V^Jfc 
 
 mm 
 
JAPAN 
 
 AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNA C. HARTSHORNE 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
Copyright, 
 
 HENRY T. COATES & CO. 
 
 1902. 
 
TO 
 
 CHARLES HARTSHORNE, 
 
 BEST OF UNCLES AND MOST DELIGHTFUL OF TRAVELING COMPANIONS, 
 
 WHO CAME FAB TO MAKE HER LAST WEEKS IN JAPAN 
 
 A HAPPY MEMORY, 
 
 HIS NIECE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES THIS BOOK. 
 
 A. C. H. 
 
 Philadelphia, 1902. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Every one who goes to Japan writes home at first 
 on thin Japanese paper, unfolding yard after yard of 
 the neat rolls, and measuring now and then, perhaps, to 
 see how much one really has written. That is in the 
 early days, when all seems half unreal, when one says 
 " fairy like " and " funny " at every other breath. 
 But just because everything is so different, so utterly 
 unlike all we have ever known, that former life itself 
 seems presently to recede, to grow unreal ; we cease to 
 wonder, cease to find anything strange at all. Then 
 the long letters drop to a page or two, and in writing 
 of the simplest experiences of daily life we stop to 
 think half despairingly, " How shall I make them 
 understand "?" 
 
 Out of that effort to be understood, and from the 
 answers to the questions so frequently asked here in 
 America, these rambling pages have grown. If they 
 
v i PREFACE. 
 
 have any value, it is due to the patient teaching of 
 friends during three happy years in Japan ; most, 
 among many, to Miss Ume Tsuda, of Tokyo, and to 
 Dr. Inazo Nitobe, whose suggestions and supervision 
 of a large portion have made the attempt possible. 
 Of books, Chamberlain's (Murray's) " Handbook " and 
 his " Things Japanese " have been always at hand 
 since I first began to know a little of Japan ; in his- 
 tory I have followed especially Mis. de la Mazeliere's 
 " Histoire du Japon," and the " History of the Em- 
 pire of Japan," published by the (Japanese) Board of 
 Education for the Chicago Exposition ; in art, Fenol- 
 losa and La Farge ; in literature, Aston, with others 
 who are referred to here and there. 
 
 To all my thanks are due ; to all, but especially 
 to those — whether of our own race or another — who 
 made for me and mine a place and home, in a land 
 not ours. 
 
 Philadelphia, January, 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 VOLUME 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Introduction, l 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Voyage and First Impressions, 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Yokohama, 21 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 History— The Dawn and the Middle Ages, ... 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Tokugawa and the Restoration, .... 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Kamakura-A Forsaken City, 64 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Enoshima, 83 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 A Japanese Inn, 91 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 From Yokohama to Tokyo, 104 
 
 vii 
 
v iii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Tokyo— The Castle and the City, 113 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Tokyo Streets, 144 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 A Japanese Household, 168 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Ikegami— A Typical Buddhist Temple 192 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Oji Maples, 208 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Karuizawa and the West Coast, 227 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Ikao, 246 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Nikko— The Shrines of the Shoguns, . . . .270 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Nikko and Lake Chuzenji, 291 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Sendai and Matsushima, 304 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 The Oshiu Kaido, 328 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 The Hokkaido, 354 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 Photogravures made by Gilbo & Co. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Great Gate, Nikko, Frontispiece. 
 
 JlNRIKISHA, 18 
 
 The Hundred Steps, 24 
 
 Blind Shampooer, 34 
 
 Cryptomeria Avenue, 42 
 
 Gate of Nobles House, 54 
 
 River Front, Tokyo, 62 
 
 Daibutsu, 74 
 
 The Kitchen, 92 
 
 Cutting Rice, 1( ^> 
 
 Vegetable Seller, 110 
 
 Ataga Yama, 118 
 
 Gate of Temple, Shiba, 138 
 
 Street Vender, I 58 
 
 Washing Day, ^ 4 
 
 ix 
 
X 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Priest, 198 
 
 Uyeno Park, 208 
 
 Palace Garden, Oji, 220 
 
 Street of Ikao, 240 
 
 Buddhist Temple, Nikko, 274 
 
 Sacred Stable, 284 
 
 The Daiyagawa, 300 
 
 Matsushima, 322 
 
 Pack Horse, 348 
 
 Hakodate, 358 
 
JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Nowadays a journey to Japan is not at all a 
 formidable matter; there are already six steamship 
 lines crossing the Pacific, their voyages ranging from 
 twelve days to three weeks, and once across travel is 
 little more fatiguing than in Germany or Italy, and far 
 less so from all accounts than in Spain. The chief 
 difficulty for Americans seems to be to find out before- 
 hand what to expect in the way of climate and physi- 
 cal conditions ; when to go ; what to take and what to 
 leave behind ; what there is to see and how much 
 time is needed to see it. 
 
 The seasons largely control the choice of routes, the 
 northern lines being most desirable for summer and 
 early fall, the San Francisco ones for winter and 
 March or April. The very best months in Japan, so 
 far as weather goes, are October and November, and 
 even most of December ; the next best March to early 
 June. Winter is short and sharp, a good deal like 
 Vol. L-l 
 
2 JAPAN. 
 
 Southern Italy, and equally uncertain as to tempera- 
 ture and sunshine ; summer hot and wet (except in the 
 northern island, Yezo), especially in August and Sep- 
 tember, when there are the severest storms and a 
 heavy, muggy atmosphere. 
 
 Was it a Londoner or a Philadelphian who said of 
 his birthplace, " We don't have climate here ; we have 
 weather?" Thanks to the monsoons, Japan gets 
 both ; that is to say, from June to October the wind 
 is mostly south and wet, from October to May north- 
 west and dry, with a lively period of unsettlement 
 between changes. This brings the rain in June, just 
 when it is needed for the rice, and blows it away at 
 harvest time. Between the summer rains come bursts 
 of hot sunlight, and everybody airs their houses and 
 closets, and whatever is not already well dried and put 
 away in air-tight chests ; for no amount of care Avill 
 save kid gloves and leather-bound books from spotting 
 if they are left out in the moist heat. 
 
 After all, neither cold nor heat is extreme, but the 
 dampness makes both rather trying to foreigners — 
 that is to say, to non-Japanese. Americans miss their 
 steam-heated houses, and shiver through a Tokyo 
 February as if they were in Rome or Naples. But 
 by a second winter, if they will stay on, they will 
 learn to keep the house well open, wear warm cloth- 
 ing and depend on the sunshine, which never fails on 
 really cold days, for the occasional winter rains are as 
 warm as the May showers are chilly. Even August 
 
 O 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 and September need not alarm any one used to Ameri- 
 can summers, for foreign residents pass them comfort- 
 ably enough at the sea or mountain resorts, only it will 
 not do to undertake much exertion or long journeys; 
 the heat is relaxing, and the rains make the roads 
 heavy or even impassable, while trains are liable to be 
 detained by floods or broken embankments. 
 
 Just one caution needs to be writ large — namelv, 
 drink no unboiled water unless you know where it 
 came from, and that no rice field has had a chance to 
 drain into it. Remember that the Japanese do not 
 drink cold water, and are consequently indifferent 
 about keeping it pure ; even ice is risky ; but keeping 
 this rule means health throughout the country at any 
 time of year. 
 
 Spring, then, for the blossoms, for weather always 
 uncertain and usually lovely, for that delight of new 
 life felt so strongly in the south, and nowhere more 
 keenly than in Japan ; but autumn — October till 
 Christmas — for a prolonged Indian summer, a season 
 of unfailing sunshine and dreamy light, of frosty 
 nights and still days, of rice-harvest and chrysanthe- 
 mums and brilliant maples. Nine months in the year 
 ladies need cotton or thin silk blouses for the day, and 
 a wrap, not too thin, the moment the sun goes down ; 
 even in summer light woolen underclothes are needed 
 on account of the dampness, and after Christmas furs 
 and a steamer rug are necessities for long jinrikisha 
 rides on frosty days. 
 
4 JAPAN. 
 
 All ordinary European clothing and personal as 
 well as household goods can be bought in Yokohama 
 or Kobe — not in Tokyo, where you find only such 
 " foreign " things as the Japanese have adopted or 
 adapted for their own use. Prices are about as in 
 America, or even lower for the present, on account of 
 lower duties ; so it is better not to burden oneself with 
 extras. Heavy trunks, if brought over at all, had 
 better be stored on first landing, and only such small 
 pieces taken along as can be piled on a jinrikisha and 
 easily handled. In case of leaving from a different 
 port, a shipping agent will take everything in charge 
 and have it put on the proper steamer. 
 
 People who wish to be spared all trouble join one 
 of Cook's or Raymond's parties, which go usually in 
 the spring and fall, mostly in round-the-world tours, 
 giving about a month to Japan ; or engage a guide on 
 arriving, who will act as courier and plan everything 
 if desired. A month is the ordinary tourist allow- 
 ance, and it is just enough to get around the more im- 
 portant sights, probably not more hastily than most 
 travelers go through Europe. There is this difference 
 though, that while Europeans and Americans know a 
 great deal about each other beforehand, and their civi- 
 lization is practically one throughout, East and West 
 have no such common inheritance, no sueh knowledge 
 of each other's heroes and ideals, and they cannot at a 
 glance understand one another. Therefore, it is well 
 worth an effort to read up a little beforehand, for to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 those who do not, much of Japan must be quite mean- 
 ingless, and either " how funny !" or " how absurd !" 
 Books are plenty enough ; for instance, Miss Scid- 
 more's " Jinrikisha Days/' Mitford's "Tales of Old 
 Japan," GrimV "Mikado's Empire," Lafcadio Beam's 
 books, and among the latest and best Mrs. Hugh 
 Fraser's delightful "Letters from Japan" and "The 
 Custom of the Country." These are a few out of 
 many that serve well to beguile cross-continent jour- 
 ney and voyage, while Chamberlain's " Murray " 
 (there is no " Baedeker ") and his " Things Japanese" 
 are inseparable necessary companions on the spot, and 
 such works as Rein's " Industries of Japan " and 
 others of the heavier sort become most interesting for 
 reference. 
 
 The (London) Traveller for August, 1900, gives an 
 apt piece of advice — namely : " No tourist visiting 
 Japan should fail to put himself in touch with the 
 Kihin-kai, or Welcome Society, which, for a nominal 
 fee, will very materially assist him in traveling and 
 sight-seeing in the islands of Japan. The Society, 
 which was formed in 1893 on the initiative of certain 
 Japanese noblemen and distinguished foreign residents, 
 will supply the traveler with trustworthy guides, see 
 that he is not cheated by innkeepers and others, put 
 him in the way of obtaining genuine objets tVart, if 
 such be his desire, besides, by virtue of its special 
 privileges, passing him into government buildings, 
 imperial gardens and many other places of special 
 
,; JAPAN. 
 
 interest where it would be quite impossible for him to 
 gain admittance as a stranger." 
 
 The Canadian Pacific steamers sail from Vancouver, 
 the Northern Pacific from Tacoma, the Japan Steam- 
 ship Company (Nippon Yusen Kaisha) from Seattle, 
 connecting with the Great Northern Railroad, the Pa- 
 cific Mail, Occidental and Oriental, and Toyo Kisen 
 Kaisha (Orient Line) from San Francisco. All make 
 through tickets or returns in connection with the 
 transcontinental railroads at nearly uniform rates. 
 Accommodations compare very fairly with the average 
 Atlantic lines ; some arrangements may be less elab- 
 orate, but the quick, silent Chinese and Japanese 
 " boys " furnish a better and far more ready service 
 than the high-minded and high-tipped stewards who 
 rule the other sea. All the steamers of the San Fran- 
 cisco lines now call at Honolulu, making a weekly 
 service between them, and their tickets are inter- 
 changeable, allowing you to stop over one or more 
 trips if you wish. The steamers usually stay about 
 twenty-four hours in port at the Sandwich Islands, 
 giving time for a run ashore and a glimpse of the 
 tropics. The voyage by Honolulu is never too cold, 
 but is sometimes too hot, and this fact, as well as the 
 shorter voyage — twelve days against eighteen — sends 
 many travelers to the Canadian route, which is always 
 cool, often cold and — well, just as likely to be rough 
 as any other soa voyage. But of these matters the 
 steamship companies and railroad offices will cheerfully 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 supply all particulars, corrected to date, and present 
 beside a whole library of maps and illustrated folders; 
 while, on the other side, hotel runners meet the 
 steamers and attend to all the details of your going 
 ashore. Indeed, if you permit him, the hotel runner 
 will take you in hand and pass you safely and happily 
 from one to another of his fellows throughout the 
 length and breadth of Japan. 
 
 As for the country, the Japanese say it is a huge 
 catfish, with his tail down at Kiushiu and his head 
 up at Yezo, and a backbone of mountains running 
 through, and when he wriggles people say there is an 
 earthquake. Moreover, at the Imperial University 
 in Tokyo, and in caves and on mountains, Prof. John 
 Milne and his clever followers have set their delicate 
 seismological instruments, mapping down every jump 
 and every quiver of the big volcanic heart ; and they 
 tell us that whereas the earth's crust is never quite 
 still, Japan, being rather new, is one of the thinnest 
 and shakiest parts. However that may be, small 
 earthquakes come very often, and volcanoes are much 
 in evidence, though most of them, like Fuji, are no 
 longer active ; and the fish is a very big fish, some 
 fifteen hundred miles from tip to tip, and that without 
 counting in the Kuriles, all ice and fire, or the Lu 
 Chu Islands and Formosa, reaching nearly down to 
 our vexed Philippines. On the other hand, the 
 country is very narrow, nowhere above two hundred 
 miles across from sea to sea; a strip of the Atlantic 
 
8 JAPAN. 
 
 coast from Maine to Florida, taking in most of the 
 New England States, New Jersey, Maryland, and so 
 on down, would be much the size and shape of Japan. 
 But the strip would have to be sliced up into islands ; 
 Yezo at the north, then the main island, Honda or 
 Nippon, reaching from Boston nearly to Charleston, 
 and the rest into five large and any number of small 
 and still smaller islets, with the Inland Sea locked in 
 among them. The upper half of the strip trends 
 north and south ; the lower takes a sudden turn near 
 the middle of the main island, and sweeps off to the 
 west and a very little south, so that Nagasaki, in 
 southern Kiushiu, is only three degrees of latitude 
 below Tokyo. Consequently more than half the coast 
 on the Pacific side lies open to the south and the 
 warm Black Current — the Gulf Stream of Asia — while 
 the mountains form a break against the chill winds 
 that blow down from Siberia, and make the west 
 coast dreary and desolate. The result is a climate 
 much like Southern Europe for all the lower half of 
 the country, a little warmer at Nagasaki, a little colder 
 in Tokyo ; and only when you get some two hundred 
 miles further north, say at Sendai, the change to more 
 temperate conditions begins. And, in fact, till nearly 
 the middle of the sixteenth century all north of 
 Sendai was pretty much left to the aboriginal Ainu ; 
 as for Yezo, it belonged to them and the bears, except 
 for a castle town or two and a few squalid fishing 
 villages, till the government undertook to open the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 country and encourage emigration, some thirty years 
 ago. Now colonists go up by forty and fifty thou- 
 sand a year, and Hokkaido, " The North " (literally, 
 "Northern Road"), is new, enterprising, and on the 
 whole prosperous, very American and very unlike the 
 rest of Japan. 
 
 From end to end the whole surface of the country 
 is broken up; there is not only the central mountain 
 chain, but peaks, ridges, tumbled hills everywhere. 
 River valleys there are, some wide, and a jrreat deal 
 of lowland near the sea ; two true plains only — the 
 great stretch north of Tokyo, and once part of Yedo 
 Bay, and the region south of Mount Fuji — one also in 
 the Hokkaido. There are no towering granite cliffs, 
 no bold and awful heights ; thanks to a light soil and 
 abundant rainfall, Japanese landscape is everywhere 
 gentle, varied and lovely, full of wonderful lines and 
 curves — curves, most of them, just a little concave — 
 "eine der zarteden Linien," said Grimm. Such are 
 the lines of Fuji San, the mountain of mountains, 
 that will always get into one's mental background at 
 the word Japan. As for the coast line, not even 
 Greece is more cut and jagged, more <leeply folded 
 into promontories and bays and steep-sided inlets. 
 
 In such a land everything grows with delight ; 
 England is not greener. Mountain ranges and head- 
 lands are heavily wooded with chestnut and pine and 
 evergreen oak, and a dozen kinds of maple, gorgeous 
 in autumn ; oranges flourish in the south, palmetto 
 
10 JAPAN. 
 
 and bamboo as far north as Tokyo. Tall bamboo 
 grass roots wherever it can get a chance ; where tim- 
 ber has been burnt off the hillsides, and through the 
 northern provinces, there are miles of snch reedy 
 waste, empty and desolate ; for barely one-seventh of 
 the whole country is actually under cultivation. Rice, 
 of course, is the staple crop, and it must be irrigated ; 
 every scrap of ground that can be leveled and have a 
 stream turned upon it is dug over and enriched, and 
 made to yield to the uttermost — green with barley all 
 winter, after the rice has been gathered in, bordered 
 with beans or a bit of yellow rape in the springtime. 
 Wheat is grown, especially in the southern provinces, 
 a good deal of millet, also cotton, flax and various 
 vegetables. Rice, wheat, beans, millet and sorghum 
 are the " Five Staples," Go-Koku, of Japanese 
 writers. Not much fodder is needed, there are so few 
 animals ; though horses, of course, there were and are, 
 for the knights in old times, for the rich and the cav- 
 alry now. Cattle are used only for draught, and that 
 but sparingly, since the Japanese are not flesh-eaters, 
 and even milk and butter are innovations they have 
 not taken to very much ; as for cheese, they feel to- 
 wards it as foreigners do to dailcon, the huge Japanese 
 radish, which grows two feet long and has flavor and 
 scent in proportion. That merry engineer, Holtham, 
 calls the daikon "a most ingenious pickle," for. he 
 declares, after once getting its flavor well over your 
 mouth, you will eat anything to get rid of the taste ! 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 A railroad runs the length of the main island, and 
 a yearlv increasing network of branch lines connects 
 it with the west coast and the more important cities, 
 am l beyond the Strait of Shimonoseki down through 
 Kiushiu. At the northern end a line of steamers 
 connects across in eight hours to Hakodate ami the 
 Hokkaido lines, all well patronized, for the Japanese 
 are indefatigable travelers. The railroad tickets are 
 printed both in English and Japanese, and must he 
 shown at the gate, as well as when baggage is checked. 
 Sixty to eighty pounds of free baggage is allowed, 
 and 'the system of registering is like the European 
 one— that is to say, you receive a paper check, stamped 
 with the number and weight of your pieces, which is 
 of course given up when you claim your goods at the 
 end of the journey. 
 
 Except the Hokkaido lino, which is on the Amer- 
 ican plan, Japanese railroads are built and run on the 
 English system, except that many carriages are not 
 divided into compartments, but have long seats down 
 the sides and across the ends. This is more comfort- 
 able to the people, who are not used to chairs, and 
 soon get tired of sitting up straight, so stretch at full 
 length if there is room, or drop their clogs and tuck 
 their feet under them. The foreigner may be tempted 
 to envy of a frosty morning, as he taps his boots on 
 the hot-water tin-sole means of heating-and w.shes 
 a little warmth would reach his chilly toes. Sleeping- 
 cars are being introduced very gradually, and without 
 
12 JAPAX 
 
 them travel at night is an uncertain pleasure. If the 
 train is not full, well and good — blow up your air- 
 cushion, tuck in your rug and join the chorus of 
 snores. Nine journeys in ten there will be room to lie 
 down, but the tenth will not be a restful experience. 
 As to washing possibilities en route, the outlook is at 
 least as good as on European corridor trains, perhaps 
 better. But food for Westerners there is none — no 
 dining-car, not even a station restaurant; instead, men 
 parade the platforms with tea — Japanese, of course — 
 and neat wooden boxes, each with a new pair of chop- 
 sticks on top. For a few T sen (cents) they will leave 
 you a pot of tea and a cup, or pour hot water on your 
 own brew ; the box costs some ten sen, and contains 
 rice and pickles and other dainties, toothsome enough 
 for those to the manner born; but let not the unwary 
 Western traveler set his hopes thereon ; he will reach 
 his destination empty and sorrowful, and next time 
 will accept the offer of a chicken sandwich from his 
 hotel. 
 
 This is not to discourage any from trying to like 
 Japanese food ; but that is an art to be studied with 
 care at a good tea house, not begun on a boxful of 
 rice and cold fish, of which more anon. Let us first 
 consider how to reach the empire. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 VOYAGE AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 
 
 Concerning voyages, for most people, probably 
 " least said soonest mended." After all, it is but a 
 three weeks' affair at longest, made as pleasant as pos- 
 sible by courteous and obliging officers, by cricket 
 matches and chess tournaments, concerts and mock 
 trials, a dance on deck or even a magic lantern exhibi- 
 tion some still evening. There is something almost 
 uncanny about the gay life on board, particularly at 
 night — the bright saloon, the music and the evening 
 dresses, out there in the midst of that great lonely 
 ocean, where in weeks you may scarcely sight another 
 trail of smoke. For the Pacific is no such frequented 
 highway as the Atlantic, at least as yet ; birds though 
 there are, beautiful gray and white gulls, and Mother 
 Carey's chickens, and the broad-winged frigate bird, 
 wheeling and dipping like Homer's sea fowl — 
 
 " Who through dread troughs of the unharvested brine, 
 Seeking his prey, drenches dark wings in the foam." 
 
 The steamers which come from the northern ports 
 sight first the lighthouse on a certain mountain island 
 
 13 
 
14 JAPAN. 
 
 called Kinkwazan, standing in just near enough to 
 signal and be reported, and then run down for another 
 fifteen hours near, but not in sight of, the coast, till 
 they reach the headland of Awa at the mouth of Yedo 
 Bay. On the other hand, the lines touching at Hono- 
 lulu come in from nearly due east, and their first 
 indication of land is the thickening flock of fishing 
 boats, with high stern and square mat or canvas sails, 
 and the thin line of smoke from the never-resting vol- 
 cano on Oshima or Vries Island, first and largest of a 
 chain of islands stretching southward from the mouth 
 of Yedo Bay. These islands figure in Japanese his- 
 tory and romance as places of banishment for crimi- 
 nals, usually political ones, the tale often turning on 
 some marvelous escape or on a pardon and recall. 
 They were used for this purpose from the twelfth cen- 
 tury quite down to modern times. All are mountain- 
 ous and wild, and little visited now, supporting only 
 a few villages of fisher folk. Leaving Oshima to the 
 south and rounding Awa, you steam across a corner 
 of Sagami Bay into the Uraga Channel, and so into 
 Yedo Bay proper. The shores here are low and 
 green, especially to the right, where, except for the 
 bold headland at its end, all the peninsula is flat and 
 sandy nearly to Mount Tsukuba, sixty or seventy 
 miles north. According to tradition, the creator god, 
 Iwanagi, piled up Awa to keep off the beat of the 
 ocean, and curiously enough the geologists say the 
 story agrees quite closely with the facts, since only 
 
VOYAGE AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 15 
 
 the promontory is old, the rest being of recent forma- 
 tion, a part of the great plain north of Tokyo which 
 was once covered by the sea. Westward is a steeper 
 and more broken shore line, backed by the Hakone 
 mountains, rising in blue zigzags beyond Sagami Bay, 
 and above them still the matchless cone of Fuji seems 
 to float out of a sea of mist. 
 
 On the left, at the narrowest part of the channel, is 
 the little town of Uraga, which has a good harbor for 
 small vessels ; in feudal times it was a place of much 
 more importance than now, because every kind of craft 
 entering the bay had to stop here and be inspected be- 
 fore going nearer to Yeclo — now Tokyo — the capital 
 of the Shogun. Under this rule, the guards fired on 
 an American ship, the Morrison, which came over 
 from China in 1837 for the purpose of returning some 
 shipwrecked Japanese, and incidentally in hopes of a 
 chance to trade. But nobody got past Uraga till 
 Commodore Perry landed there in 1853 with the let- 
 ter from the President of the United States which 
 sprang the first crack in Japan's closed door. The 
 consequences of that opening are visible all along the 
 bay, in the lighthouses, the modern fortifications, the 
 biological laboratory at Misaki — that is on the Sagami 
 side, though — and the naval dock-yards at Yokosuka, 
 just around the corner. The French built these by 
 contract, and rather hoped to keep them ; but Japan 
 made a great effort and paid her bill in time to escape 
 a foreclosure. The steamer's course bears to the left 
 
16 JAPAN. 
 
 now along the west shore, leaving half the bay to the 
 north in a wide shallow stretch twenty miles long by 
 some ten across, at the head of which lies Tokyo; 
 and so on by little Mississippi Bay, where Perry 
 anchored, and past Treaty Point and around the turn 
 of the Bluff, with its pretty residences, into Yokohama 
 harbor. 
 
 Yokohama, " Cross Strand," is the present town ; 
 but every one knows that Kanagawa opposite was the 
 original Concession. This, however, turned out to be 
 an unlucky choice, for it lay directly on the great post 
 road, the Tokaido, along which the Daimyos were 
 continually passing with their retainers. Prince and 
 page alike were haughty and overbearing, despising 
 the foreigners, who looked down on them and their 
 old-world glory in turn ; there were endless encounters 
 and difficulties, culminating finally in the death of the 
 Englishman Richardson. Never mind now who was 
 most to blame ; the Japanese government was keenly 
 anxious to preserve peace, and besought the unwel- 
 come guests to remove to a less dangerous situation. 
 For this they had selected the mud flat on the other 
 side of the bay, where indeed was the better anchor- 
 age for large vessels, and where they had made prepa- 
 ration by building bridges and stone breakwaters. It 
 was not precisely an inviting place. Black, writing a 
 few years later, describes it as a small, sandy level 
 lying between the sea and a swamp, which separated 
 it from the cultivated fields farther back, and flanked 
 
VOYAGE AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 17 
 
 by hills, from which it was again cut off by a tidal 
 creek and an estuary ; so that the only way out ou the 
 land side was by bridges, provided with gates and a 
 guard of Japanese soldiers; and the foreign representa- 
 tives feared they were to be shut off from intercourse 
 with the people as effectually as the Dutch had been 
 on the island of Deshima at Nagasaki. But while 
 they hesitated, the traders settled the question by 
 promptly going over to the better anchorage, and the 
 dispute ended in a compromise, by which the Powers 
 were allowed to build consulates on the Kanagawa 
 side if they wished. Naturally the privilege was not 
 claimed, and the one survival of the old Concession 
 is in the official name of Yokohama, which appears 
 in police notices and the like as " Kanagawa Prefect- 
 ure." As for the merchants, they settled themselves 
 firmly and built shops and warehouses, and grew and 
 do grow and prosper, some two thousand of them, be- 
 sides a host of Chinese. 
 
 In the harbor craft of all kinds abound, from the 
 latest modern cruiser to a weather-beaten brown sam- 
 pan, a sort of attenuated dory, guiltless of paint, 
 seemingly most unsteady, but in fact strong and very 
 seaworthy. The men row standing, four, six or more 
 to a boat, lithe, brown figures, in sleeveless shirt and 
 all but legless trousers; they face sidewise, pushing 
 the long oars, swaying out and back to a monotonous 
 chant. Yachts and pleasure boats lie off the Bund ; 
 
 trim launches skim about; tugs and colliers, junks 
 Vol. I.- 2 
 
18 JAPAN. 
 
 and tramps and liners, an American oil-tanker and a 
 fine coasting steamer, flying the sun-flag, her blue 
 peter at her mast. And the throng on the dock is 
 not less motley ; neat military-looking policemen and 
 customs officials, blue-clad porters and coolies — Far 
 East English for all laborers — Japanese tradesmen or 
 travelers in European dress or their own long sleeves, 
 Chinese, Americans, Europeans of every natiouality — 
 a Babel of tongues and an epitome of New Japan" 
 
 The Custom House formalities are precise, but not 
 rigid, and these over, comes the sensation for which 
 the stranger has waited, the first jinrikisha ride. The 
 runner sets down the shafts of his tiny carriage, you 
 step in and take your seat, and he catches up the 
 shafts and is off with a dash. To tell the truth, the 
 first moments are not unmixed bliss ; it takes practice 
 to sit easily, and to feel quite sure the whole thing is 
 not going over backward. The motion is rather like 
 a small road-cart, and the runner's height and gait 
 count just as a horse's would ; but on a fairly good 
 road, with a Jcurumaya (jinrikisha man) who runs 
 steadily and holds the shafts firmly and not too high, 
 all goes comfortably enough. Kuruma, " vehicle," is, 
 by the way, the preferred Japanese word, whence 
 Jcurumaya, " wheel-man," ya being originally "a 
 place," then "the one at a place," "the one who 
 does " — as shinbunya, the newsboy ; denpoya, the 
 telegraph messenger. " Jinriki-sha," " pnll-man car," 
 as somebody calls it, is a Chinese combination which 
 
VOYAGE AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 19 
 
 has got itself adopted thoroughly in English, but 
 somehow does not seem to please Japan. 
 
 It is not ten minutes from the landing-place to the 
 Bund — Far East English again — the drive along the 
 stone-faced water front, where the hotels and club 
 houses are. The streets are even more of a medley 
 than the dock ; high, ugly warehouses, the big cus- 
 tom house, the post-office tower, flags flying over con- 
 sulates half-hidden in trees and shrubbery ; beside a 
 bit of the Japanese part, narrow streets of low wooden 
 houses, the shop fronts open and displaying tempting 
 curios, silks and photographs, or again handbags, 
 shoes, hats and " foreign " articles of various utility 
 and universal ugliness. The signs are irregular and 
 very picturesque, part English, droll enough some of 
 it, part Japanese, written in square Chinese character, 
 like the tea-boxes of our youth, or the bold, flowing 
 " grass-hand." There is not much color on the street, 
 since only small children dress in dashing reds and 
 yellows and rainbow mixtures; such gorgeous raiment 
 is left to professional dancers, men and even young 
 women keeping to quiet shades, except where girls 
 show a peep of red in sleeve and petticoat, a bright 
 fold at the throat, and, to make up, a very riot of 
 color in the wide sash. Jinrikisha men and coolies 
 are in blue cottou, not a straight gown, but tight- 
 fitting trousers and belted jacket, often adorned with 
 huge white ideographs, which are the employer's 
 name or trade-mark ; round their heads they tie blue 
 
20 JAPAN. 
 
 and white handkerchiefs, fillet fashion — shade of 
 Praxiteles ! was this the realistic version of the Dia- 
 duranos? — or wear a round straw hat, covered with 
 cotton cloth, like a big white mushroom. Children 
 swarm everywhere, at least half of them carrying 
 babies on their backs, which does not seem at all to 
 interfere with tag or any other lively amusement. All 
 is stirring and busy, not shrill like Paris, not languid 
 like Naples, nor yet anxious and struggling like New 
 York. A really pretty face in the crowd is rare; 
 stern ones and smiling ones both plenty ; an unkind 
 or crabbed look rarest of all. 
 
 Then the jinrikisha spins out on to the Bund, with 
 the bay on one side and the houses on the other, to 
 the Club or the Grand or the Oriental Hotel, where 
 everything is of Europe except the faces of clerks 
 and attendants, and where you may almost forget, if 
 you will, that you are in Dai Nippon. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 YOKOHAMA. 
 
 It is difficult to deal fairly with so cosmopolitan a 
 place as Yokohama. Speaking broadly, it is only 
 one of a number of European settlements in the Far 
 East, akin to all the rest in that it is like no one 
 country, but is rather a coming together of all the 
 nations under heaven ; less English than Hong Kong, 
 smaller than Shanghai, on the whole more American 
 than anything else — particularly on the Bluff, where 
 the pretty houses might belong to any prosperous 
 suburb in the United States. That it is not strictly 
 Japan goes without saying — a good deal less so, at 
 least till lately, than San Francisco's Chinatown is 
 America — since from the time the Concession was 
 granted in 1854 till the Revised Treaties went into 
 effect in 1898, consular jurisdiction held good, and an 
 American or European was legally in his own country 
 — tried, if he sinned, according to his own laws and 
 by a court of his fellow-countrymen. It ought to be 
 not less clear that it is unfair to judge Japan by the 
 specimens of Japanese men and women met with 
 here and in other treaty ports; but unluckily this 
 piece of injustice is perpetrated constantly in print 
 
 21 
 
22 JAPAN. 
 
 and out of it. This is not the place to enter upon 
 that controversy; see rather Stafford Ransome's 
 chapter on the subject in his much-criticised " Japan 
 in Transition," which, when all has been said, is still 
 one of the most unbiased books yet written. 
 
 Yokohama makes no attempt at architectural 
 beauty — indeed, the business part could not well be 
 uglier — but it has an air of solid prosperity never- 
 theless. The town divides naturally into two por- 
 tions, the original Concession, still known as the 
 Settlement, and the Bluif, which was added a few 
 years later for residence purposes. The swamp of 
 Black's memory has long since been drained and part 
 of it turned into the cricket ground, and the creek 
 and inlet deepened and carried around through the 
 town as a useful waterway for small shipping ; while 
 plenty of open bridges replace the two guarded en- 
 trances. An odd feature of the place is that the 
 names of streets are scarcely used, though they do 
 exist ; instead, each property is known by a number, 
 and if you want to go to the Grand Hotel, you bid 
 the kurumaya take you to Number 20 ; a well-known 
 girls' school is 212 Bluff, and so on. It follows that 
 the numerals — ichi, ni, san, etc. — are the most useful 
 bit of language that a stranger can acquire ; but the 
 fact is a very little Japanese goes a long way in Yoko- 
 hama. They do say that foreigners calling on the 
 master of a house will turn up a thumb 'and say, 
 "Arimas'ka?" — "Is he?"— literally, "has?" The 
 
YOKOHAMA. 2.3 
 
 little finger and the same remark serves to ask for the 
 lady of the house. " This I have not witnessed," as 
 Herodotus would say. Nor will I vouch for the lady 
 who wanted O yu (hot water), and vainly demanded 
 O my, till her patience gave out, and she cried, " Oh, 
 you idiot !" " And then, my dear, just as soon as I 
 spoke sharply to him, that stupid hoy went and got it 
 right away !" Such are the tales they tell the new- 
 comer, just by way of encouragement. 
 
 "Yama," hill or mountain, is a far more appro- 
 priate name than Bluff for the great ridge thrusting 
 up a couple of hundred feet above the sea, where the 
 residences are. The Creek, as it is still called, faced 
 with stone embankments and picturesque with odd 
 craft, cuts the hill sharply from the level Settlement 
 on the harbor side ; the Bund or drive along the sea- 
 wall ends in a little bridge, and just across there is a 
 small Buddhist temple, cheaply and coarselv deco- 
 rated. Not far off a tea-house well known to foreign 
 visitors is perched at the top of the " Hundred Steps," 
 which appear in almost every series of views of Yoko- 
 hama. Other flights of stone steps climb the hill at 
 various points, making short cuts to the houses above, 
 and good macadamized roads wind upward between 
 stone walls and trees, and peeps of gardens full of 
 shrubbery and flowers. The houses, hidden among 
 the mass of green, are of course altogether " foreign- 
 built " — that is to say, un-Japanese — and possessed of 
 doors, windows and chimneys ; bungalows and " Queen 
 
24 JAPAN. 
 
 Anne" cottages, or more pretentious brick or stone 
 dwellings, elbowing plain little frame houses, or the 
 high fence and big, rambling dormitories of some 
 mission school. There can be nothing regular or 
 monotonous where house climbs above house, and the 
 road zigzags to avoid turning into a ladder, giving 
 exquisite glimpses backward of the sea and the green 
 fields beyond the town, and the Hakone peaks and 
 Fujiyama best of all. If anybody in this part of 
 Japan wants to boast a little of his fine outlook, he 
 will probably tell you he has a view of Fuji from his 
 windows. Stylish carriages roll by, coachman and 
 footmen often in a neat livery of dark blue, tight- 
 fitting trousers, like the jinrikisha men's, belted tunic, 
 with flowing sleeves, and white mushroom hat. The 
 master's crest or initial, worked between the shoulders, 
 completes the costume. There are pretty girls on 
 horseback, too, with running grooms ahead, and plenty 
 of jinrikishas dashing down at breakneck pace, or toil- 
 ing up, pushed by an extra man behind. They say 
 accidents are not frequent; but many residents who 
 love their lives prefer to walk the hill both ways — a 
 practice which must cultivate excellent muscles. 
 
 One of the lower slopes, called Camp Hill, is lined 
 with Japanese shops — great places for old stamps and 
 curios of more than doubtful authenticity. This 
 region is part of the old village of Honmura, which 
 was here long before the "Black Ships" came from 
 America ; and a guard-house — Japanese, of course — 
 
YOKOHAMA. 25 
 
 stood here in the sixties to protect the Settlement from 
 over-zealous patriots. Another street near by is the 
 haunt of dealers in second-hand European furniture, 
 which is always plenty in this ever-changing com- 
 munity, where diplomatic officials, merchants and 
 missionaries alike are literally here to-day and gone 
 to-morrow. One after another sells out and departs, 
 and the newcomers who take their places attend auc- 
 tions and explore Honmura Machi, well knowing that 
 they will presently shift in turn to other lands or other 
 parts of the empire. 
 
 While here, however, this unstable population en- 
 deavors to live as nearly in its native manner as pos- 
 sible, in spite of the distance from base. Lane & 
 Crawford's big general store, and the milliners and 
 tailors, and their likes, contrive to furnish European 
 food and European fashions, only a little out of date. 
 There is the cricket ground, where some good games 
 are played ; banks and churches of course ; a hall for 
 entertainments and public meetings ; the various 
 clubs — English, German and the like ; half a dozen 
 newspapers, among which Captain Brinkley's Japan 
 Mail is of more than local value ; and finally the 
 race-course beyond the Bluff, by Mississippi Bay, 
 which supplies the social event of the year, and is 
 occasionally visited by the Emperor himself. House- 
 keeping is not particularly difficult. Japanese ser- 
 vants are neat, obliging and generally honest, even in 
 the open ports, and so man/ fruits and vegetables 
 
26 JAPAN. 
 
 have been introduced that Tokyo and Yokohama pro- 
 vision shops contain almost everything that Western 
 people are used to, including abundance of game all 
 winter. Mutton, though, if it appears at all, has been 
 imported from Australia or China, for sheep will not 
 thrive in Japan. There used to be two or three 
 sorrowful-looking specimens at the Zoo in Uyeno Park, 
 Tokyo, and if they survive, they must be the last 
 of their race, for the little flock at the experimental 
 stock farm have all been killed and eaten. Some 
 say there is a kind of hard grass that injures them, 
 but the real difficulty seems to be the dampness of the 
 climate, which causes foot-rot. This could probably 
 be avoided by care in housing at rainy times, if it 
 became worth while. At present the Japanese dislike 
 mutton even more than beef, so it is no hardship to 
 them to do without, and as yet there is no great de- 
 mand for wool. Milk is more and more used every 
 year, and some very good butter is made at the experi- 
 ment farm at Sapporo, and at two or three stock farms 
 in the Hakone district ; it is put up in one-pound tins 
 and sold at a good price, the demand being always 
 ahead of the supply. Unfortunately, many of the 
 foreign hotels serve the California tub variety instead ; 
 it has the double advantage of being cheaper and less 
 eaten. 
 
 In summer the whole Settlement is redolent of tea, 
 and the drying and packing firms are at their busiest. 
 From the great iron-shuttered storehouses comes a 
 
YOKOHAMA. 27 
 
 hum of voices, and through door or window you see 
 scores of girls and women bending over the heated 
 trays, deftly handling the leaves. Many a woman 
 carries a baby on her back, comfortably asleep and no 
 doubt a great deal better off than plenty of babies in 
 other lands ; but it seems hard on the mother, who has 
 to bear this additional burden through the long, hot 
 days. 
 
 The Japanese part of Yokohama extends across 
 from the edge of the Settlement to Kanagawa and 
 far up the inlet between, in itself a city of over two 
 hundred thousand people. Curio shops are here, and 
 Japanese goods generally, especially in Honcho Dori 
 (dori is lane) and Benten Dori, and the streets near 
 by, all close to the railroad station. Many of the 
 wealthier Japanese, whose business or official duties 
 call them to Yokohama, have houses on the ridge at 
 Kanaeawa, or a station or two out along the railroad. 
 Then there is the Chinese part back of the Settlement, 
 and an unsavory nest of sailors' boarding houses, and 
 all the evils of all civilizations together ; while up on 
 the Bluff a number of mission schools are earnestly 
 striving to spread a saving knowledge of the greatest 
 possible good. 
 
 Of all the open ports Yokohama has the largest 
 foreign trade, eighty million yen in 1898 against 
 Kobe's sixty million, which comes next— more than 
 half the total import and export of the country, says 
 the last official report. The swamp behind the Settle- 
 
28 JAPAN. 
 
 ment was drained and built upon long ago, the old 
 gates and guard-houses taken away, and the yahinin 
 (guards) replaced by dapper Japanese policemen in full 
 " Europe clothes/' as Kipling would say. From May 
 to November they look quite too immaculate in their 
 white summer suits to tackle six-foot Irish sailors on 
 a spree ; but a Japanese can usually make up in 
 agility what he lacks in weight. After a terrible fire, 
 some dozen years ago, most of the original town was 
 rebuilt and improved. Good water has been brought 
 in from Lake Yamanaka in the mountains, the harbor 
 greatly improved and a pier built, two thousand feet 
 long, where most of the liners come up instead of 
 anchoring. A large dock was finished in 1897. Raw 
 silk, the largest item of export, goes mostly from 
 Yokohama ; the next value is silk piece-goods, then 
 tea, which they say is slowly falling off of late years ; 
 mats and bamboo wares seem to be on the increase, 
 lacquer and fans about even, and of imports, ma- 
 chinery and woolen goods come in more and more 
 every year. 
 
 How the Revised Treaties will affect Yokohama it 
 is too soon to know. They bring foreigners under 
 Japanese law instead of the consular courts, and in 
 return any one may reside or do business anywhere 
 in the country, Chinese alone excepted. Some Ameri- 
 cans and Europeans have gone to the interior, and 
 more will doubtless go ; but it is probable that, for the 
 present at least, the difficulties of the language will 
 
YOKOHAMA. 29 
 
 keep most business people where they can depend on 
 English for their transactions. In any case, it would 
 seem that the place must continue to grow in import- 
 ance, because large vessels cannot get up to Tokyo, 
 and there is no other harbor so fitted to serve as a sea- 
 port for the capital. 
 
 The surroundings of Yokohama are exceedingly 
 pretty. On one side is the Tokaido, the Eastern 
 Sea highroad, always full of picturesque life, and on 
 the other Mississippi Bay, a beautiful curve between 
 Treaty Point and the promontory above Sugita vil- 
 lage. Tomioka, just beyond Sugita, is frequented by 
 llama people for the bathing, and a little boat runs 
 across from the city in three-quarters of an hour. By 
 the road it is a charming walk or ride, some six miles, 
 first down by the race-course and the paddy-fields, 
 and then along the bay ; and there are pretty tea- 
 houses by the way, and a side turn to Macpherson's 
 Hill, where the view is exceptionally fine. The plum 
 blossoms at Sugita are famous, and on this warm, 
 sheltered coast they come out weeks before they do in 
 Tokyo — sometimes early in January. Last year, in 
 flower time, one of the papers noted an odd group of 
 visitors at Sugita; they could hardly be called sight- 
 seers, for they were all blind ! It was a party of 
 Amma, or blind shampooers, as they are generally 
 called, belonging to the Shampooers' Guilds of Tokyo 
 and Yokohama. Professional massage is reserved for 
 the blind, because it is something they can do, and 
 
30 JAPAN. 
 
 particularly well. You often meet one of the men on 
 the street, feeling his way with a long staff, and every 
 few minutes blowing two or three shrill, plaintive 
 notes on a kind of penny-whistle. There are women 
 Amma, too, and they also appeared on this occasion, 
 patting the rough trunks and breathing the fragrance 
 with as much delight as those who saw. Indeed, they 
 stayed so late — caring nothing for the gathering dark- 
 ness! — that the guardians of the place had to fairly 
 turn them out at last. 
 
 Spinning along to-day behind a cheerful and talka- 
 tive kurumaya, it is difficult to remember that this 
 bay road was built for the express use of foreigners, 
 to keep them away from the Tokaido and encounters 
 such as the fatal " Richardson affair" of 1862, which 
 cost Japan so much. It is not a pleasant story, but 
 so characteristic of the time that I give it in some 
 detail. 
 
 This Richardson, then, was a Shanghai merchant, 
 who had retired and was spending a few weeks in 
 Japan, on his way home to England, when he and 
 two other gentlemen, Yokohama residents, took a lady 
 out one afternoon for a ride on the Tokaido. They 
 turned up toward Yedo from Kanagawa, and kept 
 meeting groups of Samurai, the two-sworded retainers 
 of some nobleman. Here accounts differ as to the 
 English party's behavior, but while they certainly did 
 not mean to give offence, they seem to have thought 
 they were doing wonders of conciliation in walking 
 
YOKOHAMA. 31 
 
 their horses past the groups, and disregarding black 
 looks. 
 
 By the crests on the knights' sleeves the Yokohama 
 people recognized the retainers of Satsuma, proudest 
 and just then most powerful of the Daimyo, who was 
 openly of the Nationalist party ; and at last they came 
 to the guard surrounding the litter of the prince him- 
 self, about a hundred men. Now, when a Daimyo 
 passed, it was the inexorable law for every Japanese 
 of less rank to get off his horse, if he had one, and 
 bow down; and at such times quarrels between the 
 retainers over points of precedence were so apt to 
 take place that whenever they could the great lords 
 avoided passing on the highway. Instead of dis- 
 mounting, however, the foreign party merely drew off 
 to the side of the road and kept on riding, two abreast, 
 taking up nearly half of the narrow way — at least 
 Richardson and the lady did ; and it is to be noticed 
 here that she was recently from Hong Kong. The 
 wiser Yokohama gentlemen urged turning into a side 
 road, but Richardson is said to have called out, " Let 
 me alone ; I know how to manage these people." A 
 moment later a man came forward and motioned them 
 to dismount ; but, misunderstanding, they turned their 
 horses to go back, and at the same instant a Samurai, 
 enraged past control by the supposed insult to his 
 lord, rushed at them and cut Richardson across the 
 side. Others drew and struck at the rest of the party, 
 wounding one of the men severely ; but they spurred 
 
32 JAPAN. 
 
 their horses and dashed through, and three of them 
 rode safe to Kanagawa, after seeing Richardson drop 
 from his horse, nearly or quite dead. His body was 
 found by the road, with a mat thrown over it — they 
 say by the kind deed of a woman who still keeps a 
 tea-house close by, whom the foreigners call Black- 
 Eyed Susan. 
 
 Of course the uproar in the Settlement was tremen- 
 dous, and only the clear judgment and strong will of 
 Colonel Neale, the British charge cV affaires, kept the 
 community from acts that must inevitably have 
 brought on war. When pressed for redress, the 
 Shogun's government had to acknowledge that it 
 could not control the great clans ; and the result was 
 that, after much negotiating and vain promises, the 
 English took the law into their own hands and pro- 
 ceeded to punish Satsuma. Their ships bombarded 
 Kagoshima, a town of one hundred thousand inhab- 
 itants, nearly destroying it and killing many people, 
 beside losing some themselves ; after which the Prince 
 of Satsuma apologized and paid a large indemnity, in 
 the usual manner of such affairs. Luckily the doc- 
 trine of Spheres of Influence had yet to be invented, 
 or there is no knowing what might have happened. 
 But the event had one important effect ; it convinced 
 Satsuma that the barbarians could only be beaten 
 with their own weapons — a conviction which had far- 
 reaching results for the country at large; while the 
 foreigners, on their side, learned some useful lessons 
 
YOKOHAMA. 33 
 
 on keeping out of danger. Still, there was no real 
 security for them till after the Restoration in 1868 
 did away with the Jo-i, or anti-foreign party, and 
 made the region round Yokohama free from irre- 
 sponsible " patriots." 
 
 Another pleasant excursion is to Yokosuka, down 
 the peninsula, either by train — the usual way — or by 
 boat, in about an hour and a half. From a mere 
 fishing hamlet the place has grown to a thriving town, 
 on account of the naval dock-yards already mentioned. 
 These cannot be visited, though, without a special 
 introduction. Already they build torpedo boats and 
 other warlike vessels of the smaller classes, and no 
 doubt some day will turn out the largest ; it is only a 
 matter of time. On a hill near by those who have a 
 turn for tombs may visit the grave of Will Adams, 
 the English pilot, who lived here " like any great 
 lord," as he wrote home to his friends. This Adams 
 came on a Dutch ship which put in for repairs at 
 Bungo, in southern Japan, in 1600, or fifty years after 
 the Portuguese came, and after the edict expelling 
 foreigners and forbidding Christianity had been put 
 forth, though not yet rigorously enforced. Adams, 
 who seems to have been a man of parts, was sent up 
 to Osaka to answer to " the King," as he calls the 
 Shogun Ieyasu. Perhaps his outspoken hatred of the 
 Spanish and Portuguese won the Shogun ; moreover, 
 Tokugawa Ieyasu was a thoroughly practical states- 
 man, and had the true Japanese thirst for useful 
 Vol. L— 3 
 
34 JAPAN. 
 
 ideas. Anyhow, he persuaded the pilot to stay in 
 Japan, had him teach navigation and build ships, 
 made him a knight, with estates and servants, and 
 always contrived to keep him from going home to 
 England. His letters lament for- his English wife 
 and children ; but failing them, he consoled himself 
 with a Japanese, who seems to have made him very 
 comfortable, and who is buried on the hill not far 
 away. 
 
 Just before reaching Yokosuka by rail there is a 
 pretty little village on the sea, Dzushi by name, which 
 is quite a haunt of Tokyo and Yokohama (foreign) 
 residents; certain of the diplomatic corps have built 
 villas there, nestling against cliffs half hidden in wild 
 vines and flowering shrubs. There are two inns also 
 — Japanese, of course — one charmingly quiet and the 
 other apt to be full of noisy guests, especially " week- 
 end " visitors from the port. But the favorite breath- 
 ing-place of all is Kamakura, at the station just before 
 Dzushi. To-day it is only a seaside resort of one 
 " foreign " and two good Japanese hotels and some 
 cottages ; but for the sake of its great past, Kamakura 
 deserves to be considered respectfully and apart. 
 
^^Wfl^s-- 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HISTORY — THE DAWN AND THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 " In the Japan of to-day the world has before it a unique example 
 of an Eastern people displaying the power to assimilate and to adopt 
 the civilization of the West, whilst preserving its own national 
 dignity unimpaired." — Weston, " The Japanese Alps." 
 
 From Yokohama to Kamakura is almost always 
 the first trip. But before entering upon Japan proper 
 it may be well to say a little concerning Japanese his- 
 tory, else the inevitable names and much beside will 
 be but a weariness and vexation of spirit. 
 
 The more the race is studied the more complex its 
 origin seems to be. It is now fairly well established 
 that there were at least two principal waves of immi- 
 gration — the one from the mainland of Asia by way 
 of Korea, a race not Chinese, and not even closely 
 related to China, and the other of Malay extraction, 
 which came up by the Lu Chu Islands and through 
 Kiushiu. A third race was in the islands already, the 
 Ainu, a few of whom are still left in the far north ; 
 but where the Ainu came from or to whom they are 
 akin remains a puzzle. It must have been somewhere 
 in the last dozen centuries before the Christian era 
 that these various elements were engaged in shaking 
 
 35 
 
36 JAPAN. 
 
 together, through trade and fightings, into the Japan- 
 ese race. Mazeliere claims that the Malay element is 
 that of the imperial family and the court nobles (the 
 KugS), and the " Ouralien " of Asia that of the Buke, 
 the military class and the feudal nobles; while the 
 conquered Ainu formed the basis of the peasantry, 
 who till recently were to all intents and purposes serfs 
 attached to the soil. Of course it will not do to 
 understand this neat classification too literally, but it 
 is quite true that the Emperor himself is of the Malay 
 type, having nearly level eyes, short, straight nose 
 and square chin ; while the feudal nobles show usually 
 the long face, arched nose and eyes a little oblique, 
 and the peasants are chunky and round-faced like the 
 Ainu. 
 
 Japanese historical accounts begin with the creation 
 and the doings of the gods, leading from these directly 
 to Jimmu Ten-no, the first Emperor, grandson of the 
 Sun Goddess, whose legendary date is 660 B.C. He 
 crossed with his followers in a stone boat from Awa, 
 in the Inland Sea, to the Yamato district of the main 
 island, and subdued the "Earth-Spiders" (perhaps 
 Ainu ; perhaps a still older race), slew dragons and 
 set the laud in order; and his descendants reigned 
 after him, as they have continued to do, even to Mut- 
 suhito, the one hundred and twenty-first, who now 
 occupies the throne. 
 
 So say the Kojiki and Nihongi, chronicles compiled 
 in the eighth century, the earliest written record of 
 
THE DAWN AND THE MIDDLE AGES. 37 
 
 events. At least it is certain that by the beginning 
 
 of the Christian era the races must have settled into 
 one people, under a patriarchal clan government, liv- 
 ing in villages, cultivating rice and other foods, and 
 having all the ordinary arts in a more or less primitive 
 degree of development; each elan having its own an- 
 cestral nature gods, or Kami, among whom the Sun 
 Goddess stood highest, and the chiefs of the Sun Clan 
 possessed a kind of loose hegemony over the rest. To 
 this vague early period belongs the Empress Jingo, 
 who conquered Korea on behalf of her infant son, the 
 Emperor Ojin ; and the Emperor Nintoku, who re- 
 mitted the taxes for three years, and, while his house 
 fell to ruin, rejoiced to see smoke rising once more 
 from the straw huts of his people ; and Prince 
 Yamato-take, who destroyed robbers and ogres, and 
 conquered the Emishi — these were certainly Ainu — 
 to the east and north as far as Sagami Bay ; and the 
 Empress Sniko, who established Buddhism. With 
 her closed the age of the gods and heroes, and with 
 the "Nara period" of the eighth century authentic 
 history begins. 
 
 It Avas three centuries sooner, about 400 A.D., that 
 Buddhist missionaries had first come from China 
 through Korea bringing letters and arts; but the Dew 
 religion did not take hold till late in the seventh cen- 
 tury, when there was a great wave of zeal, temples 
 building everywhere and sacred texts copied and 
 images made for temples and private shrines. The 
 
38 JAPAN. 
 
 old nature gods, the Kami, were turned into Buddhist 
 saints and angels, and with Chinese arts and civiliza- 
 tion came the wisdom of Chinese sages, which was to 
 Japan even more than the wisdom of Egypt was to 
 Greece. 
 
 Before 700 the Court moved with almost every 
 reign; then it settled at Nara, and remained there 
 nearly a hundred years. It was a time of rapid 
 growth and development ; Chinese orders of rank and 
 ceremony were adopted, histories written (in Japanese 
 words, but with Chinese characters) and a new and 
 higher civilization established on Chinese lines, but 
 Avith the inevitable Japanese modification ; for the 
 Japanese, like the Greeks, are always borrowing, but 
 always changing the loan to suit their own intense 
 individuality — a habit which is often very distressing 
 to those who believe Western civilization the only re- 
 liable brand. 
 
 By the time the Court removed to Kyoto, about 
 900, the formative stage had been passed, and Heian, 
 "the Peace," was a thoroughly national epoch — a 
 period of great refinement and activity in art, litera- 
 ture and government. To this time belongs Kobo 
 Daishi, Buddhist saint, poet, painter, to whom is at- 
 tributed nearly every early work of art in the empire, 
 along with miracles and pilgrimages enough for 
 twenty saints. In the tenth century they compiled 
 twenty volumes of poetry written since the " Man- 
 yoshiu" collection was compiled at Nara; and the great 
 
THE DAWN AND THE MIDDLE AGES. 39 
 
 Japanese classics, the Genji M&nogatari, the " Journey 
 from Tosa" (Tom Nikki) and the " Pillow Sketches" 
 were all written between 900 and 1150. But to this 
 time also belongs the inevitable weakening of the 
 Court circle through luxury and over-refinement, the 
 decline of the Emperor's power and the rise of the 
 great families whose chiefs aspired to rule as Chancel- 
 lors or Regents in the Emperor's name. 
 
 This usurpation of power by the clans is the most 
 characteristic feature of the early Middle Ages in 
 Japan. The Fujiwara came first, getting their daugh- 
 ters married to successive Emperors and obtaining 
 almost entire control of the throne. They were 
 checked for a time by the great Michizane, of the 
 Sugiwara Clan, who became Chancellor and served 
 two Emperors with wisdom and faithfulness, but was 
 exiled on a false charge, and died in half-savage 
 Kiushiu; but after Michizane was out of the way 
 the Fujiwara regained their influence, and kept it 
 till they were finally overshadowed by two great clans 
 descended from ninth century Emperors, the families 
 of Taira and Minamoto. 
 
 All the last half of the twelfth century is filled with 
 the strife between these two clans, which is known in 
 Japan as the Gen-pei, Gen being the Chinese (and 
 therefore elegant) pronunciation of the character for 
 Minamoto, and Heiki (H becoming P in composition) 
 for Taira — called also the War of the Chrysanthemums, 
 from the red and white flower badges used by the 
 
40 JAPAN. 
 
 two sides. Their fightings make up nearly half of 
 the hero stories of old Japan, partly embodied in the 
 drama, partly in long romances, in which the Mina- 
 moto warriors are the chief favorites. The struggle 
 began definitely in 1156, when Kiyomori of Taira 
 was foremost in putting down an insurrection in 
 which some of the Minamoto were involved; the 
 Minamoto chief was killed, and Kiyomori put to 
 death nearly all the leaders of the clan, sparing only 
 three children of the chief at the entreaty of their 
 mother, a beautiful peasant girl named Tokiwa. 
 Then Kiyomori got himself made Prime Minister, and 
 married his daughter to the Emperor, getting the same 
 control of the throne as the Fujiwara had enjoyed, 
 beside a great deal more military power than they had 
 ever had. But Kiyomori was by nature cruel and 
 arrogant, and his acts became so arbitrary that all the 
 nobles turned against him ; so that when the young 
 Minamoto lads, Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, grew up 
 and escaped from the monasteries where they had been 
 placed, they found it easy to rally their claus and at- 
 tack Kiyomori. The ex-Emperor — who had become 
 Ho-o (retired), as the usual custom was — having had 
 more than enough of Kiyomori, openly favored the 
 Minamoto, whereupon the Taira carried away the 
 child Emperor, Antoku, Kiyoraori's grandson, and 
 kept him in their camp. The struggle was tremend- 
 ous ; the battles went now for one side, now for the 
 other, till at last the Taira were driven south and 
 
THE DAWN AND THE MIDDLE AGES. 41 
 
 utterly defeated at Dan-no-ura, on the Inland Sea, 
 hundreds being slain, hundreds forced into the water 
 or sunk with their ships. When all was lost, Kiyo- 
 
 mori's wife took her grandson, the little Emperor, in 
 her arms aud leaped with him from a boat into the 
 sea. Many of the leaders who survived were after- 
 wards put to death, and the women made servants ; 
 the Taira Clan was all but annihilated, and never 
 again recovered its prestige. 
 
 During all these years of disturbance, when there 
 was no safety for the weak except under the protec- 
 tion of the strong, the feudal system had been devel- 
 oping just as it developed in Europe under like condi- 
 tions, save for the strongly patriarchal qualities which 
 it never lost in Japan. To quote Fenollosa, " The 
 wars bred a new race of Japanese — hardy, fearless, 
 cruel. The polite culture of centuries had disappeared 
 in a holocaust of burning palaces ; Chinese learning 
 was forgotten ; the only faith left was that in self- 
 prowess. The new element which now leaped to the 
 front was Japanese character." At the same time a 
 purely military class had grown up, the Bushi, knights 
 or Samurai, men whose sole duty was to fight for the 
 feudal lord to whose clan they belonged, and who in 
 return was pledged to their support. This class Yori- 
 tomo did much to establish, by defining their position, 
 duties and privileges, which last were only less than 
 those of the nobles. His first step after his victories 
 was to obtain recognition from the new Emperor, the 
 
42 JAPAN. 
 
 next to have himself appointed Shogun or General-in- 
 Chief; then he set up a military capital at Kamakura, 
 on Sagami Bay, and proceeded to appoint provincial 
 officers from his own following to administer the 
 empire throughout, formulated the duties of knights 
 and lords, and placed the whole system of feudal gov- 
 ernment on a firm and orderly basis. An important 
 part of his plan was to strengthen the central power — 
 namely, his own — by settling his family and immedi- 
 ate followers in the eight provinces north of the Ha- 
 kone Pass, known as the Kwanto, in distinction from 
 the Kwansei or Home Provinces south of the pass 
 and around Kyoto. Much of this Kwanto region was 
 still uncultivated, a waste of forest and reedy swamp, 
 and grants of land were made to kuights who would 
 andertake to have the country drained and tilled, and 
 drive out the barbarous Emishi, who still lingered 
 about this Northern Gate. There was a general feel- 
 ing that this district was less sacred than Yamato, and 
 might be fully controlled by a subject without viola- 
 tion of loyalty, since it had never been under the 
 actual rule of the Son of Heaven. 
 
 Yoritomo had caused the office of Shogun to be 
 made hereditary in his family, but he had no worthy 
 descendants ; his clever widow, Masako, becoming a 
 Buddhist nun, ruled ably from behind the curtain, but 
 the power presently passed into the hands of the Hojo 
 family, who were not strong enough to make them- 
 selves Shoguns, but governed as Shikken (Regents) on 
 
THE DAWN AND THE MIDDLE AGES. 43 
 
 behalf of a series of puppet Shoguns. The Kyoto 
 Court tried to throw oft' both Shogun and Shikken, 
 with the result that civil war broke out again, and two 
 Emperors claimed the throne; so that for nearly a 
 hundred years there were two lines reigning at once, 
 one supported by Kamakura and the other always 
 plotting against the Shogunatc, all of which naturally 
 made the Hojo so much the more secure. At last a 
 compact was made that each line should furnish an 
 Emperor in turn, an arrangement, however, which did 
 not continue after the first round. 
 
 Here the Emperor Go-Daigo appears — a man of 
 some real ability, but vacillating and easily led. As 
 ex-Emperor he made a strong fight against the Hojo, 
 aided by his son, Morinaga, who was a Buddhist 
 priest and won over the monks. The Regent sent an 
 army to Kyoto ; Go-Daigo fled, but was captured and 
 imprisoned on a small island. Meanwhile two great 
 generals fought for him, whose names in Japan are 
 synonyms for bravery and loyalty, Kusonosuke 
 Masashige and Xitta Yoshisada, the latter a Mina- 
 moto ; and with them fought Ashikaga Takauji, who 
 was likewise a Minamoto. They took and sacked 
 Kamakura and restored Go-Daigo, who had managed 
 to escape from his island ; but Ashikaga soon began 
 to usurp power, and, persuading Go-Daigo to have 
 his son Morinaga imprisoned at Kamakura on a 
 charge of disloyalty, after some months put him to 
 death. Masashige and Xitta then came against Ashi- 
 
44 JAPAX. 
 
 kaga and were defeated. Masashige fell in battle, 
 Nitta killed himself when all was lost, and Ashi- 
 kaga had himself proclaimed Shogun, set up a new 
 Emperor and established a family who remained in 
 power till the middle of the sixteenth century. 
 
 The Ashikaga period was a brilliant one for art and 
 literature, but it was also a time of degeneracy and 
 gradual decline of the central power, which resulted 
 in another season of disorder throughout most of the 
 sixteenth century. More than one daring Ronin or 
 Samurai who had become masterless put himself at 
 the head of a band of robbers and terrorized half a 
 province, and to protect themselves the feudal lords as- 
 sumed power and became more and more independent. 
 The most distinguished of these new lords was one 
 Ota Nobunaga, a small Daimyo descended from the 
 Taira family, who suddenly rose to great power. By 
 a series of brilliant victories and combinations he 
 overcame one Daimyo after another, seized or built 
 castles, and at last deposed the Shogun and became 
 absolutely powerful, Shogun in all but the name ; but, 
 unlike former generals, acting with the greatest loy- 
 alty toward the Emperor, rebuilding the palace and 
 supplying the Court with ample revenues. 
 
 It was just at this time that the Portuguese reached 
 Japan — by accident they declared — bringing Western 
 knowledge, and, above all, firearms, w r hich the Japan- 
 ese seized upon with eagerness and promptly imi- 
 tated. Nobunaga's victories must have been at least 
 
THE DAWN AND THE MIDDLE AGES. 45 
 
 partly due to the new weapons, which he took pains 
 to secure; and, moreover, the Portuguese, and the 
 Spanish who followed, supplied him with another arm 
 which he was not slow to use — namely, a new religion 
 to turn against the Buddhist monks. 
 
 Long before this the Emperor Go-Shirakawa had 
 declared that there were three things in the empire 
 which did not obey him— " the waters of the Kamo- 
 gawa, the dice of the Sugoroku players and the priests 
 of Hiezan." The great monastery on the mountain 
 over against Kyoto, founded along with the city in the 
 ninth century, had become enormously wealthy and 
 powerful ; both here and at other temples it had be- 
 come customary to maintain soldier-monks and to inter- 
 fere actively and often insolently in affairs of the empire. 
 Nobunaga alone had courage to attack the unruly 
 priests. He laid siege to Mount Hiezan, and in spite 
 of the scruples of his generals destroyed the temples 
 and the monastery, killed many priests and monks 
 who ate meat and broke their vows of celibacy, and 
 after much fighting here and elsewhere, completely 
 subdued the Order. 
 
