Nearing Civilisation.
Sappro, the present capital of Hokkaido, is a town of fairly large size,
with wide streets intersecting each other at right angles. The
Hokkaido-cho, a high red-brick building, the law courts, the _Kofikan_,
the palace built for the Emperor, and used now as a kind of hotel, and
the houses of officials, are the main buildings of the place. There are,
besides, a sugar refinery, a hemp and silk factory, and a brewery,
mainly supported by the Government. Neither of the first two were
"flourishing industries," and one of the factories, if I remember
aright, had long ceased working, and the other was soon to follow suit.
The Government, I must say, have done their best to encourage and push
on industries as well as agriculture in this district, but their efforts
have produced but poor results. Machinery, which had been imported at
great expense from England, America, Germany, and France, was left to
rust and perish, and no private company seemed ready to continue the
works. As a farming region the Sappro district has also proved more or
less a failure from a financial point of view, though again the
Government cannot but be highly praised for the money they have spent in
trying to educate the people up to some kind of scientific, and
therefore paying, method of agriculture. They have a large model farm of
about 350 acres laid down in grain fields, as well as in meadows and
pastures, stocked with cattle imported mainly from America. In the
Toyoshira valley, south of the town, a cattle farm is in full
operation, but it yields the Government a very poor return. However, the
Government, I believe, only wish to teach the people foreign ways of
agriculture, and expect no direct returns for the pains taken and the
money sunk--so at least it would appear. Another colonial militia
settlement is also found near Baratte, eight miles north of Sappro.
Regarding these settlements, it may prove interesting to transcribe the
Imperial Ordinance No. 181, dated August 28th, 1890, by which they were
brought into existence and the Tondens were built:--
ARTICLE 1.--Colonial Militia shall be composed of colonial
infantry, cavalry, and colonial artillery and colonial military
engineers, and shall be set apart for the defence of Hokkaido,
where they shall be stationed.
ARTICLE 2.--The Colonial Militia shall be organised as soldiers, in
addition to their ordinary occupation of farmers; shall live in
military houses which shall be provided for them, and shall take
part in military drill, in cultivation, and in farming.
ARTICLE 3.--The Colonial Militia shall also be composed of
volunteers from cities and prefectures, and shall change their
registered residence (_Houseki_) to Hokkaido, and live there with
their families.
ARTICLE 4.--The term of service of Colonial Militia shall be twenty
years: the service with the colours being three years, in the first
reserve four years, and in the second reserve thirteen years.
Should a colonial militiaman be released from service during his
term, owing to the attainment of the full age of forty years, or
through death, or some other cause, a suitable male of the family
shall be ordered to fulfil the remaining term of service. Such
service may be remitted if there be no suitable male.
ARTICLE 5.--The Colonial Militia shall fulfil supplementary
military service during ten years after the end of service in the
second reserve, and shall be mobilised in time of war or other
emergency.
ARTICLE 6.--The term of each stage of military service under
Articles 4 and 5 shall be counted from April 1st of the year in
which the soldier enters the Militia.
ARTICLE 7.--The terms may be prolonged, even though the period for
each stage has fully elapsed, should war or other emergency, or the
requirements of military discipline, or the inspection of soldiers
(_kwampei-shiki_) demand the same, or should the soldier be then in
transit from or to, or be stationed in, a foreign country.
SUPPLEMENTARY RULES:--
ARTICLE 8.--Colonial Militia enlisted before the carrying out of
these regulations shall be treated according to the following
distinctions:--
(_a_) Those enlisted between the eighth year of Meji and the
sixteenth year of Meji shall serve in the first reserve during four
years and in the second reserve during nine years.
(_b_) Those who were enlisted between the seventeenth year of Meji
and the twentieth shall serve in the first reserve during four
years from the twenty-fourth year of Meji, and in the second
reserve after the lapse of the above period during twenty years,
reckoned from the year in which they were enlisted.
(_c_) Those who were enlisted in the twenty-first year of Meji
shall serve in the first reserve during four years from the
twenty-fifth year of Meji, and in the second reserve after the
lapse of the above period during twenty years, reckoned from the
year in which they were enlisted.
(_d_) Those who were enlisted in and after the twenty-second year
of Meji shall be treated in accordance with these regulations.
ARTICLE 9.--The mode of reckoning the terms of service of Colonial
Militia levied before the twenty-first year of Meji shall be in
accordance with Article 6 of these regulations. The term of service
with the colours of those levied in the twenty-second and
twenty-third years of Meji shall be counted from the day on which
they were included in the Colonial Militia, and their term of
service in the first and second reserves from the day next to the
lapse of the full term of the former service.
ARTICLE 10.--These regulations shall come into force on and after
the first day of the fourth month of the twenty-fourth year of
Meji.
(Colonial Militia.) Imperial Ordinance No. 181.
We hereby give our sanction to the present amendment of the
regulations relating to Colonial Militia, and order the same to be
duly promulgated.
