NEW NIPPON.
We were up early to get a glimpse of the Mikado as he passes to open
some new barracks. His route is lined with policemen, pigmy but
efficient guardians of the peace, with their white duck uniforms and
large swords. The morning mists are floating off the grey green moats,
as we pass into quite a new quarter of Tokio, where the noblemen have
their palaces, amid gardens green with willows and acacias. We drive
past the red brick buildings of the Peeress' School, the New Police
Buildings, and the Dowager Empress' Palace, guarded by sentries, until
we come out on the exercising ground before the barracks.
Scattered about this plain are companies of infantry and cavalry,
mounted on small black ponies, whilst a band is being marched inside
the barrack square, where are anxious-looking groups of officers in
gala dress, ablaze with decorations of the Order of the Chrysanthemum
and Rising Sun, awaiting their sovereign's arrival. It is an apathetic
crowd, which shows no excitement as the advance guard with an outrider
in green and gold livery appears, quickly followed by two closed
barouches, the first of which is surrounded by a company of Lancers
with flying pennons. We just catch a passing glimpse of a dark man with
a beard, rather stout, and looking more than his age of forty. The band
plays the National Anthem and the gates close on the procession.
And this is the 121st Sovereign of Japan, the first commencing his
reign in 660 B.C., as the preamble to the Constitution runs: "Having
by virtue of the glories of our ancestor ascended the throne of a
lineal succession unbroken for ages eternal." In connection with the
ancestor-worship, which is the only form of worship performed by the
upper classes, the Emperor's oath on his accession is interesting.
"We, the successor to the prosperous throne of our Predecessors, do
humbly and solemnly swear to the Imperial Founder of our House, and
to our other Imperial Ancestors, that in pursuance of a great policy,
co-extensive with the Heaven and with the Earth, we shall maintain, and
secure from decline, the ancient form of government.
"That we have been so fortunate in our reign in keeping with the
tendency of the times as to accomplish this work, we owe to the
glorious spirits of the Imperial Founder of our House and our other
Imperial Founders. We now reverently make prayer to them and to our
Illustrious Father and implore help of their sacred spirits, and make
to them solemn oath, never at this time, nor in the future, to fail to
be an example to our subjects in the observance of the Law."
At eleven o'clock, Mr. Nagasaki, Master of the Ceremonies in the
Imperial Household, calls for us in a royal carriage to show us the
country Palace of Sheba, whose gardens lie by the sea-shore. Side by
side in the grounds, which are approached by a very unpretentious drive
and entrance, stand the European Palace, furnished, and the Japanese
one of paper screens and matting covered floor, though we are shown
here into a carpeted room, with heliotrope satin covered chairs and
sofa. It is the custom now in Japanese houses of the upper ten, to have
one European furnished room, which is only used for the reception of
foreigners. As we take tea out of the little eggshell cups, we do not
think the garden looks large, but by the time we have followed the blue
uniformed janitor, with the eternal chrysanthemum on his cap, in his up
and down wanderings, we feel as if we had walked miles.
The Japanese ideal of landscape gardening is to have a different
view from every point, and to this end they make a miniature park.
These knolls, mounted by wooden steps on one side and descended on the
other, represent hills; the pond crossed by a stone bridge made out
of two stones, is a lake; the island in its midst is formed of a rock
and one tree; the timber is represented by some dwarfed and distorted
fir trees, for the smaller and more spreading, the more valuable they
become. The Japanese take great pains with these deformed trees,
pruning them back, and picking out the fir needles one by one. They
give large sums of money for an old tree, and we were shown a tiny
fir in a pot over eighty years old. And yet these Japanese gardens,
twisted and deformed as they are, with no open green lawns or bright
flower-beds, are very quaint and attractive in their own way. Then we
drove on to the Euryo-kwan, another Imperial Palace, where the Emperor
and Empress hold their annual cherry blossom party in April, and when
the arched avenue we are standing under, is a mass of pink and white
bloom. The chrysanthemum garden party at the Palace is in November, and
very beautiful, from all accounts it must be, the plants trained into
every shape and device, of ships, pagodas, and umbrellas.
[Illustration: AN IMPERIAL GARDEN, TOKIO.]
Mr. Nagasaki told us a great deal of the bitterness of the struggle
of old Japan against the sudden inroad of European custom, a struggle
that is apparent everywhere, but more especially in the capital at
Tokio. The next generation will be altogether European. The Court
is modelled on the etiquette of our English Court, and the Emperor
has the same court officials as the Queen, whilst the Empress holds
Drawing Rooms, and has her ladies in waiting, everyone wearing European
and low evening dresses. We found that all gentlemen wear European
clothes, whilst their wives yet cling to the far more comfortable and
graceful kimono. English is taught in all the upper-class, schools, and
spoken very generally in shops, where the names are also written up in
English, though there are only 3000 Europeans altogether resident in
Japan. The Mikado has a son of twelve, and two little girls, and the
former is soon to have an English tutor.
