"I looked upon those hills and plains,
And seemed as if let loose from chains,
To live at liberty."
THE INLAND SEAS.--KOBE.--FUSI-YAMA.--YOKOHAMA.
VISIT TO TOKIO.
The arrival of the "Vigilant" from Shanghai, with the admiral on board,
brought our stay at charming Nagasaki to a close. During the absence of
our band with the "Vigilant," one of its members, Henry Harper, a feeble
old man, and far advanced in consumption, died at Shanghai.
June 11th.--Left Nagasaki _en route_ for the eastward, _via_ the Inland
Seas. Our way to Simoneski lay through numerous islands of so beautiful
an appearance that a writer has compared them to some of the fairest
spots in Devon. But this, though it says much, is but a poor tribute to
such enchanting loveliness.
At daylight the following morning we made the narrow channel at
Simoneski, the western entrance to the seas; and as there is always a
strong rush of water through the passage towards the ocean, we had to
steam hard against a considerable current. The town, of which I spoke in
my last chapter, has a very straggling and neat cleanly appearance.
There are no forts or other defences to indicate that not so long ago
this town offered defiance and a short resistance to a European
squadron.
The Inland Sea has four chief divisions, which now commences to open out
before us, and is reckoned to possess some of the finest scenery in the
world. I had often wished to see it for myself; but I must confess I was
unprepared, even with an imagination not liable to surprise, at a
picture of nature's own producing, for such beauty and grandeur. For
hundreds of miles, day after day, we were borne past a moving diorama of
scenery unrivalled by anything here below. On a smooth blue sea, and
under a cloudless sky, onward we sped, passing, one after another, the
most delightful islets the eye ever dwelt on, each appearing to us a
perfect paradise in itself. Further on, indicated by a mere purple haze,
appeared others, and yet others, in almost endless perspective. I should
say the islands in this sea may be numbered by thousands.
Not many years since, strangers were debarred from using this passage. I
fancy I can imagine the impressions the first Europeans must have had of
this fairy land, of such a climate, such a soil, and such delightful
glades and woodlands!
On each of the larger islands we noticed snug temples, like miniature
Swiss chalets, embowered in woods--their peculiar architecture standing
out in relief from a tangled mass of vegetation.
The channels where there are so many islands as here are necessarily
intricate and dangerous; and as it would be to court danger to continue
our course after sundown, there are several well-marked anchorages where
it is customary to bring up at night. The first of these was a sheltered
bay with twin villages at its head, which I fancifully designated
Kingsand and Cawsand--the promontory forming one arm of the bay, looking
not unlike Penlee point--greatly adding to the conceit.
June 14th.--At noon we reached Kobé, or Hiogo, and let go our anchor far
out in what appears to be an open roadstead. This town is one of the
most recent of the treaty ports--in fact it and Osaca opposite, are the
last thrown open to trade; hence we shall probably find Kobé more
_native_ and less Europeanized than are the other towns we shall visit.
The native town is very extensive, reaching far back to the basis of the
hills, and well away to the left of the anchorage. To the right a
stretch of low-lying land, with its tiny fields of ripe grain, looks
very fine. This track leads to the water-falls--a prettier place for a
pic-nic and one more accommodating one can scarcely find. Between this
plain and the old town of Hiogo the Europeans have raised their pretty
picturesque dwellings. The streets here are very regular and well kept,
the trees planted along the sides giving the place quite a French
appearance.
There is at least one I was about to say magnificent street in the town,
with an extent of over two miles, along and in which all the bustle and
business are conducted. Notwithstanding its recent opening,
public-houses, with their alluring signs, have sprung up with
mushroom-like rapidity. One in particular I will just mention, not that
you are ever likely to forget "Good old Joe," but simply that you may
smile, when reading this over, at the willingness with which you were
led as lambs to the slaughter. I trust you escaped without the mark of
the butcher's knife.
After traversing about half the length of the street I mentioned before,
the traveller finds himself abreast of the Nanko temple, a large and
imposing structure having a wide and noble-looking entrance from the
street, and just now presenting a very festive and animated appearance.
