_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._
The ministers of state and other great men at court, some of whom the
Dutch were to visit, and to make presents to others, were the five
chief councillors of state, called _Gorōjū_, or the five elderly men;
four imperial deputy councillors of state; the three Jisha-bugyō,
as they are called, that is, lords of the temple; the imperial
commissioners, as the Dutch call them, described by Kämpfer as the
emperor’s attorney-generals for the city of Yedo; the two governors of
Yedo; and, last of all, that one of the governors of Nagasaki resident
at Yedo.
“On the 29th of March,”[27] says Kämpfer, “the day appointed for our
audience, the presents designed for his imperial majesty[28] were sent
to court, to be there laid in due order on wooden tables, in the hall
of hundred mats, as they call it, where the emperor was to view them.
We followed soon after with a very inconsiderable equipage, clad in
black silk cloaks, as garments of ceremony, attended by three stewards
of the governors of Nagasaki, our Dōshin, or deputy Bugiō, two town
messengers of Nagasaki, and an interpreter’s son, all walking on foot.
We three Dutchmen and our second interpreter rode on horseback, behind
each other, our horses led by grooms, who took them by the bridle. Our
president, or captain, as the Japanese call him, came after us, carried
in a norimono, and was followed by our old chief interpreter, carried
in a kago. The procession was closed by the rest of our servants and
retinue, walking a-foot at proper distances, so far as they were
permitted to follow us.
“In this order we moved on towards the castle, and after about half
an hour’s riding came to the first enclosure, which we found well
fortified with walls and ramparts. This we entered over a large bridge
across a broad river, on which we saw great numbers of boats and
vessels. The entry is through two strong gates, with a small guard
between them. Having passed through the second gate, we came to a large
place, where we found another more numerous guard, which, however,
seemed to be intended more for state than defence. The guard-room was
hung about with cloth; pikes were planted in the ground near the entry,
and within it was curiously adorned with gilt arms, lackered guns,
pikes, shields, bows, arrows, and quivers. The soldiers on the ground
were in good order, clad in black silk, each with two scymitars stuck
in their girdle.
“Having passed across this first enclosure, riding between the houses
and palaces of the princes and lords of the empire, built within its
compass, we came to the second, which we found fortified much after
the same manner, only the gates and inner guard and palaces were much
more stately and magnificent. We left our norimono and kago here, as
also our horses and servants, and were conducted across this second
enclosure to the Tono-machi (Lord-street), which we entered over a
long stone bridge; and having passed through a double bastion, and as
many strong gates, and thence about twenty paces further through an
irregular street, built, as the situation of the ground would allow
it, with walls of an uncommon height on both sides, we came to the
_Hiakunimban_, that is, guard of hundred men, or great guard of the
castle. Here we were commanded to wait till we could be introduced
to an audience, which we were told should be as soon as the great
council of state was met in the palace. We were civilly received by
the two captains of the guard, who treated us with tea and tobacco.
Soon after, Kawaguchi Settsu-no-Kami (the governor of Nagasaki resident
at Yedo) and the two commissioners came to compliment us, along with
some gentlemen of the emperor’s court, who were strangers to us.
Having waited about an hour, during which time most of the imperial
councillors of state, old and young, went into the palace, some walking
on foot, others carried in norimono, we were conducted through two
stately gates, over a large square place, to the palace, to which there
is an ascent of a few steps leading from the second gate. The place
between the second gate and the front of the palace is but a few paces
broad, and was then excessively crowded with throngs of courtiers and
troops of guards.
“Thence we were conducted up two other staircases into a spacious room
next to the entry on the right, being the place where all persons
that are to be admitted to an audience wait till they are called in.
It is a large and lofty room, but, when all the screens are put on,
pretty dark, receiving but a sparing light from the upper windows
of an adjoining room. It is otherwise richly furnished, according to
the country fashion, and its gilt posts, walls, and screens are very
pleasing to behold.