 This antagonism to the Buddhists was almost cer- 
 tainly the secret of Nobunaga's special favor to 
 Xavier and the missionaries who followed the Por- 
 tuguese traders to Japan. Many of his followers 
 professed Christianity ; Nobunaga even built them a 
 place of worship in Kyoto itself, and during his time 
 there was no change of attitude toward them. Nor 
 
40 JAPAN. 
 
 is it possible to doubt that many did truly become 
 Christians, according to the degree of knowledge 
 given to them ; otherwise the after persecutions would 
 not have been needed to stamp out the faith. 
 
 The sixteenth century was pre-eminently a period 
 of brilliant men. Nobunaga's chief general was a 
 marvel ously clever adventurer — Hideyoshi, the son of 
 a peasant ; a creature so grotesque that he was nick- 
 named the Monkey ; so able that, from being Nobu- 
 naga's horseboy, he rose to the highest military 
 honor, and after Nobunaga's death got entire control 
 of the empire, nominally in behalf of Nobunaga's 
 young son. He could not be made Shogun because 
 he was not a Minamoto, and all attempts to get him- 
 self adopted into the family failed ; but as Taiko 
 (Regent) he obtained a really higher title. Adventurer 
 as he was, Hideyoshi was no mere soldier ; perhaps 
 the peasant-farmer crops out in his new and very ex- 
 cellent land regulations ; and he appointed a Council 
 of Elders and made other less important reforms in 
 administration. His great ambition was to conquer 
 Korea, and for this he sent out a large army, which 
 was at first successful, but afterwards all but de- 
 feated ; and after a good deal of fighting and much 
 loss, the Koreans made peace and paid a nominal 
 tribute. 
 
 Hideyoshi gave the first check to Christianity ; in 
 his time the foreign priests received a sudden com- 
 mand to leave, according to some because one of 
 
THE DAWN AM) THE MIDDLE AGES. 47 
 
 them had behaved with want of respect to some great 
 
 lord, but according to others because the government 
 took alarm at something they heard from the Protest- 
 ant Dutch and English — who had likewise come to 
 trade — of the temporal power of the Pope and the 
 land-grabbing methods of the King of Spain. For 
 whatever reason it may have been, the missionaries 
 were banished and Christianity forbidden ; but there 
 was no great effort to enforce the law except as to 
 exclusion of foreign priests, and the persecutions did 
 not begin till nearly a generation later. 
 
 The third great man of the century, and much the 
 greatest of the three, was Tokugawa Ieyasu. He 
 came of a minor branch of the Minamoto family, 
 which had long been in difficulties with stronger 
 neighbors. A Japanese authority declares that as a 
 child Ieyasu was " confined in various places as surety 
 for his family's conduct," which experiences " may 
 have helped to sharpen his naturally remarkable abili- 
 ties. . . . Gradually and astutely he encroached upon 
 the neighboring provinces, until finally he found him- 
 self the strongest chieftain in the Tokaido." ' Later, 
 after assisting Hideyoshi to overthrow the Hojo and 
 Odawara, their provinces, comprising nearly the 
 whole of the Kwanto, were given into Ieyasn's 
 charge; whereupon he built Yedo Castle (now Tokyo), 
 and proceeded to establish himself as lord of the 
 whole region north of the Hakone Pass. 
 
 l " History of the Empire of Japan." 
 
48 JAPAN. 
 
 After the death of Hideyoshi, his followers held 
 Osaka Castle, his principal stronghold, on behalf of 
 his son, Hideyori, who was still a mere child. At 
 first Tokugawa was apparently loyal, but a break 
 soon occurred, and after some years of struggle the 
 Tokugawa got the upper hand everywhere. He 
 finally defeated the allies at Sekigahara, a little north 
 of Lake Biwa, and shortly after took and partly 
 burned Osaka Castle, Hideyori and his mother killing 
 themselves in the flames. Ieyasu then got the Em- 
 peror to appoint him Shogun, and spent the rest of 
 his life consolidating his influence and laying the 
 foundations of the " Great Peace/ 7 which lasted, at 
 least outwardly, till Commodore Perry appeared in 
 \ ; edo Bay. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE TOKUGAWA AND THE RESTORATION. 
 
 Tokugawa Ieyasu's great work may be summed 
 up in one word — centralization. Nobunaga and Hide- 
 yoshi had gained enormous prestige for themselves, but 
 had not been able to establish a permanent govern- 
 ment. Ieyasu took up the work where they left it, 
 and organized a system of administration which broke 
 down after two hundred and fifty years, chiefly be- 
 cause it was too rigidly perfect, too inflexible to bear 
 the strain of changed conditions. The problems be- 
 fore him were two : first, to control the other great 
 nobles ; and second, to keep on good terms with the 
 imperial court at Kyoto, from which the Shogun 
 derived his authority, and which had greatly increased 
 in influence through Nobunaga's care. Accordingly, 
 after the battle of Sekigahara, he showed himself very 
 merciful, putting to death only two leaders from 
 among the prisoners ; but at the same time he confis- 
 cated the estates of those who had opposed him, and 
 made a grand redistribution of all the provinces into 
 two hundred and ninety-five Daimiates, greater or 
 smaller, the rank of each Daimyo depending on his 
 Vol. I.-4 40 
 
50 JAPAN. 
 
 revenue, reckoned in kohu (bushels) of rice. (The 
 number of Daimyo was afterward increased to over 
 three hundred.) In this distribution Ieyasu carefully 
 surrounded himself in the Kwanto by members of 
 his own family or nobles especially attached to him- 
 self, and also placed others of tried loyalty beside 
 those likely to be disaffected, so as to head off any 
 large conspiracy against him. In like manner he 
 protected the road to Kyoto, and at the same time 
 took care to reward special acts of valor or loyalty by 
 grants of land and rank to individual knights. 
 
 The next step was to appoint a Board of Elders to 
 advise with the Shogun and administrative officers 
 acting under them, also local officers throughout all 
 the provinces — all, of course, being chosen from the 
 nobles who were faithful to Tokugawa. This body 
 of officials formed the Bakufu, or Curtain Govern- 
 ment, so named from the tent-curtain behind which 
 military officers consulted. Later the influence of the 
 Bakufu became very great, overshadowing even that 
 of the Shogun himself. 
 
 It would have been hopeless to attempt to lessen 
 the authority of the Daimyo on their own estates, and 
 Ieyasu's administration accordingly provided for a 
 high degree of local autonomy, subject to certain 
 strict regulations of the general government ; but as 
 an offset to this the wily Tokugawa devised the 
 system of compulsory residence at the capital. Ieyasu 
 had suggested this scheme, but it was only completed 
 
THE TOKUGAWA AND THE RESTORATION. 51 
 
 by his grandson, Iemitsu, who carried out this and 
 many other details of the first Shogun's system. By 
 it each Daimyo was required to spend a part of 
 every other year in Yedo, and to leave his wife and 
 children there when absent in his province. The time 
 of going and coming was laid down by rule for each 
 prince, and so contrived that neighbors were never on 
 their lands at the same time. Moreover, as a further 
 check, lords who became too wealthy were apt to be 
 ordered to undertake public works at their own ex- 
 pense. 
 
 This traditional Tokugawa policy of keeping check 
 on the other nobles seems to have been at the bottom 
 of Iemitsu's strange exclusion laws, so unlike all 
 Japanese character before or after. The southern 
 clans were the most dangerous rivals, Satsuma and 
 Choshu especially ; and it w r as just these who were 
 nearest the ports of China, from which the strangers 
 came, and who would gain most advantage from 
 foreign trade in wealth and new weapons. Therefore 
 not only Christianity, but all Western learning, was 
 forbidden, and the Dutch and Chinese alone permitted 
 to trade, under humiliating conditions, at Nagasaki. 
 Ieyasu had sent an expedition to Mexico, and sanc- 
 tioned certain yearly trading excursions of Japanese 
 to Siam and China. These were now prohibited by 
 Iyemitsu, and a later edict forbade any ships to be 
 built over a certain small size, or decked sufficiently 
 for ocean voyages. These laws were rigidly kept 
 
52 JAPAN, 
 
 till the opening of the country in 1854, though 
 others, concerning trade with the Dutch and the 
 export of metals, were probably evaded. 
 
 Toward the imperial court the early Tokugawa 
 professed the utmost loyalty, providing for suitable 
 revenues, rebuilding the palace, and appointing officers 
 to see that all things were properly conducted. The 
 " Testament " of Ieyasu — a somewhat apocryphal 
 document on government — declares that " the duty 
 of the Shogun is to protect the Emperor against all 
 perils which may threaten him in his palace, and to 
 maintain peace throughout the empire. . . . When 
 an Emperor ascends the throne, it is his (the Sho- 
 gun's) duty to provide abundantly for all the expenses 
 of the coronation." Iemitsu further formulated the 
 distinctions between the Kuge, or Court nobles, and 
 the Buke, the military lords, who had charge of all 
 practical matters ; all of which regulations tended to 
 deprive the Court of any actual power, and made it 
 possible for later Shoguns to treat the Emperor as 
 a mere puppet; and this in turn helped to bring 
 about the reaction and the downfall of the Shogunate. 
 
 The Buke Hato, or rules of the Samurai, were not less 
 minute, and for any breach there was but one honor- 
 able atonement — hara-kiri (" body-cutting ") — for 
 which the second short sword was always ready. 
 The Samurai were of various rank, from the Shogun 
 and Daimyo to the " sandal-carriers." The retainers 
 of the Tokugawa were called Hatamoto, and ranked 
 
THE TOKUGAWA AND THE RESTORATION. 53 
 
 above the retainers of lessor lords. But whatever his 
 rank, every Samurai enjoyed certain privileges com- 
 mon to all, such as the right to a family name and 
 crest, and above all the right to wear two swords, 
 which was the special badge of the class. Every- 
 body besides nobles and Samurai belonged to the 
 "Cho-nin" ("street people"), who might not carry 
 swords, except in the cast; of a head-man of a village, 
 or other prominent person who for some special 
 service was given the honor of wearing a single one 
 Cho-nin again were of various ranks, farmers stand- 
 ins* first — it was not dishonorable even for a Samurai 
 to engage in farming ; then artisans ; and .last of all, 
 merchants, no matter how wealthy, for the Code 
 taught that trade was in its nature degrading. Below 
 these were only the Eta, who killed and skinned 
 animals and did the lowest tasks, and whose exist- 
 ence was scarcely recognized by law; and the Hinin, 
 utter outcasts, including criminals and disgraced 
 Samurai. 
 
 The Tokugawa encouraged formality of everv kind 
 as a check on the fierce spirits of the warriors, such, 
 for instance, as the practice of cha-no-yu, or tea-cere- 
 mony ; and an immense impulse was also added by 
 the study of Chinese, which was revived just at this 
 time. It came about almost precisely as the Renais- 
 sance did in Europe, through the fall of the Ming- 
 dynasty, and the exile of many savants, who fled 
 from Nankin to Japan, and were received by Toku- 
 
54 JAPAN. 
 
 gawa and Mito and others, just as the Medici received 
 Greek refugees alter the fall of Constantinople. 
 Hitherto men who wished for a life of study had 
 become priests ; now Samurai were forbidden to lay 
 down the sword, but encouraged to use their studies 
 for the benefit of the State. Ieyasu set the example 
 of appointing scholars to important positions, and it 
 became the fashion for Daimyo to retain Kan-Gakasha 
 (classical students) as advisers and lecturers in their 
 households. Schools for knights were established 
 and patronized by the great lords, and the Buddhist 
 priests, restored to high favor again under the Toku- 
 gawa Shoguns, held schools for the common people at 
 nearly every temple. Dramas and novels by the 
 dozen were put out and eagerly read, and repeated 
 everywhere by professional story-tellers, to the de- 
 light, and not a little to the instruction, of the 
 unlearned. Samurai, however, were not permitted to 
 go to the theatre. The doctrines of Lao-Tse and 
 Mencius, and above all the iron-bound regulations of 
 Confucius, became the dominating principles of the 
 age. Men strove after a more rigorous stoicism than 
 ever, and women were restricted more and more to 
 domesticity and the " Three Obediences " — to father, 
 then husband, and after them to the eldest son. 
 
 Along with Chinese classics, the study of early 
 Japanese history and literature was revived. The 
 Prince of Mito, grandson of Ieyasu, kept a staff of 
 learned men at work for years, compiling a history 
 
THE TOKUGAWA AND THE RESTORATION. 55 
 
 of Japan, in two hundred and forty volumes; and 
 two great scholars — Mabuchi and bis pupil, Motoori 
 — set themselves to revive the use of pure Yamato, 
 
 the original Japanese language in which the early 
 literature was written, which had been overlaid by a 
 mass of borrowed Chinese words and phrases. The 
 result of these studies was a wave of nationalism and 
 loyalty to the Emperor as the Son of Heaven, and 
 therewith a questioning of the Shogun's right to 
 supreme authority; all of which combined, with the 
 growing social evils and financial difficulties, brought 
 on by luxury and extravagance, to produce a deep 
 current of unrest throughout the whole nation. 
 
 This was the internal situation when Commodore 
 Perry arrived with the American demand for treaty 
 ports and intercourse. Such intercourse was undoubt- 
 edly most desirable for Japan, as well as for the other 
 nations, and ports of call for fuel and water abso- 
 lutely necessary, if our American ships were to sail 
 the Pacific; but as to the often boasted peaceful oesa 
 of the expedition— well, there is something appro- 
 priate to the situation in Dean Hole's story of the 
 cowboy in a Western church, who was asked to take 
 up the collection. If I remember rightly, Fighting 
 Bill passed the hat with a revolver on his hip, and 
 the congregation " panned out" handsomely. Com- 
 modore Perry likewise didn't shoot; he merely asked 
 the Shogun's representatives to call and see his guns, 
 and told them stories about the Opium War in China, 
 
56 JAPAN. 
 
 and then left, promising to come next year. The 
 country was in a fever of excitement ; arms were cast, 
 troops drilled, forts built. But happily the Shogun 
 and his advisers realized the situation and the coun- 
 try's weakness, and in 1854 they signed the treaties. 
 It was the signal for a storm ; the Emperor refused 
 to ratify the agreement and ordered the barbarians 
 expelled. The barbarians declined to go, but rather 
 came in greater numbers and made more demands. A 
 Nationalist party arose, the Jo-i y having for its rally- 
 ing cry, " Up with the Emperor ! Down with the 
 alien ! " The clans opposed to Tokugawa joined the 
 league, especially the three most powerful — Mito, Sat- 
 suma and Choshu. In 1863 a party of Mito Samurai 
 assassinated the Regent Ii Kamon, who favored the 
 foreigners. Everywhere the treaties were used as 
 political capital against the Shogunate. 
 
 In 1867 the Emperor Komei died, and shortly 
 after the Shogun resigned, giving as his reason that 
 the state of the country required a single head, and it 
 was time the dual system should be done away. The 
 " Restoration " dates from this time ; but the Toku- 
 gawa clan refused to submit with their chief. They 
 drew up a paper declaring that the young Emperor 
 was misled by evil advisers of Satsuma and Ckoshu, 
 and held Yedo against the Imperial forces, even 
 taking the boy-prince, who was nominal Highpriest 
 of Uyeno, and calling him Emperor, carrying him 
 off with them to Utsunomiya and Nikko. It is a 
 
THE TOKUGAWA AND THE RESTORATION. 57 
 
 terrible record of fruitless bravery. The Tokugawa 
 had more modern arms, but the Imperial name car- 
 ried weight, and little by little the Shogun's followers 
 were forced back, as elan after elan gave in its allegi- 
 ance to the Emperor. A last stand was made in the 
 northwest, at Wakamatsu Castle, in Aidzu, and after 
 that fell, all submitted except the few who had escaped 
 by sea from Yedo, and held out in the island of Yezo 
 for a little longer. 
 
 In the changes which followed it was not the Kuge 
 nobles or the Daimvo who took a leading part, but 
 the Samurai. Many of their names are familiar in 
 the Cabinets of recent years ; others died or were 
 killed during the formative period. Such were Yo- 
 shida, put to death by the Bakufu ; Kido, who dared 
 propose to his chief, the Lord of Satsuma, the abo- 
 lition of the feudal system, and who died in Kyoto 
 just before the Satsuma rebellion, which was raised in 
 the hope of restoring that system; Okubo and Mori, 
 victims of political fanatics; Saigo, leader of the Sat- 
 suma rebellion, dead in a lost cause ; Count Katsu, 
 recently deceased, one of the ablest of all ; and ana in 
 the older statesmen of to-day, such as Marquis Ito, 
 Marshall Marquis Yamagata, Count Okuma. They 
 threw a dynamite bomb at Okuma in 1889 on account 
 of his too foreign views on Treaty Revision, but he 
 escaped with the loss of a leg. Some day the lives 
 of these makers of New Japan will be written, and 
 the story will read like the wildest romance. 
 
58 JAPAN. 
 
 Kido's suggestion about doing away with feudalism 
 was backed by a powerful agent — namely, want of 
 money. Nearly every great lord was at his wits' end 
 to provide for his retainers ; so long as they were 
 ready to fight for him, so long must he find them rice 
 according to their rank, and the economic changes, due 
 in part to the opening of the country, made this yearly 
 more and more difficult. Clan after clan took up the 
 new idea. Choshu, Satsuma, Tosa — all the greater 
 ones united in proposing to the Emperor to give up 
 their feudal rights and duties, and in compelling the 
 lesser nobles to do the same. The Samurai were ac- 
 cordingly released from their allegiance, and in the 
 same moment deprived of the revenues which for 
 generations had come regularly without any thought 
 on their part — which it was utterly against all their 
 training for them to think about at all. At first a 
 small yearly grant was made to each ; then a lump 
 sum presented, with which they were expected to 
 begin life for themselves. The full misery of those 
 days only Samurai can know. Brought up to believe 
 that the very knowledge of money was something 
 utterly unworthy, their attempts at business were 
 pitiful beyond words. Nearly all lost their entire 
 capital in a few months through sheer lack of what an 
 American would call " business sense." All who 
 could got into government service in some form or 
 other, many becoming policemen, that they might still 
 serve the Emperor and wear a sword. Hearn has 
 
THE TOKUGAWA AND THE RESTORATION. 50 
 
 written many sad little stories of that time, which has 
 
 its nearest parallel, perhaps, in the condition of our 
 own Southern States alter the war. 
 
 Of course the dire consequences of the changes 
 brought protests from many sides, and the discontent 
 culminated in the Satsnma Rebellion of 1878-9, led 
 by General Saigo, *he man who had commanded the 
 Imperial forces in the War of the Restoration — a 
 great, pure soul, set singly on bringing back the old 
 heroic ideals which he saw being swept away. The 
 struggle was hopeless from the first, and when it was 
 over and Saigo had fallen by his own hand, the last 
 clan gave in its entire loyalty. 
 
 Since then the difficulties of the government have 
 been financial and social ones ; so many reforms have 
 had to be made, so much done to bring Japan to the 
 position she longs for among the other nations, that 
 friction is inevitable, and the marvel is, as Weston 
 savs, 1 that the country can make such radical changes 
 and yet retain its own intense individuality. 
 
 The Emperor Mutsuhito, who came to the throne 
 in 1867, gave his reign the auspicious name of Meiji 
 (Enlightenment). In 1881 he promised a Constitu- 
 tion and a representative government, but the country 
 was not yet ready for such a step ; and, in point of 
 fact, the Constitution was not promulgated till 1889, 
 and the first Parliament elected the following summer. 
 The plan is based chiefly on the Constitution of Ger- 
 
 1 " Japanese Alps." 
 
60 JAPAN. 
 
 many, on the ground that Japan's social condition is 
 nearer to hers than to any others; but certain ele- 
 ments have been borrowed from England and some 
 from France. There is an Upper House, partly 
 hereditary, partly elected from the lesser nobility, 
 partly nominated by the Emperor from any class on 
 the ground of learning and ability; and a Lower 
 House, chosen by ballot, the franchise being limited by 
 a considerable property requirement — namely, fifteen 
 yen direct tax for one year in the voter's district, or 
 three years' income tax of the same amount in one place. 
 The Cabinet is responsible to the Emperor and not to 
 Parliament, which can manifest its displeasure only 
 by refusing to vote the appropriations. The Liberals 
 want to introduce responsible Cabinets, but Count 
 Okuma and many other statesmen think the country 
 is not ready — that for the present the Cabinet must, 
 in the main, lead the country, instead of merely 
 carrying out its wishes expressed at an election, as in 
 England. To tell the truth, Parliamentary matters 
 do not work very smoothly as yet, at least in the 
 Lower House ; the Upper does better, being more 
 conservative and mature, and also more apt to be in 
 sympathy with the Cabinet. There are parties galore, 
 and they split and combine and play each other off 
 with bewildering facility ; but in the meantime the 
 government goes on steadily and quietly, with now 
 and then a conservative movement, but on the whole 
 ever towards greater progress and enlightenment. 
 
THE TOKUGAWA AND THE RESTORATION. 61 
 
 A complete system of national education was sug- 
 gested by Kido, and fully planned out by Viscount 
 Arinori Mori on his return from service as Minister 
 to Washington. The plan is based largely on the 
 German system, with some American modifications. 
 It provides a graded course leading to the universi- 
 ties, which so far are two — Tokyo and the rather 
 recent Kyoto University. Of course, only men are 
 admitted to the universities. The highest school for 
 girls is the Higher Normal, which prepares for ad- 
 vanced examinations for teachers' certificates, and is 
 about equal to the men's higher schools, which pre- 
 pare for the university. In the boys' schools military 
 training is carried on all the way through, and counts 
 toward the term of service afterward, which is com- 
 pulsory, as in Germany. 
 
 The army has been nearly doubled since the war 
 with China in 1895-6, or rather is to be so increased 
 inside of eight years from that date. It is no secret 
 that the government is straining every nerve to per- 
 fect the navy, which must always be the best defence 
 of an island nation, and the people are with it to a 
 man. Besides the ten ships captured from China, 
 which made a fleet of forty-three vessels by the 
 end of the war, seven new armored cruisers have 
 already been added, built in America and England, 
 of which the Fuji and the Yashima are over 
 twelve thousand tons, and more are to follow, with 
 torpedo boats and torpedo destroyers, and all the 
 
62 JAPAN. 
 
 rest of the horrid train. Along with this policy for 
 the navy goes that of building up a merchant marine, 
 by means of subsidies for large vessels and lines 
 chartered for trans-oceanic trade, such as the Nippon 
 Yusen Kaisha, Avhich sends lines to America, Europe 
 and Australia, as well as to comparatively near ports, 
 like Hong Kong, Bombay and Vladivostok. So far, 
 it is to be feared, these lines have had to let their 
 pride keep them warm, as the saying is ; but, if they 
 can hold out, they will surely win a place in time, for 
 the Japanese are born seamen, and their ships are 
 immaculately clean, the table fair and the service 
 excellent. The Orient Line (To Yo Kisen Kaisha) 
 has already the best ships sailing between San Fran- 
 cisco and Japan. 
 
 Since the war with China, the great event has been 
 the Revised Treaties, granted in 1896, first by Eng- 
 land, then America, Germany and all the rest, and 
 going into effect in 1899. The principal points are 
 " mixed residence " — i. e., permission to foreigners to 
 live and do business anywhere in the empire, instead 
 of only in the Treaty ports ; and, on the other hand, 
 tariff autonomy for Japan, and the doing away of the 
 irritating " Extra Territoriality " and Consular Juris- 
 diction. Whatever other effects this may have, at 
 least Japan's pride is satisfied, and she is much 
 less restlessly anxious to have her position recog- 
 nized ; and two years have already almost passed 
 without any of the awful experiences of Japanese 
 
THE TOKUGAWA AND THE RESTORATION. 63 
 
 law predicted by the Kobe Herald and its fellow 
 Japan-haters. 
 
 In 1897 the gold standard was adopted, with the 
 yen fixed at fifty cents American money, and silver 
 yen to be redeemed by the government at that rate 
 within a specified time. It was a risky measure, and 
 against the judgment of many thinkers, both Japanese 
 and foreign ; but it seems to have turned out well on 
 the whole, and nobody accuses it of the general rise 
 in prices " since the war/' which has gone on faster 
 than ever of late. 
 
 But of details of policy it seems hopeless to speak ; 
 what is true to-day will be ancient history to-morrow, 
 for New Japan grows like the young child that she is, 
 or like a stalk of her spring bamboo, on which the 
 Japanese Munchausen hung his hat one night, and in 
 the morning found it above the tree-tops. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 KAMAKURA — A FORSAKEN CITY. 
 
 " Representons-nous done le golfe de Sagarni et Kamakura, lea 
 collines boisees, la ville aux fortes murailles; la baie tranquille, oil 
 glissent les voiles. . . . All bord de la mer, dans les rues de la ville, 
 quelle activite ! pecheurs, forgerons, marchands de toutes sortes, et 
 les processions des bonzes vetus d'or et de pourpre sous la pluie des 
 fleurs, dans la fumee d'encens, et les corteges des daimio revenant de 
 la chasse ou de la guerre." — Mis. de la Mazeliere, " Histoire du 
 Japon." 
 
 " Whoso will, from pride released, 
 Contemning neither man nor beast, 
 May hear the soul of all the East 
 About him at Kamakura. 
 
 " Yea, voice of every soul that sprung 
 
 From life that strove from rung to rung, 
 
 When Devadatta's rule was young, 
 
 The warm winds bring Kamakura." 
 
 — Kipling. 
 
 Two little fishing villages, mere clusters of tumble- 
 down huts — that is all there is left of what was once 
 a city of nearly a million people, the sumptuous capi- 
 tal of Yoritomo and the Ashikaga Shoguns. 
 
 Going south from Yokohama, the train leaves the 
 main line at Ofuna Junction for the Yokosuka 
 branch, and plunging through short tunnels, and in 
 
 64 
 
KAMAKURA— A FORSAKEN CITY. 65 
 
 and out among abrupt heights and valleys, presently 
 drops you out on the edge of a tiny plain, level as a 
 floor to the very wall of the hills. A sandy road 
 crosses between rice and millet fields to the long, low 
 " Foreign Hotel," the Kai-Hin-in, or Seaside Sani- 
 tarium — a pleasant house, where European ways and 
 wants are understood and provided for. It stands 
 just back from the sea, hidden from it by a strip of 
 slender pines, twisted and slanted by the wind, and 
 beyond these again by irregular sand dunes, grown 
 over with heavy, coarse grass and tangled weeds. 
 Following a little footpath to the top, the sweep of 
 the bay breaks before you, a perfect crescent, finished 
 at either end by a bold, wooded headland. Tucked 
 away in the shelter of each curve is a little village of 
 gray, thatched houses, creeping almost to the tide- 
 line, where rows of narrow sampans lie beached, their 
 long oars inside. The people here, as in most of the 
 hamlets along the coast, combine fishing with farm- 
 ing, the women and children of the family doing a 
 large share of the field work. Picturesque as they 
 are, these villages under the cliffs have a certain 
 wind-blown, weather-beaten look, quite unlike the 
 trim tidiness of the little " Strassdorfer," as the Ger- 
 mans would say, which bead the great Tokaido high- 
 way. The old thatch is beautifully moss-grown, but 
 many of the tiny cabins are not even thatched, only 
 roughly shingled — sure sign of poverty in Japan — 
 and their mud-plastered walls are cracked and broken. 
 Vol. I. — 5 
 
(5(5 JAPAN. 
 
 But the lean, sinewy men and dumpy women look 
 sturdy and cheerful, and the country children are de- 
 lightful, if not over-clean — fat, round-faced, brown 
 cherubs, with narrow, bright eyes and most beguiling 
 grins, who come straying along the beach with the 
 usual load of babies, in hopes of selling a few shells 
 and bits of stone or coral to the Ijln San (Mr., Mrs. 
 or Miss Foreigner). Here at the tide-line something 
 is always going on. One of the most picturesque 
 moments is when the boats come in, and the rowers 
 steer swiftly through the line of surf, and then spring 
 out, bare-legged, into the foam, with garments tucked 
 about their waists, and drag the long, narrow craft 
 far up the yellow sand, while the women flock down 
 to help with the unloading. Dragging the nets is 
 another interesting sight. A dozen or twenty men, 
 more or less clad according to the season, stand on 
 the shore, pulling in line on a long rope. Sometimes 
 they haul and coil away for hours, the brown fish- 
 baskets lying idle on the sand, till at last the great 
 mesh is brought close in and the take can be gath- 
 ered. 
 
 Yet another harvest the tide brings— the great 
 masses of seaweed that are washed up by the spring 
 and autumn storms. It is all eagerly gathered, the 
 women going over the piles and carefully picking out 
 the edible varieties ; for the Japanese are very fond 
 of seaweed, and there are several choice kinds much 
 eaten as a relish — and very good they are, too, when 
 
KAMAKURA— A FORSAKEN CITY. 67 
 
 you once get used to a flavor of oyster-shells ! These 
 special sorts are separately dried and prepared for 
 market ; the rest is spread out on coarse mats along 
 the shore, and watched and turned for days. This, 
 too, is work for the women, and the old men who are 
 too rheumatic to go out with the boats. At last, 
 when it is thoroughly dry, it is beaten fine with a 
 flail, sifted through basket sieves and packed down in 
 sacks, to be shipped for fertilizing the fields inland. 
 
 To an American, all this manipulation speaks vol- 
 umes as to Japanese " intensive " methods of cultiva- 
 tion ; and, in truth, the entire little plain itself is 
 tended like a garden, and always green or brown or 
 golden with crops. A little of everything in Japan 
 seems grown on these tiny holdings, none of which 
 are more than an acre or two in extent. There is 
 rice, of course, and barley, and a few rows of beans, 
 a little rape, a little wheat, a little cotton, and brown- 
 tasseled millet, to be gathered and dried and beaten 
 out on mats by the roadside at the cottage doors. 
 Quantities of big, mealy sweet potatoes are raised at 
 Kamakura. " Satsuma imo" they call them in Japan, 
 because they really belong to the southern province. 
 They are very cheap, and are considered very plebeian 
 food, only fit for coolies. And last — surely this should 
 endear it to an American heart ! — the region is famous 
 for an excellent quality of peanuts. These, too, are 
 dried by the wayside ; indeed, everything is spread 
 out at the door, just as in Italy, including the long 
 
68 JAPAN. 
 
 strips of buckwheat macaroni — o soba y as they call it 
 — and the tasteless rice-flour wafers, which are a 
 luxury of the very poor. Naturally there is dust ; 
 but what will you have? They are not princes or 
 Americans, these people, that they should waste good 
 crop-land on such matters. 
 
 And all around the quiet plain circle the steep, 
 tumbled hills, dark with heavy masses of pine and fir 
 and the thick-leaved evergreen oak. Summer cot- 
 tages of foreigners or wealthy Japanese climb the 
 sides here and there ; but that is all. The charcoal- 
 burners go where once there were barriers and knights 
 in armor guarding every approach, in the days when 
 temples and houses and palaces filled all the level and 
 overflowed up the ravines between the slopes. Yori- 
 tomo founded it at the end of the twelfth century — 
 Yoritomo, of the house of Minamoto, eldest of the 
 three baby sons with whom their mother, Tokiwa, 
 fled from the massacre of their kin. You see her 
 often, in Japanese prints and kakemono, trudging 
 through blinding snow, Yoshitsune in her arms, and 
 Yoritomo and little JSoboyori clinging to her hands. 
 She it was who gave herself up to save her mother, 
 whom Kiyomori had captured, and by her beauty won 
 over Kiyomori to spare the boys, in an evil hour for 
 himself; for hair-cutting and enforced monastic vows 
 worked no better than at certain periods of European 
 history. Marvelous are the legends of their boyhood, 
 especially of Yoshitsune, " the young bull," as the 
 
KAMAKURA-A FORSAKEN CITY. 69 
 
 unhappy monks called him ; how, when they brought 
 him the conventual frock, he would none of it, de- 
 manding a sword instead ; or how, in the depths of 
 the forest, he took fencing lessons from a Tengu, or 
 goblin — a strange, winged creature, which hops on 
 one leg and plays something like the part of a Ger- 
 man troll in Japanese folk-lore. The lads grew up 
 to rally their clan, and presently the fierce old Kiyo- 
 mori of Taira, dying, desires only " the head of 
 Minamoto-no-Yoritomo to be laid on my grave." But 
 Yoritomo's head stayed fast — and it was no common 
 head either, but one that knew how to take advantage 
 of the storm of hate Kiyomori's arrogance and cruelty 
 had roused; and once in power, he ruled justly and 
 with a mighty hand, bringing peace and order, after 
 the years of tumult. He it was who established the 
 feudal system on a workable basis — " gave it a con- 
 stitution and a hierarchy," says de la Mazeliere ; and 
 he who also established the hereditary Shogunate, 
 that strange "Dual System" which only ended in 
 1868. 
 
 First Yoritomo's military camp was here at Kama- 
 kura ; then his scarcely less military court. Here, 
 too, he wrought the injustice and treachery toward 
 Yoshitsune, his brother, that forever darkens his 
 name ; for the younger was stronger, braver, everv- 
 where beloved, and though he had fought Yoritomo's 
 battles, and in truth won him his power, yet — perhaps 
 for that very reason — the Shogun was jealous and dis- 
 
70 JAPAN. 
 
 trusted Yosbitsune. Long weeks he kept him waiting 
 over here across the hills at Koshigoe, not permitting 
 him to enter the city, although he had come bringing 
 a Taira chief who had made submission, refusing to 
 heed his protestations of innocence, till Yoshitsune 
 gave up in despair and went back to Kyoto. Then 
 Yoritomo sent a spy to kill him, and Yoshitsune 
 killed the spy and denounced the Shogun to the 
 Emperor; and so back and forth, plot and counter- 
 plot, till at last, a fugitive in the wild northern prov- 
 inces, Yoshitsune and his faithful henchman, Benkei, 
 were treacherously murdered by the Shogun's order, 
 or, perhaps, killed themselves when all was lost — no 
 one knows. And here, under the hill, below the 
 Kwannon temple, they set up a stage, that Yoshitsune's 
 beautiful favorite, Shizuka, now Yoritomo's captive, 
 might dance a sacred dance and sing the triumphs of 
 the Shogun. So she came, the beautiful woman, more 
 beautiful than ever, in a wonderful dress ; but, instead 
 of Yoritomo's praises, she made a song of her own, 
 and wove it in the dance — how Yoshitsune fought 
 and suffered, and of his innocence and betrayal and 
 death. But the people say their hero could not die ; 
 they believed he fled to Yezo, where, strangely enough, 
 the Ainu to this day worship a god by his name. And 
 others say he escaped to Asia, and reigned there many 
 years, being no other than the great Zenghis Khan. 
 
 Kublai Khan, though, grandson of Zenghis, comes 
 really and genuinely into Kamakura's history ; for a 
 
KAMAKURA— A FORSAKEN CITY. 71 
 
 generation after Yoritorao lie sent to demand tribute 
 from Japan. Nor was he entirely outside of his rights, 
 for annual gifts had really been given to the Emperor 
 of China in a loose sort of way in the earlier centuries 
 of our era. However, it had been discontinued for 
 generations, and Japan was in no way disposed to re- 
 new it. The first set of ambassadors returned empty; 
 the second likewise. It may have been the fourth or 
 fifth legate who was taken down to the shore here and 
 beheaded, as a " demonstration " we should say now. 
 The invasion which followed was repulsed in the 
 southern island, Kiushiu, and a second still greater 
 one held in check till the Emperor made pilgrimage 
 to Yamada in Ise and prayed at the shrine of his an- 
 cestor, the Sun Goddess; whereupon, say the chroni- 
 cles, a terrific storm arose and all but destroyed the 
 Chinese fleet; and that was the end of continental 
 claims on Japan. 
 
 The chief " sight " of Kamakura, in a guide-book 
 sense, dates back almost to Yoritomo's time ; it is the 
 bronze Daibutsu, or colossal image of Buddha, so 
 often pictured and described. Tradition says that 
 Yoritomo greatly desired to build such an image, but 
 could not accomplish it, and about fifty years after his 
 death — at the beginning of the thirteenth century — 
 some pious lady of the court carried out his wish. 
 The figure is an Amida (the Buddha of light and wis- 
 dom), seated, the hands in the lap, palms up and 
 thumbs together, in the traditional attitude of contem- 
 
72 JAPAN. 
 
 plation. He sits on a stone platform, in a little gorge 
 under the open sky, in springtime up to his shoulders 
 in cherry bloom, for, after his temple had been twice 
 destroyed by tidal waves, it was not again rebuilt ; 
 and for three hundred years he has been one of the 
 " wet gods," as the Japanese say. 
 
 Perhaps the best time to see the Daibutsu is under 
 a cloudy sky, or late in the afternoon, when the sun 
 has just gone behind the hills; the absence of shadows, 
 the flatness, so to speak, of the light all going to 
 heighten the motionless calm of the figure. Like all 
 true colossi, he does not seem so very big at first. One 
 has to be told that he is all but fifty feet high ; that 
 the "jewel " on his forehead — it is a ball of pare sil- 
 ver — is over a foot across ; that his mouth measures 
 three feet and his face eight or nine. A modern 
 Liberty or Victory standing by on the platform might 
 peep — on tiptoe — over his placid shoulder, only to be 
 dwarfed into a fussy, overgrown puppet beside his 
 still dignity. 
 
 The image follows closely the earlier types of Nara 
 and Kyoto. The folds of drapery fall straight and 
 barely indicated ; all the forms are large, rounded, yet 
 never puffy ; the nude parts treated absolutely without 
 detail. The face is equally typical ; the broad fore- 
 head, the full child mouth, the eyes, closed all but the 
 narrowest of slits — yet he is not sleepy. Behind 
 those lids the god is alert with an intensity the keener 
 because so removed — the alertness of concentration. 
 
KAMAKURA— A FORSAKEN CITY. 73 
 
 This is no repose, rather an immovable, passionle-s 
 calm, as far from ease as from stiffness or stolidity. 
 Negation, remoteness, repression. Surely these are the 
 attributes of this great God of Self-Control. What, 
 then, did the maker mean ? Did he think only of the 
 Buddha who overcame desire, the example all men 
 should seek to follow ? Or did he dream, too, of the 
 Compassionate One, whose love and pity were for all 
 living things? If so, then however faintly expressed, 
 in his heart at least Avas a glimpse of the world's 
 desire — the All-Pure who yet can care for sin and 
 sorrow. 
 
 To climb inside the figure is not a little disenchant- 
 ing ; the effect on one's feelings is like going into a 
 bell-tower as the chimes die away, and seeing all the 
 wheels and pulleys by which the music was made. 
 Still, every one goes and will go, and perhaps it is 
 worth while, because only so do you get a true idea 
 of the actual size of the statue. There is a low en- 
 trance cut in the side of the lotus flower which forms 
 the seat, and through this you pass in and find a lad- 
 der, by which to mount into the head, and peer out 
 of a little window into the tops of the cherry trees. 
 There is also a small shrine inside, dedicated to 
 Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy, and a tablet in- 
 scribed with a sacred text in Chinese characters. 
 The construction can be better understood from here, 
 too. The figure was cast in separate sheets of metal 
 and run together in position, and finally finished out- 
 
74 JAPAX. 
 
 side with the carver's chisel. The inner surface is 
 rough and shapeless, and the whole cavity dusty and 
 unattractive, with a sort of unnecessary ugliness that 
 one resents, particularly in Japan, where most of life 
 is made so scrupulously beautiful. 
 
 There is another famous statue at Kamakura, held 
 very sacred by devout Japanese, though in workman- 
 ship it is greatly inferior to the Daibutsu. This is a 
 colossal figure of Kwannon, the merciful — the Eleven- 
 Faced Kwannon — who wears for a head-dress ten 
 smiling little faces of herself. According to tradition, 
 this figure and another were carved by two of the gods 
 themselves from the trunk of a huge camphor tree ; 
 and this one, being cast into the sea, traveled all the 
 way from Yamato to Kamakura, and was brought 
 ashore by some fishermen. The temple itself is large, 
 but not otherwise remarkable, except for its beautiful 
 situation, far up the side of the hill, commanding a 
 wid^ view. It is reached by three flights of broad 
 stone steps, time-worn and greened with moss and 
 lichens. Noble old trees stand around and behind, 
 and the delicate dwarf maples that put out crimson 
 leaves in the spring ; and between the branches you 
 look down on the tiny checker-board of a plain, and 
 the cliffs opposite, and the curving bay, where, as they 
 say, those pious fishermen found the image of Kwan- 
 non floating in a halo of marvelous light. The figure 
 is not bronze, but wood covered with gold lacquer, 
 and it seems to glow still in the dim inner shrine 
 
KAMAKURA— A FORSAKEN CITY. 75 
 
 where it stands, lighted only by a few pale lamps. 
 They do not show it at all times, but at certain festi- 
 vals, or in response to special offerings. Artistically. 
 a small bronze Buddha in a side shrine is of far more 
 value. It dates from the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, the time of the Ashikaga Shoguus at Kamakura, 
 which was one of the most brilliant periods of Japan- 
 ese art. Outside, near the entrance, there is a quaint 
 life-sized figure of Binzuru, a very popular deity with 
 the unlettered classes, the touch of whose image is be- 
 lieved to have healing powers. He sits outside, be- 
 cause, although he was one of the " Sixteen Disciples 
 of Buddha " — the Rakan — he once marred his saiut- 
 ship by noticing the beauty of a woman, and may not 
 therefore come inside the temple itself. 
 
 Then there is Engakuji, which has a bell eight feet 
 high, the largest in Kamakura, though hardly more 
 than two-thirds the size of the great bells at Kyoto 
 and Nara ; not hung in a bell-tower, but, as all Japan- 
 ese bells are, placed in a sort of open shed, with a 
 curving, pagoda-like roof. Likewise there is a small 
 temple to Emma, the Buddhist god of the lower 
 regions, who judges the dead according to their deeds, 
 sending them blessedness or torment. The image in 
 this temple is said to be a memory portrait made by 
 one Unkei, who died and came to life again, sent 
 back by the dread judge himself to show his likeness 
 to men. It is hideous rather than awful, like the devils 
 of mediaeval Europe. The priests add to the effect 
 
7G JAPAN. 
 
 by keeping it behind a curtain, which they draw aside 
 suddenly, revealing the squat figure and open mouth, 
 and ferocious eyes glaring out of the dusky shrine. 
 Also there is Kenchoji, of which Hearn writes with a 
 sympathetic enthusiasm most of us cannot share ; for 
 it is old and faded and dusty, the carvings broken 
 and the color scaling away. Only the great "Third 
 Gate" still keeps something of its stately magnificence. 
 Another and much more popular shrine stands higher 
 on the hill — so popular, indeed, that special trains run 
 to Kamakura on the days of its festival ; but it has 
 no interest for the tourist unless on such days, and 
 those who come here at all come to see the grounds at 
 Kenchoji and the fine old junipers. Of course, a 
 Japanese will make a garden of a sand heap or a 
 bulrush swamp, but here at the edge of the hills they 
 have only had to encourage nature — to guard a tall 
 pine here and flood a lotus pool there. Lotus — 
 Buddha's flower — is much in evidence at Kamakura. 
 A bronze lotus leaf receives the fountain at Kenchoji ; 
 the flower is carved, in conventional rendering, on 
 stone balustrades and tomb-stele and lanterns, and 
 Buddhas stand enthroned on the petals ; while in July 
 and August the temple ponds are brilliant with the 
 sumptuous great blossoms, rose-pink and white, 
 against the peculiar bluish green of the leaves, which 
 look like weathered bronze. 
 
 Many other temples there are among the hills and 
 ravines, survivals of the lost city, all more or less 
 
KAMAKURA— A FORSAKEN CITY. 77 
 
 forsaken and dilapidated, and none of any real interest 
 except the one dedicated to Hachiman, God of War, 
 on the far side of the plain from the Daibutsu. 
 
 This is still a fine building, though its splendor has 
 been spoiled by the Shinto reformation, which, since 
 1868, has swept away from many a temple the bronze 
 vases and images and shining brass lotus flowers, and 
 all the rich paraphernalia of Buddhist worship. Yori- 
 tomo founded the temple in the twelfth century, and 
 although the main building is a comparatively modern 
 restoration — rebuilt after a fire in 1828 — the first 
 Shogun's sword and many other relics connect it with 
 his time, when it was the most important shrine in 
 Kamakura. In fact, Yoritomo may be said to have 
 almost created the worship of Hachiman, which until 
 then had been merely a minor hero-cult, local and 
 insignificant; and in this de Mazeliere discovers an- 
 other example of the Shogun's shrewd statesmanship ; 
 for Hachiman, in the flesh, was the Emperor Ojin — 
 a very remarkable personage, too, being that son of 
 the strenuous Empress Jingo in whose name she con- 
 quered Korea before ever he was born. But his 
 significance for Yoritomo lay in the fact that he was 
 the great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather of 
 Minamoto, who founded his clan, and not many 
 generations back of Minamoto-no-Yoritomo himself. 
 Such a hero-divinity of an ancestor would certainly 
 be valuable to any ambitious ruler ; at any rate, Yori- 
 tomo unquestionably took pains to promote Hachiman 
 
78 JAPAN. 
 
 worship, and established it with great pomp in this 
 his new dominion, north of the Hakone Pass, which 
 he and his descendants took care to appropriate to the 
 family in every possible way. 
 
 The main building stands back and somewhat to 
 one side of a massive stone-faced terrace, to which a 
 long flight of steps leads up. The colonnade in front, 
 as well as the pillars and beams of the temple itself, 
 are painted with the dull vermilion red which one 
 comes to associate with all Buddhist temples. The 
 carvings of birds and animals have a good deal of 
 interest ; but the interior is plain, not to say bare, 
 containing only the simple accessories of the Shinto 
 faith, the mirror and the Gohei, or folded strips of 
 paper. In the porch they usually keep the portable 
 shrines used for carrying images at festival times ; 
 the relics are not often shown except at these festi- 
 vals. Oldest and most perishable of all these sacred 
 memorials must be that court robe of the Empress 
 Jingo, mother of Ojin-Hachiman, which Pierre 
 Loti saw by special favor. In his marvelous lan- 
 guage he describes the visit, and the opening of the 
 great chest, the unwrapping, fold after fold, till at 
 last within all lay a shining filmy thing, light as gos- 
 samer, so delicate that it seemed ready at any moment 
 to shiver into a cloud of dust. There is something 
 striking, almost pathetic, in the preservation of such 
 a garment for such a woman — if hers, indeed, it was 
 — a sort of reassertion of her womanhood, through 
 
KAMAKURA— A FORSAKEN CITY. 79 
 
 all the stirring legends of her life, which from all 
 accounts must have been spent chiefly in the saddle. 
 Her grandson, the Emperor Nintoku, son of Ojin, 
 has a little temple below the steps leading to his 
 father's, and a second small building contains an un- 
 important wooden statue of Yoritomo. 
 
 A long avenue of pines, now much destroyed, leads 
 straight up to the temple from the sea. Three high 
 stone torii stand across the avenue — those strange 
 Shinto pylons, whose type-form is two posts and a 
 cross-beam, projecting at the ends, and whose origin 
 goes back out of sight in the dim "Age of the Gods." 
 Something in their loneliness, as they stand apart, 
 makes these particular torii especially impressive. 
 The temple beyond is almost hidden in the trees, and 
 there are no other buildings n-ar. Seen so, the fine 
 proportions and purity of line — the slight inward 
 slant of the posts, the curving ends of the cross- 
 beams turning a little up— give them a certain severe 
 beauty most characteristic of pure " Yamato " taste, 
 which has strangely little in common with the gor- 
 geous Indo-Chinese influences of Buddhistic art. To 
 the simple cross-beam is added here, and often else- 
 where, a second cross-tie-beam, and a supporting 
 block between the two. It is probably a concession 
 to the necessities of stone construction, the original 
 form being wood. Tradition says they were perches 
 for the fowls (tori), brought for sacrifice to early 
 Shinto temples ; or that the Golden Crow, the mystic 
 
80 JAPAN. 
 
 Hobo Bird, rests thereon in his flight toward the sun. 
 One version is about as authentic as the other, and 
 about as probable ; for what this form does suggest 
 inevitably is a Dolmen, the stone uprights and lintel 
 translated into wood, and then, as here, back again into 
 stone. When the archaeologists explain Stonehenge, 
 perhaps they will throw some light on these strange 
 torii. 
 
 Modern education in Japan has borrowed from Ger- 
 many the good custom of sending schoolboy excursions 
 to study history on the spot, and the youngsters sleep 
 in camp on the shore, and tramp Kamakura over, re- 
 hearsing how soon Yoritomo's direct line went out in 
 blood, his grandson and last descendant, the Shogun 
 Sanetomo, being murdered while worshiping at the 
 Hachiman temple by a nephew whose father Sanetomo 
 had killed, and who w r as killed in turn ; how the Hojo 
 Regents usurped the Shogun's power and ruled for 
 them as they for the Emperor, and how the Ashikaga 
 branch of Minamoto helped the ever-unlucky Empe- 
 ror Go-Daigo to overthrow the Hojo, and then took 
 unlawful power in their turn. They hear, too, of 
 Masako, Yoritomo's clever wife, who became a nun 
 after his death, and from the convenient retirement of 
 the cloister directed affairs of state. They go to see 
 the cave where an imperial prince, Go-Haigo's son, 
 Morinaga, was confined, and at last put to death by 
 Ashikaga ; and they are reminded that the period of 
 these disloyal Shoguns was filled with treachery and 
 
KAMAKURA-A FORSAKEN CITY. 81 
 
 strife, so that in spite of their power and magnificence 
 the memory of the Ashikaga family is held in abhor- 
 ence. And they climb the western headland where 
 Go-Daigo's faithful general, Nitta, stood and cried to 
 the God of the Sea, for the Hojo had a guard of ships 
 across the bay, and a chevaux defrise at the foot of the 
 clitf, and all the hills were full of armed men. And 
 when he had prayed, he flung into the sea his most 
 precious thing, his sword, " the soul of the Samurai," 
 and Kompira accepted the sacrifice and rolled back 
 the water, and the army passed round the turn of the 
 cliff and took and sacked the city. But the Ashikaga 
 rebuilt it more magnificently than before, and its de- 
 cline came only gradually with the disturbances of the 
 fifteenth century and the removal of the Shogun's 
 court to the neighbor city, Odawara. Finally, when 
 Tokugawa Ieyasu chose Yedo for his capital, Kama- 
 kura was completely deserted for two hundred years, 
 till the Yokohama residents rediscovered it for their 
 own use. 
 
 The place is really getting quite crowded now. 
 Besides the hotels, many Japanese, as well as Ameri- 
 cans and Europeans, have cottages near the sea or up 
 the hillsides. The bathing is quite good, though the 
 water is hardly cold enough to be particularly bracing, 
 and the beach is soft and shifts treacherously after 
 storms. The country people say that at a certain sea- 
 son — just after the Feast of the Dead, according to 
 the old calendar — the Sea-God claims a yearly victim, 
 Vol. I.— 6 
 
82 JAPAN. 
 
 and as the fatal time is in August, when wind and 
 currents are most uncertain, it too often happens that 
 some careless swimmer fulfills the tradition. 
 
 Summer at Kamakura is undeniably hot, and its 
 devotees are forced to claim that they prefer it that 
 way. Winter and early spring are especially de- 
 lightful here ; the air is warmer and softer than in 
 Tokyo, and the blossoms come early. By the end of 
 March the scent of purple bean-flower steals up from 
 the roadsides, and the frogs pipe all night long in the 
 wet fields ; the hills and woods are full of wild-flowers, 
 startlingly like those of our Atlantic coast, while up 
 the sunny cliffs, where the air is heavily sweet with 
 Avild pittosporum, you may close your eyes and dream 
 of June in Italy. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ENOSHIMA. 
 
 On a sunny day, if you climb the east cliff from 
 Kamakura to a certain little tea-house perched far up 
 the side, you will find a glorious view of the country 
 round about, and all across the bay to the far shore 
 of Sagami, where stand the Hakone mountains, and 
 above them Fuji San — seeming, as some one puts it, 
 " to bathe their feet in the sea." Lymg between 
 Kamakura and this far shore, just beyond the next 
 inlet, is a beautiful little wooded island, green to the 
 edge of its steep cliffs. It is Enoshima — Island of 
 the Bay — the sacred island of Benten, Goddess of 
 Luck. 
 
 Everybody goes to Enoshima at least once, and 
 many of the Yokohama and Tokyo "foreign resi- 
 dents " have cottages there, and run down for days or 
 weeks to get the sea air and escape the greater heat 
 of the city. It is an all-day trip from either Yoko- 
 hama or Kamakura, but not a hard one. In Japan 
 there is always an inn to rest at, and on Enoshima 
 there are three good ones — shoes off, of course! — 
 where chairs and tables and knives and forks are to 
 be had, also omelette and excellent fried or broiled 
 
 83 
 
#4 JAPAN. 
 
 fish, with the never-failing rice. Moreover, those 
 who do not wish to depend on such viands, or venture 
 on an entirely Japanese meal, can bring a lunch from 
 their own hotel and have it nicely served at the inn. 
 The jinrikisha men Avill carry it, after you leave the 
 kurumas to cross to the island. Most of these men 
 speak half a dozen words of English, and they will 
 act as guides, carry your purchases, and make them- 
 selves generally useful, quite earning the twenty or 
 thirty sen apiece which they are sure to ask for their 
 own meal. 
 
 In fine weather it is possible to take a boat and row 
 or sail from Kamakura directly over to the caves ; but 
 the usual way is by kuruma over the western cliff and 
 along the beach road, about four miles each way. The 
 road crosses the cliff by a deep cutting, between walls 
 of rock that rise high above one's head, green with 
 moss and ferns, and almost arched over by splendid 
 maple trees, making a gray-and-green frame to the 
 view backward over Kamakura and the sea. A 
 group of weather-worn tombstones stands beside the 
 road, some fallen, some leaning this way and that; 
 and near by is a row of stone images of Jizo, friend 
 of travelers and protector of little children. For the 
 sake of these little ones mothers make funny red bibs, 
 such as babies wear, and tie them under Jizo's chubby 
 chin, where they hang till rain and wind have beaten 
 them to faded rags. 
 
 In spite of the deep cut, it is a long climb to the 
 
EXOSHIMA. 85 
 
 top of the cliff and the slope down to the next beach. 
 This, too, is a crescent curve, backed by high dunes 
 and ending in a strip of sand, which at low tide 
 connects Benten's island with the shore; and just 
 over the sand, between the dark island and a darker 
 headland, if the mists permit, Fuji San sweeps up 
 into the sky, dazzling white or faint as the clouds 
 about its base, and flanked by the blue Hakone 
 ranges, sloping oif on either side. At the far end of 
 the beach there is another tiny village of thatched 
 huts, where the men leave their kurumas ; for beyond 
 this there is only deep sand or rocky footpaths. The 
 rickety wooden bridge which crosses over to the island 
 is usually washed away by storms two or three times 
 a season ; and when this has happened, you are poled 
 over in a sampan, or trudge across when the tide is 
 out, ankle deep in the shifting yellow sand. 
 
 At the end of the neck, below the first slope of the 
 hill, a high bronze torii marks the entrance to the 
 sacred island. It is the third and last of three, the 
 other two being on the road which comes directly in 
 from the Tokaido, around the turn from the little 
 village we have just left. About the base of this torii 
 climb tortoises, wrought in relief — tortoises toiling up 
 steep rocks from the dash of curling bronze waves. 
 They are the companions of Benten Sama, whose home 
 is in the depths of the sea, whose servants are dragons 
 and sea-serpents, and whose worshipers may not harm 
 a snake of any kind. (Luckily there are no venom- 
 
ZQ JAPAN. 
 
 ous ones in Japan.) In golden images and pictures 
 Benten appears as a serene young matron, seated on a 
 rock splashed by the waves ; at her feet a dragon 
 bears in his claws the crystal ball which brings in the 
 tide, while she holds the other " tide jewel " which 
 makes the waters recede. She is the friend of sea- 
 men, the protectress of young mothers, the bringer 
 of love and luck and beauty; and her sons are 
 Daikoku, personification of wealth, a fat and merry 
 godling, with an immense rice-bag on his back j Ebisu, 
 who carries a fish on a line ; Hotei, grotesque and 
 grinning ; Bishamon, who gives success in war ; 
 Jurojin, good luck; and Fukurokuji, happy old age, 
 whose long head is made still longer by an enormously 
 high cap. 
 
 This is the legend of Benten's coming to Enoshima : 
 Long, long ago there was no island here at all, but 
 the river Kashigoye flowed into the sea, as it does 
 now, just behind the point of land which ends the 
 beach, and about the river lay a great marsh, where 
 lived five terrible dragons, who came forth and de- 
 voured the fairest maidens of the neighboring villages. 
 And the people groaned and prayed in vain. But 
 one night there arose an awful storm, as if all the 
 demons of sea and air had broken loose, and the 
 people lay shivering with terror ; but in the morning, 
 when they looked forth, the wind was still and before 
 them lay a beautiful island, new-risen from the sea, 
 and on the highest point sat Benten herself, throned 
 
ENOSHIMA. 87 
 
 on a rainbow cloud. Moreover, the dragons departed, 
 never to return ; and the villagers drained the swamp 
 and made it into fertile fields, even as it is this day. 
 
 The folk of Enoshima seem in no way oppressed 
 by any burden of sanctity resting upon their island ; 
 all the year round seems a perpetual holiday, a 
 ceaseless thronging of pilgrims and sight-seers coming 
 and going across the sand and under the great torii. 
 Enoshima village clusters against the cliff and climbs 
 it by a single street, which is hardly more than a 
 long flight of mossy steps cut in the rock, and lined 
 with shops and booths for the sale of all manner of 
 sea curiosities — anything that can be found or made 
 to take home as a memento of the pilgrimage. Here 
 are shells and beads, and the strange and beautiful 
 glass sponges found below Benten's cave, and bits of 
 coral or odd stones ; there are flower hairpins such as 
 little girls delight to wear, made of delicate, tinted 
 shells; netsukc, carved weights for the pipe-case or 
 other articles carried in the belt ; paper-weights ; 
 slate ink-stones for mixing the india-ink, with bits of 
 shell or coral bedded in the lid ; agate teacups, boxes 
 and trays innumerable ; some things fragile, some 
 useful, all having some suggestion of the sea, and all 
 wonderfully dainty and alluring. The shops are 
 served by coaxing obasans (grandmammas) and round- 
 faced girls, the country type, seldom pretty, but always 
 smiling and good-humored. Flags and blue and 
 white hangings flutter in the wind; wooden clogs 
 
88 JAPAN. 
 
 clatter up and down, to a rippling accompaniment of 
 voices, till you get past the shops and climb on, by 
 more irregular mossy steps, through deep, cool shade, 
 catching between the branches exquisite glimpses of 
 the mountains and the clear sea far below. Near the 
 top there is a graceful little temple, with curving, 
 tiled roof, Shinto now in faith, but decidedly Bud- 
 dhistic in architecture. There are three temples in 
 all, the highest standing where Benten first appeared 
 upon her island. They seem deserted now, the pil- 
 grims visiting most the sacred caves below the cliff. 
 Skirting around the side of the island, you come out 
 upon a high point directly over these caves, com- 
 manding a w T onderful view of the coast far and near. 
 Little rest-houses are placed here and there, mere 
 platforms, each spread with a piece of clean matting 
 and roofed with rough mats or thatch ; and there you 
 sit and enjoy the view, while a smiling old woman 
 brings tea and dry little rice-flour cakes, shaped like 
 scollop shells, and the inevitable box of coals to light 
 your pipe. Everybody smokes in Japan ; there are 
 cigars and cigarettes for the progressive, and tiny 
 pipes for the conservative — pipes having a stem as 
 thick as a pencil and a bowl nearly as big as a child's 
 thimble. Three puffs is the rule, and then knock out 
 the ball ; but it is usually refilled again very soon. 
 
 At the foot of the cliff is the sacred cave, which is 
 neither very large nor in any w T ay remarkable, unless 
 one could trace the supposed likeness to a dragon ; a 
 
ENOSHIMA. gy 
 
 pretty path leads to it, plunging steeply down, ending 
 in some rickety bridges across the rocks just above the 
 tide-line. The cave is rather wide at the mouth, but 
 narrow and low as it runs back far into the hill ; 
 more shaky planks, fastened to the ledge, pass into it, 
 and a few guttering candles show little shrines set 
 against the rock, a dim lamp burning before each. 
 There is no suggestion of danger, still less any sense 
 of awe or mystery; for one thing, there are quite too 
 many people about, pilgrims and holiday-makers, and 
 boys anxious to dive for pennies in the transparent 
 sea outside. In storms, though, the dashing surf 
 about these rocks must be very grand ; at such times 
 it is not possible to enter the caves. 
 
 In the thirteenth century Enoshima was almost the 
 scene of a martyrdom, but claims a miracle instead. 
 Nichiren, the great Buddhist saint and reformer, had 
 been going about preaching in court and camp, de- 
 nouncing crime and vice in high places, which so 
 angered the Regent, Hojo Tokimune, that he first 
 exiled the priest and then condemned him to death. 
 They took him out to die on the rocks at Enoshima, 
 but twice the sword turned aside, and the third time 
 broke in pieces. The frightened guard sent a mes- 
 senger post haste to the Regent's palace at Kama- 
 kura to tell the miracle. Meanwhile a thunder-clap 
 — a phenomenon less ordinary than an earthquake in 
 Japan — coming from a clear sky, so terrified Hojo 
 Tokimasa that he, too, hurried off a messenger to stay 
 
90 JAPAN. 
 
 the execution. The two envoys met at a tiny river 
 which flows into the sea half-way between Kamakura 
 and Enoshima, and thenceforth this stream has been 
 called the River of Meeting. Nichiren was released ; 
 the Regent came and made prayer to Ben ten, and 
 after waiting three weeks beheld her in a vision and 
 received forgiveness. 
 
 Since the Restoration, Benten Sama has been ousted 
 in favor of three Shinto goddesses ; but it may well 
 be doubted whether the common people are aware of 
 any distinct difference. It is likely they feel about it 
 much as so many Italian peasants would if the church 
 of Saint Catherine were to be rededicated, say to Saint 
 Elizabeth and Saint Anne. They believe the divini- 
 ties of the island bring luck, and they know, in a dim 
 sort of way, that he who prays must not do wrong ; 
 for did not the goddess warn that same Hojo, the 
 Regent, that if he and his descendants were unjust 
 and wicked, his line would end in seven generations, 
 and did not all this come to pass ? Such things they 
 believe ; but in truth they are a simple folk, and for 
 the most part trouble their heads with very little 
 thinking at all. 
 
 And so up over the hill again to the Ebisu-ya or 
 the Kin-ki-ro, to lunch and rest on the cool mats, 
 while the sea wind sweeps through the open screens, 
 till it is time to return by beach and cliff to Kama- 
 kura again. 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 A JAPANESE INN. 
 
 The whole coast southward from Yokohama is full 
 of coves and picturesque nooks, delightful to visit ; 
 but there is no full-fledged " foreign " hotel on the 
 sea, except the one at Kamakura. There are plenty 
 of good Japanese inns, though, some of them the very 
 ones in which the Daimyo used to lodge, with their 
 trains, on their periodic journeys to and from Yedo ; 
 but it is best to beware of places much frequented by 
 foreigners, for where the globe-trotter goes to play 
 with what he calls " the Mousmees " one will not find 
 anything either respectable or typically Japanese. 
 Broiled fish (shio yaki) and eggs are to be had at all 
 good inns in Japan, and with these and rice one will 
 not starve for a few days ; still, such a limited diet is 
 distinctly unwholesome, and is sure to become most 
 unappetizing in a short time, even if it does not thor- 
 oughly upset the digestion. Along the railroad lines 
 there is usually bread to be had, and condensed milk 
 and vile coifee, also "biru," i. e., beer; butter gener- 
 ally gosarimasen, honorably is not, or of a quality 
 uneatable. Generally speaking, therefore, it is not 
 
 91 
 
92 JAPAN. 
 
 well to go off the beaten track at first without a 
 guide who will lay in a small stock of provisions, and 
 is not above cooking, or at least superintending the 
 operation. Chickens are nearly always to be had, 
 and beef frequently ; but to get them properly pre- 
 pared is quite another thing. 
 
 The charges at these inns are very moderate, and it 
 is an understood thing that every guest will add a 
 gratuity, called chadai (literally, tea-money), as a 
 present to the house and the servants. The amount 
 is theoretically in proportion to the rank of the guest 
 and the kind of accommodation he has received, and 
 of course a Japanese knows without difficulty what 
 his position requires him to give. A third more than 
 the bill is a fair sum for a foreigner to bestow, when 
 he has been charged the usual rate of seventy-five sen 
 to a yen per day ; of course, if he has been charged 
 two or three yen a day, he is not expected to pay 
 chadai at all, and should only give a small fee to the 
 servants who have waited on him, as here or in 
 Europe. If you think you are not being treated as 
 well as you deserve, a rather liberal chadai may be 
 given soon after your arrival, instead of on departing, 
 as a sort of indication of your expectations ; it is sure 
 to be responded to promptly. Such donations are 
 always folded in a piece of paper marked with the 
 character for "gift;" it is one of those little courtesies 
 a Japanese never neglects. When you depart, mine 
 host makes little return gifts as remembrances, usually 
 
A JAPANESE INN. 93 
 
 fans or printed towels or tiny teacups, always exceed- 
 ingly dainty and tasteful. 
 