We drove to Ueno Park, to a luncheon given in our honour by the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Viscount Enomotto. This restaurant is
the "Berkeley" of Tokio, and it was a most elaborate repast, though
we could have wished that it had been in a Japanese house. However,
Viscount Enomotto, Viscount Okabé, Mr. Nagasaki, and M. Haryashi
Tadasu, had brought their wives, Viscountess Okabé being a charming
bride who spoke English. These ladies wore kimonos in pale blue, fawn
and grey, and their costly embroidered obis were clasped round with a
single jewel. They had diamond rings and brooches, and their glossy
hair arranged in wonderfully glossy coques with tortoiseshell combs;
and such sweet gracious ladies as they were, shyly putting out their
hands, and bowing so low and gracefully, and speaking in such soft,
caressing tones. Even here, though, European influences were at work,
for I saw a pair of high-heeled French shoes, and even a pair of carpet
slippers peeping out from under the kimonos.
The room had such beautiful vases of flowers, arranged as only Japanese
can, not put together, but as if growing in natural sprays. After much
drinking of healths and ceremonious compliments, we adjourned to the
neighbouring Technical School of Art, where we saw specimens of lacquer
work, and some of the thirty-five processes through which it passes
before completion. The natural taste for art in the nation comes out
in the work of these 190 students, who pay ten yen a year for their
instruction, for their wood carvings and drawings from life are of
extraordinary excellence, and executed too with the roughest tools.
The same evening we visited the Maple Leaf Club, to see a performance
of "geisha" or dancing girls.
This fashionable club was founded by the Nobles, for the preservation
of Japanese customs, and as a protest against the general use of
European ones. Thirty dancing girls are maintained, educated and kept
in strict discipline from the age of fourteen, in the premises of the
club. We are ushered through numerous dimly-lighted corridors, on our
stockinged feet, into a large matted room, bare of furniture, where we
squat on cushions on the floor. A Japanese dinner is served, course
after course being brought in lacquer bowls. A row of maidens, with
their almond eyes dancing with laughter, squat before us and smile
gleefully as we vainly struggle with our chopsticks, and try with
frantic efforts to swallow the recherché dinner, for as Murray truly
says: "Europeans cannot eat Japanese food." And this was the ménu.
Sweet cakes of rice and sugar, served on plates with the monogram of
a maple leaf; soup, a brown liquid with floating lumps of fish; an
omelette (of ancient eggs) with fish sauce; a hot trout with upturned
tail, with grated cheese coloured pink, a stewed fig, and a finger-like
radish that tasted like ginger; more fish with a nasty sauce and stewed
seaweed. As will be seen, fish formed a large item of the dinner, for
the Japanese eat all that comes out of the sea. Saké is served from the
long-necked blue and white bottles into tiny cups. Despair was gaining
upon us at the ceaseless arrival of more lacquer bowls, when the work
of the evening commenced.
Three demure damsels, in quiet kimonos, with their samisens or
guitars, enter, and begin to play and sing. From behind a screen, their
faces hidden by their fans, steal in three geishas, dressed in the
loveliest grey and pink kimonos, embroidered with the crimson leaf of
the maple. Slowly they girate, their clinging garments trailing around
their turned-in toes. Deliberate and graceful are their slow motions,
and the three figures act as one piece, and not only do their arms move
in unison, but their faces do so too, and they elevate the eyebrows and
close the eyes with the rise and fall of the body. In pretty imagery
they tell the pathetic little story of the maple leaf: its birth and
growth, its mature glory, and its death, the dance ending by the fans
being thrown upon the floor, even as it falls to the ground and dies. A
second performance is a clever mimicry, by the aid of masks, of an old
man, his wife and daughter; and the last dance, with the floating gauze
streamers that wave rhythmically with the music, is most elegant. These
geishas are the favourite form of amusement, and in all villages you
pass houses with mysterious gratings, enclosing a floor, where nightly
the gentle wail of the samisen is heard and the graceful performance of
the geishas is seen.
_October 1st._--We have had a terrible experience of a typhoon. It
began with a thunder-storm last night, accompanied by violent showers
of tropical rain, the drops being as large as small marbles, whilst
the thunder claps crackled and boomed overhead, and the dazzling
lightning was blinding. The air was full of electricity, and a feeling
of restless foreboding took possession of all. This morning the air was
so damp and close that you felt scarcely able to breathe. Violent gusts
of wind, increasing in succession, alternate with strange pauses of
breathless stillness. There is no twitter of bird or hum of beautiful
dragon fly, for they are forewarned by these signals of danger, and
have crept into safety. The force of the wind increases, and it is
blowing a hurricane, as in our ignorance of these dreadful phenomena
of typhoons (a word formed from the Japanese meaning "great wind,") we
leave the Imperial Hotel at Tokio, on our return journey to Yokohama,
just as it reaches its height.
