only in verse, but in 
 prose — is Tsurayuki, a great noble of about the year 930, 
 after which time the decline of Japanese poetry set in. There 
 are many other well-known poets, and also poetesses. But 
 the Japanese consider poetry more as the production of an 
 epoch than of an individual. They do not, as a rule, publish 
 separately the works of any special author, as we publish 
 Chaucer, Spenser, and the rest. They publish anthologies 
 of all the poetical works of an era. The Man-yoshu, or 
 " Collection of a Myriad Leaves," was the first of these 
 anthologies, and is therefore the most highly prized. It was 
 compiled in the eighth century. The moderns have devoted 
 a whole mountain of commentary to the elucidation of its 
 
348 Poetry. 
 
 obscurities. The Eoldnshu, or " Songs Ancient and Modern," 
 collected by Tsurayuki and including many of his own com- 
 positions, dates from the tenth century, a period whose style 
 has remained the model which every later poet has striven to 
 imitate. Other collections — all made by Imperial order — 
 followed in the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fif- 
 teenth centuries. These, together with the " Songs Ancient and 
 Modern," are known under the general name of the " Antholo- 
 gies of the One-and-Twenty Keigns " (Ni-ju-ic7d Dai-shu). 
 
 Until the time of the revolution of 1868, it was considered 
 one of the essential accomplishments of a Japanese gentleman 
 to be able to write verses. This was not so difficult as might 
 be imagined ; for nothing was less honoured than originality. 
 On the contrary, the old ideas had to be expressed in the old 
 words, over and over again, plagiarism being accounted no 
 crime, but rather a proof of wide reading and a retentive 
 memory. Japanese gentlemen also composed Chinese verses, 
 much as our schoolboys compose Latin verses. A good deal 
 of all this still goes on. Numbers of persons, both men and 
 women, make their living as teachers of the poetic art. 
 Meetings are held, diplomas conferred, and time spent in 
 elegant exercises, around which, as is the Japanese . wont, 
 a whole vocabulary of technical terms has grown up. Tbere 
 lies before us the programme for 1891 of one of these teachers, 
 an accomplished lady whose poetry days are the 21st of each 
 month. January, July, August, and December are vacation 
 time. The themes set for the other months, printed on neat 
 little slips of paper and circulated among her clientele, are as 
 follows, and may serve as specimens of a score of others : — 
 
 February. The Willow-tree in Early Spring. The Cock 
 at Dawn. 
 
Poetry. 349* 
 
 March. A Walk in Spring. Mutual Love. 
 
 April. Blossoms Fallen into a Pond. Akazome Emon 
 
 (A Japanese poetess of ancient times). 
 May. At Anchor on a Summer Voyage. A Com- 
 
 parison of Love to Water. 
 June. Cormorant-Fishing at Eve. Clouds on the 
 
 Distant Hills. 
 September. Insects by Moonlight. Oshokun (A Chinese 
 
 historical character). 
 October. Birds in Late Autumn. Love in the Bain. 
 November. Praise of the Last Chrysanthemums. Wishing 
 a Friend the Thousand Year Life of the Pine- 
 tree. 
 It will be noticed that the themes are in most cases appro- 
 priate to the month to which they are allotted — a considera- 
 tion made clearer still by reference to Japanese literary 
 conventionalities. For instance, an uncultured European 
 may suppose that the moon belongs equally to every season. 
 He is wrong : the moon is the special property of autumn, 
 and the still more private and particular property of Septem- 
 ber. You ask, why? That only shows your want of education.. 
 E ducated persons accept all such literary dicta without question . 
 European notions may be all very well in such matters as- 
 railways, and sewerage, and steam boilers, and things of 
 that sort. But when it comes to poetry, the Japanese cry 
 halt ; for that is sacred ground. There are, no doubt, two 
 or three men — Professor Toyama, for instance, Director 
 of the College of Literature in the Imperial University,. 
 — who have endeavoured to shake off these fetters, and 
 lead Japanese poetry into new paths ; but such innova- 
 tors have little or no following. — To return to orthodoxy. 
 
350 PolO. 
 
 The Palace itself, conservative in most things non-political, 
 offers to the nation an example of fidelity to the national 
 traditions in matters relating to poetry. The Imperial 
 Family has its teachers of the art. Once a year, too, in 
 January, a theme is set, on -which the Emperor, Empress, 
 and other high personages compose each a thirty-one syllable 
 ode, and the whole nation is invited to compete, with the 
 result that many thousands of verses are sent in, written on 
 thick paper of r, certain size prescribed by custom. In 
 January last the theme was "Praying for the Dynasty at a 
 Shinto temple." In January, 1890, it was " Patriotic Con- 
 gratulations." In other years it was " The Longevity of the 
 Green Bamboo," "Pine-trees Buried in the Snow," and so 
 on, the general custom being to insert some delicate compli- 
 ment to the reigning house, even when the theme may seem 
 to make that a feat involving some difficult twisting. 
 
 All that has been written above refers to the poetry of the 
 educated. As for the common people, they have songs of 
 their own, which conform as far as possible to classical 
 models, but are much mixed with colloquialisms, and are 
 accordingly depised by all well-bred persons. The ditties 
 sung by singing-girls to the twanging of the guitar belong 
 to this class. 
 
 Books recommended. The Classical Poetry of the Japanese.— An- 
 tholoffie Japonaise, by L^on de Rosny. — Altjapanische Friiklingslieder, by R. Lange. 
 — Also Aston-'s Grammar of the Japanese Written Language, p. 197, et seq., for details 
 concerning prosody, and our own Handbook of Colloquial Japanese for re- 
 marks on the more modern, popular poetry of Japan. — For the No or Lyric 
 Dramas, see Article " Theatre " of the present work. 
 
 Polo. The game of polo, which is believed by the best 
 European authorities to have originated in Persia, was 
 introduced into Japan from China in the sixth or seventh 
 
PolO. 351 
 
 century after Christ. It is known here by the Chinese name 
 of da-kyii, literally " striking balls." A Japanese poet of the 
 earlier part of the eighth century mentions polo as being 
 then a favourite pastime of the court. It still remains 
 essentially aristocratic, as indeed a game played on horseback 
 and entailing considerable apparatus and expense can scarcely 
 fail to do. 
 
 The Japanese polo club, or rather racket, weighs a trifle 
 under 2 ounces. It has a tapering bamboo handle some 3 
 feet 6 inches in length, and of about -J inch diameter at the 
 thick end. To the thin end is spliced, with silk or cotton 
 cord, a flat piece of split bamboo \ inch in width, bent round 
 so as almost to form a frame, and kept in position by a piece 
 of double cord fastened from its extremity to the handle just 
 above the splicing. Across this frame a light net of silk or 
 cotton cord is stretched sufficiently loosely to avoid elasticity, 
 but not loosely enough to present any " catch " in slinging 
 the ball. The interior of this scoop or net measures 4 inches 
 by 2f . The balls are of four kinds — plain white, plain red, 
 banded red, and banded white. They measure If inch in 
 diameter, weigh about \\ ounce, and are formed of small 
 pebbles wrapped in rice straw or bamboo fibre and coated 
 with several layers of thin paper fastened up with rice paste. 
 
 The correct number of players is fourteen — seven a side — 
 but the game is sometimes played with a greater and often 
 with a less number. Each side wears a distinctive badge — 
 white and some colour. The players with white badges play 
 with white balls, those with coloured badges with red balls. 
 
 The court is a rectangular enclosure railed in by a stout 
 bamboo post and rail fence about 4 feet high, except at one 
 end, where a boarded fence or screen about 8 feet high 
 
852 Polo. 
 
 replaces the post and rail. In the centre of this screen is a 
 circular hole about 1 foot 6 inches in diameter, behind which 
 is fixed a netted bag rather longer than an ordinary landing 
 net. This is the goal. * Eighteen feet from this goal screen, 
 another post and rail about 3 feet 6 inches high is fixed as a 
 barrier right across the enclosure. Three feet nearer the 
 goal, a balk line formed by a bamboo embedded in the earth 
 is fixed parallel to the barrier and goal fence. At the other 
 end (entrance end), another barrier forms a small enclosure 
 for attendants with balls and rackets. Close to this end are 
 openings in the side post and rails, allowing the players ingress 
 and egress. The space thus railed in measures 180 feet from 
 " barrier " to " barrier," 60 feet from side to side. 
 
 The players having entered the enclosure on horseback, 
 each provides himself with a ball of similar colour to the 
 badge worn by his side, the ball being carried balanced in 
 the net of the racket.. Each side then forms in single file at 
 the entrance end of the enclosure, so that the two files are 
 parallel both to the borders of the enclosure and to one 
 another. The border of the enclosure which each side 
 occupies, is denoted by a flag and string of balls of the colour 
 proper to that side placed right and left of the goal. Each 
 horseman faces goal, but also slightly turns his horse 
 inwards, so as to face somewhat towards his corresponding 
 opponent also. Each player then raises his racket, with 
 the ball balanced on the net, to a horizontal position across 
 his chest, breast high — the club being held in the right 
 hand — and thus awaits the word to start. This being given,- 
 
 * This distance is somewhat variably being occasionally reduced to as little as 
 15 feet. The diameter of goal is then reduced with the distance from 1 foot 6 
 inches to 1 foot 2 inches. 
 
Polo. 353 
 
 both sides canter en viasse to the " goal barrier," and 
 endeavour to sling their balls through the " goal hole," at 
 the same time obstructing foes and protecting friends as far 
 as possible. The object of the players, on both sides, during 
 this the first stage of the game, is to score seven balls of 
 their respective colours as soon as possible. Should .a player 
 inadvertently put a ball of the opponents' colour into goal, 
 it scores for them, and against his own side. The duration 
 of each game being limited to half an hour, scoring is of 
 more importance during the first stage than obstructing. 
 Consequently the play is chiefly confined to shooting at 
 goal. If, however, one side gains a long lead at starting, it 
 is usual for the other side to station a " goal keeper " in front 
 of the goal to impede the shooting of the successful side. At 
 the entrance end of the court, behind the barrier, are piles of 
 balls of both colours. It is usual for a player of each side to 
 supply his allies with ammunition, by slinging up balls of 
 their colour towards the goal. For during the first stage of 
 the game the number of balls in play is practically unlimited, 
 those only being out of play which fall outside the enclosure, 
 or remain between the "balk line" and goal screen. It is 
 not good form to sling the opponents' balls out of the 
 enclosure, but it is so to return them towards the entrance 
 end. 
 
 The fragile nature of the rackets necessitates gentle play, 
 and reduces hitting or striking to a minimum. It is 
 not allowable to handle the ball, or to carry it in any 
 other way than in the racket net. The score is kept 
 by means of two strings of seven balls each, of the re- 
 spective colours of the two sides. These strings of balls 
 are hung outside the screen on either side of goal. When a 
 
S54 Polo. 
 
 ball is put into goal, a ball of the same colour is taken off its 
 string. Thus the number of balls remaining on each string 
 denotes, not the number of balls already scored by each side, 
 but the number which still remains to be scored to complete 
 the tale of seven. The scoring of a ball is further announced 
 by two blows upon a drum for one side, upon a gong for the 
 other. 
 
 When one side has scored seven balls, it enters the second 
 and final stage of the game. Drum or gong, as the case may 
 be, loudly announces the fact by repeated - strokes. That 
 side's hitherto slanting flag-staff is raised to a vertical posi- 
 tion, its scoring string stands empty. A banded ball of its 
 colour is thrown into the enclosure from the entrance barrier 
 by an attendant, and is scrambled for by both sides. This 
 is the only ball of that colour now in play. Should it be 
 forced out of play, it is. immediately replaced by a similar 
 banded ball thrown into the enclosure in the same manner, 
 and so on. Should it be slung into goal, the game is over, 
 the side of that colour winning the game. In like manner 
 should the other side score their seventh ball before the 
 opponents score their banded ball, they too are heralded into 
 the second stage of the game, with flag, gong or drum, and 
 empty scoring string. They too have a banded ball of their 
 colour thrown into court, the only one of that colour then in 
 play, also replaced by a similar ball in the event of its being 
 forced out of play. The two sides are in that case again 
 equal, and whichever side scores its banded ball first wins 
 the game. (Until the unsuccessful side scores its seventh 
 ball, however, it still remains in the first stage of the game, 
 and can play with an unlimited number of balls). The 
 winning stroke is announced by loud beating of the gong or 
 
Polo. 355 
 
 drum, and by waving of the flag -which distinguishes the 
 winning side. The winners ride out of the enclosure in 
 single file, while the losers dismount and follow on foot, 
 leading their horses — a picturesque conclusion to a noble and 
 manly game. Should neither side score its banded ball 
 within a given time (half an hour usually) from the com- 
 mencement of play, the game is drawn. 
 
 The following minor points are worthy of notice : — 
 
 The importance of the banded ball is always denoted by a 
 change in the whole character of the game. " Goal keepers " 
 are stationed near the goal to defend it. Players are told 
 off to endeavour to obtain and keep possession of the opponents' 
 banded ball. Dodging, slinging from a distance, passing, 
 dribbling, and empounding all add an animation and excite- 
 ment to the last stage of the game which are somewhat 
 wanting in the first. 
 
 Picking up the ball is an art easily acquired ; not so the 
 wrist motion necessary to retain the ball in the racket net. 
 This must be the result either of practice or of natural sleight 
 of hand. 
 
 The game is sometimes played with three balls instead of 
 
 seven, either in order to shorten it, or when there is not the 
 
 full complement of players. 
 # * * * # # * * 
 
 Other games played on horseback are the Samurai Odori, 
 
 or Warriors' Dance, which may perhaps be best described as 
 
 a giant quadrille in armour, and the Inu On, Mono, or Dog 
 
 Chase, a cruel though not exactly bloody sport, the gist of 
 
 which is shooting at dogs with blunt arrows. Both are now 
 
 extremely rare. 
 
 Boole recommended. For the curious but wide-spread tradition 
 accounting for the origin of the Dog Chase, see a piece entitled The Death Stone, in. 
 The Classical Poetry oj the Japanese, p. 147 et seq. 
 
856 Porcelain and Pottery. 
 
 Population. The latest offioial statistics give the popula- 
 tion of Japan as 40,072,020, of whom 20,246,336 men, and 
 19,825,684 women. These figures refer to the 31st December, 
 1889. -A comparison with those for each year from 1881 
 onwards, when the total was only 36,358,994, shows an 
 average annual increase of slightly under 1.1 per cent. 
 
 Book TecommeEded, Jttsumo Statiaiique de I'JEmpire du Jcrpon. 
 
 Porcelain and Pottery. At the end of the sixteenth 
 century after Christ, the Korean polity and civilisation were 
 ruthlessly overthrown by Japanese invaders. The Korean 
 art of porcelain-making then crossed the water. All Japan's 
 chief potteries date from that time, her teachers being Korean 
 captives. What had gone before was but preparatory — such 
 things, we mean, as the coarse clay vessels attributed to the 
 eighth century saint, Gyogi Bosatsu, the black and chocolate- 
 coloured tea-jars of Seto, which date from the thirteenth 
 century, and Shonzui's imitations of Chinese blue porcelain, 
 which date from the first half of the sixteenth century. 
 These early efforts may greatly interest the antiquary ; and 
 the association of some of them with the celebrated " tea 
 ceremonies " (cha-no-yu) gives them a succes d'estime in the 
 eyes of native collectors. But they are not art properly so- 
 called. Japanese ceramic art dates, roughly speaking, from 
 the year 1600. It reached its zenith, also roughly speaking, 
 between the years 1750 and 1830. The " Old Satsuma " 
 crackled ware, of which European collections contain (query : 
 do they ?) such numerous specimens, possesses therefore no 
 fabulous antiquity ; the only thing often fabulous about it is 
 its genuineness. The real golden age of Satsuma faience was 
 the half century from 1800 to 1850. 
 
Porcelain and Pottery. 357 
 
 The other principal centres of the Japanese ceramic art, 
 ■as enumerated in Audsley and Bowes' work on the subject, 
 are the province of Hizen, noted for the enamelled porcelain 
 made at Arita — the " Old Japan " of European collectors — 
 besides other varieties ; Kaga, which, after a long and 
 chequered history, is now known chiefly for the Kutani 
 porcelain richly decorated in red and gold ; and Kyoto, whose 
 Baku faience has long been associated with the " tea cere- 
 monies." Kyoto is also the home of the Awata faience 
 originated by the celebrated artist Ninsei about A. D. 1650, 
 and of other varieties known by the names of Kiyomizu, Go- 
 jozaka, Iwakura-yaki, etc. The potteries of Kyoto are those 
 within most easy reach of the traveller, and a visit to them 
 should on no account be omitted. Then there is Owari, which 
 produces many varieties of porcelain and certain descriptions 
 of faience and stoneware. Though here named last, the 
 ■Owari potteries would seem to be the most ancient of all ; and 
 the village of Seto in this province has given its name to 
 pottery and porcelain in general, such objects being familiarly 
 •spoken of by the Japanese as seto-mono, that is " Seto things," 
 much as we use the word china. 
 
 Japan boasts many other famous ceramic wares. Such 
 are the various kinds of BUen ware, of which the most 
 original are humorous figures of gods, birds, lions, and other 
 creatures ; the thin, mostly unglazed Banlco ware, whose 
 manufacturers at the present day display great ingenuity in 
 giving quaint fanciful shapes to tea-pots and other small 
 articles ; the Awaji faience, consisting chiefly of small mono- 
 chromatic pieces with a bright yellow or green glaze ; the 
 Soma pottery, to be recognised by the picture of a running 
 horse ; the egg-shell cups of Mino ; and the Tahatori, Izumo, 
 
358 Porcelain and Pottery. 
 
 and Yatsushiro wares, of which the latter — especially in its 
 more ancient specimens — are very highly prized. 
 
 The qualities of sobriety and " distinction," which are so 
 noticeable in the other branches of Japanese art, have not failed 
 to impress themselves on the ceramics of this favoured land. 
 Some of the early Arita porcelain was, it is true, manufactur- 
 ed to the order of Dutch traders of Nagasaki, and bears the 
 marks of this extraneous influence in the gaudy over-crowd- 
 ing of its decoration. For this fault Wagenaar and other 
 chiefs of the Dutch factory are responsible, not the Japanese 
 whom they employed. A British matron provided with the 
 necessary funds may dictate as she pleases to a Paris modiste ; 
 but the result is not necessarily a perfect index of Parisian 
 taste. The typical Japanese ceramists were no hired workmen, 
 no mere sordid manufacturers, but artists, and not only artists, 
 but clansmen faithful to their feudal chief. By him they 
 were fed ; for him and for the love of their art they worked. 
 Pieces were made for special occasions — for presents, say, 
 from their lord to the Shogun at Yedo, or for the trousseau 
 of their lord's daughter. Time was no object. There was 
 no public of mediocre tastes to cater for. Nothing was made, 
 as the vulgar phrase is, for the million. The art was per- 
 fectly and essentially aristocratic. Hence the distinction of, for 
 instance, the early Satsuma ware, the delicacy of its drawing, 
 the subdued harmony of its colouring. It is a mere piece of 
 amiable optimism to suppose it possible that such a tradition 
 can be kept up in the days which have produced that fright- 
 ful but aptly descriptive term, " art manufacture." The same 
 thing is true, generally speaking, of Japanese art in all its 
 branches. The painter, the lacquerer, the worker in metal 
 — all had in view the personal requirements of a small and 
 
Posts. 359 
 
 highly cultivated class of nobles. Money-making was never 
 their aim, nor were their minds distracted by the knowledge 
 of the existence of numerous styles besides their own. (See 
 also Article on Archeology.) 
 
 Books recommended. Keramic Art of Japan, by Geo. A. Audsley 
 and J. L. Bowes. — Japan and its Art, by Huish. — "We have not yet seen Mr. Bowes'fl 
 more recent Japanese Pottery, on the subject of which a lively discussion has 
 arisen between the author and Professor Morse. 
 
 Posts. When Iejasu, in A.D. 1603, brought Japan to a 
 state of peace which lasted for two hundred and fifty years, 
 a rude postal system spontaneously sprang up in the shape 
 of private agencies, called hikyaku-ya, which undertook, for a 
 low charge, but also at a low rate of speed, to transmit 
 private correspondence from place to place both by land and 
 sea. The official despatches of the Shogunate were all sent 
 by special government couriers, under the control of post- 
 masters (eJciteishi) at the various post-towns. Couriers 
 belonging to the various clans carried the despatches of 
 their respective daimyus to and from the seat of government 
 at Yedo. 
 
 The first approximation to a postal system modelled on 
 that of the United States was made early in 1871, chiefly 
 through the efforts of Mr. H. Maejima, by the establishment 
 of a government postal service along the Tokaido between 
 Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. This was extended to the whole 
 country, with the exception of certain parts of Yezo, in 1872. 
 The 1 sen 6 lin, 8 sen, and 16 sen stamps of those early days 
 have become extremely rare. 
 
 Concurrently with the Imperial Japanese post-office, Ameri- 
 can postal agencies continued to exist at the Treaty Ports 
 until the end of 1873, and French and English agencies 
 
360 Praying-Wheel. 
 
 until the 1st April, 1879, on which date Japan was admitted 
 into the International Postal Union, with full management 
 of all her postal affairs. Japanese letter-postage is now the 
 cheapest in the world, because based on a silver standard 
 which naturally shares in the universal depreciation of silver. 
 Inland letters go for 2 sen, that is, about two-thirds of a 
 penny, post-cards for half that sum. The postage to China 
 and America is 5 sen (less than twopence), that to all other 
 countries of the postal union 10 sen (a little over threepence, 
 though originally intended to be equivalent to fivepence). 
 There is an excellent system of postal savings banks. 
 
 Praying-Wheel. This instrument of devotion, so 
 popular in Thibetan Buddhism, is comparatively rare in 
 Japan, and is used in a. slightly different manner, no prayers 
 being written on it. Its raison d'etre, so far as the Japanese 
 are concerned, must be sought in the doctrine of ingwa, 
 according to which everything in this life is the outcome of 
 actions performed in a previous state of existence. For 
 example, a man goes blind : this results from some crime 
 committed by him in his last avatar. He repents in this life, 
 and his next life will be a happier one-; or he does not 
 repent, and he will then go from bad to worse in successive 
 re-births. In other words, the doctrine is that of evolution 
 applied to ethics. This perpetual succession of cause and 
 effect resembles the turning of a wheel. So the believer 
 turns the praying-wheel, which thus becomes a symbol of 
 human fate, with an entreaty to the compassionate god Jizo* 
 to let the misfortune roll by, the pious desire be accomplished, 
 the evil disposition amended as swiftly as possible. Only the 
 
 * See Murray's Handbook for Japan, 3rd edit., page 29, (or an account of tnig 
 popular deity. 
 
Printing. 361 
 
 Tendai and Shingon sects of Buddhists use the praying- 
 wheel — rimbd as they call it — whence its comparative rarity 
 in Japan. 
 
 Visitors to Tokyo will find three outside a small shrine 
 dedicated to the god Fudo close to the large temple of 
 Asakusa. They are mounted on low posts not unlike pillar- 
 post hoxes. 
 
 The wheel which figures so frequently in Buddhist archi- 
 tectural design, is not the praying-wheel, but the so-called 
 horin (Sanskrit dharmachakra), or " wheel of the law," a 
 symbol of the doctrine of transmigration. Neither must the 
 praying-wheel be confounded with the " revolving libraries " 
 [tenrinzo or rinzo), sometimes met with in the grounds of 
 Buddhist temples. These "revolving libraries" mostly 
 contain complete or nearly complete sets of the Buddhist 
 scriptures ; and he who causes the library to revolve, lays up 
 for himself as much merit as if he had read the entire 
 canon. 
 
 Printing. Printing reached Japan from China in the 
 wake of Buddhism ; but it came somewhat later than the 
 other arts. The earliest example of block-printing in 
 Japan dates from A. D. 770, when the Empress 
 Shotoku caused a million Buddhist charms to be printed 
 on small slips of paper, for distribution among all the 
 temples of the land. Some of these ancient slips are still 
 in existence. The first notice of printed books occurs in 
 the tenth century, and the oldest specimen extant belongs 
 to a date falling somewhere between 1198 and 1211. 
 
 For about six hundred years after the introduction of 
 printing, Buddhist works — and those in scanty numbers — 
 
362 Printing. 
 
 seem to have been the only ones that issued from the press. 
 The Confucian Analects were first reprinted in Japan in 
 1364, from which time down to the end of the sixteenth 
 century Japanese editions of various standard Chinese 
 works, both in poetry and prose, were printed from time to 
 time. But the impulse to a more vigorous production was 
 given by the conquest of Korea at the end of the sixteenth 
 century, and by the Shogun Ieyasu's liberal patronage of 
 learning at the beginning of the seventeenth. The Japa- 
 nese learnt 'from the vanquished Koreans the use of movable 
 types. These however, went out of fashion again before 
 the middle of the seventeenth century, the enormous number 
 of types necessary for the printing of the Chinese written 
 character making the method practically inconvenient. 
 
 The first genuinely Japanese production to appear in 
 print was the Niliongi, or rather the first two books of the 
 Nihongi, in A. D. 1599. This work, which contains 
 the native mythology and early history, had been composed 
 as far back as A. D. 720. The collection of ancient poems 
 entitled Man-yoshu, dating from the middle of the eighth 
 century, was also first printed about the same time. From 
 that period forward, the work of putting into print the old 
 manuscripb stores of Japanese literature went on apace, 
 while a new literature of commentaries, histories, poetry, 
 popular novels, guide-books, etc., kept the block-cutters 
 constantly employed. The same period saw the introduc- 
 tion of pictorial wood-engraving. 
 
 Since about 1870, the Japanese have adopted European 
 methods of type-founding. The result is that movable 
 types have again come to the fore, though without causing 
 block-printing to be entirely abandoned. All the newspa- 
 
Prniting. 36a 
 
 pers are printed with movable types. A Japanese movable 
 type printing-office would be a strange sight to a European 
 printer. Provision has to be made for, not twenty-six cha- 
 racters, but ten thousand, which is approximately the number 
 of Chinese ideographs in common every-day use ; and of 
 each character there must of course be different sizes — pica, 
 long primer, brevier, and so on. Needless to say that so 
 vast a number of characters cannot possibly fit in to one 
 small case within reach of a single man's hand and eye. 
 They are ranged round a large room on trays, in the order 
 of their radicals ; and youths, supplied each with a page of 
 the "copy" to be set up, walk about from tray to tray, 
 picking out the characters required, which they put in a 
 box and then take to the compositor. As these youths, more 
 japonico, keep droning out all the while in a sort of chant 
 the text on which they are busy, the effect to the ear is as 
 peculiar as to the eye is the sight of the perpetual motion 
 of this troop of youths coming and going from case to case. 
 
 We have used the word " radicals " in the above de- 
 scription. For the sake of those who are unfamiliar with 
 Chinese writing, it must be explained that the Chinese 
 characters are put together, not alphabetically, but by the 
 combination of certain simpler forms, of which the principal 
 are termed "radicals." Thus * is the radical for "tree," 
 or " wood," under which are grouped W " plum-tree," H 
 " willow," ffi " a board," etc., etc. The radical for " water " 
 is Tjt abbreviated in compounds to s-, and under it according- 
 ly corned "a lake," ?ffi "oil,' S " wine," it "to swim," 
 and hundreds of other words having, in one way or another, to 
 do with fluidity. Of course Japanese printing-offices also have 
 to make provision for the native syllabic characters, the so- 
 
364 Proverbs. 
 
 called Kana. But as there are only between two and three 
 hundred forms of these, and as they are generally used 
 only for terminations and particles, they are comparatively 
 unimportant. 
 
 The ten thousand Chinese characters in common use are 
 cast in metal, according to one of the European processes. 
 When a rare character occurs, in an author's manuscript, it is 
 cut in wood for the occasion. To keep on hand types for all 
 the seventy or eighty thousand characters of the Chinese lan- 
 guage would entail an expense too heavy for even the largest 
 printing-office to bear, and would require too much room. 
 
 3BooJ*:s recommended. On the Early History of Printing in Japan, 
 in Vol. X. Part I, and 'Farther Notes on Movable Types in Korean and, Early Japanese 
 Printed Books, in Vol. X. Part II. of the Asiatic Transactions, by Ernest Satow. Our 
 own remarks are chiefly founded on these two valuable essays. 
 
 Proverbs. Here are a few Japanese proverbs : — 
 
 Proof rather than argument. 
 
 Dumplings rather than blossoms . 
 
 Breeding rather than birth. 
 
 A mended lid to a cracked pot. (An assemblage of incap- 
 ables; for intance, a drunken husband and an idiotic wife.) 
 
 A cheap purchase is money lost. 
 
 A bee stinging a weeping face. (One misfortune on the top 
 of another.) 
 
 Cows herd with cows, horses with horses. (Birds of a 
 feather flock together.) 
 
 Not to know is to be a Buddha. (Ignorance is bliss.) 
 
 A man's heart and an autumn sky (are alike fickle). 
 
 Hate the priest, and you will hate his very hood. 
 
 Never trust a woman, even if she has borne you seven 
 children. 
 
Race. 365 
 
 The acolyte at the gate can read scriptures which he has 
 never learnt. 
 
 Excessive tenderness turns to thousand-fold hatred. 
 
 To lose is to win. 
 
 Ten men, ten minds. (Literally " ten men, ten bellies" the 
 mental faculties being, according to popular belief, located in the 
 abdomen.) 
 
 When folly passes by, reason draws back.* 
 
 This last proverb is remarkable, as one of the few instances 
 of personification which the language affords. 
 
 Race. There has been much strife among the learned on 
 this question : to which race do the Japanese belong ? Not 
 scientific considerations only, but religious and other preju- 
 dices have been imported into the discussion. One pious 
 member of the Scotch Kirk derives the Japanese from the 
 Lost Tribes of Israel. An enthusiastic German professor, on 
 the other hand, Dr. Wernich, takes up the cudgels to defend 
 
 * Some persons may like to see the Japanese originals of these proverbs, which 
 are given in the same order as that of the English renderings above : 
 Hon yori skdko, 
 Sana yori dango. 
 TJji yori xodacM, 
 Ware-nabe ni toji-buta. 
 Yasu-mono-kai no zeni-uskinai. 
 Naku tmra wo hachi ga mm. 
 Ushi tea ushi-zure, uma iva uma-zure. 
 Shiranu ga HotoJce. 
 Otoko no kokoro to aki no aora, 
 BOzu ga nikulcereba, kem made nikui. 
 
 Shichi-nin no ko wo nam to mo, onna ni kokoro wo yurmu-na. 
 Monzen no kozO narawanu hyb wo yomu. 
 Kawaisa amatte, nikusu ga sem-bai, 
 Makeru wa katsu. 
 Ju-nin to-hara. 
 Muri ga toreba, dOri hikkomu. 
 
366 Race. 
 
 so charming a nation against " the reproach of Mongolism '■ 
 — whatever that may be. The two greatest authorities on 
 the subject, Baelz and Eein, say, purely and simply, that the 
 Japanese are Mongols. We incline to follow Baelz in his 
 hypothesis of two chief streams of immigration, both coming 
 from Korea, and both gradually spreading eastward and 
 northward. The first of these immigrations would have 
 supplied the round or so-called " pudding-faced " type, com- 
 mon among the lower classes. The second would have 
 supplied the aristocratic type, with its more oval outline, 
 thinner nose, more slanting eyes, and smaller mouth — the 
 type to which Japanese actors endeavour to conform when 
 representing noblemen and heroes. 
 
 Be it remarked that both these types are Mongol. Both 
 have the yellowish skin, the straight hair, the scanty beard, 
 the broadish skull, the more or less oblique eyes, and the 
 high cheek-bones, which characterise all well-established 
 branches of the Mongol race. It is historically certain that 
 some Mongols have come over and settled in Japan, namely, 
 Koreans and Chinamen at various epochs of authentic Japa- 
 nese history. Many guesses have been made concerning 
 possible Malay immigrations from the South, by sea or via 
 the Loochoo Islands. But there is no certain information, 
 there are not even any legendary traces, of such immigrations. 
 The Ainos, who are not a Mongol race, are indeed joint 
 •occupiers of the soil of Japan with the Japanese, and much 
 intermarrying has gone on between the two peoples, and goes 
 on still. It has, however, been pretty well proved that this 
 mixed breed becomes unfruitful in the third or fourth genera- 
 tion — a fact which explains the scant traces of Aino blood 
 even in the population of the extreme north of the island. 
 
Railways. 367 
 
 The two nations are as distinct as the whites and the reds 
 in North America. 
 
 Books recommended. Die Korperlichen Eigenschaften der 
 Japaner, by Dr. E. Baelz, published ill Ports 28 and 32 of the German Asiatic 
 Transactions. 
 
 Railways. Strategical no less than business considera- 
 tions have been taken into account by the Japanese govern- 
 ment in constructing its lines of railway. The aim constantly 
 kept in view has been to connect the two capitals, Tokyo and 
 Kyoto. As a first step, work was begun on the eighteen 
 miles separating Tokyo from Yokohama as long ago as the 
 year 1870, with the assistance of English engineers ; and the 
 line was opened in 1872. Kobe and Osaka were then connected, 
 and other short pieces followed, the inter-capital trunk line 
 being delayed by various causes. Japan is not naturally 
 suited to railway construction : the country is too mountain- 
 ous ; the streams — mere beds of sand to-day — are to-morrow, 
 after a heavy rain, wild surging rivers that sweep away 
 bridges and embankments. For these reasons, the idea of 
 carrying the Tokyo-Kioto railway along the Nakasendo, or 
 backbone of the country, which would have been far better in 
 time of war, as being removed from the possibility of an attack 
 from the sea-side, fell through, the engineering difficulties 
 proving insuperable. The only alternative was to follow the 
 Tokaido, the great highway of Eastern Japan, which skirts 
 the coast along the narrow strip of flat country intervening 
 between the foot of the hills and the Pacific Ocean. This 
 work was completed, and the thousandth mile of railway 
 opened, in the summer of 1889. The total mileage had 
 increased to 1,675 by the autumn of 1891. An interesting 
 line, expected to be open for traffic in 1893, is in process of 
 construction between Yokokawa and Karuizawa, on the way 
 
368 Eailways. 
 
 from Tokyo to Naoetsu. It leads over a steep mountain 
 pass called the Usui-toge, and the inclination is to be one 
 in fifteen for a length of five miles, three miles of which 
 will be in tunnels. The train is to be taken up the pass 
 by "Abt" engines, which have a cog-wheel working on a 
 rack-rail laid between the ordinary rails. 
 
 Japanese railway enterprise, although started by the 
 government, is no longer exclusively in official hands. There 
 are numerous companies — some private, others more or less 
 under government shelter and patronage. Such, for instance, 
 are the Nippon Tetsudo Kwaisha ("Japan Railway Company"), 
 which owns the main line running north to Aomori, and the 
 Sanyo Tetsudo Kwaisha, which owns the line running along 
 the northern shore of the Inland Sea. 
 
 Reduced to its simplest expression, the Japanese railway 
 system, when completed, will practically consist of one long 
 trunk line from Aomori in the extreme north to Shimonoseki 
 in the south-west, together with two large branches connect- 
 ing each capital with the fruitful provinces of the west coast, 
 minor branches to various points in the two metropolitan 
 districts, and local lines in the islands of Kyushu, Shikoku, 
 and Yezo. 
 
 Notwithstanding the natural obstacles to be overcome and 
 the destructive climate, the Japanese lines of railways have 
 been cheaply built, because labour is cheap ; and they already 
 pay fairly well. In round numbers, the cost to government 
 since 1872 on construction and equipment has been six 
 millions sterling. The profits on the government railways 
 have increased steadily year by year. The net profit for the 
 financial year ending the 81st March, 1890, was a trifle over 
 six per cent. The total number of passengers carried during 
 
Railways. 369 
 
 the same period of twelve months over the government lines 
 was 11,885,937 ; the total amount of goods carried was 
 541,517 tons. The proportion of the receipts per cent 
 was as follows : — passenger receipts, 78.4 ; goods receipts, 
 19.1 ; miscellaneous, 2.5. The low proportion of goods 
 receipts, which will appear marvellous to persons whose ex- 
 perience has been gained in England, India, or the United 
 States, is easily explained by geographical conditions, Japan's 
 immense coast-line and the lofty mountain-ranges that -cut up 
 the greater portion of the surface being reasons that dictate, 
 and must continue to dictate, a preference for water-carriage 
 over carriage by rail. The most formidable obstacle in the 
 way of Japanese railway enterprise at the present moment is 
 the absence of a law to enforce expropriation for the benefit 
 of the public. The construction of the Inland Sea Eailway 
 (Sanyo Tetsudo) is at a standstill for this reason, as no capita- 
 lists can afford to buy land at the preposterous sums demand- 
 ed by the owners. 
 
