Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and
punctuation remains unchanged.
Italics are represented thus _italic_, and superscripts thus y^{en}.
“JAPAN AS IT WAS AND IS”
A HANDBOOK OF OLD JAPAN
II
_Uniform with this Work_
A HANDBOOK OF MODERN JAPAN. By ERNEST W. CLEMENT. With two maps and
seventy-two illustrations from photographs. _Sixth edition._ Price,
$1.40 _net_.
A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
_Chicago_
[Illustration: PROCESSION OF FEUDAL LORDS
From _Official History of Japan_]
HILDRETH’S
“JAPAN AS IT WAS AND IS”
A HANDBOOK OF OLD JAPAN
EDITED, WITH SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES, BY
ERNEST W. CLEMENT
AUTHOR OF “A HANDBOOK OF MODERN JAPAN,” ETC.
INTRODUCTION BY
WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS
_With One Hundred Illustrations and Maps_
VOLUME II
[Illustration]
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1906
COPYRIGHT
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1906
Published September 29, 1906
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
CONTENTS
VOLUME II
CHAPTER XXXII
PAGE
Post-Houses—Imperial Messengers—Inns—Houses—Their
Furniture and Interior Arrangements—Bathing and Sweating
House—Gardens—Refreshment Houses—What they Provide—Tea 1
CHAPTER XXXIII
Number of People on the Road—Princely Retinues—Pilgrims to
Ise—Junrei Pilgrims—Naked Devotees—Religious Beggars—Begging
Order of Nuns—Yamabushi, or Mountain Priests—Buddhist
Beggars—Singular Bell-Chiming—Hucksters
and Peddlers—Courtesans 15
CHAPTER XXXIV
Departure from Nagasaki—Train of the Dutch—The Day’s
Journey—Treatment of the Dutch—Respect shown them in
the Island of Shimo—Care with which they are watched—Inns
at which they lodge—Their Reception and Treatment
there—Politeness of the Japanese—Lucky and Unlucky
Days—Seimei, the Astrologer 31
CHAPTER XXXV
From Nagasaki to Kokura—Shimonoseki—Water Journey to
Ōsaka—Description of that City—Its Castle—Interview
with the Governors—From Ōsaka to Miyako—Jodo and its
Castle—Fushimi—Entrance into Miyako—Visit to the Chief
Justice and the Governors—Description of Miyako—Palace
of the Dairi—Castle—Manufactures and Trade—Authority
of the Chief Justice—Police—Crimes 45
CHAPTER XXXVI
Lake Ōtsu—Mount Hiei[zan]—Japanese Legends—A Japanese
Patent Medicine—Kwannon—Miya—Arai—Policy of the
Emperors—Kakegawa—A Town on Fire—Suruga—Kunō—Passage
of a Rapid River—Fuji-no-yama, or Mount Fuji—Crossing
the Peninsula of Izu—Second Searching Place—Purgatory
Lake—Odawara—Coast of the Bay of Yedo—A
Live Saint—Kanagawa—Shinagawa—Yedo—Imperial
Castles and Palace 67
CHAPTER XXXVII
Personages to be visited—Visit to the Emperor—First Audience—Second
Audience—Visit to the Houses of the Councillors—Visits
to the Governors of Yedo and the Temple Lords—Visit
to the Houses of the Governors of Nagasaki—Audience of
Leave—Return—Visits to Temples in the Vicinity of Miyako—A. D.
