consul, Herr BAVIER, to a boat excursion up the river which
debouches at Tokio. At its mouth it is very broad and deep, and it
branches somewhat farther up into several streams which are
navigable by the shallow boats of the Japanese. With the present
limited development of roads and railways in Japan, this river and
its tributaries form the most important channels of communication
between the capital and the interior of the country. During our row
we constantly met with boats laden with provisions on their way to,
or with goods on their way from, the town. The pleasant impression
of these and of the remarkable environs of the river is sometimes
disturbed by a bad odour coming from a passing boat, and reminding
us of the care with which the Japanese remove human excreta, the
most important manure of their well-cultivated land. Along the banks
of the river there are numerous restaurants and tea-houses. At long
intervals we see a garden on the banks, which has belonged to some
of the former Daimio palaces. The restaurants and tea-houses are
generally intended only for the Japanese; and Europeans, although
they pay many times more than the natives, are not admitted. The
reason of this is to be found in our manners, which are coarse and
uncultivated in the eyes of the natives. "The European walks with
his dirty boots on the carpets, spits on the floor, is uncivil to
the girls, &c." Thanks to the letters of introduction from natives
acquainted with the restaurant-keepers, I have been admitted to
their exclusive places, and it must be admitted that everything
there was so clean, neat, and orderly, that even the best European
restaurants cannot compare with them. When a visitor enters a
Japanese restaurant which is intended exclusively for the Japanese,
he must always take off his boots at the stair else he gets
immediately into disfavour. He is received with bended knee by the
host and all the attendants, male, but principally female, and then
he is almost always surrounded by a number of young girls constantly
laughing and chattering. These girls have commonly sold themselves
to the restaurant-keeper for a certain time, during which they carry
on a life which, according to European standards of morality, is not
very commendable. When the time fixed in the agreement has passed,
they return to their homes and marry, without having sunk in any way
in the estimation of their relatives. But those are unfortunate who,
in any of the towns that are not yet opened to foreigners, carry on
a love intrigue with a European. They are then openly pointed out,
even in the newspapers, as immoral, and their respectability is
helplessly gone. Formerly they were even in such cases severely
punished.
[Illustration: JAPANESE LADY AT HER TOILETTE. ]
All women of the lower classes, and even most of the higher, wear
the Japanese dress. The more distinguished ladies are often
exceedingly beautiful, they have in particular beautiful necks.
Unfortunately they are often disfigured by paint, for which the
ladies here appear to have a strong liking. The dress of the younger
women, even among the poor, is carefully attended to; it is not
showy but tasteful, and nearly the same for all classes. Their
manners are very attractive and agreeable. The women of the upper
classes already begin to take part in the social life of the
Europeans, and all European gentlemen and ladies with whom I have
conversed on this point agree in stating that there is no difficulty
in the way of a Japanese woman leaving the narrow circle to which
she was formerly confined, and entering with pleasure and womanly
dignity into European society. She appears to be born "a lady."
On the 20th and 21st September the Governor of Yokohama had arranged
an excursion for me, Dr. Stuxberg, and Lieut. Nordquist, to the
sacred island or peninsula Enoshima, situated at a short distance
from the town. We first travelled some English miles along the
excellent road Tokaido, one of the few highways in Japan passable in
carriages. Then we travelled in _jinrikishas_ to the famous image of
Buddha (Daibutsu) at Kamakura[374], and visited the Shinto chief
priest living in the neighbourhood and his temple.
The priest was fond of antiquities, and had a collection, not very
large indeed, but composed almost entirely of rarities. Among other
things he showed us sabres of great value, a head ornament
consisting of a single piece of nephrite which he valued at 500
_yen_,[373] a number of old bronzes, mirrors, &c. We were received
as usual with Japanese tea and sweetmeats. The priest himself took
us round his temple. No images were to be seen here, but the walls
were richly carved and ornamented with a number of drawings and
gildings. The innermost wall of the temple was fenced by heavy doors
provided with secure locks and bolts, within which "the divine
spirit dwelt," or within which "there was nothing else," as the
priest phrased it on another occasion.
Enoshima is a little rocky peninsula, which is connected with the
mainland by a low, sandy neck of land. Occasionally this neck of
land has been broken through or overflowed, and the peninsula has
then been converted into an island. It is considered sacred, and is
studded with Shinto temples. On the side of the peninsula next the
mainland there is a little village, consisting of inns, tea-houses,
and shops for pilgrims' and tourists' articles, among which are
beautiful shells, and the fine siliceous skeleton of a sponge,
_Hyalonema mirabilis_, Gray. Here I lived for the first time in a
Japanese inn of the sort to which Europeans in ordinary
circumstances are not admitted. I was accompanied by two officials
from the governor's court at Yokohama, and it was on their assurance
that I did not belong to the common sort of uncultivated and
arrogant foreigners that the host made no difficulty in receiving
us.
After we had at our entrance saluted the people of the inn and
passed some time in the exchange of civilities, there came a girl,
and, in a kneeling posture, offered the foreigners Japanese tea,
which is always handed round in very small cups only half full. Then
we took off our shoes and went into the guest-chamber. Such chambers
in the Japanese inns are commonly large and dazzlingly clean.
Furniture is completely wanting but the floor is covered with mats
of plaited straw. The walls are ornamented with songs suitable for
the place, or mottoes, and with Japanese paintings. The rooms are
separated from each other by thin movable panels, which slide in
grooves, which can be removed or replaced at will. One may,
therefore, as once happened to me, lay himself down to sleep in a
very large room, and, if he sleeps sound, awake in the morning in a
very small one. The room generally looks out on a Japanese
garden-inclosure, or if it is in the upper story, on a small
balcony. Immediately outside there is always a vessel filled with
water and a scoop. Generally on one side of the room there is a
wall-press, in which the bed-clothes are kept. Those, the only
household articles in the room, consist of a thick mat, which is
spread on the floor, a round cushion for the head, or instead of it
a wooden support, stuffed on the upper side, for the neck during
sleep, and a thick stuffed night-shirt which serves at covering.
[Illustration: A JINRIKISHA. ]
[Illustration: JAPANESE BEDROOM. ]
As soon as one comes in the female attendants distribute
four-cornered cushions for sitting on, which are placed on the floor
round a wooden box, on one corner of which stands a little brazier,
on the other a high clay vessel of uniform breadth, with water in
the bottom, which serves as a spittoon and tobacco-ash cup. At the
same time tea is brought in anew, in the small cups previously
described, with saucers, not of porcelain, but of metal. Pipes are
lighted, and a lively conversation commences. Along with the tea
sweetmeats are brought in, of which, however, some cannot be
relished by Europeans. The brazier forms the most important
household article of the Japanese. Braziers are very variable in
size and shape, but are often made in an exceedingly beautiful and
tasteful way, of cast-iron or bronze, with gilding and raised
figures. Often enough, however, they consist only of a clay crock.
The Japanese are very skilful in keeping up fire in them without the
least trace of fumes being perceptible in the room. The fuel
consists of some well-burned pieces of charcoal, which lie imbedded
in white straw-ashes, with which the fire-pan is nearly filled to
the brim. When some glowing coals are laid in such ashes they retain
their heat for hours, until they are completely consumed. In every
well-furnished house there are a number of braziers of different
sizes, and there are often four-cornered hatches in the floor, which
conceal a stone foundation intended as a base for the large brazier,
over which the food is cooked.
At meal-times all the dishes are brought in at the same time on
small lacquered tables, about half a foot high, and with a surface
of four square feet. The dishes are placed in lacquered cups, less
frequently in porcelain cups, and carried to the mouth with
chop-sticks, without the help of knife, fork, or spoon. For fear of
the fish-oils, which are used instead of butter, I never dared to
test completely the productions of the Japanese art of cookery; but
Dr. Almquist and Lieut. Nordquist, who were more unprejudiced, said
they could put up with them very well. The following _menu_ gives an
idea of what a Japanese inn of the better class has to offer:--
Vegetable soup.
Boiled rice, sometimes with minced fowl.
Boiled fish or raw fish with horse-radish.
Vegetables with fish-sauce.
Tea.
Soy is used to the fish. The rice is brought in hot in a wooden
vessel with a lid, and is distributed in abundance, but the other
dishes in extremely small portions. After meals, especially in the
evening, the Japanese often drink warm _saki_, or rice-brandy, out
of peculiar porcelain bottles and small cups set apart for that
purpose alone.
During the meal one is commonly surrounded by a numerous _personnel_
of female attendants, squatted down on the floor, who keep up with
the guest, if he understands their language, a lively conversation,
interrupted by salvoes of hearty laughter. The girls remain while
the man undresses in the evening, and permit themselves to make
remarks on the difference of the _physique_, of the Europeans and
Japanese, which are not only, in our way of thinking, unsuitable for
young girls, but even impertinent towards the guest. The male
attendants are seldom seen, at least in the inner apartments. In the
morning one washes himself in the yard or on the balcony, and if he
wishes to avoid getting into disfavour, the guest will be careful
not to spill anything or spit on the mat.
The Japanese tobacco-pipe now in use resembles that of the Chukches,
is very small, and is smoked out in a couple of whiffs. A Japanese
smokes without stopping a score of pipes in succession.
Tobacco-smoking is now very general among high and low of both
sexes. It was introduced at the close of the sixteenth century, it
is uncertain whether from Corea or from the Portuguese possessions
in Asia, and spread with great rapidity. As among us, it here too at
first gave occasion to stringent prohibitions, and a lively exchange
of writings for and against. In a work by the learned Japanologist,
Mr. E.M. SATOW ("The Introduction of Tobacco into Japan,"
_Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan_, vol vi. part i. p.
68), the following statements among others are made on this
subject:--
"In 1609 there were in the capital two clubs whose main
delight was to contrive quarrels with peaceful citizens.
Upwards of fifty of the members of these clubs were
suddenly arrested and thrown into prison; but justice was
satisfied when four or five of the leaders were executed,
the rest were pardoned. As these societies were originally
smoking clubs, the tobacco-plant came by the bad behaviour
of their members into disrepute, and its use was
prohibited. At that time tobacco was smoked in long pipes,
which were stuck in the belt like a sword, or carried after
the smoker by an attendant. In 1612 a proclamation was
published in which tobacco-smoking and all trade in tobacco
were prohibited, under penalty of forfeiture of estate. The
prohibition was repeated several times, with as little
success as in Europe."
[Illustration: TOBACCO SMOKERS. Japanese drawing. ]
Mr. Satow further gives the following peculiar extracts
from a Japanese work, which enumerates the advantages and
disadvantages that are connected with tobacco-smoking:--
"_A_--ADVANTAGES.
"1. It dispels the vapours and increases the energies."
"2. It is good to produce at the beginning of a feast."
"3. It is a companion in solitude."
"4. It affords an excuse for resting now and then from
work, as if in order to take breath."
"5. It is a storehouse of reflection, and gives time for the
fumes of wrath to dispense."
"_B_--DISADVANTAGES
"1. There is a natural tendency to hit people over the head
with one's pipe in a fit of anger."[376]
"2. The pipe comes sometimes to be used for arranging the
burning charcoal in the brazier."
"3. An inveterate smoker has been known to walk about
among the dishes with his pipe in his mouth."
"4. People knock the ashes out of their pipes while still
alight and forget to extinguish the fire."
"5. Hence clothing and mats are frequently scorched by
burning tobacco ash."
"6. Smokers spit indiscriminately in braziers, foot-warmers,
and kitchen fires."
"7. Also in the crevices between the floor-mats."
"8. They rap the pipe violently on the edge of the brazier."
"9. They forget to have the ash-pot emptied till it is full
to overflowing."
"10. They use the ash-pot as nose-paper (_i.e._ they blow their
nose into the ash-pot)".
As during our stay at Enoshima as the governor's guests we were
constantly attended by two officials from his court, I considered it
my duty to show myself worthy of the honour by a liberal
distribution of drink-money. This is not given to the attendants,
but is handed, wrapped up in paper, and accompanied by some choice
courteous expressions, to the host himself. He on his part makes a
polite speech with apologies that all had not been so well arranged
as his honoured guest had a right to expect. He accompanies the
traveller on his departure a shorter or longer distance in
proportion to the amount of drink-money and the way in which his
guest has behaved.
[Illustration: ITO-KESKE. A Japanese Editor of Thunberg's writings. ]
It is a specially praiseworthy custom among the Japanese to
allow the trees in the neighbourhood of the temples to stand
untouched. Nearly every temple, even the most inconsiderable,
is therefore surrounded by a little grove, formed of the most
splendid pines, particularly Cryptomeria and Ginko, which often
wholly conceal the small, decayed, and ill-kept wooden hut which
is dedicated to some of the deities of Buddha or Shinto.
On the 23rd September the Europeans and Japanese of Yokohama gave a
dinner and ball for us in the hall of the English club. It was
beautifully lighted and decorated. Among other things there were to
be seen on a wall portraits of Berzelius and Thunberg, surrounded by
garlands of greenery. The latter has a high reputation in Japan. His
work on the flora of the country has lately been published in a
Japanese edition with a wood-cut portrait, by no means bad, of the
famous Swedish naturalist,[377] engraved in Japan; and a monument to
his and Kaempfer's memory is to be found at Nagasaki, erected there
at the instance of von Siebold.[378] The chairman of the feast was
Dr. GEERTZ, a Dutchman, who had lived a long time in the country and
published several valuable works on its natural productions.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO THUNBERG AND KAEMPFER AT NAGASAKI. ]
On the 26th September I started for Tokio, in order thence to
undertake a journey proposed and arranged by the Danish consul, Herr
Bavier, to Asamayama, a yet active volcano in the interior of the
country. In consequence of an unexpected death among the European
consuls at Yokohama, Herr Bavier, however, could not join us until
the day after that which had been fixed for our departure. The 27th
accordingly was passed in Tokio among other things, in seeing the
beautiful collections of antiquities made by the _attache_ of the
Austrian legation, Herr H. VON SIEBOLD, son of the famous naturalist
of the same name. Japan has also, like most other lands, had its
Stone Age, from which remains are found at several places in the
country, both on Yezo and on the more southerly islands. Implements
from this period are now collected assiduously both by natives and
Europeans, and have been described by H. von Siebold in a work
accompanied by photographic illustrations. In general the implements
of the Japanese stone folk have a resemblance to the stone tools
still in use among the Eskimo, and even in this fruitful land the
primitive race, as the bone remains in the kitchen-middens show,
lived at first mainly by hunting and fishing.