(His Imperial Majesty's sign-manual),
Great Seal.
Dated August 29th, 1890.
(Countersigned) COUNT OYAMA IWAO,
(Minister of State for War).
(_Japan Daily Mail_, September 14th, 1890.)
Sappro was a civilised place compared to others I had seen in Yezo; but
it had neither the picturesqueness, nor the strangeness, nor yet the
interest of more uncivilised spots.
There is no doubt that savagery--when you have got accustomed to it--is
a great deal more fascinating than civilised life, and infinitely more
so than a base imitation of civilisation.
It might have been thought that after the months of privation to which I
had been subjected, after all the harassing experiences I had gone
through, after the accident which had made the last thirty days of my
journey so agonising, I should have been glad to rest in this "London"
of the Ainu country, at least until I was well again. But in truth this
indirectly reflected civilisation worried me. The bustle of the people,
the lights in the streets, the sounds of the _Shamesen_--everything
annoyed me.
His Excellency the Governor, Mr. Nagayama, kindly called on me, and when
I put on some decent clothes which were lent me, he drove me to his
house, where I had a lengthy conversation on the future of Yezo and the
Kurile Islands. He seemed to approve of many of the points which I put
before him, among which I suggested that the exports of sulphur from
Kushiro, on the south-eastern coast, would be greatly increased if it
were opened to foreign trade, and I was pleased to hear several months
later that a motion to that effect was proposed in the Japanese
Parliament. He also agreed with me that Yezo needed roads and railways
badly, and that when more facile ways of communication should be
established along the coast and across country, then without doubt Yezo
would be rich and flourishing.
He expressed sorrow that emigration was not carried on on a larger scale
from the Southern Island of Japan, and that private companies of
capitalists in no way helped the Government.
His Excellency was also kind enough to drive me round the town and show
me all the sights of Sappro, including the small museum containing
zoological specimens from Hokkaido, and the implements of the Ainu and
the Koro-pok-kuru. A huge grizzly bear which had killed two babies and a
man is now stuffed, and occupies the first small room, while a bottle by
the side preserves in spirit the head and foot of one baby and some
parts of the man which were found in its stomach when captured and
dissected.
I left Sappro for Otaru by the coal train. Otaru is situated on a
semicircular well-sheltered bay, which makes it the best and only safe
port on the western coast of Yezo.
The coast at the mouth of the Ishikari River curves gently round, and is
exposed to the north as far as Cape Shakotan. Otaru is rapidly growing
in importance, owing to the fact that it is the nearest shipping port to
the Poronai coal mines. Unfortunately, three small hills, which were
being levelled when I was there, had greatly interfered with the first
laying out of the settlement, which accounts for the town being all
crooked and irregularly planned. It has the appearance of a thriving
place, and much resembles one of the small seaports of Southern Japan.
In the main street a go-ahead tailor had written over his door the
following inscription for the attraction of foreign clients: "Tailor.
New Forms of every country shall be made here." The notice was tempting,
and I went in to request his services in furnishing me with "new forms,"
as he called them, of English fashion; but to my great regret he had
come to an end of his stock of goods, and I had to be contented with my
"old forms," and go on as best I could with what I had till I should
reach Hakodate, where I had left most of my baggage. At Otaru I left all
my paraphernalia to be shipped to Hakodate by the first ship calling,
and I proceeded by land on the north and then on the north-west coast. I
felt that, suffering as I still was, I should keep alive as long as I
kept moving, as long as I was distracted by new scenery and new
excitements. I felt that if I were left to myself, not pitied or
sympathised with, I should be able to drag on and conquer in the end.
There is nothing, it seems to me, that makes people feel so ill or is so
enervating as the sympathy of friends and the verdict of a doctor. Among
civilised people nine out of ten do not know whether they are very ill
or not until the doctor pronounces his opinion, which shows that many
complaints would be scarcely felt at all if the patient did not know the
name of his malady, or if he had sufficient determination as to prevent
his physical pain from becoming a moral one as well. We have a proof of
this in hypnotism, by which sicknesses of many kinds can be cured by
impressing on the subject the belief that his body is perfectly free
from disease. Of course in this case it is a stronger will acting on a
weaker one, which, so reinforced, is able to overpower the physical
trouble. Again, I may be allowed to state that savages and barbarians,
though affected with horrid diseases of all kinds, do not seem to suffer
from them as much as we do. If an Ainu man breaks his leg he does not
think for a moment of lying in bed for the regulation forty days; first
of all, because he has no bed to lie on; and next, because the
confinement and inaction would simply kill him. He may lie down on the
hard ground for two or three days, after which time he crawls about as
best he can until nature makes his broken bone right again. He does not
worry himself much about it. Wild animals do the same. If, then, the
Ainu, and with them savages of other countries, do that, why should not
I, a human being like them, do the same?
Freed from the encumbrance of my baggage, I set off on a good horse down
the north coast, and moving from east to west. My baggage now consisted
of a crutch which I had made for myself, a stick, a couple of Japanese
_kimonos_, and a few sketch-books.
