The capital of the tycoonRutherford Alcock





























THE
CAPITAL OE THE TYCOON
A NARRATIVE OF A
THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN JAPAN.
BY SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK, K.C.B.,
HER MAJESTY'S ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY IN JAPAN.
WITH MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
'Look ye! master Traveler: unless ye note something worth the seeing, and come home
wiser than ye went, I wouldn't give a stag's horn for all your travels.'
Old Play.
S ° IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1 8 6 3.


Library
•A3S


li-iderjrractuata
Library
TO
SIR JOHN F. DAVIS, BART,, K.CB.
My dear Sir John,—The age of formal dedications and
stilted prefaces has long passed away, and it may safely be
assumed that they ceased to be written, because the public
ceased to read them. As often happens in like cases, all
parties gained by the arrangement; and I have no intention
whatever of reviving an obsolete custom. Yet something
in the nature of an introduction is often a great advantage
both to the writer and the reader; and I think in the pres-
ent instance the latter will turn the pages over with more
satisfaction, if the circumstances under which the book has
been written and the principal objects kept in view by the
writer are first understood.
In determining to write a few introductory remarks for
the benefit of those who, like yourself, will take up the book
for what it may contain, and in a letter to your address, I
am glad of the opportunity thus afforded me of saying pub-
licly, that to no one could such a work on Japan as it has
. been my aim to supply, have been more fitly dedicated, on
public grounds, than to the author of the best and only pop-
ular work we possess on the Chinese Empire, and the first
who succeeded in making the subject familiar to readers in
general. While on personal grounds, to whom could I more
appropriately have addressed this latest fruit of my labors
in the East, than to the chief under whom I first commenced
my career in those regions, now nearly twenty years ago?
Or to one whose interest in those outlying empires of the
far East has never flagged; and who, I am quite sure, will
read this new contribution to our information on the Japa-
nese with all the attention the most earnest and conscien-
tious writer could desire.


vi
PREFACE.
You will soon perceive that I have not written merely
, for amusement—either my own or the reader's—and yet I
should be sorry to think that amusement may not be found
in its pages; for if I hesitate to adopt in its fullest sense the
French axiom, 'tows les genres sont bons hors legenre ennuyeux,'
I am quite sure that he who wearies never convinces or per-
suades, and I desire to do both. With the best intention,
however, there have been many difficulties to overcome in
the effort to give to the public a work calculated to satisfy
the desire for something novel and instructive concerning
the Japanese Empire. To write any thing that should be
worth reading, and yet not trench upon the rule of official
reserve in all matters not open to public discussion, was in
itself a difficulty independent of every other. It might have
been easy to put a new face on things old and familiar, but
this did not enter into my plan. In drawing up this narra-
tive of a three years' residence at the Court of the Tycoon,
I had, on the contrary, two objects more especially in view,
neither of which could be attained by any such procedure.
The one was to give the results of a careful study of the sin-
gular people among whom my lot had been cast, and thus,
if possible, supply a great deficiency in our knowledge, from
personal observation and original resources;—the other, to
throw some light, however faint and broken, on the condi-
tions of all Western diplomacy in its struggles with Eastern .
character and Eastern policy. The latter was in some de-
gree new ground, and had therefore the recommendation of
novelty; but it had also a disadvantage attaching, which
you will readily appreciate from having occupied a similar
official position. Narratives of missions to distant countries,
and to Eastern Courts more particularly, have often before
appeared, it is true, written either avowedly by the Envoys
themselves, or by the Secretaries, with their sanction and
materials. Indeed, to these sources the world is chiefly in-
debted for most of the information we actually possess at
the present day of countries which lie out of the beaten
track of Western diplomacy. But, in the majority of these


PREFACE.
vii
cases, the writers had retired from the scene of their labors,
and were not likely therefore to be brought in contact again
with those whose acts they may have described. And I
should probably have hesitated, had it not seemed important
to furnish materials for a right judgment, in matters of na-
tional concern connected with Japan and our relations there,
—while it might yet be time to avert, by the .intelligent ap-
preciation of our true situation, grievous disappointment as
well as increased complications and great calamities. A
free expression of opinion in matters of public interest is not
to be lightly adventured upon however; and, in many cases,
those holding office are altogether precluded from such ac-
tion. At the same time, much mischief is often done by un-
due reticence in matters which must, in a country like ours,
be the subject of public discussion. It so happened that I
was relieved from any difficulty under this head, by the pub-
lication, in extenso, of the greater number of my dispatches,
which were printed and laid before Parliament. And not
only was the necessity for silence obviated by such publica-
tion in this country, but a similar course was followed at
Washington in respect to the dispatches of my colleague,
the American Minister, during the same period. As in each
of these series there is a very unreserved expression of opin-
ion as to the political situation of the country, the action
of the Japanese authorities, the views entertained by Col-
leagues, and the conduct of the Foreign communities,—the
decision of the respective Governments of both countries to
make the dispatches public, and this so freely as to leave
little of a confidential character unprinted, effectually re-
moved all the impediments which might otherwise have ex-
isted. Secret diplomacy is a favorite taunt of our Trans-
atlantic cousins when criticising European institutions and
government; but, in so far as Great Britain is concerned, it
would be difficult to show any nation, not even the Ameri-
cans themselves, less open to the reproach. The discussion
of public affairs in both Houses of Parliament, the free ex-
pression of opinion on the most delicate questions affecting


viii
PREFACE.
our international relations, and the ample information re-
quired in Parliament, and given by the heads of depart-
ments, both verbally and in Blue Books, are all so many
refutations of any charge of this nature, and result so natu-
rally and unavoidably from our popular form of govern-
ment, that nothing really secret or confidential can well
remain in the archives of any public office. With such
documents and information before the public in regard to
Japanese affairs, therefore there could be little room for in-
discretion in any farther contributions on the same subject.
You will accordingly find no transaction of an official char-
acter touched upon in these pages, and no opinion expressed
on the progress of events, the policy these seemed to indi-
cate, or the people with whom I came in contact in my offi-
cial capacity, that can take any one by surprise as new, or
that has not already been in print. But, as regards the
reading public, I do not think that circumstance will in any
degree deprive the work of its claims to novelty. Blue
Books are often full of valuable matter, but they do not
generally find a place among the popular literature of the
day. A process of distillation and transmutation has first
to take place, through the leaders of the daily press and the
pages of periodicals, before they become fit food for the mil-
lion; and something of this kind I have endeavored to ac-
complish here in respect to our political relations. The
same leading facts will be found in both, but not in the same
digestible shape or form. As regards the Japanese authori-
ties, my Colleagues, or the Foreign communities in Japan,
I repeat there is nothing in my opinions, as here narrated,
which has not been freely spoken on the spot, or that could
well be unknown to any of the parties immediately con-
cerned, even if not already in print. Those opinions may
not always be flattering, either to the Japanese or to others,
and I do not expect they will be liked; but I have great
faith in honesty of purpose and absence of malice, and these
must be my justification" now as heretofore. Truth I be-
lieve to be far less dangerous, to those who have the courage


PREFACE.
ix
to utter it, than misapprehension or misrepresentation. I
have never disguised from the Japanese authorities, as my
published dispatches prove, the opinions I entertained of
their proceedings toward Foreigners from time to time, and
the unsatisfactory course of action generally pursued. If I
have spoken in these pages of the authorities generally, the
system of government, and more especially their policy to-
ward Foreigners, honestly according to my knowledge and
convictions, I told them on the spot quite as honestly and
plainly what those convictions were. And yet I had con-
clusive evidence, at the hour of my departure, that they ap-
preciated the fairness of my dealings, and trusted me, more
absolutely and entirely, than I could have believed possible,
without such unmistakable proof as they spontaneously gave
me. Nor will the two things seem incompatible to any one
who has had much experience of Asiatics. You must often
have seen, in your long intercourse with Easterns, how un-
failingly they learn, in spite of their own habitual want of
veracity, to trust in the truth and respect the honesty of one
of our race, if, after some intercourse, they find that he will
not stoop to trickery or falsehood for any temporary advan-
tage either may give.
So much for the official difficulties of my task. But
these were not the only ones to be encountered. The in-
corrigible tendency of the Japanese to withhold from For-
eigners or disguise the truth on all matters great and small;
and consequently the absence of reliable information on al-
most every subject necessary to the full elucidation of their
character, institutions, and system of government, consti-
tuted another obstacle.
In the following work I have only sought, therefore, to
render a faithful account of what I observed, with better
opportunities as a resident Minister in the capital than had
been enjoyed by any previous writer on Japan. But hav-
ing studied the practical working of the Government ma-
chinery—the policy adopted in relation to Foreigners, and
the action of hostile parties among the privileged classes, I
A 2


z
PREFACE.
believed I might bring some useful materials to aid the con-
sideration of our own interests. On the other hand, the
narrative I have given of all the trials and difficulties which
surround a Diplomatic Agent in such a field is calculated,
I hope and believe, to throw some new light on questions
which, of all others, have most engrossed public attention
of late years in connection with our Eastern relations, name-
ly, what are the essential and inherent conditions attaching
to all Western diplomacy in the East? What are the ne-
cessities and exigencies—with our will, or against it—which
govern our action? Lastly, what are the limits within
which we may reasonably look for success in our efforts to
amalgamate two conflicting civilizations, and open new
markets for our manufactures, without resort to force, or
coercive means of any kind? While discussing these deli-
cate questions, I have carefully avoided expressing any
opinion of my own as to the policy actually to be followed,
and confined myself to a statement of the probable or inev-
itable conditions of different courses of action which might
be suggested, as matters in the abstract perfectly open to
discussion. In my position, it is not for me either to pre-
scribe or to advocate in these pages a particular policy. My
business is to afford the best information in my power, and
in office to carry out such instructions as I may receive.
With the details of my daily life, and the leading events
which marked the first three years of a permanent Legation
in the capital of the Tycoon, you will see I have mingled
illustrations of the life, manners, and customs of the Japan-
ese of all classes — from the Feudal Prince with his two-
sworded henchmen and retainers, to the humble and peace-
loving peasant. With many of these I came more or less
constantly in contact, and sometimes under unlooked-for
and striking circumstances. The relations between the dif-
ferent classes was always a subject of great interest to me,
and in my journeys through the interior I had many op-
portunities, not otherwise attainable, of studying them with
advantage. I trust, therefore, the work, upon the whole, is


PREFACE.
zi
not. likely to disappoint any reader who seeks information
on the character of the people, their daily life, manners, and
customs. And as giving many curious glimpses of the
working of their laws, their peculiar system of government
and a masked policy, something of interest may also be
found. In so far as these are true revelations, they can not
well fail to be acceptable to many. To you it will be read-
ily enough apparent that I have sought especially to lay
bare the inherent difficulties under which all commercial
and diplomatic relations with the far East, for many years
to come at least, must be maintained, if maintained at all;
and the risks to be encountered in any efforts to open new
markets in these regions. On this part of the subject exact
information has long been much needed. Nor do I think
any Government can lose by the truth being known. Nei-
ther the Japanese Government, which may seem the most
damaged by these expositions of their habitual course
(founded, as I believe, in partial ignorance of certain immu-
table conditions), fraught with danger to them and to us,
nor Her Majesty's Government, which (in equal ignorance
of those same inevitable and inseparable conditions) is some-
times expected or required to effect impossibilities. There
will always be pressure upon any government of the day in
a manufacturing country like ours, to open new markets
and impose new treaties upon Eastern races; while, on the
other hand, there will also be a strong pressure, from mo-
tives of economy and philanthropy, either separate or com-
bined, to keep the peace and avoid Eastern complications.
Can both these objects be reconciled, or are they wholly and
absolutely incompatible? That is a question which it be-
hooves all parties to answer rightly and with full knowl-
edge. Governments are often made responsible for results
which no government in the world can prevent. This is
especially true in regard to the relations of Western with
Eastern Powers; and if the natural causes at work were
better understood, or the laws which govern them, there
would not only be less chance of injustice, but very much


xii
PREFACE.
less disappointment. Perhaps, too, less eagerness for Treaty
relations with Eastern races, wholly unprepared to enter
into them in any spirit of reciprocity and good will. But
to exercise any good influence in this direction, beneficial
alike to governments and subjects, it was obviously neces-
sary to state the truth in sufficient fullness and detail to car-
ry conviction, as well as to give needful information. There
is, in truth, no alternative between this and saying nothing.
Any partial, mutilated, or half statements of the real state
of affairs, and the influences in operation, would be worse
than none at all; because, while there would be a pretense
of giving information, the account so given could only tend
to mislead. I have told all I thought necessary, therefore,
without a doubt as to the benefit such true knowledge of
Eastern politics and conditions of intercourse is calculated
to bring in its train; and without fear, I will add, of being
held censurable, for clearing the way to a better apprecia-
tion of the difficulties inherent in, and inseparable from all
political and commercial relations with Eastern tribes and
potentates. Both the nations and their Rulers have as yet
every thing to learn of the principles which govern rela-
tions between Western Powers, and are apt to make very sad blunders—sad in their immediate consequences to them
and to us—while learning their lesson and gaining some
faint notion of the first principles of international law. Pub-
lic opinion in a country constitutionally governed as this is,
must always be felt, and exercise a strong influence on any
government in power; it is the more necessary, therefore,
that it should be a right opinion, enlightened and guided by
knowledge, and not a blind judgment based upon ignorance
or misapprehension. The actual existence of danger and
risk of collision, wherever there is intercourse established
between the East and West—and whatever may be the de-
sire for peace on the part of European Governments or the
efforts of their Representatives on the spot—is only begin-
ning to be recognized; while many still doubt the fact, and
are disposed to lay all such untoward complications at the


PREFACE.
door of the agents employed. If I succeed in removing
some erroneous impressions under this head, and in giving
more full and authentic information as to the present state
of Japan than has hitherto been attainable, I shall be well
content; for with this object principally I sat down to
write.
It is scarcely necessary to tell you that this has no pre-
tension whatever to be considered an exhaustive book on
Japan. Not only would such a work, in my opinion, be un-
avoidably tedious, but I have a perfect conviction no for-
eigner is yet, or will be for many years to come, in a posi-
tion to write it. Nevertheless, having had better oppor-
tunities of observation than any one, perhaps, since the
Portuguese and Spaniards wandered at large through the
Empire, and traveled and seen more with my own eyes, I
may, without much presumption, hope to have something
to communicate that shall be both new and true of the peo-
ple of Japan—of their language and habits, as well as their
political and social condition.
Although I had long forsworn all regular journalizing,
yet on my arrival in Japan, conscious how impressions fade
and opinions change, and how impossible it often becomes
in after years to retrace and compare them, as aids to a final
judgment, I began and continued from day to day, as cir-
cumstances presented themselves seemingly worthy of at-
tention, to make certain fragmentary notes of men and things
during my long residence in the capital and my several
journeys and voyages. I was not, therefore, without a
rough chart of the road I had traversed, and landmarks jot-
ted down on the spot, fresh with the impress of the hour.
Many of these brief and informal records of things or
events I found, on looking back, were much more pregnant
of suggestion than they had appeared at the time, and cal-
culated incidentally to throw a reflected light on Japanese
character and institutions. It has been my purpose, there-
fore, to preserve as far as possible these first impressions,
and unstudied touches of the pencil, with such corrections


PREFACE.
and amplifications only, as later experience and fuller
knowledge may have enabled me to supply. For this rea-
son principally, I resolved to give any book I should write
the form of a narrative, and arrange in chronological order
my residence and its experiences. If this has some disad-
vantages to those who would desire a more systematic and
scientific treatise on the History, Government, and Institu-
tions of Japan, it has the advantage of imparting something
of a living, if not a personal, interest to the whole.
The narrative I have given would have a certain inter-
est, I conceive, if all other were wanting, as a contrast to the
pleasant and amusing account furnished by Mr. Oliphant of
Lord Elgin's mission, and to that previously supplied by
Commodore Perry's expedition. Both sides of the medal
give important revelations. The history of the Extraordi-
nary Missions show the Japanese rulers under the pressure
of a sudden danger and emergency for which they felt fully
unprepared. Submission to the exigencies of Western Pow-
ers, which some inexorable fate seemed to have let slip upon
their devoted country; or resistance with arms in their
hands, seemed the only alternatives. The Japanese did, un-
der these circumstances, what almost every Eastern race has
done in presence of a superior force. They negotiated and
treated, because they felt unprepared to fight. They smiled
and dissimulated, employing their utmost skill to give as
little as possible; and reserving to themselves the full right
hereafter of nullifying all they might feel compelled for the
time to surrender. The Foreign negotiators went away
well pleased with their easy victories. The Japanese Plen-
ipotentiaries retired in disgrace; while their successors in
the Government deeply meditated, in the interval before
the arrival of the permanent Legations, upon a policy of
negation, accepting the letter, but determined on resistance
d Voutrance to the spirit of the treaties. It naturally follow-
ed that the Diplomatic Agents first appointed to take up
their residence in the capital were beset with difficulties,
dangers, and disappointments from the hour of their arri-


PREFACE.
XV
val. Their predecessors, the Ambassadors Extraordinary,
had only to extort certain privileges on paper; it was the
business of the resident Ministers to make of these paper-
concessions realities—practical, every-day realities. As this
was the very thing the Rulers of the country had determ-
ined to prevent, it can not be matter of wonder that there
was not, and never could be, any real accord, whatever the
outward professions of good faith and amity. Hence also
it naturally followed that, although the original negotiators
were received with smiles, and their path was strewn with
flowers, their successors had only the poisoned chalice held
to their lips, thorns in their path, and the scowl of the two-
sworded bravos and Samourai to welcome them whenever
they ventured to leave their gates, while the assassin haunt-
ed their steps, and broke their rest in the still hours of the
night, with fell intent to massacre a whole Legation.
No wonder two authorities so differently placed should
see Japan from different points of view and in a wholly dif-
ferent light! The history of the first permanent Legations
was needful to complete and give the true interpretation
to that of the first special Embassies. And this I have
endeavored to give, faithfully and candidly, in the follow-
ing chapters. The French have a whole class of literature
entitled 'Memoires pour servir & Thistmre] which, without
aiming at the gravity and authority of history, furnishes
nevertheless the most valuable materials for it. In this cat-
egory I would place my narrative of a three years' experi-
ence in Japan. It has been said that' the experiment, now
on its trial, of allowing a free circulation of the European
within the frontier which for the last two hundred years
has been steadily barred against all intrusive strangers what-
soever, is in its circumstances one of the most singular in the
known history of the world.' To a certain extent undoubt-
edly it may be so considered. But it will only prove ei-
ther interesting or instructive in so far as the true details
of the experiment are known, and these could only be given
by a narration of the events, day by day, which marked the


xvi
PREFACE unceasing struggle between Western diplomacy and East-
ern policy. Nor could it have answered any useful pur-
pose to have deferred this until all the present actors were
in their graves. On the contrary, it must be obvious that
any object of utility could only be attained by giving the
information at once.
Again it has been observed, that those who live in the
nineteenth century are familiar 'with the difficulties of fus-
ing into a harmonious coexistence the progressive develop-
ment of an inferior people, and the immediate interests of a
superior, where an obviously higher and lower phase of civ-
ilization intersect each other.' Whether our civilization is
so undoubtedly higher, and in what degree, I have serious-
ly examined in the Chapter devoted to the 1 Civilization of
the Japanese;' and perhaps the conclusions to which I have
been led may be little in accordance with some stereotyped
notions of what the actual civilization of Europe is, as well
as of the feasibility of the undertaking to effect any fu-
sion with the East in a single generation or by exclusive-
ly peaceable means. But I have given, with a conscien-
tiousness of inquiry and amount of detail which, I fear, may
be tedious to many, the various grounds for my opinion,
and am thus content to leave both questions to all who
choose to give the requisite attention for their impartial in-
vestigation. Whatever may be the relative merits and rank
of the two civilizations, there can be no question that we are
the stronger race—stronger in all the means and appliances
of science and war. And if we fall into active antagonism,
of which there has been a constant danger, despite the best
efforts of European Diplomacy to avert it as a great nation-
al calamity, there can be just as little doubt that the Japan-
ese would be overmatched and vanquished. But yet, un-
der the simple relation of conquered and conquerors, look-
ing to the difference of race and character, and the striking
contrast in purpose, mental constitution, and appreciation
of each other—the struggle once over there could be no
possible fusion. The attraction would seem to be wanting,


PREFACE.
xvii
powerful enough to blend in cohesion the elements on which
a mixed or amalgamated civilization could be based. We
can not hope or desire to absorb their civilization as the
Spaniards did that of the Mexicans. There seems as little
hope of their spontaneously fusing into their own such of
the elements of ours as might best combine with it. Fail-
ing these, we are left face to face with an insoluble problem,
involving the welfare and the destinies of a nation of thirty
millions of as industrious, kindly, and well-disposed people
as any in the world. Toward the solution, I bring only
such data as years of constant effort in the midst of all the
conflicting forces could supply. Time, the great solver of
all riddles, is needed to come to our aid. But as the record
of a novel experience, throwing some light on the difficul-
ties and dangers which beset all attempts to enter into new
relations with an isolated Eastern race, I trust it may be read
with some interest. More especially is the field new, be-
cause with the Japanese we take a step backward some few
centuries, to live over again the Feudal days which marked
our own past in Japanese history. Feudalism, accordingly,
after time and out of place, is here, with sufficient identity
and analogy in all its leading features to make the coinci-
dence striking, and yet with sufficient divergence to make
its study in this Eastern phase deeply interesting. Perhaps
the following pages may suggest some useful reflections as
to how the dangers incident to, and apparently inseparable
from, such an experiment as we are now engaged in, may
be best encountered. In any case, it will be seen Feudalism
lies full in our path. "We must either conciliate it, or hold
our own against its most hostile efforts.
I would gladly have given a full and complete history of
the Japanese Empire, and its internal organization, but I
feel—perhaps more strongly in consequence of my favored
position in the country—how difficult, not to say impossi-
ble, it must be, with only such opportunities of observation
as Europeans have hitherto enjoyed, to accomplish such an
object It has been said that 'it is the homes of a people


xviii PREFACE.
that shape and mould the character of a nation,' and I be-
lieve it; but, if so, what can we know of the homes of the
Japanese? Of the lower classes we see something, since
their homes are all more or less open to the street. In their
daily habits and mode of life, there can be very little of mys-
tery or secrecy. But of the higher classes, who has ever
seen an interior? Such is the rigid rule of a jealous oli-
garchy, headed by a nominally despotic sovereign, that the
Daimios may not even visit each other, as the Ministers
one day took occasion to assure me in reference to those
who sat side by side with them in the presence chamber.
Friends and colleagues though they were, they might not
cross each other's threshold—hold neighborhood relations.
Whether any thing in the shape of social life therefore ex-
ists—whether there are living springs of thought, or ele-
ments of progress and elevation in their homes—who can
say? Are the home influences purifying or demoralizing?
Are the relations of husband and wife, brother and sister,
such as we know them in Europe? Who is in a position
to offer any thing more than a guess? It has been said of
the Moslem that' he has no home, no real relationship of
father and mother, son and daughter, as we understand such
ties: the harem is a stye, woman a mere animal, and man
but the sensual proprietor of both, while the children are a
miserable litter.' Is this a fair picture of a Japanese estab-
lishment also? Probably not. We see and know much that
leads us to conclude something different and better exists,
but what that something is must be very much a matter of
guess, founded upon inference from the few facts that we
do know. Yet all this is vastly more important, and more
interesting in reference to their place in the family of na-
tions, their civilization, and future prospects, than any frame-
work of government and public administration—as much
more important as the growth and development of internal
organization and conditions oftbeing in plants or animals
is of greater consequence than mere external forms. The
home relations are mainly the product of influences devel-


PREFACE.
oped under their own roof-tree, which no forms of govern-
ment can materially or permanently control. Whether the
same may with equal truth be said of any foreign importstion of ideas, or how far these may be capable of materially
affecting the mental constitution and social relations of a
people in a few years or a single generation, may be a ques-
tion. The Japanese Rulers evidently have already consid-
ered it, and arrived at a decision in the affirmative. Hence
one great cause of implacable hostility. They see in this
introduction of foreign ideas a leaven, a cause of fermenta-
tion, and a germ of revolution.
In looking to the future of the Japanese Empire, and our
relations with the people, it behooves us above all things, I
conceive, to obtain a knowledge of the more intimate fami-
ly relations existing among them; and, after that, it imports
us no less to know the true character of the existing feu-
dalism. The relations between the serf and his feudal chief,
and of both these to the suzerain and executive govern-
ment, which, in Japan, is divided and strangely duplicated,
are no less needed. These are the keys wherewith to un-
lock the mysteries of their policy, and the secret of their
vitality as a nation. When we can really know what they
now are, not in mere outward lineaments, but in their whole
being, habits of thought, and principles of action, we shall
be better able to form a correct opinion as to what they are
likely to become in one or several generations from the
present time. Whether there be any germs of a vigorous
growth in their cities—any cradle for a new and more ad-
vanced race in their homesteads — any moral stimulants
existing among the masses which may waken up a new
life, and give a greater impetus to the energies of the many,
in the direction of a higher and more progressive civiliza-
tion—these are the questions which constantly recur to the
mind of a patient observer, and press upon him for answer,
long before he sees any means of arriving at sufficient data
whereon to found a conclusion.
I have scrupulously endeavored to write my own thoughts,


xx PREFACE.
without reference to what may have been said by others on
the same subject before. In the illustrations alone I have
freely borrowed, and when my own sketch-book failed to
meet the want of the hour, I turned to the portfolios of my
friends, and sometimes to their photographic labors; but
these, also, in so far as the public are concerned, are entire ly new and original, and were all taken on the spot, under
my own eye. Some of these, from the pencil of Mr. Werg-
man, have a merit peculiarly their own, both in artistic
'treatment and fidelity. The fac-similes of numerous Jap-
'anese wood-cuts could hardly be surpassed in fidelity and
effect.
With these preliminary remarks, which will at least have
answered the purpose of preparing you for some of the in-
formation and many of the views to be found in the follow-
ing pages—and, perhaps, of saving the reader from disap-
pointment at the absence of many things I do not pretend
to give—I leave the book, such as it is, to your judgment,
and to that of the public for whom it was written. It has
been undertaken in the hope of supplying information not
easily obtained, but very necessary to any right apprecia-
tion of the relations of Europe with the eastern half of Asia
—with China and Japan more especially. And the present
state as well as the future prospects of both countries in
connection with the West have become, within the last few
years, subjects of such importance to the British Empire, in
connection with both trade and revenue, that no exact in-
formation can well be unacceptable. On these subjects I
shall find in you a competent judge, and a critic neither
blinded by hostility nor biased by partiality—and to such
the book is in all sincerity addressed. In the hope that its
perusal may not be wholly without pleasure or profit, be-
lieve me, my dear Sir John, very faithfully yours,
KUTHERFORD ALCOCK.
London, January 21st, 1863.


CONTENTS TO VOL I.
CHAPTER I.
Previsions and Preparations.—A Glance at Canton.—Hongkong and Ma-
cao, with their contrasted Destinies.—Shanghae.—The Yangtze and the
Chinese Empire.—The Past and the Future Page 31
CHAPTER II.
Voyage to Nagasaki.—Japan as it was, or a Glance at the Japanese Chron-
icles, and what they tell us 64
CHAPTER III.
First Impressions.—Nagasaki 86
CHAPTER IV.
Nagasaki to Yeddo.—The Work of Two Centuries undone in as many
Years.—Effect upon the Japanese Mind.—How its Rulers felt under such
Innovations.—The Touch-stone of Trial.—First Arrival of the British and
American Diplomatic Agents at Yeddo to take up a permanent Resi-
dence 98
CHAPTER V.
The Capital and its Environs.—Stereoscopic Views of Town and Country 111
CHAPTER VI.
First Lessons in Japanese Diplomacy 138
CHAPTER VII.
Exchange of Ratifications.— News of the Repulse at the Pciho.— Hermit
Life in Yeddo.—Conditions of Exile and Isolation.—Life in a Wilderness
of Men and Women 150
CHAPTER VIII.
The Japanese Language.—First Lessons in Grammar and Speaking.... 160
CHAPTER IX.
Japanese Sayings and Doings 172
CHAPTER X.
A Glance at Japanese Politics.—How the two American Treaties were made
and inaugurated. —By whom the Country is governed, and how 190
CHAPTER XI.
First Bloodshed.—Arrival of Count Mouravieff Amoorsky with a Russian
Squadron.—An Officer and two of the Sailors butchered in the Streets of
Yokohama.—European Diplomacy and Eastern Policy 214


xxii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
Improving Prospects.—An Official Interview with the two Ministers of For-
eign Affairs.—Ride Home by Moonlight.—How Yeddo appears after Sun-
set Page 224
CHAPTER XIII.
A Visit to Hakodadi.—The Lead Mines.—Governor.—Prospects of Trade.—
Potatoes and Salmon the great Staples 240
CHAPTER XIV. Murder of French Consul's Servant at Yokohama. — The Gold Currency
Question again.—Tycoon's Palace burned down.—Proposition of Japan-
ese Ministers to stop all Official Business in consequence 251
CHAPTER XV.
A Country Walk.—Agriculture, Trees, and Flora of Japan.—Peasant Lifo
and Prison Life.—Natural History.—Japanese Lacker-ware and skillful
Workmanship.—Monster Bazar 260
CHAPTER XVI.
The New Year, 1860, and what it brought.—Incendiary Fire at Yokohama.
— Assassination of a Linguist at the Gate of the British Legation.—
Gloomy Prospects.—Fire at the French Legation the same Night.... 288
CHAPTER XVII. Murder of the Regent on his Way to the Tycoon's Palace.—Narrative of
what tookPlace.—General Alarm and Sense of Insecurity.—The Legations
surrounded by Japanese Guards for their Protection from Attack.—The
Times of the Guelfs and Ghibelines resuscitated.—Subsequent Acts of the
Conspirators, and how they disposed of the Regent's Head.—Popular Sto-
ries and Legends. — Story of the forty-seven Lonins. — Influence of such
Literature and Hero-worship on the Morality and Actions of the Peo-
ple 304
CHAPTER XVin.
Stray Leaves from a Journal.—Thoughts discursive and retrospective on
Japanese Relations.—Speculations on the Future.—Trade Returns and
General Results.—Retrospect of the first Twelve Months after the opening
of the Ports by Treaty.—The Gain and the Loss summed up 314
CHAPTER XIX.
Audience of the Tycoon.—Preliminary Difficulties.—Importance in the East
of seeming Trifles 328
CHAPTER XX.
Change of Scene.—A Pilgrimage to Fusiyama, and a Visit to the Spas of
Atami 340
CHAPTER XXI.
The Sulphur Springs of Atami.—Village Life in Japan.—Paper Manufac-
tory.—The Moxa 374


CONTENTS. xxiii
CHAPTER XXII.
The High Road to the Capital, and those who Travel on it Page 395
A





LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I.
Map of Japan, in the front page
The Village Beauty Frontispiece.
Hongkong 40
Macao 45
Followers of the 'Great Peace' Dynasty 57
Chinese under the Tartar Dynasty C4
Nagasaki Harbor 87
A Japanese Salutation 92
Lonin reading 93
Japanese Norimon 105
Japanese Cango 105
How Japanese rest 106
Japanese Page in attendance 106
How the Japanese sleep 107
Yeddo from the Avenue Ill
A Group of 'Jolly Beggars' 117
Mendicant Singers 119
Merchandise in the Streets of Yeddo 121
Shopkeeper going to a Customer 122
Horse carrying Liquid Manure 124
How Mothers dispose of their Infants 124
The Paternal Nurse 125
Type of the 'Dangerous Classes' 128
Woman of Yeddo in Winter Garb 132
The Samonrai 134
Officer on urgent Duty 136
Female Head-dress 180
Tea-house Attendant 182
Writing a Letter of Divorce 184
Love-letter discovered 184
Conjugal Service 185
A Japanese Servant or Workman 186
A Japanese prostrating himself before his Superiors 188
Weighed in the Balance 223
Night Scene 227
B


XXvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PACK
Japanese Ladies in the Bath 230
After the Bath 231
A Japanese at his Toilet for a Visit of Ceremony 232
Female Costume 238
Female Dress 239
Music Girl, with Servant carrying her Instrument 239
The Evening Meal 239
Bay of Hakodadi 240
Female Costume 243
Society of Hakodadi 250
Carding Machine for separating the Grain -. 261
How they separate the Grain 262
Japanese Flowing 263
How they cover the Seed 263
How they use Manure 265
Manuring Process 265
Mode of protecting Land from Birds 267
The Peasant's Luxury 268
Wild-fowl 272, 273
Scene in a Silk-shop 275
Agricultural Process 284
Homeward Bound 322
Court Dress of the Japanese 333
Japanese 'Lords in Waiting' 334
Fusiyama from the Suburbs of Yeddo 340
How Japanese Beasts of Burden comport themselves 343
Salutation of mine Host 346
Interior of a Kitchen 347
A Japanese Maritornes 349
Well-earned Rest 349
Crossing the River to Odawara 351
The Lake of HakonL 360
Fusiyama from Yosiwara 366
Ascent of Fusiyama 371
Pilgrims on the Road 373
Horsefish 380
Atami and its Monuments 388
Life at Atami—a Peasant and his Wife returning from Labor 389
The Village Aqueduct - 392
Returning from Sea-fishing 393
A Japanese traveling 394
How the Unprivileged travel on the High Road 396
Itinerant Musicians t - 397
Yaconin on Service 398
On the Road to Yeddo 399
Returning from Market 399


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxvii
PAGE
Fishermen 400
The Blind Gentleman 401
A Female Ostler 402
Passing the River Logo 403
'Saionara' 407





NARRATIVE OF A THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN JAPAN, VOL. I.





A NARRATIVE
OP
THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN JAPAN.
CHAPTER L
FEOM CHINA TO JAPAN.
Previsions and Preparations.—A Glance at Canton.—Hongkong and Ma-
cao, with their contrasted Destinies.—Shanghae.—The Yangtze and the
Chinese Empire.—The Past and the Future.
In consequence of the treaty entered into with the govern-
ment of the Tycoon by the Earl of Elgin in 1858, it became
necessary to establish a permanent diplomatic mission in Ja-
pan; and it was yet early in the spring of the following year
when I received, at Canton, the first intimation of my appoint-
ment as its head. To me, as to the rest of the world probably
at this period, Japan was all but a terra incognita. No very
definite ideas, indeed, could well be attached to a country so
long and so completely isolated. Time and distance had done
much to efface the memory of whatever had once been learned
by personal observation, of a people who for the last three cen-
turies had resolutely shut their doors, not only in their neigh-
bors' faces, but on all mankind. Even in China, separated only
by a narrow sea which steamers now cross in three days, little
that was either positive or accurate could be learned. In
1846, when residing at Foochow, a port which every alternate
year received a junk from the Loochoo Islands, a dependency
of Japan, I endeavored to get into communication with the na-
tives who came over in it. Neither my official position nor
personal efforts availed, however. The policy of both races—
Chinese and Japanese—to exclude and avoid the foreigner,
was too perfectly in accord to allow of success. And these
were the people I was now destined to live among! Nearly
lost in the haze of a distant horizon, Japan, if not wholly for-
gotten, had become invested with a sort of traditional and
mythic character. The quaint phraseology of the early En-


32
True. L
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
glish navigators, as stereotyped by Purchas, in which the first
narratives of voyages to Japan and things Japanese are writ-
ten, had given a medieval coloring to all our knowledge of
the country and the people. Nor was this much affected by
the more lively descriptions, and easy flowing Italian of the
noble Venetian, Marco Paolo; the solace of whose prison hours
in Genoa was to recount to his visitors all the wonders he had
seen and heard of at the court of Genghis Khan; and among
the latter were these 'Isles washed by stormy seas — and
abounding in gold and pearls.' But Marco MiUione (a title
which the marvelous nature of his stories earned him among
his countrymen) was, in regard to Japan, only a narrator of
what he had heard from the Chinese; and the account taken
down from his dictation by one of his friends did not appear
in print for nearly two centuries after his death. Mendez
Pinto, who wrote much later of what he had seen (or said he
had seen), when he gave his adventures to the world in Portu-
guese, found no translator, in those days at least, nor since that
I am aware of. One of the earliest who followed in the track
of Vasco da Gama round the Cape, he was cast on the shores
of Japan by stress of weather, and had to make out the best
story he could of his past history and pursuits. Merchant,
pirate, or filibuster by turns, and as occasion served, he appears
to have found it by no means an easy task to get himself ac-
cepted by his hosts as an honest trader. But he found mate-
rials enough while on the Chinese and Japanese coasts, with
the aid of a little invention perhaps, for a large folio, which I
remember disinterring from the back shop of an old book col-
lector in Lisbon, more than twenty years before my departure
for the East. Some of it I read at the time in the original,
little dreaming I should ever visit the place this 'Prince of
liars'* invested with such strange features and peculiarities.
By a no less strange coincidence, my Japanese education had
been continued many years later when an occasional visitor at
the Monastery of Sicawei near Shanghae, by a fragmentary
course of the'Japanese Martyrs'—such being the title of one
of the pious works, which, according to the custom of the or-
der, are always read aloud by a member of the fraternity dur-
ing dinner. How little we are aware to what future use knowl-
edge picked up in the most fortuitous way may be applied!
From these various sources, materials had been casually got
together for the dissolving views which rapidly flitted before
* So Congreve styles him, with doubtful justice; for although he may
have romanced about himself, there is reason to believe he told much that
was true of the strange people he was cast among.


Chap. I.]
PREVISIONS.
33
my mental vision as I held the dispatch in my hand, consign-
ing me to a new place of exile. My first attempts to realize
the future before me—the country and the people with whom
my lot was cast, were not, it must be confessed, very success-
ful. The series of contributors to the sum of all European
knowledge of Japan, of later date than those just enumerated,
were not altogether excluded either. Koempfer, Thunberg,
and others (from whose works all recent attempts to describe
the Japanese, or their country and institutions, have chiefly
been compiled), passed in rapid review. But my knowledge
of them was probably too slight to be of much use; and though
compelled to make an appearance, they came and went like
flitting shadows. The only positive impression obtained by
this sudden dragging forth of many negatives, long put away
in the dark chambers of the brain, and their subjection to the
strongest light I could bring to bear at the moment, was, I
think, one—of immeasurable distance!
A cluster of isles appeared on the farthest verge of the ho-
rizon, apparently inhabited by a race at once grotesque and
savage—not much given to hospitality, and rather addicted to
martyrizing strangers of whose creed they disapproved. Thus
much stood out tolerably distinctly, but little else that was
tangible. Severance from all social ties, isolation from one's
kind, and a pariah existence, far away from all centres of civil-
ization—far beyond the utmost reach of railroad or telegraph
—came much more vividly before me; and in Rembrandt
masses of shade—with but one small ray of light, just enough
to give force and depth to the whole—a sense of duty, a duty
that must be done, whether pleasant or otherwise, and about
which there was no choice. What a world of anxiety and
doubt the consciousness of this saves us! Doubt and Suspense
are the great corroders and absorbents of life. A plain, clear
path to follow, however rough or thorn-strewn, is far less ex-
hausting and trying in the end than many divergent roads,
with no certainty as to the right one, no ruling principle for
guide, and no definite goal beyond.
To Japan my eyes were turning at this moment, as likely
to furnish a new market for the ever-increasing industrial prod-
ucts of the West. In this reopened field for all kinds of efforts
and propagandisms—Commercial, Political, and Religious—
five Western Powers were about to engage. The United
States of America, which had led the way by their two treat-
ies of 1854 and 1858; Great Britain, France, and Russia, three
of the greatest powers of the old world by land and sea; and
Holland, the long-lived heir of the past, were already on the


34
True, I.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
spot, in the persons of divers merchants and commercial agents,
waiting at Nagasaki, and eager to rush in as soon as the ports
were opened. How this sudden influx of so many nationalities
was likely to be regarded by the long-isolated Japanese rulers
could only be matter of speculation. But if it seemed to them
like the opening of so many flood-gates—an inundation of bar-
barians, and a menace of destruction—we could hardly wonder.
In the short interval before me, while waiting the arrival
from Europe of several members of the Japanese Consular es-
tablishment, I found abundant occupation in getting furniture
made, specially adapted to resist rough usage on the deck of
a man-of-war-7—where it was sure to get it — to go into the
smallest possible space, in order to get taken at all — and yet
to meet all the innumerable wants of a large establishment.
These were conditions not very easily complied with even in
Canton, where a colony of carpenters and cabinet-makers have
existed for many generations, dependent entirely upon the de-
mand created by foreigners for all kinds of wants — real and
fancied—in the shape of furniture. Long as the Cantonese,
however, have been laboring in our behalf, and with all their
imitative talent, they have never learned to make a drawer to
fit, or to mortise the legs of a chair. Knowing their weakness
in this respect, I was not much surprised, therefore, on landing
in Japan some weeks later, to find, that, despite all the mat-
ting and packing, and other innumerable precautions taken, my
chairs were delivered to me crippled and dilapidated, so as to -
present a most deplorable picture. Broken-backed and maim-
ed, with fractured arms and dislocated legs, they were fit for
nothing, unless to be laid up at Greenwich or Chelsea, as relics
of a voyage to Japan! They had been stowed away in the
cutter between the masts, for want of room elsewhere, no
doubt — a sort of thoroughfare in bad weather, and they had
borne the traffic badly;—but this is to anticipate.
In a moderately short time I succeeded, with the assistance
of 'Copo? and '-HopfoJ and '-Howshing? with sundry others
of the carpenters' guild enjoying equally characteristic and eu-
phonious names, in getting the principal articles of furniture
deemed most essential for Europeans, ready to embark—for a
land which boasted of none. I am not sure that I did not
sometimes think the Japanese wiser in their generation, to
treat all such things—beds, tables, and chairs, as superfluities.
How greatly, for example, it would simplify the question of
marriages on limited incomes, by striking out the most expen-
sive item of a first establishment—the upholsterer's bill! to
say nothing of the farther and permanent advantage of dimin-


Chap. I.] ARRANGEMENTS COMPLETED.
35
ishing household work and the number of servants. Not hav-
ing arrived, however, at such perfect simplicity of life; and
distrusting the wisdom of making the experiment—of sitting
on my heels, and eating off the mats, without preliminary
training — I felt obliged to undertake all the trouble and ex-
pense of a variety of rectangular devices for being comforta-
ble. Bedsteads and mattresses, they would both take to pieces;
tables and sofas, cunningly contrived to carry their legs hori-
zontally beneath them; 'What-nots' that collapsed into some-
thing perfectly flat and inappreciable in bulk, and warranted
to rise story above story on a touch, like the children's 'jack
in a box'—all deftly put together in solid mahogany—corded
and matted, soon filled up a large space in the entrance hall of
the hong temporarily occupied as a Consulate in Canton.
penheimer and the marvels of portable furniture since exhibit-
ed in the International Exhibition!
It was still early in May when all the preparatory arrange-
ments were completed; but spring had passed, and a tropical
summer was upon us. The last few days before my departure
from Canton had brought unmistakable evidence of the fact.
With the thermometer standing in the bedroom at 97°, mus-
quitoes swarming outside the curtains—and too often within,
sleep is a blessing which comes but seldom, and is never sound
and refreshing. In all travels in the East, there has always
seemed to me a suppressio veri in regard to these Poisoners
of the human race, and Destroyers of all peace. Whoever sat
down patiently to write either letter or book in such com-
pany? Not content with sucking the blood out of your veins,
they pour a venom into them, throwing the most philosophic
into a state of fever and irritation. The heat itself, enervating
and exhausting as it is, would be ten times more endurable but
for these winged plagues. The very noise of their trumpet
becomes so hateful, that the bugle sounding the advance of a
line of Zouave skirmishers could hardly be more distracting,
or more fatal to any sense of repose and security. And like
the 'small provocations of a bitter tongue,' the longer they
continue, and the oftener they are repeated, the more intolera-
ble they become ! It is hardly fair, then, in Eastern travelers,
to suppress, as they almost invariably do, any reference to this
greatest of small miseries. With the exception of enlarged
livers and sudden death, no more grievous drawbacks to an
Eastern climate can be conceived.
The hour of departure had come. The sun was pouring a
blaze of light on the broad waters of the Pearl River, as they
What would I not have

for ready access to Herr Op-


36
[Chap. I.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
swept in dangerous eddies past the rocks in mid stream, and
reflected in broken lines the ruined suburbs of Canton. As I
stepped on board the steamer which was to convey me to
Hongkong, the scene suggested many thoughts of the past.
This city, once the pride and boast of the southern Chinese,
was still in the occupation of the 'Barbarians;' while roofless
houses and crumbling walls, with windows like eyeless sock-
ets, told a tale of weak and unavailing resistance. And even
in that hour there came steaming up the river a vessel, with
the British ensign flying at half-mast—freighted with the re-
mains of the Viceroy who played his last stake at Canton, and
lost it. Yeh was on his way to his last home in Chinese earth.
He had indeed returned, as Lord Stanley, in the House, short-
ly before had intimated he might; but only to be buried. The
Fatalist's creed had ill served so persevering a votary and so
stanch a believer. During the long solitary hours spent in a
foreign land, did he ever pass in review his Canton administra-
tion, with a doubt or a question in his mind as to the policy
or the wisdom of his course? As far as can be learned, the
idea never suggested itself to him; but he was too evidently
a reserved and uncommunicative man for those even nearest
him to know what might be in his thoughts. Certain it is,
he died and gave no sign, expressed no doubt; and to all ap-
pearance was undisturbed by any regret or misgiving. Had
he lived to come back (as might well have been, for we had
no longer any object in keeping him away), he would have
seen such a changed order of things as might have roused
even his stolid nature; and with all his conceit of unapproach-
able superiority, and his nil admirari habit, given rise to seri-
ous reflections. Not that he would have admired, but he could
scarcely have failed to be surprised. He might have passed
incognito through the streets of the great and busy city which
he had so lately governed (trembling often lest 'braves' from
without, and conspirators within, might snatch it from his
grasp), and have seen how securely it was now held by a hand-
ful of foreign troops. So easily and unconcernedly, indeed,
that from street to street, a couple of marine police, armed
with only a switch, kept perfect order; and a small body of
men thus employed gave security to all the bustling throng
of shopkeepers, street-vendors, and still more numerous pur-
chasers. Their occasional presence was enough; and in this
city, which no foreigner might pollute with his presence a few
short months before, English and French — officers, soldiers,
and civilians—on horsebapk, in chairs, and on foot—were cir-
culating through the streets in every direction, the Chinaman