[Footnote 372: The Dutch had permission in former times to send some
vessels annually to Nagasaki. By Perry's treaty, signed on the 31st
March, 1854, Shimoda and Hakodate were opened to the Americans.
Finally, by new treaties with the United States and various European
powers, the harbours Kanagava (Yokohama), Nagasaki, Hakodate,
Niigata, Hiogo, and Osaka, were assigned for commerce with
foreigners. ]
[Footnote 373: At first it strikes a European as if all the Japanese
had about the same appearance, but when one has got accustomed to
the colour of the skin and the traits of the race, the features of
the Japanese appear as various in form and expression as those of
Europeans. ]
[Footnote 374: At the close of the twelfth century this now
inconsiderable town was the residence of Joritomo, the founder of
the Shogun power, and the arranger of the Japanese feudal system. ]
[Footnote 375: Five _yen_ are about equal to 1 pound sterling. ]
[Footnote 376: The Japanese pipes are now so small that no serious
results from this disadvantage are to be dreaded. In former times
the pipes used were long and probably heavy. The Dyaks of Borneo
still use pipes so heavy that they may be used as weapons. ]
[Footnote 377: The work bears the title _Tai-sei-hon-zo-mei-so_
(short list of European plant-names), by Ito-Keske, 1829, 3 vols. ]
[Footnote 378: Carl Peter Thunberg, born at Joenkoeping in 1743, famed
for his travels in South Africa, Japan, &c., and for a number of
important scientific works, finally Professor at Upsala, died in
1828. Engelbert Kaempfer, born in Westphalia in 1651, was secretary
of the embassy that started from Sweden to Persia in 1683. Kaempfer,
however, did not return with the embassy, but continued his travels
in the southern and eastern parts of Asia, among them, even to
Japan, which he visited in 1690-92, he died in 1716. Kaempfer's and
Thunberg's works, together with the great work of von Siebold, who
erected the monument to them, form the most important sources of the
knowledge of the Japan that once was. ]
CHAPTER XVII.
Excursion to Asamayama--The Nakasendo road--Takasaki--
Difficulty of obtaining quarters for the night--The Baths
at Ikaho--Massage in Japan--Swedish matches--Travelling
in _Kago_--Savavatari--Criminals--Kusatsu--The Hot Springs
and their healing power--Rest at Rokuriga-hara--The summit
of Asamayama--The descent--Journey over Usui-toge--
Japanese actors--Pictures of Japanese folk-life--
Return to Yokohama.
On the 28th September, early in the morning, accompanied by Lieut.
Hovgaard, Herr Bavier, an interpreter, and a Japanese cook skilled
in European cookery, I started on a journey to Asamayama. At first
we travelled in two very rattling and inconvenient carriages, drawn
each by a pair of horses, to the town Takasaki, situated on the
great road "Nakasendo," which passes through the interior of the
country and connects Tokio and Kioto. This road is considered
something grand by the Japanese. In Sweden it would be called an
indifferently kept district road. On this road _jinrikishas_ are met
in thousands, and a great many horses, oxen, and men, _bearing_
heavy burdens, but with the exception of the posting carriages, by
which, for some years back, a regular communication between Tokio
and Takasaki has been kept up, not a single wheeled vehicle drawn by
horses or oxen, and though the road passes through an unbroken
series of populous villages, surrounded by well cultivated rice
fields and small gardens, there is not a single workhorse or work-ox
to be seen. For all the ground in Japan is cultivated by the hand,
and there are few cattle.
Most of the roads in the country consist of foot-paths, so narrow
that two laden horses can pass each other only with difficulty.
Goods are therefore carried, where there is no canal or river, for
the most part by men. The plains are extraordinarily well
cultivated, and we must specially admire the industry with which
water-courses have been cut and the uneven slopes changed into level
terraces.
The post-horses on Nakasendo were so poor and wretched that in
Sweden one would have been liable to punishment for cruelty to
animals for using them. They went, however, at a pretty good speed.
There were places for changing horses at regular distances of
fifteen to twenty kilometres. The driver besides halted often on the
way at some dwelling-house to take a couple of scoopfuls of water
out of the water-vessel standing before it and throw them into the
horses' mouths and between their hind-legs. The opportunity was
always taken advantage of by the girls of the house to come out and
offer the travellers a small cup of Japanese tea, an act of courtesy
that was repaid with some friendly words and a copper coin.
When we visited any of the peasants' gardens by the wayside we were
always received with extreme friendliness, either on a special dais
in the common room looking to the road, or in an inner room whose
floor was covered with a mat of dazzling whiteness, and on whose
walls hung pictures, with songs and mottoes. The brazier was brought
forward, tea and sweetmeats were handed round, all with lively
conversation and frequent bows. The difference between the palace of
the rich (if we may distinguish with the name any building in Japan)
and the dwelling of the less well-to-do is much smaller here than in
Europe. We did not see any beggars in our journey into the interior
of the country.[379] Nor did the distraction of class appear to be
so sharp as might be expected in a land where the evils of rank had
been so great as in Old Japan. We several times saw in the inns by
the roadside, people of condition who were travelling in
_jinrikishas_ eat their rice and drink their _saki_ together with
the coolies who were drawing their vehicles.
To judge by the crowds of children who swarmed everywhere along the
roads the people must be very prolific. A girl of eight or ten years
of age was seldom to be seen without another young one bound on her
back. This burden did not appear to trouble the sister or attendant
very much. Without giving herself any concern about the child or
thinking of its existence, she took part actively in games, ran
errands, &c.
Even in the interior of the country foreigners are received with
great friendliness. The lower classes in Japan have also reason for
this, for whatever influence the latest political changes may have
had on the old _kuge_, _daimio_, and _samurai_ families of Japan, the
position of the cultivator of the soil is now much more secure than
before, when he was harmed by hundreds of small tyrants. His dress
is the same as before, with the exception, however, that a great
proportion of the male population, even far into the interior, have
laid aside the old troublesome way of collecting the hair in a knot
over a close shaven spot on the crown of the head. Instead, they
wear their thick raven-black hair cut short in the European style.
How distinctive of the new period this change is may be seen from
the eagerness with which the Japanese authorities questioned GOLOVIN
about the religious and political revolutions which they assumed to
have been connected with the change in the European mode of wearing
the hair during the commencement of the nineteenth century, for the
Russian ambassador LAXMAN, who was highly esteemed by the Japanese,
had worn a pig-tail and powdered hair, while Golovin and his
companions had their hair unpowdered and cut short.[380] When it is
warm the workmen wear only a small, generally light-blue, girdle
round the waist and between the legs. Otherwise they are naked.
They are thus seen to be in many cases strongly tattooed over the
greater part of the body. I have not seen the women working naked.
They perhaps do so at the warmest season of the year. At least they
do not refrain from undressing completely while bathing right in
the midst of a crowd of men known and unknown, a state of things
which at first, in consequence of the power of prejudice, shocks
the European, but to which even the former prude gets accustomed
sooner than one would suppose. We even frequently see European
ladies drawn in a _jinrikisha_ by a youth completely naked with the
exception of the blue girdle. Many, especially of the younger men,
have besides so well-formed a body, that the sculptor who could
accurately reproduce it in marble would at once attain a reputation
co-extensive with the globe.
Takasaki is the residence of a governor, with a population of about
20,000; but, like most of the towns of Japan, it differs little
from many of the villages we passed through. We arrived late in the
evening, and there had our first and last experience of an
inconvenience of which Europeans often complain in travelling in
Japan, and to which they have themselves given occasion by the
offensive way in which they not unfrequently behave. We knocked at
the door of one inn after another without being received. At one
place "the house was full," at another "the rooms were under
repair," at a third "the inn people were out," &c. At last we had
to apply to the police. When we had shown them our passport, we
succeeded with their help in getting a night's lodging with an
elderly host, who received us with a countenance which clearly
indicated that he would rather have hewn us in pieces with one of
the two swords he had formerly as _samurai_ been entitled to wear,
than received us under his roof. After our entrance he still turned
to the police official with the cry of lamentation: "Must I then
actually receive these barbarians?" But we had our revenge in a
noble way. We took off our boots before we entered the room, were so
profuse with talk, civilities, and bows, and on the whole behaved in
such a courteous fashion, that our previously distracted host not
only bade us welcome back, but also gave us a letter of introduction
to the innkeepers at an inn where we were to stay next, declaring
that if we showed this letter we need not fear any such disagreeable
adventure as that just described.
Most of the houses in the Japanese towns are built of pretty thin,
carefully joined timbers. But besides these there are to be seen
here and there small houses with very thick walls, windows provided
with heavy iron gratings, and doors that could be fastened with
large locks and bolts. These houses are fire-resisting, and are used
as storehouses for valuables and household articles when there is
danger of fire. Fires are so common in Japan that it is supposed
that a tenth part of every town is burned down yearly. The fireman
corps is numerous, well ordered from old times, its members bold and
daring. During our stay overnight at Takasaki we were lodged in such
a fireproof house, in very large clean apartments with the floor
partly covered with carpets after the European pattern. The walls
were very thick and of brick, the interior fittings and stairs on
the other hand of wood.
I have just mentioned that we were compelled to resort to the police
in order to obtain quarters for the night. Policemen are numerous in
Japan, both in town and country. For the most part they are taken
from the former _samurai_ class. They are clothed in the European
style, and walk, with a long stick in a certain position under the
arm, quietly and calmly on the streets and roads, without, except in
cases of necessity, making any show of their authority. Commonly
they are, or appear to be, young, and all have a gentlemanlike
appearance. In a word, they appear to be equal to the best European
police of the present day, and stand immeasurably above the guardian
of the peace, or rather the raiser of dispeace, as he appeared some
decades ago on the European continent. During the latest revolt the
police were employed by the Government as infantry, and elicited
general admiration by the fire, the gallantry, and the contempt of
death with which they went into action with their old favourite
weapon, the Japanese sword.
A passport is still required for travelling in the interior of the
country, but this is easily obtained at the request of the consul if
health or the wish to prosecute researches be given as the reason,
it being possible perhaps to include common love of travelling under
the latter head. Commercial travelling is not yet permitted in the
interior, nor is the right of settling for the purpose of carrying
on business granted to Europeans. The foreign ambassadors have often
entered into negotiations in order to bring about a change on this
point, but hitherto without success, because the Government, as a
condition for the complete opening of the country, require the
abrogation of the unreasonable "extraterritorial" arrangement which
is in force, and by which the foreigner is not subject to the common
laws and courts of Japan, but to the laws of his own country,
administered by consular courts. An alteration in this point may
however be brought about in a short time, as Japan will soon be
sufficiently powerful to be able to abrogate all the injurious
paragraphs in her treaties with the civilised countries of Europe.
Now, besides, the ambassadors of the foreign powers, who in former
times all acted together, have divided into two parties, of which
one--Russia and America--wishes, or at least feigns to wish,
gradually to free Japan from all tutelage and to place it on an
equality with other civilised countries, the other again--England,
Germany, Holland, and France--wishes still to retain the
guardianship, which was established by violence, and confirmed by
treaty several years ago.
Shortly before our arrival a quarrel took place between Japan and
the European powers about, as the Japanese themselves said, a breach
of international law, which caused much irritation in the country. A
German vessel coming from Nagasaki, where the cholera was raging, on
the advice of the German minister broke the quarantine prescribed by
the Government, and without further precautions discharged her cargo
in the harbour of Yokohama. That the cholera in this town was
thereby _made worse_ is indeed not only unproved but also
undoubtedly incorrect, though many Japanese in their irritation
positively affirmed that this was the case, but the words that were
uttered by Japan's _feted_ guest, ex-President General GRANT,[381]
that the Japanese Government had the right without more ado to sink
the vessel, have left a memory in the minds both of the Government
and of the people, which may in the future lead them to a perhaps
unwise but fully justified exertion of their strength were such a
deed to be repeated.
The first impression of the Japanese, both men and women, is
exceedingly pleasant, but many Europeans who have lived a
considerable time in the country say that this impression is not
maintained, a circumstance which in my belief depends more on the
Europeans themselves than on the Japanese. For the European
merchants are said not to find it so easy to cut gold here with a
case-knife as before, and the ambassadors of the Great Powers find
it day by day more difficult to maintain their old commanding
standpoint towards a government which knows that a great future is
before the country, if inconsiderate ambition or unlooked-for
misfortune do not unexpectedly hinder its development. Another
reproach, that the Japanese can imitate what another has done, but
is unable himself to invent anything new, appears on the other hand
to be justified in the meantime. But it is unreasonable to demand
that a nation should not only in a few decades pass through a
development for which centuries have been required in Europe, but
also immediately reach the summit of the knowledge of our time so as
to be at the same time creative. But it would be wonderful, if the
natural science, literature, and art of the nineteenth century,
transplanted among a gifted people, with a culture so peculiar and
so pervasive, and with an art-sense so developed as those of Japan,
did not in time produce new, splendid, and unexpected fruit. The
same irresistible necessity which now drives the Japanese to learn
all that the European and the American know, will, when he has
reached that goal, spur him on to go further up the Nile river of
research.
A short distance beyond Takasaki the road to the volcano to which we
were on our way, was no longer along Nakasendo, and we could
therefore no longer continue our journey in carriages drawn by
horses, but were compelled to content ourselves with _jinrikishas_.