 We have alluded to the trouble caused by the caprieiou, 
 nature of Japanese rivers. Japan is perhaps the only coun- 
 try in the world where a railway may be seen to go under 
 a river instead of over it. In the district between Kobe and 
 Osaka and also near Lake Biwa, nearly all the rivers tend to 
 raise their beds above the level of the surrounding country, 
 by means of the masses of sand and pebbles continually carried 
 down by their rapid current. The river-bed thus stands 
 athwart the flat strip of country between the mountains and 
 the sea as a sort of wall or dyke, and the only thing to do is 
 to take the line underneath it by a tunnel, when the wall is of 
 sufficient height to give headway for the train. Every now 
 and then one of these river-banks bursts, the whole country- 
 
870 Rice. 
 
 side is flooded, and the railway department is of course put 
 to heavy expense. 
 
 The Japanese railways are narrow gauge,— three feet six 
 inches. The railway rates are extremely low. One may 
 travel first class in Japan as cheaply as third class in an 
 English parliamentary train. 
 
 Book recommencled. The Annua! Report of the Imperial Railway 
 Department. 
 
 Religion. Essentially an nndevotional people, the Japa- 
 nese have nevertheless accorded a certain measure of 
 hospitality to the two greatest religions of the world — Bud- 
 dhism and Christianity. Their own unassisted efforts in the 
 direction of religion are summed up in archaic Shinto. 
 Modern Shinto has been profoundly influenced by Buddhism 
 and Confucianism. (See Articles on Buddhism, Histoby and 
 Mythology, Missions, and Shinto.) 
 
 Rice. Rice is believed by most persons to be the uni- 
 versal staple of food in Japan. This assumption is faulty, 
 for it applies only to the towns. Wheat, barley, and es- 
 pecially millet, are the real staples throughout the rural 
 districts, rice being there treated as a luxury to be brought 
 out only on high days and holidays, or to be resorted to in 
 case of sickness. We once heard a beldame in a country 
 village remark to another, with a grave shake of the head : 
 " What ! Do you mean to say that it has come to having to 
 give her rice?" — the unexpressed inference being that the 
 patient's case must be alarming indeed, if the family had 
 thought it necessary to resort to so expensive a dainty. But 
 though the peasants do not eat much rice themselves, a great 
 portion of their labour is devoted to growing it for other people 
 
Roads. 371 
 
 to eat. The paddy-fields, as tliey are called, that is, the 
 fields of rice standing in shallow water skilfully led on from 
 field to field down the very gradual incline of a broad and 
 fertile valley — these fields of vivid green, separated into 
 squares by low mud dykes, form the most characteristic 
 feature of the Japanese landscape. Some rice, too, is grown 
 in the dry, but it is not so good as the other. The wet rice 
 is sown thickly in a comparatively small number of fields, 
 which may be termed nurseries. In June, the young shoots 
 are . plucked up and transplanted at greater distances from 
 each other. The generally lifeless fields may then be seen 
 full of men and women standing knee-deep in the water and 
 mud. The crops are gathered in about October. 
 
 Japanese rice is the best in the world, and the manner in 
 which it is cooked — quite different from the dry boiling of 
 India — is the most palatable and nutritious. (See also Article 
 on Trade.) 
 
 Roads. Several of the chief highways of Japan are 
 extremely ancient. Such are some of the roads near Kyoto, 
 and the Nakasendo running the whole way from Kyoto to 
 Eastern Japan. The most celebrated road of more recent 
 origin, though itself far from modern, is the Tokaido, along 
 which the Daimyos of the western provinces used to travel 
 with their splendid retinues to the Shogun's court at Yedo. 
 The Oshu-kaido leading north, and the Eeiheishi-kaido leading 
 to Nikko, are other great historic roads. Many roads in 
 Japan are lined with tall cryptomerias and other trees. Shortly 
 after the introduction of telegraphy into the country, the 
 Japanese began to hew down these monumental trees in their 
 zeal for what they believed to be civilisation. The telegraph- 
 
372 Samurai. 
 
 poles -would, tliey thought, show to much better advantage 
 without .suph old-fashioned companions. A howl from the 
 foreign press of Yokohama fortunately brought the official 
 Goths to their senses, and after the Tokaido had been partially 
 denuded, the remaining avenues were spared. 
 
 In too many of the newly built roads, though the engineering 
 selection is good, the execution is less so. Eoads are made 
 of clay and dirt only. They run over artificial embankments 
 supported by ~mud foundations, there is no sufficient provision 
 made for carrying off water, and the gradient of the hillside 
 along which the road itself is carried is left much too steep. 
 Holes, ruts, and landslips often attended with loss of life, are 
 the results. There is no idea of macadamising. As for 
 mending, that is done by cart-loads of stones or earth, which 
 effectually supply travellers with dust during the dry weather 
 and a slough of despond whenever it rains. Sometimes twigs 
 of trees and even old cast-off straw sandals are utilised as 
 materials for road-mending. 
 
 Salutations. The only native Japanese salutation is 
 the bow, which often amounts to a prostration wherein the 
 forehead touches the ground. Hand-shaking was unknown 
 till a few years ago, and is little practised even now — a proof 
 of Japanese good sense, especially in the hot weather. As 
 for kissing, that is tabooed as utterly immodest and revolting. 
 
 Samurai. In the early Middle Ages — say, before the 
 twelfth century — the soldiers of the Mikado's palace were 
 said to samurou, that is, "be on guard" there. But when 
 feudalism came in, the word samurai was taken to denote the 
 entire warrior class. " Warriors," " the military class," 
 
Seismological Society. 373 
 
 " the gentry," are perhaps the best English renderings 
 of the word; for it was of the essence of Old Japan 
 that all gentlemen must be soldiers, and all soldiers 
 gentlemen. The Japanese craze for altering names was 
 exemplified in 1878, by the change of the historical and 
 thoroughly native word samurai to that of sJiizohu, a Chinese 
 term of precisely the same meaning. Under this new 
 designation, the samurai still continue to exist as one of the 
 three classes into which Japanese society is divided. 
 
 In the feudal times which lasted till A. D. 1871, the 
 samurai lived in their Daimyos' castle, attended their Daimyos 
 on all occasions, and received from them rations for them- 
 selves and their families — rations which were calculated in 
 so many Itohu — that is, bags of rice — yearly. One of the early 
 measures of the new Imperial government was to commute 
 these incomes- for a lump sum, to be paid in government 
 bonds. Optional at first, in December, 1873, the commuta- 
 tion was rendered obligatory by a second edict published in 
 August, 1876. Since that time, many of the samurai — unac- 
 customed as they had been to business and to the duty of 
 working for their livelihood — have fallen into great misery. 
 The more clever and ambitious, on the other hand, practi- 
 cally constitute the governing class of the country at the 
 present day, their former lords and masters, the Daimyos, 
 having lagged behind in the race, and there being still a 
 sufficient remnant of aristocratic spirit to render the rise of 
 a plebeian" to any position of importance a matter of 
 considerable difficulty. 
 
 Sculpture. See Caeving. 
 
 Seismological Society. See Eaethquakes. 
 
374 Shinto. 
 
 Shampooing. See Massage. 
 
 Shell-heaps. See Archeology. 
 
 Shinto. Shinto, which means literally "the way of the 
 gods," is the name given to the mythology and vague 
 ancestor and nature-worship which preceded the introduction 
 of Buddhism into Japan, and which survives to the present 
 day in a somewhat modified form. Beferring the reader 
 to the article on History and Mythology for a sketch 
 of the Shinto pantheon, we would here draw attention to the 
 fact that Shinto, so often spoken of as a religion, is hardly 
 entitled to that name. It has no set of dogmas, no sacred 
 book, no moral code. The absence of a moral code is ac- 
 counted for, in the writings of the modern native commen- 
 tators, by the innate perfection of Japanese humanity, which 
 obviates the necessity for such outward props. It is only out- 
 casts, like the Chinese and Western nations, whose natural 
 depravity renders the occasional appearance of sages and 
 reformers necessary ; and even with this assistance, all foreign 
 nations continue to wallow in a mire of ignorance, guilt, and 
 disobedience towards the heaven-descended, dejur$ monarch 
 of the universe — the Mikado of Japan. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to distinguish three periods in the 
 existence of Shinto. During the first of these — roughly 
 speaking, down to A.D. 550 — the Japanese had no notion of 
 religion as a separate institution. To pay homage to the gods, 
 that is, to the departed ancestors of the Imperial Family, and to 
 the manes of other great men, was a usage springing from the 
 same mental soil as that which produced passive obedience to, 
 and worship of, the living Mikado. Besides this, there were 
 prayers to the wind-gods, to the god of fire, to the god of 
 
SMnto. 375 
 
 pestilence, to the goddess of food, and to deities presiding 
 over the saucepan, the cauldron, the gate, and the kitchen. 
 There were also purifications for wrong-doing, as there were 
 for bodily defilement, such as, for instance, contact with a 
 corpse. The purifying element was water. But there was 
 not even a shadowy idea of any code of morals, or any syste- 
 matisation of the simple notions of the people concerning 
 things unseen. There was neither heaven nor hell — only a 
 kind of neutral- tinted Hades. Some of the gods were good, 
 some were bad ; nor was the line between men and gods at 
 all clearly drawn. There was, however, a rude sort of priest- 
 hood, each priest being charged with the service of some 
 particular local god, but not with preaching to the people. 
 One of the virgin daughters of the Mikado always dwelt at 
 the ancient shrine of Ise, keeping watch over the mirror, the 
 sword, and the jewel, which he had inherited from his 
 ancestress, Ama-terasu, Goddess of the Sun. Shinto may be 
 said, in this its first period, to have been a set of ceremonies 
 as much political as religious. 
 
 By the introduction of Buddhism in the middle of the 
 sixth century after Christ, the second period of the exist- 
 ence of Shinto was inaugurated, and further growth in the 
 direction of a religion was stopped. The metaphysics of 
 Buddhism were far too profound, its ritual far too gorgeous, 
 its moral code far too exalted, for the puny fabric of Shinto 
 to make any effective resistance. All that there was of 
 religious feeling in the nation went over to the enemy. 
 The Buddhist priesthood diplomatically received the nativa 
 Shinto gods into their pantheon as avatars of ancient 
 Buddhas, for which reason many of the Shinto ceremonies 
 connected with the court were kept up, although Buddhist 
 
376 Shinto. 
 
 ceremonies took the first place even in the thoughts of the 
 converted descendants of the sun. The Shinto rituals, 
 (norito), previously handed down by word of .mouth, were 
 then first put into written shape. The term Shinto itself was 
 also introduced, in order to distinguish the old native way of 
 thinking from the new doctrine imported from India ; for 
 down to that time no one Lad hit on the notion of including 
 the various fragmentary legends and local usages under one 
 general designation. But viewing the matter broadly, we 
 may say that the second period of Shinto, which lasted from 
 about A. D. 550 to 1700, was one of darkness and decrepi- 
 tude. The various petty sects into which it then divided 
 itself, owed what little vitality they possessed to fragments of 
 cabalistic lore filched from the baser sort of Buddhism and 
 from Taoism. Their priests practised the arts of divination 
 •and sorcery. Only at Court and at a few great shrines, such 
 as those of Ise and Izumo, was a knowledge of Shinto in its 
 native simplicity kept up ; and even there it is doubtful whether 
 ■changes did not creep in with the lapse of ages. Most of 
 the Shinto temples throughout the country were served by 
 Buddhist priests, who introduced the architectural ornaments 
 and the ceremonial of their own. religion. Thus was formed 
 • By obu- Shinto, — a mixed religion founded on a compromise 
 between the old creed and the new, — and hence the tolerant 
 ideas on theological subjects of most Japanese of the middle 
 and lower classes, who will worship indifferently at the 
 shrines of either faith. 
 
 The third period in the history of Shinto began about the 
 year 1700, and continues dbwn to the present day. It has 
 been termed " the period of the revival of pure Shinto." 
 During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, under 
 
Shinto. 377 
 
 the peaceful government of the Tokugawa dynasty of 
 Shoguns, the literati of Japan turned their eyes backward 
 on their country's past. Old manuscripts were disinterred, . 
 old histories and old poems were put into print, the old 
 language was investigated and imitated. Soon the movement 
 became religious and political — above all, patriotic, not to 
 say chauvinistic. The Shogunate was frowned on, because 
 it had supplanted the autocracy of the heaven-descended 
 Mikados. Buddhism and Confucianism were sneered at be- 
 cause of their foreign origin. Shinto gained by all this. The 
 great scholars Mabuchi (1697-1769), Motoori (1730-1801), 
 and Hirata (1776-1843) devoted themselves to a religious 
 propaganda — if that can be called a religion which sets out 
 from the principle that the only two things needful are to 
 follow one's natural impulses and to obey the Mikado. This 
 order of ideas triumphed for a moment in the revolution of 
 1868. Buddhism was disestablished and disendowed, and 
 Shinto was installed as the only state religion — the Council 
 for Spiritual Affairs being given equal rank with the Council 
 of State, which latter controlled affairs temporal. At the 
 same time thousands of temples, formerly Buddhist or Bydbu- 
 Shinto, were, as the phrase went, "purified," that is, stripped 
 of their Buddhist ornaments, and handed over to Shinto 
 keeping. But as Shinto had no root in itself — being a thing 
 too empty and jejune to influence the hearts of men — Bud- 
 dhism soon rallied. The Council for Spiritual Affairs was 
 reduced to the rank of a department, the department to a 
 bureau, the bureau to a sub-bureau. The whole thing is now 
 a mere shadow, though Shinto is still in so far the official 
 cult that certain temples are maintained out of public moneys, 
 and that the attendance of certain officials is required from 
 
378 Shintd. 
 
 time to time at ceremonies of a half-religious half-courtly 
 nature. Hard pressed to establish their raison d'etre and 
 retain a little popularity, the priests have taken to selling 
 cheap prints of religious subjects after the fashion of their 
 Buddhist rivals, and to issuing short treaties on morals taken 
 bodily (but without acknowledgment) from Confucius. The 
 lover of Japanese art will bear the Shinto revivalists ill-will 
 for the ridiculous " purification " which has destroyed count- 
 less gems of Buddhist architecture and ornament — not for the 
 sake of a grand moral ideal, as with the Puritans of Europe, 
 but for an ideal immeasurably inferior to Buddhism itself. 
 On the other hand, the literary style of their writings 
 outshines anything produced by the Buddhists ; and their 
 energy in rescuing the old Japanese classic authors from 
 neglect is worthy of all praise. 
 
 The Shinto temple (yashiro or jinja) preserves in a slightly 
 elaborated form the type of the primeval Japanese hut, differ- 
 ing in this from the Buddhist temple (tern), which is of 
 Chinese and more remotely of Indian origin. Details of the 
 names and uses of the various temple buildings, together 
 with other matters, are given in the Introduction to Murray's 
 Handbook for Japan. It may suffice briefly to indicate here a 
 means of distinguishing from each other the temples of the 
 two religions. The outward and visible sign of Shinto is 
 a wand from which depend strips of white paper cut into 
 little angular bunches (gohei), intended to represent the of- 
 ferings of cloth which were anciently tied to branches of 
 the Cleyera tree at festival time. Another difference is 
 that the Shinto temple is thatched, whereas the Bud- 
 dhist temple is tiled. Furthermore the Shinto temple is 
 plain and empty, while the Buddhist is highly decorated 
 
Shipping. 379 
 
 and filled with religious properties. (See also article on 
 Architectuee . ) 
 
 Books recomniended. Hun-ay's Handbook, just mentioned, for a 
 brief resume of the subject. The following treatises are much more elaborate : — 
 
 The Revival of Pure Shinto, by Ernest t-nitow, forming the Appendix to Vol. Ill; 
 The Skinto_ Temples of Iss, by the same, ill Vol. II ; and Ancient Japanese Rituals, by 
 the same, in Vols. VII. and IX. of the Asiatic Transactions— Introduction to the 
 Kojiki, for mi ng the Supplement to Vol. X. of the same. 
 
 Shipping. The shipping industry is not only one of the 
 most important in Japan, but also one of the most flourishing, 
 holding now, as it would seem to have done from time imme- 
 morial, a prominent place in the commerce of the country. 
 The reason for this is not far to seek, being found in Japan's 
 insular position, her extensive sea-board, and her mountainous 
 interior. Even at the time of the opening of the country to 
 foreign intercourse, when political exigency had, for over two 
 hundred years, confined the industry to a coasting trade, 
 the number of vessels was by no means inconsiderable. The 
 Japanese take kindly to a seafaring life, and it is only 
 reasonable to suppose that they would have had a large fleet 
 of vessels and extensive commercial relations, had no 
 restrictive laws rendered the trade purely domestic. During 
 the Middle Ages, the Japanese were distinguished among 
 Eastern nations for their spirit of maritime enterprise. 
 Eorea, China, Formosa, even the distant Philippine Islands, 
 Cambodia, and Siam saw the Japanese appear on their coasts, 
 now as peaceful traders, now.as buccaneers. The story of one 
 of these buccaneers, named Yamada Nagamasa, alias Tenjiku 
 Hachibei, who ended by marrying a Siamese princess and 
 becoming viceroy of the country, reads more like a chapter 
 from the " Arabian Nights " than like sober reality. It is 
 evident, too, that the Japanese of the early part of the seven- 
 teenth century were determined not to be left behind in the 
 
380 Shipping. 
 
 art of shipbuilding. The English master - mariner Will 
 Adams, who came to Japan in the year 1600, built ships for 
 Ieyasu, the then Shogun, one of -which made voyages to 
 Manila and even to Mexico. Suddenly all was changed. 
 Alarmed beyond measure at the progress of Eoman Catho- 
 licism, and fearing that in Japan, as elsewhere, the Spanish 
 monk would be followed by the Spanish soldier of fortune, 
 Iemitsu, the third Shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, issued 
 an edict in the year 1636, whereby all foreign priests were 
 expelled from the empire, foreign merchants were restricted 
 to the two south-western ports of Nagasaki and Hirado, and 
 all Japanese subjects were forbidden under pain of death to 
 leave Japan. Drastic measures were resorted to so as the 
 better to enforce the terms of this edict, all vessels of Euro- 
 pean build and even all larger vessels of native build were 
 ordered to be destroyed, only smaller junks sufficient for 
 coasting purposes being allowed to be retained. This is the 
 style of junk still seen at the present day in Japanese waters. 
 It is distinguished by a single square sail, which is so awk- 
 ward as to render the vessel difficult to handle except when 
 running before the wind. Japan's shipping enterprise was 
 crippled for over two centuries, though the number of 
 coasting junks no doubt remained large ; for the character 
 of the country made communication by water indispensable. 
 What the actual amount of junk tonnage was at any period of 
 the Tokugawa rule, or even at the beginning of the reign of 
 the present Emperor, is unknown. 
 
 When the feudal government of old Japan fell like a card 
 palace, the restrictions on shipbuilding fell with it. The new 
 Imperial government took a laudable interest in the develop- 
 ment of a mercantile marine of foreign build. Among other 
 
Shipping. 381 
 
 measures adopted -with this end in view, the regulation 
 prohibiting the construction of junks of over five hundred 
 JeoJcu* burthen may be cited as one of the most efficacious. 
 At the present time the Japanese waters are studded with 
 vessels of all denominations, both sail and steam, from the 
 handy schooner and the sleam launch to the full-rigged ship 
 and the ocean-going steamer. 
 
 Nor has everything been left to official initiative. Mr. 
 Iwasaki Yataro, the celebrated millionaire, started steamers 
 of his own somewhere about 1870 ; and the company which 
 he directed, known later under the name of the Mitsubishi! 
 Mail Steam Ship Company, soon rose to be the most im- 
 portant commercial undertaking in the empire. It even 
 influenced politics ; for to the facilities which Mr. Iwasaki 
 afforded for carrying troops at the time of the Satsuma 
 rebellion, was due in no small measure the triumph of the 
 imperialists in that their hour of need. Later on, another 
 steamship company of considerable importance, named the 
 Kyodo Un-yu Kivaisha, was formed to run against the Mitsu- 
 bishi. But the rivalry between the two proving 1 ruinous, 
 they were amalgamated in the autumn of 1885., 'under the 
 name of the Nippon Yusen Ktcaisha, or- Japan Mail Steam 
 Ship Company. This concern now owns some fifty vessels 
 
 * Article 3 of the " Regulations and Rules for the Measurement of Vessels* 
 Capacity," published in 1SSS by the Mercantile Marine Bureau of the Imperial 
 Department of Communications, fixes the capacity of the kolcu, in vessels of 
 Japanese build, as equivalent to ten cubic feet. Whether this was the precise 
 value of the leoTcn in earlier times, we cannot say. Probably not ; for Old Japan 
 knew little of exact computations, and, as a rule, each province was a law unto 
 itself in questions relating to weights and measures. 
 
 t From mitm, "three" and hishi, " the water caltrop," hence "lozenge," the 
 leaves of the caltrop being approximately lozenge-shaped, and three lozenges being 
 the company's crest. 
 
382 Shipping. 
 
 of various sizes, which not only trade between the various 
 parts of the coast, but serve to maintain regular services be- 
 tween Japan and Shanghai, Vladivostock, Tientsin, and Manila. 
 Numerous small companies and privately owned vessels 
 abound, rendering the facilities of travel and transit easy in 
 almost every part of Japan. 
 
 There can be no question that the enterprising spirit of 
 Mr. Iwasaki in initiating steam communication between 
 the principal ports, and the action of government in 
 fostering the industry, have greatly contributed to develop 
 the country. Places that were formerly obliged to de- 
 pend upon the casual services of junks to carry away 
 their produce, found themselves supplied with regular ship- 
 ping facilities, or were at least able to command tonnage at 
 short notice to relieve them of any accumulation of cargo. 
 Another hopeful sign of the times is the progress made in the 
 business methods of all connected with the shipping trade. 
 The happy-go-lucky method of conducting the loading of a 
 junk, which could afford to wait an indefinite period for a cargo, 
 has necessarily given place to the prompt shipment of goods at 
 the time stipulated. Specially creditable is the management 
 of the mail steamers, though it is only fair to add that the 
 progress made in this respect is largely due to those foreigners 
 who have had an extensive share in the direction of the 
 steamship lines. 
 
 So far the domestic trade. In no lesser degree is Japan 
 well-supplied with foreign tonnage. The importance of the 
 foreign shipping trade of the empire may be gauged by a 
 perusal of the accompanying tables, which give the number 
 of vessels that entered and cleared from Japan during 1890, 
 with their tonnages. 
 
Shipping. 
 
 STEAMERS. 
 
 383 
 
 
 Entebed. 
 
 Cleaeed. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 British 
 
 492 
 
 365 
 
 225 
 
 26 
 
 20 
 
 22 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 819,439 
 
 329,196 
 
 194,740 
 
 62,946 
 
 54,020 
 
 27,860 
 
 20,556 
 
 704 
 
 421 
 
 365 
 
 214 
 
 26 
 
 20 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 710,607 
 
 325,822 
 
 182,346 
 
 63,160 
 
 54,020 
 
 27,860 
 
 17,294 
 
 472 
 
 913 
 
 730 
 
 439 
 
 52 
 
 40 
 
 44 
 
 48 
 
 
 
 1,530,046 
 
 655,018 
 
 377,086 
 
 126,106 
 
 108,040 
 
 55,720 
 
 37,850 
 
 1,176 
 
 
 U.S. of America.. 
 
 Total 
 
 1,180 
 
 1,509,461 
 
 1,093 
 
 1,381,581 
 
 2,273 
 
 2,891,042 
 
 
 SAILERS. 
 
 
 Entebed. 
 
 Cleaeed. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 
 50 
 
 33 
 
 156 
 
 742 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 52,412 
 44,923 
 23,510 
 14,029 
 10,165 
 210 
 148 
 
 52 
 
 37 
 
 152 
 
 802 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 ■2 
 
 55,507 
 52,717 
 22,887 
 15,748 
 12,502 
 210 
 148 
 
 102 
 
 70 
 
 308 
 
 1544 
 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 107,919 
 97,640 
 46,397 
 29,777 
 22,667 
 420 
 296 
 
 U.S. of America . . 
 
 Total 
 
 997 
 
 145,397 
 
 1,060 
 
 159,719 
 
 2,057 
 
 305,116 
 
 
 Steamers 
 Sailers 
 
 No. Tonnage. 
 2,273 2,891,042 
 2,057 305,116 
 
 Grand Total. 
 
 4,330 3,196,158 
 
384 
 
 Shipping. 
 
 A feature of this trade is the steady increase it has shown 
 of late years, both as regards steamers and sailing vessels. — ■ 
 The following table gives the figures for the last five years of 
 the entries of vessels of the five principal foreign participants 
 in the trade. 
 
 STEAMERS. 
 
 British .... 
 
 Japanese. . 
 
 German . . 
 U.S. of 
 America 
 
 French 
 
 1886. 
 
 No. Tonnage 
 
 287 
 176 
 220 
 
 44 
 
 31 
 
 407,680 
 154,810 
 147,737 
 
 100,454 
 
 36,576 
 
 1887. 
 
 No. Tonnage 
 
 272 
 171 
 238 
 
 41 
 
 33 
 
 419,649 
 162,306 
 185,953 
 
 90,576 
 
 58,674 
 
 1888. 
 
 No. Tonnage 
 
 341 
 206 
 269 
 
 39 
 
 32 
 
 543,221 
 214,165 
 214,757 
 
 94,008 
 
 77,587 
 
 1889. 
 
 No. Tonnage 
 
 383 
 283 
 
 277 
 
 36 
 33 
 
 627,119 
 302,170 
 198,407 
 
 85,764 
 
 69,619 
 
 1890. 
 
 No. Tonnage 
 
 492 
 365 
 225 
 
 20 
 
 26 
 
 819,439 
 329,196 
 194,740 
 
 54,020 
 
 62,946- 
 
 SAILERS. 
 
 
 1886. 
 
 . 1887. 
 
 1888. 
 
 1889. 
 
 1890. 
 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 No 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 No. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 British 
 
 66 
 
 47,228 
 
 4G 
 
 37,613 
 
 51 
 
 47,986 
 
 47 
 
 37,743 
 
 50 
 
 52,412 
 
 U.S. of [ 
 America j 
 
 41 
 
 48,151 
 
 28 
 
 36,875 
 
 30 
 
 37,507 
 
 44 
 
 55,812 
 
 33 
 
 44,923 
 
 Japanese . . 
 do. Junk . . 
 German . . 
 
 88 
 
 247 
 
 12 
 
 15,787 
 3,281 
 5,350 
 
 128 
 
 329 
 
 15 
 
 20,048 
 4,494 
 6,682 
 
 112 
 420 
 
 7 
 
 13,11? 
 5,918 
 4,734 
 
 142 
 
 466 
 
 13 
 
 18,655 
 7,394 
 8,534 
 
 156 
 
 742 
 
 11 
 
 23,510- 
 14,029 
 10,165 
 
 Through the many lines of foreign steamers that call at 
 the treaty ports, Japan is in touch with all parts of the 
 world, both for the despatch of letters and the shipment of 
 merchandise. The Peninsular and Oriental Company, the 
 Messageries Maritimes, and the North German Lloyds, all run 
 
Shogun. 885 
 
 steamers regularly throughout the year to Europe. Across 
 the Pacific Ocean, communication is kept up by the Occidental 
 and Oriental Company and the Pacific Mail running to San 
 Francisco, the Canadian Pacific Company whose destination is 
 Vancouver, and a line of steamers that run from Kobe to 
 Portland in Oregon. Besides the regular mail services above- 
 mentioned, numerous cargo- carrying steamers ply between 
 Europe and Japan, rendering this branch of the foreign trade 
 one of its busiest industries. 
 
 Shogun. The title of Shogun, which means literally 
 " generalissimo," and which was destined to play such a 
 momentous part in Japanese history, seems to have been 
 first used in A.D. 813, when one Watamaro was appointed 
 Sei-i Tai- Shogun, that is, " Barbarian- Subduing Generalis- 
 simo," to wage war against the Ainos in the north of the 
 empire. The title was employed afterwards in similar cases 
 from time to time. But Yoritomo, at the end of the twelfth 
 century, was the first of these generalissimos to make him- 
 self also, so to say, Mayor of the Palace, and in effect ruler 
 of the land. Prom that time forward, various dynasties of 
 Shoguns succeeded each other throughout the Middle Ages 
 and down to our own days. The greatest of these families 
 were the Ashikaga (A.D. 1336-1570) and the Tokugawa 
 (A.D. 1603-1867). A concatenation of circumstances, partly 
 political, partly religious, partly literary, led to the abolition 
 of the Shogunate in the year 1868. The Mikado then 
 stepped forth again, to govern as well as to reign, after an 
 eclipse of well-nigh seven hundred years. 
 
 The practice of most modern writers on Japanese subjects 
 — foreigners as well as natives — is to treat the Shoguns as 
 
886 Siebold. 
 
 usurpers. But surely this is a highly unphilosophical way 
 of reading history. It is not even formally correct, seeing 
 that the Slioguns obtained investiture from the Court of 
 Kyoto as regularly as ministers of state have obtained their 
 commissions in later times. • We cannot undertake here to 
 go into the causes that produced Japanese feudalism, with 
 the Shoguns at its head. But if seven centuries of posses- 
 sion do not constitute a legal title, how many of the govern- 
 ments at present existing in the world are legitimate ? And 
 what test is there, or can there be, of tbe legitimacy of any 
 government except the general acquiescence of the governed 1 
 
 Shooting. No one is advised to come to Japan for 
 sport. Deer and even bears do, no doubt, exist in the 
 northern island of Yezo ; pheasants, snipe, hares, and other 
 small game in the Main Island. But " Treaty Limits," 
 within which alone foreigners can obtain licenses to shoot, 
 are almost denuded of game, unless it be snipe and quail, in 
 consequence of having been shot over for a generation. 
 Shooting licenses may be obtained at the prefectural office 
 (kencho) of the various open ports, and at the Tbhyo-Fu, or 
 city office, in Tokyo. The fee is $10. The shooting season 
 lasts from the 15th October to the 15th April. These dates 
 will seem late to English sportsmen ; but it must be remem- 
 bered that the seasons begin later in Japan than in England, 
 — spring as well as autumn. 
 
 Siebold. Philipp Franz, Freiherr von Siebold (A.D. 
 1796-1866), author of many books, both in Latin and German, 
 on the zoology, botany, language, and bibliography of Japan 
 and the neighbouring lands, and best-known by the magni- 
 ficently illustrated folio work entitled Nippon, Archiv zur 
 
Siebold. 387 
 
 Beschreibnng von Japan, which is in itself an encyclopaedia 
 of the information concerning Japan which existed in his 
 ■day, came of an old Bavarian family. Like Kaempfer a 
 century and a half before him, he judged, and judged rightly, 
 that the service of the Dutch East India Company was the 
 royal road to a knowledge of the then mysterious empire of 
 Japan. Appointed leader of a scientific mission fitted out at 
 Batavia, he landed at Deshima, the Dutch portion of Naga- 
 saki, in the month of August, 1823. By force of character, 
 by urbanity of manner, by skill as a physician, even by a 
 ■system of bribery which fell in with the customs of the coun- 
 try, and which surely, under the circumstances, no sensible 
 man of the world will condemn, he obtained an extraordinary 
 hold over the Japanese, suspicious and intractable as they then 
 were. Having, in 1826, accompanied to Yedo the Dutch em- 
 bassy which went once during the reign of every Shogun to show 
 their respect and obtain favours by grovelling at His High- 
 ness's feet and entertaining him with pranks and songs, 
 Siebold obtained permission to remain behind — the sole 
 European in that great Asiatic capital, then absolutely 
 sealed against the outer world. The excuse pleaded and 
 ^accepted was that he would instruct the Japanese physicians 
 and surgeons in the more recondite branches of their art. 
 His leisure he utilised in multifarious scientific researches ; 
 and so well did he know how to ingratiate himself that 
 some of the highest in the land willingly contributed to his 
 store of knowledge. Suddenly a rumour got about that the 
 chief Court spy — a very important official in those days — 
 had sold him a map of the country. This was treason 
 according to the old Japanese law. The spy was ordered 
 to commit harakiri, aud Siebold was cast into a dungeon, 
 
388 Siebold. 
 
 from which he emerged only on the 18th January, 1830, 
 with strict orders never to return to Japan. 
 
 Arriving in Holland, he was created a baron and a 
 colonel in the army by the king of that country, and spent 
 the next twenty-nine years in writing his numerous works 
 and arranging his scientific collections in the museums of 
 Leyden, Munich, and Wiirzburg. More permanent even 
 in their results than these learned labours was his activity 
 in the field of practical botany. To him our western gar- 
 dens owe the Japanese lilies, peonies, aralias, camellias,, 
 chrysanthemums, and scores of other interesting and beau- 
 tiful garden plants with which they are now adorned. 
 
 Meanwhile, Commodore Perry's expedition had burst 
 open Japan. Siebold, in his old age, returned as a semi- 
 official ambassador to that same Yedo which he had 
 quitted in chains so many years before. This mission was 
 not altogether successful. The times were for war, not for 
 the peaceful negotiations of a man of science. Siebold's 
 proper field was not politics, but learning. It was therefore 
 perhaps no loss to his reputation that a second half-politi- 
 cal expedition to Japan, which the Emperor Napoleon III 
 had thought of entrusting to him, was never carried out. 
 Judged by his scientific works and their practical results,. 
 Siebold -is the greatest of the many great Germans who 
 have contributed so much to the world's knowledge of 
 Japan, — Kaempfer in the seventeeth century and Kein in 
 our own day being the other most illustrious names. If 
 small people may be allowed to criticise giants, we would 
 here note that the only weakness discoverable in the Ger- 
 man school of investigators, as represented by Kaempfer, 
 Siebold, and Eein, is a certain insufficiency of the critical 
 
Singing- Girls. 389 
 
 faculty in questions of history and language. Surely it ia 
 not enough to get at the Japanese sources. The Japanese 
 sources must themselves be subjected to rigorous scrutiny. 
 It was reserved for the English school, represented by 
 Satow and Aston, to do this — to explore the language with 
 scientific exactness, and to prove, step by step, that the 
 so-called history, which Eaempfer and his followers had 
 taken on trust, was a mass of old wives' fables. Japan 
 being the land of contradictions, it is perhaps but natural 
 that the English and the Germans should here have 
 reversed their usual rdles. The Germans have roamed 
 abroad to collect facts. To the English, sitting quietly by 
 their fire-side, has belonged the field of minute historical and 
 philological criticism. 
 
 Books recommended. This sketch is founded on an obituary- 
 article by Gerhard Schirahofer, translated in the Japan Weekly Mail of the 27th 
 December, 1879. Siebold tells the story of his own earlier journey ings in his 
 Nippon Archiv. 
 
 Silk. Silk is treated of from a commercial point of view 
 in the article on Trade. These whose tastes are literary and 
 historical only, may be interested to learn that the silk-worm 
 was still a rare novelty at the dawn of Japanese history — 
 just imported, as it would seem, from Korea. The first 
 mention of it is in the annals of the reign of the Emperor 
 Nintoku, who is supposed to have died in A.D. 899. Up till 
 then, the materials used for clothing had been hempen cloth 
 and the bark of the paper-mulberry, coloured by being rubbed 
 with madder and other tinctorial plants. 
 
 Singing-Girls. The charms of the Japanese singing- 
 girl have been dwelt on so often that we gladly leave them to 
 her more ardent admirers. Deprived of her, Japanese social 
 
890 Societies. 
 
 gatherings would lose much of their vivacity and pleasing 
 abandon, and many a match, interesting to the gossips, would 
 never be made ; for quite a number of prominent men have 
 shown their partiality for the fair warblers in the most practical 
 of ways, namely, by marrying them. Of necessity endowed 
 with more than the ordinary share of personal attractions, 
 elegant and accomplished in the arts of a life of gaiety; it is 
 little wonder if this class of girls is a source of anxiety to 
 staid elderly folks of both sexes, and that amongst other signs 
 of the times, a movement should be on foot to suppress it 
 altogether. In official circles, the European banquet, with 
 its familiar salmis and aspics and its intolerable after-dinner 
 speeches, has well-nigh supplanted the native feast. Waiters 
 in swallow-tails replace the damsels of the guitar and the 
 wine-cup. 
 
 The training of a singing-girl, or geisha, as the Japanese term 
 her, which includes lessons in the art of dancing, often begins - 
 when she is seven years old. She is then practically 
 engaged for a number of years, the career once entered on 
 being difficult to quit, unless good fortune brings some 
 wealthy lover able and willing to buy her out. There is a 
 capitation tax of one dollar per month on the actual singing- 
 girls, and of half that sum on the little 'prentices. 
 
 Smoking. See Pipes and Tobacco. 
 
 Societies- The Japanese of our day have taken kindly 
 to societies and associations of all sorts. They doubtless feel 
 that their nation has to make up now for the long abstinence 
 from such co-operative activity which was enforced during the 
 Tokugawa r&gime, when it. was penal for more than five 
 persons to club together for any purpose. 
 
