Pilots, i., 387.
Pinkerton’s collection, i., 261, 267.
Pinto, Fernam Mendez, i., 14-31, 34-38, 49, 52, 84, 88, 89, 91, 92;
ii., 112, 348-350.
_Pinus abies_, ii., 144.
_Pinus silvestris_, ii., 142.
_Pisum sativum_, ii., 124.
Plane-trees, ii., 82.
Ploughing, i., 216.
_Plymouth_, American sloop, ii., 282.
Police protection, i., 188, 214, 349-353, 356.
_Pologonum_, ii., 124.
Population, i., 186, 190, 192, 195, 257; ii., 53, 57, 65, 74.
Portraits, i., 33.
Portuguese in the East, i., 11-34, 36-41, 45, 48, 49, 57, 58, 64,
71, 84, 90, 91, 102, 103, 120, 127, 134-136, 138, 139, 142, 145,
147, 153, 154, 158, 159, 164, 166, 167, 174-176, 179, 181, 182,
196-199, 208, 209, 221, 228, 248-251, 255, 261-265, 269-271, 278.
Post-houses, ii., 1, 2.
Potatoes, ii., 124, 317.
Poverty, i., 77, 87, 395; ii., 162.
_Powhatan_, United States ship, ii., 297, 324, 336.
Prayers for the dead, i., 344.
_Preble_, American ship, ii., 265-269, 271, 272.
Precious metals, Export of, ii., 112, 113.
Presents, i., 217, 367, 368; ii., 59, 85, 96, 97, 104, 141, 175.
Pring, Martin, i., 237-239.
Printing, ii., 157.
Prisons, ii., 217, 220-222.
Protestants in Japanese missions.
_See_ Missionaries, Protestant.
Provinces, as found by Portuguese, i., 57, 58;
division by “Circuits, “vii., 343.
Purcell, ——, ii., 345.
Purchas, ——, i., 165, 177, 184, 220, 225, 232, 236, 240; ii., 349, 354.
“Pure Shintō,” i., 66.
“Quarterly Review,” ii., 247.
Radishes, i., 286, 383; ii., 215.
Raffles, Sir Stamford, i., 272; ii., 110-112, 195, 196, 202, 208-210.
Rain-coats, i., 375; ii., 143.
Rain-maker, Priestly, i., 276.
Rank, The distinction of, i., 60.
Rationalists.
_See_ Jūdo.
_Rebecca_, American ship, ii., 206.
“Recollections of Japan,” ii., 194, 195.
Reed, ——, ii., 345.
Regamey, ——, ii., 345.
“Relation du Japon,” i., 224.
“Religions of Japan, The,” i., 74; ii., 344.
Religious sects and beliefs, i., 65-74, 138, 139, 194, 195, 207, 261,
291; ii., 65.
Rémusat, Abel, i., 70; ii., 146, 165, 169.
Resanoff, Count, ii., 196-199.
_Rhus succedanea_, ii., 125.
_Rhus vernix_, i., 76; ii., 125.
Rice, i., 76, 257, 343; ii., 47, 59, 136, 159.
Riess, Dr. L., i., 178, 240.
Rikord, Captain, ii., 226-243.
Riordan, R., and Takayanagi, T., ii., 344.
Rivers, i., 384, 385; ii., 50, 63.
Road-books, i., 376; ii., 13.
_Roanoke_, U. S. steamer, ii., 336.
Rodriguez, Father, i., 32, 60, 63, 133, 136, 156, 158, 162, 165.
Roofs, i., 339, 392; ii., 52, 130, 303, 306, 321.
Rowing, Method of, i., 389.
_Rubia cordata_, ii., 124.
Rundall, ——, i., 225, 230, 240.
Russian American Company, ii., 203.
Russian relations with Japan, ii., 190-192, 196-199, 203, 212-244, 323.
Ryōzayemon, a Russian prisoner, ii., 226-229.
Saddles, i., 371, 377.
Sadono-Kami, president of Prince Hideyori’s council, i., 201.
Saga, capital of Hizen, ii., 46, 47, 129.
Sagami, Cape, ii., 283.
_Saguer_, a rare tree, ii., 11.
_Saikaidō_, i., 381.
Sakai, i., 95, 118, 215; ii., 49.
_Sakana_, ii., 38.
_Sake_, i., 76, 216, 343; ii., 54, 324.
Sakhalin, i., 123, 124, 265; ii., 212.
Salt butter as a remedy, ii., 127.
Salutation, Ceremony of, i., 210.
Samisen, i., 212; ii., 315.
Sancian Island, i., 13.
“San Francisco Herald,” ii., 313.
_San Jacinto_, American steamer, ii., 325.
_San Philip_, Spanish galleon, i., 151, 152, 154, 159, 160, 180.
Santvoort, Melichor von, i., 203, 244.
Sao harbor, ii., 70.
_Saramang_, English frigate, ii., 259.
_Saratoga_, American sloop, ii., 282.
Saris, Captain John, i., 196, 207-225, 229, 232, 343.
Satow, ——, i., 66, 86, 135; ii., 354.
Sawaas (or Sowas), i., 330, 344.
Sayer, agent of English East India Company, i., 230.
Scherer, J. A. B., ii., 344.
Scheuchzer, Dr. I. G., i., 290.
Schools, ii., 135.
Science, Study of, i., 77.
Scurvy, ii., 229.
Sea-weeds, Edible, ii., 213.
Segaki, ii., 26.
Seimei, and the table of unfortunate days, ii., 41-44.
Seminary at Goa, i., 41, 49, 55.
Serfs, i., 59.
Serqueyra, Father Louis (Bishop of Japan), i., 227, 242.
Servants, i., 354; ii., 177.
_Sesamum orientale_, ii., 125.
Settsu-no-Kami, governor of Nagasaki, i., 347; ii., 100.
“Seven Gods of Happiness,” i., 359.
Shaëp, Captain, i., 263, 265.
Shigemi, S., ii., 344.
_Shikimi_ (anise-tree), ii., 126.
_See also Hanashikimi_.
Shikoku Island, i., 123, 124.
_Same as_ Sikoku Island.
Shimabara Fortress, i., 94, 248, 261.
Shimada, ii., 71.
Shimo, i., 27, 57, 93, 97, 98, 119, 124, 125, 145, 164, 213, 228.
Shimoda, town and river, ii., 301, 302, 305, 316-324, 326.
Shimonoseki, i., 368, 381; ii., 48, 49.
Shinagawa, ii., 75, 247, 248.
Shintō, i., 66-70, 138, 139, 342, 359, 360, 399; ii., 65.
Shintō clergy, i., 74, 342, 359, 360, 398; ii., 65.
Shintō temples (Miya), i., 67, 342, 399; ii., 65.
Shiota, ii., 129.
_See also_ Shiwota.
Ships and Harbor Guard, Nagasaki, i., 312, 348.
Ships and boats, i., 77, 387-390; ii., 72.
Shōgun-Sama, i., 230, 247.
Shōguns, The, i., 58; ii., 158, 166-173.
Shooting of birds, ii., 308.
Shops, i., 394; ii., 11, 52, 77, 247, 319-323.
Shotten, Timothy, i., 169.
“Sidney Gazette,” ii., 258.
Siebold, Dr. Philipp Franz von, i., 8, 9, 31, 33, 123, 338, 351;
ii., 43, 46, 125, 149, 237, 248, 250-254, 274, 310.
Signs, ii., 320, 323.
Sikoku Island, i., 57, 119.
_Same as_ Shikoku.
Silk, i., 76, 101, 321.
Sitting posture, ii., 133, 303.
Sloane, Sir Hans, i., 290.
Small-pox, i., 400.
_Smilax China_, ii., 124.
Smoke-holes, i., 3.
Smoking articles, ii., 37, 38.
Smuggling, i., 300, 314, 328, 332, 333, 353, 397; ii., 115, 116, 275.
Soap, ii., 126.
Soil, i., 76.
Soldiers, ii., 223, 224.
_See also_ Armies and Soldiery.
Solis, Jean de, i., 135, 136, 142, 143.
Sotelo, Father Louis, i., 203-205, 245, 246.
“Soul of the Far East, The,” ii., 344.
Sowaas.
_See_ Sowas.
Sowas (_or_ Sawaas), i., 330, 344, 377.
Soy, ii., 13, 119, 159.
Spanish in the East, i., 56, 134-136, 142, 143, 147, 148, 151-154,
159, 160, 166, 167, 179, 180, 191, 197, 199, 202-204, 208, 209,
221, 228, 237, 241, 261, 270, 271.
Spex, Jacob, i., 197, 198, 202, 203, 206.
Spinola, ——, i., 241.
_Spirea_, ii., 142.
Springs, ii., 46, 129.
Spy Guard, Nagasaki, i., 312, 348.
State’s Island, i., 124, 265.
Sterling, Admiral, ii., 323.
Stevens, Thomas, ii., 350, 351.
Stewart, Captain, ii., 193-196.
St. Michael, patron saint of Japan, i., 98.
Stockings, ii., 143.
Story, ——, ii., 351.
“Story of Japan,” ii., 158, 344.
Street-government of cities, i., 188, 349-353, 356, 361-363;
ii., 51, 80, 330.
“Suburb of Yedo, A,” ii., 345.
Sugar, ii., 117, 275.
Sun-Goddess (Tenshō-daijin), i., 66, 67, 69, 224, 357-359.
“Sunrise Stories,” ii., 344.
Superstitions, i., 48, 74, 207, 401; ii., 68, 223.
Suruga, i., 163, 186, 190, 217; ii., 71.
_Susquehanna_, American frigate, ii., 282, 291, 314, 315.
Suwa, Festivals of, i., 296, 356-365.
Suwa, Temple of, i., 356, 357.
Suyematsu, ——, ii., 345.
Sweetmeats, ii., 13, 29, 331.
Swine, ii., 138.
Swords, i., 59, 106, 185, 210, 290, 349, 369; ii., 149, 155, 168, 243.
Taikō-Sama. _See_ Hashiba.
Taikō-Sama, Castle of, i., 118; ii., 54.
Taikō-Sama, Temple and Tomb of, i., 193.
Takayanagi, T., and Riordan, R., ii., 344.
“Tales of Old Japan,” ii., 344.
Tanners, i., 334, 349.
Tartars, i., 5-10.
Tashima, Legend of, ii., 42.
Taxes, i., 258, 355, 356.
Tea, i., 76, 216; ii., 13, 14, 128, 158, 220.
Teisuke, Murakami, ii., 221, 223, 226, 239.
Temples, i., 67, 68, 71, 161, 193, 194, 216, 218, 222, 275, 342,
356, 357, 397-399; ii., 59, 69, 75, 79, 104-108, 304, 307, 316.
“Temples of Riches,” i., 275.
Tennōji, ii., 54.
Tenriū, River, i., 385.
Tenshō-daijin.
_See_ Sun-Goddess.
Tenza, The, i., 164.
_Tera_ (Buddhist temples), i., 71, 275, 342, 397, 398; ii., 65, 304.
Terazawa, i., 145, 146, 156.
Theatrical representations, i., 77, 212, 213, 360-365; ii., 53, 160.
Thevenot, ——, i., 243, 261, 265; ii., 354.
Threshing, ii., 158.
Thunberg, Charles Peter, i., 60, 290, 376, 391, 392; ii., 16, 114-163,
169, 210, 213, 254.