In these, on the 29th of September, we traversed in five and a half
hours the very hilly road to Ikaho, noted for its baths, situated at
a height of 700 metres above the sea. The landscape here assumes a
quite different stamp. The road which before ran over an unbroken
plain, thickly peopled, and cultivated like a garden, now begins to
pass between steep uncultivated hills, overgrown with tall, uncut,
withered grass, separated by valleys in which run purling rivulets,
nearly concealed by exceedingly luxuriant bushy thickets. Ikaho is
celebrated for the warm, or more correctly hot, springs which well
up from the volcanic hills which surround the little town, which is
beautifully situated on a slope. As at the baths of Europe, invalids
seek here a remedy for their ailments, and the town therefore
consists almost exclusively of hotels, baths, and shops for the
visitors. The baths are situated, partly in large open wooden sheds,
where men and women bathe together without distinction, partly in
private houses. In every bath there is a basin one metre in depth,
to which a constant stream of water is conducted from some of the
hot springs. The spring water has of course cooled very much before
it is used, but is still so hot notwithstanding that I could only
with difficulty remain in it a couple of seconds.
In the streets of the town we often met blind persons who walked
about very safely without any attendant, only feeling their way with
a long bamboo. They blew a short pipe now and then to warn
passers-by of their presence. I thought at first that these
unfortunates were trying to regain the sight of the eye at the hot
springs, but on inquiring whether the water was beneficial in that
respect, I was informed that they were not there as seekers after
health, but as "massageurs" (shampooers). Massage has been in use in
Japan for several centuries back, and therefore persons are often to
be met with in the streets offering their services as massageurs,
crying in the streets in about the same way as the fruit-sellers in
Russia.
The inn where we lodged for the night, consisted as usual of a
number of very clean rooms covered with mats, without furniture, but
ornamented with songs and mottoes on the walls. One would live here
exceedingly well, if like the Japanese he could manage to live
wholly on the floor and conform carefully to the indispensable
rules, an observance which besides is necessary, because otherwise
the inmate is exposed to a very unfriendly reception not only from
his host but also from the attendants. An inconvenience in
travelling in Japan is the difficulty a European has in accustoming
himself to the dietary of the Japanese. Bread they do not use, nor
meat, but their food consists mainly of rice and fish, with fowls,
fruit, mushrooms, sweetmeats, Japanese tea, &c., in addition. Fish
is generally eaten raw, and in that case is said to differ little in
taste from our pickled salmon. The food is not unfrequently cooked
with fish oils of anything but an agreeable taste. If a traveller
wishes to avoid this dietary, he must have his own cook with him on
the journey. In this capacity there attended us a Japanese, whose
name was Senkiti-San, but who was commonly called by his companions
Kok-San (Mr. Cook). He had learned European (French) cooking at
Yokohama, and during the journey devoted himself with so great zeal
to his calling, that even in the deserts at the foot of Asamayama he
gave himself no rest until he could offer us a dinner of five
dishes, consisting of chicken soup, fowl omelette, fowl-beefsteak,
fowl _fricasse_, and omelette _aux confitures_, all thus consisting
only of fowls and hens' eggs, cooked in different ways.
For some years back lucifer matches have been an article of
necessity in Japan, and it was pleasing to us Swedes to observe that
the Swedish matches have here a distinct preference over those of
other countries. In nearly every little shop, even in the interior
of the country, are to be seen the well-known boxes with the
inscription "Saekerhets taendstickor utan svafvel och fosfor." But if
we examine the boxes more carefully, we find upon many of them,
along with the magic sentence unintelligible to the Japanese, an
inscription indicating that they have been made by some Japanese
manufacturer. On other boxes this is completely wanting, but the
falsification is shown by an unfortunate error in the inscription.
It thus appears that the Swedish matches are not only introduced
into Japan on a large scale, but are also counterfeited, being made
with the Swedish inscription on the box and with a cover resembling
that used at home. The imitation, however, is not nearly so good as
the original, and my Japanese servant bade me therefore, when I
purchased a box of matches, observe carefully that I got one of the
right (Swedish) sort.
Photography also has spread so rapidly in the country that at many
places in small towns and villages in the interior Japanese
photographers are to be met with who put out of their hands by no
means bad work. The Japanese appear to have a great liking for
having their by no means remarkable dwellings photographed. On
several occasions, when we left a place we received from our host as
a parting gift a photograph of his house or inn. Perhaps this was
done with the same view as that which induces his European
brother-in-trade to advertise at great expense.
[Illustration: JAPANESE KAGO. ]
Between Ikaho and Savavatari, our next resting-place, the road was
so bad that the _jinrikisha_ could no longer be used, we accordingly
had to use the _kago_, a Japanese sedan-chair made of bamboo, of the
appearance of which the accompanying wood-cut gives an idea. It is
exceedingly inconvenient for Europeans, because they cannot like the
Japanese sit with their legs crosswise under them, and in course of
time it becomes tiresome to let them dangle without other support by
the side of the _kago_. Even for the bearers this sedan chair
strikes me as being of inconvenient construction, which is shown
among other things by their halting an instant every two hundred, or
in going up a hill, every hundred paces, in order to shift the
shoulder under the bamboo pole. We went up-hill and down-hill with
considerable speed however, so that we traversed the road between
Ikaho and Savavatari, 6 _ri_ or 23.6 kilometres in length, in ten
hours. The road, which was exceedingly beautiful, ran along flowery
banks of rivulets, overgrown with luxuriant bamboo thickets, and
many different kinds of broad-leaved trees. Only round the old
temples, mostly small and inconsiderable, were to be seen ancient
tall Cryptomeria and Ginko trees. The burying places were commonly
situated, not as at home, in the neighbourhood of the larger
temples, but near the villages. They were not inclosed, but marked
out by stone monuments from a third of a metre to half a metre in
height, on one side of which an image of Buddha was sometimes
sculptured. The recent graves were often adorned with flowers, and
at some of them small foot-high Shinto shrines had been made of
wooden pins.
Savavatari, like Ikaho, is built on the slope of a hill. The streets
between the houses are almost all stairs or steep ascents. Here too
there well up from the volcanic rocks acidulous springs, at which
invalids seek to regain health. The watering-place, however, is of
less repute than Ikaho or Kusatsu.
While we walked about the village in the evening we saw at one place
a crowd of people. This was occasioned by a competition going on
there. Two young men, who wore no other clothes than a narrow girdle
going round the waist and between the legs, wrestled within a circle
two or three metres across drawn on a sandy area. He was considered
the victor who threw the other to the ground or forced him beyond
the circle. A special judge decided in doubtful cases. The beginning
of the contest was most peculiar, the combatants kneeling in the
middle of the circle and sharply eying each other in order to make
the attack at a signal given by the judge, when a single push might
at once make an end of the contest. In this competition there took
part about a dozen young men, all well grown, who in their turn
stepped with some encouraging cries or gestures into the circle in
order to test their powers. The spectators consisted of old men and
women, and boys and girls of all ages. Most of them were clean and
well-dressed, and had a very attractive appearance.
[Illustration: JAPANESE WRESTLERS. ]
Here it was the youth of the village themselves that took part in
the contest. But there are also in Japan persons who carry on these
games as their occupation, and exhibit themselves for money. They
are in general very fat, as appears from the accompanying drawing,
which represents the beginning of the contest, when both the
combatants are still watching to get a good hold.
[Illustration: JAPANESE BRIDGE. After a Japanese drawing. ]
Next day, the 1st October, we continued our journey to Kusatsu. The
road was uphill for a distance of 550 metres, downhill for nearly as
far, then up again, and ran often without any protecting fence past
deep abysses, or over high bridges of the most dangerous
construction. It was, therefore, impossible for any wheeled vehicle
to traverse it, so that we had to use in some cases _kagos_, in
others riding-horses. Unfortunately the Japanese high saddle does
not suit the European, and if the traveller prefers a riding-horse
to a _kago_, he must, if he does not carry a saddle with him,
determine to ride on an unsaddled horse, which, with the wretched
steeds that are only available here, soon becomes so unpleasant that
he at last prefers to let his legs hang benumbed from the _kago_. A
peculiarity in Japan is that the rider seldom himself guides his
horse. It is commonly led by a halter by a groom running alongside
the rider. These grooms are very light-footed and enduring, so that
even at a rapid pace they are not left behind. Running footmen also
attend the carriages of people of distinction in the towns and the
mail-coaches on Nakasendo. When there is a crowd before the carriage
they jump down and drive away the people by a dreadful shouting.
From the mail-coach they also blow the post-horn, not just to the
advantage of the ear-drums of the travellers.
[Illustration: JAPANESE MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE. ]
The scenery by the roadside was exceedingly beautiful. Now it
consisted of wild valleys, filled with luxuriant vegetation which
completely concealed the crystal-clear streams purling in the
bottoms; now of level grassy plains or hill-slopes, thickly studded
with solitary trees, chiefly chestnuts and oaks. The inhabitants
were fully occupied with the chestnut harvest. Before every hut mats
were spread out, on which chestnuts lay drying in thick layers.
Grain and cotton were being dried in the same small way, as it
appeared to us Europeans. On the plains there stood besides in the
neighbourhood of the cabins large mortars, by which the grain was
reduced to groats. On the hills these tramp-stamps are partly
replaced by small mills of an exceedingly simple construction,
introduced by the Dutch.
We passed the 2nd October at Kusatsu, the Aix-la-Chapelle of Japan,
famed like that place for its hot sulphurous springs. Innumerable
invalids here seek an alleviation of their pains. The town lives
upon them, and accordingly consists mainly of baths, inns, and shops
for the visitors.
The inns are of the sort common in Japan, spacious, airy clean,
without furniture, but with good braziers, miniature tea-services,
clean matting, screens ornamented with poetical mottoes, which even
when translated were almost unintelligible to us, friendly hosts,
and numerous female attendants. If the traveller brings his own cook
with him, as we did, he can live very comfortably, as I have before
stated, at such an inn.
[Illustration: INN AT KUSATSU. ]
The hot springs which have conferred on Kusatsu its importance rise
at the foot of a pretty high hill of volcanic origin. The rocks in
the surrounding country consist exclusively of lava and volcanic
tuffs, and a short distance from the town there is an extinct
volcano in whose crater there are layers of sulphur.[382] In the
immediate neighbourhood of the place where the main spring rises
there is a thick solidified lava stream, surrounded by tuffs, which
near the surface is cleft into a number of large vesicular blocks.
From this point the hot water is conducted in long open wooden
channels to the bath-house of the town, and to several evaporating
pools, some by the wayside, others in the town, intended for
collecting the solid constituents of the water, which are then sold
in the country as medicine. The great evaporation from these pools,
from the open channels and the hot baths, wraps the town almost
constantly in a cloud of watery vapour, while a very strong odour of
sulphuretted hydrogen reminds us that this is one of the
constituents of the healing waters.
The road between the wells and the town appears to form the
principal promenade of the place. Along this are to be seen
innumerable small monuments, from a half to a whole metre in height,
consisting of pieces of lava heaped upon each other. These miniature
memorials form by their littleness a peculiar contrast to the
_bauta_ stones and _jettekast_ of our Swedish forefathers, and are
one of the many instances of the people's fondness for the little
and the neat, which are often to be met in Japan. They are said to
be erected by visitors as thank-offerings to some of the deities of
Buddha or Shinto.
I received from a Japanese physician the following information
regarding the wells at Kusatsu and their healing power. In and near
the town there are twenty-two wells, with water of about the same
quality, but of different uses in the healing of various diseases.
In the hottest well the water where it rises has a temperature of
162 deg. F (= 72.2 deg. C.). The largest number of the sick who
seek health at the baths, suffer from syphilis. This disease is now
cured according to the European method, with mercury, iodide of
potassium, and baths. The cure requires a hundred days, from seventy
to eighty per cent. of the patients are cured completely, though
purple spots remain on the skin. The disease does not break out
anew. A large number of leprous patients also visit the baths. The
leprosy is of various kinds; that with sores is alleviated by the
baths, and is cured possibly in two years; that without sores but
with the skin insensible is incurable, but is also checked by
frequent bathing. All true lepers come from the coast provinces. A
similar disease is produced also among the hills by the eating of
tainted fish and fowl. This disease consists in the skin becoming
insensible, the nerves inactive, and the patient, who otherwise
feels well, finding it impossible to walk. It is also cured
completely in very severe cases, by baths, ammonia applied inwardly,
castor-oil, Peruvian bark, &c. A third type of this ailment is the
bone-disease, _kak'ke'_, which is exceedingly common in Japan, and
is believed to be caused by unvarying food and want of exercise. It
is very obstinate, but is often cured in two or three years with
chloride of iron, albumen, change of diet from the common Japanese
to the European, with red wine, milk, bread, vegetables, &c. This
disease begins with a swelling in the legs, then the skin becomes
insensible, first on the legs, next on the stomach, the face, and
the wrists. Then the swelling falls, fever comes on, and death takes
place. There are besides, certain wells for curing rheumatism, for
which from two to three years are required; for eye-diseases and for
headache, the latter playing an important part among the illnesses
that are cured at Kusatsu. It principally attacks women between
twenty and thirty years of age. One of the Kusatsu wells acts very
beneficially in this case. Its water is conducted to a special
bathing-shed open to the street, intended exclusively for the men
and women who suffer from this disease.
Many of the baths at Kusatsu are taken so hot that special
precautions must be adopted before one steps down into the water.
These consist in winding cotton cloths round those parts of the body
which are most sensitive, and in causing the body to perspire
strongly before the bath is taken, which is done by the bathers with
cries and shouts and with certain movements stirring the water in
the basin with large heavy boards. They then all step down into the
bath and up again simultaneously at a sign given by the physician
sitting at the back of the bathing shed. Without this arrangement it
would perhaps be difficult to get the patients to go into the bath,
for agreeable it could not be, to judge from the grave faces of the
bathers and the fire-red colour of their bodies when they come out.
The baths are under open sheds. Men and women all bathe in common,
and in presence of both male and female spectators. They make their
remarks without reserve on the diseases of the patients, even if
they are of that sort about which one would not speak willingly even
to his physician. Often the bath-basin is not fenced off in any way,
except that it is protected from rain and sunshine by a roof resting
on four posts. In such cases the bathers dress and undress in the
street.
