_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._
From the time of Kämpfer’s departure from Deshima, of all the Dutch
residents and visitors there, none, for a period of upwards of eighty
years, favored the world with their observations. They went to Japan
in pursuit of money, not to obtain knowledge, either for themselves or
others.
At length, in 1775, Charles Peter Thunberg, a Swedish physician,
naturalist, and traveller, to gain an opportunity of seeing Japan,
obtained the same official situation which Kämpfer had held before him.
Being an enthusiastic botanist, he was sent to the East by some wealthy
merchants of Amsterdam to obtain new trees and plants, as well for
the medical garden of that city as for their own private collections.
Circumstances caused him to spend three years at the Cape of Good
Hope, whence he proceeded to Batavia. He left that port June 20, 1775,
and arrived off Nagasaki the 14th of the following August. From an
experience of more than a hundred years, the Company reckoned on the
loss of one out of every five ships sent to Japan, though care was
taken to select the best and strongest vessels.[38]
The searches and examinations previous to landing were the same
described by Kämpfer. Hitherto it had been usual to allow the captains
of the vessels to pass at pleasure to and from their ships without
being searched; they, with the directors of the Dutch factory,
being the only persons exempt from that ceremony. The captains had
taken advantage of this exemption to dress themselves out, for the
convenience of smuggling, in a showy, blue silk, silver-laced coat,
made very wide and large, in which dress they generally made three
trips a day to and from Deshima, being often so loaded down with goods
that they had to be supported by a sailor under each arm. Thunberg’s
captain rigged himself out in the same style; but, much to his
disappointment and that of the other Dutchmen, whose private goods the
captains had been accustomed to smuggle for a commission, the Japanese
officers who boarded the ship brought orders that the captain should
dress like the rest; that he and the director also should be searched
when they landed, and that the captain should either stop on board,
or, if he landed, should remain on shore, being allowed to visit the
ship only twice during her stay. “It was droll enough,” says Thunberg,
“to see the astonishment which the sudden reduction in the size of our
bulky captain excited in the major part of the ignorant Japanese, who
before had always imagined that all our captains were actually as fat
and lusty as they appeared to be.”
In the year 1772, one of the Dutch ships from Batavia, disabled in a
violent storm, had been abandoned by her crew, who, in their haste,
or believing that she would speedily sink, had neglected the standing
order of the Company, in such cases, to set her on fire. Some days
after she drifted to the Japanese shore, and was towed into the harbor
of Nagasaki, when the Japanese found on board a number of chests marked
with the names of the principal Dutch officers, and full of prohibited
goods,—and it was to this discovery that the new order was ascribed.
The examination of the clothes and persons of all who passed to and
from the ship was very strict. The large chests were emptied, and the
sides, top, and bottom sounded to see if they were not hollow. Beds
were ripped open and the feathers turned over. Iron spikes were thrust
into the butter-tubs and jars of sweetmeats. A square hole was cut in
the cheeses, and a thick, pointed wire thrust through them in every
direction. Even some of the eggs brought from Batavia were broken, lest
they might be shams in which valuables were concealed.
Formerly, according to Thunberg, the Dutch took the liberty to correct
with blows the Japanese _kuri_ employed as laborers on board the
ships; but in his time this was absolutely prohibited. He adds, that
the respect of the Japanese for the Dutch was a good deal diminished
by observing “in how unfriendly and unmannerly a style they usually
behave to each other, and the brutal treatment which the sailors under
their command frequently experience from them, together with the oaths,
curses, and blows with which the poor fellows are assailed by them.”
The interpreters would seem to have adopted, since the time of Kämpfer
(as he makes no mention of it), the practice of medicine among their
countrymen after the European manner. This made them very inquisitive
as to matters of physic and natural history, and very anxious to obtain
European books, which they studied diligently. Kämpfer speaks of the
interpreters with great indignation as the most watchful and hateful
of spies. Thunberg appears to have established very good terms with
them. New restrictions, however, had been placed on their intercourse
with the resident Dutchmen, whom, to prevent smuggling, they were not
allowed to visit, except in company with one or two other officers.