_Thuya dolebrata_, ii., 141.
_Tiger_, English ship, ii., 353, 354.
Tillage of the soil, i., 76, 381, 386, 387; ii., 134, 136-138, 317.
Time, Division of, i., 351.
Time-measurers, ii., 126, 251.
Titsingh, Isaac, i., 59, 79, 98, 230, 240, 257, 276, 281, 351, 357,
376; ii., 43, 81, 85, 112, 146, 147, 163-189.
Tobacco culture, ii., 123.
_Tōkaidō_, i., 382; ii., 15, 23.
_Toko_, or cupboard, ii., 4, 7, 178.
_Tokowaki_, or side cupboard, ii., 5.
Tolls, i., 385.
“Tomb of Ears,” ii., 108.
Tomb of Taikō-Sama, i., 193, 194.
Torey (Stewart, Captain), ii., 196.
Torment of the Fosse, i., 246, 247.
Torres, Cosme de, i., 52, 54-56, 87, 91, 97.
_Toshitoku_, i., 359.
Towns and villages, i., 394, 395; ii., 57, 74.
“Townsend Harris,” ii., 325.
Toyohashi (Yoshida), ii., 70.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ii., 54.
_See also_ Hashiba.
Trade, i., 77; ii., 202, 274, 275.
Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London, i., 376.
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, i., 32, 66, 86, 117,
135, 145, 178, 204, 226, 257, 290, 352, 359; ii., 7, 77, 112, 144,
149, 154, 174, 183, 199, 206, 210, 315, 346, 354.
Translations, i., 121, 122, 158, 222, 223, 280; ii., 122, 123, 164,
165, 210, 222.
Transportation in the interior, i., 216, 347, 371-385.
Travellers on the highways, ii., 15-36, 41, 42, 45, 58, 329.
Trays, ii., 333.
Trial by torture, i., 353, 354.
Trials, i., 78, 355; ii., 218.
Trigault, Nicholas, i., 232.
Tsadanil trees, ii., 57.
_Tsubaki_, ii., 125.
Tsuchi Yama, ii., 69.
_Tsuitachi_, or first day of the month, ii., 58.
Tsuni Yoshi, Emperor, ii., 85.
Turks, i., 16.
Ukondono, i., 117-119, 129, 229.
Umenoki, ii., 68.
“Unbeaten Tracks in Japan,” ii., 344.
Unicorns’ horns, ii., 117, 118.
United States’ relations with Japan, ii., 193-196, 206, 255-258,
260-273, 276-339.
Uraga, i., 218.
Utensils and dishes, ii., 8.
_Vaccinia_, ii., 142.
Valignani, Father Alexander, i., 100-103, 121, 126-136, 138, 143,
162, 165; ii., 349.
Van Braam, ——, ii., 164.
_Vandalia_, ii., 293.
Van Linschoten, John Huigen, ii., 351, 352.
Van Sturlen, director of the Company, ii., 250.
Varnish-tree, i., 76; ii., 125.
Vasco da Gama, i., 11.
Vault, for fire protection, ii., 52.
Vaz, Alvares, i., 49, 50.
Vega, Lopo de, Spanish poet, i., 231.
Vegetables, i., 76; ii., 124, 159, 317.
Verhagen’s fleet (Dutch), i., 169-177.
Verhœven fleet (Dutch), i., 182, 196, 198.
_Viburna_, ii., 142.
_Vicia faba_, ii., 124.
Vilela, Father Gaspard, i., 89, 94, 95, 97, 133, 165; ii., 189.
_Vincennes_, American frigate, ii., 261-265, 283.
Vivero, Don Rodrigo de, governor of Manila, i., 180, 185-261, 265,
266; ii., 118, 355.
Volcanoes, ii., 46, 170, 173, 305.
“Voyage around the World, A,” ii., 203.
“Voyages au Nord,” i., 250, 254, 261, 265, 266; ii., 118, 355.
“Voyages Curieuse,” i., 261.
“Voyages des Indes,” i., 243, 252, 254, 261; ii., 355.
Waardenaar, Heer, ii., 207, 208.
Wada Iga-no-kami, i., 96, 97.
Wadenaar, Heer, ii., 195.
Waganaar, of the Dutch East India Company, i., 265, 266.
Walnuts, ii., 144.
Warm drinks, i., 216.
Water-clocks, ii., 251.
Water supply, i., 293, 343; ii., 54.
Weapons, ii., 149.
Webster, Daniel, ii., 276-281.
Weddell, Admiral, i., 255.
“Wee Ones of Japan, The,” 344.
Weights and measures, i., 23, 59, 249, 272.
Whale fishery, i., 255.
Wheat, i., 76, 216.
Wheeled vehicles, ii., 137, 138.
Whiskey, ii., 206.
Whiting, Lieut., ii., 302.
Whitney, Dr., ii., 144.
Williams, S. W., ii., 255, 258, 284, 310, 318-323.
Windows, i., 391; ii., 4, 130, 131, 322.
Wine, ii., 206.
Wittert, Admiral, i., 197.
Women, i., 98, 120, 127, 149, 161, 211, 212, 214, 243, 259, 260, 279,
292, 340, 341, 345, 361; ii., 23, 24, 29, 30, 47, 58, 70, 91, 96,
97, 120-122, 127, 153-156, 161, 167, 169, 174-183, 211, 225,
231-233, 242, 249, 304, 315, 329, 330.
Wormwood, ii., 125, 146.
Written language, i., 77, 78.
Xavier, Francis, i., 38, 39, 41-43, 46-55, 64, 71, 72, 81-88, 98;
ii., 353.
Yakushi, patron of physicians, ii., 68.
Yamabu.
_See_ Yamabushi.
_Yamabushi_, or mountain priests, i., 74; ii., 23-25, 72.
Yamaguchi, capital of Nagato, i., 82, 89, 90, 96.
Yams, ii., 124.
Yebisu, patron of fishermen, i., 359.
_Yebumi_ (figure-treading, _which see_), i., 352.
Yedo, i., 163, 186, 187, 218, 230, 265, 380; ii., 76-83, 324, 326, 330.
“Yedo Kagami” (“Mirror of Yedo”), i., 257.
Yezo Island.
_See_ Matsumaye Island.
Yodo, ii., 50, 57.
Yokkaichi, ii., 69.
Yokohama.
_See_ Kanagawa.
Yoritomo, Prince, ii., 28-30.
Yoshida, ii., 70.
Yoshimune, i., 119, 120, 125, 127, 144, 145.
“Young Japan” (Black), ii., 345.
“Young Japan” (Scherer), ii., 344.
Zelandia, Fort, in Formosa, i., 262, 302.
_Zeni_, i., 372, 373; ii., 309.
Zipangu, i., 1, 3-6, 14.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Omitted in this edition.—EDR.
[2] Omitted in this edition.—EDR.
[3] The true distance is about five hundred miles; but, possibly, by
miles Marco Polo may have intended Chinese _li_, of which there are
nearly three in our mile.
[4] A name applied to part of China, south of the Hoang-ho, held by the
Sung Dynasty till A. D. 1276.—K. M.
[5] Marsden, the English translator and annotator of Marco Polo,
supposes that _Zaitun_ was the modern _Amoy_, and _Kinsai_ either
_Ningpo_ or _Chusan_. The Chinese annalists, on the other hand, seem
to make the expedition start from Corea, which is much more probable,
as that province is separated from Japan by a strait of only about a
hundred miles in breadth. It was by this Corean strait that, three
hundred years later, the Japanese retorted this invasion.
[6] Marsden remarks upon this date as evidently wrong. Indeed, it is
given quite differently in different early editions of the travels.
Marsden thinks it should be 1281. This is the date assigned to the
invasion by the Chinese books. The older Japanese annals place it in
1284. In the chapter of Marco Polo which follows the one above quoted,
and which is mainly devoted to the islands of southeastern Asia, he
seems to ascribe to the Japanese the custom of eating their prisoners
of war—a mistake which, as his English translator and commentator
observes, might easily arise from transferring to them what he had
heard of the savage inhabitants of some of the more southern islands.
The Mongol invasion took place in the fourth year of Kōan [A. D.
1281].—K. M.
[7] As this chronicle, which is the oldest Japanese history, is
stated to have been originally published A. D. 720, it must be from
a continuation of it that Siebold, or rather his assistant, Hoffman,
translates.
[A translation by W. G. Aston is published by the Japan Society,
London.—EDR.]
[8] This is the equivalent, it is to be supposed, of the Japanese date
mentioned in the chronicle.
[9] Hildreth is here too skeptical. All the events mentioned in the
text really took place between A. D. 1268 and 1281.—K. M.
[10] Galvano’s book in the translation, published by Hackluyt, in 1601,
may be found in the supplement to Hackluyt’s collection of voyages,
London, 1811. The original work was printed by the pious care of
Francis de Sousa Tauares, to whom Galvano left it, on his death-bed.
[11] See Appendix, Note D.
[12] A Portuguese coin, as corresponding to which in value the Spanish
translator of Pinto gives ducats, which, of silver, were about equal to
a dollar of our money.
[13] This Portuguese colony was of no long continuance. It was soon
broken up by the Chinese, as Pinto intimates, through the folly of the
Portuguese residents.
[14] It is difficult to understand by what mistake Charlevoix, in his
“Histoire du Japan,” ascribes this discovery to the same year, 1542, as
that of the three Portuguese mentioned by Galvano. Pinto’s chronology
is rather confused, but it is impossible to fix this voyage to Japan
earlier than 1545.
[15] Probably a corruption of _Tenjikujin_, or the people of _Tenjiku_
(India).—EDR.
[16] The terms _Chengecu_ and _Chenghequu_ are represented in two
letters, one dated in 1651 (“Selectarum Epistolarum ex India,” Lib.
i.), addressed to Xavier by a companion of his; the other, dated in
1560, and written by Lawrence, a converted Japanese and a Jesuit
(_Ibid._, Lib. ii), as commonly employed in Japan to designate Europe.
Golownin mentions that at the time of his imprisonment (1812)
he found a prophecy in circulation among the Japanese that they
should be conquered by a people from the north. Possibly both these
prophecies—that mentioned by Pinto and that by Golownin—might be a
little colored by the patriotic hopes of the European relaters.
[17] A tael is about an ounce and a third English. The tael is divided
into ten mas; the mas into ten kandarins; the kandarin into ten kas;
and these denominations (the silver passing by weight) are in general
use throughout the far East. Sixteen taels make a katty (about a pound
and a third avoirdupois), and one hundred katties a picul,—these being
the mercantile weights in common use.
[18] See Appendix, Note C.
[19] The kingdom or province of Bungo is situated on the east coast of
the second in size and southernmost in situation of the three larger
Japanese islands, off the southeast extremity of which lies the small
island of Tanegashima, where Pinto represents himself as having first
landed.
The name “Bungo” was frequently extended by the Portuguese to the
whole large island of which it formed a part, though among them the
more common designation of that island, after they knew it to be such
(for they seem at first to have considered it a part of Nippon), was
Shimo.[A] This name, Shimo, appears to have been only a modification of
the term _shima_ (or, as the Portuguese wrote it, _xima_), the Japanese
word for island, and as such terminating many names of places. On our
maps this island is called Kiūshiū, meaning, as Kämpfer tells us,
“Country of Nine,” from the circumstance of its being divided into nine
provinces, which latter appears to be the correct interpretation. There
are in use in Japan Chinese as well as Japanese names of provinces and
officers (the Chinese probably a translation of the Japanese); and not
only the names Nippon and Kiūshiū, but that of Bungo (to judge from the
terminal n of the first syllable), are of Chinese origin.