[Illustration: BATH AT KUSATSU. ]
In consequence of the situation of Kusatsu at a height of 1050
metres above the sea, the winter there is very cold and windy. The
town is then abandoned not only by the visitors to the baths, but
also by most of the other inhabitants. Already, at the time of our
visit, the number of bathers remaining was only inconsiderable. Even
these were preparing to depart. During the second night that we
passed at Kusatsu, our night's rest was disturbed by a loud noise
from the next room. It was a visitor who was to leave the place the
following morning, and who now celebrated his recovery with _saki_
(rice-brandy) and string music.
The environs of Kusatsu are nearly uncultivated, though the
vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant. It consists partly of bamboo
thickets, partly of a high rich grass, above which rise solitary
pines, mixed with a few oaks or chestnuts.
On the 3rd October we continued our journey to the foot of
Asamayama. The road was very bad, so that even the _kago_ bearers
had difficulty in getting along. It first ran across two valleys
more than 300 feet deep, occupied with close, luxuriant, bushy
thickets. We then came to an elevated plain of great extent covered
with unmown grass, studded with beautiful oaks and chestnuts. The
plain was not turned to any account, though thousands of the
industrious population could find an abundant living there by
tending cattle. Farther up the oaks and chestnuts were mixed with a
few birches, resembling those at home, and we came next to complete
deserts, where the ground consisted of lava blocks and lava gravel,
scarcely covered by any grass, and yielding nourishment only to
solitary pines. This continued to the place--Rokuriga-hara--where we
were to pass the night, and from which the next day we were to
ascend the summit of Asamayama.
Rokuriga-hara is situated at a height of 1270 metres above the sea.
There was no inn here, nor any place inhabited all the year round,
but only a large open shed. This was divided into two by a passage
in the middle. We settled on one side of this, making our bed as
well as we could on the raised floor, and protecting ourselves from
the night air with coverings which our thoughtful host at Kusatsu
had lent us. On the other side of the passage our _kago_ bearers and
guide passed the night crowding round a log fire made on a stone
foundation in the middle of the floor. The _kago_ bearers were
protected from the very perceptible night cold only by thin cotton
blouses. In order to warm them I ordered an abundant distribution of
_saki_, a piece of generosity that did not cost very much, but which
clearly won me the undivided admiration of all the coolies. They
passed the greater part of the night without sleep, with song and
jest, with their _saki_ bottles and tobacco pipes. We slept well and
warmly after partaking of an abundant supper of fowl and eggs,
cooked in different ways by Kok-San with his usual talent and his
usual variety of dishes.
We had been informed that at this place we would hear a constant
noise from the neighbouring volcano, and that hurtful gases
(probably carbonic acid) sometimes accumulated in such quantities in
the neighbouring woods that men and horses would be suffocated if
they spent the night there. We listened in vain for the noise, and
did not observe any trace of such gases. All was as peaceful as if
the glowing hearth in the interior of the earth was hundreds of
miles away. But we did not require the evidence of the column of
smoke which was seen to use from the mountain top, which formed the
goal of our visit, or of the inhabitants who survived the latest
eruption, to come to the conclusion that we were in the
neighbourhood of an enormous, still active volcano. Everywhere round
our resting-place lay heaps of small pieces of lava which had been
thrown out of the volcano (so-called lapilli), and which had not yet
had time to weather sufficiently to serve as an under-stratum for
any vegetation, and a little from the hut there was a solidified
lava stream of great depth.
Next day, the 4th October, we ascended the summit of the mountain.
At first we travelled in _kago_ over a valley filled with pretty
close wood, then the journey was continued on foot up the steep
volcanic cone, covered with small lava blocks and lapilli. The way
was staked out with small heaps of stones raised at a distance of
about 100 metres apart. Near the crater we found at one of these
cairns a little Shinto shrine, built of sticks. Its sides were only
half a metre in length. Our guide performed his devotions here. One
of them had already at a stone cairn situated farther down with
great seriousness made some conjurations with reference to my
promise to make an extra distribution of red wine, if we got good
weather at the top.
As on Vesuvius, we can also on Asamayama distinguish a large
exterior crater, originating from some old eruption, but now almost
completely filled up by a new volcanic cone, at whose top the
present crater opens. This crater has a circumference of about two
kilometres, the old crater, or what the old geologists called the
elevation-crater, has been much larger. The volcano is still active.
For it constantly throws out "smoke," consisting of watery vapour,
sulphurous acid, and probably also carbonic acid. Occasionally a
perceptible smell of sulphuretted hydrogen is observed. It is
possible without difficulty to crawl to the edge of the crater and
glance down into its interior. It is very deep. The walls are
perpendicular, and at the bottom of the abyss there are to be seen
several clefts from which vapours arise. In the same way "smoke"
forces its way at some places at the edge of the crater through
small imperceptible cracks in the mountain. Both on the border of
the crater, on its sides and its bottom there is to be seen a yellow
efflorescence, which at the places which I got at to examine it
consisted of sulphur. The edge of the crater is solid rock, a
little-weathered augiteandesite differing very much in its nature at
different places. The same or similar rocks also project at several
places at the old border of the crater, but the whole surface of the
volcanic cone besides consists of small loose pieces of lava,
without any trace of vegetation. Only at one place the brim of the
old crater is covered with an open pine wood. The volcano has also
small side craters, from which gases escape. The same coarse
fantasy, which still prevails in the form of the hell-dogma among
several of the world's most cultured peoples, has placed the home of
those of the followers of Buddha who are doomed to eternal
punishment in the glowing hearths in the interior of the mountain,
to which these crater-openings lead; and that the heresies of the
well-meaning Bishop Lindblom have not become generally prevalent in
Japan is shown among other things by this, that many of these
openings are said to be entrances to the "children's hell." Neither
at the main crater nor at any of the side craters can any true lava
streams be seen. Evidently the only things thrown out from them have
been gases, volcanic ashes, and lapilli. On the other hand,
extensive eruptions of lava have taken place at several points on
the side of the mountain, though these places are now covered with
volcanic ashes.
After having eaten our breakfast in a cleft so close to the smoking
crater that the empty bottles could be thrown directly into the
bottomless deeps, we commenced our return journey. At first we took
the same way as during the ascent, but afterwards held off to the
right, down a much steeper and more difficult path than we had
traversed before. The mountain side had here a slope of nearly
forty-five degrees, and consisted of a quite loose volcanic sand,
not bound together by any vegetable carpet. It would therefore have
been scarcely possible to ascend to the summit of the mountain this
way, but we went rapidly downwards, often at a dizzy speed, but
without other inconvenience than that one now and then fell flat and
rolled head-foremost down the steep slopes, and that our shoes were
completely torn to tatters by the angular lava gravel. Above the
mountaintop the sky was clear of clouds, but between it and the
surface of the earth there spread out a thick layer of cloud which
seen from above resembled a boundless storm-tossed sea, full of
foaming breakers. The extensive view we would otherwise have had of
the neighbouring mountain ridges from the top of Asamayama was thus
concealed. Only here and there an opening was formed in the cloud,
resembling a sun-spot, through which we got a glimpse of the
underlying landscape. When we came to the foot of the mountain we
long followed a ridge, covered with greenery, formed of an immense
stream of lava, which had issued from an opening in the mountain
side now refilled. This had probably taken place during the
tremendous eruption of 1783, when not only enormous lava-streams
destroyed forests and villages at the foot of the mountain, but the
whole of the neighbouring region between Oiwake and Usui-toge,
previously fertile, was changed by an ash-rain into an extensive
waste. Across this large plain, infertile and little cultivated,
situated at a height of 980 metres above the sea, we went without a
guide to the village Oiwake, where we lodged for the night at an inn
by the side of the road Nakasendo, one of the cleanest and best kept
of the many well-kept inns I saw during our journey in the interior
of the country.
Hence I sent a messenger on foot to Takasaki to order a carriage to
Tokio. A former _samurai_ undertook for a payment of three _yen_,
(about 12_s_) to carry the message. Oiwake is indeed situated on the
great road Nakasendo, but it can here only with difficulty be
traversed by carriages, because between this village and Takasaki it
is necessary to go over the pass Usui-toge, where the road, though
lowered considerably of late, rises to a height of 1200 metres. We
therefore here used _jinrikishas_, a mode of conveyance very
agreeable to tourists, which, though introduced only recently, has
already spread to all parts of the country.
[Illustration: JAPANESE LANDSCAPE. ]
Every one with an open eye for the beauties of nature and interest
in the life and manners of a foreign people, must find a journey in
_jinrikisha_ over Usui-toge pleasant in a high degree. The landscape
here is extraordinarily beautiful, perhaps unmatched in the whole
world. The road has been made here with great difficulty between
wild, black, rocky masses, along deep clefts, whose sides are often
covered with the most luxuriant vegetation. No fence protects the
_jinrikisha_ in its rapid progress down the mountains from the
bottomless abysses by the wayside. A man must therefore not be weak
in the nerves if he is to derive pleasure from the journey. He must
rely on the coolie's keen eye and sure foot. On all sides one is
surrounded by a confused mass of lofty shattered mountain tops, and
deep down in the valleys mountain streams rush along, whose
crystal-clear water is collected here and there into small lakes
confined between heights covered with greenery. Now the traveller
passes a dizzy abyss by a bridge of the most defective construction,
now he sees a stream of water rushing down from an enormous height
by the wayside. Thousands of foot-passengers, crowds of pilgrims,
long rows of coolies, oxen and horses bearing heavy burdens meet the
traveller, who during frequent rests at the foot of the steep slopes
has an opportunity of studying the variegated life of the people. He
is always surrounded by cheerful and friendly faces, and the
pleasant impression is never disturbed by the expressions of
coarseness in speech and behaviour which so often meet us in Europe.
It is not until the traveller has passed the mountain ridge and
descended to a height of only 300 metres above the sea that the road
becomes passable for a carriage. While we exchanged, not without
regret, our clean, elegant _jinrikishas_ for two inferior vehicles
drawn by horses, I saw two men wandering from shop to shop, standing
some moments at each place, ringing a bell and passing on when they
were not attended to. On my inquiry as to what sort of people they
were, I was informed that they were wandering players. For me of
course they did not ring in vain. For a payment of fifty cents they
were ready immediately to show in the street itself a specimen of
their art. One of them put on a well-made mask, representing the
head of a monster, with a movable jaw and terrible teeth. To the
mask was fastened a cloak, in which the player wrapt himself during
the representation. He then with great skill and supple tasteful
gestures, which would have honoured a European _danseuse_,
represented the monster now creeping forward fawningly, now rushing
along to devour its prey. A numerous crowd of children collected
around us. The small folks followed the representation with great
glee, and gave life to the play, or rather formed its proper
background, by the feigned tenor with which they fled when the
monster approached with open mouth and rolling eyes, and the
eagerness with which they again followed and mocked it when its back
was turned.
[Illustration: BURDEN BEARERS ON A JAPANESE ROAD. Japanese drawing. ]
In few countries are dramatic representations of all kinds so much
thought of as in Japan. Playhouses are found even in small towns.
The play is much frequented, and though the representations last the
whole day, they are followed by the spectators with the liveliest
interest. There are playbills as at home, and numerous writings on
subjects relating to the theatre. Among the Japanese books which I
bought, there was for instance a thick one, with innumerable
woodcuts, devoted to showing how the first Japanese artists
conceived the principal scenes in their _roles_, two volumes of
playbills bound up together, &c.
The Japanese pieces indeed strike a European as childish and
monstrous, but one must admire many praiseworthy traits in the play
itself, for instance the naturalness with which the players often
declaim monologues lasting for a quarter or half an hour. The
extravagances which here shock us are perhaps on the whole not more
absurd than the scenes of the opera of to-day, or the buskins,
masks, and peculiar dresses, which the Greeks considered
indispensable in the exhibition of then great dramatic masterpieces.
When the Japanese have been able to appropriate what is good in
European culture, the dramatic art ought to have a grand future
before it among them, if the development now going on is carried out
cautiously so that the peculiarities of the people are not too much
effaced. For, in many departments, and not least in that of art,
there is much to be found here which when properly developed will
form a new and important addition to the culture of the West, of
which we are so proud.
The large Japanese theatres, besides, often resemble the European
ones in their interior arrangement. The partition between the stage
and the space occupied by the spectators is the same as among us.
Between the acts the former is concealed by a curtain. The stage is
besides provided with painted scenes representing houses, woods,
hills, &c., supported on wheels, so that a complete change of scene
can be effected in a few moments. The music has the same place
between the stage and the spectators as at home. The latter, as at
home, are distributed partly in a gently rising amphitheatre, partly
in several tiers of boxes rising one above another, the lowest tier
being considered the principal one. The Japanese do not sit in the
same way as we do. Neither the amphitheatre nor the boxes
accordingly are provided with chairs or benches, but are divided
into square compartments one or two feet deep, each intended for
about four persons. They sit on cushions, squatting cross-legged in
the common Japanese fashion. The compartments are divided by broad
cross beams, which form the passages by which the spectators get to
their places. During the play we saw attendants running about with
tea, _saki_, tobacco pipes, and small braziers. For every one smokes
during the acts, and places himself in his crib as comfortably as
possible. The piece is followed with great attention, favourite
actors and favourite passages being saluted with lively applause.
Even women and children visit the theatre, and I have seen the
former give their children suck without the least discomposure among
thousands of spectators. Besides the plays intended for the public,
there are given also a number of other dramatic representations, as
society plays, peculiar family plays intended for the homes of the
old feudal princes, spectacles got up for the Mikado, and some which
have a half religious significance, &c.
On the evening of the 5th October we came to Takasaki, prepared to
start immediately for Tokio. But though the messenger we sent had
duly executed his commission, horses could not be procured before
midnight. We passed the evening with our former host, who at our
first visit received us so unwillingly, but now with great
friendliness. We would easily have reconciled ourselves to the
delay, for a Japanese small town such as Takasaki has much worth
seeing to offer a European, but a great part of the time was wasted
in fruitless attempts to get the horse-hirer to let us have the
horses a few hours earlier. In spending time in long conversations
mixed with civilities and bows the Japanese are masters. Of this bad
habit, which still often makes the European desperate, it will not
perhaps be long necessary to complain, for everything indicates that
the Japanese too will soon be carried along at the endlessly roaring
speed of the Steam Age.