Deshima, from Thunberg’s description of it, appears to have altered
very little since Kämpfer’s residence there, though glass windows had
lately been brought from Batavia, by some of the Dutch residents, as a
substitute for the paper windows of the Japanese.
The permanent residents were now twelve or thirteen (there had been but
seven in Kämpfer’s time), besides slaves brought from Batavia, of whom
each Dutchman had one.
The goods sent out by the Company at the time of Thunberg’s visit were
sugars (almost the only article of consumption which the Japanese do
not produce for themselves), elephants’ teeth, sappan-wood for dyeing,
tin, lead, bar-iron, fine chintzes of various sorts, Dutch broadcloths,
shalloons, silks, cloves, tortoise-shell, China-root, and _Costus
Arabicus_. The goods of private adventurers were saffron, Venice
treacle, Spanish liquorice, rattans, spectacles, looking-glasses,
watches, Ninjin-root or ginseng, and unicorns’ horns. This latter
article, the horn of the _Monodon monoceros_, a product of the
Greenland fishery, had been lately introduced. The Japanese ascribed
to it wonderful virtues as a medicine, believing it to have the power
to prolong life, strengthen the animal spirits, assist the memory, and
cure all sorts of complaints. Thunberg had carried out as his venture
thirty-seven katties (about fifty pounds) of this horn, which sold
for five thousand and seventy-one taels, or upwards of six thousand
dollars; so that, after paying the advances made to him at Batavia, he
had a handsome surplus to expend in his favorite pursuit of natural
history.
The genuine Chinese ginseng (_Panax quinquefolium_) sold at a price
full as high as that of unicorn’s horn. The American article, being
regarded as not genuine, was strictly prohibited, but was smuggled in
to mix with the Chinese.[39]
Scientific works in the Dutch language, though not a regular article of
sale, might be often exchanged to advantage with the interpreters.
The Company imported a quantity of silver coin, but private persons
were not allowed to do so, though a profit might have been made on
it. The sale by kamban continued exactly as Kämpfer had described it.
No Japanese money came into the hands either of the Company or of
individuals from the sale of their goods by kamban. They only acquired
a credit, which they were able to exchange for Japanese articles.
The chief articles of export were copper, camphor, and lackered goods;
porcelain, rice, sake, soy,[40] were also exported. The profits of this
trade had been greatly curtailed. “Formerly,” says Thunberg, “it was
so very profitable to individuals that hardly anybody but favorites
were sent out as chiefs, and when these had made two voyages, it was
supposed that they were rich enough to be able to live on the interest
of their fortunes, and that, therefore, they ought to make room for
others. At present a chief is obliged to make many voyages. His success
is now no more to be envied, and his profits are thought to be very
inconsiderable.”
Of the general enjoyment of a residence at Deshima Thunberg does not
speak very highly. “An European that remains here is, in a manner,
dead and buried in an obscure corner of the globe. He hears no news
of any kind; nothing relative to war or other misfortunes and evils
that plague and infest mankind; and neither the rumors of inland or
foreign concerns delight or molest his ear. The soul possesses here
one faculty only, which is the judgment (if, indeed, it be at all times
in possession of that). The will is totally debilitated, and even
dead, because, to an European there is no other will than that of the
Japanese, by which he must exactly square his conduct.
“The European way of living is, in other respects, the same as in other
parts of India, luxurious and irregular. Hence, just as at Batavia, we
pay a visit every evening to the chief, after having walked several
times up and down the two streets. These evening visits generally last
from six o’clock till ten, and sometimes eleven or twelve at night, and
constitute a very disagreeable way of life, fit only for such as have
no other way of spending their time than droning over a pipe of tobacco
and a bottle.”