Trying to walk to the station, I was blown away at the first corner,
and then two men with a jinrikisha began a hand-to-hand struggle with
the wind, making scarcely any progress, and across the open spaces
being literally blown backwards, and only able to steady the jinrikisha
from going bodily over. How we reached the Shimbashi station I never
understood, but I know that we arrived breathless, blinded, and soaked
through with the rain, with dishevelled hair and battered hats,
thankful only for the shelter of the station; and just as we seated
ourselves in the carriage, a lady was brought in very much bruised
and hurt by the overturning of her jinrikisha, which had been blown
away over an embankment into the canal. You may read descriptions
of typhoons, but until you have seen one, I defy anyone to have the
smallest idea of its awful power.
The fury of the wind was terrible. The train stood quite still at
times, unable to steam, however slowly, against the wind, whilst the
carriages trembled and rocked on the narrow gauge with every blast of
wind, and we thought more than once that it must be blown over. The
sea was carried in long spindrifts or lashed into brown whirlpools; an
awfully angry sea, boiling and hungry, lashing up in mist and spray
against the breakwater we were on. And here are several heartrending
sights, for one sampan has been washed up and completely broken on
the breakwater, whilst others are being wrecked against its sides,
and we can see the horror-stricken faces of the men clinging in agony
to it; whilst other sampans are fast drifting on to it, and we watch
with awful fear their frantic efforts to save themselves. Houses are
unroofed or blown down, trees bent double or uprooted as we look,
hedges collapse, crops are laid low, and we in this little carriage
are out in its midst, with nothing to break the full fury of the
elements. But even as we begin to wonder what to do on our arrival at
Yokohama, we see that the crisis is past and the gale subsiding. At
Yokohama the streets are strewn with the débris of the typhoon, and all
vessels in the harbour still have their steam up, should their anchors
drag. In two hours the most extraordinary change had taken place. The
waters of the harbour had become blue, and tranquilly lapped the shore,
the sun shone out, the wind died to a breeze. It was a perfect summer's
afternoon. The wind when we left Tokio was blowing at 76·8 miles an
hour; four hours afterwards it had fallen to 40, and soon after died
away.
[Illustration: A Typhoon.]
We spend a happy afternoon in the curio shops, at Messrs. Kühn and
Messrs. Welsh, whom we consider have the best things, and then visit,
with Mr. Hall, a nursery garden on the Bluff, for we think of having
one of those prim little Japanese gardens at home.
The next morning we leave Yokohama, and make an expedition to Kamakura,
a pretty seaside village, to see the great Diabutsu. The approach to
the Buddha is through a gateway which bears the following beautiful
inscription,--
Kotoku Monastery: "Stranger, whosoever thou art, and whatsoever be thy
creed, when thou enterest this sanctuary, remember thou treadest upon
ground hallowed by the worship of ages.
"This is the Temple of Buddha, and the gate of the Eternal, and should
therefore be entered with reverence.--By order of the Prior."
And with this grand exhortation in our ears we pass into the quiet
garden, with its avenue of cherry and plum trees, lying under the hills
in the sunshine, a perfect stillness all around, and where we see the
half-opened eyes of the colossal Buddha bent forward, as if in passive
contemplation of this quiet scene. There under the stars, amid storm
and wind, mist or tropical sun, he has sat for ages, apathetic, but not
unconscious. The hands lie on his crossed knees, the thumbs meeting at
the finger-tips, and forming two complete circles.
The Diabutsu is cast in bronze. Time and weather, the stress of the
elements, have mellowed the bronze to the most beautiful grey blue,
streaked with pale green. To appreciate his solemn grandeur, you must
visit him again and again, and each time he is more impressive than
the last. It is quite impossible to grasp the colossal proportions,
but these are the exact measurements:--Height, 49ft. 7in., length of
face, 8ft. 5in., width from ear to ear, 17ft. 9in. The round boss on
the forehead, which appears like a tiny white spot, is really 1ft.
3in. The length of eye and the elevated eyebrows about 4ft., of the
lobe-distended ears 6ft. 6in., and of the nose, with its wide-opened
nostrils, 3ft. 9in. The eyes are of pure gold, and the boss is of
silver weighing 30lbs. Inside, in the hollow of the image, there is a
shrine, and from the gloom of the neck of the Diabutsu stands out in
relief a small golden image. The chanting of the priest below, whose
rhythmic tones ascend muffled to us inside the image, mingling with
the incense of the burning joss sticks, impresses us with a religious
melancholy, when we reflect on the ideal religion set before them by
this great teacher, and the utter indifference, even to outward forms
of worship, manifested by this people.
The Diabutsu "gives such an impression of majesty, so truly symbolizes
the central idea of Buddhism--the intellectual calm which comes of
perfected knowledge, and the subjugation of all passion."