A: _Shimo_ is not the modification of _Shima_ (Island), but a word
meaning “lower” geographically.—K. M.
[20] The Japanese date by the years of the reign of the Dairi, or
Mikado (of whom more hereafter), and they also, for ordinary purposes,
employ the Chinese device of _nengō_. These are periods, or eras, of
arbitrary length, from one year to many, appointed at the pleasure of
the reigning Dairi, named by him, and lasting till the establishment
of a new nengō. For convenience, every new nengō, and also every new
reign, begins chronologically with the new year, the old nengō and old
reign being protracted to the end of the year in which it closes. [See
Notes G and H in Appendix.—EDR.]
The Japanese month is alternately twenty-nine and thirty days, of which
every year has twelve, with a repetition of one of the months, in seven
years out of every nineteen, so as to bring this reckoning by lunar
months into correspondency with the course of the earth round the sun;
this method being based on a knowledge of the correspondency of two
hundred and thirty-five lunations with nineteen solar years. According
to Titsingh, every thirty-third month is repeated, so as to make up the
necessary number of intercalary months, the number of days in these
intercalary months being fixed by the almanacs issued at Miyako. The
commencement of the Japanese year is generally in February. The months
are divided into two distinct portions, of fifteen days, each having a
distinct name, and the first day of each of which serves as a Sunday,
or holiday. This regulation of the Japanese calendar is borrowed from
the Chinese, as also the use of the period of sixty years corresponding
to our century. [See also paper on “Japanese Calendars,” in vol. xxx of
the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.—EDR.]
[21] No such province is mentioned in the lists of Japanese provinces
by Father Rodriguez, Kämpfer, and Klaproth. [Name of a bay.—EDR.]
[22] Regarding the portrait of the Portuguese, we know not on what
authority Siebold based his statement.—K. M.
[23] “They wished to have our portraits taken at full length, and
_Teisuke_, who knew how to draw, was appointed to execute them. He
drew them in India ink, but in such a style that each portrait would
have passed for that of any other individual as well as of him it was
intended for. Except the long beard, we could trace no resemblance in
them. The Japanese, however, sent them to the capital, where they were
probably hung up in some of their galleries of pictures.”—_Golownin’s_
“_Captivity in Japan_,” vol. i, ch. 4.
[24] In the Latin version of the Jesuit letters he is called Cosmus
Turrianus.
[25] Nippon is the name of the whole country; Kondo, of the main
island.—EDR.
[26] It appears from Golownin that there are also smaller packages, of
which three make the large one. The price of rice varied, of course;
but Kämpfer gives five or six taels of silver as the average value of
the koku. Titsingh represents the koku as corresponding to the gold
koban, the national coin of the Japanese. The original koban weighed
forty-seven kandarins, or rather more than our eagle; but till the year
1672 it passed in Japan as equivalent to about six taels of silver. The
present koban contains only half as much gold; and yet, as compared
with silver, is rated still higher. The koban is figured by Kämpfer as
an oblong coin rounded at the ends, the surface, on one side, marked
with four rows of indented lines, and bearing at each end the arms or
symbol of the Dairi, and between them a mark showing the value, and the
signature of the master of the mint. The other side was smooth, and
had only the stamp of the inspector-general of gold and silver money.
Kämpfer also figures the _ōban_, which even in his time had become very
rare, similar to the koban, but of ten times the weight and value.
A third gold coin was the _ichibu_, figured by Kämpfer as an oblong
square. According to Thunburg, it was of the value of a quarter of the
koban. Silver passed by weight. The Japanese do not appear to have
had any silver coins, unless lumps of irregular shape and weight, but
bearing certain marks and stamps, were to be so considered. In ordinary
retail transactions copper _zeni_, or _kas_, as the Chinese name was,
were employed. They were round, with a square hole in the middle, by
which they were strung. Some were of double size and value, and some
of iron. For further information on the Japanese monetary system, and
on the present state and value of the Japanese circulating medium, see
Chapters XXV, XXXVIII, and XLV.
[27] Dairi, in its original sense, is said by Rodriguez, in his
Japanese grammar, to signify rather the court than the person of the
theocratic chief to whom it is applied; and so of most of the titles
mentioned in the text.
[28] According to Rodriguez, there had been also an ancient military
nobility, called _buke_; but in the course of the civil wars many
families of it had become extinct, while other humble families, who had
risen by way of arms, mostly formed the existing nobility.
[29] According to the Japanese historical legends, the office of
Kubō-Sama, originally limited to the infliction of punishments and
the suppression of crimes, was shared, for many ages, between the
two families of Genji and Heiji, till about 1180, when a civil war
broke out between these families, and the latter, having triumphed,
assumed such power that the Dairi commissioned Yoritomo, a member of
the defeated family of Genji, to inflict punishment upon him. Yoritomo
renewed the war, killed Heiji, and was himself appointed Kubō-Sama, but
ended with usurping a greater power than any of his predecessors.
[30] See Satow’s papers on “Pure Shintō” and “Japanese Rituals,” in the
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.—EDR.
[31] The word _Kami_ is also doubly used as a title of honor conferred
with the sanction of the Dairi, somewhat equivalent, says Kämpfer, in
one case, to the European title of chevalier, and in the other, to that
of count. Golownin insists that it implies something spiritual.
[32] The Sun-Goddess, also called Ama-terasu-no-Mikoto.—EDR.
[33] The following system of Japanese cosmogony is given by Klaproth,
as contained in an imperfect volume of Chinese and Japanese chronology,
printed in Japan, in Chinese characters, without date, but which for
more than a hundred years past has been in the Royal Library of Paris:
“At first the heaven and the earth were not separated, the perfect
principle and the imperfect principle were not disjoined; chaos, under
the form of an egg, contained the breath [of life], self-produced,
including the germs of all things. Then what was pure and perfect
ascended upwards, and formed the heavens (or sky), while what was dense
and impure coagulated, was precipitated, and produced the earth. The
pure and excellent principles formed whatever is light, whilst whatever
was dense and impure descended by its own gravity; consequently the
sky was formed prior to the earth. After their completion, a divine
being (_Kami_) was born in the midst of them. Hence, it has been said,
that at the reduction of chaos, an island of soft earth emerged, as a
fish swims upon the water. At this period a thing resembling a shoot
of the plant _ashi_ [_Eryanthus Japonicus_] was produced between the
heavens and the earth. This shoot was metamorphosed and became the
god [first of the seven superior gods] who bears the honorific title
of Kuni-toko-dachi-no-mikoto, that is to say, the venerable one who
constantly supports the empire.”
[34] In reading the accounts of the bonzes, and of the delusions
which they practised on the people, contained in the letters of the
Catholic missionaries, and the denunciations levelled against them in
consequence, in those letters, one might almost suppose himself to be
reading a Protestant sermon against Popery, or an indignant leader
against the papists in an evangelical newspaper. The missionaries
found, however, at least they say so, among other theological
absurdities maintained by the bonzes, a number of the “damnable
Lutheran tenets.”
[35] Buddha, or the sage (which the Chinese, by the metamorphosis made
by their pronunciation of most foreign proper names, have changed first
into _Fuh-hi_, and then into _Fuh_, or _Ho_), is not the personal
name of the great saint, the first preacher of the religion of the
Buddhists, but a title of honor given to him after he had attained
to eminent sanctity. According to the concurrent traditions of the
Buddhists in various parts of Asia, he was the son of a king of central
India, Suddho-dana, meaning in Sanscrit pure-eating king, or eater of
pure food, which the Chinese have translated into their language by
_Zung-fung-wang_. His original name was _Lêh-ta_; after he became a
priest he was called _Sakia-mouni_, that is, devotee of the race of
Sakia, whence the appellation _Shaka_, by which he is commonly known
in Japan, and also the name _Shaku_, applied to the patriarch or head
of the Buddhist church. Another Sanscrit patronymic of Buddha is
_Gautama_, which in different Buddhist nations has, in conjunction with
other epithets applied to him, been variously changed and corrupted.
Thus among the Siamese he is called _Summana-kodom_.
The Buddhist mythology includes several Buddhas who preceded
Sakia-mouni, and the first of whom, _Adi-Buddha_, or the first Buddha,
was, when nothing else was, being in fact the primal deity and origin
of all things. It seems to be this first Buddha who is worshipped
in Japan under the name of _Amida_, and whose priests form the most
numerous and influential of the Buddhist orders. Siebold seems inclined
to regard them as pure monotheists.
The birth of Shaka is fixed by the Japanese annalists, or at least by
the book of chronology quoted in a previous note, in the twenty-sixth
year of the emperor Chaou-wang, of the Chinese Chew Dynasty, 1027 B. C.
1006 B. C., he fled from his father’s house to become a priest; 998 B.
C., he reached the highest step of philosophical knowledge; 949 B. C.,
being seventy-nine years of age, he entered into _Nirvana_, that is,
died. He was succeeded by a regular succession of Buddhist patriarchs,
of whom twenty-eight were natives of Hindustan. The twenty-eighth
emigrated to China, A. D. 490, where he had five Chinese successors.
Under the second of these, A. D. 552, Buddhism was introduced into
Japan. A. D. 713, the sixth and the last Chinese patriarch died, since
which the Chinese Buddhists, and those who have received the religion
from them, seem not to have acknowledged any general, but only a local,
head in each country.
[36] In connection with this chapter, read “The Religions of Japan”
(Griffis).—EDR.
[37] For an account of the Japanese language, literature, etc., see “A
Handbook of Modern Japan” (Clement).—EDR.
[38] “All military men, the servants of the Shōgun, and persons holding
civil offices under the government, are bound, when they have committed
any crime, to rip themselves up, but not till they have received an
order from the court to that effect; for, if they were to anticipate
this order, their heirs would run the risk of being deprived of their
places and property. For this reason all the officers of government are
provided, in addition to their usual dress, and that which they put on
in the case of fire, with a suit necessary on such occasions, which
they carry with them whenever they travel from home. It consists of a
white robe and a habit of ceremony, made of hempen cloth, and without
armorial bearings.
“As soon as the order of the court has been communicated to the
culprit, he invites his intimate friends for the appointed day, and
regales them with sake. After they have drank together some time, he
takes leave of them, and the order of the court is then read to him
once more. The person who performs the principal part of this tragic
scene then addresses a speech or compliment to the company, after
which he inclines his head towards the floor, draws his sabre, and
cuts himself with it across the belly, penetrating to the bowels. One
of his confidential servants, who takes his place behind him, then
strikes off his head. Such as wish to display superior courage, after
the cross-cut, inflict a second longitudinally, and then a third in the
throat. No disgrace attaches to such a death, and the son succeeds to
his father’s place.
“When a person is conscious of having committed some crime, and
apprehensive of being thereby disgraced, he puts an end to his own
life, to spare his family the ruinous consequences of judicial
proceedings. This practice is so common that scarcely any notice is
taken of such an event. The sons of all persons of quality exercise
themselves in their youth, for five or six years, with a view that
they may perform the operation, in case of need, with gracefulness and
dexterity; and they take as much pains to acquire this accomplishment,
as youth among us to become elegant dancers or skilful horsemen;
hence the profound contempt of death which they imbibe in their
earliest years. This disregard of death, which they prefer to the
slightest disgrace, extends to the very lowest classes among the
Japanese.”—_Titsingh_, “_Illustrations of Japan_,” p. 147.