 Accommodations of a Western sort vary with the 
 number of foreigners who frequent the place in ques- 
 tion ; at many inns now they have a table and a few 
 chairs, which they will bring out, and knives, forks 
 and plates. At night they will always pile quilts on 
 top of each other till they make quite a soft bed, 
 though bedstead there is none. (I can't remember 
 who it was that said his heaped-up couch always 
 made him think of Hector's funeral pile.) There is 
 only one under sheet, tacked fast (see that it is a clean 
 one), no upper sheet and no blankets ; the cover is a 
 huge quilt, its top end padded up into a roll particu- 
 larly fat and smothering. The hard sausage pillow 
 will not be much comfort to a foreigner, and wise 
 people carry at least an air-cushion, if not sheets and 
 pillows, of their own ; towels and soap everybody is 
 expected to bring. Washing apparatus in the bed- 
 room there is none ; the Japanese think it a very 
 untidy custom to wash there, and go to bath-rooms in 
 another part of the house ; but they will yield to 
 Western eccentricities so far as to give you a basin 
 and jug, in a corner of the balcony opening on your 
 room — never inside, on the spotless mats. Indeed, 
 the Japanese are inclined to have a poor opinion of 
 Western notions of cleanliness. Mr. Stafford Ran- 
 some relates how he remonstrated with a landlord 
 once on the condition of the " foreign " part of his 
 
94 JAPAN. 
 
 house, as compared to the immaculate Japanese por- 
 tion, and mine host explained that it was not worth 
 while to clean up much for foreigners ; they were an 
 essentially dirty race, and would not know the differ- 
 ence. Didn't they wear boots into the house? What 
 could you expect of a people like that ? 
 
 The landlord's argument suggests the notice which 
 used to be posted in the cars of a certain American 
 railroad, "Gentlemen will, and others must, keep 
 their feet off the seats." The rhythmic advice applies 
 precisely to Japanese houses; the thick, soft mats 
 which cover the whole room are chairs, tables, all the 
 furnishing of the establishment, and should be treated 
 as such, and not soiled with dust from the street or 
 cut up with sharp heels. So, however bothersome — 
 and nobody hates it more than a Japanese in European 
 clothes — " Gentlemen will, and others must," put off 
 out-door shoes at the door of every Japanese house. 
 At some temples, though, and other places often vis- 
 ited by foreigners they keep huge canvas socks to pull 
 over your shoes instead, or the guide will carry your 
 own ; and at most shops and wayside tea-houses you 
 sit on the edge of the open room, instead of going 
 inside at all. 
 
 Still, in spite of possible discomforts, a stranger is 
 never quite in touch with the country till he has spent 
 a night in a real Japanese yadoya, eaten with chop- 
 sticks and slept on the floor ; so try my pet inn, which 
 shall be called the Sign of the Pine Tree, because that 
 
A JAPANESE INN. 95 
 
 is not its name, and which is situated on the coast 
 somewhere between Volcano Bay and the Inland Sea. 
 Many Japanese inns open directly on the street, but 
 the Pine Tree stands back a little in a fenced court, 
 entered by a wide gate hung with metal lanterns. 
 The entrance proper is a roofed space something be- 
 tween a porte cochere and a vestibule ; the front part 
 of it is bare beaten earth, the back a raised platform 
 of polished boards level with the floor of the house. 
 As one approaches the rattle of wheels and the jinriki- 
 sha men's shout of " hyaku san !" (guests) brings a 
 row of maids to the entrance, bowing shiny black 
 heads to the floor, with pretty cries of welcome : 
 "Irashai! hairi nasaij" ("Enter, honorably 
 enter!") You seat yourself a moment on the edge 
 of the platform, and one of the porters hastens to un- 
 tie your shoes; he is a slight young fellow in the 
 traditional blue cotton garments, with the hotel trade- 
 mark stamped in white across his back and sleeves. 
 A bowing clerk calls the number of the room assigned, 
 say 33, and " san-jis-san /" chant the men and maids 
 in chorus. One takes the shoes and puts them in one 
 of the numbered cupboards in the vestibule; others 
 gather up bags and wraps and lead the way through 
 long, slippery corridors and staircases steep and narrow 
 as ladders to the room. 
 
 A stranger may be forgiven if his first instinct is to 
 stop at the door and ask to see a furnished apartment. 
 There is not even a door, by the way ; only sliding 
 
96 JAPAN. 
 
 paper panels for walls, and for window a whole side 
 open to the street or garden, or partly closed with 
 more paper screens thin enough to let the light 
 through. And in the room itself is no stick of furni- 
 ture, only a thin, flat cushion or two perhaps, and a 
 text or picture in the one raised niche, which looks as 
 if it might do for a seat. The maid hastens to bring 
 a hibachi, literally a firepot or box of burning char- 
 coal, with a small iron kettle on a tripod in the coals. 
 Next comes a round tray holding a teapot and tea jar 
 and five small handleless cups, and kneeling by the 
 hibachi she makes tea, and offers dry little cakes to 
 beguile the time till dinner is ready. Never be in a 
 hurry at a Japanese hotel, or anywhere in Japan for 
 that matter ; it is quite useless, and only gets you a 
 reputation for bad manners. Tadaima, which as Mr. 
 Chamberlain says " the dictionaries in their simplicity 
 render as ' immediately,'* " means any time at all. It 
 is better to wait quietly, and meanwhile accept the 
 damsel's invitation to the bath, " honorable hot water " 
 as she calls it. First, though, make sure that you 
 have the first turn of the tub, and remember, too, not 
 to enter it till you are as clean as soap and abundant 
 rinsings will make you, if you do not want to be set 
 down as a " dirty Tojin" by those who follow you in 
 the same tubful of hot water. The bath-house, as 
 usual, is far away in a secluded recess of the garden — 
 such a pretty garden, too, all made up of tiny courts 
 and alleys and goldfish basins. Here is a clump of 
 
A JAPANESE INN. 97 
 
 bamboo screening an outhouse; there a picturesque 
 pine and a dash of vivid azalea blossom j a morning- 
 glory vine is climbing over a bit of sunny fence, and 
 a willowy nanten bush trails long, dark leaves over a 
 rocky pool. The bath-room is separated from the 
 world merely by sliding paper panels, like those all 
 over the house, but at the Sign of the Pine Tree one 
 is not troubled, like the immortal Orthodocia, by rude 
 fingers poked through the paper walls. On the slatted 
 floor you take your scrub, then enter the scalding 
 water for a soak, which is to be followed by as many 
 pailfuls of delicious well-water as you care to splash 
 over yourself. The inn provides freshly washed cotton 
 kimonos, to take the place of your own dusty gar- 
 ments, and so arrayed you may wander back through 
 the courts and the polished corridors to your own 
 upper chamber, there to lounge delightfully on the soft 
 mats or groan over the absence of chairs, as your mood 
 and your muscles dictate. 
 
 The meal is served to each guest on a square lacquered 
 tray, and whether it be breakfast, dinner or supper, 
 consists ordinarily of fish or some kind of omelette, 
 tw r o soups in little covered lacquer bowls, and a small 
 dish of pickles ; an empty china bowl for the rice, and 
 a pair of chop-sticks (0 haski) laid across it, completes 
 the set ; and the maid sits by to serve the rice from a 
 wooden tub. One of the soups is usually made of 
 fish, with bits of green vegetables floating in it, the 
 other of beans in some form ; shoyu or soy is served 
 Vol. I.— 7 
 
98 JAPAN. 
 
 as a sauce with nearly everything, and many dishes 
 are cooked with it, giving a peculiar flavor not unlike 
 Worcestershire sauce. Everything is daintily and 
 prettily served, the pickles lending a touch of color, 
 which is helped out sometimes by a leaf of bamboo 
 and a pile of white horseradish, grated, just as we 
 use it. 
 
 Certain inns make specialties of one or another 
 delicacy; thus Sir Edwin Arnold praises the broiled 
 eels of the Golden Carp in Tokyo, and another house 
 is famous for o soba, buckwheat macaroni, and another 
 lets you choose your fish from a pool and cooks it 
 while you wait. But a list of dainties would fall 
 coldly on Western ears, even if it included chawan 
 mushi, steamed eggs cooked with fish and mushrooms, 
 and take-no-ko, young shoots of spring bamboo ; or raw 
 fish, carp or tal, fresh from the water and cut in thin, 
 pinky slices, more crisp and delicate than any Little 
 Necks or Blue Points, and so digestible that Tokyo 
 surgeons give it to patients for the first solid food after 
 an illness ; or bean-curd (o tofu) and white beans deli- 
 cately sugared, and plump chestnuts boiled with 
 mashed sweet potato — this last dish should be eaten in 
 November, looking out on a hillside of crimson maples. 
 I suspect the secret of learning to eat Japanese food is 
 never to force down anything one does not like ; just 
 taste, and taste again another time, and so get over the 
 strangeness, which makes half the difficulty. It is 
 quite certain that to be really wholesome for any 
 
A JAPANESE INN. 99 
 
 length of time all the elements of the food must be 
 eaten in proper proportion, especially the soups and 
 the shoyu sauce, perhaps even a little of the pickles, 
 which are very many and very, very strange. 
 
 Somehow Japanese food never seems to taste cpiite 
 right unless it is eaten with chop-sticks, or o hashi, to 
 use the prettier Japanese name. After all it is easy 
 enough to manage them safely, if not too gracefully, 
 once one has caught the trick of holding them between 
 the thumb and fingers — they are not to be held one in 
 each hand like a knife and fork. The lower stick 
 should be kept firmly against the third finger, while 
 the top one is held by the thumb and the first and 
 second fingers, and plays on the other like one half of 
 an old-fashioned pair of tongs. It is proper to drink 
 the soup from the bowl, holding it with both hands, or, 
 taking it in the left hand, to pick out the pieces of fish 
 or vegetables with the o hashi. Soup, broiled fish, 
 eggs or whatever there is should be eaten along with 
 the rice, not as a separate course, as we should take 
 soup. Of course, the rice is the staple dish, two and 
 even three bowlfuls being eaten at a meal ; it is so 
 cooked that every grain lies distinct, yet so sticky that 
 it can be lifted in lumps without spilling a grain. It 
 is quite hard, though, and, by the way, foreigners often 
 find soft-boiled rice a good deal more wholesome. At 
 the inns they will always make this o Icaiyu, a rice hot 
 water," as they call it, if they are told a little before- 
 hand. 
 
100 JAPAN. 
 
 I have a particularly pleasant recollection of one 
 evening at the Pine Tree, when the little nesan closed 
 the shutters on the chilly winter twilight, and a friend 
 and I sat down to what was my first experience of 
 tori-nabe — "chicken-in-the-pan" would be the nearest 
 English equivalent — and this is the way to make it : 
 Take a chicken or other fowl or game bird ; cut the 
 meat from the bones in small pieces, and lay it on an 
 iron plate; add several small onions — not great self- 
 assertive Bermudas, but the delicate little Japanese 
 ningij no thicker than the end of your little finger. 
 Moisten with a liberal allowance of shoyu (soy) and 
 set the plate over the coals in a hibachi ; turn the 
 morsels with chop-sticks, and serve from the plate as 
 fast as they brown. 
 
 Tori-nabe is a great favorite with students, they 
 say, perhaps because it is hot and savory and com- 
 paratively cheap — and Japanese students are always 
 hungry, poor things ! But I fear it would not do in 
 America ; there would be something wanting, the 
 something that seasons corn roasted in the embers, or 
 trout broiled over a camp-fire. It needs Ume in her 
 pretty Quakerly dress, and the hibachi between us on 
 the floor, and the night wind crying outside. No, 
 tori-nabe in the chafing-dish would not be at all the 
 same thing. 
 
 At a feast where sake (rice wine) is drunk it comes 
 first and along with various fancy dishes, the rice being 
 served only at the very end. Sir Edwin Arnold gives 
 
A JAPANESE INN. 101 
 
 one of his pretty descriptions of the way the sake is 
 served, hot, in a tall china bottle set within a wooden 
 stand: " A tiny, delicate sake cup for each guest, lying 
 in a porcelain, bronze or carved wooden bowl of 
 water. . . . Taking a cup in both hands, the kneeling 
 maid presents it to the chief guest, and afterwards 
 other cups to the others, in like manner, filling the 
 cups to the brim, and being careful not to spill a drop. 
 You toss your first cup off, and, rinsing it in the water, 
 offer it with both hands to each friend in succession, 
 saying, " ippui kudasai." He or she takes your cup, 
 lifts it to the forehead, holds it to be filled, drinks, 
 rinses, and returns it ; after which you must also drink. 
 The musmee, kneeling before you, keeps her black eyes 
 wide open to notice and fill up all empty cups, or a 
 friend will perform that office for you — the strict rule 
 being that you never help yourself to the ' honorable 
 sake.' " 
 
 By the way, asking Sir Edwin's pardon, only Treaty 
 Port foreigners speak of the tea-house servants as 
 " musmees,' , which is a corruption of mustime (girl or 
 daughter), a word having none of the implications 
 which Loti and others have tacked on to it. The 
 Japanese say nesan, "elder sister," to these serving- 
 maids, and treat them as the respectable, hard-working 
 girls that they are. If these gentlemen want a toy to 
 amuse them, as is quite too commonly the case, there 
 are geisha to be hired by the hour to sing and dance 
 and make witty remarks like the Columbines and 
 
102 JAPAN. 
 
 Punchinellos of other lands — but this is quite too 
 large a subject to enter upon. Instead, we will clap 
 our hands and summon the little maid, who will bi ing 
 in the futon for the beds, close the wooden shutters 
 of the balcony, put up, if it is summer, a green mos- 
 quito net on a frame, light a candle in a paper lantern, 
 ami leave you to slumber — which you will do more 
 readily if you have brought a package of insect pow- 
 der, for Japan rivals Germany or Italy in abundance 
 of fleas. Getting rid of noise is hopeless in a paper 
 house, and for this reason the choicest rooms of an inn 
 are at the very top, sometimes in a sort of tower lifted 
 above the merriment of drinkers and card players. 
 These up-stairs rooms, too, are apt to have a window 
 which can be left open, as the wooden shutters at the 
 edge of the balcony cannot well be for fear of thieves. 
 By day this does not matter, for the shutters are pushed 
 back and the whole side of the room is a great window, 
 open to the light and air, or closed by the thin paper 
 shojij which seem to foreigners so exceedingly inade- 
 quate — and are rather so, perhaps, of a frosty morn- 
 ing. The fact is Loti is right; Japan is a tropical 
 country which has moved up North by mistake, and 
 has never found it out. 
 
 " Quel pays ou tout est bizarre, ce Japon ! Un hiver 
 presque comme celui de France, avec des gelees, des 
 neiges, — et les cycas poussent tout de meme, les bambous 
 deviennent grands comme des arbres ; d'uu bout de 
 l'annee a l'autre les cigales chantent . . . et tout le 
 
A JAPANESE INN. 103 
 
 mond grelatte dans des maisons de papier. Vraimcnt 
 on dirait d'nn pays tropical qui serait remonte vers le 
 nord sans s'en appercevoir; etourdement, sans prendre 
 ses dispositions d'hiver." — (" Japoneries d' Automne.") 
 He caught certain externals with such marvelous 
 Bareness, this Loti ; strange that he should have so 
 misread the deeper things, even in that very life of the 
 Treaty Ports with which he is so gaily familiar. 
 Well, people generally see what they have come ex- 
 pecting to find, and those who are looking for a toy 
 country of bowing, giggling puppets may possibly 
 discover that — and nothing more. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FROM YOKOHAMA TO TOKYO. 
 
 " The iron road creeps forward day by day ; 
 
 I watch the falling pine trees through my tears. 
 Princesses ! If you perish for the Way, 
 I dare not bid you Live a thousand years !" 
 
 The thought of this little poem is so characteristic 
 of Japan that I cannot resist quoting it, though it is 
 cruel to spoil with a clumsy attempt at translation Mme. 
 Shimoda's graceful ida on the princess-pines (hime- 
 matsu) which had to be cut clown in building the To- 
 kaido railroad. The dainty terseness of these Japanese 
 verselets is as untranslatable as the play upon words 
 on which they turn : here it is To, a road, a way, which 
 may also be read To or Tao, the Way of Life, the 
 Way of the Gods — and the mysterious, lofty system 
 of ethics founded by the Chinese Lao-Tse. As for 
 the sentiment, a remark of De Mazeliere's in the His- 
 toire du Japon might have been written as a commen- 
 tary on this very poem : " No people has shown such 
 disinterestedness in sacrificing what they hold dear or 
 individual to the exigencies of a higher civilization. 
 Leur ideal fut toyjours un ideal de lutte et de sacrifice." 
 
 The railroad from Yokohama to Tokyo was the first 
 104 
 
FROM YOKOHAMA TO TOKYO. 105 
 
 line built in Japan, unless we count the little toy road 
 which Commodore Perry set up and ran with toy en- 
 gines, to astonish and amuse the people. The line was 
 finished in 1872, and all the city turned out to see the 
 first train, which entered Tokyo with flags flying and 
 arches of green across the track, as if it were a national 
 festival — as indeed it deserved to be. Englishmen 
 built the road and manned it too at first, and all its 
 habits and traditions are English born, though Bald- 
 win's, in Philadelphia, have since contributed certain 
 engines of hybrid pattern, neither English nor alto- 
 gether American. Japan has already begun to build 
 her own ; long before now the foreign experts have 
 been succeeded by natives in all departments, and, by 
 this modification and that, the national mark has been 
 set upon it all, as in Japan it invariably is — and ought 
 to be. 
 
 The distance from the port to the capital is eighteen 
 miles, and takes fifty minutes by train. It is a pretty 
 ride through a richly cultivated country, with peeps 
 of Yedo Bay on one side and hills on the other, and 
 behind these the serrated line of the Hakone moun- 
 tains, with Fuji above them. The Tokaido — the old 
 post road — runs nearly parallel to the railroad, part 
 of its avenue of pines still standing ; low, thatched 
 villages line it here and there, one house deep betwec n 
 the road and the paddy-fields ; the thick roofs, velvety 
 brown or green with moss, crowd down over the little 
 houses, as a man pulls his hat over his eyes, till they 
 
106 JAPAN. 
 
 are almost out of sight. The ridgepole often supports 
 a flourishing bed of lilies, covering it from end to end j 
 the story goes that in ancient times women used so 
 much lily-root powder on their faces that an edict was 
 made forbidding any one to plant lilies in the ground, 
 whereupon these daughters of Eve promptly set them 
 on the housetops, and there they stay. 
 
 Here and there in the fields is a little shrine in a 
 graceful clump of trees, a veritable sacred grove. 
 Everywhere the country is full of people at work, 
 whole families together, including the usual baby on 
 somebody's back ; they are true peasants, owning their 
 little plots, which average two or three acres to each 
 family. Occasionally there is a bullock or heifer to be 
 seen pulling a rude wooden plow, but most of the work 
 is done entirely by hand, with spades or a kind of 
 great hoe or mattock. Hillsides, even though not 
 steep, are seldom cultivated, unless they can be terraced 
 and have a stream turned in, to give water for the 
 rice. All winter long the plain is green with vegeta- 
 bles and barley ; in May it is reaped, the dikes and 
 ditches are put in order, and the ground is flooded and 
 enriched and left to lie a little before being dug again 
 for rice-planting. The big mattocks come in play here ; 
 the farmers turn up huge clods of mud, let them dry, 
 and then knock them to pieces with a kind of hammer, 
 finally harrowing all smooth. Then one small patch 
 out of half an acre or so is sown with rice, and when 
 the stalks are about a foot high they are taken up by 
 
FROM YOKOHAMA TO TOKYO. 107 
 
 hand, root by root, and set out again in the new fields 
 in rows a foot apart. This is the re-planting Japanese 
 artists love to paint — men and women in huge peaked 
 straw fiats and faded cotton clothes, well turned up 
 over heavy leggings, bending in rows knee-deep in the 
 flooded fields. Others bind the uprooted stalks in 
 bundles and carry them on their backs alon<r the little 
 paths between field and field, where rows of beans line 
 the dike-side with their purple blossoms. Here and 
 there a ditch is planted with edible lotus, grown for its 
 long, tuberous root ; the bluish leaves and great white 
 flowers show effectively against the vivid green of the 
 rice. 
 
 Then the rains come, half June and early July, 
 August and all September; and always the rice must 
 be Avatehed and weeded and enriched, and the water 
 let on or drained off as the sun and rain dictate. Just 
 when the rains are ending harvest comes, and the plain 
 turns gold and brown, and the dike-sides are ablaze 
 with scarlet lilies ; the reapers still work up to their 
 knees in mud and water, and hang the sheaves on 
 frames or tie them about the trunk of a slender tree 
 to dry. That is the time of the festival of the first- 
 fruits ; the cotton crop is picked then, too, and the 
 brown millet tassels dried and threshed. They do not 
 thresh the rice; the grain is combed from the stalks 
 and carefully winnowed — all of course by hand. 
 Finally it is packed down, unhulled, in bags holding 
 each a hoku, which is about half a bushel. 
 
108 JAPAN. 
 
 This koku measure has a peculiar significance, be- 
 cause in old Japan all revenues were reckoned in koku 
 of rice. This prince or that was said to be a Daimyn 
 of so many koku, according to the average number of 
 bushels produced on his estates, and his rank was 
 graded in like manner. Income was reckoned in this 
 way until after the Restoration. 
 
 The revenue given by the lords to their retainers 
 was also paid in rice, each Samurai receiving a certain 
 number of koku monthly. In Tokugawa times this 
 rice was brought down from the provinces and stored 
 in warehouses by the river, from which it was distrib- 
 uted at fixed periods. At first the knights received it 
 in person, idling the hours of waiting at the tea-houses 
 near by ; then these tea-houses began to undertake to 
 collect and sell the allowance, and the knights began to 
 think it beneath their dignity to handle the rice them- 
 selves. It was a time of extravagance and reckless 
 living, and many a Samurai borrowed on his next- 
 month's pay, and when it came found every koku mort- 
 gaged to the rice dealers. Such was the state of things 
 when Perry's coming precipitated the Restoration. 
 
 These country people are like the peasant type all 
 over the world, short and thick-set, with round, heavy 
 faces, slow of wit and yet shrewd enough about their 
 own business. Some say they are partly descended 
 from the aboriginal Ainu, and it may be true, but gen- 
 erations of toil may well have dulled this man of the 
 hoe without help from a duller ancestry than his fel- 
 
FROM YOKOHAMA TO TOKYO. 109 
 
 lows. Of course they are true conservatives, very 
 slow to change auy of their ways, yet these simple folk 
 along the Tokaido are modern and progressive beside 
 the population in the south and in districts which the 
 railroads have not reached. An excellent place to see 
 them is at one of the temple festivals, such as the 
 monthly matsuri here at Kawasaki, half-way to Tokyo ; 
 the crowd is always good natured and kindly, full of 
 childlike curiosity and enjoyment, equally delighted by 
 a beautiful cherry tree and an American mechanical 
 toy. In the old times they came afoot, but now they 
 throng the trains, the men wearing gorgeous red shoddy 
 blankets, in plaee of the old-fashioned straw rain-coat. 
 This, though, is still in vogue for actual use in the 
 fields and elsewhere ; the long straws are woven in, 
 forming a sort of thatch, which keeps the workman 
 dry and warm even in a heavy downpour. 
 
 At these festivals the girls wear their brightest 
 sashes and prettiest hairpins, and the children are re- 
 splendent in red, orange and purple flowered dresses, 
 while Oba Sans and Okami Sans — grandmammas and 
 matrons — clip about on their high clogs, chattering 
 and laughing and displaying their black, shiny teeth — 
 for this custom of blackening the teeth after marriage, 
 once universal, still lingers in the country villages. 
 
 At Kawasaki the train crosses the Tamagawa — by 
 the way, kawa or gawa means river — which is here 
 quite a considerable stream. The railroad bridge 
 seems needlessly high and strong, till one remembers 
 
HO JAPAN. 
 
 that Japanese rivers have an inconvenient habit of 
 rising in the September rains and breaking banks and 
 carrying oif whatever they can. The Tamagawa has 
 its source among picturesque mountains, some fifty 
 miles west of Tokyo, and as it leaves the foot-hills a 
 great dam and a canal turn aside part of its waters for 
 the city's supply. The water is pure and good when 
 it leaves the river, but unfortunately it enters Tokyo 
 in wooden aqueducts, and until the new system of iron 
 pipes is completed to take their place, perennial 
 typhoid and periodic outbreaks of cholera cannot be 
 avoided. 
 
 Beyond Kawasaki the line runs for some distance 
 on an embankment between curious pear orchards — 
 curious because each tree has its branches spread out 
 flat on the under side of a bamboo frame, so that you 
 look down from the train upon acres of thin green 
 roof. These Japanese pears are sadly disappointing ; 
 they are not pear-shaped at all, but round and brown 
 like a russet apple, and, though fairly juicy, they have 
 almost no taste. Cooked with lemon or cloves, it is 
 true, they make a pretty good compote; but they cer- 
 tainly give color to the saying of the Treaty Ports 
 about scentless flowers and tasteless fruit. It is a 
 clever little proverb, and contains just about one grain 
 of truth to ninety-nine of the other thing. 
 
 The next station is Onion", where Dr. Morse made 
 his wonderful find of shell-heaps, like the "kitchen 
 middens" of Denmark and elsewhere, over which 
 
FROM YOKOHAMA TO TOKYO. m 
 
 there has been so much controversy. Are they relics 
 of the Ainu, who make no pottery now, and have never 
 made any, so far as Japanese history knows? Or do 
 they belong to a still earlier race, the " Earth Spiders" 
 of Japanese tradition, who lived in caves and holes in 
 the rocks? Or, perhaps, were these makers of the shell- 
 heaps the Koropok-garu— the little blue-eyed Good 
 People the Ainu tell fairy stories about? Nobody 
 knows, and nobody seems vc ry likely to find out ; but 
 then life would be very dull for the archaeologists with- 
 out a puzzle or two. 
 
 Omori is famous for plum blossoms ; the station lies 
 under a hill which is full of bloom from the middle 
 of February till late March. A path climbs through 
 the trees to a charming tea-house, standing back on a 
 little lawn at the edge of a pine grove; the wide 
 thatched roof, curved up a little at the corners, looks 
 like brown velvet against the green. On the lawn 
 there are benches and a table or two, or you may go 
 inside, where the open screens let you look out across 
 the tops of the plum trees to the misty green plain, 
 spreading away to the bay, a couple of miles off. 
 Farther back there are some wonderful old trees, and 
 another still more ancient grove at Ikegami Temple, 
 a mile or two back in the hills. 
 
 From Omori on the fields are more and more civen 
 over to market gardens. Naturally the Japanese, not 
 being meat-eaters, make up by a large variety of vege- 
 table food, and there are more green-grocers in some 
 
112 JAPAN. 
 
 streets than almost any other provision dealers. Far 
 the largest part of the supply is brought in on hand- 
 carts from the neighboring country, or carried to the 
 city in baskets slung over a pole. Green vegetables 
 never fail the year round, though some sorts of course 
 belong only to a single season, like bamboo shoots in 
 early spring, or a queer kind of squash in the autumn. 
 Then there are all manner of roots, lotus and radish 
 and lily-bulbs, potatoes and onions; half a dozen 
 varieties of beans ; egg plants and gourds and cucum- 
 bers ; and ginger and herbs for seasoning, besides the 
 tomatoes and cabbages and other things introduced 
 since the opening of the country. It is hard to ima- 
 gine where all the green stuff comes from, till one 
 realizes what a circle of little villages fringe the edge 
 of the immense city. 
 
 Now the railroad draws near the bay, the houses 
 thicken and thatch gives place to tiles. At Shinagawa 
 the train passes through a deep cut in the hills into a 
 closely-built suburb, full of tall factory chimneys and 
 smoke, and sweeps round in a long curve beside the 
 bay, past the line of island forts — dismantled now — 
 which rose so hastily in defiant answer to Perry's de- 
 mands ; past the lovely garden-palace where General 
 Grant and other dignitaries have lodged, and so into 
 crowded, bustling Shinbashi station in the heart of 
 Tokyo. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 
 
 " This big, dreary city of innumerable little houses."-La Farge 
 " Letters of an Artist." 
 
 Small blame to the four weeks' tourist if he loves 
 not Tokyo. Its stock sights are only half a dozen or 
 so— the Asakusa and Shiba temples, the moat, Uyeno 
 Park, the tombs of the Forty-seven Ronin, a feast and 
 the geisha's "butterfly dance" at the Maple Club, 
 Danjuro at the big theatre, or the wrestlers over in 
 Mukojima— this last amusement distinctly not for 
 ladies— cherry blossoms, iris, lotus or chrysanthemums 
 " in season," as the caterers say of game. These at- 
 tractions are scattered over the length and breadth of 
 a city measuring five or six miles radius every way 
 from Nihonbashi Bridge, every part of which, to un- 
 accustomed eyes, looks exactly like all the rest— low 
 roofed, gray, interminable. 
 
 The foreign resident, too, finds plenty to growl 
 about— heat and cold, dust and rain, and, worst of all, 
 the weary jinrikisha rides over those endless distances. 
 Yet, granting all shortcomings, the great city exercises 
 a fascination of its own— a charm made up of quaint 
 Vol. I.— 8 113 
 
114 JAPAN. 
 
 lanes and mysterious turnings, of tide- water canals 
 busy with odd craft, of hills and green hedges and tall 
 trees rising like islands out of the gray sea of roofs, a 
 glamor of flooding sunlight that is never glare, of 
 hazy twilights and the firefly dance of lanterns in the 
 dark; everywhere, and most of all, the picturesque 
 come and go of its streets, the spell of its vivid, 
 throbbing life. 
 
 There is a tale of a traveler who rode over Tokyo 
 for three days, and then went away in despair, saying 
 he could not find any city ; he saw only suburbs. 
 The fact is, it is not a city really, but rather a bunch 
 of villages clustering round the moat and the castle, 
 which have grown together and melted into each other 
 till nobody can say where one stops and the other 
 begins. Each part has still its oavu temples, its local 
 guilds, local festivals, local industries, sometimes even 
 special customs of its own — all, of course, coming 
 under the general management of the central city 
 government. 
 
 Perhaps this persistent individuality is less strange 
 when one stops to realize what a comparatively recent 
 place it is, after all — that before Tokugawa Ieyasu's 
 time, only a matter of two or three hundred years 
 ago, there was nothing here but a small castle and an 
 insignificant fishing village. Beside Kyoto's record 
 of ten centuries Tokyo is an upstart, a mere parvenue, 
 like the Tokugawa themselves who created it. Then, 
 too, the broken hill-and-dale quality of the ground 
 
TOKYO-THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. U5 
 
 may have helped to keep the villages distinct, as well 
 as the innumerable creeks and intersecting canals 
 which cut its lower portions. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that though the 
 Tokugawa made Yedo what it was, they did not 
 actually discover the place for themselves; the real 
 founder was one Ota Dokwan, a vassal of the power- 
 ful Uyesugi family, whose provinces lay further to the 
 north. This Ota perceived the strategic possibilities 
 of the situation, and built a small castle on the central 
 hill. Later this changed hands once or twice, but was 
 never a place of much importance till it was given 
 over to Tokugawa Ieyasu about a hundred years after. 
 Ieyasu took possession in 1590, and his first care was 
 to strengthen Ota's site by digging the moats deeper 
 and raising the great walls ; his next to level part of 
 the neighboring hills and fill the swampy places round 
 about. Under his firm rule Yedo grew rapidly, and 
 was a prosperous city even before Iemitsu's " com- 
 pulsory residence " law compelled all Daimvo to 
 maintain their permanent households in his capital. 
 
 " Easier to take than to defend," some one wrote 
 lately of Yedo Castle. He was thinking doubtless 
 of modern warfare; for, as compared with the other 
 strongholds of its period — such as Osaka and Xagoya, 
 or Odawara, which was the seat of the Hojo Regents 
 — Yedo was quite as well fortified, and had far the 
 best situation of them all. PJ*d, not has; for as a 
 castle it no longer exists. In 1873 a fire, which 
 
116 JAPAN. 
 
 started by accident, burned the great keep and all the 
 more important buildings, and only the walls and 
 gates remain around the Imperial palace which has 
 been built on the same site. Six times before this 
 the castle was burned, the first time being in 1601. 
 Ieyasu was then in possession, but did not receive the 
 title of Shogun till a couple of years later. On that 
 occasion, not only the castle, but nearly the whole 
 town was burned, and, according to tradition, tiled 
 roofs were introduced soon after ; but for a long time 
 they were only used on the houses of nobles. 
 Shingles, however, were substituted for thatch as 
 being a little easier to keep from catching fire. 
 
 Whether strong or not, Yedo Castle never experi- 
 enced an actual siege. Built at the beginning of the 
 " great peace," no enemy ever came against it till 
 1869, when General Saigo led one wing of the Im- 
 perial army over the Hakone Pass to chastise the 
 rebellious Tokugawa. Saigo encamped on the edge 
 of the city, at Shinagawa, where his master, the 
 Prince of Satsuma, had a yashiki, and demanded pos- 
 session in the Emperor's name. Prince Tokugawa 
 was in a very uncomfortable position. He had 
 already declared that he would not disobey the Em- 
 peror, but his retainers and allies — among them the 
 fierce Aidzu Samurai — refused to accept his order to 
 lav down their arms, declaring the Emperor was co- 
 erced by the hated Satsuma. The city hummed with 
 conspiracy, spies were in every household and no one 
 
TOKYO-THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. H7 
 
 knew whom he dared trust. The man who saved the 
 situation was a Hatamoto, or retainer of the Shogun, 
 named Katsu — one of the most remarkable men Japan 
 has ever produced. Educated by Dutch teachers at 
 the naval school in Nagasaki, Katsu had already been 
 to San Francisco as captain of the first Japanese ship 
 which ever crossed the Pacific — a gunboat of two hun- 
 dred and fifty tons and one hundred horse power. 
 On his return, his pro-foreign utterances brought on 
 him the wrath of the Bakufu, and he was degraded 
 and afterward confined to his own house; but his 
 brains and courage were too valuable to be spared 
 long. Saigo was his personal friend, and he had 
 many other friends, and even followers, in the Satsuma 
 Clan, besides holding the respect and confidence of his 
 own side. 
 
 So, one morning, Count Katsu mounted his horse 
 and rode alone to Saigo's camp at Shinagawa, and the 
 two talked together as man to man. " I believe my 
 old friend is at his wits' end by this time," Saigo is 
 reported to have said, and " Only by placing yourself 
 in my position can you understand where I am/' re- 
 plied Katsu, whereupon the general " bursts into a 
 peal of laughter." A few days later Katsu took 
 Saigo up Atago Hill, a mile or two nearer the castle, 
 and together they looked over the vast expanse of the 
 city spread at their feet. " If we cross swords, these 
 innocent people will have to suffer/' said Saigo, and 
 he was silent for a little. Shortly after he went back 
 
118 JAPAN. 
 
 to bis chief, Prince Arisugawa, and arranged terms 
 of peace along the lines Katsu had proposed. The 
 city was to be spared, and in return the castle and the 
 fleet were to be given up, and the ex-Shogun to retire 
 to Mi to, another head being appointed for the Toku- 
 gawa family. The castle was accordingly handed 
 over, but the fleet — a handful of vessels — was carried 
 off by the officer in charge and held for some time 
 longer ; and there was fighting at Uyeno Park, and 
 afterward at Utsunomiya and in Aidzu, before the 
 clans finally gave up the struggle. 
 
 But though Yedo has never been overrun by an 
 army, as Kyoto was so often, plenty of blood has been 
 shed in the streets, and close to the castle, too. On 
 the southwest side, where the banks of the moat are 
 steepest and most picturesque, stands the Sakurada 
 Gate, and just here, between the inner and the outer 
 moat, a band of Ronin killed the Regent Ii Lord 
 Kamon in broad daylight in the midst of his train. 
 The ostensible reason for this deed — the reason set 
 forth in the explanatory paper which the assassins car- 
 ried with them — was that, by signing the treaties, the 
 Regent had disobeyed the Emperor and betrayed the 
 country to the foreigners ; but there was more behind, 
 and the real motive was well known to be personal 
 hatred on the part of the Mito Clan. 
 
 This was the cause : During the excitement and 
 alarm which followed Perry's coming the Bakufu felt 
 the need of a stronger head than the Shogun, who 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 119 
 
 was ill and incapable, and they therefore chose Ii 
 Kamon, giving him the title of Tairo or Regent. 
 Ii was perhaps the most able man in Japan, as he was 
 certainly the most strong-willed and daring;. He it 
 was who finally signed the treaties with the foreign 
 powers in direct opposition to the Emperor's com- 
 mand — an act which brought on him the wrath of the 
 Jo-i, or Nationalist party, to which Prince Mito be- 
 longed ; but worse still, he thwarted Mito's plans for 
 the succession to the Shognnate. 
 
 Now an unwritten law required the Shogun to be 
 of the Tokugawa branch of the Minamoto family, 
 and if the reigning member had no heir, his successor 
 was chosen from the Go-Sanke, the three houses de- 
 scended from Ieyasu himself — namely, Mito, Owari 
 and Kii. This choice had now to be made, and 
 Prince Mito wished to appoint a son of his own, but 
 the Regent had no desire for a rival, and secured the 
 succession for a mere lad of the house of Kii. Mito, 
 baffled, accused the Regent of disloyalty in the matter 
 of the treaties, and got a commission from the Em- 
 peror to "drive out the barbarians and restore order." 
 To this Ii replied by sending an agent to Kyoto, 
 arresting many of the Jo-i party, confiscating the 
 estates of some and putting others to death. The 
 Prince of Mito was deposed and banished to his 
 own province, his son succeeding him as head of the 
 family. 
 
 A few months later, in March, 1860, the Regent 
 
120 JAPAN. 
 
 started from his own castle to call on the Shogun, 
 riding in a closed norimon (litter), surrounded by 
 about a hundred followers. It was snowing heavily — 
 the muffling, slippery snow of the south — and the 
 knights were encumbered with rain-coats to protect 
 their fine court garments ; and besides, during the 
 long peace, military habits had relaxed and swords 
 were not always sharpened, or the knots of their scab- 
 bards untied. Just as the procession neared the gate 
 it was suddenly attacked by a handful of men — 
 eighteen in all, one man being from Choshu and the 
 rest former retainers of Mito, who had become Ronin. 
 Before they could be prevented, they cut their way to 
 the norimon, struck down the bearers and either killed 
 the Regent outright or wounded him so severely that 
 he died shortly after being carried back to his castle ; 
 this last being the official version. Of the Ronin, part 
 were killed on the spot, the rest taken and required to 
 kill themselves. The young Shogun died soon after, 
 and this time Prince Mito's son was appointed ; it was 
 he who afterward resigned the office and returned the 
 power to the Emperor. 
 
 A year later the presiding officer of the Bakufu was 
 attacked in the same manner, near one of the moats, 
 and after this it became more and more the custom 
 for impatient patriots to become Ronin and proceed to 
 reform things in their own way. Such a band attacked 
 the British Legation in 1862 and killed two men ; the 
 American Legation was burned the following year, 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 121 
 
 and the murder of Mr. Heusken and several other 
 outrages were of the same order. The first real 
 check was an imperial edict, published at the request 
 of Sir Harry Parkes, just after he and his escort had 
 been set upon in Kyoto, while on their way to an 
 audience with the Emperor. This edict vigorously 
 denounced such acts, declaring them highly displeas- 
 ing to his Majesty, and it was published everywhere, 
 with a great deal of effect. 
 
 In the autumn of 1868 the young Emperor made 
 his first visit to Yedo, returning to Kyoto in the 
 winter for three purposes : first, to perform certain 
 rites at the tomb of his father, the Emperor Komei, 
 who died the year before ; second, to marry the Prin- 
 cess Ichijo; and third, "to make his success known 
 at the ancestral tombs." These things accomplished, 
 he came back to Yedo in the spring and settled there' 
 changing the city's name from "Gate of the Bay" 
 (Yedo) to Tokyo or Tokei, Eastern Gate ; while at 
 the same time Kyoto became Saikyo, Western Gate or 
 Capital. The city now returned to its former flour- 
 ishing state, which it had lost when the compulsory 
 residence Jaw had been relaxed and the Daimyos' 
 families departed to the country. All who desired 
 promotion or the new learning now flocked into it, 
 and Tokyo to-day claims a population of considerably 
 over a million— including the suburbs it is close on 
 two million people— and is always growing. 
 
 It all radiates round the hill of Ieyasu's castle, 
 
122 JAPAN. 
 
 where the palace now stands, with its " inner circle " 
 of the moat, and its " outer circle," and the irregular 
 ring of yashiki, fortified residences of the Daimyo, 
 now mostly destroyed or altered, which stood on the 
 hills about the castle. North and west lie other hills, 
 south and east a wide level, cut by a network of tide- 
 water canals and crossed by the Sumida River, sweep- 
 ing in a great curve to the bay. Here among the 
 canals throngs the city's trade ; and here, just below, 
 at the mouth of the river, where the forest of masts 
 is thickest, lies the Foreign Concession, Tsukiji, till 
 1898 the only place outside the Open Ports where 
 aliens might reside without being at least nominally 
 in Japanese employ. Of course, this restriction did 
 not apply to the Legations ; they are over on the hills 
 near the palace and the residences of Cabinet Minis- 
 ters and other dignitaries. The American Legation 
 was in Tsukiji at first, but moved away years ago, 
 and its solid stone building, with Uncle Sam's eagles 
 by the doorstep, is now part of the Hotel Metropole. 
 Tsukiji, by the way, means drawn out, because this 
 and a great deal more of the level region was drained 
 and reclaimed from the bay, as more probably w T ill be 
 some day. 
 
 Some day, too — and everybody hopes it may come 
 before long — the main lines of railroad will run into 
 a central station, instead of stopping miles apart, the 
 one away over at Uyeno, in the northeast, and the 
 other at Shinbashi, close to the bay. A horse-car line 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 123 
 
 now connects the two stations, taking rather over an 
 hour to do the live miles. The cars are always very 
 crowded and very jolty, but fairly clean and exces- 
 sively amusing to ride on. It used to be considered 
 desperately plebeian, but jinrikisha fares have gone up 
 so since the war that more and more well-dressed 
 people take " basha " rides now, and everybody sighs 
 for the time when the horse-car company's franchise 
 will run out and electric lines be laid throughout the 
 city. 
 
 The first part of the street through which the cars 
 run from Shinbashi is the " Ginza," a block of 
 hideous brick buildings in foreign style, which are 
 used for shops, and which were put up by govern- 
 ment order, for the really very good reason that 
 statistics showed that all the worst fires swept directly 
 across here. It was something in the direction of the 
 winds, no doubt, and the absence of wide canals, 
 always a great protection to this city of wood and 
 paper ; and they say the brick walls actually have 
 proved quite successful in checking serious conflagra- 
 tions in this ward. 
 
 But alas, that when Western civilization first 
 reached Japan, the most rampantly atrocious archi- 
 tecture was at its height ! It seems as if the evil 
 touch could never be done away. Scarcely anywhere, 
 unless in a prosperous modern German town, could 
 one discover such horrors of building as here in 
 Tokyo. The Japanese are quite aware that they are 
 
124 JAPAN. 
 
 hideous, but so they think is everything foreign. 
 What would you have? Modern conditions of life 
 require modern offices and banks and school-rooms 
 and such things ; so up they go, and well if they do 
 not come rattling down again at the next sharp earth- 
 quake. Nearly all the chimneys in Tokyo did in the 
 shock of 1894, and since then almost all the chimneys 
 in the city finish with a pipe above the roof line, 
 which is the dangerous part. If that breaks off, at 
 least it will not crush in the roof. 
 
 Amid the general hideousness, it is fair to note the 
 Houses of Parliament as satisfactory, if not exces- 
 sively beautiful; and many school and college build- 
 ings are suitable and useful. The new Bank of Japan 
 is excellent, and the War and Navy Departments, on 
 the edge of the parade ground, are perhaps the best 
 of all, being thoroughly solid and dignified. One 
 longs to send a few dozen Japanese architects to study 
 in Italy, and learn the secret of making beautiful 
 brick and stone buildings, strong enough to bear 
 earthquakes, and low and big-windowed and wide- 
 roofed for southern suns. 
 
 Of course, these foreign and semi-foreign buildings 
 are a mere handful compared to the mass of houses in 
 the city. Away from Tsukiji and the Ginza and the 
 various government buildings, you may go miles with- 
 out finding a single chimney. Street after street is 
 lined with small, low houses, each consisting of a shop 
 in front and two or three tiny rooms behind ; or again 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 125 
 
 there are rows of dwelling-houses standing a little 
 back, and having a close fence and gate in front. 
 
 The castle hill is the crowning height of a group 
 which abuts on the Musashi plain, last spurs perhaps 
 of the Hakone mountains— steep, crumpled hills, 
 with sudden valleys between, like so many hills in 
 Japan. The palace is Japanese in general plan, but 
 has glass instead of paper for the outside sliding 
 screens, and a steam-heating plant, and in the recep- 
 tion-rooms much gorgeously ugly European furniture. 
 But the beautiful garden is pure Japanese— a space of 
 lovely trees and rocks and shrubbery and running 
 streams, all hidden safe behind walls and belts of 
 pine, and higher, too, than anything around, unless 
 possibly some part of the British Legation, on Kudan 
 Hill. To this garden the outside world penetrates 
 only at stated times and by special invitation ; but the 
 beauty of the moat is free to all— " the most beautiful 
 thing in Tokyo," Miss Bacon calls it. 
 
 There are two " circles," so called, though they are 
 anything but regular in form, the inner moat sur- 
 rounding the castle proper and the outer inclosing 
 the open space about it, where the yashiki of the 
 Daimyo used to stand. This irregularity of the moat 
 is a large part of the charm. Sometimes the banks 
 are low, and the gray walls rise direct from the water, 
 crowned by plastered ramparts and many-storied gate- 
 way towers, dazzling white and gabled with overhang- 
 ing black-tiled roofs; here a wide, shining stretch 
 
126 JAPAN. 
 
 runs straight away for half a mile, crossed by curved 
 wooden bridges, and willow-fringed along the road on 
 the outer side ; and here again are rows of cherry 
 trees. Then a sharp turn, a mass of Cyclopean 
 masonry, and the narrow ribbon of water bends away 
 between green banks, rising ever higher and higher, 
 and walls sAvept over by long, drooping arms of pine. 
 They are verily walls for giants, built of polygonal 
 blocks, ten, twenty, thirty feet long, uncemented, fitted 
 into the bank at an even slope, and nowhere cracked 
 or jarred out of place, after nearly three centuries of 
 storm and earthquake. On the west, where the sides 
 of the moat form almost a ravine, flocks of water-fowl 
 congregate in winter, swimming in the stream, and 
 resting among the pine branches far up on the palace 
 side, as safe and tame as. in some utter solitude. Once 
 the lower reaches of the moat were gorgeous with 
 lotus, but the doctors decided that they made the 
 water stagnant and unhealthy, and a few years ago 
 they were all cleared away. The pond below Uyeno 
 Park is the chief place for lotus blossoms now, and a 
 little pool near the Shiba temples. 
 
 On the wide level east and south of the castle, still 
 between the inner and the outer circle, there is now a 
 large parade ground, and smart modern buildings 
 have been put up for various official purposes, as well 
 as some dwelling-houses, private or official. The 
 favorite residence quarter is on the hills to the west 
 and north, and here are charming lanes and hedges, 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 127 
 
 or streets of houses, turning their blank walls to the 
 road and their faees to the pretty gardens hidden 
 behind. Out this way the city grows last, and will 
 still faster when there is better means of communi- 
 cation* On one of these hills is the Aoyama Palace, 
 where the late Empress Dowager lived in state, keep- 
 ing up the old court customs to the end. The Crown 
 Prince's palace is out this way, too, and the Nobles' 
 School for boys, and the Peeresses' School ; and not 
 far off the admirable Red Cross Hospital, very dear 
 to the tender-hearted little Empress, who often visits 
 it with her ladies. The Peeresses' School was founded 
 and endowed by the Empress, who attends commence- 
 ments and watches over its welfare, as if she were the 
 president of a board of trustees. The Charity Hos- 
 pital, near Shiba Park, has also a share of her interest 
 and her visits, and she insists on seeing and speaking 
 to every one of the inmates, that no one may feel 
 neglected. Probably few great ladies in the world 
 live busier or more useful lives than this gentle, 
 retiring woman, who never neglects an iota of the 
 duties of her position, or forgets to be sympathetic 
 toward those about her, and who, with it all, hardly 
 knows the meaning of the word health. 
 
 A little farther round is the materialistic, germ- 
 hunting, Herbert Spencer worshiping Imperial Uni- 
 versity, with its various departments of law, medicine, 
 science, arts — for this last, Chinese and Yamato liter- 
 ature are the "Humanities." It is up to date all 
 
128 JAPAN. 
 
 through, and always carrying on original investiga- 
 tions, that now and then run across some item of 
 world-wide interest, such as a plague bacillus or an 
 earthquake theory. At first the leading spirits were 
 naturally foreigners, such as Verbeck, Hepburn, 
 Morse, Lyman, Griffis and a dozen others ; but they 
 have beeu gradually replaced by native professors, 
 trained first at home and then in the universities of 
 Europe and America, till now there are left only a 
 few foreign specialists, who could not well be spared. 
 The University stands in what was once Kaga 
 Yashiki, the fortified palace of the great Daimyo of 
 Kaga, inclosing trees and spacious grounds. The 
 professors living here when the University was first 
 opened tell how pheasants nested in the hollows, and 
 how the first token of a coming earthquake was their 
 startled cry as they rose from the ground, moments 
 before the faintest tremor reached human perception. 
 Except the trees, there is little of old times left in 
 Kaga Yashiki. The buildings cover most of its 
 lawns, and instead of sworded knights, it is 
 haunted by energetic professors with degrees from all 
 over the world, and flat-capped, blue-coated students, 
 spectacled and serious, who live, too many of them, in 
 the cheap, wretched boarding-houses of the Kanda 
 district, close by — Tokyo's Latin Quarter. The Stu- 
 dent Y. M. C. A. is striving to help them, both in 
 body and soul, and there can be no more valuable 
 work. The latest returns show about thirteen hun- 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 129 
 
 dred students enrolled, ehiefly under the three prac- 
 tical schools of law, medicine and engineering. A 
 reading knowledge of some one European language is 
 required, German being chosen for the medical course, 
 French and English for the others. 
 
 Viscount Mori, who gave the educational system its 
 modern organization, based it partly on the American 
 and partly on the German plan. All schools lead by 
 graded examinations to the University (either Tokyo 
 or Kyoto), and certain degrees and licenses may be 
 taken by passing government examinations without 
 attending University courses. 
 
 There are three grades in what we should call the 
 common schools, generally translated primary, sec- 
 ondary and middle school ; above these come the 
 higher school, of which there are six in the empire, 
 corresponding nearly to the German Gymnasium, or 
 an advanced high school in America, and preparing 
 students to enter the University, just as the Gymnasia 
 do. Naturally the girls have less offered them than 
 the boys ; their highest school is the Girls' Higher 
 Normal, in Tokyo, which admits only after rigid 
 examinations, and even so has not room for all who 
 come. All teachers in government schools must have 
 government certificates, and the Higher Normal cannot 
 turn the girls out fast enough to meet the demand 
 for teachers in the higher grades. It is true their 
 ranks are more apt to l>e depleted by marriage than 
 in some parts of the world. 
 Vol. I.— 9 
 
130 JAPAN. 
 
 There are some twelve hundred schools of all kinds 
 in Tokyo, among them one of the eight new schools 
 for languages which were lately established through- 
 out the empire, and which oifer courses in Chinese 
 and Korean, as well as in English, Russian and other 
 European languages. English is taught from the 
 middle school up, but as a general thing that is the 
 only European language given outside of the special 
 schools. Then there are several great private schools, 
 such as the one at Waseda, on the edge of Tokyo, 
 which is under Count Okuma's patronage; and Mr. 
 Fukusawa's, which has probably influenced Young 
 Japan more than any other single ageucy — and this 
 influence is largely on the side of material progress, of 
 what Americans mean by Success. Besides all these, 
 there are the mission schools, one or more for nearly 
 every mission, usually holding government licenses and 
 conforming to the prescribed curriculum. Many are 
 valuable institutions, with fine buildings and good 
 endowment ; and others, like the Ragged Schools held 
 in some parts of the city, are doing incalculable good 
 in the quietest possible Avay. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest charm of Tokyo is its green- 
 ness ; the trees are everywhere, planted and preserved 
 with that instinctive delight in them so universal in 
 Japan. Often in riding about the city one comes upon 
 some splendid bole, most frequently maple or live-oak, 
 standing by itself in a little open space, and hung 
 around with those ropes and knots of straw which are 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 131 
 
 always in Japan the token of things divine. There 
 may or may not be a temple near by ; it would seem 
 that the mere bigness and beauty of the tree roused a 
 feeling that is not quite worship, but rather a vague 
 sense of supernatural presence. It is the same sense 
 that belongs to all "sacred places" in all lands; a 
 Japanese does not hallow the ground by building there 
 a temple, rather he sets a shrine in the holy plae< — 
 even as the Hebrews did, and the Greeks and all 
 Aryans. 
 
 In Japan the graves of ancestors share this reverence 
 with the tombs of heroes and great men ; the greater 
 the hero, the longer the tradition, so much the more 
 the sanctity of the spot. Thus it comes about that 
 while Tokyo has temples innumerable, it is too recent 
 to possess many which are of more than local renown. 
 Only the temple at Asakusa goes back for its founda- 
 tion to the centuries when Yedo was an insignificant 
 village; while the tombs of the Shoguns glorified 
 Shiba and Uyeno, as the graves of the faithful Ronin 
 do Senkakuji. Besides these, the most important are 
 the two Buddhist Hongwanji, Monasteries of the True 
 Yow, which are very wealthy and influential. The 
 Shinto temple on Kudanzaka is fast becoming a sort 
 of Pantheon and Westminster Abbey combined — a 
 place of national rites for departed soldiers and great 
 men. The little park beside it offers wrestling and 
 horse-racing as attractions at festival times. 
 
 One thinks of Uveno now as a kind of Central Park, 
 
132 JAPAN. 
 
 a place for walks and drives and museums and exhibi- 
 tions more or less educational ; but under the Shoguns, 
 when Tokyo was Yedo, what is now the public park 
 belonged to a magnificent monastery and group of 
 temples, founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu to protect his 
 castle on the northeast— the " Devil's Gate," the quar- 
 ter on which demons were considered to be most ram- 
 pageous. Several Shoguns were buried there in after 
 years, and the high priest was always an imperial 
 prince — not that he had any real power; he was 
 maintained there for the sake of prestige, and as a 
 check on the Court at Kyoto. All this gave Uyeno 
 immense political power, which was constantly exer- 
 cised for the benefit of the Tokugawa, its patrons. 
 
 In 1868, when the often-mentioned struggle broke 
 out between the Imperialists and the Shogunate, the 
 Prince-Abbot was a mere lad, of course entirely under 
 the control of the priests, who made use of him in 
 every possible way. He it was w T hom the rebellious 
 Tokugawa finally proclaimed Emperor, and carried 
 off northward to Nikko — of which also he was nominal 
 abbot — when the clans made their last desperate stand. 
 Meantime the great fight took place at Uyeno ; the 
 non-combatant townspeople were warned to keep out 
 of the way and given time to remove their goods and 
 their sick, but the monastery could not be saved ; the 
 great temple took fire from a shell and was burned, 
 with all its beautiful contents. There is left only a 
 wonderful carved gate, and the shrines of the Sho- 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. ]33 
 
 guns — one of them is very ornate and beautiful — and 
 a high wooden torii before an avenue of stone lanterns 
 leading to the principal shrine. As for the young 
 Prince Kita Shirakawa, the sometime high priest, he 
 was speedily pardoned and sent abroad to study, and 
 served afterward as an officer in the army, dying of 
 fever while on duty in Formosa, during the war with 
 China. Stamp collectors know his face, for it is on 
 one of the memorial stamps put out in 1895, the por- 
 trait of his cousin, Prince Arisugawa, being on the 
 other. 
 
 After the Restoration the Uyeno temple grounds 
 were turned over to the government and made into a 
 public park. The Imperial Museum stands on the site 
 of the main temple, and contains — besides birds and 
 animals — some interesting collections illustrating more 
 especially the life of feudal times. There are arms 
 and armor, and the ox- cars and lacquered norimon or 
 litters in which nobles used to ride ; these last were a 
 good deal like sedan chairs, only that of course the 
 inmate sat on his heels on a cushion. The owner's mon 
 or crest was on the sides, and the poles and other parts 
 were fastened with metal beautifully chased. There 
 are some good kakemono in the museum, and a good 
 deal of pottery, also a beautiful life-sized portrait 
 statue of an old priest, brought here from Nara. The 
 wrinkled old face is tender and benign as one of Fra 
 Angelico's Dominican saints. A reference library-, art 
 school and school of music are all close by. Besides 
 
J34 JAPAN. 
 
 these, three or four temporary-looking wooden build- 
 ings are used now and then for exhibitions of art or 
 industry, and there is a zoological garden, scenic rail- 
 road, and a panorama of the taking of Port Arthur — 
 this last exceedingly popular. It is all very good and 
 very improving, bat one cannot help rather resenting 
 the bare, ugly buildings in this beautiful spot ; it is a 
 high, broad hill, heavily wooded, looking over the lotus 
 pond at its foot to the vast city stretching away into 
 pearl-colored haze. 
 
 Asakusa temple lies over near the river, where a 
 tiny golden image of Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy, 
 was found in the sea half a dozen centuries ago, when 
 the sea came all the way up here. It is far the most 
 popular shrine in the city ; the long flagged walk lead- 
 ing up from the gate is lined with shops and booths 
 and penny shows, and thronged always with a double 
 stream of people pouring in and out. The temple 
 itself is built up high on a timber foundation, and has 
 a gallery all round where children play and pigeons 
 flutter; inside it is full of glitter and flashy ornament, 
 utterly unlike the quiet dignity of what is left at 
 Uveno, or the sumptuous splendors of Shiba. The 
 original image is so very sacred that its shrine is never 
 opened ; a small gold statuette of the goddess does 
 duty on festival days. At all times there are wor- 
 shipers before the altar, mostly women and old 
 people, with palms together over a rosary ; bowing 
 and clapping their hands as they murmur over and 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 135 
 
 over again the sacred formula, Namu Amida Butsu — 
 Kama Amida Butsu to the continual clatter of thin 
 copper rin tossed on the slatted offering box. At one 
 side of the high altar is a pathetic wooden figure of 
 Jizo, rubbed almost out of recognition by the hands 
 of sick people, who touch the image and then the 
 ailing part, whispering a prayer to the All Merciful. 
 
 Near the temple at Asakusa there is a small park 
 which is one of the most amusing sights in the city, 
 for it is always full of peep-shows and jugglers and 
 trick monkeys, and peddlers of jumping-jacks and 
 tumblers and paper butterflies, and sidewalk "fakes" 
 of every kind, together with a motley crowd of gazers 
 all agrin with delight. A huge, clumsy observation 
 tower rises close by, popularly called the "twelve- 
 story;" its pinkish wooden octagon makes a landmark 
 for miles across the flat region along the river. 
 
 To give the rulers all the credit for Tokyo's pros- 
 perity is to forget two things, the river and the tides. 
 To all the lower part the tide is as necessary as ever it 
 is to Venice ; sweeping through miles of narrow, twist- 
 ing canals, washing their stone-laced embankments, it 
 brings the clean salt smell into the most crowded parts 
 of the city, and carries an immense number of flat 
 barges, loaded with produce from the country. The 
 river is navigable for small boats far up across the 
 Musashi plain, and by it, too, come down boat-loads of 
 fagots from the mountains, and piles of bags filled 
 with charcoal, and again timber for building and great 
 
136 JAPAN. 
 
 bundles of bamboo poles. In certain streets near the 
 river the tiny yards are stacked full of these over- 
 grown fishing rods, which lean against the houses and 
 quite overtop their low roofs. Such neighborhoods 
 are inhabited by carpenters and cabinet-makers — for 
 the Japanese do use some furniture, after all. There 
 are chests of various sizes, metal-bound and tightly 
 locked; little writing desks, with drawers for paper and 
 inkstone ; and, most frequently of all, the small bureau 
 or tansu, made as a rule in pairs of two drawers each. 
 These tansu have handles at the sides, so that in case 
 of a fire the drawers may be picked up and carried 
 out without difficulty. In good old pieces the wood 
 is beautifully grained and polished, and the metal- 
 work finely wrought. 
 
 Morning and evening the narrow channels of the 
 bay are thronged with square-sailed junks coming and 
 going, with here and there a schooner or a little steamer 
 plying to one of the villages lower down. Small 
 steamboats run up and down the river inside the city, 
 calling at the bridges, now this side and now that; 
 the fare is a penny or so, and the accommodation a tiny 
 cabin, with a matted floor on which to sit. There are 
 pleasure boats, too, and sampan ferries crossing to the 
 Chiba side or to Mukojima. 
 
 Five bridges cross the Sumida, some iron, and some 
 picturesque wooden ones, like Ryogoku-bashi, which 
 sweeps over in a noble curve, supported on a maze of 
 posts and rafters. The famous Nihon-bashi, by the 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 137 
 
 way — the point from which distances are reckoned 
 throughout the Empire — is not across the Sumida at 
 all, but over one of its canal-like tributaries. Adzuma- 
 bashi is counted the finest of the Sumida bridges, and 
 it is the highest up the river of all ; near it and above 
 are many resorts of pleasure seekers, more or less repu- 
 table — Asakusa on the city side, and the famous Yoshi- 
 wara beyond, and on the other bank Mukojima, of 
 cherry-blossom revelry, and a mile or so farther up the 
 beautiful iris fields of Hori-kiri. Eko-in, where the 
 annual wrestling matches are held, is a mile lower down 
 on this left bank, close to Ryogoku-bashi. Naturally 
 the entire quarter is a poor one ; the streets are 
 crowded and houses small, dirty and ruinous. In 
 these districts a three-roomed dwelling seems quite 
 palatial ; many are built in a row like a train of cars, 
 each tenement being three mats large, that is to say, 
 nine feet by six. Mere hovels they seem, but at least 
 there is plenty of light and air. Such houses rent at 
 three or four sen a day — equal to two or three cents of 
 our money — and this rent is collected daily, ibr the 
 people would never get together a whole month's bill 
 at a time. It would be no use to bring in the sheriff 
 to sell them out, for they own nothing but a few 
 broken cooking pots and some dirty bedding, and 
 even these sometimes go to the pawnshop in the morn- 
 ing and are taken out at night. 
 
 From Asakusa and Adzuma-bashi it is a good five 
 miles right across the city to Shiba, where as at Uyeno 
 
138 JAPAN. 
 
 the temple grounds have been taken for a public park. 
 Nothing could be more unlike Asakusa ; except on a 
 few special days the stone courts are almost deserted, 
 and the steep wooded slopes might be far away in 
 some mountain solitude, so still it is, though the city lies 
 about it on every side. Far up, where only children 
 come to play, a single tomb stands on a pebbled espla- 
 nade ; stone lanterns flank the open space, and behind 
 them against the dark trees single-flowering camelias, 
 pink and white, scatter a carpet of petals among the 
 stones. The crows call in the pines and kites wheel 
 and pipe overhead, and the city's noises reach only in 
 a far off murmur to the Shogun's resting place. 
 
 The temples are under the hill, skirted by an avenue 
 of pines leaning every way, their sweeping branches 
 carefully propped in winter, lest sleet and snow should 
 break them. The original main temple was burned in 
 1868, in revenge, it is said, because of the Shinto 
 " purifying " done here, as in other places, in the first 
 zeal of the Restoration. It was rebuilt on a smaller 
 scale, and seems rather overpowered by the great two- 
 storied red gate, which escaped the fire — very fortu- 
 nately, for it is beautifully proportioned and altogether 
 a noble specimen of timber architecture. Like others 
 of its type, the chief characteristic of this gate is the 
 heavy overhanging roof of black tiles, the corners of 
 it slightly curved upward in the Chinese manner, 
 which rests on a complicated structure of cross-beams 
 and brackets. The gate is almost without decoration 
 
TOKYO-TTIE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 139 
 
 except the dull red coloring, and the whole effect is plain 
 and almost severely dignified. Far more ornate is the 
 second small entrance farther along the road, the 
 corner posts of which are clasped by splendid golden 
 dragons, and which in every part is carved, colored 
 and gilded most lavishly. The smaller temple build- 
 ings and many of the treasures were saved from the 
 burning, and the interiors are full of brass and bronze 
 and gold, lacquer and embroidery. Seen in the 
 shadow of the trees and wide roofs, the warm half- 
 light subdues the splendor and all but conceals a cer- 
 tain over-gorgeousness, a crowding of color and detail, 
 which is not felt at all in the temples of Nikko. 
 
 The five-storied red pagoda stands on a little terrace 
 half way up the south slope of the hill. It seems 
 almost too much shut in by great trees, yet, even so, 
 the impression of it is exceedingly fine, finer perhaps 
 than that of the pagoda at Nikko, with which one 
 involuntarily compares it. These pagodas are mar- 
 vels of strength and elasticity ; story rests on story in 
 a maze of wooden beams and braces and brackets, and 
 however the ground may heave under them the parts 
 play upon one another like the timbers of a ship. 
 But there is still another safeguard ; inside hangs a 
 huge beam, a sort of pendulum, swung from the top 
 like the tongue of a bell, and this is the secret of the 
 pagoda's safety ; however far the top may sway, the 
 swinging beam steadies it and it maintains its poise. 
 