Then we took jinrikishas to drive to the pretty little Island of
Enoshima--a wooded hill rising out of the ocean and connected with the
mainland by a spit of sand. The road winds amongst the sand dunes,
along the beach of the sea-shore, where the great waves of the Pacific,
still agitated by yesterday's typhoon, are dashing on to the sands.
Lovely pale green and cerulean tints streak the sea, whilst naked brown
figures plunge and dive under the surf, bringing in great bunches of
brown seaweed, which they cast in shining heaps on the sand. We pass by
a fishing village, strewn with nets hung up to dry, and large bamboo
crails for catching the fish, which we see laid out to cure in the sun.
They are bringing in the harvest too, and women, scantily clothed, and
naked children, whose fat brown bodies look so sleek and comfortable,
are busy seated on the ground threshing out the grain, either by
pounding it with a wooden mallet, or with a rough bamboo flail. The
dull thud of these primitive threshing machines is in all the air, and
the ground outside each hut is spread with mats, on which piles of the
clean yellow grain are placed to dry.
[Illustration: STREET OF ENOSHIMA, JAPAN.]
Charming Enoshima is in sight; its green woods, with the temple
roofs peeping out, standing far out in the ocean, its coral reefs
washed by the ocean spray. An island for legend and romance, fit home
for an idyll of medieval ages.
We go across the sands amid piles of seaweed, picking up lovely
trophies of the deep in mother-of-pearl and pink shells, until we reach
the black wooden torii at the base of the island. What a picturesque
entry into the island it is, for we walk through the quaintest and
narrowest village street, where the upper stories of the houses nearly
meet, and where below, there is that strange medley of the every-day
life of a people carried on in full view of the public eye. Up we
climb, pass the shops full of shells, corals and marine curiosities,
until we reach many winding flights of mossy steps. We make a veritable
pilgrimage up these, until we emerge on to the platform of one of the
many tea-houses. There is a glorious view over the sea at our feet,
divided by its causeway of golden sands, over this side of the Isle
of Nippon with its ranges of purple mountains, jagged-edged, that run
in slanting directions across the island. A walk round Enoshima gives
a succession of equally pretty views, but we cannot get into the cave
on the further side because the bridge was blown down by yesterday's
furious gale. Returning to Kamakura, we had tiffin at the Sanatorium on
the sea-shore, amongst the pines, paid a last lingering visit to the
Diabutsu, and took the train to Kōzu.
There was a tiresome wait at a junction for the up train, for as yet
the railways in Japan have but a single line, so that it was getting
dusk as we got into the tramway at Kōzu. For ten miles we ran along a
country road and through long straggling villages, whose lights shine
out into the darkness, or show us picturesque interiors. Past Odawara,
celebrated for the manufacture of a wondrous medicine, supposed to be
a remedy for all the ills flesh is heir too; under the ruined walls
of the Castle, scene of many bloody conflicts, until we reach Yumoto.
It is now quite dark and raining heavily. We take jinrikishas, with
three coolies to each one, to push us up the steep mountain road to
Miyanoshita. We present a picturesque sight, akin to weirdness, as the
transparent lights of the coolies wave in the darkness, and six willing
men push and pant, shout and encourage one another, up the steep
windings of the mountain paths. Against the twilight of the starry sky,
I can just trace the outline of the mountains we are winding round
about and amongst, and hear the frequent roar of falling cataracts
sometimes far below, and at others dashing spray across the road. We
feel we miss much by the darkness.
After what seems a weary while, we at last reach the Fugiya Hotel, the
prettiest of wooden structures, with a succession of outside glazed
verandahs, and the brilliant illumination of its electric lights go
forth to greet us in the darkness, as tired, cold, hungry and wet,
our panting coolies land us at the steps. As a smart London coachman
whips up his horses, and draws up with a dash, so do these coolies,
regardless of even such a severe pull as this, come up to their
destination with a brisk flourish.
Miyanoshita is a fascinating place.
We awoke this morning to find ourselves in the mountains, to look down
over the heavy thatched houses of the village, and the road so far, and
yet immediately below us, where some young mothers with their babies
on their backs are waddling along. What a quaint little place it is,
perched up in the middle of ranges of mountains, with their green
slopes as a never-changing background, a village scooped out of their
sides. The shops are full of the wood inlaid like mosaic, and carved as
only can a naturally gifted Japanese, into every kind of article, from
a napkin-ring to an elaborate escritoire.
Any number of mountain climbs, more or less difficult (so suited to
all) can be made from Miyanoshita. We have just returned from a lovely
expedition to Lake Hakone and the hot district of Ojigoku. Leaving the
hotel at midday in bamboo chairs attached to poles and each carried by
four coolies, we ascend the mountains. The motion is smooth and easy,
as they all keep step together, to a melodious chorus of grunts, the
front coolies answering the hind ones.
These grass mountains that we are in the midst of, are so beautiful.