1691-1692 85
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Further Decline of the Dutch Trade—Degradation of the
Japanese Coins—The Dutch threaten to withdraw from Japan—Restrictions
on the Chinese Trade—Probable Cause of the
Policy adopted by the Japanese—Drain of the Precious Metals—New
Basis upon which Future Trade must be arranged 109
CHAPTER XXXIX
Thunberg’s Visit to Japan—Searches and
Examinations—Smuggling—Interpreters—Deshima—Imports and
Exports—Unicorn’s Horn and Ginseng—Soy—The Dutch at Deshima—Japanese
Mistresses—Japanese Women—Studying the
Language—Botanizing—Clocks—New Year’s Day—Trampling
on Images—Departure for Yedo—Journey through
the Island of Shimo—Japanese Houses and Furniture—Manufacture
of Paper—Practice of Bathing—Shimonoseki—Voyage
to Ōsaka—Children—From Ōsaka to Miyako—Agriculture—Animals—A. D.
1775-1776 114
CHAPTER XL
Japanese Merchants—Journey from Miyako to Yedo—Botany of
the Mountains—Rainy Weather—Coverings for the Head and
Feet—Yedo—Astronomers and Physicians—Acupuncture—Moxa
[_Mogusa_]—Other Japanese Remedies—Method of
wearing the Hair—Visits to the Emperor and his Chief Officers—Japanese
Dress—Books and Maps—Succession of Emperors—Departure
from Yedo—Gnats—Fire-Flies—Threshing—Vegetables
and Fruits—Condition of the Japanese Farmer—Casting
Copper—Actors and Dancers—Thunberg’s Opinion of
the Japanese—A. D. 1775-1776 139
CHAPTER XLI
Isaac Titsingh—His Residence in Japan—Translations from the
Japanese—Annals of the Dairi—Memoirs of the Shōgun—Liberal
Ideas in Japan—Marriage Ceremonies—Funeral Ceremonies—Mourning—Feast
of Lanterns—A. D. 1779-1791 163
CHAPTER XLII
Exploration of the Northern Japanese Seas—First Russian Mission
to Japan—Professorship of Japanese at Irkutsk—New Restrictions
on the Dutch—Embarrassments growing out of the War
of the French Revolution—American Flag at Nagasaki—Captain
Stewart—Ingenuity of a Japanese Fisherman—Heer
Doeff, Director at Deshima—Suspicious Proceedings of Captain
Stewart—Russian Embassy—Klaproth’s Knowledge of Japanese—Doeff’s
First Journey to Yedo—Dutch Trade in 1804 and
1806—An American Ship at Nagasaki—The British Frigate
“Phaeton—No Ships from Batavia—The Dutch on Short
Allowance—English Ships from Batavia—Communication
again suspended—Dutch and Japanese Dictionary—Children
at the Factory—A. D. 1792-1817 190
CHAPTER XLIII
Golownin’s Capture and Imprisonment—Conveyance to Hakodate—Reception
and Imprisonment—Interpreters—Interviews with
the Governor—Removal to Matsumae—A Pupil in Russian—A
Japanese Astronomer—Escape and Recapture—Treatment
afterwards—Savants from Yedo—Japanese Science—European
News—A Japanese Free-Thinker—Soldiers—Their
Amusements—Thoughts on a Wedding—Domestic Arrangements—New
Year—Return of the “Diana”—Reprisals—A
Japanese Merchant and his Female Friend—Second Return of
the “Diana”—Third Return of the “Diana”—Interview on
Shore—Surrender of the Prisoners—Japanese Notification—The
Merchant at Home—The Merchant Class in Japan—A. D.