“Having waited here upwards of an hour, and the emperor having in the
meanwhile seated himself in the hall of audience, Settsu-no-Kami and
the two commissioners came in and conducted our president into the
emperor’s presence, leaving us behind. As soon as he came thither, they
cried out aloud, ‘Hollanda Captain!’ which was the signal for him to
draw near and make his obeisance. Accordingly he crawled on his hands
and knees to a place showed him between the presents, ranged in due
order on one side, and the place where the emperor sat on the other,
and then kneeling, he bowed his forehead quite down to the ground, and
so crawled backwards like a crab, without uttering one single word. So
mean and short a thing is the audience we have of this mighty monarch.
Nor are there any more ceremonies observed in the audience he gives
even to the greatest and most powerful princes of the empire; for,
having been called into the hall, their names are cried out aloud;
then they move on their hands and feet humbly and silently towards
the emperor’s seat, and having showed their submission by bowing
their forehead down to the ground, they creep back again in the same
submissive posture.
[Illustration: PLOUGHING; A FREIGHT CART]
“The hall of audience is not in the least like that which hath been
described and figured by Montanus in his ‘Memorable Embassies of the
Dutch to the Emperors of Japan.’ The elevated throne, the steps leading
up to it, the carpet pendent from it, the stately columns supporting
the building which contains the throne, the columns between which
the princes of the empire are said to prostrate themselves before the
emperor, and the like, have all no manner of foundation but in that
author’s fancy. The floor is covered with an hundred mats, all of the
same size. Hence it is called Senjō-shiki, that is, The Hall of an
Hundred Mats.[29] It opens on one side towards a small court, which
lets in the light; on the opposite side it joins two other apartments,
which are on this occasion laid open towards the same court, one
of which is considerably larger than the other, and serves for the
councillors of state when they give audience by themselves. The other
is narrower, deeper, and one step higher than the hall itself. In this
the emperor sits when he gives audience, raised only on a few carpets.
Nor is it an easy matter to see him, the light reaching not quite so
far as the place where he sits, besides that the audience is too short,
and the person admitted to it, in so humble and submissive a posture
that he cannot well have an opportunity to hold up his head and to view
him. This audience is otherwise very awful and majestic, by reason
chiefly of the silent presence of all the councillors of state, as also
of many princes and lords of the empire, the gentlemen of his majesty’s
bed-chamber, and other chief officers of his court, who line the hall
of audience and all its avenues, sitting in good order, and clad in
their garments of ceremony.
“Formerly all we had to do, at the emperor’s court, was completed by
the captain’s paying the usual homage, after the manner above related.
But, for about these twenty years last past, he and the rest of the
Dutchmen that came up with the embassy to Yedo, were conducted deeper
into the palace, to give the empress, and the ladies of her court,
and the princesses of the blood, the diversion of seeing us. In this
second audience the emperor and the ladies invited to it attend behind
screens and lattices, but the councillors of state and other officers
of the court sit in the open rooms in their usual and elegant order.
As soon as the captain had paid his homage, the emperor retired into
his apartment, and not long after we three Dutchmen were likewise
called up and conducted, together with the captain, through several
apartments, into a gallery curiously carved and gilt, where we waited
about a quarter of an hour, and were then, through several other walks
and galleries, carried further into a large room, where they desired
us to sit down, and where several courtiers with shaved heads, being
the emperor’s physicians, the officers of his kitchen, and some of
the clergy, came to ask after our names, age, and the like; but gilt
screens were quickly drawn before us, to deliver us from their throng
and troublesome importunity.
“We stayed here about half an hour; meanwhile the court met in the
imperial apartments, where we were to have our second audience, and
whither we were conducted through several dark galleries. Along all
these several galleries there was one continued row of lifeguardsmen,
and nearer to the imperial apartments followed in the same row some
great officers, who lined the front of the hall of audience, clad in
their garments of ceremony, bowing their heads and sitting on their
heels.
“The hall of audience consisted of several rooms looking towards a
middle place, some of which were laid open towards the same, others
covered by screens and lattices. Some were of fifteen mats, others
of eighteen, and they were a mat higher or lower, according to the
quality of the persons seated in the same. The middle place had no
mats at all, they having been taken away, and was consequently the
lowest, on whose floor, covered with neat varnished boards, we were
commanded to sit down. The emperor and his imperial consort sat behind
the lattices on our right. As I was dancing, at the emperor’s command,
I had an opportunity twice of seeing the empress through the slits of
the lattices, and took notice that she was of a brown and beautiful
complexion, with black European eyes, full of fire, and from the
proportion of her head, which was pretty large, I judged her to be a
tall woman, and about thirty-six years of age. By lattices, I mean
hangings made of reed, split exceedingly thin and fine, and covered
on the back with a fine, transparent silk, with openings about a span
broad, for the persons behind to look through. For ornament’s sake, and
the better to hide the persons standing behind, they are painted with
divers figures, though it would be impossible to see them at a distance
when the light is taken off behind.