Societies. 891 
 
 The four most influential societies at present are the 
 Sanitary Society of Japan, with a membership of over six 
 thousand ; the Educational Society of Japan, with over 
 four thousand members ; the Society for the Promotion 
 of Commerce and Industry, and the Agricultural Society 
 of Japan. These, and not a few of those next to be men- 
 tioned, publish Transactions and have branches in the pro- N 
 vinces. The Geographical Society of Tokyo, the Philosophi- 
 cal Society, the Engineering Society, the Electrical Society, 
 the Medical Society, and the Gakushikaiin, an association 
 with aims kindred to those of the Educational Society, have 
 done excellent work. The Eomanisation Society has made 
 a valiant, though hitherto unsuccessful, effort to replace by 
 our simple European alphabet the endless complications of 
 the Japanese system of writing. We have, furthermore, the 
 Red Cross Association, under the immediate patronage of the 
 Empress, the Japanese Society of Arts, Judicial, Anthropolo- 
 gical, and various Scientific and Literary Societies, a Total 
 Abstinence Society, a Woman's Temperance Society, an 
 Elocution Society, a Young Men's Christian Association, an 
 Association of Buddhist Young Men, and others of various 
 hues and complexions, not to mention political clubs, of which 
 the number is very great and constantly changing. There is 
 as yet unfortunately no Japanese branch of that most purely 
 charitable of all associations, the Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Animals. Were one established, it would find a 
 wide scope for its endeavours. 
 
 Some of the new Japanese societies have eccentric aims. 
 Thus, there is one which undertakes to dun debtors for any 
 one who chooses to apply. The dunning is put into the 
 hands of men who walk about in green coats and with the 
 
392 Story-Tellers. 
 
 society's name printed on their back. Another society under- 
 takes to get questions on every conceivable subject answered 
 by competent specialists, somewhat like our " Notes and 
 Queries." The object of a third small society is punctuality. 
 But the queerest society of all is surely the Society for the 
 Abolition of Present-Giving. We wish failure and disaster 
 from the bottom of our hearts to this curmudgeonly league. 
 In no country of the world do les petits cadeaux qui entretim- 
 nent Vamitii play a more charming part than in Japan. Japan 
 is becoming prosaic fast enough in all conscience. Why 
 ruthlessly pull up by the roots the few graces that remain ? 
 
 Boolnis recommended. The Gakushikaiin, in Vol. XV. Part I. and 
 The Japanese Education Society, in Vol. XVI. Part I. of the Asiatic Transactions, 
 both by Walter Dening. 
 
 Soroban. See Abacus. 
 
 Sdshi. See end of article on Education. 
 
 Story -Tellers. Though the Japanese are a nation 
 of readers, they love also to listen to the tales of the profes- 
 sional story-teller, who is quite an artist in his way. The 
 lower sort of story-teller may be seen seated at the 
 street-corner, with a circle of gaping coolies round him. The 
 higher class form guilds who own special houses of entertain- 
 ment called yose, and may also be engaged for the evening 
 to amuse private parties. Some story-telling is rather in 
 of the nature of a penny reading. The man sits with an open 
 book before him and expounds it, — the story of the Forty- 
 Seven Eonins perhaps, or the Chinese novel of the " Three 
 Kingdoms " (Sangoku m Shi), or an account of the Satsuma 
 rebellion or of the old wars of the Taira and Minamoto 
 
Sun, Moon, and Stars. 398 
 
 clans in the Middle Ages ; — and when he comes to some 
 particularly good point, he emphasises it by a rap with his 
 fan or with a little slab of wood kept by him for the purpose. 
 Such a reading is called gundan if the subject be war ; 
 otherwise it is hoshaku, which means literally a " disquisi- 
 tion." The hatmsld-Tca, or story-teller proper, deals in 
 love-tales, anecdotes, and imaginary incidents. 
 
 The entertainment offered at a yose is generally mixed. 
 There will be war-stories, love-tales, recitations to the 
 accompaniment of the banjo, the same programme being 
 mostly adhered to for a fortnight, and a change being made 
 on the 1st and 16th of the month. As the number of such 
 houses in every large city is considerable, hearers may 
 nevertheless find something new every night to listen to, and 
 the higher class of story-tellers themselves may realise what 
 for Japan is a very fair income. For they drive about from one 
 house of entertainment to another, stopping only a quarter 
 of an hour or so at each,— just time to tell one story and earn 
 a dollar or two by it. 
 
 Many foreign students of the Japanese language have 
 found the yose their best school ; but only one has hitherto 
 thought of going there, not as a listener, but as a 
 performer. This is a young Englishman named Black, 
 whose Japanese is so excellent, and whose plots borrowed from 
 the stores of European fiction are such agreeable novelties, that 
 the Tokyo story-tellers have admitted him to their guild. 
 
 Sun, Moon, and Stars. In the early Japanese my- 
 thology the sun is ruled over by a goddess, the glorious 
 Ama-terasu, or " Heaven- Shiner," from whom is descended 
 ihe Imperial Family of Japan. The Moon belongs to her 
 
394 Sun, Moon, and Stars. 
 
 brother, the rough and violent god Susa-no-o. According to 
 the later Japanese poets, there grows in the moon a cassia- 
 tree (katsiira), whose reddening leaves cause its brighter re- 
 fulgence in autumn. They also tell us of a great city in the 
 moon (tsuki no miyako), and the myth-makers have brought 
 down a maiden from the moon to do penance on earth amidst 
 various picturesque scenes. But the genuinely popular ima- 
 gination of the present day allows only of a hare in the moon, 
 which keeps pounding away at rice in a mortar to make it 
 into cakes. The idea of the hare was borrowed from China ; 
 but the rice-cakes seem to be native, and to have their origin 
 in a pun — the same word mochi happening to have the two 
 acceptations of "rice-cake" and "full moon." The sun is 
 supposed to be inhabited by a three-legged crow. Hence 
 the expression kin-u ijyoku-to, " the golden crow and the 
 jewelled hare," is a periphrasis for the sun and moon. 
 
 The three great nights of the lunar year are the 26th of 
 the 7th moon, the 15th of the 8th moon, and the 13th of 
 the 9th moon, old calendar. These roughly correspond 
 to dates some five or six weeks later according to our calendar, 
 and thus include the three moons of the autumn trimester. 
 On the 26th night of the 7th moon, people in Tokyo visit the 
 tea-houses at Atago-yama or the sea-shore of Takanawa, and 
 sit up till a very late, or rather early, hour to see the moon 
 rise over the water, drinking sake the while, and composing 
 verses appropriate to the sentimental character of the scene. 
 The 15th night of the 8th moon, which is no other than our 
 harvest moon at the full, is celebrated by an offering of beans 
 and dumplings and of bouquets of eulalia-grass and lespedeza 
 blossom. This moon is termed the " bean moon." The 
 18th night of the 9th moon sees offerings of the same bou- 
 
Sun, Moon, and Stars. 895 
 
 quets, of dumplings, and of chestnuts. It is termed the 
 " chestnut moon." 
 
 The stars are much less admired and written about in 
 Japan than in Europe. No Japanese bard has ever 
 apostrophised them as " the poetry of heaven." The only 
 fable worth mentioning here in connection with the stars is 
 that which inspires the festival named Tanabata. This fable, 
 which is of Chinese origin, relates the loves of a Herdsman 
 and a Weaving-Girl. The Herdsman is a star in Aquila. 
 The Weaver is the star Vega. They dwell on opposite 
 sides of the " Celestial Eiver," or Milky Way, and may never 
 meet but on the seventh night of the seventh moon, a night 
 held sacred to them, strips of paper with poetic effusions in 
 their honour being stuck on stems of bamboo grass and set 
 up in various places. According to one version of the legend, 
 the Weaving-Girl was so constantly kept employed in making 
 garments for the offspring of the Emperor of Heaven — in 
 other words, God — that she had no leisure to attend to the 
 adornment of her person. At last however, God, taking 
 compassion on her loneliness, gave her in marriage to the 
 Herdsman who dwelt on the opposite bank of the river. 
 Hereupon the woman began to grow remiss in her work. 
 God, in his anger, then made her recross the river, at the 
 same time forbidding her husband to visit her oftener than 
 once a year. Another version represents the pair as mortals, 
 who were wedded at the early ages of fifteen and twelve, and 
 who died at the ages of a hundred and three and ninety-nine 
 respectively. After death, their spirits flew up to the sky, 
 where the Supreme Deity bathed daily in the Celestial River. 
 No mortals might pollute it by their touch, except on the 
 seventh day of the seventh moon, when the Deity, instead of 
 
396 Swords. 
 
 bathing, went to listen to the chanting of the Buddhist 
 scriptures. 
 
 Swords. The Japanese sword of ancient days (the tsuru- 
 gi) was a straight, double-edged, heavy weapon some three 
 feet long, intended to be brandished with both hands. That 
 of medieval and modern times (the katana) is lighter, shorter, 
 has but a single edge, and is slightly curved towards the 
 point. There is also the wakizashi, or dirk of about 
 nine and a half inches, with which harakin was com- 
 mitted. The four most famous Japanese sword-smiths are 
 Muhechika (tenth century), Masamune and Yoshimitsu 
 (latter part of the thirteenth century), and Muramasa (latter 
 part of the fourteenth century). But Muramasa's blades 
 had the reputation of being unlucky. Towards the close of 
 the fifteenth century arose schools of artists in metal, who 
 made it their business to adorn the hilt, the guard, the 
 sheath, and other appurtenances in a manner which is still 
 the delight of collectors. But to the Japanese connoisseur, 
 the great treasure is always the blade itself, which has been 
 called " the living soul of the samurai." 
 
 Japanese swords excel even the vaunted products of 
 Damascus and Toledo. To cut through a pile of copper 
 coins without nicking the blade is, or was, a common feat. 
 History, tradition, and romance alike re-echo with the 
 exploits of this wonderful weapon. The magic sword, the 
 sword handed down as an heirloom, figures as plentifully in 
 the pages of Japanese novel-writers as magic rings and 
 strawberry-marks used once upon a time to do in the West. 
 The custom which obtained among the samurai of wearing 
 two swords, is believed to date from the beginning of the 
 
Taste. 897 
 
 fourteenth century. It was abolished by an edict issued on 
 the 28th March, 1876, and taking effect from the 1st January, 
 1877. The edict was obeyed by this strangely docile people 
 without a bio iv being struck, and the curio-shops displayed 
 heaps of swords which, a few months before, the owners 
 would less willingly have parted with than with life itself. 
 Shortly afterwards, a second edict appeared, rescinding the 
 first and leaving any one at liberty to wear what swords he 
 pleased. But as the privilege of a class distinction was thus 
 obliterated, none cared to avail themselves of the permission, 
 and the two-sworded Japanese gentleman is now extinct like 
 the dodo. 
 
 Excellent specimens of swords and scabbards may be seen 
 at Tokyo in the Yiishu-kwan, or Museum of Arms, situated in 
 the grounds of the Shokonsha temple. 
 
 Japanese swords are made of soft, elastic, magnetic iron 
 combined with hard steel. " The tempering of the edge," 
 says Eein, " is carefully done in the charcoal furnace, the 
 softer backs and the sides being surrounded up to a certain 
 point with fire-clay, so that only the edge remains outside. 
 The cooling takes place in cold water. It is in this way that 
 the steeled edge may be distinguished clearly from the back, 
 by its colour and lustre. The backs of knives, axes, and other 
 weapons are united to the steel edge either by welding on one 
 side, or by fitting the edge into a fluted groove of the back 
 blade, and welding on both sides." 
 
 Books recommended. For a matter-of-fact description, see 
 Rein's Industries of Japan, p. 430. For historical and literary details, see 
 McClatchie's The Sword of Japan, in Vol. IT. of the Asiatic Transactions. — There is a 
 novel by L. Wertheimljer, founded on the importance attached to the sword in 
 feudal Japan, and entitled A Muramata Blade. 
 
 Taste. Japanese taste in painting, in furniture, in floral 
 decoration, in all matters depending on line and form, may 
 
898 „ Taste. 
 
 be summed up in one word — sobriety. The bluster which 
 mistakes bigness for greatness, the vulgarity which smothers 
 beauty under ostentation and extravagance, have no place in 
 the Japanese way of thinking. The alcove of a Tokyo or 
 Kyoto drawing-room holds one picture and one flower-vase, 
 which are changed from time to time. To be sure, picture 
 and vase are alike exquisite. The possessions of the master 
 of the house are not sown broadcast, as much as to say, 
 " Look what a lot of expensive articles I've got, and just 
 think how jolly rich I must be !" He does not stick up 
 plates on walls ; — plates are meant to hold food. He would 
 not, whatever might be his means, waste £1000, or £100, or 
 even £20, on the flowers for a single party: — flowers are 
 natural things, simple things ; it is incongruous to treat 
 them like precious stones. 
 
 When will Europe learn afresh from Japan that lesson of 
 proportion, of fitness, of sobriety, which Greece once knew so 
 well ? When will America learn it — the land our grand- 
 fathers used to credit with republican simplicity, but with 
 which we of the present generation have come to connect the 
 idea of a bombastic luxury, comparable only to the extrava- 
 gances of Eome when Rome's moral fibre was beginning to 
 be relaxed ? 
 
 But it seems likely that instead of Japan converting us, 
 we. shall pervert Japan. Contact has already tainted the 
 dress, the houses, the pictures, the life generally, of the 
 upper class. It is to the common people that one must 
 now go for the old tradition of sober beauty and proportion. 
 You want flowers arranged ? Ask your house-coolie. 
 There is something wrong in the way the garden is laid 
 out ? It looks too formal, and yet your proposed alterations 
 
Tattooing. 399 
 
 would turn it into a formless maze ? Call in the cook or 
 the washerman as counsellor. 
 
 To tell the whole truth, however, Japan is only half- 
 Greek. Her taste, faultless where line is concerned, deserts 
 her whenever the appeal is to the ear. Not only is the music 
 of the Japanese horrible beyond description ; — they have little 
 sense of proportion in language. The never-ending sentences 
 of their authors meander over as many pages ; a single 
 romance will drag the reader through fifty volumes. Is it a 
 question of lectures ? Then they are not contented with less 
 than half-a-dozen at a sitting ; and if, as sometimes happens, 
 the lecturers get into trouble, the audience will stay un- 
 complainingly in the silent hall for an hour or more, while 
 negotiations are carried on with the police. The missionaries 
 tell a similar tale ; no sermon can be prolix enough to stay 
 the insatiable appetite of their converts. The reason of all 
 this is, that, as Sir Harry Parkes remarked long ago, the 
 Japanese share in the inexhaustible patience of Orientals. 
 Their tiresome books, their submission to officialdom, their 
 theatres lasting from dawn to sunset — all these things flow 
 from the same source, patience. ' 
 
 Tattooing. Long before Japan was sufficiently civilised 
 to possess any records of her own, Chinese travellers noted 
 down their impressions of this " mountainous island in the 
 midst of the ocean." One, writing early in the Christian 
 era, gives various interesting scraps of information, — among 
 others that " the men all tattoo their faces and ornament 
 their bodies with designs, differences of rank being indicated 
 by the position and size of the patterns." But from the 
 dawn of regular history far down into the Middle Ages, 
 
400 Tattooing. 
 
 tattooing seems to have been confined to criminals. It was 
 used as branding was formerly used in Europe, whence 
 probably the contempt still felt for tattooing by the Japanese 
 upper classes. From condemned desperadoes to bravoes at 
 large is but a step. The swashbucklers of feudal times 
 took to tattooing, apparently because some blood and thunder 
 scene of adventure, engraven on their chest and limbs, 
 helped to give them a terrific air when stripped of their 
 clothes for any reason. Other classes whose avocations led 
 them to baring their bodies in public followed suit, — the 
 carpenters, for instance, and running grooms (betto) ; and the 
 tradition remained of ornamenting almost the entire body 
 and limbs with a hunting, theatrical, or other showy scene. 
 A poor artisan might end by spending as much as a hundred 
 dollars on having himself completely decorated in this 
 manner. Of course he could not afford to pay such a sum 
 down at once ; so he was operated on by degrees through a 
 term of years, as money was forthcoming. 
 
 Soon after the revolution of 1868, a thunderbolt fell out of a 
 clear sky. The Government made tattooing a penal offence. 
 Some official, it would seem, had got hold of the idea that 
 tattooing was a barbarous practice which would render Japan 
 contemptible in the eyes of Europe ; and so tattooing, like 
 cremation, was summarily interdicted. Europe herself then 
 came to the rescue, in the shape of the two young sons of the 
 Prince of Wales, who visited Japan in 1881, and who, learning 
 that globe-trotters had sometimes managed surreptitiously to 
 engage a tattooer's services, did the like with excellent effect, 
 Prince George being appropriately decorated on the arm with 
 a dragon. From that time forward, no serious effort has 
 been made to interfere with the tattooer's art ; and in the 
 
Tattooing. 401 
 
 hands of such men as Hori Chiyo and Hori Yasu* it has 
 become an art indeed, — au art as vastly superior to the 
 ordinary English sailor's tattooing as Heidsieck Monopole 
 is to small beer. Birds, flowers, landscapes of marvel- 
 lous finish and beauty — thoroughly Japanese withal in 
 style and conception — are now executed, some specimens 
 being so minute as almost to render the aid of a microscope 
 necessary in order properly to appreciate them. 
 
 The principal materials used are sepia and vermilion, — the 
 former for the outline and ground, the latter for touching up 
 and picking out special details, for instance, a cock's crest. 
 A brown colour is occasionally produced by the use of Indian 
 red. Prussian blue may also be employed, but is considered 
 dangerous. The needles are all of steel, the finest being used 
 to prick in the outlines, the thicker ones for shading. There 
 are four sizes in all. The most delicate work takes only 
 three needles ; but ordinary outlines require a row of from 
 four to nine needles. Shading is done by means of super- 
 posed rows of needles tied together, as, for instance, five, 
 four, and three, making twelve in all, and so on up to as 
 many as sixty. In such cases the thickest needles are em- 
 ployed. The needles are always spliced to a bone handle 
 by means of a silken thread ; and this handle is held 
 in the right hand leaning on the left, somewhat as a 
 billiard cue is held. Though an appreciable fraction of the 
 total length of the needles protrudes beyond the splicing, 
 blood is rarely drawn, so skilfully is the instrument 
 manipulated. 
 
 The most recent refinement of the art is the use of cocaine, 
 
 * The name, or rather nickname Hori is from hori-mono, "tattooing," itself 
 derived from the verb horu, " to dig," hence " to engrave," and mono, " a thing." 
 
402 Tea. 
 
 either as a wash or mixed with the sepia. But the pain, on 
 an ordinarily fleshy arm, is not acute enough for most per- 
 sons to care to avail themselves of it. Smooth arms are the 
 best to operate on, hairiness being apt to make the colour run. 
 
 Tea. Tea is believed to have been introduced into Japan 
 from China in A. D. 805 by the celebrated Buddhist saint, 
 Dengyo Daishi. It had long been a favourite beverage of the 
 Buddhists of the continent, whom it served to keep wakeful 
 during their midnight devotions. A pious legend tells us 
 that the origin of the tea-shrub was on this wise : Daruma 
 (Dharma), an Indian saint of the sixth century, had spent 
 many long years in ceaseless prayer and watching. At last 
 one night, his eyelids, unable to bear the fatigue any longer, 
 closed, and he slept soundly until morning. When the saint 
 awoke, he was so angry with his lazy ej 7 elids that he cut 
 them off and flung them on the ground. But lo ! each lid 
 was suddenly transformed into a shrub, whose efficacious 
 leaves, infused in water, minister to the vigils of holy men. 
 
 Though encouraged from the first by Imperial recom- 
 mendations, tea-culture made little or no progress in Japan 
 till the close of the twelfth century, when another Buddhist, 
 the abbot Myoe, having obtained new seeds from China, 
 sowed them at Toga-no-o, near Kyoto, whence a number of 
 shrubs were afterwards transplanted to Uji, which has ever 
 since been the headquarters of Japanese tea-growing. Thence- 
 forward the love of tea-drinking was engrained in the 
 Japanese court and aristocracy, and the cha-no-yu, or tea 
 ceremonies, became a national institution. But it is doubtful 
 whether the custom of drinking tea began to spread among 
 the lower classes till the end of the seventeenth century, 
 
Tea. 403 
 
 which was also the time when our own ancestors first took 
 to it. 
 
 The tea drunk in respectable Japanese households general- 
 ly costs about 25 cents a pound, while from 50 cents to $1 
 will be paid for a better quality, fit to set before an honoured 
 guest. The most expensive Uji tea costs $Q per pound. 
 At the opposite end of the scale stands the so-called bancha, 
 the tea of the lower classes, 5 cents a pound, made out of 
 chopped leaves, stalks, and bits of wood taken from the trim- 
 mings of the tea-plant ; for this beverage is tea, after all, 
 little as its flavour has in. common with that of Bohea or 
 of Uji. Other tea-like infusions sometimes to be met with 
 are Kosen, made by pouring hot water on a mixture of 
 various fragrant substances, such as orange-peel, the seeds 
 of the xanthoxylon, etc ; Sakura-yu, an infusion of salted 
 cherry-blossoms ; Mugi-yu, an infusion of parched barley ; 
 Mame-clia, a similar preparation of beans. Fuku-ja, or "luck 
 tea," is made of salted plums, sea-weed, and xanthoxylon 
 seeds, and is partaken of in every Japanese household on the 
 last night of the year. 
 
 Japanese tea, unlike Chinese, must not be made with 
 boiling water, or it will give an intolerably bitter decoction ; 
 and the finer the quality of the tea, the less hot must be the 
 water employed. The Japanese tea equipage actually includes 
 a small open jug called the "water-cooler" (yu-zamashi), to 
 which the hot water is, if necessary, transferred before being 
 poured on the tea-leaves. Even so, the first brew is often 
 thrown away as too bitter to drink. The consequence of this 
 is that Japanese servants, when they first come to an English 
 house, always have to be taught how to treat our Chinese or 
 Indian tea, and generally begin by giving practical proof of 
 
404 Tea Ceremonies. 
 
 their incredulity on the subject of the indispensable virtue of 
 boiling water. (See also article on Trade.) 
 
 33ool«:s recommended. The Preparation of Japan Tea, by Henry 
 Gribble, printed in Vol. XII. Part I. of trie Asiatic Transactions. — Rein's Indus- 
 tries qf Japan, p. 110 et sea. 
 
 Tea Ceremonies. Few things have excited more in- 
 terest among collectors of Japanese curios tban.the cha-no-yn, 
 or tea ceremonies, of which so many of the highly prized 
 little " japanosities " in their collections are in one way or 
 another the implements. And as quarrelling with other 
 collectors is part of every true collector's nature, so also has 
 the' battle raged round the Japanese tea-table — a veritable 
 and literal storm in a tea-cup. One set brands the tea 
 ceremonies as essentially paltry and effeminate, and asserts 
 that their influence has cramped the genius of Japanese art, 
 by confusing beauty with archaism and making goals of 
 characteristics worthy only to be starting-points. The op- 
 posite school sees in these same ceremonies a profoundly bene- 
 ficial influence — an influence which has kept Japanese art 
 from leaving the narrow path of purity and simplicity for the 
 broad road of a meretricious gaudiness. 
 
 What, then, are these tea ceremonies? And first of all, 
 what is their history ? Have their votaries at all epochs 
 been enamoured of simplicity and archaism to the degree 
 which both friends and foes seem to take for granted ? If 
 our own slight researches into the subject prove anything, 
 they prove that these traits are comparatively modern. 
 
 The tea ceremonies have undergone three transformations 
 during the six or seven hundred years of their existence. 
 They have passed through a medico-religious stage, a luxu- 
 rious stage, and lastly an esthetic stage. They originated in 
 
Tea Ceremonies. 405 
 
 tea-drinking pure and simple on the part of certain Buddhist 
 priests of the Zen sect, who found the infusion useful in 
 keeping thern awake during the performance of their mid- 
 night devotions. The first aristocrat whose name is mentioned 
 in connection with tea is Minamoto-no-Sanetomo, Shogun of 
 Japan from A. D. 1203 to 1218. He seems to have been a 
 youthful debauchee, whom the Buddhist abbot Eisai endeav- 
 oured to save from the wine-cup by making him try tea 
 instead. As is still the custom of propagandists, Eisai 
 accompanied this recommendation by the gift of a tract on 
 the subject. It was composed by himself, and bore the 
 title of " The Salutary Influence of Tea-Drinking." In it 
 was explained the manner in which tea " regulates the five 
 viscera and expels evil spirits," and rules were given both for 
 making the infusion and for drinking it. The ceremonial 
 which Eisai introduced was religious. True, it included a 
 simple dinner ; but its main feature was a Buddhist service, 
 at which the faithful worshipped their ancestors to the 
 beating of drums and burning of incense. A tinge of the 
 religious element has adhered to the tea ceremonies ever 
 since. It is still considered proper for tea enthusiasts to join 
 the Zen sect of Buddhism, and it is from the abbot of Dai- 
 tokuji at Kyoto that diplomas of proficiency are obtained. 
 
 How long Japanese tea-drinking remained in this first 
 religious stage is not clear. This we know, that by the 
 year 1330, the second or luxurious stage had already been 
 reached. The descriptions of the tea-parties of those days 
 remind one of the " Arabian Nights." The Daimyos who 
 daily took part in them reclined on couches spread with 
 tiger-skins and leopard-skins. The walls of the spacious 
 apartments in which the guests assembled were hung, not 
 
406 Tea Ceremonies. 
 
 only with Buddhist pictures, but with damask and brocade, 
 with gold and silver vessels, and swords in splendid sheaths. 
 Precious perfumes were burnt, rare fishes and strange birds 
 were served up with sweetmeats and wine, and the point of 
 the entertainment consisted in guessing where the material 
 for each cup of tea had been produced ; for as many brands 
 as possible were brought in, to serve as a puzzle or jeu de 
 societe — some from the Toga-no-o tea-plantations, some from 
 Uji, some from other places. Every right guess procured 
 for him who made it the gift of one of the treasures that 
 were hung round the room. But he was not allowed to 
 carry it away himself. The rules of the tea ceremonies, as 
 then practised, ordained that all the tilings rich and rare 
 that were exhibited must be given by their winners to the 
 singing and dancing-girls, troupes of whom were present to 
 help the company in their carousal. Vast fortunes were 
 dissipated in this manner. On the other hand, the arts were 
 benefited, more especially when, towards the close of the 
 fifteenth century, the luxurious Yoshimasa, the Japanese 
 Lorenzo de' Medici, abdicated the Shogun's throne in order 
 to devote himself altogether to refined pleasures in his 
 gorgeous palace of Ginkakuji at Kyoto, in the company of his 
 favourites, the pleasure-loving Buddhist abbots Shuko and 
 Shinno. From this trio of royal and religious voluptuaries 
 are derived several of the rules for tea-drinking that still 
 hold good. The tiny tea-room of only four and a half mats 
 (nine feet square) apparently dates from then. Shinno was 
 a great connoisseur of antiquities and of what we now term 
 curios. He was also the first to manufacture a certain kind 
 of tea-spoon, whence arose the custom of tea-fanciers manu- 
 facturing their own spoons. 
 
Tea Ceremonies. 407 
 
 All through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the tea 
 ceremonies continued to enjoy the unabated favour of the 
 Japanese upper classes. The gift of some portion of a tea- 
 service, such as a bowl or cup, was the most valued mark 
 of condescension which a superior could bestow. We read 
 of high-born warriors neglecting their sword for the sake of 
 the tea-pot and of their being cashiered therefor, of others 
 dying bowl in hand when their castles were taken by the 
 enemy, or sending their tea-things away privately as their 
 chiefest treasure. Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, two of the 
 greatest military rulers of Japan, were both enthusiastic 
 votaries of the tea ceremonies. Hideyoshi probably gave 
 the largest tea-party on record, the card of invitation being 
 in the form of an official edict which is still preserved. All 
 the lovers of tea in the empire were, by this singular do- 
 cument, summoned to assemble at a certain date under 
 the pine-grove of Kitano, near Kyoto, and to bring with 
 them whatever curios connected with tea-drinking they 
 possessed, it being further decreed that all such as failed 
 to respond to the summons should be debarred from ever 
 taking part in the lea ceremonies again. This was in the 
 autumn of 1587, the time when the Invincible Armada was 
 being equipped for the ceremonies of war. The tea-party 
 seems to have been successful. It lasted ten days, and 
 Hideyoshi fulfilled his promise of drinking tea at every 
 booth. The tenants of some of the booths were noblemen, 
 of others traders or peasants ; — for all were invited regard- 
 less of birth, a proof that the custom had begun to filter 
 down into the lower strata of society. ■*■ 
 
 A few years later, in 1594, Hideyoshi called together at 
 his castle of Fushimi the heads of all the various schools into 
 
408 Tea Ceremonies. 
 
 which, by this time, the art of tea-drinking had split up. 
 Chief among these was Sen-no-Bikyu, a name which every 
 Japanese enthusiast reveres — for he it was, or at least he 
 principally, who collated, purified, and (so to say) codified 
 the tea ceremonies, stamping them with the character which 
 they have borne ever since. Simplicity had long been com- 
 manded by the poverty of the country, exhausted as it was 
 by ages of warfare. He took this simplicity up, and raised it 
 into a canon of taste as imperative as the respect for antiquity 
 itself. The worship of simplicity and of the antique in 
 objects of art, together with the observance of an elaborate 
 co.de of etiquette — such are the doctrine and discipline 
 of the tea ceremonies in their modern form, which has 
 never varied since Sen-no - Bikyu's day. Though not 
 the St. Paul of the tea cult, he was thus its Luther. 
 Unfortunately he was a Luther not indifferent to money. 
 He abused his unrivalled skill as a connoisseur of curios 
 to enrich himself and to - curry favour with the great. 
 Hideyoshi at last detected his venality and fraud, and caused 
 him to be put to death. 
 
 The ceremonies themselves have often been described. 
 They include a preliminary dinner, but tea-drinking is the 
 chief thing. The tea used is in the form, not of tea-leaves, 
 but of powder, so that the resulting beverage resembles pea- 
 soup in colour and consistency.* There is a thicker kind 
 called Icoi-cha, and a thinner kind called usu-cha. The former 
 is usedin the earlier stage of the proceedings, the latter towards 
 the end. The tea is made and drunk in a preternaturally slow 
 and formal manner, each action, each gesture" being fixed 
 
 * Foreign gourmets resident in Japan have discovered that a delicious ice-cream 
 «fiii be made out of it. 
 
Tea Ceremonies. 409 
 
 by an elaborate code of rules. Every article connected with 
 the ceremony, such as the tea-canister, the incense-burner, 
 the hanging scroll, and the bouquet of flowers in the alcove, 
 is either handled, or else admired at a distance, in ways and 
 with phrases which unalterable usage prescribes. Even 
 the hands are washed, the room is swept, a little bell 
 is rung, and the guests walk from the house to the garden 
 and from the garden back into the house, at stated times 
 and in a stated manner which never varies, except in so 
 far as certain schools, as rigidly conservative as monkish 
 confraternities, obey slightly varying rules of their own, 
 handed down from their ancestors who interpreted Sen-no- 
 Eikyu's ordinances according to slightly varying canons of 
 exegesis. 
 
 To a European the ceremony is lengthy and meaningless. 
 When witnessed more than once, it becomes intolerably 
 monotonous. Not being born with an Oriental fund of 
 patience, he longs for something new, something lively, 
 something with at least the semblance of logic and utility. 
 But then it is not for him that the tea ceremonies were made. 
 If they amuse those for whom they were made, they amuse 
 them, and there is notbing more to be said. In any case, 
 tea and ceremonies are perfectly harmless, which is more than 
 can be affirmed of tea and tattle. No doubt, even the tea 
 ceremonies have, if history libels them not, been sometimes 
 misused for purposes of political conspiracy. But these cases 
 are rare. If the tea ceremonies do not go the length of 
 embodying a " philosophy," as fabled by some of their 
 foreign admirers, they have, at least in their latest form, 
 assisted the cause of purity in art. Some may deem them 
 pointless. None can brand them as vulgar. 
 
410 Telegraphs. 
 
 Telegraphs. The first line of telegraphs in this country 
 may be said to have bean experimental ; it was only 840 
 yards in length, and was opened for government business in 
 1869. The following year Tokyo and Yokohama, and Osaka 
 and Kobe, respectively, were connected by wire, and a general 
 telegraphic system for the empire was decided upon ; but the 
 necessary material and a staff of officers did not reach Japan 
 until the end of 1871, the line as far as Kobe being com- 
 pleted and opened for traffic in the year 1872, and to Naga- 
 saki in 1873. The trunk line to Nagasaki was partly con- 
 structed in order to connect with the cables of the Great 
 Northern Telegraph Company. The engineers met with 
 comparatively little opposition from the people, but with a 
 good deal of difficulty from the unsettled state of the country, 
 consequent on the then recent revolution and the wretched 
 condition of the roads. 
 
 On the introduction of telegraphy into Japan, a code was 
 devised on the basis of the well-known " Morse code," which 
 admitted of internal telegrams being written and transmitted 
 in the vernacular. The new means of communication being 
 thus placed within reach of the bulk of the people, it soon 
 became familiar and popular. In that respect the Japanese 
 system is unique among Eastern countries. In India and 
 China, for instance, telegrams can be transmitted only when 
 written in Koman letters or in Arabic figures. 
 
 The first lines were surveyed, built, and worked under 
 foreign superintendence, with fittings principally of English 
 manufacture. But the rapid progress made by the Japanese 
 in technical matters has enabled them, in various directions, 
 to dispense altogether with foreign experts. With the ex- 
 ception of submarine cables and the most delicate electrical 
 
Telegraphs. 411 
 
 measuring apparatus, all kinds of material and instruments 
 are turned out of the workshops attached to the Imperial 
 Telegraph Department, while executively the system has been 
 maintained solely by the native staff for some time past. 
 The principal cables are laid across the Straits of Shimono- 
 seki, connecting the Island of Kyushu with the Main Island, 
 across the Tsugaru Straits connecting the Main Island with 
 Yezo, and between Kyushu, Iki, and Tsushima. Submarine 
 cables connect Nagasaki with Shanghai on the one side and 
 Vladivostock on the other. A third submarine line — that 
 between Tsushima, and Fusan (in Korea) — is worked by the 
 Japanese government. 
 
 The tariff for native messages, which, for obvious reasons, 
 was framed on a very low basis, has met with excellent 
 results. To-day it is probably under that of any other 
 country in the world. The rate for a single message of ten 
 kana characters to any part of the empire is fifteen cents, 
 with ten cents for every following ten Icana ; for city local 
 traffic it is only five cents or about twopence, with three 
 cents for every following ten Icana. The name and addresses 
 of the sender and receiver go free. Telegrams in foreign 
 languages within the empire are charged at the rate of five 
 cents per word, with a minimum charge of twenty-five cents 
 for the first five words or fraction of five words. For city 
 local traffic it is only two cents per word, with a minimum 
 charge of ten cents. No charge is made for delivery within 
 a radius of one ri from the telegraph office. 
 
 The number of offices open for public business at the pre- 
 sent time is four hundred and niueteen, including twenty- 
 nine telephone offices. Arrangements have been made for 
 the construction of telephone exchanges in some of the large 
 
412 Theatre. 
 
 towns. In Tokyo there are now upwards of five hundred sub- 
 scribers, and in Yokohama upwards of one hundred. Conver- 
 sations may also be held between the two places, and there are 
 several call offices for the convenience of non-subscribers. 
 The length of wire open at the end of 1890 was 22,690 
 miles. The number of messages conveyed -during that year 
 was 4,252,273, of which about 150,000 were in foreign 
 languages. 
 
 The Telegraph Service was an independent section of the 
 Ministry of Public Works until the abolition of that Depart- 
 ment in 1885. It continued independent under the newly 
 formed Ministry of Communications till March, 1887, when 
 the Post and Telegraph Services were amalgamated ; but they 
 have again been made nearly independent of each other. 
 
 Theatre. The Japanese theatre has a peculiar impor- 
 tance, as the only remaining place where the life of Old 
 Japan can be studied in these radical latter days. The Japa- 
 nese drama, too, has an interesting history. It can be traced 
 back to religious dances of immemorial antiquity, accompanied 
 by rude choric songs. An improvement was made in these 
 dances at the beginning of the fifteenth century, when some 
 highly cultivated Buddhist priests and the pleasure-loving 
 Shogun Yoshimasa took the matter in hand. Edifices — half 
 dancing-stage, half theatre — were built for the special pur- 
 pose of representing these No, as the performances were 
 called ; and though the chorus remained, a new interest was 
 added in the shape of two individual personages, who moved 
 about and recited portions of the poem in amove dramatic 
 manner. 
 
 The result was something strikingly similar to the old 
 
Theatre. 413 
 
 Greek drama. The three unities, though never theorised 
 about, .were strictly observed in practice. There -was the 
 same chorus, the same stately demeanour of the actors, who 
 were often masked ; there was the same sitting in the open 
 air, there was the same quasi-religious strain pervading the 
 whole. We say "was." But happily the No are not yet 
 dead. Though shorn of much of the formality and etiquette 
 which surrounded them in earlier days, representations are 
 still given by families who have handed down the art from 
 father to son for four hundred years. There is no scenery, 
 but the dresses are magnificent. Even the audience, com- 
 posed chiefly of noblemen, is a study. They come, not 
 merely to be amused, but to learn, and they follow the play, 
 book in hand; for the language used, though beautiful, is 
 ancient and hard of comprehension, especially when chanted. 
 The music is — well, it is Oriental. Nevertheless, when due 
 allowance has been made for orientalism and for antiquity, it 
 has a certain weird charm. Each piece takes about an hour 
 to act. But the entire performance occupies the greater part 
 of a day, as five or six pieces are given, the intervals between 
 them being filled up by comediettas, whose broad fun, delivered 
 in old-fashioned colloquial, serves as a foil to the classic severity 
 of the chief plays. 
 