1811-1813 212
CHAPTER XLIV
Renewal of the Dutch Trade—Captain Gordon in the Bay of
Yedo—Fisscher—Meylan—Siebold—British Mutineers—Voyage
of the “Morrison”—Japanese Edict—The “Saramang” at
Nagasaki—The “Mercator” in the Bay of Yedo—Commodore
Biddle in the Bay of Yedo—Shipwrecked Americans—French
Ships of War at Nagasaki—The “Preble” at Nagasaki—Surveying
Ship “Mariner” in the Bays of Yedo and Shimoda—New
Notification through the Dutch—A. D. 1817-1850 245
CHAPTER XLV
Foreign Relations—New Shōgun—Dutch Trade—Chinese Trade—American
Embassy—Its Object—Letter to the Emperor—Perry’s
First Visit to the Bay of Yedo—Death of the Shōgun—Perry’s
Second Visit to the Bay of Yedo—Negotiation of a
Treaty—The Treaty as agreed to—Shimoda—Hakodate—Additional
Regulations—Japanese Currency—Burrow’s Visit
to the Bay of Yedo—Third Visit of the American Steamers—Russian
and English Negotiations—Exchange of Ratifications—Earthquake 274
CHAPTER XLVI
New Dutch Treaty—Mr. Harris, American Consul at Shimoda—His
Convention with the Japanese—His Journey to Yedo—Second
Visit to Yedo—Conditional Treaty—British Treaty—French
and Russian Treaties—Japanese Embassies to the
United States—A. D. 1854-1860 325
APPENDIX
NOTE A—Provinces by Circuits 343
" B—Bibliography 344
" C—Use of Fire-Arms in the East 346
" D—Fernam Mendez Pinto 348
" E—Earliest English and Dutch Adventurers in the East—Goa 350
" F—Japanese Daring and Adventure Exterior to the Limits of
Japan 353
" G—List of Japanese Year Periods 357
" H—Chronological Table of Emperors and Empresses 360
" I—Omitted Documents 362
INDEX 369
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME II
PAGE
Procession of Feudal Lords _Frontispiece_
A Scene in a Tea Garden 8
A Native Postman; Toko-no-ma 16
In a Japanese Garden 32
A Daimyō’s Procession 40
Image of Jizō 48
An Ancient Warrior 56
An Archer 64
The Marketing and Preparation of Food: A Kitchen, showing
Utensils; A Fishmonger 72
A Carpenter Shop 80
Ploughing; A Freight Cart 88
Views at Fushimi: Doll and Toy Shops; Entrance to Inari Temple 100
A View of Fuji 104
View of Hakone; Lake Biwa 112
The Ear-mound at Kyōtō 128
Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy 136
Scenes among the Silk Workers: Reeling; The Culture of the
Worms 144
Industrial Workers: An Umbrella-maker; A Charcoal Vender 152
Interior View of a Typical Japanese House 160
A Scene in the House of a Noble 178
A Japanese Bed 186
The Cultivation of Grain: Threshing and Cleaning Grain; Coolies
in a Rice Field; Women carrying Rice 194
The Processes of Weighing and Pounding Rice 202
A Coolie with Straw Raincoat 210
Farm Scenes: Coolies carrying Bamboo Baskets; An Irrigation
System 218
Artisans for the Common People: Repairing Wooden Clogs; Repairing
Tatami 226
Scenes in the Home: The Doctor’s Call; Hairdressing; A Blind
Masseur 234
Scene in a Common School 242
The Wedding Ceremony 250
A Buddhist Funeral 258
A Shintō Funeral 264
Scenes in Japanese Cemeteries 272
Players at the Game of “Go” 280
Theatrical Representations: The “No” Dance; Chrysanthemum
Figures 288
Japanese Wrestlers 296
Portrait of Commodore Oliver H. Perry 304
The Reception of Commodore Perry by the Japanese Emperor 312
Scene in the Harbor of Uraga 320
Portrait of Townsend Harris 328
The Old and the New: Junks; The New Battleship “Mikasa” 336
Nihombashi, Tōkyō 344
A Modern Street Scene in Tōkyō 352
JAPAN
AS IT WAS AND IS
CHAPTER XXXII
_Post-houses—Imperial Messengers—Inns—Houses—Their Furniture and
Interior Arrangements—Bathing and Sweating House—Gardens—Refreshment
Houses—What they provide—Tea._
“To accommodate travellers, there is, in all the chief villages and
hamlets, a post-house, belonging to the lord of the place, where, at
all times, they may find horses, porters, footmen, etc., in readiness,
at certain settled prices. Travellers, of all ranks and qualities, with
their retinues, resort to these post-houses, which lie at from six to
sixteen English miles distance from each other, but are, generally
speaking, not so good nor so well furnished upon Kiūshiū as upon the
great island Nippon, where we came to fifty-six in going from Ōsaka to
Yedo. These post-houses are not built for inn-keeping, but only for
stabling and exchange of horses, for which reason there is a spacious
court belonging to each; also clerks and bookkeepers enough, who keep
accounts, in their master’s name, of all the daily occurrences. The
price of all such things as are to be hired at these post-houses is
settled, not only according to distances, but with regard to the
goodness or badness of the roads, to the price of victuals, forage,
and the like. One post-house with another, a horse to ride on, with
two portmantles and an _atotsuke_, may be had for eight sen a mile.