They have scarcely any trees, but their gradual slopes are covered with
the pale, sickly green of rush or bamboo grass, that imparts to them a
peculiarly pleasing, even effect. Frequently there is a column of smoke
curling up their sides, from some hot spring, for all this district is
intensely volcanic, and at the village of Ashinoyu, where we rest and
give tea to the men, there are numerous hot springs and baths. It is
a desolate place, and is made more so by the clouds coming down and
completely damping us and the view. It is rather dreary jogging along
with these human ponies in a dense mist, out of which loom palely
the foremost bearers, when, as suddenly as we came into it, the fog
lifted, leaving us the most beautiful cloud effects of white filmy
vapours, trailing low down on the mountain side, with a patch of blue
sky just beginning to show, and the sun shining up there behind those
opaque masses of cloud and mist, making them appear so fleecy and
transparent. It is now a lovely summer's afternoon above and around us,
and immediately afterwards we have below, an enchanting view of Hakone
and its deep blue lake, so deep that, though it has been fathomed for
five miles, the bottom has yet to be found. We see the green wooded
peninsula, jutting so boldly out into the lake, that from this distance
we think it is an island, and on this ideal spot, hidden far away from
the burdensome etiquette of public life, the Mikado is building himself
a palace, that is approached by the beautiful cryptomeria avenue, that
also leads to Hakone. Whilst we are waiting at the village below for
our chairs and coolies to be shipped on a boat, we "kodak" a charming
group of Japanese children; one of our coolies actively assisted in
arranging them, and I noticed took good care to include himself in the
picture, for this useful and companionable little instrument has become
familiar even to the Japanese, and later on the men were so pleased
when we did a group of them in the prow of the boat, smoking and
eating their rice out of bamboo baskets, with a division for a _bonne
bouche_ of some morsels of fish. These coolies are delightfully merry
fellows, always willing, always cheerful, whether tired or hungry,
never shirking work, and ready to help each other, laughing and seeing
the fun of any little passing incident. Most of them speak a few words
of English, the object of every coolie in Japan being to learn it, as
they earn so much more money from foreigners. You constantly find,
that whilst waiting, they study a blue Japanese-English phrase book,
exceptionally badly compiled.
We are rowing three miles across the lake in a sampan, with an upturned
prow, propelled by some oarsmen, and which much resembles a picture of
an old Roman galley. Their wooden oars, a long blade tied to a piece of
wood, are fixed to the gunwale, in rowlocks formed of a pin of wood,
and on this they roll over and back each time, a clumsy but effectual
movement. The surrounding view is wondrously beautiful. The green
pointed mountains with their sharp edges coming down directly into the
lake on one side; the other covered with shrubs and some overhanging
trees, under whose sweeping arms we glide to the landing stage, in the
lights and shadows of a still glorious afternoon. It sounds but a tame
description, and yet in reality it is sublime, and, for some reason
hard to discover, it is absolutely different, and because of that much
more charming than any other lake I have ever seen.
We begin a long ascent, with a continued view, looking backward, where
translucent clouds float down the mountain sides, which are mirrored
faithfully in the green waters, and as we plunge into a dense wood of
bamboos, we take our last farewell look back at Lake Hakone. It is a
stony and steep path, cut in zig-zags through the thick undergrowth
where there is no room for the long poles of the chair to turn, so we
have to walk. Suddenly we come across a little square village, built
round a wooden bath house, where the whole population of invalids are
bathing together in the warm mineral spring.
As we ascend, the scene grows wilder. Vegetation decreases, and masses
of barren rock appear. The earth is warm and steaming, nor must you
leave the path, as these treacherous brown curling scales of earth are
only a crumbling upper crust, over the furnace below, and lives have
more than once been lost here. The air reeks of sulphurous fumes, a
strong overpowering stench. And this curious volcanic scene continues,
until we reach the abomination of desolation. Here, standing above, we
look far away down into a vast cauldron of steam, that rises up and
envelops us in suffocating fumes of sulphur, so strong that, wheezing
and coughing, we have to turn backwards to get fresh breath, so dense
that we can only dimly see the great masses of rock around us. More
often they are not rocks, but clumps of crumbling lava, loosely welded
together in fantastic shapes, and that take the most wonderfully bright
colours from the surrounding mineral substances, of orange, carmine,
blue, madder and brown. In one place there is a little stream, in which
the sulphur deposit is so thick that there is a rich coating round of
green, bright as malachite. The boiling water of many streams swells
the vapour that rises from this fitly-named Ojigoku, or Big Hell.
We scramble and grope our way down, ever deeper into this apparently
bottomless pit, into this boiling smoking abyss, where the
evil-smelling fumes wrap us round so effectually that we can scarcely
trace our path, and choking and blinded, we wonder vaguely, if we shall
ever emerge into light and air once more. But after we have made a
long and devious descent, we branch off to the left, and when we feel
ourselves in comparative safety, and in a clearer atmosphere, we turn
round to look back to see the wreathing masses of smoke that eternally
ascend from this hell. And there, behind this blank desolation, rises
at the head of the valley the graceful acute peak of Kammurigatake,
with the dense green forests covering it from top to bottom, formed by
a thick undergrowth of small box and andromeda japonica. It reminds
us of the hot springs of New Zealand, of those beautiful pink and
white terraces, which, alas! are no more, where mingling as here with
volcanic rocks and steam, there is the additional charm of a luxuriant
wealth of semi-tropical vegetation.