 From the No theatres of the aristocracy to the Shibai or 
 Kabuki theatres of the common people is a great descent, so 
 far as taste and poetry are concerned, though the interest 
 of the more vulgar exhibitions, viewed a's pictures of man- 
 ners — not in the world of gods and heroes, but in that 
 of ordinary Japanese men and women — will be greater to 
 most foreign spectators. The plays given at these thea- 
 tres originated, partly in the comediettas just mentioned, 
 
414 Theatre. 
 
 partly in marionette dances accompanied by explanatory 
 songs, called jornri or gidayu. This explains the retention 
 of the chorus, although in diminished numbers and exiled 
 to a little cage separated from the stage. Hence, too, the 
 peculiar poses of the actors, originally intended to imitate the 
 stiffness of their prototypes, the marionettes. It was in the 
 sixteenth century that this class of theatre took its rise. 
 Oddly enough, though the founders of the modern Japanese 
 stage were two women, named O-Kuni and O-Tsu, men alone 
 have been allowed to act at the chief theatres, the female 
 parts being taken by boys, as in our own Shakspeare's age. 
 It would seem that immorality was feared from the joint 
 appearance of the two sexes, and in sooth the reputation of 
 O-Tsu and her companions was far from spotless.* 
 
 From the beginning, plays were divided into two classes, 
 called respectively jidai-mono, that is, historical plays, and 
 sewa-mono, or comedies of manners. Chikamatsu Monzaemon 
 and Takedalzumo, the most celebrated of Japanese dramatists, 
 
 * Mr. Laf cadio Hearn, -writing to us to remonstrate on the reference to O-Kuni 
 as needlessly severe, gives her story, which is, as he says, both picturesque and 
 touching. It may he taken as typical of a whole class of Japanese love-tales : — 
 
 "She was a priestess in the great temple of Kitsuki, and fell in love with a 
 swashbuckler named Nagoya Sanza, with whom she fled away to Kyolo, On the 
 way thither, her extraordinary beauty caused a second swashbuckler to become en- 
 amoured of her. Sanza killed him, and the dead man's face never ceased to haunt 
 the girl. At Kyoto she supported her lover by dancing the sacred dances in the 
 dry bed of the river. Then the pair went to Tedo and began to act. Sanza him- 
 self became a famous actor. After her lover's death, O-Kuni returned to Kitsuki, 
 where, being an excellent poetess, she supported or at least occupied herself by 
 giving lessons in the art. But afterwards she shaved off her hair and became a 
 nun, and built a little temple in Kitsuki where she lived and taught. And the 
 reason why she built the temple wos that she might pray for the soul of the man 
 whom the sight of her beauty had rained. The temple stood until thirty years 
 ago ; but there is now nothing left of it but a broken statue of the compassionate 
 god Jizo. The family still live at Kitsuki ; and until the late revolution the head 
 * of the family was always entitled to a share in the profits of the local theatre, 
 because his ancestress, the beautiful priestess, had founded the art." 
 
Theatre. 415 
 
 divided their attention equally between the two styles. It 
 may be worth mentioning that both these authors belonged 
 to the eighteenth century, and that both of them dramatised 
 the vendetta of the " Forty-Seven Bonins." But Chika- 
 matsu's most famous piece is one founded on the piratical 
 adventures of Kokusen-ya, who expelled the Dutch from 
 Formosa in the time of Charles II. The Japanese KabuJci 
 theatres are amply provided with scenery and stage properties 
 of every description. One excellent arrangement is a re- 
 volving centre to the stage, which allows of a second scene 
 being set up behind while the first is in course of acting. On 
 the conclusion of the first, the stage revolves, carrying away 
 with it actors, scenery, and all ; aud something entirely 
 different greets the spectators' eyes without a moment's 
 waiting. 
 
 The No actors were honoured under the old regime, whilst 
 the KabuJd actors were despised. Indeed the very theatres 
 in which they appeared were looked down on as places too 
 vile for any gentleman to enter. Such outcasts were actors 
 at the time that, when a census was taken, they were spoken 
 of with the numerals used in counting animals, thus ippiki, 
 ni-hihi, not hitori, futari. Those to whom Japanese is fami- 
 liar will appreciate the terrible sting of the insult.* Such 
 actors formed the delight of the shopkeeping and artisan 
 classes alone. With the revolution of 1868, these ideas and 
 customs changed. Actors are ostracised no longer. Since 
 1886, there has been a movement among some of the leaders 
 of Japanese thought towards the reform of the stage, Europe 
 
 * The reader who knows German will understand what is meant, when we say- 
 that it is as if, in speaking of their eating, the word fressen should have been 
 used instead of esten. 
 
416 Theatre. 
 
 being of course looked to for models. No tangible result 
 seems, however, to have been produced as yet. There is, it 
 is true, a so-called " Eeformed Theatre " in Tokyo. But to 
 the casual observer the performances there given differ little, if 
 at all, from those of the other theatres of the capital. For our 
 own part, though favouring the admittance of actors into 
 Japanese good society, if their manners fit them for such 
 promotion, we trust that the Japanese stage may remain, in 
 other respects, what it now is— a mirror, the only mirror, of 
 Old Japan. When our fathers invented railways, they did 
 not tear up the " School for Scandal," or pull down Covent 
 Garden. Why should the Japanese do what amounts to the 
 same thing? The only reform called for is one which touches, 
 not the theatre itself, but an adjunct, an excrescence. We 
 mean the tea-houses which serve as ticket-agencies, and 
 practically prevent theatre-goars from dealing with the theatre 
 direct. Engrossing, as these parasitical little establishments 
 do, a large portion of the profits derived from the sale of 
 tickets, they are probably the main cause of the frequent 
 bankruptcy of the Tokyo theatres. 
 
 Talking of reform and Europeanisation, it fell to our lot a 
 few years ago to witness an amusing scene in a Japanese 
 theatre. The times were already for change. A small 
 Italian opera troupe having come to Yokohama, a wide-awake 
 Japanese impresario hired them, and caused a play to be 
 written for the special purpose of letting them appear in it. 
 This play represented the adventures of a party of Japanese 
 globe-trotters, who, after crossing the Pacific Ocean, and 
 landing at San Francisco, where they naturally fall among 
 the Eed Indians who infest that remote and savage locality, 
 at last reach Paris and attend a performance at the Grand 
 
Time. 417 
 
 Optra; Thus were the Italian singers appropriately intro- 
 duced, Hamlet-like, on a stage upon the main stage. But 
 oh ! the effect upon the Japanese audience ! When once 
 they had recovered from the first shock of surprise, they were 
 seized with a wild fit of hilarity at the high notes of the 
 prima donna, who really was not at all bad. The people 
 laughed at the absurdities of European singing till their 
 sides shook and the tears rolled down their cheeks ; and they 
 stuffed their sleeves into their mouths, as we might our 
 pocket-handkerchiefs, in the vain endeavour to contain 
 themselves. Needless to say that the Experiment was not 
 repeated many times. The Japanese stage betook itself to 
 its wonted sights and sound, and the Japanese play-going 
 public was again happy and contented. 
 
 Japan's greatest living actor is Ichikawa Danjuro. All 
 visitors to Tokyo should endeavour to witness an exhibition 
 of his rare histrionic power and his marvellous agility as a 
 dancer. The family has been eminent in the same line for 
 nine generations. Among other noted actors, Kikugoro, 
 Sadanji, and Fukusuke call for special mention. 
 
 Books i'oeoiii.mericiecl. .For the No dramas and comediettas, see 
 The Classical Poetry of the Japanese. — The Xabuki, or ordinary theatre, has not yet 
 received thorough treatment at European hands. McClatchie's Japanese Plays 
 Versified, are, however, capital English pieces in " Ingoldsby Legend " style on 
 some of the chief subjects treated by the Japanese dramatists. There is also an 
 English translation of the Chushingura, or play of the " Forty-Seven Ronins," by 
 F. V. Dickins, and of two or three of the No comediettas by the Rev. Dr. Eby in an 
 extinct magazine entitled The Chrysanthemum. 
 
 Time. Official and educated Japan is now quite Euro- 
 pean and commonplace in her manner of reckoning time. 
 Inquisitive persons may, however, like to take a peep at her 
 earlier and more peculiar methods, which are still followed 
 by the peasantry of certain remote districts. Old Japan had 
 
418 Time. 
 
 no minutes, her hours were worth two European hours, and 
 they were counted thus, crab-fashion : — 
 
 9 o'clock (kohonotsu-doki), our 12 o'clock A.M. and P.M. 
 
 8 o'clock (yatsu-doki), 
 
 jj 
 
 2 „ 
 
 Jl 
 
 )) 1 
 
 7 o'clock (nanatsu-doki), 
 
 jj 
 
 4 „ 
 
 »» 
 
 it » 
 
 6 o'clock (mutsu-dold) , 
 
 »; 
 
 6 „ 
 
 J) 
 
 >? » 
 
 5 o'clock (itsutsu-doki), 
 
 ;> 
 
 8 „ 
 
 ); 
 
 JJ J 
 
 4 o'clock (yot$n-doki)j 
 
 jj 
 
 10 „ 
 
 >» 
 
 J) J 
 
 Half-past-nine Qcoltonotsu lian) was equivalent to our one 
 o'clock, and similarly in the case of all the other intermediate 
 hours, down to hal*pa'st-four which was equivalent to our 
 eleven o'clock. But the hours were never all of exactly the 
 same length, except at the equinoxes. In summer those of the 
 night were shorter, in winter those of the day. This was be- 
 cause no method of obtaining an average was used, sunrise and 
 sunset being always called six o'clock throughout the year. 
 Why, it will be said, did they count the hours backwards ? 
 A case of Japanese topsy-turvydom, we suppose. But then 
 why, as there were six hours, not count from six to one, 
 instead of beginning at so arbitrary a number as nine ? The 
 reason is this : — three preliminary strokes were always struck, 
 in order to warn people that the hour was about to be 
 sounded. Hence if the numbers one, two, and three had 
 been used to denote any of the actual hours, confusion might 
 have arisen between them and the preliminary strokes, — a 
 confusion analogous to that which, in our own still imperfect 
 method of striking the hour, leaves us in doubt whether the 
 single stroke we hear be half-past twelve, one o'clock, half- 
 past-one, or any other of the numerous half-hours. 
 
 The week was not known to Old Japan, nor was there any 
 popular division roughly corresponding to it. Early in the 
 
Time. 419 
 
 present reign, however, there was introduced what was called 
 the IcJii-Eoku, a holiday on all the ones and sixes of the 
 month. But this arrangement did not last long. Itself 
 horrowed from our Sunday, the copy soon gave way to the ~ 
 original. Sunday is now kept as a day of rest from official 
 work, and of recreation. Even the modern English Satur- 
 day half-holiday has made its way into Japan. Sunday 
 being in vulgar parlance Dontahu,* Saturday is called (in 
 equally vulgar parlance) Han-don, that is, "half-Sunday." 
 
 But to return to Old Japan. Her months were real moons, 
 not artificial periods of thirty or thirty-one days. They were 
 numbered one, two, three, four, and so on. Only in poetry 
 did they bear proper names, such as January, February, and 
 the rest, are in European languages. The year consisted of 
 twelve such months, with an intercalary one whenever New 
 Year would otherwise have fallen a whole moon too early. 
 This happened about once in three years. Japanese New Year 
 took place late in our January or in the first half of February ; 
 and that, irrespective of the state of the temperature, was 
 universally regarded as the beginning of spring. Snow or 
 no snow, the people laid aside their wadded winter gowns. 
 The plum-blossoms, at least, were always there to prove 
 that spring had come ; and if the nightingale was yet silent, 
 that was not the Japanese poets' fault, but the nightingale's. 
 
 Besides the four great seasons of spring, summer, autumn, 
 and winter, there were twenty-four minor periods (selcki) of 
 some fifteen days each, obtained by dividing the real, or ap- 
 proximately real, solar year of three hundred and sixty-five 
 days by twenty-four. These minor periods had names, such 
 as Risshun, " Early Spring ; " Kanro, " Cold Dew ; " Shokan, 
 
 * A corruption of the Dutch Zontag. 
 
420 Time. 
 
 "Lesser Cold;" Daikan, "Greater Cold." In addition to 
 this, years, days, and hours were all accounted as belonging 
 to one of the signs of the zodiac (Jap. ju-rd-shi), whose order 
 is as follows : — 
 
 1 Ne* 
 
 the Eat. 
 
 7 TJma, 
 
 the Horse 
 
 2 UsJu, 
 
 „ Bull. 
 
 8 Hitsuji, 
 
 ,, Goat. 
 
 3 Torn, 
 
 ,. Tiger. 
 
 9 Saru, 
 
 „ Ape. 
 
 4 U, 
 
 ,, Hare. 
 
 10 Tori, 
 
 ,, Cock. 
 
 5 Tatsu, 
 
 „ Dragon. 
 
 11 Tnu, 
 
 ,. Dog. 
 
 6 Mi, 
 
 ,, Serpent. 
 
 12 I, 
 
 ,, Boar. 
 
 The Japanese have also borrowed from Chinese astrology 
 what are termed the jik-kan, or- " ten celestial stems " — a 
 series obtained bydividing each of the five elements into two- 
 parts, termed respectively the elder and the younger brother 
 (e and to). The following series is thus obtained : — 
 
 1 Kino E Wood— Elder Brother. 
 
 % Kino To, Wood — Younger Brother. 
 
 3 Hi no E, Fire —Elder Brother. 
 
 4 Hi no To, Fire — Younger Brother. 
 
 STsuchinoE, Earth — Elder Brother. 
 
 Q.Tsuchino To, ... Earth — Younger Brother. 
 
 7 Ka }■ no E, Metal —Elder Brother. 
 
 SKanoTo, Metal — Younger Brother. 
 
 QMizunoE Water— Elder Brother. 
 
 10 Mizu no To Water — Younger Brother. 
 
 The two series — celestial stems and signs of the zodiac — 
 being allowed to run on together, their combination produces 
 
 * Ne is short for nezv.mi, the real word for "rat." In like manner, u is for tisagi, 
 and mi for hebi. I is not an abbreviation of inoshishi, the modern popular name 
 for a "boar," but the genuine old form of the word. 
 
 t Short for kane, " metal." 
 
Time. 421 
 
 the cycle of sixty days or sixty years, as sixty is the first 
 number divisible both by ten and by twelve. The first day or 
 year of the cycle is Ki no E Xe, " Wood— Elder Brother, 
 Eat ; " the second is Ki no To Ushi, "Wood — Younger Brother, 
 Bull ; " and so on, until the sixtieth, Mizu no To I, " Water 
 — Younger Brother, Boar," is reached, and the cycle begins 
 again. 
 
 Old-fashioned people still remember these things, more 
 especially the peasantry, who scrupulously attend to times 
 and seasons in all the operations of agriculture. For instance, 
 they sow their rice on the eighty-eighth day (hachi-ju-hachi ya) 
 from the beginning of spring (RissJiun), and they plant it out 
 in Kijubai, the period fixed for the early summer rains. The 
 two hundred and tenth and two hundred and twentieth days 
 (Xi-hyaku toka and yi-lujahu Jiatsuha) from the beginning 
 of spring, and what is called Hassaku, that is, the first day of 
 the eighth moon, old calendar, are looked on as days of special 
 importance to the crops, which are certain to be injured if 
 there is a storm, because the rice is then in flower. They fall 
 early in September, just in the middle of the typhoon season. 
 St. Swithin's day has its Japanese counterpart in the Ki no 
 E Xe, mentioned above as the first day of the sexagesimal 
 cycle. If it rains then, it will rain for sixty days on end. 
 Again, if it rains on the eighth day of a certain eight-day 
 period called Hassen, of which there are six in every year, it will 
 rain for the next eight days. These periods, being movable, 
 may come at any time of the year. On the 6th August, 1891, 
 the greater and the lesser St. Swithin's days (Ki no E Ne and 
 Hassen no Alee or last day of Hassen) fell together, than which 
 a more unfortunate coincidence could scarcely be imagined, 
 seeing that the rice was just maturing and needed bright 
 
422 Time. 
 
 sunshine. The morning was cloudy, and accordingly the 
 Miyako Shimbun, one of the Tokyo newspapers, noticed that 
 there was anxiety on the rice exchange and that quotations 
 rose two or three cents until the afternoon, when, the sky 
 having cleared, prices fell again to the normal level. 
 
 We said that official Japan has quite Europeanised herself 
 so far as methods of computing time are concerned. The 
 assertion was too sweeping. Although the Gregorian calendar 
 has been in force ever since the 1st January, 1873, she has 
 not yet been able to bring herself to use the Christian era. 
 Not only would the use of this era symbolise to the Shinto 
 Court of Japan the supremacy of a foreign religion : — it 
 would be derogatory from a political point of view, the fixing 
 of the calendar from time to time, together with the appoint- 
 ing of " year-names,"* having ever been looked on in the 
 Far-East as among the inviolable privileges and signs of in- 
 dependent sovereignty, much as coining money is in the 
 West. China has its own year-names, which it proudly 
 imposes on such vassal states as Thibet. Japan has other 
 year-names. The names are chosen arbitrarily. In China 
 the plan was long ago introduced of making each year-name 
 coincide with the reign of an emperor. This has not hitherto^ 
 been the case in Japan, though an official notification has 
 been issued to the effect that reigns and year-names shall so 
 coincide in future. Either way, the confusion introduced 
 into the study of history may be easily imagined. Hardly 
 any Japanese knows all the year-names even of his own 
 country. The most salient ones are, it is true, employed in 
 conversation, much in the same way as we speak of the six- 
 teenth century or the Georgian era. Such are Engi (A. D. 
 
 * In Japanese, nengB. 
 
Time. 423 
 
 901 — 923), celebrated for the legislation then undertaken ; 
 Genroku (1688 — 1704), a period of great activity in various 
 arts ; Tempo (1830 — 1844), the most brilliant time of the 
 present century. But no one could say off-hand how many 
 years it is from one of these periods to another. In the year 
 1872 an attempt was made to introduce, as the Japanese era 
 from which all dates should be counted, the supposed date of 
 the accession of Jimmu Tenno, the mythical founder of the 
 Imperial line ; and this system still has followers. Jimmu's 
 reign being held to have commenced in the year B. C-. 660, 
 all dates thus reckoned exceed by the number six hundred 
 and sixty the European date for the same year. For in- 
 stance, 1891 is 2551. 
 
 The following is a list of the year-names of the present 
 century : — 
 
 Kyoua, 
 
 1801- 
 
 -1804.* 
 
 Ansei, 
 
 1854- 
 
 -1860. 
 
 Bunkwa, 
 
 1804- 
 
 -1818. 
 
 Man-en, 
 
 1860- 
 
 -1861. 
 
 Bunsei, 
 
 1818- 
 
 -1830. 
 
 Bunkyu, 
 
 1861- 
 
 -1864. 
 
 Tempo, 
 
 1830- 
 
 -1844. 
 
 Ocnji, 
 
 1864- 
 
 -1865. 
 
 Kokua, 
 
 1844- 
 
 -1848. 
 
 Keio, 
 
 1865- 
 
 -1868. 
 
 Kaei, 
 
 1848- 
 
 -1854. 
 
 Meiji, 
 
 1868- 
 
 — 
 
 The present year, 1891, is the twenty-fourth year of Meiji. 
 Astrologically speaking, it is Ka no To U, " Metal — Younger 
 Brother, Hare." 
 
 Sool£ recommended. Japanese Chronological Tahles, by William 
 Bramsen. This book has an elaborate introduction to the whole subject ; and the 
 tables are so arranged as to show, not only the European year, but the exact day 
 to which any Japanese date, from A. D. 615 onwards, corresponds. 
 
 * It may be asked : Why not take Kyowa as equivalent to 1801 — 3, Bunkwa as 
 equivalent to 1804 — 17, and so on in every case, instead of counting the final and 
 initial years of each period twice? The reason is that no new year-name ever 
 came into force on the 1st January. In most cases the year was well-advanced 
 before the new name was adopted. 
 
424 Tokyo. 
 
 Tobacco. Tobacco seems to have been introduced into 
 Japan by the Portuguese about the year 1600. Its use was 
 at first strictly prohibited : but by 1651 the law was so far 
 relaxed as to permit smoking, though only out-of-doors. 
 Now there is hardly a man or woman throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land who does not enjoy the fragrant 
 weed ; for, as an anonymous author quoted by Mr. Satow 
 sarcastically remarks, " Women who do not smoke and priests 
 who keep the prescribed rules of abstinence, are equally 
 rare." 
 
 Of the numerous varieties of Japanese tobacco, the most 
 universally esteemed is Kokubu, which is grown in the pro- 
 vince of Satsuma ;* but the plan commonly followed by 
 dealers is to make blends of two or more sorts. Prices vary 
 from 20 cents up to $1 for 100 we, that is, a little less than 
 1 lb. All Japanese tobacco is light, and consequently well- 
 suited for use in the form of cigarettes. One of the countless 
 ways in which the nation is Europeanising itself is the adop- 
 tion of cigarette-smoking. But the tiny native pipe— it 
 looks like a doll's pipe — holds its own side by side with the 
 new importation, and will probably continue to do so. 
 
 Book recommended. The Introduction of Tobacco into Japan, by 
 Ernest Satow, printed in Vol. n. of the Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 Tokyo. This city, also called Tokeif and formerly Yedo, 
 is of comparatively modern origin. Down to the Middle 
 Ages, most of the ground "on which it stands was washed by 
 the sea or occupied by lagoons. On the seashore stood, in 
 the fifteenth century, the fishing hamlet of Ye-do ("estuary 
 
 * Rein says Osumi, and may be correct; but in common Japanese parlanoe 
 Satsuma is always mentioned as the province whence the Kokubu tobacco comes, 
 t Kei is pronouneed nearly like the English name of the letter k. 
 
Tokyo. 425 
 
 gate"), near to which a certain warrior, named OtaDokwan, 
 built himself a fortress in the year 1456. The advantages of 
 the position from a military point of view were discerned by 
 Hideyoshi, who therefore caused his general, Ieyasu, to take 
 possession of the castle ; and when Ieyasu himself became 
 Shogun in 1603, he made Yedo his capital. From that time 
 forward, Japan thus practically had two capitals — Kyoto in 
 the west, where the Mikado dwelt in stately seclusion, and 
 Yedo in the east, whence the Shogun exercised his authority 
 over the whole land. On the fall of the Shogunate in 1868, 
 the Mikado came and took up his abode in Yedo ; and on the 
 13th September of the same year the name of the city was 
 changed to Tokyo or Tokei, these being alternative methods 
 of pronouncing the Chinese characters M sC, with which the 
 name is written. The meaning of the term To-kyo is ' ' eastern 
 capital." It was given in contradistinction to Sai-ltyo, or 
 "western capital," the name by which Kyoto was rechristen- 
 ed. Tokyo has been burnt down and built up again many 
 times, fires having formerly been as common in this wooden 
 city as at Constantinople. At the present day it covers an 
 immense area, popularly estimated at four ri in every direc- 
 tion, in other words, a hundred square miles. The population 
 has been officially stated to be, in round numbers, 1,300,000. 
 But this includes the whole metropolitan district {Tohyo-Fu). 
 The city proper has only about 900,000. 
 
 The principal sights of Tokyo are the Shiba temples, with 
 the tombs of the Shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty, near 
 which is the best Kwanhoba or Bazaar; the Enryokwan, former- 
 ly the summer palace of the Shoguns, and now used for the 
 entertainment of distinguished visitors, in consequence of 
 which it is not to be seen without a special permit ; the view 
 
426 Tdkyo. 
 
 over the city from the new tower on Atago-yama ; the Shinto 
 temple named Slwkonsha, erected to the memory of the loyal 
 troops slain in battle against various rebels ; the adjacent 
 museum of military objects, called the Yushuhwan ; Ueno 
 Park, with tombs and temples similar to those of Shiba, and 
 also some interesting museums ; the popular Buddhist temple 
 of Asakusa ; the Monzeki, or temple of the Monto sect in 
 Tsukiji, to say nothing of such modern Europeanised build- 
 ings as the hotels, banks, government offices, asylums, etc., 
 which will have an interest for some persons. In addition to 
 these, according to the time of year, there are the cherry- 
 blossoms of Mukojima, Ueno, and Shiba, the irises of Horikiri, 
 and the wistarias of Kameido. It is also worth while paying 
 a visit to one of the theatres, of which the Shintomi-za and 
 Kabulti-za are the best, and to the wrestling-matches held at the 
 temple of Ekoin and elsewhere. But after all, the chief sight 
 of Tokyo to one fresh from home is Tokyo itself — the quaint 
 little wooden houses, which brick structures in foreign style 
 have only partially replaced, the native dress which western 
 fashions and fabrics have not yet completely driven out, the 
 open air life of the people, the clatter of the clogs, the jin- 
 rihishas, the dainty children — dressed, powdered, and rouged 
 for a holiday outing — the indescribable grotesqueness of the 
 so-called European costumes of many of the fine ladies and 
 gentlemen of the middle class. There are also the attrac- 
 tions of the shops, which make Mr. Percival Lowell truly 
 observe that " To stroll down the Broadway of Tokyo of an 
 evening is a liberal education in every day art," for— as he 
 adds—" Whatever these people fashion, from the toy of an 
 hour to the triumphs of all time, is touched by a taste 
 unknown elsewhere." Mr. Lowell, as an artist in words 
 
Topsy-turvydom. 427 
 
 does not add what we, simple recorders of facts, are bound to 
 do, that with so much to appeal to the eye, Tokyo also has 
 not a little that appeals to the nose. 
 
 The pleasantest excursions in the neighbourhood of Tokyo 
 are to Oji, famed for the incongruous mixture of autumn 
 tints and paper-mills ; to Meguro, with its temple of Fudo ; to 
 Futago, where the ayu or trout are caught ; and to Ikegami, 
 the chief shrine of the Nichiren sect of Buddhists, with fine, 
 though now decaying, temples standing amidst gigantic trees. 
 But Tokyo is less well-off in the matter of excursions than 
 Yokohama, whose neighbourhood is one of singular beauty. 
 
 Itooks recommended. For facts, Murray's Handbook for Japan, 
 The Castle of Tedo, by T. H. H McClatchie, in Vol. VI. Part I. and The 
 Feudal Mansions of Tedo, by the same author, in Vol. VII. Part III. of the Asiatic 
 Transactions. For picturesque descriptions and for " talky-talky," the pages of 
 globe-trotters and book-makers innumerable. 
 
 Topsy-turvydom. It has often been remarked that 
 the Japanese do many things in a way that runs directly 
 counter to European ideas of what is natural and proper. 
 To the Japanese themselves our ways appear equally unac- 
 countable. It was only the other day that a Tokyo lady 
 asked the present writer why foreigners did so many things 
 topsy-turvy, instead of doing them naturally, after the man- 
 ner of her country-people. Here are a few instances of this 
 contrariety : — 
 
 Japanese books begin at what we should call the end, the 
 word finis (£?) coming where we put the title-page. The 
 foot-notes are printed at the top of the page, and the reader 
 puts in his marker at the bottom. In newspaper paragraphs 
 a large full stop is put at the beginning of each. 
 
 Men make themselves merry with wine, not after dinner, 
 but before. Sweets also come before the pieces de resistance. 
 
428 Topsy-turvydom. 
 
 The whole method of treating horses is the opposite of 
 ours. A Japanese mounts his horse on the right side, all 
 parts of the harness are fastened on the right side, the mane 
 is made to hang on the left side ; and when the horse is 
 brought home, its head is placed where its tail ought to be, 
 and the animal is fed from a tub at the stable door. 
 
 Boats are hauled up on the beach stern first. 
 
 The colour of mourning is not black, but white. 
 
 The Japanese do not say " north-east," " south-west," but 
 "east-north," "west-south." 
 
 They carry babies, not in their arms,, but on their backs. 
 
 In addressing a letter they employ the' following order of 
 words: "Japan, Tokyo, Akasaka District, sueh-and-such-a 
 street, 19 Number, Smith John Mr." — thus putting the 
 general first, and the particular afterwards, which is the exact 
 reverse of our method. 
 
 Many tools and implements are used in a way which is 
 contrary to ours. For instance, Japanese keys turn in in- 
 stead of out, and Japanese carpenters saw and plane towards, 
 instead of away from, themselves. 
 
 The best rooms in a house are at the back. The garden 
 too is at the back. When building a house, the Japanese 
 construct the roof first ; then, having numbered the pieces, 
 they break it up again, and keep it until the substructure is 
 finished. 
 
 In making up accounts, they write down the figures first, 
 the item corresponding to the figures next. 
 
 Politeness prompts them to remove, not their head-gear, 
 but their foot-gear. 
 
 Their needle-work sometimes curiously reverses European 
 methods. Belonging as he does to the inferior sex, the 
 
Torii. 429 
 
 present writer can only speak hesitatingly on such a point. 
 But an English lady resident in Tokyo tells him that the 
 impulse of her Japanese maids is always to sew on cuffs, 
 frills, and other like things, topsy-turvy and inside out. If 
 that is not the ne plus ultra of contrariety, what is 
 
 Men in Japan are most emphatically not the inferior sex. 
 When (which does not often happen) a husband condescends 
 to take his wife out with him, it is my lord's jinrikisha that 
 bowls off first. The woman gets into hers as best she can, 
 and trundles along behind. Still, women have some few 
 consolations. In Europe, gay bachelors are apt to be capti- 
 vated by the charms of actresses. In Japan, where there are 
 no actresses to speak of, it is the women who fall in love 
 with fashionable actors. 
 
 Strangest of all, after a bath the Japanese dry themselves 
 with a damp towel ! 
 
 Torii. Torii is the name of the archways, formed of two 
 upright and horizontal beams, which stand in front of Shinto 
 temples. As almost all visitors to this country seek for 
 information concerning these characteristically Japanese 
 structures, it may be well to quote what Mr Satow says con- 
 cerning them in his essay on " The Shinto Temples of Ise," 
 printed in Vol. II. of the Asiatic Transactions :— 
 
 " The torii," writes Mr. Satow, " was originally a perch 
 for the fowls offered up to the gods, not as food, but to give- 
 warning of daybreak. It was erected on any side of the 
 temple indifferently. In later times, not improbably after 
 the introduction of Buddhism, its original meaning was 
 forgotten ; it was placed in front only and supposed to be a 
 gateway. Tablets with inscriptions (gahu) were placed on 
 
430 Trade. 
 
 the torii with this belief, and one of the first things done after 
 the restoration of the Mikado in 1868, in the course of the 
 purification of the Shinto temples, was the removal of these 
 tablets. The etymology of the word is evidently ' bird rest.' 
 The torii gradually assumed the character of a general symbol 
 of Shinto, and the number which might be erected to the 
 honour of a deity became practically unlimited. The Bud- 
 dhists made it of stone or bronze, and frequently of red- 
 painted wood, and developed various forms." 
 
 It is perhaps right to add that this account, or rather the 
 etymology given in it, has been disputed. Mr Aston, in his 
 Japanese Grammar, derives torii, not from tori, " a bird," 
 and iru, " to dwell," " to perch," but from torn, " to pass 
 through," and the same iru. Who would undertake to judge 
 between two such authorities ? 
 
 Trade. The foreign trade of Japan, which dates from 
 the time when the country was' forcibly thrown open a 
 little over thirty years ago, is centred in the treaty ports. 
 Through these all commodities pass while on their way to 
 the interior, or pending shipment abroad. The only excep- 
 tions are some few exports, such as grain, coal, and sulphur, 
 which are allowed to be sent out of the country in foreign 
 bottoms by Japanese exporters from certain specified ports 
 near the localities of production. Though this system is ad- 
 vantageous in some respects, in that it brings the business to 
 the door of the treaty port -merchants, and though it has 
 hitherto worked fairly well,-it has its drawbacks. One of the 
 greatest is that it has not allowed the foreigner to come into 
 direct communication with the producing or consuming 
 markets. Each treaty port is surrounded by a ring or rings 
 
Trade. 431 
 
 of native brokers, through whom all business must necessarily- 
 pass, — a consequence of the peculiar state of affairs that has 
 enabled these guilds of go-betweens to obtain control of the 
 commerce of the country. This applies more especially to 
 the main import and export staples, there being some articles 
 that are bought and sold in a manner more analogous to 
 the usages of business elsewhere. 
 
 It is thought in some quarters that if foreigners were 
 allowed to trade" in the interior, as would happen in the event 
 of the revision of the present treaties, a large increase, in the 
 amount of business would immediately result. This view is 
 open to question. The theory that the foreigner would be 
 met half-way by Japanese merchants of enterprise, probity, 
 and wealth, who have hitherto remained in the background 
 owing to a disinclination to associate themselves in any way 
 with the dubious dealings of the treaty port middleman, does 
 not appear to be sound. Had this keen and upright trader 
 of the interior existed, he would evidently long since have 
 made his way to the centres of commercial activity, and there 
 have proved to foreigners that the go-betweens of uncertain 
 character do not represent Japanese commerce. Foreigners 
 attempting to do business in the interior would be met by the 
 very same difficulty which they have partially conquered in 
 the open ports, — a low standard of business morality among 
 their clients. 
 
 Despite his thirty years' close acquaintance with foreigners 
 and their business methods, the average native dealer has 
 much to learn. He is -still very backward in such matters as 
 punctuality, a strict regard for the truth, the keeping of a 
 promise however trivial. He is a bad loser even of the 
 smallest sums, and will not consider it derogatory to endea- 
 
432 Trade. 
 
 vour to get out of a contract, the fulfilment of which would 
 entail a loss. On the other hand, he possesses the excellent 
 self-abnegatory quality of working well in combination with 
 others in guilds. Considering the short time that has elapsed, 
 much progress has undoubtedly been made towards the 
 adoption of European methods. Despised during long ages 
 of aristocratic feudalism, hampered at every turn by vexa- 
 tious restrictions, trade was in a sorry plight when the ports 
 were opened. Under the control of guilds of great influence 
 and power, business would seem to have been carried on 
 according to fixed rules which restricted individual enter- 
 prise. The Japanese traders formed a class utterly unsuitect 
 to have the making of their country's commercial prosperity. 
 Of doubtful probity, without the necessary capital, the Japa- 
 nese merchant was and remains the petty trader. Though 
 not in the possession of much ready money, he has never 
 been able to organise a proper system of credit. His transac- 
 tions with foreigners are necessarily on a cash basis, because 
 experience has taught them that in the event of the market 
 going against him, he will often lack the will to keep an 
 engagement even when he has the ability. The aims and 
 ambitions of the Japanese business man are paltry ; the 
 spirit actuating each class is smaller and meaner than that 
 of the corresponding class in Western lands. The future 
 prosperity and development of the country must be looked 
 for rather in its industrial capabilities than in the efforts of 
 its mercantile community. The assistance of government is 
 relied upon in nearly every large undertaking — a sure sign of 
 want of individual enterprise— nor has such assistance been 
 always judiciously dispensed. Witness the granting of a sum 
 of $200,000 to a company of seemingly influential and well- 
 
Trade. 433 
 
 to-do merchants, who had banded together with the purpose 
 of exporting Japanese Congous to Russia. The market for 
 Japanese black teas in Eussia was purely hypothetical, and in 
 the end the company was never formed and the subsidy was 
 returned. 
 
 The chief progress made during the past thirty years 
 has been in industrial developments. Mines have been 
 opened, mills erected, and new manufactures started. Japa- 
 nese coal is now well-known throughout the East ; copper 
 and antimony are largely exported. At the end of 1890, 
 Japan possessed thirty-six spinning and weaving mills, 
 engaged in working up raw cotton, besides numerous silk 
 filatures and other reeling establishments. Many articles 
 that were formerly imported are now manufactured in the 
 country, — some, for example matches, in such quantities 
 as to allow of a large export business being done. With 
 her cheap and skilful labour, which requires only to be 
 directed by competent men of business, the industrial future 
 of Japan should be bright. Unfortunately there seems to 
 be an inclination among all classes of Japanese to view with 
 disfavour any closer drawing of the bonds that now unite 
 them with foreigners in commerce. If the native press may 
 be taken as an authority, great apprehension is felt that direct 
 intercourse between foreigners and Japanese would result dis- 
 astrously for the latter. 
 
 The value of Japan's foreign trade for 1890 was yen 
 138,332,086 (the Japanese silver yen is worth about 3/3 
 sterling, or say 78 cents of the U.S. gold dollar), which con- 
 tributed to the funds of the country in duties levied by the 
 Customs, yen 4,488,384. The import figures, which were 
 exceptionably high, amounted to yen 81,728,580, whilst 
 
484 Trade. 
 
 exports, which were hardly up to the average, were valued 
 
 at yen 56,603,506. In the year 1879, the total value of the 
 
 foreign trade of the empire ajnounted to yen 66,000,000, 
 
 which, when compared with the figures for 1890 given above, 
 
 shows that it has more than doubled during the last decade. 
 