When we had at last got horses we continued our journey, first in a
carriage to Tokio, then by rail to Yokohama, arriving there on the
afternoon of the 6th October. From this journey I shall only relate
an incident which may form a little picture throwing light on life
in Japan.
While we halted for a short time in the morning of the 6th October
at a large inn by the roadside, we saw half a dozen young girls
finishing their toilets in the inn-yard. In passing we may say, that
a Japanese peasant girl, like girls in general, may be pretty or the
reverse, but that she generally is, what cannot always be said of
the peasant girls at home, cleanly and of attractive manners. They
washed themselves at the stream of water in the inn-yard, smoothed
their artistically dressed hair, which, however, had been but little
disturbed by the cushions on which they had slept, and brushed their
dazzlingly white teeth. Soap is not used for washing, but a cotton
bag filled with bran. The teeth were brushed with a wooden pin, one
end of which was changed by beating into a brush-like collection of
wooden cords. The tooth-powder consisted of finely powdered shells
and corals, and was kept in small, neat wooden boxes, which, along
with tooth-brushes and small square bundles of a very strong and
cheap paper, all clearly intended for the use of the peasants, were
sold for a trifle in most of the innumerable shops along the road.
For such stupid regulations as in former times in Europe rendered
traffic in the country difficult, and often obliged the countryman
to betake himself to the nearest town to buy some horse-shoes or a
roll of wire, appear not to be found in Japan, on which account most
of the peasants living on a country road seek a subsidiary way of
making a living by trafficking in small articles in request among
the country people.
Incidents of the sort referred to we had seen so many times before
that on this occasion it would not have attracted any further
attention on our part, if we had not thereby been reminded that we
must look after our own exterior, before we could make our entrance
into the capital of Japan. We therefore took from the carriage our
basket with linen, shaving implements, and towels, settled down
around the stream of water at which the girls stood, and immediately
began to wash and shave ourselves. There was now general excitement.
The girls ceased to go on with their own toilet, and crowded round
us in a ring in order to see how Europeans behave in such cases, and
to give us the assistance that might be required. Some ran laughing
and bustling about, one on the top of another, in order immediately
to procure us what we wanted, one held the mirror, another the
shaving-brush, a third the soap, &c. Round them gathered other elder
women, whose blackened teeth indicated that they were married. A
little farther off stood men of all ages. Chance had here quite
unexpectedly shown us a picture from folk-life of the most agreeable
kind. This pleasant temper continued while we immediately after, in
the presence of all, ate our breakfast in the porch of the
ground-floor, surrounded by our former ministering spirits, now
kneeling around us, continually bowing the head to the ground,
laughing and chattering. The same fun went on when a little after I
bought some living fresh-water fishes and put them in spirit, yet
with the difference that the girls now, with some cries, to show
their fear of handling the living animals--though fish-cleaning was
one of their ordinary occupations--handed over to the men the
trouble of taking the fishes and putting them into the spirit-jars.
For a worm placed in spirit they feigned the greatest terror,
notwithstanding its covering of spirit and glass, and ran shrieking
away when any one suddenly brought the jar with the worm near their
faces. It ought to be noted to the honour of the Japanese, that
although we were by no means surrounded by any select circle, there
was not heard during the whole time a single offensive word among
the closely-packed spectators, a fact which gives us an idea of the
excellent tone of society which prevails here, even among the lowest
of the population, and which shows that the Japanese, although they
have much to learn from the Europeans, ought not to imitate them in
all. In Japan there is much that is good, old, and national to take
note of, perhaps more than the Japanese at present have any idea of,
and undoubtedly more than many of the European residents will allow.
[Footnote 379: On the contrary, we saw a number of beggars on the
country roads in the neighbourhood of Yokohama. ]
[Footnote 380: _Voyage de M. Golovin_, Paris, 1818, i. p. 176.
Golovin, who was captain in the Russian navy, passed the years
1811-13 in imprisonment in Japan. He and his comrades in misfortune
were received with great friendliness by the people, and very well
treated by the authorities, if we except the exceedingly tedious
examinations to which they were subjected to extract from them the
most minute particulars regarding Europe, and particularly Russia. ]
[Footnote 381: General Grant, as is well known, visited Japan in the
autumn of 1879. He left Yokohama the day after the _Vega_ anchored
in its harbour. ]
[Footnote 382: According to the statement of the inhabitants, I had
not time to visit the place. ]
CHAPTER XVIII.
Farewell dinner at Yokohama--The Chinese in Japan--Voyage
to Kobe--Purchase of Japanese Books--Journey by rail to Kioto
--Biwa Lake and the Legend of its Origin--Dredging there--
Japanese Dancing-Girls--Kioto--The Imperial Palace--Temples
--Swords and Sword-bearers--Shintoism and Buddhism--
The Porcelain Manufacture--Japanese Poetry--Feast in a
Buddhist Temple--Sailing across the Inland Sea of Japan
--Landing at Hirosami and Shimonoseki--Nagasaki--Excursion
to Mogi--Collection of Fossil Plants--Departure from Japan.
The last days at Yokohama were taken up with farewell visits there
and at Tokio. An afternoon's leisure during the last day I spent in
the capital of Japan I employed in making an excursion in order to
dredge from a Japanese boat in the river debouching at the town. The
Japanese boats differ from the European in being propelled not by
rowing but by sculling. They have usually a deck above the level of
the water, which is dazzlingly white and laid with matting, like the
rooms in a Japanese house. The dredging yielded a great number of
Anodonta, large Paludina, and some small shells.
During our stay in Japan I requested Lieutenant Nordquist to make as
complete a collection of the land and fresh-water crustacea of the
country as the short time permitted. In consequence of the unusual
poverty of the country in these animal forms the result was much
smaller than we had hoped. During a preceding voyage to the Polar
Sea I had assisted in making a collection of land crustacea on
Renoe, an island north of the limit of trees in the outer
archipelago of northern Norway. It is possible to collect there in a
few hours as many annuals of this group as in fertile Japan in as
many days. There are parts of Japan, covered with thick woods and
thickets of bushes, where during a forenoon's excursion one can
scarcely find a single crustacean, although the ground is full of
deep, shady clefts in which masses of dried leaves are collected,
and which therefore ought to be an exceedingly suitable haunt for
land mollusca. The reason of this poverty ought perhaps to be sought
in the want of chalk or basic calcareous rocks, which prevails in
the parts of Japan which we visited.
After the Swedish-Dutch minister had further given us a splendid
farewell dinner at the Grand Hotel, to which, as before, the
Japanese minsters and the representatives of the foreign powers in
Japan were invited, we at last weighed anchor on the 11th October to
prosecute our voyage. At this dinner we saw for the first time the
Chinese embassy which at the time visited Japan with the view of
settling the troublesome Loo-Choo affair which threatened to lead to
a war between the two great powers of Eastern Asia. The Chinese
ambassadors were, as usual, two in number, being commissioned to
watch one over the other. One of them laughed immoderately at all
that was said during dinner, although he did not understand a word.
According to what I was told by one who had much experience in the
customs of the heavenly empire, he did this, not because he heard or
understood anything worth laughing at, but because he considered it
good manners to laugh.
Remarkable was the interest which the Chinese labourers settled at
Yokohama took in our voyage, about which they appeared to have read
something in their own or in the Japanese newspapers. When I sent
one of the sailors ashore to execute a commission, and asked him how
he could do that without any knowledge of the language, he replied,
"There is no fear, I always meet with some Chinaman who speaks
English and helps me." The Chinese not only always assisted our
sailors as interpreters without remuneration, but accompanied them
for hours, gave them good advice in making purchases, and expressed
their sympathy with all that they must have suffered during our
wintering in the high north. They were always cleanly, tall, and
stately in their figures, and corresponded in no particular to the
calumnious descriptions we so often read of this people in European
and American writings.
From Yokohama the course was shaped for Kobe, one of the more
considerable Japanese ports which have been opened to Europeans.
Kobe is specially remarkable on account of its having railway
communication with Osaka, the most important manufacturing town of
Japan, and with Kioto, the ancient capital and seat of the Mikado's
court for centuries.
I had already begun at Yokohama to buy Japanese books, particularly
such as were printed before the opening of the ports to Europeans.
In order to carry on this traffic with greater success, I had
procured the assistance of a young Japanese very familiar with
French, Mr. OKUSCHI, assistant in Dr. Geertz' chemico-technical
laboratory at Yokohama. But because the supply of old books in this
town, which a few years ago had been of little importance, was very
limited, I had at first, in order to make purchases on a large
scale, repeatedly sent Mr. Okuschi to Tokio, the seat of the former
Shogun dynasty, and from that town, before the departure of the
_Vega_ from Yokohama, to Kioto, the former seat of learning in
Japan. The object of the _Vega's_ call at the port of Kobe was to
fetch the considerable purchases made there by Mr. Okuschi[383]
Kobe, or Hiogo, as the old Japanese part of the town is called, is a
city of about 40,000 inhabitants, beautifully situated at the
entrance to the Inland Sea of Japan, _i.e._, the sound which
separates the main island from the south islands, Shikoku and
Kiushiu. Mountain ridges of considerable height here run along the
sea-shore. Some of the houses of the European merchants are built on
the lower slopes of these hills, with high, beautiful, forest-clad
heights as a background, and a splendid view of the harbour in
front. The Japanese part of the town consists, as usual, of small
houses which, on the side next the street, are occupied mainly with
sale or work-shops where the whole family lives all day. The streets
have thus a very lively appearance, and offer the foreigner an
endless variety of remarkable and instructive pictures from the
life of the people. The European part of the town, on the other
hand, is built with stately houses, some of which are situated on
the street that runs along the shore. Here, among others, are to be
found splendid European hotels, European clubs, counting-houses,
shops, &c.
Not far from Kobe, and having railway communication with it, is
Osaka, the largest manufacturing town of Japan, famed for its
theatres and its dancing-girls. Unfortunately I had not time to
visit it, for I started for the old capital, Kioto, a few hours
after the _Vega_ anchored, and after I had waited on the governor in
order to procure the passport that is still required for travelling
in the interior. He received me, thanks to a letter of introduction
I had with me from one of the ministers at Tokio, in an exceedingly
agreeable way. His reception-room was part of a large European stone
house, the vestibule of which was tastefully fitted up in European
style with a Brussels carpet gay with variegated colours. At our
visit we were offered Japanese tea, as is customary everywhere in
Japan, both in the palace of the Emperor and the cabin of the poor
peasant. The Governor was, as all the higher officials in Japan now
are, dressed like a European of distinction, but he could not speak
any European language. He showed himself, however, to be much
interested in our voyage, and immediately ordered an official in his
court, who was well acquainted with English, Mr. YANIMOTO, to
accompany me to Kioto.
We travelled thither by a railway constructed wholly in the European
style. At Kioto my companion, at my special request, conducted me
not to the European hotel there, but to a Japanese inn, remarkable
as usual for cleanliness, for a numerous crowd of talkative female
attendants, and for the extreme friendliness of the inn people to
then guests as soon as they indicated, by taking off then boots at
the door, that it was their intention not to break Japanese customs
and usages in any offensive way. A calling card and a letter from
Admiral Kawamura, minister of marine, which I sent from the hotel to
the Governor of Kioto, procured me an adjutant No. 2, a young,
cheerful, and talkative official, Mr. KOBA-YASCHI, whose eyes
sparkled with intelligence and merry good humour. One would sooner
have taken him for a highly-esteemed student president at some
northern university, than for a Japanese official. It was already
late in the day, so that before nightfall I had time only to take
the bath which, at every Japanese inn not of too inferior a kind, is
always at the traveller's call, and arrange the dreding excursion
which, along with Lieut. Nordquist, I intended to make next day on
Lake Biwa.
[Illustration: JAPANESE SHOP. ]
The road between Kioto and Biwa we travelled the following morning
in _jinrikishas_. In a short time there will be communication
between these two places by a railway constructed exclusively by
native workmen and native engineers. It will be, and is intended to
be, an actual Japanese railway. For a considerable distance it
passes through a tunnel, which, however, as some of the Europeans at
Kobe stated, might easily have been avoided "if the Japanese had not
considered it desirable that Japan, too, should have a railway
tunnel to show, as such are found both in Europe and America." It is
probable, in any case, that the bends which would have been required
if the tunnel was to be avoided, would have cost more by the
additional length than the tunnel, and that therefore the procedure
of the Japanese was better considered than their envious European
neighbours would allow. There appears to prevail among the European
residents in Japan a certain jealousy of the facility with which
this country, till recently so far behind in an industrial respect,
assimilates the skill in art and industry of the Europeans, and of
the rapidity with which the people thereby make themselves
independent of the wares of the foreign merchants.
When we reached Lake Biwa we were conducted by Mr. Koba-Yaschi to an
inn close by the shore, with a splendid view of the southern part of
the lake. We were shown into beautiful Japanese rooms, which had
evidently been arranged for the reception of Europeans, and in which
accordingly some tables and chairs had been placed. On the tables we
found, on our arrival, bowls, with fruit and confections, Japanese
tea, and braziers. The walls were formed partly of tastefully gilt
paper panels ornamented with mottoes, reminding visitors of the
splendid view.
A whole day of the short time which was allowed me to study the
remarkable things of Kioto I devoted to Lake Biwa, because lakes are
exceedingly uncommon in the south, for they occur only in the
countries which have either been covered with glaciers in the most
recent geological periods, or, in consequence of the action of
volcanic forces, have been the scene of violent disturbances of the
surface of the earth. I believed that Lake Biwa would form an
exception to this, but I was probably mistaken, for tradition
relates that this lake was formed in a single night at the same time
that the high volcanic cone of Fusiyama was elevated. This
tradition, in its general outline, corresponds so closely with the
teaching of geology, that scarcely any geologist will doubt its
truth.