Chap.I.] FACTITIOUS HOSTILITY.
3*
scarcely looking up from his work to notice them as they pass-
ed. If a coolie meets them, his only notice is the removal of
his broad bamboo hat, that it may not incommode the foreign-
er. Children that used, in all the suburbs, to be taught by
their elders to spit out terms of abuse, the gentlest of which
was ''FankweV or 'foreign devil,' now hail the humblest private
as 'Taipan' or 'chief,' and with outstretched palm, sometimes
insinuate that a 'kumshaw,' or gratuity of copper cash, would
be by no means disdained. This, and much more, he might
have read, marked, and inwardly digested. A goodly and a
pleasant change for the better, no one can doubt, whatever di-
versity of opinion may have existed as to the means by which
it was brought about.
Clear proof indeed was furnished, by after events, that the
long-nurtured and often-invoked hostility of the Cantonese was
entirely of factitious growth, due exclusively to the machina-
tions of the Mandarins, as a part of the policy of the Court at
Pekin. More recent occurrences had moreover shown that
the high officials on the spot would, without scruple or hesita-
tion, venture to repeal, within their province, the ancient and
most time-honored laws of the empire—such as the law pro-
hibiting emigration—whenever a necessity for such action be-
came apparent. Thus the admission of foreigners into the city
of Canton, the ever-recurring qucestio vexata, might at any time
have been granted at the option of the successive Viceroys,
from Keying to Yeh, and upon their own authority, if they had
chosen—all their protestations' to the contrary notwithstand-
ing.' And if this had been done, Yeh, even at the last hour,
might have averted the catastrophe which precipitated him
from his Viceroyalty, and sent him a prisoner to die in the
hated foreigner's land. Governor Peihkwei, Yeh's successor,
issued, a short time before my departure, a proclamation legal-
izing the emigration of all Chinese willing to enter into labor
contracts for foreign colonies—and the whole history of this
important step was very instructive, both as regarded the past
and the future. The atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese
crimps in kidnapping by fraud and violence the unwary, with
a view to secure the bonus offered by shippers, under foreign
flags (not British, I am glad to say), had at last excited in the
whole population such a feeling of alarm and exasperation as
to threaten the personal security of the officials, hitherto so su-
pine, and endanger the peace of the place by an uprising of
the populace. Momentary measures were taken, in conjunc-
tion with the allies, to seize certain receiving vessels; but the
true remedy, provided under good advice by the Chinese high


88
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I.
authorities, was a proclamation removing at once the ban of
illegality on emigration, which served as a pretext for these
enormities.
So, it may be inferred, they could and would have removed
the ban on our entrance into Canton, at any time during the
fifteen preceding years, if steps had been taken to make them
understand that we were determined it should be removed, in
accordance with treaties, and that the alternative was certain
capture and military occupation of the city—thus shifting the
pressure and the vexation from the foreigners' to the Manda-
rins' shoulders. However, as regards Canton, the knowledge
came too late, either to save us the expense of costly arma-
ments, or them a great destruction of property.
Let us hope permanent good has come of so much tempo-
rary evil;—and of this there was at least some promise when
I took my departure. Even as regarded intercourse with the
authorities, there was little evidence of ill blood. Perhaps the
facility for direct and personal intercourse had done something
to remove both the prejudices born of long isolation, and the
enmity naturally arising from recent collision. A very unu-
sual demonstration indicative of changed sentiments was wit-
nessed on my leaving Canton. When the steamer passed the
Custom-house, on its way down the river, a salute was fired by
the Chinese authorities, with a display of fireworks and crack-
ers in continuation (as is their custom when they wish to do
honor), telling the surrounding population of the new order of
things a British Consul left behind him. A friendly farewell
from one of the highest officers of the province, and the Chief
Superintendent of Maritime Customs, was, indeed, a novel trait;
—and, that nothing might be wanting, he had previously sent
an officer on board, with his card, to take a ceremonious leave,
and announce the intended salute. Three years ago, this same
official could not be approached by a Foreign consul;—and
when an official letter might be answered, if at all, was a doubt-
ful question! A great step in the way of progress and per-
manent friendly intercourse had undoubtedly been taken, and
it will be our own fault, I think, if that which has once been
gained is ever entirely lost.
The personal intercourse I had with the Hoppo, and other
authorities, on my return from Europe, after the capture of the
city, had been frequent and satisfactory. If a nuisance had to
be abated on the Honan side of the river (where the foreign-
ers were located after the destruction of the factories), gam-
bling-shops to be closed, or the course of a canal which had
been built over and made into a filthy sewer to be restored,


Chap. I.J
A "MISTAKE."—COOLNESS.
39
it required but a request, and it was done at once, where for-
merly all the power of Great Britain could not have secured
attention. With the Hoppo (the Chief of the Customs), not-
withstanding many difficulties, and continued evasion of duties
by Foreigners and Chinese in collusion, something like cordial
relations existed; not very sincere, perhaps—not without a
shade of duplicity, and the spirit which bends to circumstances;
—but we have no right to expect miracles to be wrought in
our favor in China, any more than elsewhere.
And now we pass the Barrier forts, with their crumbled
bastions and dismantled walls, recalling the solution of a little
'difficulty' with the Americans, not with us, and one which
carried its lesson also and a moral with it. While Yeh had
his hands full enough, one would have thought, with the Brit-
ish, his officers, in pure wantonness or stupidity, one day amused
themselves by practicing with round shot at the American
Commodore's boats, as they passed with their flag flying. To
remonstrance and demand for explanation and apology noth-
ing but Chinese verbiage could be obtained;—until the Amer-
ican commander's patience being exhausted, he laid his ship's
broadside to the batteries and dismantled them. Then only
did Yeh, that able, intelligent, and treaty-loving official, find
out that his people ' had made a mistake;' and, with the min-
gled inconsistency and insolence which only a Chinese manda-
rin ever carried to such perfection, he closed his apology by
coolly proposing that the Commodore would send the ' flag of
his nation, that in future the Chinese officers might know and
be able to recognize it.' This, after half a century's interna-
tional intercourse! What could diplomacydo with such offi-
cials as these ?—authorities which never yielded to argument
until enforced by blows, and obstinately turned a deaf ear to
all remonstrances—not backed by the logic of the sword.
From the Bogue forts to Hongkong is but four hours' steam-
ing, and the' Williamette' cleverly threads her way through a
very maze of boats and shipping without collision or accident;
her great bell clanging a deafening warning to the market and
shore boats, which evince the most perverse tendency to cross
the bows of a steamer, with scarce a yard to spare. How they
escape seems a mystery, but they do escape generally; and the
anchor finally brings her up at her berth, amidst a rush of ' Sam pans' and boats of all sizes and descriptions;—and a mighty
clamor of voices, in which the shrill pipes of the women drown
the bass tones of their male competitors, and set at defiance all
efforts of the men to be heard above them. To get into one
of these hundred Sanpans with all your belongings is truly a


40
[Chap. I.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
service of danger and a trial of nerve. Half a dozen sharp
prows are edged in contact with the companion-ladder—or
thereabouts. You descend, and a moment's indecision is
enough to cost you a ducking, if not your life. Nothing but
a determined spring into one can save you; happy even then
if no treacherous siren, with a grasp of iron, seek to turn you
into her own which lies to the right or to the left, or some
laggard, with a desperate thrust, does not send your selected
boat six yards away, without exactly filling up the vacant space
over which you see yourself taking a flying leap. These perils
safely passed, you have then time to look and see what has be-
come of your ' boy'—a corruption, I believe, of the Indian call
for a servant—and, more important still, your bag and trunk.
Most probably you have the satisfaction of seeing him with
one foot still on the ladder, and the other in the air, vainly

HONGKONG.
seeking the boat beneath; while your boxes are passing over
his head into another, and your bag, like the last horse in a
race, is ' nowhere.' As, however, the same scene of utter con-
fusion and despair takes place at least ten times every day, and
travelers do, for the most part, reach the shore in safety, while
'boys' and trunks turn up after all, you resign yourself to Prov-
idence, take the rudder and steer to the shore, where the best


Chap. I.]
HONGKONG.
41
of hospitality, or the worst of hotel accommodation, awaits
you; with a third chance of a room in the club-house, not so
good as the first, nor quite so bad as the second.
I passed several days in Hongkong before all was ready for
a final departure. This St. Helena of the China Seas, then, as
now, with its motley population, its bad repute, and incongru-
ous pretensions,'progresses,' as the Americans say, in a very
wonderful way! Its first governors would hardly know it, al-
though the general features are the same as when they held
the reins. When I returned three years later, on my way
homeward, progress still was the only change. More houses
and more streets were there; more hill and rock had been cut
away or blasted, to make room. Nature, and the inbred ener-
gy of the English race combined, have made Hongkong a won-
der to all other nations. As I took my early walk the morn-
ing after my arrival, the sun, through heavy banks of cloud and
mist, was struggling hard to light up the bay, the opposite
shores of which were still shrouded by an impenetrable veil.
Ships of many nations, and junks of every size and description,
were shaking out their sails to dry—before another drenching
rain might come down. But, fair weather or foul, this Bay of
Hongkong, one of the finest in the world, is always pictur-
esque. Landlocked with bold rocks and swelling hills, the na-
vies of every European power might safely ride at anchor.
Full of life and movement, too, from the shipping which crowds
its waters, the scene is one of great attraction to residents and
casual visitors alike. The daybreak gun wakens up all early
risers; the loud-screaming whistles, and scarce less discordant
bells of the river steamers, soon after begin the business of the
day, and keep up an incessant alarm from seven in the morning
to eight or nine o'clock, and again from four in the afternoon
until long after dark, on their return from Canton or Macao.
The snorting and puffing of gunboats diversify the sounds,
while from the shore and the streets a busy hum of cries, and
sounds indescribable and untranslatable, tell the drowsy stran-
ger that a city in the tropics has leaped into life and activity
before the sun attains his scorching power. If he turns out
for an early walk or ride, as most Anglo - Easterns do, and
bends his steps upward to the higher grounds, he will find the
convolvulus spreading its beautiful flowers for the fresh breath
of dawn, creepers of wild luxuriance covering each wall and
bank; and, looking seaward, a whole series of bays lie at his
feet, stretching away into the distance. Market-boats, laden
with provisions from the main land, with their richly-colored
sails of matting, and many picturesque forms, are crowding


42
[Chap. I.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
into the harbor. Square-rigged ships are pressing all sail to
gain the long-desired haven; while others are unmooring, to
proceed to the several ports with their outward cargo. Ships
of war, trading junks, merchant craft from every country, all
are here to bear testimony to the activity and importance of
the trade which, in some way or other, finds in Hongkong a
connecting link. Native craft in numbers from the adjoining
coast, each differing in shape and color, according to the port,
crowd the anchorage. The great bulky Shantung junk, laden
with peas and beans; the Shanghae hulk, with its gaudy colors
and mythic eagle on the stern, but little differing in exterior;
and the long low craft of Ningpo, all are there. Hainan, and
even Siam and Singapore, each has its type. A Chinese sailor
will distinguish where they come from by differences of shape
and rigging, paint and decoration, without difficulty; and, if
he be honest, may also tell you where stout-built junks are ly-
ing undisturbed, with a pirate crew, and nearly fitted out with
fresh supplies of guns and powder. Only I do not recom-
mend any one to trust him too implicitly; for he may be one
of the pirate crew himself, and will send you on a wrong scent,
to the damage of some honest trader whom he wishes to ruin;
—or simply to damage you, and prevent the Hongkong au-
thorities pursuing his fellows on information given, by letting
you into a few deplorable mistakes—mares' nests—of which
Mr. Chisholm Anstey has long since had his say in Hongkong
and elsewhere. With a large harbor full of junks from every
sea-port and island between Shantung and Singapore, Siam,
Java, and the Philippines; with 90,000 Chinese and Burden-ses (as the mixed Portuguese population of the neighboring
peninsula of Macao are usually termed) on shore, it is not easy
for the authorities and police to put their hands upon all the
rogues, or pirate craft either, that take shelter beneath the
sure protection of the British flag, were they the best and
most honest that ever wielded colonial power. The native
population from the main land have made this barren rock
their home, building a large Chinese town, which spreads along
the western shore, and skirts the bay, creeping and scrambling
upward and upward over the hillside, along the face of the ra-
vines, and high above the town beneath. Nest on nest of
houses elbow each other in the most determined way, until
they dispute the higher levels with the merchant princes of
the colony, and seem to aim at crowning the Victoria peak it-
self, sufficiently attesting the untiring industry, perseverance,
and enterprise too—when in pursuit of their own gain—of
these sons of Ham.


Chap. I.]
SECRET OF PROSPERITY.
43
Twenty years have not yet passed over our heads since En-
gland first took possession of this pirate haunt, and all its prop-
erties of unlimited granite and bare hills; and now it is the
great centre of a Chinese coasting trade, to feed which num-
berless ships come laden with produce, from India, Siam, and
the Philippines, from Batavia and Singapore, with the col-
lected tribute of the Malayan Archipelago. These are chiefly
for transhipment or dispatch to other markets; while from En-
gland, New York, and San Francisco, some of the finest clip-
pers of both countries come filled with manufactured goods
and American 'notions.' Even New Zealand and Australia
are contributors of the required supplies, seeking tea in ex-
change, for their own wants. It has become the postal and
financial terminus, or great centre, whence all the directing
wires of the European, Indian, and American trade with China
receive their impulse from the heads of firing located in the
colony, determining the ultimate destination of all the ships
and cargoes that enter or leave the China seas. What is the
secret of this sudden and enormous growth in population and
in trading importance of a barren rock? This must be among
the first questions of a stranger. Hongkong itself, he sees at
a glance, produces nothing but granite boulders and the thin-
nest scrub, beneath the hottest of suns, and least healthy of
climates. The city of Victoria, with its Cathedral and Episco-
pal palace, its Government House, and Supreme Court, with
all its Merchants' palatial houses, is perhaps the very last spot,
on all the coast of China, where a sensible man would have
thought of placing house or home, if the choice had been left
to himself. Victoria Peak rises 1700 feet above the level of
the sea, and stretches its solid bulk across the whole line of
the city, effectually shutting out the southwest breeze, and
all the cool air to be had during six months of a most oppress-
ive summer, when every one gasps for want of that needful
aliment. From this arid rock many go home sick every year,
with spleens much larger than their fortunes; and not a few
remain, to have their bones laid in six feet of Chinese earth, in
the 'Happy Valley,' where an English cemetery has been lo-
cated. Yet the neighboring main land has good and commo-
dious harbors, far nearer to the producing markets and the
native purchasers of foreign goods; and apparently, in every
respect, better fitted for trade than Hongkong. But, despite
all this, and more that might be said to its disadvantage, trade,
from countries the most distant, converges here, to a great
centre of attraction—as though its hills and granite rocks
were loadstone, and ships must needs be drawn within its


44
[Chap. I.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
landlocked bay. The secret of its seeming magnetic power is
soon told, however.
Security to life and property is the first and broadest found-
ation of such prosperity; a magnificent bay, of easy access, the
second condition; and the absence of all custom-houses, with
proximity to Chinese ports, where these do exist, in more or
less oppressive form, the third. And these taken together, fur-
nish, I conceive, a very full solution of the problem. Given a
barren rock, in the near vicinity of a Wealthy empire cursed
with a corrupt administration, how shall the trade of the main
land be made to overflow to the islet? In the first place, to
it an enterprising and industrial population can bring their
produce from the whole sea-board of the main land, on advan-
tageous terms of export with their own people, as not declared
for foreign market; and from it run cargoes of return goods,
with like exemption from import duties. Thus it happens that
Hongkong, though promoting in a certain subsidiary way for-
eign trade with China — in the only way originally contem-
plated when it was ceded to Great Britain by treaty—really
owes its wondrous growth and prosperity as a colony to other
causes; and mainly to a vast trade with the whole seaboard of China, which, for the most part, is in the hands of the Chi-
nese themselves. And this, if not contraband trade, in so far
as our merchants personally are concerned, is at least carried
on and only flourishes under conditions of exemption from du-
ties and all custom-house regulations, contrary to the law of
China. From the island, as a great depot of produce in de-
mand on the main land, the Chinese traders can take their opi-
um, long-cloths, yarns, and woolens, free of all duty, with the
chance of laying them down near the points of consumption,
either for nothing, or a small bribe to the custom-house offi-
cials, often on a previously-arranged scale. Half a loaf being
proverbially better than no bread, and the latter being the al-
ternative presented to the custom-house authorities by the
wretched inadequacy of their pay—if, steadfast to their duty,
they exact the full dues at any one point—they adopt this mode
of redressing the wrong. This arrangement, by which they
supplement their salaries, and encourage trade at the expense
of the revenue, is pretty well established all over the empire.
In like manner, upon the same principle, the natives can bring
to Hongkong/Vow the main land their own produce for sale
—their Rhubarb, Sugar, Camphor, Cassia, and sundry other
articles; and to Macao their Tea, at a better price than at the
consular ports, for the simple reason that they succeed in es-
caping duty, either wholly or in part, on their export.


Chap. I.]
MACAO AND HONGKONG.
45
There is, perhaps, no chapter more curious in the history of
nations than the chapter of blunders and their results. It is
related of the Marechal de Castries, one of the men said to
have sought all his life to fix fortune by deep and learned com-
binations, that at the end of his career, he confessed with rare
candor, to some one inquiring the secret of his uniform success,
'he owed much to accident and opportunity, and not a little
to blunders!' Certainly the history of China in these matters,
and of Macao and Hongkong, the two rival European settle-
ments on the borders of China, the one occupied by the Portu-
guese more than two centuries, and Hongkong only some two
decades by ourselves, furnish striking illustrations. To look


MACAO.
at Macao, as the steamer heads into its picturesque bay, see its
imposing buildings, its convents and cathedrals, its praya and
its batteries, with green hills and tree-embowered villas, no
one would guess that this was the home of poverty and long-
departed prosperity—where bankrupt aliens find a refuge, and
a mongrel race of Portuguese, Chinese, and Africans from Goa,
all commingled, swarm, and breed, and live—God only knows
howI Once great and wealthy (built up chiefly with the gold
and the spoils of Japan), in the pride of triumphant rivalry
with Great Britain in her Eastern trade, then only in its infan-
cy, it had long fallen into the sere and yellow leaf of a gradual


40
[Chap. I.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
decay, when our first war with China gave one of those chances
which—to nations as to individuals—seldom come more than
once in a cycle, of seizing fortune in its passage, and emerging
from poverty to wealth, had those who governed only been
gifted with sufficient prescience to see their opportunity. They
had but to declare it a Free port, and shake off the evil spell
of mandarin rule, to become the great emporium of Western
trade—become what Hongkong now is. It may, at all events,
admit of question, if this bold and vigorous step had been taken
at the right moment, whether, notwithstanding all the disad-
vantages of a shallow bay and bad anchorage attaching to
Macao, the new colony of Hongkong would ever have been
adopted as the head-quarters of British houses. With its im-
practicable hills, its sultry and unhealthy atmosphere, its in-
convenient distance from the main land, and the rivers which
form the great lines of traffic between the interior and the
one recommendation, in the natural advantage of a fine bay.
But to this the British Government could attach freedom from
all the petty worry and vexatious exactions of corruption—in
the hybrid form of a Portuguese colony, crossed by a Chinese
custom-house. And above all, perhaps, security to life and
property, only to be found in those latitudes under the British
flag. We were very slow, however, as is our wont, to make
up our minds. Our merchants did not move; and an offer
was even made to the Portuguese Government to purchase their
right of possession of Macao, such as it was, under Chinese
rule. Fortunately for us, in some respects at least, the pride
of Portugal refused to cede this last poor relic of former great-
ness; and while we were thus groping our way, they missed
the only chance in a century of bringing back trade and wealth
to their starving colony, by declaring it a free port, and ridding
themselves of the incubus of a Chinese custom-house. With
a curious inconsistency, they took this very step, and ejected
the Chinese officials when it was too late by ten years to profit
them; and the bold step only cost the Governor his life, with-
out any corresponding advantage to his country.'' It seems
* Captain Amaral, the Governor here alluded to, was a distinguished naval
officer, who fell a victim to his zeal for the improvement of the colony, and
its emancipation from Chinese rule. He was assassinated in open day, while
riding out, by a band of Chinese, and his head was carried off to the Chinese
authorities, by whom it was carefully preserved in pickle; and only delivered
up to the Portuguese some weeks later, after an enormous amount of hard
swearing. This act of atrocity, so well illustrating the principle on which
the Chinese rulers would fain have regulated their dealings with foreigners,
was a fit sequent to the torture and murder of six English clerks at Whang-
coast, nothing


Chap. I] MACAO AND HONGKONG.
41
to be as unfortunate for a man to arrive too late as too early,
on the world's stage, when he has a part to play. Ten years
earlier he might have changed the destiny of the two colonies;
coming too late, he only sacrificed himself and changed noth-
ing. Millions of dollars had then been expended on the sun-
baked and sterile hills of Hongkong—by the Government, in
roads, and barracks, and public offices; by our own merchants
and those of other nations, in houses and godowns—driven at
last to this expensive alternative by the vexatious impediments
to which their trade was exposed in Macao, under the joint
Chinese and Portuguese rule. Trade had irrevocably followed
the heads and the purses which gave it vitality; and not even
the pleasant hills and green shade of Macao, nor its fresher
breezes, could ever while them back again.
It is but a four hours' passage from Hongkong to Macao,
and a passenger lands on the praya, while the convent bells
fill the air with their chimes, feeling as though he had traversed
a whole hemisphere in that short space—passed into another
climate, and suddenly found himself in an old watering-place
on the coast of Portugal in the year 1600!
Here dark-tinted women in their black Mantos saunter
through the streets, as to this day they saunter in the provin-
cial towns of Portugal. The bright-colored kerchief round
the head, and swarthy skins, meeting you at every step, tell of
long connection with Goa and African possessions. Dwarfed
children of all hues under the sun, and lazy-looking monks, or
sable-robed padres, with portentous shovel hats, either drone
through the half-deserted streets (become too large for its pop-
ulation where the Chinese do not fill up the space), or help to
swell some monkish procession, wending its way to the Cathedral, precisely as did Spaniards and Portuguese alike in by-
gone centuries (when Auto-da-Fe's were more in vogue), and
presenting the same pictures and groups as may still be seen
in the land of their birth. 'Ccelum non animam mutant' is in-
deed specially true in this Portuguese colony.
chu-kee, a village near Canton, only a short time before. The present Gov-
ernor of Macao, Captain Guimaraes, a naval officer also, of great ability and
energy, has known how to draw all the profit that was possible from the
emancipation from Chinese rule which his predecessor had effected at the
cost of his life. Aided by the unsettled state of the whole province, which
induced the Chinese to flock to the colony for security, the revenue so won-
derfully improved, that a surplus has even been remitted to the mother coun-
try — very much to its surprise, it must be imagined: Portuguese colonies,
like our own, being chiefly known as sources of expenditure — draining the
home exchequer instead of feeding it I Holland and Spain alone seem to
have preserved the art of reversing the process, and making their colonies pay.


48
[Chap. I.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
The Chinese Government, there is little doubt, has viewed
with jealousy and anger the great development of commerce,
and rapid increase of population, recruited as it has been from
their own subjects. The close proximity of two foreign colo-
nies and free ports must of necessity be a source of vexation
and even of injury; for both piracy and frauds on the revenue
are unquestionably stimulated and fostered by the facilities
such ports afford. We can not be surprised, therefore, if a gov-
ernment like that of China should see in this a ground of re-
proach, and consider us responsible, as the intentional promo-
ters of disorder and violence. The only remedy, however, is
obviously to be found, not so much in any change in the for-
eign colony, as in greater security to life and property on the
main land, and an improved custom-house. The absence of the
one drives homeless men to the high seas for plunder; and a
wretchedly administered custom-house, with venal officials,
quite as certainly develops smuggling. One can only rejoice,
therefore, to see that the Chinese are at last turning their at-
tention to these, with a seemingly right appreciation of their
importance, and to the means by which improvement is most
certainly to be effected. In seeking to organize an efficient
administration of customs on land on a uniform system, and
a fleet of gunboats at sea, with the assistance of foreign offi-
cers, they are doing much. If they succeed in thus introdu-
cing such elements of honesty, courage, and efficiency as their
own service can not supply, a rapid and decisive improvement
in both directions must take place.
The vigor, honesty, and intelligence they find it so difficult
to secure among their own people may certainly be found
among foreigners, if rightly set about. Time will show with
what success their present efforts may be attended; but it is
impossible not to desire that it may be full and complete. In
that direction lies their only hope of providing an effective
remedy for a great and increasing evil. Under the present
order of things, even Macao has repaired her tattered vest-
ments, sole legacy of two hundred years of poverty; and Hong-
kong has made the fortune of many of its denizens in less than
twenty years. Under a better regime in China, both colonies
would possibly have to content themselves with more legiti-
mate gains, and, it may be, smaller revenues and lessened im-
portance. But, though Macao should have to fall back upon
lentils and soup maigre six days in the week, as of old, and
Hongkong see fewer ships in her harbor, with corresponding
diminution of the Chinese population and revenue, it is well
that the Chinese should succeed in their efforts at reorganiza-


Chap. I.]
COLLECTION OF REVENUE.
49
tion. It would be well— even on the most selfish view of our
own interests.
In getting its legitimate dues from foreign trade, which the
Government received until recently at Shanghae alone, under a system of foreign inspection first organized during my resi-
dence there, in 1854, the Chinese Government would obtain
a direct and increasing interest in its development and pros-
perity, besides the means of establishing a better government
over the country, without which all trade is likely to be de-
stroyed by a general disorganization. They may farther learn
by success a lesson they much need, namely, that to secure
good and honest service, States, as well as individuals, must
deal fairly with their servants, and give adequate salaries.
Though last, not least among the benefits to be derived, the
foreign merchant would find his trade could be carried on in
the Chinese markets with honesty, and on principles of fairness
to all, without any sacrifice either of principle or capital, such
as must otherwise be inevitable where a vicious and lax ad-
ministration of customs exists. There are many who contend
against the organization of a system for the efficient collection
of customs by the Chinese Government, with the aid of foreign
inspectors of their own appointment, on the alleged ground
that it is no business of ours; and that if they are defrauded
of their revenue (by collusion between their own officers and
foreign merchants), theirs alone is the fault and the loss. But
is it no concern of a foreign nation and its government whether
those who represent its commerce and nationality bring credit
or disgrace upon their country by their dealings? Is the loss
only on one side? How does the conscientious trader thrive
in such circumstances? And how much ill will and excuse for
bad faith on the part of the Chinese Government may be due
to this one cause? Merchants are never slow to claim protec-
tion for their interests as a national obligation, even at the cost
of a war—and they are quite right. Such an obligation un-
doubtedly exists; but is it no concern of Statesmen what may
be the character of the mercantile transactions and the hon-
esty of the dealings for which they be called upon to draw the
sword? We owe much of our commercial position in the
world, and the wealth it brings, to the British name for good
faith and honesty. And can this be dishonored, or flung to
the winds, in any quarter of the globe, without prejudice to
our commercial interests every where? Were it a matter of
as perfect indifference, as has often been asserted, what befell
the Chinese revenue, it would still be of grave concern to us in
a national sense that Englishmen should not be engaged in de-


50
[Chap. L
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
frauding it. These are serious considerations, and with too di-
rect a bearing upon our position and commerce in the East to
be safely overlooked. No doubt the effort now making to
establish at the consular ports, by a leaven of foreign elements,
an efficient inspectorate of customs, and completely reorganize
the establishments hitherto existing, radically vicious and bad
as they notoriously were, is a task in which perfect success
can not be looked for at once, if even in the end, after time and
experience shall have given education and training to the many
subordinates of all kinds required, and perfected the machinery.
Perfect institutions exist nowhere; and China, with its under-
paid officials and their prescriptive rights under such a system
—to pay themselves by every kind of bribery and extortion,
neglect and speculation —is the last place to produce them. We
may take it for granted, therefore, that much, for a long time
at least, must necessarily be imperfect in any administration of
customs that can be organized under a Foreign Inspectorate.
It must, consequently, be open to cavil and objection; and all
who are inimical to an impartial and rigid enforcement of cus-
toms will find it easy work to discover flaws and evidences of
imperfect working. But the true question, after all, is, not
whether this machinery or any other that can be devised is
perfect, for that we know to be unattainable, but whether it
is, under the circumstances, the best attainable? And, again,
whether the administration, by the introduction of certain for-
eign elements of honesty and vigor, under intelligent direction,
does not constitute a vast improvement on any system that has
hitherto existed in native hands alone? If it is, we must be
content to accept with the improvement the certainty that
there will be no exemption from the law of humanity which
precludes absolute perfection. As for the plausible objections
which are now and then advanced, in default of better argu-
ments, that the British Government (or the Treaty powers gen-
erally), by encouraging these efforts of the Chinese to infuse
new vigor into their administration of customs—as into the po-
lice of the coast for the suppression of piracy, by the employ-
ment of foreigners and the purchase of gunboats—are under-
mining their independence and usurping their rights, it is only
waste of time to answer them. What European power has
ever hesitated to employ foreigners when these could supply a
special knowledge or a talent not to be found in the country?
How does Russia, one of the greatest European powers, con-
duct its administration? Is there no employment of foreign-
ers? And what statesman or politician has ever seen in such
a course a ground of protest, or of danger to Russia? So far


Chap. I.]
CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS.
SI
from seeing in these agencies, and infusion of foreign blood and
intellect in the administration of an Eastern empire, a cause of
regret or ground of objection, I believe it is only thus that any
amalgamation of the two civilizations of the East and West, so
different in kind and antagonistic in tendencies, can ever be
brought about, or more harmonious relations established. Im-
provement, it is true, to be either general or effective, must
come from within and not from without. With the best good
will in the world, neither Great Britain, nor all the Western
powers united—as they probably never will be—can supply a
remedy for the universal anarchy, corruption, and bad govern-
ment existing at the present day in the Chinese Empire. But
there must be a beginning somewhere, and it is probably easier
and more hopeful to commence from without under existing
circumstances.
To relieve the Chinese Empire of two of its great enemies,
piracy and smuggling, the one so damaging to its commerce,
and the other to its revenue, it is evident indeed that two
things are wanted, which, I repeat, no foreign power can sup-
ply. A good and strong government, and an honest adminis-
tration throughout the provinces, but especially of the customs
along the coast and on the navigable rivers. Whether it be
vain to look for these in the existing generation, time alone
can show; but Foreign Powers in treaty with China, having
large interests involved, are still at liberty (if not constrained
in their own behalf) to do their best in aid, when the existing
government is disposed, either spontaneously or under advice,
to make efforts for their own regeneration and the salvation
of the country. To reform their administration, improve the
custom-house, reorganize, and, indeed, create both an army and
a navy, are all needful conditions of success; and any aid the
powers of the West can give for the speedy attainment of these
ends will be a gain to civilization, and a direct benefit to
nearly a third of the whole human race.
The sun was rapidly rising higher and higher as the morn-
ing walk drew to a close, together with my speculations on
the past and the future. The rain-clouds dispersed, and a gal-
lant fleet might be seen stretching across the bay, with pend-
ants and ensigns of many nations. Music came floating on the
breeze from the U. S. S. 'Powhatan;' H. M. ship 'Fury' was
getting up her steam, with 300 marines on board, bound for
the north, for the then impending struggle at the Peiho, and
H. M. S. 'Sampson' was ready also for the conveyance of
the Diplomatic mission to Yeddo. We took our leave of
Hongkong on May 17, and bent our course northward for


52
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. L
Nagasaki or Shanghae, according as coals and weather might
determine.
The incidents of a voyage up the coast from Hongkong in
these days of steam are few, unless one happens to fall in with
a typhoon, or succeeds in discovering a new rock; and the
month of May offers less chance of either, perhaps, than any
other in the year. The escape from the sultry heat of Canton
and Hongkong, to the fresh breezes of the higher latitudes and
open sea, is the most noteworthy and delightful of the 'inci-
dents,' but this is not an interesting event to any one out of
the tropics. To feel a desire for a blanket, and to escape the
sleep-disturbing trumpet of the musquitoes, are chief elements
of a happiness only born of contrast. The winds were ad-
verse, and so we turned our course toward the wide mouth of
the leviathan of rivers, the Yangtze, and arrived at Shanghae
in time for the Queen's birthday. It was not the Queen's
weather, however, for the morning was wet and stormy. In
vain the numerous ships of war were dressed in their gayest
colors, and all the merchant vessels followed suit; every thing
looked drooping, wet, and miserable.
I wandered through the Foreign Settlement despite both
rain and mud, over once familiar ground. There is certainly
nothing more wonderful in the East than the rapid growth of
this place, and the vast trade to which it has given rise, as the
shipping port of the silk country, and many of the tea districts.
Fifteen years ago, corn, and rice, and cotton covered the
ground, now entirely occupied for more than a mile square
with foreign buildings—mansions for the foreign merchants,
and pack-houses of corresponding extent for merchandise.
This is farther increased by a Chinese settlement in the rear,
its occupants having sought peace and security where the
flags of Western powers (and chief of these, by the magnitude
of our interests and commercial transactions, the British) give
no vain promise of both. Some 80,000 Chinese, many of the
better and wealthier classes of merchants, have thus located
themselves of their own free choice, and built wide streets and
extensive bazars. They pay road- and police-rates, and con-
form to the municipal regulations of foreign growth with out-
ward willingness, if not with scrupulous fidelity. The Chinese
are certainly among the most easily-governed people in the
world; given two conditions only—honesty of purpose and
strength in the governing power. Under such conditions, the
latter is hardly ever called into active exercise. It is enough
that it should be known to exist. The city itself had but par-
tially recovered its devastation by the horde of soi-disant pa-


Chap. I.]
OUR POSITION IN CHINA.
53
triots and ruthless spoliators—banditti, which gained posses-
sion in 1853, and held it against an Imperial army until the
beginning of 1855. A word from the Treaty Powers might,
I believe, have averted such a calamity then, and saved from
spoliation and ruin a population of some 80,000 industrious
and peace-loving people. But a want of unanimity and decis-
ion among the Foreign representatives on the spot, either as
to the end or the means, prevented any effort being made, and
the opportunity was lost. Warned by past experience, we
shall not willingly let this consular port again become a prey
to the miserable vampires who exist only by sucking the life's
blood out of flourishing towns, in many of which we have
large commercial and treaty-guaranteed interests. True, the
policy to be pursued in such circumstances opens up a large
question, on which there has been already much difference of
opinion. It is one, however, that can hardly be discussed with
advantage upon any basis of non-intervention interpreted in a
thoroughly doctrinaire spirit. Any word spoken or blow
struck to defend the lives, the property, or the trade of our
merchants at Shanghae or to safeguard the national interests
of vast amount inseparably connected with these, and the sal-
vation of Shanghae itself from capture and destruction (synony-
mous terms with the Taepings), is a violation of a non-inter-
vention policy, under such interpretation. Are we then to
give up, without an effort, a trade employing thirty millions
of capital, and yielding to the British and Indian exchequers a
Revenue of ten millions sterling annually? Let us look the
difficulty in the face. We must either make up our minds to
do this, and accept the consequences in lost trade and increased
taxation, both at home and in India, to make up so many mil-
lions of revenue, or do what may be necessary to avert such a
catastrophe. It is precisely here, I believe, that the great di-
vergence of opinion begins. One party of politicians, general
advocates of a peace and non-intervention policy, protest
against any employment of our forces in the defense of the
consular ports and centres of our Chinese trade—first, as a de-
parture from a sound policy of absolute neutrality; and, sec-
ondly, as unnecessary for the end in view, if that end be only
protection to our trade. The Taepings, it is argued, might be
treated with just as easily and effectually as the Government
of China. Granted that it is a departure from absolute neu-
trality, inasmuch as though the object be other than partisan-
ship, yet, to give the insurgents a check in any direction, or
prevent their seizing on a great sea-port, is in effect to damage
their cause, and by so much to interfere with their success,


54
[Chap. L
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
and the issue of the struggle between them and the existing
government, we have only to consider the second assertion
that it is unnecessary, even if justifiable. But that entirely
rests on the assumption, demonstrably untenable and dis-
proved by experience, that we could enter into arrangements
with the Taepings, and let them occupy all the consular ports
and lines of traffic without serious detriment, if not destruc-
tion, to our trade and treaty rights. They are not a govern-
ment in any sense of the word. They neither offer any of the
guarantees of a government, nor any responsible head to treat
with.' Assuming, for the moment, that our obligations to-
ward the Imperial Government would warrant such negotia-
tions, the attempts we have made in this direction have been
signal failures—failures, as might be shown, inevitable from
the constitution and character of the party with which we en-
deavored to treat. The Taepings acknowledge no treaties,
and are bound by no laws. How can a regular and responsi-
ble Government, such as ours, enter into treaty relations with
an armed horde of illiterate and lawless insurgents, whose sole
vocation these ten years past has been one of devastation;
who wander from province to province, as locusts migrate from
field to field when they have utterly consumed and destroyed
all that can support life? Must we patiently look on and see
our trade and revenue, present and prospective, destroyed by
these spoliators of honest men's goods, or shall we take effect-
ive means for their defense?
In what these may best consist is another question, and one
of detail rather than principle. So also is that which regards
the limits within which we shall seek to extend protection.
But, as regards the means, it will be found these resolve them-
selves into two: Great Britain, or Great Britain and France
as at present, may either employ their own forces, naval and
military, to defend the principal ports and centres of trade (or
such of them as shall be deemed most essential), China paying
for the expenses of such contingents, or assist the Chinese
Government to organize an army and navy for themselves,
competent to do the same work. This, of course, is to help
the Imperial Government, and may naturally be expected to
bring down upon us the active hostility of the Taepings. But
the worst they can do can not be more fatal to our interests
than non-intervention and neutrality would be, taken in such
absolute sense as the abstaining from all action. We are do-
ing this in America, it is true, and accepting the loss.' But the
* Nor should it be forgotten that the rebellion has many heads, acting in-
dependently of each other.


CHAP. I.] QUESTIONS OF POLICY.—INTERVENTION. 55
character and conditions of the struggle going on are differ-
ent; and, moreover, where the same rules of International law
are accepted as binding on both sides, the obligation is mutual
to adhere to them, whatever may be the cost. We are bound
by no such obligations in reference to the Taepings, because
they themselves recognize no laws but those of their own mak-
ing, and are not particular in observing them.
Intervention, in an international sense, implies "partisanship,
and the espousal of a cause. There has been no desire to in-
tervene in this sense, but only to interpose our arms in self-
defense. Intervention of the specific and limited character
here referred to should more properly be regarded as simply
a prohibition, issued to those who recognize no law, are bound
by no treaties, and respect only force—a declaration that at
the consular ports, where foreign powers have large vested in-
terests and treaty rights, no one, in wanton spoliation, shall be
allowed to destroy them, and with them the lives and prop-
erty of thousands of peaceable inhabitants, with whom we have
daily relations of amity and commerce. If the right to inter-
vene and the necessity for such interference are defensible on
these grounds, the advantages of such a course are still more
clearly demonstrable. The population of these ports will learn
to look upon us as their best friends, and a sure defense against
violence and wrong they are otherwise unable to resist. The
insurgent rabble themselves will regard us with all the more
respect for our determined bearing; and the Imperial Govern-
ment may even be grateful for exertions, by which the custom-
house revenues (becoming every day of greater importance to
them) are preserved from the grasp of their enemies. And,
whether grateful or not, the Emperor's counselors can not help
seeing, by such service, that they have, a direct interest in the
preservation of foreign commerce, and the relations of good
will connected with its development. No doubt this, or any
other course that might be adopted for the protection of our
commerce, is open to criticism, as involving us in a serious un-
dertaking with many difficulties. But one thing, I repeat, is
clear: we must either intervene (singly, or with other powers),
to protect at least one or more of the great centres of our trade
in China, or make up our minds to see it destroyed by the
insurgent bands ravaging the country. Are those who advo-
cate a laissez /aire policy, and abstinence from all protective
measures, prepared for such a sacrifice of trade and revenue?
If not,' qui veut la fin, veut les moyens?
These considerations of general policy very naturally sug-
gested themselves with the still evident traces of the savage


56
[Chap. I.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
and wanton destruction wrought by a handful of horse-boys
and rabble Cantonese once more under my eyes. Wide spaces,
filled only with ruins, lie between the foreign settlement and
the city walls, which I remembered completely covered with
Chinese streets, the homes of a large and industrious popula-
tion. Within the walls, permanent loss and devastation were
still every where apparent. Thousands of houses had been
leveled, and tens of thousands of their inhabitants either tor-
tured to death, beheaded, or cast out houseless and destitute
to perish in the open country; but it would be hard to find
a single human being who had reaped any tangible or perma-
nent benefit! Even the ruffian leader, Chin-a-lin, who alone
of all his followers made his escape at the capture of the city
(by the help of a foreign merchant), was prowling about Hong-
kong the other day, trying in vain, through more foreign agen-
cy, to get possession of a certain lot of ground in Shanghai. There, known onlyto himself he said, lay buried a lac of dol-
lars, wrung from the tears and agony of his tortured victims.
As many in Europe have not enjoyed the advantage of a per-
sonal acquaintance with these disciples of Taeping, I beg to in-
troduce them more particularly in a study from nature (oppo-
site), made by a warm partisan of theirs con amove.
As I threaded my way amidst crowded thoroughfares, and
scrambled over the rubbish of fallen houses, destroyed when
the insurgents fired the city as they sought to escape, some
of the more striking features of our position in China involun-
tarily occupied my thoughts. To this place, where so many
years of my life had been spent, I had now returned for a mo-
ment, after a two years' absence in Europe, and therefore
could look upon old scenes with some of the freshness of eye
which an artist brings to his work after a long rest has re-
stored the power of distinguishing the tints, often destroyed or
impaired by a too constant gaze on the same glaring colors.
The changes and wonderful development of trade a few years
had brought about in Shanghae,* the chief of the five ports
Brief Summary of Statistics—1855-1860:
No. of
Vessels
Inward.
Tons.
No. of
Vessels
Outward.
Tons.
Value of
Imports.
Value of
Exports.
Total.
£
£
£
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
164
398
633
754
926
1007
68,630
127,730
205,613
242,624
287,100
304,154
223
353
298
378
939
972
111,593
122,106
114,243
154,795
289,709
293,568
7,773,869
8,325,772
10,227,895
12,061,185
15,124,920
18,326,430
9,032,944
9,538,379
11,302,833
12,563,014
13,330,055
10,779,319
16,806,813
17,864,151
21,530,728
24,624,199
28,454,975
29,105,749


Chap. I.] A STUDY.—THE'GREAT PEACE'DYNASTY. 57-

FOLLOWERS OF THE 'GREAT PEACE' DYNASTY.
originally opened under treaty in 1843, are such as can hard-
ly be realized by any one away from the spot. Nothing more
surprising has ever been seen in the annals of colonization or
trade. When I first arrived in Shanghai in 1846, to take pos-
The above figures include opium and treasure in the imports; apart from
these, the ratio of increase and the actual amount of the import trade is com-
paratively small. This summary is taken from the Custom-house returns
published under the Foreign Inspectors; and it is but justice to say, that
their completeness and general accuracy is not one of the least services they
have rendered to commerce. See Appendix A for some additional details.
C 2


- 58
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Cuap. I.
session of a post which I held for nine years, there were but
three or four houses on the ' Bund,' or river front, which now
extends in a continuous line nearly two miles, to the south gate
of the city. Behind—away in the midst of cornfields and
Chinese hamlets—was the beginning of a Missionary settle-
ment, supposed to be far enough in the country never to be
overtaken by the all-encroaching and mundane pursuits of com-
merce. It was difficult in 1859 for me to find my way through
a very labyrinth of streets and houses to where the once iso-
lated missionary village looked out on the open country. The
busy hum of voices and din of traffic is now every where around
them. Crowds of men, Jew, Pagan, and Christian, Buddhist
and Parsee, Chinese and European, fill the streets, with endless
gangs of coolies chanting their pavior-like sound to keep each
other in step, as they press on beneath heavy burdens of tea-
chests, bales of silk, and long-cloth. Sedan-chairs, with Chinese
brokers inside, are rushing madly on, to the imminent danger
of the eyes of pedestrians, from the projecting poles of the
chairs just reaching to the level of the head. The thousands
of Chinese who, since the seizure and destruction of the city
by the insurgents, have been continually pressing within our
limits, give a fabulous value to the land. Wherever a spare
lot could be had, they have either leased or bought it and built
houses.
The original occupants of European race run some risk of
being jostled out of their possessions, just as these pushed and
bought out the native possessors of the soil; a sort of retrib-
utive justice, perhaps, but one that was little anticipated when
every effort was being made, some ten or fifteen years before,
to get all the land into foreign hands. This result was, how-
ever, clearly enough foreseen by myself in the beginning; and
an endeavor was made, both by my predecessor, Colonel Bal-
four, at the very outset, and subsequently by myself, to keep
the ground within the limits of the Foreign Concession exclu-
sively for foreigners, as better for the permanent interests of
these and the security of the settlement. But if it be true
that there never was an Act of Parliament through which a
clever lawyer could not drive a coach and six, it is still more
certain that there are no laws or regulations which can be so
applied to various nationalities in an Eastern country that they
may not, and will not be broken through. What some may
do with profit and impunity, can never be effectually prohib-
ited to others. And so the once Foreign Settlement has be-
come a Chinese town, and, as a natural consequence, has gone
through a series of parties during the last few years, lest it


Chap. I.]
MIXTURE OF RACES.—AVARICE.
59
should be given over to sack and plunder on the approach of
the insurgents, after the fashion of Chinese cities; the greatest
danger coming from the Chinese population within the bound-
aries, and in the very midst of which every foreigner now
must live. The natives are probably in the proportion of a
hundred to one of the foreigners. Hitherto this calamity has
been averted by British and French forces; but as this also
may come to an end, being much too expensive a process for
permanent adoption, the future of Shanghae is by no means so
secure as one would wish to see it. It is true, many of the
wealthier and better classes of Chinese have taken refuge in
the Foreign Settlement; and as they have much to lose, their
presence affords a certain security. Yet even this is, after all,
worth very little; for naturally timid, and of unwarlike dispo-
sition, they would only flock together or fly the place in time
of danger, like so many sheep on the approach of wolves. And
in their train, thousands of Chinese who have nothing to lose
—many of the worst classes, indeed—have also taken up their
abode in the Foreign Settlement as an Alsatia, where no law
of their own country can reach them, and no power of the
stranger exists to deal with an evil of this nature. Many years
ago, when, as Her Majesty's Consul, I used to foreshadow pre-
cisely this state of affairs, with some faint hope, at first, of in-
ducing the more influential of the residents, among my own
countrymen more especially, to second my efforts, and prevent
this location of Chinese among them as a permanent source of
danger, and a grievous deterioration of the settlement in all
save the immediate dollar value of the land and houses, I had
a conversation with one of them honest and outspoken enough
to tell the whole truth. 'No doubt your anticipations of fu-
ture evil have a certain foundation, and, indeed, may be correct
enough, though something may be urged on the other side
as to the advantages of having the Chinese mingled with us,
and departing from the old Canton system of isolation; but,
upon the whole, I agree with you. The day will probably
come when those who then may be here will see abundant
cause to regret what is now being done, in letting and sublet-
ting to Chinese. But in what way am I and my brother land-
holders and speculators cdncerned in this? You, as H.M.'s.
Consul, are bound to look to national and permanent interests
—that is your business; but it is my business to make a for-
tune with the least possible loss of time, by letting my land to
Chinese, and building for them at thirty or forty per cent. in-
terest, if that is the best thing I can do with my money. In
two or three years at farthest, I hope to realize a fortune and


00
[Chap. I. THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
get away; and what can it matter to me if all Shanghae dis-
appear afterward in fire or flood? You must not expect men
in my situation to condemn themselves to years of prolonged
exile in an unhealthy climate for the benefit of posterity. We
are money-making, practical men. Our business is to make
money, as much and as fast as we can; and for this end, all
modes and means are good which the law permits.' My plain-
spoken friend quite convinced me I was losing time in any ef-
forts to stem the tide of land-jobbing and house-building for
Chinese tenants, who could be found to repay the capital of
land and house by a two or three years' rent; and so ended
my desire to continue the struggle, too evidently hopeless.
And as long as there is land still to be bought up, and room
to build more houses, and Great Britain supplies means of pro-
tection (barring now and then an uncomfortable panic of the
destruction of the whole by fire and pillage from the enemy
within the citadel),'all goes on as merry as a marriage bell.'
Successive merchants, clerks, and storekeepers—generations of
them, so to speak, come and disappear, stay their time of five
or ten years, and carry off a fortune, rejoicing in the Bourbon
consolation, aprhs moi le deluge! They have snatched wealth
out of the fire, and so may others after them, or, if not, tant
pis I The merchant feels he must be quick in a climate as try-
ing as that of China. He has to snatch a fortune from the
jaws of death, and, unless he make haste, it is more than prob-
able he will only dig his own grave, and be snatched away
himself. But, on the other hand, it must be confessed these
are conditions sadly adverse to any attempt on the part of con-
stituted authorities to provide for the future security and well-
being of a foreign settlement at the expense of the present,
however small this may be, or great and permanent the other.
I saw with the more satisfaction, therefore, that, despite of all
this, the Municipality, of which the foundations were laid in
my day, still survived as an institution, and, even under the
strain of an enormous increase of property and population, did
good service, though manifestly becoming inadequate to meet
the growing exigencies.
We left Shanghae for Nagasaki after a delay of some days,
having been detained by incessant rains, heavy enough even
to prevent coaling. When it rains in Shanghai, it does so in
earnest—sets all water-proof devices at naught, and reduces the
roads to a sea of mud, hardly passable except on stilts; a state
of things which materially diminishes any regret at leaving it.