 The chief articles of trade, with their respective values in 
 
 1890, were :— 
 
 IMPORTS. 
 
 Yen. 
 
 Textiles and textile fabrics 20,496,686 
 
 Rice 12,302,883 
 
 Sugar 8,484,857 
 
 Raw cotton and wool 5,735,065 
 
 Kerosene oil 4,950,256 
 
 Metals and metal manufactures 4,422,080 
 
 Clocks, watches, and machinery . . . . . . 3,253,820 
 
 Flour, beans, peas, and pulse . . . . . . . . 2,085,864 
 
 Dyes, drugs, chemicals, gunpowder, and saltpetre . . 1,158,597 
 
 Hides and leather 896,625 
 
 Railway carriages, carts, drays, &c. . . . . . . 758,730 
 
 Printing paper and books. . .. .. .. .. 533,409 
 
 Oils, oil cake, oil wax, and paints in oil . . . . 410,131 
 
 Hats and caps . . . . . . . . . . . . 348,811 
 
 Condensed milk and beer 324,463 
 
 Window glass 202,638 
 
 Coal 110,497 
 
 Sundry miscellaneous articles 15,253,168 
 
 Total ., .. 81,728,580 
 
 EXPORTS. 
 
 Yen. 
 Raw silk, waste silk, and cocoons . . . . . . 16 575 215 
 
 Tea 6,275,189 
 
 Copper 5,352,313 
 
 Silk piece goods and silk manufactured goods . . 3,684,815 
 
Trade. 
 
 435 
 
 Coal 
 
 Pish, dried fish, and fish oil 
 
 Camphor and menthol 
 
 Curios 
 
 Hatches 
 
 Bice 
 
 Porcelain and earthenware 
 
 Seaweed 
 
 Wheat and rape seed 
 
 Skins, furs, hair, and shells 
 
 Tobacco 
 
 Sundry miscellaneous articles 
 
 Total . 
 
 Ten. 
 
 3,099,862 
 
 2,509,180 
 
 2,003,423 
 
 1,758,234 
 
 1,489,030 
 
 1,321,635 
 
 1,245,957 
 
 679,610 
 
 143,288 
 
 134,233 
 
 120,169 
 
 10,211,353 
 
 56,603,506 
 
 divided as follows between the undermentioned ports : — 
 
 Yen. 
 
 Yokohama 72,977,752 
 
 Kobe 48,996,417 
 
 Nagasaki 7,725,343 
 
 Osaka 3,801,699 
 
 Shimonoseki 1,767,402 
 
 Hakodate 1,499,567 
 
 Kuchinotsu . 
 
 Moji . . 
 
 Izugahara . 
 
 Karatsu 
 
 Misumi 
 
 Hakata 
 
 Otaru 
 
 Shishimi 
 
 Sasuna 
 
 Niigata 
 
 850,373 
 
 342,830 
 
 111,207 
 
 106,242 
 
 50,303 
 
 39,058 
 
 19,803 
 
 17,839 
 
 16,083 
 
 10,168 
 
 Total 138,332,086 
 
436 
 
 Trade. 
 
 various countries in this 
 
 The respective shares taken by 
 total are as follows : — 
 
 Great Britain 
 United States of America 
 Hongkong . . 
 China 
 Prance 
 British India 
 Germany 
 Korea 
 Australia 
 Belgium 
 Canada 
 Switzerland . . 
 Russia 
 
 Philippine Islands 
 Italy 
 Austria 
 Turkey 
 Siarn 
 Denmark 
 Holland 
 ' Spain 
 Hawaii 
 Peru 
 Portugal 
 
 Sweden and Norway 
 Other countries and for ships' use 
 
 Total 138,332,086 
 
 The preceding figures show the marked preponderance of 
 British interest in the Japan trade. In 1890 Great Britain 
 and her colonies and possessions transacted business with 
 Japan which was valued at yen 58,800,000. But although 
 
 Ten. 
 
 32,258,082 
 
 26,695,969 
 
 14,862,318 
 
 14,077,180 
 
 12,223,725 
 
 9,501,677 
 
 7,703,876 
 
 5,614,253 
 
 1,129,282 
 
 1,096,371 
 
 1,048,473 
 
 869,739 
 
 710,965 
 
 452,734 
 
 343,034 
 
 331,258 
 
 309,308 
 
 247,109 
 
 75,164 
 
 41,649 
 
 27,014 
 
 25,506 
 
 11,138 
 
 7,577 
 
 1,506 
 
 8,667,176 
 
Trade. 437 
 
 this seems to indicate a very satisfactory state of affairs so far 
 as British commerce is concerned, there have not been -want- 
 ing assertions that the British mercantile community no 
 longer holds its own. More especially clamorous was this 
 contention a few years ago, when the attention of business 
 men in England was called, during a period of commercial 
 depression, to the encroachments of Germans in foreign 
 markets that had hitherto been exclusively in British hands. 
 Figures were quoted to show that German trade in certain 
 branches had grown in a larger ratio, and the conclusion was 
 arrived at that the Germans had devised new business me- 
 thods peculiarly adapted to Japanese requirements and. calcu- 
 lated to drive British competition from the fielcf. These 
 forebodings have not been verified. The increase in the 
 value of the British import trade has been maintained. In 
 the year 1888 British imports were valued at yew 12,703,000 ; 
 in 1890 the total was yen 26,619,000. During the same 
 period Germany's trade increased from yen 2,314,000 to yen 
 6)857,000. True, these figures show a larger percentage of 
 increase for German than for British trade. Nevertheless, 
 there is nothing in them, when rightly judged, that need 
 cause the British merchant any anxiety. An increase from 
 nothing to something must inevitably appear greater than 
 the advance from a large part to a still larger. Pros- 
 perity or decline should be gauged, not by percentages 
 but by actual amounts. That Germany, long debarred by 
 circumstances from participation in the trade of the East, 
 should at last enter the field, is surely not a matter to cause 
 any reasonable business man either jealousy or alarm. Since 
 1886 the import trade of Great Britain has increased about 
 yen 14,000,000 and that of Germany about yen 4,500,000. 
 
488 Trade. 
 
 In some articles the latter country has now taken the lead, 
 as for instance : aniline dyes, gunpowder, iodide of potash, 
 iron nails, printing paper, salicylic acid, satins of silk and 
 cotton, shawls, flannels, woollen yarn, and sheet zinc. 
 
 The United States of America do a large trade with 
 Japan, ranking next to Great Britain. Silk, tea, and 
 kerosene oil are the chief articles interchanged. France, too, 
 does an important business with Japan, principally in silk, 
 and is followed by Germany and Belgium, which are the only 
 other European countries having extensive transactions with 
 Japan. Hongkong, China, and British India are the prin- 
 cipal places in the East that are interested in the trade. 
 
 The values of different articles of import and export are 
 subject to considerable yearly fluctuations. In 1889, for 
 instance, the export of rice was a very heavy one, giving the 
 article an undue importance. In 1890 the import of rice 
 and export of silk were both out of their usual places, the 
 former having been largely brought into the country in con- 
 sequence of the failure of the rice crop, whereas in the case 
 of silk the reeled varieties were not successfully placed upon 
 the market, the exported value being some yen 12,000,000 
 less than the previous year. Evidently, therefore, a wrong 
 impression may be formed of the relative positions of various 
 articles of commerce by an examination of the figures of a 
 single year. During 1890 the value of imports exceeded that 
 of exports, though, if the returns of the last ten years be 
 taken, it will be seen that the latter predominate, the figures 
 being : — 
 
 Imports Yen 437,872,562 
 
 Exports Yen 469,720,531 
 
 Silk. — This, the most valuable of Japan's exports, is sent 
 
Trade. 439 
 
 away to the European and American markets in various forms 
 — in its raw state, reeled as filatures, re-reels, and hanks, as 
 cocoons and waste silk ; manufactured, chiefly in the form 
 of handkerchiefs. The export trade has been steadily growing 
 in importance, and is now, in all its branches, worth to Japan 
 about yen 30,000,000 annually, with every indication of 
 further augmentation. Of raw silk, a crop of about 40,000 
 bales of a picul each (1 picul=133J lbs.) of the reeled 
 description can now be produced without difficulty, and some 
 30,000 piculs of the less valuable products, — waste silk and 
 cocoons. 
 
 Although grown to some extent all over Japan- with the 
 exception of the northern island of Yezo, the chief producing 
 districts are situated in the centre and north of the Main 
 Island, being the provinces of Musashi, Kai, Shinano, Mino, 
 Echigo, Kozuke, Shimotsuke, Hida, Echizen, Etchu, Iwashiro, 
 Iwaki, Uzen, Eikuzen, Ugo and Rikuchu. The varieties most 
 renowned for their excellence come from Shinano, Kozuke, Kai, 
 and Iwashiro. Compared with its European rival, the Japa- 
 nese cocoon appears to leave nothing to be desired ; but the silk 
 produced, being generally not subjected to such careful mani- 
 pulation in the working up, is hardly equal to that of Prance 
 and Italy, and fetches somewhat less on the European and 
 American markets. There are nevertheless some few filatures 
 in Shinshu that turn out silks very highly esteemed on 
 account of their brilliant white colour, which cannot be 
 matched in Europe. As a rule, however, in spite of the 
 introduction of foreign machinery in many districts, notably 
 Shinshu, Koshu and Joshu, where numerous filatures of the 
 most approved type now exist, the silks of Japan still show 
 much irregularity, due to careless reeling. In many parts of 
 
440 Trade. 
 
 the country the old-fashioned methods of working survive 
 unchanged. 
 
 The annual value of this branch of the trade amounts to 
 about yen 25,000,000. The production of waste silk ap- 
 proaches in value yen 3,000,000. By far the largest portion 
 of the crop is shipped to the continent of Europe ; but 
 England and America also participate in the trade to some 
 slight extent. Many varieties of waste silk are produced, 
 the principal being : 
 
 1. Maioata (silk caps) — the product of double and pierced 
 cocoons boiled off. 
 
 2. Noshi-ito— which corresponds to knubb silk. 
 
 3. Kibiso — a kind of curley. 
 
 4. Divers waste silks of inferior descriptions, including 
 double and pierced cocoons, &c. 
 
 The different qualities of waste silks are generally distin- 
 guished by the names of the provinces where they are pro- 
 duced. Japanese waste silks are excellent, and much ap- 
 dreciated in Europe, especially the variety known as Noshi- 
 ito, which is used for the manufacture of velvets. Shinshu 
 and Oshu produce the best descriptions of waste, as well as 
 of reeled silk. This trade, although not nearly so important 
 as that in the reeled staple, is in a flourishing condition, the 
 whole of the crop being yearly either sold to foreign mer- 
 chants or used for home manufactures. Unfortunately the 
 Japanese producers are not proof against temptations to 
 fraud, which the peculiar form of certain descriptions of waste 
 silk renders easy of accomplishment, and foreign exporters 
 have often to complain of the intermingling of extraneous 
 matter in what purports to be waste silk alone. This is very 
 marked in Joshu wastes. Native manufacturers use a certain 
 
Trade. 441 
 
 quantity of spun Noshi-ito (Tama) in the manufacture of a 
 fabric of pure silk or silk and cotton mixture. There are 
 two mills engaged in the business, and a third is in process 
 of construction. 
 
 As regards manufactured silks, the large quantity of hand- 
 kerchiefs annually exported speaks for the esteem in which 
 this article is held in Europe and America. Plain silk 
 piece goods are likewise exported in increasing quantities 
 to Prance and America, where they are dyed the colours and 
 patterns that may required to suit the prevailing fashion. 
 
 The reeled silk season lasts the entire year, beginning on 
 the 1st July and ending on the 30th June of the follow- 
 ing year. The trade centres in Yokohama, whence the 
 bulk of the silk is exported by foreign merchants. The 
 balance of the crop is either exported by the Japanese them- 
 selves or used in manufacturing piece goods. 
 
 Tea. — Among exports, tea ranks second in value. The quan- 
 tity disposed of to the foreign dealers at the treaty ports has 
 annually exceeded 40,000,000 lbs. during the last few years. 
 The Reason commences in May with the advent of the first 
 pickings of the shrub ; but although business continues 
 throughout the year, no purchases of any magnitude are made 
 after the autumn. The chief foreign market is America. 
 It is not a favourite in Europe, where the Chinese and 
 Indian varieties are preferred. At present Japan exports 
 none but green teas. In preparing the leaf for the for- 
 eign market, the grower subjects it to one firing which, 
 is sufficient to preserve it while in transit to the open 
 ports. There it is purchased by the foreign merchants, 
 and treated in the following manner. A quantity is placed 
 
442 Trade. 
 
 in a deep iron pan, over a slow charcoal fire, and kept 
 in motion by a coolie who stirs it continually with his 
 hands. Such colouring matter as may be required is now 
 added, and the tea, after being sifted and picked over, is 
 packed in chests lined with sheet' lead, and is ready to be 
 shipped abroad. The quantity of tea used for home con- 
 sumption must be very large, but is difficult to estimate 
 with certainty. In any case, it should not be less than the 
 quantity exported. The value of the tea exported has not 
 shown the same ratio of increase as the quantity. This 
 would seem to indicate that the cheaper varieties of Japanese 
 tea are now finding favour in America. 
 
 Eice.- — Eoughly speaking, Japan produces a hokii (5.3 
 bushels) of rice per head of the population, or say some 
 40,000,000 koku altogether. In years of exceptional plenty 
 this amount is exceeded ; when the harvest is bad, it is not 
 attained. 
 
 The foreign trade done in rice is now very considerable, 
 and though subject to great fluctuations depending on many 
 causes— chiefly upon the size of the crop — the export has 
 much increased of late years. The grain has earned for itself 
 a good name on the European markets, where it is highly 
 esteemed, ranking in favour after the best Java and Carolina 
 varieties. It is of the finest quality, and far superior to the 
 ordinary descriptions grown in India and Burmah. The 
 trade is now altogether in the hands of merchants. Formerly 
 the export was made by the government, which used to hold 
 immense stocks of the grain, — a practice- discontinued since 
 1889. This change has undoubtedly given an impetus to 
 the operations of speculators, and encouraged rapid fluctuations 
 
Treaties and Treaty Revision. 443 
 
 in value such as were previously unheard of when the 
 market was steadied by a knowledge of the reserve supply 
 in official keeping. During the years 1888 and 1889, the 
 export figures were exceptionally large ; but owing to a short- 
 age in the crop, importations of considerable volume had to 
 be made in 1890. As a rule, there is a fair quantity available 
 for export, after satisfying the demand for home consumption. 
 This quantity may be looked upon as likely to increase, as 
 the Japanese, finding their rice to be gaining favour abroad, 
 have lately taken to selling much of their own crop io for- 
 eigners, replacing any shortage that may be thus occasioned 
 by importations of foreign grain, chiefly Korean, notwithstand- 
 ing the dislike generally felt by the population for any but 
 native grown rice. When mixed with Japanese rice, the 
 Korean grain, which differs little from it in form at least, is 
 now freely used by the poorer classes. The operation is 
 highly profitable to the Japanese merchant, who imports the 
 foreign rice at a lower figure than that which the foreign 
 merchant is willing to pay him for the home-grown article. 
 
 Treaties and Treaty Revision. Japan's first treaty 
 
 with a foreign power was that wrung from her on the 31st 
 March, 1854, by the terror which Commodore Perry's "black 
 ships" had inspired; but the treaty now in force with the 
 United States is a latter one, concluded in 1858. Perhaps 
 one ought to mention a later date still, — October, 1869 ; for 
 it was then that Austria signed her treaty with Japan, and, 
 owing to the action of the most favoured nation clause, all 
 treaties previously concluded with the United States, Holland, 
 Eussia, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Prussia, Switzer- 
 land, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, and the 
 
444 Treaties and Treaty Revision. 
 
 North German Confederation, are practically merged in this 
 Austrian treaty. China's treaty -with Japan dates from 1871 ; 
 but that is a separate matter. The list of the older treaties 
 is completed if we add those concluded with Hawaii and Peru 
 in 1870 and 1872 respectively. 
 
 The chief features of the treaties are the opening to foreign 
 trade and residence of the ports of Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, 
 Nagasaki, Niigata, and Hakodate, which are accordingly 
 termed the " Open Ports " or " Treaty Ports," together with 
 Tokyo, the capital. " Treaty Limits " include a radius of 10 
 ri (about 24J miles) around each port, within which radius 
 foreigners may travel without passports. Furthermore, the 
 foreigners are guaranteed "exterritoriality," that is to say, 
 exemption from the jurisdiction of the Japanese law-courts. 
 Lastly, the Tariff Convention attached to the Treaties pro- 
 vides for a very low scale of import dues, — mostly five per 
 cent ad valorem. We say lastly ; but this commercial side of 
 the matter has been the most important of all in practice ; for 
 if foreigners do not come here to trade, what do they come 
 for ? Needless to say that the above is the merest outline of 
 documents which treat of many other matters commonly 
 stipulated for between nation and nation, unless indeed they 
 be taken for granted. Such are, for instance, the clauses 
 providing for the free exercise of the Christian religion by 
 foreign residents, and for assistance to be given to shipwreck- 
 ed mariners. 
 
 So far the treaties as they stand. How to get them re- 
 vised has been the chief crux of Japanese diplomacy for many 
 years past. The matter is a complicated one, involving, as 
 it does on the foreigners' part, the surrender of commercial 
 and legal privileges that have been enjoyed for a long term of 
 
Treaties and Treaty Revision. 445 
 
 years, — involving, too, the extremely delicate question as to 
 the fitness of Japan for admission into the family of Christian 
 nations on equal terms. Legally, Japan had a claim to the 
 revision of the treaties as far back as 1872 ; and the long 
 tarrying of Prince Iwakura's embassy in the United States in 
 1872-3 was avowedly caused by the desire to conclude a new 
 treaty then and there. But if Sir Francis Adams's account 
 of the proceedings may be trusted, the Japanese authorities 
 themselves ended by requesting a delay. Perhaps there had 
 been gradually borne in upon them the consciousness that 
 Japan- was then in no position to offer suitable guarantees ; 
 nor indeed did her laws and usages approximate to the 
 necessary standard for a whole decade more. A less 
 radical but equally thorny obstacle in the way was the 
 fact that the sixteen or seventeen foreign powers had 
 pledged themselves to act conjointly in their negotiations, 
 and that it was no easy matter to get England, Prance, 
 Holland, and the rest to consent to any conunon basis 
 on which a conference might be opened. Some held to 
 the low import dues which favoured the operations of their 
 merchants. Others — all perhaps — hesitated to place their 
 nationals at the mercy of Japanese judges. Thus the status 
 quo was preserved for years. One country, the United States, 
 which has always been Japan's kindest patron, did indeed 
 show signs of breaking away from the league of the Western 
 powers, and made a separate treaty in 1876 whereby all the 
 chief points in dispute were surrendered. This treaty, how- 
 ever, contained one clause which invalidated all the rest — 
 a clause to the effect that the treaty was not to go into force 
 until all the other powers should have concluded treaties of 
 a similar purport. America's good-will on this occasion, 
 
446 Treaties and Treaty Revision. 
 
 though doubtless genuine, proved therefore to be of the 
 Platonic order ; and " the Bingham treaty," as it was called 
 from the name of the minister who negotiated it, was con- 
 signed to the limbo of a pigeon-hole. 
 
 True, some declare that the paralysing little clause in this 
 treaty was inserted, not by the American negotiator, but by 
 the Japanese Government itself ! Impossible, it will be said. 
 Improbable, assuredly. Still, when the reader calls to mind 
 what has been mentioned concerning Prince Iwakura's alleged 
 tergiversations, he will be led to hesitate before rejecting the 
 possibility of such a thing. It will seen immediately below 
 that on two occasions more recent the Japanese negotiators 
 did actually shift their basis at the eleventh hour. And if 
 private individuals often tremble to see their heart's desire on 
 the eve of accomplishment, and would give worlds to recall 
 it at the last moment, why should not the same be sometimes 
 true of governments ? 
 
 Meanwhile Japan's progress in Europeanisation had been 
 such, above all her honest eagerness to reform her laws and 
 legal procedure had been made so clearly manifest, that it 
 began to be acknowledged on all sides, in diplomatic circles 
 and in the home press, that the time had arrived for the 
 admission of her claims, in return for granting which it was 
 understood that she should throw open the whole empire to 
 foreign trade and residence, instead of restricting these to the 
 " Open Ports " of Yokohama, Kobe, etc., as under the system 
 of exterritoriality hitherto in vogue. A preliminary con- 
 ference was held at Tokyo in 1882, to settle the basis of 
 negotiation. " The Japanese proposals included the abolition 
 of exterritoriality outside the foreign settlements as soon as 
 an English version of the Civil Code should have been 
 
Treaties and Treaty Revision. 447 
 
 published, the abolition of exterritoriality even in the foreign 
 settlements after a further period of three years, the appoint- 
 ment of no less than twenty-five foreign judges for a term of 
 fifteen years, — the said judges to form a. majority in all oases 
 affecting foreigners,— and the use of English as the judicial 
 language in such cases. Diplomacy, in Japan as elsewhere, 
 talks much and moves slowly. To elaborate the scheme here 
 outlined was the arduous work of four years, and 1886 was 
 already half-spent when the great Conference, intended to be 
 final, met at Tokyo. The English and German representa- 
 tives led the way by making liberal concessions ; and all was 
 progressing to general satisfaction, when- suddenly, in July, 
 1887, on the return from abroad of certain Japanese politicians 
 holding peculiar views of their own, the Japanese plenipoten- 
 tiaries shifted the basis of their demands, and the negotia- 
 tions were consequently brought to a standstill. 
 
 Nevertheless, as there remained a genuine desire on both 
 sides to get the treaty revision question settled, the attempt 
 to settle it was not given up. Some of the powers now 
 allowed themselves to be approached singly. Mexico (absurd 
 as it may sound) led the van. To be sure, she had no trade to 
 be influenced, and no citizens in Japan to protect. Anyhow, 
 she made her treaty, which was ratified early in 1889. In the 
 summer of the same year several of the powers followed suit, — 
 first the United States, next Eussia, then Germany. France, 
 too, was on the point of signing ; and the other powers, 
 though moving less quickly, were also moving in the same 
 direction. Suddenly, like a clap of thunder out of a clear 
 sky, Japanese public opinion — if that term may be employed 
 for want of a better to denote the views of the comparatively 
 small number of persons who in Japan think and speak on 
 
448 Treaties and Treaty Revision. 
 
 political subjects, — Japanese public ..opinion, we say, veered 
 round. Among the new stipulations had been one to the 
 effect that four foreign judges — not twenty-five — were to 
 assist the native bench during the first few years following 
 on treaty revision.. This stipulation was denounced on all 
 hands as contrary to the terms of the new Constitution which 
 had just been proclaimed. But the real objection was else- 
 where, and had its root in panic at the idea of Japan beings 
 thrown open to foreign trade and residence. For years the 
 opening of the country had been prayed for as a blessing to- 
 trade, a means of attracting foreign capital to the mines and 
 industries, a means of making Japanese manners and institu- 
 tions conform to what were almost universally admitted to 
 be the superior manners and customs of the West. The 
 same anticipations remained, but the inferences drawn from 
 them were reversed. Japan, it was now feverishly asserted, 
 would be swamped by foreign immigration, her national 
 customs would be destroyed, her mines, her industries would 
 all come under foreign control, her very soil would, by lease 
 or purchase, pass into foreign hands, her people would be 
 practically enslaved, and independent Japan would exist no 
 more. Such were the sentiments given voice to in every 
 private conversation, and re-echoed daily in the press. 
 Nevertheless the Japanese Government, more enlightened 
 than the Japanese public, endeavoured to continue the nego- 
 tiations for treaty revision. Popular excitement then began 
 to seek more violent vents. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 Count Okuma, had his leg blown off by a dynamite bomb. 
 It became evident in October, 1889, that negotiations could 
 no longer be carried on consistently with the public peace, 
 and so the Government once more drew back. Even those 
 
Treaties and Treaty Revision. 449 
 
 treaties which had already been concluded with America, 
 Germany, and Kussia were left unratified ; and it was proved 
 that the representatives of the other great powers had acted 
 wisely in acting slowly, and had saved their respective 
 governments from a humiliating rebuff. Since that time, 
 the only item of interest connected with this subject Has 
 been a public meeting of the foreign residents of Yokohama, 
 held in September, 1890, to protest, not against revision in 
 general, but against unconditional revision which should 
 lightly surrender privileges of trade and jurisdiction obtained 
 long ago and dearly prized. 
 
 Such is the story of Japanese treaty revision, so far as it is 
 publicly known. But we have access to no private sources of 
 information, and we are (but for that we thank God) no 
 politicians. For Japan's sake it is to be hoped that a matter 
 so nearly concerning her national honour may be settled 
 without much further delay. The outside public of lookers- 
 on will hope so for their own sakes as well. For must it be 
 confessed that this ever-pending question has degenerated 
 into a portentous bore? The new-comer who wishes to make 
 himself agreeable is advised not to touch upon it, for all 
 residents are utterly sick and weary of its very name. When 
 the matter shall have been finally settled on a basis satis- 
 factory to all the high contracting parties, those of us whose 
 lot it is to live in Japan will experience a sense of relief 
 similar to that often felt by Tokyo residents on a sultry 
 August afternoon, when the discordantly monotonous chirping 
 of the cicada; suddenly ceases, and is followed by a delicious 
 silence. But the day when the ratifications are exchanged 
 will be a sorry day for the newspapers, to whom the treaty 
 revision question has been for twenty years a perpetual feast. 
 
450 Tycoon. 
 
 Native and foreign alike, they have wrangled about it, preached 
 about it, raved about it, above all they have prosed about it, 
 until the worn-out reader begins to envy Job, who though 
 doubtless called upon to bear up against some few minor in- 
 conveniences, was never pestered with Japanese treaty revi- 
 sion. The articles on treaty revision in the "Japan Mail" 
 alone must weigh many tons ; and elderly as are the argu- 
 ments available on so threadbare a subject, the poor things 
 are allowed no rest, but are still perpetually trotted out 
 again and again, in season and out of season, apropos de 
 bottes, apropos of everything and of nothing, like King 
 Charles's head in the conversation of Mr. Dick. Some of the' 
 native papers have, it is true, started a fresh watchword 
 during the last two years, which, being interpreted, signifies 
 " treaty revision on a footing of equality.* " But the real 
 purport of this fair phrase is a suggestion that the foreign 
 powers shall concede everything, and Japan nothing at all. 
 In fact it is an aggravated case of 
 
 "the fault of the Dutch, 
 That of giving too little, and taking too much." 
 
 Book recommended, Treaties and Conventions concluded between 
 Japan and Foreign Nations, 
 
 Tycoon. The literal meaning of this title is " great 
 prince." It was adopted by the Shoguns in comparatively 
 recent times, in order to magnify their position in the eyes 
 of foreign powers. Perhaps it may have been suggested by 
 the title Tai-ltun-shu (^c H £), used to denote the Queen in 
 the English treaties with China. In any case the idea was 
 produced in the minds of European diplomats that the Sho- 
 
 * Taito joyaku kaisei. 
 
Woman. 451 
 
 gun was a sort of Emperor, and lie was dubbed "His 
 Majesty" accordingly. 
 
 "Vegetable Wax. The vegetable wax-tree is closely 
 allied to the lacquer-tree, both being sumachs of the genus 
 Rhus. The berries of the wax-tree are crushed in a press ; 
 and the exuding matter, which is intermediate in appearance 
 between wax and tallow, is warmed, purified, and made into 
 candles. It is known in commerce as " Japan wax," and 
 the tree producing it must not be confounded with the famous 
 tallow-tree of China {Stillingia sebicifera Euphorbiacea). The 
 berries of the lacquer-tree are sometimes utilised in the same 
 way as those of the vegetable wax-tree. 
 
 Bool*: recommended. The Preparation of Vegetable Wax, by- 
 Henry Gribble, in Vol. III. Part I. of the Asiatic Transactions. 
 
 Woman (Status of). Japanese women are most 
 womanly — kind, gentle, pretty. But the way in which they 
 are treated by the men has hitherto been such as might 
 cause a pang to any generous European heart. No wonder 
 that some of them are at last endeavouring to emancipate 
 themselves. A woman's lot is summed up in what are term- 
 ed " the three obediences " — obedience, while yet unmarried, 
 to a father ; obedience, when married, to a husband and that 
 husband's parents ; obedience, when widowed, to a son. At 
 the present moment, the greatest- lady in the land may have 
 to be her husband's drudge, to fetch and carry for him, to 
 bow down humbly in the hall when my lord sallies forth on 
 his walks abroad, to wait upon him at meals, to be divorced 
 at his good pleasure. Two grotesquely different influences 
 are now at work to undermine this state of slavery — one, 
 European theories concerning the relation of the sexes, the 
 
452 Woman. 
 
 .other, European clothes ! We have already remarked that 
 the same fellow who struts into a room before his wife when 
 she is dressed a la jnponaise, lets her go in first when she is 
 dressed a V europtenne* Probably such acts of courtesy do 
 not extend to the home where there is no one by to see ; for 
 most Japanese men, even in this very year of grace 1891, 
 make no secret of their disdain for the female sex. Still it is 
 a first step that even on some occasions consideration for 
 women should at least be simulated. 
 
 Have we explained ourselves ? We would not have it 
 thought that Japanese women are actually ill-used. There is 
 probably very little wife-beating in Japan, neither is there 
 any zenana system, any veiling of the face. Bather is it 
 that women are all their lives treated more or less like babies, 
 neither trusted with the independence which our modern 
 manners allow, nor commanding the romantic homage 
 which was woman's dower in mediaeval Europe ; for Japanese 
 feudalism — so different from the feudalism of the West in all 
 but military display — knew nothing of gallantry. A Japa- 
 nese knight performed his valiant deeds for no such fanciful 
 reward as a lady's smile. He performed them out of loyalty 
 to his lord or filial piety towards the memory of his papa, 
 taking up, maybe, the clan vendetta and perpetuating it. 
 Our own sympathies, as will be sufficiently evident from the 
 whole tenour of our remarks, are with those who wish to 
 raise Japanese women to the position occupied by their sisters 
 in Western lands. But many resident foreigners — male for- 
 eigners, of course — think differently, and the question forms 
 a favourite subject of debate. The only point on which both 
 parties agree is in their praise of Japanese woman. Says one 
 
 * See p. 119. " 
 
Woman. 453 
 
 side, " She is so charming that she deserves better treat- 
 ment," — to which the other side retorts that it is just because 
 she is " Kept in her place " that she is charming. The 
 following quotation is from a letter to the present writer by 
 a well-known author who, like others, has fallen under the 
 ■spell. "How sweet," says he, "Japanese woman is ! All 
 the possibilities of the race for goodness seem to be con- 
 centrated in her. It shakes one's faith in some Occidental 
 -doctrines. If this be the result of suppression and oppression, 
 then these are not altogether bad. On the other hand, how 
 ■diamond-hard the character of the American woman becomes 
 under the idolatry of which she is the object. In the 
 ■eternal order of things, which is the higher being, — the 
 childish, confiding, sweet Japanese girl, or the superb, cal- 
 culating, penetrating, Occidental Circe of our more artificial 
 society, with her enormous power for evil and her limited 
 capacity for good ? " — That Japanese women are charming, 
 either because or in spite of the disadvantages of their posi- 
 tion, is a fact proclaimed by foreign female critics as well. 
 The celebrated traveller, Miss Bird, praises their virtue 
 under circumstances the most trying. Mrs. W. H. 
 Smith, editress of the Japan Gazette, says " They are im- 
 measurably superior to the men." Miss Bacon's book 
 ■entitled Japanese Girls and Women is one continued tribute 
 to their gentleness, their self-devotion, and their nobility 
 of spirit. 
 
 The following treatise by the celebrated moralist Kaibara 
 so faithfully sums up the ideas hitherto prevalent in Japan 
 concerning the relations between the sexes that we shall give 
 it in full, notwithstanding its length. The title, which is 
 literally "The Greater Learning for Women (Onna Daigaku), 
 
454 Woman. 
 
 might be more freely rendered by " The Whole Duty of 
 Woman."* 
 
 The Greater Learning for Women. 
 " Seeing that it is a girl's destiny, on reaching womanhood, 
 to go to a new home, and live in submisson to her father-in- 
 law and mother-in-law it is even more incumbent upon her 
 than it is on a boy to receive with all reverence her parents' 
 instructions. Should her parents, through excess of tender- 
 ness, allow her to grow up self-willed, she will infallibly show 
 herself capricious in her husband's house, and thus alienate 
 his affection, while, if her father-in-law be a man of correct 
 principles, the girl will find the yoke of these principles 
 intolerable. She will hate and decry her father-in-law, and 
 the end of these domestic dissensions will be her dismissal 
 from her husband's house, and the covering of herself with 
 ignominy. Her parents, forgetting the faulty education they 
 gave her, may, indeed, lay all the blame on the father-in-law. 
 But they will be in error ; for the whole disaster should 
 rightly be attributed to the faulty education the girl received 
 from her parents. 
 
 " More precious in a woman is a virtuous heart than a face 
 of beauty. The vicious woman's heart is ever excited ; she 
 glares wildly around her, she vents her anger on others, her 
 words are harsh and her accent vulgar. When she speaks, 
 it is to set herself above others, to upbraid others, to envy 
 others, to be puffed up with individual pride, to jeer at others, 
 to outdo others — all things at variance with the ' way ' in 
 which a woman should walk. The only qualities that befit a 
 woman are gentle obedience , chastity, mercy, and quietness. 
 
 * This translation is reprinted frpm a paper by the present writer entitled 
 Educational Literature for Japanese Women, contributed in TTulv m« Vt„ T 
 Part III. of the Journal of the Boyal Asiatic Society of Great Brit ai'n. ' 
 
Woman. 455 
 
 " From her earliest youth, a girl should observe the line 
 of demarcation separating women from men ; and never, 
 even for an instant, should she be allowed to see or bear the 
 least impropriety. The customs of antiquity did not allow 
 men and women to sit in the same apartment, to keep their 
 wearing apparel in the same place, to bathe in the same place, 
 or to transmit to each other anything directly from hand to 
 hand. A woman going abroad at nigbt must in all cases 
 carry a lighted lamp ; and (not to speak of strangers) she 
 must observe a certain distance in her relations even with her 
 husband and with her brothers. In our days, the women of 
 the lower classes, ignoring all rules of this nature, behave 
 themselves disorderly ; they contaminate their reputations, 
 bring down reproach upon the heads of their parents and 
 brothers, and spend their whole lives in an unprofitable 
 manner. Is not this truly lamentable ? It is written like- 
 wise, in the ' Lesser Learning,' that a woman must form no 
 friendship and no intimacy, except when ordered to do so by 
 her parents or by the 'middleman.'* Even at the peril of 
 her life, must she harden her heart like rock or metal, and 
 observe the rules of propriety. 
 
 " In China, marriage is called returning, for the reason that 
 a woman must consider her husband's home as her own, and 
 that, when she marries, she is therefore returning to her own 
 home. However low and needy may be her husband's posi- 
 tion, she must find no fault with him, but consider the 
 poverty of the household which it has pleased Heaven to give 
 her as the ordering of an unpropitious fate. The Sage of old 
 taught that, once married, she must never leave her husband's 
 house. Should she forsake the ' way,' and be divorced, 
 
 * See page 282. 
 
456 Woman. 
 
 shame shall cover her till her latest hour. With regard 
 to this point, there are seven faults, which are termed 
 ' the Seven Reasons for Divorce : ' (i) A woman shall he 
 divorced for disobedience to her father-in-law or mother- 
 in-law. (ii) A woman shall be divorced if she fail to 
 bear children, the reason for this rule being that women 
 are sought in marriage for the purpose of giving men 
 posterity. A barren woman should, however, be retained if 
 her heart is virtuous and her conduct correct and free from 
 jealousy, in which case a child of the same blood must be 
 adopted ; neither is there any just cause for a man to divorce 
 a barren wife, if he have children by a concubine, (iii) 
 Lewdness is a reason for divorce, (iv) Jealousy is a reason 
 for divorce, (v) Leprosy, or any like foul disease, is a reason 
 for divorce, (vi) A woman shall be divorced, who, by talking 
 overmuch and prattling disrespectfully, disturbs the harmony 
 of kinsmen and brings trouble on her household, (vii) A 
 woman shall be divorced who is addicted to stealing. — All 
 the ' Seven Eeasons for Divorce ' were taught by the Sage. 
 A woman, once married, and then divorced, has wandered 
 from the ' way," and is covered with the greatest shame, 
 even if she should enter into a second union with a man of 
 wealth and position. 
 