A horse, which is only saddled, and hath neither men nor baggage to
carry, will cost six sen; porters and kago-men, five sen, and so on.
“Messengers are waiting, day and night, at all these post-houses, to
carry the letters, edicts, proclamations, etc., of the emperor and the
princes of the empire, which they take up the moment they are delivered
at the post-house, and carry to the next with all speed. They are
kept in a small, black varnished box, bearing the coat of arms of the
emperor or prince who sends them, which the messenger carries upon his
shoulder, tied to a small staff. Two of these messengers always run
together, that in case any accident should befall either of them upon
the road, the other may take his place, and deliver the box at the next
post-house. All travellers, even the princes of the empire and their
retinues, must retire out of the way and give a free passage to the
messengers who carry letters or orders from the emperor, which they
take care to signify at a due distance by ringing a small bell.
“There are inns enough, and tolerable good ones, all along the road.
The best are in those villages where there are post-houses. At these
even princes and princely retinues may be conveniently lodged, treated
suitably to their rank, and provided with all necessaries. Like other
well-built houses, they are but one story high, or, if there be two
stories, the second is low, and good for little else but stowage. The
inns are not broader in front than other houses, but considerably
deep, sometimes forty ken, or two hundred and forty feet, with a
_Tsubo_—that is, a small pleasure-garden—behind, enclosed with a neat
white wall. The front hath only lattice windows, which, in the daytime,
are kept open. The folding screens and movable partitions which divide
the several apartments, unless there be some man of quality with his
retinue at that time lodged there, are also so disposed as to lay open
to travellers, as they go along, a very agreeable perspective view
across the whole house into the garden behind. The floor is raised
about three feet above the level of the street, and by jetting out,
both towards the street and garden, forms a sort of gallery, which is
covered with a roof, and on which travellers pass their time, diverting
themselves with sitting or walking. From it, also, they mount their
horses, for fear of dirtying their feet by mounting in the street.
“In some great inns there is a passage, contrived for the conveniency
of people of quality, that, coming out of their norimono, they may walk
directly to their apartments, without being obliged to pass through the
fore part of the house, which is commonly not over clean, and makes
but an indifferent figure, being covered with poor, sorry mats, and
the rooms divided only by ordinary screens. The kitchen is in this
fore part of the house, and often fills it with smoke, as they have no
chimneys, but only a hole in the roof to let the smoke through. Here
foot travellers and ordinary people live, among the servants. People of
fashion are accommodated in the back part of the house, which is kept
clean and neat to admiration. Not the least spot is to be seen upon the
walls, floors, carpets, window screens, in short, nowhere in the room,
which looks as if it were quite new, and but newly furnished. There
are no tables, chairs, benches, or other furniture in these rooms. They
are only adorned with some _Miseratsie_ (?), of which more presently,
put into or hung up in the rooms, for travellers to amuse their leisure
by examining, which, indeed, some of them very well deserve. The
_Tsubo_, or garden behind the house, is also very curiously kept, for
travellers to divert themselves with walking in it, and beholding the
beautiful flowers it is commonly adorned with.