We have a very long descent to make, over the roughest path of loose
rock and stones, and across several streams, where the obliging coolie
makes a bridge of his back, and when we have nearly reached the bottom
and made the circuit of the valley on the path cut out midway on the
mountain side, we pass round into another valley with wide amphitheatre
of mountains. It is through the midst of these, at the end of a long
vista formed by their green slopes, that we see the smooth waters of
the Pacific, spread out like a looking-glass in the closing afternoon
light, and beautiful as had been the views and scenery all day, I think
this glimpse of sea and mountains exceeded all. A long winding descent
to Miyanoshita in the dusk, which we reach just as they were sending
out two messengers with lanterns, to light us home.
_Friday, October 3rd._--We went up Sengeuyama, the wooded hill, 1000
feet above, and at the back of the hotel, carried in a kagos or Chinese
chair, a most luxurious way of ascending a mountain. It was a glorious
morning, with not a cloud in the sky; one of those days when you feel
that everything is beautiful, and the views of the mountains at every
zig-zag changing and appearing more and more splendid, as at each turn
we rise more on a level with them. And then those beautiful thickets of
bamboos, the trees of delicately-pointed maple leaves, the laurels and
evergreens, the azaleas and hibiscus, the creepers and tendrils, the
great clumps of red spiky wild lotus, of purple everlastings, of blue
lupus, and yellow snapdragon all growing in wild confusion, fresh with
the morning's dew.
There is a little tea-house hung with flags on the platform at the top,
and such a view over Odiwara Bay, and of the panorama of mountains with
their smooth, pale-green slopes, and there, between those two peaks,
in the gap, we ought to get a view of Fujiyama, only, as she so often
does, she is hiding herself to-day behind the clouds. No sooner do we
reach the bottom than we have to leave Miyanoshita for Yumoto, with a
parting pang of regret that our stay is so short. The Fujiya Hotel,
though kept by a Japanese, is most comfortable, with excellent mineral
baths, which never seem so pleasant as after a long day's excursion,
nor must I forget to mention the little Japanese waiting damsels, who
giggle and waddle about in their tightly-drawn kimonos, struggling with
the details of the French ménu.
We speed quickly down the magnificent mountain road, which we came
up before in the dark. It is cut out from the cliff, and has those
glorious views, growing grander as we descend into the valley of the
mountain, views that make Miyanoshita the most charming of mountain
resorts. Even when we get into the tramway at Yumoto, and travel along
the plain, there is such a pretty picture of the sea-shore, where the
sea looks as green as a lagoon at Venice. We pass again through the
long-continued street of villages, where the high thatched roofs are
crowned at the top with a cage of poles, on which tufts of grass are
growing, and through the blinds of bamboo canes catch glimpses of the
washing, the eating, the hairdressing, and the cooking, the every-day
busy life of the little people inside. We take the train from Kōzu to
Nagoya.
A most lovely journey it is, for the line runs through and crosses
a pass in the midst of the mountains, which look radiantly beautiful
with their immense variety of foliage--dark evergreens, mingling with
the yellower autumn tints. They are always the same, these mountains
in Japan; conical in shape, with sharp-edged shoulders perfectly
formed in miniature, rising very straight up from the level. There
are numberless waterfalls, foaming torrents gushing down where the
valley parts a little. At Gotemba we have two engines to the train, one
behind to push, the other in front to pull, for the pass here rises
to 1500 feet. Then we come out into an open valley where there are
thousands of little yellow paddy fields, with many bamboo groves, whose
light-green feathery fingers wave above heavier groups of dead-green
cryptomerias; where the villages, with their heavy black roofs, nestle
under the mountains, and tea-houses with their flag poles are perched
on many a little eminence, and endless black torii lead to the temples,
surrounded by groves of trees. I had often heard of the exquisite
scenery of Japan, but this comes up to, and exceeds all expectation.
We journey on. Suddenly in the sky we see suspended a great purple
cone. The base is cut off by a sky of clouds. It is the beautiful
summit of Fujiyama.
Fuji dominates the island, and you have so many views of it from every
side, that it seemed to me that we were constantly spending our time
in looking for the cone amongst the clouds. It is very rare to have
a perfectly unclouded view of the mountain, but this we now nearly
succeeded in doing. Perhaps it is because it is so often veiled in
clouds that the Japanese have surrounded it with such a sacred mystery.
It seems such a familiar friend now, this cone of Fuji, for we have
seen it depicted upon numberless scrolls and screens, on tea services
and china plaques, on cloisonné and lacquer, since we came to Japan.