 Up on the hill above the temples there is a semi- 
 
14 o JAPAN. 
 
 foreign restaurant, which never seems to be much 
 patronized by anybody, in spite of fine trees about it 
 and a very pretty view across the bay ; and farther 
 up still is the exceedingly popular house called the 
 Ko Yo Kwan, or Maple Club, which is a favorite 
 place for giving little dinners that often have more 
 than a little political significance. The Maple Club 
 geisha have the reputation of being the best dancers 
 in Tokyo, and tourists usually come here to see the 
 " butterfly " or the " maple dance,' ' and to try a 
 Japanese feast. Everything about the house is strictly 
 in Japanese style ; under no consideration whatever 
 will the proprietors consent to lay carpets and permit 
 the use of chairs and tables. They say if they yielded 
 once every party of officials would demand it, since 
 nobody hates the bother of taking off his shoes more 
 than a Japanese in European dress, and the character 
 of the house would be changed and spoiled forever. 
 
 There are no shops or shows at Shiba, only a few 
 fruit and cake stands in front of the great red gate ; 
 instead, people go shopping just across the road at the 
 Kwankoba — that is to say, the bazaar. 
 
 There are many of these Kwankoba in Tokyo, but 
 none so large or so good as this in Shiba. It is simply 
 a good-sized wooden building, divided up into aisles 
 which zigzag back and forth through the entire space, 
 so that when you begin to go through you must go on 
 to the end, or else turn back by the very same lanes 
 to the beginning again. The spaces on each side of 
 
TOKYO-THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 141 
 
 the aisles are lined with shelves and rented to mer- 
 chants of all manner of goods, china, wood and metal, 
 quilts, household wares of every kind, dress materials, 
 sashes and neck-pieces, shoes (Japanese ones of straw 
 or wood), stationery, toys, lacquer — in a word, what- 
 ever is used in Japan. Every article is marked with 
 its price in Japanese letters, and all is spread out 
 temptingly in full view, which is not the case in the 
 ordinary shops. Each dealer is quite independent of 
 all the rest, paying rent for his own particular space 
 as if it were a separate house, though the same kind 
 of goods are apt to appear near together. The Shiba 
 Kwankoba displays everyday Japanese life in a nut- 
 shell, and is very interesting merely to see, as well as 
 a capital place to shop for Japanese articles. 
 
 It is a couple of miles farther, between a long ridge 
 and the bay, before you climb a hill to one of the 
 most intensely national shrines in all Japan — the 
 graves of the Forty-seven Eonin. The story has 
 been told and retold till one hardly dares repeat it, 
 how one lord deliberately provoked another into 
 drawing his sword in the precincts of the Shogun's 
 palace— a crime punished by death ; how the dead 
 Asano's chief retainer secretly organized a band of his 
 fellows, now become Ronin (masterless knights), who 
 scattered to abide their time ; how, to throw the 
 euemy off his guard, this chief, Oiso, drank and gave 
 himself up to the lowest life, till even a former ac- 
 quaintance kicked and spat on him as he lay in a gut- 
 
142 JAPAN. 
 
 ter, calling him a miscreant too cowardly to avenge 
 his lord. And when at last the enemy ceased to fear, 
 the band broke into his yashiki one snowy night, 
 overpowered the retainers and invited him to an 
 honorable hara-kiri — an invitation which he had not 
 the courage to accept. So they killed him, and took 
 his head, and, marching as in a religions procession, 
 came to the hill and the little grove where their lord 
 lies. At the well below they washed the head, offered 
 it reverently at the tomb, burned incense one by one, 
 and then went quietly to the authorities and gave 
 themselves up for the inevitable death penalty. The 
 law took its course, in spite of universal approbation 
 of the deed. All the knights killed themselves duly, 
 and were buried on the hillside near their lord. The 
 last act of the tragedy was the coming of the man who 
 had insulted Oiso in the ditch. He told his shame 
 and sorrow, burned incense and killed himself at 
 Oiso's tomb, and so was judged worthy to lie beside 
 the band. 
 
 All this happened something over two hundred 
 years ago, near the close of the eighteenth century. 
 Everywhere about the place are -signs of reverent care. 
 Great pine trees shade the walled inclosure, incense 
 smoulders unceasingly and visiting cards by the 
 hundreds are laid upon the tombs. In the tiny 
 chapel below relics are kept — the armor which 
 they wore, swords and spears, and writing materials 
 such as Samurai carried, effigies of the band, Oiso 
 
TOKYO— THE CASTLE AND THE CITY. 143 
 
 himself, and among the rest Oiso's fourteen-year-old 
 son. 
 
 That was, that is, Japan. Loyalty, absolute, un- 
 hesitating loyalty, the one virtue and the one duty for 
 which, if needful, all personal interests and duties 
 must become null and void. That is what a Japanese 
 to-day all but worships in those heroes of his — the 
 ideal he desires to realize in his own life toward Japan 
 and the Emperor. Taken as an attitude of mind, it 
 may help to explain some things in Japanese life, 
 which, from a Western point of view, are childish — or 
 worse. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 TOKYO STREETS. 
 
 The streets of Tokyo are a never-failing source of 
 amusement. Like all Southerners, the common people 
 almost live in them, with a naive unconcern about 
 privacy or its absence, quite unlike the retiring ways 
 of the upper class. There are no sidewalks; the 
 road is simply macadamized, and everybody strolls 
 serenely down the middle, moving out just a foot or 
 two at the kurumaya's frantic "hai-hai!" as they 
 dash past. One never quite gets over wondering why 
 the runners do not kill somebody, but accidents are 
 really very few ; still, they do not trust horses in the 
 thick of it without a betto or groom running ahead, 
 and now and then picking up a baby or turning an 
 old crone gently out of the way. Even the widest 
 streets always seem crowded, there are so many old 
 people, and so many children with babies on their 
 backs. If the family supply of real babies gives out, 
 the tiniest girl has a doll tied on her shoulders, so 
 that she may learn how to hold it and be ready for a 
 small brother or a neighbor's child. The poor little 
 baby heads tumble around till one feels sure they 
 must fall off; but nobody seems to mind, baby least 
 
 144 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 145 
 
 of all. Playing tag, hop-scotch and swinging on a 
 see-saw are among the amusements practiced any day 
 by five and six-year-olds, plus a bundle anywhere 
 from a week up. The small morsel half sits on the 
 hump of its sister's sash, half rests on a wide band 
 which passes under the little thighs and over her 
 shoulders, and then back and around again, leaving 
 the child's arms and bare feet quite free. In winter 
 the sister slips her wadded haori on over baby and 
 all, and it peeps out atop, like a little Eskimo from its 
 mother's hood. They seem to sleep most of the time, 
 as babies should, and it really is a fact that they very, 
 very seldom cry. 
 
 Often one sees a group of these frowsy-headed, 
 barefoot youngsters settle by the roadside, squatting 
 on their wooden clogs, and fluttering and chirping like 
 so many brown sparrows. They are probably play- 
 ing hen (" fist "), which is a form of one of the oldest 
 games on earth — the game the Italians call Moro. 
 Yet another version of this came to us from the north 
 of Ireland in our childhood; you hid your face in 
 Susan's lap, and she held her fingers over your head, 
 saying : 
 
 " Holy, boly, trumpty chase, 
 The cow goes through the market place; 
 How many horns stand up ?" 
 
 The Japanese say that their game of ken came from 
 China, but though it is played both there and in 
 Vol. I.— 10 
 
146 JAPAN. 
 
 Korea, it probably came to Japan with the first 
 migrations of the race as part of their original civil- 
 ization. It is true that one variety did come from 
 the Chinese during the period of trade intercourse at 
 Nagasaki in the seventeenth century, and became all 
 the rage. In this form the two players put out their 
 hands at the same moment, each calling out a number, 
 which he guesses to be the sum of all the fingers held 
 up by both. At drinking parties, one who makes a 
 wrong guess must drink a cup of wine. This ken 
 was so popular in the early part of the eighteenth 
 century that tournaments were held in arenas fitted up 
 for the purpose in imitation of the wrestlers' ring, and 
 umpires sat all day to judge the contests ; but it is 
 hardly played at all now. 
 
 The other kind has four varieties, in each of which 
 there are three positions of the hand or body to rep- 
 resent some instrument or animal. The four are the 
 "snail," the "stone," the "fox" and the "tiger 
 ken." The "stone" is one of the easiest and the 
 most commonly played ; in it only the right hand is 
 used. The closed fist means a stone, the flat open 
 hand is a piece of paper, and two fingers spread apart 
 stand for a pair of scissors. The scissors can cut 
 the paper, but the paper wraps the stone, and the 
 stone again can dull the scissors, which means, of 
 course, that A conquers B, B rules C, and so 
 back again. This and the " snail " are the children's 
 favorites, and the kuruma men very often play a 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 147 
 
 round of "stone" to decide their turns, instead of 
 pulling straws. 
 
 The " tiger " game is more elaborate ; it is based 
 on a classical Chinese drama, in which the hero goes 
 into the forest with his mother. A tiger attacks the 
 woman, but it is killed by the man, who bows to his 
 mother, as a dutiful son should. This play needs the 
 whole body, and accordingly the actors come out from 
 behind a screen ; the tiger goes on all fours ; the man 
 raises a clenched fist, and the mother hobbles like a 
 bent old woman leaning on a stick. 
 
 " Fox ken " is very popular, and it is above all the 
 geisha's game, which they must learn to play both 
 gracefully and so swiftly that one can hardly follow 
 their motions. In the " fox " all the positions are 
 made with the hands ; the two raised on either side 
 of the head are Reynard's ears ; the right hand put 
 forward closed means a gun, which a hunter carries ; 
 and the two hands laid primly on the knees repre- 
 sents a village headman. This headman is bewitched 
 by the fox (Japanese foxes are generally enchanted, 
 and they play more tricks than Brer Rabbit), but the 
 hunter kills the fox ; and then in turn must bow to 
 the headman, his superior in rank. They say a 
 young geisha often sits playing fox ken with her 
 shadow on the shoji, to learn the quickest and pret- 
 tiest gestures ; but the game is rather beyond our 
 little street sparrows. 
 
 For half the day the schools claim a large propor- 
 
148 JAPAN. 
 
 tiou of the children in Tokyo and elsewhere, but for 
 the poorest even the pittance needed for books and 
 materials is more than they can afford, and their 
 schooling is very brief. Boys get to work early in 
 life, either at the family trade or in some shop, while 
 the little girls help in the house or take care of a 
 neighbor's baby, if there is none at home. Many 
 little shops make what they sell, and the children 
 help in the work or run errands for customers, 
 besides minding the place when the older ones are 
 busy. 
 
 There are an immense number of second-hand 
 shops in Tokyo, some dealing only in more or less 
 artistic wares — " curios," as the phrase is — and others 
 selling all manner of odds and ends of clothing ; 
 household goods, broken or not ; even straw and old 
 baskets and boxes, which are broken up and used for 
 fuel. These shops often club together and hold an 
 auction of such things as do not sell quickly enough. 
 The very poor often do not own warm clothing for 
 the day or quilts to sleep on, and are forced to hire 
 from the pawnshops, taking one out and putting the 
 other back in the morning and evening. Many of 
 these poor creatures have no proper habitation at all, 
 but sleep in a cheap inn, and spend the whole day 
 out of doors, working or peddling things for sale. 
 
 The shops stand open to the street, under a shelter- 
 ing projection of roof; the more pretentious ones 
 hang strips of cotton cloth in front like a curtain, 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 149 
 
 each strip stamped with the house-sign or trade-mark, 
 yarjirushi — picturesque ideographs in bold strokes, 
 white on navy blue or blue on white. Others are all 
 open, showing piled-up crockery, brooms and sieves 
 and wooden-ware, clogs and sandals, piece goods, tea- 
 jars, fruit or vegetables, or whatever. The floor is 
 raised and matted, and the buyer sits down on the 
 edge, without needing to take off his shoes ; the 
 dealer, seated among his wares, pushes forward a 
 hibachi of coals, not for warmth, but to light the tiny 
 pipe which every man and woman carries at the 
 girdle ; three little puffs will do, as an aid to the bar- 
 gain. If you are considered an important customer, 
 sometimes they serve minute cups of tea. All Tokyo 
 is full of such small shops, where the owner often 
 makes what he sells; here again the village life per- 
 sisting in the vast city, one wonders for how much 
 longer now. 
 
 There are great firms, too, which have been estab- 
 lished for generations, such as the salt-fish house in 
 Nihon-bashi, where people give New Year orders for 
 gifts of fish to be delivered on demand— sometimes 
 not for months or even a year or two later. Then 
 there are the great silk shops, like Dai Maru Ichi 
 and Ichigaya's — these also are in Nihon-bashi, the 
 busiest part of Tokyo. Far down the street you can 
 hear the din of these big shops ; as soon as a cus- 
 tomer lifts the curtain, the whole force of clerks and 
 errand boys shout in chorus Irashal I — " Please come 
 
150 JAPAN. 
 
 in!" You ask for something; the clerk who is wait- 
 ing on you repeats the order, and " Hai !" chant all 
 the boys again, while one dashes off to fetch what is 
 required. Repeat da capo, till the customer departs 
 in a perfect storm of arigato and sayonara and matal 
 irashai — "honorably come again !" — the livelier the 
 trade, the merrier the noise. 
 
 All this uproar is in the large first room on the 
 street, but up stairs and far within, where the choicest 
 goods are kept, all is dignity and quiet ; room after 
 room, matted and speckless, piled with rolls of silk 
 and crapes, like some " Arabian Nights " tale of royal 
 gifts. Here the guest is seated, of course upon the 
 floor, and roll after roll is laid out — brocades, gor- 
 geous obi (sashes), flowered under-robes, heavy kaiki 
 and close habutai, sumptuous gold thread and delicate 
 gauzy chirimens, embroideries and colors and textures 
 past dreaming of. A morning at Ichigaya's is dis- 
 tinctly educating to the senses, and as distinctly dan- 
 gerous to one's bank account. 
 
 Such a firm carries immensely valuable stock, and 
 keeps most of it not in the shop, but in go-downs, 
 which are fairly fireproof. Go-down, by the way, is 
 the universal Far East English for storehouse ; Hearn 
 says it is a corruption of a Malay word, gadan ; the 
 Japanese word is kura. They are quite a marked 
 feature of Tokyo scenery, these black-roofed, daz- 
 zling white go-downs ; they are comparatively small, 
 high and narrow, the thick plaster walls sloping out 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 151 
 
 a little at the bottom, the windows very small and 
 high up, tightly elosed by thick iron shutters. Well- 
 to-do private families use them, too, for it is a thor- 
 oughly characteristic Japanese habit to keep most of 
 one's possessions shut up out of sight, and produce 
 them, a few at a time, to please and honor a guest — 
 a custom handed down probably from early, uncer- 
 tain times, and perpetuated by earthquakes and fires 
 till it has become a cardinal point of social a?sthetics. 
 A sharp earthquake, though, is rather hard on the 
 go-downs; it is apt to crack the plaster, and then, 
 if a fire breaks out before they are mended, good-by 
 to the careful stores. 
 
 Fires were much worse in the old days than now, 
 when nearly all roofs are tiled— a luxury formerly 
 allowed only to nobles' residences — but they are still 
 bad enough, sweeping sometimes three or four hun- 
 dred little houses in a single windy night. The 
 modern fire companies are very active and efficient, 
 with all the means at hand, and the new fire-engines 
 exceedingly useful ; but the great difficulty is an 
 insufficient water supply in many parts of the city. 
 Watchmen are on guard night and day on the pictur- 
 esque fire-lookouts — tall ladders at the street corners, 
 each with a bell and a crow's nest for the watch. If 
 he sees anything, he strikes the bell, one stroke if it 
 is far away, two strokes nearer, three for his own 
 ward ; and if it is close by, the hammer clangs fast 
 and furiously, warning every one to rush out and 
 
152 JAPAN. 
 
 help or save themselves. " Kaji ga, Tokyo no liana 
 da" says the ominous proverb — "Fires are Tokyo's 
 flowers." 
 
 Naturally there are more fires in winter, when 
 everybody has open charcoal braziers standing about, 
 and worse still, glass kerosene lamps for the long 
 evenings. But February and March have the worst 
 record of all ; it is then that the northwest winds 
 sweep over the city, and then, too, that wells are low 
 and woodwork dried, after four nearly rainless months. 
 
 From all accounts, the firemen of feudal times were 
 a much livelier set than they are now. Inouye thinks 
 it was the spirit of the place : " The people of Osaka 
 and Kyoto, living as they did by pure trade or 
 hereditary callings, were naturally frugal and did 
 nothing merely for show. The case was different in 
 Yedo. It was a new city, and the people, gaining 
 their livelihood through the luxurious habits of the 
 Daimyo, came in time to imitate their extravagance. 
 In this respect the fireman was among the greatest 
 sinners ; he took pride in squandering money, and 
 considered it a shame to let a day's earnings remain 
 over night in his purse. It was and is still, for 
 instance, reckoned a luxury to eat the first bonito of 
 the season. The fireman regarded it as worse than 
 dishonor to be prevented by want of means from 
 tasting it, and his wife, sharing her husband's spirit, 
 would pawn everything, even the very clothes on her 
 back, to enable him to buy the fish. It was also one 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 153 
 
 of the fireman's greatest pleasures to pick quarrels, 
 and brawls became a necessary element of his life. 
 He was also invariably tattooed in gorgeous colors, 
 the beauty of which was his constant boast. As a 
 preliminary to a scuffle, he would slip his clothes off 
 his shoulders and make his opponent sick with envy 
 at the sight of his wondrous tattooed figures. . . . 
 His favorite attitude was to sit awkwardly, one heel 
 upon the other, with a towel on his shoulder." 
 Doesn't this sound like Patsy at Donnybrook fair ? 
 
 " If ye're in for a row or a raction, 
 Just tread on the tail of me coat!" 
 
 In these degenerate times the force is under the 
 control of the regular city police, and indulges in 
 nothing unseemly, beyond an occasional spree at New 
 Year time. The men used to be much more numer- 
 ous than now ; there were sixty-four companies in all, 
 forty-eight for the city side and sixteen across the 
 river, which taken together comprised over ten thou- 
 sand men. Each company had a standard bearing 
 its own crest, and these the firemen still keep and 
 use at certain times ; their fees and suits were pro- 
 vided by the ward to which they belonged. 
 
 When not on duty, the firemen used to be appro- 
 priately employed in helping to build houses, by 
 working the heavy pile-drivers with which the foun- 
 dation stones are rammed down, or taking the place 
 of a steam-crane in hoisting up roof timbers. Often 
 
154 JAPAN. 
 
 to-day you can hear the monotonous chanting as a 
 band of such men pull and let go, pull and let go, 
 over the foundations of some new dwelling. It is 
 said that in old times firemen were sometimes guilty 
 of encouraging fires, in order that there might be 
 more building to do, and the citizens took care to 
 keep them in a good frame of mind by frequent gifts ; 
 indeed, even the Daimyo seem to have been afraid to 
 interfere with them, if we may believe the story of a 
 fiofht early in the century, when over three hundred 
 firemen set upon sixty-three wrestlers in the precincts 
 of a temple. The judge in charge of the case found 
 it so "difficult and inexpedient" to decide against 
 either party that he " promised to give judgment after 
 fifty thousand fine days!" l 
 
 Ekoin, where the annual wrestling matches are 
 held, owes its origin to one of the worst fires Tokyo 
 has ever known. It happened in the winter of 1657, 
 and is called " the fire of the long-sleeved robe," on 
 account of the following romantic story : 
 
 A young girl of good family once went cherry- 
 viewing with her father and mother, and as they 
 returned, a handsome youth passed them, in the dress 
 of a temple page, wearing very long sleeves. The 
 girl lost her heart at the first glance; she sickened 
 and pined from that day. To comfort her the mother 
 bought a long-sleeved robe of the same pattern the 
 page had worn ; but though the daughter kept it by 
 1 Inouye, " Sketches of Tokyo Life." 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 155 
 
 her and would not let it out of her sight, she grew no 
 better and presently died. The family brought the 
 dress as an offering to their temple, and the priest 
 sold it to a dealer in second-hand garments. A young 
 girl bought it ; a few months later she died, and the 
 dress came back to the temple on her coffin. Again 
 the priests sold it ; again it was bought by a young 
 girl, who died within the year. By this time the 
 priests were very properly frightened, and they made 
 up a bonfire and threw in the unlucky robe, when, to 
 their horror, a gust of wind caught the thing and bore 
 it, all flaming, against the side of the temple. The 
 whole street caught, the fire leaped over the river and 
 burned its way all across the city, going out only 
 when there was nothing more to burn. 
 
 Two more fires, within a couple of clays after, de- 
 stroyed the palace and miles of houses ; the prison 
 gates were opened, but a warder closed one of the 
 city gates against the prisoners and cut off not only 
 these, but hundreds of citizens, who were caught by 
 the fire or trampled to death. There were so many 
 unclaimed bodies that a special burying ground was 
 made for them on the far side of the river, and a 
 memorial temple built, where masses w r ere said for 
 these unknown dead ; hence its name, Ekoin, temple 
 of mass-reading. More than a century later the 
 wrestling matches were moved here from another 
 temple — the same at which the firemen and wrestlers 
 had their fight — and there they have been held in 
 
156 JAPAN. 
 
 January and May ever since. The contests here de- 
 termine a wrestler's position for the year, though he goes 
 touring through the provinces all the other months. 
 
 These wrestlers are a class quite by themselves. In 
 feudal times their position was considered so import- 
 ant as a part of the art of fighting that they ranked 
 next to Samurai, and were patronized by Daimyo and 
 knights ; but since the Restoration their prestige is 
 much reduced. Weight counts for a great deal in 
 their mode of wrestling, and they eat meat and other- 
 wise endeavor to make themselves as large and as 
 coarse as possible. On the street their dress and way 
 of wearing their hair make them look like women — 
 fat, repulsive wenches — towering head and shoulders 
 above all ordinary Japanese. In the ring they wear 
 as nearly nothing as possible ; the umpire, on the 
 other hand, is arrayed in the kilted trousers and stiff 
 sleeves of a knight in full dress, and carries a war- 
 fan, with which he directs their movements. The rules 
 are said to be very exact, and of course there must be 
 a great deal of skill exercised, as well as mere bulk. 
 
 The workshops add much to the liveliness of 
 Japanese streets, for they are usually entirely open, 
 or screened at most by a short sudare, or shade of 
 split bamboo (such as we use in America for porch 
 curtains), or a hanging of knotted ropes, which does 
 not pretend to conceal anything whatever. Carpen- 
 ters, joiners, smiths, umbrella-makers, the old pot- 
 menders, the rice-pounders, lifting and dropping great 
 
TOKYO STKEETS. 157 
 
 hammers on the unhulled rice — they are all there in 
 full sight as you walk or ride by. You may watch 
 the saw and the plane, pulled instead of pushed 
 (which works backward, we or they?), the workman 
 sitting or standing, the wood held firmly by a flexible 
 bare toe, that has never known anything more binding 
 than a cotton sock. 
 
 Toward noon the eating houses are busy, and 
 kuruma men and coolies stand about them eating 
 queer morsels spitted on sticks, or munching big, 
 smoking sweet potatoes from one of the bakc-shops 
 where they cook these " Satsuma imo" all day long. 
 Then there are plenty of itinerant food dealers, more 
 even by night than by day; one variety of "hoky- 
 poky man" gets quite inside his booth, putting his 
 head between the cross-bars, and walks it off down 
 the street hissing and steaming, apparently quite of its 
 own locomotion. 
 
 One of the most picturesque figures is the flower 
 peddler, hanaya, trotting along with his portable shop, 
 consisting of a pair of bamboo frames slung on a cross- 
 pole, which the old fellow rests on his shoulder, a 
 stand before and a stand behind. They each have 
 three or four shelves, where the flowers are set in 
 little tubs or piled in bundles, and each corner has a 
 bamboo flower-holder or dainty branch tied on at ex- 
 actly the right angle. Then there is the vegetable 
 man, his two baskets likewise slung on a pole over his 
 shoulder, and full of roots and greens ; and the fish 
 
158 JAPAN. 
 
 man, who carries sets of shallow wooden tubs fitting 
 into each other in layers ; and the bean-curd man, and 
 the macaroni man, and a dozen others, not forgetting 
 the street sprinkler, a ragged Danae. bearing a couple 
 of perforated pails. There are a few horses, led, not 
 driven, in small two-wheeled carts; a few cows and 
 bullocks, which wear a mat roof over their backs for 
 rain or too hot sun. Almost everything comes to town 
 in tubs or baskets on a pole, or in two-wheeled carts, 
 kuruma, with a man or woman in the shafts and one 
 behind, heavy loads, too, very often ; Hoo-da, hoi-da ! 
 Hoo-da, hoi-da ! they call and answer as they toil up 
 the long hills. 
 
 When the sun goes down and the roof-outlines blur 
 in the faint mist, and the after-glow fades in the moat, 
 the rule is that everything on wheels must carry a 
 light, and down the long streets they flash out one by 
 one, between irregular rows of lanterns bearing house 
 signs, the glow of Rochester lamps in open shop 
 fronts, and here and there soft squares of radiance 
 through some closed shoji. Street lamps flash out 
 occasionally, and there are electric lights on the Ginza 
 and near the stations, and at other important points ; 
 elsewhere there is darkness only accented by the house 
 lights, and a bobbing vista of kuruma lanterns going 
 off to pin-points in the distance. 
 
 A Mr. Matsubara, who lived among the poor to 
 study their life, gives in his "Darkest Tokyo" a vivid 
 picture of one of the poorest quarters at sunset. " A 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 159 
 
 crowd of people are hurrying home to supper, some 
 with pickaxes, others with lunch boxes, others wear- 
 ing clothes wet with sweat, and still others in cover- 
 ings of rough straw, worn for carrying heavy and 
 dirty burdens on their shoulders. They are the labor- 
 ing class, who have exchanged their labor of the day 
 for copper, eighteen sen each. Next comes a laborer 
 pulling a cart ; with him is his wife, who carries their 
 baby. Then come two girls of about thirteen or four- 
 teen years of age ; one has a musical instrument, and 
 the other carries a (dancing) fan in her hand ; they are 
 counting the money they have earned. Then comes 
 an old man who sells bamboo tubes for tobacco pipes, 
 another who mends shoes or sells candy, and still 
 another who has been round the city buying empty 
 bottles or picking up waste paper. 
 
 " On the streets which lead into this quarter, fish- 
 mongers spread their fresh fish, grocers display on a 
 board egg-plants, cucumbers, potatoes, or lotus roots. 
 Others sell salted salmon, dried codfish, cuttlefish, 
 mackerel and other kinds of fish. On the other side 
 of the street is a man selling pickles. He keeps in 
 his shop pickled radish, egg-plant and plums. There 
 before a grog-shop a man is selling roasted meat, cut- 
 tlefish and popped corn, which scent the air. There 
 are many others selling old shoes, old furniture, or old 
 clothes, to supply the needs of the poor." l 
 
 1 " Darkest Tokyo," by Iwaguro Matsubara. Translated in the 
 Japan Evangelist, 1S94. 
 
160 JAPAN. 
 
 At night the business streets are more than ever 
 full ; summer and winter, the lower classes seem to do 
 all their shopping after dark. This is largely because 
 things are cheaper then than earlier, and then, too, 
 there is the money from the day's wages with which 
 to buy. One authority estimates the ratio of buying 
 among the poor to be as three is to seven in favor of 
 the evening, " The prices of vegetables are settled at 
 market about eight o'clock in the morning, but at ten 
 they are worth twenty per cent, less, and about an hour 
 later some sell at half-price." Old clothes and um- 
 brellas vary, he tells us, not with the hour, but the 
 season ; umbrellas worth eight rin (tenths of a sen) in 
 December fetch three or four sen in the spring. At 
 matsuri — festivals — too, night is the gayest time ; the 
 chief street of the ward is hung with red and white 
 lanterns, and chains and arches of lights crossing from 
 side to side ; while the roadway is lined with booths, 
 where the showman shouts himself hoarse before his 
 gaudy curtain, and stalls for candy and flower hairpins, 
 and all sorts of catchpenny odds and ends ; and the 
 batter-cake man is there, and the vender of toys and 
 charms, and all the droll creatures who belong to fair 
 time everywhere. The crowd is perfectly orderly and 
 good-natured, curious of strangers, but not unpleasantly 
 obtrusive — and it is certainly the best tubbed crowd in 
 the world ! The light-fingered gentry are there, though, 
 and they are exceedingly skillful at finding pockets 
 and watches; they do say a Tokyo thief will steal the 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 161 
 
 very geta — clogs — off a man's feet. This is the way 
 it is done : A pin on the end of a stick pricks the 
 victim's instep ever so softly ; he slips his toe from the 
 thong and lifts his foot to rub it — and instead of his 
 good new geta an old one waits the returning toe. 
 Repeat at a due interval, and when somebody gets 
 home at night he will be unpleasantly surprised. 
 
 Less elaborate, but even more fascinating than a full 
 matsuri are the en-nichi, or flower fairs, held also at 
 night, and two or three times a month in each quarter 
 of the city, on the Day of the Bird, Day of the Mon- 
 key, and so on. Tow T ard sunset the dealers begin to 
 arrive, pulling flat two-wheeled carts loaded with 
 plants, some in pots, more having the roots tied up in 
 straw ; they prop up the body of the cart at the side 
 of the street, and set out the plants on and around it 
 in a splendid mass of bloom. Others spread mats be- 
 side the roadway, or set up booths as at a festival, lay- 
 ing out all manner of wares ; here a china merchant 
 sits on the ground among his bowls and tea-pots ; 
 there is a basket maker, or a second-hand dealer dis- 
 playing tastefully a few old candlesticks and platters 
 and books and imitation bronzes ; sometimes, but very, 
 very rarely, some bit of real value. As it grows dark, 
 tins of kerosene, mounted on pointed sticks thrust into 
 the ground, flare wildly among the flowers ; a dense 
 crowd gathers, walking up and down, admiring, criti- 
 cising, bargaining ; three or four times the real price is 
 asked, then a few sen — cents — paid at last for a budding 
 Vol. L— 11 
 
162 JAPAN. 
 
 plum tree, or a chrysanthemum all over snowy balls, 
 fit for a prize show in America. Sometimes dwarf 
 trees are most in evidence, pine, maple, quince, or 
 plums, white and red, which planted together signify 
 the Gen-pei, the War of the Reds and Whites; or 
 there are great satin-petaled peonies, or azaleas, ca- 
 melias, magnolias, dwarf Wistaria vines, purple or 
 white. All through the year there is a succession, from 
 the first yellow ranunculus, the New Year " Flower 
 of Happiness," round to the autumn nanten berries 
 which foreigners substitute for holly at Christmas 
 time. It is a graceful thing, this nanten, " heavenly 
 bamboo," as the name means; it grows into a tall 
 shrub, with slender branches and racemes of scarlet 
 berries, and dark, glossy pinnate leaves that do look 
 very like bamboo. It is hardy all around Tokyo, and 
 it seems strange that such a pretty thing should not be 
 well known abroad. 
 
 Before we leave the city, here is a quaint bit of old 
 Yedo, the tale of " The Knightly Waste-paper Man." 
 
 This person — I follow Dening's translation — was a 
 Samurai Avho, for some oifence, had been forced to 
 leave his lord's service and escape from the province. 
 Reaching Yedo quite destitute and surpassingly ignor- 
 ant of the world, he and his young wife would have 
 fared badly, but for a wandering knight who saved 
 them from robbers on the road and put them in charge 
 of a kind-hearted tradesman, named Chohachi. 
 
 After a polite interval, Chohachi goes to the Samu- 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 163 
 
 rai and gently inquires what can be done to make the 
 pot boil ; how would he like to start a fencing school? 
 Shindo is very sorry, but, like too many knights in 
 those degenerate days, he has lived a life of ease, and 
 has little skill as a swordsman. Well, then, he might 
 teach writing — favorite resource of knighthood out at 
 elbows. Alas ! that will not do either ; our young 
 gentleman confesses himself a hopelessly poor writer. 
 Narahodo ! What ever can this graceful, charming 
 piece of incompetence be set to do? Clearly it must 
 be something of the simplest ; and after much thought 
 the trader provides the knight with a couple of light 
 baskets on a pole, and a pair of long bamboo chop- 
 sticks, renames him Chobei (Shindo is quite too fine 
 an appellation for such a business) and sends him out 
 to buy up old paper. 
 
 On the first day poor Shindo-Chobei stole through 
 the streets, meditating on the fleeting nature of pros- 
 perity, till he got entirely lost and had to pay a man 
 to take him home. Chohachi laughed and scolded, 
 and told him he must learn to call out what he wanted, 
 or how was anybody to know ? So, to get used to the 
 sound of his own voice, out went Chobei to an open 
 space, where there were no houses in sight, and cried 
 "Old paper " to the four winds, till the street gamins 
 pelted him for a madman. 
 
 Swallowing his laughter, Chohachi patiently ex- 
 plains and exhorts once more. " Try the little back 
 streets ; fine people don't sell waste paper ! Gossip a 
 
104 JAPAN. 
 
 bit with the old women and put them in a good humor, 
 and then say, as you go off, * I suppose you haven't any 
 old paper to-day ? ' Go every day and get them to 
 know you ; that's the way." 
 
 So once more off went Chobei, this time down the 
 lane, where women scrubbed and children played in 
 the dust and bent old crones chopped daikon on the 
 doorsteps, just the way they do now. One and all 
 Chobei greeted them most politely in the only language 
 he knew : 
 
 " Good morning, madam ! An augustly beautiful 
 morning! I trust you and your honorable family 
 enjoy good health. This is the first time I had the 
 honor — I am one Chobei, from such a street, and I 
 beg the favor of your acquaintance. Got any old 
 paper ? " 
 
 Of all this courtly discourse, the good dames took 
 in only the last sentence ; but, on the whole, they 
 were rather tickled by so much elegance, and though 
 they thought him rather mad, " the Knightly Paper 
 Man " became quite an institution and did a thriving 
 trade ; so that under Chohachi's careful management 
 he kept his wife and little daughter very well. 
 
 In the rest of the tale, to Western ears, the morality 
 seems strangely mixed. One day Chobei found an 
 old friend begging on the street ; it was the knight 
 who had helped him to escape from his province, and 
 who had now been banished by his lord on an unjust 
 charge, and was living in dire poverty. Chobei and 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 1C5 
 
 his wife decided that honor required them to make a 
 suitable present; but twenty-five gold rio was the 
 least that could be thought of, and the only way to 
 get such a sum was to sell their only daughter. This, 
 with many tears, they proceeded to do, and Chobei 
 went off with the money to his friend, Bun-yemon. 
 The friend, however, utterly refused to accept such a 
 gift, and when it was pressed became very angry ; 
 still, Chobei managed to slip the packet into a tobacco- 
 box and went home. 
 
 When Bun-yemon found the money had been left 
 in spite of him, he scolded his wife roundly for not 
 watching better ; but, as they had no idea where 
 Chobei lived, she urged her husband to take it as a 
 loan and redeem a valuable sword which he had 
 pawned ; he could then sell the sword for a much 
 larger sum, and pay the twenty-five rio back as soon 
 as he found Chobei. This Bun-yemon finally con- 
 sented to do ; but unluckily the pawnbroker's clerk, 
 balked of the sword, which he had fully expected to 
 get possession of, accused Buu-yemon of stealing a 
 hundred rio from his master. Bun-yemon was 
 arrested, and his wife confined to her house and 
 closely watched. 
 
 Now Yedo, under the Tokugawa, was governed by 
 a Machi-Bugyo, or City Minister, who was also the 
 supreme judge, and had under him twenty-five officers 
 for the different departments of the service ; and these 
 again directed a hundred and fifty lesser officials. At 
 
1G6 JAPAN. 
 
 the time of our story the Machi-Bugyo was the Lord 
 of Echizen, who was, and indeed still is, considered 
 the greatest judge Japan ever knew. To him Bun- 
 yemon's wife determined to appeal. A fire in the 
 neighborhood gave her a chance to escape, and finding 
 the Machi-Bugyo on horseback, overlooking the fire- 
 men, she caught his rein and told her tale. The 
 details of the case are too complex to follow, but the 
 Lord of Echizen was judge, lawyer and detective, all 
 in one, and by a series of clever manoeuvres he sifted 
 out the truth and got the guilty clerk's confession. 
 Dening quotes the sentence, which, as he says, is "a 
 curiosity from a modern point of view." 
 
 The guilty clerk was put to death. Besides his plot 
 against Bun-yemon, he had robbed his master and 
 killed the master's son. The pawnbroker was fined a 
 hundred rio, on the principle which prevails every- 
 where in the East that the master is to be held largely 
 responsible for the man. These gold pieces were 
 given to Bun-yemon, with the order to use twenty-five 
 in redeeming Chobei's daughter. As for Chobei, he 
 was praised for sacrificing his child to serve his bene- 
 factor, and the daughter for obeying her parents, and 
 both received small rewards. The money for this last 
 came out of fines paid by the clerk's accomplices ; 
 altogether a very pretty game of virtue rewarded and 
 vice punished, according to Eastern notions of vice 
 and virtue. 
 
 To complete the general happiness, Bun-yemon's 
 
TOKYO STREETS. 1(37 
 
 lord restored him to office, and Hanskiro, the errant 
 knight who helped Chobei when he first came to Yedo, 
 so pleased the Shogun that he made him a Hatamoto 
 (retainer of the Tokugawa), with a revenue of five 
 hundred koku. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 " When I am gone away, 
 Masterless my dwelling 
 Though it appear, 
 O plum-tree by the eaves 
 Forget not thou the spring." 
 
 — Trans. Aston. 
 
 " Bind the rushes together, and lo, a house wherein 
 man may dwell ; scatter them, and they are once more 
 but a part of the reedy waste." 
 
 I do not remember who he was, the Japanese sage 
 who thus tried to express his conception of the human 
 soul and its relation to the groat All, and indeed I fear 
 the saying has stayed by me, not for any half-compre- 
 hension of the pantheistic philosophy, but for the sake 
 of the picture it evokes — the memory of wide moors, 
 clothed to the edge of the horizon with tall, waving 
 suzuki grass ; and of some group of low huts clinging 
 to the fringe of the waste, mere shells of mud daubed 
 about the woven reeds. 
 
 Such a shelter, most probably, was the primitive 
 Japanese house, modified and improved a little, it is 
 true, by memories of Malay campongs raised on piles, 
 
 168 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 169 
 
 in that far south from which the divine ancestors 
 came. The after changes, one and all, have been dic- 
 tated by necessity of material or of climate, as must 
 always be the case with a really vital architecture. 
 
 For after all, when everything has been said, a 
 Japanese house is the fittest thing for Japan. Every- 
 body knows them by this time from the specimens at 
 world's fairs and Japanese villages — the low roofs pro- 
 jecting over narrow porches, the straw mats on the 
 floors, and movable, half transparent Avails — pictur- 
 esque affairs of wood and paper, so slight and small 
 that nobody in America can take them seriously, or 
 quite believe that the real, lived-in thing is just like 
 this. If people actually do live in such toy things — 
 why then the Westerner concludes that the whole of 
 Japan must be a toy land, a huge joke altogether. 
 
 Certainly a Japanese house is quite different from all 
 our ideas of what constitutes a dwelling. Western archi- 
 tecture thinks of a house as four walls roofed over and 
 pierced with openings for light and entrance ; in Japan 
 the conception is simply a roof on supports, filled in with 
 walls or not, just as you wish, for the walls are a mere 
 matter of convenience, and not structurally necessary 
 in the least. One realizes this best after watching 
 Japanese carpenters building, for they go at it almost 
 roof first, and apply walls and openings afterward, 
 according to requirement, very much as Americans 
 build a modern fireproof sky-scraper. 
 
 The first step of all is to level the ground carefully, 
 
170 JAPAN. 
 
 not digging it out, for there is to be no cellar. Then 
 where the supports are to rest they set a foundation of 
 round stones, pounding them in solidly with heavy 
 hammers like pile-drivers, so that they shall not wash 
 or give. No part of the building is set into the ground ; 
 each of the uprights rests on one of the large round 
 stones, being hollowed out a little on the under side, 
 so as to fit over the stone like a shallow socket. When 
 this foundation is ready, the horizontal beams of the 
 roof are laid foursquare on the ground, the uprights 
 of the gable, the ridgepole and rafters, are all placed 
 and made fast, and the whole roof-frame raised by 
 many hands and with much chanting, till the props 
 can be slipped under in their right places. These 
 supports are then braced with cross-beams, and it re- 
 mains only to thatch or tile the roof, and fill in an end 
 wall or two, and the thing is done. No, not quite; the 
 wooden outside shutters count as part of the house, 
 although the inside screens, which serve as partitions, 
 are generally counted furnishings. The whole building 
 is simply a strong elastic frame, which rocks together 
 like a ship when the ground heaves, or even slips a 
 little on the foundation stones, while the heavy roof 
 keeps it from jumping about to a dangerous extent. 
 So long as the timbers have not rotted, such a house 
 can stand even a severe earthquake without damage 
 beyond shedding off a shower of tiles — which last 
 it is pretty sure to do, because these heavy tiles are 
 not fastened in any way, but simply laid in a bed of 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 171 
 
 sticky mud, and a prolonged shake is sure to send 
 them flying. 
 
 Even the tiled houses keep a memory of the primi- 
 tive thatch in the prominent ridgepole, which is often 
 made of white tiles instead of black, apparently for a 
 purely decorative purpose ; and in the backward slant 
 of the gable ends, which makes the roof slope four 
 ways, like the little reed shelters. 
 
 A typical Japanese house is oblong, and more often 
 one story high than two. The entrance is at the side, 
 and not in the middle of the side either, but near one 
 end ; there is a little vestibule, a space of bare earth, 
 closed usually on the outside by a slatted sliding door, 
 and here you drop your shoes before stepping into the 
 house proper, the floor of which is a foot or two higher. 
 Most often it is the gable ends of the house which are 
 filled in with lath and plaster, while along the sides 
 run narrow balconies, called roka, floored with bare 
 polished boards. Within these are the rooms proper, 
 their floors completely covered with the tatami or 
 thick, soft mats, Avhich are about as springy as a gym- 
 nasium mattress, and serve for chairs, tables, in a word, 
 all the furniture of the house. 
 
 The rooms near the door are least honorable ; the 
 guest room is farthest back, or in an "upper chamber," 
 opening always on a garden, if it be only a few feet 
 square. Passing through into such a guest room or 
 zashiki, you find yourself in an oblong apartment, 
 having at one end a kind of alcove in a plastered wall, 
 
172 JAPAN. 
 
 two sides closed by sliding screens of thick paper, 
 painted or stamped with some delicate design, and a 
 third side open most of the day to the balcony and 
 the garden. The floor of the rooms is sunk a little, 
 so that the surface of the mats is just level with the 
 sill of the balcony. In this sill, and in the beam di- 
 rectly above it, there are double grooves, and in these 
 slide the screens or shoji, each panel six feet high and 
 three wide, made of the lightest possible framework, 
 so light that it can be lifted and taken out at a mo- 
 ment's notice. Like grooves run between the rooms 
 for the fusuma or thick paper screens, which take the 
 place of partitions, and the fusuma, too, can be lifted 
 out easily, throwing the whole house, if you like, into 
 one large room. The shoji — screens next the balcony — 
 being intended to let in light, are covered with what 
 we should call tissue paper ; it is a good deal tougher 
 than ours, but tears quite easily, and has to be fre- 
 quently replaced ; and meanwhile the neat housewife 
 mends torn places with decorative strips or stars of the 
 same thin paper, called hanshi. Hearn, in " Shadow- 
 ings," quotes a pathetic little poem, supposed to be 
 written by a mother who has just lost her child : 
 
 " Mi ni shimiru 
 
 Kaze ya ! 
 
 Shoji ni 
 
 Yubi no ato." 
 
 " Oh, body-piercing wind ! That work of little 
 fingers in the shoji !" 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 173 
 
 At night, or when the house is to be closed, the 
 wooden storm-shutters (ama-do) are pushed out along 
 their grooves at the outer edge of the balcony ; when 
 the last is in place a bolt is put up, and everything is as 
 secure as an eighth of an inch of pine plank can make 
 it. Don't fancy there is an earthquake at day-dawn ; 
 it is only the maid rolling back the shutters to their 
 niche at the end of the roka ; and till she does there is 
 all but no light. That is the weakest point of a 
 Japanese house; it has no windows, and at night you 
 are shut up in a box — though luckily not a very tight 
 one. 
 
 Occasionally an upstairs room does have a window, 
 and if so it is usually worked in some decorative way 
 into the space beside the tokonoma, or ornamental 
 alcove at the end. This tokonoma is said to be the 
 raised seat where the Emperor would sit if he made a 
 visit — at least, that is one explanation often given of a 
 thing nobody quite understands. Others say the 
 tokonoma represents a primitive raised platform to 
 sleep on, such as the Ainu sometimes have in their 
 houses ; if so, it has certainly shrunk. It is a shallow 
 niche, lined with wood, its wooden floor raised a foot or 
 more above the rest of the room ; 'the lining and floor 
 and the upright beam or post beside it are the finest 
 timber the house can afford ; the post is often a 
 trunk barked and polished, with all the marks of the 
 limbs left in place — suggesting the post of the bed in 
 his fair palace which Ulysses described with so much 
 
174 JAPAN. 
 
 pride. The place just in front of the tokonoma is the 
 most honorable seat, the place offered to the chief 
 guest — and to be accepted, of course, only after due 
 pressing. All the woodwork of the tokonoma, and in 
 the rest of the house, is untouched by paint, and 
 exquisitely polished by sheer rubbing ; the ceiling of 
 a well-built room is beautifully grained, the markings 
 perfectly matched together. They do not waste thick 
 boards on these ceilings, but use pieces almost as thin 
 as paper, tacking them clown to the rafters on their 
 upper side. 
 
 The tatami or mats are each three feet wide and six 
 feet long and about two inches thick, each piece bound 
 at the end with black cotton cloth ; all rooms are made 
 in proportions to fit them, as an eight-mat, ten-mat, 
 twelve or four-and-a-half mat room. When the mats 
 are laid, covering the entire floor, and the shoji and 
 fusuma are in place, the house is felt to be furnished ; 
 the rest is luxury or ornament. There may be a few 
 low chests of drawers, a writing stand ten inches high, a 
 hibachi (box for coals), and some thin, square cushions 
 to sit on ; in the tokonoma one flower vase, one kake- 
 mono or hanging scroll ; no more. 
 
 It is bare, assuredly, and not at all comfortable to 
 European muscles; but to the eyes, perfectly restful, 
 perfectly harmonious. The proportions are always in 
 multiples of three, the color low-toned, delicate, leaving 
 all accent to the flower and kakemono, which are to be 
 enjoyed without distraction — and changed, by the way, 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 175 
 
 as the mood or the season changes. The scheme has 
 certain positive advantages over the fatiguing com- 
 plexity of Western life. 
 
 The rest of the needfuls of a house are few ; there 
 must be a shichi-rin, or stovelet for cooking — one is 
 almost forced to use Japanese words where there is no 
 English equivalent — the hibachi being only for warmth, 
 or merely to boil a kettle, on a little iron stand set 
 among the ashes. They say the shichi-rin, "seven riii," 
 gets its name because it burns only seven-tenths of a 
 sen's worth of charcoal ; one sen — worth half-a-ceut — 
 being till lately a day's allowance for one fire. Then 
 there must be quilts to sleep on, and pillows, which 
 really are small blocks of wood with a little cushion 
 atop, or else a bag of buckwheat chaff — this last is not 
 at all bad either ; men use it because nowadays they 
 have no elaborate hair-dressing to save, as the women 
 have. All this bedding is rolled up by day and 
 kept in deep closets, closed like the rooms by sliding 
 thick paper screens. Dishes there are, of course, and 
 trays on which to serve them ; basins, tubs, hot- water 
 cans in the bath-room, and pots and cooking utensils 
 generally. 
 
 The kitchen is worth looking at, especially in some 
 fine old house in the country. A considerable part of 
 it is usually lower, and floored with beaten earth, like 
 the vestibule, and there tubs of water stand and rough 
 work is done ; the rest is raised and matted with ta- 
 tami, while in the middle a square pit filled with peb- 
 
176 JAPAN. 
 
 bles and ashes serves for hearth. A kettle hangs over 
 it by a chain, and around the pile of coals they broil 
 small fish, leaning them against iron spits thrust into 
 the ashes ; this is the crisp brown sJiioyaki, which even 
 foreigners can enjoy without reserve. An opening in 
 the roof — a sort of little window, directly over the 
 hearth — does duty for chimney, and carries off at least 
 part of the charcoal fumes. These open fires are won- 
 derfully little unpleasant; of course, the secret is that 
 all the house is open through the day, and at night the 
 fire-box is carefully taken out of the sleeping room, 
 besides having the coals well buried in the ashes, for 
 fear of sparks as much as gas. Still, every now and 
 then the papers tell of some tragedy caused by a shut 
 room and a burning hibachi. 
 
 After living with these open brasiers for awhile, one 
 begins to realize what the " purity " of the hearth fire 
 meant to the ancients on our own side of the globe; for 
 in Japan, as well as in Greece or Rome, it is the height 
 of impropriety to throw anything impure into the fire- 
 place, even a match-stick, lor that would burn with a 
 smoke, or lie unconsumed among the clean white ashes. 
 With the hibashi, " fire-sticks" or tongs, there is a neat 
 little brass scraper, a thing half way between a shovel 
 and a comb ; and this is used to rake the ashes into 
 four even furrowed slopes, from the fire to the sides 
 of the hibachi. 
 
 Occasionally a storehouse is turned into a dwelling — 
 one of those kura or go-downs, with immensely thick; 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 177 
 
 white plastered walls, which are so striking a feature 
 of all Japanese cities. To tell the truth, they are 
 pleasauter when converted into a "foreign" than a 
 Japanese home, for the small windows do not suit a 
 life without stoves. On the other hand, they are far 
 better than an ordinary Japanese house for our way of 
 living ; the fact is I can't myself conceive of anything 
 much more thoroughly uncomfortable than a house of 
 paper walls filled with European furniture — and worst 
 of all, rocking-chairs ! The missionary women who 
 struggle to make a home-like place out of one of these 
 houses, curtaining yards of glass storm-shutters, endur- 
 ing tables that wobble on the soft mats, and wrestling 
 with those rockers that are continually poking through 
 the fusunia into the next room — well, they surely have 
 their reward somewhere. There is just one kind of 
 purely Japanese house that lends itself well to doors 
 and windows, and that is the tile and plaster form so 
 much used in the Yedo yashiki, but now little seen ; 
 in general principles it is like the other houses, but the 
 w T alls are filled in with tiles set on edge in a thick body 
 of plaster, the black edges making slightly raised dia- 
 monds in the white surface, and the effect is very deco- 
 rative. There are long blocks of such walls in Tokyo 
 still, remnants of feudal days, but in a few years they 
 will probably all disappear. 
 
 Private houses generally turn a blank side to the 
 street, or at most a graceful oriel window screened by 
 a wooden grill. When there is space to spare, the 
 Vol. I.— 12 
 
178 JAPAN. 
 
 dwellings hide behind walls or bamboo fences or 
 hedges — those high green hedges which are the charm 
 of Tokyo lanes, showing only a line of roof, or through 
 an open gate a peep of shrubbery and a gray rock or 
 two. Raising flowers is no part of the duty of a 
 Japanese garden; a tree there should be, a stone 
 lantern and some rocks, a little lake, a little hill ; and 
 the arrangement of it all has an artistic symbolism 
 which everybody understands. If the space be but a 
 few feet, then the tree must be dwarfed, the hill be- 
 comes a mossy stone beside a goldfish basin ; or tinier 
 yet, at the tabi-maker's or the charcoal-seller's door 
 you may see it all in a shallow flower-pot — an eight- 
 inch pine tree, toy lanterns, toy bridges, or a green 
 china frog by a pond as big as a saucer. On the 
 other hand, where space allows, there is no dwarfing 
 at all, and trees and shrubs are cleverly disposed to 
 keep out prying eyes, for no Englishman has a greater 
 horror of being overlooked than an upper-class Japan- 
 ese, or a more thorough conviction that his house is his 
 own. 
 
 His own ; that is to say, his as the head of the 
 family. After all, this is the most radical difference 
 between Eastern and Western life, that in the West the 
 individual is the unit, in the East the family. That 
 is why people say the Japanese do not know what pri- 
 vacy means ; the truth is, they both do and do not — 
 they have certain reserves which would never occur to 
 an Anglo-Saxon, and they are perfectly open and out- 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 179 
 
 spoken about many things which the West thinks good 
 to conceal. That is the point of view. But family 
 life in Japan is something absolutely sacred, something 
 no outsider may so much as look into ; it is not con- 
 sidered good form even to speak of such matters. On 
 the other hand, once within the household, there are no 
 reserves at all ; there hardly could be in a paper 
 house ; nor is there need when all feel themselves but 
 parts of a whole. 
 
 For it is necessary to remember that when a young 
 man marries he does not merely take a wife to suit 
 himself and her alone ; he brings home a daughter to 
 his parents. There will be in the household his father 
 and mother, perhaps a grandfather, very likely young 
 unmarried brothers and sisters, or a brother's widow, 
 or perhaps his own widowed sister come back to her 
 own people. It will be his duty as future head of the 
 house wisely to direct all its affairs, to look after all 
 its helpless members, to defer in all things to his 
 parents, and to decide nothing of general interest with- 
 out a family conclave. The young wife, on her part, 
 will have the brunt of the housekeeping, and besides 
 doing her best to please her husband, she must in all 
 things be useful to his parents. How many American 
 girls would get through the first month of such a life? 
 
 In truth it is not too easy for a Japanese girl. As 
 the saying goes, " Mother-in-law and young wife living 
 together in peace is one of the seven wonders," and 
 the crowded households are at least partly responsible 
 
180 JAPAN. 
 
 for the high rate of divorce, which is said to be one- 
 third of all marriages Confucian ethics allowed seven 
 reasons for which a man might return his wife to her 
 parents — send her back, as it were, like a piece of 
 goods taken on approbation. The seven are disobedi- 
 ence to her husband's parents, not having a son, un- 
 faithfulness, jealousy, contagious disease, talkativeness 
 and thieving. But " if while she was taken from a 
 home, she has now no home to return to, if she has 
 passed with her husband through three years' mourn- 
 ing for his parents, or if her husband has become rich 
 from being poor," then he may not divorce her. (S. 
 Motoda, in " The Far East." ) 
 
 Another circumstance Confucianism requires a wife 
 to accept patiently, if her husband demands it, and 
 that is the presence of another in the household. On 
 this question Ave shall perhaps best understand the 
 Japanese way of thinking by remembering the customs 
 of the Hebrew patriarchs ; for a Japanese mekake stands 
 to the true wife almost precisely as Hagar stood to 
 Sarah. Like Hagar, the mekake is regarded as a 
 " handmaid ; " she is always of inferior rank, and in 
 every way subject to the wife. The training of her 
 children is not in her hand*, but in those of the true 
 wife, who alone is mistress of the house. Under feud- 
 alism the number of mekake a man might keep was 
 limited by his station, which prescribed his retinue 
 and the kind of establishment he was entitled to : a 
 prince had four or five, and the Emperor himself was 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 181 
 
 permitted twelve. On the other hand dissipation was 
 denounced : " He alone can rule his family who ruleth 
 himself; and he alone can rule a nation, whose family 
 is in right order." Sometimes the Karo or chief re- 
 tainer was called upon to protest against the conduct 
 of his lord ; if the rebuke was accepted, well ; if not, 
 the Samurai took his own life. It is recorded of one 
 Daimyo that he went aside on an expedition to visit 
 one of his ladies in waiting, and remained drinking 
 and carousing long past the time that he should have 
 left. In this difficulty, two of the knights killed 
 themselves at his door, and thus recalled their master 
 to his duty. 
 
 Uchimura, in "Japan and the Japanese," cites 
 Yozan, lord of Yonezawa, as an example of right feel- 
 ing. " The lady to whom he was wedded in her min- 
 ority by his parents, according to the then custom of 
 the land, proved to be a born imbecile, and her intel- 
 lect was never above that of a child of ten years of 
 age. Her, however, he treated with genuine love and 
 respect, made for her toys and dolls, and comforted 
 her in all ways, and for the twenty years of their 
 wedded life he never showed the least dissatisfaction 
 with his fate. His other consort (at a time when no 
 one questioned the right of concubinage, and all other 
 Daimyo had four or five, he had but one) was left in 
 Yonezawa, while they lived mostly in Yedo, and was 
 never allowed the dignity he attached to his imbecile 
 wife." 
 
182 JAPAN. 
 
 I do not mean to imply that this custom either is or 
 was a universal one ; it never was so at any time in 
 Japan, being rather permitted than approved ; and 
 modern law does not recognize the institution at all. 
 For instance, in future only the son of an Empress 
 may succeed to the throne. One in a thousand house- 
 holds was the official estimate five years ago ; and the 
 number lessens yearly, because nearly every case is 
 a survival from the old regime. It is one of the 
 things which are passing away, and one can only trust 
 that for this, as well as others, a genuine acceptance 
 of the principles of Christian ethics may take the 
 place of the old ideals which have been so suddenly 
 cast down. Failing this, it is to be feared that, for a 
 time at least, many things must be worse rather than 
 better for contact with the letter of Western pro- 
 priety. 
 
 The patriarchal custom of sons living with the 
 parents is likewise bound to pass with the changes 
 now going on in society. Whether as a system it had 
 most of good or evil, need not be discussed ; but just 
 here comes in the value of Japanese training in self- 
 control, in pleasant looks and pleasant speech, in know- 
 ing just what to do and how to do it — in other words, 
 etiquette. All those little things that every child 
 must learn so carefully are only the best and smoothest 
 way of doing needful things ; for instance, try to open 
 a sliding screen, to get up from the floor with a tray 
 in your hand, and see if you are not a convert to 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 183 
 
 Japanese rules for those motions, at any rate. And the 
 little daily observances, the little bows and little set 
 phrases, all help the domestic wheels to run more evenly. 
 For in spite of all difficulties and drawbacks, in many 
 a Japanese household there is peace and happiness, and 
 a deep, quiet affection. 
 
 Here are some of the things specially enjoined on 
 young girls : 
 
 " How to sit down. — Bring both hands and knees 
 together ; quietly kneel ; sit low, putting one toe over 
 the other and keeping the hands in the lap. 
 
 " How to rise. — Leave the right hand in the original 
 position ; raise the body with the fingers of the left 
 hand on the mat, rise first on tiptoe, and as the body 
 becomes erect, bring both knees and feet together. 
 
 " When a tea cup is set before her, she should take 
 it up with her right hand, and, holding it in both 
 palms, drink the tea in three swallows and a half. 
 
 " When a plate of cakes is presented, she should first 
 take out a sheet of paper (ladies should always provide 
 themselves with clean paper), then select a cake and 
 put it on the paper with chop-sticks. Then she may 
 break it into two pieces and eat one piece with two 
 fingers." 
 
 A woman should move gently, with hands hanging 
 straight and head a little down ; in walking her tight, 
 narrow dress compels her to turn her toes slightly 
 inward, and she should slip her feet smoothly along 
 the floor. They tell a story among the foreigners of a 
 
184 JAPAN. 
 
 child whose American teacher tried to make her sit 
 up straight and enlarge her chest; after repeated 
 lectures the little girl at last burst into tears, exclaim- 
 ing, " I don't know what to do ! You are all the time 
 telling me this, and when I go home my mother says, 
 1 Don't throw back your head in that rude, forward 
 way,' and between you I am scolded all the time !" 
 Such a thing might easily have happened often in the 
 early days of mission schools ; now, the Japanese 
 schools themselves teach a light kind of calisthenics, and 
 the missions go to great pains to have Japanese good 
 manners taught by specialists in etiquette. 
 
 Many things are possible to a Japanese woman, 
 because her code has taught her to regard marriage 
 less as a means of personal happiness than as a duty. 
 " Marriage," says the (Chinese) Li Ki, " is intended to 
 be a bond of love between persons of different sur- 
 names, with a view in its retrospective character to 
 secure the services in the ancestral temple, and in its 
 prospective character to secure the continuance of the 
 family line. . . . There is nothing so deplorable and 
 shameful as the neglect of the worship of ancestors 
 and discontinuance of the family line." Marriage 
 therefore is simply an act of filial piety, which Con- 
 fucianism regards as the highest of all virtues, the 
 basis of all morality. 
 
 An American once asked a Chinaman if he thought 
 he could do a certain piece of work, and the man an- 
 swered, " I have been a bricklayer for seven gener- 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 185 
 
 ations, and I ought to know how." Not my father 
 and my grandfather before me, but I — a bit of the 
 whole, a mere link in the chain. Certainly the Orien- 
 tal notion of the solidarity of the family is beyond 
 the wit of younger nations to grasp. 
 
 The etymology of the Chinese word Ko (filial piety) 
 is rather enlightening. It is said to be made up of 
 two characters, " old " and " son," one written under 
 the other, so that literally it means a son bearing his 
 parent on his shoulders, like a Chinese version of 
 iEneas and Anchises. From this conception of their 
 relation, the custom of a man's becoming " inkyo" 
 (retired) follows naturally enough ; as soon as the son is 
 able to support his father, the latter may enjoy ease 
 and leisure, and it is the glory of the son to let his 
 parents speedily enter upon the inkyo life. Though 
 it is a selfish custom on the father's side, Japanese 
 writers think that the responsibility has a steadying 
 effect on many a young man, making him study or 
 work more diligently and avoid evil habits. 
 
 Most of the filial piety stories have a Chinese origin ; 
 I am not sure though where one of the prettiest comes 
 from, that of the poor woodcutter, all whose efforts 
 failed to bring in enough money to buy sake for his old 
 father. As he went home sorrowfully, he stopped to 
 drink at a waterfall, and foimd it had turned into 
 wine ! You often see him in pictures, kneeling by the 
 stream, and joyfully filling a gourd such as pilgrims 
 and picnic parties carry. 
 
186 JAPAN. 
 
 Naturally the choice of a wife is theoretically left 
 to the parents, but the fact is that in actual practice in 
 Japan both man and girl have a very distinct say in 
 the matter. A missionary once said jokingly to one of 
 his evangelists, " I suppose a lot of you young fellows 
 will be going to the X. commencement (naming a 
 large girls' school) to pick out your wives," and the 
 young man answered quite soberly, " I am not going 
 myself, but M. and N. are." 
 
 Still, though it is proper to look and decide pretty 
 much for themselves, " premature affection between 
 the two contracting parties is considered improper," 
 says Motoda. " Marriage must begin with respect, 
 and after marriage love begins," he quotes from the 
 Confucian law; and again : 
 
 "How do we proceed in hewing an axe-handle? 
 Without another axe it cannot be done. 
 How do we proceed in taking a wife? 
 
 Without a go-between it cannot be done." 
 
 Much of this rigid Confucianism was introduced 
 only a couple of hundred years ago, along with the 
 great revival of Chinese influence in the early Toku- 
 gawa period ; before this Japanese women enjoyed a 
 great deal more freedom and influence, especially in 
 the brilliant eighth and eleventh centuries. But in 
 the seventeenth century the "Mirror for Women" 
 was published, and, with the " Greater Learning," be- 
 came the guide to women's conduct almost to the 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 187 
 
 present day. About this period a Daimyo wrote to 
 his granddaughter on her marriage : 
 
 " In thy youthful womanhood, it is very natural 
 that thy mind is often taken up with matters of dress ; 
 but forget not the frugal habits thou hast been taught. 
 Devote thyself to silk-worm raising and other womanly 
 industries, and at the same time feed thy mind with 
 books of poetry. Seek not culture and enlightenment 
 for their own sakes ; the aim of all knowledge is to 
 lead us into virtue. Serve thy parents with all fidelity. 
 With obedience to thy husband in all quietness, may 
 your prosperity know no end ! " 
 
 Gentle as she was to be, a Samurai woman yet 
 carried a short sword, and was carefully taught how 
 to use it if there were need. A young girl once told 
 me that she remembered seeing her mother and grand- 
 mother practicing fencing at the outbreak of the 
 Satsuma rebellion, that they might be ready, if called 
 upon in their husband's absence, to defend their lord. 
 
 Of such stuff was the Countess Hosokawa, whose 
 husband took the side of Ieyasu in his conflict with 
 Hideyoshi's son Hideyori. Hosokawa, going to camp 
 with Ieyasu, left his wife at their residence near 
 Osaka, Hideyori's stronghold ; and here she was visited 
 by a messenger who summoned her to appear with her 
 children at the castle. She at once understood why ; 
 they were to be held as hostages, in hopes of getting 
 Hosokawa to the other side. Either her husband 
 would be tempted to betray his honor, or she very 
 
188 JAPAN. 
 
 well knew the disappointed followers of Hideyori 
 would not hesitate to crucify her with her children. 
 She sent for the Karo and her lady-in-waiting, and 
 begged them to save the boy and girl ; they declared 
 it was hopeless. The Countess therefore wrote a letter 
 to her husband explaining the necessity, knelt before 
 the family shrine, and when the soldiers were an- 
 nounced, cut down the unconscious children and thrust 
 the dagger into her own throat. Her story, altered 
 in names and detail, is a favorite on the Tokyo stage. 
 
 The simplicity of daily life in Japan impresses all 
 foreigners, but most of all Americans, supplied as we 
 are beyond others with material helps to existence. 
 The newcomer hardly knows whether to pity a people 
 so devoid of what to him are the commonest necessi- 
 ties, or to envy the Oriental his freedom from wants. 
 And, whether we should like it for ourselves or not, it 
 is certain that this simplicity is a large part of Japan's 
 fascination for strangers. 
 