“The rooms in Japanese houses have seldom more than one blank wall,
which is plastered with clay of Ōsaka, a good fine sort, and so left
bare, without any other ornament. It is so thin that the least kick
would break it to pieces. On all other sides the room has either
windows or folding-screens, which slide in grooves, as occasion
requires. The lower groove is cut in a sill, which runs even with the
mats, and the upper one in a beam, which comes down two or three feet
from the ceiling. The beams in which the grooves run are plastered with
clay of Ōsaka. The ceiling, to show the curious running of the veins
and grain of the wood, is sometimes only covered with a thin, slight
layer of a transparent varnish. Sometimes they paste it over with
the same sort of variously colored and flowered paper of which their
screens are made. The paper windows, which let light into the room,
have wooden shutters on both sides, taken off in the daytime, but put
on at night.
“In the solid wall of the room there is always a _Toko_, as they call
it, or sort of cupboard, raised about a foot or more above the floor,
and very near two feet deep. It commonly stands in that part of the
wall which is just opposite to the door, that being reckoned the most
honorable. Just before this toko two extraordinarily fine mats are
laid, one upon the other, and both upon the ordinary mats which cover
the floor. These are for people of the first quality to sit upon, for,
upon the arrival of travellers of less note, they are removed out of
the way. At the side of the toko is a _Tokowaki_, as they call it,
or side cupboard, with some few shelves which serve the landlord or
travellers, if they please, to lay their most esteemed book upon, they
holding it, as the Mahometans do their Alcoran, too sacred to be laid
on the ground. Upon the arrival of the Dutch, this sacred book of the
landlord is put out of the way. Above is a drawer, where they put up
the inkhorn, paper, writings, books, and other things of this kind.
Here, also, travellers find sometimes the wooden box which the natives
use at night, instead of a pillow. It is almost cubical, hollow,
and made of six thin boards joined together, curiously varnished,
smoothed, and very neat, about a span long, but not quite so broad,
that travellers by turning it may lay their head in that posture which
they find the most easy.[1] Besides this wooden pillow, travellers
have no other bedding to expect from the landlord, and must carry
their own along with them or lie on the mats, covering themselves with
their clothes. In that side of the room next to the toko is commonly a
balcony, serving the person lodged in this, the chief room, to look out
upon the neighboring garden, fields, or water, without stirring from
the carpets placed below the toko.
“Beneath the floor, which is covered with fine, well-stuffed mats, is
a square walled hole, which, in the winter season, after having first
removed the mats, they fill with ashes and lay coals upon them to keep
the room warm. The landladies in their room put a low table upon this
fire-hole, and spread a large carpet or tablecloth over it, for people
to sit underneath, and to defend themselves against the cold. In rooms
where there are no fire-holes they use in the winter brass or earthen
pots, very artfully made, and filled with ashes, with two iron sticks,
which serve instead of fire-tongs, much after the same manner as they
use two other small sticks at table instead of forks.
“I come now to the above mentioned _Miseratsie_ (?), as they call them,
being curious and amusing ornaments of their rooms. In our journey
to court I took notice of the following: 1. A paper neatly bordered
with a rich piece of embroidery, instead of a frame, either with the
picture of a saint done apparently with a coarse pencil, and in a few,
perhaps three or four, strokes, wherein, however, the proportions and
resemblance have been so far observed, that scarce anybody can miss
finding out whom it was designed to represent, nor help admiring the
ingenuity and skill of the master; or else a judicious moral sentence
of some noted philosopher or poet, writ with his own hand, or the
hand of some noted writing-master, who had a mind to show his skill
by a few hasty strokes or characters, indifferent enough at first
sight, but nevertheless very ingeniously drawn, and such as will
afford sufficient matter of amusement and speculation to a curious and
attentive spectator; and, lest anybody should call their being genuine
in question, they are commonly signed, not only by the writing-masters
themselves, but have the hands and seals of some other witnesses put
to them. They are hung up nowhere else but in the toko, as the most
honorable place of the room, and this because the Japanese set a great
value upon them.