On either side the really grand avenue to the temple a veritable fair is
being held, and such a spectacle was as welcome as it was unlooked for.
The amusements were so like those provided at similar gatherings at home
that the wonder is, that peoples separated by half a world of varied
civilization can possess the details of such festivities in common.
Confection stalls, wild beast shows, shooting galleries, archery
grounds, theatres, music halls, even a Japanese edition of the
thimble-and-pea business was not wanting. In one of the theatres we
visited, the acting, although considered good from a Japanese point of
view, possessed too many muscular contortions, too much contraction and
expansion of the facial organs, to please an English audience. Men do
all the acting, women never appear on the Japanese stage.
The music halls are not more enlivening than are the theatres, though
the sight of an interior is worth the ten _sen_ fee, if only to see
their manner of conducting the opera. If you imagine the interior of a
church, having all its pews removed, leaving only the cant pieces on
which they were erected, and the spaces between these pieces covered and
padded with the beautiful rice-straw matting of the country, you will
get a fairly good idea of the simple fittings of a Japanese music hall.
A whole family seats itself in one of these squares; and as a concert in
this country is really a formidable affair, they bring their braziers,
teapots, and chow-boxes with them. The performer--a lady--is seated,
tailor fashion, on a raised platform, a music desk in front of her, and
her musical instruments near at hand. The Japanese, like the Chinese,
sing from the throat, and the effect produced on the tympanum is that of
an amorous tom-cat chanting to his lady-love at midnight. The words she
is singing, and has been singing for the--a friend who was with me said
"_the last week_;" but knowing him to be a joker, I accept the statement
with caution--for the last six hours, and which she will probably
continue to sing for the next six, contain rather too much levity and
grossness, could we understand them, to be at all suitable even for
sailors. But her present audience receive them with the utmost
indifference, only betraying that they are at all conscious of what is
going on by an occasional clapping of the hands. Now and again the
singer has a spell and a libation of saki, an attendant keeping her
liberally supplied in this item, of which she manages to drink a
quantity during her song; and, by way of a change at these times, she
enters into a monologue or a recitation. Taken and viewed in an artistic
light, the audience in their rich gala dresses is a pleasing piece of
color and of harmonic contrasts.
Close to the temple a crowd is gathered around a horse box, in which is
a milk-white steed--sacred, of course. Before him a little table is
placed, covered with tiny saucers filled with beans; and the devout--and
we in particular--can have the puerile satisfaction of seeing him munch
his comfits in a strangely horselike manner for the small sum of a
"_sen_!" Near at hand are some more sacred creatures--hundreds of
turtles in a slimy pond rear their snake-like heads through the thick
green water for the pieces of biscuit and little red balls of prepared
food which the children are constantly flinging into their midst. These
reptiles, it may be remembered, form an important figure-subject in
Japanese carvings, paintings, and bronzes.
Within easy distance of Kobé, and connected with it by rail, are the
cities of Osaca and Kioto, the former being the seaport of the latter,
and, possibly, the greatest trade centre in the empire. It seems to be
built at the delta of a river; and as there are scores of bridges
spanning their several mouths, it has much the appearance of Venice.
Kioto is the sacred city of Japan, and contains, amongst other
interesting sights, a large temple, in which are no fewer than 33,333
gods! Yearly pilgrimages are made here; and to provide spiritual
ministrations for the thousands of pilgrims, it is said that the priests
form one-fifth of the entire population.
June 17th, to-day we completed with coal and started for Yokohama,
leaving the Inland Sea by its south eastern entrance and entering on the
broad bosom of the great Pacific. By the help of a splendid breeze we
are speedily clear of the Linschoten strait and in view of a strange
picture, for giant Fusi begins to rear his hoary head above the main.