This view of Fuji is superb. The mountains break away and leave a
vast plain, out of which it sweeps up solitary, colossal. The crater
at the top looks like the jagged edges of a tooth, down which streams
of lava have streaked their course. And as we follow the sweeping
lines of the great pyramid up 13,000 feet of height, the clouds that
lay half-way down, roll away. Only a few fleecy ones float ethereally
along the summit, whilst the Sacred Mountain, deep purple pink, stands
revealed in all the glory of a sunset evening, against a pale primrose
sky, deepening into lilac overhead. Then we realize whence the Japanese
acquire their idea of colour. Their artists are only reproducing the
realities of nature as constantly present to them in the half tones of
their island sky and sea, and it is from such sunsets as these that
they faithfully copy the translucent shades of rose-pink, grey-blue,
lilac and apple-green, that form the background of those beautiful
cloisonné plaques and china vases. The halo of romance woven around
this poetical mountain, the object of reverence to thousands of
pilgrims, who painfully climb up the nine stages to enter the crater
at the top, is increased by this view of it, which will, to me, at any
moment recall the lovely splendour of Fuji.
The plain is formed of the rich alluvial deposits of lava from the
many eruptions of Fuji, and is a splendid agricultural district,
where that neat "carpet" cultivation is seen to perfection, and where
the harvest is now in full swing. Columns of smoke, rising from the
surrounding mountain sides, show this district is volcanic, and shocks
of earthquake are frequent all over Japan, but particularly at Yokohama.
Soon the railway runs along the sea-shore, where there is just room for
it between the pebbly beach and the deeply wooded mountains--a pretty
bit of travelling. We look across the pale green bay to the little
range of lilac hills opposite, and listen to the idle lapping of the
waves, and see the sampans putting out to sea for the night's fishing,
as darkness, the quickly falling dusk of a tropical climate, closes
over all.
I must say that travelling in Japan presents an uncomfortable feature
in being obliged to carry your provisions with you, as only Japanese
eatables can be obtained at the stations. Fortunately the distances are
not great, but when it happens, as on this occasion, that two parties,
one of Germans, besides ourselves, all dined out of paper parcels, the
car presents a very unpleasant appearance.
We reached Nagoya at midnight. Two jinrikishas bore us swiftly
through the deserted streets, all dull and dark, because the paper
lanterns of the passers-by are gone home, and there is no attempt at
street-lighting. We are sent flying round a dark corner to be deposited
before a barred and shuttered door. There is a great noise within, much
whispering and unbolting of doors, rather a mysterious arrival, and
then a stream of light pours forth, and shows the usual crowd of little
bowing men and women, who escort us in a body up the polished stair
to our rooms _à la Japonaise_, where we sleep with the light shining
through the paper walls.
We are awakened the next morning by the shuffle of stockinged feet over
the polished boards, and one of the waddling little waiting-maids, with
the most brilliant pink and white cheeks, flicking the dust away with a
wisp of papers tied on to a stick, two of the same escorting C. to the
bath, a wooden tub of boiling water placed on an earthern floor.
There is a delightful outlook from the glazed screens, a European
concession, which probably will be general a few years hence, showing
how easily the Japanese assimilate all foreign improvements, over
the dark crinkled roofs across the wall of the street, into a seed
merchant's opposite, where golden bunches of persimmons mingle with the
sample baskets of grain. A dozen pairs of inquisitive eyes from the
open balcony opposite, watch me brush my hair. Then we breakfast in a
room, or rather, I should say, in five rooms, for the sliding screens
are all thrown back, and, free and open as a summer-house, there are
vistas of rooms on either side; and these screens are decorated with
such artistic designs, a spray of bamboo with a red-legged stork; a
branch of crimson maple with hanging tendrils, or a purple iris and
some water-rushes. There is a bronze vase, too, filled with fresh wild
flowers on the table. Then come the curio vendors, and, spreading their
handkerchiefs on the floor, produce their treasures one by one.
Nagoya is celebrated for its magnificent feudal Castle. A police
emissary, with silver-mounted jinrikishas, comes to conduct us over it,
and it is as well, as there appears to be much red tape formality in
admission to these royal domains.
Across the courtyard--a typical one, where the three yards to the gate
is made by the winding paving-stones to appear quite a long distance,
we sally forth into those kaleidoscopic streets, towards the great
white donjon-keep, with its golden dolphins dominating the town.
The Castle has three moats; the outer one, with its green slopes and
single row of fir trees, is given up to barracks and parade grounds,
for there are upwards of 3000 troops at Nagoya, and being a holiday,
the streets are full of their white uniforms and yellow-banded caps.