The Europeans remaining at Deshima had each two or three handsome
rooms, besides the store-rooms in the lower story. These they occupied
without rent, the only expense being that of furnishing them. As the
winter set in, the cold, with an easterly or northerly wind, was
quite piercing, and they had fires of charcoal in a large copper
kettle with a broad rim. Placed in the middle of the room it warmed
the whole apartment for hours together. The looseness of the doors
and windows prevented any ill consequences from the gases. As the
residents all dined and supped at a common table, kept at the Company’s
expense, their outlays did not amount to much—“except,” says Thunberg,
“they squander away their money on the fair sex, or make expensive
entertainments and give suppers to each other.”
The account which Thunberg gives of the Japanese mistresses of the
Dutch is very much the same with that given by Kämpfer. These women,
when spoken for to an officer appointed for that purpose, come attended
by a little serving-maid,—one of the young apprentices of the houses
to which they belonged,—who brought daily from the town her mistress’
food, made her tea, kept her things in order, and ran on errands. One
of these female companions could not be had for less than three days,
but might be kept a year, or even several years. The price was eight
mas, or one dollar a day, besides her maintenance and presents of silk
dresses, girdles, head-ornaments, etc. According to Thunberg, children
were very seldom born of these connections. He was assured, but did not
credit it, that if such a thing happened, the child, if a boy, would be
murdered; and that, if a girl, it would be sent at fifteen to Batavia;
but of this he knew of no instance. There was, in his time, one girl
about six years old, born of a Japanese mother, living on the island
with her father. Later accounts go to show that Dutch-Japanese children
are by no means such rarities as Thunberg represents.[41]
The women painted their lips with colors, made of the _Catharinus
tinctorius_, or bastard saffron, rubbed on little porcelain bowls. If
laid on very thin, the lips appeared red; if thick, it gave them a
violet hue, esteemed by the Japanese as the more beautiful. The married
women were distinguished by blacking their teeth with a fœtid mixture,
so corrosive that the lips had to be protected from it while it was
laid on. It ate so deeply into the teeth that it took several days
and much trouble to scrape it away. “To me at least,” says Thunberg,
“a wide mouth with black shining teeth had an ugly and disagreeable
appearance.” The married women distinguished themselves also by pulling
out their eyebrows; and another distinction was that they knotted their
girdles before, and the single women behind.
Thunberg noticed that venereal diseases, which he ascribed to European
intercourse, were very common,[42] and he congratulated himself on the
questionable service of having introduced the mercurial treatment.
As he had plenty of leisure and little taste for the Dutch fashion
of killing time, he endeavored to find more rational and profitable
employment. The residents were still allowed native servants, who,
though not interpreters, had learned to speak the Dutch language. But
the Dutch were strictly prohibited from learning the Japanese; and
though the interpreters were sufficiently well inclined, Thunberg
encountered many difficulties in his study of that language. It was
only after many inquiries that he found at last an old dictionary,
in the Latin, Portuguese, and Japanese, in quarto, containing nine
hundred and six pages. The title-page was gone, but the book purported
to have been compiled by the joint labors of the Jesuits at Japan, as
well European as natives. It belonged to one of the interpreters, who
possessed it as legacy from his ancestors, and he refused to sell it
for any price.[43]
Afterwards, at Yedo, he saw a book in long quarto, about an inch thick,
printed on Japanese paper, entirely in Japanese characters, except
the title-page, which bore the imprint of the Jesuits, with the date,
Nagasaki, A. D. 1598.
“Through incapacity in some and indolence in others,” the Dutch
possessed no vocabulary of the Japanese, and all the knowledge the
Dutch residents had of it did not go beyond calling by name a few
familiar articles. Thunberg has annexed to his Travels a short Japanese
vocabulary, but he does not appear to have made any great progress in
the language.