 In one of these quiet households day begins with 
 the clamor of the wooden shutters rolled back along 
 the balcony, sometimes before the sun is up ; for, as in 
 all southern countries, the people are early astir. 
 Schools begin at eight in winter and seven in summer, 
 and even this is a concession to modern ideas ; Samurai 
 boys were often sent to their teacher breakfastless in 
 the dawn. First of all, the children must present 
 themselves to their parents, slip down before them 
 with foreheads to the mat, and say " O hayo, Otot ' 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 189 
 
 San; O kayo, Oka San "—Good-morning, father, 
 mother. Even the baby learns to put his fat hands 
 palms down, and bob his funny round head, with its 
 stiff black crown of hair. He says "chichi" and 
 " haha " for father and mother, and the rest all call 
 him " bot ' chan " till he is quite a big boy. His sis- 
 ters may be O Yuki Chan (Miss Snow) and Umeko 
 (Little Plumblossom) — Chan being the childish version 
 of San. 
 
 Though there is no dining-table, the family gener- 
 ally take their meals together, sitting in a half circle 
 round the room ; on festival days they use the guest 
 room, and at such times there are special dishes served 
 in little bowls set by each one's tray. A New Year 
 favorite is a thick sweetish bean soup, in which float 
 lumps of sticky mochi, the indigestible pounded rice 
 dough the Japanese are so fond of; and a dish which 
 appears many times a year is a mixture of rice and 
 red beans. Peas should be offered to a person going 
 on a journey, because the name (mame) means also 
 good luck, prosperity. 
 
 In most non-Christian homes, a little food and a 
 little drink are daily placed before the name-tablets of 
 the ancestors on the god-shelf, and here too the offer- 
 ing varies with the season. It is very bad to stick 
 one's chop-sticks upright in a bowl of rice at dinner, 
 because they are placed so in making offerings to the 
 dead. For the same reason a Japanese will not pour 
 cold water into a basin and add hot ; and he dislikes 
 
190 JAPAN. 
 
 camelias, because their heavily falling blossoms make 
 him think of heads tumbling off! 
 
 At the end of the meal the children bow and say 
 go-chiso sama — "an honorable feast;" and in like 
 manner each member of the family bows, more or 
 less profoundly, and murmurs "sayonara" before 
 leaving the room. Then the mother looks to her 
 housekeeping ; in these modern days she does not 
 always raise silk or spin, but she cuts and sews, and 
 prides herself on her pickles, and overlooks every- 
 thing, even if she has many servants. The routine 
 of life is varied by endless demands of social etiquette. 
 When a child is born, there are certain ceremonies for 
 the first day, and again on the seventh night, when 
 the baby is named and formally dressed for the first 
 time ; a boy's left sleeve must go on first, and a girl's 
 right. Any event among the neighbors calls for gifts 
 and messages; at weddings, funerals, starting on a 
 journey or returning, certain gifts must be sent and 
 duly acknowledged by return gifts, either at the time 
 or afterward. For many occasions there are particu- 
 lar cakes, which have a more or less symbolic mean- 
 ing ; fish, salt or fresh, is a favorite for congratulation. 
 The way the gift is wrapped and tied, the kind and 
 pattern of the fukusa or covering which is placed 
 over it, and which is to be returned, all show to the 
 initiated just what is intended. Callers also bring 
 gifts sometimes; but this custom is going out. Of 
 course, the first thing when a guest arrives is to offer 
 
A JAPANESE HOUSEHOLD. 191 
 
 something to eat and drink, usually tea and cakes, or 
 sake at New Year time. The wife must see to all 
 this ; she must have the care of the children's health, 
 education, morals ; their clothing and her husband's, 
 as well as her own. She is house-mistress in the 
 truest sense, responsible for all and controlling all. 
 She directs the servants, men as well as women ; she 
 watches over the children's morning greetings; the 
 tadaima ("just back"), Avhen they return from school ; 
 the pretty phrases exchanged when any one goes out 
 or comes in ; she is at the door, with the household, to 
 say O haeri (" honorably welcome ") when the master 
 of the house comes back from even the briefest ab- 
 sence. A survival perhaps, this last, from the days 
 when a man kept literally the Samurai injunction, 
 " Leaving thy house, leave ever as one who may not 
 return.'' 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IKEGAMI A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 
 
 "Earnestness is the path of immortality (Nirvana), thoughtless- 
 ness is the path of death. 
 
 " If a man would hasten towards the good, he must keep his 
 thoughts from evil. 
 
 " Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, It will not 
 come nigh unto me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot 
 is filled ; the fool becomes full of evil, even if he gather it little by 
 little." — From the " Dharmapada," Max Miller's translation. 
 
 If one should look over the map of Europe and 
 trace the position of the great mediaeval monasteries 
 and cathedrals, they would be found for the most part 
 to lie in or near important cities. Of course in many 
 cases, as in Protestant Germany or Switzerland, the 
 monastery has been laid down, and the town has fallen 
 to ruin, or has been outstripped by newer neighbors ; 
 but taken broadly, it is safe to say that where the 
 Church established herself, the world followed. 
 
 Look now at the map of Japan. Leaving out the 
 religious establishments — and it is true they were very 
 numerous — at Kyoto and Tokyo, places which owed 
 their existence to the State and not to the Church, the 
 principal Buddhist foundations are at Nara, which 
 
 192 
 
IKEGAMI— A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 193 
 
 was the former capital, and with its neighbor, Hori-uji, 
 the first home of Buddhism in Japan ; at Osaka, at 
 Miidera on Lake Biwa, and at Ikegami and Nikko. 
 Of these, Nara retains importance chiefly from force of 
 association with the past ; Hori-uji owes its modern 
 existence to the fact that the best tea in the country is 
 grown on the hills round about; Miidera has always 
 been a small place ; Ikegami lies by a tiny village in 
 the hills near Tokyo; Nikko is far away in the heart 
 of the mountains. Only Osaka is and has always 
 been a great city, a centre of national trade. 
 
 One cause of this striking difference lies in the fact 
 that the monasteries of Europe were almost always 
 situated on or near the great trade routes, while those 
 of Japan as frequently lay away from them ; but this 
 in itself points back to a radical difference of aim. 
 Whatever their after shortcomings, the religious houses 
 of the mediaeval church were certainly founded in a 
 missionary spirit ; their object was to reach the people, 
 and both in their choice of sites and in their schools 
 and charities the founders labored to that end. In 
 the East it was otherwise ; the primary purpose of a 
 Buddhist's religious life was contemplation, and the 
 more complete his retirement from the world the 
 better. That the monasteries became centres of learn- 
 ing was natural ; but schools for outsiders, and espec- 
 ially for the lower classes, were a secondary considera- 
 tion — an after growth. Therefore it was that a 
 mountain solitude was the fittest abode for these seek- 
 Vol. L— 13 
 
1 94 JAPAN. 
 
 ers after the Way, as it was also their most frequent 
 choice. 
 
 Buddhism came to Japan in two distinct waves of 
 influence, the first from the latter part of the fifth 
 century to the end of the eighth, when missionaries 
 came from China and Korea to the islands ; and the 
 second from the beginning of the ninth century, at 
 which time many Japanese went to China to study, 
 and brought back the learning of the East, much as 
 the early Greeks brought the wisdom of the Egyp- 
 tians. At this later period the teaching of the north- 
 ern school of Buddhism had reached China from 
 India, and this so-called doctrine of the " Greater 
 Vehicle " is that which finally prevailed in Japan. 
 
 But not in a single form. The sects of Christianity 
 do not greatly surprise the Japanese, for they have 
 eight or ten themselves, and as many sub-sects. Of 
 these, one of the latest, and also the most wealthy 
 and influential, is the Nichiren, named for St. Nichi- 
 ren, its founder ; and the greatest temple of the sect 
 is the Hon-monji at Ikegami, near Tokyo. 
 
 The easiest way there is by train to Omori station, 
 on the Yokohama line, and from there by kuruma, a 
 mile and a half back into the country ; but the pret- 
 tiest and by far the most interesting is to ride the 
 wdiole distance, perhaps six miles, by delightful lanes 
 and by-ways out from Tokyo. The general direction 
 is west, first by Shiba Park, and then over the long 
 ridge and into a narrow valley, flanked by wooded 
 
IKEGAMI— A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 195 
 
 hills. You have left the city now ; the little road 
 might be an English lane, winding between green 
 banks or stone walls, where clumps of tiny fern grow 
 in the chinks, and under arching trees ; then it skirts 
 the rice fields, which fill all the level space of the 
 valley from edge to edge, and so by more ridges and 
 valleys farther away into the heart of the hills. 
 Everywhere there is the sharpest contrast between 
 slope and level ; the valleys are divided into little 
 squares, watered and cultivated over every inch, but 
 the moment the hill begins, it is as if one stepped from 
 a garden into some forest wilderness. Under foot are 
 violets and wood flowers, mixed with thick stems of 
 the low, wild pirns Japonica, which creeps and roots 
 along the hillside, and lifts its coral blossoms only a 
 few inches from the ground. A tangle of white brier 
 rose is overgrown with long streamers of akebia and 
 wild gourd, and on the open slopes bluebells and 
 dead-nettle and a host of summer field flowers, 
 strangely like our own, are struggling with the 
 greedy knot-grass. In early spring, when the fields 
 lie fallow, all the valleys are carpeted with slender 
 purple trefoil ; and down among the leaves one may 
 find the dainty white marsh violet, with blue-veined 
 petals and a faint, delicious fragrance. 
 
 Two or three miles out the road leads through a 
 pretty village called Meguro, which is famous solely 
 for the graves of the lovers Gompaehi and Komura- 
 saki. If I tell their tale with little sympathy, it is 
 
196 JAPAN. 
 
 because I was never able to feel much for those mis- 
 guided persons, particularly for the man, who seems 
 to me as cowardly a young cut-throat as ever got his 
 deserts. 
 
 This Gompachi, then, was on his way to Yedo to 
 seek his fortune, when at an inn a pretty girl woke 
 him in the middle of the night and told him that a 
 band of robbers, who had kidnapped her, were going 
 to kill him in the morning. Of course, the knight 
 disposed of the robbers and took the girl home ; but, 
 though she was exceedingly pretty and her parents 
 were more than willing, he would not marry a mer- 
 chant's daughter, and went on his way lamenting. 
 
 Arrived at Yedo, he soon spent all his money among 
 kindred spirits, and was quite penniless, when one 
 day he discovered in a famous new beauty of the 
 Yoshiwara his forsaken Komurasaki. It was the 
 old story of parents reduced to want and sacrificing 
 their daughter as a last resource. Gompachi vowed 
 he would buy her freedom, but having nothing left, 
 took to highway robbery. He wasted all he stole, 
 and stole again ; and was presently caught and put to 
 death. When the girl heard it, she went to his grave 
 and killed herself there, in the hope that in another 
 life she would join him and be happy. There is noth- 
 ing to be seen at the tomb where they are buried 
 together, but those who are so moved may turn aside 
 and visit it on the way to a worthier shrine. 
 
 Though now so near the great city, at the time it 
 
IKEGAMI-A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 197 
 
 was founded and for three hundred years after Ikegami 
 fulfilled all the requirements of solitude and removal 
 from the world ; for Kamakura was then the Shogun's 
 capital, and the region north of the Hakone pass was 
 still barely more than half colonized. Even now, as 
 one rides through the little village of thatched cottages 
 strung along the narrow lane, and enters the pine wood 
 about the monastery, one might easily imagine oneself 
 leagues from any city. The whole wood is very still 
 and lonely ; the only sounds are the wind and the 
 birds in the branches, and far off, the dull, steady 
 beating of the drum as the serving priest drones the 
 mystic formula, Nammyo-ho-remje-kyo, "I put my 
 trust in the Law of the Wonderful White Lotus." The 
 village is quite out of sight below ; a long flight of 
 stone steps climbs the hill under the trees, and at the 
 top is the entrance proper, a typical two-storied red 
 gate, within which is the temple court, a large open 
 space, fenced in and strewn with pebbles, as such 
 courts usually are. 
 
 This Ikegami temple group is uncommonly interest- 
 ino\ because it includes nearly all the different build- 
 ings which belong to a typical Buddhist establishment 
 — the Founder's hall and main hall, the bell tower 
 and drum tower, pagoda, revolving library and holy 
 water cistern, besides the treasury, reception rooms and 
 priests' apartments. The two principal buildings face 
 the entrance ; they are the main temple or Shaka-Do, 
 hall of Shaka, as the Japanese call Sakyamuni (Gau- 
 
198 JAPAN. 
 
 tama Buddha), and the Founder's, dedicated to Nich- 
 iren, the patron saint of the place. This last is the 
 larger of the two, and contains a life-sized image of 
 Nichiren in a beautiful lacquered shrine. High up on 
 the wall are pictures of Buddhist angels, and all the 
 half-Hindu appointments of Buddhist ritual are in 
 place — the lamps and embroidered hangings, the drums 
 and gongs and low reading stands for the priests, set 
 before the altar on the matted floor. Tall brass vases 
 hold great gilded lotus flowers, and the lotus is carved 
 on the lanterns and worked on hangings and cut into 
 the stone coping beside the steps, even more lavishly 
 than at other temples, for Nichiren's special doctrine 
 was the worship of the Lotus Sutra, the Book of the 
 Law of the White Lotus. A great stone lotus flower 
 supports the curious stone tope, with a bron"ze roof, 
 which holds the relics of the saint — a tooth and a 
 handful of ashes ; though he died here, his bones were 
 carried elsewhere. 
 
 In the drum tower near the entrance a priest is 
 almost constantly beating the drum, and reciting the 
 sacred formula of the sect, the invocation to the Lotus 
 Book. All the buildings are of wood, their heavy 
 tiled roofs resting as usual on a bewilderment of 
 rafters and cornices. Behind the Shaka-Do stands the 
 revolving library, which contains a complete set of the 
 Buddhist Scriptures ; it is not exactly a prayer wheel, 
 but the theory of it is that whoever will turn it three 
 times, reciting a suitable prayer, may obtain as much 
 
IKEGAMI— A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 199 
 
 merit as if he had read through the entire collection 
 of over six thousand volumes, a task quite impossible 
 for any single individual; "moreover long life, pros- 
 perity, and the avoidance of all misfortunes shall be 
 his reward." (Chamberlain). The credit of the inven- 
 tion belongs to a certain Fu Daishi (St. Fu), a deified 
 Chinese priest of the sixth century, from whom it was 
 copied in Japan. 
 
 A small roofed gate at the back of the temple en- 
 closure leads to the priests' apartments, students' dor- 
 mitories, reception rooms, etc., which make a consider- 
 able group of buildings. All monasteries have rooms 
 for the entertainment of guests and pilgrims, a feature 
 made necessary by their remoteness from towns, if by 
 no other reason. The reception rooms intended for 
 guests of rank were built of costly wood, and the slid- 
 ing screens were often decorated by the greatest paint- 
 ers of the time, especially by masters of the Kano 
 School, which followed the religious traditions of 
 Chinese art. Indeed, it is chiefly by these decorative 
 works that foreigners are obliged to estimate the paint- 
 ers of Japan, for the movable pieces, kakemono and 
 giku, are kept hidden away in the treasuries of the 
 temples, and can very seldom be seen by any one. 
 
 The annual festival is held on the 12th and 13th of 
 October, the anniversary of Nichiren's death, and 
 draws immense crowds from the city, as well as from 
 more distant places. Sometimes over twenty thousand 
 pilgrims are said to attend. A second lesser festival 
 
200 JAPAN. 
 
 takes place in April, beginning on the 22d, the birth- 
 day of the Founder, and lasting five days. 
 
 Nichiren is the same reformer saint who so narrowly 
 escaped being martyred at Enoshima. He was born 
 not very far from there, in the province of Awa, across 
 Yedo bay, in the spring of 1222; so that by one of 
 those curious parallels of history, the Japanese St. 
 Dominic entered the world just one year after his 
 European prototype went out of it. The father was 
 living as a poor fisherman, but both he and his wife 
 were of good birth, and had been exiled for some 
 political offence. Many wonderful things are told of 
 the child's birth and babyhood ; his mother dreamed 
 that he was the child of the sun-god (Nichi), and in 
 remembrance gave him the name Zen-nichi-maro 
 (Good Sun Boy), which he afterwards changed to Nich- 
 iren, Sun Lotus. They say, too, that a clear spring 
 burst forth in the fisherman's garden for the baby's 
 first bath, and a white lotus bloomed three months out 
 of season. Moreover, the date of his birth fell one 
 day later than the birthday of Buddha, and the year 
 was the beginning of the third millenium after Buddha's 
 entrance into Nirvana, the period of the Later Law, 
 at which time the great teacher had prophesied that a 
 light should appear to the east of India. Before he 
 was well grown, the fisherman's son had come to 
 believe himself predestined to be that light. 
 
 At twelve the boy was entered as a novice at a 
 neighboring monastery, and took the vows four years 
 
IKEGAMI— A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 201 
 
 later ; but he was profoundly dissatisfied with the 
 teaching of his abbot, and still more with the multi- 
 plicity of the sects of which he was told — desiring to 
 know which among them all was the true law of 
 Buddha. Besides the so-called "Eight Sects" of the 
 ninth century, the twelfth century had added two 
 more, the Zen, and the Jodo or " Pure Land " sect. 
 The Zen was imported from China, where it originated 
 several hundred years earlier. Its distinguishing doc- 
 trine was belief in a sort of telepathy, in the power 
 to transmit thought without words from one mind to 
 another properly attuned. Hearn gives the story of 
 its origin his unfailing poetic touch : " When the 
 Buddha was preaching upon the Vulture Peak, there 
 suddenly appeared before him the great Brahma, who 
 presented a gold-colored flower to the Blessed One, 
 and besought him to preach the Law. The Blessed 
 One accepted the heavenly flower, and held it in his 
 hand, but spoke no word. Then the great assembly 
 wondered at the silence of the Blessed One. But the 
 venerable Kasyapa smiled. And the Blessed One 
 said to the venerable Kasyapa : ' I have the wonder- 
 ful thought of Nirvana, the Eve of the True Law, 
 which I now shall give you.' So by thought alone 
 the doctrine was transmitted it Kasyapa ; and by 
 thought alone it was transmitted to Ananda ; and 
 by thought alone it was transmitted from patriarch to 
 patriarch, even to the time of Bodhi-dharma" — which 
 last saint w r as he who sat so many years in meditation 
 
202 JAPAN. 
 
 that his legs dropped off, and he was reduced to the 
 shape of the delightful red tumblers which Japanese 
 children buy at fairs and stand on their heads, to see 
 them turn a somersault and right themselves again. 
 
 The Zen doctrine appealed strongly to the educated 
 classes, who delighted in its exercises of mystic con- 
 templation. The Jodo, not less mystical, was directed 
 especially to the common people. It was a doctrine 
 of salvation by grace, derived from the " Mahay ana " 
 books, a series of three Sutras concerning Amida and 
 the Paradise of the West. It taught that works were 
 of no avail ; whoever put his trust in Amida was 
 united to him, and after death would enter into Para- 
 dise, the Pure Land, there to live a mystic life of 
 holiness till at last he was worthy to attain Nirvana, 
 the state of perfect blessedness. Worshipers repeat 
 over and over the formula, " Nammu Amida Buddha " 
 — I commit myself to thee, great Amida — in a long 
 sing-song chant, sometimes accompanying it by ring- 
 ing little hand-bells ; from this phrase they got the 
 name of Nem-Butsu or " Call on Buddha " sect. The 
 Monto sect hold this doctrine in the most advanced 
 form; their foundations are called Hongwanji, mon- 
 asteries of the True Vow, and, with the Tendai and 
 the Nichiren, they are the most powerful sects in 
 Japan to-day. 
 
 While fasting and meditating over these difficult 
 problems, young Nichiren believed that he received a 
 direct inspiration through a sentence in one of the 
 
IKEGAMI-A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 203 
 
 sacred books—" Trust in the word, and not in man." 
 This he considered must mean that he was to put his 
 trust in the written law rather than any one's interpre- 
 tation of it ; and of the four great Sutras, or Books of 
 the Law, he finally chose the last in order, which con- 
 tains the teachings of the last eight years of Gautama 
 Buddha's life. In this he believed he should find the 
 essence of the whole body of instruction, " the prin- 
 ciple of all things, the truth of eternity, and the 
 sacred meaning of Buddha's life and his entrance into 
 enlightenment." 
 
 The next step was to study the great Sutra more 
 fully, and for this he set out for the large Tendai mon- 
 astery on Mount Hiezan, near Kyoto, and there spent 
 ten years examining texts and commentaries. During 
 this time he had dreams and visions of his future 
 work ; in one of these he saw all the deities of the 
 country floating over him and promising protection, 
 bidding him go forth and destroy the darkness of the 
 land. 
 
 There must have been much of the fanatic, as well 
 as the mystic, in Nichiren's character. It is said that 
 he became particularly inflamed against the Jodo sect, 
 because once when going through a village he saw a 
 party of children playing rudely with an image of 
 Shaka. Greatly horrified, he went to the father of 
 the older ones and rebuked him for permitting such 
 wickedness ; to which the man replied, that Shinran 
 (the founder of the chief sect of Jodo) taught that 
 
204 JAPAN. 
 
 they should put their whole trust in Amida, and, 
 therefore, the other images could be of no possible 
 consequence. Still further appalled by such blas- 
 phemy, Nichiren retired, and from that moment 
 preached vehemently against the pernicious doctrine. 
 His is the one sect in Japan which is intolerant to- 
 wards the rest ; it was also the one which Nobunaga 
 especially hated and did all he could to suppress, and 
 which after his time took a leading part in the perse- 
 cution of the Christians. 
 
 At the age of thirty-two, Nichiren was ready to 
 begin his public work. It was at this time that he 
 took the name by which he continued to be known, 
 and at the same time also he framed the sacred for- 
 mula which his followers recite, Nammyo-ho-renge-kyo. 
 Armed with this, he returned to his native province, 
 visited his parents, and announced that he would preach 
 at the local temple on a certain day. Naturally, the 
 neighbors flocked to hear him ; and what they heard 
 was unmeasured denunciation of all they were accus- 
 tomed to believe. " Know that Jodo is a way to hell ; 
 Zen the teaching of internal hosts of evil ; the Shingon 
 a heresy to destroy the nation, and the Ritsu an enemy 
 of the land. These are not my words; I found them 
 in the Sutra. Hark to the cuckoo above the clouds ; 
 he knows the time and warns you to plant. Now 
 is the time for planting the Lotus Sutra, and I am 
 the messenger of the Blessed One sent you for that 
 purpose." 
 
IKEGAMI— A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 205 
 
 But for the good old abbot, his former teacher, 
 Nichiren would have been put to death for a blasphe- 
 mer then aud there j as soon as it was dark he sent the 
 fanatic safely out of the province. Nichiren went 
 straight to Kamakura, the Shogun's capital ; built a 
 straw hut on a bit of waste ground, and began preach- 
 ing in the streets — a thing hitherto unknown in Japan. 
 He made disciples as well as enemies, to an extent that 
 alarmed the authorities, and he was banished for a 
 time, but returned to repeat all his offences ; adding 
 prophecies of dire evil, and especially of foreign inva- 
 sion, something which Japan had never known, but 
 which actually came in the Mongol expedition, under 
 Kublai Khan, a year before Nichiren's death. About 
 this time a party of swordsmen set upon him and his 
 disciples in a lonely place, and two were killed in de- 
 fence of their master, who escaped with a cut on the 
 head. So far his office protected him, but after this 
 he was arrested and sentenced to die at Enoshima, 
 escaping through the Regent's fears. Instead, the 
 Regent exiled him for five years to Sado, a wild island 
 on the dreary west coast, with the result that the 
 neighboring province of Echigo became one of the 
 strongholds of his sect. After this the authorit 
 
 les 
 
 gave up opposing him, and his followers began a round 
 of visits to other temples in bands of twenty or more, 
 beating their drums and reciting the lotus formula in 
 a droning sing-song. It is hard to imagine how any 
 other creed survived such an onslaught of sound. 
 
206 JAPAN. 
 
 His teachings thus spread, the reformer retired to 
 Mount Minobu, near Fujiyama, and meditated and re- 
 ceived disciples for the rest of his life. In his last 
 months he went on a visit to Ikegami, and died there 
 in the house of a disciple, being just sixty years old. 
 The great temples and fine apartments at Ikegami are 
 of a later growth ; at Minobu, as in the days of strife 
 at Kamakura, the saint contented himself with a straw 
 hut. 
 
 The best time to visit Ikegami is in March, when 
 the plums are in blossom ; on a sheltered slope below 
 the monastery there are some wonderful old trees, 
 gnarled and twisted as the Japanese love to see them 
 — rivals of the famous " Creeping Dragon " trees at 
 Kameido, in Tokyo. The priests have also a wonder- 
 ful collection of dwarf trees, some over a hundred 
 years old ; one has a trunk a foot thick, and grows in 
 an ornamental porcelain pot only a few inches larger ; 
 another taller one bends down its branches like a weep- 
 ing willow, set with stars of fragrant white flowers. 
 The red plum blossoms very early, and can be per- 
 suaded to take on marvelous shapes, but it is less 
 esteemed than the pink or the white, because it has 
 no fragrance. 
 
 Later in the year the monks have a fine display of 
 botan, the great satin-petaled bush peony, as different 
 from a common garden " p'iny " as a tea-rose from a 
 brier. The flowers are sometimes eight or ten inches 
 across, and of all shades, from snowy white through 
 
IKEGAMI— A TYPICAL BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 207 
 
 rose color to the deepest velvety maroon, dark as pan- 
 sies almost. It is a very delicate flower, and will not 
 bear the slightest wind or rain on the petals; the 
 gardeners shelter the plants with bamboo screens, and 
 guard the foliage as carefully as the flowers, massing 
 them when the time comes in open sheds, where the 
 colors are placed to blend and foil one another as if in 
 a picture. There is a fine botan garden in Tokyo, 
 but they say no one has such flowers as the monks at 
 Ikegami. 1 
 
 1 Since this chapter was written, a fire broke out in the students' 
 dormitories, where a number of young men were working late pre- 
 paring for examination ; it was a windy night, and though fire 
 engines came from Omori, they were useless, because there was no 
 water except in a small well. A large part of the buildings were 
 burned, but the treasury was saved, and most of the works of art in 
 the temples. Even if rebuilt, much of the charm of the place must 
 be lost for the present. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OJI MAPLES. 
 
 Northward from Tokyo the hills send out long 
 ridges which stop suddenly, as if cut off, on the edge 
 of the rice fields. Once these ridges must have been 
 cliffs washed by the waves, in the pre-historic time 
 when the sea came up here and extended for miles to 
 the north and east, over the great level which is now 
 known as the Musashi plain. When the coast rose 
 and the sea retreated, there was left a vast reedy 
 morass, where the wild Emishi (x4inu) used to hide; 
 for which reason the Japanese called them Reed-men. 
 
 It may have been somewhere hereabouts that Yo- 
 shiiye of Minamoto, grandfather of Yoritomo, had 
 his famous encounter with the Emishi. I once saw 
 the scene represented on a double folding screen ; a 
 few sweeps of the brush had transformed the smooth, 
 brownish surface of the paper into a vast plain 
 shrouded in mist, through which a tall plume of 
 suznki grass showed here and there, just as you may see 
 it any day if you take the early train from Uyeno 
 station, only now it will be rice-stalks instead of 
 rushes that rise through the mist. On one panel two 
 
 208 
 
OJI MAPLES. 209 
 
 or three knights reined in their horses on the edge of 
 the plain ; on the other, a flock of wild fowl flew rest- 
 lessly hither and thither. That was all; but to a 
 Japanese eye it told the whole story ; how the great 
 general Yoshiiye led an expedition against the rebel- 
 lious Emishi, and how the land seemed all open and 
 safe, so that the knights were riding gaily down from 
 the hills in the morning sun. But Yoshiiye marked 
 the troubled flight of the birds, and bade his men wait 
 while he sent scouts forward to see what had disturbed 
 the wild things from their feeding grounds ; and they 
 searched and found an army of barbarians, with 
 short bows bent, hidden in the low mist. So Yo- 
 shiiye fought and slew them, and subdued all the re- 
 gion for his lord. 
 
 Oji, a few stations out from Uyeno, has pleasanter 
 and less warlike associations. The station lies under 
 a great hill, called Akusa, which for two or three cen- 
 turies has been a favorite resort of flower lovers. 
 Perhaps the place was chosen for some fancied resem- 
 blance to Takao or Arashiyama, the fashionable 
 flower-viewing hills near Kyoto ; for however the 
 Shogun's court might dominate the Emperor's in 
 actual fact, the newer aristocracy long looked to the 
 old for literary and social precedents, much as Berlin 
 followed Hanover thirty or forty years ago. At all 
 events, the Yedo people planted on Akusa a grove of 
 cherry trees, which are beautiful and much visited 
 still, though the view across the plain is grievously 
 Vol. I— 14 
 
210 JAPAN. 
 
 spoiled by a large paper manufacturing plant, estab- 
 lished just under the hill by the government in one of 
 its efforts to promote modern methods of industry. 
 It is not a very bright example of the benefit of sub- 
 sidies, for there are two private factories side by side 
 with the government one, which are said to be far 
 more prosperous; however, between them, they 
 succeed in making a great deal of cheap paper, 
 and the city is slowly but inevitably growing out 
 this way. 
 
 A reprint from an old picture in the " Official His- 
 tory of Japan " shows "A picnic on the Akusa hill in 
 the flowery season;" except for the two-sworded 
 knights, in their wide hakama (kilted trousers), it 
 might have been photographed last April, for the 
 same figures are there ; the little girls in bright dresses 
 running races on the grass ; a party of picnic revelers 
 seated on spread blankets, surrounded by lunch-boxes 
 and sake-bottles ; a coolie, with blue cotton head-ker- 
 chief, tied on like a nightcap, is in the act of dashing 
 a pailful of water over a comrade, who seems to have 
 drunk quite as much as is good for him. Ladies in 
 neat, tight-fitting kimono and handsome sashes pace 
 demurely by under their paper parasols, and a pair of 
 strolling samisen-players are trying to attract the 
 gentry, while down the path comes a paper butterfly 
 seller, surrounded by a crowd of delighted children, 
 The little Inari temple still stands there, and beyond 
 the pines, on the edge of the hill, is the same beau- 
 
OJI MAPLES. 211 
 
 tiful view of Fuji San that charmed the visitors of 
 Tokugawa days. 
 
 But the maples, even more than the cherry-blos- 
 soms, are Oji's glory ; and mercifully the mills are 
 below the gorge of the Takigawa, where they grow. 
 The little river furnishes the water supply for these 
 mills, but it is conceivable that they have been set 
 where they are purposely, to be out of the way ; for the 
 Japanese do not yet wantonly destroy a beautiful spot. 
 Indeed, to spoil the upper part of the Takigawa 
 would be to ruin valuable property, for in spring and 
 autumn and almost all the year the maple garden 
 brings endless custom to a couple of flourishing tea- 
 houses, which own and maintain it for that very 
 purpose. 
 
 November is the month of maples; in the old 
 calendar, when it was the ninth month of the year, it 
 was called Momiji-dzuki, " red-leaf month/' or some- 
 times " time of branches " — of course, red ones. The 
 rain of November, which comes seldom and sparingly, 
 was called dew showers, or showers of red, because 
 the autumn rains were supposed to dye the leaves. 
 Momiji means any kind of red leaf, whether maple or 
 oak, or whatever ; but the maple is the choicest of all 
 the changing leaves, and so carries off the honors of 
 the name. 
 
 Sometimes maples are planted so that the sunset 
 light shall brighten them ; but at Oji the right hour 
 is early morning, when the sun slants through the 
 
212 JAPAN. 
 
 branches and turns the leaves blood-crimson, like a 
 hand held up to the light. Oji station is five miles 
 out from Uyeno, on the main line north ; till the mills 
 came it was the merest village, nestled among tea 
 plantations on the edge of the plain, but it is growing 
 quite a suburb now. It is only a little way from the 
 station to a gate leading into a bit of wood, through 
 which the path winds to the edge of a narrow ravine, 
 clothed on both sides with maples ; some are large 
 forest trees, others slender, graceful things, only ten or 
 a dozen feet high, all apparently growing just as they 
 please among light underwood. Across the river a 
 grove of bamboo soars far above the other trees, the 
 feathery tops always swaying a little, even in the still 
 " maple weather;" a little farther up a curving bridge 
 crosses the stream, and the fallen leaves float under it 
 with the current, just as in a Japanese picture. That 
 is the marvel of it all ; the whole scene " composes" 
 like a picture — no rock, no branch out of place, yet 
 with such an innocent air of having "just growed" 
 that you can hardly believe (though you know it per- 
 fectly well) that every twig has been trimmed, trained 
 and brought to this easy artlessuess by the most con- 
 summate art. 
 
 But that is just the theory of Japanese gardening — 
 to render nature at her best, in some one mood appro- 
 priate to the place. The Japanese gardener loves best 
 to choose some famous locality, and to suggest its fea- 
 tures in his com position, tuning all to some given key, 
 
OJI MAPLES. 213 
 
 whether stern, or gentle, cheerful, pensive. One style 
 he thinks suitable for the dwelling of a philosopher, 
 another for the warrior, the statesman, or the man of 
 affairs ; and there are minutest rules for all this occult 
 symbolism. 
 
 It is a very old art in Japan, this landscape garden- 
 ing, and probably has borrowed very much from still 
 older models in China and Korea. Most of its laws 
 have come down from the eha-no-yn (tea ceremony) 
 devotees of the period of the Ashikaga Shogunate, in 
 the fourteenth century, and though they vary widely 
 in detail, the ideal of all is the same. A Japanese 
 writer on the subject says : " In laying out grounds, 
 the general features of a view may be sublime, beau- 
 tiful and tranquil, according to the style of buildings 
 to which the garden is to be attached. The idea of a 
 garden demands cleanliness " — by which I understand 
 him to mean neatness, freedom from undergrowth or 
 litter. " Pleasing verdure among the trees, fresh 
 mosses around the fountain, should be set in such a 
 way as to show ideal beauty. Calmness is required 
 also, but care must be taken not to render it monot- 
 onous. Foliage should be kept green and dewy, with- 
 out being too dense. A grove that casts gloominess 
 over the surrounding scene may have its place in a 
 certain corner of the garden, but it is not appropriate 
 in a conspicuous spot, the chief aim of a garden being 
 to give delight and comfort. Care is needed to avoid 
 a crowded air in small gardens, and in large ones a 
 
214 JAPAN. 
 
 scanty and insufficient look." He quotes an old 
 authority on the art : " For a particular view from the 
 drawing-room or library, plan a garden to suit the 
 building, and for villas and pavilions design a garden 
 as though the building was placed there for the sake 
 of that particular bit of wild landscape." 1 
 
 In laying out such a design the first step is to place 
 the " chief stone/' or " chief tree," which is to be 
 as it were the keynote for the composition ; the next 
 is to arrange the height of the artificial hill, if there 
 is to be one, and the width and shape of stream or 
 lake, and finally reach the placing of subordinate trees, 
 stones and masses of green. According to most 
 authorities, it is proper to begin with the front and 
 then work up the background, leaving the middle 
 distance, as a painter would say, until the last. The 
 idea of such a place is a panel picture, to be viewed 
 from some one point. The stones are thought of as 
 the frame on which the whole is built up, and so their 
 placing must come before the planting of trees. " The 
 ancients believed in having stones nine in number, 
 four straight and five flat ones, as a charm to drive 
 away evil spirits. However, putting aside that 
 Buddhist superstition, this form is to be complied 
 with ; for, without these nine stones, a garden will not 
 look formal." 
 
 A flat garden — that is to say, one in which there 
 are no mounds — should depend rather on stones than 
 » " The Far East," 1897. 
 
OJI MAPLES. 215 
 
 trees, and a well and stone lantern are important fea- 
 tures. These quaint, graceful, stone lanterns, which 
 are such characteristic ornaments of Japanese gar- 
 dens, are borrowed from the temples, where both 
 Buddhists and Shintoists use them freely. They are 
 hardly intended to illuminate anything, though at the 
 temples, and even in private gardens, lights are some- 
 times placed in them at certain festivals. An opening 
 like a crescent moon is a favorite device for the side, 
 or the hole may be flower-shaped, or plain round or 
 square. The form of the lantern varies, from the 
 slender tope, with lotus petals around the base and 
 upper corners curled back, to a funny, low, flat thing 
 on four legs, rather like the hat of the " Grand Pan- 
 jandrum himself, with a little round button on top." 
 A stone basin for washing the hands is often placed in 
 the garden ; it may be elaborately carved, or merely 
 hollowed out of a large rough boulder, propped on 
 another stone. A dipper hangs beside to pour the 
 water over the hands ; paper to dry them every one 
 is expected to carry. 
 
 Private gardens, though tiny, are often beautiful 
 specimens of the art. In a word, a landscape is 
 thought of as a picture, and follows out all the rules 
 of Japanese composition, which are, chiefly, simplicity 
 and restraint, and the subordination of all the parts to 
 a dominant idea. 
 
 The most artificial specimens are generally to be 
 found near the smaller temples, where space is 
 
216 JAPAN. 
 
 restricted and trees have been proportionately dwarfed 
 or trimmed to fantastic shapes, and planted among 
 bristling rocks which suggest the haunts of hermit 
 saints, like those seated meditating beside lonely 
 waterfalls in religious pictures of the Kano school. 
 
 One of the quaintest of these is the famous Wis- 
 taria garden at Kameido. It is in the enclosure of 
 the temple of Tenjin, God of Writing, who in this 
 life was Sugiwara Michizane, the faithful prime 
 minister of the Emperor Uda. The thousandth 
 anniversary of Michizane' s death falls in 1902, and 
 a society of the hero-deity's admirers are said to be 
 preparing for a grand celebration, part of which will 
 doubtless be held at Kameido. It is a queer, ram- 
 bling old place, adorned with a big stone tortoise, 
 lcame (whence the name), and quaint figures of the 
 cow on which Michizane rode during his exile in 
 Kiushiu. Fish-ponds fill half the space, and beside 
 and over them are bamboo trellises, on which the gar- 
 deners have trained the Wistaria vines into a roof, 
 making all the flowers grow inside and the leaves on 
 top. Instead of having short, full bunches, like the 
 wild vines on the mountains, the flowers trail down a 
 stem three to four feet long, and when the wind blows 
 all the stems sway and tremble together like a waver- 
 ing purple veil. Between the ponds little paths and 
 bridges lead from one pavilion to another, and matted 
 platforms are built out over the water, where people 
 sit and admire the vines and feed rice-biscuits to the 
 
OJI MAPLES. 217 
 
 fat, lazy carp, which seem to have just enough energy 
 to stir up the water and keep it always turbid. Of 
 course, there are plenty of stalls all about for the sale 
 of omiyagi — souvenirs — small pottery tortoises, and 
 monkeys and pigeons, and paper toys, and cakes, and 
 children's hairpins, made of tiny bunches of Wistaria 
 between dangling scraps of tinsel. The temple itself 
 is not particularly remarkable ; in front of it there is 
 a queer round bridge, something of a feat to scramble 
 over on wooden clogs, and they who cross it honor 
 Tenjin — just how is not apparent, except that he is an 
 energetic divinity, who approves of overcoming diffi- 
 culties. Near by is a plum tree, grown from a slip of 
 the one which flew over to the exiled Michizane from 
 his garden in Kyoto. 
 
 Perhaps it is the muddy water, or the clatter and 
 dust of many wooden shoas, and the cheap toys and 
 tinsel ; somehow, in spite of the beauty of the Wis- 
 tarias, there is an air of tawdriness and artificiality 
 about Kameido ; the very flowers seem forced and 
 unnatural, like wild-birds caged. One likes better to 
 think of the vines as they grow in the Hakone moun- 
 tains or about Lake Chuzenji, where the real monkeys 
 swing on the long cables looped from tree to tree, and 
 the flowers cluster freely in short, sturdy bunches. 
 
 But where there is plenty of space there is seldom 
 any distortion or unreality, as on the hillsides at 
 Nikko, for instance, or at Count Okuma's beautiful 
 home, Waseda, which has wide lawns like an English 
 
218 JAPAN. 
 
 country seat ; or at the finest of all, Mito Yashiki, 
 which is an ideal specimen of landscape art in Japan 
 — or indeed anywhere. 
 
 These Yedo yashiki were very complex affairs. 
 The space, which was several acres, was enclosed by a 
 solid row of houses on each of the four sides, broken 
 only by the great gate and its flanking lodges and a 
 smaller entrance on another side for the lesser mem- 
 bers of the establishment and visitors of low rank. 
 These houses stood on stone-faced embankments, and 
 were commonly built of tiles set edgewise in a bed of 
 plaster, as I have described elsewhere ; and though 
 by no means fireproof, they were much less combusti- 
 ble than an ordinary Japanese house. The openings 
 on the side toward the street were small and closed 
 with bars. The hollow square formed by these build- 
 ings contained the residence of the Daimyo and his 
 chief retainers, and the gardens, target range, fencing 
 ground, and so forth, while the enclosing houses were 
 occupied by the lesser Samurai. This was the Kami- 
 yashiki, or castle of the prince himself, and, besides 
 this, most Daimyo had a second or even five or six 
 residences for his numerous retainers in Yedo. 
 
 While the greater part of these yashiki have been 
 cut up or allowed to go to ruin, that of the Prince of 
 Mito has happily remained untouched, at least as far 
 as the grounds are concerned. After the Restoration 
 the place was made over to the imperial government, 
 and the buildings torn down to make way for the 
 
OJI MAPLES. 219 
 
 arsenal ; but the park was spared and is kept in order 
 out of sheer love of beauty and reverence for associa- 
 tion. It is used now and then for garden parties 
 among the military and naval set, and foreigners are 
 admitted to see it on certain days and by special per- 
 mits obtained through their respective legations, and 
 are conducted through in state by one of the officers 
 in charge of the arsenal. 
 
 The grounds were laid out, they say, by one of 
 the Chinese scholars who fled to Japan after the 
 downfall of the Ming dynasty, and were received and 
 patronized by the Prince of Mito and others, much 
 as the Medici entertained refugee Greeks from Con- 
 stantinople not many years earlier. This was Mito 
 Komon, grandson of Ieyasu, and ancestor of that 
 Mito Nariaki whose clansmen killed the Regent li 
 Kamon no Kami. Komon, by the way, was that 
 very Prince of Mito whose historical and literary 
 studies and writings had so much to do with bringing 
 on the agitation on behalf of the Mikado's rights, 
 which brought about the fall of the Shogunate ; and, 
 besides refugee Chinese, he maintained a host of 
 Japanese savants, both in Yedo and at his provincial 
 capital at Mito, fifty miles northeast of Yedo, employ- 
 ing them in giving lectures and in researches for his 
 great history, the Dal Nikon Shi. He was also one 
 of the first to establish the clan-schools for the educa- 
 tion of young Samurai, which sprang up during the 
 seventeenth century in nearly every province. 
 
220 JAPAN - 
 
 There is no dwarfing at Mito Yashiki ; trees cen- 
 turies old grow about the slopes, and they point out 
 one group of silvery pines, with that rough, mot- 
 tled bark like a turtle's back, which Japanese artists 
 paint so lovingly, and tell you that nothing is known 
 of them but that they were well-grown trees when 
 the Chinese expert planned the grounds three hundred 
 years ago. Deep woodland paths wind over the hill, 
 where ferns grow among the rocks as if they were far 
 away in the Hakone mountains. Following the sound 
 of water you come upon a little stream foiling in a 
 cascade among overhanging trees and vines and pass- 
 ing into a clear lake ; beyond lies a lovely little 
 meadow, bordered with iris, and in the midst of the 
 meadow stands a great drooping cherry tree, which 
 hancrs down its branches like a weeping willow and 
 clouds them in April with a gray-pink veil of bloom. 
 But the charm of the garden is not intended only for 
 the eye ; to a Japanese every part of the landscape 
 offers a picture, a suggestion, from some scene of his- 
 tory or romance, for each turn and rock and bridge 
 is arranged to represent a well-known spot, as the 
 officer who conducts visitors will explain to those who 
 have ears to "hear. 
 
 A little boat is tied at the landing by the meadow, 
 and the tea-house on the slope stands ready for a cha- 
 no-yu party, as if the Samurai and the sages had 
 departed but yesterday. Save for a far-away beat of 
 steam-hammers, the place is absolutely still. The 
 
OJI MAPLES. 221 
 
 uguisu warble in the thickets, the dragon-flies skim 
 across the lake, and sparrows twitter under the eaves 
 where the knights used to lay aside their swords to 
 write poems and drink tea. You cannot guess how far 
 you have wandered among the winding paths, or 
 dream that a hundred feet away the hill you climbed 
 under the sighing pine trees drops a sheer wall upon 
 one of the busiest streets in the city. But that is 
 Japanese landscape gardening in its perfection. 
 
 Of course, all this handling of the ground as if it 
 were paint and paper, implies an unlimited amount of 
 human labor at command. Griffis gives an example 
 of the way it could be done, as late as 1870, and 
 indeed one marvels at the transformations effected even 
 now, when the cost of labor has increased enormously. 
 A friend of Mr. Griffis, who was in the agricultural 
 department, was looking for a site for a model farm. 
 One piece of property offered was part of an ex- 
 Daimyo's yashiki, which had been allowed to go to 
 waste till it was so overgrown with trees and bushes 
 that the American refuse;l it, saying it would take 
 years to bring it to a fit condition. " The Japanese 
 officer in charge immediately and quietly hired eight 
 hundred laborers to clear and smooth the land. They 
 worked in relays, night and day. In a week's time he 
 showed the American 'a new site/ with which lie was 
 delighted. The actual energy of eight hundred pairs 
 of arms developed a wilderness into leveled farm- 
 lands within a week." ("The Mikado's Empire.") 
 
222 JAPAN. 
 
 Of course, the advantage to the Japanese was that a 
 comparatively useless piece of land could be sold to 
 the government at a fancy price. 
 
 I have strayed very far from the banks of the Taki- 
 no-gawa and the delighted crowd who are admiring 
 " Tatsuta Hime's dress." Tatsuta Hime is the God- 
 dess of Autumn, and the turning leaves are the bro- 
 cade which she dyes and weaves. So a poet cries 
 sadly : 
 
 "My wandering tread 
 Doth rudely tear 
 The carpet red 
 Of rich brocade 
 On Miraura spread." 
 
 Another, still more considerate, will admire from 
 afar rather than mar the beauty of Tatsuta, which is 
 here both a river and a goddess : 
 
 " Tatsuta's bravely arrayed 
 
 With autumn's brightest weaving; 
 If I should cross the stream, 
 
 Princess Tatsuta'll be grieving 
 Over her rent brocade." 
 
 At Oji, as at all such places, little platforms are 
 dotted down here and there at the most attractive 
 points, where picnic parties sit to drink tea — there is 
 always an old woman on hand with a tea-kettle in 
 Japan. Here and there a group of students or a 
 scholarly old gentleman are adding to the supply of 
 
OJI MAPLES. 223 
 
 poems fluttering on some favorite tree, or seated apart, 
 with chin ecstatically raised, give themselves up to the 
 thrills of composition. There are many conventional 
 phrases and similes which can be made use of to help 
 out the muse on such occasions. Thus deer and maple 
 are always paired in Japanese art and poetry, which 
 delights in such combinations, though not more so, 
 perhaps, than we, who systematically put bees in 
 clover and owls in ivy-mantled towers. In autumn, 
 they say, the stag's cry becomes mournful, and the 
 poet proceeds to gaze at the moon and compose a 
 thirty-one syllabled verse, such as this : 
 
 " When dead leaves fly, 
 
 The hart's sad cry 
 Our hearts with sorrow fills." 
 
 The tea-house at Oji is a capital place to get a 
 Japanese meal ; the food is excellent and the service 
 good, unless they are too very full and rushed 
 with guests. Chestnuts, boiled with sweet potatoes, 
 mashed and sweetened, are an appropriate dish for the 
 maple season, and pink-tipped slices of raw tai — best 
 of Japanese fishes — and golden persimmons to follow 
 the meal. The house stands beside the river below 
 the gorge, and the prettiest rooms look out on the 
 water. Not only in the fall, but in spring, too, the 
 maples are lovely, especially those small varieties which 
 are so much used as shrubbery in America ; the blend- 
 
224 JAPAN. 
 
 ing of pinks and pale greens has an unusual charm in 
 a country where half the trees never drop their leaves 
 at all, but go on pushing out new buds among the 
 old. (i Frogs' hands " the Japanese call these slender 
 leaves, the delicate texture and strong veins making 
 them think of what to us would be a very " moist, 
 unpleasant" association, particularly so when they go 
 on to call a girl's pretty little hand a maple leaf! I 
 suppose they forget the frog, or else they don't mind 
 him. These spring maples will not do to cut ; but in 
 the fall, among the trinkets and toys which they dis- 
 play near the gate, there will be choice branches to 
 sell to the visitors, and the young men in particular 
 are sure to purvey themselves each a bough to carry 
 over his shoulder as he returns by train or kuruma, or 
 very possibly afoot, the five miles back to Tokyo. 
 
 Maple-viewing is a very old custom, even older, 
 perhaps, than the cherry-cult, which is attributed to a 
 certain Emperor of the eighth century. The follow- 
 ing legend has a flavor of still greater antiquity, 
 thoiudi the names and the date ascribed are of the 
 eleventh century : 
 
 One autumn day a knight of the Taira family went 
 out with one serving-man to view the maples on a 
 certain mountain. As he rode up the lonely path he 
 was surprised to see a very beautiful lady and her 
 attendants, who had hung up a silken curtain under an 
 especially fine tree and were preparing a picnic meal. 
 Not wishing to disturb them, the courteous knight got 
 
OJI MAPLES. 225 
 
 down from his horse and took off his shoes (s/c, 
 doubtless the sort worn for riding), intending to pass 
 quietly by a little footpath among the rocks. But the 
 lady saw him, and. calling out, bade him not incom- 
 mode himself to leave the road, but rather to stop a 
 little and share their feast. Sir Taira could not well 
 refuse so pleasing an invitation ; so he seated himself 
 under the tree and received the cup of wine which 
 she pressed into his hands. But no sooner did he 
 drink than both he and his servant fell into a deep 
 sleep. Then, as he slept, an old gray-headed man 
 appeared to him in his dreams and bade him rise up, 
 for he was in deadly peril. So, starting suddenly 
 awake, Sir Taira heard thunder crashing about him 
 and saw the beautiful lady changed into a horrible 
 demon, who glared at him with burning eyes ; and her 
 attendants were fierce little devils, dancing and breath- 
 ing out smoke and fire among the rocks. Such a ter- 
 rible sight, says the legend, might well have frightened 
 an ordinary man out of his senses, but the brave Sir 
 Taira drew his sword, and, after a tremendous fight, 
 he killed the demons, every one ! 
 
 Japanese stories are always intended to point a 
 moral, so I suppose clemency is the virtue taught by 
 the story of " The Emperor and the Broken Maple 
 Trees." The hero of it is one of those pathetic figures, 
 so numerous in Eastern history, a child-emperor raised 
 to the throne, to be the tool of others, and forced to 
 resign just as he reached manhood ; and this Taka- 
 Vol,. I. — 15 
 
226 JAPAN. 
 
 kura's case was made still harder by the arrogant be- 
 havior of his prime minister, the Taira chief Kiyo- 
 mori — the same who slew all the Minamoto, except the 
 lad Yoritomo and his brothers. 
 
 The Emperor Takakura, then, had two little potted 
 maple trees of which he was particularly fond ; and 
 that they might be well cared for he put them in 
 charge of one of his gentlemen, named Nobunari. 
 And Nobunari guarded them as if with his life, taking 
 them home every night, and carrying them to the 
 palace every day. But one cold evening, while he was 
 obliged to be absent, some of his servants came in and 
 sat down to drink ; and getting rather fuddled, they 
 broke off the little maple trees and used them to kindle 
 the fire by which they Avere warming their wine. 
 When the master came back and looked for the pre- 
 cious trees, his wrath and terror were unspeakable; 
 however, the only thing to do was to confess all, so off 
 to the palace he went, expecting nothing less than ban- 
 ishment. But when the young Emperor heard the 
 tale, he comforted Nobunari, saying kindly, " Remem- 
 ber what Hakuraku, the Chinese poet, did when he went 
 to view the maples of Senyuji ; even as his poem says : 
 
 " ' I kindled a fire of the fallen leaves 
 To warm my wine. 
 I cleared the stone of its mossy coat, 
 And on nature's tablet my verse I wrote.' 
 
 "Let thy servants go; they have but emulated the 
 
 poet." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 
 
 In the old times there were two great highways 
 between the Kwansei and the Kwanto — the Home 
 Provinces about Kyoto and the EiHit Provinces north 
 of the Hakone mountains ; they were the Eastern Sea 
 Road, Tokaido, which goes southward by Yokohama, 
 and crosses the Hakone pass, and the Central Moun- 
 tain Road, Nakasendo. They started together at Sanjo 
 bridge, in Kyoto, and ended at Nihonbashi, in Yedo — 
 it was Yedo still in those days when the Daimyo and 
 their trains used to march up from their provinces, 
 following the coast or keeping inland by these moun- 
 tain passes. There was a third road, the Hokuroku- 
 do, which went by way of Kaga and the other west 
 coast provinces, but it was out of the way and com- 
 paratively little used. Not always peaceful retinues 
 came over these roads ; plenty of fighting there was, 
 little feuds and great struggles involving the whole 
 empire, such as the battle of Sekigahara on the lower 
 Xakasendo — counted now part of the Tokaido railroad 
 — where Ieyasu won his decisive victory, and began 
 the two hundred and fifty years of the Tokugawa 
 
 227 
 
228 JAPAN. 
 
 Shogunate. Indeed, in those days there was more 
 effort to impede travel than to promote it; at the 
 border line, where the roads crossed from one province 
 to another, there were barriers kept by armed guards, 
 who let no one by without credentials, and to go from 
 one Daimyo's country to another, and perhaps hostile 
 one, was no easy matter. 
 
 There is no actual record of the Nakasendo until 
 the eighth century, but there is good reason to believe 
 that some kind of a known track must have existed 
 hereabouts very much sooner. Certainly the account 
 of the adventures of Prince Yamato-take, when he 
 came through this way after his conquering expedition, 
 though full of preternatural marvels, at least points to 
 definite travel over the mountains at an early period. 
 
 The whole central region is full of legends of this 
 hero prince, Achilles-like in his bravery and beauty, 
 and the sorrow woven in his short thread of fate. He 
 was the son of the Emperor Keiko, the twelfth in line 
 from Jimmu Tenno, the first Emperor, and his accepted 
 date is the beginning of the second century. In those 
 days the tribes living in the mountains and the neigh- 
 boring islands were only half in subjection to the 
 Yamato Son of Heaven, and there were frequent re- 
 volts, which the Emperor often went out to subdue in 
 person ; so that when the prince came of age there was 
 no lack of foes for his steel. 
 
 According to legend, Yamato-take was just sixteen 
 at the time of his first exploit. A tribe or clan in the 
 
KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 229 
 
 island of Kiushiu, the Kumaso, rose against the Em- 
 peror's authority, and the prince took a band of 
 knights to meet them. When they reached the place, 
 Yamato-take got into the camp disguised as a girl — 
 according to one account he borrowed the dress from 
 his aunt, the high priestess of Ise— and danced and 
 sang and coquetted so well that the delighted lords fell 
 to disputing as to which should possess the charming 
 damsel. The chief himself settled the matter by 
 taking her by the hand and leading her into his own 
 tent; but like the Norse giant, who wedded Thor in- 
 stead of Freya, the Kumaso lord found himself seized 
 by wiry young arms, and the prince's sword came out 
 from under the spangled robe. Then the Yamato 
 knights rushed in on the drunken revelers, and utterly 
 destroyed them. 
 
 The South being thus quieted, Prince Yamato-take 
 went forth to conquer the Emishi, who were troubling 
 Ise and Owari. His father gave him a spear eight 
 fathoms long, and sent two trusty lords as guards and 
 councilors. When he drew near the shrine of his an- 
 cestor the Sun Goddess, at Ise, he left his sword under 
 a tree and went up to worship ; and his aunt, the high 
 priestess, who seems to have been a very useful rela- 
 tive, gave him the sacred sword Cloud-Compeller, 
 which was in her care at the shrine. This sword was 
 the one which the Sun Goddess gave to her grandson 
 Ninigi, grandfather of Jimmu Tenno > when she sent 
 him down to earth to make order among the warring 
 
230 ^PAN. 
 
 gods and demi-gods. Amaterasu had it from her rude 
 brother Susa-no-o, who took it from the tail of the 
 dragon with eight heads. This dreadful beast haunted 
 the mountains, and took a meal as he felt disposed 
 from among the fairest daughters of the earth-gods, 
 who seem to have been quite helpless against him. 
 When Susa-no-o was banished from heaven for his 
 bad behavior to his sister Amaterasu, the Sun God- 
 dess, in his wanderings he came upon the parents of a 
 beautiful maiden who were in great distress because of 
 the dragon ; so Susa-no-o told them to make a heavy 
 fence, having eight gates, and at each gate to set a 
 tub ; and he brewed sake and filled the eight tubs, and 
 lav down to watch. By and by the dragon came and 
 smelled the sake, and first one head drank, and then 
 another, and when they were all eight asleep Susa-no-o 
 sprang up and cut the heads off one by one and hacked 
 the dragon to pieces. But when he struck the tail his 
 sword broke, and, looking closely, he saw something 
 shining in the tail ; he drew it out, and found it to 
 be a sword of marvelous beauty ; and he took it away 
 and gave it to his sister as a peace offering. This, with 
 the mirror and the jewel, were the " three treasures " 
 which Amaterasu gave to her grandson, and they are 
 the imperial insignia of Japan. The first Emperors 
 kept them in the palace; but fearing lest harm should 
 come to the precious things, the tenth Emperor, Sujin, 
 had fac-similes made and kept them in the treasury ; 
 but the real ones he sent to a temple in Yamato, and 
 
KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 231 
 
 afterwards to Ise. The mirror is still at the shrine, 
 but the sword has been removed, and is in a temple at 
 Atsuta, near Nagoya. 
 
 Armed with the Cloud-Compel ler, Prince Yamato- 
 take went northward, and was everywhere victorious. 
 And once, as he crossed a desolate moor, the Emishi 
 kindled a lire in the long grass, so that the flames 
 threatened to destroy the prince and all his company ; 
 but he cried to Amaterasu, and cut the grass about him 
 with the magic sword, and the wind veered suddenly 
 and blew the flames back against the enemy. So, in 
 gratitude, Yamato-take changed the name of the sword 
 to Grass-Mower. 
 
 Subduing all the country around Sagami bay, they 
 crossed the Hakone mountains and came down to the 
 Izu peninsula and the shores of Yedo bay ; and here 
 at Uraga the distance looked so small across to Awa 
 that the prince made some careless jest, never guessing 
 how the squalls rise and the tide races through the 
 narrow channel. But Kompira, the sea-god, heard 
 and was angry, and he raised a terrible storm against 
 the ships, so that they were almost overwhelmed. 
 Now the Princess Ota Tachibana, his wife, went with 
 Yamato-take on all his expeditions, and when she 
 saw that there was no more hope, she made prayer to 
 the sea-god and cast herself into the waves, and they 
 were still ; and the prince and his fleet crossed in 
 safety. The next day the princess' comb was washed 
 ashore, and the prince built a little temple to her 
 
232 JAPAN. 
 
 memory at the place where it was found, before going 
 on to finish his task. Coasting northward, he set a 
 mirror on the prow of his ship, and the sun dazzling 
 on it struck the Emishi with terror, so that they came 
 down to the shore and made submission. 
 
 Many other adventures Yamato-take had ; but at 
 last he came up from the coast and crossed over where 
 the Nakasendo goes among the passes of the moun- 
 tains, aud so back to his own country again. And 
 when he came to the top of the Usui pass and looked 
 back over the great plain, and even to Yedo bay, he 
 cried aloud, a Azuma, Azuma wa ya !" — My wife, 
 alas, my wife ! Therefore it is that in poetry the 
 Tokyo plain is called Azuma till this day. 
 
 But it was terribly cold in the mountains, and the 
 mountain spirits, angry at their coming, sent out 
 blinding mists and poisonous volcanic gas, so that the 
 knights fainted in the path ; and these evil Kami 
 appeared to them in the shape of a white deer, wish- 
 ing to lead them astray. But Yamato-take threw wild 
 garlic in its eyes and killed it, and he and his men ate 
 the garlic and were saved from the choking vapors ; 
 and a white dog, which was a good Kami, led them 
 over the passes into the safe plain. But Yamato-take 
 presently fell ill, and though he drank of the " spring 
 of recovery " and revived a little, his sickness re- 
 turned, and he could only reach the pine tree where 
 he left his own sword, and took it again, and sent his 
 faithful general on to tell the Emperor of all his 
 
KAEUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 233 
 
 victories. Then he sought to reach Ise, hoping to 
 recover at the holy shrine; but he died upon the way, 
 lying under a tree in the green spring fields. 
 
 According to tradition, the Emperor Keiko made 
 a visit to all the regions conquered by his son, and 
 some caves near the Nakasendo are pointed out as 
 the place where he lodged on the way. He laid down 
 laws for the new country and appointed governors 
 from the princes of the blood, who already numbered 
 seventy-seven ; but it was long before the mountain 
 parts became really civilized. Indeed, to this day 
 the great broken table-land which fills up the centre 
 of the main island is far more sparsely populated, as 
 well as less developed, than any other part of the 
 empire, except in the north. Tradition lingers long 
 here; stories of the Tengu, goblins or kobolds who 
 haunt the lonely places; strange half-human crea- 
 tures, having beaks and birds' feathers, or else extra- 
 ordinarily long noses, which are the delight of Japan- 
 ese artists. They were small, and very brave and 
 active, but on the whole not unfriendly beings. It 
 was one of these who, according to the legend, taught 
 the exiled boy, Yoshitsune of Minamoto, to use the 
 sword. The two met one day on a mountain, Kura- 
 ma-yama, six miles north of Kyoto, near the monas- 
 tery where Yoshitsune was being brought up in 
 seclusion from warlike studies. Finding the lad 
 quick and fearless, the Tengu made him his pupil, 
 meeting him in the deep forest, and teaching him 
 
234 JAPAN. 
 
 not only to fence, but to leap and bound and almost 
 fly, as the dwarfs could. Ogres, too, lived in caves 
 among the rocks — spidery, horrible ogres, which 
 could sprout new limbs in place of old ones. A little 
 to one side of the Nakasendo the villagers still show 
 the place where one lived as late as the eleventh 
 century, and stole a maiden every year at the annual 
 festival. At last the elders decreed that every man 
 who came to the feast should have a mark set on his 
 forehead, and no one not marked should be allowed to 
 go away ; so they did it, and one stranger was found 
 unmarked — an ugly fellow, very big and tall. So they 
 promptly cut off his head, and at once the body 
 became so heavy that they could not possibly move 
 it, and had to bury it where it lay, raising a great 
 mound. The most amusing point in the story is that 
 a visit to the grave is considered very good for head- 
 ache. 
 
 The Nakasendo is often called the Kiso-kaido, 
 because from Gifu onward it follows the valley of 
 the picturesque Kisogawa, one of the " three great 
 rivers " of Japan. The other two are the Tonegawa 
 and the Shinanogawa, and all three rise within fifty 
 miles of each other, in the central mass of mountains, 
 the Tonegawa coming down across the plain of Tokyo, 
 and emptying by one arm into the bay of Yedo, and 
 by another into the Pacific, further north; and the 
 Shinano flowing almost due north into the Sea of 
 Japan. The Kisogawa rises on the eastern slopes of 
 
KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 235 
 
 On take, an extinct volcano, only less high than Fuji 
 San, and considered almost as sacred j from there it 
 makes its way through the mountains, and at last out 
 and across the plain into Owari bay, in all a distance 
 of one hundred and sixty-three miles. It is a wild 
 little river, always liable to rise in floods and ruin 
 miles of the beautiful Owari plain. In feudal times 
 the whole region along its upper course was covered 
 with forests, which belonged to the Daimyo of Owari, 
 and were most carefully preserved ; but now that the 
 land has passed into private ownership, the peasants 
 cut as they please, with little thought of the future, 
 and the only tract that is properly cared for is a forest 
 belonging to the government. 
 
 The Torii Toge (pass) is so named from the torii, 
 which stands at its highest point, put there in honor 
 of the god of Ontake. Here is the water-shed between 
 the two river systems, the Kisogawa flowing down to 
 the east and south, and the Shinauo and its many 
 tributaries rising among the slopes on the other side. 
 There is one other important pass on the road besides 
 the Usui Toge, namely, the Wada pass, and it is the 
 longest and highest — over five thousand feet. The 
 Nakasendo is kept in good order most of. the year, 
 and a jinrikisha trip over it can be made in five days 
 from Gifu to Karuizawa without any serious difficulty. 
 It would seem more natural to take the road the other 
 way — down instead of up — but it is much easier to 
 get good jinrikisha men at Gifu ; at the other end one 
 
236 JAPAN. 
 
 could only take one's chance of catching men who 
 had just brought up a party, and might or might not 
 be fresh enough to run well the other way. The 
 ascent is so great that at least two men apiece are 
 necessary, and even so it is needful to walk up some 
 of the hills, or else hire extra men. The views all 
 the way are charming, and the peasants are simple 
 and unspoiled by modern civilization. The inns are 
 very fair, and some European food can be had at 
 most of them. 
 