Chap. I.]
THE FUTURE.
61
I could not help reflecting, as we steamed out of the Huang-po (the tributary river on which Shanghae is situated), that it
would not be among the least curious or important of the in-
cidental results attaching to the enlarged traffic and inter-
course even then rapidly developing between this port and
Japan, that chiefly by and through the Chinese ports (the more
nearly assimilated wants and tastes of the two races mainly
aiding, in combination with the activity, enterprise, and capi-
tal of British merchants), a great trade, opening up the re-
sources of both semi-secluded empires, should be developed.
This was no part of the original design of the Western Powers
in framing the recent treaties, but only thus was any foreign
trade in the first instance created and developed. A Chinese
trade with Japan already existed at Nagasaki, of very old date;
and though much diminished in value and importance, like the
Dutch, it still retained some vitality up to the date of the open-
ing of new ports under treaties. Wants had been created the
natural products of Japan could not (or did not) supply, for
which they had been accustomed therefore to look to a foreign
market; and thus the Japanese mind had been familiarized
with the idea at least that a foreign trade might exist with ad-
vantage to themselves. That the greater part of such Chinese
trade would pass into foreign hands, and ours more particu-
larly, might safely be predicted from the beginning. But this
carrying trade between China and Japan is not certainly the
commerce to which we more especially desired to open the
way by our treaty. Our aim and hope was to create a direct
trade, by the interchange of Japanese products with British
goods. Thus, as in a thousand instances, we are reminded of
'a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them how we will.'
What we have sought and striven for may, indeed, be ulti-
mately obtained; but neither in the way we looked for, nor
often with the results anticipated. The Chinese formed a nat-
ural, and, to all appearance, a necessary link in the first devel-
opment of any large trade between Europe and Japan, just as
India has long been a connecting link with China. So, pass-
ing from things temporal to those that are spiritual, may we
not yet find that Roman Catholicism will form the connecting
link between Paganism in its many idolatrous forms, and a
purer Protestantism? Though I feel this is dangerous ground,
and scarce know whether Romanists or Protestants would most
vehemently repudiate as injurious any inference that in the
ways of Providence either could be beholden to the other, or


62
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I.
the final propagation of Christianity among the heathen be de-
pendent upon an order of progression, still I have a strong con-
viction on the subject. The Jews, under an inspired leader,
did not emerge out of Egyptian idolatry into a pure Theism
without many intervening stages of progress; of semi-idolatry,
and assimilations to the ceremonial and material worship they
left behind. Man seems ill designed or constituted for such
sudden leaps from darkness into light; and all past missionary
experience, I think, goes far to enforce the unwelcome truth at
which I am glancing, that the abstract doctrines of a Protestant
faith find acceptance among a heathen and idolatrous race with
infinitely greater difficulty than Romanism. Such is certainly
the fact. It may admit of other and better explanation per-
haps, but this alone suggests itself to me as both adequate and
satisfactory. With one reflection more I take my leave of
China, which may one day exercise as much influence on the
Western world, and its relations with the Eastern races, as we
can ever hope to exercise on them. It has been ingeniously
remarked by Mr. Mill that the Chinese have succeeded beyond
all hope, in what English philanthropists of the present day are
so industriously working at, in making people all alike, all gov-
erning their thoughts and conduct by the same axioms and
rules. He goes on to say 'that the modern regime of public
opinion is, in an unorganized form, what the Chinese educa-
tional and political system are in an organized; and, unless in-
dividuality shall be able successfully to assert itself against this
yoke, Europe, notwithstanding its noble antecedents and its
professed Christianity, will tend to become another China.'
It is curious enough, that while all things tend to infuse into
the Chinese mind ideas of progress, of change, and develop-
ment, even at the price of great internal convulsions-and the
destruction of material interests, one of our most distinguished
writers should see, in the tendency of our own habits and edu-
cation, worldly and other, a retrograde action to the dead level
mediocrity and immobility of the Chinese mind! If so, the
two ends of the circle, traveling from opposite points, may ulti-
mately meet in Japan, which seems scarcely less profoundly
stirred up in its depths by the sudden contact of Europe than
China, but not so steadily bent on a collective mediocrity.
And now farewell to China. Its low, flat coast had long
been invisible when I left the deck; and the Yangtze no lon-
ger divided the blue waves of the open sea with its mud-
charged waters, yellow and turbid in their course for many a
mile. A fit symbol it seemed of the great empire through
which it takes its troubled way, bearing onward the disinte-


Chap. I.]
A PROBLEM.—PROGRESS.
63
grated fragments of a material creation fast passing away, to be
built up again, it may be, with new elements and in other forms.
The oldest empire will not last forever, any more than the hills
and mountains which this mighty river is slowly but surely
carrying into the depths of the sea. So I took my leave of
this empire of the' Lord of ten thousand isles,' one of the many
Oriental titles of the sovereign who reigns over China, but cer-
tainly does not govern. His overgrown family of four hund-
red millions of' black-haired children,' as he affectionately styles
them, have led their' father' an uneasy life for many long years
past. Nor can the wisest see the end of all the troubles which
distract the country, from the Great Wall to the borders of
Nepaul.
How far the closer contact of foreign nations, and the pres-
ence of their Representatives in Pekin, may influence the final
issue between the Emperor and his insurgent subjects, or help
to give the power now wanting to put down the wandering
hordes of banditti and malcontents with whom pillage is the
end, and political change only the pretext, is the problem now
waiting solution by the progress of events. 'Far Cathay,' an
appropriate title once, and no poetic fiction when Coleridge
wrote, has ceased to be applicable to the empire of' Kublai
Khan.' Steam and railroad have placed London and Canton
within six weeks of each other. It was but a few years since
I heard one of the East India Company's servants, who had
knelt in his youth before the throne of'Keenlung' (the late
emperor's grandfather), describe the long and weary twelve
months that used to elapse before they could hope to receive
an answer to their letters dispatched to Europe from Canton!
How their successors grumble now if the mail gun at Hong-
kong does not announce its arrival within forty-two days from
Marseilles! Fewer days nearly than, a century ago, it required
weeks. And more is yet promised. Soon the electric tele-
graph may flash intelligence from Pekin to St. James's in less
than as many hours, via Siberia and St. Petersburg. It is idle,
then, to talk of distance, the true measure of which is Time.
If it take longer to penetrate into the heart of' Old Castile'
than to reach Canton, we are to all intents nearer to the latter;
and Pekin is infinitely farther from Canton, than Canton itself
is from London, for access, traffic, or communication. This is
one of those suggestive facts, which appear full of promise, in
regard not only to the relations of Europe with China, but to
the destinies of the Chinese Empire and race, though pregnant
with change and not exempt from danger. It must needs be
so, whether Treaty Powers in their wisdom desire it or not.


64
[Chap. II.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
With or without their consent (it may well be without their
prescience), influences are already active calculated to bring
about great changes among the Chinese, and in their inter-
course with Western nations. And they are precisely the in-
fluences over which there is the least control to be exercised
by governments, even were they more clearly recognized.

CHINESE UNDER THE TARTAR DYNASTY.
CHAPTER n.
Voyage to Nagasaki.—Japan as it was, or a Glance at the Japanese Chron-
icles, and what they tell us.
Squalls and gales, with drenching rain, and a pitching sea
every now and then sweeping in at the stern-posts, if in a mo-
ment of misplaced confidence they had been opened for air and
light, were the chief incidents of the passage from China to
Japan; and this in the 'pleasant month of May'—a description
by no means applicable in these latitudes.
We see the land at last—a long sweep of coast with a bold
outline; but where? at what point? No sun for an observa-
tion from day to day; you may be near your port, but dare


Chap. II.]
BEACONS NEEDED..-. JAPAN.
66-
not run on in the night through a dense sea-fog; so the good
ship stops her course, and 'lies to' for the night. The next
morning finds you ' as you were,' wind 'dead ahead,' squalls
and rain or haze the only alternations, the sun your only hope
—and nothing apparently more hopeless than its appearance.
You console yourself by the reflection that a blanket is desir-
able at night, and a pea-jacket of the thicker sort an essential
by day. But how long it is to last no one can tell. To the
end of the wet season? As much time almost may be con-
sumed in going from Hongkong to Yeddo as is required to
reach China from England!
One of the first steps toward the opening of a direct trade
with Great Britain would seem to be a good survey of the
Japanese coasts, and the erection of light-houses or beacons;
some landmarks that may supply the place of an observation,
and enable the navigator, when he makes the coast, to tell his
whereabouts and how to shape his course. I made great ef-
forts immediately after my arrival to obtain the services of our
surveying ships in the China Seas; but the war and other cir-
cumstances prevented success until, in 1861, a beginning to sup-
ply the deficiency was made. Captain- Capella, of the Dutch
Navy, in command of H. N. M. S. the 'Balli,' had in the mean
time made a sort of commencement, by taking his ship through
the inland sea or strait stretching between the islands of Kiu-
sin, Sikok, and Nipon, and coasting round the latter to Hako-
dadi and Neeagata, the port on the west coast which by treaty
was to be opened to foreign trade on January 1,1861. His
report, however, only tended to show how great was the ne-
cessity of accurate surveys.
While thus 'lying to' in the trough of the Japanese Seas,
hoping against hope for better times and a glimpse of sunshine,
I tried to look into the sources of all our existing information
on the country and the people so long and successfully secluded
from the inquiring European, and soon now to be laid open to
all comers.
'To let the reader see Japan with the successive eyes of all
those who have visited it'—'Japan as it was and is,' the de-
clared object of more than one of the recent compilations on
Japan, is a very laudable one, no doubt, but who is to write
the book ?' Japan as it was and is' must obviously be for
other hands than those of writers who merely compile in New
York or London from what has been already written by the
few attaches of the Dutch factory, who at long intervals gave
to the public the results of their very limited opportunities of
personal observation. Something of what Japan is, and prom-


66
[Chap. II.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
ises to be in its connection with foreign nations, I hope to tell
as I go on; but, in the mean while, let me fill up the dreary
blank of a voyage to the coast, through mist, and rain, and baf-
fling winds, by a sketch of Japan and the Japanese, if not as
they were, at least as they appeared and have been already
painted by others, with more or less of accuracy, according to
their power and opportunities.
The sources from which such information is to be drawn are
not very numerous. The letters of some of the early Portu-
guese and Spanish missionaries before their final expulsion
from the country in 1642 ; the pilgrimages or voyages of vari-
ous navigators, compiled by Purchas, and embodying much of
the information accessible two centuries ago ; lastly, the con-
tributions from chiefs and medical officers of the Dutch factory,
complete the list. And the last of these were shut up in De-
cima, except during a journey every three or four years to the
capital, well guarded and caged in their 'norimons' or sedan-
chairs—cages, indeed, from the windows of which they might
obtain, if they could stoop low enough, a sort of telescopic
view of the country they were passing through. The writers
have generally been the medical men attached to the factory,
at intervals of half a century from each other. First Koemp-
fer, then Thunberg, and lastly Siebold, still living, and for some
time in the service of the Dutch Government—all foreigners,
Swedish or German.
Japan, as it appeared to them, in its government and insti-
tutions—no longer the New Atlantis which 'Marco Millione,'
of Venetian memory, had two centuries earlier invested with
strange' wealth of gold, and pearls, and precious stones'—was
still to them a land with a certain charm attaching to it, from
the mystery in which the governing powers enveloped both the
country and the people. Then, as more recently, there was a
strange proneness to look upon all they were allowed to see
through a screen and by stealth, as something wondrous and
Utopian. Here especially it seems to have been 'omne igno-
tum pro magnifico.' Like Don Quixote, whose imagination
invested a road-side inn, and its serving-wenches of question-
able repute, with "attributes of romance which left nothing to
be desired, writers on Japan have hitherto seen every thing
through highly colored glasses, and generally of a Claude Lor-
raine hue. They remind one of Dr. Pangloss, who ' likes every
thing and every body, and believes every thing is the very best,
in the best of all possible worlds.' Some difficulty may, there-
fore, naturally be looked for, in identifying the people and
scenes, when the hard, practical understanding of the nineteenth


Chap. II.] A STRAIGHTFORWARD COURSE BEST.
67
century is brought to bear on the same features and institu-
tions.
I felt we should soon be in the way of knowing in sober
truth this modern Utopia as it really is—how the Empire is
constituted and governed, how the people live, and work, and
trade; and, though last, not least, what they are likely to want
which Manchester or Birmingham can supply. What they
are in a position to give us in return was not the least inter-
esting part of the question, despite the phraseology of proto-
cols and treaties, and the ' disinterestedness' of Treaty Powers,
of which the less said the better perhaps. Nations do not gen-
erally go to the expense or trouble of making treaties without
a due regard to their own interests; and although we have
heard very recently of nations making war for an idea, it sel-
dom turns out to be an abstract idea, and is apt to take a very
solid form in the concrete.
Has the universal experience of mankind left this lesson yet
to be learned by any race or nation, East or West? I should
say, from no short experience of Eastern races, that these, of
all others, are least likely to be imposed upon by pretensions
to a disinterestedness that has no real existence, and that
sound policy would dictate a perfectly straightforward course
in all our dealings with them. We are too apt, perhaps, to
treat them as children, and tell them nursery stories, forgetting
that they have long outgrown the age when these are calcu-
lated to raise any thing but a smile of incredulity, and sink
deeper in their hearts a conviction of our want of truth and
honesty. Considering their natural tendency to distrust, this,
to say the least, is superfluous, and without much sense or wis-
dom to recommend it. Those who have lived longest in the
East, and had the largest intercourse with all ranks, best know,
perhaps, that the first element of success and influence, among
both rulers and people, is honesty of purpose—never belied by
evasion or subterfuge, but carried out with the courage that
dictates truth and even frankness, far oftener than the uniniti-
ated are willing to believe.
You tell an Eastern potentate or official that squadrons have
been put in motion, and ambassadors sent from the other side
of the globe in the purest disinterestedness, desiring only to
confer benefits, and enter into trade for their advantage, or the
advancement of civilization; and while he pays you back in
coin of the same alloy, always at his command, telling you ' so
it must be,'' for all men are brothers,' and the ' great Buddha,'
or'Fo,' or'Allah'is over all, he will bow or salaam you out,
with the profoundest contempt for your wisdom, in thinking
that he could be imposed upon by such transparent lies!


OS
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IL
It is to be hoped that we may teach the Japanese both to
respect and trust us by making no vain pretensions to this
apocryphal benevolence and disinterestedness in nations or in
governments. All permanent relations of amity between dif-
ferent countries must, in these days at least, be based on mu-
tual interests or advantages; and any attempt to build them
up, or sustain them on any other foundation than this, only
ends in failure.
History often furnishes plain lessons of morality as well as
policy to those who can read aright; but it is not often that
they are written in such clear and unmistakable characters as
those supplied by China and Japan. And, curiously enough,
there is between the two countries, isolated as they have al-
ways been from each other, but with which Europeans had
contemporaneously in the sixteenth century such free and cor-
dial intercourse, a parallelism so perfect, in all that took place
with each—in the events, their remote and immediate causes,
and the final effects, no less than in the periods and successive
phases—that it would almost seem as though the lesson to be
conveyed to mankind for all future time had been deemed too
important to be given only once, and was therefore twice re-
peated with different races, and under analogous conditions, to
make it more indelible and impressive. So let us turn over
the pages and read as we run, for the handwriting on the wall
of Belshazzar's palace was not more plain; and as the mist is
thickening around, and no land still can be seen, while a tum-
bling sea makes all efforts at the perpendicular vain and illu-
sory, we shall certainly have traversed the three centuries
which lie behind us before there is a chance of walking through
Nagasaki.
When the three Portuguese adventurers, under the guid-
ance of their Chinese-junk captain—without any credentials,
and all of doubtful antecedents—first made their appearance,
driven by stress of weather, rather than their own good will,
to an unknown coast, it proved to be that part of Japan own-
ing the sovereignty of the Prince of Bungo; and we find the
Japanese, though vigilant, manifested no reluctance to admit
the strangers. They showed them much kindness even, and
no obstacle was interposed to a free trade with the inhabitants,
in the interchange of such commodities as they had with them.
The natives and strangers were ultimately so well pleased with
each other that, by an arrangement with the Prince of Bungo,
a Portuguese ship was to be sent annually,' laden with woolen
cloths,furs, silks, taffetas, and other commodities needed by the
Japanese? This was the commencement of European inter-
course and trade, carrying us back to 1542-5.


Chap. II.]
PROGRESS OF ROMANISM.
60
A few years later, Hansiro, a Japanese noble, fled his coun-
try for 'an act of homicide' (having run some fellow-subject
through the body, no doubt), and took refuge in Goa. There
he was converted and baptized.
This proved the second link in the chain; for, being enter-
prising and shrewd, and animated probably with the hot zeal
of a new convert, he soon persuaded the merchants of Goa,
nothing loth we may imagine, that they might establish a
profitable trade with Japan, while to the Jesuit fathers he
promised a rich harvest of souls. He obviously preached to
willing ears in both directions, and foremost among his listen-
ers was the Jesuit apostle of the East, Francis Xavier, who had
recently arrived.
A ship was forthwith loaded with goods and presents where-
with to commence a permanent trade. For the accomplish-
ment of spiritual objects, Francis Xavier himself embarked
with the Japanese refugee, and a number of his order as mis-
sionaries. A goodly freight—Jesuit fathers to win souls—
merchants to make money: merchandise for the people and
their carnal wants—presents to propitiate the authorities—all
were duly provided; and thus auspiciously began this second
chapter.
On arriving at Bungo they were received with open arms,
and not the slightest opposition was made to the introduction
of either trade or religion. No system of exclusion then ex-
isted; and such was the spirit of toleration, that the Govern-
ment made no objection to the open preaching of Christianity.
Indeed, the Portuguese were freely permitted to go where
they pleased in the empire, and to travel from one end of it to
the other. 'The people freely bought the goods of the traders,
and listened to the teachings of the missionaries.'
And a little later we find it said that' if the feudal princes
were ever at any time ready to quarrel with the merchant, it
was because he would not come to their ports.' Passing on-
ward a few years, we find the Christianity of the Jesuit fathers
spreading rapidly and universally; princes and rulers, nobles
and plebeians, women and children, of all ranks and in large
numbers, embraced the faith. Churches, Hospitals, Convents,
and Schools, were scattered over the country. Intermarriages
between the Portuguese and wealthy Japanese were frequent.
So little had Christianity to fear from the disposition of the
governing powers, or the temper of the people, that the only
opposition they encountered in these early years of promise
and fruitful labor came from the Bonzes or native priesthood;
and they seem to have been powerless. For we read that,


70 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Cuai-. IE feeling their religion and influence discredited by the rapid
adoption of a rival and hostile creed, they appealed to the em-
peror ' to banish the Jesuit and Romish monks;' and it is re-
lated ' that, annoyed by their importunities, he asked them how
many different religions there were in Japan.' They answer-
ed 'thirty-five.' 'Well,' said the emperor, 'when thirty-five
religions can be tolerated, we can easily bear with thirty-six:
leave the strangers in peace' After forty years, the Roman Catholic faith was in such high
esteem, and had such undisputed possession of the field (no
Protestant element having at that time appeared on the scene),
that a Japanese embassy, composed of three princes, was sent
to Rome to Pope Gregory XIII., with letters and valuable pres-
ents. Their reception at Rome was not only magnificent, but
their whole progress through Spain and Italy was one contin-
ued ovation. 'A nation of thirty millions of civilized and in-
telligent people had been won from the heathen!' Great in-
deed was the joy and triumph; and this was the culminating
point of the Church's success.
In that same hour, while the artillery of St. Angelo, answered
by the guns of the Vatican, was thundering a welcome to the
Japanese ambassadors, an edict had gone forth from the Ku-
bo-sama, or sovereign lord of Japan, banishing all Catholic mis-
sionaries within six months, on pain of death; and ordering
all the crosses to be thrown down, and all the churches to be
razed to the ground.
When the Jesuit Superior, Pere Valignani, returned with
the ambassadors, after an absence of eight years (so long had
it taken to exchange amenities across distant seas and foreign
lands in those days), he found this edict in force, and partially
carried out. The old King of Bungo, the great protector of the Jesuits, was dead, his successor ill disposed. All their
Christian communities, schools, and hospitals had been sup-
pressed, and the missionaries dispersed, expelled, or forced
into concealment. There are few more striking examples of
the instability of human affairs; and it must have been a cruel
blow to Valignani, as the Superior of the Order, so long happy
and successful in all his efforts.
We enter on the third and last phase of this eventful history.
The first edict for the banishment of the missionaries was pub-
lished in June, 1587. All that follows is but a narrative of
partially interrupted persecutions, the decay of trade, increas-
ing restrictions, and at last the expulsion of all, amid scenes of
martyrdom and sweeping destruction. In the year 1635, the
Portuguese were shut up in Decima, and only allowed to trade


Chap. II.]
CHANGE OF POLICY.
71
there, amidst, it is said, the jeers and derision of their Dutch
rivals.
A year or two later, the fall of the last Christian strong-hold,
Simabara, battered in breach by the Dutch artillery, under
Kockebecker, marked the final catastrophe, and the close of
all relations but the miserable ones allowed to the Dutch fac-
tory, which an avenging Nemesis transferred to the prison
bounds of their ruined rivals in Decima. Since that date until
recent treaties were signed, no Japanese had been allowed to
leave his island home, nor foreigners to land. All who had
been cast on shore, or made the attempt, had either been killed
or imprisoned. Great must be the power wielded by the rul-
ers of this strange country, thus, for two centuries, to succeed
in preventing the departure of a single Japanese subject! Yet
such appears to be the fact, though before this edict they were
enterprising sailors, and, if we may believe the records of the
period, not only traded with the Indian archipelago, but even
extended their voyages as far as South America. Thus briefly
we have the whole history of European intercourse (for the
few attempts made by the British and French to take part
were too feeble and interrupted to be worthy of much note),
and two questions press themselves on the attention of all who
read. Whence the seemingly sudden and violent change in
the policy of the Japanese? And, was it sudden in reality, or
of slow and insidious growth—which only came suddenly upon
Europeans, because they blinded themselves to the signs of
change and indications of danger, otherwise plainly enough
to be discerned, had any one looked with clear and intelligent
eye?
The accounts of the period are full of details of feuds between
the different monastic orders; of the pride, avarice, and over-
bearing arrogance of the priests; the overreaching and insa-
tiable cupidity of the Portuguese and Spanish merchants,
which latter charges are not even limited to the laymen. But,
admitting all these causes to have been in operation, and ex-
ercising the influence which belongs to them, it is impossible
to doubt that other and more profound causes of distrust and
dissatisfaction chiefly moved Taiko-sama, when laying the
foundation of his usurped empire, to irreconcilable enmity, di-
rected more especially, if not altogether and exclusively, against
the Padres of every order, and their converts. One cause of
such enmity lies, indeed, on the surface.
The great success of the Jesuits and missionaries of various
monastic orders had been based, in part at least, on the shift-
ing sands of political favor and influence with the feudatory


72 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II.
princes in their several territories; a turbulent race, as was
the same class in the days of the early French and English
kings: not always at peace with each other, and often in league
against their Suzerain. One of the most obvious conditions
of strength to the latter was the abasement and weakening
of the nobles. Taiko-sama, in order to strengthen and render
hereditary his sovereign power, necessarily therefore set him-
self to this task, as did Louis XL, and, later, Richelieu and
Louis XIV., in France.
Whatever was identified with the Feudal chiefs could not
fail to share the fate of an order doomed to destruction or hu-
miliation. While the Jesuit, therefore, sought to promote the
objects of his mission by favor of princes and court influence,
and, for a time, reaped great fruit therefrom, these same. Feu-
datory princes were looking to force and intrigue to advance
their own interests, and uphold their cause against an ambitious
and successful general, who had seized the quasi sceptre. That
both the princes and their proteges, the missionaries, should be
involved in a common ruin, was in the nature of things to be
expected, and indeed inevitable. If one feudatory princes pro-
tected Christianity, it was equally open to his successor or rival
to attack and persecute it. The spiritual guide who had put
his trust in Princes and the Sword, found all the aid of. man
impotent to save when the hour of trial and persecution came.
They had built upon a mundane foundation with the aid of
sword and buckler, and by the same was their ruin effected.
But beneath all this lay other causes, wider and more pene-
trating, as well as more permanent in their influence. Another
and far more fatal element of destruction had been slowly but
surely preparing the way for the final catastrophe from the be-
ginning—undermining the very ground upon which the whole
spiritual edifice was built, whether Jesuit or Augustinian, Fran-
ciscan or Dominican, Spaniard or Portuguese, fashioned the
walls.
The determining cause of the downfall and utter destruc-
tion of the Roman Church in Japan is to be sought in the pre-
tension to a spiritual supremacy, which is but another name for
the monopoly of power, since all that is political or secular
must bow to God's viceregent on earth, who claims the right
to bind and to loosen, to absolve subjects of their oath and
fealty, and dethrone kings by his edict. This pretension to
supremacy and papal infallibility—to a power as unlimited as
it is irresponsible—has been woven into the very texture and
fabric of the Church of Rome, and has long been considered
inseparable from it.


Chap. II.] LEGACIES FROM THE PAST.
13
The Japanese rulers, who during nearly fifty years success-
ively never relaxed in their policy to extirpate out of the land
all trace of the missionaries and their teaching, and were de-
terred by no difficulties, no sacrifice of life or commercial ad-
vantages, and never stopped until their object was finally ac-
complished, clearly saw that between them and such teachers
there could be neither peace nor truce. The two systems were
necessarily antagonistic and mutually destructive. The Siogun
must veil his power to the higher pretensions of the Pope and
the priests; hold it from their hands, liable to be dispossessed
at their pleasure, or be engaged in interminable conflict, all the
more dangerous that spiritual weapons could be brought to
bear, as well as the arm of flesh, by his adversaries of the cowl
and rosary. Taiko-sama, a man of no ordinary gifts apparent-
ly, who first engaged in a war to the death, and issued the
edict of extermination, must indeed have been something more
than dull not to have his doubts raised and his worst conclu-
sions verified by the tenor of the letters to the Pope, given by
the three Feudal princes to their ambassadors.
Hear how they run. Thus writes the Prince of Bungo:
'To him who ought to be adored and who holds the place
of the King of Heaven, the great and very holy Pope;' and,
in the body of the letter, he continues in the same strain:
'Your holiness (who holds the place of God on earth).'
The King of Arima addressed himself 'to the very great
and holy lord whom I adore, because he holds on earth the
place of God himself.'
The Prince of Omara goes, if possible, farther: 'With hands
raised toward heaven, and sentiments of profound admiration,
I adore the most holy Pope, who holds the place of God on
earth.'
With what feelings must Taiko-sama have spelled over these
acts of homage to an alien sovereign by three of the leading
feudatory princes of the empire, when the death of Nobunan-
ga in 1582, the sovereign friend of the missionaries, threw the
reins of power into his hands? There is an absurd story told
of the Shogun's jealousy having first been roused by the indis-
creet answer of a Spaniard, who, on being asked how his mas-
ter had managed to possess himself of half the world, replied:
'He commenced by sending priests, who win over the people,
and, when this is done, his troops are dispatched to join the
Christian, and the conquest is easy and complete.' I say it is
absurd, because, in the first place, the account of the process
then in vogue is much too near the truth to have been openly
told by one of the chief agents; and, next, it was too palpably


Chap. II.]
WARNINGS FOR THE FUTURE.
15
If these matters regarded only the past, I should scarcely
have introduced the subject. But, in plain truth, they are
things which have sprung again into life under recent treaties
—actualities which we must be prepared to meet face to face,
and from day to day, contributing as they will in no slight de-
gree to the difficulties and complications naturally to be antic-
ipated in the renewal of long-interrupted relations, between
two races so entirely distinct as the European and Japanese,
and one of these so long in hostile isolation.
As to the leading causes, in mercantile affairs, of deprecia-
tion and injury, which two centuries ago may have helped the
religious grounds of quarrel, instead of forming, as they might
and ought to have formed, a counterpoise to stay the relentless
march of persecution, little more need be said. Inordinate
cupidity, an overreaching spirit of gain, not content with fair
and mutually advantageous terms of exchange, may make a
few men suddenly rich, but never can build up a permanent
trade of national importance. More than this, it is very evi-
dent no trade can assume those characters of largeness and
permanence with mutual benefit in the results (all conditions
essential to the development of national commerce), where one
of the countries must pay for all its imports in the precious
metals. Gold and silver may well be treated as commodities
in the commerce of European nations, because, though some
imports may, by each, be paid for in the precious metals, the
bulk taken will always be in exchange for a native produce;
while some of this, in turn, may be bought by other countries
for gold, and thus any great drain or displacement of gold and
silver is prevented. It has not hitherto, or always been so, in
the dealings of Western countries with the East. This 'leak-
ing out' of the silver in China, of the 'bones and marrow of
the land' in Japan (to use their own characteristic phraseolo-
gy), has in each country raised a strong feeling of hostility to
all foreign trade among the ruling classes in both. The expe-
rience of the past, therefore, seems strongly to enforce this one
lesson, that if we would see foreign trade popular in Japan,
and placed under conditions of healthy development, we must
find among their raw or manufactured products other articles
of exchange than the precious metals. The quantities of these
reported to have been shipped by the Portuguese, and later
by the Dutch in the old period, is something incredible. They
were enormous, however, beyond doubt, and furnish a plain
proof, first, that there must have been large and productive
mines, and, next, that a very disproportionate value must have
been exacted for the European goods. The large and increas-


76
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II.
ing drain on the precious metals, coupled with the small re-
turns in European fabrics, there can be no question, must have
greatly disgusted the Japanese, rendered foreign trade unpop-
ular, and formed the fittest preparation for the edict closing the
country to foreigners altogether. Thus it is that by an over-
reaching spirit we 'o'erleap and fall on t'other side.' Where
individuals are allowed to seek their own profit per fas et ne-
fas, it needs no prophet to tell that the ruin of all who come
after them is the only end that can be anticipated. One set
of traders may be enriched, but a nation requires that the
goose which lays the golden eggs should not be killed for the
purpose, but sedulously nurtured and cared for, in the interest
of succeeding generations. Fortunately, one rock on which
all the traders of a former time in Japan made wreck has been
removed out of their path. Merchants of different countries
may indeed vilify each other as in olden times, if it pleases
them, unwarned by the obvious depreciation of all, which was
the only final result; but there is some consolation in the
thought that the strongest motive for such a line of action is
removed. Monopolies of the trade of any country are happily
no longer possibilities, and only to be numbered with things
of the past, which no blindness of the many or selfishness of
the few can ever resuscitate. Moreover, in the present day
competition secures even the less civilized of Eastern races
from Western greed and extortionate prices. Nor are they
in danger now of taking more of our manufactures than we
are willing to take of their produce. The balance of trade is
likely to be quite the other way at first, if not for a long period
to come.*
In glancing over the history of the Past, one can not avoid
being struck with the important part which accidents, and cir-
cumstances often seemingly the most fortuitous and trivial,
played in the first discovery of Japan, no less than its subse-
quent relations with Europe.
To Marco Paolo's imprisonment at Genoa, after his return
* This has been abundantly verified in the course of the three years past.
The Japanese have bought little—next to nothing—and that little only in
exchange. The foreign trade of a million sterling annually which has been
created, has consisted chiefly of exports of Japanese produce, Silk and Tea,
the greater part of which has been paid for in silver, imported into the coun-
try for that purpose, in the absence of any considerable demand for Euro-
pean manufactures. Precisely the same results are to be seen in the For-
eign trade with China of late years, notwithstanding the vast increase in
the import of opium, from 7000 chests to 70,000 in less than a quarter of a
century. We take twice as much tea and silk as they are willing to take of
manufactured goods and opium combined.



Cuaf. H.] ACCIDENTS AND DESTINIES.
from China, we owe the stirring narrative which, 200 years
later, fired the imagination of Columbus, and sent him west-
ward in quest of new worlds. And thus to dreams of Japan
we are indebted in no small degree for the discovery of Amer-
ica in the sixteenth century! To a half piratical, half trading
expedition of three Portuguese adventurers in a Chinese junk,
driven they knew not whither by stress of weather, is due the
first discovery of Japan itself; and to the escape of Hansiro,
and the 'homicide' which was the cause of his flight, the first
introduction of Christianity is to be traced. Finally, to Will
Adams's imprisonment in the cells of Lisbon, and his frequent
colloquy with fellow-prisoners (Portuguese sailors who had
been in Japan), the Dutch and English are both indebted for
their first introduction, and commencement of commercial re-
lations with the country. Not only accidents, but crime, per-
sonal misfortunes and calamities, homicide, and imprisonment,
seem to have played by far the most important part, and to
have been the very pivots on which great events, entirely hid-
den from the actors—were made to turn. They were blind
carvers of a nation's destiny, when most exclusively bent on
fashioning their own.
One more noteworthy fact and strange coincidence before I
try again to peer through mist and rain for the long-desired
shores of Nagasaki Bay, while Simabara, the tomb of Christi-
anity in Japan, is close at hand, suggesting the coincidence in
question. In that same year, when the last of the Roman
Catholic converts were buried under the ruins of the captured
city, or hurled from the rocky islet of Pappenberg, in the Bay
of Nagasaki, a few exiles landed at Plymouth, in the newly-
discovered continent, where they were destined to plant the
seeds of a Protestant faith, and a great Protestant empire.
Thus strangely, the same era which saw thousands of converts
to that Church from which those Pilgrim Fathers had seceded
martyrized, and the Romanist faith trampled out with unspar-
ing violence on one side of the globe, marked the foundations
of a Protestant Church in the other hemisphere, destined rap-
idly to spread the Gospel over a whole continent. And it was
the descendants of these same Pilgrim Fathers who, two cen-
turies later in the cycle of events, were the first among West-
ern nations to supply the link of connection wanted—to bring
the lapsed heathen race once more within the circle of Chris-
tian communion, and invite them anew to take their place in
the family of civilized nations.
A century after the final expulsion of foreigners we may see
how Japan and its people, their customs and institutions, ap-


78
[Chap. II.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
peared to a man of intelligence and observation, by taking the
Swedish physician, Thunberg, for our guide. Fresh from a
country in Europe—Sweden—where feudal institutions were
still in force, he would seem to have been peculiarly well fitted
t o enter into the spirit and meaning of the fundamental axioms
of the Japanese Government. Yet, if we are to credit Thun-
berg (and as to the reality of the impressions there is no room
for doubt), things seemingly similar, so far from appearing to
him to produce like results, wrought only oppression and wrong
in Sweden; and in Japan, the perfection of order, law, and jus-
tice! Discontent and attempts at revolution in the one; so-
cial order, peace, and prosperity in the other. Let us listen to
him, long after he had got over the first salutations of the little
nudities in the streets of Nagasaki, taking him for a Dutchman,
and expressing their wonder at the large round eyes of the
European by crying after him 'Hollande Ome!' which sounds
very like the sort of slang facetiousness not unfamiliar to the
juvenile members of our own street populations. Long after
these first facts and impressions had been tempered and cor-
rected by after knowledge, he tells his readers that'Japan is
in many respects a singular country, and, with regard to cus-
toms and institutions, totally different from Europe, or, I had al-
most said, from any other part of the world. Of all the na-
tions that inhabit the three largest parts of the globe, the Jap-
anese deserve to rank the first, and to be compared with the
Europeans; and although in many points they must yield the
palm to the latter, yet in various other respects they may with
great justice be preferred to them. Here, indeed, as well as in
other countries, are found both useful and pernicious establish-
ments, both rational and absurd institutions; yet still we must
admire the steadiness which constitutes the national character,
the immutability which reigns in the administration of their
laws and in the exercise of their public functions, the unwea-
ried assiduity of this nation to do and to promote what is use-
ful, and a hundred other things of a similar nature.' 'That so
numerous a people as this should love so ardently and so uni-
versally (without even a single exception to the contrary) their
native country, their Government, and each other—that the
whole country should be, as it were, inclosed, so that no native
can get out nor foreigner enter in without permission—that
their laws should have remained unaltered for several thou-
sand (hundred?) years, and that justice should be administer-
ed without partiality or respect of persons—that the govern-
ments can neither become despotic nor evade the laws in or-
der to grant pardons or do other acts of mercy—that the mon-


Chap. II.]
JAPAN SEEN BY THUNBERG.
19
arch and all his subjects should be clad alike in a particular
national dress — that no fashions should be adopted from
abroad, nor new ones invented at home—that no foreign war
should have been waged for centuries past—that a great vari-
ety of religious sects should live in peace and harmony togeth-
er—that hunger and want should be almost unknown, or at
least known but seldom—all this must appear improbable, and
to many as impossible as it is strictly true, and deserving of
the utmost attention.'
Certainly, of the whole catalogue of wonderful conditions
presented by this view of the Japanese people and Govern-
ment, the most extraordinary and marvelous to Europeans
must be the last two: a great variety of religious sects living
together in harmony, and hunger and famine almost unknown
in a nation of thirty millions or more, inhabiting a set of isl-
ands not larger than Great Britain and Ireland, and in some-
thing like the same geographical position.
And nowhere should such a state of things appear more en-
viable than in England, where we are too much open, perhaps,
to Voltaire's reproach of building 'palaces for our felons and
prisons for our poor.' If the secret by which such admirable
effects as Thunberg describes are secured could only be com-
municated, what country is there in Europe that would not be
better for knowing it? What a blessing the secret of relig-
ious harmony would be to many countries from Syria to Spitz-
bergen! All the other good things enumerated sink into a
wholly secondary rank by the side of these. And yet what
farther blessings are combined in the uniform administration
of laws and justice (exchangeable terms, it seems, in Japan),
undeviating uniformity of costume, absence of all foreign wars
and intestine feuds, of foot soldiers and income-tax, with the
crowning gift of food to the poor, who always get their bellies
full! These are miracles which, to see repeated in old En-
gland and Ireland, might well repay an expedition even to Ja-
pan 'beyond the farthermost end of Asia to the East.'
But Thunberg has more to tell us. 'If the laws in this
country are rigid, the police are equally vigilant, while disci-
pline and good order are scrupulously observed. The happy
consequences of this are extremely visible and important, for
hardly any country exhibits fewer instances of vice. And as
no respect whatever is paid to persons, and at the same time
the laws preserve their pristine and original purity, without
any alterations, explanations, and misconstructions, the sub-
jects not only imbibe, as they grow up, an infallible knowl-
edge of what ought or ought not to be done, but are likewise


80
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. It
enlightened by the example and irreproachable conduct of
their superiors in age.'
'Most crimes are punished with death, a sentence which is
inflicted with less regard to the magnitude of the crime than
to the audacity of the attempt to transgress the hallowed laws
of the empire, and to violate justice, which, together with relig-
ion, they consider as the most sacred things in the whole land.
Fines and pecuniary mulcts they regard as equally repugnant
to justice and reason, as the rich are thereby freed from all
punishment, a procedure which appears to them the height of
absurdity.'
'In the towns it often happens that the inhabitants of a
whole street are made to suffer for the malpractice of a single
individual, the master of a house for the faults of his domes-
tics, and parents for those of their children, in proportion to
the share they may have had in the transaction. In Europe,
which boasts a purer religion and a more enlightened philoso-
phy, we very rarely see those punished who have debauched and
seduced others, never see parents and relatives made to suffer
for neglecting the education of their children and kindred, at
the same time that these heathens see the justice and proprie-
ty of such punishment.'
True, there is a slight shadow to this brilliant tableau. The
prisons, we are told, in this paradise of law and justice are,' as
in most others, gloomy and horrid; the rooms are, however,
kept clean and wholesome, and consist of an apartment for the
trial by torture, and another for private executions, besides a
kitchen, a dining-room, and a bath!'
A strange juxtaposition this, of rooms for torture and death,
with such ample provision for the creature comforts in a kitch-
en and dining-room, and even for luxury in a bath! But we
were warned in the beginning that we should find Japan in
many respects a singular country.
Nearly a century later an American went over some of the
same ground, and with Republican notions he supplies us with
the other side of the medal. The working of their much-ad-
mired institutions does not appear to Commodore Perry's his-
torian altogether so commendable. Here is the opinion at
length of the practical American who looked to final effects
principally.
'The sitter is the same, and, what is more, he sits on his
heels to-day just as his grandfather did to Thunberg, yet it is
hard to see any points of resemblance, a lesson to all theolo-
gians and politicians who still indulge the dream that uniform-
ity of opinion on the plainest matters of fact and observation


(Chap. II.]
AMERICAN VIEWS OF JAPAN.
81
can ever be attained among men, however honest and consci-
entious they may be in their efforts after unity. The Chinese
proverb with more wisdom declares," Truth is one, but opin-
ions are many."
'All officials serve in pairs, as spies upon each other, and
this pervades the entire polity of Japan. It is a government
of espionage. Every body is watched. No man knows who
are the secret spies around him, even though he may be and is
acquainted with those that are official. The emperors them-
selves are not exempt; governors, grand councilors, vassal
princes, all are under the eye of an everlasting unknown police.
This wretched system is even extended to the humblest of the
citizens. Every town is divided into collections of five fami-
lies, and every member of such a division is personally respon-
sible for the conduct of the others; every thing which occurs,
therefore, out of the ordinary course in any one of these, is in-
stantly reported by the other four, to save themselves from
censure. The Ziogoon has his minions about the Mikado, and
the Grand Council have theirs about the Ziogoon. And the
cowardice engendered by such ceaseless distrust necessarily leads to cruelty in penalties. When an official has offended,
or even when in his department there has been any violation
of law, although beyond his power of prevention, so sure is he
of the punishment of death, that he anticipates it by ripping
up his own body, rather than be delivered over to the exe-
cutioner, and entailing disgrace and ruin on all his family.
There can not, under such a system, be any thing like judicious
legislation founded on inquiry, and adapted to the ever-vary-
ing circumstances of life. As Government functionaries, they
lie and practice artifice to save themselves from condemnation
by the higher powers: it is their vocation. As private gentle-
men, they are frank, truthful, and hospitable.'
These facts present a seeming anomaly, and yet I am not
sure that something very like it, and differing only in degree,
may not be found nearer home. The severity of the Japanese
laws is excessive, the code is probably the bloodiest in the
world, for death is the penalty of most offenses. But the Jap-
anese seem to proceed on the principle that he who violates
one law will violate any other, and that the willful violator is
unworthy to live. Does not the religion of the Gospel teach
something very like it ?" Verily, I say unto you, he who is
guilty of the least of these is guilty of all."
A still more recent American writer supplies another esti-
mate of what may be the value of these Utopian institutions,
though his field of observation seems to have been limited to
D2


8-2
[Chap. II.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
Nagasaki, where Foreign civilization and Chinese combined
(for a colony of the latter exists there) seem already to have
mingled in no purifying streams with native sources; and, as
he modestly observes,' a residence of five weeks is an imper-
fect qualification for descanting on the character of a people.'
It is quite true, however, that to an intelligent observer there
are some features visible at a glance from which inferences
may very justly be drawn. Among these he mentions,' Crimes
against property are not frequent, being repressed evidently by
a strong and almost omniscient Government, yet street broils
are of common occurrence. The people seem well to do and
contented, yet mendacity and drunkenness are far from being
rare. Woman appears to hold a higher rank in this than in
any Asiatic country, yet prostitution is fostered by Govern-
ment and approved by moralists.'
Of the higher arcana and machinery of Government, so much
lauded by our optimist Thunberg, Dr. Macgowan, his American
confrere of a later century, takes another' stand-point of view,'
and of necessity a different impression is the result.
'There has been effected here what priestcraft and kingcraft
nearly attained with us, and, by a singular coincidence, at the
time when Western Europe was in course of emancipation,
Eastern Asia was being brought into servitude not less effi-
cient than that which menaced our fathers. Espionage accom-
plishes what the confessional aims at. Yet the system of es-
pionage, an abomination to foreigners, loses much of its repul-
siveness when viewed from a Japan stand-point. It is only
carrying to an extreme the justly-lauded censorate of China.
Espionage performs the functions of a press. It exercises a
wholesome restraint upon delegated powers, sitting light upon
intelligent and upright officers, who regard these spies with no
more disfavor than our treasurers their auditors. How much
misery would be averted from China if the Imperial Govern-
ment were cognizant of official misdemeanors in the provinces.
Nearly all the maladies of that empire may be ascribed to the
ignorance in which the Sovereign is kept of what transpires
beyond the precincts of the palace. Japan, it must be confess-
ed, furnishes the best apology for despotism that the world af-
fords. The Government is omniscient, and consequently strong
and stable. The bondage is absolute and pressing on all sides
alike; society is scarcely conscious of its existence.'
Pretty well this in the way of approval from a citizen of the
'free and enlightened republic' He finds espionage effects
'what the confessional only aims at'—it performs 'the func-
tions of the press'—' it exercises a wholesome restraint upon