At first it appears but a small conical shaped island, rising isolated
from the midst of the sea, and which in a few hours we shall reach. But
a few hours multiply into scores of hours, and still that island appears
at a tantalizing distance, and it is not until the main land comes into
view that we discover the misty island is no island at all, but a superb
mountain. It can be seen at an immense distance from the sea; we,
ourselves, are, at the very least, sixty miles from its base, and yet
how clearly distinct, how tangibly present, how boldly out-lined it
stands against the opal tints of the evening sky.
Fusi-yama--"the peerless," "the matchless," or "the unrivalled,"--is an
extinct volcano, on the island of Niphon, though, only a century since,
it was in active operation, and is said to have been brought into
existence in the space of a few days. Few sights are likely to leave
such an impression on one's mind, as solitary, graceful, cold looking
Fusi, which, clothed in a mantle of snow, may, not inaptly, be compared
to a grim sentinel guarding the destinies of a nation. But who shall
attempt a description of its glories as we saw it that evening at
sunset, and many an evening afterward, with the chance and transient
effect of light and shade playing on its pearly sides.
June 19.--The freshening gale soon rattled us past the town of Simoda,
and into the great bay of Yedo, with the volcano of Vries at its
entrance. Hundreds of queer-shaped junks and smaller craft, laden with
the produce of the busy nation, glide across the rolling seas with
duck-like motions, on their peaceful mission to the capital.
I have before had occasion to mention these unintelligible pieces of
naval architecture, but as they never before appeared to me at such
advantage as now, as they struggle up the wind across our track, I have
hitherto refrained from saying much about them. They are constructed
very sharp forward and very broad aft, with high, rising sterns
something after the manner of the Chinese junk, but far more picturesque
and compact than the sister country's vessel; and, so far as looks go, a
far more seaworthy craft than the latter. They carry an immense sail of
pure white canvas, save where a black cloth is let in--for contrast
perhaps--on the huge characters composing the owner's name, mar its fair
surface; and a stout, heavy mast placed well abaft the centre of the
vessel, and curved at its upper end, the better to form an overhanging
derrick to hoist the sail by. The sail is made of any number of cloths
laced together vertically--not sewn--by which method each cloth has a
bellying property and wrinkled appearance, independent of its
neighbours, thus the whole surface holds far more wind than one
continuous sheet would do. The vessels, despite their unnautical
appearance, sail well on a wind. Some writers have affirmed, that
instead of reefing as we do, and as is pretty universal all over the
world--namely, by reducing the perpendicular height of the sail--that
the Japanese accomplish this by taking in sail _at the sides_, or
laterally, by unlacing a cloth at a time. This seems to me highly
absurd, and is certainly not borne out by the testimony of my own
observation; and that they should not conform to the common usage of
maritime nations--both savage and civilized--in this particular is
improbable. Even the Chinese--who are generally admitted to be the most
_unconforming_ and irrational people in the world--reef their sails, at
least, in the orthodox way. Besides taking a practical view of the
matter, how are they in any sudden emergency, and with their limited
crews, to undo the elaborate lacing, without going out on the yard and
climbing _down_ the sail, unlacing as they go? So far as I am able to
judge, their method is a most simple and effective one, for all that
they do is to lower the sail, gather in the slack at the bottom, and as
there are several sheets up and down the breech of the sail, the thing
is done with the utmost facility.
The build of a junk's stern is somewhat peculiar, for there is a great
hollow which, apparently, penetrates the body of the vessel; a mode of
construction said to be due to an edict of one of the tycoons, to
prevent his subjects from leaving the country; for though it seems
incredible, these junks have been known to voyage to India. The sampan
has a similar faulty arrangement of stern. Though the people obeyed the
spirit of the law, they evaded the letter of it by placing sliding
watertight boards across the aperture.
By noon we had anchored off Yokohama, now a large and flourishing town,
and the chief naval and foreign trading port of Japan, though, before
the English arrived here in 1854, it was little more than a village.
Having got through the noise and smoke of salutes to no less than four
admirals, and other minor consular expenditures of gunpowder, we
prepared ourselves for a pleasurable stay in the sailor's paradise.