“The emperor himself was in such an obscure place that we should scarce
have known him to be present had not his voice discovered him, which
yet was so low, as if he purposely intended to be there incognito. Just
before us, behind other lattices were the princes of the blood and the
ladies of the empress and her court. I took notice that pieces of paper
were put between the reeds, in some parts of the lattices, to make the
openings wider, in order to a better and easier sight. I counted about
thirty such papers, which made me conclude, that there was about that
number of persons sitting behind.
“Bingo sat on a raised mat, in an open room by himself, just before us,
towards our right, on which side the emperor sat behind the lattices.
On our left, in another room, were the councillors of state of the
first and second rank, sitting in a double row in good and becoming
order. The gallery behind us was filled with the chief officers of the
emperor’s court and the gentlemen of his bed-chamber. The gallery,
which led into the room where the emperor was, was filled with the sons
of some princes of the empire, then at court, the emperor’s pages and
some priests. After this manner it was that they ordered the stage on
which we were now to act.
“The commissioners for foreign affairs having conducted us into the
gallery before the hall of audience, one of the councillors of state
of the second rank came to receive us there and to conduct us to the
above-described middle place, on which we were commanded to sit down,
having first made our obeisances after the Japanese manner, creeping
and bowing our heads to the ground, towards that part of the lattices
behind which the emperor was. The chief interpreter sat himself a
little forward, to hear more distinctly, and we took our places on
his left hand, all in a row. After the usual obeisances, Bingo bid
us welcome in the emperor’s name. The chief interpreter received the
compliment from Bingo’s mouth, and repeated it to us. Upon this the
ambassador made his compliment in the name of his masters, returning
their most humble thanks to the emperor for having graciously granted
the Dutch liberty of commerce. This the chief interpreter repeated in
Japanese, having prostrated himself quite to the ground, and speaking
loud enough to be heard by the emperor. The emperor’s answer was again
received by Bingo, who delivered it to the chief interpreter, and he
to us. He might have, indeed, received it himself from the emperor’s
own mouth, and saved Bingo this unnecessary trouble; but I fancy that
the words, as they flow out of the emperor’s mouth, are esteemed too
precious and sacred for an immediate transit into the mouth of persons
of a low rank.
“The mutual compliments being over, the succeeding part of this
solemnity turned to a perfect farce. We were asked a thousand
ridiculous and impertinent questions. They desired to know how old each
of us was, and what was his name, which we were commanded to write upon
a bit of paper, in anticipation of which we had provided ourselves with
an European inkhorn. This paper, together with the inkhorn itself,
we were commanded to give to Bingo, who delivered them both into the
emperor’s hands, reaching them over below the lattice. The captain,
or ambassador, was asked the distance of Holland from Batavia, and of
Batavia from Nagasaki; also which of the two was the most powerful, the
Director-general of the Dutch East India Company at Batavia, or the
Prince of Holland? As for my own particular, the following questions
were put to me. What external and internal distempers I thought the
most dangerous and most difficult to cure? How I proceeded in the cure
of cancerous humors and imposthumations of the inner parts? Whether our
European physicians did not search after some medicine to render people
immortal, as the Chinese physicians had done for many hundred years?
Whether we had made any considerable progress in this search, and
which was the last remedy conducive to long life that had been found
out in Europe? To which I returned in answer, that very many European
physicians had long labored to find out some medicine, which should
have the virtue of prolonging human life and preserving people in
health to a great age; and, having thereupon been asked which I thought
the best, I answered, that I always took that to be the best which was
found out last, till experience taught us a better; and being further
asked, which was the last, I answered, a certain spirituous liquor,
which could keep the humors of our body fluid and comfort the spirits.