After our arrival at the inn we had to wait a very long time for the
steamer I had ordered. On this account I thoughtlessly enough broke
out in reproaches on my excellent Japanese adjutants, who, however,
received my hard words only with friendly smiles, which increased
still further my impatience at the loss of time which was thus
occasioned. It was not until far on in the day, when I was already
out dredging from a small steamer, that I was informed as to the
cause of the delay. The Biwa Steamship Company had, at the request
of the Governor, intended to place at my disposal a very large boat
well provided with coal, but after taking the coal on board it had
sunk so deep that it grounded in the mud of the harbour. We had
already got far out with the little steamer when the large one at
last got off. I was now obliged to exchange vessels in order to be
received "in a more honourable way." It was not until this took
place that I was informed that I was guest and not master, on which
account I was obliged to employ the rest of the afternoon in
excusing my former violent behaviour, in which, with the help of
friendly words, beer, and red wine, I succeeded pretty well, to
judge by the mirth which soon began to prevail among my now very
numerous Japanese companions.
On the little steamer I had ordered two of my crew whom I had
brought with me from the _Vega_ to prepare a meal for the Japanese
and ourselves. In this way the dinner that had been arranged for us,
without my knowledge, became superfluous. I was obliged instead to
receive as a gift the provisions and liquors purchased for the
dinner, consisting of fowls, eggs, potatoes, red wine and beer,
giving at the same time a receipt as a matter of form.
During our excursion on the lake we met with various boats laden
with sea-weed, which had been taken up from the bottom of the lake
to be used as manure for the neighbouring cultivated fields. Partly
among these algae, partly by dredging, Lieut. Nordquist collected
various interesting fresh-water crustacea (Paludina, Melania, Unio,
Planorbis &c.,) several sorts of shrimps (a Hippolyte) small fishes,
&c. Lake Biwa abounds in fish, and harbours besides a large
clumsily-formed species of lizard. In order to make further
collections of the animal forms occurring there, Lieut. Nordquist
remained at the lake till next day. I, on the other hand, went
immediately back to Kioto, arriving there in the evening after
nightfall.
After having eaten, along with my two Japanese companions, an
unexceptionable European dinner at the inn of the town, kept by
Japanese, but arranged in European style, we paid a visit to a
company of Japanese dancing-girls.
Kioto competes with Osaka for the honour of having the prettiest
dancing-girls. These form a distinct class of young girls, marked by
a peculiar variegated dress. They wear besides a peculiar
hair-ornament, are much painted, and have their lips coloured black
and gold. At the dancing places of greatest note a European is not
received, unless he has with him a known native who answers for his
courteous behaviour. After taking off his shoes on entering, the
visitor is introduced to a separate room with its floor covered with
matting and its walls ornamented with Japanese drawings and mottoes,
but without other furniture. A small square cushion is given to each
of the guests. After they have settled themselves in Japanese
fashion, that is to say, squatting cross-legged, pipes and tea are
brought in, on which a whole crowd of young girls come in and,
chatting pleasantly, settle themselves around the guests, observing
all the while complete decency even according to the most exacting
European ideas. There is not to be seen here any trace of the
effrontery and coarseness which are generally to be found in similar
places in Europe. One would almost believe that he was among a crowd
of school-girls who had given the sour moral lessons of their
governess the slip, and were thinking of nothing else than
innocently gossiping away some hours. After a while the dance
begins, accompanied by very monotonous music and singing. The slow
movements of the legs and arms of the dancers remind us of certain
slow and demure scenes from European ballets. There is nothing
indecent in this dance, but we learn that there are other dances
wilder and less decorous.
The dancing-girls are recruited exclusively from the poorer classes,
pretty young girls, to help their parents or to earn some styvers
for themselves, selling themselves for a certain time to the owners
of the dancing-places, and when the time agreed upon has come to an
end returning to their homes, where notwithstanding this they marry
without difficulty. All the dancing-girls therefore are young, many
of them pretty even according to European ideas, though their
appearance is destroyed in our eyes by the tasteless way in which
they paint themselves and colour their lips. Unfortunately I had not
time to avail myself of the opportunity which Kioto offers the
foreigner of judging with certainty regarding the Japanese taste in
female beauty. For here, as at various other Japanese towns, there
are a number of girls who have been officially selected as the most
beautiful among the youth of the place. The Japanese may visit them
for a certain payment, but to Europeans they do not show themselves
willingly, and only for a large sum. When this takes place at any
time, it is only a dumb show for a few moments, during which no
words are exchanged.
[Illustration: JAPANESE COURT DRESS. ]
The Governor had promised to carry me round next day to see whatever
was remarkable in the town. I was not much delighted at this,
because I feared that the whole day would be taken up with
inspecting the whole or half-European public offices and schools,
which had not the slightest interest for me. My fear however was
quite unjustified. The Governor was a man of genius, who, according
to the statements of my companions, was reckoned among the first of
the contemporary poets of Japan. He immediately declared that he
supposed that the new public offices and schools would interest me
much less than the old palaces, temples, porcelain and _faience_
manufactories of the town, and that he therefore intended to employ
the day I spent under his guidance in showing me the latter.
[Illustration: NOBLE IN ANTIQUE DRESS. ]
We made a beginning with the old imperial palace Gosho, the most
splendid dwelling of Old Japan. It is not however very grand
according to European ideas. A very extensive space of ground is
here covered with a number of one-story wooden houses, intended for
the Emperor, the imperial family, and their suite. The buildings
are, like all Japanese houses, divided by movable panels into a
number of rooms, richly provided with paintings and gilded
ornamentation, but otherwise without a trace of furniture. For the
palace now stands uninhabited since the Mikado overthrew the Shogun
dynasty and removed to Tokio. It already gives a striking picture of
the change which has taken place in the land. Only the imperial
family and the great men of the country were formerly permitted to
enter the sacred precincts of Gosho. Now it stands open to every
curious native or foreigner and it has even as an exhibition
building been already pressed into the service of industry.
Alongside the large buildings there are several small ones, of which
one was intended to protect the Emperor-deity during earthquakes,
the others formed play-places for the company of grown children who
were then permitted to govern the country.
[Illustration: BUDDHIST PRIEST. ]
Much more remarkable and instructive than the now deserted imperial
palace are the numerous temples at Kioto, of which we visited
several. We were generally received by the priests in a large
vestibule, whose floor was covered with a fine woollen carpet and
was provided with tables and chairs of European patterns. The
priests first offered us Japanese tea, cigars, and sweetmeats, then
we examined some valuable articles exhibited in the room, consisting
of bronzes, works in the noble metals, splendid old lacquer work,
and a number of famous swords dedicated to the temple. These were
the only things that our freethinking Governor treated with
reverence, for the rest neither the priests nor their reliques
seemed to inspire him with any particular respect.
[Illustration: A SAMURAI. ]
When a valuable Japanese sword is exhibited one touches neither the
hilt nor the scabbard, and of course still less the blade, with the
bare hand, but it is taken hold of either with a gloved hand, or
with the hand with a handkerchief or piece of cloth wrapped round
it. The blade is only half bared, the steel setting is looked at
against the light and admired; on the often exceedingly valuable
blades which are not mounted, but only provided with a wooden case
to protect them from rust, the maker's mark is examined, and so on.
As among us in former times, the swordsmith's is the only handicraft
which in old times was held in high esteem in Japan, and immense
sums were often paid for sword-blades forged by famous masters of
the art. Among old Japanese writings are to be found many works
specially treating of the making of weapons. But since the swordsmen
(_samurai_) have now been forbidden to show themselves armed, old
Japanese swords are sold in all the towns by hundreds and thousands,
often for a trifle. During our stay in the country I purchased for a
comparatively limited sum a fine collection of such weapons. Even
those who cannot appreciate the artistic forging of the blade, the
steel-setting, and tempering, must admire the exceedingly tasteful
casting and embossing of the ornamentation, especially of the
guard-plates of the sword. They are often veritable works of art,
unsurpassed in style and execution.
It is not very many years ago since the men who belonged to the
_samurai_ class never showed themselves abroad without being armed
with two swords. Even schoolboys went armed to the first European
schools that were established in the country. This gave occasion to
several acts of violence during the time which succeeded the opening
of the ports, for which reason the European ambassadors some years
after requested that carrying the sword in time of peace should be
prohibited. To this the Japanese government answered that it would
make short work with the minister who should publish such a
prohibition. Soon after, however, it gave _permission_ to those who
desired it to go without weapons, and the carrying of arms soon
became so unfashionable that one of the authorities did dare at last
to issue a distinct prohibition of it. During our stay in Japan,
accordingly, we did not see a single man armed with the two swords
formerly in use.
After we had seen and admired the treasures in the temple vestibule,
we visited the temple itself. This is always of wood, richly
ornamented with carvings and gilding. If it is dedicated to Shinto,
there are no images in it, and very few ornaments, if we except a
mirror and a large locked press with the doors smashed in, which
sometimes occupies the wall opposite the entrance, and in which, as
I have already stated, the spirit of the deity is said to dwell. The
Shinto temples are in general poor. Many are so inconsiderable as to
look almost like dovecotes. They are often completely deserted, so
that it is difficult to discover them among the magnificent trees by
which they were surrounded. The entrance to the temple is indicated
by a gate (_torryi_) of wood, stone, or copper, and here and there
are ropes, stretched over the way, to which written prayers and vows
are affixed.
Even those who have long studied Japan and its literature have very
little knowledge of the inner essence of Shintoism. This religion is
considered by some a pure deism, by others a belief with political
aims, the followers of which worship the departed heroes of the
country. Of a developed morality this religion is wholly devoid. In
the same way it appears to be uncertain whether Shintoism is a
survival of the original religion of the country or whether it has
been brought from abroad.
[Illustration: GATE ACROSS THE ROAD TO A SHINTO TEMPLE. ]
Buddhism was introduced from China by Corea. Its temples are more
ornamented than the Shinto temples, and contain images of deities,
bells, drums, holy books, and a great quantity of altar ornaments.
The transmigration of souls, and rewards and punishments in a life
after this, are doctrines of Buddhism. Outside the temples proper
there are to be found in many places large or small images in stone
or bronze of the deities of Buddha. The largest of these consist of
colossal statues in bronze (_Daibutsu_), representing Buddha in a
sitting position, and themselves forming the screen to a temple with
smaller images. A similar statue is also to be found at Kamakura,
another at Tokio, a third at Nara near Kioto, and so on. Some have
of late years been sold for the value of the metal, one has in this
way been brought to London, and is now exhibited in the Kensington
Museum. The metal of the statues consists of an alloy of copper with
tin and a little gold, the last named constituent giving rise to the
report that their value is very considerable. To give an idea of the
size of some _Daibutsu_ statues it may be mentioned that the one at
Nara is fifty-three and a half feet high, and that one can crawl
into the head through the nose orifices.
[Illustration: BUDDHIST TEMPLE AT KOBE. ]
Nearly all the _Daibutsu_ images are made after nearly the same
design, which has been improved from generation to generation until
the countenance of the image has received a stamp of benevolence,
calm, and majesty, which has probably never been surpassed by the
productions of western art. _Daibutsu_ images evidently stand in
the same relation to the works of private sculptors as folk-poetry
to that of individual bards.
As I have before pointed out, the Western taste for the gigantic was
not prevalent in Old Japan. It was evidently elegance and neatness,
not grandeur, that formed the object towards which the efforts of
the artist, the architect, and the gardener were directed. Only the
_Daibutsu_ images, some bells, and other instruments of worship form
exceptions to this. During our excursion at Kioto we passed an
inclosure where the walls were built of blocks of stone so colossal,
that it was difficult to comprehend how it had been possible to lift
and move them with the means that were at the disposal of the
Japanese in former times. In the neighbourhood of that place there
was a grave, probably the only one of its kind. It is described in
the following way in an account of the curiosities of Kioto written
by a native:--
"Mimisuka, or the grave of the noses and the ears, was
erected by Hideyoshi Taiko, who lived about A.D. 1590. When
the military chiefs of this famous man attacked Corea with
a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, he gave orders that
they should bring home and show him all the ears and noses
of the enemies who were killed in the contest, for it was
an old practice in Japan to cut off the enemies' heads to
show them to the king or the commander of the army. But it
was now impossible to bring the heads of the dead Corean
warriors to Japan, because the distance was too great.
Hideyoshi therefore gave the above order, and the ears and
noses, which were brought to Japan, were buried together at
that place. The grave is 730 feet in circumference, and is
30 feet high."
Kioto is one of the principal places for the manufacture of
_faience_, porcelain, and _cloisonne_. The productions of the
ceramic art are, as is well-known, distinguished by their tasteful
forms and beautiful colours, and are highly valued by connoisseurs,
on which account they are exported on a large scale to Europe and
America. The works are numerous and small, and are owned for the
most part by families that for a long succession of generations have
devoted themselves to the same occupation. The articles are burned
in very small furnaces, and are commonly sold in a shop which is
close to the place where they are made. The making of porcelain in
Japan, therefore, bears the stamp rather of handicraft than of
manufacturing industry. The wares gain thereby in respect of art to
an almost incredible degree. They have the same relation to the
productions of the great European manufactories that the drawing of
an artist has to a showily coloured lithograph. But the price is
high in proportion, and the Japanese porcelain is too dear for
every-day use even in its own country. Nearly all the large sets of
table porcelain that I saw in Japan were, therefore, ordered from
abroad. The cups which the natives themselves use for rice, tea, and
_saki_ are, however, of native manufacture; but even in a
well-provided Japanese household there is seldom so much porcelain
as would be required for a proper coffee-party at home.
In the evening the Governor had invited us to a dinner, which was
given in a hall belonging to a literary society in the town. The
rooms were partly furnished in European style with tables, chairs,
Brussels carpets, &c. The dinner was European in the arrangement of
dishes, wines, and speeches. The dishes and wines were abundant and
in great variety. The company were very merry, and the host appeared
to be greatly pleased, when I mentioned that at one of the places
which I had seen that day I saw a wall adorned by a motto of his
composition. He immediately promised to write a similar one on me
with reference to my visit to the town, and when a few moments after
he had the first line ready, he invited his Japanese guests to write
the second. They tried for a good while with merry jests to hit upon
some suitable conclusion, but in vain. Early the following morning
Mr. Koba-Yaschi came to me, bringing with him a broad strip of silk
on which the following was pencilled in bold, nobly-formed
characters:
Umi hara-no-hate-made
Akiva-Sumi-watare,
which when translated runs thus:
"As far as the sea extends
The autumn moon spreads her beneficent light."