2. “Pictures of Chinese, as also of birds, trees, landskips, and other
things, upon white screens, done by some eminent master, or rather
scratched with a few hasty, affected strokes, after such a manner that,
unless seen at a proper distance, they scarce appear natural.
3. “A flower-vase filled with all sorts of curious flowers, and green
branches of trees, such as the season affords, curiously ranged
according to the rules of art, it being as much an art in this country
to arrange a flower-vase as it is in Europe to carve, or to lay a
table.[2] Sometimes there is, instead, a perfuming-pan, of excellent
good workmanship, cast in brass or copper, resembling a crane, lion,
dragon, or other strange animal. I took notice once that there was
an earthen pot of Cologne, such as is used to keep Spauwater in,
with all the cracks and fissures carefully mended, used in lieu of a
flower-vase, it being esteemed a very great rarity, because of the
distant place it came from, the clay it was made of, and its uncommon
shape.
4. “Some strange, uncommon pieces of wood, wherein the colors and grain
either naturally run after a curious and unusual manner, or have been
brought by art to represent something.
5. “Some neat and beautiful network, adorning either the balcony and
windows towards the garden, or the tops of the doors, screens, and
partitions of the chief apartments.
6. “A bunch of a tree, or a piece of a rotten root, or of an old stump,
remarkable for their monstrous deformed shape.
“After this manner the chief and back apartments are furnished in great
inns, and houses of substantial people. The other rooms gradually
decrease in cleanliness, neatness, and delicacy of furniture; the
screens, windows, mats, and other ornaments and household goods,
after they have for some time adorned the chief apartments, and begin
to be spotted and to grow old, being removed into the other rooms
successively, there to be quite worn out. The chief of the other rooms
is that where they keep their plate, china ware, and other household
goods, ranged upon the floor in curious order, according to their size,
shape, and use. Most of these are made of wood, thin, but strongly
varnished, the greatest part upon a dark red ground. They are washed
with warm water every time they have been used, and wiped clean with
a cloth; by which means they will, though constantly used, keep clean
and neat, and in their full lustre for several years.
[Illustration: A SCENE IN A TEA GARDEN]
“The small gallery or walk which jets out from
the house towards the garden leads to the house of office and to a
bathing-stove, or hot-house. The house of office is built on one side
of the back part of the house, and hath two doors to go in. Not far
off stands a basin filled with water to wash your hands, commonly an
oblong, rough stone, the upper part curiously cut out into the form
of a basin. A new pail of bamboo hangs near it, and is covered with a
neat fir or cypress board, to which they put a new handle every time
it hath been used, to wit, a fresh stick of the bamboo cane, it being
a very clean sort of a wood, and in a manner naturally varnished.
The bathing-place, commonly built on the back side of the garden,
contains either a hot-house to sweat in, or a warm bath, and sometimes
both. It is made warm and got ready every evening, because the Japanese
usually bathe or sweat after their day’s journey is over, thinking by
this means to refresh themselves, and to sweat off their weariness.
As they can undress themselves in an instant, so they are ready at a
minute’s warning to go into it; for they need but untie their sash,
and all their clothes fall down at once, leaving them quite naked,
excepting a small band which they wear close to the body about their
waist. Their hot-house, which they go into only to sweat, is an almost
cubical trunk, or stove, raised about three feet above the ground,
and built close to the wall of the bathing-place, on the outside,—not
quite six feet high, but about nine feet long, and of the same breadth.