This general answer proved not altogether satisfactory; for I was
quickly desired to let them know the name of this excellent medicine,
upon which, knowing that whatever was esteemed by the Japanese had long
and high-sounding names, I returned in answer it was the _Sal volatile
Oleosum Sylvii_. This name was minuted down behind the lattices, for
which purpose I was commanded to repeat it several times. The next
question was, who it was that found it out, and where it was found out?
I answered, Professor Sylvius, in Holland. Then they asked whether I
could make it up. Upon this our resident whispered me to say no; but
I answered, yes, I could make it up, but not here. Then it was asked
whether it could be had at Batavia; and having returned, in answer,
that it was to be had there, the emperor desired that it should be sent
over by the next ships.
“The emperor, hitherto seated almost opposite to us, at a considerable
distance, now drew nearer, and sat himself down on our right, behind
the lattices, as near us as possible. He ordered us to take off our
kappas, or cloaks, being our garments of ceremony; then to stand
upright, that he might have a full view of us; again to walk, to
stand still, to compliment each other, to dance, to jump, to play
the drunkard, to speak broken Japanese, to read Dutch, to paint, to
sing, to put our cloaks on and off. Meanwhile we obeyed the emperor’s
commands in the best manner we could, I joining to my dance a love-song
in High German. In this manner, and with innumerable such other apish
tricks, we must suffer ourselves to contribute to the emperor’s and
the court’s diversion. The ambassador, however, is free from these and
the like commands, for, as he represents the authority of his masters,
some care is taken that nothing should be done to injure or prejudice
the same; and besides he showed so much gravity on his countenance and
whole behavior, as was sufficient to convince the Japanese that he was
not at all a fit person to have such ridiculous and comical commands
laid upon him.
“Having been thus exercised for a matter of two hours, though with
great apparent civility, some shaved servants came in and put before
each of us a small table with Japanese victuals, and a couple of
ivory sticks instead of knives and forks. We took and ate some little
things, and our old chief interpreter, though scarce able to walk, was
commanded to carry away the remainder for himself. We were then ordered
to put on our cloaks again and to take our leave; which we gladly and
without delay complied with, putting thereby an end to this second
audience.[30] The imperial audience over, we were conducted back by
the two commissioners to the waiting-room, where we took our leave of
them also.
“It was now already three o’clock in the afternoon, and we had still
several visits to make to the councillors of state of the first and
second rank. Accordingly we left forthwith, saluted as we went by
the officers of the great imperial guard, and made our round a-foot.
The presents had been carried beforehand to every one’s house by our
clerks. They consisted of some Chinese, Bengalese, and other silk
stuffs, some linen, black serge, some yards of black cloth, gingangs,
pelangs, and a flask of Tent wine.
“We were everywhere received by the stewards and secretaries with
extraordinary civility, and treated with tea, tobacco, and sweetmeats
as handsomely as the little time we had to spare would allow. The rooms
where we were admitted to audience were filled behind the screens and
lattices with crowds of spectators, who would fain have obliged us
to show them some of our European customs and ceremonies, but could
obtain nothing excepting only a short dance at Bingo’s house (who came
home himself a back way), and a song from each of us at the youngest
councillor’s of state. We then returned again to our kago and horses,
and having got out of the castle, through the northern gate, went back
to our inn another way, on the left of which we took notice that there
were strong walls and ditches. It was just six in the evening when we
got home, heartily tired.