[39] His family name was Ōtomo, and his given name was Yoshishige.—EDR.
[40] Pinto gives a long account of this dispute, which has been
substantially adopted by Lucina, the Portuguese biographer of Xavier,
whose life of the saint was published in 1600, and who, in composing
it, had the use of Pinto’s yet unpublished manuscript. Tursellini’s
Latin biography of Xavier was published at Rome and Antwerp, 1596.
From these was compiled the French life, by Bouhours, which our Dryden
translated. Tursellini published also four books of Xavier’s epistles,
translated into Latin. Eight books of new epistles afterwards appeared.
Charlevoix remarks of them, “that they are memoirs, of which it is not
allowable to question the sincerity, but which furnish very little for
history, which was not the writer’s object.” They are chiefly homilies.
[41] See Satow’s paper in vol. vii of the Transactions of the Asiatic
Society of Japan.—EDR.
[42] For some further remarks on Pinto and his book, see Appendix, Note
D.
[43] Of Father de Torres we have four letters rendered into Latin, and
of Vilela, in the same collections, seven, giving, among other things,
a pretty full account of his visit to and residence at Miyako. For the
description, however, of that capital, and the road to it, I prefer
to rely on lay travellers, of whose observations, during a series of
visits extending through more than two centuries, a full abstract will
be found in subsequent chapters.
[44] The following passage, from Titsingh’s “Memoirs of the Shōguns,”
may serve to shed some light upon the civil war raging in Japan when
first visited by the Portuguese, and which continued down to the time
of Nobunaga: “Takauji was of the family of Yoshiiye, who was descended
from Seiwa-tennō, the fifty-sixth Dairi. He divided the supreme power
between his two sons, Yoshi-nori and Motouji, giving to each the
government of thirty-three provinces. The latter, who ruled over the
eastern part, was styled Kamakura-no-Shōgun, and kept his court at
Kamakura, in the province of Sagami. Yoshi-nori, to whom were allotted
the western provinces, resided at Miyako, with the title of Fuku-Shōgun.
“Takauji, in dividing the empire between his two sons, was influenced
by the expectation that, in case either of them should be attacked, his
brother would afford him assistance. This partition, on the contrary,
only served to arm them one against the other; the country was involved
in continual war, and the princes, though brothers, were engaged in
frequent hostilities, which terminated only with the destruction of the
branch of Miyako.”
[45] See note on page 84.
[46] For a particular description of the dress of Japanese, see Chap.
XLI.
[47] His reception of the Japanese and his reformation of the calendar
are both recorded together in his epitaph.
[48] The Letters, Briefs, and the Discourse on Obedience, above
quoted, may be found at length in Latin, in the very valuable and rich
collection, _De Rebus Japonicis Indicis_ and _Peruvianis Epistolæ
Recentiores_, edited by John Hay, of Dalgetty, a Scotch Jesuit, and a
sharp controversialist, published in 1605; in Spanish, in Father Luys
de Gusman’s _Historia de los Missiones, que han hecho los Religioses
de la Compania de Jesus, etc._, published in 1601, of which the
larger part is devoted to the Japanese mission; in Italian, in Father
Daniel Batoli’s “Historia de la Compagnia de Gesu”; and in French, in
Charlevoix’s “Histoire du Japon.” An Italian history of the mission
was printed at Rome, 1585,—the same, I suppose, of which a Latin
translation is given in Hay’s collection; and still rarer and more
valuable one at Macao, in 1590, of which a further account will be
found in a note at the end of the next chapter.
[49] The princes and nobles of Japan, and indeed most private
individuals, have certain devices embroidered on their gowns, etc.,
which the Portuguese and the missionaries compared to the armorial
bearings of Europe. [See paper on “Japanese Heraldry” in vol. v of the
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.—EDR.]
[50] During this residence at Macao the Japanese ambassadors were
not idle. They were engaged upon a very remarkable work, printed at
Macao in 1590 in Japanese and Latin, purporting to be composed by the
ambassadors, and giving, by way of dialogue, an account not only of the
embassy, but of Japan and of all the countries, European and Oriental,
which they had visited. The Latin title is _De Missione Legatorum
Japonensium ad Romanam curiam, rebusque in Europa ac toto in itinere
animadversis, Dialogus, etc._—“A Dialogue concerning the Japanese
Embassy to the Court of Rome, and the things observed in Europe and on
the whole journey, collected from the journal of the ambassadors, and
rendered into Latin by Ed. de Laude, priest of the Society of Jesus.”
It is from this work, though he does not give the title of it, that
Hackluyt extracted the “Excellent Treatise of the Kingdom of China and
of the Estate and Government thereof,” contained in his second volume,
and of which he speaks in his epistle dedicatory to that volume, first
published in 1599, as “the most exact account of those parts that is
yet come to light.” “It was printed,” he tells us, “in Latin, in Makoa,
a city of China, in China paper, in the year 1590, and was intercepted
in the great carac Madre de Dios, two years after, enclosed in a case
of sweet cedar wood, and lapped up almost a hundred fold in fine
Calicut cloth, as though it had been some incomparable jewel.”
[51] This letter, with the reply in the next chapter, is given by
Froez, from whom Gusman has copied them.
[52] Letters from the ambassadors to Sixtus V, written at Nagasaki
after their arrival there, and giving an account of their voyage home,
may be found in Hay’s collection.
[53] Valignani was not the first European to obtain an imperial
audience. The same favor had been granted, as already mentioned, by
Yoshiteru to Father Vilela in 1559. Louis Froez had also been admitted,
in 1565, to an audience of the same emperor, of which he has given a
short but interesting account.
[54] See Satow’s paper on “The Origin of Spanish and Portuguese Rivalry
in Japan,” in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.—EDR.
[55] We regret that the original of this letter has been lost, and we
cannot, therefore, compare the translation with the original. But, at
any rate, the date here given is erroneous. Valignani’s departure from
Japan being in 1592, as is mentioned at the end of the next chapter,
this letter must have been written in 1592 (first year of Bunroku).—K.
M.
[56] The number of troops here set down is too small.—K. M.
[57] According to the letters of Louis Froez, the prince of Ōmura
joined the army against Corea with one thousand men, the king of Arima
with two thousand, and the king of Bungo with ten thousand, besides
mariners and mean people to carry the baggage. The entire number of
men-at-arms in the empire, at this time, is stated to have been, by
a written catalogue, three hundred thousand. The victories mentioned
in the text were gained by an advanced body of fifteen thousand men.
The Coreans are described by Froez as different from the Chinese in
race and language, and superior to them in personal prowess, yet as in
a manner tributary to China, whose laws, customs, and arts they had
borrowed. They are represented as good bowmen, but scantily provided
with other weapons, and therefore not able to encounter the cannon,
lances, and swords of the Japanese, who had been, beside, practised
by continual wars among themselves. But in nautical affairs Froez
reckons the Chinese and Coreans as decidedly superior to the Japanese.
Translations from several Jesuit letters relating to the Corean war
will be found in Hackluyt, vol. iv, near the end. Siebold, relying upon
Japanese authorities, insists that it was through Corea that the arts,
knowledge, language, and written characters of China were introduced
into Japan.
[58] See Aston’s papers on “Hideyoshi’s Invasion of Korea,” in the
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.—EDR.
[59] Yet Taikō-Sama was not in general cruel. A curious letter of
Father Organtino Brixiano, written in 1594, enumerates, among the
reasons of Taikō’s great success, his clemency to the conquered
princes, whom he never put to death after having once promised them
their lives, and to whom he granted a revenue, small, but sufficient
to maintain them, and which served to keep them quiet. Another reason
was his having established for his soldiers during war a commissariat,
of which he paid the expense, by which they were rendered much more
efficient. He also kept them employed, for, besides the army maintained
in Corea, he set them to work in building or repairing palaces and
fortresses, or in other public works. At this time he had thirty
thousand men at work upon one castle near Miyako, one hundred thousand
at Fushimi. He also broke the power of the princes by transferring
them to distant parts, while he inspired general respect by his
strict justice, from which he was swerved by no considerations of
relationship, family, or influence, secular or religious. Another
reason mentioned by the missionary does not correspond so well with
Taikō’s letter to the viceroy of Goa. He is said not only to have
disarmed the country people, by whose strength and wealth the petty
kingdoms had been sustained, but also to have reduced them to extreme
poverty; but this, perhaps, applies rather to the petty lords than to
the actual cultivators. This letter is in Hay’s collection, and a part
of it, in English, may be found in Hackluyt’s fourth volume.
[Dening’s “New Life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi” is the best work dealing
with the career of “the Napoleon of Japan.”—EDR.]
[60] Some curious information respecting the Philippines is contained
in a letter dated Mexico, 1590, intercepted on its way to Spain by some
English cruiser, and translated and published by Hackluyt in his fourth
volume. This letter represents the country as very unhealthy “for us
Spaniards,” of whom not more than one thousand were left alive out of
fourteen thousand who had gone there in the twenty years preceding. It
seems, too, that the Spaniards at Manila, not less than the Portuguese
at Macao, had succeeded in opening a trade with China. “There is a
place in China, which is an harbor called Macaran, which the king has
given to the Spaniards freely; which shall be the place where the ships
shall come to traffic. For in this harbor there is a great river, which
goeth up into the main land, unto divers towns and cities, which are
near to this river.” Where was this Spanish Chinese port?
The annual galleons to New Spain were to Manila what the annual carac
to Japan was to Macao,—a main support of the place. The privilege of
putting a certain amount of goods on board was distributed among all
the resident merchants, offices, and public institutions.
[61] That any Japanese had been in America earlier than 1610 A. D. is
not to be found in any Japanese sources.—K. M.
[62] The fathers resident at this college had been by no means idle.
They had printed there, in 1593, a Japanese grammar, prepared by Father
Alvarez, and, in 1595, in a thick quarto of upwards of nine hundred
pages, a Portuguese, Latin, and Japanese Lexicon. A vocabulary entirely
Japanese was printed at Nagasaki, 1598.
[63] Yet the Japanese are said to maintain to this day a garrison on
the coast (Golownin, vol. iii, ch. 9), and to receive tribute from
Corea; but this seems doubtful.
[64] Go-kirai, including Yamashiro, Yamato, Kawachi, Izumi, and
Settsu.—EDR.
[65] Father Valignani died in 1606, at Macao, whither he had gone to
look after the Chinese missions, a few Jesuits having at length got
admission into that empire. Father Rodriguez, in his annual letter of
1606, from Miyako, in noticing Valignani’s death, speaks of him as
justly entitled to be called the apostle of the missions of Japan and
China,—a title, indeed, which he had already received from the king of
Portugal. Purchas, who published a few years later, mentions him as the
“great Jesuit.” He enjoyed in his own day, and deservedly, a reputation
quite equal to that of our most famous modern missionaries; but these
missionary reputations are apt not to be very long-lived. Five of his
letters are in the collection of Hay, “De Rebus Japonicis,” etc.