Perhaps no place in the round of sailors' visits, certainly none on this
station, offers so many inducements, so many and pleasing channels of
getting rid of money, as does Yokohama. Certain it is that the officers,
who form the banking committee on board, never complain of being over
worked, during a ship's stay in this harbour, and plethoric bank books
are frequently reduced to a sad and pitiable state of emaciation after
having "done" Yokohama and its vicinity.
The residences of the Europeans are situated out of the town on a rising
ground to the left, known as the Bluff. Here the merchants live in rural
magnificence, each with his mansion surrounded by its own park-like
grounds. The English and foreign naval hospitals are also situated in
this healthy and beautiful spot; and it was here, too, that our recent
marine contingent to Japan had their barrack.
The European concession is a small town in itself, and from the
nomenclature of the landing places it would appear that the English and
French claim the greatest interests here. These landing stages are
called, from the division of the settlement which they front, the
English and French "_Hatobahs_"--the "_atter bar_" of the sailor.
As this town is the great point of contest between the Japanese and the
foreigner, everything in the shape of "_curios_" can be obtained in its
marts and bazaars. Most of the objects are novel to us, and from their
attractiveness generally induce sailors to purchase on the strength of
that very quality. Except in very rare instances a piece of real lacquer
can scarcely be obtained, most of it having already found its way to
Europe; that which we see here is made chiefly for sailors, who needs
must take something home--they care not what, nor are they very
particular about the price asked. And how well these people have
studied the "tar;" how they have discovered his weakness for startling
colours! I am writing this about four years subsequent to this, our
first visit, and one would think, that four years was amply sufficient
for the purpose of opening our eyes to deceptions. Have they though? Not
a bit of it, for we are quite as ready to be "taken in" to-day or
to-morrow, as we were four years since. Still, there are some very
handsome and, now and then, really elegant things to be picked up in the
shops: bronzes, lacquers, china, tortoise-shell earrings, fans,
paintings, or silk, combining in their execution, the most educated
taste, and the most wonderful skill. Generally speaking a "Japper" after
naming a price will rarely retract. The Chinaman always will, the rogue!
The Japanese know this peculiarity of the Chinaman, and nothing will
wound a Jap's self-respect more than to compare his mode of dealing with
the celestial's.
They seem to enjoy arguing and chaffering over prices, and will
frequently go to the length of pulling down masses of paper, supposed to
be invoices, to shew that they are asking you fair. We pretend to
examine these inventories with a most erudite expression on our ignorant
faces, and invariably commence to open the wrong end of the book,
forgetful that the Japanese commence at what we call the last page. The
dealers display the utmost indifference as to whether you buy or not,
and you may pull their shops to pieces without raising their ire in the
slightest, for they will bow to you just as ceremoniously on leaving as
though you had purchased twenty dollars' worth.
Strange as Japanese art appears to us, there is design in all their
executions. This presents a marked contrast to Chinese art, which
appears to be simply the result of the artist's fancy. A Chinaman seems
to have no idea, when he commences a thing, what he is going to produce,
he goes on cutting and scraping, taking advantage of, here a vein in a
stone, perhaps, or there a knot in the gnarled branches of a tree, and
his imagination, distorted by the diabolical forms with which his
superstition surrounds him, does the rest.
* * * * *
And now I will ask you to take a run with me to Tokio, the capital of
Japan.
The hour's ride by rail conducts us through a pleasant, well cultivated
country. Fields of ripe grain, clusters of woods with cottages peeping
out of their bosky shades, and surrounded by stacks of hay and corn,
have, for the Englishman, a farm-like and altogether a home-like look.
The best and safest method to adopt on arriving at the terminus is to
hire rickshas of the company at the railway station, by so doing you are
saved from being victimised by the coolies, who are about as honest as
the Jehus of our own streets. You may employ them for as many hours as
you please, but to avoid fractions it is usual to engage them by the
day.