“Friday, the 30th of March, we rode out again betimes, in the morning,
to make some of our remaining visits. The presents, such as above
described, were sent before us by our Japanese clerks, who took care
to lay them on trays or tables, and to arrange them in good order,
according to the country fashion. We were received at the entry of
the house, by one or two of the principal domestics, and conducted to
the apartment where we were to have our audience. The rooms round the
hall of audience were everywhere crowded with spectators. As soon as
we had seated ourselves we were treated with tea and tobacco. Then
the steward of the household came in, or else the secretary, either
alone or with another gentleman, to compliment us, and to receive
our compliments, in his master’s name. The rooms were everywhere so
disposed as to make us turn our faces towards the ladies, by whom we
were very generously and civilly treated with cakes and several sorts
of sweetmeats. We visited and made our presents, this day, to the
two governors of Yedo, to the three ecclesiastical judges (or temple
lords), and to the two commissioners for foreign affairs, who lived
near a mile from each other, one in the southwest, the other in the
northeast, part of the castle. They both profess themselves to be
particular patrons of the Dutch, and received us accordingly with great
pomp and magnificence. The street was lined with twenty men armed,
who, with their long staffs, which they held on one side, made a very
good figure, besides that they helped to keep off the throng of people
from being too troublesome. We were received upon our entering the
house and introduced to audience, much after the same manner as we had
been in other places, only we were carried deeper into their palaces
and into the innermost apartment, on purpose that we should not be
troubled with numbers of spectators, and be at more liberty ourselves
as well as the ladies who were invited to the ceremony. Opposite us, in
the hall of audience, there were grated lattices, instead of screens,
for the length of two mats (twelve feet) and upwards, behind which
sat such numbers of women of the commissioner’s own family and their
relations and friends, that there was no room left. We had scarce
seated ourselves, when seven servants, well clad, came in, and brought
us pipes and tobacco, with the usual apparatus for smoking. Soon after,
they brought in something baked, laid on japanned trays, then some
fish fried, all after the same manner, by the same number of servants,
and always but one piece in a small dish; then a couple of eggs, one
baked, the other boiled and shelled, and a glass of old, strong sake,
standing between them. After this manner we were entertained for about
an hour and a half, when they desired us to sing a song and to dance;
the first we refused, but satisfied them as to the last. In the house
of the first commissioner a drink made of sweet plums was offered us
instead of sake. In the second commissioner’s house we were presented
first of all with _manjū_ bread,[31] in a brown liquor, cold, with some
mustard-seed and radishes laid about the dish, and at last with some
orange-peels with sugar, which is a dish given only upon extraordinary
occasions, in token of fortune and good will. We then drank some tea,
and having taken our leave, went back to our inn, where we arrived at
five in the evening.”
(The following bills of fare are given in Kämpfer’s account of his
second visit to Yedo: “At the first commissioner’s: 1. Tea. 2. Tobacco,
with the whole set of instruments for smoking. 3. Philosophical or
white syrup. 4. A piece of _stienbrassen_, a very scarce fish, boiled
in a brown sauce. 5. Another dish of fish, dressed with bran-flower and
spices. 6. Cakes of eggs rolled together. 7. Fried fish, presented on
skewers of bamboo. 8. Lemon-peels with sugar.
“After every one of these dishes they made us drink a dish of sake, as
good as ever I tasted. We were likewise presented twice, in dram cups,
with wine made of plums, a very pleasant and agreeable liquor. Last of
all, we were again presented with a cup of tea.
“At the second commissioner’s we were treated, after tea and tobacco,
with the following things: 1. Two long slices of _manjū_, dipped into a
brown sop or sauce, with some ginger. 2. Hard eggs. 3. Four common fish
fried and brought in on bamboo skewers. 4. The stomachs of carps, salt,
in a brown sauce. 5. Two small slices of a goose, roasted and warm,
presented in unglazed earthen dishes.
“Good liquor was drank about plentifully, and the commissioner’s
surgeon, who was to treat us, did not miss to take his full dose. Each
guest was separately served with the above dishes on little tables or
salvers, about a foot square and a few inches high.)
“On the 31st of March, we rode out again at ten in the morning, and
went to the houses of the three governors of Nagasaki, two of whom were
then absent on duty at Nagasaki. We presented them on this occasion
only with a flask of Tent each, they having already received their
other presents at Nagasaki. We were met by Settsu-no-kami, the one then
at Yedo, just by the door of his house. He was attended by a numerous
retinue and, having called both our interpreters to him, he commanded
them to tell us his desire that we should make ourselves merry in his
house. Accordingly we were received extraordinarily well, and desired
to walk about and to divert ourselves in his garden, as being now in
the house of a friend at Yedo, and not in the palace of our governor
and magistrate at Nagasaki.[32] We were treated with warm dishes and
tea, much after the same manner as we had been by the commissioners,
and all the while civilly entertained by his own brother, and several
persons of quality of his friends and relations.