According to the explanation which I received the piece points out
that the autumn moon spreads her beneficent rays as far as to that
place in the high north where we wintered. After the above-quoted
verse came the following addition in Japanese: "Written by Machimura
Masanavo, Governor of Kioto-Fu, to Professor Nordenskioeld, on the
occasion of a dinner given to him during the autumn of 1879." The
whole besides was signed with the author's common, as well as his
poetical, name, and had his seal attached. His poetical name was
RIO-SAN, which may be literally translated "Dragon-Mountain."
The poetry of the Japanese is so unlike that of the Western nations
that we find it difficult to comprehend the productions of the
Japanese poets. Perhaps they ought more correctly to be called
poetical mottoes. They play a great part in the intellectual life of
the Japanese. Their authors are highly esteemed, and even in the
homes of the poorer classes the walls are often ornamented with
strips of silk or paper on which poems are written in large, bold,
pencil characters. Among the books I brought home with me are many
which contain collections of the writings of private poets and
poetesses, or selections from the most famous of the productions of
Japanese literature in this department. A roll of drawings which
turned up very often represents the sorrowful fate of a famous
poetess. First of all she is depicted as a representative Japanese
beauty, blooming with youth and grace, then she is represented in
different stages of decay, then as dead, then as a half-decayed
corpse torn asunder by ravens, and finally as a heap of bones. The
series ends with a cherry-tree in splendid bloom, into which the
heroine, after her body had passed through all the stages of
annihilation, has been changed. The cherry-tree in blossom is
considered by the Japanese the ideal of beauty in the vegetable
kingdom, and during the flowering season of this tree excursions are
often undertaken to famous cherry-groves where hour after hour is
passed in tranquil admiration of the flower-splendour of the tree.
Unfortunately I was so late in getting the explanation of the
beautiful poetical idea that ran through this series of pictures,
some of which were executed with execrable truth to nature, that I
missed the opportunity of purchasing it.
[Illustration: RIO SAN'S SEAL. ]
I was obliged to leave Kioto too early in order to be present at a
_fete_, which was given to us at Kobe by the Japanese, Europeans,
and Chinese who were interested in our voyage. The entertainment was
held in a Buddhist temple without the town, and was very pleasant
and agreeable. The Japanese did not seem at all to consider that
their temple was desecrated by such an arrangement. In the course of
the afternoon for instance there came several pilgrims to the
temple. I observed them carefully, and could not mark in their
countenances any trace of displeasure at a number of foreigners
feasting in the beautiful temple grove whither they had come on
pilgrimage. They appeared rather to consider that they had come to
the goal of their wanderings at a fortunate moment, and therefore
gladly accepted the refreshments that were offered them.
On the morning of the 18th October the _Vega_ again weighed anchor,
to proceed on her voyage. The course was shaped through the Inland
Sea of Japan for Nagasaki. When I requested of the Governor of Kobe
permission to land at two places on the way, he not only immediately
granted my request, but also sent on the _Vega_ the same
English-speaking official from his court who had before attended me
to Kioto. The weather was clear and fine, so that we had a good
opportunity of admiring the magnificent environs of the Inland Sea.
They resemble much the landscape in a northern archipelago. The
views here are however more monotonous in consequence of their being
less variety in the contours of the mountains. Here as at Kobe the
hills consist mainly of a species of granite which is exposed to
weathering on so large a scale that the hard rocks are nearly
everywhere decomposed into a yellow sand unfavourable for
vegetation. The splendid wild granite cliffs of the north
accordingly are absent here. All the hill-tops are evenly rounded,
and everywhere, except where there has been a sand-slip, covered
with a rich vegetation, which in consequence of the evenness of
height of the trees gives little variety to the landscape, which
otherwise is among the most beautiful on the globe.
[Illustration: BURYING PLACE AT KIOTO. ]
We landed at two places, on the first occasion at Hirosami. Here
some fishermens' cabins and some peasants' houses formed a little
village at the foot of a high, much-weathered granite ridge. The
burying-place was situated near one of the houses, close to the
shore. On an area of some hundred square yards there were numerous
gravestones, some upright, some fallen. Some were ornamented with
fresh flowers, at one was a Shinto shrine of wooden pins, at another
stood a bowl with rice and a small _saki_ bottle. Our zoologists
here made a pretty rich collection of littoral animals, among which
may be mentioned a cuttle-fish which had crept down amongst the wet
sand, an animal that is industriously searched for and eaten by the
natives. Among the cultivated plants we saw here, as many times
before in the high-lying parts of the country, an old acquaintance
from home, namely buckwheat.
The second time the _Vega_ anchored at a peasant village right
opposite Shimonoseki. When we landed there came an official on
board, courteously declaring that we had no right to land at that
place. But he was immediately satisfied and made no more
difficulties when he was informed that we had the permission of the
Governor, and that instead of the usual passport an official from
Kobe accompanied the vessel. Shimonoseki has a melancholy reputation
in European-Japanese history from the deeds of violence done here by
a united English, French, Dutch, and American fleet of seventeen
vessels on the 4th and 5th September, 1864, in order to compel the
Japanese to open the sound to foreigners, and the unreasonably heavy
compensation which after the victory was won they demanded from the
conquered. Although only fifteen years have passed since this
occurred, there appears to be no trace of bitter feeling towards
Europeans among the inhabitants of the region. At least we were
received at the village in the neighbourhood of which we landed with
extraordinary kindness. The village was situated at the foot of a
rocky ridge, and consisted of a number of houses arranged in a row
along a single street, the fronts of the houses being as usual
occupied as shops, places for selling _saki_, and workshops for home
industry. The only remarkable things besides that the village had to
offer consisted of a Shinto temple surrounded by beautiful trees and
a considerable salt-work, which consisted of extensive, shallow,
well-planned ponds now nearly dry, into which the sea-water is
admitted in order to evaporate, and from which the condensed salt
liquid is afterwards drawn into salt-pans in order that the
evaporation may be completed. It was remarkable to observe that
several crustacea throve exceedingly well in the very strong brine.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO NAGASAKI. ]
On the surrounding hills we saw thickets of the Japanese wax tree,
_Rhus succedaneus_. The wax is pressed out of the berries of this
bush with the help of heat. It is used on a large scale in making
the lights which the natives themselves burn, and is exported
bleached and refined to Europe, where it is sometimes used in the
manufacture of lights. Now, however, these wax lights are
increasingly superseded by American kerosene oil. The price has
fallen so much that the preparation of vegetable wax is now said
scarcely to yield a profit.[384]
We left this place next morning, and on the 21st October the _Vega_
anchored in the harbour of Nagasaki. My principal intention in
visiting this place was to collect fossil plants, which I supposed
would be found at the Takasima coal-mine, or in the neighbourhood of
the coal-field. In order to find out the locality without delay, I
reckoned on the fondness of the Japanese for collecting remarkable
objects of all kinds from the animal, vegetable, and mineral
kingdoms. I therefore hoped to find in some of the shops where old
bronzes, porcelain, weapons, &c., were offered for sale, fossil
plants from the neighbourhood, with the locality given. The first
day, therefore, I ran about to all the dealers in curiosities, but
without success. At last one of the Japanese with whom I conversed
told me that an exhibition of the products of nature and art in the
region was being arranged, and that among the objects exhibited I
might possibly find what I sought for.
Of course I immediately availed myself of the opportunity to see one
of the many Japanese local exhibitions of which I had heard so much.
It was yet in disorder, but I was, at all events, willingly
admitted, and thus had an opportunity of seeing much that was
instructive to me, especially a collection of rocks from the
neighbourhood. Among these I discovered at last, to my great
satisfaction, some beautiful fossil plants from Mogi, a place not
far from Nagasaki.
Immediately the following morning I started for Mogi, accompanied by
the Japanese attendant I had with me from Kobe, and by another
adjutant given me by the very obliging governor of Nagasaki. We were
to travel across the hills on horseback. I was accompanied, besides
my Japanese assistants and a man from the _Vega_, all on horseback,
by a number of coolies carrying provisions and other equipment. The
Governor had lent me his own horse, which was considered by the
Japanese something quite grand. It was a yellowish-brown stallion,
not particularly large, but very fine, resembling a Norwegian horse,
very gentle and sure-footed. The latter quality was also quite
necessary, for the journey began with a ride up a hundred smooth and
not very convenient stone steps. Farther on, too, the road, which
was exceedingly narrow and often paved with smooth stones, went
repeatedly up and down such stairs, not very suitable for a man on
horseback, and close to the edge of precipices several hundred feet
deep, where a single false step would have cost both the horse and
its rider their lives. But as has been said, our horses were
sure-footed and sure-eyed, and the riders took care in passing such
places not to pull the reins.
None of the mountain regions I have seen in Japan are so well
cultivated as the environs of Nagasaki. Every place that is somewhat
level, though only several hundred square yards in extent, is used
for growing some of the innumerable cultivated plants of the
country, principally rice but as such easily cultivated places occur
in only limited numbers, the inhabitants have by industry and hard
labour changed the steep slopes of the mountains into a succession
of level terraces rising one above the other, all carefully watered
by irrigating conduits.
Mogi is a considerable fishing village lying at the seaside twenty
kilometres south of Nagasaki in a right line, on the other side of a
peninsula occupied by lava beds and volcanic tuffs, which projects
from the island Kiushiu, which at that place is nearly cut asunder
by deep fjords. No European lives at the place, and of course there
is no European inn there. But we got lodgings in the house of one of
the principal or richest men in the village, a maker and seller _of
saki_, or as we would call him in Swedish, a brandy distiller and
publican. Here we were received in a very friendly manner, in clean
and elegant rooms, and were waited on by the young and very pretty
daughter of our host at the head of a number of other female
attendants. It may be supposed that our place of entertainment had
no resemblance to a public-house in Sweden. We did not witness here
the tipsy behaviour of some human wrecks, and as little some other
incidents which might have reminded us of public-house life in
Europe. All went on in the distillery and the public-house as calmly
and quietly as the work in the house of a well-to-do country squire
in Sweden who does not swear and is not quarrelsome.
_Saki_ is a liquor made by fermenting and distilling rice. It is
very variable in taste and strength, sometimes resembling inferior
Rhine wine, sometimes more like weak grain brandy. Along with _saki_
our host also manufactured vinegar, which was made from rice and
_saki_ residues, which with the addition of some other vegetable
substances were allowed to stand and acidify in large jars ranged in
rows in the yard.
When my arrival became known I was visited by the principal men of
the village. We were soon good friends by the help of a friendly
reception, cigars and red wine. Among them the physician of the
village was especially of great use to me. As soon as he became
aware of the occasion of my visit he stated that such fossils as I
was in search of did indeed occur in the region, but that they were
only accessible at low water. I immediately visited the place with
the physician and my companions from Nagasaki, and soon discovered
several strata containing the finest fossil plants one could desire.
During this and the following day I made a rich collection, partly
with the assistance of a numerous crowd of children who zealously
helped me in collecting. They were partly boys and partly girls, the
latter always having a little one on their backs. These little
children were generally quite bare-headed. Notwithstanding this they
slept with the crown of the head exposed to the hottest sun-bath on
the backs of their bustling sisters, who jumped lightly and securely
over stocks and stones, and never appeared to have any idea that the
burdens on their backs were at all unpleasant or troublesome.
According to Dr. A.G. NATHORST'S examination, the fossil plants which I
brought home from this place belong to the more recent Tertiary
formation. Our distinguished and acute vegetable paleontologist fixes
attention on the point, that we would have expected to find here a
fossil flora allied to the recent South Japanese, which is considered to
be derived from a Tertiary flora which closely resembles it. There is,
however, no such correspondence, for impressions of ferns are almost
completely wanting at Mogi, and even of pines there is only a single
leaf-bearing variety which closely resembles the Spitzbergen form of
_Sequoia Langsdorfii_, Brag. On the other hand, there are met with, in
great abundance, the leaves of a species of beech nearly allied to the
red beech of America, _Fagus ferruginea_, Ait., but not resembling the
recent Japanese varieties of the same family. There were found, besides,
leaves of Quercus, Juglans, Populus, Myrica, Salix, Zelkova,
Liquidambar, Acer, Prunus, Tilia, &c., resembling leaves of recent types
from the forests of Japan, from the forest flora of America, or from the
temperate flora of the Himalayas. But as the place where they were found
is situated at the sea-shore, quite close to the southern extremity of
Japan, it is singular that the tropical or sub-tropical elements of the
flora of Japan are here wanting. From this Dr. Nathorst draws the
conclusion that these are not, as has been hitherto supposed, the
remains of a flora originating in Japan, but that they have since
migrated thither from a former continent situated further to the south,
which has since disappeared. Dr. Nathorst's examination is not yet
completed, but even if this were the case, want of space would not
permit me to treat of this point at greater length. I cannot, however,
omit to mention that it was highly agreeable to be able to connect with
the memory of the _Vega_ expedition at least a small contribution from
more southerly lands to vegetable palaeontology, a branch of knowledge to
which our preceding Arctic expeditions yielded new additions of such
importance through the fossil herbaria from luxuriant ancient forests
which they brought to light from the ice-covered cliffs of Spitzbergen
and from the basalt-covered sandstones and schists of the Noui-soak
Peninsula in Greenland, now so bleak.
[Illustration: FOSSIL PLANTS FROM MOGI.
1, 2. Beech Leaves (_Fagus ferruginea_ Ait., var. _pliocena_, Nath.).
3. Maple Leaf (_Acer Mono_, Max., var. _pliocena_, Nath.). ]
[Illustration: FOSSIL PLANT FROM MOGI. Leaf of _Zelkova Keakii_
Sieb., var. _pliocena_, Nath. ]
After our return from Mogi I made an excursion to the coal-mine at
Takasami, situated on an island some kilometres from the town. Even
here I succeeded in bringing together some further contributions to
the former flora of the region.