With much difficulty he obtained, about the beginning of February,
leave to botanize.[44] Every excursion cost him sixteen or eighteen
taels, as he was obliged to feast from twenty to thirty Japanese
officials, by whom he was always attended. On the neighboring hills he
noticed many burying-grounds, containing tombstones of various forms,
sometimes rough, but more frequently hewn, with letters, sometimes
gilt, engraved upon them. Before these stones were placed vessels, made
of large bamboos, containing water, with branches of flowers.
He also noticed, both around Nagasaki and afterwards on his journey to
Yedo, the pits, or rather large earthen jars, sunk by the road-side
for the collection of manure, both liquid and solid. To the fœtid
exhalations from these open pits, and to the burning of charcoal
without chimneys, he ascribed the red and inflamed eyes very common in
Japan. In the gardens he saw growing the common red beet, the carrot,
fennel, dill, anise, parsley, and asparagus; leeks, onions, turnips,
radishes, lettuce, succory, and endive. Long ranges of sloping ground,
at the foot of the mountains, were planted with the sweet potato.
Attempts were also made to cultivate the common potato, but with little
success. Several kinds of yams (_Dioscoreæ_) grew wild in the vicinity
of Nagasaki, of which one species was used for food, and, when boiled,
had a very agreeable taste.[45] Buckwheat, Windsor beans (_Vicia
faba_), several species of French beans (_Phascolus_), and peas (_Pisun
sativum_), were commonly cultivated; also, two kinds of cayenne pepper
(_Capsicum_), introduced probably by the Portuguese. Tobacco was also
raised, for the use and the name of which the Japanese were indebted to
the Portuguese. He observed also hemp, the _Acorus_, strongly aromatic;
a kind of ginger (_Amomum miōga_); the _Mentha piperita_; the _Alcea
rosea_ and _Malva Mauritiana_, cultivated for their flowers; the
_Celastrus alatus_, a branch of which, stuck at a young lady’s door,
is thought by the Japanese to have the power of making her fall in
love with you; the common juniper-tree; the bamboo and the box, also
the ivy; the China-root (_Smilax China_); wild figs, with small fruit
like plums (_Fiscus pumila_ and _erecta_); the pepper bush (_Figara
peperita_); a species of madder (_Rubia cordata_), and several species
of the _Pologonum_, used for dyeing. Also, two species of nettles,
the bark of which furnished cordage and thread, and the seeds of
one species an oil. The yellow flowers of the colewort (_Brassica
orientalis_), which was largely cultivated for the oil afforded by
its seeds, presented through the spring a beautiful appearance. This
oil was used for lamps. Oil for food, used, however, but sparingly,
was expressed from the _Sesamum orientale_ and the mustard seed. Solid
oils, for candles, were obtained from the nuts of the varnish-tree
(_Rhus vernix_), and from those of the _Rhus succedanea_, the
camphor-tree, the _Melea azedarach_, and the _Camellia sasankwa_.[46]
In striking fire a tinder is used made of the woolly part of the
leaves of the common wormwood. The famous moxa [_mogusa_], spoken of
hereafter, is a finer preparation of the same root. Instead of soap the
meal of a species of bean is employed.
The bark of the _Shikimi_, or anise-tree (a near relation of the
mangolia tribe, and whose flowers and leaves are much employed in
religious ceremonies), is used as a time-measurer. A box a foot long
is filled with ashes, in which are marked furrows, in parallel lines,
strewed with fine powder of this bark. The lid being closed, with only
a small hole left to supply air, the powder is set on fire at one end,
and consumed very slowly, and the hours, marked beforehand on these
furrows, are proclaimed in the daytime by striking the bells in the
temples, and in the night by the watch striking together two pieces
of wood. Another method of measuring time is by burning slow match,
divided into knots to mark the hours. The Japanese also have a clock,
the mechanism of which is described in a subsequent chapter.
“The first of January, according to custom,” says Thunberg, “most of
the Japanese that had anything to do at the Dutch factory came to
wish us a happy new year. Dressed in their holiday clothes, they paid
their respects to the director, who invited them to dine with him.