[Illustration: VIEWS AT FUSHIMI: DOLL AND TOY SHOPS; ENTRANCE TO INARI
TEMPLE]
“Having stayed about two hours, we went to Tonosama’s house, where we
were conducted into the innermost and chief apartment, and desired
twice to come nearer the lattices on both sides of the room. There were
more ladies behind the screens here than, I think, we had as yet met
with in any other place. They desired us, very civilly, to show them
our clothes, the captain’s arms, rings, tobacco-pipes, and the like,
some of which were reached them between or under the lattices. The
person that treated us in the absent governor’s name, and the other
gentlemen who were then present in the room, entertained us likewise
very civilly, and we could not but take notice that everything was so
cordial that we made no manner of scruple of making ourselves merry,
and diverting the company each with a song. The magnificence of
this family appeared fully by the richness and exquisiteness of this
entertainment, which was equal to that of the first commissioner’s, but
far beyond it in courteous civility and a free, open carriage. After
an hour and a half we took our leave. The house of Tonosama is the
furthermost to the north or northwest we were to go to, a mile and a
half from our inn, but seated in by much the pleasantest part of the
town, where there is an agreeable variety of hills and shrubbery. The
family of Tubosama (?), the third governor, lives in a small, sorry
house near the ditch which encompasses the castle. We met here but a
few women behind a screen, who took up with peeping at us through a
few holes, which they made as they sat down. The strong liquors, which
we had been this day obliged to drink in larger quantities than usual,
being by this time got pretty much into our heads, we made haste to
return home, and took our leave as soon as we had been treated, after
the usual manner, with tea and tobacco.”
Two or three days after followed the audience of leave preparatory to
the return to Nagasaki. Of this Kämpfer gives much the fullest account
in his narrative of his second visit to Yedo, which we follow here.
Having proceeded to the palace as at the first audience, after half an
hour’s stay in the waiting-room, the “Captain Hollanda” was called in
before the councillors of state, who directed one of the commissioners
to read the usual orders to him, five in number, chiefly to the
effect that the Dutch should not molest any of the boats or ships of
the Chinese or the Lew Chewans trading to Japan, nor bring in any
Portuguese or priests.
These orders being read, the director was presented with thirty gowns,
laid on three of the Japanese wooden stands or salvers, which he crept
upon all fours to receive, and in token of respect held one of the
gowns over his head.
This ceremony over, the Dutch were invited to stay to dinner, which
was served up in another room. Before each was placed a small table or
salver, on which lay five fresh, hot, white cakes, as tough as glue,
and two hollow cakes of two spans in circumference, made of flour and
sprinkled with sesamum seeds. A small porcelain cup contained some
bits of pickled salmon in a brown sauce, by the side of which lay two
wooden chopsticks. Tea also was served up, but in “poor and sorry”
brown dishes, and the tea itself proved to be little better than hot
water. Fortunately the Dutch, seldom caught napping upon that point,
had provided themselves, before leaving home in the morning, with “a
good substantial breakfast”; and, besides, they had been treated in the
guard-room with fresh _manjū_, and with sweet brown cakes of sugar and
bean flour.
While they were eating this dinner, “so far from answering to the
majesty and magnificence of so powerful a monarch, that a worse one
could not have been had at any private man’s house,” several young
noblemen busied themselves in examining their hats, coats, dress,
etc. Dinner over, after half an hour in the waiting-room, they were
conducted, through passages and galleries which they did not remember
to have seen before, to the hall of audience, which, by a change in the
position of some of the screens, presented quite a new appearance. They
were put in the very same uncarpeted spot as at their first audience,
and were again called upon, as then, to answer questions, dance, sing
songs, and exhibit themselves. Among the persons called in were two
physicians, with whom Kämpfer had some professional conversation;
also several shaven priests, one of whom had an ulcer on his shin,
as to which Kämpfer’s opinion was asked. As it was a fresh sore, and
the inflammation about it slight, he judged it to be of no great
consequence. At the same time he advised the patient not to be too
familiar with sake, pretending to guess by his wound, what was obvious
enough from his red face and nose, that he was given to drinking,—a
shrewd piece of professional stratagem, which occasioned much laughter
at the patient’s expense.