The death of Father Louis Froez has been mentioned in the previous
chapter. We have of his letters, in Maffei’s “Select Epistles,” nine,
written between the years 1563 and 1573; and in Hay’s collection,
eight, written between 1577 and 1596. Many of these are of great
length. That of February, 1565, contains a curious account of what he
saw at Miyako, on his going thither with Almeida to aid Vilela, who
had labored there alone for six years with only Japanese assistants.
The translation of it in Hackluyt has an important passage in the
beginning, giving a general account of the Japanese, not in the Latin
editions that I have seen. Those in Hay’s collection are rather reports
than letters. That of 1586 contains an account of Valignani’s first
interview with Taikō-Sama, that of 1592 a full account of Valignani’s
embassy, the second of 1595 the history of Taikō-Sama’s quarrel with
his nephew, and the two of 1596 a full account of the first martyrdoms
and of the state of the church at the time.
Almeida had died in 1583, after a missionary life of twenty-eight
years. We have five of his letters, which show him a good man, but
exceedingly credulous, even for a Portuguese Jesuit.
[66] This chapter, also the twenty-second, is taken, with alterations
and additions, from an article (written by the compiler of this work)
in “Harper’s Magazine” for January, 1854.
[67] See Appendix, Note E.
[68] An account of Adams’ voyage, in two letters of his from Japan,
may be found in Purchas, “His Pilgrimes,” part i, book iii, sect. 5.
Purchas also gives, book ii, chap. v, Captain Wert’s adventures and
return; and in book iii, chap. i, sect. 4, a narrative by Davis, who
acted as chief pilot of the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies,
under Houtman. Hackluyt gives, in his second volume, a narrative
of Lancaster’s voyage, taken down from the mouth of Edmund Baker,
Lancaster’s lieutenant. Henry May’s narrative of the same voyage
is given in Hackluyt’s second volume. What is known of the English
expedition, fitted out in 1594, will be found in Hackluyt, vol. iv,
and “Pilgrimes,” book iii, chap. i, sect. 2. The English East India
Company was formed in 1600, and Lancaster was immediately despatched on
a second voyage “with four tall ships and a victualler,” and by him the
English trade was commenced.—_Pilgrimes_, book iii, chap. iii, sect. 1.
[Ten extant letters of Will Adams may be found in “Letters written by
the English Residents in Japan,” edited by K. Murakawn, and published
in Tōkyō. See also paper by Dr. L. Riess on the “History of the English
Factory at Kirado,” in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of
Japan.—EDR.]
[69] See Klaproth’s translation (“Nov. Journal Asiatique,” tom. ii), of
a curious Japanese tract on the Wealth of Japan, written in 1708.
See note on page 152.—EDR.
[70] This letter is given by Purchas, vol. i, p. 406. It has neither
date nor signature, nor does it appear who is responsible for the
correctness of the translation.
[71] It must have been in the next year (1609).—K. M.
[72] Most likely this “box” was formed by movable screens. See Chapter
XXXVIII.
[73] Iyeyasu was sixty-six years old in 1609.—K. M.
[74] It is customary among the Japanese, on receiving a present from a
superior, to touch the top of the head with it. This custom is alluded
to in the king of Bungo’s letter to the Pope, pages 107 and 108.
[75] Descriptions of it will be found in Chapter XXXV, and also a
census taken in 1690.
[76] This image was first set up in the year 1576 by the Emperor Taikō.
The temple in which it was placed was destroyed by the great earthquake
of 1596. The rebuilding was commenced in 1602. The colossus, however,
was seriously injured by another earthquake in 1662, after which it was
melted down, and a substitute prepared of wood covered with gilt paper.
For a description of it, see Chapter XXXVII.
[77] The total number of baptisms in Japan, in 1606, according to the
annual letter of that year, was almost three thousand. According to the
letter of 1603, the number of confessions heard that year was eighty
thousand. It appears from these letters that many female converts were
made, among the higher classes, by the reputed efficacy of relics and
the prayers of the church in cases of difficult labor.
[78] Don Rodrigo published in Spanish a narrative of his residence in
Japan. Of this very rare and curious work an abstract, with extracts,
is given in the “Asiatic Journal,” vol. ii, new series, 1830. The
Spaniard is rather excessive in his estimates of population, but
appears to have been sensible and judicious. His accounts are well
borne out, as we shall see, by those of Saris, Kämpfer, and others. His
whole title was Don Rodrigo de Vivero y Velasco.
[79] There is a narrative of this journey, rather a perplexed one,
apparently written by Spex himself, added to the Relation of Verhœven’s
voyage in _Recueil des Voyages qui out servi a l’establisement de la
Compagnie des Indes Oriental dans les Provinces Unies_. A full abstract
of it is in the great collection, “Hist. Gen. des Voyages,” vol. viii.
[80] They had about four hundred, and the Spaniards about twice as many.
[81] Kämpfer gives this translation, and also a fac-simile of the
original Japanese. The same translation is also given by Spex.
[82] The Franciscan martyrology says he was born at Seville of the
blood royal.
[83] See paper on “Date Masamune,” in vol. xxi of the Transactions of
the Asiatic Society of Japan.—EDR.
[84] An account in Italian of Sotelo’s embassy, _Historia del Regno
de Voxu del Giaponi, etc., e del Ambasciata, etc._, was published at
Rome the same year, 1615. There is no Japanese letter of later date
than 1601, in the collection of Hay, or, as perhaps it ought rather
to be called, of Martin Nutius (at least so his name was written in
Latin), citizen and bookseller of Antwerp, at the sign of the two
storks, “a man zealous for the Catholic faith,” so Hay says, and by
whom the collection was projected. He applied to the rector of the
Jesuit college at Antwerp for an editor, and Hay was appointed. A few
of the letters were translated by Hay; the greater part had already
appeared as separate pamphlets, translated by others. Hay’s vehement
Scotch controversial spirit breaks out hotly in some of the dedicatory
letters which he has introduced. Of the Japanese letters subsequent to
1601 there is no collection. They were published separately as they
were received, translated into Italian, from which were made French and
Spanish translations.
[85] See “Letters written by the English Residents in Japan,
1611-1623.”—EDR.
[86] “I am called in the Japanese tongue ANGIN SAMA. By that name am I
known all the coast along.”—_Letters of Adams_, Jan. 12, 1614.
[87] This is difficult to decipher, except _kokoro warui_ (“heart
bad”), and may not refer at all to Coreans.—EDR.
[88] Properly the spirit enshrined in the temple.—EDR.
[89] Saris makes no mention of tea, not yet known to the Europeans,
and which, perhaps, he confounded with this hot water. All subsequent
travellers have noted this practice of the Japanese of drinking
everything warm even to water. Cold drinks might tend too much to check
the digestion of their vegetable food; at any rate, they are thought
to be frequently the occasion of a violent colic, one of the endemic
diseases of Japan.
[90] London had at that time a population of two hundred and fifty
thousand.
[91] Probably the one at Kamakura.—EDR.
[92] See “Letters written by the English Residents in Japan,
1611-1623.”—K. M.
[93] This word, though not to be found in any of our dictionaries, was
in current use, at this time, in the signification of head merchant of
a factory ship, or trading post,—_cape_ being, probably, a contraction
of captain.
[94] Yezo, otherwise called Matsumae, the island north of Nippon. There
is in Purchas, “Pilgrimes,” vol. i., p. 364, a short account of this
island, obtained from a Japanese, who had been there twice. It was
visited in 1620 by Jerome de Angelis, who sent home an account of its
gold-washings, which reads very much like a California letter. It was
also then as now the seat of extensive fisheries. The gold which it
produced made the Dutch and English anxious to explore it. The Dutch
made some voyages in that direction and discovered some of the southern
Kuriles; but the geography of those seas remained very confused till
the voyages of La Perouse. Matsumae was the scene of Golownin’s
captivity in 1812. [See chap. xliii.] One of the ports granted to the
Americans (Hakodate) is on the southern coast of this island.
[95] These privileges are given by Purchas, “Pilgrimes,” vol. i., p.
357, with a fac-simile of the original Japanese.
[96] The old Gothic edifice, afterwards destroyed in the great fire of
1666, is the one here referred to.
[97] This is the same temple and idol seen and described by Don Rodrigo.
[98] Captain Saris states that the New Testament had been translated
into Japanese for their use; but this is doubtless a mistake. A number
of books of devotion were translated into Japanese, but we hear nowhere
else of any New Testament, nor were such translations a part of the
Jesuit missionary machinery.
[99] Of another festival, on the 23d of October, Cocks gives the
following account: “The kings with all the rest of the nobility,
accompanied with divers strangers, met together at a summer-house, set
up before the great pagoda, to see a horse-race. Every nobleman went
on horseback to the place, accompanied with a rout of slaves, some
with pikes, some with small shot, and others with bows and arrows. The
pikemen were placed on one side of the street, and the shot and archers
on the other, the middest of the street being left void to run the
race; and right before the summer-house, where the king and nobles sat,
was a round buckler of straw hanging against the wall, at which the
archers on horseback, running a full career, discharged their arrows,
both in the street and summer-house where the nobles sat.” This, from
the date, would seem to be the festival of Tenshō Daijin. See p. 359.
Caron, “Relation du Japon,” gives a similar description.
[100] Captain Saris’ account of his voyage and travels in Japan (which
agrees remarkably with the contemporaneous observations of Don Rodrigo,
and with the subsequent ones of Kämpfer and others), may be found in
Purchas, “His Pilgrimes,” part i, book iv, chap. i, sect. 4-8. Cocks’
not less curious observations may be found in chap. iii, sect. 1-3, of
the same book and part. There is also a readable summary of what was
then known of Japan, in Purchas, “His Pilgrimage,” book v, chap. xv.
Rundall, in his “Memorials of the Empire of Japan,” printed by the
Hackluyt Society, 1850, has republished Adams’ first letter, from two
MSS. in the archives of the East India Company; but the variations
from the text, as given by Purchas, are hardly as important as he
represents. He gives also from the same records four other letters
from Adams, not before printed. It seems from these letters, and from
certain memoranda of Cocks, that there were three reasons why Adams did
not return with Saris, notwithstanding the emperor’s free consent to
his doing so. Besides his wife and daughter in England, he had also a
wife, son, and daughter in Japan. Though he had the estate mentioned as
given him by the emperor (called Hemmi, about eight miles from Uraga),
on which were near a hundred households, his vassals, over whom he had
power of life and death, yet he had little money, and did not like to
go home with an empty purse. He had quarrelled with Saris, who had
attempted to drive a hard bargain with him. The East India Company had
advanced twenty pounds to his wife in England. Saris wanted him to
serve the company for that sum and such additional pay as they might
see fit to give. But Adams, whom the Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese,
were all anxious to engage in their service, insisted upon a stipulated
hire. He asked twelve pounds a month, but consented to take a hundred
pounds a year, to be paid at the end of two years.
See “History of the English Factory at Hirado,” in vol. xxvi. of the
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, and “Diary of Richard
Cocks,” edited by Mr. N. Murakami, and published in Tōkyō in 1899.—EDR.
[101] He was deified, and is still worshipped under the name of
Gongen-Sama, given to him after his death. It is from him that the
reigning emperors of Japan trace their descent. He is buried at the
temple of Nikkō, three days’ journey from Yedo, of the splendor of
which marvellous stories are told. Caron, who wrote about the time it
was built, speaks as if he had seen it. In 1782, M. Titsingh, then
Dutch director, solicited permission to visit this temple, but was
refused, as there was no precedent for such a favor.