Chap. II.] JAPANESE AGRICULTURE.
83
delegated powers—sits lightly upon intelligent and upright of-
ficersy But, for such results, the writer seems to forget it is
essential that this secret and irresponsible power should be
righteously exercised. This is an inseparable condition of any
wholesome restraint or of espionage sitting lightly, and a con-
dition that has not hitherto been realized in the history of the
world in connection with such functions.
On the contrary, the world's experience seems to have es-
tablished as a universal truth the fact, however unsuspected by
the learned doctor, that personal liberty, security, and inde-
pendence can not exist side by side with a system of secret po-
lice. Stranger still, he seems to have no suspicion that of the
many evils which can befall a nation, perhaps the worst is a
system of government which sows distrust between man and
man, deprives the subject of a manly sense of self-respect, and
builds up its own security on the rotten foundation of a de-
grading and demoralizing betrayal of the secrets of every fam-
ily hearth. If ignorance of the misdeeds of subordinates or
men in office be the source of one kind of evil, a Republican
might have guessed that the knowledge which is derived from
the venal informer is in itself a more frightful malady than any
amount of ignorance in a government, seeing that spies habit-
ually invent more than they ever discover.
But we will return to our Swedish doctor. When speaking
of the agriculture of the Japanese, he draws a vivid picture of
the happy state of Japan compared with his own country:
* Agriculture is in the highest esteem with the Japanese, in-
somuch that (the most barren and untractable mountains ex-
cepted) one sees here the surface of the earth cultivated all
* over the country, and most of the mountains and hills up to
their very tops. Neither rewards nor encouragements are
necessary in a country where the tillers of the ground are con-
sidered as the most useful class of citizens (he can not be al-
luding to the vexed question of agricultural prizes in our day),
and where they do not groan under various oppressions which
in other countries have hindered, and ever must hinder, the
progress of agriculture. The duties paid by the farmer of his
corn in kind are indeed very heavy, but in other respects he
cultivates his land with greater freedom than the lord of a
manor in Sweden. He is not hindered two days together at a
time, in consequence of furnishing relays of horses, by which he
perhaps earns a groat, and often returns with the loss of his
horses; he is not dragged from his field and plow to transport
a prisoner or a deserter to the next castle; nor are his time
and property wasted in making roads, building bridges, alms-


84
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II.
houses, parsonage-houses, and magazines. He knows nothing
of the impediments and inconveniences which attend the main-
tenance and equipments of horses and foot soldiers. And what
contributes still more to his happiness, and leaves sufficient
scope for his industry in cultivating his land, is this, that he
has only one master, viz., his feudal lord, without being under
the command of a host of masters, as with us. No parceling
out of the land forbids him to improve to the least advantage
the portion he possesses, and no right of commonage, belong-
ing to many, prevents each from deriving profit from his share.
All are bound to cultivate their land; and if a husbandman
can not annually cultivate a certain portion of his fields, he for-
feits them, and another who can is at liberty to cultivate them.
Meadows are not to be met with in the whole country; on the
contrary, every spot of ground is made use of either for corn-
fields or else for plantations of esculent-rooted vegetables, so
that the land is neither wasted upon extensive meadows for
the support of cattle and saddle-horses, nor upon large and un-
profitable plantations of tobacco (they grow tobacco, neverthe-
less), nor is it sown with seed for any other still less necessary
purpose, which is the reason that the whole country is very
thickly inhabited and populous, and can without difficulty give
maintenance to all its innumerable inhabitants.'
It is obvious that our Swedish observer had one eye on his
native land and its abuses, and another on the country he thus
so highly extols; and that he was moreover an out-and-out
utilitarian, in the sense of those who regard the meat and
drink of the body as the great or sole end for which the many
labor on this earth. He goes on to describe the minute and
elaborate care bestowed on the manuring of the soil, to make it so productive of corn and esculent-rooted vegetables, to the
exclusion of the green meadow and the pleasant copse; and
the process so carefully described confirms the impression con-
veyed by what goes before, that Japan would be a very good
country to be fed in, but those who live in it ought not to have
noses as well as mouths, or be in any way endowed with ol-
factory nerves.
The cultivator, in giving himself'the disgusting trouble of
mixing up manure of man and beast till it becomes a perfect
hodge-podge,' must be, upon the whole, a cause of considerable
disgust to every body else, if not to himself. And the process
described—pouring the contents of the manure-pails by a ladle
upon the plant when it is about six inches high, by which it
receives the whole benefit of it, at the same time that the liq-
uor penetrates immediately to the root'—may be very advan-


Chap. II.] AGRICULTURE.—POETRY.
85
tageous to the growth of said six-inch high plant, but hardly
accords with any delicacy of taste. Some people might object
to asparagus or lettuce thus brought to perfection, and find
their pleasure of eating it sadly interfered with by a certain
association of ideas, foolish enough no doubt, but very difficult
to be got rid of. In other respects, to those who do not care
to eat vegetables at all, but have some pleasure in green fields
and fresh air, there is a serious drawback. He somewhere
else alludes to the numerous receptacles made for preserving
the odious compounds until wanted 'on the highways at fre-
quent intervals,' which, he admits, renders the roads them-
selves impassable to people afflicted with the sense of smell,
and must make it a work of considerable difficulty to get a
fresh walk from one end of the land to the other, unless it be
on the edge of the craters. After I had resided some time in
Japan, I found both the disagreeables and advantages required
to be restated, with certain modifications. Except in spring,
during the months of March and April, there is little in the
manuring to complain of. How this is managed I can not tell,
for all exercise in the country in China, throughout the year,
had this terrible drawback attached to it. On the other hand,
either from the too great supply of manure to the soil, or oth-
er causes—perhaps perpetuating the same seeds and plants
without change—all their vegetables are either rank or taste-
less, and their fruit is no better. As it is never allowed to
ripen, however, it is difficult to say what it might be under
more natural conditions! Still, my latest conclusion justifies
my early impression that, as Chloe in the' Minister's Wooing'
declares in a higher matter, there is a mistake somewhere, and
the result is that in one of the most beautiful and fertile coun-
tries in the whole world the flowers have no scent, the birds
no song, and the fruit and vegetables no flavor! One of my
colleagues gave the characteristics of the country in another
triology, which I am bound to say was not inferior in accuracy,
if less poetical. 'Women wearing no crinoline, houses harbor-
ing no bugs, and the country no lawyers.' The last is perhaps
the most astonishing of the whole.
Thunberg complains that the fields are so completely clear-
ed, that the most sharp-sighted botanist would scarcely be able
to discover a single plant of any other species among the corn 1
Yet he contends they are a poetical people. 'Poetry,' he
says,' is a favorite study with this nation.' The way in which
they cultivate their cabbages would not have led one to this
conclusion, perhaps. But they are not quite as bad as they
are painted, for weeds flourish at Nagasaki as elsewhere, and
wild flowers too!


86
[Chap. III.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
This was about the sum of the information extracted from
my authorities, ancient or modern, in respect to the country
and its institutions I was so soon to examine for myself. I
have thought it might not be useless, or prove uninteresting to
general readers to have, at a single glance, a resume of our
previous knowledge of the Japanese. More especially did this
seem desirable, as from these same sources Europe derived the
Utopian views of Japan long prevalent, and destined to be
somewhat rudely destroyed upon closer acquaintance.
CHAPTER in.
First Impressions.—Nagasaki.
First impressions of a country so little known can not al-
ways be correct, yet, if faithfully given, they may still be worth
recording. Our first impressions of those we meet in society
may not do justice to all their latent good qualities; we may
very much exaggerate that which is unprepossessing in ap-
pearance—conceive unreasonable dislike to what is contrary to
our own habits and associations, and for no better reason than
such contradiction—and, upon the whole, do them great injus-
tice. Nevertheless, there is an instinctive trust in the accuracy
and truthfulness of these. Estimates of character, made upon
farther acquaintance, often prove less trustworthy; and this, I
think, may be very satisfactorily accounted for. Familiarity
blunts our power of perception as to what is really distinctive,
and personal interest, as well as partial knowledge, alike tend
to mislead or pervert the judgment. That which is most
characteristic catches the eye best at first sight, whether the
natural features of a landscape, the carriage and bearing of an
individual, or national life and customs be the subject of ob-
servation.
I was not deterred, therefore, on arriving at Nagasaki, from
reading as I ran, and noting my impressions too, by the fear
that I might fall into some involuntary error as to the right in-
terpretation of all that I saw. What we gain in accuracy by
a more cautious method, we are likely to miss in freshness and
graphic power, even if we do not lose all interest in the sub-
ject, when it has grown hackneyed by long familiarity. I
give, therefore, from a few notes made on the spot, some of
my first impressions, together with the corrections suggested
by later information.


Chap. III.]
ENTRANCE OF THE BAY.
The 4th of June, of pleasant memory to Etonians, opened the
port of Nagasaki to our rain-drenched party. It has often been
described by recent travelers, and even under a cloudy sky the
entrance was not devoid of beauty. Island after island comes
into view as the bay is entered, many very picturesque in form.

NAGASAKI HARBOR.
As the ship moves farther up the bay, the town of Nagasaki is
seen lying at the farther end, clustering at the foot of a range
of hills, and creeping no inconsiderable distance up the wooded
sides. Decima, to the right, fixes the eye—a low, fan-shaped
strip of land, dammed out from the waters of the bay, the han-
dle being toward the shore, and truncated. One long wide
street, with two-storied houses on each side, built in European
style, gives an air of great tidiness; but they looked with large
hollow eyes into each other's interiors, in a dismal sort of way,
as if they had been so engaged for six generations at least, and
were quite weary of the view. A conscious sense of the inev-
itable monotony of a life passed within its boundaries leaves
one little disposed to admire even the trimness and cleanliness
of all around. But the view from the Dutch Commissioner's
residence, with its quaint Japanese garden and fine sweep down


88
[Chap. III.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
the bay toward the entrance, is very charming. As I stood for
a few minutes alone on the balcony, there flitted before me a
vision of the sort of life these indomitable representatives of
the Great Batavian Republic must have led. I saw the soli-
tary chiefs of the factory, the Heeren Waardenaar, Doeff, Tit-
singh, etc., in long succession, taking up their prison station in
rotation, and looking forth upon the fair bay, with which their
sight alone might be gladdened. How often must the occu-
pants of this lone post have strained their eyes to the entrance,
hoping and looking in vain for the solitary ship bringing tid-
ings from Europe and home at far-off intervals? Of a truth
it must have been a trying life to the most phlegmatic Dutch-
man that ever drew smoke and consolation from a meerschaum.
And they held to this foot of earth with desperate tenacity,
nothing daunted by a prison life, and such a series of vexations
and indignities as only an Oriental race, like the Chinese or
Japanese, could have the ingenuity to devise, or the patience to
put into execution for two centuries without cessation or inter-
mission. When politicians of a certain school would advocate
unlimited submission and conciliation in our dealings with East-
ern nations, and the Chinese and Japanese especially, one could
wish they would take the trouble to read, in the history of
Dutch relations, what such policy, carried out unswervingly to
the utmost, led to in Japan. When a general expectation of
efforts to open Japan to Western commerce emboldened the
Dutch Government, by slow degrees, gently to insinuate a pos-
sibility of some relaxation of a system of exclusion and isola-
tion as the sole means of averting danger and destruction to
the Japanese themselves and the whole fabric of their policy
and independence, the monopoly won by the exclusion of all
other nations two centuries before had long ceased to be of
any value to Holland, even had the conditions of such dwarfed
and oppressed trade been less humiliating. To this end all
trade with these countries naturally gravitates, if the Rulers are
allowed to follow their own inspirations and policy without
check or hindrance. This is the legitimate policy of a peace-
at-any-price policy, as all who advocate such a system in the
East may satisfy themselves, if they will take the trouble to
study either the past or the present. It has been common
enough to twit the Dutch with a groveling cupidity in sub-,
mitting to such conditions as were, for so many generations,
relentlessly imposed upon them by the Japanese. But we, and
all the nations of the West, who have any commercial interests
in the East, are greatly indebted to them for the demonstration
their experience has afforded us of the futility of such unresist-


90 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. True. m.
have had the longest acquaintance, for they make a distinction,
and are very shy of a new arrival.
The first landing in a new country is generally a moment of
great interest, even to the oldest traveler. There must be some-
thing essentially pleasant in new sensations, novelty in almost
every form, since not only we give ourselves much trouble to
obtain it, but generally find some pleasure when it is secured.
No traveling in Europe can rob Japan of its peculiar claims to
admiration under this head, for nothing in the West at all re-
sembles a thousand things that meet the eye; and even famil-
iarity with the scenery and people of other parts of the East
still leaves room for a variety of new impressions. It must
often have been remarked how little books, or drawings either,
can effect to enable any one completely to realize a new coun-
try and people. Once among them, you discover immediately
that your ideal is something very different from the actual liv-
ing embodiment. This is essentially true of people, towns,
streets, and the effect of costumes differing from those to which
the eye is accustomed. Certainly, as regards the first view of
Japan, there are specialities in the Japanese figure, physiog-
nomy, and costume, for which long familiarity with the adjoin-
ing population of China does nothing to prepare you. It is
not so much that the race of boatmen, and the working-classes
generally, are content with the narrowest possible girdle and
connecting band, for that is common enough from Alexandria
to China; though in respect to the men of the latter country,
I must say there is generally a more liberal allowance of col-
ored calico for a covering, under the hottest sun and hardest
work, than seemed to be the usage at Nagasaki. But it is as
regards the women that all our notions are most confounded.
One must be brought up from infancy to the manner to be able
to look upon their large mouths full of black teeth, and the lips
thickly daubed with a brick-red color, and not turn away with
a strong feeling of repulsion.
The general aspect of Nagasaki, in the upper part of the
town, was that of a half-deserted city, partly from the width
of the streets, and partly by contrast, I suspect, with the swarm-
ing populations of Chinese cities. The shops seemed but poor-
ly supplied; porcelain, and lacker-ware, and silk goods there
were—not absolutely to be despised, perhaps, if Yeddo had not
been in prospect, but presenting no great attractions.
One or two of the more salient features of Nagasaki street
life must strike the least observant. I say ' street life;' but as
all the shops have open fronts, and give a view right through
the interior to the inevitable little garden at the back, and the


Chap. III.] HOUSES, THEIR USE.—CLIMATE.
91
inmates of the house sit, work, and play in full view, whatever
may be the occupation in hand—the morning meal, the after-
noon siesta, or the later ablutions, the household work of the
women, the play of their nude progeny, or the trade and handi-
craft of the men—each house is converted into a microcosm
where the Japanese may be studied in all their aspects. We
hear a great deal of the marvelous perfection to which a gov-
ernment system of rule by espionage has been brought in this
country; but really it would seem as if the last, and not the
least strange result arrived at has been the abrogation of all
secrecy or desire for privacy on the part of a whole popula-
tion! It says much, too, for the climate, which has often more
to do with the habits and tastes of a people than more recon-
dite causes. It has been asserted by Buckle, and others before
him, that the character of a people's civilization is actually de-
termined by the climate, and there is much in Japan to bear
out the truth of the axiom.
Throughout the south of Europe and in the East, in our
time as in the days of ancient Greece and Rome, houses are
merely places to sleep and to eat in, to lock up their goods
when trade is the vocation, and sometimes their women. In
northern lands, blessed only with a small share of sun and fine
weather, and a disproportionate allowance of fog and mist, of
cold and damp, many of the chief pleasures of life must be sought within the walls of a well-built and roomy house, capa-
ble of being thoroughly warmed, and made cheerful by fire and
artificial light. Hence the domesticity of Northern Europe,
with its chief home in Great Britain; hence many of our vir-
tues, and some of our vices! Among the former, the art of
making ourselves comfortable, so often quoted by the French,
and so rarely attained, may fairly take rank. Hence, too, in
part at least, the luxury and extravagance displayed in many
of our dwellings and habits of life.
It is impossible to wander through any of these Eastern lands
without being farther struck by the influence of climate in na-
tional dress or clothing, and the requirements of modesty or
decency. Certainly, if the laws of morality are immutable, and
written in the hearts and consciences of all men alike, as is com-
monly maintained, it is difficult to arrive at the same conclu-
sion as regards any universality or identity of the innate sense
which dictates the rules of propriety in dress. We read that
in the fifteenth century, when the sect of Flagellants perambu-
lated Europe, plying the whip upon their naked backs, and de-
claring that the whole of religion consisted in the use of the
scourge,' others, more crazy still, pronounced the use of clothes


92
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. III.
to be evidence of an unconverted nature, and returned to the
nakedness of our first parents as proof of their restoration to a
state of innocence.' Now, whether the working part of this
population are in the state of primeval purity and innocence
or the very reverse, one thing is certain, that they are in a state
very nearly approaching that of our first parents, and may
daily be seen 'naked and not ashamed.' But if it should turn
out, as has been asserted by those who have lived longest
among them, that their women are not less chaste, nor their
men more immoral than many of the best-dressed populations
of Europe, it will be hard to avoid the conclusion that in this
said article of clothing there is a great deal more that is pure-
ly conventional than is generally imagined.
When I first landed it was a holiday-time; many of the peo-
ple were out, evidently dressed in their best, and exchanging
grave and courteous salutations as they met, bending, with
their hands sliding down to their knees, and uttering their
greetings with a deep-drawn inspiration, the depth from whence
it was extracted appearing to be in strict relation to the de-
gree of respect they wished to manifest, as though the joy and
satisfaction of such a meeting were something too deep for ut-
terance! Banners and flags of fantastic device, and often grace-
ful forms, were being carried about in procession, while others
were hung on poles before many of the doors, with little man-
nikins, dressed in gaudy colors, swinging to and fro beneath.
It was a great fete or 'Matsuri? held once a year for three
days, to commemorate the births of sons and daughters; and

A JAPANESE SALUTATION.


Chap. III.]
JAPANESE CUSTOMS.
93
the little stuffed figures represent the accessions to the family
during the year—two for a son and one for a daughter. Street
musicians were about; not the respectable hurdy-gurdy of Eu-
ropean cities, but a sort of lute and fife, played by an itinerant
race. Some are said to be outcasts and lLoninsf who some-

LONIN HEADING.
times thus play the mendicant instead of the highway robber,
with a hat completely concealing their face. Inside a half-
closed shop might be seen a dozen musicians, squatted on their
knees and heels (a heart-breaking and impossible posture to the
uninitiated). I say musicians, but they make a most unearthly
noise, a perfect charivari of drum, and fife, and stringed instru-
ments, each performer apparently seeking with the greatest
conscientiousness to drown the noise of his neighbor, and suc-
ceeding to perfection.
I have made some remarks on the nude Japanese: it is only


94
[Chap. III.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
right to observe that all the more well-to-do classes go about
full dressed, and with great attention both to taste and neat-
ness of costume. I speak of the better class of men only, for
women of this rank do not present themselves out of doors, it
would seem. Take them all in all, with their resemblances
and differences, you soon come to the conclusion that, judging
even from this sea-port or Wapping of Japan, with a Chinese
colony located among them for some centuries to teach them
their vices, Dutch and other foreigners in time past and pres-
ent to add their quota also, they are a good-humored, intelli-
gent, and courteous race, gentle withal, and speaking one of
the softest tongues out of Italy. Their salutations and greet-
ings in the market-place have a stately and elaborate courtesy
in the lowly bend of the body, and make a very striking con-
trast to the jerk of the head and 'How do?' of Jones, Brown,
and Robinson.
A fair amount of industry and business appeared in the shops
and along the wide streets, down the centre of which there is,
in most cases, a fine flag pavement. Groups of half, or wholly
naked children, clamoring for buttons, you meet every where;
and almost every woman has at least one at the breast, and
often another at the back. The race is undoubtedly prolific,
and this, I should say, is a very paradise of babies.
One of the most interesting facts connected with the port,
and the relations opened by the series of treaties, from Com-
modore Perry's, in March, 1854, to Lord Elgin's, in August,
1858, is the Japanese steam factory on the opposite side of the
bay, under the superintendence of Dutch officers. I went over
it, and could not but admire the progress made, under every
possible difficulty, by the Japanese and Dutch combined, in
their endeavors to create, in this remote comer of the earth,
all the complicated means and appliances for the repair, and
manufacture ultimately, of steam machinery.
All honor is due to the Dutch officers—Captain Kattandyck,
of the Dutch Navy,* as the head of the commission, and the
Chief Engineer—worthy descendants of those brave Holland-
ers whom no danger could daunt, nor difficulties arrest, in their
efforts to conquer a territory from the sea on the one side, and
the Spaniard on the other.
In going over the various workshops, where every thing had
to be created from the beginning—bricks and tiles to be made,
and kilns even to burn them, for the necessary buildings, docks
to plan and dig, Japanese workmen to instruct, with all the
endless difficulties caused by imperfect means of communica-
* The present Minister of Marine at the Hague.


Chap. III. j
STEAM-ENGINE FACTORY.
95
tion, and not be struck with the singular combination of en-
ergy and persevering effort, guided by competent practical
knowledge, which the Dutch must have supplied.
The head engineer, whose name I am sorry I can not recall,
was one of those plain, unpretending men, who, like the Brunels
and Stephensons of our own country, find means of overcoming
every difficulty. Not the least, perhaps, in this case, was the
reluctance of the Japanese to sink large sums, month after
month, in an undertaking the full value of which they could
hardly appreciate until they saw some tangible results. Of
course there was much which yet remained to be done; but
even then, in little more than a year, a large lathe factory was
in full work, where Japanese workmen, some the sons of gen-
tlemen, turned out all the parts of a steam-engine proper to
their department. Among other things, I found them turning
moderator lamps! Beyond was a forge factory, in complete
working order, with a Nasmyth's hammer, and all the requi-
sites for repairing damages. And here we saw one of the most
extraordinary and crowning testimonies of Japanese enterprise
and ingenuity, which leaves all the Chinese have ever attempted
far behind. I allude to a steam-engine with tubular boilers,
made by themselves before a steam-vessel or engine had ever
been seen by Japanese; made solely, therefore, from the plans
in a Dutch work. This engine was not only put together, but
made to work a boat. It is true there were defects, both in
structure and adaptation; and it is rather a marvel, perhaps,
that the engineers were not' hoisted with their own petard;'
but even these defects admit of rectification, under the able
hands of the head engineer, were it not worthy of being pre-
served as a national monument of Japanese capacity and enter-
prise. An American writer seems unwilling to leave them the
credit so justly their due, and suggests that the workmen must
have seen the United States ' Mississippi' steamer! But he is
clearly mistaken. It was actually in operation long before an
American or any other steamer had ever appeared in Japanese
waters.
I left this most interesting establishment, and its worthy
Head, who spoke English verylunexceptionably, and gave every
kind of information with great readiness, fully realizing the la-
bor and the difficulties he and his fellow-workmen must have
had to encounter at every step, in thus laying the foundations
of a steam navy in these remote regions, and among a people
to whom all the appliances of modern science were unknown.
We extended our walk to the Russian settlement, in a beauti-
fully situated cove, with wooded hills rising boldly behind it.


96
[Chap. III.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
Coal-sheds and stores spread along the base, while temporary
barracks and head-quarters were on a commanding platform
half way up the banks. If the Russians, as some have sur-
mised, intended a permanent settlement, it could not have been
better chosen; but I saw nothing to indicate more than what
it professed to be—a temporary location for the crew of the
frigate'Aschol,' requiring a thorough repair and refit, for which
this retired and snug bay was admirably adapted. They had
been here some months, and this had evidently been made the
rendezvous for a Commodore's squadron, consisting of the frig-
ate and half a dozen corvettes and gunboats, supposed to be
on their way to the Amoor. I dare say, being here in force,
the Russian had had it pretty much his own way, and obtained
what supplies he wanted, with fair words or the strong hand,
as the case might require. But, under similar circumstances,
the same thing would probably have been done by the senior
officer of any other foreign squadron.
Talking of supplies, there seemed a terrible dearth of chick-
ens, though plenty of eggs. There were no sheep to be bought,
for there are none in the country; and bullocks were denied,
and declared not to exist in the island, until a razzia of the Rus-
sians swept in two or three score from the surrounding coun-
try, after which they were always abundantly supplied. The
only specimens tee could procure, however, made wretched beef,
and were only fit for leather, though cheap enough, if any thing
can properly be called cheap which is bad and unfit for use. No
cattle being kept for slaughter by a nation of Buddhists and
Ichthyologists or Vegetarians, only those can be obtained which
are taken from the plow, and of course old and worn-out beasts
are alone brought to market. The scarcity of fowls is less
easily understood, seeing that for more than six months there
must have been a remunerating demand, and the means of
producing them are there. Bantams, beautiful enough to win
prizes, are plentiful in the streets, and a few long-legged, high-
stepping fowls, fit almost for a cabriolet, might also be seen;
but they had a patriarchal look, and, moreover, could not be
bought. In fact, it seemed that the first settlers would find no
small difficulty in supplying their table with any thing but fish
and vegetables, unless, in winter, game might fill up the deficien-
cies. Fish alone is plentiful at Nagasaki, and in considerable
variety. We found crawfish and prawns of noble proportions.
Some of the fish are good, and others smooth-skinned and
coarse; but they are in great variety, from the pomfret to the
shark, which latter is not despised by the natives. Its fins, in-
deed, are a delicacy among the Chinese; and its skin furnishes
a covering to the Japanese sword scabbards.


Chap. III.] CLIMATE.—MODE OF RECEPTION.
97
After a glance at the fish-market and vegetable stalls, the
latter chiefly filled with the coarser kinds of roots and French
beans, I wandered over one of the beautiful sloping hills ex-
tending along the bay toward the mouth of the harbor. It
offered more than one delightful site for a foreign settlement,
with abundant water frontage, and bounded by a ravine, down
which a mountain stream came tumbling in foam and ripple,
to empty itself into the bay. With such a site, invalids from
India and China might find a Sanitarium such as no other land
between the two, or east of the Cape, can afford. The end of
June was approaching, and still no summer-heat was experi-
enced, the thermometer ranging only from 62° to 18°.
The rain at this season, indeed, obscures the sun and tem-
pers the atmosphere; but whoever has panted through six
months of summer-heat on the banks of the Hooghly or the
burning plains of Madras, or sighed in vain for one breath of .
air in the sun-stricken side of Hongkong, and the low, sedgy
flats of the Canton river, will gladly compound for a tempera-
ture of 70° in June, and a fresh breeze from the south, by six
weeks of heavy rain. In the South there is little actual win-
ter, it appears. A new country full of natural beauties, no
tropical heat, and within ten days' steam of Hongkong, prom-
ised an abundant influx of visitors, seeking for change and
health—a promise which was more fully realized in the sequel
than many other anticipated results.
Before taking my departure for Teddo, I had occasion to
see the Governor of Nagasaki, whom I found full of courtesy,
and a man of prepossessing address and manners. Their modes
of reception, though very simple, are not wanting in dignity.
If the person to be received is of sufficient rank to entitle him
to be greeted as an equal, the Governor will meet the guest at
the end of the first corridor leading to the reception-room, and
after an exchange of salutations, show him the way. When
foreigners are to be received, seats and tables are arranged on
each side of the room opposite. The Japanese take theirs ac-
cording to their respective rank on one side, and the foreign-
ers are requested to sit down opposite, benches or chairs being
provided for the occasion. As the interview proceeds, lacker
trays are brought, on which are fire, tobacco, pipes, and small
copper spittoons; and if it be a very formal or long affair,
these are succeeded by a succession of trays containing first
cake and sweets, then fish, vegetables, sea-weed, rice, etc., and
tea—the last of doubtful flavor. Cups of saki, a spirit distilled
from rice, are handed round, and some people think it very
palatable or potable. It is quite as good (or bad) as the Chi-


Chap. IV.]
CHANGED RELATIONS.
99
A mission of tribute-bearers alone was permitted to proceed
to Yeddo, under the most vigilant and inexorable of escorts—
paid by themselves, too, thus adding insult to injury. When
there they were closely guarded, and allowed to offer on their
knees or faces, in the august presence of the Siogun (Tycoon)
—or, rather, with prostrations before a screen, behind which
he was supposed to be seated in solemn state—the offerings
of the Dutch factory, in humble token of gratitude for the
pleasant life and profitable conditions of trade enjoyed at De cima! If these presents, in value and number, were satisfac-
tory, then the suite were farther graciously permitted to play
all sorts of antics and tomfooleries for the especial amusement
of the court and the ladies behind the lattices. Thunberg re-
lates how they were desired to turn round, that they might
show the cut of their clothes behind and before; dance Euro-
pean dances, sing foreign songs, feign drunkenness, etc., for
several hours, until completely exhausted, when they were al-
lowed to retire, but not to rest; for, the Tycoon's entertain-
ment over, princes and courtiers pressed upon them for farther
amusement. It does not appear that the chief of the factory
was subjected to this truly humiliating ordeal, but all the rest
of his mission were made to contribute their share.
Such were the receptions granted during the last two cen-
turies; but' Nagasaki to Yeddo' carries the imagination back
yet another century, when the stout English pilot, William
Adams, first steered to the coast a storm-tossed and battered
vessel of small tonnage, under Dutch colors, the only one of a
fleet of five that ever reached a Japanese port. After a series
of disasters, he arrived, with only five companions who could
walk, and was sent with his party to the capital. How he
made his way at Court, though no courtier born, and survived
the kindly suggestion of a Portuguese Jesuit, that he should
be hanged as a 'pestilent fellow and a pirate,' is generally
known. Three centuries have rolled on since then, and now
Foreign Representatives are on their way to exchange the rati-
fications of new treaties; and they will arrive at the capital,
not, as honest Will Adams approached the coast, in a little mer-
chant lugger, unaccredited and helpless, but in due state, each
with a goodly ship-of-war for escort, bearing the national flag;
not, as the Representatives of any foreign nation during the
two centuries past, bearers of presents and triennial tribute—
the price paid for leave to trade at Nagasaki, and there alone,
under the most oppressive and humiliating conditions—but
empty-handed, save as the bearers of treaties which abrogate
all conditions not consistent with the dignity of a great nation,


Chap. IV.]
MISTAKEN FEARS.
101
But, as this narrative proceeds, it will be seen there were
many more things in Japan to be taken note of than had en-
tered into the philosophy of the world in general on this sub-
ject. It is often well, indeed, that we know so little of what
lies before us in this troubled world, whether of good or evil!
Knowledge of the first might render us presumptuous; and
of the second, take away the heart and courage necessary to
make a good fight. The Japanese ruling classes, we found
later, had only yielded to suggestions of danger, chiefly emana-
ting from what proved the weaker or more timid party in the
State, and were as hostile to foreigners as ever. They fell into
the natural mistake, it is to be believed—judging by the light
of after events—that Foreign Powers, one and all, were pre-
pared to go to war with them if they refused to enter into all
the treaties proposed. In their conscious state of unprepared-
ness for resistance, they probably thought it better to tempo-
rize and yield, with a mental reservation, intending to retrace
their steps when time and opportunity should serve, and sat-
isfied that it remained in their own hands, in the mean while,
to suspend or impede the execution of all the more important
stipulations.
When has it ever been otherwise in the treaties of the
Western with the Eastern races? Yielding under moral pres-
sure (a kind of euphuistic phrase for coercion, and a coercion
which has a great deal more to do with rifled guns and frig-
ates than any thing moral or intellectual), they ever reserve
the right of the conquered to resist, and of the weak to feign
acquiescence, until they shall feel strong enough to annul by
force what was wrung from them by no very different process.
When they afterward discovered, as there is no doubt they
did, that they yielded to a vain fear in the first treaty entered
into, and that no Foreign Power, even later, would have gone
to war to force upon them a Treaty of Commerce—least of all,
the United States of America—the wrath and indignation of
the more violent party in the State exploded, and has ever since
been a source of peril. But this was not the revelation of the
hour. It came later, and with much unwillingness was re-
ceived.
On the 26th of June, H.M.S.' Sampson' cast anchor where
the' Furious,' with Lord Elgin, had last been seen, immediate-
ly opposite the city. It was a critical moment. By treaty,
Great Britain was no doubt entitled to send a diplomatic agent
to reside in Yeddo; but the Japanese Government had very
strongly urged upon Lord Elgin, to the last, their earnest de-
sire that no Representative should actually be nominated until


102
[Chap. TV. THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
1863, on the plea that the popular feeling against foreigners
was likely to be aroused, if so great a change were attempted
before there was time to prepare the public mind.
Her Majesty's Government had not seen fit to accede to this
request, and no previous notice had been sent that a British
diplomatic agent was on his way. I had determined, there-
fore, that the wisest course under these circumstances was to
steam right up to the anchorage outside the batteries, and
take it for granted that the Japanese Government was pre-
pared to give effect to the treaty in all its stipulations. But
what if they met me with serious remonstrance as to the dan-
ger a residence in Yeddo would entail upon the Japanese Gov-
ernment and foreigners generally throughout the country, and
refuse to accept the responsibility or guarantee the safety of a
Mission in the capital? All this had to be duly weighed—
and risked.
Accordingly, on my arrival, a letter to the Ministers of For-
eign Affairs was ready to be sent on shore, announcing my
presence, and requesting a residence to be assigned, that I might
disembark with as little delay as possible. It was not long be-
fore some officials came off to know our business, and they re-
ceived the letter for answer. Nor had I long to wait for the
reply. It came the next day, followed by a visit from two of
the Governors of Foreign Affairs, bringing congratulations
from the government on my safe arrival. This relieved me of
some anxiety; and I had the more reason to congratulate my-
self, because my American colleague, Mr. Harris, who followed
me a few days later from Simoda, where he had hitherto re-
sided, had not escaped pressing invitations from the govern-
ment to defer his departure for the capital.
Very glad to find the first anticipated difficulty no longer in
my way, I proceeded immediately to the most pressing busi-
ness, the selection of a temple for a provisional residence and
Consulate General; and having mentioned the two placed at
the disposal of Lord Elgin and Baron Gros respectively in
1858, plans not only of these, but of two others, were sent the
following day, with an offer to conduct any member of the es-
tablishment to examine and select from the whole.
This seemed a matter of such moment that I determined to
land privately myself. Accordingly, on the third day after my
arrival, accompanied by Captain Hand, we were pulling toward
the shore on a visit of inspection. Little of the capital, vast as
it is, can be seen from the anchorage, which is outside a line of
batteries built some two miles from the shore. Fringed with
low houses and trees, some higher ground appears behind, ap-


Chap. IV.] ANCHORAGE.—ABHORRENCE OF PAINT. 103
parently covered with wood. Only here and there a temple,
or the white walls of a Daimio's park, can be distinguished.
The 'Sampson' lay full four miles from the shore, and even
then only in three fathoms of water. The bay shoals all along
the banks on which the city stands, so that, at low water, even
a ship's boat can not approach within a mile! Notwithstand-
ing this best of natural defenses, no less than five batteries,
faced with guns on every side, interpose between the deeper
channel and the city, besides several on shore; and the num-
ber and strength of these, I may observe, went on increasing
continuously from the arrival of the Foreign Representatives.
There is thus nothing imposing in the aspect of Yeddo from
the bay. This is partly due, as I have indicated, to the great
amount of timber every where, which conceals the low houses,
in many cases only single-storied, and partly to the formation
of the ground, high land interposing, and concealing by far the
larger part of the city. The batteries midway between the
anchorage and the shore are the most conspicuous objects,
though only a few feet above high-water mark. They are sol-
idly built of granite, and must have cost immense labor in lay-
ing the foundations. In their low-level line and general aspect
they are not unlike some of those off Cronstadt. They are
well kept, with green turf on the embankments, over which the
muzzles of the guns may be seen, though the pieces themselves
are carefully protected from the weather and too curious pry-
ing by wooden sheds or coverings. They seemed, for the most
part, of light calibre, twelve or eighteen pounders apparently.
Two European rigged vessels bearing the Japanese flag—a
red sun on a white field—were lying outside, and below the
batteries. One of these was the Emperor's yacht, as it has
been the fashion to call it; that is, the steam vessel sent out by
our government, at Admiral Stirling's suggestion, as a present
to the Tycoon, which has been called the 'Emperor.' I had
heard it asserted that it was allowed to go to decay, and was
neglected. This is not the case, however, as I satisfied myself
the next day by personal inspection. The painted wood-work
looked shabby, because the Japanese abhor paint about their
ships, and had consequently been steadily engaged in scrub-
bing it off ever since the boat had come into their possession,
and by dint of labor and perseverance had nearly succeeded.
How they dispense with paint, and oil, and varnish on all their
boats and junks, and still preserve them in a seaworthy state,
I have never been able to learn, though the fact is indisputa-
ble. They char the keels, and more than once, I believe; but
beyond this, they seem to do nothing to guard the wood from


104
[Chap. IV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
decay, under a hot sun, and the alternate processes of soaking
and drying. This, too, in the land of lacker and varnish!
They must apparently have found, by experience, that no ade-
quate advantage was derived from the expenditure of either
paint, drying-oil, or varnish; and yet this runs so entirely coun-
ter to our own experience, that it has always been a matter of
speculation to me. I have often asked naval officers if they
could explain the reason for this diversity of practice, but nev-
er obtained any satisfactory answer; on the contrary, the re-
ply generally consisted of an affirmation of the absolute neces-
sity of paint; indeed, like the receipts in Mrs. Glasse's cook-
ery-book in respect to butter, it was quite evidently their firm
conviction that' the more paint the better!' How far this set-
tled bias in favor of abundance of paint, in the minds of my
naval friends, may arise from the alleged fact of its scarcity,
and the universal complaint of smart first lieutenants that they
are stinted and never have enough,! do not venture to determ-
ine; but after a time I gave up farther inquiries in that quar-
ter, plainly perceiving that all had one settled conviction in fa-
vor of paint—more paint—abundance of paint! So I left this
irreconcilable difference of theory and practice between the
naval profession of Europe and Japan just where I found it.
One explanation, indeed, has been suggested which may not be
far from the truth, namely, that wood and labor both being
cheap, it is less expensive to build new boats than to incur the
expense of paint to make them more durable. But to return
to the yacht. All the fine imitation satin-wood, and the gilt-
work, was found reduced to a very forlorn state by this proc-
ess of incessant scrubbing; but the engines, and all the brass-
work, would have done no discredit to the best kept man-of-
war in our service. I afterward found that they frequently
got up her steam and proceeded with her to different points
when any high official had to be sent on the Tycoon's service,
and the vessel was worked entirely by Japanese.
On landing, we found a great crowd of the inhabitants eag-
er to see the strangers; but the police mustered strong, and
we were in no way incommoded, save by the awkward at-
tempts we had to make before we could succeed in doubling
ourselves up so as to "pack our limbs and bodies inside the Jap-
anese palanquin, called a norimon, prior to our being suspend-
ed from the shoulders of four men, two before and two behind,
very much as a wild beast might be slung in a cage for safe
transport. Here is a fac-simile, for the benefit of all who have
never seen the reality, or undergone the practical torture of
cramped limbs and a half-dislocated spine within its narrow
walls.


Chap. IV.J JAPANESE NORIMON AND CANGO. 105

JAPANESE NORIMON.
We are often told that no man is so miserable but he may
find some one in a worse state than himself—that, in every ex-
tremity of evil, there is still'a lower deep.' Whatever satis-
faction or comfort may be derivable from this source, I soon
had the opportunity of trying; for numerous vehicles passed
to and fro, carried from the shoulders also, but by two men, be-
ing evidently of much lighter construction, and only used by
the lower classes.