“This farce over, a salver was brought in for each guest, on which was
placed the following Japanese dishes: 1. Two small, hollow loaves,
sprinkled with sesamum seeds. 2. A piece of white, refined sugar,
striped. 3. Five candied kernels of the kaki [persimmon] tree, not
unlike almonds. 4. A flat slice of cake. 5. Two cakes, made of flour
and honey, shaped like a tunnel, brown, thick, and somewhat tough. 6.
Two slices of a dark reddish and brittle cake, made of bean flour and
sugar. 7. Two slices of a rice flour cake, yellow and tough. 8. Two
slices of another cake or pie, of which the inside seemed to be of
quite a different substance from the crust. 9. A large _manjū_, boiled
and filled with brown sugar, like treacle. Two smaller _manjū_, of the
common bigness, dressed after the same manner. A few of these things
were eaten, and the rest, according to the Japanese custom, were taken
home by the interpreter, for whom they proved quite a load, especially
as he was old and rheumatic.”
Having been dismissed with many ceremonies, they went next to the
house of the acting governor of Yedo, who received them with great
cordiality, and gave them an entertainment consisting of a cup of tea,
boiled fish with a very good sauce, oysters boiled and brought in the
shells, with vinegar, a dish which, it was intimated, had been prepared
from the known fondness of the Dutch for it, several small slices of a
roasted goose, fried fish and boiled eggs, with very good liquor served
up between the dishes. Thence they went to the houses of the governors
of Nagasaki, and returned home at night thoroughly tired out, but well
satisfied with their reception.
Meanwhile, the customary presents began to come in, which, in case the
director was at home, were presented and received in quite a formal
manner,—a speech being made by the bearer and an answer returned,
after which he was treated with tobacco, tea, sweetmeats, and Dutch
liquors. Besides thirty gowns from the emperor, ten were sent by each
of the five ordinary councillors, six by each of the four extraordinary
councillors, five by each of the three lords of the temple, and two,
“pretty sorry ones,” Kämpfer says, by each of the governors of Yedo,—in
all, a hundred and twenty-three, of which those given by the emperor
went to the Company, and all the rest to the director, constituting no
inconsiderable perquisite.
[Illustration: A VIEW OF FUJI]
It is the custom, on the return of the Dutch, when they reach Miyako,
to take them to see some of the principal temples. The first one
visited by Kämpfer was the Buddhist temple and convent, where the
emperor lodges when he comes to visit the Dairi. The approach to this
temple was a broad, level, gravel walk, half a mile in length, lined on
both sides with the stately dwellings of the ecclesiastics attached to
it. Having alighted and passed a lofty gateway, the visitors ascended
to a large terrace, finely gravelled and planted with trees and
shrubs. Passing two handsome structures, they ascended a beautiful
stairway to a magnificent building, with a front superior to that of
the imperial palace at Yedo. In the middle of the outermost hall was
a chapel containing a large idol with curled hair, surrounded with
smaller idols. On both sides were some smaller and less elaborate
chapels; behind were two apartments for the emperor’s use, opening
upon a small pleasure-garden at the foot of a mountain, clothed with a
beautiful variety of trees and shrubs. Behind this garden, and on the
ascent of the mountain, was a chapel dedicated to the predecessor of
the reigning emperor, who had been deified under the name of _Genyūin_.
“The visitors were next conducted across a square to another temple, of
the size of an ordinary European church, supported on thirty pillars,
or rather fifty-six, including those of the gallery which surrounded
it. These pillars were, however, but nine feet high, and of wood,
and, with the beams and cornices, were painted some red, some yellow.
The most striking feature of this building, which was entirely empty
within, was its bended roofs, four in number, one over the other, of
which the lowest and largest jutted over the gallery. There were said
to be not less than twenty-seven temples within the enclosure of this
monastery.
“Up the hill, near a quarter of a mile distant, was a large bell,
which Kämpfer describes as rather superior in size to the smaller of
the two great Moscow bells (which he had seen), rough, ill-cast, and
ill-shaped. It was struck on the outside by a large wooden stick. The
prior who, with a number of the monks, received and entertained the
Dutch visitors was an old gentleman, of an agreeable countenance and
good complexion, clad in a violet or dark purple-colored gown, with an
alms bag in his hand richly embroidered with gold.