 " It is the chief duty of a girl living in the parental house 
 to practise filial piety towards her father and mother. But 
 after marriage, her chief duty is to honour her father-in-law 
 and mother-in-law — to honour them beyond her own father 
 and mother — to love and reverence them with all ardour, 
 and to tend them with every practice of filial piety. While 
 thou honourest thine own parents, think not lightly of thy 
 father-in-law ! Never should a woman fail, night and morn- 
 
Woman. 457 
 
 ing, to pay her respects to her father-in-law and mother-in- 
 law. Never should she be remiss in performing any tasks 
 they may require of her. With all reverence must she carry 
 out, and never rebel against, her father-in-law's commands. 
 On every point must she inquire of her father-in-law and 
 mother-in-law, and abandon herself to their direction. Even 
 if thy father-in-law and mother-in-law be pleased to hate and 
 vilify thee, be not angry with them, and murmur not ! If 
 thou carry piety towards them to its utmost limits, and 
 minister to them in all sincerity, it cannot be but that they 
 will end by becoming friendly to thee. 
 
 " A woman has no particular lord. She must look to her 
 husband as her lord, and must serve him with all worship 
 and reverence, not despising or thinking lightly of him. The 
 great life-long duty of a woman is obedience. In her dealings 
 with her husband, both the expression of her countenance 
 and the style of her address should be courteous, humble, 
 and conciliatory, never peevish and intractable, never rude 
 and arrogant ; — that should be a woman's first and chiefest 
 care. When the husband issues his instructions, the wife 
 must never disobey them. In doubtful cases, she should 
 inquire of her husband, and obediently follow his commands. 
 If ever her husband should inquire of her, she should answer 
 to the point ; — to answer in a careless fashion were a mark of 
 rudeness. Should her husband be roused at any time to 
 anger, she must obey him with fear and trembling, and not 
 set herself up agaiost him in anger and frowardness. A 
 woman should look on her husband as if he were Heaven itself, 
 and never weary of thinking how she may yield to her husband, 
 and thus escape celestial castigation. 
 
 As brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law are the brothers 
 
458 Woman. 
 
 and sisters of a woman's husband, they deserve all her 
 reverence. Should she lay herself open to the ridicule and 
 dislike of her husband's kindred, she would offend her 
 parents-in-law, and do harm even to herself, whereas, if 
 she lives on good terms with them, she will likewise rejoice 
 the hearts of her parents-in-law. Again, she should cherish, 
 and be intimate with, the wife of her husband's elder brother, 
 — yea, with special warmth of affection should she reverence 
 her husband's elder brother and her husband's elder brother's 
 wife, esteeming them as she does her own elder brother and 
 elder sister. 
 
 " Let her never even dream 'of jealousy. If her husband 
 be dissolute, she must expostulate with him, but never either 
 nurse or vent her anger. If her jealousy be extreme, it will 
 render her countenance frightful and her accents repulsive, 
 and can only result in completely alienating her husband 
 from her and making her intolerable in his eyes. Should 
 her husband act ill and unreasonably, she must compose her 
 countenance and soften her voice to remonstrate with him ; 
 and if he be angry and listen not to the remonstrance, she 
 must wait over a season, and then expostulate with him again 
 when his heart is .softened. Never set thyself up against thy 
 husband with harsh features and a boisterous voice ! 
 
 " A woman should be circumspect and sparing in her use 
 of words ; and never, even for a passing moment, should she 
 slander others or be guilty of untruthfulness. Should she 
 ever hear calumny, she should keep it to herself and repeat it 
 to none ; for it is the retailing of calumny that disturbs the 
 harmony of kinsmen and ruins the peace of families. 
 
 " A woman must be ever on the alert, and keep a strict 
 watch over her own conduct. In the morning she must rise 
 
Woman. 459 
 
 early, and at night go late to rest. Instead of sleeping in the 
 middle of the day, she must be intent on the duties of her 
 household, and must not weary of weaving, sewing, and 
 spinning. Of tea and wine she must not drink overmuch, 
 nor must she feed her eyes and ears with theatrical per- 
 formances, ditties, and ballads. To temples (whether Shinto 
 or Buddhist) and other like places, where there is a great 
 concourse of people, she should go but sparingly till she has 
 reached the age of forty. 
 
 " She must not let herself be led astray by mediums and 
 divineresses and enter into an irreverent familiarity with the 
 gods, neither should she be constantly occupied in praying. 
 If only she satisfactorily perform her duties as a human 
 being, she may let prayer alone without ceasing to enjoy the 
 divine protection. 
 
 " In her capacity of wife, she must keep her husband's 
 household in proper order. If the wife be evil and profligate, 
 the house is ruined. In everything she must avoid extrava- 
 gance, and both with regard to food and raiment must act 
 according to her station in life, and never give way to luxury 
 and pride. 
 
 " While young, she must avoid the intimacy and fami- 
 liarity of her husband's kinsmen, comrades, and retainers, 
 ever strictly adhering to the rule of separation between the 
 sexes ; and on no account whatever should she enter into 
 correspondence with a young man. Her personal adorn- 
 ments and the colour and pattern of her garments should be 
 unobtrusive. It suffices for her to be neat and cleanly in her 
 person and in her wearing apparel. It is wrong in her, by 
 an excess of care, to obtrude herself on other people's notice. 
 Only that which is suitable should be practised. 
 
460 Woman. 
 
 " She must not selfishly think first of her own parents, 
 and only secondly of her husband's relations. At New 
 Year, on the Five Festivals,* and on other like occasions, 
 she should first pay her respects to those of her husband's 
 house, and then to her own parents. Without her husband's 
 permission, she must go nowhere, neither should she make 
 any gifts on her own responsibility. 
 
 " As a woman rears up posterity, not to her own parents, 
 but to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, she must value 
 the latter even more than the former, and tend them with all 
 filial piety. Her visits, also, to the paternal house should 
 be rare after marriage. Much more then, with regard to 
 other friends, should it generally suffice for her to send a 
 message to inquire after their health. Again, she must not 
 be filled with pride at the recollection of the splendour of her 
 parental house, and must not make it the subject of her 
 conversations. 
 
 " However many servants she may have in her employ, 
 it is a woman's duty not to shirk the trouble of attending to 
 everything herself. She must sew her father-in-law's and 
 mother-in-law's garments, and make ready their food. Ever 
 attentive to the requirements of her husband, she must fold 
 his clothes and dust his rug, r,ear his children, wash what is 
 dirty, be constantly in the midst of her household, and never 
 go abroad but of necessity. 
 
 " Her treatment of her handmaidens will require circum- 
 spection. These low and aggravating girls have had no 
 proper education ; they are stupid, obstinate, and vulgar in 
 their speech. When anything in the conduct of their mis- 
 tress's husband or parents-in-law crosses their wishes, they 
 
 * See page 831. 
 
Woman. 461 
 
 fill her ears with their invectives, thinking thereby to render 
 her a service, But any woman who should listen to this 
 gossip must beware of the heartburnings it will be sure to 
 breed. Easy is it by reproaches and disobedience to lose the 
 love of those, who, like a woman's marriage connections, 
 were all originally strangers; and it were surely folly, by 
 believing the prattle of a servant-girl, to diminish the affec- 
 tion of a precious father-in-law and mother-in-law. If a 
 servant-girl be altogether too loquacious and bad, she should 
 speedily be dismissed ; for it is by the gossip of such persons 
 that occasion is given for the troubling of the harmony of 
 kinsmen and the disordering of a household. Again, in her 
 dealings with these low people, a woman will find many 
 things to disapprove of. But if she be forever reproving and 
 scolding, and spend her time in bustle and anger, her house- 
 hold will be in a continual state of disturbance. When there 
 is real wrong-doing, she should occasionally notice it, and 
 point out the path of amendment, while lesser faults should 
 be quietly endured without anger. While in her heart she 
 compassionates her subordinates' weaknesses, she must out- 
 wardly admonish them with all strictness to walk in the 
 paths of propriety, and never allow them to fall into idleness. 
 If any is to be succoured, let her not be grudging of her 
 money ; but she must not foolishly shower down her gifts on 
 such as merely please her individual caprice, but are unprofi- 
 table servants. 
 
 " The five worst maladies that afflict the female mind are : 
 indocility, discontent, slander, jealousy, and silliness. Without 
 any doubt, these five maladies infest seven or eight out of 
 every ten women, and it is from these that arises the in- 
 feriority of women to men. A woman should cure them 
 
462 Woman. 
 
 by self- inspection and self-reproach. The worst of them all, 
 and the parent of the other four, is silliness. Woman's 
 nature is passive (lit. sliade). This passiveness, being of 
 the nature of the night, is dark. Hence, as viewed from 
 the standard of man's nature, the foolishness of woman 
 fails to understand the duties that lie before her very eyes, 
 perceives not the actions that will bring down blame upon 
 her own head, and comprehends not even the things that 
 will bring down calamities on the beads of her husband 
 and children. Neither when she blames and accuses and 
 curses innocent persons, nor when, in her jealousy of others, 
 she thinks to set up herself alone, does she see that she is 
 her own enemy, estranging others and incurring their 
 hatred. Lamentable errors ! Again, in the education of 
 her children, her blind affection induces an erroneous 
 system. Such is the stupidity of her character that it is 
 incumbent on her, in every particular, to distrust herself 
 and to obey her husband. 
 
 " We are told that it was the custom of the ancients, on 
 the birth of a female child, to let it lie on the floor for the 
 space of three days. Even in this may be seen the 
 likening of the man to Heaven and of the woman to Earth ; 
 and the custom should teach a woman how necessary it 
 is for her in everything to yield to her husband the first, 
 and to be herself content with the second place ; to avoid 
 pride, even if there be in her actions ought deserving 
 praise ; and, on the other hand, if she transgress in ought 
 and incur blame, to wend her way through the difficulty 
 and amend the fault, and so conduct herself as not again to 
 lay herself open to censure ; to endure without anger and 
 indignation the jeers of others, suffering such things with. 
 
"Woman. 468 
 
 patience and humility. If a woman act thus, her conjugal 
 relations cannot but be harmonious and enduring, and her 
 household a scene of peace and concord. 
 
 "Parents! teach the foregoing maxims to your daughters 
 from their tenderest years ! Copy them out from time to 
 time, that they may read and never forget them ! Better than 
 the garments and divers vessels which the fathers of the 
 present day so lavishly bestow upon their daughters when 
 giving them away in marriage, were it to teach them 
 thoroughly these precepts, which would guard them as a 
 precious jewel thoroughout their lives. How true is that 
 ancient saying : ' A man knoweth how to spend a million 
 pieces of money in marrying off his daughter, but knoweth 
 not how to spend an hundred thousand in bringing up his 
 child !' Such as have daughters must lay this well to heart." 
 
 Thus far our old Japanese moralist. For the sake of fair- 
 ness and completeness, it should be added that the subjection 
 of women is not carried out in the lower classes of Japanese 
 society to the same extent as in the middle and upper. Poverty 
 makes for equality all the world over. Just as among ourselves 
 woman-worship flourishes among the well-to-do, but is almost, 
 if not entirely, absent among the peasantry, so in Japan the 
 contrary or rather complementary state of things may be 
 observed. The peasant-women, the wives of artisans and 
 small traders have more liberty and a higher relative position 
 than the great ladies of the land. In these lower classes the 
 wife shares not only her husband's toil, but his counsels ; and 
 if she happen to have the better head of the two, she it is who 
 will keep the purse and govern the family. 
 
 Book recommended. Japanese Qirls and Women, by Miss Bacon, 
 
464 Wrestling. 
 
 Wrestling.. The wrestlers must be numbered among 
 Japan's most characteristic sights, though they are neither 
 small nor dainty, like the majority of things Japanese. They 
 are enormous men — mountains of fat and muscle, with low 
 sensual faces and low sensual habits — enormous eaters, 
 enormous drinkers. But their feats of strength show plainly 
 that the " training " which consists in picking and choosing 
 among one's victuals is a vain superstition. 
 
 The wrestlers form a class apart, with traditional rules for 
 their guidance. The most important of these refer to the 
 forty-eight falls which alone are permitted by the laws of the 
 sport, namely, twelve throws, twelve lifts, twelve twists, and 
 twelve throws over the back. The matches take place in a. 
 sanded ring, encircled by straw rice-bales and protected from 
 the sun by an umbrella-like roof supported on four posts. 
 The wrestlers are naked, but for a gay-coloured apron. An 
 umpire, who bears in his hand a fan, stays in the ring with 
 them, to see that there be fair play and strict observance of 
 the rules. The spectators are accommodated in the boxes 
 of what resembles a temporary theatre surrounding the 
 arena. Generally the combats are single, that is to say, 
 between sets of pairs. But occasionally sides are formed of 
 as many as ten or twenty each. The plan then is for each 
 side to choose a champion, it being incumbent on the victor 
 to throw three adversaries in succession before he can gain 
 a prize. As he himself is necessarily blown by the first or 
 first two struggles, while his new adversary is quite fresh and 
 springs upon him without a moment's interval, this is a great 
 trial of endurance. 
 
 The queerest historical episode connected with wrestling is 
 that the Japanese throne was once wrestled for. This happened 
 
Writing. 465 
 
 in the ninth century, when, the Mikado having died and left 
 two sons, these wisely committed their rival claims to the 
 issue, not of real, but of mimic warfare. 
 
 Boole rcoommended. Micford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., story- 
 entitled The Adventures of Funakoshi Jiuyemon. 
 
 Writing. The Japanese, having obtained their civilisa- 
 tion from China and Korea, were inevitably led to adopt the 
 ideographic system of writing practised in those countries. 
 Its introduction into Japan seems to have taken place some- 
 where about A.D. 400, but the chronology of that early epoch 
 is extremely obscure. 
 
 According to this ideographic system, each individual 
 word has its separate sign, originally a kind of picture or 
 hieroglyph. Thus, A is "a man," represented by his two 
 legs; fl is "the moon," with her horns still distinguish- 
 able ; JS is "a horse " — the head, mane, and legs, though 
 hard to recognise in the abbreviated modern form of the 
 character, having at first been clearly drawn. Few charac- 
 ters are so simple as these. Most are obtained by means of 
 combination, the chief element being termed the "radical," 
 because it gives a clue to the signification of the whole. 
 The other part generally indicates more or less precisely the 
 pronunciation of the word, and is therefore called the " phone- 
 tic." It is much as if, having in English special hieroglyphic 
 signs for such easy, every-day words as "tree," "house," 
 and "box" (a chest), we were to represent "box-wood" 
 by a combination of the sign for " tree " and the sign 
 for "box," "a box at the opera" by a combination of 
 "house" and "box," and so on. The Chinese language, 
 being unusually full of homonymous words, lends itself 
 naturally to such a method. Names of plants are obtained 
 
466 Writing. 
 
 by combinations of the character 9<f, " herb," itself still to be 
 recognised as a picture of herbs springing up from the soil. 
 " The hand," =?, originally a rude picture of the outstretched 
 fingers, helps to form hundreds of characters signifying 
 actions. " The heart," )fi>, gives numerous abstract words 
 denoting sentiments and passions. Similarly " the eye," 
 "the mouth," "fire," "water," "silk," "rain," "metal," 
 " fish," are parents of large families of characters. The study 
 of this Chinese method of writing is most interesting — so 
 curious is the chapter of the human mind which it unrolls, so 
 unexpected are the items of recondite history which it dis- 
 closes. To give but one example, the character for " war," 
 55, is formed partly from the character for " vehicle," M, be- 
 cause the ancient Chinese, like the ancient Greeks, used to 
 go forth to battle in chariots. 
 
 Unfortunately the transfer of this system of ideographs 
 from China to Japan was accompanied by inevitable com- 
 plications. Even supposing Japanese organs to have been 
 able (which they were not) to reproduce Chinese sounds 
 exactly, all the Chinese teachers of the language did not speak 
 the same dialect. Hence the gradual establishment in Japan 
 of two or three readings for each character, — one reading 
 being preferred to another according to the context. Besides 
 this, instead of always imitating the Chinese sound as far as 
 possible, the Japanese also took, in many cases, to translat- 
 ing the meanings of the characters into their own language, 
 thus adding yet another reading. For instance, the already- 
 mentioned symbol A, " man," has the two Chinese readings 
 jin and nin, and the Japanese translation hito. But these 
 cannot be used indiscriminately. We say jin-riki-sha, but 
 nin-sohu (" a coolie "), and hito when we mean simply a 
 
Writing. 467 
 
 "person." In some cases there are Chinese readings only, 
 and no Japanese. In some, a single character has several 
 Japanese readings, while on the other hand, the same Japanese 
 word may be written with several different characters. 
 
 In addition to the Chinese ideographs, there came into use 
 in Japan during the eighth and ninth centuries another 
 system of writing, called the Kana, derived from those 
 Chinese characters which happened to be most commonly 
 employed. There are two varieties of Kana, — the Katakana 
 or " side Kana," so called because the signs composing it are 
 -" sides," that is parts or fragments, of Chinese characters, 
 as -f , i, from the character f" ; n , ro, from the character 3 , 
 «tc; and the Hiragana, which consists of cursive forms of 
 entire Chinese characters, as (i, ha, in which the outline of 
 the original Sfc may still be faintly traced.. The invention 
 of the former is popularly attributed to a worthy named 
 Kibi-no-Mabi (died A.D. 776), and that of the latter to the 
 Buddhist saint, Kobo Daishi (A.D. 835). But it is more 
 reasonable to suppose that the simplification — for such it 
 really is, and not an invention at all — came about gradually 
 than to accept it as the work of two particular men. 
 
 Whereas a Chinese character directly represents a whole 
 word — an idea — the Kana represents the sounds of which 
 the word is composed, just as our Boman writing does. 
 There is, however, this difference, that the Kana stands for 
 syllables, not letters. The following tables of the Katakana 
 and Hiragana will help to make this clear. We give the 
 former in the order preferred by modern scholars, and termed 
 ■Oo-ju-in, or " Table of Fifty Sounds " (though there are in 
 reality but forty-seven), the latter in the popular order, called 
 I-ro-ha, which has been handed down from the ninth century. 
 
468 
 
 Writing. 
 
 The Katalcana Syllabary. 
 
 7 
 
 a 
 
 * 
 
 ka 
 
 sa 
 
 9- 
 
 ta 
 
 ua 
 
 ha 
 
 ma 
 
 V 
 
 7 
 ra 
 
 -7 
 
 wa 
 
 4 
 
 i 
 
 ki 
 
 phi 
 
 chi 
 
 ni 
 
 U 
 hi 
 
 mi 
 
 
 P 
 ri 
 
 # 
 (w)i 
 
 n 
 
 9 
 
 ku 
 
 su 
 
 tSTl 
 
 3 
 
 nu 
 
 V 
 fu 
 
 mu 
 
 yu 
 
 As 
 
 ru 
 
 
 (w)e 
 
 ke 
 
 ■fe 
 
 se 
 
 te 
 
 ne 
 
 he 
 
 > 
 
 me 
 
 (y)e 
 
 re 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 • ko 
 
 so 
 
 > 
 
 to 
 
 no 
 
 * 
 
 ho 
 
 ^6 
 mo 
 
 3 
 
 7° 
 
 n 
 
 ro 
 
 5 
 wo 
 
 The Hiragana Syllabaky. 
 
 Ir* 
 
 h 
 
 H 
 
 1- 
 
 /a 
 
 •*% 
 
 £ 
 
 i 
 
 ro 
 
 ha 
 
 ni 
 
 ho 
 
 he 
 
 to 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 & 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 t> 
 
 %> 
 
 chi 
 
 ri 
 
 nu 
 
 ru 
 
 wo 
 
 wa 
 
 ka 
 
 ct 
 
 fc 
 
 #■ 
 
 3 
 
 r> 
 
 & 
 
 a 
 
 y° 
 
 ta 
 
 re 
 
 so 
 
 tsu 
 
 ne 
 
 na 
 
 & 
 
 *f 
 
 £ 
 
 «£> 
 
 o 
 
 it 
 
 < 
 
 ra 
 
 mu 
 
 u 
 
 (w)i 
 
 no 
 
 o 
 
 ku 
 
 4= 
 
 Cfc. 
 
 l* 
 
 ^. 
 
 £. 
 
 fe 
 
 •c 
 
 ya 
 
 ma 
 
 ke 
 
 fu 
 
 ko 
 
 (y)e 
 
 te 
 
 & 
 
 £ 
 
 g 
 
 ■6 
 
 » 
 
 & 
 
 L 
 
 a 
 
 sa 
 
 ki 
 
 yu 
 
 me 
 
 mi 
 
 shi 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 4 
 
 « 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 (w)e 
 
 hi' 
 
 mo 
 
 se 
 
 su 
 
 
 
 The order of the I-ro-ha bears witness to the Buddhist 
 belief of the father of Japanese writing. The syllabary is a 
 verse of poetry, founded on one of the Sutras and so arranged 
 
Writing. 469 
 
 ■that the same letter is never repeated twice. Transcribed 
 according to the modem pronunciation, it runs thus : — 
 
 Iro iva nioedo, 
 Cldrinuru wo — 
 
 Waga yo tare zo 
 Tsune naran ? 
 
 Ui no olcu-yama 
 Kyo Icoete, 
 
 Asaki yume mishi, 
 Ei mo sezu. 
 
 Which is, being interpreted : 
 
 " Though their hues are gay, the blossoms flutter down, 
 ■and so in this world of ours who may continue forever ? 
 Having to-day crossed the mountain-fastness of existence, 
 I have seen but a fleeting dream, with which I am not 
 intoxicated." 
 
 In both syllabaries,, consonants can be softened* by 
 placing two dots to the right of the letter. Thus * is ha, 
 but a is ga ; t is te, but f is de, and so on. In this way 
 the number of letters is raised considerably. There are 
 various other peculiarities, Japanese orthography almost 
 rivalling our own in eccentricity. Very few books are 
 written in Hiragana alone — none in Katahana alone. Almost 
 all are written in a mixture of Chinese characters and Kana 
 •of one kind or another, the Chinese characters being employed 
 for the chief ideas, for nouns and the stems of verbs, while 
 the Kana serves to transcribe the particles and terminations. 
 Add to this that the Chinese characters are commonly written 
 and even printed in every sort of style — from the standard, or 
 
 *_I.!e., technically speaking, surds can be changed into sonants. 
 
470 Yezo, r 
 
 so-called "square," to the most sketchy cursive hand — that 
 each Hiragana syllabic letter has several alternative forms, 
 that there is no method of indicating capitals or punctuation, 
 that all the words are run together on a page without any mark 
 to show where one leaves off and another begins* — and the 
 result is the most complicated and uncertain system of 
 writing under which poor humanity has ever groaned. An old 
 Jesuit missionary declares it to be evidently " the invention 
 of a conciliabule of the demons to harass the faithful." 
 
 But if Japanese writing is a mountain of difficulty, it is 
 unapproachably beautiful. Japanese art has been called 
 calligraphic. Japanese calligraphy is artistic. Above all, 
 it is bold, because it comes from the shoulder instead of 
 merely from the wrist. A little experience will convince 
 any one that, in comparison with it, the freest, boldest 
 English hand is little better than the cramped scribble of 
 some rheumatic crone. One consequence of this exceeding 
 difficulty and beauty is that calligraphy ranks high in Japan 
 among the arts. Another is that the Japanese very easily 
 acquire our simpler system. To copy the handwriting of a 
 European is mere child's play to them. In fact, it is usual 
 for clerks and students to imitate the handwriting of their 
 employer or master so closely that he himself often cannot 
 tell the difference. 
 
 Book recommended.. For the Kana, see Aston's Grammar qf tht 
 Japanese Written Language. There is no good manual of the Chinese characters 
 as pronounced in Japan. 
 
 Yedo. See Tokyo. 
 
 Yezo. Yezo, often incorrectly spelt Yesso, and officially 
 styled the Hokkaido, or "Northern Sea Circuit," is the 
 
Yezo. 471 
 
 northernmost of the larger islands that form the Japanese 
 archipelago. It lies, roughly speaking, between parallels 
 41£° and 45|° of north latitude— the latitude of that part 
 of Italy which stretches from Eome to Venice ; — but it is 
 under snow and ice for nearly half the year, the native Ainos 
 tracking the bear and deer across its frozen and pathless 
 mountains, like the cave men of the glacial age of Europe. 
 It is asserted that Yoshitsune, the great Japanese hero, fled 
 into Yezo and died there ; but little attempt was made by the 
 Japanese to colonise it until early in the seventeenth century, 
 when the Shogun Ieyasu granted it as a fief to one 
 Matsumae Yoshihiro, who conquered the south-western 
 corner of the island, establishing his capital at Matsumae, 
 some sixty miles to the south-west of the modern port of 
 Hakodate. His successors retained their sway over Yezo 
 until the recent break-up of the feudal system. They 
 treated the luckless Ainos with great cruelty, and actualla 
 rendered it penal to communicate to these poor barbariany 
 the art of writing or any of the arts of civilised life. Frequent 
 rebellions, suppressed by massacres, were the result. In the 
 latter part of the eighteenth century, however, and in the 
 first half of the nineteenth, a few Japanese literati made their 
 way into the island. It is to their efforts — to the efforts of 
 such men as Mogami, Mamiya, and Matsura — that our first 
 scientific information concerning the people, the language, 
 and the productions of Yezo is due. The Imperial government 
 has done all in its power to redress the wrongs of the hitherto 
 down-trodden natives. 
 
 At one time, the Eussians endeavoured to obtain a footing 
 in Yezo ; but the opening of Japan nipped this encroachment 
 in the bud. Japanese statesmen eagerly plunged into the 
 
472 ^ Yezo. 
 
 task of developing the resources of the island. With this 
 end in view, they created a special government department, 
 entitled the Kaitakushi, and engaged the services of a party 
 of Americans headed by General Capron. Large sums were 
 spent on model farms and other public works, and a fictitious 
 prosperity set in. The bubble burst in 1881, when the 
 Kaitakushi was dissolved, and the administration of the 
 island was assimilated, in the form of prefectures, to that 
 of the rest of the empire. It is calculated that Yezo has cost 
 the Imperial government no less than fifty million dollars. 
 
 The chief towns of Yezo are Sapporo — the capital — and the 
 ports of Hakodate, Akkeshi, Nemu-ro, and Fukuyama (the 
 new name of the city of Matsumae, the seat of the former 
 Baimyo, but now sadly decayed). It is, however, not these 
 that will attract the visitor. Eather will he seek out the 
 charming scenery of "the Lakes" near Hakodate, whose 
 Japanese names are Junsai Numa and Onuma, of the volcano 
 Koma-ga-take situated near the Lakes, and of the shores of 
 Volcano Bay, where the Aino aborigines may conveniently 
 be seen in their native haunts. Most travelling in Yezo is 
 done on horseback. 
 
 Yezo is interesting from a scientific point of view. The 
 great depth of the Straits of Tsugaru, which separate it from 
 the Main Island, shows that it never — at least in recent 
 geological epochs — formed part of Japan proper. The 
 fauna of the two islands is accordingly marked by 
 notable differences. Japan has monkeys and pheasants, 
 which Yezo has not. Yezo has grouse, which Japan has 
 not. Even the fossils differ on both sides of the straits, 
 -though occurring in similar cretaceous formations. Scientific, 
 or rather unscientific, management played a queer trick with 
 
Toshiwara. 473 
 
 the city of Sapporo, if the local gossips are to be credited. 
 The intention— so it is said— was to lay out the city a 
 Vamiricaine, with streets running due north and south and 
 due east and west. The person entrusted with the orientation 
 of the plan was of course aware of the necessity of allowing 
 for the deviation of the compass ; but being under the 
 influence of some misconception, he made the allowance the 
 wrong way, and thus, instead of eliminating the error, doubled 
 it. It is pleasant to be able to add that the result was a 
 practical improvement undreamt of by the mathematicians. 
 The houses, having no rooms either due north or due south, 
 suffer less from the extremes of heat and cold than they would 
 have done had they been built with some rooms on which the 
 sun never shone, and others exposed to the sun all the year 
 round.* 
 
 Books recommended. Japan in Yezo, by T. W. Blakiston.— 
 Reports and Official Letters to the Kaitakashi, by General Capron and his Assistants. 
 — Vol. II. of Miss Bird's Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. 
 
 Yoshiwara. When the city of Yedo suddenly rose into 
 splendour at the beginning of the seventeenth century, people 
 of all classes and from all parts of the country flocked thither 
 to try their fortune. The courtesans were not behind-hand. 
 From Kyoto, from Nara, from Fushimi, they arrived — so the 
 native accounts inform us — in little parties of three and four. 
 But a band of some twenty or thirty from the town of Moto- 
 Yoshiwara on the Tokaido were either the most numerous or 
 the most beautiful, and so the district of Yedo where they took 
 
 * A specialist in such matters calls our attention to the fact that the story has, 
 as the common phrase is, " not a leg to stand on," for the reason that the devia- 
 tion of the compass is so slight in this part of the world as to be practically in- 
 significant even when doubled. We leave the story, however, as an instance of 
 modern myth-making. 
 
474 Yoshiwara. 
 
 up their abode came to be called the Yoshiwara.* At first there 
 was no official supervision of these frail ladies. They were 
 free to ply their trade wherever they chose. But in the year 
 1617, on the representations of a reformer named Shoshi 
 Jin-emon, the city in general was purified, and all the 
 libertinism in it — permitted, but regulated — was banished to 
 one special quarter near Nihon-bashi, to which the name of 
 Yoshiwara attached itself. Later on, in A. D. 1656, when 
 the city had grown larger and Nihon-bashi had become its 
 centre, the authorities caused the houses in question to be 
 removed to their present site on the northern limit of Yedo, 
 whence the name of Shin (i. e. New) Yoshiwara, by which 
 the place is currently known. Foreigners often speak of " a 
 Yoshiwara," as if the word were a generic term. It is not so. 
 The quarters of similar character in the other cities of Japan 
 are never so called by the Japanese themselves. Such words 
 as yujoba and kuruwa are used to designate them. 
 
 Japanese literature is full of romantic stories in which the 
 Yoshiwara plays a part. Generally the heroine has found 
 her way there in obedience to the dictates of filial piety in 
 order to support her aged parents, or else she is kidnapped 
 by some ruffian who basely sells her for his own profit. The 
 story often ends by the girl emerging from a life of shame 
 with at least her heart untainted, and by all the good people 
 living happily ever after. It is to be feared that real life 
 witnesses few such fortunate cases, though it is probably 
 
 * The weight of authority is in favour of this account of the origin of the name. 
 According to others,' the etymology is yoshi, " a reed," and Kara, "a moor," and 
 the designation of "reedy moor" would have been given to the locality on account 
 of its aspect before it was built over. There is another Chinese charaoter yoihi 
 meaning "good," "lucky;" and with this the first two syllables of the name 
 are now usually written C** Jj5\ 
 
Zoology. 475 
 
 true that the fallen ■women of Japan are, as a class, much 
 less vicious than their representatives in Western lands, being 
 neither drunken nor foul-mouthed. On the other hand, a 
 Japanese proverb says that a truthful courtesan is as great 
 a miracle as a square egg. 
 
 In former times, girls could be and were regularly and 
 legally sold into debauchery at the Yoshiwara in Yedo and 
 at its counterparts throughout the land — a state of things 
 which the present enlightened government has hastened to 
 reform. When we add that a weekly medical inspection of 
 the inmates of all such places was introduced in 1874 in 
 imitation of European ways, that each house and each separate 
 inmate of each house is heavily taxed, that there is severe 
 police control over all, and that, since 1888, the idea has been 
 mooted of doing away with licensed prostitution altogether — 
 a plan eagerly advocated by zealous Christian neophytes, but 
 frowned on by the doctors — we have mentioned all that need 
 here be said on a subject which could only be fully discussed 
 in the pages of a medical work. 
 
 Books recommended. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I. pp. 
 57 — 69 (a postscript to the story entitled The Loves of Gompacki and Komurasaki). — A 
 letter by Mr Henry Norman, entitled The Yoshiwara. This appeared first in the 
 Tall Mall Gazette — of what date we cannot say— and was reprinted in the Japan 
 Daily Mail of the 8th. November, 1S88. 
 
 Zoology. Japan is distinguished by the possession of 
 some types elsewhere extinct — for example, the giant sala- 
 mander — and also as being the most northerly country inha- 
 bited by the monkey, which here ranges as high as the 41st 
 degree of latitude, in places where the snow often drifts to a 
 depth of fifteen or twenty feet. But in its main features the 
 Japanese fauna resembles that of North China, Korea, and 
 Manchuria — one indication among many that the ancient land 
 
476 Zoology. 
 
 connection of Japan with the Asiatic continent must be sought 
 in the north, not in the south. The Japanese fauna, both 
 terrestrial and maritime, is unusually rich. Take a single 
 instance: — there are already a hundred and thirty-seven species 
 of butterflies known, as against some sixty in Great Britain, 
 and over four thousand species of moths, as against some two 
 thousand in Great Britain. 
 
 The chief mammals are the monkey (Inuus S27eciosus Tern.), 
 ten species of bats, six species of insectivorous animals, three 
 species of bears, the badger, the marten, the minx (itachi), 
 the wolf, the fox, two species of squirrels, the rat, the 
 hare, the wild-boar, the otter, a species of stag, and a species 
 of antelope. Most of our domestic animals are also met 
 with, but not the ass, the sheep, or the goat. Other missing 
 animals are the wild cat and the hedgehog. No less than 
 three hundred and fifty-nine species of birds have been enu- 
 merated. We can only here call attention to the uguisu 
 [Cettia cantans T. and Schl.) — a nightingale having a different 
 note from ours — to the handsome copper pheasant, and to the 
 cranes and herons so beloved by the artists of Japan. The 
 cocks with tail-feathers ten or fifteen feet long, which have 
 been depicted in books of travels, are an artificial breed pro- 
 duced by careful selection. 
 
 Of reptiles and batrachians there are but thirty species. 
 Of these, the already mentioned giant salamander is 
 by far the most remarkable, some specimens attaining 
 to a length of over five feet. There are also some 
 large, but harmless, snakes. The only poisonous snake 
 is a small species of adder {Trigonocephalies Blomhoffi), 
 known to the Japanese under the name of mamushi. The 
 country folk look on its boiled flesh as a remedy for most 
 
Zoology. 477 
 
 diseases. The peasants of certain thickly wooded districts 
 also harbour an inveterate belief in the existence of a kind 
 of boa, which they call uwabami. As late as the summer of 
 the present year, a circumstantial account of the swallowing 
 alive of a woman by one of these monsters in the province 
 of Tamba near Kyoto appeared in the vernacular press. 
 Zoologists, however, have not yet given the Japanese boa 
 official permission to exist. Another creature undoubtedly 
 mythical is the bushy-tailed tortoise so often depicted in 
 Japanese art. The idea of it was doubtless suggested by 
 nothing more recondite than the straggling water-weeds 
 that sometimes adhere to the hinder parts of a real 
 tortoise's body. 
 
 With regard to fish, Dr. Eein remarks that the Chinese 
 and Japanese waters appear to be richer than any other 
 part of the ocean. The mackerel family (Scomheroida), more 
 particularly, is represented in great force, the forty species 
 into which it is divided constituting an important element of 
 the food of the people. But the fish which is esteemed 
 the greatest delicacy is the tat, a kind of gold-bream. 
 The gold-fish, the salmon, the eel, the shark, and 
 many others would call for mention, had we the space 
 to devote to them. Altogether, the number of species of 
 fishes inhabiting or visiting Japan cannot fall far short of 
 four hundred. 
 
 Insects are extremely numerous, but excepting the beetles, 
 moths, and butterflies, are not yet even fairly well-known, so 
 that a rich harvest here awaits some future naturalist. There 
 are two silk-producing moths, the Bombyx mori and the 
 Anthercea yamamai. Of dragon-flies the species are numerous 
 and beautiful. There are but few venomous insects. The 
 
478 Zoology. 
 
 gadfly torments the traveller only in Yezo and in the northern 
 half of the Main Island ; the house-fly is a much less common 
 plague than in Europe, except in the silk districts, and the 
 bed-bug is entirely absent. On the other hand, the mosquito 
 is a nightly plague during half the year in all places lying at 
 an altitude of less than 1,500 feet above the sea, and in 
 many even exceeding that height; the buyu — a diminutive 
 kind of gnat — infests many mountainous districts during the 
 summer months, and the flea is to be found everywhere 
 at all seasons. 
 
 The chief Crustacea are fresh-water and salt-water crabs, 
 together with crayfishes, which here replace the lobsters of 
 Europe and are often erroneously termed lobsters by the 
 foreign residents. One species of crab (the Macroclieirus 
 Kampferi Sbd.) is so gigantic that human beings have been 
 killed and devoured by it. Its legs are over a yard 
 and a half in length. There is another species — a tiny, 
 but ill-favoured one — which is the subject of a sin- 
 gular superstition. The common folk call it Heihe-gani, 
 that is, the Heike crab. They believe these creatures to be 
 the wraiths of the warriors of the Heike or Taira clan, 
 whose fleet was annihilated at the battle of Dan-no-ura in 
 the year 1185. 
 
 Of mollusks, nearly twelve hundred species have been 
 described by Dunker, the best authority on the subject ; and 
 his enumeration is said by Dr. Rein to be far from exhaustive. 
 Of sea-urchins twenty-six species are known, and of star- 
 fishes twelve species. The coral tribe is well represented, 
 though not by the reef-forming species of warmer latitudes. 
 There are also various kinds of sponges. Indeed, one of the 
 most curious and beautiful of all the many curious and 
 
Postscript. 479 
 
 beautiful things in Japan is the Glass Eope Sponge (Hyalo- 
 nema Sieboldi), whose silken coils adorn the shell-shops at 
 Enoshima. 
 