JAPANESE CANGO.
It is made of light wicker-work, and consists of a bottom,
back, and front, in the shape of a truncated 'V,' or a U with
E 2


106
[Chap. IV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
the sides pulled out. Into the bottom the Japanese place a
cotton quilt. Here, doubled up with their legs beneath them,
looking as if they had been amputated at the knees, hundreds
of men and women may be seen in the streets or on the high-
way, traveling for hours, and on a whole day's journey, appar-
ently without serious fatigue or discomfort. Nothing, indeed,
has ever seemed to me more wonderful than the way in which
Japanese men, women, and children take their ease and repose,
asleep or awake. A Japanese quite at his ease, and sans gene,
as naturally drops on his heels and squats, with no more solid
support to his person than his legs or heels can afford, as an
Englishman drops into a chair when he is tired.
As soon as the babe leaves its mother's breast, the first thing
it learns is not to walk or to run, but to squat on its heels in
this baboon fashion. If the Japanese are on ceremony, then
they sink on the mats, resting jointly on heels and knees.
And this attitude also, which would be torture to us, they
maintain for hours apparently without serious inconvenience.
Finally, the day's labor over, or the time for siesta in the heat
of the day arrived, they throw themselves down full length on
the mat, with a little padded rest, just large enough to receive
the occiput or the angle of the

HOW JAPANESE REST. JAPANESE PAGE IN ATTENDANCE.
As we slowly wended our way through the streets, I had
full opportunity of observing the absence of all the things we
deem so essential to comfort, and which crowd our rooms al-


Chap. IV.]
JAPANESE CUSTOMS.
107

HOW THE JAPANESE SLEEP.
most to the exclusion, and certainly to the great inconvenience
of the people who are intended to occupy them, as well as to
the great detriment of the proprietor's purse.
If European joints could only be made supple enough to en-
able their owners to dispense with sofas and chairs, and, par
consequence, with tables, and we were hardy enough to lie on
clean mats, six feet by three, stuffed with fine straw, and beau-
tifully made with a silk border, so as to form a sort of reticu-
lated carpet for rooms of any size, the solution of that much-
debated question, the possibility of marrying on £400 a year,
might certainly be predicted with something like unanimity
in favor of matrimony. The upholsterer's bill never can offer
any impediment to a young couple in Japan. Their future
house is taken, containing generally three or four little rooms,
in which clean mats are put. Each then brings to the house-
keeping a cotton-stuffed quilt and a box of wearing apparel for
their own personal use; a pan to cook the rice, half a dozen
lacker cups and trays to eat off; a large tub to bathe and wash
in are added on the general account, and these complete the
establishment!
I think this the nearest approach to Arcadian simplicity that
has yet been made; and I recommend it to the serious con-
sideration of all who are perplexed with the difficulties of set-
ting up an establishment upon a small income, and keeping it
up afterward ; often the most arduous part of the undertaking.
But not even speculations of such interest and philanthropic
scope could prevent limbs aching with the cramped position
which my cage imposed. Nor did the jolting motion of the
bearers tend to make it less irksome. But what, perhaps, was
more objectionable still, the range of the eye was quite as
cramped as the rest of the body; for, in order to see out of
the windows, it was necessary to risk a dislocation of the cer-
vical vertebrae to get the head at a proper angle. So at last,
these combined evils becoming intolerable, I determined, with


108
[Chap. IV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
the rest of my party to walk; since, as we were 'naiburt (the
exact rendering in Japanese, it seems, of our borrowed term
incognito), there could be no compromise of dignity. And
now, for the first time, we began to have some idea of what
the streets were like through which we were passing.
We landed on the banks of a canal which surrounds some
pleasure-grounds and a fishing summer-house of the Tycoon,
where every thing, seen from the outside, appeared fresh, and
green, and park-like. And we were still in what was called
the ' official quarter' when our walk began.
The first temple visited was that which had been occupied
by Baron Gros, situated immediately beneath the Tycoon's
Cemetery, another finely-wooded park, containing within its
wide area a town of temples and priests' quarters. But the
actual space included in the ground occupied by the building
now offered was very confined, and the building altogether too
small to afford the required accommodation for so large a
party as I brought with me on the public establishment. The
temporary cook-house and bath-rooms, run up with slight
planking for Baron Gros, still existed, though in a piteously
dilapidated state. Something, I thought, might possibly have
been done in the way of enlargement and improvement, pro-
vided the adjoining grounds had been open for purposes of
recreation and exercise. But not only was this held to be
'impossible,' but one of the conditions of tenure was rather
objectionable, namely, that the Tycoon, on his way to the cem-
etery, passed through the house or inclosure, I forget which,
and no fires could be lit on those days. I declined it at once,
therefore; and as it was reported that Lord Elgin's former
habitation, though more roomy and less confined, scarcely af-
forded the required space, we proceeded, on the earnest rec-
ommendation of one of the officials, to inspect a 'large and
beautiful temple,' as he assured me, situated on the edge of
the bay, with all the requisite conditions of ample accommo-
dation, spacious grounds, and easy communication with the
water.
It was on this occasion I made my first acquaintance with
Moriyama, and he deserves a special introduction. He was
the chief of the Interpreters, and a much more important per-
sonage than his official title would indicate. He has been de-
scribed, and sketched, and photographed in all the accounts
that have appeared of the several Missions to Japan; for on
him has devolved the labor of translating into the Japanese
version all the treaties, from Commodore Perry's in 1854, to
Count Eulenberg's in 1860. On him it depends, in all the in-


Chap. IV.] MORITAMA, THE INTERPRETER.
109
terviews with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, whether the
conferences with the several foreign representatives are cor-
rectly or intelligibly rendered. Nearly all the correspondence
with the foreign representatives passes through his hands also,
a service, it appears, involving some danger as well as respon-
sibility; for when the last American treaty, framed by Mr.
Harris, was signed, a violent reactionary movement taking
place among the leading Daimios, all the ministers were dis-
graced, and Moriyama was made to share in the downfall of
his employers.
Moriyama spoke a little English then, but he has since been
to England with the Mission, and made great progress in the
language during his passage home with me. The interpreters
in Yeddo hitherto have only spoken in Dutch—the Dutch of
two centuries back, and very embarrassing to those fresh from
Europe, from the use of old and obsolete forms of expression,
which, with all the tenacity of a Japanese who understands
nothing of the mutation of languages, or progressive theories
of any kind, they are ready to maintain is the only true and
pure Dutch, all more modern phraseology being spurious; like
our descendants in New England, who have preserved so many
obsolete phrases that they pique themselves on maintaining,
with greater success than the English themselves, the language
of the old country 'pure and undefiled.' It was amusing,
sometimes, to hear them sparring on this subject with the Le-
gation Interpreter, a gentleman brought up in Holland, and to
mark the astonishment of the latter on being told by his Jap-
anese colleague that he really did not know Dutch grammati-
cally! This is only to be matched by my Canton Comprador,
who came to me once in China, when I had a visitor in the
house, fresh arrived from England,'Massa, no man sabie what
that man want; he no talkee proper English!'
The route soon led out of the official quarter, and through a
part of the city dedicated to commerce; but, without stopping
to describe all that was striking and novel in the general as-
pect, it will be better to go straight forward to the object of
our perambulations, the temple of Tozengee, one of the largest
and best endowed in Yeddo, under the patronage more espe-
cially of the Prince of Xendai, one of the great, semi-indepen-
dent Daimios, with vast territories, and a large number of sub-
jects under his rule. During our walk I had been assured
there was no finer site or grounds in Yeddo, and that it had
been specially destined for the British Representative. I can
not say I had much faith in my informant's perfect truthful-
ness, and therefore was agreeably surprised. On turning off


110
[Chap. IV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
the Tocado (as the great high road through the island is called,
and which skirts the bay here), we passed through a gate giv-
ing entrance to a long avenue of cryptomerias and pines; then
through a second more imposing gateway of two stories, across
an open square with lotus ponds, and trees on each side, and
finally, by an entrance to the right, through another court-yard,
and gained a fine suite of apartments looking on to as beauti-
ful a specimen of Japanese garden and grounds as can well be
conceived. A lawn was immediately in front, beyond a little
lake, across which was a rustic bridge (destined later to play
a prominent part in a scene of blood); and beyond this again,
palm trees and azaleas, large bushes trimly cropped into the
semblance of round hillocks, while the background was filled
up with a noble screen of timber, composed of the finest of all
Japanese trees, the evergreen oak and the maple. Palms and
bamboos were interspersed, and a drooping plum-tree was
trained over one end of the rustic bridge giving passage across
the lake. To the right, a steep bank shut in the view, covered
equally with a great variety of flowering shrubs and the ground
bamboo, and crowned with more of the same timber. Through
this a path led upward by a zigzag flight of steps to a fine
avenue of trees, the end of which widened into a platform,
whence a wide view of the bay and part of the city below
could be obtained, with a perfectly scenic effect. The distant
view was set in a framework of foliage, formed by the branches
and trunks of pine-trees, towering, from fifty to a hundred feet
high, into the blue sky above. If Japan could only be viewed
as a place of exile, it must be confessed a more beautiful her-
mitage could not have been chosen; and I felt almost doubt-
ful whether a retreat so perfect in every respect could possibly
have fallen to my lot without some terrible drawback. It
seemed too much to be so easily realized, and at so little cost.
I well remember the feeling, now that years have passed over
my head, and revealed what I could then so little foresee, that
in the midst of all this picturesque beauty, a scene at once so
fair and peaceful, I, and at a year's interval the Charge d'Af-
faires in my absence, were each destined to be hunted for our
lives by armed bravoes thirsting for our blood, and feel that no
human strength or art could make such a position defensible.
Sunk as the house is in a hollow, surrounded by wood, and
open on all sides to attack, effective defense is indeed impossi-
ble, and the stealthy approach of the midnight assassin may
bring him close to his victim under cover. Well, indeed, is it
ordered that our knowledge of the future is a total blank.
Had I foreseen what was to be, how much of pleasure and


Chap. IV.] TROUBLES OF INSTALLATION.
Ill

TEDDO FROM THE AVENUE.
peace, in a sense of security, I should have lost, and how
wretchedly the two years preceding the first attempt at a mas-
sacre would have dragged on in this seemingly earthly para-
dise! It left nothing to be desired as a place to live in; and
the real objection, that it was a very likely place to die in, did
not strike the mind, though obviously enough a very bad loca-
tion in which to defend one's self. From the end of the avenue,
through which a midday sun could only pour a checkered ar-
abesque of light and shade, the bay stretched far away a thou-
sand feet below, basking in the full glare of sunshine, and mak-
ing the deep cool shade of the terrace, with its thick screen of
green leaves, all the more enjoyable by contrast. It is true it
swarmed with musquitoes: this little disadvantage I perceived
at once, but it was only later that I had the satisfaction of
learning it was celebrated all over Yeddo for its breed! But,
even with the place at my disposal, and it may well be sup-
posed I did not hesitate in my choice, all was not sunshine
with its priestly owners. I fancy they saw this intrusion of
the Tojin (foreigner) into their sacred precincts with little
satisfaction. The lay proprietor of the domain, the Prince of
Xendai, had not the reputation of being very friendly to us;
and I have never been able to discover by what tenure these
temples are held, to be so entirely, as they seem, at the disposal


112
[Chap. IV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
of the Tycoon's government. Many of them, as this temple
of Tozengee, are built and endowed by Daimios out of their
own property. Sometimes, to escape the cares and responsi-
bilities of a Daimio's life, neither few nor light in Japan, they
voluntarily resign all their possessions to a son as soon as they
have one of age, lay down their power, and retire to one of
these temples, living in retirement, with shaven crowns, for the
rest of their lives. This, perhaps, may account for the fact that
to every temple there is attached a suite of apartments, larger
or smaller, according to its pretensions, where guests and offi-
cial personages may find temporary accommodation. But as
regards Yeddo, whatever may be the tenure, it would appear
the Tycoon, with or without the consent of the lay proprietor,
disposes of this part of the accommodation whenever he re-
quires it.
The difficulty I encountered, and which cost me a stout fight
of more than an hour's duration, was the alleged inability of
the Tycoon to compel the priests to give up any portion of the
building or grounds habitually occupied by them, and their
unwillingness to treat on any basis of equivalent compensation,
which I readily offered, for the surrender of an additional set
of rooms and a court-yard, absolutely essential for the putting
up of a large establishment of Europeans and their servants,
with stables, store-rooms, etc.
This was my first trial, and I had more than once well-nigh
given it up in despair, and gone elsewhere. And this I had to
intimate, finally, before I succeeded in obtaining such extension
as I knew to be absolutely necessary. When well-nigh wea-
ried out, enough was at last obtained, foot by foot, to enable
me to make arrangements for putting every one up decently,
though certainly not luxuriously. By a different disposition
of sliding panels (delightful style of architecture, when, like
Mr. Briggs, you have to turn the parlor into the passages), and
with the aid of carpenters to adjust them, and masons to build
kitchens, stables, and out-houses in the yard, that it had cost so
much hard fighting to win, all in the establishment were ar-
ranged for. The Japanese officials finally took their leave, and
we bade each other good-by, both probably well satisfied that
at least one troublesome business was settled, and there was
no more to be asked or refused. I dare say the room demand-
ed for half a dozen Europeans was considered very exorbitant,
our modes of life are so different; and then the upholstery! I
had tables, and chairs, and bedsteads, and sofas enough to fill
, up entirely the first three rooms they placed at my disposal.
I think it very possible Moriyama ana his superiors, when our


Chap. IV.] TROUBLES OF INSTALLATION.
113
backs were turned, may have mutually exclaimed,' What fools
these foreigners are, that they can not live without such a mass
of four-legged encumbrances, which destroy the mats, and leave
no room either to move or to sleep in!' And there have been
moments in my numerous translations from place to place in
the East, when, if I had heard such a comment, I might cer-
tainly have chimed in with a very cordial Amen!
I have not yet forgotten the rush and turmoil consequent on
the transport of two hundred cases into the once secluded tem-
ple grounds, the contents of all being wanted at once by half
a dozen different proprietors—masters and their servants seek-
ing vainly to evoke some order out of such a chaos and embar-
ras de richesse—English, French, Dutch, Japanese, and Chi-
nese, a polyglot of languages, all adding their quota to other
elements of confusion.
It was a very Malakoff in Tozengee that day. Legs of sofas
were met in despairing search of their bodies; sideboards on
their backs, waiting prostrate for their supports; beds which
could not find their bedsteads; chairs, as I have said, only fit
for Chelsea Hospital, and with so many broken legs and dam-
aged arms that future service seemed quite out of the question.
Then came the crockery and glass chaos, quite a department
of its own — urged into active commotion by the conscious
sense, among the living agents, that some twenty people, be-
fore dark, would be vicious for want of food and drink, and
clamorous for both. To crown our troubles, the whole of the
cutlery was missing. Nobody could find the box with the
knives and forks! Nor were they discovered for three weeks.
So carefully had they been packed away, that all trace of their
place of concealment had been lost.
Fortunately, the most grievous times come to an end; and
when people are utterly exhausted and worn out with fatigue,
they ' drink deep of all the blessedness of sleep,' beds or no
beds, if not wholly supperless.
But the capital of the Tycoon, though it has been traversed,
has yet to be described, and deserves a chapter to itself. The
installation of a new Legation in an Eastern land is a rude un-
dertaking, trying to the patience as well as the strength of the
first pioneers, and could not possibly be dismissed with a cur- .
sory notice. It is not often that a description appears in print,
and yet, like most other trials in this life, it has its ludicrous
side, and we can afford to look back upon it with a smile, how-
ever grimly we may have stood on the battle-field, with pack-
ing-cases for the enemy, and hungry assailants with hammer
and chisel tearing out their entrails, preparatory to a final act
condemning them to an auto dafe to supply the place of fuel.


114 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. V.
CHAPTER V.
The Capital and its Environs.—Stereoscopic Views of Town and Country.
Before proceeding farther in this narrative of a long resi-
dence at the Court of the Tycoon, I would fain give something
in the way of description which should answer the purpose of
a series of stereoscopic views, embracing not only the outward
aspect of the capital and surrounding country—of houses and
streets, temples and Daimios' Yamaskas,* hill and bay, field
and hamlet, such as would be presented to the eye of a travel-
er in a few hours' ride—but the life and varying aspects of the
city and its inhabitants, according to the hour of the day or
the season of the year. Only thus will any casual reader be
able thoroughly to realize the scene in which many of the prin-
cipal events and incidents hereafter to be related were acted.
Without such aid it would indeed be impossible for those at a
distance to enter into and understand the strange life into
which the Diplomatic Agents of Western Powers were sud-
denly thrown, constrained to. fight their way among hostile
factions, and through dangers and difficulties unknown to the
Legations of Europe. 'Western diplomacy and Eastern pol-
icy' form a chapter in the history of international relations
which has yet to be written; and not the least curious or im-
portant of the materials for such a chapter, it will be seen, may
be drawn from a narrative of our relations with Japan and its
long-secluded race during the first years of our residence at
the capital. But it would lose much of its interest if the read-
er could form no picture in his mind of what the Japanese are
like—how they 'live, and move, and have their being;' in a
word, of the leading features which characterize both the peo-
ple and their country.
To traverse Europe, and the whole breadth of Asia, and find .
the living embodiment of a state of society which existed many
centuries ago in the West, but has long passed utterly away;
to mark its reproduction, in all the details and distinctive char-
acters (only with much greater knowledge of the arts of life,
and a more advanced material civilization in the body of the
nation), is certainly a novel condition, well calculated to give
• additional piquancy to the details of life in Japan in this nine-
* The name of the residence of a Prince or Daimio.


Chap. V.]
JAPAN AS IT IS.
115
teenth century. It is, therefore, with deliberate forethought,
and in order that the reader may more fully realize this Oriental
phase of feudalism, such as our ancestors knew it in the time
of the Plantagenets, that I would pray him to keep the stereo-
Bcopic tube to his eye, and shut out all preconceived views
and all surrounding objects which speak of a later age and a
different race. We are going back to the twelfth century in
Europe, for there alone shall we find the counterpart, in many
essential particulars, of' Japan as it is.'
Perhaps a ride through the streets and environs of Yeddo,
at different hours of the day and seasons of the year, noting
how the very streets and houses change their physiognomy, is,
after all, not only the most pleasant and least laborious mode of
studying the ' Civilization, Manners, and Customs of the Jap-
anese, in their physical, political, and social conditions,' but
one calculated to give a livelier and a truer conception of what
these political and social conditions are than more systematic
methods, to which ambitious compilers of old materials have
given such exhaustive title-pages.
Our way lies first along the edge of the bay, under the bluff
which skirts it, where the suburb of Sinagawa merges into the
city, much as Kensington straggles into London. Along the
ill-paved road (the worst bit for fifty miles in a country re-
markable for the finest macadamized roads in the world) we
pick our way. The bay, stretching to the right, is occasionally
shut out by rows of houses, many of which are tea-houses, and
some only mere arbors for travelers coming from afar to sit
and rest in, while they sip their tea and enjoy the fair prospect
of the rippling waters and distant shores on the one side, or
the ways and manners bf the Capital if they turn to the great
high road. This road forms, in fact, the main street here. So,
as we pace gently along, not to incommode the never-failing
stream of pedestrians, of' Norimons,' and' Cangos,' varied now
and then by a group of Yakonins on horseback, or some Da-
imio's cortege of mixed horse and foot, with spear and halberd,
crest and pennon, as in olden days in other lands, we have time
to peer into the shops, open in front, and through the shops to
the small back room, which generally forms the whole interior,
and the region of domestic duties. The shops are of all kinds,
but none in this quarter of the town are of very great size or
importance. The common necessaries of life are on sale in
many. There are booksellers', shops of bronze and copper
ware, pawnbrokers, and old iron shops. Bath-houses, coopers
and basket-makers, armorers and sword-makers, with here and
there a stall of ready-made clothes, or a print-shop, fill up the


116
[Chap. V.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
list. Every hundred steps, more or less, we pass a ward-gate,
which at night they can close if an alarm of thieves is given,
or by day if any disturbance should arise, while a sort of de-
crepit municipal guard is kept in a lodge at each, supposed to
be responsible for the peace of their wards, and to be ever vigi-
lant! Some, as we pass, rush out with a long iron pole, to the
top of which rings are attached, and make a distracting noise
when the lower end is struck on the ground. This is consid-
ered an honor, but one to which my horses generally showed
such a decided objection, that the warders in all my more usual
beats learned at last to dispense with it on ordinary occasions,
so now we pass unhonored and unmolested, with the farther ad-
vantage of seeing how a Japanese keeps vigilant guard. There
they are, three in number, two old men and a boy, squatted on
their knees, the eldest half dozing, the other two drawing, by
long inhalatipn, the smoke out of their small copper-headed
pipes, and drawing away their existence.
After a mile of the Tocado, our road turns off into a side
street, narrower and more crowded. A Daimio's residence ex-
tends the greater part of its length on one side, with a large and
imposing-looking gateway in the centre, from which stretches
a long line of barred windows. Through these the faces of
men, women, and children may be seen, eagerly or idly, as the
case may be, looking at the passers-by. A small, narrow, and
very muddy moat, little more than a gutter, keeps all intruders
from too close prying. But these out-buildings are only the
quarters of the numerous retainers attached, as in Europe in
former times, to every baron and knight, by a feudal tenure,
and constituting at once the chief sources of his expenditure
and the evidence of his rank or power'. In many cases, these
extend for a quarter of a mile on each side of the main entrance,
and form in effect the best defense for their lord's apartments,
which are at the back of the court-yard, behind the gates, entre
cour etjardin, as in the Faubourg St. Germain, and still to be
seen there and elsewhere in Europe, as relics of a former age.
We soon emerge into an open space in front of the Tycoon's
Cemetery, and through it a small river runs, fringed with fresh
green banks and a row of trees. A narrow strip next to the
water, marking its tortuous course, has been taken possession
of for cotters' cabbage-gardens. Here, in the open space above,
forming a sort of boulevard, Matsuri or public fairs are often
held, and, in their absence, story-tellers collect a little audience.
A few noisy beggars generally take up their position by the
wayside, and, although they receive gratefully a single cash
from their own countrymen, they never condescend to ask a


Chap. V.J
JAPANESE MATSURI.
117

A GROUP OF 'JOLLY BEGGARS.'
foreigner for less than a tempo, equivalent to a hundred cash!
Here a party of jugglers may often be seen, too, collecting a
crowd from the passers-by. Blondin and the Wizard of the
North might both find formidable rivals here, for the Japanese
performers not only swallow portentously long swords, and
poise themselves on bottles, but out of their mouths come the
most unimaginable things: flying horses, swarms of flies, rib-
bons by the mile, and paper shavings without end.
On crossing the bridge, we traverse one of the most densely
populated of the commercial quarters, through which, indeed,
we can only ride slowly, and in single file, amidst pedestrians
and porters with their loads. Bullock-cars, Norimons, and
Cangos are all here, jostling each other in contending currents.
Over a gentle hill, then sharp round to the right, through a
barrier-gate, we approach the official quarter, in the centre of
which, within three moats of regal dimensions, the Tycoon him-
self resides. But we are not yet near to it. We pursue our
way down some rather steep steps, a Daimio's residence on one
side, and the wall and trees of the Tycoon's Cemetery, which
we are skirting, on the other. As we emerge from this defile,
we pass through a long line of booths, where a sort of daily
bazar is held for the sale of gaudily-colored prints, maps (many
of them copies of European charts), story-books, swords, tobac-
co-pouches, and pipes for the humbler classes; and in the midst
of which a fortune-teller may habitually be seen, seemingly find-
ing plenty of credulous listeners and the few cash necessary for


118
[Chap. V.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
his daily wants. Something very like the gambling-table of
our own fairs may also be seen in the same spot, but, judging
by the stock-in-trade and the juvenile customers, the gambling,
I suspect, is only for sweetmeats. Their serious gambling is
reserved for tea-houses and more private haunts, where the law
may be better defied. On festive occasions, a row of dingy
booths, divided by curtains into small compartments, is often
seen, provided for the lowest class. The Social Evil is here
a legalized institution, and nowhere takes a more revolting
form.
In all this there is little new, perhaps, except the mere outer
lineaments and costume; for human nature is essentially the
same under all skies and governments. And now we have ar-
rived at our first halt. Through the gateway may be seen the
double flights of steps, the one leading up to the top of the
hill in perpendicular and unbroken line, the other curving less
abruptly upward. And although the height is probably the
same, the undulating flight looks so much less arduous, that
we instinctively turn to the right, willing to believe in its gen-
tler promise.
Many pedestrians—pilgrims from afar, and idle Yeddites
from the neighboring thoroughfares—are passing up and down.
And among all the strange and novel sights, few strike the
stranger as more singular than a class of penitents or disgraced
officers, who move about habitually with their heads buried in a
sort of basket mask, completely concealing the face. Lonbs,
outlaws, and great criminals are said to adopt this mode of
traveling when wishing to elude observation. Whether their
incognito is always respected by the police I can not say.
They recall the brothers of the Misericordia and begging peni-
tents, still to be seen in the towns of Italy—relics of medieval
times—and it is not a little singular to find their counterpart
here.
Officers on horseback, wearing the badge either of the Ty-
coon or their feudal chief, are passing to and fro, preceded by
one or more footmen or grooms, who always accompany their
masters, and keep their pace, however rapid. Some of them
have marvelous powers of running in wind and limb. I had
more than one who would run three or four leagues at a stretch
by the side of the horse, and without distress—or used to do
so before they got too fat and lazy in the foreigner's service.
And thus we gain the summit of Atango-yama, so called
from the god Atango, to whom the temple is dedicated here.
From no other point can so fine and commanding a view of
the Bay of Yeddo, and the city washed by its waves, be ob-


Chap. V.]
A STRIKING PICTURE.
119

MENDICANT SINGERS.
tained. And the picture that bursts suddenly upon the trav-
eler is very striking. The hill fronts to the bay, but with a
couple of miles of valley intervening, thickly covered by streets
and temples. To the left, and in a northeastern direction, an-
other two miles' interval of plain is in like manner filled up
with a dense mass of houses, until a range of hills is reached
on which the Tycoon's castle stands. The whole enceinte of
the official quarter, within a triple line of moats, is there; not
only the official residence of his court, but the yamaskas of
the feudatory Daimios. This range shuts out a. still more ex-
tensive section of the city, which stretches away into the coun-
try on the other side, and may be traced from the point where
the spur of the hill ends abruptly toward the bay, winding
round the edge of the coast-line, and backward up the valley,
until nearly lost in the distance. Behind, yet another large
quarter of the capital is hid form view by a broken series of
hills and dales, amidst which only here and there a group of
temples can be distinguished; a Daimio's residence and park,
or a few streets straggling irregularly over the crests and
down into the broken hollows. Seaward the eye looks out
upon the point which conceals Kanagawa, and across the line
of batteries a couple of miles from shore, on to the distant line
of coast and mountain some two or three leagues off, which
form the boundary on the opposite side.


Chap. V.J
STREETS OF YEDDO.
121
it, for reasons not very easily explained; but they were not
sorry, perhaps, to point to such a use for home consumption.
It is nine o'clock in the morning. The city is up and stir-
ring. The shops are opened, and the streets are filling with a
swarming population. The street vendor with his ambulatory
stock, the halting beggar, officers on duty with their retainers
or serving-men, strings of coolies and porters, some dragging
and pushing primitive carts laden with goods, all help to swell

MERCHANDISE IN THE STREETS OF YEDDO.
the tide of human life; shopkeepers proceeding with goods to
show some purchaser, according to the inverse custom of the
Japanese, where the shops go to the customer, not the cus-
tomer to the shops. Our road takes us through park and gar-
den-bordered streets and lanes, alternating over undulating
hills, high enough occasionally to give glimpses of the open
country beyond, with rice, ground, black and fallow, in the
lower levels, during part of winter. The growing wheat, of
brightest green, carpets the uplands even in March, however;
the rape-seed, with its golden flowers, catches the eye, and ev-
ery where unmistakable signs of skilled agricultural labor and
wealth may be seen- In all seasons of the year verdure and
beauty of no common character clothe the hills, broken into a
hundred winding vales for many leagues around Yeddo on all
the land-side; for, unlike its population, the country never lets
itself be seen naked, and scarcely en deshabille, ^even when
stripped barest of its foliage. A few trees lose their leaves en-
tirely, and stretch their naked arms to a wintry sky; but in
close proximity will always be seen some fnll-leaved evergreens,


122
[Chap. V.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.

SHOPKEEPER'S GOING TO A CUSTOMER.
often noble trees, and, like the oak, of several varieties. The
cryptomeria, and a larger family of coniferae than any where
else in the world, perhaps, are here. The cypress, with its
sombre foliage, contrasts well with the lighter hue and grace-
ful branches of the feathery bamboo or the more stately palm.
All are there to give marvelous beauty and variety to the scen-
ery. A little later in the spring there is a lavish display of
blossoms, which supply the place of leaves yet in the bud. A
variety of flowering shrubs never yet seen in Europe fill the
hedges, and sometimes scent the air, as well as please the eye;
while acres of orchard ground are covered by pear, and peach,
and plum blossoms, the branches trellised horizontally overhead
for a hundred square feet and more. The orange-tree, with its
fragrant white blossoms, is not wanting to grace the spring
festival, while the bright yellow flower of the melon covers the
poverty of the humblest thatched cottage or tool-house, and
clothes each lowly shed with a robe of beauty. In the tea-
gardens, scattered plentifully round the suburbs, the peach and
--L


Chap. V.] INTEMPERANCE.—DRAWBACKS. 123
the plum trees are cultivated chiefly with a view to the beauty
of the blossom,-which attains the size and fullness of a rose,
and covers the tree in rich profusion. It is one of the great
delights of the Japanese at Yeddo, during all April, to make
picnics to these suburban gardens and temples. Groups of
men, women, and children, by families, may be seen trooping
along the shady roads on their way to enjoy the beauty of the
opening spring; the rich in Norimons, the middle and lower
classes on foot. It is sad enough that this Arcadian scene is
so often marred by intemperance. Not content with inhaling
the freshness of the opening flowers, the men drink deep of
saki; nor is this practice altogether confined, as one would
fain have hoped, to the rougher sex. The latter make the
streets unsafe on their return, especially to dogs and foreign-
ers. They may be met in bands of two or three, with flushed
faces; and now and then, some of the lower class lie stretched
across the road, too drunk to go any farther. In the vice of
intemperance the Japanese have nothing to learn from foreign-
ers; that, at least, can not be laid to our charge. They are as
much given to drunkenness as any of the northern races of Eu-
rope, as quarrelsome as the worst, and far more dangerous in
their cups.
These are drawbacks to the beauty of the landscape and the
country lanes; but it must also be admitted, in candor, that
the same evils exist in Christian lands, only, fortunately, our
drunkards do not carry two sharp swords in their belt, or feel
it a point of honor to flesh them if any convenient opportunity
can be found. In other respects, both country roads and streets
in the city of Yeddo will bear advantageous comparison with
the best kept of either in the West. No squalid misery or ac-
cumulations of filth encumber the well-cared-for streets, if a
beggar here and there be excepted—a strange but pleasant
contrast with every other Asiatic land I have visited, and not
a few European cities. The occasional passage of a train of
porters carrying open pails of liquid manure from the town to
the fields, or a string of horses laden with the same precious
but' perilous stuff,' may, indeed, be objected to. But the con-
ical tubs on the horses are carefully covered over, and form,
indeed, a great improvement on the open pails. To the unsus-
pecting traveler the turn-out is rather picturesque, as may be
seen by the following sketch. These are not only the worst
assaults made either on the olfactory or the visual organs, but
the sole assailants, when once the eye is accustomed to the
summer costume of the lower orders, which with the men is
limited to a narrow loin-cloth, and the women a petticoat, sadly


124
[Chap. V.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.

HOUSE CARRYING LIQUID MANURE.
'scrimped' in the breadths. As I have already referred to this
ungainly fashion, and would not willingly be supposed capable
of' setting down aught in malice,' or otherwise exaggerating
a defect, pictures will be found in
these pages drawn by the Japan-
ese themselves, and I think it will
be confessed that their own artists
show severer outlines than any pen-
cil of mine.
In the valley between the range
of hills and the bay, leagues of con-
tinuous streets may be traversed,
filled with a busy, but not over-
worked, and seemingly a very con-
tented and good-humored people.
Children and dogs abound every
where. Until the former can walk,
they are generally secured to the
back of the mother, so that, while
these pursue their daily occupa-
tions, their arms are left free. Un-
fortunately (so it seems to the look-
er-on), the poor babe's head is left
equally free, the body only being
theiR supported by the sort of pocket in
which the body is deposited; and

HOW MOTHERS DISPOSE OF
INFANTS.


Chap. V.J
TREATMENT OF CHILDREN.
125
consequently, with every movement of the parental trunk, it
rolls from side to side, swaying to and fro, as if a dislocation
of the neck must inevitably be the result. Vain fear! The
mothers know better. Children have been nursed through
twenty generations in precisely the same way. The babies
themselves may possibly, by use, grow to like it; and certain-
ly they rarely cry, or give other token of dislike. What will
not use reconcile us to in this life? But the mothers are not
the sole guardians of the infant progeny. It is a very common
sight, in the streets and shops of Yeddo, to see a little nude
Cupid in the arms of a stalwart-looking father, nearly as naked,
who walks about with his small burden, evidently handling it

THE PATERNAL NURSE.
with all the gentleness and dexterity of a practiced hand. It
does not seem there is any need of a foundling hospital, nor
has any intelligence reached me of infanticide—save in excep-
tional cases — though so common in China, especially in the
case of female children. Abortion in the unmarried is said,
upon good authority, to be not unfrequent, and there are fe-
male professors of the art.
It is impossible to ride through the streets of Yeddo with-
out noticing one of the most striking and constant features of
the city, no matter what the season of the year—large gaps
where charred timbers and rubbish mark the scene of a recent
fire; and often, standing alone in the midst of smouldering


126
[Chap. V.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
heaps and blackened walls, are single houses, unscathed and
erect. These are fire-proof houses, built of mud chiefly, from
one to two feet thick, and with windows faced with iron, clos-
ing all access to the interior hermetically. They certainly seem
to answer their purpose perfectly, though simple enough, and
not of any very expensive material, although there is often a
sort of coquetry about them, in the shape of lackered shutters
and doors, as if prompted by the overflowing of a grateful
heart for the security they give in a city where fires are daily
incidents. So natural does it seem to lavish decoration and
costly things on that which wins a place in the affections,
whether the object of the love be divine or * of the earth,
earthy.' There are no fire-insurance offices in Japan any more
than in China, and but very imperfect means of extinguishing
a conflagration when it takes place. Water is scarce; the
houses are all built of wood and lath, with a mere coating of
mud; nothing is more common, therefore, than to see whole
streets leveled by their terrible enemy in a single night. There
are fire-bells and stations at short distances, and an elaborate
and apparently well-organized system of fire-brigades, which
are formed of a large number of the able-bodied in every ward;
but without a plentiful supply of water and good engines, mere
labor can do little. The bells have distinct modes of commu-
nicating information to a great distance, not only of the break-
ing out of a fire, but the exact quarter in which it is situated,
and where assistance is to be directed. As to fire insurance, I
once had some conversation with the Ministers on the subject,
in which they seemed to take great interest; but they were
especially struck by the idea of assurances on life. I think
their first idea was that, by some cunning financial operation,
a life could be indefinitely prolonged or even brought bulls, as
they have ' long life pills in gold' every where advertised, and
supposed to possess some power of securing longevity. As to
the insurance, I am not quite sure they are so far wrong in fan-
cying there may be some occult connection between a life an-
nuity and longevity. The Registrar General's returns of the
duration of life in annuitants, compared with other classes,
would seem to prove it. But as regards insurance against fire,
that from the first seemed to them to be the most hopeless of
things! Here, as in China, in addition to the incorrigible care-
lessness of the natives living in most combustible houses, there
is a considerable prevalence of incendiarism, without such ad-
ditional premium as insurance might offer, where there is no
very general trust in each other's honesty. Indeed, in En-
gland, grave doubts have been expressed by those best inform-


Chap. V.]
FIRES.—THE SAMOURAI.
127
ed ' whether the practice of insurance, which has done so much
to mitigate the ruin brought by fire, may not have exercised
some baneful influence by increasing the motives for arson!'
So hard is it to devise any good that shall not give rise to an
attendant evil. Be this as it may, the Japanese look for no aid
in this direction, and take the burning down of a whole quar-
ter periodically much as they do the advent of an earthquake
or a typhoon—calamities beyond the power or wisdom of man
to avert. They build their houses, accordingly, with the least
possible expense, as foredoomed sooner or later to be food for
the flames, and when the evil comes lose no time in vain lam-
entations. They calculate that the whole of this vast city is
consumed in successive portions, to be rebuilt in every seven
years! It is certainly very rare that a night passes without
the fire-bell of the quarter ringing a fearful alarm, and rousing
all the neighborhood; and often during my long residence I
have heard them in different quarters, and seen the sky lurid
in two or three directions at once.
A good-humored and contented, as well as a happy race, the
Japanese seem, whatever may be their imperfections, with the
one important exception of the military, feudal, and official
caste—classes I might say, but they are not easily separable;
indeed, it seems doubtful whether there be a civil class, since
all of a certain rank are armed with two formidable weapons
projecting from their belt; swords, like every thing else in Ja-
pan, to our worse confusion, being double, without much or
any obvious distinction between military and civil, between
Tycoon's, officers', and Daimios' retainers. These are the
classes which furnish suitable types of that extinct species of
the race in Europe, still remembered as 1 Swash-bucklers'—
swaggering, blustering bullies; many cowardly enough to
strike an enemy in the back, or cut down an unarmed and in-
offensive man, but also supplying numbers every ready to fling
their own lives away in accomplishing a revenge, or carrying
out the behests of their Chief. They are all entitled to the
privilege of two swords, rank and file, and are saluted by the
unprivileged (professional, mercantile, and agricultural) as
Sarna, or lord. With a rolling straddle in his gait, reminding
one of Mr. Kinglake's graphic description of the Janissary, and
due to the same cause — the heavy projecting blades at his
waist, and the swaddling-clothes round his body—the Japanese
Samourai or Yaconin moves on in a very ungainly fashion,
the hilts of his two swords at least a foot in advance of his per-
son, very handy, to all appearance, for an enemy's grasp. One
is a heavy two-handed weapon, pointed and sharp as a razor;


Chap. V.]
THE SAMOURAI.
129
overcolor this part of the picture drawn from life, the follow-
ing extract from the Blue Book, taken from an official letter
addressed to the Japanese Ministers of Foreign Affairs not
long after my arrival, may show:
'I was returning on horseback at a quiet pace from the
American Legation, about five o'clock, merely followed by a
groom on foot to take care of my horse, and a servant on
horseback.
'I met in the " tokaido" many officers, some in groups and
others alone, armed with their two swords (about as danger-
ous and deadly weapons as men can well possess), and evident-
ly intoxicated. They were drunk in various degrees, but all—
the best of them—were in a state utterly unfit to be at large
in a great thoroughfare, or trusted with weapons by which
they might in an instant inflict fatal wounds or grievous in-
jury. In such circumstances I have frequently observed be-
fore that they are not only insolent, and as a general rule of-
fensive in their gestures and speech when they meet foreign-
ers, but are very prone to put themselves directly in the path,
and either dispute the passage with an air of menace, or some-
times even attempt to strike either horse or rider. Several of
these disorderly persons I had passed, and as a dispute with a
drunken man is always to be avoided by one in his sober
senses, I took no heed of their demonstrations of ill will, and
left the passage free; but when within fifty yards of my own
door, having just overtaken Mr. Heusken,* one more intoxi-
cated or more insolent than the rest, not content with standing
in our path, pushed against both horse and rider, and was
thrust aside by one of the grooms who came up; upon which
he instantly put his hand to his sword, and fearing a defense-
less servant might be cut down by this drunken bravo, I
wheeled my horse round, to protect him, if necessary, by inter-
posing myself. But I was unarmed, with only a riding-whip
in my hand, and, undoubtedly, as I should not have stood
quietly by and seen a servant murdered who had only done
his duty in my defense, it is doubtful what might have been
the issue; but another servant who was on horseback had a
revolver, and hearing the officer vow immediate vengeance,
presented it, declaring he would shoot him if he drew his
swoud. But for this both the groom and myself might very
probably have been wounded, if not murdered by this ruffian,
maddened with drink, and armed to the teeth.
* The Secretary of the American Legation, who met his death some eight-
een months later at the hands of some such ruffians, who cut him down in
the street, while his Japanese guard ran away.
F 2


130
[Chap. V.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
'Do your Excellencies mean to tell me that nothing can be
done, in this capital of Japan, to prevent men of the rank of of-
ficers going about the streets furiously drunk, with two dead-
ly weapons at their side? Is there no law against persons
who thus go about, to the disgrace of their rank, and to the
manifest danger of every peaceful inhabitant—no punishment
or penalty that can be inflicted to deter them from such con-
duct?'
But for this class of military retainers and Tycoon's officials,
high and low, both of which swarm in Yeddo, it seems it
might be one of the pleasantest places of residence in the far
East. The climate is superior to that of any other country
east of the Cape. The capital itself, though spreading over a
circuit of some twenty miles, with probably a couple of millions
of inhabitants, can boast what no capital in Europe can—the
most charming rides, beginning even in its centre, and extend-
ing in every direction over wooded hills, through smiling val-
leys and shady lanes, fringed with evergreens and magnificent
timber. Even in the city, especially along the ramparts of the
official quarter, and in many roads and avenues leading thence
to the country, broad green slopes and temple gardens, or well-
timbered parks gladden the eye, as it is nowhere else gladden-
ed within the circle of a city. No sooner is a suburb gained
in any direction, than hedgerows appear which only England
can rival, either for beauty or neatness; while over all an East-
ern sun, through the greater part of the year, throws a flood
of light from an unclouded sky, making the deep shadow of
the overarching trees doubly grateful with its ever-varying
pictures of tracery, both above and below. Such is Yeddo and
its environs in the long summer time, and far into a late au-
tumn. Even through the early winter months until about the
middle of February this description holds good. Then the
weather breaks with rain and snow, and easterly winds swell-
ing into gales of two or three days' duration succeed, full of
danger to ships on the rock-bound coast and stormy seas.
Yeddo must have been looking its best and gayest when its
temple and castle-crowned hills first greeted the eyes of Lord
Elgin and his suite. And so those who accompanied him have
painted it for us in its gala dress, all nature contributing to
make it bright. The ministers of the dead Tycoon (for<dead
he was while the treaty was being negotiated), too happy to
terminate a negotiation which could alone rid them of their
self-invited and most unwelcome guests, who had arrived in
the midst of a palace revolution,' smiled and smiled'and' made
things pleasant' as they best could. But it may well have been






WOMAN OF YEDDO IN WINTER DRESS. ,


Chap. V.]
WINTER AT YEDDO.
133
doubted, even then, whether any treaty with Japan could pos-
sibly be devised to establish a foreign trade and diplomatic
relations that would not be utterly distasteful to the Ruling
classes.
I have given a glimpse of Yeddo as it may be seen on a
bright summer day; but it is not all sunshine in the capital of
the Tycoon. Tempests from above, and volcanic throes from
below, from time to time give it a very different aspect. From
political storms and convulsions it would appear they have
been more happily exempt, for the last two centuries, than any
other capital in modern times; until events soon to be de-
scribed awoke the Yeddo citizens from their dream of char-
tered security, and inspired some anxious doubts as to what
might follow, of change or revolution, despite the most perfect
and best warranted of State machines! There is a winter also
in Japan, though less severe in the capital than in the north,
and opposite coast of China—still a very unmistakable winter,
with ice and snow; while at Hakodate, in the northernmost isl-
and of the group, it is almost Siberian, with long-continued and
heavy falls of snow, the thermometer standing many degrees
-below zero. The country at Yeddo seldom, indeed, as I have
said, puts on a winter garb. It is in the streets the principal
change occurs; for as nature throws off her mantle, her chil-
dren put on theirs; and the Japanese heap wadded gown on
gown, until they get the required warmth, with a notable in-
crease of bulk. A chafing-dish with a handful of charcoal, let
into the floor (like the Spanish brasero), being the only fire
they use in their houses for purposes of warmth, they naturally
resort to clothing. The men in the streets seem, above all,
careful of the ends of their noses, and on a cold day two thirds
of the population are to be seen with all the lower part of their
faces concealed by the folds of a blue cotton muffler tied round
the head, from under which nothing but a pair of eyes can be
recognized. And when the wearer carries a couple of deadly
weapons at his waist, and advances with a menacing gait, it is
difficult to conceive a more assassin-like figure, immediately
suggesting fl masked bravo, whom it would be unpleasant to
meet in a lone place on a dark night. And, in effect, murders
and highway robberies appear to be frequent. With the fronts
of the houses and shops less open to the street than when the
sun sheds light and heat into their farthest corners, and such
sinister-looking figures every where meeting the eye, the whole
city puts on something of the aspect of a beleaguered town,
peopled only by soldiers or armed men bent on desperate work.
If this be the impression conveyed by the narrow streets and


134
[Chap. V.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.

THE SAMOURAI.
crowded thoroughfares of the commercial quarters, it is still
farther suggested on emerging from these into the Daimios'
quarter, circling between broad moats round the Tycoon's cas-
tle. Here are fine open spaces, great causeways or glacis, not
less than fifty feet in width, lined on one side with the outer
buildings and great, massive-looking gateways of the Daimios'
residences, and those of the high officers in the employment of
the government; and on the other by the large, deep moats,
fed by tributary rivers, in which, at this season of the year,
thousands of wild-fowl live undisturbed. It being death to
molest or shoot them, they are so secure that it is almost im-
possible to get them up; but if for a moment they are startled,
they rise like a dark cloud from the water, in immense num-
bers. In the more shallow parts, the sacred ibis of Egypt sol-
emnly picks his way and his food, enjoying, as an emblem of
happiness and longevity with the Japanese, quite as much sanc-
tity as in the land of the Pharaohs. With the agriculturists,
the whole race of storks, cranes, and paddy-birds, of which
there are great numbers, are in much favor (partly, no doubt,
for their useful qualities); and they may often be seen in twos


Chap. V.]
THE RAMPARTS.
135
and threes following the plow, with the greatest gravity, close
at the heels of the peasant, picking the worms out of the fresh
upturned earth, and making their morning meal, equally to his
advantage and their own.
The moats, like the causeways which serve as glacis, are
wide, with sloping banks descending to the water's edge, some
fifty feet or more from the level of the road. These are in
some places massive walls, and in others faced with turf; al-
ways beautifully kept, smooth as any gentleman's lawn in En-
gland, and always green, surmounted at the top by a rampart
wall. Where walls and bastions of stone exist, these are com-
posed of blocks of granite, consisting of polygons laid on each
other in irregular lines without mortar, the better to meet the
shocks of continual earthquakes, by allowing a certain latitude
of motion without fracture or serious displacement. From
many of these steep green banks fine cypresses and cedars rise
up perpendicularly nearly to the level of the parapets, or over-
hang the water below; an innovation perhaps on our ideas of
defensive works detrimental to their security, but singularly
conducive to their beauty. Strong, and almost impregnable as
these triple fines of bastion, rampart, and moat appear on the
first aspect, they have evidently been constructed in ignorance
of some of the first principles of the engineer's art as regards
military defense against artillery. But, curious to say, al-
though so evidently built at a vast expense for defense, not a
single piece of ordnance is any where to be seen within the of-
ficial quarter. Each moat is crossed at three or four points in
the circle by solidly constructed timber bridges, flanked by
high massive gateways and bastions, built with, Cyclopean
blocks of granite. The gates are strong, copper sheathed and
iron clamped; but nothing in the shape of a drawbridge exists.
As the whole of this quarter of the city occupies the crown
of a range of hills projecting across the valley, and dividing it
in two, covering an area of several miles in circumference, it
offers many commanding sites and some wide sweeps of land-
scape worthy of the pencil of a Roberts or a Stanfield, if Japan
could boast such talented sons. The broad causeway in curv-
ing lines, bounded on one side by the moat, with green banks
shelving steeply down from the upper level, and on the other by
Daimios'residences—Yamaskas, with their gateways of quaint
and elaborate architecture—form the natural foreground. To
fill up the picture, giving life and movement to the scene,
groups of horsemen, with pedestrians intermingled, are never
wanting. Sometimes an imposing cortege will be seen emerg-
ing from a gateway, with standards and state umbrellas, nori-


Chap. V.J
OBJECTS OF TAIKOSAMA.
of the bay, covered with fantastically-rigged boats and junks.
No capital in Europe presents so many striking features of a
type altogether peculiar; nor, upon the whole, can any boast of
so much beauty in the site and surrounding country, and this
for leagues in every direction. And probably no other capital
would prove so difficult to occupy by an enemy, unless his army
rivaled the invading force of Xerxes in'number. The official
quarter alone, with the Tycoon's castle in the centre, which is
the key of the whole position, could not be occupied with safety,
or be defended, except by a very large force, so wide is the area
it covers. But no European general would think of occupying
bo vast a city. One or two strong positions might be seized,
from which the greater part could be commanded or destroyed
without difficulty, although the whole could not be held with
a hostile population. Probably the Japanese may themselves
have come to this conclusion also, and thus thought they might
dispense with armed batteries round their ramparts. This cap-
itol of the Tycoon's metropolitan city (for Yeddo is not, prop-
erly speaking, the capital of Japan, but Miaco, which is the
residence of the Mikado, the hereditary and only recognized
titular sovereign), in which large bodies of armed retainers and
Tycoon's officers have their quarters, seems, indeed, rather for
a show of strength and power than for actual defense, except,
perhaps, in case of civil feuds and insurrection. Their history
seems to say these have never broken out since the civil wars,
which followed for the succession to the 'Tycoonatf created
by the strong arm and determined will of Taiko-sama. He it
was who reduced the boldest to subjection, and broke the
power of many of the independent princes. To exterminate
Christianity and humble the great nobles seem to have been
the two main objects he had in view, for in both he saw dan-
gerous enemies to the Sovereign power, by whomsoever wield-
ed. He accomplished the first of these in his lifetime, but
could only pave the way for the last, and, like other successful
soldiers and conquerors who have sought to found a dynasty,
and devoted their energies to secure it from all future dangers,
he worked for posterity, not, as he fondly hoped, for his own
offspring. The present dynasty acknowledges no drop of his
blood. Not even his own son, whom he left an infant to the
guardianship of his uncle, ever held the reins of power, but per-
ished in the attempt to assert his right when arrived at man's
estate. In this same effort many Christian converts and their
Foreign teachers joined, and the failure of an appeal to arms
was the destruction of both. And so died out of the land the
Christianity of a century's growth at Simabara.