“The largest and most remarkable of the temples seen at Miyako was that
called Daibutsu, on the road to Fushimi. It was enclosed by a high wall
of freestone, the front blocks being near twelve feet square. A stone
staircase of eight steps led up to the gateway, on either side of which
stood a gigantic image, near twenty-four feet high, with-the face of
a lion, but otherwise well-proportioned, black, or of a dark purple,
almost naked, and placed on a pedestal six feet high. That on the left
had the mouth open and one of the hands stretched out. The opposite one
had the mouth shut and the hand close to the body. They were said to be
emblems of the two first and chief principles of nature, the active and
passive, the giving and taking, the opening and shutting, generation
and corruption. Within the gateway were sixteen stone pillars on each
side for lamps, a water basin, etc.; and on the inside of the enclosing
wall was a spacious walk or gallery, open towards the interior space,
but covered with a roof which was supported by two rows of pillars,
about eighteen feet high and twelve feet distant from each other.
“Directly opposite the entrance, in the middle of the court, stood the
temple, much the loftiest structure which Kämpfer had seen in Japan,
with a double roof supported by ninety-four immense wooden pillars, of
at least nine feet diameter, some of them of a single piece, but others
of several trunks put together as in the case of the masts of our large
ships, and all painted red.”
Within, the floor was paved with square flags of freestone,—a thing
not seen elsewhere. There were many small, narrow doors running up
to the first roof, but the interior, on account of its great height,
the whole up to the second roof forming but one room, was very badly
lighted. Nothing was to be seen within except an immense idol, sitting
(not after the Japanese, but after the Indian manner, with the legs
crossed before it) on a terete flower, supported by another flower, of
which the leaves were turned upwards, the two being raised about twelve
feet from the floor. The idol, which was gilt all over, had long ears,
curled hair, a crown on the head, which appeared through the window
over the first roof, with a large spot not gilt on the forehead. The
shoulders, so broad as to reach from one pillar to another, a distance
of thirty feet, were naked. The breast and body were covered with a
loose piece of drapery. It held the right hand up, the left rested
edgewise on the belly.
The Kwannon temple was a structure very long in proportion to its
breadth. In the midst was a gigantic image of Kwannon, with thirty-six
arms. Sixteen black images, bigger than life, stood round it, and on
each side two rows of gilt idols with twenty arms each. On either side
of the temple, running from end to end, were ten platforms rising
like steps one behind the other, on each of which stood fifty images
of Kwannon, as large as life,—a thousand in all, each on its separate
pedestal, so arranged as to stand in rows of five, one behind the
other, and all visible at the same time, each with its twenty hands.
On the hands and heads of all these are placed smaller idols, to
the number of forty or more; so that the whole number, thirty-three
thousand three hundred and thirty-three, according to the estimate of
the Japanese, does not appear exaggerated.
Klaproth[33] gives some curious details as to these temples, derived
from a Japanese Guide Book, such as is sold to visitants. The
dimensions of the temple and of the image of Daibutsu, or the great
Buddha, are given with great minuteness. The body is seventy-seven feet
five and one-fourth inches high (Rhineland measure), and the entire
statue with the lotus, eighty-nine feet eight and three-fourths inches.
The head of the colossus protrudes through the roof of the saloon.[34]
At a little distance is a chapel called _Mimitsuka_, or “tomb of ears,”
in which are buried the ears and noses of the Coreans who fell in the
war carried on against them by Taikō-Sama, who had them salted and
conveyed to Japan. The grand portico of the external wall of the temple
is called Ni-ō-mon, “gate of the two kings.” On entering this vast
portico, which is eighty-three and one-half feet high, on each side
appears a colossal figure twenty-two feet in height, representing the
two celestial kings, Aōn and Jugo, the usual porters at the Buddhist
temples. Another edifice placed before the apartment of the great
Buddha, contains the largest bell known in the world. It is seventeen
feet two and one-half inches high, and weighs one million seven hundred
thousand Japanese pounds (katties), equal to two million sixty-six
thousand pounds English. Its weight is consequently five times greater
than the great bell at Moscow. If this is the same bell described by
Kämpfer, here is a remarkable discrepancy.