 The Daimyo of the west coast provinces used to 
 come up from their side to meet the Nakasendo at the 
 top of the Usui pass, and in those days there was 
 quite a town at the summit, and several highly aristo- 
 cratic inns for the accommodation of their lordships 
 and their lordships' men. But in 1868 the Shogunate 
 was done away, and with it compulsory residence in 
 Yedo ; and their lordships departed to their provinces 
 and came no more journeying to Karuizawa. They 
 arrived with such volcanic suddenness, these changes 
 from old to new Japan, and they were so sweeping, so 
 utterly disorganizing to half the conditions of life ! 
 Surely the national centre of gravity must be marvel- 
 ously hung to have kept the whole structure from 
 tipping over in hopeless ruin. 
 
 So it was that when the railroad came through in 
 the early nineties, via Takasaki, over the pass and 
 down to Naoetsu and Niigata, on the Japan Sea, it 
 found only a miserable tumble-down village, instead 
 
KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 237 
 
 of a fine post-town. However, even before the rail- 
 road got all the way, certain foreigners had discovered 
 the place and its possibilities, and were taking pos- 
 session. 
 
 " And thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and 
 more." 
 
 The Canadian missionaries began it; H. B. M's, 
 legation followed and built itself a house, the moun- 
 tain retreat of which Mrs. Hugh Fraser writes so 
 delightfully; "foreign residents" came likewise, and 
 took to themselves lands in the name of their cooks 
 and house-boys — this was in the days of Extra-Ter- 
 ritoriality and passports ; tiny Japanese houses were 
 rented and built for renting ; and the prongs of alien 
 rocking-chairs played havoc with the fragile shoji. 
 When the Presbyterian Convention settled here, and 
 an annual General Conference of Missionaries, Karui- 
 zawa's future was made. The butcher and the baker 
 and the laundryman have brought their English 
 signs to hang in the village street, the foreign hotel 
 is distinctly good, and Kameya — Kameya, the enter- 
 prising, the invaluable — opens a branch grocery for 
 the summer. 
 
 It takes a large piece of the day to come up from 
 Tokyo, changing cars at Takasaki and climbing 
 through twenty-seven reeking tunnels, and along the 
 edges of ravines, and among rocks and precipices, all 
 
238 JAPAN. 
 
 tumbled, jagged and stood on end. From this tor- 
 mented wilderness the train sweeps out at last into a 
 grassy moor, edged with hills, starred with lilies and 
 orchids and all the mountain field-flowers of Japan, 
 and drops you at a station perhaps half a mile from 
 the summer town, where the strong, keen air sets the 
 blood hurrying. 
 
 Now, it is not well to suggest to Karuizawa people 
 that there may be more beautiful spots in the empire ; 
 still, Mr. Chamberlain is more truthful than polite 
 when he calls it " a dowdy village," and adds remarks 
 about the back woods. There really are no " attrac- 
 tions," except the many walks, which are pretty, if 
 not deeply interesting; and there are several ex- 
 cursions, which make pleasant diversions in a Karui- 
 zawa summer, besides the one great trip to Mount 
 Asama. But about the air there are no two opinions ; 
 whatever is the reason, it is drier, cooler, more bracing 
 than even at Ikao — than anywhere in Japan, short of 
 the Hokkaido and its cool northern summers. The 
 village lies seven hundred and eighty feet below the 
 summit of the pass, which leaves it still thirty-two 
 hundred and seventy feet above the sea, lying against 
 low hills, which thrust out their spurs into the plain. 
 It is not really a plain, though, but a wide, high valley 
 — almost a plateau — and the very dividing ridge 
 between the two sides of the island. The sea-winds 
 seem to drop most of their moisture before they get 
 so high, and, though the mists roll up over the hills 
 
KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 239 
 
 behind, making Scotch people talk about the High- 
 lands, there is less rainfall than anywhere else, except 
 in the northern island. The soil is light, even for 
 dry-soiled Japan ; for Asama rises across the valley 
 five miles away, and Asama burst out into a great erup- 
 tion a century or two ago and spread a layer of ashes 
 four feet deep over miles of rice-fields and unsuspecting 
 villages ; and the streams were dried up, and the fields 
 became a barren moor, overgrown with knot-grass. 
 Since then Asama only puffs and mutters, or sends out 
 an occasional little sprinkle of ashes, and the climbers — 
 they come by scores all summer — can scramble up the 
 last steep cone to the very edge of the crater. There 
 are no awful fires to behold, only ashes and blocks of 
 lava, and sudden clefts split down to unknown depths, 
 and at all times an abundance of blinding, choking, 
 sulphurous smoke. 
 
 There are two or three ways of going up Asama, all 
 taking a good long day for the trip ; but though the 
 path is steep in places, it is a good cinder-track most 
 of the way, and there are no special difficulties. The 
 total height is eighty-two hundred and eighty feet, 
 making it about five thousand feet above Karuizawa. 
 The prettiest way is by Oi wake and a fine little water- 
 fall, but the easiest and most usual is by the bump on 
 the side of the mountain called Ko-Asama. You ride 
 across the moor and up the slope to Ko-Asama, and 
 climb from there in about three hours to the crater. 
 From the path, as well as the top, the view is superb, 
 
240 JAPAN. 
 
 if you are lucky enough to get it ; there are all the 
 ranges, north, south, east and west, the sea far away to 
 the east, and to the south even the cone of Fuji San. 
 There are those who think it well worth while to come 
 to Karuizawa just to climb Asama and see that view. 
 Of course, the railroad did not come up this way for 
 the sake of scenery, but because it was the least diffi- 
 cult crossing over the mountains to the west coast; 
 but, nevertheless, it is perhaps the most picturesque 
 line in all Japan, even the Tokaido not excepted. At 
 first, after crossing the Usui Toge to Karuizawa, the 
 road sweeps across the nearly level moor to the shoulder 
 of Asama; then it follows a tributary of the Shinano- 
 gawa among deep ravines, scooped by torrents out of 
 the reddish, gravelly soil ; far below there are glimpses 
 of the sunny rice-fields, and behind, the sides of 
 Asama no longer slope smoothly down, but are scarred 
 with clefts and ridges of dark lava, Of the places on 
 the way, Komoro, Takata, Uyeda and Matsumoto 
 were all castle-towns in the feudal days, and at Komoro 
 and Nagano there are two very famous monasteries. 
 That at Nagano is one of the oldest in Japan, having 
 been founded in 670 ; of course, there are no build- 
 ings standing that are anything like so old — the 
 wooden architecture of Japan is always short-lived — 
 but it contains a very sacred image of Amida, with 
 two companions, said to have been carved by Shaka 
 (Gautama Buddha) himself, and brought to Japan in 
 the very earliest period of Buddhism there. Matsu- 
 
KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 241 
 
 moto is not on the railroad itself, but is reached by 
 kuruma, over a fine pass, some thirty miles in all 
 from Uyeda. Walkers go to Matsumoto, making it 
 a centre for expeditions among the mountains ; but 
 there is little or no European accommodation to be 
 had at the inns. The one remaining watch-tower of 
 Uyeda castle stands up sharply from the river as you 
 leave the town. 
 
 Nagano is the present capital of the prefecture of 
 Nagano, created after the Restoration from the prov- 
 ince of Etchigo ; it is unlike many others of these 
 new divisions, in that it has followed the lines of the 
 old Daimiate, instead of taking fragments of several. 
 The Daimyo of this region were all closely attached to 
 the Tokugawa, and suffered in consequence on the down- 
 fall of the Shogunate. But between the monastery 
 and the pilgrims, and the new government buildings 
 and the numerous officials in residence, Nagano has a 
 very flourishing air, and does a great deal of business 
 with the country around. The mountains almost lock 
 it in, and the railroad passes, as it were, through a 
 gate in the hills to reach the valley of the Sekigawa 
 and follow it down to Naoetsu. 
 
 Here there is a fairly good port, where the steamers 
 call which connect the west coast towns ; but the place 
 is absolutely uninteresting ; and so, too, is Niigata, to 
 which the railroad runs on, by way of eighty miles of 
 coast. Niigata was one of the five ports which were 
 opened to foreigners by treaty; but it has been of very 
 Vol. L— 16 
 
21»2 JAPAN. 
 
 little value to anybody, for it is not really a harbor at 
 all, but only an open roadstead, exposed to the north 
 and west winds. The Shinanogawa flows into the sea 
 beside it, and, spreading out among the dunes, drops a 
 mass of sand from the mountains, bringing down a 
 fresh deposit with every storm ; so that it is hopeless 
 to cut through the bar across the harbor, which only 
 allows small boats to enter. The tree-planted walks 
 alone: the dunes and a certain stiff cleanliness about 
 the little town, made Rein compare it with a Dutch 
 village. 
 
 This entire coast is as different as possible from the 
 picturesque cliffs and coves of the southeast ; for miles 
 it is a flat line of shale and red sand, on which the 
 sea breaks heavily, so that for half the year boats can- 
 not laud, except in a very few places. The warm 
 Black Current, too, only sends up this side a small 
 branch, which slides off around western Kiushiu, and 
 stands out from the shore line almost up to the west 
 coast of Yedo. Add to this the sweep of the bitter 
 northwest w T inds in winter, and the near mountain 
 ranges which keep off the summer south winds, and 
 Niigata has as unlucky a climate as could well be 
 imagined— cold and snow-blocked all winter and in- 
 tensely hot in summer. At present, its chief import- 
 ance, as well as Naoetsu's, is due to the kerosene oil 
 which is found in the mountains, and is more and 
 more carefully worked every year. Modern machin- 
 ery for the oil-wells has been put up in some places, 
 
KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 243 
 
 but at many others the digging and pumping are all 
 done by hand. Not only is it far easier to get com- 
 mon laborers than men with skill enough to run the 
 complex imported machinery, but with interest high 
 and labor still comparatively low, few Japanese are 
 ready to make the outlay of capital necessary for an 
 oil-plant of American pattern. 
 
 As a rule, this native oil is much less carefully 
 refined and sells much more cheaply than the imported 
 article, but holds its own for those who cannot afford 
 better ; the Russian oil is next best, and the American 
 best of all, and also a little more costly than its Rus- 
 sian rival. There are oil-wells recently opened in the 
 island of Yezo, too, and doubtless in time the Japan- 
 ese product will supply the home market entirely. 
 In connection with the American oil, an odd side- 
 industry has grown up in some places like Tokyo, 
 where it is largely used. The oil comes in square, 
 five-gallon tins, which, in America, would find their 
 way in due time into the ash-barrel. But tin is scarce 
 in Japan, and labor plenty ; the frugal Japanese col- 
 lects the cans carefully, rolls out the sides, re-burnishes 
 and works them over into shiny pans and basins, and 
 such like, which are eagerly bought by the poorer 
 classes as a cheap, though flimsy substitute, for their 
 native, well-wrought brass. 
 
 Along with the disagreeable climate, these western 
 provinces have much mineral wealth, and also great 
 stretches of well-watered lowland, producing a valu- 
 
944 JAPAN. 
 
 able rice crop; the fisheries are renowned, in spite of 
 the stormy winter ; while in the mountains the peas- 
 ants raise silkworms, tea, paper trees, and a good deal 
 of lacquer. From the fifteenth century on, the 
 Dai my o of the west coast were among the most pow- 
 erful in the empire ; under the Tokugawa Shogunate 
 there were seven provinces counted : namely, Kaga, 
 famous for Kutani porcelain and fine bronzes ; Noto, 
 the peninsula of Percival Lowell's pilgrimage — a 
 place of rice-fields and fish ; Sado, a large island, 
 which had valuable gold mines, now almost worked out 
 — it was to Sado that Nichiren was banished for his 
 over-zealous preaching; Dewa, most northern of the 
 seven ; and Koshi, or Etchi, which was divided into 
 Lower, Middle and Farther Etchi, or Etchigo, Etchiu 
 and Etchizen. Of all these, Mayeda, lord of Kaga, 
 was the wealthiest peer in the realm, having an income 
 of over a million koku of rice ; only the Tokugawa 
 of Owari and Wakayama approached him, with six 
 hundred thousand and five hundred and fifty thousand 
 koku respectively. The Matsudaira of Etchizen fol- 
 lowed hard after these great lords ; this was the 
 family from which Tokugawa Ieyasu sprang, and 
 thirty-two Daimyo bore the name in smaller provinces 
 all over the country. The capital of Kaga — Kana- 
 zawa — ig still one of the most important cities in 
 Japan ; it is the capital of the new prefecture, which 
 takes in Noto as well as Kaga, and has a garrison -of 
 soldiers stationed in it. Quantities of Kutani ware 
 
KARUIZAWA AND THE WEST COAST. 245 
 
 go from the potteries all over the world — the fine, 
 thin Kutani porcelain, decorated in red oxide of iron 
 and gold, which has kept its old standards so much 
 better than most Japanese china made for the foreign 
 market. Griffis has made Etchizen famous among 
 English-speaking people by his pleasant account of 
 his service as professor in the castle-town of Fukui 
 during the last days of the old regime ; and by his 
 sympathetic account of Lord Matsudaira's resignation 
 of the Damiate when the changes came, and the cere- 
 mony of dismissing the retainers. We, who only 
 know modern Japan, with its wider patriotism of the 
 whole nation instead of the province, can but dimly 
 guess what the breaking of those hereditary ties 
 meant. " Even the sparrows in the bushes," said the 
 old proverb, " chirp the word ' loyalty ' — chiu, chiu !" 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 IKAO. 
 
 " With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk." — 
 Japanese Proverb. 
 
 Karuizawa, as a summer resort, would never 
 attract the Japanese, for it has not a single boiling 
 spring. That is their first demand — hot water — 
 whether for a sanitarium or a pleasure resort to stay 
 in ; and almost everywhere in the empire nature has 
 provided it for their enjoyment. From Yezo to 
 Kiushiu there are hundreds of springs sending up 
 water at a temperature of eighty to a hundred degrees 
 Fahrenheit, which the people of this land consider 
 very delightful for bathing in ; these springs are, most 
 of them, very slightly impregnated with sulphur, and 
 have also a small amount of iron, not enough to make 
 them very different from ordinary hot water. The 
 more sulphurous ones often come out of the ground 
 hot to the boiling point; and the number of places 
 called Yumoto, hot water source, is only equaled by 
 the Springvilles of America. 
 
 Among them all, Ikao has long been a favorite. 
 The place is pretty enough to be worthy of its musical 
 
 246 
 
IKAO. 247 
 
 name ; in fact, it is one of the coolest and prettiest 
 spots iu the main island. Set far up the side of Mount 
 Haruna, twenty-five hundred feet above the sea, it is 
 strictly a "Kurort," as the Germans say; its sole 
 reason for existence being the water breaking in half 
 a dozen places from the hillside, scalding hot, slightly 
 gaseous, and heavily charged with salts of iron. It is 
 crystal clear as it reaches the air, but the moment the 
 gas escapes it drops a rusty deposit on the stones and 
 the river-bed and all it touches ; the bathing tanks are 
 turbid with a yellow cloud, and pieces of cloth, set to 
 steep in the stream, take a bright rusty orange color ; 
 so dyed they are worn round the body and thought to 
 be highly strengthening, the iron being supposed to be 
 somehow absorbed. Bathers come from far and near 
 to be cured of rheumatism and skin diseases, both a 
 great deal too common in Japan ; and pilgrims come, 
 too, for the Kwannon temple below, at Mizusawa, is 
 one of the " Thirty-three Holy Places." And well 
 people come, both Europeans and Japanese, for the 
 beauty of the place and to escape from heat and mosqui- 
 toes. There is a good foreign hotel, and a number of 
 cottages to let, besides Japanese hotels and boarding- 
 houses of every grade, for the pilgrims and bathers. 
 
 Now, why is it that Japanese bathing arrangements 
 excite foreigners more than anything else in the na- 
 tional life? It is unique, certainly, this passion for 
 hot water among high and low; some find it a virtue, 
 and commend a race which owns no great unwashed ; 
 
248 JAPAN. 
 
 others point to the gregarious tub and declare suc- 
 cinctly, "The Japanese are not an immoral people; 
 they simply have no morals." And the successive 
 system distresses them, too ; that which makes guests 
 at an inn " first come first served " at the same tubful, 
 and dips a household with feudal decorum, from the 
 Danna San to the kitchen maid. " Disgusting cus- 
 tom !" Verily disgusting, indeed, if one "used Pears' 
 soap," in European fashion, in the tub itself — which 
 is something a Japanese never dreams of. What he 
 does is to scrub thoroughly on the slatted floor of the 
 bath-room, where basin and pails are provided for that 
 purpose, and where he will dash himself plentifully 
 with fresh cold water on getting out of the tub. Only 
 when thus perfectly clean, and rinsed from every par- 
 ticle of soap, he enters the big wooden tub, and sits 
 soaking blissfully up to his neck in water heated to 
 steaming by a charcoal stove partitioned off at one end 
 — just such an arrangement as the immortal Ortho- 
 docia dealt with. Mr. Kipling's experiences were less 
 thrilling than hers ; he was not parboiled, but he com- 
 plains pathetically of sliding paper screens as scant 
 protection for an Englishman " clad in his virtue and 
 his spectacles." There is no denying that it is very 
 trying and improper — especially for an Englishman. 
 Hear what Dr. Rein says — Rein the statistical, the 
 coldly accurate. In the days when both sexes bathed 
 together, he declares, " they indulged in nothing un- 
 seemly, even according to our ideas." Contact with 
 
IKAO. 249 
 
 Europeans put an end to this paradisaical simplicity, 
 which he holds u by no means a sign of moral corrup- 
 tion, or even of want of decency." u Bashfulness is 
 undoubtedly a product of social life and civilization, 
 as was pointed out long ago by Rousseau. It is no 
 criterion of morality, appears in different forms, and 
 varies with the education of mankind and the climate 
 in which they have to live." " Italics mine," as Mr. 
 Ruskin says. Well, be content ; the roadside tub is 
 banished nowadays from all but the remotest villages, 
 and certain conventional separations and restrictions 
 are enforced by a paternal government, feverishly 
 anxious to offend no proprieties of the Western world ; 
 and therewith the people continue — just as calmly and 
 truly modest as they ever were. Except near the 
 Treaty Ports ; there the worst influences of all civil- 
 izations have done what they always do. But, once 
 again, let us not judge Japan by the open ports, till we 
 are ready to have others judge America by Chinatown. 
 Of course, all this tubbing is in hot baths; nobody 
 in Japan uses cold water for pleasure, except for the 
 final splash after a good boiling. And, by the way, it 
 must be remembered that very hot water acts quite 
 differently from warm or even moderately hot ; where 
 warm water relaxes, the stinging heat braces and stim- 
 ulates the skin, else the Japanese race had long ago 
 perished by reason of the national habit of running 
 out, all glowing, into a wintry air of perhaps forty 
 degrees Fahrenheit — very likely barefoot, except for 
 
250 JAPAN. 
 
 straw sandals. Mr. Chamberlain insists that even 
 Englishmen find the hot baths somehow suited to the 
 climate, and it is a fact that those who have lived 
 longest in Japan, and most happily and healthily, are 
 just the ones who have adopted this with other Japan- 
 ese customs. 
 
 But cold bathing is occasionally practiced, after all, 
 not as pleasure, but for purification — religious, of 
 course — or as a penance, and sometimes a very severe 
 one. For instance, in the story of the Cat of Nabe- 
 shima, related by Mitford in his "Tales of Old 
 Japan," a priest, looking out one night, sees a young 
 Samurai bathing in the icy tank in the garden ; when 
 he has finished and taken his garments again, he bows 
 before the shrine and makes prayer for the recovery of 
 his lord. With the help of the priest, the young man 
 afterwards succeeds in baffling the wicked enchantress 
 cat, and finding herself discovered, she changes from 
 a lovely lady into her true shape, and bounds over the 
 roofs and disappears, whereupon Lord Nabeshima 
 recovers from his sickness. Washing the hands at 
 the well in the temple court is a usual practice before 
 approaching to worship. 
 
 The primitive Shinto nature-worship is especially 
 full of rites and formulas of purification from cere- 
 monial uncleanness. It is carried even to a special 
 cult ; up in the mountains, in the most solitary places, 
 live hermits who are seeking after perfect purity ; 
 eating only herbs, drinking only water, and bathing — 
 
IKAO. 251 
 
 it makes one shiver to think of !— bathing night and 
 day, winter and summer, in the mountain streams and 
 icy waterfalls. Sometimes they stand for hours under 
 the dash of the fall, or up to their necks in a pool ; 
 on the coast, such rites are sometimes performed in 
 the sea. If the Gyoja— the mountain hermits— die 
 under such trials, there is reward for faithfulness in 
 an after life ; if they survive and continue, wonderful 
 powers come to them— power to 'perform marvelous 
 feats, to see and hear things hidden from grosser eyes. 
 Such are the exercises and manifestations of the exor- 
 cists on Mount Ontake, near the Torii pass, which Per- 
 cival Lowell has studied and written about so fully. 
 
 The Buddhist hermits generally lead a less severe 
 life, devoting themselves instead to reciting the proper 
 prayers to Kwannon or Amida. There is a pious legend 
 of one of these, who lived in the mountains near Lake 
 Biwa, praying and giving counsel to the villagers who 
 came to him in his retreat. They brought him rood 
 and cared for his few wants, as pious folk will in the 
 East ; but one winter there came a terrible snow- 
 storm, which blocked the path, so that for days they 
 could not climb the mountain. The holy man was 
 all but starved, and had given himself up for lost, 
 when he found at his door a stray deer, which had 
 come to his hut seeking shelter and had fallen there 
 frozen. Here was food ; but even though he did not 
 have to take its life, the priest hesitated to break the 
 rule and eat flesh, which was forbidden even to the 
 
252 JAPAN. 
 
 laity. Yet he bethought him of his people ; for if he 
 died, who would say prayers for them aud give them 
 spiritual aid ? So, at last, with many misgivings, he 
 cut off a piece of the flesh and cooked it and ate a 
 little, leaving the rest in the pot. When the storm 
 was over, the villagers hurried to see what had become 
 of their priest, and, to their great joy, found him safe 
 and lustily chanting the daily office. He told his tale, 
 and looking in the pot they found — not a piece of meat, 
 but a bit of gilded wood. Here was a miracle ; and, 
 going to the nearest Kwannon temple, they found a 
 piece had been cut from the side of the image. When 
 the bit of wood was laid on the place, it exactly fitted, 
 and at once grew fast without leaving any mark. So 
 then they knew for a surety that the Merciful Kwan- 
 non had given of herself to save the life of her 
 servant. 
 
 Such deeds as the Gyoja practice daily, penitents 
 undertake for a certain time, as an expiation, or to 
 fulfill some particular vow ; pilgrims, too, bathe long 
 and often at this or that sacred lake or stream ; or, 
 unwillingly enough, some poor demented creature is 
 held shivering and struggling under a waterfall, that 
 he or she may be set free from " Fox possession." 
 Various kinds of dementia or epilepsy are accounted 
 for in both Japan and China by a fox being supposed 
 to have entered the victim's body, and it is thought 
 that, if the residence is made very uncomfortable, the 
 undesired tenant will leave. So the possessed one is 
 
ikao. 253 
 
 subjected to all kinds of exorcisms and penances, this 
 ordeal of waterfalls being thought especially efficacious 
 — and it might really be, perhaps, if the case is a 
 hysterical one. It is something of this sort that 
 the skeptical villager tries, in Mitford's amusing 
 story of the man who makes a bet that he will cross 
 a certain lonely moor by night, without being deceived 
 by the foxes who haunt it ; and so, meeting a girl on 
 the way, who seems to be the daughter of his friend, 
 he decides at once that she is a fox in disguise, goes to 
 the house and tells her parents, and undertakes to 
 make the creature show its true form, which he does 
 so vigorously that the girl dies in his hands. The 
 infuriated parents only consent to spare his life if he 
 will at once become a priest ; so his head is shaved on 
 the spot, and, as the last lock falls, there is a shout 
 of mocking laughter, house and parents vanish, and 
 the unbeliever finds himself alone on the moor, with 
 his head shaved as bald as an egg. 
 
 Sometimes the fox disguises himself as a human 
 being, and lives with his victim, instead of entering 
 his body. An Emperor once shot at a fox, which lay 
 under a chrysanthemum bush in his garden ; it was 
 wounded and ran away, and afterwards one of the 
 ladies of the court was found to have a wound in her 
 forehead, just where the Emperor's arrow struck the 
 fox. Thus detected, the evil thing was promptly dis- 
 posed of. 
 
 Naturally the wise modern doctors do not coun- 
 
254 JAPAN. 
 
 tenance this sort of water-cure for epilepsy, and 
 modern law has not a little to say on the subject; but 
 the new rules do not greatly trouble the remote moun- 
 tain villages, and the new science affects them still 
 less. However, the modern schools have come now, 
 and, with the young generation, Brer Fox's days are 
 surely numbered. 
 
 Ikao's little town seems pinned, like a swallow's 
 nest, against the green mountain ; its main street 
 climbs so steeply that it has to make steps to get up, 
 and the houses straggle after like a flock of goats. 
 Little side streets wander out right and left, in an 
 irresponsible sort of fashion, all given over in some 
 way or other to the housing and amusing of visitors. 
 As for the bath-houses, they advertise themselves by 
 perpetual clouds of steam, like so many huge wash- 
 boilers. The story goes that doctors are wont to lodge 
 certain indolent patients well down the slope, and 
 send them up the long steps for a morning and eve- 
 ning drink — a kind of unofficial " Terrein Kur," for 
 people who will not exercise unless they are made to. 
 
 There is a great deal of exercise involved in merely 
 getting to Ikao at all. The railroad sends out a 
 branch from Omiya on the main line to Takasaki and 
 Maebashi, and thence you proceed by kuruma, or by 
 an execrable tram ; or, if the road is in condition, by 
 kuruma, via Mizusawa and the Kwannon temple 
 aforesaid. Either way is warranted to provide a 
 liberal jolting ; but I hear the road has been improved, 
 
IKAO. 255 
 
 and at least the ride is exceedingly pretty, through 
 green valleys, more and more steep, up and up into 
 the towering hills. 
 
 The Kwannon temple at Mizusawa is one of a 
 second set of " Thirty-three Holy Places," provided 
 for the needs of the more out-of-the-way provinces. 
 The original ones are all in the region round Nara 
 and Kyoto, and the knowledge of them was first 
 revealed to an abbot of the devout eighth century. 
 The abbot, who seems to have been a most saintly 
 man, fell suddenly ill and apparently died ; but his 
 body did not become cold, and his disciples therefore 
 waited to bury him, hoping he might return to life. 
 And, indeed, after three days, he suddenly woke, as 
 if from sleep, and told them he had been to the under 
 world. Two attendants led him before the judge of 
 the dead, Emma-O, who received him most graciously, 
 and explained that he had been sent for to deliver a 
 message to men. This was that the Merciful Kwan- 
 non, full of pity, had taken thirty-three spots under 
 her special care, so that, if any man made pilgrimage 
 to one of these, no matter what his sins, he should be 
 saved ; for such a pilgrim would radiate light from 
 his feet, and would have strength to crush to frag- 
 ments all the one hundred and thirty-six hells which 
 were waiting for him. This remedy Kwannon had 
 provided ; but, for lack of knowing it, men went on 
 " falling into hell as plentifully as the raindrops fall 
 in a summer shower." Emma-0 then told the abbot 
 
256 japan. 
 
 whore those places were, and bade him return and tell 
 the good news; but the careful saint asked for a 
 sign, lest men should not believe. "Thereupon 
 Emma-0 gave him his own jeweled seal, and he was 
 led back by the same two attendants into the sinful 
 world." (Chamberlain.) 
 
 The good abbot and his disciples at once made the 
 first pilgrimage, taking all the holy places in the order 
 laid down ; but perhaps mankind were still too skep- 
 tical, for these particular pilgrimages did not become 
 popular for a couple of centuries. Then the Emperor 
 Kwazan, who was one of the vols faineants under the 
 tutelage of the Fujiwara prime ministers, lost his young 
 wife ; and being but a boy, and deeply in love, he fell 
 into despair and left the throne to become a monk, 
 spending his life in pilgrimage to the Thirty-throe 
 Holy Places of Kwannon. From this time they were 
 known and honored. The temple at Miidera on Lake 
 Biwa is one of the series, and another is Kiyomidzu- 
 dera, in Kyoto itself. The new series was added later, 
 when the more northern provinces became populous, 
 and naturally is less celebrated, but the temples are 
 believed to have no less efficaevthan the original ones. 
 
 All about Ikao the views are wonderful, even for 
 Japan, taking in wide valleys and distant peaks, and 
 near crumpled hills with deep gorges between, furrow- 
 ing down the slopes of Haruna, each gorge adding its 
 torrent to the Azumagawa and Tonegawa, which meet 
 below and, passing south between Haruna and Akagi 
 
IKAO. 257 
 
 San, merge their valleys in the Tokyo plain. And 
 beyond Akagi, peak behind peak, is the Nikko range, 
 Shirane and Nantai San, and a sickle-like curve of 
 mountains sweeping round to the north and west. 
 Part of the town lies along one of these deep ravines, 
 down which the stream rushes from Yumoto — that is 
 to say, hot water source — where are seats for the water 
 drinkers, and shade, and glimpses of the valley and 
 the far hills. 
 
 The walks naturally are all up hill and down, and 
 the excursions are either tramps or chair rides, or 
 both impartially combined. Kompira San is a very 
 little ascent and a very fine view. Mount Soma and 
 the "Haruna Fuji" are both pretty stiff climbing, 
 but on Soma you get more than two thousand feet 
 above Ikao — nearly five thousand feet from sea level 
 — see Asama to the west, and the real Fuji far to the 
 south, and overlook provinces and rivers and towns 
 and more mountains than one can count. 
 
 Then there is Haruna lake. Mount Haruna, of 
 course, was once a volcano — every great mountain in 
 Japan either is or has been or means to be — and what 
 was once the crater is now a lake, with a good tea- 
 house on its banks, where you may admire the pros- 
 pect and dine on the salmon and other fish with 
 which it has been recently stocked. Indeed, to admire 
 seems quite necessary. Haruna lake has a guardian 
 dragon, a " laidly worme," of a most jealous disposi- 
 tion ; and he has a rival in the lake over on Akagi 
 Vol. 1—17 
 
258 JAPAN. 
 
 San, with whom he will brook no invidious compari- 
 sons. So if any mortal standing by Haruna lake 
 should be so rash as to speak in praise of Akagi 
 Water, saying that it is larger or more beautiful, let 
 not that one think to reach home unscathed ; either he 
 will lose his way on the moors, or a terrible storm 
 will overtake him. 
 
 The Haruna god seems to have a special influence 
 in bringing down storms. When the early rains are 
 delayed much after the middle of June, the farmers 
 are in great trouble over the young rice; and if the 
 drought lasts long, they gather from neighboring vil- 
 lages and pray for rain. Then a number of bands, 
 made up from the several villages, set off for Mount 
 Haruna to fetch some of the water of the lake. The 
 water must be carried very swiftly, else the sky-water 
 will come down to join the lake water in the wrong 
 place ; so the several groups station themselves at dif- 
 ferent points to receive and carry it on. The first 
 band goes all the way to the top, and gathers the water 
 in large bamboo stalks, which are closed up at the end 
 to make light, strong vessels ; running all the way, 
 they reach the foot of the mountains and hand over 
 the tubes to the next band, and so the water is carried 
 forty or fifty miles in a day. They carry it to a 
 proper temple and make prayer there, and afterwards 
 one of the bamboo holders goes to each village, and 
 the peasants carry them through the fields night and 
 day, singing and shouting and beating drums. The 
 
IKAO. 259 
 
 whole affair is apt to end with a grand drinking and 
 merry-making at the expense of the villages. 
 
 Tenjin pass goes westward from Haruna over the 
 edge of the crater a little way above the lake, and 
 wanders up the Azuma valley into a mountain trap, 
 from which it struggles out somewhere in Echigo 
 province ; it is one of the old highways, but has never 
 compared in importance with the Usui Toge, which 
 lies to the south of Haruna. Following the path 
 down the other side of the ridge from the crater, you 
 reach an old, old Shinto temple in a grove of crypto- 
 meria trees, set among vast rocks that are torn, flung, 
 piled one on the other, as if all the mountain goblins 
 had been at play, or as if the Earth God and the Fire 
 God to whom the temple is dedicated had chosen the 
 glen for a last desperate battle; while the carved 
 dragons on the porch might have kept watch between, 
 twisting and curling in evil delight of the fray. 
 Though Shinto in origin, the place used to belong to 
 the wild Yamabushi, or mountain priests, who were 
 Buddhist in profession, but for two or three centuries 
 it has been in quieter hands. The priests' families 
 live in the village below, for this temple has always 
 kept a traditional right of marriage for its servants. 
 
 This central mountain region is a great silk-growing 
 district ; the three provinces of Nagano, Gumma and 
 Fukushima raise two-fifths of all the cocoons pro- 
 duced in the empire. In many villages the large, 
 well-built houses show how profitable the industry has 
 
260 JAPAN. 
 
 been to these high places, some of which could hardly 
 raise a koku of rice on the hilly fields. Indeed, the 
 peasants of the highlands learn to look upon rice as a 
 luxury, to be reserved for the sick and weakly, and 
 depend for food on their barley and millet ; but where 
 the white mulberry appears, there the people are 
 flourishing and well to do. Part at least of this pros- 
 perity is due to the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, 
 who, early in the eighteenth century, extended and 
 improved sen-culture in the midland provinces. 
 Through this part of the country almost every house 
 in the little villages has a separate room, or sometimes 
 a whole second story built for the worms, which will 
 not flourish unless they have a clean, airy place, suffi- 
 ciently warm, but sheltered from the direct rays of the 
 sun. The room is filled with slatted shelves or racks, 
 piled from floor to ceiling, and on the shelves stand 
 shallow trays of mulberry leaves, where the host of 
 pale green or whitey-brown creatures squirm and eat, 
 eat, eat all day and all night. If you put your ear 
 down you can hear them eating, with a faint, crisp 
 rustle which is most uncanny. At first, when they are 
 very small — from the hatching till the second or third 
 casting of the skin — the leaves must be cut up for 
 them ; and at times some one has to watch all night. 
 Well conducted human babies are really twice as 
 hardy as these pampered specialists. The beds must 
 be cleaned daily, except when the worms are casting 
 their skins, which they do four times, at intervals of 
 
IKAO. 261 
 
 six and eight days. To get them transferred, the 
 usual way is to spread a hemp net over the tray, and 
 cover it with fresh leaves ; the worms crawl onto it, 
 and are then lifted to a fresh tray. Most of the time 
 they are fed four times a day ; between the last change 
 of skin and the moment of beginning to spin they eat 
 three-fourths of all the food they take in their entire 
 existence. 
 
 When they show by their appearance and move- 
 ments that the time for spinning has arrived, the care- 
 takers lay twigs of rape or small faggots of brush 
 across the trays, and the caterpillars climb up and 
 hang themselves comfortably. When the cocoons are 
 finished — which takes several days — the best of them 
 are picked out for breeding, and the rest killed, either 
 by exposure to hot sun, or in an oven or by steam. 
 The eggs are very thin and easily broken, and to keep 
 them from injury a stiff card is provided for the moth, 
 on which they stick and can be safely handled. The 
 best kinds are raised in the mountains, and most of the 
 egg cards come from a few special districts. They 
 must be carefully kept in a dry, cool place, and pro- 
 tected from mice. 
 
 Early in May, as soon as the young leaves begin to 
 put out, the egg cards are brought from the storehouse 
 and set in a warm room, or in a shady place out of 
 doors, and the " haru-ko " — spring children — coaxed 
 to come out and begin their career. In the lower 
 parts of the silk districts the mulberry trees are care- 
 
262 JAPAN. 
 
 fully planted in rows three feet apart, and kept 
 trimmed back to low bushes ; at a little distance they 
 look rather like one of the low vineyards of Italy. 
 Higher on the hills they are allowed to grow taller, 
 perhaps four to six feet, and are still well cared for in 
 a good deep soil, and carefully headed up ; on the 
 slopes of some valleys they are permitted to grow into 
 trees, and in such places the leaves are less fine and 
 thickly set, and the trees are said to last only forty out 
 of a possible sixty years. 
 
 Besides the ordinary silkworm moth, of which there 
 are many varieties more or less alike, there is another 
 of a different species which is used to some extent ; 
 this is called the yama-mae, literally wild (or moun- 
 tain) cocoon. The moth and worm are larger and the 
 silk coarser. These feed on the chestnut oak, and are 
 raised out of doors, on plantations of low trees set out 
 for the purpose ; scare-crows and boys with clappers 
 and various other devices are used to protect the 
 worms from birds and other enemies. But they are 
 restless feeders, and difficult to keep together, instead 
 of liking to herd, as the true silkworms do ; and the 
 silk is more difficult to reel off the cocoon. Though a 
 good deal of it is raised in certain places, this yama- 
 mae silk is seldom made up alone, but is used for 
 weaving into certain kinds of loose crape manufactured 
 for special purposes. 
 
 Women do most of the work of caring for the silk- 
 worms ; little girls who seem hardly more than babies 
 
IKAO. 2G3 
 
 know how to pick the wriggling things up without 
 hurting them, and tell by the size, color and trans- 
 parency how old they are and how soon they will 
 begin to spin, and many other mysteries hidden from 
 the unskilled. But it is Oba San (grandmother) who 
 understands all and directs all — bow-backed, cheery- 
 faced Oba San, with her bright eyes and skin like 
 wrinkled leather, who remembers days loii£ before the 
 Black Ships came to Japan, and has grandchildren 
 working in the new water-power filature under the 
 hill. She and Oji San cannot do with these new- 
 fangled ways, so when the cocoons are spun she and 
 he will get out the old hand-reels and sit on the cot- 
 tage floor winding off the skeins with marvelous deft- 
 ness. Indeed, in many cottages the old hand-looms 
 are still in use, and the old weaves are kept up — those 
 distinctive local weaves by which you could tell the 
 fabric of one province from another. Often still the 
 tree is grown, the worms raised, the thread spun and 
 woven and dyed at the same little mountain cottage. 
 
 The first filature in the country was one started at 
 Tomioka near Takasaki in 1869, by a Frenchman, 
 who was engaged by the government for the purpose. 
 Now this filature is one of the largest in the empire, 
 and there are many more, besides the large spinning 
 and weaving factories that have sprung up in Osaka, 
 always commercial and industrial, and in Tokyo and 
 Kyoto, and the very many small establishments scat- 
 tered through the silk-growing provinces. 
 
264 JAPAN. 
 
 The Hon. Robert P. Porter, United States Tariff 
 Commissioner, puts the situation in a nutshell : " The 
 Japanese simply throws away the old device when he 
 can get the new; like all good workmen, however, he 
 does not stand idly by waiting for better implements; 
 he pounds away at his rice, and runs off beautiful 
 silken threads from the ancient spinning-wheel, wholly 
 oblivious of the hum and rattle of modern machinery 
 in the surrounding factories. He cannot afford to 
 stop, but he is none the less awaiting his turn to secure 
 the newer machines." Spinning machinery to the 
 value of over two hundred thousand pounds was im- 
 ported from England in 1898 — not all, of course, in- 
 tended for silk ; the weaving of cotton increases 
 yearly, and of linen likewise. It is a curious fact that 
 nearly all of the best Japanese embroidery is done by 
 men ; but of nine hundred and fifty thousand persons 
 engaged in weaving in 1894, nearly nine hundred 
 thousand were women and girls. 
 
 Rein explains in detail the various kinds of thread 
 spun, which, of course, are essentially the same as in 
 other countries — the floss silk worked up from waste, 
 and from the outer portion of the cocoons, and the 
 reeled silk which is wound off from the cocoons and 
 spun into threads for the loom. From three to fifteen 
 threads of reeled silk, representing as many cocoons, 
 are spun into these threads for warp and woof, accord- 
 ing to the weight of fabric desired. The secret of 
 making chinmen or crape is that the woof threads are 
 
IKAO. 265 
 
 very tightly twisted, half to the right and half to the 
 left ; the two kinds are woven in alternately, and 
 when the web is dipped this reverse twisting makes 
 the crinkle. The twisting is done on a special wheel, 
 the large hand wheel one sees in so many cottages, 
 o-guruma, the great wheel, they call it. The dipping 
 is really a boiling which goes on for several hours, in 
 water mixed with ashes made from straw, and often 
 slightly colored with a little indigo. Then the fabric 
 is washed out, stretched, and rolled on a wooden cyl- 
 inder to dry. The crinkling shrinks it to about three- 
 fourths of its original width, but in length it alters 
 much less. Silk waste, ma-watta, looks very like what 
 we call cotton wadding, and they use it to line the 
 nicer dresses for winter ; it is delightfully warm, and 
 light as down almost. The bottom of a lady's dress 
 is padded out into a stylish roll, and both men's and 
 women's winter garments are often lined with ma- 
 watta. The bits of flock working through to the out- 
 side are cherished, because they show the nice quality 
 of the lining — a cotton wadding does not come through. 
 The government makes wisely paternal efforts to 
 improve the methods of raising the silkworms, the 
 quality and quantity of the silk, the reeling and manu- 
 facture. Soon after the country was opened to foreign 
 trade, the silkworm disease in France and Italy gave a 
 great impetus to the export of Japanese egg cards, and 
 they are also shipped over the empire from the best 
 breeding places in large numbers. At certain seasons 
 
266 JAPAN. 
 
 of the year the railroads all but refuse to handle ordi- 
 nary freight, they are so taken up with moving eggs 
 and young worms. A strange contrast all this to the 
 anxious days at the time of the opening of the coun- 
 try, when Japanese statesmen tried to prevent the 
 export of silk, fearing lest the supply should be too 
 small, and prices should rise and drive it out of the 
 home markets. 
 
 A dozen years ago there was danger that Japanese 
 silk might fall behind in quality, if not in quantity, 
 but now it has advanced in both, and more than holds 
 its own in the markets of the world. Official returns 
 show that in 1895 one hundred and thirty thousand 
 yen worth of silk goods was exported ; in 1899 the 
 value rose to twelve million yen. France gets most 
 of it, America next; so, too, of raw silk, which 
 reaches still higher values. Often the thread is spun 
 and woven in Japan, dyed in France, sold in America, 
 and p3rhaps carried across the continent and worn on 
 the Pacific slope. So the skeins that run through the 
 withered old hands may have far to go. 
 
 Weaving must certainly have been known to the 
 early inhabitants of Japan, for the Kojiki relates that 
 Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, was weaving with her 
 maidens, when her rough brother broke in upon her, 
 with his unseemly pranks ; but the material used in 
 prehistoric times may have been hemp, or possibly 
 bark fibre, such as the Yezo Ainu use to the present 
 dav. Hemp was certainly used at a very early period 
 
IKAO. 267 
 
 in Japan, and was almost the only wear of the com- 
 mon people till the seventeenth century, when the 
 Tokugawa encouraged cotton, and it came into general 
 use as the ordinary dress of the middle and lower 
 classes. According to one legend, an Indian queen 
 shut her step-daughter up in a hollow mulberry trunk 
 and threw her into the sea, and she was carried ashore 
 on the coast of Japan ; the people cared for her kindly, 
 and when she died she gratefully turned into a silk- 
 worm. Sujin, the tenth Emperor, commanded his sub- 
 jects to bring tribute of the products of the bow and 
 arrow — evidently skins, horns and tusks of animals, 
 slain in hunting — and also of women's handiwork, 
 which must have been materials woven or embroidered. 
 Probably silk formed a large part of this tribute, as it 
 was already in use for royal gifts ; thus it is recorded 
 that Sujin's son, the grandfather of Prince Yamato- 
 take, received a prince from a neighboring country, 
 and on his departure made him and his suite presents 
 of scarlet silk. Also, when the Empress Jingo con- 
 quered Korea, she required, besides hostages of the 
 King's relatives, that "a tribute of eighty shiploads 
 of gold, silver and silk should be paid annually." 
 Better still, weavers and embroiderers were imported 
 and made to settle in Japan, and from these Korean 
 artisans came two great families, the Hada and the 
 Aya, who were scattered all over the country to give 
 instruction in silk-culture. Finally, in the fifth cen- 
 tury, along with the introduction of Buddhism and 
 
268 JAPAN. 
 
 Chinese writing, an envoy sent to China brought back 
 skilled workmen from there, and a department of 
 tailoring was founded to oversee the costumes of the 
 court. In this period, so much silk was presented to 
 the Emperor that a special storehouse had to be built 
 to receive it. 
 
 Brocade was always the special wear of the court. 
 There is an endless variety of these beautiful old fab- 
 rics, some of which are kept up or imitated now ; but 
 the modern pieces are too apt to be colored with the 
 imported aniline dyes, and have neither the brilliancy 
 nor the harmonious quality of the old indigo and warm 
 safflower reds. The gold used in the old brocades 
 was sometimes a genuine gold thread, but more often 
 the well-known paper-gold — a silk thread wound with 
 paper to which gold-foil has been attached. These 
 fabrics were all, of course, woven on hand-looms, 
 much like those used in Europe before Jacquard looms 
 were invented ; the threads which wrought the damask 
 effect were handled by bobbins, which a boy, sitting 
 above the loom, threw back and forth. When the 
 court adopted foreign dress, in 1886, the brocade-weav- 
 ers lost their best patrons and the world a great deal of 
 beauty ; yet, however one may regret the change to 
 our inartistic European clothes, it is impossible not to 
 see how needful it was. The motive was not only to 
 prevent the other nations from laughing and looking 
 down on the long-sleeved Orientals ; with the costly 
 and elaborate court costumes went a load of ancient 
 
IKAO. 269 
 
 ceremonial that would have utterly swamped every- 
 body, if the modern conditions of court life were 
 added to it. Possibly, if Japan had not been so 
 pushed into the rush of things, the change might have 
 been brought about gradually, without sacrificing 
 everything of the old life ; but, as the case stood, the 
 only way was to get rid of it all at once. 
 
 The "Brocade Banner" played, with the mirror, 
 sword and jewel, the part of imperial representative. 
 When the Emperor sent Prince Arisugawa, with 
 General Saigo, to take possession of rebellious Yedo, 
 in 1868, he gave him the banner in token of his 
 imperial command ; and there can be little doubt of 
 its moral influence with the uncertain. When the 
 imperial forces entered Yedo, all the loyalist Samurai 
 fastened each a bit of brocade on the sleeve of his 
 dress, whereupon the Tokugawa clansmen dubbed 
 them " Kingire " (brocade rags). For weeks there 
 were constant brawls on the street, between the clans- 
 men and these Kingire, ending in the battle of Uyeno 
 Park and the retreat of the Tokugawa adherents to 
 Utsunomiya. Now the sun-flag leads the army, with 
 its ball of the red, rising sun on the white ground, 
 and the banner of the Red Cross Society goes ever 
 beside it ; but the old-time brocade remains a symbol 
 of nobility, whether material or spiritual. As the pretty 
 saving goes : " Coat of rags, but heart of brocade " — 
 tsuzure wo kite mo kohoro wa nisfuki. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 NIKKO — THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 " Dans toute la description que je vais essayer maintenant, je 
 voudrais pouvoir rappeler a chaque ligne le bruit de ces eaux 
 que Ton divine si froides, et la voute de ces feuillages d'un vert 
 noiratre etendue au-dessus des choses, et cette penombre toujours, et 
 cette sonorite profond de dessous bois." — Loti, " Japoneries d'Au- 
 toinnie." 
 
 About ninety miles north and east of Tokyo the 
 central mountain chain lifts into a range of graceful 
 peaks, wooded almost to the summit, Nantaizan, the 
 highest, reaching over eight thousand feet ; the region 
 is full of streams and waterfalls, and a beautiful lake, 
 called Chuzenji, lies four thousand feet up in the heart 
 of the range. So wild is it still in parts, that mon- 
 keys swing and chatter in the trees near the Chuzenji 
 road, and back a little on the heights there are only 
 wood-cutters or charcoal-burners' huts. 
 
 "Could a Greek come back here, he would find his 
 ' soul-informed rocks/ and all that he thought divine 
 or superstitious, even to the very i impressions of 
 Aphrodite/ ... I feel as if I were nearer than I can 
 be through books to the old world we try to rebuild 
 by collation of facts and documents." 
 
 270 
 
NIKKO— THE SHEINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 271 
 
 So wrote La Farge, whose " Letters of an Artist " 
 show a grasp and insight into the deep things of 
 Japanese thought, at times surpassing even Hearn's. 
 In truth, this universal primitive sense of holy places, 
 always strong, is still vividly alive in Japan ; Mount 
 Fuji, Nara, the Ise peninsula, Enoshima, and Miya- 
 jima and Kinkwazan — these are only a few of the 
 hundreds counted special abodes of the Kami, all the 
 way up to the solitary Sail Rock, on the wild coast of 
 the Hokkaido, to which fishermen lower their sails. 
 Pilgrimages to these shrines are the delight of the 
 common people, particularly of those elderly couples 
 who have become " inkyo " — retired in favor of the 
 younger generation ; you meet them everywhere, gene- 
 rally in parties of a dozen or more, under the leader- 
 ship of the most experienced, and a capital time they 
 seem to have of it. 
 
 The name Nikko belongs not to a single place, but 
 to a whole mountain region, which has been haunted 
 of divinity from the earliest times; before history 
 began there was a purely Shinto shrine here, most prob- 
 ably several, dedicated to the spirits of the mountains, 
 both bad and good. The most troublesome of all was 
 a vicious old rain-dragon, who lived far up the side of 
 Nantaizan, and from his cave sent out terrible storms 
 which devastated the neighboring country. He seems 
 to have continued his yearly disturbance without let or 
 hindrance, till the coming of that arch-exorcist, Kobo 
 Daishi, the great Buddhist saint of the ninth century. 
 
272 JAPAN. 
 
 He at last subdued the dragon, and changed the name 
 of the place from Niko, Stormy Mountains, to Nikko, 
 Mountain of the Sun's Brightness. Nevertheless, even 
 his spells would seem to have wrought no permanent 
 cure; since, for centuries after, a certain family of 
 Shinto priests went twice yearly, at the period of the 
 dragon's accustomed outbreaks, and performed at the 
 cave certain mysterious rites, the secret of which was 
 communicated to their ancestor by the saint himself. 
 
 But Nikko shares the honor of Kobo Daishi's min- 
 istrations with half the early Buddhist temples in 
 Japan ; instead of him, it has a patron saint all its 
 own, one Shodo Shonin, whose whole life was devoted 
 to discovering and worshiping at Nikko and Nan- 
 taizan. Shodo's time was half a century earlier than 
 Kobo's, and his life as written by one of his followers 
 is scarcely less full of marvels than the Nara saint's. 
 His parents, desiring a son, prayed at a cave sacred to 
 the Thousand-handed Kwannon, which is far in the 
 mountains as you go up to Ikao from the plain ; and 
 when the child was born thunder rolled and flowers 
 and sweet perfumes fell from the sky. When the boy 
 was grown, he stole away to that same cave, and lived 
 there in solitude for three years, fasting and seeing 
 visions. Then, in a dream, he saw a shining moun- 
 tain, and on it lay a great sword ; and awaking, though 
 it was midwinter, he felt an irresistible impulse to seek 
 the place. So, toiling through the snow, after many 
 trials he reached a hill whence he could see the moun- 
 
NIKKO— THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 273 
 
 tain of his dream. Here he lived another three years, 
 practicing the austerities of mountain hermits, and a 
 miraculous being came and fed him. 
 
 This trial over, Shodo came back to the neighbor- 
 hood of his home, and went to a monastery of the 
 Healing Buddha, where Chinese monks — this was in 
 the days of Buddhist missionaries from the west — re- 
 ceived him as a novice. But a sheltered monastic life 
 was not for him. After five years of probation, he 
 shouldered his bundle of images and holy books, and 
 went back to his mountains in the north. As he went 
 towards them, he saw in the distance four clouds of 
 different colors rising straight up in the air ; and fol- 
 lowing the sign, he almost reached the place, only to 
 find a roaring torrent across the way — the foamy, 
 glacier-green Daiyagawa, plunging down its gorge 
 among masses of tumbled rock. Then Shodo Shonin 
 stopped beside the stream and prayed ; and suddenly 
 some one cried to him from the other bank, and looking 
 over he saw a terrible being, larger than human, wear- 
 ing strange garments of blue and black, and for a 
 necklace a string of skulls. " Trust thyself to me/' 
 he cried to the hermit; "I will bear thee over, even as 
 I bore the pilgrim Chang over the River of Flowing 
 Sand." Then Shodo saw that in his hand were two 
 snakes, the one blue and the other green ; and the 
 King of the Deep Sand held out the snakes, and they 
 reached over and changed into a long bridge floating 
 from bank to bank, as it were a rainbow upon a cloud. 
 Vol. I.— 18 
 
274 JAPAN. 
 
 And Shodo Shonin took up his pack and crossed over 
 the bridge, and when he turned, both the bridge and 
 the terrible king had vanished. So he built a hut and 
 lived there, fasting and praying. 
 
 Now, after a time, an old man came to him in a 
 dream and told him that the hill beyond was the 
 abode of four gods, who kept the four peaks. Then 
 Shodo climbed the hill, and at the top he found his 
 four rainbow clouds rising into the air, as he had seen 
 them before ; so he knew that the vision was true, and 
 he built a shrine and founded the monastery of the 
 Four Dragons. By this time disciples gathered about 
 him; and with them he tried to climb the last peak, 
 his shining mountain, Nantaizan, which is over eight 
 thousand feet high and not a little steep. Preparing 
 themselves by religious exercises, they climbed till 
 they reached lake Chuzenji, but snow and thunder 
 drove them back ; and they returned to the monastery 
 to fight the demons with spiritual weapons. And so at 
 List, after fourteen years, Shodo and his companions 
 attained the summit of the mountain, the place of 
 his dreams. Here they built a little shrine, and at 
 Chuzenji a Buddhist temple and a life-sized image of 
 the Thousand-handed Kwannon, Shodo's protector. 
 Likewise they built at Chuzenji a Shinto temple to the 
 Three Guardians of Nantaizan, the god Onamuji and 
 his wife and son, who were Gongen (avatars or mani- 
 festations) of the Buddha, and who appeared to Shodo 
 on the mountain and promised to watch over Japan. 
 
NIKKO-THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 275 
 
 The people believe that the defeat of the Mongol inva- 
 sion and many other deliverances are due to their care. 
 Also, beside the Daiyagawa, Shodo and his followers 
 built a monastery and a temple to the King of the 
 Deep Sand ; and this was the beginning of the great 
 Nikko monastery. 
 
 The sanctuary remained an important one, but its 
 great glory began in 1617, when Tokugawa Ieyasu 
 was buried here, and the present temples erected in his 
 honor. At that time the abbot of Nikko was one 
 Tenkei, a man of great ability, who had been tutor to 
 Ieyasu's son, the Shogun Hidetada ; and he may very 
 probably have influenced Ieyasu in his choice of a rest- 
 ing place. Yet it is likely that he had in mind most 
 of all the prestige and advancement of the Kwanto, 
 the provinces about Yedo, which it was ever his policy 
 to connect firmly to his house. 
 
 For the Tokugawa power was altogether of Ieyasu' s 
 making. Beginning as the ruler of a little province, 
 Mikawa, which lies to the south of Owari bay, sur- 
 rounded by enemies, and forced like all the rest to 
 protect himself or go to the wall, in that ungoverned 
 period of the sixteenth century, he had forced his way 
 up less by ability as a general than by genius for organ- 
 ization. So low were his fortunes at one time, that after 
 a defeat at the hands of his neighbor, Takeda, he re- 
 tired to a village house and prepared to end his life. 
 But, as he was about to strike, the dagger turned in 
 his hand, and thinking something must be wrong with 
 
27G JAPAN. 
 
 the blade, he stopped to try it on an iron mortar. The 
 steel point entered the iron, and Ieyasu, astonished, was 
 about to strike himself again, when his followers broke 
 in and forced him to escape to his own province. 
 Joining with Ota Nobunaga, he afterwards defeated 
 Takeda, and received part of his territory. He con- 
 cluded that the spirit of the dagger had made it turn 
 aside, and from that time weapons made by the Yoshi- 
 mitsu family, who had fashioned this, were considered 
 especially lucky for the Tokugawa ; while the famous 
 Muramasa blades were believed to have a particular 
 grudge against any one of the name. 
 
 Like other great men, Ieyasu had his fancies, and 
 one was to take a bath just before going into battle. 
 One of the curious instances of the belief in luck is 
 the "evil averting pillar" at one of the gates at 
 Nikko, the beautiful Yomei-mon; the delicate ara- 
 besque carving on it is done upside down, that the flaw 
 in the perfect jewel may turn aside any misfortune 
 from the Tokugawa house. 
 
 Conqueror though he was, Ieyasu averted war when- 
 ever he could. When the Regent Hideyoshi died, 
 Ieyasu kept on good terms with his son as long as pos- 
 sible, choosing to go to Kyoto when summoned to do 
 st>, though he knew it was at the risk of his life. 
 " The country needs peace/' he told the councilors who 
 tried to dissuade him. " Better I should die than 
 bring on another civil war." To his followers he was 
 always fair-minded and ready to listen, even to a 
 
NIKKO— THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 277 
 
 rebuke. Once a Samurai came to him and presented 
 a paper containing a lengthy protest ; Ieyasu heard 
 him to the end, and thanked and dismissed him kindly, 
 though the objections were worthless and unsuitable. 
 To reproach one's chief, he declared, needs far more 
 of courage than to fight in the front rank of battle. 
 " There a man can but die, honored and mourned by 
 his lord ; but the outspoken servant, whose words 
 offend the ear, risks the mockery of his comrades and 
 the anger of his master, perhaps a prison and an in- 
 glorious death." 
 
 Ieyasu was already fifty-seven when the Taiko 
 Hideyoshi died. Two years later, in 1600, the battle 
 of Sekigahara gave him practical control of the em- 
 pire, and in 1603 he was appointed Shogun. He only 
 held the position three years, resigning it to his son 
 Hicletada ; but the retirement was only a nominal one, 
 setting him free from tedious ceremony and leaving 
 him to be from his retreat at Shizuoka the actual ruler 
 and organizer. In 1615 he took part in the final over- 
 throw of Hideyoshi's son at Osaka castle, and being 
 wounded by a spear thrust, died in the following year 
 at the age of seventy-five. His son at once set in 
 hand the tomb and mortuary chapels at Xikko, and in 
 less than a year the body was brought with great 
 pomp from its temporary resting place at Shizuoka, 
 and interred in its bronze tomb on the mountain. 
 Thither pilgrims have thronged ever since for the 
 honor of "Gongen Sama " — the beatified Shogun — 
 
278 JAPAN. 
 
 and yet more perhaps for the splendor of the temples 
 and the romantic beauty of the place. 
 
 Beauty of situation is, indeed, the keynote of Nikko. 
 The charm is heightened by the gradual approach, and 
 must have been even more so in the old days when 
 Daimyo and common pilgrim alike followed the post 
 road up from Yedo across the wide plain toward these 
 peaks, seen first far off, cloud-crowned and opal-tinted, 
 then lifting near and green ; and from Utsunomiya — 
 an important garrison town in Ieyasu's time and later 
 — turning eastward, upward, into the very heart of the 
 hills. In those days there were ninety miles of smooth 
 road, shaded by magnificent cryptomeria trees ; they 
 are still standing for some twenty miles above Utsu- 
 nomiya, but the rest nearly all perished in the troubled 
 years that followed the opening of the country. 
 
 Nowadays everybody comes by train in five hours 
 from Tokyo, and is set down at the end of Hachi-ishi 
 village, to be pulled by jinrikisha a mile and a half 
 more to the hotels and the temples. " Kanaya's " is 
 on the near side of the Daiyagawa, the "Nikko" and 
 others in Iri-machi village on the temple side. Where 
 Shodo Shonin went over on the rainbow snakes stands 
 the famous Sacred Bridge, once reserved for the Shogun 
 — representative of the Emperor — now for the Em- 
 peror himself and the imperial family. It was here 
 that General Grant won everlasting honor for himself 
 and his people by declining an invitation to cross. 
 The bridge is a remarkable structure quite apart from 
 
NIKKO— THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 279 
 
 its odor of sanctity ; the supports on either side are 
 great stone uprights and cross-pieces, treated like 
 wooden beams, on which rest heavy black rafters, and 
 then the bridge itself, painted with dull vermilion 
 lacquer like the temples. Dull, that is to say, in the 
 sense of an unpolished or matt surface ; the red is 
 strong, without being vivid, being made of a mixture 
 of red cinnabar (mercuric sulphide) with the brownish 
 lacquer juice. The varnish helps much to preserve 
 the wood, and the bridge has only needed repair four 
 or five times in its three hundred years. 
 
 Just below the red bridge is another for common 
 mortals, by which the road crosses and runs along the 
 other side of the river and off into the mountains, 
 and nearly opposite an avenue leads up through the 
 forest into the sacred enclosure. Here nothing on 
 wheels may come, nor any beast of burden ; the path 
 climbs between high banks faced with blocks of stone, 
 spotted with gray-green moss and lichen, among giant 
 cryptomerias, the branches far above crossing so 
 thickly that scarcely a ray of sunlight strikes along 
 the gray mast-like trunks; reaching by and by an 
 open forecourt and a little garden, beyond which a tall 
 pagoda shows red through the trees, and a great stone 
 torii marks the entrance to the monastery and the 
 shrines of Ieyasu. 
 
 The Mangwanji, or monastery enclosure proper, 
 stands a little to the right, and in it is the so-called Hall 
 of the Three Buddhas, named from the three gilded 
 
280 JAPAN. 
 
 images in it — Amida, between the Thousand-handed 
 Kwannon and the Horse-headed Kwannon, who has 
 three faces, and a small head of a horse over the cen- 
 tral one. In the open space before this San-Butsu 
 Do there is a curious slender column of black bronze, 
 supported by four rails, making a cross running out to 
 bronze posts at the four corners of the high stone 
 pedestal ; the upper part of the shaft is made of seven 
 lotus flowers, four erect and three inverted, from the 
 petals of which hang little tinkling bells. The form 
 is evidently of Hindu origin, and it is supposed to 
 have the power of averting misfortune. Near the 
 entrance there is a carved bronze lantern, a marvel of 
 design in low relief. Many of these accessories were 
 added at different times by vassals of the Tokugawa 
 house, as, for instance, the pagoda, which was set up 
 after Iemitsu's death by a Daimyo of the southwest. 
 The little landscape garden is exceedingly quaint and 
 pretty, especially when the iris is in bloom, in a series 
 of beds irrigated by the stream which ripples down 
 from a spring higher up the mountain. Everywhere, 
 as Loti says, there is the sound of running water, of 
 brooks and waterfalls, hurrying to join the deeper- 
 voiced Daiyagawa in the ravine. 
 
 A large granite torn, gift of a Daimyo of Iviushiu, 
 stands before the wide flagged walk leading to the 
 mortuary chapels. Owing to their position on the 
 steep hillside, these buildings cannot follow the con- 
 ventional Buddhist grouping, which places bell, 
 
NIKKO— THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 281 
 
 shrine, treasury, water-tank, and so on, in more or less 
 regular positions about an open court. Here instead 
 is a series of terraces, faced with stone and connected 
 by massive stone steps, all shut in around and behind 
 by the dark, towering cryptomerias of the forest ; on 
 each gray terrace stands a cluster of buildings, glowing 
 with color, quivering with the play of light and 
 shadow on a maze of graceful ornament, like some 
 jeweled altar in the gloom of a vast cathedral. The 
 Avide, heavy roofs, curving upward at the corners, rest 
 on a wilderness of rafters and cornices, ending in 
 dragons and strange beasts ; every column is wrought 
 over in low relief, every space carved with frieze and 
 panel — birds, flowers, monkeys — handled with a free- 
 dom and naturalness, a boldness of color, that almost 
 take one's breath. Each terrace is enclosed and en- 
 tered by a roofed gate : first, the Ni-o-mon, Gate of the 
 Two Kings, or guardian gods — the images have been 
 removed to the gate of Iemitsu's temple and replaced 
 by the lion-like Chinese monsters called Inu ; then 
 Yomei-mon, most beautiful of all, with carved white 
 columns and birds and peony-arabesques, and Kara- 
 mon, the Chinese gate, which leads to the main shrine, 
 through an enclosing wall of carved and painted 
 trellis which surrounds the entire court ; and not least 
 famous, the little door leading to the hillside and the 
 tomb, over which Left-handed Jingoro, the master 
 carver, placed a sleeping cat, as they say, to keep 
 away mice from the temple. They say the present 
 
282 JAPAN. 
 
 one is not the original pussy ; she used to go off mous- 
 ing of nights, and finally stayed away altogether, and 
 Jingoro had to make a less restless guardian in her 
 place. 
 
 A heavy fence, painted red like the bridge, encloses 
 the first court, which has two platforms, divided by 
 steps ; in the middle of the first platform is a great 
 bronze torii, bearing the Tokugawa crest in gold on 
 uprights and tie-beam — three holyhock leaves, enclosed 
 in a circle. The form of the leaves is so like the 
 well-known " leaf and dart " motive, that it must 
 surely have come from the other end of Asia — brought, 
 like so much else, with the " Grseco-Buddhistic " art 
 of the Chinese missionaries. These Nikko torii are 
 all of the modified, or Ryobu Shinto form, their bases 
 resting in sockets, instead of directly on the ground, 
 and the ends of the cross-beams curving upward. 
 Near the bronze torii stands a tall pine, which is said 
 to be the very tree which Ieyasu carried about with 
 him in his litter; after his death they set it in the 
 ground near his temple, and it grew up to its full 
 height in the forest. 
 