Until Japan was opened to foreigners, Tokio, or Yedo, was a mystery to
the civilized world. It was supposed to be fabulously large, and was
said to contain more inhabitants than any other metropolis in the world;
some accounts putting it down to as many as four millions. As regards
its extent, the city certainly does cover an immense space. Its
population, though, is but half that of London. Its large area is due,
perhaps, more to the manner in which it is laid out, than to anything
else--which is in the form of concentric circles, the mikado's palace,
or castle, occupying the centre. Around this dismal, feudal looking,
royal abode, the various embassies are erected; buildings which present
a far finer--because more modern and European--appearance than does the
imperial residence. Circling the whole is a large deep moat, the waters
of which are thickly studded with beautiful water lilies, and spanned by
several bridges. Then come the dingy and now disused houses and streets
of those powerful men of a by-gone age, the daimios. The whole aspect of
this question may be summed up in the word _desolation_. This, too, is
surrounded by a canal, or moat. Beyond this, again comes the city
proper, with its busy, bustling population.
We are entirely at the mercy of our "ricksha" men, and have not the
remotest idea of where they are driving us; but assuming they know more
about the city than we, this does not exercise us much. They rattle us
along over unevenly paved streets, and whiz us around corners with the
rapidity of thought; an uncomfortable sensation in the region of the
dorsal vertebræ, resulting from the unusual bumping process, and a fear
lest, haply, we may be flying out of our carriage at a tangent into
somebody's shop front, a pleasing reflection should we take a header
amongst china.
Our coolies had been directed to a quarter of the city called Shiba, and
here at length we find ourselves, and are shortly set down before one of
the grandest buddhist temples in Japan. How peacefully the great
building reposes in its dark casket of solemn fir trees! To reach the
main entrance, we traverse a broad pathway lined with praying lanterns
on either hand. These lanterns are stone pedestals, surmounted by a
hollow stone ball with a crescent shaped aperture in its surface,
through which, at night, the rays of light proceeding from _burning
prayers_ penetrate the gloom. Scores of tombs, containing the remains of
the defunct tycoons and their wives, fill the temple court; and as each
successive tycoon looked forward to reposing here after death, during
life he richly embellished it, and endeavoured to make it worthy to
receive so august a body as his own.
A bald-headed priest, standing at the great entrance, bids us remove our
shoes and follow him. He conducts us up grand stair cases, through
corridors, into courtyards, chapels, and sanctuaries; unlocks recesses,
and produces sacred vessels of massive gold work of vast antiquity and
splendid design, intimating to us that these are for the sole use of the
mikado, when he assumes his priestly office. Here we get our first idea
of what real lacquer means. Our bonze brought out a small lacquered
cubical box, of a dull gold colour, and about four inches in height, and
gave us to understand that it could not be purchased for 500 dollars!
Just fancy! And then the carving, gilding, colouring, and lacquer,
everywhere, is something beyond description. Even the very floors on
which we tread, the stairs, the hand-rails, are all gorgeous with
vermilion lacquer. One sanctuary is really resplendent, its vessel's
mouldings and ornaments being of dead gold work, wrought in all kinds of
emblematical designs and shapes. I feel assured that no thoughtful man
can visit Shiba's temple without being impressed with the high
perfection to which the Japanese have attained in the arts; a perfection
which the foreign mind can rarely grasp. After a donation to the polite
bonze--which he receives on a gold salver and lays on the altar--we
encase our feet in leather once more, and leave the sacred precincts. We
may possibly never have the opportunity of paying Shiba a second visit;
but the privilege of having done so once is--to a man of research--a
liberal education in itself.
The streets and their busy throng are very gay and lively. Hosts of
healthy-looking and prettily clad children are running here, there, and
everywhere in pursuit of their kites, and other childish amusements.
Vendors hawking their wares, as at home; the shrill melancholy whistle
of the blind shampooer who, with a staff in one hand and a short bamboo
pipe in the other, thus apprises people of his willingness to attend on
them; ladies bowing and "sayonaraing" each other in musical tones; the
encouraging voice of the driver to his jaded ox; and the warning "a--a"
of the _ricksha_ man; these are the music of the streets in "the land of
the rising sun."