138
[Chap. VI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
This train of thought has led us far from Yeddo and all it
contains of promise for the present, but not before our journey
through its rural lanes and populous streets had come to a nat-
ural close. The stereoscopic slides are exhausted, and I put
away the box, not without hope that the purpose of the hour
has been answered, and some true idea given, both of the capi-
tal of the Tycoon and its population, in many of their leading
characteristics.
CHAPTER VI.
First Lessons in Japanese Diplomacy.
As some days were required for carpenters and masons to
convert the temple rooms into a habitable residence for Euro-
peans, with far other wants than the Spartan habits of the Jap-
anese suggest, I turned the delay to account by making arrange-
ments for the opening of Kanagawa on the day fixed by treaty,
July 1,1859. This is the shipping port of Yeddo, lying some
sixteen miles farther down the bay on the western side. There
is a small town here, built along the northern shore of an inner
bay, nearly a mile and a half in depth, and more than that across
from point to point. It is situated on the Tocado, the imperial
high road, leading, as already explained, from all the southern
provinces to the capital, along which the princes and Daimios
whose territories lie southward have to pass in their compul-
sory journeys to and fro, to take up their official residence un-
der the eyes of the Tycoon's Government for six months in the
year.
Whether the compulsory nature of the journey sours the
temper of these Magnates of the land, and renders it unpleasant
to have any dealings with them, on such occasions especially, or
whether a known hostility to foreigners existed in the breasts of
the Daimios, which made it inexpedient, if not dangerous, that
the two should meet, might be a question; but it soon appeared
that the Japanese Government had formed a very decided reso-
lution to locate the foreigners, not at Kanagawa, where the
treaty stipulated, but on the opposite point of the bay, at a place
called Yokohama, where a fishing village existed, in the midst
of a marsh, and far away from the direct line of traffic through
the country.
On the first view, there seemed many and grave objections
to this arbitrary transfer of locality; and perhaps I felt all the


Chap. VI.]
SITE FOR A SETTLEMENT.
139
less disposed to give in to such an arrangement, from the evi-
dence that the government must have determined the location
should be where they had elected, and nowhere else. They
had gone to vast expense in building a causeway across the
lagunes and marshy ground for nearly two miles, to shorten
the distance, and afford a certain and direct means of commu-
nication with the high road to Kanagawa. I found solid
granite piers and landing-places had already been built; and
an extemporized town for Japanese traders, with a number of
small houses and go-downs for the foreign merchants, were all
prepared, together with a large range of official quarters, in
which a custom-house was already established.
All these tangible evidences of a foregone conclusion, and a
determination to allow no voice in the matter to the Foreign
Representatives, naturally excited suspicion as to the motives
for such a course, and the wisdom of concurrence. The alle-
gation of the officials was, that Mr. Harris, the American Min-
ister, when at Yeddo the previous year, had seen the locality
and accepted it. Of course this was open to the obvious re-
ply that Mr. Harris could not possibly have accepted any lo-
cation other than the treaty stipulated, except for his own
Government or countrymen, and had no power or authority
to decide for his colleagues. Fortunately, at this moment Mr.
Harris arrived in person from Simoda, and on being referred
to, he not only denied having given any assent, but assured me
he had strongly remonstrated against the proposed site, as one
to which serious objections attached.
Nevertheless, there was the locality, and a site prepared at
an enormous expenditure of labor and money. Not only this,
but there was a certainty of a long struggle and great delay
before any other site could be obtained; and several ships
were already in harbor with pioneers of trade on board, from
Nagasaki and China, eager to try the new port, and, of course,
clamorous for instant accommodation and facilities. This was
an embarrassing position for all parties. It was impossible,
against our conviction of what was really best for the perma-
nent and national interests at stake, to sanction the off-hand
proceedings of the Japanese Government; and yet it was easy
to foresee that, after having gone so far, they would in all prob-
ability not recede, but find some means of carrying their point
sooner or later.
Here was the first difficulty in our relations, and how it was
best to be met was not easily determined. Mr. Harris and I
both saw, in this set purpose of the Japanese to locate the for-
eign trade there and nowhere else, a design to make another


140
[Chap. VI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
Deoima — to place the merchants where they could be most
easily and completely isolated, their trade watched and con-
trolled, and in such a situation, in short, as should enable the
Japanese officials to exercise a restrictive power upon all trade.
Every Japanese approaching the settlement must either pass
along two miles of exposed causeway, with a gate at each end,
or cross the bay, the edge of which was already studded with
watch-houses. It naturally followed that, not only had the
officials the power of effectually preventing any communica-
tion with the foreigner, except such as they might choose to
allow, and under such conditions as the Government might see
fit secretly to impose, but without appearing to move in the
matter, they could exercise any amount of interference and
control over the trade, since not an ounce of silk or a chest of
tea could find its way to the foreign merchant thus located,
until sanctioned, nor a bale of his own goods pass out of such
a cleverly contrived trap for traders.
That this, among other objects, was distinctly contemplated,
it sufficed to know what had been the policy of the Japanese
at Nagasaki for the previous two centuries, and to see the dis-
position of the ground, with the works so energetically accom-
plished in anticipation. They had, too evidently, one stereo-
typed idea as to foreigners and foreign trade, and they had
proceeded with the instinct and perseverance of beavers to
work out the conception, damming up all but the one entrance
or exit, which enabled them to keep vigilant watch and ward
on all that might go in or come out.
This was not an auspicious opening to free trade under the
treaties; and both the American Minister and myself determ-
ined vigorously to resist this attempt to place the merchants
in a disadvantageous position, and perpetuate a state of things
which it was the great object of the treaties to put an end to
forever. Either, indeed, such a policy must be reversed, or
the treaties would become worthless as waste paper. Due no-
tice was accordingly given by both of us to our respective
countrymen, that we should resist this attempt to force them
into this Decima-like settlement so astutely prepared, and rec-
ommended some patience and self-denial while the battle was
being fought in their interest and that of all trade at the port.
I confess I felt any thing but sanguine as to the result. Past
experience led me to conclude there was a losing fight before
us, though one we could not consistently or conscientiously de-
cline.
How vain it is, by any thing short of a law with specific
penalties, to induce the rough and ready pioneers of commerce,


Chap. VI.]
EXTENSION OF SITE.
Ill
who first rush into a new port in the East, to listen either to
advice or injunction, if it runs counter to their immediate con-
venience or temporary interest, I had not now to learn. Nev-
ertheless, it was necessary, in the discharge of a public duty, to
make the attempt. Above all, it was needful to protect those
who might come after them, so far as this might be possible, and
the permanent interests of trade in Japan, from what threatened
to prove a serious detriment to both, and might at any moment
be made, in Japanese hands, the destruction of the latter. We
had scarcely returned to Yeddo when I heard that first one
mercantile agent, and then another, had taken up their quarters
at Yokohama, some partly driven by distress for lodging, of
course refused elsewhere, and pressed upon them with the ut-
most benevolence in the forbidden location by the Japanese.
These had their own game to play, and were of course not at
all slow to begin, by setting the merchants and their Repre-
sentatives at cross purposes and in unseemly antagonism.
From that time it was manifestly a losing fight against all
odds. We were in fact, to all appearance, insisting upon a
right in behalf of our merchants which they themselves, the
chief parties interested, repudiated as much as the Japanese
Government! The record of such past struggles against ad-
verse elements is not likely to be read with much interest now,
and therefore I will merely state the result. The consuls were
placed in Kanagawa, and after some weeks of negotiation
(during which the Japanese Government insisted that Yoko-
hama was in fact Kanagawa, that name including the whole
district; and therefore that it was not contrary to, but in strict
accordance with treaty, to locate the foreign settlement where
it was) they gave way, and a site was obtained on the edge of
the bay outside Kanagawa, and nearer to Yeddo by a league.
Merchants and Consuls both might have as much land as they
desired or chose to pay for, buying out the proprietors where
any houses actually existed. But in the interval more pioneers
of foreign trade had arrived, of many nationalities, and some
with very few scruples. More accommodation had been af-
forded them (by the most obliging of governments), despite
'the unrelenting hostility and perversity of the Foreign Rep-
resentatives at Yeddo,' and trade once located makes a chan-
nel, from which no government influence (unless it be such as
the Japanese employ) can easily turn it. Trade, where it once
strikes root, is far more difficult to transplant than trees, even
were it not otherwise contrary to the whole spirit of our legis-
lation to force its growth in any particular locality or direc-
tion. Having, therefore, secured a free choice, and, in some im-


142
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VI.
portant respects at least, if not in all, a more eligible site, the
rest was left to the merchants themselves, without official in-
tervention or obstacle, to be decided by them and the course
of events. A good deal of ill blood was created at the time,
to judge by the amount of anonymous abuse that found its
way into the local press in China; but a year had not passed
before all the available land and houses had been got into the
large and tenacious grasp of the first comers, who had money
at command; and as new arrivals came, a wild cry of despair
and injured prospects arose, 'there was no more land to be
obtainedP The first on the ground had followed
The good old plan,
That all should take who have the power,
And all should keep who can;
or, at least, only part with it at a price which would bring
enormous returns, and impose very onerous conditions on the
later purchasers. I thought the time had then arrived to in-
tervene with effect, and with advantage to all, in order not only
to secure a legal tender and evoke some order out of existing
confusion, but procure more land, otherwise wholly unattain-
able by any efforts of the merchants. For the Japanese, hav-
ing got them there permanently located, it was not at all in
their project, when Kanagawa was secured from their pres-
ence, to give them any larger facilities for trade. The ques-
tion as to choice of site having to all appearance been prac-
tically settled, wisely or otherwise, by the merchants them-
selves, who were on the spot, I entered into communication
with the Japanese Government on the subject. After point-
ing out the efforts they had successfully made, contrary to my
wish and that of the other Foreign Representatives, to locate
foreigners on the Yokohama site, lavishly placing at the dis-
posal of the first comers, without regard to the just rights of
those who might follow, or the permanent interests of the port,
all the land and house accommodation available, avoiding,
at the same time, every vestige of legal tenure, it was neces-
sary this state of confusion and unequal appropriation of land
should cease. In view of their own antecedent course, I in-
sisted upon their obligation immediately to extend the site to
the foot of the bluff forming the front of the bay, giving a mile
more of water frontage and a proportionate depth, which lat-
ter might afterward be extended ad libitum, according to the
progress of trade, and the legitimate wants of the merchants.
The new site, it was farther stipulated, should be placed at
the disposal of the Representatives of the five Treaty Powers,
to be allotted on some equitable principle, in view of the pres-


Chap. VI.]
THE NEW SETTLEMENT.
143
ent and future wants of foreigners, who might desire to settle
at this port for trade. This done, I promised that the hold-
ings in the old site should be ascertained and regularized, and,
a legal title being given by competent Japanese authority and
the rental fixed, payment of arrears should follow. And thus,
at the end of two years only, was it possible to correct the
evils induced by the first irregular proceedings, or protect the
original squatters from the effects of their own acts, in support
of which they had invested large sums on land, and without
obtaining a shadow of legal title.
The Consul, at a much later period, convened a public meet-
ing for the purpose of hearing any grievances the merchants
might have against either the Japanese or their own authori-
ties, and gave a very plain resume of the whole subject in the
following extract from his speech, reviewing the several com-
plaints, and challenging denial or dissent if his facts were in-
correct. But no single word was offered either in the way
of refutation or comment.
'We come now to the occupation of land, in which the com-
mittee speak of " unaccountable" and, what has appeared to
many, "vexatious" delays in obtaining building sites. Yet
nothing admits of more easy explanation. I need hardly re-
mind you that when the port was first opened it was a ques-
tion between the Japanese authorities and the Foreign Repre-
sentatives which side of the bay offered the most eligible site
for the permanent objects of trade. The British and Ameri-
can Ministers both saw cogent reasons for preferring Kanaga-
wa, in a permanent point of view; while the majority of mer-
chants, arriving by ones and twos, seemed to find greater ad-
vantage, in view of immediate facilities, on the Yokohama side,
where the Japanese desired to fix them, and had gone to great
expense with that object. Both may have been right from
these separate points of view—the Ministers looking to nation-
al and permanent interests, the merchants to what was indi-
vidual and temporary. That is a question which need not be
discussed now, and it is not, in fact, before the meeting. But
as there has been no little misconception (I do not wish to use
any harder word) as to the real facts and the action of Her
Majesty's authorities, it may not perhaps be without advantage
to all if I offer a few words of explanation in respect to the
past, as tending to clear the way to a good understanding for
the future.
'We will not discuss who was right or wrong, or whether
any thing better could have been done at first than to leave
the question to be decided by events, the progress of the set-


144 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. W. tlement being left to itself in a great degree. It is no very
grave reproach to those who have only temporary interests at
stake to charge them with preferring these to any future per-
manent advantages. So neither is it a very legitimate subject
of reproach to Consul or Ministers, who by office are the rep-
resentatives of interests that are national and permanent, if
they should keep these constantly in view, as the more impor-
tant, whatever may be the pressure of that which is individual
and fleeting, and follow the line of duty thus indicated without
fear or seeking after popularity. Of course, the two classes of
interests can not always be very perfectly reconciled to each
other, and this will lead to a conflict of interests and opinions.
But in such a contingency you have at least the satisfaction of
knowing that neither the Consul nor Minister can have any
personal interests to consult; they neither trade nor deal in
land. And it is going very far a-field for adverse motives to
attribute to either petty feelings of spite and ill will because
British subjects may have thought their own views the best,
and acted upon them to the best of their power.'
A resume1 of the whole subject will be found in the Report
of a public meeting convened by the Consul,* if any one should
feel sufficient interest in the subject to turn to it for all the
facts.
In order not to return to the subject myself, I have greatly
anticipated time. But we must go back to the first day of
my arrival and landing at Yokohama, where more diplomatic
troubles were in store. I went on shore as soon as the ' Samp-
son' had cast anchor, and it was impossible not to be struck
with the admirable and costly structures of granite which the
Japanese had so rapidly raised, in a large broad pier running
far into the bay, and a long flight of steps, at which twenty
boats might land their passengers or cargoes at the same time.
Immediately in front was a large official-looking building,
which was pointed out as the custom-house, and thither we
proceeded to find some of the officials and an interpreter. The
gate gave entrance into a court-yard, paved with stones from
the beach, and round the four sides were ranges of offices,
some evidently still in the carpenters' hands. Every where
there were signs of a rush having been made to get into some
sort of occupation and preparedness by July 1, the day fixed
by our treaty for the opening of the port. In one of the large
apartments we found two grave-looking officials seated on their
heels ' at the receipt of customs,' with scales and weights, and
a glittering heap of new coins, the currency of Japan, we were
* Appendix B.


Chap. VI.]
THE CURRENCY.
145
told, ready to be exchanged,' according to treaty,' for dollars.
Immediately several of the party, eager to be possessed of a
currency, as they were preparing to visit the shops, threw their
dollars into the empty scale, and obtained for each two fine-
looking coins,' weight for weight,' most religiously exact, as
stipulated in the treaty regulations! . The Government seem-
ed to have exceeded all expectations in their preparations,
with an eagerness and a completeness that was calculated to
disarm the most suspicious nature! After some conversation
with two of the Governors of Foreign Affairs as to a location
for the Consul on the opposite side of the bay, which they de-
clared could not be given, we turned down the main street, and
here witnessed a scene which could hardly have been enacted
any where except in Russia, where whole villages appeared as
if by magic, at the mandate of Potemkin, to greet the Empress
Catharine in her progress through her dominions, with evi-
dence of a flourishing and populous empire, where ten days be-
fore there was only a desert. Here, out of a marsh by the
edge of a deserted bay, a wave of the conjuror's wand had cre-
ated a considerable and bustling settlement of Japanese mer-
chants. A large wide street was bordered on both sides with
handsome, well-built houses of timber and mud walls. But the
occupants had evidently only that very morning been precipi-
tated in; their goods were still for the greater part unpacked;
while frantic efforts were being made by servants and porters,
in a state of deliquescence, to make some sort of show of the
salable contents.
Partly to encourage such devotion to our interests, and with
some of the eagerness which children of the largest growth
are not quite exempted from feeling—to spend money already
in the pocket for that purpose, various articles were priced by
some of the juniors. And nothing could seem more reasona-
ble !' Six itziboos for that charming glove-box; what can be
cheaper! Three itziboos to the dollar—why, that is only two.
dollars! Here, my friend, here is your price without haggling
—two dollars.'
A suspicious look, and a shake of the head with averted
palm, created a momentary pause, until it was suggested that,
as at Nagasaki, they could only receive Japanese money. 'Ah!
all right; here it is, bright and fresh from the mint, two for the
dollar; therefore two of them—what do they call them again?
—two of them must be equal to three itziboos—one and a half
each—ay, that is the calculation. Now, my friend, open your
palm; there it is, four of these large bright coins: I wish I
could remember their name!' But the palm turned them over,
G


146
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VI.
and again the head shook, but this time four fingers were held
up three times in rapid succession. 'Why, what does he mean?
He asked six itziboos, which I have given, and now he wants
twelve! What an extortionate Jew!' This evidently required
the aid of language and an Interpreter, and with such help the
explanation was as easy as it was unsatisfactory. Each of the
bright coins were, indeed, the weight of one and a half itziboos,
but they bore the mint mark and value of half an itziboo!
There it was, clear enough,'ni-shV—half. Oh, what a fall was
there! Had the bright silver been turned into the shriveled
leaves of the sorcerer, they could not have been looked upon
with more profound disgust and surprise. There were no pur-
chases made that morning; one of the party, who had been
the most eager, ruefully remarking,'The things are remarka-
bly pretty, but to clip the dollar of two thirds of its value will
make them rather dear to the holders of that coin.'
And this was the second great diplomatic struggle into
which I felt myself thrust before noon on July 1. Not con-
tent with fixing a site by anticipation to suit their own pur-
pose, they had also cleverly prepared a currency, keeping what
seemed the promise to the ear, but breaking it to the heart.
The letter of the treaty might be there, but assuredly not the
spirit, seeing that the dollar, thus ingeniously depressed from
three itziboos, its equivalent value by weight when the treaty
was signed, to one, bid fair to make Japan, supposed to be one
of the cheapest countries in the world, the very dearest. Un-
less imports could be sold at the same rate, it was quite clear
no exports could be purchased. There have not been wanting
Europeans (chiefly visitors), and some among the Dutch resi-
dents, I think, who have contended that the Japanese were
right in considering the itziboo as a mere 'bank token,' having
a money value far above its real worth as so much silver, and
that to hold them to the exact terms of the American and sub-
sequent treaties, bound to give weight for weight of the then
existing silver coins for European coins, was to inflict upon
them a wrong and a loss. But without going into the differ-
ent theories of a currency, it seemed to me then, as it does
still, that there was a ready means of testing the truth or fal-
lacy of the Japanese argument. Their silver currency might
be, and was, no doubt, ill adjusted, in regard to the relative
relations with the West were being established, it might be
essential that some readjustment should take place, with special
reference to the relative current value of the three metals in
European countries. Their gold was much too low, and so
value of gold and

lurope. And now that trading


Chap. VI.]
THE CURRENCY.
147
also was their copper, compared with the silver, since an ounce
and a third of silver (or four itziboos) were worth a gold co-
bang, valued in Europe by our standard at 18s., or between 3
and 4 oz., and the same amount of silver in Japan would pur-
chase 4800 copper cash; whereas, even in China, a Mexican
dollar (about an ounce in weight) would not buy more than
from 1000 to 1200. To leave their currency without modifi-
cation, therefore, was simply to insure the sudden export of
all their gold and copper in exchange for European silver.
No wonder the Japanese looked upon such a contingency with
great anxiety and alarm; and I suggested to them at once an
effective remedy, by altering the relative mint value of their
gold and silver coinage, increasing the value of the former from
four itziboos to twelve or thirteen, bringing it sufficiently close
to the average rates in Europe to secure them from any oper-
ations for the export of gold. Unfortunately, I think, they
hesitated, insisting upon altering the mint value of their silver
by depreciating it two thirds in relation to the copper coin,
not to prevent the export of the latter, but to increase the
price to foreigners of all Japanese produce. At least this
would obviously be the immediate effect. Their fixed idea
was, that all Japanese produce and manufactures could be
bought vastly below their true value, if the ounce of silver, in
the shape of a dollar, was allowed to circulate as the equiva-
lent of three itziboos, corresponding in weight. I endeavored
to convince them, by reference to the market-prices in the
chief trading marts of Asia from Constantinople to Pekin, that,
except in the one article of copper (and gold as it then stood),
the ounce of silver, even when inverted into three itziboos,
would not purchase more of the commonest articles of con-
sumption or of labor than elsewhere; and, consequently, that
to depreciate the silver currency in regard to the copper cur-
rency, by which all produce was sold or its market value esti-
mated, could only have the effect of shutting out the foreigner
from their market altogether, except in so far as he could deal
by way of barter, exchanging European goods against Japan-
ese. If a dollar (or an ounce of silver) would buy so many
pounds of rice in India, Siam, or China, and so many days' la-
bor, the prices of both being perfectly well known, subject to
little fluctuation in ordinary times, and always easily ascertain-
able, while in Japan only one third the quantity could be pur-
chased with it, no argument could be needed to prove that
any but a barter trade would be impossible; and that the itzi-
boo did not, as they held, represent a fictitious value in the
produce market, rendering it worth more, by two thirds, than


148
[Chap. VI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
the same weight of silver over the length and breadth of Asia.
It would certainly buy more copper and more gold, but not
more food or labor. Ultimately, as will be seen, they altered
their gold coinage to the European standard, but too late to
prevent large exportations and much mischief. They protect-
ed their copper currency by withdrawing it, and circulating
iron cash instead; but to this day they seek to carry out their
original plan of altering the silver coinage, the direct and cer-
tain effect of which, it would seem, must be to close the Japan-
ese markets to all foreign dealers, save to the extent in which
they can exchange goods, not silver, for native produce. Is not
this the effect contemplated and desired? This seems only
too probable. Sooner or later, silver being depreciated in val-
ue to the extent of some twenty-five per cent., a self-adjusting
process might bring the Japanese dealer to regard his silk and
tea as worth so much gold instead of silver, and the former
might thus restore the balance. The gold cobang piece being
worth the same amount of cash in Japan, and of silver, could
be by treaty claimed from the Japanese in exchange for Eu-
ropean gold coins, weight for weight; and in this way gold
instead of silver might be imported, and supply the means of
purchase to the foreign trader. But, assuming the state of
exchange would admit such an operation, the Japanese Gov-
ernment are not bound, except in payment of duties, to receive
our gold weight for weight, and they profess inability to com-
pel their subjects. There can be little doubt, therefore, that
the first effects of the change still contemplated by the Japan-
ese Government would be to put a sudden stop to all Euro-
pean trade, since it would have the effect of raising the price
to foreigners of all native produce from fifty to seventy per
cent.
Dissatisfied with the location, which I yet foresaw it would
be difficult or impossible to change; refused a place of resi-
dence in Kanagawa for a consular officer, where of right it
could be claimed for both consuls and merchants (as they were
compelled to admit later); menaced with a depreciation of the
dollar to two thirds of its value by a juggle, much too cleverly
conceived in reference to the wording of the treaty, and too
effectually set on foot to be easily set aside, I returned to Yed-
do with no pleasant anticipations of my first diplomatic passes
with the Japanese Government, taking back with me the Vice-
consul I had purposed installing at the newly-opened port. A
residence was speedily obtained at Kanagawa (though declared
impossible three days before); but no sooner was it granted
than I had to combat a pretension of the Japanese Govern-


Chap. VI.]
FIRST DIFFICULTIES.
149
ment to close the road between us, and deny all right to trav-
el between the Legations and Consulates on the high road.
My American colleague and I had thus for a beginning three
as troublesome and harassing questions as could well have
been desired for a diplomatic agent. A disputed site for a
foreign settlement, after the native government had expended
large sums upon one, and merchants were on the spot, urgent
for land and instant accommodation; a currency question
which struck at the root of all trade; and, finally, an attempt
to dispute a right of road between the capital and the port,
even to the members of the Legations. I should scarcely have
entered upon my troubles at this outset of the Mission in Ja-
pan were it not that a narrative of my residence in the Capital
would be very imperfect, and only calculated to give a false
impression of the people we have to deal with, if such incidents
were omitted. Indeed, any record of such a residence, with-
out reference to these ever-recurring struggles between the
Minister, whose business it is to insist upon the observance of
treaties, and the Japanese rulers, whose peculiar pleasure and
duty it seemed to be to render them nugatory and void in ef-
fect, would be the Moor of Venice without Othello. Even in
looking back, with the pleasant remembrance of difficulties
overcome, of doubts resolved, and of dangers escaped, there
still lingers a weary sense of the trouble that preyed upon the
soul, and the pain and anxiety of a position in which every
thing had to be won by hard fighting, or defended with a de-
termined front and wary eye. All this, too, where a false step
or an error in judgment might be as fatal to the diplomatist as
to a traveler climbing up a steep acclivity, with a measureless
depth below him, down which he may be suddenly precipi-
tated without power to arrest his descent, or any hope of ever
obtaining a foothold lost.
I do not think I slept very soundly that night. I know I
rose the next morning very tired, and proceeded to land all my
goods, chattels, and belongings, and install myself, with a feel-
ing of utter weariness at the task I saw looming before me,
of the true nature and extent of which I had from the first a
tolerably clear conception.


150 * THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. WI. CHAPTER VII.
Exchange of Ratifications.—News of the Repulse at the Peiho.— Hermit
Life in Yeddo.—Conditions of Exile and Isolation. —Life in a Wilderness
of Men and Women.
On Wednesday, July 6, 1859, I landed officially, and the
British flag for the first time was unfurled in evidence of a per-
manent Legation in the Capital of the Tycoon. While still in the midst of the confusion incident to installa-
tion at a new post in an Eastern land, it was necessary to pay
an official visit to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, who, in
Japan, are of course in dual form; the one apparently to speak,
and the other to observe. They are each of them Daimios,
and the first, Manake Simoosano Kami, was also at this time
President of the Gorogio, or great Council of State, consisting
of five members of the Daimio class, and corresponding, in a
great degree, to our Cabinet, in whom the executive power
seems vested. The second was Waisaka Nakatmkano Faya,
also a member of the Council, and it was at his official resi-
dence the interview took place. From Tozengee the distance
was little less than five miles, and although a July sun in Ja-
pan, with the thermometer standing at ninety degrees in the
shade, is not to be regarded with levity, I had taken so great
a dislike to the cramped space afforded by the ordinary Nori-
mon that I determined to go on horseback. And a long and
sultry ride we found it. The Yamaske of Waisaka was in the
heart of the official quarter, and within the circle of the second
moat. Our reception was very formal, and the visit being
strictly official and one of ceremony, no discussion was entered
into or business transacted beyond fixing the day and settling
the preliminaries for the exchange of ratifications, which, to
my great relief, I found they were quite disposed to expedite,
instead of raising difficulties for purposes of delay. It is true
my congratulatory feeling was somewhat premature, for near-
ly the whole intervening period of seven days was taken up in
discussing with the Governors of Foreign Affairs* the mode in
which the deed was to be accomplished, and at the end a seri-
ous misunderstanding arose about the day originally fixed.
Even after this, when the college was on the very point of
* These officers may be considered as Under Secretaries of State, and
have somewhat similar functions.


Chap. VII.] FIRST OFFICIAL RECEPTION.
151
starting, an objection was raised to the guard of honor, which
it had been previously settled should accompany and surround
the canopied platform on which the treaty was carried. 'Boast
not of day till night has made it thine !' is good advice every
where, but in Japan, of all countries, it is well to remember it
and not be over sanguine!
It really seemed as if some Nemesis of retribution was on my
track, to make me pay for my easy victory in establishing a
right of residence, where I certainly had anticipated the first
and greatest difficulty -would be experienced. I was allowed
no time, however, for vain boasting, or any presumption found-
ed on a first success; and, although it was a sore trial while it
lasted, I have since been disposed to be thankful that thus ear-
ly, in a new field, where every thing had to be learned as to
the feelings, motives, and policy of those with whom it was
necessary to establish relations of startling novelty, and where
novelty itself was a sufficient condemnation, I had to struggle
through almost every form of difficulty that could be conceiv-
ed. It certainly impressed upon me, from the beginning, the
necessity of untiring patience and forbearance, without which
I soon saw nothing could be effected.
That these preliminary discussions about mere matters of
form, when the thing was secured, were tiresome to the last
degree, and often seemed interminable, will easily be under-.
stood. Each night, after another day had been consumed in
discussions which settled nothing, I felt the lesson sink deeper,
that the first virtue of a diplomatist in Japan must bepatience I
A very slight sketch of the progress made from day to day
will show how much this one virtue was tried. When the of-
ficial interview with the ministers took place, the order of pro-
ceeding had been discussed. I was the bearer of one of the
two copies of the treaty made in English, Dutch, and Japanese,
each signed by Lord Elgin and the Japanese plenipotentiaries,
to which the sign manual and the great seal were attached;
and my instructions were to receive back the other copy left
with the Japanese, bearing the original signatures and seals of
the plenipotentiaries, the Tycoon's ratification and seal being
in like manner attached.
Unfortunately, it seemed the Tycoon's ratification had al-
ready been obtained (so at least they said) to a copy 'more
beautifully written and elaborately bound,' and it was ' impos-
sible any change could be made!' The Tycoon's seal could
neither be attached a second time, nor shifted to the original
copy. A long demur to this arrangement led to an offer on
their part to surrender the original, as well as the copy bearing


152
[Chap. VII.
THREE YEARSIN JAPAN.
the Tycoon's ratification, and to this I consented with some
reluctance. In view of the apparent impossibility of carrying
out my instructions to the letter, it only behooved me to secure
the essential part, which was the Tycoon's ratification to the
treaty, and for this a correct and attested copy was, to all in-
tents and purposes, the same as one bearing the signatures of
the plenipotentiaries.
Next day it turned out that the copy to be offered was only
a copy of the Japanese version, which neither I nor any one
attached to me could read. This I peremptorily refused, say-
ing 'the treaty' consisted of three versions in their integrity,
and not one only; but if any one was more essential than the
rest, it was the Dutch, which both could read.
While this was yet undecided, another night passed, and
then, late on the Sunday evening, came Moriyama and one of
the Governors of Foreign Affairs, in a state of great trepida-
tion to all appearance. 'There was an unfortunate mistake in
the day appointed for the exchange. Moriyama, the interpret-
er, had rendered it Monday; all the preparations had been
made, the Council of State and Tycoon himself informed; and
the disgrace of Moriyama, and his dismissal, would be the least
consequence if he had to avow his mistake.'' 'What,' I said,
'if we took it upon ourselves, as an error in the interpretation,
. and exonerated him?' 'Useless, quite: it would then be said
that Moriyama had induced you to write to that effect merely
to screen himself, and his position would be worse than ever!'
What was to be done? Was all this merely simulated (if
so, he and the Governor were both excellent actors), and was
there some hidden object to be gained, some intrigue being
played off against us? I was now offered the ratification of
the Tycoon to the original treaty (so lately declared 'impossi-
ble'). What was the real motive of this sudden willingness to
give themselves the lie, and desperate effort to alter all the ar-
rangements, and hurry me through the ratifications the next
morning, instead of Tuesday, the day fixed, and, beyond doubt,
clearly understood? Was there some sinister intention of
palming off upon me at last a mere Japanese copy, or hustling
me through the exchange with the omission of some essential
formality on their part? It was hard to say; but enough ap-
peared to rouse suspicion, and I declared, in the most unmis-
takable terms, that I would neither undertake to make any
change, nor even to keep the appointment on Tuesday, unless
I received, in writing, a formal declaration from the Ministers
of Foreign Affairs that I should have the original treaty, bear-
ing the seals and signatures of the plenipotentiaries; and at-


Chap. VII.J VEXED PRELIMINARIES.
153
tached to it the ratification of the Tycoon, with his seal and
the signatures of the two ministers. A new difficulty this. It
was late, the distances considerable, rendering it impossible,
before an early hour in the morning, to get such written com-
munication from the ministers to me; too late to make the
preliminary arrangements for landing the ' Sampson's' marines,
etc. 'Why would not the verbal assurance doP 'Too many
mistakes already,' I replied; 'arrived at the minister's, I might
learn that one more had been made "by the interpreters" and
that the Tycoon's ratification, in due form, was not attached
to the original treaty, when I should be compelled to return
with the originals, bearing the Queen's signature, without ef-
fecting the exchange; and I did not choose to risk being placed
in such a position.' 'Would the written declaration of the
Chief Governor of Foreign Affairs answer the purpose?' (No
such official, by-the-by, existed, as I afterward knew.) 'Yes,
if I received it during the night; and in that case I would con-
sent to the exchange taking place the following day, and, in
anticipation of its arrival, write at once to Captain Hand to
make the necessary arrangements.
At one o'clock came the formal written assurance. The
next morning, July 11, a bright and scorching sun gave sure
promise of a trying day. The distance to the official residence
of the minister, I now learned, was four miles by Japanese
measure. The treaty was to be carried in procession before
me through the city, under a canopy ornamented with flags
and evergreens, surrounded by a guard of marines, and fol-
lowed by fifty blue-jackets. Captain Hand, with a large num-
ber of his officers in uniform and on horseback, followed im-
mediately after the four petty officers carrying the treaty. Just
an hour before starting, the officer who had to conduct us came
to declare, the guard could not enter the official quarter! It
was too late to make any change without damage. They had
had four days' notice, and no objection had been taken. This
was their answer therefore. But the sudden announcement
left room for anxiety and suspicion.
The long line of march of this procession, through the wide
streets of Yeddo, was a novel sight for the inhabitants of the
capital—one such as had never been seen before. A treaty
with a Foreign Power carried in state, preceded by the flag of
Great Britain, surrounded by a guard of honor, and followed
by a large escort of mounted officers, with the Representative
of the Queen at the head, were novelties indeed. On through
the populous commercial quarter we took our way, across the
first broad moat (an anxious moment for the two chiefs of the
G 2


154
[Chap. VII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
civil and naval branches), unstopped by gate, portcullis, or
guard—right on into the first fortified enceinte of the official
quarter. The outer crowd of shopkeepers and industrial class-
es now left behind, a new crowd of retainers of the various
feudal princes, whose palaces lay on either side of the route,
supplied their place, keeping the road with long batons. Slow-
ly the cortege passed on to the second moat, wider and deeper
than the first, and more resembling a river than an artificial
moat. The gates of the second enceinte are before us; but
they, too, turn slowly, as if half reluctant, on their massive
hinges (shut expressly to be opened for our passage, as I aft-
erward knew, for I often saw, with my own eyes, that they re-
mained habitually open), and at last the minister's residence is
gained. It lies to the left of a broad glacis, in front of the last
fortified inclosure standing on a higher level, where the palace
of the Tycoon and the royal domain is seen. The guard form-
ed outside; and, opening their ranks, the treaty was carried in
by the bearers under its canopy, followed by myself, the offi-
cers of the Mission, and of H. M. S.' Sampson.' The full pow-
ers of the respective plenipotentiaries having been produced,
and the other formalities accomplished, by comparing the two
Dutch versions, signals, arranged by the Japanese in advance
(by fans from street to street), conveyed the news to the
'Sampson,' with telegraphic speed, in a minute and a half, a
distance of six miles. A royal salute of twenty-one guns, the
British and Japanese flags at the main, celebrated the exchange
of ratifications, and the happy conclusion of the day's ceremony,
which had been preceded by so much difficulty and so many
thorny discussions. The Japanese had been invited to fire a
salute, also, but they urged the inconvenience of departing from
their own customs, etc., and it was not pressed. They found
no impossibility later, however, in firing such a salute, under
the pressure of a sufficient object. Well it was, perhaps, for
the interests at stake, and my position in Yeddo, that no time
had been lost, for only a few days later news arrived of the
disaster at the Peiho, and there is no telling whether this might
not have disposed them to devise causes of indefinite delay.
Immediately after the exchange of the ratifications, H. M. S.
'Sampson' took her departure, and for many weeks—months,
no English pendant appeared in Japanese waters. While the
first weeks were slipping on, I fairly lost count of the days, and
got up one morning thinking it was Friday, until some better-
informed member of the establishment proved it was only
Wednesday. Really it seemed as if we should have to adopt
Robinson Crusoe's notable device of notching a stick to ena-


Chap. VII.J
HERMIT LIFE IN YEDDO.
155
ble us to keep count of the days in this wilderness of men and
women, and total isolation from all of European race or civili-
zation, where no Sunday worship or Sabbath-day bells recur-
red regularly every week, to mark the end of one and the be-
ginning of another. In striking contradiction this, by the way,
to the broad assertions of some of the Sabbatarian writers
that a septennial division of time has prevailed all over the
earth, and that traces of it at least may be found in every coun-
try. It is strange how this often reiterated allegation, so pal-
pably in contradiction with known facts, could ever be made,
or relied upon as an argument. All over Asia, this division
into weeks is, I believe, utterly unknown to this day, as it is in
Japan. Through all antiquity, in Europe and Western Asia,
in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, it was only known, if known at
all, as a custom of the Jews. Neither Greeks nor Romans
adopted it in their mode of reckoning time. And when a new
world was discovered by Columbus, no trace of the supposed
universal weekly measurement of time was discovered. Nei-
ther the Red Indian and hunting nomades of North America,
nor the people of the more civilized empires of the Mexicans
and Peruvians, had any cognizance of the ' universally known'
seventh day, whether as one of particular sanctity, or as mark-
ing a fourth part of a lunar month. It is difficult not to doubt
the goodness of a cause when its advocates keep reiterating
the universality of a fact which has no existence. But how
gladly one would hear the weekly church-bell, calling to serv-
ice in this place of exile, instead of the early matins of the Pa-
gan Bonzes, announced at five o'clock by the deep tones of a
magnificent bell, struck by a suspended beam from the out-
side, and the long muttered orisons which follow every day
with little cessation for many hours, and again at five in the
evening, with a perseverance and regularity worthy of a bet-
ter cause!
Such total absence of all external differences between one
day and another had a constant tendency to blur out distinc-
tions. In the hermit-like seclusion of Tozengee, the same
bright sun above our heads from day to day, and a thick screen
of wooded hills farther shutting out the world beyond—the
Pagan world, in which destiny had flung a little knot of Chris-
tians, and with it the world of a kindred creed and race, from
which the whole breadth of Asia on the one side, and of the
Pacific Ocean on the other, separated us, it was hard to realize
any distinction of days, weeks, or months! The seasons alone
brought their own distinctive marks with them. In one, per-
haps the truest sense, all days were Sundays here—days of


156
[Chap. VIL
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
solitary reflection, mingled with comparatively few secular af-
fairs or interruptions from the outer world. Nature, in glori-
ous robes of beauty, was ever inviting to contemplation, and
that worship of the heart which springs from a constant sense
of the Divine in creation, and the all-pervading presence of a
Supreme Ruler, governing and fashioning to wise, but often
inscrutable ends, the world of mind and matter. In the broad
avenues, checkered with light and shade, and richly colored
with every variety of tint, there was a temple which nothing
reared by man's hands by aid of stone and mortar could rival.
No fretted roof, or long-drawn aisle of a thousand pillars, could
approach it in beauty. A recluse there need envy no worship-
er in Dom or Minster, so far as grace or richness of color and
material forms are concerned; the communion of kindred
hearts in prayer and worship was alone wanting.
A strange feeling of isolation came upon me when the con-
fusion and novelty both had ceased. Immediately after the
exchange of the ratifications, as already stated, H. M. S.' Samp-
son' had taken her departure, and left Her Majesty's Mission to
take care of itself. The American frigate which had brought
my colleague, the Resident Minister of the United States, had
hastened to follow the example. We were thus left, the Rep-
resentatives of two great Powers, perfectly isolated and un-
supported in the capital of the Tycoon, surrounded by many
hostile elements and unknown conditions, without the pend-
ant of a single gunboat in the Japanese waters, or within six
weeks' or two months' call! Whatever might be the difficul-
ties or the dangers of such a position, they must be met sin-
gle-handed and alone. I felt as though the dial had gone back
fourteen years with me, for in just such a position had I been
dropped, with less experience to guide me, at Foochou, the cap-
ital of the province of Fokien, in the year 1844. It seems not
a very wise or politic mode of proceeding, but I never knew
it otherwise. I never knew an Admiral, or a senior officer, I
think, who did not seem to consider the first duty of the Com-
mander of a ship of war, after dropping a Minister or a Consul
in the midst of a semi-civilized population, as a man drops an
awkward burden, was to disappear as fast as possible, and
leave him to his destiny or his own resources. No doubt it is
quite impossible even for the British navy to supply a ship en
permanence wherever there is a Legation or a Consulate with
interests to defend and lives to protect. And there will al-
ways be more demands on an Admiral in the far East than he
has the means, whatever may be his inclination, adequately to
meet. Still there is much to regret, and something I think to


Chap. VII.] ABSOLUTE ISOLATION.
157
amend, in the practice of dropping diplomatic or consular
agents in the most remote regions, and then leaving them to
take care of themselves as they best can, or to be sacrificed in
the attempt, before it can possibly be known either what are
the conditions under which the duties are to be carried on, or
the changers and difficulties to be encountered. It may well
hslppcn that the very objects for which the nation incurs the
expense and liabilities attaching to the establishment of new
Legations or Consular ports in the far East may be sacrificed
and utterly lost by such a system of abandonment.
I sat musing one day under the deep shadow of the avenue,
looking across the bay, flecked only with white-sailed fishing-
boats, and there came before me a vision of the exile's life re-
served for me. Shut out from the whole world of interests that
bind man to this existence, and mingle with all his thoughts
and affections, even with those which wing their way to that
far eternity whither all are hastening, more or less conscious-
ly, I saw weeks pass on without any tidings from beyond the
seas. When last we had heard, Austria and France were both
in arms, and the French Emperor had taken the field at the
head of his army in Italy. What had happened in the inter-
val? Kingdoms might have been conquered, or shaken to
their centre, and, in the conflict and din of arms, dynasties as
well as nations might have fallen. But of all that might have
been we knew nothing, no more than if our habitation were in
another planet. When a mail and newspapers, with letters
and dispatches, tardily arrived, it was as if the cloud and va-
pors which surround a traveler lost on some high mountain
range were suddenly rent asunder, displaying a moving world
of life and action at his feet, where before all was stillness and
solitude. It was to waken from a long trance, and then only
to hear all that had been said and done in the interval of total
unconsciousness, however nearly it may have concerned him.
In a word, it was to receive a page torn out of the history of
the world, a fragment telling of changes of empires and desti-
nies—changes of all things, great and small, which make up the
sum of national and individual life, that had happened in some
distant period, while all knowledge was denied of events tak-
ing place in the interval, and filling up the space between the
two. In these days of rapid and certain communication—of
railway traveling and electric telegraphs—there is something
especially tantalizing and trying in this forced ignorance of all
that is—this dwelling on a past which always seems remote,
and never can be linked on to the present.
There are days when, in spite of some active occupation and


158
[Chap. VII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
study, one feels that to take office in a country so isolated from
the rest of the world, and so distant, is to descend alive into a
sepulchre of the dead. Human beings there are about you—
there is no stint as to their number—but the touch of sympa-
thy which makes 'the whole world kin' is wanting. As a man
never feels more alone than when the sense of loneliness comes
upon him in a crowd, so in this wilderness of living men 4be
foreigner is too entirely a stranger, and too absolutely repudi-
ated as having any thing in common with the natives, to feel
otherwise than banished, and exiled from all social intercourse.
There is no interchange of ideas, no intellectual exercise, no
common language; and the traditional policy of exclusion and
isolation still prevailing renders all these impossibilities.
The little intercourse foreigners can hold for the first years
in a country like Japan, while laboring to acquire the colloqui-
al language, must be through some half dozen interpreters,
who have acquired a more or less imperfect knowledge of
Dutch. The hostility of the Daimios and governing powers
will long continue to suscitate acts of violence and ever-recur-
ring occasions of petty annoyance or impertinence, with a sys-
tematic plan of extortion and enormous lying by all the offi-
cials who surround the foreign missions, and the tradesmen
they allow to approach. Soon after we were domiciled, I came
to the conclusion that this must be a cheap country. We suc-
ceeded in getting evidences of this without its availing much
to save our pockets. A picul of fine rice (130 lbs.) could be
bought for a dollar and a half; six or eight fowls for the same
price. Fish, on the other hand, was unaccountably dear, al-
though the large bay is always covered with fishing-boats. It
is true the population may be great in proportion, but the fact
can not account for the extravagant prices we were made to
pay. Of the systematic extortion to which we were subject-
ed, indeed, each day brought some new evidence.
The first month was gliding silently away when one day I
determined to penetrate into the great commercial centre of
the city, where they had several times assaulted foreigners,
and Lord Elgin himself had been pelted, in order to be able to
judge, and, if need be, to speak from personal observation.
As the distance was great and the weather hot, I sent word
to the Japanese officers on service in the morning to procure
a good boat, with four or six rowers, and to accompany me,
that the inhabitants might see a foreigner's right to go there
unmolested was incontestable. When the hour came, and it
was too late to make other arrangements, I found an open boat,
with no seat or awning, exposed to the blaze of the sun, and


Chap. VII.] JAPANESE EXTORTIONS.—HORSES. 159
two rowers only, one a miserable old man of sixty or seventy.
This was either a piece of deliberate impertinence, to punish
me for objecting to their extortionate practices, or an official
manceuvre to deter me from going at all. On my sharply re-
monstrating, they uttered only a few nonchalant excuses, which
were palpable lies, such as that' no covered boat came out of
the river,' though we met several within an hour. I did not
choose, however, to forego the expedition, and so we proceed-
ed. Great crowds met us on landing, and followed us with a
boisterous sort of hilarity—nothing really offensive, or hostile
in appearance, however. Once only a piece of dried mud was
thrown as we were standing outside a shop. In passing un-
der the bridges we saw they were packed with a dense mass
of people. They offered no insult, but there was a good deal
of shouting and hooting, which was certainly not intended to
be either respectful or complimentary. We went into some
of the shops and bought some lacker-ware, after some bargain-
ing, though the greater part was cheap enough. So that mere
material and labor, too, must be cheap. It was the venality
of the Officials and Compradors about us that alone made
things dear. One instance among a thousand may suffice as
an example of the wholesale plundering to which we were ex-
posed—by authority. I had ordered a wash-hand-stand of
common wood, for which the Comprador had the modesty to
charge nine itziboos. I cut it down to five, which he protest-
ed against most vehemently, and soon after I found that one
of my attaches had got a better one made for three!
Another day I was trying horses, and two or three, likely
animals enough, were brought. I chose a bay, about fourteen
hands, rising six years, with a good head, neck, and fore quar-
ters, but rather falling off behind, and with hoofs somewhat
contracted for the size of the animal. A walk, an amble, and
a canter I got out of him, but nothing deserving the name of
a trot. As I have said, it being considered vulgar in Japan to
put your horse out of a walking pace, their animals are never
lunged or taught to step out. They are all entire horses;
there are no geldings, and the mares seem only kept for breed-
ing. I gave thirty-five kobangs, about me —not an exorbitant
price in itself, but to a Japanese it would certainly have been
one half less, and, indeed, a cob pony, of the same character,
could be purchased in many parts of England for that sum.
My groom, however, a fine stalwart man, who belonged for-
merly to a Governor of Simoda, was very urgent in his recom-
mendation to buy, impatient to be installed in his vocation, and
possibly had his own interest in the bargain; but as he seem-


160
[Ciiap. VIII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
ed an able-bodied, serviceable fellow, and had moreover been
taught by the Americans how to shoe a horse, instead of the
device of muffling their feet in straw slippers, I closed the bar-
gain, as much to secure the man as the horse. A Japanese
stable, built under his superintendence, presented some striking
features of contrast with ours. In the first place, the horse's
head was where his tail would be in an English stable, that is,
facing the entrance. It certainly seems a much more rational
thing to be able to go up to your horse's head, when he has an
opportunity of recognizing you, rather than to his heels, with a
preliminary chance of a kick and a broken leg. Then they
have no fixed mangers, but hang their food from the roof in a
bucket. When not eating, however, their head is often tied
up rather above the level of the neck, without any freedom or
power of moving from right to left, merely to keep them quiet,
which is great cruelty, and all to save a lazy groom the trouble
of.cleaning them if they lie down.
And so flitted and passed away the first month of our resi-
dence in Yeddo.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Japanese Language.—First Lessons in Grammar and Speaking.
Our want of all knowledge of the Japanese language was
the first great barrier to any satisfactory progress in our rela-
tions with the country; and as two young student interpret-
ers had been attached to the Mission, my first care was to set
them to work, and to see if I myself could aid by spelling out
something as to the construction of the language. With the
aid of the Japanese official attached to the Legation as an In-
terpreter, who I found had some smattering of Dutch gram-
mar, I began without loss of time.
I probably should have hesitated had I foreseen all the labor
it would entail, even to produce the most elementary work, but
patience and perseverance will overcome many difficulties, and
so it was finished and printed at last. I preserved some notes
of my earlier efforts, when, in the mornings, we were all col-
lected round the table, and our unfortunate teacher in the
midst (with a Yakonin and an Ometsky in the background, to
see we hatched no treason against the State), bewildered and
sore distraught, under a searching cross-fire of questions for
equivalents to English parts of speech. A quiet, much-en-


Chap. VIII.] THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE.
161
during man was MatabS, but he sometimes used to put his
head on one side, while his fingers sought in vain to stimulate
the brain beneath, to furnish the required ideas by gentle and
continual friction over the shaven crown, and look the very
picture of bewilderment and misery!
No general reader will ever look at the grammar, with its
mixture of fact and speculation, which was the final result of
this long torture, renewed day after day for eighteen months.
And yet there is much to interest even the most casual student
in the characteristics of every language, and as the Japanese
has been hitherto a sealed book to Europeans, I will try to give
some account of the sort of discoveries wrung out of poor Ma-
tabe on these long summer mornings, and any other victims I
succeeded in getting under the same harrows. Many of these
were interesting, as throwing some reflected light on the hab-
its of thought and action of the race by whom it was framed,
and the people to whose daily wants it had been moulded.
If books are the transcripts of national taste, as has been
not unaptly said, much more may a language be considered a
true mirror of the national character. Of especial interest are
the questions involved in the use of a borrowed hieroglyphic
language in Japan, and the spontaneous adoption at a later
period of a phonetic system, without the latter displacing the
former. The Japanese are the only nation, as I observed in
the preface to the grammar, who, so far as is known, ever frank-
ly adopted as their own, and at one effort, a language and a
literature, together with a whole system of morals and ethics,
from a neighboring people (in many respects essentially differ-
ent), without any pressure from conquest, and while in posses-
sion of a civilization of rival pretensions, a marked nationality,
and a strongly developed spirit of independence. Yet such
seems to have been the fact beyond a doubt. Although the
relations of China with Japan have often been hostile, and no
approach to fusion has ever taken place between the two na-
tions, the Japanese did adopt, at some distant period now un-
known, the system of writing of the Chinese. And although
the Japanese invented for themselves long subsequently a sys-
tem of phonetic symbols, consisting of a syllabary or alphabet
of forty-seven letters, which, with the addition of certain ac-
cents, suffices to convey all the sounds in the language, and
notwithstanding it has been in general use now some eight
centuries, they have not relinquished the hieroglyphic written
language adopted from the Chinese. So the two languages
and systems of writing exist side by side to this day.
Indeed, they seem fond of duplicates in all things. Some-


162
[Chap. VIII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
thing of a dual principle we know enters into man's organiza-
tion and pervades all nature, but in the Japanese idiosyncrasy
this seems to find a more elaborate development than else-
where. If it be true, as a learned physician has maintained,*
that we all have two perfect brains inclosed in our skulls, as
we have two eyes and two ears on the outside, each capable
of performing all the functions of both combined, and even ca-
pable of carrying on independent trains of thought simultane-
ously, it would seem the Japanese duality of brains has been
productive of all sorts of binary combinations and devices .run-
ning through and duplicating, as it were, all existence, politi-
cal, social, and intellectual. There is no dealing with a single
agent in Japan—from the sovereign to the postman, they all
run in couples. You ask for your interpreter, and finding him
long in coming, you demand the reason, and receive for con-
clusive answer that'he could not come without his shadow!'
If the objection strikes you as singular or novel, it is explained
that his shadow is an 'ometsky? literally, the 'eye that sees
through;' in plain English, a spy, without whom it is not safe
for him to enter on the performance of his functions, for the
'ometsky' is supposed to be a witness to the loyalty of his
action.
We may take as a farther illustration of the peculiarities of
Japanese character the grammatical fact that their nouns have
no genders. Neither have the Japanese, properly speaking,
any definite article.
The absence of genders to their nouns, and of personal pro-
nouns to express any difference between he, she, and it, notice-
able in their grammar, seems to be carried into practice oddly
enough in their custom of public baths for both sexes, and in
their daily life in other ways. Whether so strange a reversal
of all our ideas of propriety is attended in Japan with any of
the consequences that would unavoidably attach in Europe to
such habits, we are not yet, perhaps, sufficiently conversant
with the people or their social life to say with confidence.
What we do know certainly does not justify our jumping to
a condemnatory conclusion. It is very difficult to form an
opinion of the morality of one people by reference to the man-
ners and standard of another. The Turks think it a reproach
for women to be seen out of their harems; and even the lower
classes regard the unveiling of the face as a shameless and in-
decent act, associating with it corresponding ideas of immo-
rality. Singularly enough, we seem to have some traces of this
conception in our own vernacular, by the term 'barefaced?
* Dr. Wigan on the Duality of the Brain.