 Books recommended. The above article is founaed chiefly on 
 Rein's Japan, p. 157, et seq. Rein's treatment of the fishes is specially full, but a 
 j?ood resume of the other classes is given, together with references to the chief 
 authorities on each. — See also Elakiston and Fryer's Catalogue oftheBirds of Japan, 
 printed ill Vol. X. Part I. of the Atiatic Transactions; Pryer's Catalogue of the 
 Lepidoptera of Japan, in Vol. 31. Part II. and Vol. XII. Part II. of the same, with 
 Additions and Corrections in Vol. XIII. Part I., and the same author's beautifully 
 illustrated work entitled Rhopalocera Xihonica. 
 
 (Postscript to Article on Earthquakes. 
 
 After the foregoing pages had passed through the press, 
 there occurred on the morning of the 28th October, 1891, 
 an earthquake second only — if second — to the great earth- 
 quake of 1855. Felt in Tokyo as a severe, unusually protract- 
 ed, but not disastrous shock, it seems to have had its- centre 
 in the province of Mino, where the towns of Gifu and Ogaki 
 were completely destroyed. At Osaka, at Otsu, at Fukui, 
 at Toyama, and almost the whole way along the Tokaido — 
 especially at Nagoya — incalculable damage was done and 
 thousands of lives were lost. 
 
CORRECTIONS. 
 
 Page 156, line 2, for July 1, read July 7. 
 Page 335, last line but one, for Loch, read Loch. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 (When several references are given, the most important is placed first.) 
 
 " A Social Departure," 63, 143. 
 
 Abacus, 9. 
 
 Abdication, 10. 
 
 Abe-no-Nakamaro, 287. 
 
 Academy of Music, 317. 
 
 Actors, 414, 415, 429. 
 
 Acupuncture, 13. 
 
 Adams's " History of Japan," 62, 
 223, 445. 
 
 Adams (Will), 13, 65, 232, 380. 
 
 Addresses, 428 ; 86. 
 
 Administrative system, 197. 
 
 Adoption, 16, 264, 285. 
 
 Advertisements, 133, 151. 
 
 Agitators, 128. 
 
 Agricultural Society, 391. 
 
 Ainos, 18, 23, 180, 185, 366, 385, 
 741, 472. 
 
 Aizu (war in), 219. 
 
 Akahito, 347. 
 
 Alcock (Sir Rutherford), 60, 233, 
 
 234. 
 Alcoves, 246. 
 
 " Altjapanische Friihlingslieder, " 
 Amado, 33. [350. 
 
 Amakusa, 297. 
 
 Ama-terasu, 204,227,375, 393. 
 "American Cyclopedia," 277. 
 American influence, 124, 172, 286, 
 
 302, 329, 336, 359, 443, 472. 
 American trade, 438, 440, 441. 
 " Amcenitates Exoticce, 243." 
 Amusements, 20, 175, 194, 225, 347, 
 350, 355, 464. I 
 
 " Ancien Japon" 62, 202. 
 Anderson (Dr. Wm.), 61 ; 43, 47, 
 
 52, 160, 245, 246, 280. 
 Anglican missions, 301. 
 Animals, 475. 
 Anjiro, 296. 
 Anniversaries, 56, 311. 
 " Ansei Kembun Boku," 123. 
 Anti-Christian proclamation, 305. 
 Antimony, 190, 433. 
 Anthologies, 347 ; 267, 332. 
 Appert (G.), 62, 202. 
 Arai Hakuseki, 273. 
 Arashi-yama, 74, 80. 
 Archaeology, 23, 36, 64. 
 Architecture, 32, 428. 
 Area of Japan, 186. 
 Arima (baths of), 293. 
 " Arimas," 63. 
 Aristocracy, 329 ; 101. 
 Armour, 40, 290. 
 Army, 41. 
 
 Arnold (Sir Edwin), 3, 236. 
 Art, 43, 358, etpass. 
 Artisan-artists, 47. 
 " Artistic Japan," 52. 
 ••Art Japonais (£')", 52, 290. 
 Asaina, 109. 
 
 Asakusa (temple of), 361, 426. 
 Asano, lord of Ak6, 175, 201. 
 Ashikaga family, 215, 385. 
 Ashinoyu (baths of), 293. 
 " Asiatic Society of Japan," 52, 
 59, etpass. 
 
482 
 
 " Asiatic Transactions," 52, 59. 
 
 Belgium (trade with), 436, 438. 
 
 Aso-San, 123, 186. 
 
 Benten, 280. 
 
 Associations, 390. 
 
 Beri-beri, 244. 
 
 Aston (W. G.), Pref., 59, 203, 224, 
 
 Bertin (Mr.), 322. 
 
 277, 350, 389, 430, 470. 
 
 Betrothal, 283. 
 
 Astrology, 420. 
 
 Betto, 400. 
 
 Atago-yama tower, 426. 
 
 Bible (translation of), 302. 
 
 Atami (baths of), 293. 
 
 Bibliography, 55, 57. 
 
 Atsumori, 150. 
 
 Bingham (Minister), 446. 
 
 Audsley and Bowes' works, 64, 92, 
 
 Bird (Miss), 61, 236 ; 20, 227, 453, 
 
 290, 357, 359. 
 
 473. 
 
 Autumn tints, 86, 427. 
 
 Birds, 476. 
 
 Avatars, 375. 
 
 Bwodc ryuzen, 129. 
 
 Ayrton (Prof. W.), 295. 
 
 Birthdays, 56. 
 
 Baber (E. 0.), 242. 
 
 Bishamon, 280. 
 
 Baoon (Miss A. M.), 59, 84, 128, 
 
 Bishops, 300, 301, 305. 
 
 229, 286, 316, 453. 
 
 Black (Junior), 393. 
 
 Badgers, 113 ; 106, 149. 
 
 Black (S. B.), 60, 236, 241, 324. 
 
 Baelz (Dr. E.), Pref., 106, 246, 366, 
 
 Blackening the teeth, 56. 
 
 367. 
 
 Blades, 396. 
 
 Bakin, 272, 276, 319. 
 
 Blakiston (T. W. , 59, 473, 479. 
 
 Bandai-San, 187, 222. 
 
 Blue and white porcelain, 145. 
 
 Banishment, 215, 222, 300. 
 
 Boa constrictor, 473, 479. 
 
 Banjo, 313, 393. 
 
 Board of Trade, 265. 
 
 Banquets, 168. 
 
 Boissonnade de Pontarahie, 259. 
 
 Baptist churches, 304. 
 
 Bon festival, 156. 
 
 Batchelor (Bev. John), 20, 59. 
 
 Bouquets, 166, 183. 
 
 Bateren, 215. 
 
 Bon Odori, 103. 
 
 Bathing, 53, 429. 
 
 Bousquet (G.), 62, 276. 
 
 Baths (mineral), 293. 
 
 Books (Japanese), 267, 361, 427, 
 
 Batrachians, 476. 
 
 et pass. 
 
 Bays, 187. 
 
 Books on Japan, 57, et pass. 
 
 Bazaar, 425. 
 
 Botany, 66, 388. 
 
 Beacons, 266. 
 
 Bourse, 221. 
 
 Beans, 154, 155, 167, 403. 
 
 Bowes (J. L.), 359. See also Auds- 
 
 Beans (red), 56. 
 
 ley and Bowes. 
 
 Bear-worship, 19. 
 
 Bowing, 372. 
 
 Biche-de-mer, 206. 
 
 Boys' festival, 155. 
 
 Beetles, 477. 
 
 Brahmanism, 280. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 483 
 
 Branisen (Wm.), 65, 212, 423 
 
 
 Catholicism (Boman), 296, 380. 
 
 Bran bags, 69. 
 
 
 Cats, 76. 
 
 Branding criminals, 400. 
 
 
 Cautery, 312. 
 
 Braziers, 35, 343. 
 
 
 Celestial stems, 420, 
 
 British influence, 172, 265, 
 
 322, 
 
 Censors, 326. 
 
 329,335,359,410. 
 
 
 Census, 356. 
 
 British trade, 437, 440. 
 
 
 Ceramics, 356. 
 
 Brokers, 431. 
 
 
 Chamber of Commerce, 221. 
 
 Bronze, 290. 
 
 
 Changing names (custom of), 320, 
 
 Brooms (paper), 332. 
 
 
 425. 
 
 Brothels, 474. 
 
 
 Cha-no-yu, see Tea Ceremonies. 
 
 Brunton (R. H,), 265. 
 
 
 Chanting, 314. 
 
 Buddha, 70, 342, 375. 
 
 
 Chaplin-Ayrton (Mrs.), 82. 
 
 Buddhism, 69 ; 30, 43, 68, 75, 99, 
 
 Characters (Chinese), see Chinese 
 
 103, 123, 129, 147, 149, 153, 
 
 155, 
 
 writing. 
 
 163, 167, 182, 185, 212, 217, 
 
 219, 
 
 Characteristics of the Japanese, 
 
 220, 230, 269, 271, 280, 290, 
 
 299, 
 
 228, 306, 340, et pass. 
 
 305, 306, 307, 311, 314, 320, 
 
 339, 
 
 Charlevoix (Father), 307. 
 
 340, 341, 360, 361, 370, 375, 
 
 376, 
 
 Charms, 117, 361. 
 
 377, 378, 391, 402, 405, 406, 
 
 412, 
 
 Chauvinism, 77, 223, 265, 325, 377. 
 
 426, 427, 429, 430, 468. 
 
 
 Cherry-blossom, 79, 403, 426. 
 
 Buoys, 266. 
 
 
 Chess, 80, 194. 
 
 Burying alive, 27. 
 
 
 Chikamatsu Monzaemon, 414. 
 
 Butterflies, 476, 477. 
 
 
 Children, 82, 89, 116, 117, 229, 
 
 Cabinet, 197. 
 
 
 244,311, 426, 462. 
 
 Cables (submarine), 410. 
 
 
 China (recent trouble with), 221, 
 
 Calendars, 422; 158, 212, 221 
 
 
 222. 
 
 Calligraphy, 470 ; 246. 
 
 
 China (trade with), 436, 438. 
 
 Canadian Pacific Company, 385. 
 
 " China Sea Directory," 65. 
 
 Capital cities, 73, 425; 189, 
 
 197, 
 
 Chinese and Japanese compared, 
 
 331, 424. 
 
 
 238. 
 
 " Capital of the Tycoon," 60, 
 
 233. 
 
 "Chinese Characteristics," 241. 
 
 Capron (General), 482, 473. 
 
 
 Chinese influence, 28, 43, 68, 124, 
 
 Cars (mythological), 159. 
 
 
 149, 159, 188, 201, 202, 210, 212, 
 
 Cartography, 281. 
 
 
 213, 247, 254, 258, 267, 268, 275, 
 
 Carving, 75. 
 
 
 276, 280, 289, 291, 312, 313, 320, 
 
 Caste, 85. 
 
 
 329, 330, 346, 347, 348, 350, 356, 
 
 "Catalogue of Japanese Paint- 
 
 361, 362, 394, 395, 402, 420, 455, 
 
 ings," 61 ; 52, 160, 280. 
 
 
 465, 467, 469. 
 
484 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Chinese notices of Japan, 25, 399. 
 
 Chinese writing, 465, 363 ; 30, 
 
 Cho Densu, 45, 46. 
 
 Chokunin, 262. 
 
 Cholera, 112, 222. 
 
 Chopsticks, 170. 
 
 Choshu (province and clan), 84, 
 85, 189, 197, 216, 218, 319. 
 
 Christianity, 296; 78, 171, 216, 
 230, 325, 342, 444,475. 
 
 Chronological tables, 423; 65, 212. 
 
 " Chrysanthemum '' (magazine), 
 277. 
 
 Chrysanthemum (order of the), 
 104, 417. 
 
 Chrysanthemums, 165 ; 164. 
 
 Chujo Hime, 129. 
 
 Church of England, 301. 
 
 " Chushingura," 178, 417. 
 
 Cigarettes, 424. 
 
 Cities, 189. 
 
 Civil law, 259, 284, 446. 
 
 Civil wars, 214, 215, 219. 
 
 Clans, 84, 219. 
 
 Classes of society, 85, 147, 373. 
 
 " Classical Poetry of the Japa- 
 nese," 350. 
 
 Classicism, 45, 56, 268, 270, 273. 
 
 Classics (Confucian), 93, 94. 
 
 Clay cylinders, 26. 
 
 Clay images, 27.' 
 
 Cleanliness, 53, 241. 
 
 Climate, 86. 
 
 Cloisonne, 91, 290. 
 
 Closed to foreigners (Japan), 380 ; 
 217. 
 
 Coal, 190, 430, 433. 
 
 Coast dangerous, 89, 265. 
 
 Cocoons, 439, 440. 
 
 Cods Napoleon, 259. 
 
 Codes, 258, 259; 65, 114, 221, 284, 
 
 446. 
 Coffins, 182. 
 Coinage, 100. 
 " Collection of a Myriad Leaves," 
 
 see " Man-yoshv." 
 Collectors of curios, 404. 
 Comediettas, 413. 
 Commerce, 430. 
 Commerce and Industry (Society 
 
 for the Promotion of), 391. 
 Commercial law, 259. 
 Commutation of incomes, 373. 
 " Commentaries on the Japanese 
 
 Constitution," 198, 275. 
 Commutation of pensions,'£221, 
 
 373. 
 Compass (deviation of) 473. 
 Concubinage, 285, 292, 310. 
 Conder (J.), 40, 41, 64, 166, 167, 
 
 185. 
 Conferences (diplomatic), 446, 447. 
 Confucianism, 92, 113, 124, 166, 
 
 273, 307, 308, 338, 362, 370, 377, 
 
 378. 
 Congregationalists, 303, 304. 
 Conquests of Korea, 209. 
 Conscription, 42 ; 17, 220, 324. 
 Constitution, 197, 222, 105, 153, 
 
 221, 259, 327, 330, 448. 
 Constitution (Commentaries on 
 
 the,) 198. 
 Coolies, 115, 170. 
 Copper, 190, 433. 
 Coral, 478. 
 Corea, see Korea. 
 Cormorant-fishing, 95. 
 Couriers, 359. 
 
485 
 
 Court (Imperial), 291. 
 
 Court life, 12, 213, 268, 350, 375. 
 
 Courtesans, 473. 
 
 Courts of law, 260. 
 
 <3rabs, 478. 
 
 Crape paper, 333. 
 
 Crasset (Father), 307. 
 
 Crazes, 152. 
 
 Cremation, 99. 
 
 Crests, 201, 202. 
 
 Criminal law, 258, 259, 263. 
 
 •Critical sense (absence of), 203, 
 
 225. 
 Crops, 371. 
 
 Cross (trampling on the), 300. 
 Crustacea, 478. 
 Cultivation (area of), 186. 
 Curios, 404, 407, etpass. 
 Currency, 100. 
 Customs dues, 433, 444. 
 Cycle, 101 ; 56, 421. 
 Czarewitch, 223, 242. 
 Daibutsu (Hakone), 75. 
 Daibutsu (Kamakura), 289 ; 74. 
 Daibutsu (Nara), 74. 
 Daijingu, 226. 
 Daikoku, 280. 
 Daikon, 169. 
 " Daily Telegraph," 236. 
 Daimiates abolished, 220. 
 Daimyo, 101, 196, 200, 201, 216, 
 
 218, 219, 299, 300, 310, 321, 329, 
 
 359, 373, 405. 
 Daimyo boxes, 201. 
 " Dai NihonsH," 267. 
 Daita (monk), 185. 
 Daitokuji (abbot of), 405. 
 Dakyu (polo), 351. 
 Dances, 102 ; 22, 412, 414. 
 
 Dancing girls, 389 ; 103. 
 
 Dangozaka, 164. 
 
 Danjuro, 319, 417. 
 
 Dan-no-XJra (battle of), 214, 478. 
 
 Daruma, 402. 
 
 Dashi, 159. 
 
 Date Masamune, 299. 
 
 Dates (method of computing), 422, 
 
 423. 
 Days (important), 421. 
 " Death Stone," 355. 
 Decorations, 104. 
 Decorative art, 49, 290. 
 Deer (tame), 74, 339. 
 Demeanour (quietness of), 229. 
 Demoniacal possession, 106. 
 Demons (scaring away), 155. 
 Dengyo Daishi, 402. 
 Dening (Walter), 62, 239; 12, 18, 
 
 241, 392. 
 Departments of government, 197. 
 Deshima, 387. 
 Deutsche Gesettschaft filr Natur- 
 
 und Volkerkunde Ostasiens, 53, 
 
 63, etpass. 
 Dickins (P. V.), 62, 178. 
 Dickson (Walter), 198. 
 Dictionaries, 257, 270. 
 Diet (food), 167. 
 Diet (parliament), 197; 78, 223, 
 
 259. 
 Discomfort, 35. 
 
 " Discourse on Infinite Vision," 72. 
 Discovery of Japan, 215. 
 Diseases, 229, 244. 
 Divers (Dr., P.B.S.), Pref., 293, 
 
 315. 
 Divine generations, 203. 
 Divorce, 113, 282, 456. 
 
486 
 
 Dockyards, 173, 322. 
 
 Doederlein (Dr. L.), 280. 
 
 Dog-days, 156. 
 
 Dogs (supernatural), 112. 
 
 " Doji Kyo," 272, 307, 309. 
 
 Dolls, 83. 
 
 Dolmens, 29. 
 
 Domestic animals, 476. 
 
 Dominican monks, 298. 
 
 DdslvisJia, 304. 
 
 Dotokusliq,, 272. 
 
 Douglas (Commander, B.N.), 322. 
 
 " Dowa," 272. 
 
 Dragon, 181. 
 
 Drama, 412. 
 
 Dramatists, 414. • 
 
 Dress, 114, 221, 426, 452. 
 
 Dresser (Dr. C), 64, 290. 
 
 Duarchy, 214, 328. 
 
 Du Bois (Dr. P.), 315, 317. 
 
 Duncan (Miss S. J.), 63. 
 
 Dunker (on mollusks), 478. 
 
 Dutch in Japan, 14, 171, 358, 387, 
 
 419. 
 Dwarfed trees, 183, 184. 
 " Early Japanese History," 224. 
 Earthquakes, 120, 220, 479. 
 East (Alfred), 51. 
 Ebisu, 280, 156. 
 Eby (Bev. Dr.), 277, 417. 
 Eczema, 83. 
 
 Edgeworthia papyrifera, 334. 
 Edict against Christianity, 300, 
 
 305. 
 Education, 123. 
 Educational Museum, 94. 
 Educational Society, 126, 391, 392. 
 EE— EE, 129. 
 Eitel (Dr. E. J.), 72. 
 
 Eisai (abbot), 405. 
 
 Eko-in, 163, 426. 
 
 Electrical Society, 391. 
 
 Ellis (A. J.), 315, 317. 
 
 Embassies, 218. 
 
 Embroidery, 129. 
 
 Emperor, see Mikado. 
 
 Employes, 171. 
 
 Empress, 130 ; 57, 391. 
 
 Enamel, 91, 290. 
 
 Encho, 147. 
 
 Encyclopaedia (native), 275. 
 
 Engi, 422. 
 
 Engineering Society, 391. 
 
 Engi-shihi, 268. 
 
 English as she is Japped, 130. 
 
 English factory, 14. 
 
 English investigators, 389. 
 
 English' language, 124, 127, 222„ 
 
 329, 447. 
 Enoshima, 479. 
 Enryokwan, 425. 
 Episcopal Churches of America 
 
 and Canada, 301. 
 Era, 423. 
 
 Esotericism, 143, 314. 
 Estheticism, 166, 184, 225, 398,. 
 
 404. 
 Eta, 147, 220. 
 Eurasians, 148. 
 
 European costume, 117, 221, 344. 
 Europeanisation, 1, 7, 22, 39, 42, 
 
 48, 99, 104, 114, 117, 124, 126, 
 
 158, 160, 168, 171, 172, 220, 221, 
 
 222, 258, 264, 265, 266, 273, 274,. 
 
 284, 312, 313, 337, 341, 344, 359, 
 
 362, 380, 390, 393, 398, 415, 416,. 
 
 417, 422, 424, 426, 432, 446, 448, 
 
 451, 452, 475. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 487 
 
 Evrard (Abbe Felix), Pref. 
 Exhibition at TJeno, 221. 
 Exorcism, 108, 112. 
 Exports, 434, 435, 438, 441,442, 
 
 462, 443 ; 190, 430. 
 Exterritoriality, 148, 444, 446, 447. 
 Faience, 356, 357. 
 Fairy-tales, 149 ; 19, 269. 
 Fans, 150. 
 
 Fashionable crazes, 152. 
 Fauna, 475 ; 472. 
 Feast of lanterns, 156. 
 Feudalism, 213 ; 93, 102, 197, 220, 
 
 328, 358, 372, 380, 386, 452. 
 Fenollosa (Prof. E.), 52. 
 Festivals, 153 ; 83, 164, 331. 
 Fiction, 268, 272, 274. 
 Filial piety, 159, 474. 
 Fillimore (President), 336. 
 Firando,- 14. 
 Fires, 161, 425. 
 Fishes, 477. 
 Fishes (paper), 83. 
 Fishing, 95, 427. 
 Flags, 202, 340. 
 
 " Flights Inside and Outside Para- 
 dise," 62. 
 
 Flora, 66. 
 
 Flower-Cards, 21, 23. 
 
 Flowers, 163 ; 79, 86, 398. 
 
 Fogs, 89. 
 
 Folk-lore (Aino), 19, 20. 
 
 Folk-lore (Japanese), 149. 
 
 Food, 167; 153,154. 
 
 Foreigners (murderous assaults 
 on), 223. 
 
 Foreign employes, 171, 382. 
 
 Foreign opinions of Japan, 230. 
 
 Forfeits, 175. 
 
 Formosa, 105, 221, 379, 415. 
 
 Forty-seven Bonins, 175, 392, 415. 
 
 Fossils, 190, 472. 
 
 Four-and-twenty Paragons, 160. 
 
 Fox-Deity, 155, 339. 
 
 Foxes, 106, 149. 
 
 Fox-owning, 110. 
 
 Franciscan monks, 298. 
 
 Franks (A. W.), 64. 
 
 French influence, 172, 258, 261, 
 
 262, 263, 266, 359. 
 French trade, 438, 441. 
 Friars, 15, 215. 
 Fruit, 170. 
 
 Fudo, 361, 427. 
 
 Fuji, 178, 339, 340, 341. 
 
 " Fuji^Syakkei" 181. 
 
 Fujikura (K.), Pref. 
 
 " Fuji-mi Ju-san Shu," 281. 
 
 Fujiwara family, 213. 
 
 Fuku-ja, 403. 
 
 Fukurokuju, 280. 
 
 Fukusuke, 417. 
 
 Fukuzawa, 125, 274, 275, 325. 
 
 Funerals, 182. 
 
 Fushimi (battle of), 219. 
 
 Fushimi (castle of), 407. 
 
 Fusiyama, see Fuji. 
 
 Fusuma, 33. 
 
 Futago, 427. 
 
 "Fwzoku Gwaho," 325; 104. 
 
 " Gagen Shuran," 270. 
 
 Gaku, 246, 429. 
 
 Gakushikaiin, 391 ; 12, 18, 392. 
 
 Games, 21, 23, 175, 225, 347, 350, 
 406. 
 
 Gardens, 183 ; 34. 
 
 Geerts (A. J. C.), 59, 65, 191. 
 Geisha, 390 ; 103. 
 
488 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 " Gempei Seisiriki," ,268. 
 
 " Genji Monogatari," 269, 276 ; 
 225, 277. 
 
 " Genhai," 270, 275. 
 
 Genroku, 423. 
 
 Genroku Odori, 103. 
 
 Geographical Society of Tokyo, 
 391. 
 
 Geography, 185, 369. 
 
 Geology, 189 ; 179. 
 
 German Asiatic Society, 53, 63. 
 
 German influence, 198 ; 118, 125, 
 152, 172, 222, 223, 258, 261, 437. 
 
 German investigators, 388 ; 58, 63. 
 
 German trade, 437, 438. 
 
 Gidayu, 414. 
 
 Gifts, 283, 392. * 
 
 Gifu, 95, 98, 479. 
 Girls' Festival, 155 ; 83. 
 Glass rope sponge, 478. 
 Globe-trotters, 191; 58, 63, 230, 
 Gulfs, 187. [238. 
 
 Gulf Stream (Japanese), 188. 
 Go (game), 194. 
 Gobang, 194, 195. 
 Goble, 241. 
 
 "Gobunsho," 73, 277. 
 Godown, 34. 
 
 Gods and goddesses, 203 ; 70, 153, 
 155, 156, 157, 181, 280, 339, 374, 
 375, 395, 429, 459. 
 Gohei, 378. 
 Go-ju-m, 467. 
 Gokmai, 189 ; 26. 
 Gonse (A.), 45, 52, 290. 
 Goto Islands, 297. 
 Government, 196; 84, 117, 171, 
 
 219, 367, 368, 373, 380, 432, 442, 
 
 448, 471, 475. 
 
 Gowland (ffm.), Pref. 27, 31. 
 
 Grain, 430, 443. 
 
 Grant (President), 221. 
 
 " Greater Learning for Women," 
 
 453. 
 Great Northern Telegraph Com- 
 pany, 410. 
 Greece (similarity of Japan to), 
 
 43, 398, 399, 413. 
 Gregory (G. E.), 95. 
 Griffis (Eev. W. E.), 59, 223, 235, 
 
 338, et pass. 
 Gubbins (J. H.), 102, 264, 280. 
 Guide-books (native), 271. 
 Guilds, 288, 392, 432. 
 Gunboat policy, 335, 337, 338. 
 Gundan, 393. 
 " Gunsho Ichiran," 56. 
 Gutzlaff (Eev. C), 334. 
 Gyogi Bosatsu, 356. 
 Hades, 204, 205, 375. 
 Saifuki, 342. 
 Saka-mairi, 311. 
 " Hakkenden," 272, 276. 
 Hakluyt Society, 15. 
 Hakodate, 189, 219, 336, 435. 
 Hakone district, 179. 
 Hakuga-no-Sammi, 144. 
 Hall (Captain Basil, B. N.), 280. 
 Sana-awase, 23. 
 Hana-garuta, 21. 
 Hamashi-ka, 393. 
 San-don, 419. 
 Hand-shaking, 372. 
 Sannin, 262. 
 Happy dispatch, 200. 
 Harakiri, 199 ; 176, 177, 387, 396. 
 Harvest moon, 394. 
 Hase (temple of), 339. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 489 
 
 Hashikura Rokuemon, 299. 
 
 " ffijoki," 269. 
 
 Hassaku, 421. 
 
 Hokkaido, 470. 
 
 Hassen, 421. 
 
 Hokku, 347. 
 
 Hassensteiu's atlas, 281. 
 
 Hokusai, 47 ; 45, 181, 273, 319. 
 
 Hawes (Lieut., R. M.), 321. 
 
 Holidays, 153 ; 83, 164, 419. 
 
 Healthiness of Japan, 89. 
 
 Holtham (E. G.), 39. 
 
 Hearn (Lafcadio), Pref., 235. 
 
 Holy places, 339. 
 
 Heike or Taira clan, 213, 214, 478. 
 
 Hongkong (trade with) ,"436, 438. 
 
 " Heike Monogatari," 268. 
 
 Honnimbo, 194. 
 
 Heimin, 85. 
 
 Honorifics, 255, 320. 
 
 Hemi, 14. 
 
 Hori Chiyo, 401. 
 
 Henson, H. V. Pref. 
 
 Hori Yasu, 401. 
 
 Hepburn (Dr. J. C), 302. 
 
 Horses, 428 ; 352, 355. 
 
 Heraldry, 201. 
 
 Hosokawa Yusai, 146. 
 
 Hidari Jingoro, 76. 
 
 Hospitals, 130. 
 
 Hideyoshi (Taiko), 216 ; 62, 298, 
 
 Hot baths, 53. 
 
 407, 408, 425. 
 
 Hotei, 280. 
 
 Higan festival, 153, 155. 
 
 Sotoke, 70. 
 
 Higo rebellion, 221. 
 
 Houses, 33, 428. 
 
 Hildreth (Richard), 59. 
 
 Huish (M. B.), 52, 76, 290. 
 
 Hinin, 220. 
 
 Humbert (Aime), 62. 
 
 Hirado, 296, 380. 
 
 Huts (primeval), 36. 
 
 Hiragana syllabary, 467. 
 
 "HyogoNews," 22. 
 
 Hirano water, 293. 
 
 Ice-cream (tea), 408. 
 
 Hirata, 271 ; 270, 377. 
 
 Ichijo (Emperor), 287. 
 
 Hiroshige, 48. 
 
 Ichi-Boku, 419. 
 
 Hishigawa Moronobu, 46. 
 
 Ideographs, 363, 465 ; 257. 
 
 Historical works on Japan, 267; 
 
 Iemitsu, 217, 380. 
 
 223, 276, 307. 
 
 Ieyasu, 216; 14, 15, 93, 217, 321, 
 
 History, 202, 291, 385, 464. 
 
 359, 362, 425, 471. 
 
 Hitomaro, 347. 
 
 Ikao, 293. 
 
 Hitotsubashi, 219. 
 
 Ikegami (temple of), 341, 427. 
 
 " Hiza-Kurige," 272. 
 
 Imperial Family, 291; 130, 310, 
 
 Hizen clan, 197. 
 
 327, 374. 
 
 Hizen (prince of), 321. 
 
 Imperialism 219; 217, 153, 277, 
 
 Hizen (porcelain), 357. 
 
 292, 381. 
 
 Hoei-zan, 179. 
 
 Impersonality, 241, 282, 347. 
 
 Hoffmann (Dr. J. J.), 203, 277. 
 
 Impetuous Male Deity, 204, 205, 
 
 H6j6 family, 215 ; 74. 
 
 206. 
 
490 
 
 Import dues, 444, 445. 
 Imports, 433, 434, 437, 438, 443. 
 Inagaki (M.), 78. 
 Inari, 155, 157, 339. 
 Incense parties, 225. 
 Inclusive reckoning, 312. 
 India (trade with), 436, 438. 
 Indian summer, 277. 
 Indifference to pain and death, 
 
 230. 
 Industries, 91, 129, 150, 290, 295, 
 
 332, 356, 379, 432, 433. 
 " Industries of Japan," 58, 248. 
 Ingles (Gapt., B.N.), Pref. 
 Ingwa (doctrine of), 360. 
 Inkyo, 12. 
 
 Inland Sea, 186, 339. 
 Inns, 340. 
 Ino Chukei, 181. 
 Inoue (Count), 85, 125, 222. 335. 
 Insatsu Kyoku, 101. 
 Insects, 477. 
 Intercalary month, 419. 
 " Intercourse between the United 
 
 States and Japan," 65. 
 Inu Ou Mono, 355. 
 Irises, 426. 
 
 I-ro-ha, 468, 469 ; 467. 
 "I-ro-ha Bunko," 178, 273. 
 Isawa (S.), 315 ; 314. 
 Ise, (temples of), 226, 339, 375, 
 
 376, 379. 
 "Ise Monogatari," 269. 
 Ise Ondo, 103. 
 Islands, 186. 
 Isobe (baths of), 293. 
 Italics, 326. 
 
 Ito (Count), 85, 125, 198, 222, 275. 
 Ito Keisuke, 66. 
 
 Iwakura (Prince), 445, 446. 
 
 Iwasa Matahei, 46. 
 
 Iwasaki Yataro, 381, 382. 
 
 Iwa-ya, 29. 
 
 Izanagi, 203, 204, 211 ; 53. 
 
 Izanami, 203, 204, 211. 
 
 Izumo, 110, 112, 157, 205, 206, 
 
 207, 376. 
 James (J. M.), 72, 
 Japan (various names of), 227. 
 "Japan and its Art," 52, 290. 
 " Japan as it Was and Is," 59. 
 " Japan Gazette," 15, 453. 
 " Japan in Days of Yore," 62. 
 " Japan Mail," 227, 235, 236, 327, 
 
 389, 450, 475. 
 Japan Mail Steam Ship Company, 
 
 381; 222. 
 Japanese and Chinese compared, 
 
 238. 
 Japanese characteristics, 228, et 
 
 " Japanese Girls and Women," 59, 
 
 229, 453, etpass. 
 " Japanese Homes," 64 ; 32, 40. 
 "Japanese Pottery," 359. 
 Japanese Society of Arts, 391. 
 Japanese Village in London, 315. 
 " Japanisches Familien und Er- 
 
 brecht," 264. 
 " Japoneries d'Automne," 22, 237. 
 " Jesuit Mission Press in Japan," 
 
 307. 
 Jesuits, 297, 298 ; 14, 65, 300, 470. 
 Jik-kan, 420. 
 Jim'mu TennS, 207, 211, 291 ; 105, 
 
 153, 203, 320, 423. 
 Jingo (Empress), 209, 211. 
 Jingo feeling, 77, 265. 
 
491 
 
 Jinrikisha, 241 ; 116. 
 
 Jippensha Ikku, 272, 276. 
 
 " Jitsu-go Kyd," 272, 307, 309. 
 
 Jiyuto,222. 
 
 Jizo, 360 ; 75. 
 
 Jogashima, 265. 
 
 John Kino, 175. 
 
 Joruri, 414. 
 
 Journalism, 324. 
 
 Journalists, 325. 
 
 Josetsu, 45. 
 
 Judges, 262; 260, 263, 445, 447, 
 
 448. 
 Judicial courts, 259, 260, 261. 
 Ju-ni-shi, 420. 
 Junks, 380, 232. 
 Jurojin, 280. 
 Justice, 257 ; 148. 
 Kabuki, 413, 415. 
 Kada-no-Azuma-Maro, 178. 
 Kaempfer, 242, 233; 65, 388. ' 
 Kagoshima, 279, 296. 
 Kagura dance, 103. 
 Kaibara, 273, 453. 
 " Kaikoku Shimatsu," 275. 
 " Kajin no Kigu," 274. 
 Kaishinto, 222. 
 
 Kaitakushi, 472, 473; 20, 191, 222. 
 Kakemono, 246. 
 Kdkke, 244. 
 
 Kamakura, 74, 215, 289. 
 Kan, 288. 
 Kana syllabary, 467, 468, 469 ; 364, 
 
 411. 
 Kanagawa (treaty of), 336. 
 Kanaoka, 43. 
 Kanda (T.), 23, 32. 
 Kano school of painting, 45. 
 Kappoie dance, 104. 
 
 Karakami, 33. 
 
 Earatsu porcelain, 145. 
 
 Katakana syllabary, 467 ,468. 
 
 Kato Hiroyuki, 274. 
 
 Kato Tamikichi, 145. 
 
 " Keikolcu Bidan," 274. 
 
 Keiko Tenno, 208. 
 
 Keio Gijiku, 125. 
 
 Ken (game), 175. 
 
 Ken (prefecture), 188. 
 
 " Keramic Art of Japan," 359. 
 
 Kibi-no-Mabi, 194, 467. 
 
 Kiki-ko, 225. 
 
 Kikugoro, 417. 
 
 Kinkwazan, 266, 339. 
 
 Kira, 175, 176, 177. 
 
 Kissing, 372. 
 
 Kitaga, 242. 
 
 Kitchen-middens, 24. 
 
 Kitsune-ken, 175. 
 
 Kitsune-mochi, 109. 
 
 Kitsune-tsuki, 106. 
 
 Kjellman (F.R.), 69. 
 
 Knipping (B.), 89, 91. 
 
 Knott (Dr. C. G.) 10, 120, 281, 315, 
 
 317. 
 Kobe, 189, 331, 385, 435. 
 Kob6 Daishi, 75, 342, 476. 
 Kobunsha, 149. 
 Ko-haru, 277. 
 " KojiU," 267, 270, 277 ; 203, 208, 
 
 210, 213, 286. 
 "KojikiDen," 270, 271. 
 Koju, 339. 
 
 " KokinsM," 348 ; 146. 
 " Kokken Hanron," 275. 
 Koku (measure), 381 ; 373. 
 Kokubu tobacco, 424. 
 Kokyu, 314. 
 
492 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Kompira (shrine of), 339,340. 
 " Konjaku Monogatari," 269. 
 Ko-no-hana-saku-ya-hime, 181. 
 Korea (conquests of), 209, 216, 356, 
 
 362. 
 Korea (recent trouble with), 222. 
 Korean influence, 31, 43, 68, 70, 75, 
 
 202, 289, 356, 362, 366, 389, 467. 
 Korean language, 254. 
 Korschelt (0.), 195, 196. 
 Kosm, 403. 
 Kose-no-Kanaoka, 43. 
 Koshaku, 393. 
 "KoshiDen," 271. 
 Koto, 313, 314, 317. 
 " Kotoba no Chilcamichi," 270. 
 Koya-san (monastery of), 339. 
 Kublai Khan, 215. 
 Kuga Minora, 325. 
 Kuge, 102, 329. 
 Kunisada, 48. 
 Kure, 323. 
 Kurile Islands, 246 ; 24, 186, 189, 
 
 266. 
 Kuroda (Count), 153. 
 Kuroshio, 188 ; 88. 
 Kusatsu (baths of), 293, 294. 
 "Kwampo," 325. 
 Kwankoba, 425. 
 Kwannon, 129, 339. 
 Kwannon-zaki, 265. 
 Kwazoku, 85, 330. 
 Kyodo Unyu Kwaisha, 381. 
 Kyosai, 48, 50. < 
 
 Kyoto, 73 ; 91, 129, 215, 296, 425. 
 Kyushu cycle of legends, 209. 
 Kyushu (island of), 186, 411. 
 Labour (cheapness of), 433. 
 Lacquer, 247. 
 