After the inhabitants of Nagasaki, too, had given us a grand parting
feast, at which speeches were spoken in Japanese, Chinese, English,
French, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Danish, and Swedish, a
proof of the mixture of nationalities which prevailed there, the
_Vega_ again weighed anchor on the 27th October, in order to
continue her voyage. We now left Japan to commence in earnest our
return, and on our departure we were saluted by the crews of two
English gun-boats anchored in the harbour, the _Hornet_ and the
_Sylvia_, manning the yards and bulwarks. It was natural that the
hour of departure, after fifteen months' absence from home, should
be looked forward to with joy. But our joy was mixed with a
regretful feeling that we were so soon compelled to leave--without
the hope of ever returning--the magnificent country and noble people
among whom a development is now going on which probably will not
only give a new awakening to the old cultured races of Eastern Asia,
but will also prepare a new soil for European science, industry, and
art. It is difficult to foresee what new undreamed-of blossoms and
fruit this soil will yield. But the Europeans are perhaps much
mistaken who believe that the question here is only that of clothing
an Asiatic feudal state in a modern European dress. Rather the day
appears to me to dawn of a time in which the countries round the
Mediterranean of eastern Asia will come to play a great part in the
further development of the human race.
[Footnote 383: The number of the works which the collection of
Japanese books contains is somewhat over a thousand. The number of
volumes amounts to five or six thousand, most of the volumes,
however, are not larger than one of our books of a hundred pages. So
far as can be judged by the Japanese titles, which are often little
distinctive, the works may be distributed among the various branches
of knowledge in the following way:
Number
of Works
History 176
On Buddhism and Education 161
On Shintoism 38
On Christianity (printed in 1715) 1
Manners and Customs 33
The Drama 13
Laws 5
Politics, Political argumentative writings, partly new
and privately printed against the recent statues 24
Poetry and Prose fiction 137
Heraldry, Antiquities, Ceremonies 27
The Art of War and the Use of Weapons 41
Chess 1
Coining 4
Dictionaries, Grammars 18
Geography, Maps 76
Natural History 68
The Science of Medicine 13
Arithmetic, Astronomy, Astrology 39
Handicrafts, Agriculture 43
Notebooks 73
The art of making bouquets (Horticulture?) 16
Bibliography 9
Various 20
-----
Total 1036 ]
[Footnote 384: Further information on this point is given by Henry
Gribble in "The Preparation of Vegetable Wax" (_Transactions of the
Asiatic Society of Japan_, vol. iii. part. i. p. 94. Yokohama,
1875). ]
CHAPTER XIX.
Hong Kong and Canton--Stone-polishing Establishments at
Canton--Political Relations in an English Colony--
Treatment of the Natives--Voyage to Labuan--Coal Mines there
--Excursion to the shore of Borneo--Malay Villages--Singapore
--Voyage to Ceylon--Point de Galle--The Gem Mines at Ratnapoora
--Visit to a Temple--Purchase of Manuscripts--The Population
of Ceylon--Dr. Almquist's Excursion to the Interior of the Island.
Some days after our arrival at Yokohama the _Vega_ was removed to
the dock at Yokosuka, there to be protected by coppering against the
boring mussels of the warm seas, so injurious to the vessel's hull;
the opportunity being also taken advantage of by me to subject the
vessel to some trifling repairs and alterations in the fitting up,
which were desirable because during the remainder of our voyage we
were to sail not in a cold but in a tropical climate. The work took
somewhat longer time than was reckoned on, so that it was not until
the 21st September that the _Vega_ could leave the dock and return
to Yokohama. It had originally been my intention to remain in Japan
only so long as was necessary for the finishing of this work, during
which time opportunity could be given to the officers and crew of
the _Vega_ to rest after the labours and sufferings of the long
winter, to receive and answer letters from home, and to gather from
the newspapers the most important occurrences that had taken place
during our fourteen months' absence from the regions which are
affected by what takes place in the world. But as appears from the
foregoing narrative, the delay was longer than had been intended.
This indeed was caused in some degree by the difficulty of tearing
ourselves away after only a few days' stay from a people so
remarkable, so lovable, and so hospitable as the Japanese, and from
a land so magnificently endowed by nature. Besides, when the _Vega_
was again ready for sea, it was so near the time for the change of
the monsoon, that it was not advisable, and would not have been
attended with any saving of time, to sail immediately. For at that
season furious storms are wont to rage in these seas, and the wind
then prevailing is so unfavourable for sailing from Japan to the
southward, that a vessel with the weak steam-power of the _Vega_
cruising between Japan and Hong Kong in a head-wind might readily
have lost the days saved by an earner departure. On the other hand,
in the end of October and the beginning of November we could, during
our passage to Hong Kong, count on a fresh and always favourable
breeze. This took place too, so that, leaving Nagasaki on the 27th
October, we were able to anchor in the harbour of Hong Kong as early
as the 2nd November.
There was of course no prospect of being able to accomplish anything
for the benefit of science during a few days' stay in a region which
had been examined by naturalists innumerable times before, but I at
all events touched at this harbour that I might meet the expressed
wish of one of the members of the expedition not to leave eastern
Asia without having, during the voyage of the _Vega_, seen something
of the so much talked of "heavenly kingdom" so different from all
other lands.
For this purpose, however, Hong Kong is an unsuitable place. This
rich and flourishing commercial town, which has been created by
England's Chinese politics and opium trade, is a British colony with
a European stamp, which has little to show of the original Chinese
folk-life, although the principal part of its population consists of
Chinese. But at the distance of a few hours by steamer from Hong
Kong lies the large old commercial city of Canton, which, though it
has long been open to Europeans, is still purely Chinese, with its
peatstack-like architecture, its countless population, its temples,
prisons, flower-junks, mandarins, pig-tailed street-boys, &c. Most
of the members of the expedition made an excursion thither, and were
rewarded with innumerable indescribable impressions from Chinese
city life. We were everywhere received by the natives in a friendly
way,[385] and short as our visit was, it was yet sufficient to
dissipate the erroneous impressions which a number of European
authors have been pleased to give of the most populous nation. One
soon saw that he has to do with an earnest and industrious people,
who, indeed, apprehend much--virtue and vice, joy and sorrow--in
quite a different way from us, but towards whom we, on that account,
by no means have the right to assume the position of superiority
which the European is so ready to claim towards coloured races.
The greater portion of my short stay in Canton I employed in
wandering about, carried in a sedan-chair--horses cannot be used in
the city itself--through the streets, which are partly covered and
are lined with open shops, forming, undoubtedly, the most remarkable
of the many remarkable things that are to be seen here. The
recollection I have of these hours forms, as often happens when one
sees much that is new at once, a variegated confusion in which I can
now only with difficulty distinguish a connected picture or two. But
even if the impressions were clearer and sharper it would be out of
the question to occupy space with a statement of my own superficial
observations. If any one wishes to acquire a knowledge of Chinese
manners and customs, he will not want for books on the country, his
studies will rather be impeded by their enormous number, and often
enough by the inferior nature of their contents. Here I shall only
touch upon a single subject, because it especially interested me as
a mineralogist, namely, the stone-polishing works of Canton.
It is natural that in a country so populous and rich as China, in
which home and home life play so great a _role_, much money should
be spent on ornaments. We might therefore have expected that
precious stones cut and polished would be used here on a great
scale, but from what I saw at Canton, the Chinese appear to set much
less value on them than either the Hindoo or the European. It
appears besides as if the Chinese still set greater value on stones
with old "oriental polishing," _i.e._ with polished _rounded_
surfaces, than on stones formed according to the mode of polishing
now common in Europe with plane facets. Instead the Chinese have a
great liking for peculiar, often very well executed, carvings in a
great number of different kinds of stones, among which they set the
greatest value on nephrite, or, as they themselves call it, "Yii."
It is made into rings, bracelets, ornaments of all kinds, vases,
small vessels for the table, &c. In Canton there are numerous
lapidaries and merchants, whose main business is to make and sell
ornaments of this species of stone, which is often valued higher
than true precious stones. It was long so important an article of
commerce that the place where it was found formed the goal of
special caravan roads which entered China by the Yii gate. Amber
also appears to have a high value put upon it, especially pieces
which inclose insects. Amber is not found in China, but is brought
from Europe, is often fictitious, and contains large Chinese beetles
with marks of the needles on which they have been impaled. Other
less valuable minerals, native or foreign, are also used, among
others, compact varieties of talc or soap-stone and of pyrophyllite.
But works executed in these minerals do not fetch a price at all
comparable to that of nephrite. In the same shop in which I
purchased pieces of nephrite carefully placed in separate boxes, I
found at the bottom of a dusty chest, along with pieces of quartz
and old refuse of various kinds, large crystals, some of which were
exceedingly well formed, of translucent topaz. They were sold as
quartz for a trifle. I bought besides two pieces of carved topaz,
one of which was a large and very fine natural crystal, with a
Chinese inscription engraved on its terminal surface, which when
translated runs thus: "Literary studies confer honour and
distinction and render a man suitable for the court." The other was
a somewhat bluish inch-long crystal, at one end of which a human
figure, perhaps some Buddhist saint, was sculptured. The polishing
of stones is carried on as a home industry, principally in a special
part of the town. The workshop is commonly at the side of a small
sale counter, in a room on the ground-floor, open to the street. The
cutting and polishing of the stones is done, as at home, with metal
discs and emery or comminuted corundum, which is said to be found in
large quantities in the neighbourhood of Canton.
Large, commodious, well fitted up, but in their exterior very
unwieldy river steamers, built after American designs, now run
between Hong Kong and Canton. They are commanded by Europeans. The
dietary on board is European, and exceedingly good. There are
separate saloons for Europeans and Chinese. All over the poop and
the after-saloon weapons are hung up so as to be at hand, in case
the vessel should be attacked by pirates, or, as happened some years
ago, a number of them should mix themselves up with the Chinese
passengers with the intention of plundering the vessel.
Hong Kong was ceded to England in consequence of the war of 1842.
The then inconsiderable fishing village is now one of the most
important commercial cities of the globe. The harbour is spacious,
affording good anchorage, and is well protected by a number of large
and small granite islands. The city is built on the largest of these
on slopes which rise from the shore towards the interior of the
island. On the highest points the wealthiest foreign residents have
built their summer houses which are surrounded by beautiful gardens.
In winter they live in the city. We here met with a very gratifying
reception both from the Governor, Mr. POPE HENNESSY, and from the
other inhabitants of the town. The former invited Captain Palander
and me to live in the beautiful Governor's residence, gave a dinner,
arranged a stately official reception in our honour, and presented
to the Expedition a fine collection of dried plants from the
exceedingly well-kept botanical garden of the city, which is under
the charge of Mr. CHARLES FORD, the latter presented me with an
address of welcome at a festive meeting in the City Hall, specially
arranged for the purpose and numerously attended by the principal
men of the town. The meeting was opened by the Chairman, Mr.
KESWICK, with a speech of welcome, after which Mr. J.B. COUGHTRIE
read and presented the address, bound in red silk and beautifully
illuminated in black; gold, and red, with 414 signatures, among
which many were by Chinese. The address ended with a hearty
congratulation to us all and a promise of a memorial of our visit to
Hong Kong which should indicate the way in which the _Vega_
expedition was appreciated there. Some time after our return home
Palander and I received from members of the community of Hong Kong a
splendid silver vase each.
I here embraced with great interest the opportunity, which my coming
in contact with the principal men of the place afforded, of getting
a glance into the political relations which prevailed in this
vigorous and promising colony. At first sight they appeared to be by
no means satisfactory. Peace and unanimity evidently did not
prevail; for dissatisfaction with the Governor was loudly expressed
by many of the Europeans settled in Hong Kong. He favoured, they
said, the Chinese in an exceedingly partial way, and mitigated their
punishments to such a degree that Hong Kong would soon become a
place of refuge for all the robbers and thieves of Canton. At the
time of our visit an instructive parliamentary debate on a small
scale was proceeding in the Legislative Council of the city. The
controversy was carried on with a certain bitterness, but with a
proper observance of the parliamentary procedure customary in the
mother country. The eloquent leader of the opposition had evidently,
as is usual in such cases, the general feeling of the Europeans on
his side. For they appeared to be pretty well agreed that the only
means of protecting themselves against the evil-doers from the great
heavenly empire would be to punish them in an inhuman way when they
were taken in the act.
To an outsider it appeared, however, that the Governor not only had
humanity and justice on his side, but also acted with a true insight
into the future. When he came to the colony the corporal punishments
to which the Chinese were condemned were exceeding barbarous,
although mild in comparison with those common in China--a state of
things which the opposition brought forward in defence of the
severer punishments. Prisoners were repeatedly flogged with "the
cat," often with the result that they were attacked by incurable
consumption, they were prepared for the punishment by being
subjected for some time to a starvation-diet of rice and water; they
were branded when they left the prison, &c. Proceeding on the view
that the greatest security for a colony such as Hong Kong lies in
the affection which is cherished for it by the numerous native
population, the Governor had sought to protect it from unjust
attacks by Europeans. Considering that too barbarous punishments are
likely rather to promote than to deter from the commission of
crimes, in consequence of the protection the criminal in such a case
may reckon upon from sympathising fellow-creatures, and that mild
punishments are the first condition of a good protective police, the
Governor had diminished the floggings, forbidden the public
infliction of the punishment, given a reprimand in cases where "by
mistake" or by an evasion of the letter of the law extra strokes had
been given to criminals, exchanged "the regulation cat" for the
rattan, abolished the preliminary starvation-diet and the branding,
improved the prisons, &c. All this was now loudly complained of by
the European merchants, but was approved by the Chinese subjects in
the colony, who were however dissuaded from making any contrary
demonstrations.
When we came afterwards to other English possessions, we found that
the inhabitants were often more or less in conflict with the
authorities, but nowhere was there anything to prevent the
opposition from endeavouring to promote their views by public
meetings, by addresses in newspapers and pamphlets. In this way a
pretty active political life arises early, and this is probably one
of the main conditions of the capacity of the English colonies for
self-government, and of their vigour and influence on the
surrounding country.