The victuals were chiefly dressed after the European manner, and,
consequently, but few of the dishes were tasted by the Japanese. Of
the soup they all partook, but of the other dishes, such as roasted
pigs, hams, salad, cakes, tarts, and other pastries, they ate little
or nothing, but put on a plate a little of every dish, and, when it
was full, sent it home, labelled with the owner’s name; and this was
repeated several times. Salt beef, and the like, which the Japanese do
not eat, were set by, and used as a medicine. The same may be said
of the salt butter, of which I was frequently desired to cut a slice
for some of the company. It is made into pills, and taken daily in
consumptions and other disorders. After dinner, warm sake was handed
round, which was drank out of lackered wooden cups.
“On this festive occasion the director invited from the town several
handsome girls, partly for the purpose of serving out the sake, and
partly to dance and bear the girls company who were already on the
island. After dinner, these girls treated the Japanese to several of
their own country messes, placed on small square tables, which were
decorated with an artificial fir-tree, the leaves of which were made
of green silk, and in several places sprinkled over with white cotton,
in imitation of the winter’s snow. The girls never presented the sake,
standing, but, after their own fashion, sitting. In the evening they
danced, and about five o’clock the company took their leave.”
The 19th of February, 1776, on which fell the beginning of the Japanese
year, was celebrated according to the Japanese custom, all of them
going visiting, dressed up in their holiday clothes, and wishing their
neighbors joy; and, indeed, this interchange of congratulations is kept
up, more or less, through the first month.
On the two last days of the year a general settlement of accounts takes
place. Fresh credit is then given for six months, when a new settlement
takes place. The rate of interest was high, ranging from eighteen to
twenty per cent. Thunberg was told that, after new-year’s day, there
was no right to demand settlement of the last year’s accounts.
Shortly after the Japanese new year, took place the trampling of
images, which ceremony, according to the information obtained by
Thunberg, was still performed by all the inhabitants of Nagasaki,
exactly as in Kämpfer’s time.
On the 4th of March the director set out for the emperor’s court,
accompanied, as usual, by the secretary of the factory, and by Thunberg
as physician. In Kämpfer’s day these two latter persons had been
obliged to make the journey on horseback, exposed to cold, rain, and
all the inclemencies of the weather. Since then they had obtained the
privilege of travelling in norimono, equally with the director. Dr.
Thunberg seems to have been well satisfied with his vehicle, which he
describes as both handsome and convenient. Each norimono traveller
had with him a bottle of red wine, and another of Dutch ale, taken
daily from the large stock provided for the journey, and preferred by
the Europeans to tea, which they regarded as a “great relaxer of the
stomach.” Each traveller had also an oblong lackered box, containing
“a double slice of bread and butter.” In order to support the dignity
of the Dutch East India Company, the bed equipage which they carried
with them, consisting of coverlids, pillows, and mattresses, was
covered with the richest open-work velvets and silks. Their retinue, on
horseback and on foot, was numerous and picturesque. They were received
everywhere with the honor and respect paid to the princes of the land;
and, besides, says Thunberg, were so well guarded “that no harm could
befall us, and, at the same time, so well attended that we had no more
care upon our minds than a sucking child; the whole of our business
consisting in eating and drinking, or in reading or writing for our
amusement, in sleeping, dressing ourselves, and being carried about in
our norimono.”
[Illustration: THE EAR-MOUND AT KYŌTŌ]
At setting out, each of the three Dutchmen received from the purveyor
fifty taels, for their individual expenses. This was the first Japanese
money which Thunberg had seen, and this, with other sums doled out
to them from time to time, was chiefly spent in presents to their
attendants. The disbursement on this score, at starting, amounted to
ten taels each.