 On this platform are the three treasuries, where 
 they keep many relics of Ieyasu, and the stable 
 of the sacred white horse, who seems to be sacred 
 chiefly because he is an albino ; he has an extraordi- 
 narily vicious temper, even for a Japanese horse. His 
 business is to draw the sacred car at festivals. Across 
 the front of the stable is a charming carved frieze of 
 
NIKKO— THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 283 
 
 monkeys playing ; one covers his eyes with his hands, 
 another his ears, a third his month, in token that we 
 should see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing evil. 
 
 The second terrace is faced like the first with a 
 mossy stone wall, on which rests a stone balustrade 
 cut out of great blocks ; at the back of the terrace 
 auother flight of stone steps leads up to the Yomei- 
 mon, an exquisite little building, which somehow puts 
 one in mind of the tiny gem of a church beside the 
 Arno, in Pisa, Santa Maria della Spina. There is the 
 same perfection of proportion, the same sense of quaint 
 elegance and mnrvelous refinement of detail ; though 
 here the comparison must stop. Nothing, of course, 
 could be more unlike Gothic forms — unlike any forms 
 known to the West — than the curved overshadowing 
 roof, with its white tiles and gilded ridgepole, its 
 carved and gilded cornices, and the grinning Chinese 
 dragons in the gables, or the pawing unicorns which 
 form the capitals of the columns. A little balcony, 
 with carved and colored panels in the railing, runs 
 round the second story, well under the eaves of the 
 great roof, and supported on a mass of carved beams 
 and brackets which rest in turn on the white and gold 
 architrave and columns ; the inner walls and the side* 
 of the niches are likewise white and gold, wrought all 
 over with peony-arabesques in low relief, like the 
 laciest of diaper patterns ; it makes an admirable back- 
 ground for the life-sized seated figures in either niche. 
 To the right and left of the gate a high-roofed wall 
 
284 JAPAN. 
 
 rests on the stone facing of the next terrace ; this wall, 
 too, is divided by red lacquered posts and rails into 
 panels of birds and flowers, peacocks, pheasants, pine 
 trees, and oak and plum ; and below these again are 
 narrower bands, in which ducks and other water-fowl 
 splash in curling conventional waves. 
 
 Many votive lanterns and candelabra stand about 
 the courts — there are one hundred and eighteen lan- 
 terns all told — the gifts of Daimyo and of subject 
 states, of which last Japan considered Holland to be 
 one. The most beautiful is the bronze Korean lantern, 
 called also the revolving lantern, because it turns on a 
 pivot ; it probably did not come from Korea, but from 
 Europe by the hands of the Dutch. A great bell, 
 gift of the King of Lu Chu, hangs in a fine bell 
 tower, which is balanced by the drum tower on the 
 other side. 
 
 At the edge of this second platform is the temple of 
 Ieyasu's patron saint Yakushi, one of the Five Bud- 
 dhas of Wisdom — the Buddha at whose monastery 
 Shodo Shonin studied; it still retains the Buddhist 
 furnishings, removed from most temples since the 
 Restoration reinstated Shinto ; and the interior is rich 
 with color and gold, in a soft half light that filters 
 through dangling bamboo curtains, subduing strange 
 forms of dragons and Buddhas, half revealing the 
 shrines and lanterns and tall vases and embroidered 
 altar cloths ; over all there is a delicate smell of in- 
 cense, not heavy with centuries of dirt, but mingled 
 
NIKKO— THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 285 
 
 with the sweet pine-scented air blowing gently through 
 the transparent hangings and carved screens. Pres- 
 ently a priest strikes one of the melodious gongs, 
 stroke by stroke, with long pauses between ; a band of 
 pilgrims kneel on the pavement without, while another 
 priest recites the noon-day office in a droning sing- 
 song, rising and falling in a mournful chant. Strangely 
 like the Romish ritual, yet strangely different, too ; 
 most of all different, perhaps, in the sense of out-of- 
 doors, of belonging to the forest. 
 
 For, after all, the greatest marvel of Nikko is the 
 way in which all this wealth of detail, this profusion 
 of ornament, is kept in place and subordinated to a 
 central thought ; no part is an end in itself, not the 
 individual temples even ; they are cellce, shrines of the 
 sacred grove, one with it as by a sort of instinct. The 
 want of height, of mass, is supplied completely by the 
 trees ; even the color-scheme has a strange unity, as 
 if it were the forest-motive accented, set in a higher 
 key. Those raw emeralds, toned in the shadow of the 
 roofs, are repeated where the sun glints across a blue- 
 green branch of cryptomeria ; the fretted white columns 
 are lighter but not less tender than the straight gray 
 trunks; and where the bark breaks away in places 
 you see almost a repetition of the vermilion lacquer in 
 its strong dusky red. And the lavish use of vermilion 
 becomes clear, too ; after all, it is but little in propor- 
 tion to the mass of surrounding grays and greens; 
 just enough, no more. 
 
286 JAPAN. 
 
 The next terrace is a small one, and contains only 
 the building for the sacred car and other paraphernalia 
 of the festivals, and the stage for the sacred Kagura 
 dance. A Shinto priestess of the imperial house is 
 always in charge here. A little open building close 
 by is used for burning the fragrant cedar wood during 
 the rites. 
 
 At the back of this enclosure the Kara-mon, with 
 its inlaid pictures of dragons and plum trees, leads to the 
 last terrace of all, which is almost filled by the Honden 
 or oratory ; this is really not one building, but a series 
 of halls or chambers opening one behind the other. 
 The great folding doors of the entrance are gorgeous 
 with carved and gilded peonies, but beyond it the 
 empty matted hall in its cool quiet seems most restful 
 after so much splendor. The ante-chambers at either 
 end are again magnificent with polychrome carving 
 and pictures of lions on a gold background : while the 
 coffered ceilings glow with Buddhist angels and chrys- 
 anthemums and the Tokugawa crest, and again and 
 again repeated is the mystic Howo bird, which seems 
 created out of memories of pheasants and peacocks, 
 and the southern bird of paradise, which could never 
 have come so far north as Japan. 
 
 Only the mirror and gohei remain in the oratory ; 
 the Buddhist trappings have all been swept away, 
 leaving an empty hall. A lower chamber beyond 
 leads to the gilded doors of the inner chapel, beyond 
 which strangers may not go. 
 
NIKKO-THE SHRINES OF THE SIIOGUNS. 287 
 
 But the ashes of the Shogun are not here. Off to 
 the right more flights of stone steps lead far up the 
 hill to a little platform having a stone balustrade and 
 a heavy bronze door, within which stands a bronze cyl- 
 inder under a square bronze roof, turning up at the 
 corners ; a stork candelabrum, an incense burner, and 
 a great bronze vase holding a brass lotus are the only 
 accessories. All is plain even to bareness up there 
 alone among the trees ; " the acme of costly simplic- 
 ity," said LaFarge, and De la Mazeliere, " autant le 
 temple est riche, autant le tombe est simple ; en bas la 
 gloire du heros-dieu, en haut les restes de lnomme." 
 It is a concrete expression of the Buddhist doctrine, 
 All earthly things must pass. 
 
 Ieyasu was perhaps too great to have a great son ; 
 it was the grandson, Iemitsu, son of Hidetada, who 
 carried out his political plans and completed his work 
 of centralization. Iemitsu's group of temples lies to 
 the left, reached by another fine avenue of cryptome- 
 rias ; something iu their situation, closed as they are 
 in the hollow of the hill, lends them a remoteness and 
 secluded charm that rivals the wide terraces of Ieyasu. 
 Built less than fifty years after his, they are almost 
 identical in style ; on the whole rather less magnifi- 
 cent, but not less beautiful. The tomb is on the hill 
 behind them, a structure of plain gold bronze like 
 Ieyasu's, but the shiny brass characters on the bronze 
 gate detract somewhat from the dignity of the effect. 
 Taken together, the two groups of temples stand for 
 
288 JAPAN. 
 
 what is undoubtedly the high-water mark of art in 
 Japan. 
 
 Iemitsu was chosen for the Shogunate during his 
 grandfather's lifetime. Hidetada had two sons, of 
 whom the younger was gentler and more popular, at 
 least with a certain clique, and while they were still 
 boys intrigues were afoot to get the younger named 
 heir. Tradition has it that these schemes were frus- 
 trated by the energy and courage of Iemitsus gov- 
 erness, the Lady Kasuga, wife of a Daimyo who had 
 forfeited his estates. When she knew of the plots 
 against her charge, she set off alone for Shizuoka, 
 gained admittance to the ex-Shogun in his retreat, and 
 besought him to make the choice between the lads. 
 Ieyasu had them both brought before him, and sub- 
 jected them to close tests of character, and as Lady 
 Kasuga had brought up her boy in the stern simplicity 
 of warlike times, he proved himself altogether worthy, 
 and Ieyasu proclaimed him Shogun after Hidetada. 
 When the lady was asked to name her reward, she 
 desired that her husband might be restored to his 
 title and estates ; but the husband declared such a re- 
 quest was improper and dishonoring to him, and 
 divorced her. Then the ex-Shogun offered to make 
 Lady Kasuga Daimyo in her own right, but she re- 
 fused to be honored above her husband ; and in the 
 end Lord Kasuga was reinstated on his own merits, 
 and forgave and restored his wife — all of which 
 appears in a modern drama quoted by Osman Edwards. 
 
NIKKO— THE SHRINES OF THE SHOGUNS. 289 
 
 Iemitsu's problems were very different from his 
 grandfather's ; the one was the last of the great six- 
 teenth century adventurers, the other inherited abso- 
 lute power and that tradition of conservatism which 
 was to harden later into an almost Chinese rigidity. 
 Ieyasu's high places had been fortified camps ; Iemit- 
 su's was a brilliant court, and he was a patron of liter- 
 ature and all the arts. In truth, during Iemitsu's 
 youth there was danger of a relapse into over-luxuri- 
 ousness, which was checked in time by the faithful 
 councilors bequeathed by Ieyasu, the old Daimyo Abe 
 and Okubo. Their remonstrance with the young man 
 forms the subject — or, rather, one of the subjects — of 
 a lengthy and involved drama, in the course of which 
 Okubo rides to the Shogun's castle in a tub, as a 
 demonstration against the soft living of the younger 
 knights. In an amusing dialogue he explains to a 
 friend how the Shogun has lately told him that since 
 he is now seventy-eight years of age, he may ride to 
 the castle in a norimon like the other ministers. " But, 
 unfortunately, I have nothing to ride except my 
 favorite wild horses ; still, I thought it would be very 
 impolite to my lord to disobey his kind advice, and 
 after much consideration and anxiety I found this tub 
 and put the poles on as you see. Isn't it a splendid 
 idea ?" Fine, says the friend ; but — well — really, a 
 vassal of the Shogun must be able to get a proper 
 norimon, instead of that queer thing; if he happens 
 to be hard up, any of his friends — and so on and so 
 Vol. L— 19 
 
290 JAPAN. 
 
 on. Best of thanks, says Okubo ; but after all it is no 
 queerer than a sliding door, on which he has been more 
 than once carried from battle ; and what with arming 
 his men and looking after poor friends and unlucky 
 Eonin, if he once began buying useless things like 
 litters, he would soon be calling on all his friends for 
 help. So off he goes, and dances a spear dance before 
 the Shogun — an improvization in the style of the No 
 dances — ending with the solemn last charge of Ieyasu : 
 
 " ' Though we conclude the war and restore peace to 
 the nation, it is not an easy task to keep it tranquil. 
 Though we secure control over the country, if we do 
 not know how to govern it, it will fall into disorder. 
 After my death, if my grandson go astray, there is no 
 one but you to remonstrate with him.' Thus did 
 Gongen Sama lay a charge upon me. Subjects always 
 pattern after their lord, and now all the Daimyo and 
 officers have become luxurious, and the government is 
 becoming disorderly and corrupt. O, my dear lord, 
 to me the sorrows of the people are like the torment- 
 ing fires of hell ! " * 
 
 The young Shogun acknowledges his fault, and 
 vows to put away his follies ; Okubo dances a final No, 
 celebrating the glory of Minamoto no Yoritomo, Iemit- 
 su's ancestor, and the curtain falls on the prosperity 
 of the Tokugawa line. 
 
 1 Translated by K. Kimura. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 NIKKO AND LAKE CHUZENJI. 
 
 The chapels of the Shoguns are of such surpassing 
 interest that one almost forgets the other shrines of 
 Nikko ; vet, if it were anywhere else, the Shinto tem- 
 ple of the " Three Guardian Deities " of Nantaizan 
 would be thought quite worth looking at. It stands 
 between the two great groups, and, like them, is bow- 
 ered in green depths of forest. A little lower than 
 the main building stands a kind of double house, 
 connected by a covered gallery, and all painted 
 with the Buddhistic red, which, it is true, the modi- 
 fied Ryobu Shinto allowed, instead of the purer 
 uncolored wood. This temple, however, is not Shinto 
 at all, but Buddhist, and dedicated to A mi da and 
 Fugen, and Kishi Bojin, the protector of children. 
 Kishi Bojin was once a wicked ogress, who devoured 
 children, but she was converted and became a Bud- 
 dhist nun ; so, now beatified, she atones for her evil 
 deeds by taking special care for the little ones — a task 
 which she shares with the benign Jizo. Mothers 
 bring pathetic tokens to her shrine — the little frocks 
 and doll* and toys of their lost children. The Hon- 
 
 291 
 
292 JAPAN. 
 
 den, or oratory, behind the Shinto temple, contains a 
 number of interesting relics, among them specimens 
 of the curious curved pendants called maga-tama — 
 " curved jewels " — which used to be run on a string 
 and worn as necklaces or girdles. The shape is most 
 nearly like a comma, the hole for the cord passing 
 through the thick part. These maga-tama were proba- 
 bly worn as part of a dress of ceremony as late as the 
 seventh century. In the double temple are still more 
 relics, notably Yoritomo's bones, which ought by 
 rights to be at his own temple in Kamakura, where he 
 is supposed to be buried. However, such multiplica- 
 tions are not unknown in other lands. Behind these 
 temples are the tombs of Tenkei, the abbot of Ieyasu's 
 time, and a number of less distinguished prelates. 
 
 Above the red bridge the right bank comes down 
 in a steep rocky cliff, round which the river hurries 
 with a great deal of noise and foam ; a little farther 
 up, the sides of the ravine slope more gently, and 
 here a small footpath crosses over to the right side by 
 a bridge of logs and brush, and leads along the river 
 to the " Hundred Gods." They are ranged in an 
 irregular row along the bank, a gravely quaint assem- 
 bly of stone images of Amida, all seated in the con- 
 ventional attitude of contemplation, feet crossed under 
 the robe, and thumbs together in the lap. Some are 
 upright, some toppling, all weather-worn and green 
 with moss and splashed with gray and black lichens. 
 The largest sits at the far end of the row, looking 
 
NIKKO AND LAKE CHUZENJI. 293 
 
 down the path, an oddly impressive figure against the 
 trees ; there is something in the pose of these stone 
 
 Buddhas as immovable as the rocks themselves not 
 
 only motionless, but as if they had never wished to 
 move. The tradition is that no one can ever count 
 the hundred up exactly ; however often one goes over 
 them, the tally never comes out the same. One figure 
 was washed away in a freshet some years ago and 
 landed some distance down stream, where the villagers 
 joyfully received and cared for it. 
 
 Back across the foamy green river is a charmino- 
 little garden, the Dainichi Do, where you may sit on 
 the edge of the little tea-house and sip pale tea and 
 nibble delicate tasteless cakes, looking out to the 
 valley and the mountains, and hearing now and then 
 over the rush of the river a far-off temple bell, full 
 and deep and sweet, with a brooding sound like the 
 call of doves in the wood. It is a beautiful view at 
 all times, but most of all when the maples turn and 
 the color flames up to the very peaks, and loses itself 
 on Nantaizan in purple and amethyst. The jinriki- 
 sha men carry the kurumas up through the garden, and 
 so out on to a pretty hillside road leading back through 
 the upper village to the hotels again. 
 
 Nikko is particularly rich in gardens. Besides the 
 Dainichi Do and the monastery enclosure, there is the 
 public park, and pretty specimens of landscape art 
 around Kanaya's and the other hotels ; and about a 
 mile from Irimachi, the village across the stream, is 
 
294 JAPAN. 
 
 the cool, shady deer park — a government preserve, 
 which anyone may enter for the asking, if he presents 
 a visiting card. The grounds and building belong- 
 ing to the monastery, which used to be reserved for 
 guests of rank, is now the summer palace of the little 
 imperial princesses, who come up from Tokyo, with 
 their ladies, almost every year. 
 
 There is nothing even remotely like a town at Nikko ; 
 everywhere the forest is all about you, as in some wild 
 part of the Adirondacks. The village of unpainted 
 little houses stretches out, as Japanese villages do, for 
 a mile along the old highway, and another small 
 group of cottages lies across the river among the 
 hills. As in all places where Japanese pilgrims come, 
 the inhabitants frankly live by supplying their wants, 
 and especially their desire for small purchases to take 
 home as gifts ; the larger part of these being Avood- 
 work, black " Sendai-wood " trays, with pictures of 
 the red bridge or the temples cut in intaglio, and 
 curious cups and bowls and tobacco trays, carved out 
 of fantastic knots and roots. This is done in and 
 around Nikko itself, and there is a great deal of lac- 
 quer besides, brought for sale from Wakayama, in the 
 neighboring province. Much fur comes to Nikko 
 from the mountains — skins of fox and badger and 
 hare, and sometimes a monkey skin or a black bear. 
 The women make delightful soft slippers, without any 
 heels — most comforting of a cold morning. Deer- 
 skin rugs are to be had, too ; and a good deal of the 
 
NIKKO AND LAKE CHUZENJI. 295 
 
 fur makes its way to Tokyo, when the tourist and 
 pilgrim season is over. 
 
 Many Japanese folk-stories concern themselves with 
 the badger, who plays some of the parts which belong 
 to the wolf in other countries, and some which seem 
 more appropriate for the fox or jackal. One very 
 curious notion is that he loves to distend his hairy 
 stomach and drum on it with his fists, producing 
 sounds which not only delight himself, but bewilder 
 any mortal who may be unlucky enough to hear him. 
 Sometimes, in return for a kindness, the beast will 
 show himself grateful and render much service; but 
 more often he takes on human form, to entice people 
 to their death. Mitford gives, as an example, the 
 story of a young noble, who was out walking at night 
 in a lonely place, and found a very beautiful young 
 girl lying by the roadside ; his squire was exceedingly 
 smitten with her loveliness ; but, after talking a few 
 minutes, the young man drew his sword and cut off 
 her head. The horrified attendant reported the deed 
 to his lord, the young man's father, who declared he 
 must kill such a son on the spot ; but the youth quietly 
 explained that he had merely disposed of an evil 
 spirit, and requested them to go look on the bank by 
 the moat and see what was there. Sure enough, on 
 the spot where he cut down the girl, lay a huge old 
 badger, with his head cut off. The young man ex- 
 plained that he looked closely at the creature and saw 
 that, though it was raining heavily and she professed 
 
296 JAPAN. 
 
 to have been lying on the bank for hours in great pain, 
 her clothing was not even moist ; the evil spirit had 
 forgotten this little detail, which could not escape a 
 Sherlock Holmes trained in Chinese philosophy. 
 
 Just over the bridge a horse tramway passes along 
 the river, and every hour or two a line of small, flat 
 cars comes by, drawn by shaggy ponies in great straw 
 shoes ; each horse has a man at his head, to lead him 
 by a straw halter, for Japanese horses are seldom 
 driven. This tram goes up over the mountains toward 
 Ashio, where the great copper mines are, the largest 
 in Japan. The way over is across the Hoso-o pass, two 
 thousand feet higher than Nikko, and at the highest 
 part the cars transfer their load to a steel cable wound 
 on drums three miles apart, which carries the charcoal 
 and coke to another tramway on the other side of the 
 pass and brings back bars of ore in return. The 
 mines have been furnished with the most modern 
 machinery, and, as a first result, the increased activity 
 sent out a mass of poisonous waste into the stream 
 which drained the slope, and ruined the crops watered 
 by it in the valley below. The farmers were almost 
 up in arms over it, and a great deal of agitation has 
 ended by forcing the owners to put in a filtration 
 plant, which takes the injurious part from the water 
 used in working. 
 
 Japanese law regards the surface of the land as 
 alone belonging to the proprietor ; the right to mine 
 is a government monopoly, and is let out to those who 
 
NIKKO AND LAKE CIIUZEXJI. 297 
 
 work the ore at a certain percentage ; the surface of 
 the land used must also pay the regular land tax, or a 
 set fraction thereof. The mines of Yezo and the 
 west coast of the main island are but little developed 
 as yet, compared to what they might be if there were 
 more capital available in the land. 
 
 Nikko has long been a favorite haunt of the Anglo- 
 Saxon contingent, being cooler and rather less rainy 
 than the coast ; and they have found many excursions 
 in the neighborhood, both short and long. Distant 
 views are not to be had from Nikko proper ; the val- 
 ley is too shut in for that ; but a sharp climb to the 
 top of Toyama gives a wide outlook among the nearer 
 peaks, Nantaizan and Shirane San and the rest, and 
 to the east the notched peak of Mount Tsukuba rising 
 to the north of the plain of Tokyo. Most of the 
 paths are too hilly for jinrikishas, but the ride back 
 towards Utsunomiya, through the old cryptomeria 
 avenue, is fairly level, and the road is good, except 
 during the summer rains. The trees stand so close 
 together that their trunks almost touch, and the shade 
 is dense and cool on the hottest days. 
 
 The rain dragon cannot have entirely deserted his 
 caves on Nantaizan, for the whole Xikko region gets a 
 full share of both the June and September down- 
 pours ; however, a dozen streams and waterfalls are 
 all the more beautiful for that. There are charming 
 excursions to the mist-falling cascade, and the pitch- 
 dark cascade, and the back-view cascade, where you 
 
298 JAPAN. 
 
 can walk behind the sheet, and several lesser falls, be- 
 sides the two on the way to lake Chuzenji. The 
 foreign residents have adopted the pleasant Japanese 
 custom of going off on impromptu picnics, and live 
 out of doors almost as much as the Germans do in 
 summer. At first the reception apartments of temples 
 were let to the strangers who wanted to stay at Nikko, 
 as well as the better houses of the village, but this 
 accommodation has been long outgrown ; many cot- 
 tages have been built for and by the foreigners, and 
 not only these, but the hotels, are usually full from July 
 to September. The American Church Mission has 
 lately built a pretty little church for English services, 
 and there is a large colony of missionaries at Nikko, 
 though Karuizawa probably takes the greater number. 
 Every year more people go all the way to lake Chu- 
 zenji, notwithstanding the difficulty of housekeeping so 
 far from railroad and supplies. The lake is four thou- 
 sand feet above the sea, and in spite of much rain, the 
 air is cool and bracing all summer. It is, on the whole, 
 the most beautiful body of water in all Japan, Biwa 
 and Haruna, and even Hakone, not excepted ; but the 
 Japanese have much fewer associations with it of a 
 literary and artistic kind ; so they do not rave over it 
 so much. Chuzenji lies in a circle of wooded hills, 
 almost at the foot of Nantaizan, and it is just big 
 enough for beauty and not too large to enjoy all at 
 once : it is three miles across and some eight or nine 
 miles long, and at the upper end exceedingly deep. 
 
NIKKO AND LAKE CHUZENJI. 299 
 
 Foreigners have taken very kindly to it, and living 
 there becomes less impossible every year; indeed it 
 bids fair to become the most aristocratic of the summer 
 resorts, though all this may change now that the re- 
 vised treaties allow everybody to rent cottages and live 
 where they will, without taking out leases through the 
 Japanese go-between. 
 
 The road to Chuzenji is not too easy to travel at any 
 time, and after the rains it is often too much washed 
 to be possible for jinrikishas, especially in the part 
 along the gorge of the Daiyagawa. The distance is 
 eight miles, and the rise two thousand feet, the steepest 
 part being near the top. When the jinrikishas cannot 
 run, the alternative modes of conveyance are horseback, 
 kao-o and chair, of which the last is least trying to 
 American feelings, for the kago or litter is only fit for 
 people who can fold themselves up conveniently, like 
 a jack-knife, and the horses are raw-boned, half broken 
 beasts of execrable gait, and temper none too good. 
 As for the so-called English saddles which are to be 
 hired, they are desirable only by comparison with the 
 native mountain pack-saddle, on which the rider sits 
 doubled up, or with his legs sticking out on either side 
 over the horse's neck. But the road is exceedingly 
 pretty, taking in a picturesque village and specimens 
 of mountain farming, and beautiful views along the 
 river and up the steep hillsides. Part of the way the 
 path clings to the side of the cliff, and here it is that 
 the rains give so much trouble. 
 
300 JAPAN. 
 
 Nantaizan is so sacred that the old rule still obtains, 
 and no woman is permitted to pass through the gates 
 and make the ascent. Only very good walkers are 
 likely to be much grieved, for it is said to be a hard 
 climb, much of it over slippery log steps, though the 
 view at the top must repay a good deal of effort. 
 Another aud still stiffer climb is up Shirane San, 
 which is six hundred feet higher than Nantaizan — 
 eight thousand eight hundred feet in all, according to 
 Chamberlain. Shirane San is an active volcano, but 
 has not been in eruption since 1889. 
 
 A wide moor lies between the mountains, covered in 
 summer with iris and lilies, and in the autumn beauti- 
 ful with a kind of tall reddish grass. On the Shirane 
 side lies a second lake, Yumoto, one of the innumer- 
 able sources of hot water. Yumoto village lies on the 
 moor side, beside the cluster of springs, which are so 
 strongly charged that they make the lake water quite 
 sulphurous. The bathing arrangements are much 
 more primitive than at Ikao — in fact, they are very 
 primitive indeed, because, as a rule, only pilgrims 
 go there to bathe as a part of their round of exer- 
 cises. 
 
 Those who come on pilgrimage to Nikko visit first 
 the tombs of the Shoguns, and then make their way 
 up to Chuzenji, where the temple of the Thousand- 
 handed Kwannon, founded by Shodo Shonin, is still 
 an important shrine ; from there they ascend Nan- 
 taizan, and enjoy a soak at Yumoto before returning 
 
NIKKO AND LAKE CHUZENJI. 301 
 
 again to Chuzenji. For the few days in July and 
 August when the mountain is officially " open " — and 
 then only is any one allowed to ascend — the village is 
 packed to overflowing ; as many as ten thousand pil- 
 grims sometimes stay there for the night. The time 
 of opening varies, following the old lunar calendar. 
 Some stout-hearted pilgrims take in four other moun- 
 tains in the round, giving several days to the whole 
 expedition and sleeping at Nikko or Chuzenji. Jn 
 maple time they come down bearing crimson branches 
 from the sides of Shirane San, where the finest grow. 
 All about Chuzenji the forests are full of oak and 
 birch and other familiar deciduous trees, besides Wis- 
 taria vines and a glorious display of wild azalea in 
 the early summer, the pink and white and red azaleas 
 of our greenhouses, reaching here a height of ten or 
 fifteen feet among the undergrowth on the edge of the 
 woods. In many places the trees are draped with a 
 long trailing moss called monkey grass, and the mon- 
 keys are there, too, swinging and chattering, and not 
 at all afraid of the few human beings who come their 
 way. Master Jingoro could have had little difficulty 
 in finding models for his carvings. He is a rather 
 large beast, the Japanese ape or saru, short-haired and 
 pink-faced, and plausible looking; he does not 
 hang by his tail, because nature has deprived him of 
 that convenience. In folk tales he is mischievous and 
 ill-mannered, like all his race, but at the same time 
 rather easily gulled — especially those of their tribe 
 
302 JAPAN. 
 
 who, according to the old belief, inhabit the bottom of 
 the sea. Here is one of the stories the grandmother 
 tells the young ones around the warm kotatsu of a 
 winter evening : 
 
 Once on a time there were a great many monkeys 
 who lived in the sea, but now there are only a few, 
 because they were foolish and would not stay there. 
 In those days people used to brew sake on the sea- 
 shore, and the monkeys came up and watched them, 
 but at first they did not come near, for they said, "If 
 we look we shall smell, and if we smell we shall 
 taste, and if we taste we shall drink, and if we 
 drink we shall dance, and if we dance Ave shall 
 fall down, and the men will kill us." So they 
 were very careful for a long time. But at last they 
 said, " We might just look a little, but we must not 
 smell, for if we smell we shall taste " — and so on and 
 so on. And, when they smelled, they thought it 
 would not do any harm just to taste a little; "but we 
 must not drink, for if we drink we shall dance, and 
 if we dance we shall fall down, and the men will kill 
 us." So they tasted a little, and the sake was so good 
 that they thought they would really have to drink 
 some, but they would be very, very careful not to 
 dance. So they drank and drank, and presently they 
 began to dance and dance, and they all danced 
 till they fell down, and the men killed them every 
 one ! 
 
 I suppose in Japan, 
 
NIKKO AND LAKE CHUZENJI. 303 
 
 " This is the sorrowful story, 
 Told when the twilight fails, 
 And the monkeys walk together, 
 Holding each other's tails." 
 
 Only, as I said before, the Japanese monkeys, poor 
 things, have no tails to hold by. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 SEND A I AND MATSUSHIMA. 
 
 "My master bids me govern the far lands of his kingdom, the 
 deserts of.Koshi, the hills white with the wintry snow. 
 
 " I have no consolation save the flowers, the lilies and the tender 
 carnations, springing beside my door. 
 
 " I watch the flowers blooming, and I think of my bride; white 
 as the lilies, tender as the carnations is she. 
 
 " But for thinking of her, my beloved, ray bride, 
 
 " In this wilderness, even for a day, how should I endure! " 
 
 — Japanese poem, ninth century. 
 
 The settlements in the Kwanto in the early middle 
 ages have been sometimes compared to the Roman 
 colonies on the Rhine and the Danube ; the wild Ainu 
 were all about the northern border, ever ready to press 
 back on the softer region from which they were being 
 thrust inch by inch. Those who kept the barriers on 
 these northern marches had need to be strong men, 
 who, while they drained and cleared the new land, 
 were always ready to fight in its defence. Some of the 
 outposts on the Oshiu Kaido — the old highway — have 
 kept the name still, as the memory of Roman camps 
 lingers at Worcester and Lancaster ; there is Ichi- 
 no-he, first gate, and San-no-he, Hachi-no-he, third and 
 
 304 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 305 
 
 eighth gate, and so on. It was not until Yoshiiye's 
 conquests, in the twelfth century, that the barbarians 
 were driven finally beyond what is now Morioka, quite 
 to the northern shores of the main island. 
 
 In the seventh century, the border lay about half 
 way up from the Hakone mountains to the top of the 
 island, just beyond what is now the bay of Sendai— a 
 great curve sweeping round for twenty-five miles, 
 sheltered on the north by a high promontory and the 
 mountain island of Kinkwazan, which forms the outer 
 end of the arc, but open to the beat of the sea on the 
 south and southeast. Islands innumerable are scat- 
 tered over the bay, and among them here and there are 
 sheltered little harbors for small boats, and one fairly 
 good port, Oginohama, lying close under the outer 
 arm. Around the bay lie many little towns, which 
 carry their traditions back to the early centuries, but 
 all are overshadowed by their younger neighbor, 
 Sendai. 
 
 Like Yedo, Sendai owes its importance to a single 
 family, almost to a single man, namely, Ieyasu's con- 
 temporary, Date Masamune. The Date family was 
 ennobled in the twelfth century, but we hear little 
 about them till the year 1500; then, in the general 
 turmoil of that stirring period, the Date, like so many 
 others, laid about them and took by fighting whatever 
 their neighbors were not strong enough to hold. At 
 the height of Hideyoshi's power, Date Masamune and 
 the Hqjo— who for generations had been Regents over 
 Vol. L— 20 
 
306 JAPAN. 
 
 the feeble Ashikaga Shogims — were the only lords 
 who did not acknowledge the Taiko's supremacy. 
 Then Hideyoshi gathered his generals — Ieyasu was 
 among them — and attacked the Hojo stronghold at 
 Odawara, on the Tokaido ; and after a time Date came 
 to him there and made submission. It is said that 
 Hideyoshi rebuked Date severely for not coming 
 sooner, and, taking him to a high place, showed him all 
 the great army encamped around Odawara ; and Date 
 owned himself convinced. To Ieyasu, and his house, 
 he became one of the most trusted and faithful vassals, 
 and after Ieyasu's death his influence probably counted 
 for much in keeping the other nobles loyal to Ieyasu's 
 son and grandson. 
 
 Sendai castle stands on a sharp hill, in a fine natural 
 situation, and Masamune made it as strong as unspar- 
 ing effort could ; part still stands, part was destroyed 
 in the war of the Restoration (1868), when the city 
 held out for the Tokugawa, its ancient overlords. 
 What remains of the castle is used for quarters for the 
 officers, Sendai being now one the most important gar- 
 rison stations, and having extensive barracks. There 
 is also a large convict prison in the city. 
 
 Under the new division of the country into ken (pre- 
 fectures) Sendai became the capital of Miyagi ken; 
 and it is now a very modern, progressive place, proud 
 of its fine hospital and schools, and a college which 
 hopes soon to become a university. It further pos- 
 sesses a so-called " foreign hotel," but unless this has 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 307 
 
 recently mended its ways, it has all the shortcomings 
 of such hybrids in Japan, which are dusty, cheerless 
 rooms and poor food, and a clumsy, half-comprehend- 
 ing service. Unless beefsteak and bedsteads are abso- 
 lutely essential to one's happiness, a good all-Japanese 
 yadoya is far preferable to such as these. 
 
 The city lies in a fine open country, slightly rolling 
 to the west and south, and spreading away in a smooth 
 level stretch of rice fields to the bay, some five miles 
 off. The little river Hirose flows around it, coming 
 across from the mountains on the west, which send out 
 long spurs toward the Sendai hills. On the north, a 
 long narrow plain reaches up toward Nambu province, 
 well watered by the Kitamigawa and its numerous 
 branches, which flow together into the bay farther 
 round. The plain is rich and well cultivated, and 
 bears a large rice crop ; according to Appert's chart 
 of the Daimyo, the income of the Date of Sendai was 
 over six hundred thousand koku annually. 
 
 The meibutsu or specialty of the region is a kind of 
 fossil wood known as Sendai wood, very heavy and 
 black, and a good deal like Irish bog oak, which comes 
 from a hill not far from the city ; they make carved 
 trays and other fancy things of it to sell as mementoes, 
 and a great deal of it is sold at Nikko. For, wherever 
 you go in Japan it is proper to bring away little spec- 
 imens of the local handicraft as gifts for friends at 
 home ; and something characteristic is always forthcom- 
 ing, because in the days of sharply drawn feudal lines 
 
308 JAPAN. 
 
 every province, every village almost, had its individual 
 life and individual industries. Thus, north, away 
 here around the old castle-town of Morioka, they make 
 beautiful iron kettles; Nagoya produces blue porce- 
 lain and "eggshell" lacquer; down in Kochi they 
 raise chickens with tail-feathers yards long, and so on 
 and so on, from Lu Chu to the Ainu country. 
 Sendai wood, therefore, for Sendai, and extra-fine per- 
 simmons — not our little puckery American ones that 
 must wait for frost, but sweet and large and yellow as 
 oranges. In October the persimmon orchards flash 
 gold like a pre-Raphaelite paradise, and later endless 
 boxfuls, dried in sake, will go to Tokyo for gifts at the 
 New Year. These Japanese persimmons are grown a 
 great deal in California now r , and all through the 
 autumn they make a fine show in our large fruit shops. 
 I don't think I ever saw any one buy any ! 
 
 Sendai, under the rule of the Date, counted as the 
 best governed of all the provinces. Masamune built 
 not only fortifications, but loads and bridges, and dug 
 canals and planted forests, and conducted himself in 
 an able and enterprising manner generally. But per- 
 haps the most .enterprising, and certainly the most 
 original thing that he did, was to send an embassy to 
 Europe to visit the Pope. Nearly thirty years before, 
 in 1583, the princes of Bungo and Arima, in Kiu- 
 shiu, had sent four young nobles as ambassadors to 
 the courts of Europe, bearing a letter which declared 
 they came " from the kings and Christians of Japan," 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 309 
 
 and desired to render homage to His Holiness ; also 
 to see " the marvelous aud invincible city of Venice, 
 which had surpassed their imaginations." The mes- 
 sengers also visited Spain, and asked for an alliance 
 with Philip II. They were absent seven years, and 
 brought with them an Italian prelate, who was well 
 received by Hideyoshi, then in the height of his 
 power, and not yet hostile to the Christians. 
 
 Masamune's embassy left in 1614. Just why he 
 sent it is a little puzzling. The Pope naturally under- 
 stood it to be an act of submission and allegiance, and 
 sent gifts and messages accordingly ; but this view of 
 the matter is difficult to reconcile with the rest of 
 Date's character and actions. Certainly, if he ever had 
 any genuine interest in Christianity for its own sake, 
 by the time the ambassadors returned his ideas had 
 completely changed ; the edicts forbidding " the evil 
 sect " were then being rigorously enforced, and Date 
 was among the most zealous persecutors It is far 
 easier to believe that this wide-awake prince was 
 moved, not by any devotion to religion, but by desire 
 for material advantage — possibly even by ambition for 
 foreign conquest, like Hideyoshi's in Korea, for he 
 can have had no definite conception of the distance 
 from Japan to Europe. Indeed, if the Europeans 
 could come, why might not the Japanese go thither to 
 conquer? The "Anglo-Saxons of the East/' like 
 ourselves, have always a healthy confidence in their 
 own ability to do whatever anybody else can. It is 
 
310 JAPAN. 
 
 more than probable that Masamune sent his messen- 
 gers to spy out the land and report concerning its 
 strength, having also in mind those advantages of 
 foreign trade and improved weapons which had fallen 
 to the Daimyo of the south. However, when the 
 embassy returned. Date was busy restoring Buddhist 
 temples and improving his province, and, when he 
 heard their report, must have given up his schemes 
 for profit from the outside world. Many of the gifts 
 sent by the Pope are now preserved, with other Chris- 
 tian relics, in the museum at Uyeno, and the rest have 
 been scattered in recent years. 
 
 There are two rather handsome temples in Sendai, 
 one of them standing in a picturesque situation among 
 fine old cryptomeria trees ; the carved monsters on the 
 ends of the rafters are of the best period of art. On 
 either side of the building are stone monuments, 
 placed in memory of twenty of Date Masamune's 
 closest retainers, who committed hara-kiri after his 
 death, in order that their spirits might follow and con- 
 tinue to serve their master. Such faithfulness is not 
 without parallel in Japanese history. I think it is in 
 the dramatized version of the story of the " Forty- 
 seven Rouin" that one of his attendants tells Lord 
 Asano, as he makes his farewell to his household, 
 before going to his unjust death, that he will soon 
 hear the clatter of his old nurse's geta coming behind 
 him — Icaran, haron, Jcaran, Jcaron — along the Shadowy 
 Way. Near the retainers' another monument has 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSIIIMA. 31 J 
 
 been erected, in memory of a thousand men who were 
 killed in the war of the Restoration. The other tem- 
 ple, called Zuiho-den, from the name of the hill on 
 which it stands, is in what was a part of the old 
 castle grounds ; and here Masamune was buried, and 
 there is a fine statue of him placed upon his tomb. 
 Outside the Zuiho-den, near the first torii leading to the 
 avenue of cedars by which you approach it, a great 
 irregular stone tablet commemorates the hundred and odd 
 Sendai men who lost their lives in the Satsuma rebellion. 
 As a boy Date Masamune is said to have been of 
 a timid and retiring disposition ; but he must have 
 either outgrown or overcome what in those days would 
 have been an unpardonable defect. His life was spent 
 in the saddle, and to the end he held himself ready 
 for war at any moment, though the Tokugawa rule 
 had already begun the two hundred years of the 
 Great Peace. Masamune's father, Date Terumune, 
 was a born fighter, always at war with his neighbors, 
 always victorious, and always surrounded by traitors. 
 Mazeliere relates that at one time Terumune's Karo 
 (chief retainer; discovered a plot against his lord ; he 
 therefore had his own son married to the conspirator's 
 daughter, in order to keep a watch upon their move- 
 ments. But the young man yielded to the charms of 
 his bride and was persuaded to join in the plot ; then, 
 repenting, he broke away and went to his father, told 
 all, and took his own life — in old Japan the only 
 honorable exit from such a situation. 
 
312 JAPAN. 
 
 But at last Terumune was trapped and caught. 
 Masamune marched against the castle where his father 
 was confined ; the enemy sent out word that, at the 
 first arrow shot, Date Terumune should be put to 
 death. With that the fierce old lord cried out from a 
 tower to his son, " Never trouble for my life ; I want 
 only vengeance." Masamune took the castle, found 
 his father's corpse, and piled him a funeral mound of 
 the heads of the slain. 
 
 Naturally, the later members of the house were of 
 less remarkable mould than these two ; but the family 
 remained among the most powerful barons, being 
 always closely attached to the Shogun, and faithful to 
 him to the very end of the old order of things. One 
 of the most popular historical dramas deals with the 
 fortunes of the house — the play of the " Prince of 
 Sendai " — the real events of which happened in the 
 province about the middle of the eighteenth century. 
 Briefly, this is the outline : Hyobu, a wicked kins- 
 man of the Prince, formed a plot to get the Daimiate 
 for himself; to this end he tempted Date to a life of 
 dissipation, in order that he might be disgraced and 
 deposed. The plot succeeded, in so far that Date's 
 doings came to the Shogun's ears, and he was ordered 
 to retire; but, instead of Hyobu, the Prince's little 
 son was appointed Daimyo in his place. Then Hyobu 
 tried to murder the boy, and, to protect him, the 
 Prince's Karo sent his own daughter, with her son, as 
 nurse or governess to the child. 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 313 
 
 The culminating scene of the drama is laid in a 
 room of the castle, where the three are virtually pris- 
 oners ; the children watch hungrily, while the nurse, 
 who dares not trust any one about her, prepares with 
 her own hands their belated meal. Presently, to 
 amuse them, Masaoka — that is the nurse's stage name 
 — sends them to Ihe balcony to see the sparrows, and, 
 while they watch the mother bird feeding her gaping 
 young, the half-starved princeling gravely reminds his 
 comrade that it is all very well for the birds, who 
 know no better, to push and twitter for their food, 
 " but for a Samurai, when his stomach is empty, it is 
 a disgrace to feel hunger." 
 
 At this moment a lady in waiting enters, bearing a 
 box of cakes, which she says are for the little Prince, 
 from his father. Masaoka, suspecting mischief, de- 
 clares that the child is ill and cannot eat them to-day, 
 but she will put them by for him ; the messenger, 
 on the contrary, insists that she must see him taste 
 his father's present. While they are disputing, Masa- 
 oka's son suddenly snatches one of the cakes and 
 crams it into his mouth, the mother making no move- 
 ment to check him ; indeed, he is but carrying out 
 w T hat she has carefully taught him to do for the pro- 
 tection of his young lord. But the frightened mes- 
 senger, well knowing that the child will presently die 
 of poison and so betray their plot, draws out her dag- 
 ger and stabs him, exclaiming that he has dishonored 
 his lord. I venture to think a European mother of 
 
;U4 japan. 
 
 the same period would have drawn in turn ; not so 
 the Samurai. Feigning to suspect nothing, she de- 
 clares that the doom is just; that for such an evil 
 deed her son deserves to die. With all ceremony, she 
 dismisses the messenger over her trampled cakes, and 
 only when alone with the body of the son whose life 
 she has freely given for his Prince, the mother-heart 
 at last has its way. 
 
 In all essentials, the tale is quite in accord with the 
 facts, and it is a comfort to know that in the end the 
 wicked kinsman was detected and brought to justice, 
 and the little Prince was saved, though the faithful 
 Karo, Masaoka's father, lost his life in the struggle. 
 
 A few miles south of Sendai, at the junction for the 
 East Coast Railway, there is a curious old temple of 
 Inari, the Shinto god of rice, whose servants are the 
 foxes. According to its legend, the temple was 
 founded by a certain nobleman named Ono Takamura, 
 who came up from Kyoto about the year 900 to in- 
 spect the northern provinces. Being a pious person, 
 he carried with him a pair of foxes from his home 
 temple at Fushimi, near Kyoto. Temple foxes, by the 
 way, are not wicked enchanters like the mountain fox, 
 but bring good luck with them wherever they go. 
 They have power over the hill foxes, and that is why 
 a person suffering from fox possession is brought to 
 the Inari temple, so that the white fox may cast out 
 the evil one. After journeying long and far, Ono 
 Takamura came one day to a bridge over a little river, 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 315 
 
 just before you reach, what is now Iwanuma junction, 
 and there he sat down to lunch and rest. While he 
 sat there he opened the lid of the box where the foxes 
 lived, because they were tame and gentle, but to his 
 astonishment they both jumped out and ran away. 
 One went this way and one went that, and as they ran 
 they cried eight times : " One in the north and one in 
 the south ; one in the north and one in the south." 
 This, it may be supposed, surprised their master still 
 more, and he was much perplexed to understand the 
 sign. At last he saw the foxes run into a little wood, 
 so he decided that they wished to dwell there, and 
 establish the worship of the god in these northern 
 countries as well as in the south, and he obediently 
 built them a small temple in the Avood, so small, in- 
 deed, that very few people knew anything about it. 
 
 Then we skip five hundred years — into the time 
 when this part of the country was beginning to grow 
 powerful and important. A certain poet-priest of 
 Kyoto learned of this wonderful manifestation, and 
 set out on a pilgrimage to Ono Takamura's temple ; 
 but when he reached the place he could find no one 
 who had ever heard of such a thing. At last he 
 stopped a boy riding on a bamboo stick for a horse, 
 and asked him the way ; the child pointed to the 
 forest and vanished. The priest went where he 
 pointed, and found the little temple still standing; so 
 he was sure the boy who directed him was the god in 
 disguise. Later the temple was taken over by the 
 
316 JAPAN. 
 
 Buddhists, but Inari Sarua still had his worship, even 
 after a large Buddhist monastery was built there and 
 named Takekoma-ji, Hobby-horse Abbey, in memory 
 of the priest and the disguised god ; and in the end 
 the Shinto priests regained possession. 
 
 The temple stands in a wood surrounded by a high 
 board fence, put up to keep out dogs and other ani- 
 mals ; the foxes' caves are behind the temple build- 
 ings, and not even the priests may see inside the walls 
 built around them. But sometimes the people of the 
 neighborhood see the foxes at play in the fields at 
 night. The young ones are rather light red ; the grown 
 ones have white tips to their tails, and the old grand- 
 father foxes are quite white all over. 
 
 I quote from one of the Sendai missionaries, Mrs. 
 Hoy, an account of the daily offerings : 
 
 " It is the custom of the priests to offer boiled rice, 
 eggs, bean-curd fried in oil, and fish to the foxes once 
 a day. A large table is placed in the temple yard, on 
 which the offerings are arranged. The feast is spread 
 before sunset, and then, just as the sun begins to set, 
 the priests inform the foxes that their banquet is 
 ready. This they do by beating drums very loudly 
 and striking the hyoshige (two blocks of wood which 
 are smitten together, making a very sharp sound). 
 Then the foxes, one by one, come slowly out of their 
 caves and carry the food away in their mouths. Any 
 one who offers food may stay and see the foxes if 
 he wishes." Mrs. Hoy says that a friend of hers 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 317 
 
 who staved put a lighted candle on the table to see 
 better, because the night was cloudy and dark, but an 
 old fox snapped it up and ran off with it to his den. 
 
 They say that one of the Sendai princes once went 
 hunting in the neighborhood of the temple and shot a 
 wild goose, which fell on the ground, and a fox ran out 
 and carried it off before his eyes. The prince sent to 
 the Inari temple and reported the matter, requesting 
 that the rude fox should be punished. What the 
 priests did about it is not related, but the next morn- 
 ing a fox with a goose in his mouth was hanging on 
 the temple gate. 
 
 At the time of the great yearly festival, which falls 
 in the second month, the temple foxes invite their 
 friends to attend ; and they say that if you are bold 
 enough to go out in the fields the night before you will 
 see a great many lanterns moving along the little 
 paths, all going toward the temple. The foxes who 
 have to cross the river go to a certain ferry and change 
 themselves into gentlemen wearing very fine clothes, 
 and the ferryman on that night does not charge any 
 fee, for he knows that he is carrying Inari Sama's 
 servants. 
 
 According to Japanese poets and enthusiasts, there 
 are three "chief places" counted the most beautiful 
 of all in Japan. They are Nikko, Matsushima and 
 Miyajima. Of the three, Nikko, of course, can be 
 reached with no difficulty at all ; Matsushima, or the 
 "Pine Islands," fairly easily from Sendai, which is 
 
318 JAPAN. 
 
 twelve hours from Tokyo and seven from Nikko on 
 the main line north; and Miyajima, "Island of the 
 Shrine/' by rail and small steamboat from Kobe, 
 quite away from the full-fledged European hotels. So 
 far foreign tourists do not often visit either of the last 
 two places, partly, of course, because they are off the 
 track, and, besides, the stranger cannot be expected to 
 thrill as the native-born does over the literary and 
 historical associations of either place. Of them all, 
 Matsushima has least to offer instead in the way of art 
 interest, but as pure landscape it is most unusual, most 
 picturesque, and, perhaps, too, most characteristic of 
 Japan — certainly well worth a visit from any one who 
 cares for natural scenery. 
 
 Taken in connection with a trip to the Hokkaido, 
 Matsushima comes in naturally enough, and makes a 
 pleasant break in the long journey — twenty-six hours 
 by rail — from Tokyo to Aomori, at the upper end of 
 the main island. Coming this way the stopping place 
 is Sendai, and the islands make a full day's excursion 
 from there. Another way is to come up by sea from 
 Yokohama on one of the large coasting steamers of 
 the Nippon Yusen Kaisha line, which call at Ogino- 
 hama on Sendai bay — the only place worthy of the 
 name of harbor between Yokohama and Hakodate or 
 Aomori. The run is about twenty-four hours from 
 Yokohama; the steamers differ a great deal in size, 
 and the smaller ones do not serve European food ; but 
 they are all clean and the service is uniformly good. 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSIUMA. 319 
 
 Oginohama is a pretty little place, lying in the hollow 
 of a great hill, and the Japanese inns are fair. From 
 there a little local steamer connects with the Nippon 
 Yusen Kaisha, passing among the islands and landing 
 you at Shiogama, the end of the branch railroad from 
 Sendai. This branch line appears to exist chiefly to 
 transport enthusiasts to and from Matsushima, though 
 probably it gets some freight from the south by way of 
 Oginohama ; but the numerous handlings must make 
 the advantage of this over the railroad exceedingly 
 small. Passengers certainly depend as a general thiug 
 on the through trains to and from Tokyo, in spite of 
 the unpleasant midnight hours at which they arrive 
 and depart. Just w T hy a city of Sendai's importance 
 should be afflicted with such a time-table the benevo- 
 lent paternal government probably knows, but it does 
 not tell. 
 
 To reach Matsushima from Sendai you go by the 
 branch road to Shiogama in about half an hour, and 
 there hire a boat to sail or row across among the 
 islands. Some vary the trip by taking a kuruma at 
 Matsushima and riding back by the shore road. Shio- 
 gama itself is rather interesting ; it was one of the 
 oldest settlements on the bay — indeed, it claims to go 
 back to the very Age of the Gods, and to be the place 
 where the son of Isanagi, the creator of Japan, in- 
 vented the art of making salt by boiling sea-water, 
 and it is from this circumstance, they say, that 
 the town gets its name, Shiogama, which means salt 
 
320 JAPAN. 
 
 pans. If any should doubt this piece of history, they 
 will show you the very pans the god used for his 
 boiling — four of them — standing on a stone pedestal. 
 They are made of iron, very shallow, and measure 
 about a yard across ; the sides are exceedingly thick. 
 They are very much eaten with rust, and, whether we 
 accept the inventive deity for a solar myth or a real 
 culture hero, anybody can see that they are immensely 
 old. 
 
 Tradition further relates that these pans came 
 originally from the wonderful palace under the sea, 
 where the Jewel Princess lived who married the fisher- 
 boy Urashima ; and at first there were seven of them, 
 but one night some robbers came and stole three, and 
 made off in a boat. But the dogs began to bark and 
 roused the god, and when he saw the robbers were out 
 of reach, he raised a tremendous storm and sank boat 
 and pans and all ; for he said, " They came from the 
 Jewel Palace, and back to the Jewel Palace they shall 
 go." 
 
 However it may have been in prehistoric times, 
 this part of the coast is not one of the principal salt- 
 producing regions now ; most of this is made in the 
 south, and also in the neighborhood of Yokohama. 
 Japan has no salt mines, and the only way of getting 
 this necessity is from the sea ; consequently the indus- 
 try must be a very old one — far older, surely, than 
 Japanese dominion in this part of the islands. In 
 the official division of the country made for purposes 
 
SEXDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 321 
 
 of taxation, one class of land is specified as shio-hama 
 ("salt strand") — flat stretches of sandy coast used for 
 salt-drying and boiling. Rein says the process of 
 making it is the same as in China ; they take a flat, 
 sandy strip lying above the tide line, and divide it 
 into little fields, each worked by two men ; after level- 
 ing a field carefully, they lay over it a coat of well- 
 worked clay, thick enough to act as a cement. On 
 this goes a layer of sand, spread evenly, and when 
 this is ready they turn in sea water by little ditches, 
 let it stand till it evaporates, and then turn in more, 
 repeating again and again till the sand is very full of 
 salt, when it is gathered up and washed in a filter 
 with more sea water, which carries off the salt and 
 leaves the sand behind, ready to go back on the fields 
 again. The water, which is now very briny, is boiled 
 in shallow pans, made of woven bamboo, covered on 
 both sides with a clay cement, or occasionally in iron 
 pans somewhat like the old ones at Shiogama. The 
 process of letting the water filter down through piles 
 of brush, as in some parts of Germany and near New 
 Bedford, Massachusetts, seems not to be in use any- 
 where in Japan. Japanese salt is damp, grayish, 
 queer-looking stuff, containing a good deal of the 
 original sand ; but in old times there was nothing 
 better to be had, whether for salting fish or seasoning 
 soup. 
 
 From Shiogama to Matsushima takes from two 
 hours to four or five, according to the wind. The 
 Vol. I.— 21 
 
322 JAPAN. 
 
 boats are not unlike the craft on Lake Corao or Lecco, 
 except that the round, white canvas cover is wanting ; 
 instead they give you a yane-bune (roof-boat), which 
 has a tiny cabin amidships, or put up a mat shelter to 
 keep off the sun„ There are tatami (thick mats) to 
 sit on, and a red blanket atop for elegance, and per- 
 haps a comfortable pot of red coals to warm your 
 fingers over, if the sea-wind is chilly. If you are so 
 exacting as to need any other seat, you will have to 
 make a special contract — probably with mine host at 
 the little inn beside the shore, where you wait while 
 the boat is made ready. The men row standing, as 
 the Italians do, pushing the long sweeps with an easy 
 swing, till they can run outside the anchorage and 
 catch a favorable wind. Then, like Ulysses and his 
 crew, they will "hoist up the mast from the mast- 
 crutch, and spread out the white sail " — only in all 
 probability the sail will not be white, but pale-brown 
 or straw-colored matting, rigged to the yard in strips 
 hung lengthwise and laced together — not in horizontal 
 strips, as the Chinese rig their mat sails. 
 
 And so away through a very fairyland of isles and 
 islets, their gray tufa rock worn by the waves into all 
 manner of fantastic shapes. There are eighty-eight 
 islands, they say, between Shiogama and Matsushima, 
 and one hundred and eight between Matsushima and 
 Kinkwazan. Probably the count is about as accurate 
 as the numbering of the islands in Casco Bay. Mat- 
 sushima is a little like the Maine coast, a good deal 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 393 
 
 like the Italian shore from Naples south ; most of all, 
 perhaps, like Bermuda and the cedar-covered islands 
 of Hamilton harbor, for the ragged coral rock takes 
 on much of the same picturesque grace as this sea- 
 washed volcanic tufa. Each smallest rock bears a 
 pine — those gnarled, sweeping hama-matsu of the 
 Japanese coast, whose long branches " seek down " to 
 the water, the Japanese say, just as a child stretches 
 out its hands to its mother. The shore, too, is pine- 
 clad and broken, with deep, rocky inlets, and the bay, 
 with its green flock of islands, reaches away in a wide 
 curve to Oginohama, locked in its high, bare hills, and 
 crowned by Kinkwazan, lifting far above the blue 
 sea-line. Kinkwazan has been one of the very sacred 
 places since the earliest times, and it is far enough 
 away from modern life to keep many of its old asso- 
 ciations and customs, though the rule which forbade 
 women so much as to gaze on it is of course done 
 away with. The name means Golden-flower Mountain, 
 but the reason for it nobody knows, unless, as Cham- 
 berlain suggests, it comes from the glitter of mica in 
 the soil. The fame of Matsushima arose long ago, 
 almost with the first coming of the Japanese to these 
 parts. Their poets have raved of the Thousand Pines 
 ever since the seventh century, and they have given to 
 every smallest island an individual name, sometimes 
 descriptive, sometimes fanciful, such as the Elephant, 
 the Turtle, Buddha's Entrance into NirvAna. 
 
 While the wind holds, the men sit smoking and 
 
324 JAPAN. 
 
 deftly steering the little boat as it winds in and out, 
 mile after mile, slipping under low branches and 
 rounding sharp corners, where you see the jagged 
 bottom through the clear water; or creeping under 
 sheltering cliffs, where the leaning pines are doubled 
 on the still surface ; and so at last into the little 
 harbor of Matsushima, with its neat village and its 
 colony of tea-houses and shops for the sale of sea 
 curiosities. The melbutsu (specialty) of the place is 
 the fine slate of Ishinomaki, which is made into very 
 smooth and beautiful ink-stones. Any one who has 
 tried to rub down a cake of India-ink on an ordinary 
 glazed porcelain saucer knows what a hopeless task it 
 is to try to get anything off on the slippery surface ; 
 the peoples who have written exclusively with this 
 medium could never have done it if they had not had 
 something different to work with. The slate is first 
 cut out in a deep hollow at one end, running steeply 
 into a shallower hollow at the other, and then polished 
 smooth, and finally varnished over with India-ink 
 and a wash of vegetable oil. It is perfectly smooth, 
 and yet there is just enough tooth to work the ink to 
 the thick, velvety black liquid good brush writers 
 love. Besides slate, a green serpentine or a colored 
 marble is often used, and the border of the hollow is 
 frequently enlarged to give room for very beautiful 
 carving in intaglio or low relief, sometimes pine or 
 plum branches, sometimes figures, or Benten's tortoises 
 climbing up the rocks. 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 325 
 
 The little Kwangetsuro and the Matsushima hotel 
 are as clean and neat as the Sendai house is slatternly, 
 and it is pure delight, after the long sa il ? to sit on the 
 springy mats and consume the freshest of fish, with 
 shoji pushed open to the salt air and all the beautiful 
 bay spread out before you, showing here and there a 
 sail among the dark islands. There are pretty little 
 walks along the shore, and out by a bridge to Oshima, 
 the Big Island — a more than usually fantastic thing 
 of rock and pine. At Matsushima one begins to 
 understand where the Japanese took some of their 
 models for landscape gardening ; odd and twisted as 
 some of their creations are, they yet fall behind what 
 nature has fashioned here by force of winds and waves. 
 And therewith one perceives afresh how true to the 
 actual appearances of things are many of the Japanese 
 painters' most startling conventions. 
 
 During the comparative leisure of the latter part of 
 his life, Date Masamune spent much effort and a large 
 amount of money in the restoration and beautifying 
 of the temple at Matsushima, gathering for the pur- 
 pose the best painters and artists of the time, which 
 was that of the shrines at Nikko. The gold back- 
 grounds are tarnished now ; but even so, the effect of 
 the decorations in the reception rooms and other apart- 
 ments is unusually rich and fine. The temple stands a 
 little back from the sea, in a grove of pines ; as you 
 enter the enclosure, near a little cave, you are con- 
 fronted by two tall figures of Kwannon, carved in 
 
326 JAPAN. 
 
 black slate — probably from the quarries of Ishino- 
 maki. The Ihai, or ancestral tablets of the Date 
 family, are here, and many interesting relics of them ; 
 likewise a second portrait-statue of Date Masamune 
 himself, carved in wood, which stands in a chapel 
 behind the main altar. The effigy is life-sized, in 
 armor, seated on a camp-stool, such as knights used to 
 carry for their lords ; a one-eyed, stern old warrior, 
 grasping sword and war-fan, and wearing on his 
 helmet the crescent, in token of increasing power. 
 The feet are apart, the mailed hands on the knees, and 
 the head lifted with a suppressed energy that is very 
 telling. 
 
 Assuredly he was a man to admire ; a man of iron 
 will, of flawless honor, of wise, far-seeing statesman- 
 ship. Tokugawa Ieyasu was his friend, as well as 
 master. Hidetada, Ieyasu's son, was a -man of far less 
 vigor of character; dying a few years after his father, 
 he felt that the great Shogun's work was incomplete, 
 the Tokugawa power hardly secure enough to be held 
 by his own young son, lemitsu ; and he bade his fol- 
 lowers yield the Shogunate rather than plunge the 
 country again into a civil war. Some of the princes 
 hesitated ; Date Masamune alone spoke openly, bid- 
 ding them remember the favors they had enjoyed 
 from Ieyasu, and adding, " Before you touch his 
 grandson, you will pass over my dead body." Iemitsu 
 became Shogun, and proved the ablest of his line. 
 
 A year later Date came to Yedo to render formal 
 
SENDAI AND MATSUSHIMA. 327 
 
 homage to the new ruler ; but he arrived too broken 
 down with age and sickness to leave his yashiki, and 
 shortly after he died there, " in my bed, and not in 
 the saddle, as I had hoped," he said regretfully to 
 the young Shogun, who came to visit him. " The 
 empire is at peace, but who knows how long peace 
 will endure? Order and quiet enervate meu, and 
 when the moment of action arrives, there are no 
 longer any soldiers. See to it that men do not de- 
 generate. You alone can do this, and I shall com- 
 mand my son to aid you. Do not forget my last 
 counsel." * 
 
 Such was Date Masamune, Prince of Sendai, the 
 last of the great men of the sixteenth century. Of 
 such a man we may well believe the Matsushima 
 statue to be a true portrait. 
 
 1 De la Mazeliere, "Histoire du Japon." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE OSHIU KAIDO. 
 
 The old post-road north, Oshiu Kaido, is still 
 kept in very good condition, although the railroad 
 follows it quite closely most of the way and takes 
 most of the long-distance traffic. Leaving Tokyo 
 and crossing the great plain, it climbs a little to reach 
 Utsunomiya, where the branch road turns off to 
 Nikko ; then it keeps nearly due north, following the 
 trend of the island, passing through the inland prov- 
 inces about half-way between the central mountains 
 and the sea, except at Sendai, where it swings out a 
 little towards the bay. All the earlier part lies in a 
 rich and well-cultivated country, and in some places 
 the beautiful old pines and cryptomerias are still 
 standing, which made it a stately avenue for the 
 princes to ride through. Beyond Sendai, both road 
 and railroad follow the Kitamigawa, climb the hills in 
 which it rises, and so make their way by Morioka 
 and the great moors to Aomori, on the northern strait. 
 
 Utsunomiya was a castle-town of some importance, 
 belonging to one of the Fudai nobles ; that is to say, 
 those who had given their allegiance to the Tokugawa 
 
 328 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 329 
 
 before the final battle of Sekigahara; and, as the 
 capital of a prefecture, it has kept its former pros- 
 perity, and is favored with one of the ten-minute 
 stops of the through trains. As the carriages slow 
 into the long, covered station, you feel as if pandemo- 
 nium had been let loose. The guards hurry down the 
 platform, opening doors with a click and a slam ; the 
 stone pavements ring with the sharp scrape and ping- 
 pong of countless excited geta, and above the shouts 
 of the guard, the din of voices sound the staccato cries 
 of the lunch and tea-pot men — " O bento ! " " O cha- 
 ya!" "O bento!" responding to each other like an 
 antiphonal chant. A Japanese Baedeker must surely 
 star these Utsunomiya o bento — "honorable lunch" 
 boxes ; even for a foreigner, after one has grown a 
 little used to Japanese food and a little hardened to 
 the shock of cold-rice sandwiches, the neat whitewood 
 case and its daintily-arranged contents become very 
 appetizing. Washed down with small cupfuls of 
 freshly-made tea, from the o chaya's teapot, a Japan- 
 ese, or a well-taught foreigner, will make an excellent 
 meal. These station-lunches vary in freshness and 
 quality, just as railroad restaurants do all over the 
 world ; and Utsunomiya's are among the best. The 
 men come from the hotels, which make a point of 
 sending them down to meet the trains ; and it must 
 be a very good business. Wheaten biscuits, fresh and 
 hot, are sold at some of these larger stations, not far 
 from Tokyo ; they are, of course, an innovation, per- 
 
330 JAPAN. 
 
 haps an imitation of the English penny bun. Some- 
 times a national touch is added — a stuffing of sweet 
 black-bean paste ! — a most startling compound to meet 
 unawares in the heart of an innocent-looking bun ! 
 The result is a cross between a sugar-biscuit and a 
 Japanese manju, which is a round, flattened cake of 
 rice dough, filled with this same form of pease- por- 
 ridge cold ; and if your manju happens to be toasted 
 over a hibachi of charcoal, on a crisp autumn evening, 
 you have no idea till you try how good it can be. 
 