The floor is laid with small planed laths or planks, some few inches
distant from each other, both for the easy passage of the rising vapors
and the convenient outlet of the water. You go, or rather creep in,
through a small door or shutter. There are two other shutters, one on
each side, to let out the superfluous vapor. The empty space beneath,
down to the ground, is enclosed with a wall to prevent the vapors from
getting out on the sides. Towards the yard, just beneath the hot-house,
is a furnace, part of which stands out towards the yard, where they put
in the necessary water and plants. This part is shut with a clapboard
when the fire is burning, to make all the vapors ascend through the
inner and open part into the hot-house. There are always two tubs,
one of warm, the other of cold water, for such as have a mind to wash
themselves.
“The garden is the only place in which we Dutchmen, being treated in
all respects little better than prisoners, have liberty to walk. It is
commonly square, with a back door, and walled in very neatly. There are
few good houses or inns without one. If there be not room enough for a
garden, they have at least an old ingrafted plum, cherry, or apricot
tree; and the older, the more crooked and monstrous, the greater value
they put upon it. Sometimes they let the branches grow into the rooms.
In order to make it bear larger flowers and in greater quantity, they
trim it to a few, perhaps two or three, branches. It cannot be denied
but that the great number of beautiful, incarnadine double flowers are
a curious ornament to this back part of the house, but they have this
disadvantage, that they bear no fruit. In some small houses and inns
of less note, where there is not room enough neither for a garden nor
trees, they have at least an opening or window, to let the light fall
into the back rooms, before which, for the amusement and diversion of
travellers, is put a small tub full of water, wherein they commonly
keep alive some gold or silver fish; and for further ornament there
is generally a flower-pot or two standing there. Sometimes they plant
dwarf trees, which will grow easily upon pumice or other porous stones,
without any earth at all, provided the root be put into the water,
whence it will suck up sufficient nourishment. Ordinary people often
plant the same kind of trees before their street-doors.
“But to return to the Tsubo, or garden. A good one must include at
least thirty feet square, and consist of the following essential parts:
1. The ground is covered partly with roundish stones of different
colors, gathered in rivers or upon the sea-shore, well washed and
cleaned, and those of the same kind, laid together in form of beds,
partly with gravel which is swept every day, and kept clean and neat to
admiration, the large stones being laid in the middle as a path to walk
upon without injuring the gravel, the whole in a seeming but ingenious
confusion. 2. Some few flower-bearing shrubs planted confusedly, though
not without some certain rules. Amidst them stands sometimes a _Saguer_
(?), as they call it, or scarce outlandish tree, sometimes a dwarf tree
or two. 3. A small rock or hill in a corner of the garden, made in
imitation of nature, curiously adorned with birds and insects cast in
brass, and placed between the stones. Sometimes the model of a temple
stands upon it, built, as for the sake of the prospect they generally
are, on a remarkable eminence or the borders of a precipice. Often a
small rivulet rushes down the stones with an agreeable noise, the whole
in due proportions and as near as possible resembling nature. 4. A
small thicket or wood on the side of the hill, for which the gardeners
choose such trees as will grow close to one another, and plant and
cut them according to their largeness, nature, and the color of their
flowers and leaves, so as to make the whole very accurately imitate a
natural wood or forest. 5. A cistern or pond, as mentioned above, with
live fish kept in it, and surrounded with proper plants, that is, such
as love a watery soil, and would lose their beauty and greenness if
planted in a dry ground. It is a particular profession to lay out these
gardens, and to keep them so curiously and nicely as they ought to be.
“There are innumerable smaller inns, cook-shops, sake, or ale-houses,
pastry-cooks’ and confectioners’ shops, all along the road, even in
the midst of woods and forests, and at the tops of mountains, where
a weary foot-traveller, and the meaner sort of people, find at all
times, for a few sen, something warm to eat, or hot tea, or sake, or
somewhat else of the kind, wherewith to refresh themselves. ’Tis true
these cook-shops are but poor, sorry houses, if compared to larger
inns, being inhabited only by poor people, who have enough to do to
get a livelihood by this trade; and yet, even in these, there is
always something or other to amuse passengers, and to draw them in;
sometimes a garden and orchard behind the house, which is seen from
the street, looking through the passage, and which, by its beautiful
flowers, or the agreeable sight of a stream of clear water, falling
down from a neighboring natural or artificial hill, or by some other
curious ornament of this kind, tempts people to come in and repose
themselves. At other times a large flower-pot stands in the window,
filled with flowering branches of trees, disposed in a very curious
manner. Sometimes a handsome, well-looking housemaid, or a couple
of young girls, well dressed, stand under the door, and with great
civility invite people to come in, and to buy something. The eatables,
such as cakes, or whatever it be, are kept before the fire, in an open
room, sticking to skewers of bamboos, so that passengers, as they
go along, may take them and pursue their journey without stopping.