[102] These modified privileges have been printed for the first time by
Rundall.
[103] Lopo de Vega, the poet, who held the office of procurator fiscal
to the apostolic chamber of the archbishopric of Toledo, celebrated the
constancy of the Japanese martyrs, in a pamphlet entitled “Triumpho
de la Fe en los Regnos del Japon, pas los annos de 1614 y 1615,”
published in 1617. “Take away from this work,” says Charlevoix, “the
Latin and Spanish verses, the quotations foreign to the subject, and
the flourish of the style, and there will be nothing left of it.” The
subject was much more satisfactorily treated by Nicholas Trigault,
himself a very distinguished member of the Chinese mission, which
he had joined in 1610. He returned to Europe in 1615, travelling on
foot through Persia, Arabia, and Egypt, to obtain a fresh supply of
laborers. Besides an account of the Jesuit mission to China (from
which, next to Marco Polo’s travels, Europe gathered its first distinct
notions of that empire), and a summary of the Japanese mission from
1609 to 1612, published during this visit to Europe, just before his
departure, in 1618 (taking with him forty-four missionaries, who
had volunteered to follow him to China), he completed four books
concerning the triumphs of the Christians in the late persecution in
Japan, to which, while at Goa, on his way to China, he added a fifth
book, bringing down the narrative to 1616. The whole, derived from
the annual Japanese letters, was printed in 1623, in a small quarto
of five hundred and twenty pages, illustrated by numerous engravings
of martyrdoms, and containing also a short addition, bringing down
the story to the years 1617-1620, and a list of Japanese martyrs, to
the number of two hundred and sixty-eight. There is also added a list
of thirty-eight houses and residences (including two colleges, one at
Arima, the other at Nagasaki) which the Jesuits had been obliged to
abandon; and of five Franciscan, four Dominican, and two Augustinian
convents, from which the inmates had been driven. These works of
Trigault, published originally in Latin, were translated into French
and Spanish. Various other accounts of the same persecution appeared in
Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. “A Brief Relation of the Persecution
lately made against the Catholic Christians of Japan” was published
at London, 1616. Meanwhile Purchas, in the successive editions of his
“Pilgrimage,” gave an account of the Japanese missions, which is the
best and almost the only one (though now obsolete and forgotten) in
the English language. That contained in the fourth edition (annexed
as a fifth part to the “Pilgrimes”), and published in 1625, is the
fullest. Captain Saris, according to Purchas, ascribed the persecution
to the discovery, by the Japanese, that the Jesuits, under the cloak of
religion, were but merchants.
[104] Such was the charge of the English. The Dutch narratives,
however, abound with similar charges against the English. Both probably
were true enough, as both nations captured all the Chinese junks they
met.
[105] The date, as given by Purchas (evidently by a misprint), is 1610.
[106] The “Swan” and the “Attendance.” The number of English runaways
was three, not six.—K. M.
[107] From Jacatra Pring proceeded to England with a cargo of pepper.
It would seem that he had not forgotten his early voyages to the coast
of America, for while his ship lay in the road of Saldanha, near the
Cape of Good Hope, a contribution of seventy pounds eight shillings
and sixpence was raised among the ship’s company to endow a school, to
be called the _East India_ School, in the colony of Virginia. Other
contributions were made for this school, and the Virginia Company
endowed it with a farm of a thousand acres, which they sent tenants
to cultivate; but this, like the Virginia University, and many other
public-spirited and promising enterprises, was ruined and annihilated
by the fatal Indian massacre of 1622.
The “Royal James” carried also to England a copy in Japanese, still
preserved in the archives of the East India Company, of Adams’ will.
With commendable impartiality he divided his property, which, by the
inventory annexed, amounted to nineteen hundred and seventy-two tael,
two mas, four kandarins (two thousand four hundred and sixty-five
dollars and twenty-nine cents), equally between his Japanese and
his English family,—the English share to go, one half to the wife
and the other half to the daughter, it not being his mind, so Cocks
wrote, “his wife should have all, in regard she might marry another
husband, and carry all from his child.” By the same ship Cocks made
a remittance to the English family, having delivered “one hundred
pounds sterling to diverse of the ‘Royal James’Company, entered into
the purser’s books, to pay in England, two for one,”—a very handsome
rate of exchange, which throws some light on the profits of East India
trade in those days. Adams’ Japanese estate probably descended to his
Japanese son; and who knows but the family survives to this day? The
situation of this estate was but a very short distance from the spot
where the recent American treaty was made; nor is the distance great
from Shimoda, one of the ports granted by that treaty. The command
of the fleet left behind, on Pring’s departure, devolved on Captain
Robert Adams. According to Cocks’ account, the crews, both Dutch and
English, inferior officers as well as men, were a drunken, dissolute,
quarrelsome set. Rundall gives a curious record of the trial by jury
and execution of an Englishman of this fleet for the murder of a
Dutchman; and it seems the Dutch reciprocated by hanging a Dutchman for
killing an Englishman. Master Arthur Hatch was chaplain of this fleet.
Purchas gives (vol. i, part ii, book x, ch. i) a letter from him,
written after his return, containing a brief sketch of his observations
in Japan. Purchas also gives a letter from Cocks, which, in reference
to the koku of rice, agrees very well with Titsingh’s statement quoted
on page fifty-nine. Cocks represents the revenues of the Japanese
princes as being estimated in mankoku of rice, each containing ten
thousand koku, and each koku containing one hundred gantas (gantings),
a ganta being a measure equal to three English ale pints.
Cocks states the revenue of the king of Hirado at six mankoku. He
maintained four thousand soldiers, his quota for the emperor’s service
being two thousand. The income of Kodzuke-no-Suke, formerly three, had
lately been raised to fifteen mankoku. That of the king of Satsuma was
one hundred, and that of the prince next in rank to the emperor, two
hundred mankoku. The value of the mankoku was calculated at the English
factory at nine thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds, which
would make the koku worth eighteen shillings and sixpence sterling,
or four dollars and fifty cents, and agrees very well with Caron’s
estimates of the koku, which he calls _cokien_, as worth ten Dutch
florins, or four dollars. The estimates of Kämpfer and Titsingh, given
on page fifty-nine, are higher.
[108] Dr. Riess estimates the loss at less than ten thousand
pounds.—EDR.
[109] See Appendix F.
[110] 1624 ought to be 1616.—K. M.
[111] It may be found in Thevenot’s Collection of Voyages, also in
“Voyages des Indes,” tom. v.
[112] A candid and conclusive answer to Sotelo, or the false Sotelo,
as the Jesuits persisted in calling him, was published at Madrid
immediately after the appearance of his letter, by Don Jean Cevicos,
a commissary of the holy office, who was able to speak from personal
observation. Cevicos had been captain of the galleon “St. Francis,”
the ship in which Don Rodrigo de Vivero had been wrecked on the coast
of Japan, as related in a former chapter. After a six months’ stay
in Japan, and an acquaintance there with Sotelo, Cevicos sailed for
Manila, was captured on the passage by the Dutch, but recaptured by
a Spanish fleet. Arrived at Manila, he renounced the seas, commenced
the study of theology, was ordained priest, and became provisor of the
archbishopric of the Philippines. The business of this office brought
him to Spain, and being at Madrid when the letter ascribed to Sotelo
appeared, he thought it his duty to reply to it. A full abstract of
this answer, as well as of Sotelo’s charges, may be found at the end of
Charlevoix’s “Histoire du Japon.” It appears, from documents quoted in
it, that the missionaries of the other orders agreed with the Jesuits
in ascribing the persecution mainly to the idea, which the Dutch made
themselves very busy in insinuating, that the independence of Japan was
in danger from the Spaniards and the Pope, who were on the watch to
gain, by means of the missionaries, the mastery of Japan, as they had
of Portugal and so many other countries.
The charges made in the name of Sotelo against the Jesuits are of more
interest from the fact that, at the time of the Jansenist quarrel, they
were revived and reurged with a bitterness of hatred little short of
that which had prompted their original concoction.
A Spanish history of the Franciscan mission, full of bitter hatred
against the Jesuits, was published at Madrid in 1632, written down
to 1620, by Father Fray Jacinto Orfanel, who was arrested that year,
and burnt two years after, and continued by Collado, who was also the
author of a Japanese grammar and dictionary.
[113] Shōgun-Sama seems to be only a title, not a name. This is
Lyemitsu, the “third Shōgun.”—EDR.
[114] A shuet of silver weighs about five ounces, so that the reward
offered was from $2,000 to $2,500.
[115] A narrative of this transaction was published at Rome in 1643.
A short but curious document, purporting to be a translation of a
Japanese imperial edict, commanding the destruction of all Portuguese
vessels attempting to approach the coasts of Japan, is given in
“Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv. Ships of other nations were to be sent
under a strong guard to Nagasaki. [See Appendix, Note 1.]
[116] This curious piece may be found in French, in the “Voyages des
Indes,” tom. v.
[117] Haganaar’s travels may be found in “Voyages des Indes,” tom. v.,
and a narrative of Nuyts’ affair in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv.
[118] According to Titsingh, they amounted in his time (1780) to
eighty thousand in number. Apparently they are the Dōshin, or imperial
soldiers, of whom we shall have occasion hereafter to speak.
[119] This quantity of rice would suffice for the support of twelve
million persons or more. The cultivators of the imperial domains
retained, according to Kämpfer, six-tenths of the produce, and those
who cultivated the lands of inferior lords four-tenths. Hence it may
be conjectured that the estimate of twenty-five millions of people for
Japan is not excessive.
[120] These lists were doubtless copied from the _Yedo Kagami_ (Mirror
of Yedo), a kind of Blue Book, still published twice a year, and
containing similar lists. See “Annals des Empereurs du Japon” (Titsingh
and Klaproth), p. 37, note.
[See paper on Japanese feudalism, in vol. xv of the “Transactions of
the Asiatic Society of Japan.”—EDR.]
[121] There are two versions of Caron’s account of Japan, materially
different from each other; one with the original questions, as
furnished by Caron himself to Thevenot, the other in the form of a
continuous narrative, with large additions by Haganaar. The first may
be found in Thevenot’s “Voyages Curieuse,” also in “Voyages au Nord,”
tom. iv. The other in “Voyages des Indes,” tom. v, and an English
translation of it in Pinkerton’s collection, vol. vii.
[122] A curious contemporary narrative of this affair is given, among
other tracts relating to Japan, in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv. It
is not unlikely that the military operations of the Dutch in the
neighboring island of Formosa, and their strong fort of Zelandia,
recently erected there, might have aroused the suspicions of the
Japanese.
[123] There is an account of the voyage of the “Castricoom” in
Thevenot’s collection. It is also contained in “Voyages au Nord,” tom.
iii. Charlevoix gives a full and interesting abstract of the adventures
of Captain Schaëp and his companions, derived from two different French
versions of a Dutch original; but I know not where either the versions
or the original can be found.
[124] The journals of these embassies of Waganaar, Frisius, and others,
generally pretty dry documents, with extracts from Caron, furnished
the basis for the “Memorable Embassies of the Dutch to the Emperors
of Japan,” a splendid folio, with more than a hundred copper plates,
published at Amsterdam in 1669, purporting to be compiled by Arnold
Montanus, of which an English translation, made by Ogilvy, with the
same cuts, appeared the next year at London, under the title of
_Atlas Japonensis_, and a French translation, with some additions and
alterations, ten years later at Amsterdam.