In the early part of their journey, they followed a somewhat different
road from Kämpfer’s, all the way by land, not crossing either the bay
of Ōmura, nor that of Shimabara. They passed, however, through Shiota,
as Kämpfer had done, famous for its large water-jars, and visited
the hot springs in that neighborhood, and also Saga, capital of the
province of Hizen, remarkable for its handsome women, its rice and its
fine porcelain. The roads were found such as Kämpfer had described
them. Proceeding onward, still by Kämpfer’s route, they reached Kokura
on the ninth of March. The following description of Japanese houses
corresponds sufficiently well with that of Kämpfer, while it gives
a rather more distinct, and somewhat less flattering, idea of them.
“The houses are very roomy and commodious, and never more than two
stories—at most twenty feet—high, of which the lower one is inhabited,
and the upper serves for lofts and garrets, and is seldom occupied.
The mode of building in this country is curious and peculiar. Every
house occupies a great extent of ground, and is built in general of
wood and plaster, and whitewashed on the outside so as to look exactly
like stone. The beams all lie horizontal or stand perpendicular.
Between these beams, which are square and far from thick, bamboos
are interwoven, and the space filled up with clay, sand, and lime.
The roofs are covered with tiles of a singular make, very thick and
heavy. The more ordinary houses are covered with chips [shingles], on
which are frequently laid heavy stones to secure them. In the villages
and meaner towns I sometimes saw the sides of the houses, especially
behind, covered with the bark of trees, which was secured by laths
nailed on it to prevent the rain from damaging the wall.
“The whole house makes but one room, which can be divided according as
it may be found necessary, or thought proper, into many smaller ones.
This is done by moving slight partitions, consisting of wooden frames,
pasted over with thick painted paper, which slide with great ease in
grooves made in the beams of the floor and roof for that purpose. Such
rooms were frequently partitioned off for us and our retinue, during
our journey; and when a larger apartment was wanted for a dining-room,
or any other purpose, the partitions were in an instant taken away.
One could not see, indeed, what was done in the next room, but one
frequently overheard the conversation that passed there.
“In each room there are two or more windows, which reach from the
ceiling to within two feet of the floor. They consist of light
frames which may be taken out, put in, and slid behind each other,
at pleasure, in two grooves made for this purpose in the beams above
and below them. They are divided by slender rods into panes of a
parallelogrammatic form, sometimes to the number of forty, and pasted
over on the outside with fine white paper, which is seldom if ever
oiled, and admits a great deal of light, but prevents any one from
seeing through it. The roof always projects a great way beyond the
house, and sometimes has an addition which covers a small projecting
gallery that stands before each window. From this little roof go
slanting inwards and downwards several quadrangular frames, within
which hang blinds made of rushes, which may be drawn up and let down,
and serve not only to hinder people that pass by from looking into the
house, but chiefly when it rains to prevent the paper windows from
being damaged. There are no glass windows here; nor have I observed
mother-of-pearl or muscovy talc (mica, or isinglass) used for this
purpose.
“The houses have neither the elegant appearance nor the convenience and
comfort of ours in Europe. The rooms are not so cheerful and pleasant,
nor so warm in the winter, neither are they so safe in case of fire,
nor so durable. Their semi-transparent paper windows, in particular,
spoil the houses, as well in their inside as outside appearance.
Neither chimneys nor stoves are known throughout the whole country,
although the cold is very intense, and they are obliged to make fires
in their apartments from October to March. The fires are made in copper
kettles, of various sizes, with broad projecting edges. This mode of
firing is liable, however, to this inconvenience, that the charcoal
sometimes smokes, in consequence of which the apartment becomes dirty
and black, and the eyes of the company suffer exceedingly.
“The floors are always covered with mats made of a fine species of
rush (_Juncus effusus_), cultivated in low spots for that purpose,
and interwoven with rice straw. These mats are from three to four
inches thick, and of the same size throughout the country, viz., two
yards long and one broad. The insides of the houses, both ceiling
and walls, are covered with a handsome, thick paper, ornamented with
various flowers. These hangings are either green, yellow, or white; and
sometimes embellished with silver and gold. As the paper is greatly
damaged by the smoke in winter, it is renewed every third or fifth
year.[47]
“The furniture in this country is as simple as the style of building.