The white walls of the Castle are raised from the moat on parapets
formed of gigantic stones, and roofed with crenellated bronze tiles,
whilst at the corners rise pagoda-shaped towers. These walls are the
most wonderful part of the Castle, for many of the stories are six
and nine feet long, and proportionately broad, and can be traced
out, as length ways, slantways, across, they are piled up on a broad
base, shelving backwards, without cement or earth, supported by their
own weight. On many of the largest corner-stones are engraved marks
and designs, to show that they were the contribution of the Daimyos,
for the Castle was erected in 1610, by twenty barons, to serve as a
residence for Yeyasu's son. Crossing the moat, which is dry, and used
for tame deer, over a drawbridge, we enter the courtyard through a
massive gateway.
The decorations inside the palace are exquisite, though the rooms are
bare and uncared-for, and many of the paintings are defaced. In the
first chamber, the fusumas, or sliding screens, are of dull gold, and
painted on them are the most life-like lions, panthers, and leopards,
the spots of the latter being specially well delineated; with glaring
eyes, fierce whiskers, and lashing tails, they crouch in life-like
attitudes, ready to spring; or in another group are mothers with their
young ones gambolling around them. In another screen the bamboo trees
have the joints of their stems faithful to life, and an adjoining one
has a straggling fir-tree, just like one of those on the moat wall
outside, with a blinking owl perched on the topmost branch. There are
others with weeping willows, and red-leaved maples, and pink-and-white
lotus; one in particular we noticed that had painted on it a
tiger-lily, with yellow spots, a crimson peony, a blue convolvulus, and
a white daisy, forming a peculiarly beautiful panel. Next to this is a
spray, a mass of snow-white plum blossom, against a dull gold ground.
Nor are the animals less faithfully depicted, for there are pheasants
with eyes on their tails, wild ducks flying across a pale-blue ground,
with their flapping, outstretched wings, and webbed feet; a stork with
red legs on which the sinuous rings are so life-like. In one room,
which was especially reserved for the use of the Shogun when he came to
visit his kinsman, the decorations are especially gorgeous, and here
there are ideal Chinese scenes, which exactly resemble the familiar
willow-pattern plate. There is the five-storied pagoda, the willow
trees, and the high curve of the bamboo bridge. The roofs of these
rooms are of black lacquer, inlaid with gold, whilst the windows are
made of that geometrically carved lattice work, covered with opaque
paper.
But perhaps the most beautiful thing of all is the open wood carving
on the ramma, or ventilating screens, between the rooms, for here, that
great Japanese artist, Hidara Jingoro, has carved the most exquisitely
faithful representations of a white crane, a tortoise, a hen with
her little ones, parrots, and birds of paradise. There is one that
excites everybody's admiration. It is a cock perched on a drum, its
beak wide open in the act of crowing, so natural, that you expect to
hear the "Cock-a-doodle-doo." The red, erect coxcomb, and the brown
and blue iridescence of the tail are life-like. And when we look round
on this mass of gorgeous paintings and carvings, we marvel that their
resplendent colours are undimmed by the lapse of three hundred years,
that some are as bright to-day, as when they were executed three
decades ago.
We ascend the great, gloomy, five-storied Keep, which is built up
inside on massive beams of wood, whole tree trunks being used as
supports. From the gallery at the top we have a charming view of the
brown roofs of Nagoya, lying around the castle, of the military prison
below, where the prisoners are exercising in the yard, of the heavy
square roof of the temple rising up majestically above the squat
houses--of the wide-reaching plain, and the circling mountains. The
precious golden dolphins, covered over with wire netting, are above us,
glittering resplendent in the sun. They measure eight feet in height,
and are valued at 180,000 dols. One of them was sent to the Vienna
Exhibition of 1873, and great was the despair of the citizens when,
on its return voyage, it was wrecked in the Messageries steamer, the
_Nil_. However, it was recovered from the deep, with great difficulty,
and proudly restored to its original position.
Then we went for a drive, and I am not sure that the great centre
street of Nagoya was not the most fascinating and absorbing one that we
saw in Japan, and the whole town was charming in its bright cleanliness
and bustling streets.
It is with a peculiar feeling of sadness that I write this description
of Nagoya and recall its pleasant reminiscence, because the terrible
news has just reached us in far off China, that an earthquake has
destroyed this thriving town. It makes one's heart ache with pity to
think of those smiling streets, that happy swarm of industrious people
suddenly left homeless, the survivors surrounded by their dead or dying
relatives, whilst the muffled booming, the precursor of the earthquake
shocks, tell them that they might be the next victims.
In this dreadful earthquake 8000 people were killed, 10,000 injured,
and 100,000 houses destroyed. Nagoya experienced 6600 earth-spasms,
or an average of thirty shocks an hour. Fortunately the ancient
castle--monument of an extinct dynasty--is unharmed, saved by its
massive walls, and the decreasing size of its pagoda storeys.
We left the hotel amid many "Sayonaras" (farewells), reached the
station by the drooping avenue of willows, and, with five hours in the
train, arrived at Kioto, and settled ourselves into its excellent new
Hotel, with palatially proportioned rooms.