The materials are thrown together in the most careless and disorderly
manner, and are eked out by drawing largely upon the letters of the
Jesuit missionaries. The cuts, whence most of the current prints
representing Japanese objects are derived, are destitute of any
authenticity. Those representing Japanese idols and temples evidently
were based on the descriptions of Froez, whose accounts do not seem
quite to agree in all respects with the observations of more recent
travellers.
The dedication of Ogilvy’s translation outdoes anything Japanese in
the way of prostration, nor can the language of it hardly be called
English. It is as follows: “To the supreme, most high and mighty
prince, Charles II., by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France
and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c. These strange and novel
relations concerning the ancient and present state of the so populous
and wealthy empire of Japan, being a book of wonders, dedicated with
all humility, lies prostrate at the sacred feet of your most serene
majesty, by the humblest of your servants, and most loyal subject, John
Ogilvy.”
[125] This letter, with the instructions and a memoir of Caron’s on
the subject, may be found in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv. Caron, who
spent several years in the French service in the East Indies, perished
by shipwreck, near Lisbon, on his return to France in 1674. He was
president of the Dutch factory at the time of its removal to Deshima;
and Kämpfer undertakes to represent his mismanagement as in some degree
the cause of that removal. This story was doubtless current at Deshima
in Kämpfer’s time, but probably it grew out of disgust of the Dutch at
Caron’s having passed into the French service.
[126] A curious narrative of this visit is printed in Pinkerton’s great
collection, vol. vii.
[See also “Diary of Richard Cocks.”—K. M.]
[127] For a further account of Fitch and his travels, see Appendix,
Note E.
[128] The China trade was shared at this time between the Portuguese of
Macao and the Spaniards of the Philippines. On the Spanish trade, and
the profits of it, some light is thrown by extracts from letters found
on board Spanish prizes taken by the English, which Hackluyt translated
and published in his fourth volume. Thus Hieronymo de Nabores writes
from Panama (August 24, 1590), where he was waiting for the ship for
the Philippines: “My meaning is to carry my commodities thither, for it
is constantly reported that for every one hundred ducats a man shall
get six hundred ducats clearly.” This, however, was only the talk at
Panama; but Sebastian Biscanio had made the voyage, and he writes
to his father from Acapulco (June 20, 1590): “In this harbor here
are four great ships of Mexico, of six hundred or eight hundred tons
apiece, which only serve to carry our commodities to China, and so to
return back again. The order is thus. From hence to China is about two
thousand leagues further than from hence to Spain; and from hence the
two first ships depart together to China, and are thirteen or fourteen
months returning back again. And when these ships are returned, then
the other twain, two months after, depart from hence. They go now from
hence very strong with soldiers. I can certify you of one thing: that
two hundred ducats in Spanish commodities, and some Flemish woods which
I carried with me thither, I made worth fourteen hundred ducats there
in that country. So I make account that with those silks and other
commodities with me from thence to Mexico, I got twenty-five hundred
ducats by the voyage; and had gotten more, if one pack of fine silks
had not been spoiled with salt water. So, as I said, there is great
gain to be gotten, if that a man return in safety. But the year 1588,
I had great mischance coming in a ship from China to New Spain; which,
being laden with rich commodities, was taken by an Englishman [this was
Cavendish, then on his voyage round the world], which robbed us and
afterwards burnt our ship, wherein I lost a great deal of treasure and
commodities.”
[129] The tael, reckoning the picul at one hundred and thirty-three and
one-third pounds avoirdupois, contains five hundred and eighty-three
grains troy. Our dollar weighs four hundred and twelve and a half
grains; and supposing the Japanese silver to be of equal fineness, the
tael is worth just about one dollar and forty cents. Kämpfer reckons
it as equivalent to three and a half florins, which is precisely one
dollar and forty cents, taking the florin at the usual valuation of
forty cents. This, however, was rather above the valuation of the Dutch
East India Company. There were, it seems, two kinds of Japanese silver,
known among the Dutch as heavy and light money, the latter sometimes
distinguished as bar-silver. Both kinds were carried to account without
distinction down to the year 1635, at the rate of sixty-two and a half
silvers, or one dollar and twenty-five cents per tael. After that
period the bar-silver was reckoned at fifty-seven stivers, or one
dollar and fourteen cents per tael. Reckoning the tael, as the Dutch
commonly did, at one dollar and twenty-five cents of our money, and the
mas is precisely equivalent to the Spanish eighth of a dollar. This
statement is derived from a Dutch memoir by Imhoff, quoted by Raffles
(“History of Java,” Appendix B), and found by him, it would seem,
among the Dutch records at Batavia. Of the chests of silver and gold,
particularly the former, so often mentioned in the old accounts of the
Dutch and Portuguese trade, I have met with no description, except in
Montanus’ “Memorable Embassies.” Unreliable and worthless as that huge
volume generally is, its compilers certainly had access to valuable
Dutch papers, and it is apparently from that source that they have
drawn what they say of the moneys, weights, and measures of Japan. Of
the chests of silver and gold they speak as follows: “Moreover, their
paying of money is very strange; for the Japanese, having great store
of gold and silver, observe a custom to receive their money without
telling or seeing it. The mint-master puts the gold in papers, which
contain the value of two hundred pounds sterling; these, sealed up,
pass from one to another without being questioned. They also use little
wooden boxes, in which they put twenty sealed papers of gold, which
is as much as a man can handsomely carry; every box amounts to four
thousand pounds sterling; and the like boxes, but of another fashion,
they use for their silver, in every one of which is twelve hundred
crowns, and is sealed with the coiner’s seal. But doth it not seem
strange that never any deceit is found in that blind way of paying
money?” “The silver, though weighed and coined, is of no certain value.
The coiners put it together into little packs worth sixty crowns,”—I
suppose taels. Caron says, however, that these packages contained fifty
taels.
[130] These temples, built in Japan by the Chinese merchants, remind
one of the temples built in Egypt by the Greek merchants, who first
opened a trade with that country. See Grote’s “History of Greece,”
chap. xx.
[131] The _kamishimo_ is a state dress, composed of two garments
(_kami_ signifies what is above, and _shimo_ what is below), a short
cloak, without sleeves, called _kataginu_, and breeches, called
_hakama_. Both are of a particular form (the breeches being like a
petticoat sewed up between the legs), and of colored stuffs. They are
used only on days of ceremony and at funerals.—_Titsingh._
[132] Unfortunately for the English, their attempt at a revival of
intercourse, mentioned in the last chapter, was made the very year of
the introduction of this new check on foreign trade. The appraisement
extended as well to the Chinese as the Dutch cargoes, as is apparent
from the following closing paragraph of the English narrative: “During
the time (July and August, 1673) we were in port, there came twelve
junks in all, eight from Batavia, two from Siam, one from Canton, one
from Cambodia, and six Dutch ships of the Company’s. They had not any
from Taiwan (Formosa), by reason the year before they put the price
upon their sugar and skins; and so they intend to do for all other
people, for whatsoever goods shall be brought to their port; which if
they do, few will seek after their commodities on such unequal terms.”
There is strong reason to suppose that these new restrictions on
foreign trade grew out of the diminished produce of the mines, which
furnished the chief article of export. The working of these mines
seems to have greatly increased after the pacification of Japan by its
subjection to the imperial authority. Such is the statement in the
Japanese tract on the wealth of Japan, already referred to. According
to this tract the first gold coins were struck by Taikō-Sama. This
increase of metallic product seems to have given, about the time of the
commencement of the Dutch trade, a new impulse to foreign commerce.
Though the Portuguese trade had been stopped, it had been a good deal
more than replaced by the increase of the Chinese traffic, and already
the metallic drain appears to have been seriously felt. This is a much
more likely reason for the policy now adopted than the mere personal
hostility of certain Japanese grandees, to which the Dutch at Deshima,
and Kämpfer as their echo, ascribed it.
[133] According to Titsingh, the Chinese factory was removed, in 1780,
to a new situation, the site of an ancient temple. He gives a plan of
the new factory after a Japanese draft.
[134] Thunberg notices an odd mistake by the engravers, in representing
the Japanese as wearing their swords as we do, with the edge downward,
whereas their custom is just the reverse, the edge being turned upwards.
[135] See also an “Abstract” of Kämpfer’s History in vol. ii of the
“Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.”—EDR.
[136] A translation of one of these tablets is given by Kämpfer as
follows:
“Courtesans only, but no other women, shall be admitted. Only the
ecclesiastics of the mountain Kōya shall be admitted. All other
priests, and all Yamabushi, shall stand excluded.” (Note by Kämpfer.
—Kōyais stated to be a mountain near Miyako, a sanctuary and asylum
for criminals, no officers of justice being suffered to come there.
Its inhabitants, many thousand in number, lead an ecclesiastical life.
All are admitted that desire it, or who fly there for shelter, and are
afterwards maintained for life, if they can but bring in thirty taels
for the use of the convent, and are otherwise willing to serve the
community in their several capacities. These monks are not absolutely
confined to this mountain, but many travel up and down the country
in what manner or business they please. Very many of them betake
themselves to trade and commerce.)
“All beggars, and all persons that live on charity, shall be denied
entrance.
“Nobody shall presume with any ship or boat to come within the
palisades of Deshima. Nobody shall presume with any ship or boat to
pass under the bridge of Deshima.
“No Hollander shall be permitted to come out, but for weighty reasons.”
[137] For a full account of this journey, see Chap. XXXI, etc.
[138] For an account of this festival, see Chap. XXIX.
[139] The custom of using an emblem, or device, instead of a signature,
or to certify it, prevails with the Japanese, as with so many other
nations.
[140] See further, in relation to this ceremony, Chap. XXIX.
[141] Properly kuriki, but abbreviated to kuri, to approximate
“coolie.” See note on page 309.—EDR.
[142] See also “Formosa under the Dutch” (Campbell), and “The Island of
Formosa” (Davidson).—EDR.
[143] The smuggling affair mentioned on page 327.
[144] This is, evidently, the word coolie, employed in India and China
to designate laborers of the lowest class. [See note on page 300.—EDR.]
[145] Along the east coast of Asia, and as far north as the southern
coasts of Japan, the winds, during the six months from April to
September inclusive, blow from southwest to northeast This is called
the southwest monsoon. During the other six months they blow from
northeast to southwest. This is called the northeast monsoon.
[146] Ambergris is a substance thrown up from the stomachs of whales
suffering from dyspepsia or some other disease. It is much employed in
the East in the preparation of perfumes and sweetmeats, and once had
considerable reputation in Europe. Its true nature was for a long time
in dispute. The Japanese understood it, as appears from their name of
the articles, _Kujira-no-fun_, that is, whale’s excrements.
[147] This corresponds with Siebold’s description, who goes quite
into raptures at the first sight he had, in 1825, of the hills about
Nagasaki.
[148] It would seem that Europe had derived the idea of paper-hangings,
as a substitute for tapestry, from Japan.
[149] According to Haganaar this sake is flavored with honey or sugar.
It is very heating and heavy. Saris describes it as almost as strong as
aqua vitæ. It appears to be very various in quality and strength, quite
as much so as European ale or beer. The yeast from this sake is largely
used for preserving fruit and vegetables. The acid of it penetrates the
fruit or vegetable, giving it a peculiar flavor, of which the Japanese
are very fond.