Neither cupboards, bureaus, sofas, beds, tables, chairs, clocks,
looking-glasses, nor anything else of the kind, is to be seen. To the
greater part of these the Japanese are utter strangers. Their soft
floor-mats serve them for chairs. A small table, or rather salver,
about twelve inches square and four high, is set before each person in
company at every meal, of which there are three a day. The food (rice,
soup, and fish being the principal articles) is served in lackered
wooden cups. Most other nations of the East sit with their legs laid
across before them,—the Chinese and Japanese lay their feet under
their bodies, and make a chair of their heels. When the hour of rest
approaches, a soft mattress, stuffed with cotton, is spread out on the
mats. The Japanese have no pillows, instead of which they use oblong
lackered pieces of wood. With the above apparatus for sleeping, the
Japanese bed-chamber is put in order, and he himself up and dressed,
in the twinkling of an eye; as, in fact, scarcely a longer time is
requisite for him to throw the gown over him, which serves for dress by
day and bedclothes at night, and to gird it round his waist.
“Though mirrors do not decorate the walls, they are in general use at
the toilet, made not of glass, but of a composition of copper and zinc
highly polished, and fixed obliquely in a stand of wood made for that
purpose. Cleanliness is a constant object with these people, and not
a day passes in which they do not wash themselves, whether they are
at home or on a journey. In all towns and villages, inns and private
houses, there are baths.” He adds, however, what goes rather against
this alleged cleanliness, that as the poor, to save expense, are
accustomed to use water in which others have repeatedly bathed, they
are apt in that way to take infectious disorders. Neither do their open
manure vaults, placed by the roadsides and in the very fronts of their
houses, agree so well with this eulogy.
At Kokura the Dutch bespoke, against their return, rice and charcoal
for the factory at Deshima. Having crossed to Shimonoseki, they
embarked, on the 12th of March, in a large Japanese junk, for Ōsaka;
but, having made less than half the voyage, they encountered contrary
winds, which drove them a long distance back, and detained them for
near three weeks. The weather was so cold as to make fires comfortable,
and colds and catarrhs, endemical to Japan from the changeability of
its climate, were very prevalent. All this time they slept on board,
but had several times an opportunity to go on shore to amuse themselves
at the inns and temples, the Japanese sailors being always anxious to
land in order to bathe.
The country all along this coast was mountainous, which was the reason
of going by sea instead of by land, the land road being very difficult.
This coast seemed, nevertheless, to be highly cultivated, the mountains
in many places resembling beautiful gardens.
At the places where they landed, the children were very numerous. “I
observed,” says Thunberg, “that the chastisement of children was very
moderate. I very seldom heard them rebuked or scolded, and hardly ever
saw them flogged or beaten, either in private families or on board
the vessels; while, in more civilized and enlightened nations, these
compliments abound.[48] In the schools one might hear the children read
all at once, and so loud as almost to deafen one.”
Whenever the Japanese went on shore, they killed geese and ducks for
the Dutchmen to eat; but at sea they had scruples about killing them,
though in fine weather the Chinese teal (_Anas galericulata_), and
several sorts of ducks, fairly covered the water, so as to look at
a distance like great islands. But, though scrupulous themselves,
they made no objections to Thunberg’s killing them; though, not being
allowed the use of fire-arms, it does not appear how he did it.