The travelling was extremely slow, and I shall not dwell at length on
this part of my journey, for it has no interest in connection with the
Ainu, as I met with scarcely any. On a practicable and pleasant track
leading all across the hills beyond Oshoro village, a lovely view of the
cliffs between that place and Yoichi, lying to the west, is to be had.
In some parts the scenery is really grand. Coming down on the other side
of the hill, Momonai and Kawamura, two fishermen's villages of some
importance, are passed, and further west, through a picturesque and
narrow entrance of rugged volcanic rocks, is Yoichi, a large village,
which was entirely burnt down last year, but has since been built up
again. The road to Iwanai branches off at Kawamura, across the Shakotan
peninsula. This peninsula is partly volcanic, partly composed of
tertiaries, on which metal veins are found, especially along the course
of the Yoichi River.
About three miles from Yoichi a small flax factory was being built as an
experiment by a Mr. Tokumatz Kuroda, in the employ of the Mitzui
Company. Twenty-five miles further south-west of Yoichi is Iwanai.
About ten miles from Kawamura, at Hando, a black tumbledown shed, like a
haunted house, stands in the middle of the woods, and from here the
track again goes over a mountain. On the other side is Iwanai. Five or
six weeks previous to my arrival a large fire had destroyed nearly the
whole of the village, and--just my luck again!--I had great difficulty
in finding a place in which to obtain shelter for the night.
From Iwanai the coast-line roughly describes a semicircle, which is
almost concentric with Volcano Bay on the south coast, the distance
between the two seas being about twenty or twenty-five miles, so that it
forms a kind of large peninsula stretching towards the south, and
widening considerably at its most southern part on the Tsugaru Strait.
The first two or three miles from Iwanai were a pretty flat and easy
track, but then I struck the mountain trail, which was steep and heavy
for my pony. It was raining in torrents, and the narrow track was
literally turned into a running rivulet. By good luck the rain stopped,
and when I reached the summit I had a glorious panorama of the brilliant
rocks and cliffs of the Shakotan Cape to the north-east, with the Kamui
and the Hurupira Mountains on one side, and the villages of Shiribets,
Isoya, and Karibayama along the coast on the other. I descended into the
valley and then went up again the next mountain, the Iwaonobori, a
higher peak than the first. I went down its slopes on the other side in
a zig-zag fashion, and then came to the snake-like river called
Shiribets, on both sides of which a few fishermen's houses are found,
forming the Shiribets village.
Three miles further is a larger settlement, Isoya, the half of which is
called Notto Isoya, the other Shimakotan Isoya. It is a long row of
fishermen's houses scattered along the coast until we get to Ushoro,
eight miles further, a settlement of 120 houses.
Ushoro is connected by a road to Oshamambe, on Volcano Bay, but I went
on to Shitzo, four miles north-west of Ushoro. The way was fairly good
in some parts, and execrably bad in others. The heavy rain which had
again come on was not exactly suited to my present state of health;
moreover, it swelled all the small brooks, which fell in a series of
picturesque waterfalls over the high cliffs down on to the beach. As the
beach was narrow, this meant each time a cold shower-bath, which,
however, did not much matter, for I was already drenched by the rain,
and I had no very "swell" garments to spoil, as my readers know.
[Illustration: AINU HALF-CASTE CHILD OF VOLCANO BAY.]
Shitzo is an old-looking place, but there is nothing attractive about
it. It is in a small bay sheltered by Cape Benke, but its anchorage is
only fit for junks or very small skiffs. It is much exposed to northerly
and easterly winds. The coast from Shitzo to the Cape is lined with
rocky bluffs and cliffs of conglomerate and volcanic formation, with
bare hills inland.
There are many reefs stretching out, both along the coast and off the
Cape; but in many places channels are cut in them, to all appearance
produced by some remote volcanic action.
On the western side of Cape Benke is the village of Masatomari. There
were formerly some Ainu villages on this part of the coast, but hardly
any natives are to be found now. The few remaining have adopted to a
certain extent Japanese customs and manners.
At Baraputa I heard that it was impossible to continue my journey south
on horseback along the coast, for the track was almost impassable, even
on foot. It was a steep and difficult trail over the mountains, among
rocks and precipitous cliffs, and I was quite unable to accomplish it;
so I retraced my steps to Shitzo, and from there struck across the
peninsula on the road for Oshamambe, on Volcano Bay. The road is a good
one, and when bridges are built where needed it will be practicable for
_bashas_, the four-wheeled vehicles of Southern Yezo. The way is across
mountains or among well-wooded hills. Kuromatsunai is the largest group
of houses found along the road. It is about halfway between the two
coasts.
Late at night, after having ridden twenty-five miles, I arrived at
Oshamambe, a semi-Ainu village on Volcano Bay.
[Illustration: KOMATAGE VOLCANO, VOLCANO BAY.]