Chap. VIII.]
PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
163
when we wish to express a similar reproach of shamelessness.
An Arab woman wears a single vest open to the waist, but
carefully shrouds her face from view. The Chinese, on the
other side of Asia, expose the face without reserve, and paint
it too, to be admired, but are scrupulous in covering the neck
as high as the throat, while they very certainly regard the low
dress of European ladies, their dancing in public with their
male acquaintances, and, indeed, our whole system of dress and
social intercourse, as the most shocking departure from all the
rules of propriety and decency which the imagination of man
or woman could invent!
Reverting to their grammar, we find in respect to the per-
sonal pronouns another interesting fact, namely, that, although
not wholly wanting, they are rarely used. ]JJouns, with various
significations of honor or self-abasement, almost invariably sup-
ply their place. Thus in practice, if not in theory, they hardly
exist. We are not surprised, therefore, to find that there is a
bewildering variety in the modes of expressing the important
word I in Japanese, and scarcely less for all the other persons.
Thou, and he, and she, with their plurals, consequently become
formidable entities, requiring careful approach and long study.
I gave a table of six or seven forms for each, as the lowest
number for the student to begin with; warning all comers, at
the same time, that there are still many additional forms to be
acquired, and that no more grievous solecism in manners can
be committed among the Japanese than wrongly to apply ei-
ther the terms of due humility in the speaker designating him-
self, or of honor to the person addressed, each variation in
rank, age, and sex demanding the use of some different form
of speech! This is rather startling intelligence to beginners;
but if such be the fact, it is better to know the whole truth at
once than to go blundering on in the dark. Thus, to take an
example of the ingenuity exercised by the Japanese in the in-
vention of terms of honor or abasement which supply the place
of personal pronouns—for the most part pure circumlocutions
and paraphrases to avoid a personal appellative or designating
pronoun—we find one of the terms for I, speaking humbly as
to a superior, is Temaie', literally, 'the person who is before
your hand.' Watakooshi, another term for I, means, literally,
'something private,' an egoism, something pertaining to the I.
Again, Anatta, 'Thou,'is a word literally signifying 'your
side.' So, in speaking of ladies or women, onago domo may
be used correctly, to designate those of a man's own house-
hold, but if applied to any other, the expression would be a
gross affront, domo being the plural adjunct implying humjli-


164
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VIII.
ty and relative slowness of rank, while onago, the term for a
lady or female, is not sufficiently honorific to be used in speak-
ing of others. Both have, consequently, to be changed; the
affix gata must then be used for the plural, and Jochou for
the noun; whereas, among women and children, and speaking
of each other, the terminal would be tatsi or tatchi, and then
the phrase might run Onago tatchi or Jbchou-gata, and if it
was meant to designate young ladies, Musoome tatchi.
We see in all this, first, a strange proneness to self-abase-
ment, a certain absence of individualism and self-assertion,
which, on the other hand, is very much opposed to some of
their national characteristics. A Japanese is proud of his race
and nation, stands much on his personal dignity, and is very
sensitive to any indignity or affront put upon him by the neg-
lect or refusal to render all that custom and etiquette prescribe.
That they should be a ceremonious and punctilious people fol-
lows as a matter of course, for just in proportion as they are con-
scious of sensitiveness on these points, is their scrupulousness
in avoiding any provocation or ground of offense to others.
Indeed, to such a pitch do they carry this, that no equestrian
statue is permitted—so at least they say themselves—because
it would wound the dignity of any one entitled to marks of re-
spect to pass in the street, or to meet in a house, a person rid-
ing, even in bronze, while the other was on foot! Thus none
but officers, and not all these, are allowed to ride; and if a
Daimio (or Prince) is met, they must dismount until he passes.
Nor are these unimportant distinctions, for they have much to
do with the hostility of all the ruling classes to foreigners pass-
ing along their roads and streets, especially on horseback; be-
cause, in the first place, it is, according to Japanese etiquette,
an assumption of superiority, and, in the next place, no Daimio,
however high, can compel a foreigner to dismount and do him
obeisance. Hence they tried to close the road to foreigners
between Yeddo and the port of Kanagawa, and various un-
pleasant encounters have taken place, when members of the dif-
ferent Legations have had to pass a Japanese noble with a ret-
inue* of retainers. Indeed, in the history of the edicts expel-
* There can be no doubt that one, and not the least important or influen-
tial, of the many causes of hostility in the privileged classes, lies here. The
lowly obeisance of the unprivileged (consisting of all the mass of the popula-
tion) is at once flattering to their pride and essential to their supremacy.
Whatever calls either the one or the other in question must be not only a
strong incitement to hostile feeling, but a source of danger; for the public
demonstration of independence in the foreigner aims a fatal blow at both.
The Japanese merchant or shopkeeper, who bends his head to the dust when
a iwo-sworded official passes, rises with a feeling of shame and self-abase-


Chap. VIII.] INDIVIDUALITY.—SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 165
ling all foreigners and exterminating all Christian converts in
the seventeenth century, one of the first provocations is said
to have arisen from such an incident, a Portuguese Bishop
meeting a high officer of the Tycoon, and 'not rendering the
usual obeisance,' in other words, getting out of the Norimon,
and on his knees bowing his head to the dust! This is often
quoted as an evidence of the pride and arrogance of the priests,
but very absurdly.
It is evident, therefore, that there is a great fund of preten-
sion at the bottom of all these periphrases of self-abasement,
which seem only so punctiliously adhered to, that each may be
sure in turn of having the like rendered back to him with in-
terest, in terms of honor and exaltation when addressed by oth-
ers. It is a common observation that the most punctilious and
ceremonious people, nations or individuals, are also the proud-
est and most tenacious of rank and observance in their own
case. So, although grammarians may find difficulty in disin-
terring and separating from these euphuisms and circumlocu-
tions distinctive personal pronouns, yet I hesitate to join in the
conclusion, somewhat rashly drawn perhaps, that there is no
individual liberty among the Japanese, and that their laws, and
the mixed feudal and despotic nature of their government, im-
peratively require the utter renunciation of all individuality
and rights attaching to it. Something of this may be true,
without by any means justifying the more sweeping deduction.
The spoken language, except in these particulars, and in the
complicated construction of their verbs, presents no serious
difficulties to the learner. In pronunciation, none, in compari-
son with the Chinese; for the system of intonation, in eight
modulations, any one of which may entirely alter the sense, is
unknown in Japan. Nor are there any guttural or difficult!
sounds, if we except the semi-liquid sound given to the r; nei-
ther I nor r, but something between both. The Malay has
sometimes been described as the Italian of the East; but the
Japanese, with all its soft and liquid sounds, has still better
pretensions to be so considered.
But, once we come to the written language, the difficulties
accumulate. They have three modes or systems of writing.
ment in the presence of a foreigner who is exempt. Pride, privileges, and
political power are all involved, therefore, in this question, which, at first
sight, appears only one of puerile form or etiquette. Only recently a fatal
encounter has taken place on the high road between Kanagawa and the cap-
ital, in which one of a party of English taking a ride was killed by the fol-
lowers of some Daimio whose cortege they were passing on horseback. And
it may truly be said that no such cortege is ever met by foreigners without
danger to life.


166
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VIII.
The first consists in the use of the Chinese characters, the sec-
ond and third in the two alphabets known as the Katagana
and the Hiragana. But this goes a very little way toward ex-
hausting the subject. The Japanese have, unfortunately for
European students, many different methods of writing the Chi-
nese characters, and, worse still, a habit of mingling all the dif-
ferent modes in the same page. Thus, to begin with the Chi-
nese, or rather the nearest approach they make to it, there are
three modes of writing even the square character. The first
is called the Kaisho (kai,' care') style, and is only commonly
used in poetry and printed books. The second, the Giosho
(gio, 'action' or 'going out'), is the style of official letters and
dispatches. The third, or Sosho (so, 'grass' or 'herb'),is for
familiar correspondence between equals. The differences are
not so great but that the character in each may generally be
deciphered without much difficulty by any one very familiar
with the first; although the difference, in the Sosho, is some-
times so essential as to make them altogether unrecognizable.
Nor has it been found possible to ascertain any rules by which
these interpolations of different systems are made. Sometimes,
especially if proper names are expressed, the Katagana char-
acters are used. This is easily understood, as it is an attempt
simply to convey the pronunciation of the foreign word. But,
as if to accumulate perplexities and baffle beginners, a farther
habit prevails of using the idiographic characters in a sentence,
sometimes according to the meaning or idea to be conveyed,
and at others merely as phonetic signs. Lastly, although they
have adopted the whole Chinese collection of characters, and
learned to attach to each the ideas belonging tp them in China,
the construction of sentences is often so completely different,
according to the genius of the Japanese language, that it is
difficult for a Chinese to read a book written by Japanese in
the Chinese character so as fully to understand every sentence;
nor can the Japanese read Chinese books, although the con-
trary has been very confidently asserted. This is not to assert
that no Japanese ever acquires the power of reading Chinese
works, but simply that he can only have done so by a special
study of Chinese with that view, which appears to be far from
common, and not naturally as the result of his habitually em-
ploying the Chinese character in writing Japanese. All Chi-
nese is not unintelligible to Japanese, and vice versa. The
common signboards are readable by both, when the Chinese
character is used; so are' many simple phrases. Some among
their learned read the Chinese Classics, the Four Books, etc.,
as they are written; but copies are prepared for more general


Chap. VIII.] THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE.
167
use, in which the necessary transpositions are made, and it be-
comes a translation rather than the original work.
With these observations, it will be clear that only those who
have ample leisure, with years before them, can hope to obtain
any mastery of the written language of the Japanese, in its Chi-
nese form. Even with great application and peculiar aptitude,
it must necessarily be a very laborious undertaking—a more
arduous task even than acquiring the original Chinese; for in
China there is no mixture of styles of writing ever admitted
into printed works, and very rarely any deviation from the
stereotyped forms in official correspondence. Still less are the
characters used, sometimes for sound and sometimes for ideas;
although here and there, as every Chinese student knows, a
character is occasionally introduced, especially at the end of a
sentence, merely for euphony. The cursive writing of the Chi-
nese is, indeed, a puzzling style, and it is doubtful if any Euro-
pean has ever mastered it f' but neither is it very essential,
since it is never employed in official documents or printed
works. These remarks, however, as to the difficulty of the
task, neither apply to the spoken language nor to the two pho-
netic systems of writing. Each of these seem fairly attainable
by the same amount of diligence which would be required for
the acquisition of European languages. As to the writing in
these two modes, by the use of the Katagana and Hiragana
characters, no more seems necessary than the knowledge of
two alphabets: the one perfectly easy and simple, consisting
of forty-seven letters only, not difficult to write, and as clear
and invariable as the Roman letters; while the Hiragana (with
all its varieties of form, and farther mutations, by the charac-
ters being connected and run into each other so as to form
words) does not really present many more combinations than
the German and Gothic texts and our own current styles,
which a few days' or weeks' study renders familiar. It is not
more than the learning of the two hundred and fourteen Chi-
nese radicals, or alphabet of that language, which is only the
first initiatory step! To any one who has ever contemplated
the study of the Chinese language, the task of acquiring Japan-
ese with two comparatively simple systems of phonetic charac-
ters will seem very light, and he will be disposed to regard the
result without fear or misgiving.
* Some few of our best linguists, who began the study of Chinese at a very
early age, may decipher or even write it, more or less imperfectly, but I have
never seen any of them get through the task with ease; on the contrary, it
seems open to the same objection as Jeffrey's hand, which he declared to be
'very easy writing.' 'Yes,' answered his correspondent, 'but it is d—d hard
reading!'


168
[Chap. VIII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
That there are differences of style and of idiom between the
written and the spoken language is undoubted, in this as in ev-
ery other language, and there are varieties of style according
to the subject; but this does not constitute three dialects, still
less so many languages.
Rodriguez, in referring to the curious inversion of order
which exists in the Japanese construction of sentences com-
pared with the Chinese, seems more at home than in the con-
struction of the verbs, and brings out the contrast very clear-
ly, although it may be early for any European student to pro-
nounce an independent opinion as to its correctness. In Chi-
nese, he says, a sentence ordinarily begins with a participle
signifying opposition, if there be any, then the negatives, and
afterward those terms which mark the tense and mood; the
verb follows, and, last of all, the word governed. The Japan-
ese adopt in their language a reversed order: the case govern-
ed by the verb comes first; then the verb followed by the in-
dications of mood and tense, and the parts marking opposition
or negation; and thus the sentence finishes where the Chinese
begins. When the Japanese translate Chinese into their own
literature, therefore, all the parts of a sentence require often to
be completely transposed, the translator passing from one to
another in search of what generally comes last, that he may
place it first; the better to convey, from the beginning, the parport of each phrase.
Such were my first impressions of this rather intricate ques-
tion; but after two years' study, and a visit from Mr. Med-
hurst, H. M.'s Consul at Shanghae, whose knowledge of the
Chinese language is both large and practical, some new light
was thrown on the whole subject. Extracts from a very in-
teresting letter, which at my desire he wrote for the informa-
tion of H. M.'s Government, will be found in the Appendix." I will merely here remark, therefore, that it was clear our stu-
dent interpreters were at such great disadvantage in attempt-
ing to master Japanese writing without a previous knowledge
of the Chinese character and written language, that I determ-
ined at once on recommending a change in the course of study
for those newly arriving, and urged that they should hence-
forth remain the first two years in China, and begin with the
Chinese.
Whatever time might thus be lost in the beginning, as re-
garded the more special knowledge of the Japanese, written
and oral, would be richly compensated by the certainty and
rapidity of their progress on arriving in Japan, after this pre-
* See Note C, Appendix.


Chap. VIII.]
CHINESE CHARACTERS.
169
liminary course, with a power of readily deciphering the va-
rious combinations of the Chinese characters in common use
among the Japanese.
I found, in walking along the road or through the streets
with Mr. Medhurst, that the usual notices, shop-boards, etc.,
were all perfectly intelligible to him, simply from his knowl-
edge of Chinese, and the identity (in many cases) both of the
character and idiom used, or from the close analogy existing.
The tea and sake shops are all scribbled over with the words,
in Chinese character, signifying 'Royal tea,' 'Royal wine,'
'Royal resting-place;' the term Royal evidently intended to
describe superiority or excellence. So of fruit-shops it was
'Royal fruit'—a great misapplication of terms as regards this
last article, I protest, and with no closer adherence to truth
than advertisements usually exhibit. But often the very terms
used in China for 'fresh fruit' are employed, which may be
more veracious. So the prices are indicated by Chinese nu-
merals. 'Drugs are distinguished, as in China, by a more flam-
ing and elaborate sign than usual,' Mr. Medhurst remarks, and
are described by the same characters as in China. Advertise-
ments by quacks of life pills are identical. So the notice seen
every where in China answering to ours of' commit no nui-
sance,' he found here worded in the same peculiar phraseology
which the Celestials have adopted. Public bathing-places have
two doors, side by side, with the notices 'men's baths' and
'women's baths,' as in China; though, unlike China, the dis-
tinction is disregarded and quite superfluous, as soon as the
doors are passed. Over roadway gates and entrances to in-
closures which are public or imperial property, and over par-
ticular bridges, he observed the same characters which in Chi-
na hint' the necessity of dismounting from chair or horse while
treading sacred ground.' He even observed, one day, in the
main street of Yeddo, a plank stuck up by the workmen in
front of a portion of road under repair, with a notice in Chi-
nese 'to pass by on the other side.' These furnished such an
amount of cumulative evidence of the use of genuine Chinese,
even among the less educated, as to prove conclusively the
main point, namely, the familiar use of the Chinese written
language in common life. But the farther we proceeded in
this inquiry the more plentiful were the proofs. 'In books,
maps, pictures, and printed publications of all kinds,' Mr. Med-
hurst reports,' the use of Chinese is quite as decided and re-
markable.' Chinese prefaces are common in the books; and
the titles or headings not only of the books, but of any illustra-
tions they contain, are invariably in Chinese. The outer cov-


170
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Cuap. VIII.
era of maps seem always to be superscribed in Chinese, and ev-
ery town in the kingdom appears to have a distinct Chinese
name, and it would seem, as in China, applied in reference to
the site or some other association connected with it, the Jap-
anese sound of the character having in some cases the same
meaning as the characters themselves possess. 'Yeddo,' as it
is written by the Japanese, is 'River Door;' 'Yokohama,'
'Cross Shore.' The highway between the two towns, 'East
Sea Road'Fusiyama,'' Rich Scholar Peak,' and so on. Pic-
tures, which the Japanese seem peculiarly partial to, and they
are to be met with of every description and price, have gener-
ally Chinese titles attached. The envelopes of official letters
from the Japanese authorities to the Legation are all super-
scribed with the Minister's title in Chinese, with the single ex-
ception of the translation for 'Plenipotentiary,' a term intro-
duced originally by Mr. Morrison, our first Chinese Secretary
in China, but since discarded for one more correctly rendering
the title. It may readily be conceived with how much inter-
est I pursued the subject by the aid of Mr. Medhurst's large
and familiar knowledge of the Chinese language. Japanese
boys, we ascertained,' begin first by learning the Chinese char-
acters, on which other phonetic letters are founded, and, in do-
ing so, not only accustom themselves to the sight of the rest
of the Chinese repertory, more or less, but acquire the habit
of writing them with such rapidity and facility, that event-
ually they learn to excel even the Chinese in their ability to
reduce the characters from the square to the cursive style.'
All this tended to prove beyond question the expediency, if
not the necessity, of commencing with Chinese as the founda-
tion. The whole document will be found full of interest, and
well to repay perusal, by any one concerned in tracing the cu-
rious analogy and connection existing between the two lan-
guages.
Among the characteristic peculiarities of the language is the
minute distinction and classification of different forms of nu-
merals, according to the object. There is first a cardinal series
of general application, and then the ordinals, which are divided
into nearly as many series as there are classes of objects.
There is one class for all animals, except the flying and swim-
ming species and insects. Another for birds, in which, how-
ever, hares and rabbits are included! A third for ships, and
junks, and boats; a fourth for liquids drunk with a glass, as
water, wine, tea, etc.; a fifth for things having length, as trees,
pens, sticks, masts, beams, radishes, carrots, fingers, brooms,
pipes, etc., and so on ad infinitum; for after enumerating ex-


Chap. VIII.] INTRICACIES OF THE LANGUAGE. 171
amples of fourteen different kinds or series of numerals, I gave
it up in despair, foreseeing that they would fill a volume by
themselves. But this is a fair illustration of the eminently
straw-splitting character of the Japanese, which may be traced
through all their laws, institutions, and habits of thought.
When later, I was collecting objects for the Great Exhibition,
the Japanese Government asked me to suggest something they
could contribute. Not wishing to involve them in expense, for
which I was sure they were not prepared, and with little time
to spare before the things must be shipped, I proposed speci-
mens of all the different kinds of paper in common use. The
next week I received a large box, in which were arranged no
less than sixty-seven different kinds, with a description of their
uses, carried out with such elaborate minuteness of distinctions,
and total absence of all reserve, delicacy, or refinement, as to
the details entered into regarding the uses to which each
should be applied, that I was compelled to revise the whole
carefully before it was fit for publication, and to exercise a
large discretion in the way of omission.
If the reader can fancy this microscopic spirit of analysis
and division applied to the verbs in the construction of their
language, my despair may be conceived when, as a mere tyro
and a foreigner, I came to the task of unraveling their intrica-
cies, and digging deep beneath the surface, overlaid with dis-
tinctions, for the simple elements and the roots. Many times I
was more than half disposed to give up the undertaking in ut-
ter hopelessness of ever seeing my way to any useful end. As
for Matab6,I feel some compunctious twinges of conscience
on looking back at the long hours of torture I subjected him
to in the effort—utterly vain and futile—to extract or pound
out of him, reckless of the cudgeling his brain required, any
grammatical element it might contain, transposed into the
Dutch forms. I sometimes wonder how he bore it, or did not
sink under the process. But I suspect that, after a certain
amount of suffering each day, having been endowed with a
Japanese suppleness of nature and conscience, he simply gave
over thinking at all, and let me pursue my own vagaries as I
might, assenting to every thing, just as an unhappy victim on
the rack reaches a point when all his powers of endurance or
resistance give way, and he re-echoes whatever his tormentors
may choose to dictate or suggest! I began to understand how
the demon of persecution may have taken possession of good
and pious men in olden times, and converted them into fell
and heartless inquisitors, or how the absorbed artist struck a
dagger into his unfortunate model, who was tied on a cross to


172
[Chap. IX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
represent the Crucifixion, because he failed to yield the re-
quired expression of agony in his face!
Poor Matabe! He was very proud, nevertheless, when all
was finished, to see his name in large print, as having lent im-
portant aid; but it is very certain that without the more effi-
cient assistance of the Abbe Girard, a French missionary, who
had spent many years in the Loochoo Islands studying the
language, I should never have accomplished the verbs. I do
not know how many times they were recast, obliterated, cor-
rected, and rewritten! I believe we all felt it to be a subject
of hearty congratulation when the word finis was written,
and the last sheet was dispatched to the printer. I leave it a
legacy to those who now are students, and to my successors in
the mission to correct all errors, enlarge and improve it, for
all of which I am convinced there must be great room.*
CHAPTER IX.
Japanese Sayings and Doings. t
A book, entitled 'Two Journeys to Japan,' was about this
time sent to me from England. I, who was only gleaning pain-
fully and with difficulty here and there, as fortune might aid
me, a few stray ears of corn amid a great deal of chaff float-
ing about, read with something of envious amazement the
startling incidents and strange adventures of this doubly ex-
perienced predecessor in the same field. It seemed to me al-
most doubtful, at first, whether this fortunate spectator and act-
or of marvels had ever been in Japan—bodily that is, and not
in imagination only. If so, I felt I ought to lay down the pen
* A second edition has since been prepared for the press under much more
favorable circumstances, in which many errors and omissions have been rec-
tified, and a great deal of new matter is added in the form of idiomatic dia-
logues and examples.
t The pages forming the chief portions of this chapter were suggested in
part by a work on Japan which appeared soon after I took up my residence
in the country, entitled 'Two Journeys to Japan, by the author of the New
Eldorado,' in which the writer recounts such marvelous adventures as can
seldom have fallen to the lot of Paladin or Traveler since the days of Men-
dez Pinto. My observations on things Japanese, passing daily under my
eyes at the time, very different in kind, found their way into the columns of
a leading journal, and as they seemed to be read with interest at the time,
and embody much I should desire to find place in a more permanent work,
I have reproduced them here, with such modifications only as fuller knowl-
edge naturally prompted, to prevent erroneous impressions being conveyed.


Chap. IX.]
SANITARY CONDITIONS.
173
in despair, for I had not even a hope of having any thing half
so wonderful to relate were my residence in Japan to be pro-
longed a hundred years, which Heaven forbid! Pork and
tough fowls for meat, and rice for vegetables, eggs for milk
(butter and milk being both unknown luxuries here), with an
occasional pigeon for entremet, may support life even under the
barbarous handling of a Japanese or Chinese cook—twin broth-
ers in capacity and instinct; but I am satisfied there must be
a limit somewhere in sanitary conditions. The total depriva-
tion of beef and mutton must in time be a serious detriment to
the English constitution. Eastern climates, and long exile
from all home associations, we are brought up to look upon as
the natural incidents of people cribbed in a small insular terri-
tory with unbounded dependencies beyond the seas. And it
is astonishing with what philosophy we submit to the inexo-
rable necessity which drives so many thousands annually from
the parents' nest; and how well we bear up under the loss of
friends and relations, and all the deprivations of social and in-
tellectual intercourse! But have my readers ever realized
what it is for months or years never to taste beefor mutton f
If not, I can tell them the most robust philosophy quails under
such a prospect; and I am sure the ' natural' term of a man's
life, occasionally so unfeelingly dwelt upon when a prisoner is
told he shall be eternally banished to some Norfolk Island or
Botany Bay, can never be a long one in Japan for any de-
scendants of the Saxon! Consequently, for that is the true
moral of my reflections, it is improbable that I shall ever live
long enough to see a tithe of the funny, strange, and alarming
things which seem to have greeted the author's eye wherever
he turned. Happy, thrice happy traveler, with a book to pub-
lish! I only hope he has not altogether spoiled the British
public for the plain narrative of such every-day matters as
come under the observation of common mortals seeking clear
insight into the character and institutions of a people so excep-
tionally situated as the Japanese. Their long insulation, it is
true, even prior to the great maritime discoveries of the six-
teenth century which first carried Europeans to their shores,
but more especially since the seventeenth, when every one of
the anathematized races of foreigners were either exterminated
or expelled, save only the Dutch and the Chinese, at Nagasaki,
has had the effect of placing a whole nation in a condition to
show the development of a civilization, mi generis, uninflu-
enced, for the most part, by any knowledge of the progress be-
ing made throughout the world by contemporaneous races and
nations. But it is something like a geological survey of a


174
[Chap. IX.
THREE YEAES IN JAPAN.
country; here and there the underlying strata have cropped
up and may be noted on the surface, or a land-slip may reveal
to the casual observer some of the formations; but more fre-
quently the leading points of interest, giving the key to the
whole, are only to be obtained by conscientious labor, carrying
the inquirer down through all the superincumbent layers. So,
in the study of national character and institutions, or a phase
of civilization, some indications lie on the surface which afford
valuable indicia to what lies beneath; but they are also very
apt to mislead the merely superficial explorer. What I give
now, therefore, I give for as much as it may be worth, with a
distinct reservation for all' errors and omissions.'
I propose for the present to give only a few traits of Jap-
anese character or customs, as these have come under my own
observation, with reference to the travelers' stories already be-
fore the public, and Japanese records professing to relate with
circumstantial accuracy the more remarkable events and inci-
dents of the last few reigns. Some of these Mr. Titsingh, long
a resident at Nagasaki as former chief of the Dutch factory,
with laudable diligence collected under the title of' Memoires
et Anecdotes sous la Dynastie Regnante des Djogouns Sou-
verains du Japan,' and much therein is calculated to throw
light upon the habits of thought and action which prevail at
the present time in this land of earthquakes 1 Excuse the in-
terruption, but until one gets used to such things, as I suppose
every body does in time, the smart shock of an earthquake has
a decidedly disturbing effect, bodily and mental!
I have not now to make my first acquaintance with these
visitors from the caldrons beneath, yet I can not say familiarity
has produced either of the two proverbial results—affection
or contempt. As Slender confusedly says of sweet Anne Page,
'I feel that there was no great love in the beginning;' and it
has certainly pleased Heaven to' decrease it upon better ac-
quaintance.'
In truth, no familiarity can make one like them; for there is
this peculiar aggravation attending volcanic operations and
their eldest progeny Earthquakes, that while the solid earth,
associated in the mind with all faith in the stability of things
sublunary, vibrates and heaves under your feet, it is impossible
to form any conception or the remotest guess when it will
cease, how far it will go, or when and how often it will recom-
mence. The state of doubt and suspense into which one is
unavoidably thrown is, perhaps, the least agreeable of the ac-
companiments of earthquakes. But the resident in Japan must
needs be resigned to this also, for they occur with such fre-


Chap. IX.]
GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1783.
175
quency, the ever-smoking and heaving volcanoes being in full
blast throughout the land, that the normal state of the coun-
try, physically considered, may be described as one of chronic
convulsion, the quiescent state being an exception, a mere in-
termittence in this tertian or quartan ague fit, that takes the
four corners of a house and shakes it as a strong man shakes a
puny foe before he flings him to the earth crushed and man-
gled! We had one or two in every week after my arrival, not
violent enough to throw houses down, but quite sufficiently
smart and long in duration to wake any one out of the sound-
est sleep, with a perfectly indescribable sense of insecurity;
for the most frightful earthquake and volcanic eruption on rec-
ord in Japan, it is to be remembered, began by many prelim-
inary shocks of no great intensity, in this same district of Yed-
do, in 1783, and seems to have exceeded in its horrors and wide
destruction the earthquake of Lisbon at the other end of the
chain. The accounts state that at eight o'clock on the morn-
ing of July 27 of that year, a great wind got up, accompanied
by sftbterranean mutterings of thunder, which continued aug-
menting from day to day, in seeming menace of some frightful
catastrophe, until August 1. On that day an earthquake, with
loud thunders, shook all the houses to their foundations, the
intensity of the shocks each moment increasing until the Summit of the mountain was rent open, and fire and flame appear-
ed, followed by such an avalanche of sand and stones, tossed
high into the air, and carried to incredible distances, that the
darkness of night came on, the only light being the lurid glare
of burning lava and devastating flames. Vast chasms opened
before the affrighted inhabitants in their flight, into which
thousands, in the darkness and panic, urged on by the streams
of fire and showers of stone and ashes, are said to have been
precipitated. The shocks did not entirely cease until the
twelfth day, and were felt over a space of thirty leagues.
Twenty-seven towns and villages were destroyed; the rivers,
boiling and overflowing, inundated the whole country, to com-
plete the work of destruction. I think it must be admitted
that there is enough in this account, drawn from Japanese
sources and the accounts of eyewitnesses, to make men ' not to
the manner born' feel any thing but reconciled to the daily
chance of a repetition, especially as the same volcanic centre
has given, as late as 1854, a signal proof of undiminished vigor.
At Simoda, only lower down in the bay, there was at that time
such a violent commotion of both earth and sea that the whole
town was reduced to ruins, and large portions were swallowed
up by the sea in the back sweep of three huge waves, which in


176
[Chap. IX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
succession rose over the highest trees, leaving the bay nearly
empty. Large junks and boats were flung some distance in-
land, and the Russian frigate ' Diana,' which had escaped Ad-
miral Stirling the year before, now escaped a far greater dan-
ger almost miraculously. She is described as spinning round
and round at her anchors, the men being thrown down, and
many of the guns shot across the decks, killing and wounding
the crew, until she was left all but a total wreck. The harbor
was scoured out to its granite foundations, and has never since
afforded good holding-ground for ships to anchor in.
So one evening, when the air was sultry and a sobbing wind
swept suddenly through the pine-trees with menace of a storm,
an uneasy feeling seemed to take possession of every one. And
when the lightning and the rain followed quick, with some-
thing altogether peculiar in the roll of thunder—a long, even,
monotonous peal, neither seeming to approach nor recede, nei-
ther diminuendo nor crescendo to a final crash, but ceasing
just as it began—the first thought in every mind was, I am
sure,'An earthquake!' However, no shock was felt, so the
dinner continued uninterrupted. But some time after, with
just such a storm, and with a deluge of rain, we had the se-
verest shock I have yet felt. Some men were thrown down,
others rushed at a bound from the house into the open space
regardless of rain, while every pillar and beam creaked and
shook. The whole house and earth beneath appeared to sway
to and fro horizontally, seized with a violent shivering-fit, which,
if it had only lasted another minute, I think, would have be-
come contagious.
The Japanese, it was said, found the magnet lose its power
during an earthquake, if not some time before. If this were true,
it would have been a curious fact, and one well worthy of far-
ther investigation. With a good horse-shoe magnet suspended,
and a gong or a copper basin beneath, one might improvise an
earthquake alarm, and if it only gave a few seconds' notice, it
might at least save people from being buried beneath the ruins
of their own houses. In a scientific point of view, however,
independent of any immediate practical application, it was an
object of interest. But a little inquiry and experiment seemed
to dissipate all hopes of arvaluable discovery. The truth ap-
peared to be that the American Minister had read, in some of
the veracious correspondence from Japan which appeared in
the New York papers, a round assertion that such a fact was
well known'to the Japanese. And these, being referred to,
with the characteristic vanity and mendacity of Yaconins, had


Chap. IX.]
INQUIRIES ABOUT JAPAN.
Ill
no scruple in appropriating the honor thus thrust upon their
country of a great scientific discovery.'' But let us turn to other matters; for, spite of earthquakes,
and sudden burial under ruins, or slow roasting by the spread
of fires while pinioned to the earth, fire being almost the sure
sequent of a shock strong enough to throw houses down, there
is eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage in
TTeddo, 'as in the days that were before the flood,' and just as
continuously and joyously as though Japan had its foundations
immovably fixed in the centre of the earth instead of on these
treacherous and shifting ribs of granite, which case a mighty
sea of molten lava and fire!
I received about this time a letter full of inquiries about Ja-
pan, its climate, productions, people, etc., suggested mainly, it
would appear, by a compilation of a Mr. Andrew Steinmetz,
giving in a popular form the gleanings from Koempfer, Thun-
berg, and later residents or travelers. I could not help being
amused at the evidence these inquiries furnish of the absurd
mixture of fact and supposition in nearly all that is attributed
to the Japanese. My correspondent headed her sheet' Facts
asserted by Andrew Steinmetz, of the Middle Temple,' with a
general query,'Are any of these trueP a doubt apparently
having crossed her mind as soon as she had written the word
'/cecto.' And she was right, for useful facts are hard to come
by in a country like this, and very apt to be misinterpreted
when obtained.
But to the facts. 'Fogs, and all sorts of rain, and bad weath-
er abundant; cold winds from the mountains extreme; not-
withstanding, a most healthy country to live in; air very salu-
brious; soil very fertile; fruits most delicious.'
We were near the end of August, and there had been, for
the week or two preceding, something very like English autumn
weather, the sun brighter and a little hotter, some 80° to 84°
in the shade, the evenings generally cool and pleasant, but at
frequent intervals a night or a day of heavy rain. Occasion-
ally, however, when I awoke, there would be a loud roaring of
wind among the forest trees and a deluge of falling rain, the
two together making a very dismal sort of music, by no means
conducive to cheerfulness or to early rising. Beautiful breezy
mornings, slightly overcast, often begin the day, which is then
pretty sure to be succeeded by a rainy afternoon; but before
the rain nothing can be more delightful or more like a fine au-
* Some investigations have recently taken place, on the supposition that a
connection may be traced between the magnetic state of the earth or the at-
mosphere and the shocks of earthquakes at any given spot.
H 2


178
True. IX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
tumn morning in England. The sun, during the hottest days
of summer, is very much less intense in its heat than on the
neighboring coast of China. The thermometer, in the shade,
ranges from 70° to 85°, and averages 80° between the morning
and the evening, while it is sometimes below 70° at night.
This is a climate, therefore, that does not make mere existence
a burden and all life an effort, as it often becomes both in India
and China. As to its ' salubrity, freedom of the people from
disease (especially skin diseases, on account of the sea-weed
eaten), undoubted longevity,' and other' facts' very confidently
asserted, I should not have ventured, in those early days, to
give a decided opinion. But longer experience makes me bold,
and I have no hesitation in saying that they are, upon the
whole, a cleanly people, wash often, sans peur et sans reproche,
wear little clothing, live in houses open to the air, and look on
wide and well-ventilated streets, where nothing offensive is al-
lowed to rest. In all these things the Japanese have greatly
the advantage over other Eastern races, and notably over the
Chinese, whose streets are an abomination to any one possess-
ing eyes to see or a nose to smell with. All failed, however, to
give them immunity from the devastating cholera, which the
United States' frigate Mississippi is said, I believe correctly,
to have brought over—a first fatal fruit of the treaty and their
extended relations with foreigners! It swept many thousands
from their cities; they say 200,000 from Yeddo alone. And
one can not be surprised that in the minds of the people it was
looked upon as associated with the strangers, and a visitation
wholly due to their newly-established relations. I hear, how-
ever, that it was not a first visitation, and that they had it in
1818; but as far as mere human agency was concerned, this
later visitation might be traced to that source, and of course it
did not tend to make either the treaties or the foreigners ob-
jects of popular favor. This might be one of the latent causes
of dislike and distrust which we had to struggle against, with
but doubtful success. Some officials very anxiously questioned
me as to the mode in which cholera was propagated or trans-
mitted from one country to another, what were the best medi-
cines and means of stopping its ravages, etc. They evidently
regarded the possibility of its reappearance with considerable
alarm; and, indeed, not without reason, since by last accounts
it was then already at Nagasaki, though not to a very great ex-
tent. These officials said the Japanese attributed its first ap-
pearance among them to the introduction last year of the water-
melons, also a gift of the Americans, though I should doubt
both facts. Watermelons, like potatoes, the first introduction


Chap. IX.] SKIN DISEASES.—TATTOOING.
179
of which has also been attributed to Commodore Perry, if not
indigenous, have at least been many generations in the country,
and largely cultivated. Their inquiries, no doubt, had refer-
ence to our quarantine laws, the adoption of which they seemed
to be contemplating.
But as to general conditions of salubrity Japan certainly
appears to be greatly favored. What its influence may be in
regard to frequency of disease or longevity I can not say far-
ther than this, that there is not the exemption from skin dis-
eases which has been asserted. On the contrary, among the
working classes various forms of cutaneous eruptions are com-
mon—perhaps to be accounted for by their habit of washing
together in crowds. Every third man seems, for some cause
or other, to have had the moxa very frequently applied, leav-
ing scars down the whole length of the spine. Itch, too, is a
common malady—common to a distressing degree, and invet-
erate beyond any thing known in Europe! It is almost im-
possible to get a domestic servant free from this loathsome
disease, or keep him so. The truth is, they wash their bodies
often enough, but much less frequently their clothes, and there
is a vast deal too much of promiscuous herding and slopping
together at the baths of all the lower orders for much purity
to come out of them, moral or physical. The love of dress be-
ing undeveloped in both sexes to a remarkable extent, there is
of course abundant opportunity of observing the state of the
skin. En revanche, if the men dispense with robe or trowsers
whenever they are free to do as they choose, they seem to de-
light in ornament that has the double advantage of perma-
nence and close fitting, without otherwise incommoding the
wearer when once made to order. I have not been among the
South Sea Islanders yet, or the New Zealanders, nor even made
acquaintance with the Chippewa Indians, but I can conceive
nothing more elaborate in the way of tattooing than the speci-
mens supplied by the male population of Japan. And really
to see them in their habitual costume (videlicet, a girdle of the
narrowest possible kind), the greater part of the body and
limbs scrolled over with bright blue dragons, and lions, and
tigers, and figures of men and women, tattooed into their
skins with the most artistic and elaborate ornamentation—
'scantily dressed but decently painted,' as has been said of our
own ancestors when Julius Caesar first discovered them—it is
impossible to deny that they look remarkably like a race of
savages, if not savages, in their war paint. The women seem
content with the skin that nature gave them, in all its varying
shades of olive, and sometimes scarcely a shade at all. I have


180 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IX.
seen many as fair as my own countrywomen, and with heal-
thy blood mantling in their cheeks—that is, when fresh wash-
ed, and before they have painted cheeks and lips, and powder-
ed all the face and neck with rice flour until they look like
painted Twelfth-night Queens done in pastry and white lead.
When they have renewed the black varnish to the teeth, pluck-
ed out the last hair from their eyebrows, the Japanese matrons
may certainly claim unrivaled pre-eminence in artificial ugli-
ness over all their sex. Their mouths thus disfigured are like
open sepulchres, and whether given to 'flatter with their
tongues' I can not undertake in this my novitiate to say, but
they must have sirens' tongues or a fifty-horse power of flat-
tery to make those red-varnished lips utter any thing which
could compensate man or child for so much artificial ugliness!
Were it not for such perverse ingenuity in marring nature's
fairest work, many among them might make some considerable
pretensions to beauty, as several of the studies from nature
scattered through this volume will show. The type, as may
be seen in the annexed portrait, is neither Malay nor Mongol,

FEMALE HEAD-DRESS.
while the elaborate style of the hair is in itself a study, and
displays a marvelous amount of feminine ingenuity. One
might certainly search the world through without being able
to match the womankind of Japan for such total abnegation
of personal vanity. If this be a sacrifice offered on the shrine
of conjugal fidelity, the motive is no doubt very laudable, but
it leads to the inference, not altogether so complimentary, that






TEA-HOUSE ATTENDANT.


Chap. IX.] SELF-INFLICTED UGLINESS.
183
either the men are more dangerous or the women more frail
than elsewhere, since such extreme measures have been found
necessary to secure the same results. Surely something less
than the whole womanhood of Japan deliberately making it-
self hideous might have sufficed to prove the absence of all
wish or design to captivate admirers! For my part, I can not
help thinking the husbands pay rather dear for any protection
or security it is supposed to bring, since, if no other man can
find any thing pleasing in a face so marred and disfigured, the
husband must be just as badly off, if he has any sense of beauty
in him. Perhaps custom and that' deformed thief,' fashion,
may have brought him to like it; but if so, where is the pro-
tection? If he can like it, so may others. Perverted tastes
are infectious. Of course I shall be told—nay, I think I hear
excellent and exemplary English matrons saying, with a cer-
tain monitory voice,' That when the affections are engaged, a
loving husband sees only the mind and the heart in the face,
and loses the individual features; and as those are worthy of
love and admiration, so is his indifference to the skin-deep
beauty of the face, his love being something quite irrespective
of such graces; and, more than this, that, as a matter of expe-
rience, six months' married life serves to familiarize the ugliest
faces, or efface the original impression of the fairest. I have
heard some such discourse in time past in support of a theory,
which, despite all my efforts, I never could cordially accept.
But less than ever could I have done so now, after a few weeks'
residence in Japan, where I saw the principle carried out to its
last frightful consequences, and with inexorable logic! What-
ever man's sensuous perception of the beautiful may be—and
some, at least, are very unfortunately endowed that way—he
must of necessity, for the whole term of his (or her) existence,
be condemned to take up his abode with willful and unmiti-
gated ugliness in the face of his cherished partner!
Moreover, it does not seem to answer very perfectly the end
proposed, to judge by many very graphic and popular repre-
sentations of conjugal differences and infidelities. They have
not, it is true, so far as I know, yet arrived at such a pitch of
civilization as to require the assistance of a court answering to
that presided over by Sir Cresswell Cresswell—unnecessary,
perhaps, as they have adopted, if we may judge by the accom-
panying illustration, with polygamy and concubines, other parts
of the Jewish Law, and write letters of divorce—upon provo-
cation. Here is a little conjugal scene, painted to the life by
one of themselves, where man and wife are plainly at issue.
The husband is rubbing the Indian ink which is to write a let-


Chap. IX.] INTOXICATION.—A CONJUGAL SCENE.
185
letter of a most inconvenient length for concealment; and to
all appearances it is the wife who is taking the law against her
husband, as sometimes in more civilized lands—taking it, too,
in her own hands, and seeming to require no extraneous aiding
whatever from judge or jury!
Granted that constant intercourse and continued interchange
of good offices do greatly soften to the eye outward deformities,
is it very wrong to wish that the Japanese women might be
persuaded not to make themslves such frights, dressed or un-
dressed? Enlightened by what I see in Japan, I confess, how-
ever, I should, as a matter of taste, prefer and recommend the
former, as more advantageous to milliners, and (I hope I shall
be forgiven) occasionally to the ladies themselves.
'The Japanese are perfectly ignorant of alcohol.' There
may be a difference of opinion as to what constitutes alcohol,
but lSakil seems to me an excellent imitation; and if it is
meant that the Japanese are innocent of intoxication—a noisy,
dangerous, and pugnacious intoxication—I am sorry truth com-
pels me to say there never was an assertion of fact more sig-
nally refuted by practice. Here the gentler sex sometimes
finds occasion to render service which may well make amends
to the erring husband for something of jealous watchfulness

CONJUGAL SERVICE.