 Lagoons, 187. 
 
 Lake Biwa ,181, 187. 
 
 Lakes, 187, 475. 
 
 Land of the Gods, 218, 219. 
 
 Land taxation, 197, 221, 264. 
 
 Land tenure (pamphlets on), 264. 
 
 Lange (Dr. E.), 277, 350. 
 
 Language, 253; 180, 182, 270, 399. 
 
 Lanterns, 332. 
 
 Law, 257, 268, 282, 326, 369, 387. 
 
 Law-courts, 259, 260, 261 ; 148. 
 
 Law reports, 264 
 
 Law schools, 262. 
 
 Lawyers, 262 ; 257, 260. 
 
 Leather paper, 333. 
 
 Lectures, 399. 
 
 Legge (Dr. J.), 95. 
 
 Lepidoptera, 479 ; 476, 477. 
 
 Letters (of syllabaries), 468. 
 
 Liberal Churches, 305. 
 
 " Liberty " (translation of Mill 
 
 on), 275. 
 Lighthouses, 264. 
 Lightships, 266. 
 Literary party 217, 219. 
 Literature, 267, 362; 213, 378. 
 Literature, (specimens of), 179, 
 
 307, 364. 
 Little Spring, 277. 
 Local self-government, 197, 223, 
 
 259. 
 Loch (Sir H. B.) 335. 
 Longevity, 229. 
 Loochoo Islands, 278 ; 221, 266, 
 
 300, 316, 336. 
 Loomis (Rev. H.), 307. 
 Loti (Pierre), 62, 237 ; 22, 119, 130. 
 Loves of the stars, 395. 
 Lowell (Percival), 62, 241,426. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 493 
 
 Buck (gods of), 280. 
 
 Lyman (B. S.), 191. 
 
 Lyric dramas, 412, 413; 272. 
 
 Mabuchi, 270, 377. 
 
 " Madame Chrysanthime," 62, 
 
 237. 
 Madder, 389. 
 Maejima (H.), 359. 
 Magatama, 31. 
 Magazines, 325. 
 Magic animals, 106, 149. 
 Magic mirrors, 295. 
 Mail services, 359, 384, 385. 
 Main Island, 186, 189. 
 " Makura no Soshi," 269, 276. 
 Malay immigrations, 366. 
 Mame-cha, 403. 
 Mamiya, 471. 
 Mammals, 476. 
 Mandara, 129. 
 Manila, 316, 380. 
 Manipulation of records, 224. 
 " Man-yoshu," 267, 347 ; 275, 362. 
 Maple-trees, 164. 
 Maps, 281 ; Pref. 
 Marco Polo, 242. 
 Marionettes, 414. 
 Maritime enterprise, 379, 380. 
 Marriage, 281 ; 114, 264. 
 Mam, 287. 
 
 Masamune blades, 396. 
 Mason (W. B.), Pref., 82. 
 Massage, 288. 
 Masujima (B.), Pref., 264. 
 Matches, 433. 
 Materialism, 239. 
 Mats, 33, 406. 
 Matsumae, 471. 
 Matsura, 471. 
 
 Mayors of the palace, 385, 214 ; 298. 
 Maximowicz, 66, 69. 
 Maxims of morality, 307. 
 McClatchie (T. B. H.), 102, 202, 
 
 397, 417, 427. 
 Meacham (Bev. G. M.), 240. 
 Meat (eating of), 168, 221. 
 Medals, 105. 
 
 " Medical Progress," 13, 289, 313. 
 Medical Society, 391. 
 Medicine, 13, 125, 288, 312, 387. 
 Meeting of Yokohama residents, 
 
 449. 
 Meguro, 427. 
 Meiji, 423 ; 292. 
 Meiji Gakuin, 303. 
 " Meish6 Zue," 271. 
 " Memorials of Japon," 15. 
 Mencius, 93. 
 Mendez Pinto, 171, 242. 
 Mental characteristics, 230. 
 Mercantile Marine Bureau, 381. 
 Merchants (foreign), 231, 238, 430, 
 
 441. 
 Merchants (Japanese), 431, 432 ; 
 
 238, 443. 
 Mercy (goddess of), 129, 339. 
 Messageries Maritimes, 384. 
 Metals, 190, 191. 
 Metal-work, 289, 343, 396. 
 Meteorological observatory, 89. 
 Meteorological tables, 90. 
 Methodist churches, 304. 
 Mexico, 223, 380, 447. 
 Mi-ai, 282. 
 Mieido, 150. 
 Mikado, 291, 196 ; 11, 26, 70, 163, 
 
 197, 207, 213, 214, 215, 219, 335, 
 
 374, 375, 377, 385, 425, 465. 
 
494 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 " Mikado's Empire," 59. 
 Mikami and Takatsu's "History 
 
 of Literature," 275. 
 Military mutiny, 221. 
 Milky way, 395. 
 Millionaire (celebrated), 381. 
 Mills, 427 433. 
 Milne (Prof. John}, Pre/., 121 ; 24, 
 
 32, 40, 123, 191, 247. 
 Minamoto clan, 213, 393. 
 Minerals, 190, 191. 
 Mineral springs, 293 ; 55. 
 Mines, 190, 260, 433. 
 Mino (province of), 479. 
 Minobu, 109. 
 Mint, 101, 220. 
 Mirrors, 295. 
 Misasagi, 26. 
 Miscegenation, 148, 366. 
 Miscellanies (literary), 269. 
 Missionaries, 126, 171, 399. See 
 
 also Missions. 
 Missions (Christian), 296. 
 Mitford (A. B.), 61 ; 57, 148, 178, 
 
 201, 475. 
 Mito (Prince of), 217, 268. 
 Mitsubishi Company, 381 ; 221. 
 " Mitsu Kagami," 268. 
 Mitsu-mata tree, 334. 
 Miwa (god of), 207, 208. 
 Miwa (temple of), 339. 
 Miyajima (sacred island of), 339. 
 " Miyako Shimbun," 325, 422. 
 Miyanoshita (baths of), 293. 
 Mogami, 471. 
 Mollusks, 478. 
 Mongolian race, 228, 366. 
 Monkeys, 476 ; 472, 475. 
 Months, 419. 
 
 Monto sect, 72, 426. 
 
 Monzeki, 426. 
 
 Moon, 393 ; 345, 419. 
 
 Moon-God, 204. 
 
 Moralists, 272, 273, 453. 
 
 Morality, 235, 286, 287. 
 
 Moral maxims, 307. 
 
 Mori (Viscount), 199, 227. 
 
 Morse (Prof. E.S.), 64 ;. 24, 32, 359. 
 
 Morse code, 410. 
 
 Mosaic, 91. 
 
 Mosquitoes, 478. 
 
 Mothers-in-law, 285, 454, 456. 
 
 Moths, 476, 477. 
 
 Motomitsu, 44. 
 
 Motoori, 79, 146, 270, 377. 
 
 Mounsey, 62. 
 
 Mountains, 186, 187 ; 178. 
 
 Mountain whale, 167. 
 
 Mourning, 310, 428. 
 
 Mowat (R.A.), Pref. 
 
 Moxa, 312. 
 
 Mugi-yu, 403. 
 
 Mukobata, 242. 
 
 Mukojima, 426. 
 
 Muller (Dr.), 315, 317. 
 
 Muramasa blades, 396. 
 
 " Mtirasaki Shikibu Niki," 270. 
 
 Murderous assaults, 223, 227, 242. 
 
 Murray's " Handbook for Japan," 
 
 72, 182, 360, 378, 379, 427. 
 Museum (Educational), 94. 
 Museum (of Arms), 397, 426. 
 Museum (Ueno), 27, 31. 
 Museums (in Europe), 388. 
 Music, 313 ; 144, 311, 399, 413. 
 Musical Society, 313. 
 Myoe (abbot), 402. 
 Mythology, 202, 394, 395. 
 
495 
 
 Nafa, 279. 
 
 Nagara (river), 95. 
 
 Nagasaki, 189, 299, 300, 380, 410, 
 
 435. 
 Nagata Hosei, 180. 
 Nagoya, 91, 479. 
 Nagoya Sanza, 414. 
 Nakamura's translations, 275. 
 Nakasendo, 367. 
 Nalcodo, 282. 
 
 Names, 317 ; 287, 288, 373. 
 Namikawa, 91. 
 Nana-kusa, 154. 
 Nanjio (Bunyiu), 72. 
 Napoleon III, 388. 
 Nara, 73, 74. 
 Narita (shrine of), 339. 
 Naturalisation, 17. 
 Nanmaun (Dr. E.), 190, 191. 
 Naval Academy, 324. 
 Naval College, 324. 
 Naval missions, 321, 322. 
 Navy, 321 ; 172, 266. 
 Needle-work, 129, 428. 
 Nengo, 422. 
 
 Nervous insensibility, 230. 
 Netsuke, 75, 343; 49. 
 Netto (Curt), 63; 22, 191, 237. 
 Newspapers, 324, 362, 449. 
 New Year, 154, 419. 
 •" Nichi-Nichi Shimbun," 325; 110, 
 
 326. 
 Nichiren sect, 72, 108, 109, 427. 
 Nicolai (Bishop), 305. 
 Nihon (Japan), 227. 
 " Nihon Bungaku Shi," 275. 
 Nihon-bashi, 474. 
 "Nihongi," 267, 362; 203, 208, 
 
 309, 210, 211. 
 
 " Nilion Gwaishi," 268. 
 
 Nihon Kirisuto Kokwai, 303. 
 
 " Nilion" (or "Nippon") news- 
 paper, 325, 328. 
 
 Nilion Sei Kokwai, 301. 
 
 " Nihon Shakwai Jii," 275. 
 
 " Nihon Shilco," 275. 
 
 Ni-hyaku toka, 421. 
 
 Nijo palace, 91. 
 
 Ni-ju-shi Ko, 160. 
 
 Nikko, 75, 76. 
 
 Ninagawa, 32, 
 
 Ninsei, 357. 
 
 Nintoku (Emperor), 28, 389. 
 
 Ni-o, 75, 109. 
 
 "Nippon Archiv," 386. 
 
 "Nippon" (or "Nihon") news- 
 paper 325, 328. 
 
 Nilion Yusen Kwaisha, 381 ; 222. 
 
 Nirvana, 70. 
 
 Nishino Buntaro, 199. 
 
 Nishi Shu, 274. 
 
 " Nisshin Shinjishi," 324. 
 
 Nitobe (I.), 65. 
 
 No, 412, 415 ; 272. 
 
 Nobility, 329 ; 85, 101, 222. 
 
 Nobunaga, 216, 407. 
 
 Nojima, 265. 
 
 Noms de guerre, 319, 321. 
 
 Norito, 271. 
 
 Norman (Henry), 173, 237. 
 
 Northern and Southern Courts, 
 215; 11. 
 
 North German Lloyds, 384. 
 
 " North Star and Southern Cross," 
 63. 
 
 Notation (musical), 314. 
 
 Novels, 268, 272, 274, 396. 
 
 Nudity (law against), 220. 
 
496 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Numerical categories, 330. 
 
 Nun (Buddhist), 416. 
 
 Nuns (Christian), 301. 
 
 Oaths (bad language), 255. 
 
 Oaths (legal), 363. 
 
 Occidental and Oriental Company, 
 
 385. 
 Officials, 198, 311, 326. 
 " Official Gazette," 325, 327. 
 O Hina Sama, 83. 
 Oil-paper, 333. 
 Oishi Kuranosuke, 176, 177. 
 Oji, 427. 
 Ojigoku, 293. 
 Ojin Tenno, 210. 
 Ojishin, 123, 222. 
 Oki Islands, 110. 
 Okina-Maro, 287. 
 Okinawa, 279. 
 Okubo (murder of), 221. 
 Okuma (Count), 448. 
 O-Kuni, 414. 
 Okyo, 46, 319. 
 Olcott (Colonel), 72. 
 Old Japan, 8, 217, 337. 
 "Old Japan" (porcelain), 357, 
 
 358. 
 Omura, 297. 
 " China Daigaku," 453. 
 Ono Azusa, 275. 
 Ontake (pilgrims to), 340. 
 Ooka, 162, 273. 
 " Ooka Meiyo Seidan," 273. 
 Opening of Japan* 336; 218, 430, 
 
 446, 448, 147. 
 Opening the river Sumida, 156. 
 Open ports, 444 ; 189, 331, 441. 
 Orange-tree, 68, 208. 
 Orders of knighthood, 104, 221. 
 
 Orders of nobility, 329 ; 102, 222. 
 
 Osaka, 435. 
 
 Ota D5kwan, 425. 
 
 Ota Nobunaga, 216. 
 
 O-Tsu, 414. 
 
 Otsu, 223. 
 
 Otsu-e, 46. 
 
 Otsuki's dictionary, 275. 
 
 Oyama (pilgrimage to), 339. 
 
 Pacific Mail Company, 385. 
 
 Paddy-fields, 371. 
 
 Pages (Leon), 55, 57, 307, 
 
 Palaces, 38, 425. 
 
 Palgrave (Gifford), 230. 
 
 " Pall Mall Gazette," 173, 237,475. 
 
 Palmer (Major-General,] B. E.) f 
 
 23, 96, 227, 235. 
 Paper, 332, 334. 
 Paper fishes, 83. 
 Paper-mills, 427. 
 Paper money, 100. 
 Paper mulberry, 343, 389. 
 "Papierschmetterlinge am Japan," 
 
 63 ; 22, 191, 237. 
 Paragons of filial piety, 160. 
 Parents-in-law, 456. 
 Pariahs, 147, 220. 
 Parker (E. H.), Pre/., 145. 
 Parkes (Lady), 182. 
 Parkes (Sir Harry), 364 ; 265, 321, 
 
 399. 
 Parliament, see Diet. 
 Parties (political), 222. 
 Passports, 148, 302. 
 Peace preservation aot, 222. 
 Pearson (G. C), 62. 
 Peasantry, 370, 417, 421. 
 Penal code, 258 ; 221. 
 Penhallow (Prof.) 20. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 497 
 
 Peninsular and Oriental Company, 
 
 384. 
 Peninsulas, 188. 
 Pensions (samurai's), 221. 
 Personification (absence of), 255, 
 
 365. 
 Perry (Commodore), 336 ; 217, 218, 
 
 220, 388, 443. 
 Perry (Prof. T.), 295. 
 Phonetics, 466. 
 Persecution Of Christians, 298, 299, 
 
 300: 221. 
 Petersen (J. V.), 69. 
 Pfizmaier (Dr. A.), 277. 
 Philippine Islands, 379. 
 Philology (native works on), 270. 
 Philosophical Society, 391. 
 Philosophy, 338, 409. 
 Phonetics, 466. 
 Photography introduced, 221. 
 Physical characteristics of the 
 
 people, 228. 
 "Pictorial Arts of Japan," 64; 
 
 52, 246. 
 Pictures, 43, 246. 
 Pidjin-Bnglish, 338. 
 Pidjin-Japanese, 338. 
 Piggott (P. T.), 317, 315. 
 Pilgrimages, 336. 
 Pillow-words, 347. 
 Pious associations, 339. 
 Pipes, 342 ; 115, 424. 
 Pit-dwellers, 24. 
 Place-names, 18, 180, 188, 320. 
 Plays (theatrical), 412. 
 Pocket-handkerchiefs (paper), 332. 
 Poetry, 345 ; 139, 178, 179, 256, 
 
 267, 419, 419, 469. 
 Poets, 347 ; 331. 
 
 Polioe, 260, 261, 399. 
 
 Politioal divisions, 188. 
 
 Political parties, 222, 391. 
 
 Polo, 350. 
 
 Polonsky (A.), 247. 
 
 Pope (embassies to the), 297, 299. 
 
 Population, 356 ; 85, 189. 
 
 Porcelain, 356 ; 91, 145. 
 
 Portuguese in Japan, 14, 215, 216, 
 298, 424. 
 
 Possession by foxes, etc., 106. 
 
 Posthumous names, 320. 
 
 Post-office, 359, 220. 
 
 Pottery, 356 ; 30. 
 
 Pottinger (Sir H.), 334. 
 
 Pownall (C.A.W.), Pref. 
 
 Praying-wheel, 360. 
 
 Prefectural assemblies, 221. 
 
 Prefectures, 188, 198, 220, 472. 
 
 Presbyterian churches, 303; 302, 
 304. 
 
 Presents, 283, 392. 
 
 Press-laws, 326. 
 
 Priests, 375. 
 
 Prince of Wales's sons, 400. 
 
 Printing, 361. 
 
 Prison editors, 328. 
 
 Prisons, 260. 
 
 Privy Counoil, 197. 
 
 "Proceedings of the Osaka Con- 
 ference," 307. 
 
 Processions, 159. 
 
 Procurators, 261. 
 
 Prosody, 345. *• 
 
 Prostitution, 473. 
 
 Protestantism, 302. 
 
 Proverbs, 364 ; 80, 475. 
 
 Provinces, 188. 
 
 Pryer (H.), 59, 479. 
 
498 
 
 "Produits de la Nature Japonaise," 
 
 65. 
 Public meetings, 221. 
 Public opinion, 447. 
 Public works (history of), 266. 
 Puini (C), 277. 
 "Punch" (Japanese), 325. 
 Punishments, 259, 344. 
 Puppet emperors, 11, 213. 
 Pure Shinto (revival of), 376. 
 Purification by water, 53. 
 Purification of temples, 377, 378, 
 
 430. 
 Quin (J. J.), 248. 
 Rabbits, 152. 
 Race, 365 ; 228. 
 Radicals (in politics), 222. 
 Radicals (of Chinese ideographs), 
 
 363, 466. 
 Railways, 367 ; 106, 220. 
 Rainfall, 90; 86. 
 Rainy reason, 86, 421. 
 Ramma, 33. 
 Ranks, 329 ; 85, 262. 
 Reactionary feeling, 77, 119, 222, 
 
 306. 
 Rebellions, 221, 426, 472. 
 Red Cross Association, 391. 
 Reformed theatre, 344. 
 Regents, 214. 
 Rein (Dr. J. J.), 58, 66, 223, 248, 
 
 289, 397, 479, etpass. 
 Relics, 342. 
 
 Religion, 370 ; 69, 296, 340, 374. 
 Religious Tract Societies, 304. 
 Renaissance of learning, 217, 377. 
 Benga, 347. 
 Reptiles, 476. 
 Republic set up, 219. 
 
 " Bisumi Statistique de VEmpire 
 
 du Japon," 65. 
 Revenue, 198. 
 
 Revolution (of 1868), 219, 337; 197, 
 279, 328, 348, 377, 385, 400, 414, 
 415, 425. 
 Revolving libraries, 361. 
 Revolving stage, 415. 
 " Bhopalocera Nihonica," 479. 
 Rhyme, 345. 
 Rice, 370 ; 167, 373, 422. 
 Bin, 100. 
 
 Rising Sun (flag), 202. 
 Rising Sun (order of the), 104, 
 
 105. 
 Rituals (Shinto), 271, 277, 379. 
 River of heaven, 395. 
 Rivers, 187, 369. 
 Roads, 371 ; 367. 
 
 Romances, 268, 272, 276, 399, 474. 
 Romanisation Society, 391. 
 Bbnin, 176 ; 128. 
 Rosny (Leon de), 277, 350. 
 Royal Asiatic Society, 454. 
 Russia, 186, 199, 247, 433, 471. 
 Russian church, 305. 
 Byobu-SUnto, 376, 377. 
 "Bybno CUge," 268. 
 " Byujo Kan," 321, 322. 
 " Sacred Books of the East," 95. 
 Sadanji, 417. 
 Saga rebellion, 221. 
 Saga Shosaku, 275. 
 Saghalien, 186, 221, 247. 
 Saigo Takamori, 221. 
 Saikyo, 425. 
 
 Saitama insurrection, 222. 
 , Sakura-yu, 403. 
 i Salamander, 475, 476. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 499 
 
 Salic law, 130. 
 Salutatidns, 372. 
 Samisen, 313, 314, 315. 
 Samurai, 372; 85, 200, 201, 220, 
 
 221, 310, 396. 
 Samurai Odori, 355. 
 Sanetomo, 405. 
 " Sangoku Shi," 392. 
 Sanitary Society, 391. 
 Sannomiya (Y.), Pref. 
 San-san ku-do, 283. 
 Sapporo, 427, 473. 
 Sarcophagi, 28. 
 Saris (Capt. John), 14. 
 Sat-Cho, 85. 
 Sato-gaeri, 284. 
 Satsuma clan, 84, 85, 197, 216, 
 
 219, 278, 296. 
 Satow (Ernest), 27, 32, 36, 56, 
 
 59, 61, 189, 227, 267, 268, 277, 
 
 291, 307, 364, 379, 389, 424, 429. 
 Satsuma faience, 356, 358. 
 Satsuma rebellion, 221 ; 62, 105, 
 Savings banks, 360. [381. 
 
 Scale (musical), 315. 
 Scheube (Dr. B.), 246. 
 Schools, 125. 
 
 Scottish Board of Northern Lights, 
 Sculpture, 75. [266. 
 
 Sea-bathing, 55. 
 Seals (legal), 264. 
 Seasons, 419. 
 Sects (Buddhist), 71. 
 Sects (Shinto) 376. 
 Sei Slionagon, 269. 
 Seido, 94. 
 
 Seismological Society, 64, 121,123. 
 " Seiyo Jija," 275. 
 Seki Naohiko, 325. 
 
 Seklci (periods), 419. 
 
 " Self-Help " (translation of), 275. 
 
 Semi-Maro, 144. 
 
 Sen, 100. 
 
 Sengakuji, 177. 
 
 Sengen, 181. 
 
 Sen-no-Bikyu, 408, 409 ; 166. 
 
 Sepulchral monuments, 25. 
 
 Sermons, 72, 399. 
 
 Sesshu, 45, 36. 
 
 Seto potteries, 356, 357. 
 
 Severini (A.), 159, 277. 
 
 Sexagenary cycle, 421 ; 56, 101. 
 
 Sexes (relations between the), 453; 
 
 451, 457, etpass. 
 Shaka Muni, 70. 
 Shamisen, see Samisen. 
 Shampooing, 288. 
 Shari, 342. 
 Shaving, 83. 
 
 Shell-heaps of Omori, 24, 32. 
 Shiba temples, 425. 
 Shichi-Fuku-Jin, 280. 
 Shigeno An-eki, 16, 224. 
 Shigenobu, 48. 
 Shijo school of painting, 46. 
 Shikoku (island of), 185, 186, 339. 
 Shimada Saburo, 27 i, 325. 
 Shimoda (port of), 336. 
 Shimonoseki affair, 218. 
 Shinagawa forts, 265. 
 Shinano-Hida range, 187. 
 Shinnin, 262. 
 Shinno (abbot), 406. 
 Shin sect, 73, 72. 
 Shinto, 374, 271 ; 35, 37, 99, 112, 
 
 182, 217, 219, 272, 280, 340, 
 
 342, 370, 422, 429, 430. 
 Shinto rituals, 271, 277, 379. 
 
600 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 SMn-Yoshiwara, 474. 
 
 Shipbuilding, 380. 
 
 Shipping, 379. 
 
 Ships' names, 289, 288. 
 
 Shirane-San, 186, 293. 
 
 SMsM-mai, 104. 
 
 Shizdku, 85, 375. 
 
 Shogtm, 385 ; 214, 216, 5218, 219, 
 
 321, 335, 359, 377, 425, 450. 
 Shoji, 33. 
 Shokonsha, 426. 
 Shomyo, 102. 
 Shonzui, 356. 
 Shooting, 386. 
 Shops, 129, 426. 
 " Shorai-no-Nihon," 275. 
 Shoshi Jin-emon, 474. 
 Shotoku (Empress), 361. 
 Shotoku Taishi, 71, 342. 
 Shrines, 339. 
 Shubun, 45. 
 Shuko (abbot), 406. 
 Shunten, 278. 
 Shuri, 279. 
 Siam, 14,379. 
 Sidotti (Father), 300. 
 Siebold (H. Von), 20, 32, 64. 
 Siebold (P. F. Von), 386 ; 65. 
 Signboards, 130. 
 Silent Concerts, 314. 
 Silk, 389, 438, 477. 
 Silver, 100, 191. 290, 343. 
 Simmons (Dr. D.B.), 264. 
 Singing-girls, 389; 21, 313, 350, 
 
 406. 
 Sliding doors, 33. 
 Smells, 427. 
 Smith (Arthur H.), 241. 
 Smith (Mrs. W. H.), 62, 453. 
 
 Smoking, 342, 424. 
 
 Snakes, 476. 
 
 Snow, 89, 90, 475. 
 
 Soba, 169. 
 
 Societies, 390 ; 339. 
 
 Society for Prevention of Cruelty 
 
 to Animals, 391. 
 Society of Friends, 304. 
 Soga-no-no-Iname, 70. 
 " Songs Ancient and Modem,'' 
 
 348. 
 Sonin, 262. 
 Soroban, 9. 
 Sosen, 47. 
 Soshi, 128. 
 Sotelo (Father), 299. 
 "Soul of the Far East," 62, 241. 
 Soup, 168, 169. 
 Spaniards, 215, 216, 298, 316. 
 Spas, 293 ; 55. 
 Speculation, 152, 442. 
 Spencer (Herbert), 168, 338. 
 Spies, 177, 387. 
 Sponges, 478. 
 Sport, 386. 
 Sports, see Amusements and 
 
 Games. 
 Stamps (postage), 359. 
 Stars, 393. 
 Statistics, 42, 65, 90, 114, 125, 
 
 147, 301, 303, 304, 305, 307, 322, 
 
 323, 324, 327, 356, 383, 384, 411, 
 
 412, 425, 433—442. 
 Steamer companies, 381, 384. 
 Story-tellers, 392. 
 Straits, 187. 
 Street-oriers, 324. 
 St. Swithin (Japanese), 421. 
 Students, 128. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 501 
 
 Submarine cables, 410. 
 
 Suematsu Kencho, 277. 
 
 Sugoroku, 21. 
 
 Suioide, 199. 
 
 Suisei (Emperor), 207. 
 
 Sujin (Emperor), 208. 
 
 Sulphur, 430. 
 
 Sun, 393. 
 
 Sunday, 419. 
 
 Sun-Goddess,. 204, 205, 206, 207 ; 
 
 103, 150, 227, 339, 375. 
 Susanoo, 204, 394. 
 Sushi, 170. 
 
 Suspension of newspapers, 327. 
 Sutras, 468. 
 
 Swashbucklers, 128, 400. 
 Swords, 396 ; 31, 115, 290. 
 Syle (Rev. Dr.), 317. 
 Syllabaries, 467, 468. 
 Symbolism, 164, 185, 378. 
 Tabako-bm, 343. 
 
 Tabernacle (Central Mission), 304. 
 Tablets (temple), 429. 
 Taema-dera, 129. 
 Taguchi's encyclopaedia, 275. 
 " Taiheiki," 268. 
 Taik5, see Hideyoshi. 
 Taira clan, 213, 392, 476. 
 TakaM (Dr.), 245, 246. 
 Takata Sanae, 325. 
 Takeda Izumo, 414. 
 " Taketori Motvogatwri," 269. 
 " Tales of Old Japan," 61 ; 57, 27, 
 
 201, 475. 
 " Tama-Gatsuma," 270. 
 Tamenaga Shunsui, 273. 
 Tametomo, 278. 
 Tamura-Maro, 287. 
 Tanabata festival, 395. 
 
 Tan-yu (Kano), 46. 
 
 Taoism, 280, 376. 
 
 Tariff, 444. 
 
 Taste, 397; 358, etpass. 
 
 Tattooing, 399. 
 
 Taxation, 198, 264, 390. 
 
 Tea, 402, 404, 441 ; 68. 
 
 Tea ceremonies, 404 ; 356, 402. 
 
 Telegraphs, 410 ; 220, 371. 
 
 Telephones, 411. 
 
 Temperance Societies, 391. 
 
 Temperature, 90. 
 
 Temples (Buddhist), 378; 32, 35, 
 
 339, 340, 341, 361, 425, 426, 427, 
 
 459. 
 Temples (Shinto), 37, 378; 35, 
 
 226, 339, 340, 397, 414, 426, 429, 
 
 459. 
 Tempo, 423 ; 101. 
 Tenjiku Hachibei, 379. 
 Theatre, 412 ; 104, 426. 
 Three birds (mystery of), 146. 
 Thunberg, (C. E.) 69. 
 Ticket agencies (theatrical), 416. 
 Time (method of computing), 417. 
 " Times " newspaper, 96. 
 Tobacco, 424; 342. 
 Tobacco-pouches, 343 ; 333. 
 Toba-e, 44. 
 Toba S5j6, 44. 
 Toga-no-o, 402, 406. 
 Tokaido, 371 ; 182, 332, 479. 
 Tokei, 424. 
 Tokonoma, 246. 
 Tokugawa dynasty, 216, 217 377, 
 
 380, 385, 390. 
 Tokutomi Iichiro, 275, 325. 
 Tokyo, 424; 73,80, 91, 156,165, 
 
 320, 322, 410. 
 
502 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 T6kyo-Fu, 386, 425. 
 
 Tombs, 25. 
 
 Tomo-se, 175. 
 
 Tonomine (temple of), 339. 
 
 Topography (native works on), 271. 
 
 Topsy-turvydom, 427 ; 418. 
 
 Torn, 429. 
 
 Tortoise (hairy-tailed), 476. 
 
 Torture, 262. 
 
 Tosa clan, 197, 222. 
 
 " Tosa Niki," 270, 276, 277. 
 
 Tosa Ryu, 44. 
 
 Tournaments (poetical), 347. 
 
 Towns, 189. 
 
 Toyama Masakazu, 274, 349. 
 
 Toyokuni, 48. 
 
 Toyo-uke-bime, 227. 
 
 Tracey (Commander, E. N.), 321. 
 
 Trade, 430 ; 382, 383, 384, 444. 
 
 Trade reports, 65. 
 
 ■ Training, 464. 
 
 Trampling on the cross, 300. 
 
 " Transactions of the Asiatic So- 
 ciety of Japan," 59 ; 52, et pass. 
 
 Transmigration, 360, 361. 
 
 Travels (books of), 270. 
 
 Treaties, 443, 336 ; 221, 223, 247. 
 
 "Treaties and Conventions," 65. 
 
 Treaty limits, 444 ; 386. 
 
 Treaty ports, 444; 149, 329, 430. 
 
 Treaty revision, 443; 222, 223, 
 431. 
 
 Trial (system of), 262. 
 
 Troup (James), 59, 73, 277. 
 
 Tsuboi (S.), 32. 
 
 Tsugaru (straits of), 187, 472. 
 
 Tsurayuki, 347. 
 
 " Tsuresure-Gusa," 269. 
 
 Tuke (Samuel), Pref. 
 
 Tumuli, 26. 
 
 Jurrettini (P.), 277. 
 
 Tycoon, 450. 
 
 Types (for printing), 362, 363. 
 
 Types of face, 228, 366. 
 
 Typhoons, 89. 
 
 Ueno (battle of), 219. 
 
 Ueno museum, 27, 31, 300. 
 
 Ueno park, 426. 
 
 " Uji Mi," 269 ; 106. 
 
 Uji tea, 402, 403, 406. 
 
 Wtvyo-e school of painting, 45. 
 
 Umbrellas, 333. 
 
 " Unbeaten tracks in Japan," 61, 
 
 236. 
 Unbusinesslikeness, 238. 
 Unitarian church, 305. 
 Universalist church, 305. 
 University (Christian), 126, 304. 
 University (Imperial), 124 106, 
 
 122, 262. 
 University Memoirs, 20, 32. 
 Unzen, 293. 
 Uraga (port of), 336. 
 Uta-awase, 347. 
 " TJtsubo monogatari," 269. 
 Vaccination introduced, 221. 
 Van de Polder (L.), 101. 
 Veeder (Rev. Dr.), 317. 
 Vegetable wax, 451. 
 Vegetation, 66. 
 Vendetta, 176. 
 
 " Verdant Simple in Japan," 62. 
 Verny (Mr.), 265. 
 Vessels, 380, 381. 
 Views (finest), 331. 
 Visits, 21. 
 Volcano Bay, 472. 
 Volcanoes, 120, 186 ; 178, 222, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 503 
 
 Voters, 197. 
 
 Wada (Prof. T.), Pref. 191. 
 
 Wagenaar, 358. 
 
 " Wakun no Shiori," 270. 
 
 " Wanderings of a Globe-Trotter, " 
 
 237. 
 Water-carriage, 379 ; 369. 
 Water-coolers, 403. 
 Waterfalls, 188. 
 Weddings, 283. 
 Week, 418. 
 
 Weipert (Dr. H.), 114, 264. 
 Weppner (Miss Margareta), 63. 
 Wernich (Dr.), 246, 365. 
 Wertheimber (L.), 397. 
 Wheel of the law, 361. 
 Whitney (Dr. W. N.), 13, 289, 313. 
 " Whole Duty of Woman," 454. 
 Wigmore (Prof. J. H.), 264. 
 Wind, 90 ; 87. 
 
 Wingfield (Hon. Lewis), 237. 
 Wistaria, 164, 426. 
 Wives (duties of), 454. 
 Wizards, 109. 
 Woman (status of), 451, 286; 21, 
 
 119, 283, 285, 310, 343, 344, 429. 
 Women, 229, 451, 453; 116, 118, 
 
 158, 244, 269, 320. 
 Wrestling, 464 ; 153, 163, 426. 
 Writing (system of), 465. 
 Writing-paper, 333. 
 Written language, 257, 264, 325. 
 Xavier (St. Francis), 296 ; 69, 232. 
 Yamada Nagamasa, 379. 
 
 Yamaguchi, 296, 297. 
 
 Yamato (province), 207, 209, 210. 
 
 Yamato-meguri, 339. 
 
 Yamato Byu, 44. 
 
 Yamato-Take, 208, 211. 
 
 Yano Fumio, 274. 
 
 Yatsuhashi, 313. 
 
 Year-names, 422, 423. 
 
 Yedo, 424, 425 ; 73, 320, 387, 473. 
 
 Yen, 100, 433. 
 
 Yezo, 470; 42,186,190,222,266, 
 386, 411, 478. 
 
 Yokohama, 64, 427 ; 189, 223, 231 
 367, 410, 435, 449. 
 
 Yokohama dialect, 338. 
 
 Yokosuka dockyard, 323 ; 173, 265. 
 
 " Yomi-uri Shimbun," 325, 328. 
 
 Yoritomo, 214, 385 ; 147. 
 
 Yose, 392, 393. 
 
 Yoshimasa (Shogun), 406, 412. 
 
 Yoshino, 80. 
 
 Yoshitsune, 471. 
 
 Yoshiwara, 473. 
 
 " Young Japan," 60, 236. 
 
 Yuino, 283. 
 
 " Yukino Akebono," 178, 273. 
 
 Yumoto (baths of), 293. 
 
 Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion, 304, 391. 
 
 Yushu-kwan, 397, 426. 
 
 Zen sect, 71, 405. 
 
 Zeshin, 253. 
 
 Zodiac, 420. 
 
 Zoology, 475. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed bt the Yokohama Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, 
 No, 70, Main Street. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 " A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese," 1 Vol., 2nd. edit. 
 
 " The Classical Poetry of the Japanese," 1 Vol. 
 
 " A Eomanized Japanese Eeader " (Modern Written Style), 
 3 Vols., viz. Vol. 1. Japanese Text ; Vol. II. English Transla- 
 tion ; Vol. III. Notes. 
 
 " The Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomen- 
 clature of Japan, Viewed in the Light of Aino Studies," 
 1 Vol. (Published as a Memoir of the Literature College of 
 the Imperial University of Japan.) 
 
 " A Translation of the Eojiki, or Eecords of Ancient Mat- 
 ters, with Introduction and Commentary," 1 Vol. (Published 
 in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.) 
 
 1. " The Hunter in Fairy -Land." 
 ■ 2. " The Birds' Party." 
 .3. " The Man who Lost his Wife." 
 
 "Urashima." 
 
 " The Serpent with Eight Heads." 
 " " The Silly Jelly-Fish. 
 ," My Lord Bag-o'-Eice." 
 
 " Aino Fairy-Tales ' 
 (illustrated). 
 
 In the " Japanese 
 Fairy -Tale Series" 
 (illustrated). 
 
 IN JAPANESE. 
 
 Eigo Henkahu Ichiran (an elementary English Grammar), 
 2 Vols. 
 
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 IN COLLABOEATION WITH W. B. MASON, Esq. 
 " Murray's Handbook for Japan," 1 Vol., 3rd edit. 
 
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