The landladies, cooks, and maids, as soon as they see anybody coming
at a distance, blow up the fire, to make it look as if the victuals
had been just got ready. Some busy themselves with making the tea,
others prepare soup, others fill cups with sake or other liquors, to
present them to passengers, all the while talking and chattering, and
commending their merchandise with a voice loud enough to be heard by
their next neighbors of the same profession.
“The eatables sold at these cook-shops, besides tea, and sometimes
sake, are _manjū_, a sort of round cakes, which they learned to make
from the Portuguese, as big as common hens’ eggs, and filled within
with black-bean flour and sugar; cakes of the jelly of a root found
upon mountains, and cut into round slices, like carrots, and roasted;
snails, oysters, shell-fish, and other small fish, roasted, boiled, or
pickled; Chinese _laxa_, a thin sort of pap, or paste, made of fine
wheat flour, cut into small, thin, long slices, and baked; all sorts of
plants, roots, and sprigs which the season affords, washed and boiled
in water with salt; innumerable other dishes peculiar to this country,
made of seeds, powdered roots, and vegetables, boiled or baked, dressed
in many different ways.
“The common sauce for these and other dishes is a little _soy_, as they
call it, mixed with _sake_, or the beer of the country. _Sanshō_ leaves
are laid upon the dish for ornament, and sometimes thin slices of fine
ginger and lemon peel. Sometimes they put powdered ginger, sanshō, or
the powder of some root growing in the country, into the soup. They
are also provided with sweetmeats, of several different colors and
sorts, which, generally speaking, are far more agreeable to the eye
than pleasing to the taste, being but indifferently sweetened with
sugar, and so tough that one must have good teeth to chew them. Foot
travellers find it set down in their printed road-books, which they
always carry about them, where and at what price the best victuals of
the kind are to be got.
“Tea (since most travellers drink scarce anything else upon the road)
is sold at all the inns and cook-shops, besides many tea-booths set up
for this trade alone, in the midst of fields and woods, and at the stop
of mountains. The tea sold at all these places is but a coarse sort,
being only the largest leaves, which remain upon the shrub after the
youngest and tenderest have been plucked off, at two different times,
for the use of people of fashion, who constantly drink it, before or
after their meals. These larger leaves are not rolled up and curled, as
the better sort of tea is, but simply roasted in a pan, and continually
stirred whilst they are roasting, lest they should get a burnt taste.
When they are done enough, they put them by in straw baskets, under the
roof of the house, near the place where the smoke comes out. They are
not a bit nicer in preparing it for drinking, for they commonly take a
good handful of the tea leaves, and boil them in a large iron kettle
full of water. The leaves are sometimes put into a small bag; but, if
not, they have a little basket swimming in the kettle, which they make
use of to keep the leaves down, when they have a mind to take out some
of the clear decoction. Half a cup of this decoction is mixed with cold
water, when travellers ask for it. Tea thus prepared smells and tastes
like lye—the leaves it is made of, besides that they are of a very bad
sort, being seldom less than a year old; and yet the Japanese esteem
it much more healthful for daily use than the young, tender leaves,
prepared after the Chinese manner, which they say affect the head too
strongly, though even these lose a great part of their narcotic quality
when boiled.”[3]