 Utsunomiya has sorrowful memories of the war of 
 the Restoration ; a terrible fight took place near there, 
 and the clansmen were obliged to retire to Aidzu, the 
 last province that held out, which lies over the moun- 
 tains almost directly to the north. The Aidzu clan 
 was really, as the angry Imperialists said, " the root 
 of the rebellion." For generations they had been 
 charged with the care of the city of Kyoto, and they 
 had watched over the doings of the palace party with 
 the eyes of a hawk ; to have been deprived of this 
 office was grievance enough for their pride. They had 
 the reputation of being harder, less polished, but more 
 soldierly than the other Samurai, unless, perhaps, Sat- 
 suma, who plumed themselves on their Spartan quali- 
 ties. Whatever the rest did, Aidzu was ready to hold 
 out for the Tokugawa to the last drop of blood, even 
 though they fought against the "Brocade Banner ;" 
 for if the young Emperor was, as they believed, co- 
 erced or led astray by evil counselors, they considered 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 331 
 
 themselves justified in setting him aside for another of 
 the house — namely, the boyish prince-abbot, whom 
 they had carried off from Uyeno. 
 
 Wakamatsu, the castle-town of Aidzu, lies in a 
 beautiful plain twenty to thirty miles long and half as 
 broad, famed throughout the country for its loveliness 
 and fertility. To the north lies Bandaisan, a volcano 
 some eight thousand feet high, which blew its crest 
 off suddenly in 1888, pouring a mass of mud and rock 
 down the valley on its northern side ; more than four 
 hundred people were killed, and four villages were 
 overwhelmed, while seven were partly destroyed. 
 The avalanche blocked the course of the river Nagase, 
 and its waters spread out and formed a lake eight 
 miles long and two wide; a village by it was left 
 partly in and partly out of the water. The damage 
 was greatest on the north side, where the huge mass 
 was flung out almost horizontally, though hot stones 
 and ashes fell all about the foot of the mountain. The 
 western and southern sides of the Aidzu plain are 
 surrounded by lesser mountains, from which a number 
 of streams flow clown across the open and fall into lake 
 Iwashiro on the east, watering miles of rich rice-fields ; 
 and on the hills are plantations of lacquer trees and 
 mulberry. The city, Wakayama, is still in a flourish- 
 ing state, but the noble castle on the hill near it was 
 torn down, even to the gateways, and hardly anything 
 remains but a few of the old trees. 
 
 Wakamatsu castle was not taken by assault ; when 
 
332 JAPAN. 
 
 provisions failed the lord of Aidzu surrendered. Had 
 it been otherwise, probably few, whether men or 
 women, would have been taken alive. Old men and 
 children fought in that war ; the women ardently de- 
 sired the privilege, but it was denied them, on the 
 ground that it would be a lasting disgrace to the clan 
 to have it said that they lacked men, and therefore 
 were obliged to employ women on the battlefield. I 
 have before me an account of the siege, written in 
 English by Mrs. Iwamoto, of Tokyo, from her own 
 childish recollections and those of three friends, who 
 were children in the castle during that terrible time. 
 It begins with the first summons, when at eight o'clock 
 one summer morning the clanging bells in the 
 watch tower warned the retainers to hurry with their 
 families to the shelter of the castle. There had been 
 hot fighting in Echigo and at Shirakawa pass, and 
 the imperial army had pushed its way up faster than 
 any one had dreamed ; those who made most haste 
 only gained the castle gate in a shower of flying 
 bullets. So close was the firing that some gave up the 
 attempt to reach the castle at all, and " whole families 
 killed themselves rather than fall into the hands of 
 the enemy," the men alone remaining alive in order to 
 fight to the last. 
 
 Among those who went up to the castle was the 
 mother of a Samurai, named Chikara, who had been 
 killed in the fight at the pass a short time before. 
 " The lord of the clan had condescended to visit the 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 333 
 
 house after the head was brought in from the battle- 
 field, and, taking the young child on his lap, com- 
 manded them to bring him up to be like his loyal and 
 gallant father." Chikara's mother therefore told her 
 daughter-in-law to take the child and hide him, while 
 she herself went up to the castle, believing, as all did, 
 that it could not hold out long. " In fact, nobody 
 thought of living in fchose days, their only concern 
 was how and when they might die most honorably." 
 But the young widow refused to survive her husband 
 and mother ; nor would she yield until the mother-in- 
 law exercised her right to disown her daughter-in- 
 law, and sternly bade her go, or she should no longer 
 belong to the family. Then the widow took the boy 
 and fled, happily without injury. 
 
 Entering the castle in breathless haste, the Avomen 
 of the clan were ordered to attend on their lady, 
 and going to her apartments they found her quietly 
 arranging every detail with coolness and dignity, 
 showing neither haste nor flurry. " During a whole 
 month's siege, while the roar of the battle was heard 
 without, Lady Teru did not once omit her usual toil- 
 ette, nor did she ever show the least trepidation. Her 
 quiet manner strengthened the hearts of all who came 
 before her." 
 
 The siege lasted just a month, and all had time to 
 settle into a routine of service, caring for the wounded, 
 preparing food, even making bullets. There were 
 several ladies who made up their minds to take their 
 
334 JAPAN. 
 
 own lives, " but having seen many who were alarmed 
 into death when there was no necessity for it " (which 
 in Japan is almost as shameful as to refuse at the right 
 time), " they resolved to wait till the great crisis should 
 come, and then dispatch themselves with coolness and 
 composure." They knew already just how to do it 
 — to bind the knees together in the usual sitting pos- 
 ture, then take a sip of water and apply the sword. 
 
 The children had their plays, the little girls filling 
 the small sand bags with which Japanese children 
 play jack-stones, and the boys fishing with bent pins 
 in the castle pond, or even flying kites, which the 
 enemy took for some ruse meant to deceive them. On 
 the night of the September full moon the ladies held 
 a " poem party," as was proper to the season — an 
 occasion for moon-gazing and composing uta 9 thirty- 
 one syllabled poems, didactic or fanciful. " But after 
 the middle of September," continues Mrs. Iwamoto, 
 " Ao,s7zi (rice boiled and dried and stored for use on 
 extreme occasions) w T as brought out from under the 
 watch tower and began to be used. Then we knew 
 that the worst had come. . . . Then came a com- 
 mand from our lord. It was to sew a flag with 
 ' kosan/ (surrender) written on it. The women 
 objected, and said they could not sew the flag of sur- 
 render. But there was no help for it, and they were 
 obliged to obey the command." The next day the 
 whole body of inmates filed out of the castle gate — 
 " a sorry, crestfallen picture." 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 335 
 
 I have quoted at perhaps undue length, because in 
 many ways the account is so very characteristic of old 
 Japan, and because the same spirit exists to-day, how- 
 ever turned aside into other channels and modified by 
 new conceptions of what is or is not right and suitable 
 to do. For this was the atmosphere in which the men 
 and women grew up who are the present generation in 
 Japan ; the siege of Aidzu castle was in 1868, some- 
 thing less than five years after the close of our own 
 civil war. In the wider outlook, many things once 
 great seem little ; but, happily, the Samurai spirit has 
 not altogether disappeared. 
 
 Aidzu was punished, but briefly. In the wise 
 amnesty that followed the surrender all was soon 
 forgiven, though for a time the sufferings of 
 the Aidzu Samurai were pitiful beyond the troubles 
 of the other clans. But the province has recovered, 
 and carries on all its old industries as vigorously as 
 ever. 
 
 The Aidzu specialty is lacquer — both the juice and 
 the finished ware. What we know as shellac or 
 lacquer varnish is quite a different substance from the 
 Japanese ro or urushi, which is the juice of a kind of 
 sumach, rhus vernicifera, akin to our poison ivy and 
 the sumachs that flame across our swamps in autumn. 
 It grows much larger than our sumachs, though, the 
 trees reaching twenty-five to thirty feet in height, and 
 as much as two feet in thickness ; the timber is highly 
 valued for its close grain and golden-yellow color 
 
336 JAPAN. 
 
 toward the heart, and the seeds produce excellent vege- 
 table wax, much used in making candles. 
 
 The tree flourishes best away from the sea, and in 
 the more northern provinces, though Yoshino in 
 Yamato produces the finest quality grown ; but this 
 is easily understood, because the Yoshino district is 
 wild and mountainous, the peaks running up to five 
 thousand and six thousand feet, and the loose, rather 
 gravelly soil is exactly what the lacquer thrives best 
 in. Naturally, the usual practice is to utilize land 
 which cannot be cultivated in any other way, such as 
 the steep sides of valleys, where even wheat will not 
 grow. 
 
 The juice is gathered at any time after the sap 
 begins to flow, in April, till it stops, in October or 
 November, but the best and most comes out in the 
 hottest months. The man who takes it goes from 
 tree to tree, making a horizontal cut with a knife, 
 and then, returning in a short time, scoops out the 
 juice, which has filled the cut, but does not overflow 
 it. To do this he uses a curved spatula, well oiled, 
 scraping off the juice against the side of his pail or 
 joint of bamboo. Trees begin to bear fruit and give 
 sap at about seven or eight years, but their best yield 
 is from fifteen to thirty. The branches and twigs cut- 
 off for trimming are steeped in water, and give an 
 inferior grade of juice, which is mixed with drying 
 oil and used for an under varnish. The season's 
 yield averages about a pound of good sap to every 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 337 
 
 fifty trees. For shipping they pack it down in tight 
 kegs, well wrapped in oiled paper, which takes the 
 place of tarpaulin for many such purposes in Japan. 
 
 As it comes from the tree the sap is thick and 
 sticky, and of a grayish color. Before being used it 
 must be strained through a cloth to get out the dust, 
 bits of bark, etc., and then well stirred in shallow 
 tubs and set in the sun for several hours, to dry out 
 the superfluous water. In places where the manufac- 
 ture of lacquer wares is considerable special dealers 
 do this part, and retail to the real lacquer-workers. 
 
 There is a vast difference in the way pieces are pre- 
 pared for lacquering, and in the kind of wood used to 
 make them. The finest decoration is only put on 
 articles made of the lightest and finest grain, and all 
 the joints are cut down with a sharp knife, making a 
 triangular hollow, which must be filled with cotton 
 cloth, carefully pasted down, and varnished over with 
 an under coat or two, before anything else is done. 
 Then the worker lays a coat of juice, mixed with his 
 ground color, usually either black or cinnabar red ; 
 the black (roiro) is a fine iron compound, the same 
 that the women used to use for blackening their teeth. 
 The coloring matter does not combine with the urushic 
 acid, which is the principal ingredient of the juice, but 
 is suspended as a body color in it. 
 
 Each layer of the varnish must be thoroughly dried 
 and polished before another can be placed ; and since 
 a fine piece may have as many as twenty to thirty 
 Vol. I.- 22 
 
338 JAPAN. 
 
 coats, it may be many months in the making. The 
 drying takes from one or two to several days, and the 
 curious part of it is that it must be done in a moist 
 atmosphere and at a moderate heat. If the stuff is 
 heated very hot, or if it is put in a dry place, it simply 
 will not harden at all. Experiments have proved the 
 reason to be that what happens is not mere drying, 
 but a kind of fermentation. The juice contains be- 
 tween two and three per cent, of nitrogenous matter, 
 and when it is exposed to the air, this acts on the 
 urushic acid so that it oxydizes, and becomes not only 
 perfectly hard, but entirely insoluble in alcohol, ben- 
 zine, and several other substances which dissolved it 
 easily before. Of course, the old lacquer-workers 
 bothered themselves about reasons just as little as our 
 grandmothers did when they " set a fresh rising" but 
 they learned to place the pieces in a special drying 
 box and keep it warm and moist ; and they knew that 
 the best time in the year for working was in the wet 
 summer months, when the temperature keeps between 
 seventy-five and ninety degrees most of the time. 
 For this reason, too, the moist air of Tokyo and 
 Kyoto is well fitted for lacquer-working, and a large 
 proportion of the finer wares are made in the two 
 capitals. Some of the earlier coats are polished with 
 a powder of calcined deer's horn, which gives a 
 smooth matt surface ; the later rubbings are made 
 with soft charcoal and the same powder used very 
 fine and applied with a cotton cloth ; and lastly the 
 
THE OSIIIU KAIDO. 339 
 
 workman uses his finger and a little oil, till he attains 
 the most brilliant gloss. The texture of a fine pieee 
 of lacquer is delightful to the touch, and is one test 
 of its quality, and another is the lightness of the 
 wood. I have handled a box several inches square 
 which did not weigh more than a sheet or two of 
 writing paper. Another test is that the grain of the 
 wood does not show through the varnish. 
 
 Yoshida and other Japanese writers claim that the 
 lacquer tree is indigenous to Japan, but Rein thinks 
 there is no positive proof, and that the probability is 
 that both the tree and its use were imported from China, 
 with other arts. This seems the less likely, as there 
 was an imperial Bureau of lacquer in the fourth cen- 
 tury, before the great wave of Chinese influence. In 
 the sixth century lacquer is named among the articles 
 which may be oifered in payment of taxes. The INara 
 period was one of development in this, as well as the 
 other arts ; and another time of rapid advance was 
 under the luxurious Ashikaga Shoguns, in the four- 
 teenth century. 
 
 But it was in the last quarter of the seventeenth 
 century that this most Japanese of the arts of Japan, 
 as Gonse called it, reached its highest expression, 
 under the artist Korin, whose name is almost identi- 
 fied with lacquer. This period — the time of the fifth 
 Tokugawa Shogun, a younger son of Iemitsu — is 
 known in Japanese as the Gen-roku. It was a time 
 of the greatest activity in literature and all the arts, 
 
340 JAPAN. 
 
 a time of temple and palace building, and of increas- 
 ing demand for the accessories of luxurious living. 
 This Shogun Tsunayoshi was a great patron of classical 
 studies, so much so that he not only founded profes- 
 sorships and encouraged the clan schools of the prov- 
 inces, but himself delivered courses of lectures to 
 audiences of feudal nobles, Samurai, and priests, both 
 Buddhist and Shinto. One may imagine the hearers 
 were attentive when the professor was the actual 
 ruler of the country. This period Avas also the time 
 when trade intercourse with the Dutch was at its 
 height, and when much of European thought and 
 science was filtering into Japan, in spite of the ex- 
 clusion laws. There is evidence, too, of renewed 
 Chinese influence in Gen-roku art, as well as in the 
 ornamentation of the Nikko temples, which immedi- 
 ately preceded. The Shiba temples belong to this 
 time, and there is an exceedingly fine specimen of 
 lacquer work in the shrines of the main temple. 
 
 But if the phoenixes and peonies and grinning lion- 
 monsters of the Buddhist temples seem to smack of 
 Chinese taste, Korin is altogether of Japan • and the 
 gold lacquer for which he chiefly designed is the hap- 
 piest of mediums for his style — flexible and delicate, 
 yet compelling a broad and simple treatment. The 
 use of gold on lacquer, as well as inlays of metal and 
 mother-of-pearl, was at least as early as the Heian 
 period — the ninth century — when the court removed 
 from Nara to Kyoto. The decoration is laid on a 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 341 
 
 surface already grounded and polished ; the design is 
 first drawn on paper, and the outline retraced on the 
 under side with lacquer, which has been boiled to 
 destroy its hardening power, so that it can be cleaned 
 off when done with. The paper is then laid on the 
 article to be decorated and rubbed gently, when the 
 mark of the lacquer remains on the surface. This 
 outline is then filled with fresh lacquer, on which fine 
 gold dust is applied while it is still wet ; after which 
 the piece is put away to dry, and again the decoration 
 is painted over with a coat of transparent lacquer. 
 When this last has hardened, the design is rubbed 
 down with hard charcoal, and finally polished with 
 deer's-horn powder and a little oil. If the piece is 
 large — say a writing-desk or small cabinet— only a 
 little of the design can be laid at a time, so that with 
 the successive dryings and polishings the old leisurely 
 days were none too many for the lacquer-worker. 
 
 One of the wonders of Korin is the fertility of his 
 imagination and the quantity of his designs; they 
 created a school of lacquer which has been little 
 altered since his time. He was also a landscape 
 painter of considerable note, but the fame of his 
 lacquer has quite cast his other works into the shade. 
 His subjects were ideal landscapes, birds and flowers, 
 such as a group of crows sitting on a branch, a 
 graceful iris flower, or a flight of storks across the 
 moon. Korin studied first the Kano school of 
 painting, then the more delicate Tosa style, and 
 
342 JAPAN. 
 
 finally worked for a time with a famous artist in 
 metal ; and his own style undoubtedly profited by all 
 three. His subjects are treated with ideal grace, yet 
 with the most perfect fidelity to nature — to those 
 aspects of nature which can be expressed by the 
 broad, flowing lines of the Japanese brush on a flat 
 surface. Surely that is the essential quality of Japan- 
 ese art — that it never attempts more than it can 
 readily accomplish. 
 
 Naturally the more artistic works are not produced 
 in these northern provinces ; their wares are generally 
 simple trays and bowls and boxes, the common arti- 
 cles of Japanese daily life. Bowls — the small covered 
 bowls of plain brown or black lacquer in which the 
 Japanese serve their soup — are rather a specialty of 
 Fukushima, an important town about fifty miles south 
 of Sendai. The city lies in a beautiful little plain en- 
 circled by hills, which is said to have once been the 
 bed of a lake, but if so it has long since disappeared, 
 and there are only a few historical allusions to support 
 the idea. It is known that in the twelfth century 
 Yoshitsune fled across this region to a neighboring 
 castle, escaping from Yoritomo's unjust anger; but 
 Yoritomo's spies pursued him even here, and he fled 
 yet farther north toward the wild Ainu country, and 
 put himself under the protection of a kinsman who 
 was governor of the province. The kinsman was 
 faithful, but when he died, the son was afraid or un- 
 willing to oppose Yoritomo, and betrayed the trust. 
 
THE OSIIIU KAIDO. 343 
 
 According to one version of the story, Yoshitsune and 
 his companions died fighting against overwhelming 
 odds, on the banks of a little river which flows into 
 the Kitamigawa ; and his head was cut off* and sent to 
 Yoritomo at Kamakura. 
 
 Like Sendai and so many others, Fukushima was an 
 old castle-town and is now the capital of its prefec- 
 ture ; it is a great market for raw silk and silkworm 
 eggs, as well as for the woven silks made in this and 
 the neighboring provinces. A branch railroad soon 
 to be opened will go westward, and will bring in easy 
 reach another large silk-growing region, the town and 
 prefecture of Yonezawa. 
 
 They say the silk trade of Yonezawa is largely in 
 the hands of the old Samurai families, who were very 
 numerous and very thrifty and well to do, so that they 
 suffered less than most Samurai by the changes of the 
 Restoration. The reason for this satisfactory state of 
 affairs goes back to Ieyasu and the battle of Sekiga- 
 hara, and concerns the rise and fall of the great Uye- 
 sugi family, whose vassal, Ota Dokwan, founded the 
 first Yedo castle. 
 
 This great clan belonged to the feudal nobility of 
 Yoritomo's time, and several of the chiefs held the 
 office of Kwambaku or governor of Kamakura under 
 the Ashikaga Shoguns of the fourteenth century ; they 
 were among the number of lesser lords avIio rose sud- 
 denly to great power, through the Ashikaga policy of 
 making large grants of land to their followers, with- 
 
;U4 JAPAN. 
 
 out any definite system of control over the lords so 
 enriched. In this way the Uyesugi obtained Echigo, 
 on the west coast, and held it for several generations, 
 in spite of fierce wars. Their special enemy was 
 Takeda Shingen, whose castle was at Kofu, in the 
 mountains behind Fuji San. A typical specimen of 
 the age was Takeda ; brilliant, reckless, fighting for 
 pure love of danger, so able that the last battle be- 
 tween him and Uyesugi Kenshin became a model of 
 tactics for after time. Takeda won this fight and 
 greatly lessened the power of the Uyesugi, and shortly 
 after shaved his head and became a Buddhist monk — 
 renouncing all worldly matters except war; this, 
 though, was nothing out of the way for a monk of his 
 land and age. 
 
 By this time Hideyoshi came upon the scene. The 
 Uyesugi were not prompt enough in making submis- 
 sion to him, and as a punishment were deprived of 
 Echigo; but Aidzu, which they received instead, was 
 not a bad substitute. But a generation later they 
 sided against Ieyasu ; and this time, when the retribu- 
 tion came, they were transferred to a little mountain- 
 ous territory to the north of Aidzu, with no coast, and 
 not even a large lake or river. Yonezawa yielded a 
 bare one hundred and fifty thousand koku on which to 
 support the retainers who had been maintained out of 
 a revenue of one million in Echigo. The clan ran 
 heavily into debt, and the people were taxed beyond 
 endurance. 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 345 
 
 To this unhappy province came a boy ruler, a lad 
 of seventeen, adopted from a neighboring family, be- 
 cause the old lord of Yonezawa had no heir. It is 
 recorded that the boy reached his territory on a chilly 
 autumn day, and as he rode among the wretched vil- 
 lages and scanty harvests, the attendants saw him care- 
 fully blowing up a charcoal fire in a small hibachi 
 which had been placed in his litter. One of them 
 oifered to bring his lord a fresh fire, but Yozan de- 
 clined, saying, " I am learning a great lesson ; after- 
 wards I will tell you." At the inn where they haltc d 
 for the night, Yozan called his train together and said, 
 " To-day despair took hold of me, as I saw with my 
 own eyes my people's miseries. Then I noticed the 
 little fire before me, which was on the point of going 
 out ; and I took it up, and by blowing carefully and 
 patiently I succeeded in reviving it. May I not be 
 able in the same way to revive the land and the people 
 that are under my care?" 
 
 The first necessity was to lighten taxation. Yozan 
 cut down his own expenses to one-fifth, and the retain- 
 ers' allowances to one-half; whatever revenue could 
 thus be saved went toward paying the clan's debt. 
 But it was no less important to bring back thrift and 
 decency among the people, demoralized as they were 
 by want and wretchedness. "As well expect an egg- 
 plant from a cucumber vine as look for wealth from a 
 misgoverned people/' says the Japanese proverb. 
 Yozan sought out men of the highest character and 
 
346 JAPAN. 
 
 ability, and made them governors and sub-officers ; 
 then he appointed a number of itinerant teachers, who 
 were to instruct the peasants in morals and ceremonies 
 — "of filial piety, of pity towards widows and orphans, 
 of matters of marriages, of decency in clothing, of food 
 and ways of eating, of funeral services, of house re- 
 pairs, and so on." And thirdly, he sent out the 
 strictest of police, bidding them "show Emma's justice 
 and righteous wrath, but fail not to store Jizo's mercy 
 in your bosom." 
 
 It was the time of the Great Peace, and Yozan set 
 his idle Samurai to tilling the ground and bringing 
 waste land under cultivation. Every Samurai family 
 was required to plant fifteen lacquer trees, and every 
 temple twenty. Whoever set out more was rewarded ; 
 whoever did not replace one that died, was fined. The 
 result was over a million trees in a few years, to the 
 very great profit of the district ; and as many paper 
 trees were also planted in waste places. To be able 
 to plant mulberry, Yozan cut fifty gold pieces out of 
 the allowance of two hundred and nine, which he had 
 reserved for his own household, and used them as far 
 as they would go, and, after fifty years, the few thou- 
 sands of trees which he had been able to plant had 
 grown up and were replanted from cuttings, till there 
 was no more space left for them in the land. 
 
 But this was all hill-cultivation. There was land 
 fit for rice, if only it could be sufficiently irrigated ; 
 so this poorest of the Daimyo undertook two of the 
 
THE OSIIIU KAIDO. 347 
 
 greatest engineering works in old Japan ; the one 
 brought water for twenty-eight miles, through via- 
 ducts and on long and high embankments, and the 
 other changed the course of a large stream, carrying 
 it through a tunnel in a mass of granite rock — a work 
 of twenty years, accomplished by a self-taught engi- 
 neer, an awkward, silent man, whom everybody thought 
 a dolt, till the chief discovered him to be a mathematical 
 o-enius. When we consider the rude instruments of 
 the time, such work is not small. Thus supplied with 
 abundance of water, Yonezawa became one of the most 
 fertile of the provinces. 
 
 Even this was not all. From their earliest begin- 
 nings, the Uyesugi had been distinguished for their 
 love of letters and patronage of scholars ; one of the 
 family had revived a college of the Ashikaga time, 
 and many had promoted the study of classical Japan- 
 ese. As soon as his material reforms were well under 
 way, Lord Yozan followed the family tradition, by 
 re-establishing the Clan School, as the Samurai col- 
 leges were called, and endowing a number of scholar- 
 ships, so as to bring it within the reach of even the 
 poorest of his retainers. With this he also started a 
 medical school, favoring the new Dutch system, which 
 a few Japanese had learned at Nagasaki. 
 
 Yozan lived to be seventy, keeping his frugal habits 
 to the end, wearing only cotton and eating the sim- 
 plest of food. He saw his house free from difficulties, 
 his people well nourished, and "the clan that had 
 
348 JAPAN. 
 
 not been able to raise five pieces of gold by their 
 united effort, could now raise ten thousand at a 
 moment's notice." No wonder that the people wept 
 for him, or that the little province has been prosper- 
 ous ever since. 
 
 The region through which the railroad passes is 
 very different; indeed, soon after leaving Sendai, the 
 whole aspect of the country seems changed. Instead 
 of villages, making an almost continuous line along the 
 highway, and fields cultivated to the last inch, from 
 sea to mountain's edge, as in the south, you pass for 
 hours through districts sparsely populated, and scanty 
 acres, leveled with toil, between ravines and steep 
 hills ; or, again, miles of grassy moor, stretching away 
 and away, without a sign of life. The wildest, most 
 beautiful and most desolate portion is on the upper 
 waters of the Kitamigawa, and on the pass which 
 crosses between Fukuoka and Morioka, where the rail- 
 road follows up one little branch to its source, then 
 crosses over the divide and winds down the narrow 
 valley of another stream. Morioka is a fine old town, 
 the capital of a prefecture now, and formerly the castle 
 of the Daimyo of Nambu. It lies in the centre of a 
 beautiful cultivated plain, dominated on the northwest 
 by a fine volcanic cone, rising six thousand eight 
 hundred feet, in those sweeping lines which Japanese 
 mountains take so often. 
 
 It was the coast of this province which received the 
 full force of one of the greatest tidal waves of modern 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 349 
 
 times, in June of 1894. To understand the kind and 
 extent of the damage, one should know the Japanese 
 coast, with its little bays and chines, as they would 
 call them in the Isle of Wight, shut in by high, steep 
 cliffs, against which the little villages nestle, or creep 
 down to the shore line. Against such a coast, from 
 Kinkwazan to the Tsugaru strait, and even across to 
 the Hokkaido, rose a sudden wall of water, variously 
 estimated at from twenty to eighty feet in height, crush- 
 ing the little houses together as if they had been egg- 
 shells, breaking trees short at the root and carrying 
 the stone pillars of torii hundreds of feet. It was the 
 day of the May festival, according to the old calendar, 
 which is generally followed for such things in the 
 country ; and every house was keeping holiday. 
 There was little warning ; two or three slight shocks 
 of earthquake, then a roar, said to have been like the 
 firing of cannon ; and then the wave. A few fled 
 up the cliffs and escaped ; the most were caught and 
 droAvned, or killed by the falling houses. Some towns 
 and villages were totally swept away ; the estimate 
 was between twenty-five and thirty thousand lives 
 lost, eight thousand houses entirely destroyed and thir- 
 teen thousand damaged, besides immense destruction 
 of nets and shipping. Large boats were carried far 
 up the land and lodged in the rice-fields and 
 orchards. 
 
 The news was telegraphed at once, and relief par- 
 ties hurried to the district. In one village the tele- 
 
350 JAPAN. 
 
 graph operator saw his family killed before his eyes, 
 but he gathered himself and his instruments out of the 
 wreckage, and went to work without delay to summon 
 help. The Red Cross Society is always ready for 
 such work, floods and earthquakes, more or less severe, 
 keeping them in far too good practice ; and the gov- 
 ernors and under-officers of the three prefectures came 
 also, and after them the missionary bodies, which natu- 
 rally were less prepared for such service, but did it 
 gladly and well when they did arrive. It was not 
 easy ; the extent of coast affected was so great, and 
 the distance from the railroad so considerable and 
 over hilly, poor roads ; but the system and care with 
 which the government officials acted was beyond 
 praise. The Emperor and Empress made personal 
 gifts, besides the government grants for tools and 
 fishing apparatus ; and newspapers and large business 
 houses, native and foreign, opened subscription lists, 
 which were promptly and gladly responded to. 
 
 There were many strange escapes — one taken and 
 another left. Two French priests were at an inn ; 
 the one fled in his stockings, the other stopped at the 
 door to put on his shoes and was drowned. A baby 
 was found in a tree, quite unhurt ; another Avas floated 
 out to sea. Now, the fishermen of the villages w T ere 
 far outside, engaged in their deep-sea fishing — it was 
 eight o'clock in the evening when the wave came — 
 and their boats had been lifted on the long swell, with- 
 out their noticing anything unusual. Thus they were 
 
THE OSIIIU KAIDO. 351 
 
 rowing quietly home, when a boatload of them saw 
 something floating in the water and went over to see 
 what it was. The thing proved to be a tatami — one 
 of the thick pieces of rush matting of a Japanese 
 house — and on it lay a bundle wrapped in a quilt. 
 They opened it, and found the sleeping baby, carried 
 out from their own village. 
 
 Up to this time these remote coast villages had been 
 less touched by modern progress than any part of the 
 empire; on account of the hills and ridges inland, 
 they communicated with one another almost entirely 
 by sea, and occasionally with the larger coast towns 
 in the same manner ; but with the rest of the world 
 they had little to do. It is said that in some places 
 the people hardly knew of the change of government, 
 and when the papers entitling them to receive relief 
 were given them, they thought the gift came from the 
 Prince of Nambu, their former lord, and they lifted 
 the papers reverently to their foreheads, expressing 
 thanks to his lordship for his condescension. 
 
 Fukuoka is the only town of any importance be- 
 tween Morioka and Aomori, which is another eight 
 hours by rail, making the full tale of twenty-six hours 
 from Tokyo ; and never a sleeping car to do it in, 
 unless one has been put on lately. Above Sendai, 
 though, the trains are seldom full, and that means 
 plenty of room to lie down and be quite comfortable. 
 As for food, one must either take it along, or culti- 
 vate a taste for Japanese o bento, which is the 
 
352 JAPAN. 
 
 easier, since Morioka's lunch-boxes are uncommonly 
 good. 
 
 Aomori lies at the head of a gourd-shaped bay, 
 twenty miles long, which opens by a narrow mouth 
 into Tsugaru strait. It is the terminus of the main- 
 line railroad, and the port for crossing to Hakodate, and 
 it is also a garrison town ; and that is about all there 
 is of it. Once on a time the government had a stock 
 farm near Aomori, but that has been moved away. A 
 good many horses are still raised in the neighborhood, 
 and there are orchards of apples, esteemed the best in 
 Japan, and other fruits, likewise introduced from 
 America. The whole region is open to the bleak 
 Siberian winds, and the air is bright and keen, and 
 often bitterly cold. The truth is, Aomori is a dreary 
 little place, in spite of some good shops and a con- 
 siderable trade ; the streets look half-deserted, and far 
 too wide for the low houses, which are not thatched or 
 tiled, but loosely shingled and piled over with stones, 
 to keep the shingles down, giving them an air of hope- 
 less poverty and untidiness. The shop-fronts are 
 darkened by a sort of arcade over the sidewalk, closed 
 in winter by storm -shutters, to keep out the drifting 
 snow, as they do also at Niigata and some other places 
 on the west coast. Altogether, they have a look of 
 forlorn compromise, these poor little towns that are 
 trying to live Japanese fashion in the biting, un- 
 Jap:in<*se north. 
 
 The inhabitants of Aomori seem to be either trim 
 
THE OSHIU KAIDO. 353 
 
 soldiers or unkempt fishermen, or peasants leading 
 squealing, ill-tempered horses, which take every oppor- 
 tunity to engage in a free fight, regardless of the carts 
 they are hitched to. An army of crows also quarters 
 here, and their dances of a morning on the shingled 
 roofs would rouse the Seven Sleepers. But very few 
 travelers stay to hear them. The train from Tokyo 
 gets in at four in the afternoon, and the Hakodate- 
 Mororan boat leaves at ten or eleven in the evening ; 
 or, going south, you reach Aomori from Hakodate at 
 daybreak, and take the train at ten in the morning. 
 There is no pier ; the steamers lie out in the bay, and 
 you row to them by lantern-light in big sampans ; the 
 men push and swing back at the long oars, keeping 
 time to a wailing chant that echoes weirdly across the 
 dark water, and is taken up by boat after boat steal- 
 ing out toward the high, black hull, with its winking 
 lights. The steamers are clean and fairly large, and 
 the sixty miles of bay and strait not often very rough, 
 so that, with a cabin — best engaged beforehand — there 
 is no particular hardship in getting over to the Hok- 
 kaido ; that is to say, the North, or, literally, North- 
 ern Road, as they call Yczo and the Kurile Islands 
 together. 
 
 Vol. V.- 23 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE HOKKAIDO. 
 
 Tsugaru strait, which cuts Yezo from the main 
 island, is a deep though narrow channel into which 
 the waters of the Japan Sea sweep at the western end 
 with dangerous currents. It is widest in the middle, 
 and narrows sharply at the two ends, where the moun- 
 tains rise like gateways on either side ; indeed, the 
 whole Yezo shore of the strait is almost a continuous 
 wall of cliffs, with only one great break opposite the 
 mouth of Aomori bay, as if the two openings were 
 meant to pair with one another. Just here beside the 
 break in the cliffs Hakodate Head thrusts out from 
 the side of Hakodate Mountain, which lifts one 
 thousand one hundred and fifty-seven feet clear from 
 the water-line. " The Peak/' as nearly every one 
 calls this mountain, is almost but not quite an island ; 
 a sandy strip a mile or so long connects it with the 
 shore, which on the other side is quite low for some 
 distance, and leaves room for several good farms. 
 The slope of the promontory is wooded half way up, 
 and covered with low undergrowth to the top ; the 
 base is circled on three sides by precipitous cliffs, 
 
 354 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 355 
 
 while the third, lying between the sand strip and the 
 bold point called the Head, curves around in a shel- 
 tered hollow to form one of the finest harbors in the 
 world — deep and roomy, with anchorage for half a 
 dozen fleets. The town curves after, following the 
 line of the harbor, and spreads out along the neck of 
 sand, and climbs yearly higher up the mountain by 
 steep streets and terraces ; a prosperous, growing, com- 
 mercial city, getting small share of foreign trade, but 
 very busy with the coastwise service. It has a charm- 
 ing park on a rocky knoll overlooking the bay, and 
 two fine reservoirs fed by a stream far back on the 
 mountain, hundreds of feet above the town ; the water 
 is distributed by hydrants placed every few hundred 
 yards along the street, where the housewives and maid- 
 servants come to draw, as elsewhere they come to the 
 old wells, since few are wealthy enough to have water 
 introduced into their houses. The waste water rushes 
 down the paved gutters by the road, much as it does 
 in the little mountain villages, and the police have 
 some difficulty in persuading conservative grandmas 
 that it is not equally pure and suitable to wash their 
 fish and vegetables in, as the good dames used to do, 
 no doubt, before they migrated from their hills in the 
 south to this new region, for it must be remembered 
 that in Hakodate few save the young can be native 
 born. 
 
 Hakodate is sometimes compared with Gibraltar, 
 but there is little real resemblance ; what it is far 
 
356 JAPAN. 
 
 more like is the bay of Naples and Vesuvius, if the 
 crater of Vesuvius were carried up to its full height. 
 But the coloring is utterly different ; for the bare ash 
 and lava, there is fresh green forest, and instead of 
 warm Italian blue in sea and sky, the dreamy, opal- 
 escent light of Japan. 
 
 The harbor is thronged at all times with fishing 
 craft and coasting steamers, and Maine schooners, and 
 tramps from all over the world putting in here for 
 lood and water ; in summer the motley crowd often 
 includes the warships of half a dozen powers, sent up 
 to keep watch — or, so they say — over the sealing and 
 whaling of their nationals in the Smoky Seas. The 
 cool summer air is pleasant for officers and men ; the 
 climate of Hakodate is exceedingly like that of New- 
 port, E. I., except that the Japanese port gets less fog. 
 The British fleet often winters at Hong Kong, comes 
 to Yokohama in the early summer, and goes on to 
 Hakodate for the hottest months. They say that 
 when the ships come beer shops spring up as if by 
 magic ; indeed, the foreign sailors are a serious draw- 
 back to residence in the place. When some of these 
 are in port it is most unpleasant — not to say unsafe — 
 for ladies to go down near the harbor, or, indeed, 
 toward dusk on the streets farther up, where the prin- 
 cipal shops for European goods are. English officers 
 say they dread to bring their men to Hakodate ; crews 
 that have done well almost everywhere else seem 
 nearly sure to get into difficulties in the grog-shops 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 357 
 
 there as soon as they have a chance to go ashore. For 
 one thing they say these Hakodate sailors' taverns 
 keep American drinks of a peculiar vileness and 
 potency; and partly, too, the men have a sense of 
 being almost up to the end of the world. 
 
 When the fleets are not in port there are few for- 
 eigners about ; only the Consular people, and a small 
 body of hard-working missionaries of many denomi- 
 nations. The English make Hakodate a base for 
 their labors among the Ainu, and do much also by 
 seamen's missions and the like for the shifting sailor 
 population ; both the Greek Church and the Roman 
 have long had stations here, and up on the hill there 
 is a large Methodist girls' school, which is perhaps the 
 best institution of the kind in Japan. 
 
 From every street in Hakodate the views are exquis- 
 itely lovely, and they seem to grow even lovelier as you 
 ascend the peak behind the town. It is a long climb, 
 but nowhere steep ; at first beyond the houses the path 
 leads through a grass-grown cryptomeria forest, where 
 lilies-of-the-valley bloom in spring, and in summer the 
 clustering white wild roses stretch a bower over every 
 sunny bank and lane ; between the branches you look 
 down on the gray shingled roofs of the town, looking 
 flit as if some one had ironed them, and the flock of 
 white sails in the harbor, and across to the blue wall 
 of peaks closing the horizon, Komagatake's keen point 
 centering all. To the left of the harbor on the low, 
 green headland is the site of an old fort, dismantled 
 
358 JAPAN. 
 
 now, which played a serious part in the war of the 
 Restoration, when Count Kuroda and the rest stole 
 away up here with the Tokugawa ships ; the fort is a 
 public park now, and the moats are used for skating 
 — an amusement which the Japanese have learned 
 from America, and enjoy thoroughly when they have 
 a chance. 
 
 As might be expected, fishing remains the chief 
 local industry of Hakodate ; it is a pretty sight to see 
 the fleet of little boats go out of an afternoon, rowing 
 past the headland and round by the cliffs quite behind 
 the mountain, till they lie off the neck on its outer 
 side. At night, from the end of the town near the 
 public garden, their tiny lights cluster like a galaxy 
 of winking stars in the dark sea beyond the blacker 
 rocks. The fish are plenty and of excellent quality, 
 to judge by Hakodate markets; besides fine tai and 
 other fish met with in the south, there are swordfish 
 and salmon from the northern rivers, both fresh and 
 dried, and oysters from Kushiro and Nemuro on the 
 east coast of Hokkaido, and plenty of large scollops, 
 with delicate white meat and shells four or five inches 
 across. These pretty, light-brown, ridged shells make 
 charming little individual baking dishes ; I have seen 
 them sold on the street in Tokyo, I suppose for that 
 purpose, though I had not Japanese enough to ask. 
 These hotate, as they call them, are very abundant in 
 the Hokkaido waters, but do not seem to be found 
 farther south. Seaweed, too, is a special " meibutsu " 
 
' 
 
 .1 
 
 ?Y 
 
 W 
 
 ■ V &.1 
 
 , ' 'iff 
 
 ■ I I I*' 
 
 v I 
 
 ; 
 
 II 
 ll 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 359 
 
 of Hakodate, and there are several edible varieties 
 which are highly prized and frequently put up in neat 
 little tins, for visitors to take to their friends at home. 
 A great deal of fish goes to the south dried, canned, 
 smoked and fresh, and much also to China, along with 
 boatloads of the large univalve awabi or sea-ear — 
 beche de mer, as the French call it — from the southern 
 waters ; Japanese seaweed, too, is largely exported for 
 the Chinese. 
 
 Formerly the rivers of Hokkaido must have been 
 as full of salmon as the Columbia or the Alaskan 
 waters, but till lately they have been recklessly wasted ; 
 still, they are very plenty even now, and there are 
 laws to protect them in future. The Japanese cure 
 salmon with a great deal of salt, but the Ainu method 
 is merely to dry it in the sun — an arrangement which 
 makes not only their huts but themselves unpleasantly 
 perceptible a long way to leeward. 
 
 The Ainu, who supply the folk-lore for the Hok- 
 kaido, have a legend to account for the plentifulness 
 of fish and flesh in Ainu land. Once, they say, long, 
 long ago, there was a dire famine, so that the Ainu 
 were ready to die of hunger. But they gathered 
 together the crumbs that were left, a little millet and 
 a little rice malt, and with it they made a cup of wine, 
 and poured it into six lacquer cups; and the sweet 
 smell of the sake arose from the cups, filling all the 
 house. 
 
 Then the gods were called together, the gods of all 
 
360 JAPAX. 
 
 places, from this side and from that ; also the god- 
 desses of the mountains and the goddesses of the val- 
 leys, the goddesses of the rivers and the goddesses of 
 the mouths of rivers. And they were all pleased 
 with that delicious wine, and the goddesses of the 
 mountains and the valleys, of the rivers and the 
 mouths of rivers, danced and sang before the assembled 
 gods ; and the gods laughed and were glad. Then as 
 they danced the goddesses plucked out two hairs of a 
 deer and blew them over the tops of the mountains, 
 and on the tops of the mountains two herds of deer 
 came running, one of bucks and the other of does; 
 and they plucked out two scales from a fish and blew 
 them over the rivers, and in the rivers shoals of fish 
 came swimming, insomuch that there was not room, 
 and they scraped upon the stones. 
 
 So the men set their boats upon the rivers and took 
 fish ; and the young men went forth and slew deer 
 upon the hills, and they ate and did not die. There- 
 fore, from that day, in the land of the Ainu, there is 
 fish and flesh without stint. 
 
 Hakodate people go for picnics and other such 
 amusement to the hot springs at Yunokawa, on the 
 coast farther to the east, a mile or so beyond the neck 
 of sand ; and to Yunozawa, which is two or three 
 miles inland from the last; also, a longer excursion, 
 best made on horseback or by carriage, to a chain of 
 lakes which lie at the foot of Komagatake. The 
 ascent of this volcano can be made in a long day from 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 361 
 
 Hakodate, but nearly every one stays over a night at 
 Junsaimura, on the first lake. Beyond here horses can 
 be used for nearly three-quarters of the way ; the rest 
 is a stiff climb over sand and crumbling ashes to the 
 edge of the crater. On the side of the cone is a great 
 mass of rock towering far above the rest, and it is 
 this which makes the spear-like point of Komagatake 
 as it is seen from Hakodate and along the coast. The 
 crater is still but thinly crusted and treacherous, with 
 boiling springs and sulphurous smoke breaking out 
 here and there, altogether a risky place. The great 
 volcano of the north no one seems to venture on ; it 
 is Mount Ezan, the most eastern point of the southern 
 peninsula, and the first mountain sighted in coming up 
 from Yokohama by steamer — which is really the easiest, 
 if not the most interesting way. 
 
 This sea route takes only two days, with the call at 
 Oginohama besides, where you can usually go ashore 
 for a few hours while they load and unload ; and a 
 very pleasant run it is too, if you are so made as to be 
 able to enjoy a voyage in a clean little steamer, rock- 
 ing nicely on a long ground swell. They lie twenty- 
 four hours at Hakodate to leave and take on freight, 
 and then run on through Tsugaru strait and up the 
 west coast of Yezo to Otaru ; while the Aomori boats 
 touch at Hakodate for a few hours only, and then turn 
 out around Cape Ezan and head across Volcano bay 
 to Mororan. For the present, one or the other line 
 has to carry all there is to go, for it will be a year or 
 
362 JAPAN. 
 
 two longer before Hakodate is connected by rail with 
 the rest of the world. A line from Mororan, on Vol- 
 cano bay, to Sapporo and Otaru was built long ago, in 
 the early days of Yezo colonization, and held the 
 world's record as the cheapest line ever built any- 
 where ; but its route was a fairly easy one, offering 
 nothing much worse to contend w T ith than swamp and 
 forest and a few rivers, whereas the part of the island 
 south of Volcano bay is only a peninsula, so crowded 
 with rocks and mountains that it is much easier to 
 take a boat and go round than attempt to climb over. 
 However, in these days there must be railroads, and 
 so, although the neck of the peninsula is the very 
 most spinous of all, a line is on the way, opening up 
 new tracts of country as it goes, after the manner of 
 colonial railroads. One special reason for pushing 
 this one is that oil has been found in these mountains ; 
 the extent of land already opened for wells in Hok- 
 kaido exceeds the whole amount in the rest of Japan, 
 which last is mostly located in the mountains, near 
 Niigata, on the west coast of the main island. 
 
 Yezo must have been separated from the rest of the 
 group since very early geological time, for its flora and 
 fauna are quite distinct from even the northern end of 
 the main island. There are no monkeys — which of 
 itself would not be unnatural, Yezo is so much colder — 
 and the bear is a huge grizzly, while the proper Japan- 
 ese bear is small and black ; there are grouse instead 
 of pheasants in the north, and a number of singing 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 363 
 
 birds not found in the other islands. Elms and other 
 northern trees grow in great abundance all through the 
 Sapporo plain, and elsewhere in the interior, and the 
 wild forests along the Mororan-Sapporo railroad might 
 be anywhere in central Pennsylvania. 
 
 According to the Ainu, the creator god Aioina did 
 not himself make Yezo, but entrusted the task to a 
 god and goddess, giving him the south and east, and 
 charging her with the western part. So they both 
 went to work at once, trying to see who could finish 
 the job best and most quickly. But while they were 
 working, another goddess came along, and woman-like 
 the first stopped to have a bit of gossip with her friend. 
 So they talked aud they talked, for quite a long time ; 
 and meanwhile the god was working away fast and 
 steadily. Then all of a sudden the goddess looked up 
 and saw that he had almost finished, and she was 
 frightened and ashamed, and hurried very fast, piling 
 up the rocks and mountains any way at all, so that she 
 might get done in time. And the consequence is that 
 the west coast of Yezo is so wild and rocky that no 
 one can do anything with it to this day. Moreover, 
 any one may see the axe the god used in making his 
 part, for he stuck it up on the shore when he got done 
 — a large dark rock, standing on the coast near Moro- 
 ran. 
 
 The shape of Yezo is rather like a Japanese kite, its 
 head pointing to the northeast, and the part below 
 Volcano bay serving for a short, bent tail. Not only 
 
364 JAPAN. 
 
 this southern peninsula, but the main part of the island, 
 is more than half mountainous, and far the larger por- 
 tion of it is still covered with forests, through which 
 the roads are few and, as a rule, anything but good. 
 The government has made considerable surveys, how- 
 ever, and the character and resources of the region are 
 fairly well mapped down. Coal and coal oil and sul- 
 phur are the chief mineral products, a very large part 
 of the sulphur produced in Japan — and it is a great 
 deal — coming from Yezo and the Kuriles. The Rus- 
 sians destroyed most of the fur-bearing animals on the 
 Kurile group, before they consented to give up their 
 unproved claim on the islands in return for the far 
 more valuable cession of southern Saghalien. The 
 sulphur on Kunashiri and Iterup is the one useful 
 product to be had there now. 
 
 The single plain of Yezo is a wide level, seventy 
 miles long and some twenty to thirty across, running 
 from Volcano bay nearly north to the sea of Japan. 
 It must have been at one time a part of the bay, and 
 probably not so very long ago either, as geology counts 
 time, since the Sapporo botanists say that certain 
 purely beach plants still linger on its border hills. 
 The Ainu called this region Satsuporo (the dry plain), 
 in distinction to the vast stretches of peat bog and mo- 
 rass near the lower part of the Ishikari and other 
 rivers ; and the Japanese Colonial Department kept 
 the name, when they chose the upper end of the plain 
 and placed there the new capital, Sapporo. The other 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 3(35 
 
 towns of the Hokkaido, like Topsy, "just growed," 
 and they are all on the sea — Hakodate, Otaru, twenty 
 miles north of Sapporo, and Kushiro and Nemuro, on 
 the dreary east coast, ice bound all winter and fog hung 
 the rest of the year. With some government help in 
 the way of harbor improvement, these self-made towns 
 have thriven finely ; it was only official, made-to-order 
 Sapporo that had rather a hard time to get started ; as 
 for Otaru, shipments of coal and herring-oil and fish 
 guano have made it boom at times like any American 
 town in the wild West, speculation in building lots 
 and all. 
 
 It is really almost more American than Japanese, 
 this lively, new Hokkaido, which, only thirty years 
 ago, was altogether virgin forest, given over to bears 
 and Ainu. There was a Daimyo, it is true, and had 
 been since the sixteenth century, whose revenues came 
 from fishing dues, and whose castle and single town 
 of any size was Matsumae — now renamed Fukuyama 
 — at the west end of Tsugaru strait. Hakodate was 
 only a little bigger and better than the other wretched 
 fishing hamlets fringing the coast, which were hardly 
 inhabited, except in summer, when fishermen came up 
 from the main island for the season. On the main 
 island people would believe anything about Yezo; 
 they were quite sure that in winter fire froze and 
 turned into coral ; and certainly nobody would go 
 there who could help it. But when the West was dis- 
 covered and American vessels began to sail the 
 
366 JAPAN. 
 
 north Pacific, Hakodate was the safest and most 
 convenient place for the sealers and whalers, and 
 consequently it was one of the first ports asked for, 
 opened, and provided with consuls of the various 
 nationalities. 
 
 Still, this coming of a few foreigners did not affect 
 Japanese interests much. The real opening of the 
 Hokkaido was begun in 1868, and it was the work of 
 the unsubmissive Tokugawa clansmen. When Yedo 
 was given up to the Imperialists, the ex-Shogun's 
 ships were to have been given up likewise, as part 
 payment for sparing the city ; but, instead of fulfill- 
 ing this part of the contract, the naval commander 
 and some of the followers of Tokugawa took it upon 
 themselves to slip off with the whole fleet, which con- 
 sisted of some five vessels. They sailed north and 
 waited about Sendai, hoping to be able to help the 
 land force who were at Utsunomiya and Aidzu ; 
 but, after the fall of Wakamatsu Castle, they were 
 joined by the chief rebel general, Otori, and went on 
 to Yezo, taking possession of Hakodate and Matsu- 
 mae. The governor, seeing himself unable to resist, 
 departed to Aomori and sent a complaint to the impe- 
 rial government ; and there was another brave but 
 hopeless struggle to be gone through before the 
 leaders, Enomoto and Kuroda, found themselves 
 totally overmatched, and gave themselves up to save 
 their followers. And again, as after the fall of 
 Wakamatsu Castle, the Emperor was " as a father * 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 367 
 
 to his misguided children, whose sin, after all, was only 
 loyalty misplaced. 
 
 It is worth while to look a little into the meaning 
 of this raid on the north, for, in a way, it gave not 
 only the first impetus, but set the keynote of Yezo 
 colonization. This is what the leaders said for them- 
 selves, as Black translates their memorial to the 
 Emperor. After speaking of the changes that had 
 taken place, the Tokugawa revenues cut off and the 
 retainers turned adrift, they plead : " Men who have 
 the hearts of Samurai cannot turn into farmers or 
 merchants, so that it appeared that there was nothing 
 for us but to starve. But, considering the unculti- 
 vated condition of the island of Yezo, we thought it 
 better to remove thither, that, even under the endur- 
 ance of every hardship, we might level steep moun- 
 tains, cultivate the desert, and employ hitherto useless 
 people in a useful work." For this privilege, they 
 say, they petitioned the government in vain, and " it 
 seemed that the three hundred thousand clansmen 
 must surely starve ; " so, in despair, they had sailed 
 on their own risk, using force only against Hakodate 
 and Matsumae — both fortified places. "On applica- 
 tion to the governor of Hakodate, he would not listen 
 to us, but viewing us merely as a band of robbers, 
 attacked us. Matsumae also murdered our messenger, 
 and for these reasons we were obliged to set aside 
 these men. The farmers and merchants are unmo- 
 lested, going about their business without fear, and 
 
368 JAPAN. 
 
 sympathizing with us, so that already we have been 
 able to bring some land under cultivation." 
 
 " To employ useless people in a useful work " — 
 there spoke the true Samurai spirit ; the spirit of the 
 man who must have service — and that a worthy ser- 
 vice — or extinction. There is an amusingly familiar 
 note in the guileless protest of these land-grabbers 
 against being regarded as robbers ; but there can be 
 no question that they were absolutely sincere, as well 
 as terribly in earnest, even though there was another 
 motive underlying all, and quite frankly avowed. " We 
 pray that this portion of the empire may be conferred 
 upon our late lord, Tokugawa Kamenosuke ; and in 
 that case we shall repay your beneficence by our faith- 
 ful guardianship of the Northern Gate." 
 
 That was their dream — a vision of repeating his- 
 tory, and winning for Tokugawa a new province, even 
 as Yoritomo won the Kwanto from the wilderness 
 seven centuries before ; a province which their master 
 should rule for the Emperor in all loyalty, that so 
 the clan should be, as they say, once more the keep- 
 ers of the Northern Gate. That was their hope; 
 and some say that if they had chosen Mororan and 
 fortified it, instead of Hakodate, they might have 
 held it against all the forces of the empire. 
 
 They did not so choose, and in spite of the openly- 
 expressed sympathy of the foreign consuls, the "Three 
 Days' Republic" failed. But there was no harsh 
 treatment ; rather the government sought to give 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 369 
 
 them opportunity to repent. The newly-appointed 
 head of the Tokugawa clan was ordered to go to the 
 Hokkaido and restrain his clansmen ; the Tokugawa 
 asked that, as this new head was only a child, the ex- 
 Shogun might be allowed to lead them. But this was 
 refused, for fear that he might be forcibly taken over 
 to the rebels, and so used to encourage others and pro- 
 long the struggle. After many delays, the chastising 
 force reached Hakodate, landed on the steep cliffs 
 behind the promontory, and marched over the moun- 
 tain to a point from which they could command the 
 entire fort, rendering resistance hopeless. 
 
 The leaders yielded, and were punished for a time, 
 but presently Count Kuroda w r as back in the Hok- 
 kaido again — this time as an accredited government 
 official, the head of the newly-organized Colonization 
 Office. This office — literally, department for the 
 development of the country — was intended to do 
 precisely what the runaway generals had intended, 
 minus the individual clan bias ; and its hope was the 
 same — namely, to provide for masterless Samurai. It 
 was the day of great things, of wild endeavors to 
 make Japan over in a night, and of foreign experts 
 imported to do it at any price. So Geueral Horace 
 Capron was sent for, "to introduce the American 
 system of agriculture into Japan " — which meant to 
 be the actual head and organizer of a department 
 with many branches, including stock raising and 
 forestry, surveys of every sort, even engineering and 
 Vol. I.— 24 
 
370 JAPAN. 
 
 road building; to establish agricultural schools and 
 experiment farms, and to start new things generally. 
 Of all the innovations, the Hokkaido, being itself 
 new and unprejudiced, naturally came in for the 
 largest share ; and moreover, being most like America 
 in climate, took most kindly to American ways. 
 
 All this was begun in 1873. At first the results 
 lagged far behind the lavish expenditure ; indigent 
 Samurai did not appear in flocks, perhaps because 
 they were too busy getting educated in the new gov- 
 ernment schools to prepare for government offices, or 
 studying abroad on government scholarships. More- 
 over, such expenditure could not possibly be kept up ; 
 the "American plan" w T as far too magnificent for 
 Japan. Still, the thing Avas started, and the discovery 
 of large fields of bituminous coal of an excellent 
 quality, not more than twenty or thirty miles from 
 Sapporo, made the future of the Hokkaido sure, if 
 slow. In a few years public-spirited men who were 
 fortunate enough to have a little means began to plant 
 colonies of their dependents, many a gentleman going 
 with his band, living with them as they lived, and 
 working with them at clearing and draining the forest. 
 It is not easy work ; the land which is often best 
 when put in order is swampy, as well as heavily 
 wooded, and until it has been brought under cultiva- 
 tion for a year or two the settlers are sure to have 
 malaria — genuine chills and fever — a thing hardly 
 known to exist in Japan proper. The cold, too, is 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 371 
 
 terrible to people from the south, for Yezo lies in the 
 latitude of Maine, and except on the lower coast gets 
 very little effect from the warm ocean currents ; and 
 the rough, poor little houses of the colonists are quite 
 unfit to keep out such winters. Yet the settlers thrive. 
 By 1895 they were coming at the rate of forty and 
 fifty thousand a year. The government grants about 
 twelve and a half acres as homestead to any one who 
 will take it up and develop it, putting a certain 
 specified amount of improvement on it each year for 
 a fixed term. There are already manufactures, par- 
 ticularly iron nails, bricks and linen, and the fisheries 
 are being developed astonishingly. All around Otaru, 
 and along the railroad from there to the point where 
 it turns off inland to Sapporo, fish and fishing are 
 very much in evidence, some being dried on frames, 
 more, in the herring season, boiled down to make fish 
 oil. On the beach, near every little village, you see 
 large iron pots, sometimes propped on stones, some- 
 times set in a hole like a primitive oven. Here they 
 boil the fish and skim off the oil, drying the refuse 
 and pressing it into cakes to be shipped for manure. 
 These little villages on the Japan Sea are small and 
 squalid, and the people have an air of untidiness and 
 poverty ; in fact, this fishing population is the poorest 
 element in the Hokkaido. 
 
 There are not very many Ainu around Sapporo, 
 except what some one called " tinned '' ones, at Mr. 
 Batchelor's excellent " Rest House," as he calls the 
 
372 JAPAN. 
 
 little hospital he has built for them in his own gar- 
 den. Occasionally a few of them wander into Sap- 
 poro to sell skins or carved trays and bark dippers, 
 but as a general thing they stay apart in their own vil- 
 lages, which lie along the wilder streams and remote 
 places on the coast. Professor Todd's astronomical 
 party were quite among them in 1896, at Esashi on 
 the north coast, and Mrs. Todd was able to make some 
 interesting investigations. The most accessible vil- 
 lages are on the shore of Volcano bay, and their straw 
 huts, thatched all over, are easily visible from the train 
 at Horibetsu and Noboribetsu stations, and at one or 
 two other places. But of these strange people more 
 hereafter. 
 
 Perhaps it is because only the pluckiest and hardiest 
 Japanese go to the north, and also the most lawless ; 
 perhaps the sharper climate braces both body and 
 mind ; whatever the reason, the people of the Hok- 
 kaido are both the best and the worst in Japan. The 
 worst — let us hope — are survivals of the time when 
 it was the custom to release prisoners at the end of 
 their term — the long-sentence prisons, by the way, 
 are all in the Hokkaido — and pay no further heed to 
 them ; the times when settlers feared two things, bears 
 and " red men," as they call convicts, because of their 
 brick-colored prison clothes. Now that is all past; 
 the prisoners are returned to their own provinces and 
 released there ; and bears, too, are scarce, and seldom 
 attack houses, as one great grizzly actually did in 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 373 
 
 Sapporo in the early days, devouring a woman and a 
 baby before he was hunted down and killed. He is 
 stuffed in the Sapporo Museum now, along with other 
 Hokkaido beasts and birds — which, as I have before 
 said, are strikingly different from the rest of Japan — 
 among Ainu mats and carvings, and relics of the war 
 of 1895, such as Chinese swords and spears and 
 curious old firearms, brought home by the northern 
 troops. Some of these troops came from the Tonden 
 or military colony which is being carried on as an 
 experiment on a fine piece of land some miles from 
 Sapporo ; and they made a good name for themselves 
 both for bravery and physical condition. 
 
 For the best element in the Hokkaido, go not to 
 lively, bustling Otaru, with its ill-kept streets and 
 hastily-built houses, its pushing business men and 
 rough clock hands, but to quiet Sapporo and the Im- 
 perial College of Agriculture, now nearing its hope of 
 being promoted into a university. The place has a 
 very attractive situation in the midst of the open 
 plain, with the stony Toyohira flowing by, and moun- 
 tains all about it, near or far. A few of the beautiful 
 old elms are still standing in the town, but most of 
 them, unhappily, were cut down through a mistaken 
 order when it was first laid out. Workmen had 1><( n 
 sent ahead to begin clearing the land, and when the 
 higher officials arrived they found wholesale destruc- 
 tion of the trees, which had covered all the site of the 
 new city. Maple and other quick-growing trees have 
 
374 JAPAN. 
 
 been planted, and the place begins to be well shaded 
 in many parts, but it seems difficult to make the elms 
 grow again ; probably they get too much sun in the 
 open places. As for the town itself, it looks far more 
 like a bit of New England than any part of Japan ; 
 the shingled houses, their roofs less projecting and 
 steeper pitched to shed the snow, the wide streets and 
 the frequency of glazed windows, instead of shoji and 
 amado, the elms and maples and paling-fenced gardens, 
 where the flowers grow somewhat recklessly as com- 
 pared to the neat south — all this goes to make nearly 
 every American exclaim as soon as he is set down in 
 Sapporo, " This is like home ; it looks just like my 
 own State ! " 
 
 All around the city hay fields and grain fields stretch 
 away across the plain and to wooded Maruyama, five 
 miles oif, where snow lies in the hollows till far into 
 May. There is a great deal of flax too, which goes to 
 supply the large linen mill in the town, and acres of 
 beets for sugar ; a little rice — not much ; rice does not 
 love the far north — and out toward Maruyama a few 
 plantations of mulberry trees. In the gardens, instead 
 of flowering cherry or plum, you will find American 
 fruit trees — apple, pear, quince, and dark red or ox- 
 heart cherries, worthy of the best New York orchards ; 
 not peaches — it is too cold for them where strawberries 
 only ripen in time for college commencement parties, 
 almost on the fourth of July. The original foreign 
 professors were all New England men, and they have 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 375 
 
 left their mark on the college and the town in many 
 little habits and traditions. The very gardens bloom 
 with sweet peas and nasturtiums and phlox, and have 
 none of the formal stone setting of the real Japan 
 — at least in most places. Some beautiful little speci- 
 mens of conventional Japanese gardening there are, 
 after all, even in unconventional, independent Sapporo. 
 The centre of the town is occupied by the large brick 
 government building, known as the Do Cho, or district 
 office ; here the affairs of the entire Hokkaido are at- 
 tended to, including the allotment of land to new set- 
 tlers, who sometimes come and wait a good while in 
 the town before they get just what they desire. The 
 building stands in an open space and has a fine air of 
 dignity and simplicity. The other important govern- 
 ment building is one which was put up to accommo- 
 date the Emperor, when he made a visit here in the 
 course of his long journey all through the empire ; it 
 is in charge of the imperial household department, and 
 is used as a hotel in foreign style. Only the four 
 lower rooms are rented, unless by special permission 
 from the officials. It is a big, barn-like sort of a place, 
 with immensely high ceilings and huge windows. The 
 lawn, though, is charming — a delightful stretch of 
 grass, something rare enough to be prized in Japan, 
 with a bit of a Japanese lakelet and some trees and 
 shrubbery in the midst. The Do Cho, too, has pretty 
 grounds, and especially a fine lotus pond, where 
 they grow flowers as large and fine as at Kamakura 
 
376 JAPAN. 
 
 itself, in spite of a foot or two of ice on the pond all 
 winter. 
 
 There is something pitiful, though, about a southern 
 people who are trying to live in the north ; as they 
 trudge through February snows that hide the fence- 
 posts, no one can help remembering that there is scent 
 of plum-blossoms about his old home. One April, in 
 Hakodate, some enterprising or over-homesick person 
 got up a cherry-viewing, by taking a quantity of paper 
 flowers, and arranging them in pots and on stands 
 really very beautifully ; and a number of people came 
 and walked about and tried to admire and think they 
 were enjoying themselves. Absurdly childish, of 
 course ; but there was something very pathetic about 
 it, too. And you cannot help feeling the same home- 
 sick effort in the Sapporo crowds who go to the gardens 
 there and look at fine lilies and roses and European 
 annuals, very beautiful in themselves, but without a 
 particle of association for a Japanese. The children 
 growing up there will love the north, but the older 
 ones must feel themselves exiles, however loyal to its 
 interests. Just outside of Sapporo lies the experiment 
 farm, connected with the college, where students taking 
 the practical course study American cattle and Ameri- 
 can methods of farming generally. The stock farm 
 proper, though, is not here, but away back in the coun- 
 try on other government land. In the prettiest meadow 
 of all, among beautiful old elm trees, the new college 
 buildings are going up ; they have been long and sadly 
 
THE HOKKAIDO. 377 
 
 needed, and heartily deserved, for if ever an institu- 
 tion made the most of the scantiest resources, that one 
 is the Sapporo No-Gakko. We who love the North 
 like to think that this is the " Hokkaido Spirit "—the 
 spirit of development, of service under whatever diffi- 
 culties ; to think that it is the old " Yamato Dama- 
 shii," the spirit of Japan, translated into modern, yes, 
 and Christian life — and a legacy, too, of Enomoto and 
 Kuroda's brave failure. 
 
RARE BOOK 
 COLLECTION 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 AT 
 
 CHAPEL HILL 
 
 Travel 
 
 DS809 
 
 .H33 
 
 1902 
 
 v.l