The Japanese are very fond of social drinking parties; but, according
to Caron, no drunken brawls occur, each person taking himself quietly
off as soon as he finds that he has enough or too much.
[150] This prayer, or invocation, unintelligible to the Japanese, is,
as our modern Orientalists have discovered, good Sanscrit.
[151] Another change, simultaneous with the restrictions upon Dutch and
Chinese trade, was the selection of the governors from the military and
noble class, instead of from the mercantile class, as had previously
been the case.
[152] These Yoriki and Dōshin seem to be the same officers spoken
of in the subsequent Dutch narratives as _Gobanjoshu_ (said to mean
government overseeing officers), or by corruption, banjoses, upper and
under. The Dōshin seem to be the same with the imperial soldiers.
[153] The Japanese division of time is peculiar. The day, from the
beginning of morning twilight to the end of evening twilight (so says
Siebold, correcting former statements, which give instead sunrise and
sunset), is divided into six hours, and the night, from the beginning
to the end of darkness, into six other hours. Of course the length of
these hours is constantly varying. Their names (according to Titsingh)
are as follows: _Kokonotsu_ [_nine_], noon, and midnight; _Yatsu_
[_eight_], about our two o’clock; _Nanatsu_ [_seven_], from four to
five; _Mutsu_ [_six_], end of the evening and commencement of morning
twilight; _Itsutsu_ [_five_], eight to nine; _Yotsu_ [_four_], about
ten; and then Kokonotsu again. Each of these hours is also subdivided
into four parts, thus: _Kokonotsu_, noon or midnight; _Kokonotsu-han_
[_nine and a half_], quarter past; _Kokonotsu-han-sugi_ [_past nine and
a half_], half past; _Kokonotsu-han-sugi-maye_ [_before past nine and a
half_], three quarters past; commencement of second hour: _Yatsu-han_,
etc., and so through all the hours.
The hours are struck on bells, _Kokonotsu_ being indicated by nine
strokes, preceded (as is the case also with all the hours) by three
warning strokes, to call attention, and to indicate that the hour is to
be struck, and followed, after a pause of about a minute and a half, by
the strokes for the hour, between which there is an interval of about
fifteen seconds,—the last, however, following its predecessor still
more rapidly, to indicate that the hour is struck. _Yatsu_ is indicated
by eight strokes, _Nanatsu_ by seven, _Mutsu_ by six, _Itsutsu_ by
five, and _Yotsu_ by four. Much speculation has been resorted to by the
Japanese to explain why they do not employ, to indicate hours, one,
two, and three strokes. The obvious answer seems to be, that while
three strokes have been appropriated as a forewarning, their method of
indicating that the striking is finished would not be available, if one
and two strokes designated the first and second hours. [See paper on
“Japanese Calendars,” in vol. xxx of the Transactions of the Asiatic
Society of Japan.—EDR.]
[154] Caron implies that it was only as to state offences that this
mutual responsibility exists. According to Guysbert, in his account
of the persecution at Nagasaki, if a converted priest was discovered,
not only the householder concealing him was held responsible, but the
two nearest householders on either side, though not only ignorant of
the fact, but pagans. This strict system was very effectual for the
purposes of the persecution.
[155] Better _fumiye_ or _fumie_.—EDR.
[156] It would seem from Guysbert, that the participation by young
children in the death decreed against the parents, was rather the
act of those parents who had the power of life and death over their
children, and who did not choose to part with them in this extremity.
[157] The Japanese year begins at the new moon nearest to the fifth of
February (the middle point between the winter solstice and the spring
equinox).
[158] According to Klaproth’s statement of Japanese legend, in his
“Histoire Mythologique,” introductory to Titsingh’s “Annals of the
Dairi,” the first three of the celestial gods were solitary males.
The next three had female companions, yet produced their successors
by the force of mutual contemplation only. The seventh pair found out
the ordinary method of generation, of which the first result was the
successive production of eight islands, those of Japan (the number
eight being selected simply because it is esteemed the most perfect),
after which they gave birth also to mountains, rivers, plants, and
trees. To provide a ruler and governor for these creations, they
next produced _Tenshō daijin_, or, in Japanese (for _Tenshō daijin_
is Chinese), _Ama terasu-no-kami_ (Celestial Spirit of Sunlight);
but, thinking her too beautiful for the earth, they placed her in
the heavens, as they did, likewise, their second born, a daughter,
also, _Tsuki-no-kami_, goddess of the moon. Their third child, _Ebisu
saburō_, was made god of the sea; their fourth child, _Susanoō_, also
a son, god of the winds and tempest. He was agreeable enough when in
good humor, and at times had his eyes filled with tears, but was liable
to such sudden outbreaks and caprices of temper as to render him quite
unreliable. It was concluded to send him away to the regions of the
north; but before going he got leave to pay a visit to his sisters
in heaven. At first he had a good understanding with them, but soon
committed so many outrages,—in the spring spoiling the flower borders,
and in the autumn riding through the ripe corn on a wild horse,—that
in disgust _Tenshō daijin_ hid herself in a cavern, at the mouth of
which she placed a great stone. Darkness forthwith settled over the
heavens. The eight hundred thousand gods, in great alarm, assembled
in council, when, among other expedients, one of their number, who
was a famous dancer, was set to dance to music at the mouth of the
cavern. _Tenshō daijin_, out of curiosity, moved the stone a little,
to get a look at what was going on, when immediately _Te chikara o-no
kami_ (god of the strong hand) caught hold of it, rolled it away, and
dragged her out, while two others stretched ropes across the mouth so
that she could not get in again. Finally, the matter was compromised by
clipping the claws and hair of _Susanoō_, after which he was sent off
to the north, though not till he had killed a dragon, married a wife,
and become the hero of other notable adventures. This legend makes it
clear what _Anjirō_, the first Japanese convert, meant by speaking of
the Japanese as worshippers of the sun and moon. See _ante_, p. 49.
The annual festival of _Tenshō daijin_ falls on the sixteenth day of
the ninth month, immediately after that of _Suwa_, and is celebrated
throughout the empire by matsuri much like that described in the text.
The sixteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-sixth days of every month are
likewise sacred to her, but not celebrated with any great solemnity.
[Also see “Kojiki.”—EDR.]
Kämpfer mentions as the gods particularly worshipped by the mercantile
class: 1. _Yebisu_, the Neptune of the country, and the protector
of fishermen and seafaring people, said to be able to live two
or three days under water. He is represented sitting on a rock,
with an angling-rod in one hand, and the delicious fish, _Tai_, or
_Steinbrassin_ (_Sparus Aurata_, the Japanese name, signifies _red
lady_), in the other. 2. _Dai-koku_, commonly represented sitting on
a bale of rice, with his fortunate hammer in his right hand, and a
bag laid by him to put in what he knocks out; for he is said to have
the power of knocking out, from whatever he strikes with his hammer,
whatever he wants, as rice, clothes, money, etc. Klaproth states him
to be of Indian origin, and that this name signifies Great Black. 3.
_Toshitoku_, represented standing, clad in a large gown with long
sleeves, with a long beard, a huge forehead, large ears, and a fan
in his right hand. Worshipped at the beginning of the new year, in
hopes of obtaining, by his assistance, success and prosperity. 4.
_Hotei_, represented with a huge belly, and supposed to have in his
gift, health, riches, and children. [These are four of the “Seven Gods
of Happiness.” See also paper on that subject, in vol. viii of the
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.—EDR.]
[159] On the whole, and from the play-bills presently given, the
performance would seem to be a good deal like that of Pyramus and
Thisbe, in the Midsummer Night’s Dream.
[160] Certainly there is nothing of which the Japanese stood, and still
stand, more in need than some contrivance for extinguishing fires.
Caron, in his memorial addressed to Colbert, had recommended a present
of fire-extinguishers.
[161] See p. 265.
[162] These zeni were of various values, a thousand of them being
worth, according to Caron, from eight to twenty-six mas, that is, from
a dollar to three dollars and a quarter; the zeni varying, therefore,
from a mill to three mills and a quarter. Of the existing copper
coinage we shall speak hereafter. See vol. ii, p. 309.
[163] “Though it may sound extraordinary to talk of a soldier with
a fan, yet the use of that article is so general in Japan that no
respectable man is to be seen without one. These fans are a foot long,
and sometimes serve for parasols; at others instead of memorandum
books. They are adorned with paintings of landscapes, birds, flowers,
or ingenious sentences. The etiquette to be observed in regard to the
fan requires profound study and close attention.”—_Titsingh_. “At
feasts and ceremonies the fan is always stuck in the girdle, on the
left hand, behind the sabre, with the handle downward.”—_Thunberg_.
[See paper on “Japanese Fans,” in vol. ii of the Transactions and
Proceedings of the Japan Society, London.—EDR.]
[164] This is exclusive of the central tract or imperial domain
(consisting of five provinces), and also of the two island provinces of
Iki and Tsushima. [See also Note A in the Appendix.—EDR.]
[165] For a part of the distance across Kiūshiū (or Shimo), different
routes were taken in the first and second of Kämpfer’s journeys. In
the first he crossed the gulf of Ōmura; in the second, the gulf of
Shimabara, these two gulfs enclosing the peninsula of Ōmura, the one on
the north, the other on the east.
[166] The distance is reckoned by the Japanese at three hundred and
thirty-two to three hundred and thirty-three leagues; but these
Japanese leagues are of unequal length, varying from eighteen thousand
to about thirteen thousand feet, and the water-leagues generally
shorter than those by land in the proportion of five to three. Kämpfer
makes the whole distance two hundred German or about eight hundred
English miles.
[167] Three or four inches thick (according to Thunberg), and made of
rushes and rice straw.
[168] Japanese feet, that is, for, according to Klaproth (“Annales
des Emp. du Japon”) page 404, note, the _ken_ is equal to seven feet
four inches and a half, Rhineland (which does not differ much from our
English) measure.
[169] These windows are of light frames, which may be taken out,
and put in, and slid behind each other at pleasure, divided into
parallelograms like our panes of glass, and covered with paper. Glass
windows are unknown.
[170] Thunberg says, “tiles of a singular make, very thick and heavy.”
[171] In a Japanese map brought home by Kämpfer the number of castles
in the whole empire is set down at a hundred and forty-six.
[172] The whole number of towns in the empire, great and small, is set
down in the above-mentioned map at more than thirteen thousand.
[173] Kämpfer’s meaning seems to be only that the Shintō priests were
not monks living together in convents, like the Buddhist clergy, but
having houses and families of their own.
[174] According to a memorandum annexed to the Japanese map already
mentioned, there were in Japan twenty-seven thousand seven hundred Kami
temples, one hundred and twenty-two thousand five hundred and eighty
Buddhist temples, in all forty-nine thousand two hundred and eighty.
By the census of 1850, there were in the United States thirty-eight
thousand one hundred and eighty-three buildings used for religious
worship.
It would appear that though the Shintō temples did not want worshippers
who freely contributed alms to the support of the priests, yet that
since the abolition of the Catholic worship, and as a sort of security
against it, every Japanese was required to enroll himself as belonging
to some Buddhist sect or observance.
[175] These oharai, or indulgence-boxes, are little boxes made of thin
boards and filled with small sticks wrapped in bits of white paper.
Great virtues are ascribed to them, but a new one is necessary every
year. They are manufactured and sold by the Shintō priests.