The city can boast in the possession of several very fine and extensive
parks, that in which the Naval College is situate being one of the
largest. Here the youthful Japanese officers of the navy were educated
by English instructors in all the branches and requirements of the
modern naval service, and some of the work we saw in the different parts
of the building shews that the Japanese have become thorough masters of
the technicalities, and no mean adepts at their practical application.
All the foreign instructors--except one--have now been discharged, the
Japanese feeling themselves strong enough to walk alone in naval
matters. That one exception is a chief gunner's mate, who so rarely uses
the English language that, on conversing with us, he had frequently to
pause to consider what words he should make use of, and even then his
English was broken, and spoken just as a native would speak it.
On the return ride to Yokohama I was fortunate enough to find myself
seated next a gentleman who has been resident in Japan upwards of
twenty-five years, during which period he has travelled throughout the
length and breadth of the empire. As may be imagined he was a repository
of much valuable and varied information. He could hoist out facts and
figures as easily as you would fling a weevily biscuit to leeward. From
his conversation with me I gained much knowledge about Japan, which it
was impossible I could have acquired in any other way, and all of which
I have embodied in various parts of this narrative.
The manner in which the natural taste is assimilating itself to European
ideas appears more evident when one comes to observe the hundreds of
Japanese who take advantage of the railway. Stop at what station you
like, you will find the platform suddenly alive with gaily dressed and
clogged passengers, on pleasure bent, loaded with toys or wares that
have been purchased, in the gay capital.
A few days after the above events the Japanese squadron of smart
corvettes, and the large ironclad "Foo-soo" (Great Japan, as we say
Great Britain,) got under way and proceeded to sea. It was rumoured that
the mikado was to have accompanied in his yacht, and in anticipation of
his embarkation all the men-of-war in harbour dressed ship, though, as
it turned out, he did not put in an appearance.
July 3rd.--General Grant arrived this morning in the corvette
"Richmond," and escorted by a Japanese man-of-war. All ships, except the
English and German, dressed in honour of the American flag, which the
corvette flew at her main. The two nationalities I have mentioned seem
to have offered a marked discourtesy to the general, the German
especially so, for just as the "Richmond" was about to anchor the "Prinz
Adalbert" broke the German royal standard at her royal mast head, which,
as it were, blew the charges out of guns already loaded for the
American. The "Adalbert" has Prince Heinrich, the second son of our
Princess Royal, on board as a midshipman; hence the standard.
It would appear that the slight passed on Jonathan did not go entirely
unnoticed by him, for in the evening, at sunset, when, as is customary
with that nation, her band played her colours down and then the national
anthems, it was noticed that the English and German tunes were
studiously omitted.
But the "Richmond" had taken up a bad billet to anchor in, and to find a
more secure one she steamed out to the entrance of the harbour and made
a wide sweep before returning. Some of our jocular shipmates had quite a
different view of this proceeding, for, if we are to believe them, the
American went out to take the turn out of her flags, or to allow her
ship's company to bathe, the waters of the harbour being too shallow for
the latter purpose!
Unwillingly my pen has once again to trace the lines which are to record
the death of another of our poor fellows, Frederick Smyth, a stoker.
Returning from leave in one of the open, dangerous, shallow boats of the
place, and perhaps slightly the worse for liquor, the unfortunate man
fell overboard, his body not being recovered until some days after the
sad event.
July 22nd.--Up anchor once more! Onward is our motto, nor are we
particularly sorry to be on the move, for I think everybody is surfeited
with Yokohama, and perhaps the fact that everybody's money is all gone,
has something to do with our eagerness to be off. So, boys, "We'll go to
sea for more," as the old tars did. Just as the anchor was a-trip two
royal personages came on board, the Princes Arisugawa--father and son;
the father being the commander-in-chief of the Japanese army; the son a
"midshipmite" in the Imperial navy. They were attended by their suite
and Sir Harry Parkes, the British ambassador at Tokio. We took them a
short distance to sea with us, and after seeing one or two evolutions
they returned to Yokohama in the "Vigilant," whilst we resumed our
voyage.