At length, on the seventh of April, after a disagreeable and dangerous
passage of twenty-six days, they reached the harbor of Hiōgo, whence
the next day, partly by land and partly in small boats, they proceeded
to Ōsaka. Here each of the travellers disbursed sixteen taels in
presents to the captain and crew of the vessel, for the hire of which
the sum of four hundred and eighty taels was paid by the East India
Company. They stayed at Ōsaka only a single night, during which they
bespoke from some merchants, who visited them[49] with samples, several
articles, such as insects of copper, artificial trees varnished, fans
of various kinds, writing paper, paper hangings, etc. They left Ōsaka
early in the morning, by torchlight, and, following the same road which
Kämpfer had taken, reached Miyako at night. “Except in Holland,” says
Thunberg, “I never made so pleasant a journey as this, with regard
to the beauty and delightful appearance of the country. The whole
country, on both sides of us, as far as we could see, was nothing but a
fertile field, and the whole of our long day’s journey extended through
villages, of which one began where the other ended.”
The farmers were now preparing their lands for rice. The fields, by
means of a raised border, lay almost entirely under water. This was the
case even with those sides of the hills intended for rice. They were
laid out in terraces, the water collected on the higher grounds being
regulated by means of walls or dams, so as to be let on or shut off
at pleasure. There were, also, reservoirs, constructed to retain the
contents of the flooded streams, against occasions of drought. The rice
was sown first very close and thick, and when about six inches high was
transplanted into the fields, in tufts of several plants, placed about
six inches apart. This was done by the women, who waded about in water
at least six inches deep, the men having first turned up the ground
with a hoe. Beautiful white herons followed the laborers, and cleared
the fields of worms. The rice thus planted was reaped in November.
[Illustration: KWANNON, GODDESS OF MERCY]
Fields of wheat, barley (used to feed the horses), buckwheat, East
India kale (_Brassica orientalis_), and mustard (the two latter for
oil) were also seen. These crops, planted in November or December, and
ripe in May or June, were in beds about a foot broad, and separated
from each other by a deep furrow or trench of about the same breadth.
Sometimes they were planted across these narrow beds, and sometimes in
two rows, lengthwise. Thunberg noticed that when the ear was about to
put forth, the plants being grown to the height of a foot, the earth
was taken out from the intervening trenches, and drawn up to the roots
of the plants. About the same time, or a little earlier, the liquid
manure collected in the jars already described, and mingled with all
sorts of refuse, was carried out by the farmers, in large pails, and
poured with a ladle on the roots of the plants; a method which avoids
the waste incident to spreading the manure on unplanted fields, to be
dried up by the sun, or to lose by evaporation its volatile salts and
oily particles.
The fields were kept so free of weeds as to afford, much to Thunberg’s
disappointment, very little chance to botanize. Animals were little
used in agriculture. Only such of the rice-fields as lay low, and
quite under water, were ploughed by oxen,—cows being kept for draft
and breeding only, and never milked. The only wheel carriages seen
were a few carts, and these only in and about Miyako, some with three
wheels,[50] one before the other two, and some two-wheeled. These
carts were long and narrow, the wheels, some with spokes and fellies,
but without any tire, except a rope tied about them, and others of a
solid piece, sawed from a log. They were drawn by an ox, by cows, or
a buffalo. Horses were chiefly for the use of their princes, though
occasionally employed by others for travelling and carrying burdens.
They were not numerous, but Thunberg seems to make rather a close
estimate in saying that all Japan has scarcely as many horses as
a single province of Sweden. There was no occasion for meadows or
pastures, the cattle and horses being fed at home all the year, so that
all the land, not too steep or rocky for cultivation, was devoted to
the raising of crops; nor did the fields require fences. All the manure
of the animals kept was carefully preserved, old men and children
following the horses of travellers, with a shell fastened to the end of
a stick, and a basket in which to put what they collected. Of course
the small number of domestic animals made it the more necessary to
resort to the other means of providing manure already noticed.
A few swine were to be seen, but only in the neighborhood of Nagasaki.
There were no sheep nor goats. A supply of these animals, and also
of cattle and hogs, for the Dutch at Deshima, was brought annually
from Batavia. Dogs, “the only idlers in the country,” were kept from
superstitious motives, and cats were the general favorites of the
women. Hens and ducks were kept about the houses, chiefly for their
eggs, of which the Japanese make great use, boiled hard and chopped
into small pieces.