186 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. True. IX.
over his aberrations in more sober moments; for see how lov-
ingly and unreproachfully she is leading him home, when he is
past taking care of himself, and might very easily come to
grief if he met a two-sworded Samourai. From a road which
ran behind the Legation, the noise of roistering blades, as soon
as night had well set in, and the shouting of hoarse inebriate
voices, left no room for doubt as to the state of the parties.
The great road, the ' Tocado,' ran in front, and it furnished evi-
dence enough at earlier hours, only to be observed closely,
however, at the chance of getting a sword-thrust, or one's head
cut open, as a part of the evidence.
'The Japanese are as perfect gentlemen as could be found
in any part of the world.' As I have described them looking
very like North American Indians in their war paint, and the
resemblance is very close, I am bound also to say that when
they see fit to dress themselves like decent people elsewhere,
there is a notable change in the whole man. Even the most
elaborately tattooed, as he approach-
es you covered with a vest, with the
lowly and not ungraceful bend for-
ward of the whole body, and begs to
know your wishes, displays a gentle-
ness and winning courtesy in man-
ner and expression which 'John' or
'Jeames' would find it very difficult
to approach, even in idea! Be it in-
nate or acquired, it sits perfectly easy
upon him. And in the upper classes,
with the exception of officials, or Sa-
mourai, when they may feel licensed
a Japanese servant or to De insolent and truculent to the
workman. foreigner, there is in their perfect
self - possession and self - command,
their quiet demeanor, and the softened tones in which they
seem habitually to speak, even to their inferiors and servants,
a well-bred air which makes them look like gentlemen. Their
partially shaven heads, the hair most scrupulously dressed and
turned tight up over the back in a truncated queue laid on the
bare crown, their flowing gown and surcoat, in summer con-
sisting of delicate-colored gauzes and silks, chiefly grays and
lilacs, or fawn, the absence of hair about the face, and the bare
throat, all help the general effect of men carefully got up, who
not only respect themselves, but are well accustomed to respect
from others. There is nothing, perhaps, more readily recog-
nized at a glance than the difference of expression, gait, and


Chap. IX.]
CONVENTIONALITIES.
181
general bearing, in either man or woman, between those to
whom outward respect and deference' are habitually shown,
and those to whom such observances are new. Judged by
outward marks, then, the educated Japanese is to all appear-
ance a gentleman. And if farther acquaintance suggests some
reservations, more especially as regards conventionalities, there
is still much to accept frankly. They understand the courte-
sies of life perfectly, and their observances of etiquette seem,
upon the whole, less exaggerated and cumbrous than among
their Chinese neighbors. They do not tell the truth, officially
at all events, and do not particularly care that you should think
they do, it Would almost seem; though, as all speech and as-
severations become idle under an open and avowed disregard
of truth, this can hardly be so in fact. But, at all events, they
are very callous as to the discovery of any former aberration,
though anxious enough sometimes that they should be believed
at the moment. Then it takes long habit before Europeans can
bear the frequent and loud eructations, as evidence of a good
meal, without a strong mental protest. So, when a Japanese
takes out of the loose fold of his vest a nice square of paper,
and, applying it to his nose, carefully folds the envelope into
his sleeve for a pocket, or gives it to his attendant to throw
away, that is merely a conventional thing, and they may per-
haps reasonably contend that theirs is a more delicate pro-
ceeding than ours of carrying a handkerchief, or 'nose-cloth,'
about the person for a day. Or again, the day being warm,
when he brings out of the same recess a neatly buckled pouch
of matting, and takes a swab-cloth without hesitation or dis-
guise, not very white, to wipe the perspiration away, return-
ing it carefully when the operation is perfected, it is not ex-
actly as gentlemen or ladies do at home, but it is a difference
only in form, for under the same circumstances the act in one
way or other must be performed by both. But, at least,
they are not an expectorating race: living in houses with
clean matted floors, one feels secure from that disgusting habit.
There is also, upon the whole, so far as I have had opportuni-
ties of observing, less cringing servility in the inferior classes,
lay and official, and much less official hauteur in the dealings
of the higher with the lower classes, than the accounts in Com-
modore Perry's narrative had led us to suspect. It is very true
that Moriyama himself, the prince and paragon of interpreters,
and an officer to boot (he particularly begged my secretary on
one occasion so to style him, and not Interpreter), when he acts
as interpreter in the official interviews with the high officers of
State, comes barefooted to the vicinity of the Chief Minister,


188
[Chap. IX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
and sinks on his knees, or, when not actually speaking, rests on
his heels by some ingenious process (still a great mystery to
me), and there remains during the whole interview, however
long it may he. If there are two or three Interpreters they
all do the same, and a long row of mute attendants are ranged
behind in the same attitude. Yet something of the servility
of the attitude is lost in the profound air of deference expressed,
and the urbane and gentle mode of address always employed
by the chief. When Moriyama listens, his head is lowered
nearly to the floor, with the hands prone and the eyes bent
down; and so, when he has to interpret the answer, he com-
mences by a similar lowly prostration, the head only a little
more elevated. Though, even with this advantage, how these
low-breathed sounds—now and then cut in two, as it were, by
some clever ventriloquism, bringing half the words from the
lower depths of the chest—ever reach the ears for which they
are intended, or convey any meaning, it is hard to understand.
Certain I am the Japanese must have, by nature or practice, very
fine auditory nerves. However, the slowly recurring 'Haiy 'Heh!' 'Hah!' (Yes)—for it seems pronounced all ways, and
sometimes from the lips, but oftener from unfathomable re-
cesses low in the throat, and hovering between a deep-drawn
sigh and an interjection—gives assurance that the confidential
murmurs are really heard to effect; and they have this advan-
tage, that what the interpreter is saying can only be known
by the high officer himself who is addressed. The following
sketch well represents the attitude, though not the costume of
an officer on duty.

A JAPANESE PROSTRATING HIMSELF BEFORE HIS SUPERIORS.
This gossiping chapter on Japanese sayings and doings, how-
ever, must be brought to a close before half the ' queries' and


Chap. IX.]
SCENERY OF THE COUNTRY.
189
'facts' of my fair correspondent are answered. I see all sorts
of' notions'jotted down about' common dogs,' or dogs in com-
mon—the only real nuisance of Japanese cities, in addition to
the two-sworded Samourai—and'beautiful cats' (without tails),
'rats and mice,'' agates and cornelians,' and ' pearls fished up
every where, of great size and beauty, which Japanese do not
prize,' the last part being more wonderful than the first. All
I could then have said was, that I had seen no pearls, large or
small; but if there were any, I should be exceedingly surprised
if my clever friends, the Japanese, had not learned their full
value! And such I afterward found to be the fact. They
have them in certain quantities, and know what price to ask
for them, and how to imitate the true article by false substi-
tutes. And as for'fine variegated marbles, jaspers,' and' other
precious stones' (said to come from the mountains), but particu-
larly ' pearls,' for which they are' celebrated—alas! I have seen
nothing,' and could only assure her I would' make a note of it,'
especially the mountain pearls, if I should ever see any, and
duly send her a sample.
My query sheet wound up with something which is a fact,
namely, that' outside of England there is nothing so green, so
garden-like, so full of tranquil beauty: the country luxuriously
wooded, and cedars of great size and beauty are plentiful; the
soil very fertile.'
Yes, all this is very true: such fertility of soil, fine growth
of ornamental timber, richness and variety of foliage, or such
perfection of care and neatness in the hedgerows and shady
lanes, the gardens, and the numerous pleasure-grounds of the
temples, are not, I believe, to be found any where out of En-
gland. The brilliant green hues and freshness of the grass and
every kind of foliage rather betokens a damp climate; but the
mixture of tropical vegetation with endless succession of ever-
green trees and the hardier race of pines and conifers gives a
character to the whole scenery of the country as novel as it is
perfect in effect. The tree-fern, which looks like a palm in its
tufts of top-foliage and bare trunk, the bamboo, banana, and
palm, side by side with the pine, the oak, and the beech, with a
numerous race of timber-trees and shrubs, some of which are
probably unknown in Europe, open a wide field for the bota-
nist, and give studies for the landscape painter of unrivaled
beauty. There is an infinite variety of form, character, and
coloring, in the masses of foliage that every where meet the
eye, grouped in the midst of well-kept fields and verdant slopes
which any English gentleman might envy for his park. Of
meadow-land only is there any want'; the soil available for cul-


190
True. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
ture appears too precious for pasture, and is kept exclusively
for the production of rice, and corn, and esculent vegetables.
Hence no cattle are kept, except horses, and a few oxen for
agricultural purposes, and no sheep or goats. To all this per-
fection of beauty it is almost the only drawback, while to the
larder the loss is too irreparable to be contemplated with phi-
losophy.
CHAPTER X.
A Glance at Japanese Politics.—How the two American Treaties were made
and inaugurated. —By whom the Country is governed, and how.
In a preceding chapter I endeavored to give some general
idea of the civilization, the social condition, and the Govern-
ment of Japan, as these were known to Europeans in past cen-
turies. This earlier period offered a point of departure having
many advantages. It formed a natural, and in some degree a
necessary introduction to any narrative purporting to throw
some light on the existing state of the country, as revealed by
the experience of the first permanent mission located in the
capital. Some first lessons in Japanese diplomacy and policy,
as well as in their language, already given, will have shown the
difficulties which from the beginning attended the first estab-
lishment of the Legations, though at the commencement there
were but 'two, the British and the American. The second
treaty of the United States, initiating a total change of policy,
having been the precursor, and, as it were, the original, from
which all those of subsequent date were drafted, it was of im-
portance to ascertain what had been the various influences
determining the Japanese ruling powers to take such a stride
in advance, as the second series of treaties marked. It will
be necessary for the reader to remember that the first infrac-
tion of the Japanese system of absolute seclusion from the rest
of the world was effected by Commodore Perry, in 1854, who
found means to induce them to enter into a treaty of hu-
manity, guaranteeing simply succor and good treatment, in-
stead of imprisonment and death, to any shipwrecked or dis-
tressed sailors thrown on their inhospitable coasts. It aimed
at nothing more, and the only relations established consisted
in the right to locate a consul at Simoda, a small and unimpor-
tant place south of Cape Idzu. A very different state of af-
fairs was contemplated in the treaty entered into four years
later by Mr. Harris, on the part of the United States. Com-


Chap. X.]
JAPANESE POLITICS.
191
merce and permanent Diplomatic relations were the avowed
objects of the second series, initiated as was the first, by the
American Representative. This marked almost as great a
change in the relations of Japan with the West as had the
treaty of Perry, which, for the first time during two centuries,
recognized a right of intercourse as a principle; thus repudia-
ting their long-cherished policy and asserted right of exclusion.
How came such a result about, both in the first and the second
of these instances? What train of causes produced a change
amounting to a revolution in the foreign policy of the nation—
a policy so inflexibly and resolutely maintained at all risks, aft-
er years of internecine war and bloodshed for more than two
centuries? By what machinery was the change effected?
Questions these, on the right solution of which obviously de-
pended very, much in the future. A predominating feeling of
hostility to all innovation, and the admission of foreigners
among the ruling classes, manifested itself in too many forms
to admit of doubt, when, at the lapse of a year after the sig-
nature of the successive treaties, the time arrived for giving
them execution. With such prevailing feeling, how could
these treaties have been made? What motives actuated those
who at the time held the reins of power? While these re-
mained unexplained and unintelligible, every thing else con-
nected with the position of foreigners in the country was ob-
scure and doubtful. No force, apparently, had been used. It
was indeed the peculiar pride and boast of Mr. Harris, that he
had effected his object with no material means of support or
coercion; the triumph of reason, argument, and diplomacy!
This seemed very incomprehensible to me, and I confess very
doubtful. The whole subject was one of great interest and
importance moreover, and so continually presented itself with
all its difficulties in our earlier intercourse with the Govern-
ment and people, that it engaged my earnest attention with
proportionate frequency. When the mystery was unraveled,
I found within its meshes the pivot on which many very tragic
events had turned, as well as a long succession of struggles and
difficulties by no means at an end. No apology can be need-
ed, therefore, if I enter upon the matter with some fullness of
detail. Many of the following particulars, so far as regarded
Mr. Harris's own actions, were given spontaneously by himself,
and with full permission to make any use of the information.
Indeed, as regards publicity, the leading facts have already
been published, both in parliamentary papers and the daily
press of both countries. All that I need do for the reader is
to group them in such order as will best conduce to a clear


Chap. X.]
DUTCH INFLUENCES.
193
the flag of European Legations in Pekin itself. Japan, there
seemed reason to believe, was better advised and better able,
perhaps, to understand and appreciate the changes which had
completely altered the relative positions of Europe and the
East. Partly, it would seem, from their greater quickness and
aptitude for seizing the true meaning and significance of such
facts as come before them, but greatly also owing to the con-
tinued relations they had maintained with the Dutch. A door
was thus kept open by which they could get reliable informa-
tion of what was really passing in the world beyond. There
seems little doubt that, so far back as 1845, after the close of
the first war with China, the Dutch set themselves seriously to
work to prepare the Japanese mind for inevitable changes.
The Government of the Netherlands has claimed some grati-
tude from other European nations for liberality and disinter-
estedness in having thus spontaneously prepared the way for
their admission into Japan. And much of Commodore Perry's
success, on which all subsequent progress hinged, is, I think,
fairly to be attributed to these preliminary efforts of the Dutch.
In gradually instilling into the minds of Japanese Rulers a con-
viction of the absolute necessity, sooner or later, of a departure
from their system of absolute seclusion, and of their total ina-
bility to cope with the material means of attack and coercion
wielded by the Western Powers, backed as such arguments
would be by a reference to what we had done in China, there
can be no reasonable question, I think, that they effectively
prepared the way for fundamental changes. Their representa-
tions must have had great weight, and no doubt materially
tended to bring about the final result ten years later (in 1854),
when the American squadron first appeared in the Japanese
waters with proposals for a treaty. As to the disinterestedness
and liberality of the action, why should we take the ungracious
office of contesting either the one or the other? The best of
governments and of men are not absolutely above the influence
of self-interest, and other more or less worldly motives, even
when bent upon seeking to do good. No doubt it might be
said with truth that the time had long gone by when the Dutch
had any thing to lose by letting in other nations to the Japan-
ese markets, and they may well have been glad to seize on any
opportunity (without abandoning that which they had so te-
naciously clung to for many generations), of escaping from the
humiliating and objectionable position they occupied singly in
Japan. And how could this be better done than by joining
with the Powers of the West, and preparing the way for the
success of all, in breaking down the barriers which separated
/


194
[Chap. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
Japan from the rest of the world? But whatever may have
been the motives that influenced them, into*which, I repeat, we
need not too curiously inquire, they contributed material aid in
a good work; and whether the Japanese may be disposed to
thank them for the co-operation, of which I have serious doubt
now that the results are before them, the rest of the Treaty
Powers, who desired to see the doors unbarred without fight-
ing for it, may very well thank the Dutch for the helping hand
which they lent from the inside.
It was under these circumstances that Commodore Perry
appeared off Cape Idzoo on July 8, 1853, with an American
squadron consisting of two large-class steam frigates and two
sloops of war. And having delivered a letter from the Presi-
dent proposing a treaty of amity and commerce, which the
Japanese authorities showed little disposition to grant, though
by no means prepared for what they evidently anticipated
might be the consequences of a refusal, the Commodore took
his departure with a promise, or a menace, whichever way it
may have been taken, of returning the following year, and with
a' larger fleet,' for a definite answer.
On February 12, 1854, accordingly, the Commodore reap-
peared in the Bay of Yeddo with three steam frigates, four
sloops of war, and two store-ships—a squadron of nine vessels.
It is not necessary here to go into the details already known
of the somewhat protracted negotiations which followed, end-
ing in the signature of a treaty of amity, and promise of suc-
cor to ships in distress. They tried various expedients as
grounds of delay in giving any final answer. Particularly
they urged the death of the Siogoon (Tycoon) in the interval
between the Commodore's two visits, information which they
had even sent on, through their Dutch friends, to Batavia, in
the vain hope of preventing his return, or at least indefinitely
deferring it. Finding this step had failed in the desired effect,
and all pleas for denial resolutely put aside by a Plenipotentia-
ry in command of a large fleet—speaking words of peace, but
looking dangerous—they signed a treaty opening two new
ports, of no value, indeed, in any commercial sense, but of in-
finite importance as sounding the knell of their long-cherished
policy of exclusion and non-intercourse!
One thing must be perfectly clear, even from this bare re-
cital of facts, namely, that the Japanese Government did not
wish to make a treaty, and were only induced to sign one in
the end under the 'moral suasion' of a formidable fleet, com-
manded by the negotiator in person, which they felt by no
means certain would not be employed against them in active


196
[Chap. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
'But what if a high officer were especially dispatched from
Yeddo to represent the Tycoon, and receive the letter from
the Consul General's own hands?'
'An unnecessary trouble, since it would be equally impossi-
ble for the Representative of the United States to acquit him-
self of his important mission, and one more important perhaps
to the Government of Japan than his own.'
So days and weeks were consumed, but somewhere about
the end of 185 7 all the outer defenses were carried, and Mr.
Harris entered Yeddo, not to leave it, in March or April of
1858, until he had framed his treaty, discussing paragraph by
paragraph and article by article. The gathering together of
large forces by Great Britain for the prosecution of their de-
mands on China, in alliance with France; the generally ru-
mored intention of the two governments, and also of Russia, to
send plenipotentiaries shortly to Japan, to open more effectual-
ly the ports of that country to European commerce and enter-
prise, all no doubt materially tended to give weight to the
more pacific arguments of the American agent, urging that the
true policy of Japan was no longer to defer doing, under the
most favorable and honorable conditions, without compromis-
ing its dignity or independence, that which must come under
wholly different circumstances before the year was out.
And thus the foundation for a Commercial Treaty was laid,
by pointing out to the Japanese Government that the time
was plainly approaching when refusal on their part would be
impossible, for they would have the Western world in collect-
ive strength breaking down the barriers; and that one only
means remained by which they might preserve their free agen-
cy and self-respect, namely, to enter into a treaty with the
Representative of the United States—alone, as he then was,
unattended by a single ship of war; and thus, when other
Powers came on the field with large squadrons (it might be
with increased or exaggerated demands), the answer would be
ready,' Here is a treaty we have concluded of our own free
will with one of the great Western Powers; we are willing to
enter into like engagements with you, but object to having dif-
ferent relations with the States of Europe.' All exaggerated
or dangerous pretensions to privileges incompatible with their
dignity or safety would thus be put aside, and without offense
From the moment that this train of reasoning or argument
was understood and adopted by them, as apparently it was
very speedily, they saw their own interest and dignity would
thus best be consulted—or acted as if they did—and entered


198
[Chap. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
promise in writing, under the pledge of the Tycoon, that in
September, at the latest, the treaty now endorsed shall be for-
mally concluded.' Mr. Harris yielded the point it seemed im-
possible to carry; and it was afterward arranged that each
should retain a copy of the draft treaty signed by the other, in
proof that all the stipulations had been finally agreed upon.
Upon this the American negotiator took his departure for Si-
moda, his usual place of residence; this was, I think, in May,
1858. In June, the allied squadrons were at the mouth of the
Peiho; and on July 27, our treaty with the Court of Pekin was
extorted at the cannon's mouth, opening the whole length and
breadth of the Empire, all the navigable rivers, and the gates
of Pekin, nearly as hermetically sealed to foreigners as Yeddo
itself had been for the last three centuries.
Short space was allowed to intervene between the signature
of the treaty and the arrival of the United States frigate Mis-
sissippi in the Bay of Simoda with the startling news. The
finale may be imagined. Mr. Harris immediately proceeded to
Kanagawa in another frigate—the 'Powhatan' turning up, we
are to believe, equally fortuitously, but fortunately at the pre-
cise moment it was wanted—and Imperial commissioners were
dispatched to meet him. 'What news is this?' 'Treaties
have been signed with four of the greatest Powers of the West,
after the destruction of the Chinese batteries by the English
and French. The same four Powers will in another month be
knocking at the gates of Yeddo. Do you wish to lose all the
advantages for which you have labored and risked so much V
'No!' 'Very well, then, conclude without delay your treaty
with the United States, already drafted, agreed to, and signed
on both sides. Give it formal execution, and thus secure your-
selves from less moderate demands, which may within the
month be urged by other Powers, backed with imposing squad-
rons.' And the dates were filled in accordingly, and the treaty
formally executed on board of the 'Powhatan,' on the third
day from Mr. Harris's arrival.
Throughout the negotiations, apparently single-handed, and
without any material support from his Government, the Amer-
ican diplomatic agent thus surmounted all difficulties and
proved himself fully equal to the occasion. How such success
was secured, with the knowledge since attained, it is easy to
see; but it detracts nothing from the credit due to the strate-
gic skill with which the negotiator turned the weakness of the
Japanese, the strength of his neighbors, and even his own want
of material support from the Government he represented, all
equally to account for the success of his mission! Where oth-


Chap. X.]
SECOND TREATY CONCLUDED.
199
ers might have seen only motives of discouragement, he found
all the elements of victory. Availing himself of the fleets of
the Allies—having none under the American flag at his dis-
posal—and while the echo of their guns in the Peiho and the
rumor of their victorious operations were still in the ears of
the Tycoon and his advisers, he achieved the object of all his
labors, and this at the very time when they seemed least like-
ly to be either promptly or successfully brought to a close;
for, although a treaty had been drafted, and signatures more
or less informally exchanged, the final execution had already
entered into that dangerous phase in all Oriental diplomacy,
procrastination, with a contingent future. Mr. Harris himself
had returned to his isolated domicile at Simoda, there to wait
until the deferred period for execution arrived. Who could
say what new cause of delay might be discovered within that
interval? Was there any real intention of keeping faith? Mr.
Harris may have thought and believed there was; others, with
a longer experience than any one could then have, would prob-
ably arrive at a different conclusion. Be this as it may, the
weakness and distracted counsels of Japan, combined with vic-
tory and strength on the opposite shore, was the diplomatist's
opportunity, and well and promptly he seized upon it, unques-
tionably paving the way, or rather macadamizing it, for all
succeeding negotiators! Shall he be blamed that, having no
fleets or material force of his own country to fall back upon,
he adroitly turned" to profit those of the Allies, flushed with
victory? We may question the right to use it as a means of
'moral pressure,' since that required that he should assume
and attribute to us views or intentions that might not be ours,
and which were not certainly of a nature to make us very fa-
vorably looked upon by Japanese rulers; but it must be ad-
mitted the opportunity was very tempting, and diplomatists,
the ablest and best, are but mortals after all! Nay, more, to
a diplomatic agent of the United States, it must have been pe-
culiarly and especially tempting. While demonstrating the
'peaceful and friendly policy' of his own Government, which
'required no material force, and kept no fleets in Eastern seas
to make aggressive wars on distant potentates or peoples' (as
other publicans and sinners did), he was really invoking the
effective aid of the belligerent resources and prestige which
were the objects of reprobation. This bellicose and aggres-
sive action of England—of which we have heard so much in
China and elsewhere during the last twenty years, whenever
she has been engaged, at her cost and peril, in fighting her own
battles in Eastern seas—yet scarcely more her own than those


200
[Chap. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
of the whole Western world—was never brought more deci-
sively to bear; but this time it was in a new country, and by
the apostle of peace—the Representative of the United States
in person! This was a veritable tour de maitre, to use and
turn to such account the belligerent Allies, holding them in
terrorem over the Japanese, and to do this in a way that should
give the United States all the benefit and the credit, without
any of the cost, of great expeditions; while to Great Britain
was left only the odium of a reputation at once bellicose and
exigeant. In the same quarter a disposition has more than
once been shown* to attribute to some peculiar pugnaoity, or
other vice of British agents in Japan, the seeming preference
given on two occasions to the British Legation as an object of
murderous attack—once during my residence in Yeddo, and
once subsequently with the Charge d'Affaires officiating in my
absence. The premisses hardly bear out the inference of any
exclusive preference, since the outrage of assassinating those
who are resident in Yeddo and attached to the several Lega-
tions has been pretty impartially distributed. The Secretary
of the United States was slain in the streets not far from his
own Minister's door; and the life of a servant of the French
Minister was attempted at the Legation gate. Dutch and Rus-
sians have equally been the objects of murderous attack at Yo-
kohama and Hakodadi. But were it otherwise, and an unen-
viable preference were really the lot of the British Legation,
might not this more naturally be accounted for by a reference
to the pleasant introduction, of a diplomatic kind, which the
negotiations just detailed must have supplied?
Whether success in negotiating a treaty establishing com-
mercial and diplomatic relations is a benefit or an injury to
Japan and other Powers brought in contact with a people who
their rulers declare are wholly unfitted and unprepared for any
such violent and rapid change in policy, is another question al-
together. But it is one which events have been continually
forcing upon the Treaty Powers ever since the opening of the
ports, and is yet unsolved in any very satisfactory or conclusive
manner. This much is alone certain, that it was a success
which has borne bitter fruit to all on the Japanese side who
took any part in the signature of the treaty or its negotiation,
from the Tycoon to the subordinate secretaries and interpret-
ers. Before the ink was well dry a violent reaction seems to
have taken place among the Daimios, inimical to such funda-
mental changes, which swept the whole of the actors from the
scene; the Tycoon and his ministers the first, the one to his
grave, and the others to banishment and disgrace.
* See official correspondence laid before Congress in 1861-2.


202
[Chap. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
died suddenly. The following is said to be the palace chroni-
cle of the mode of his death, and the subsequent events.
Minamotto's prime minister was Midzouno Etsisen-no-Kami,
a stout defender of old laws and customs, and he, it is said, con-
spired with other Daimios, then in the capital, as to the means
of saving the country from foreign influence. It was agreed
that the Tycoon should be poisoned, and some charge Etsisen-
no-Kami with views of aggrandizement for himself as future
regent, the Tycoon's only son being of infirm mind. But when
the cup containing the poison was presented to the Tycoon by
one of the officers who had been tampered with, something
roused the suspicions of the destined victim, and he threw the
cup with its contents into his attendant's face, who instantly
drew his sword and ran him through the body, killing himself
immediately afterward. Midzouno Etsisen was loudly accused
by the Tycoon's followers, and he also performed the Hara-
Kiru.
Minamotto Yesado, the son aforesaid, succeeded his father,
and Ikomono-no-Kami became Regent, that office being heredi-
tary in his family whenever, from minority or other cause, the
reigning Tycoon shall be incapable of governing. In the con-
flict of opinions respecting foreign relations, Ikomono is de-
scribed as preserving a neutral position, and refusing to pro-
nounce a decided opinion on either side. His first act was to
summon a great council to deliberate on the answer to be given
to the American propositions to enter into a treaty. All the
Daimios of 50,000 kokous of rice in revenue, and upward, were
invited to assist, and even those with less, who were in any
way distinguished. Many advocated resistance d Voutrance.
At the head of these was the Prince of Mito, supported by
many powerful Daimios. The Prince of Kago, with a revenue
of 10,000,000 kokous, is reported to have placed his hand on
his sword in full council, exclaiming,' Rather than consent to
enter into a treaty, it were better to die fighting!' The Prince
of Mito deemed the dignity of the country compromised if the
subversive changes and the relations proposed by the Ameri-
cans, were admitted, and advocated the acceptance of such re-
lations only as were consistent with their old established policy.
It is difficult to understand in what these could consist, since
that policy was one of absolute exclusion to all save a few
Dutch; and, considering that only two ports of refuge were
conceded, Simoda and Hakodadi, both perfectly useless for pur-
poses of trade, and no commerce was in effect allowed, what
the minor concessions could have amounted to, which the
Prince of Mito and his party would have counseled, it would
be hard to say!


Chap. X.]
PRINCE OF MITO.
203
It was determined, however, in view of the unprepared state
of the defenses, to seem to listen, and to temporize, making
such treaty only as might seem necessary to avoid an imme-
diate declaration of war, which they evidently considered the
probable consequence of any total denial. We know the Presi-
dent's instructions were to abstain from all menace of war or
employment of force. How far Commodore Perry's action
was calculated to give a different idea, we need not very close-
ly inquire. One thing is certain, such was not the impression
received by the Japanese.
The Prince of Mito, it would appear, had the idea of profit-
ing by all this conflict and confusion, either by becoming him-
self Tycoon or securing the election of his son. One of the
Gosanka'y (the name given to the royal house, descended from
the three brothers of the founder of the existing dynasty), he
had legitimate pretensions in the event of a vacancy; while
the present occupant had no son, and was not in a state to ex-
ercise the power of adopting one to succeed him. But it was
an old grief of this branch of the royal descendants that they
had ever been excluded in favor of some heir of the other
houses, the Princes of Kiusiu or Owari, when an election had
taken place. Moved by these motives, Mito plotted to put
himself at the head of a powerful body of the Daimios inimical
to the new relations established with Foreign Powers, to poi-
son the reigning Tycoon, and secure the succession.
When the second American treaty negotiated by Mr. Har-
ris was under discussion, it is supposed he actively opposed the
final signature; and when this was consummated in the pre-
cipitate manner already detailed, under pressure of the an-
nounced arrival of victorious fleets from China with plenipo-
tentiaries of two great maritime powers of Europe, the hour
for action arrived, and the Tycoon had ceased to live before
Lord Elgin's appearance the following month! The Gotairo,
as the regent is officially styled, had no doubt from whence the
blow came. He instantly had all the attendants in the palace
seized, and by torture wrung from them confessions crimina-
ting the Prince of Mito. He sent to the latter an order of ban-
ishment to his territories, giving him to understand that, if in-
stantly obeyed, it should only be temporary, and if resisted, he
should be charged before the great council with the poisoning
of the Tycoon, for which the penalty was crucifixion. In the
event of his quietly abandoning the field, it was further prom-
ised him that his crime should not be divulged. Overawed
by so much vigor and determination, or unprepared for such
prompt action, the Prince of Mito accepted the alternative and


204
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X.
retired, discomfited and compromised, to his principality. The
elective council was immediately convoked, and the young
Prince of Kiusiu, whose father was still alive, was duly elected
Tycoon, to the exclusion of the Prince of Mito and his son.
The latter, unlike this heir of the house of Kiusiu, was a man
of thirty instead of a boy of fifteen. But the minority of the
former was no doubt one of his recommendations, since it left
the power in the hands of the Regent Ikomono, which he
promptly exercised, it seems, to issue a decree of perpetual
banishment against the old Prince of Mito, and deposition in
favor of his son. This, according to the received accounts, was
an act of treachery and a breach of faith on the part of the Go-
tairo, and we shall see later how it was avenged.
From causes not very clearly understood or explained, there
was contemporaneously a total change in the composition of the
Gorogio, or Great Council of State, forming in fact the cabinet
or government of the Tycoon, and consisting of five ministers.
Those in office when the treaty was signed were all disgraced,
and disappeared from the scene, as well as nearly all their sub-
ordinates. A complete palace revolution appears to have tak-
en place, consequent on the double event of the signature of
the second of the American treaties and the murder of the
Tycoon. Mr. Harris, fortunately perhaps for himself, also dis-
appeared from the scene, having returned to his secluded place
of residence of Simoda until the following year, when he re-
turned to Yeddo at the same time as myself, to take up his
permanent residence in the capital.
And thus were inaugurated the first two treaties which For-
eign powers owe to the United States. The first inserting the
wedge of limited intercourse for objects of humanity; the sec-
ond splitting open the rock of Japanese obstruction and open-
ing the country to commerce—a fit preface to the long series
of tragedies which, as will be seen, were destined to mark the
progress of foreign relations with a country containing so many
hostile elements.
The hostile party now came into power, it is said, and have
ever since remained. Midzuo Tsikfogono, the chief of the min-
istry when I arrived, had been called from his retirement to
enter anew on the cares of office, as the best representative, it
is to be assumed, of the conservative, retrograde, or patriotic
party, for all these titles may be laid claim to. They are op-
posed to the introduction of any foreign elements—persons,
goods, or ideas—as pregnant with mischief, and fraught with
danger to the stability of the empire. By some it is believed
that there is a progressive party in Japan, in advance, at all


Chap. X.]
A RAIN OF TREATIES.
205
events, of those whom they stigmatize as 'toads in a well,'' the
latter being supposed to see but a very small speck above their
heads and under their eyes, and to enjoy no breadth of view.
But I confess, the longer my experience, the more doubtful it
has appeared to me. The only true distinction, so far as we
are concerned, is, I believe, one of degree only; degree, that
is, of opposition; and based rather upon the relative timidity
or courage of the leaders than any leaning to advanced views.
Those who are timid or wary advocate a temporizing policy to
gain time for better preparation, or at least, to defer the evil
day. The more rash or courageous would fling down the
gauntlet, and, like the Prince of Kago, prefer to die with
swords in their hands, than tolerate any longer the presence of
the foreigner, and the danger of change and revolution which
he brings inevitably in his train. The prevision of the former
ministry, guided by Mr. Harris's information of the certain ar-
rival of plenipotentiaries from England and France, so prompt-
ly justified by the event, was therefore, to them, a source of
safety. For the new ministry, despite its retrograde tenden-
cies, had to do what ministries have sometimes done elsewhere
—carry out the very policy, as a matter of state necessity, which
they had denounced as treason or imbecility in their predeces-
sors. Then followed quick the Russian treaty, and on the
heels of Count Poutiatine came Baron Gros and the French
treaty. Then the Dutch. It rained treaties, as if all the furies
had been let loose by an avenging Nemesis on the heads of
the foresworn and recalcitrant ministry. They must have felt
their cup of bitterness was full when they signed the last of
the series, and approaching winter gave them a promise of res-
pite! But they were even then threatened with a necessity
to conclude treaties with other Powers great and small, two
of which are now already matters of history. Unhappy polit-
ical martyrs, for they still retained the seals of office! Do these
bring here, as in other countries, compensations and advan-
tages to reconcile their holders to labors, humiliations, and anxi-
eties, since men of wealth and station can every where be found
voluntarily to go through a long course of bitter diet, eating
their own words, and reversing the policy they stormily upheld
when out of office?
The dismissed ministers and subordinate functionaries were
still out and in disgrace. Lord Elgin's arrival simply helped
to prevent any necessity of a resort to the 'happy dispatch,'*
* Both the original words in Japanese and the translation have been trav-
estied by Europeans. The words are, 'Hara wo kiru,' 'Belly cut.' The
'happy dispatch' is a pure invention, and a term wholly unknown to the
Japanese.


206
[Chap. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
the curious title tee give to their crucial mode of letting life
escape by an opening in the abdomen, when something worse
than death alone remains, if their existence should be pro-
longed.
If we now turn from the exclusively political field to the
general constitution of the realm and the social condition of
the people governed, we shall find ample opportunity for the
study of' a new phase of humanity,' which Albert Smith, of
pleasant memory, said was his object in traveling to China.
Long isolation has given to this branch of the earth's great
family a development which they may claim with some reason
as peculiarly their own. Their outer life, their laws, customs,
and institutions, have all something peculiar, a cachet of their
own which may always be distinguished. It is neither Chi-
nese nor European, nor can the type be said to be purely Asi-
atic. The Japanese seem rather to be like the Greeks of the
ancient world, forming a link between Europe and Asia, and
put forth claims to be ranked inferior to neither race in some
of their best qualities, yet very strangely blending many of the
worst characteristics of both. While we are acquiring their
language and preparing to enter into such intercourse with them as shall permit intimate relations of a domestic and social
kind to be formed, such alone as can give an insight into the
daily life, as well as the habits of thought and action of the
different classes, we can not do better, perhaps, than to study
them in their outer aspects, as a preparative to a profounder
study of their charcteristics as a nation. I remember one day,
in a conversation on Chinese life, M. Thiers observing, in reply
to a remark elicited by the various information he appeared to
have been at some pains to collect respecting China,' that the
life and civilization of the Chinese had always greatly interest-
ed him, from its bearing on "Thistoire de Vesprit humain."'
And no doubt the study of any distinct branch of the human
family in its development, progress, and resulting civilization,
is one of great interest to the philosophic mind. Peculiarly so
as regards the Chinese and Japanese, perhaps from the fact of
their being the only two of the Asiatic nations that have shown
any aptitude during the last ten centuries for a higher civiliza-
tion than belongs to the nomad tribes. The Indian race in far
remote ages, and the Arabs subsequently, have left in their
history and architecture, their literature, and their systems of
philosophy and religion, records of a civilization and mental
development of no mean order; but with them the traditions
of the past alone remain, and their present development is ap-
parently of a very inferior kind. Not so with either Chinese


Chap. X.]
JAPANESE CIVILIZATION.
207
or Japanese; they are to this day, as they have been for the
last two thousand years, the former certainly, if not the latter,
highly civilized and with considerable intellectual culture. In
the industrial arts their progress in remote ages was such as to
leave all the Indo-Germanic races peopling Europe far behind,
and even at this day they yet excel us in many things. In arts
and manufactures we have, upon the whole, far outstripped
them during the last century; and in art, properly so called,
always; for, amid many peculiarities, none is more strikingly
characteristic of both these races than the absence of all artist-
ic power or development of the highest kind. Beyond a per-
fection of color in their porcelains, and graceful forms in their
bronzes, they have done little that will bear comparison or
close examination. Yet a certain graphic power, as I will
show more particularly hereafter, the Japanese possess in no
mean degree. But of art, not only the 'high art,' in praise
and pursuit of which poor Haydon wasted so much breath
and canvas, and at last a life, cast away in bitterness and disap-
pointment, but every other form—music, painting, sculpture,
and poetry, are all yet in their infancy, and seem incapable of
advance. As regards the Chinese, and the same remark ap-
plies to the Japanese, their music is without melody, their
landscapes without perspective, light, or shade; their figures
without drawing, a mere gdchis of crude colors and grotesque
forms, dancing in mid-air without ground to rest on, and only
saved from being utterly contemptible by a certain freedom
and power in the outline and expression. So again in archi-
tecture, a tent-like house, sometimes one superimposed upon
the other in two or three stories, with grotesque curves and
twisted borders to the roofs, is the extent of their architectural
achievements. No, I wrong them. These 300,000,000 of the
human race, moulded into one nationality by identity of origin
and a uniform written language for more than 2000 years,
have given to the world as their contribution to architecture
the Pagoda, which not only has a claim to originality, but fair
pretensions to admiration for lightness and grace, though far
inferior to its Indian or Arabic prototype, the minaret. Yet
this people, 600 years B.C., when Greece was in its palmy days,
and gave to all posterity a Socrates, a Plato, and an Aristotle,
and the rest of the inhabitants of the now civilized world were
little better than painted savages or wandering freebooters
and pirates, could boast philosophers as great in Confucius and
Mencius, industrial arts "wholly unknown even to the polished
Greek, porcelain and enamel, and silk fabrics for which a Ro-
man Senator would give their weight in gold. The art of


208
[Chap. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
printing, and it is tolerably certain both the compass and gun-
powder were equally known to them—the great instruments
of all modern progress. These seem strange anomalies in the
history of civilization well calculated to arrest attention. As
it is not a history of China, however, nor even of Japan, which
I propose to write, we will turn to other and more every-day
matters. Yet it may be well, even in turning to other fields,
to remember that the most casual observation of the manners,
habits, and institutions of one of these long-isolated races has
a bearing upon the higher questions of social and mental prog-
ress, and may incidentally throw some light upon problems
which the peculiarities of a persistent and monotonous civiliza-
tion through so many successive ages unavoidably suggest.
Long passed in the race by the younger progeny of Europe,
both Japanese and Chinese must now be content to sit and
learn, accepting the place of pupils, though once they were so
capable of being teachers. The latter can still boast of popu-
lation and area far exceeding the widest limits ever attained
by rival races, and in some few things (the inheritance of for-
mer greatness) a still surviving superiority. We can not to
this day, I believe, produce a piece of China crape amid all the
marvels and variety of textile fabrics our looms turn out.
The Japanese have silk and crape textile fabrics also which I
doubt exceedingly the power of our most skilled workmen to
imitate. Neither can we rival their beautiful enamel vases,
or mend a hole in an iron kettle, with all our discoveries and
appliances, as they can with only a little charcoal stove in the
street and a blowpipe; and these are all things familiar to the
Chinese, though something of the art of enameling may have
been lost in the dust of ages.
Into the history of the Japanese nation and the modifications
which its political constitution has successively undergone, I
do not propose to enter; for although to a student of national
life and character it is needful these should be known and oft-
en borne in mind in drawing general conclusions, the briefest
sketch may suffice to give the casual reader all the information
which he requires. So many compilations from the old Dutch
authorities have appeared in a popular form recently, that the
leading features of Japanese history are pretty generally known
already. That the Mikado is the hereditary sovereign of the
empire, the descendant of a long and uninterrupted line of soyereigns of the same dynasty, and the only sovereign de jure
recognized by all Japanese from the Tycoon to the lowest beg-
gar—a true sovereign in all the legal attributes of sovereign-
ty, and that the Tycoon receives investiture from him as his


Chap. X.J
MAYOR OF THE PALACE.
209
Lieutenant or Generalissimo, and as such only, the head of the
Executive is known to most readers of the present day. True,
the Mikados have been shorn of much of their power since
Yoritomo, in 1143, profiting by civil commotions among the
princes of the land, and armed with power as Generalissimo
to humble these turbulent chiefs, only suppressed the troubles
to arrogate to himself greater part of the sovereign power un-
der the title given by a grateful master of Ziogun. Another
Pepin d'Heristal and Mayor of the palace, he did not care to
dethrone the descendant of an illustrious line of emperors, and
was content with holding the reins and transmitting the same
privileges to his descendants. And so the power continued
divided in great degree, the shadow from the substance, until
later, toward the close of the sixteenth century, a peasant's
son and favorite attendant of the actual Generalissimo, best
known in Japanese history by the name he afterward assumed
of laiko Sama, raised himself apparently by great abilities as
well as daring to the seat of power on his master's death, and
stripped the reigning Mikado of the last remnants of secular
power. Since that time the successive Emperors or Mikados
are brought into the world, and live and die within the pre-
cincts of their court at Miaco, the boundaries of which they
never pass during a whole life. Is it possible to conceive a
less desirable destiny? But the Zioguns or Tycoons, as they
are styled in European Treaties,'' have long been undergoing
a somewhat analogous process, under which all substantial
power has been transferred from them to the principal Daimios
or Princes who form a Great Council of State, and whose
nominee the Tycoon himself has become, as well, I believe, as
all his chief ministers or councilors. They exercise, if they do
not claim, the right of removing both Tycoon and ministers,
and a voice potential in all affairs of state. For legislative
changes even the almost forgotten Mikado must indeed give
his consent, never of course refused when any unanimity pre-
vails. So much was apparently known in the days of Koemp-
fer, and published by him, but when the treaty with America
was concluded, as we have seen, many things took place not
only highly illustrative of the times and the men in Japan, but
throwing some new light on the balance of political power in
the State.
* This title is involved in some obscurity. It does not seem to date far-
ther back than Commodore Perry's treaty in 1854, is hardly known by the
Japanese, and attributable to the pedantry of a preceptor of the Ziogun,
learned in Chinese, who invented or coined a title for the occasion, composed
of two Chinese words, Tai and Eoon or Iran, signifying Great Lord.


210
[Chap. X.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
The Mikado of the day is the exact type of the last descend-
ant of Clovis, sitting' sad and solitary, effeminate and degener-
ate,' doomed only to wield 'a barren sceptre,' and sigh away a
burdensome and useless existence of mock pageantry; never
permitted to pass the gates of his prison-palace. It is related
that some years ago one of those fearful and all-devouring fires,
for which the great imperial cities of Miaco, Osaca, and Yeddo
enjoy a most unenviable reputation, drove the inmates even of
the Dairi* out of the sacred precincts, the only choice being
that of the celebrated King of Aragon—of moving or being
burned alive. Rigid as the etiquette of the Dairi is held to be,
it appears that it melted before the fire of a vast city in flames;
and His Sacred Majesty, after escaping to one temple in the en-
virons, had to flee to a second, and, on his way, to cast himself
from his bullock-car and take to his feet, under penalty of being
burned after all. One can not help feeling that in all probabil-
ity this escape, with all the change, movement, and excitement,
must have formed by far the pleasantest, if not the only agree-
able hours he knew throughout his whole existence. How his
august person, too sacred to be exposed to the vulgar gaze of
his subjects, was restored to its pristine sanctity after that
midnight rush and long tramp along the dusty roads, Japanese
writers have not told us.
This double machinery of a titular Sovereign whq only reigns,
and a Lieutenant of the empire who only governs, and does not
reign, from generation to generation, is certainly something very
curious; and by long continuance it seems to have led to a du-
plicate system such as never existed in any other part of the
world, carried out to almost every detail of existence. Every of-
fice is doubled; every man is alternately a watcher and watched.
Not only the whole administrative machinery is in duplicate,
but the most elaborate system of check and counter-check, on
the most approved Machiavellian principle, is here developed
with a minuteness and perfection, as regards details, difficult at
first to realize. As upon all this is grafted a system of more
than Oriental mendacity, one feels launched into a world of
shadows and make-believes hard to grapple with in the prac-
tical business of life. Of their mendacity and cynical views
respecting it I had many illustrations. One of these official
gentry, upon a particular occasion, having been found by a For-
eign Minister in deliberate contradiction with himself, was
asked, somewhat abruptly, perhaps, how he could reconcile it
to his conscience to utter such palpable untruths? With per-
fect calmness and self-possession he replied,' I told you last
* The name given to the Court.


Chap. X.]
GREAT FEUDATORIES.
211
month that such and such a thing had been done, and now I
tell you the thing has not been done at all. I am an officer
whose business it is to carry out the instructions I receive, and
to say what I am told to say. What have I to do with its
truth or falsehood? This must be pleasant hearing to those
whose business lies with officials; but perhaps the chief differ-
ence in the manners and customs of officials and diplomatists
at the two extremities of the great Continent may, after all, be
more in forms than in things! In Europe, are not official un-
truths also told now and then? (some people think systematic-
ally)—and unblushingly enough too—only it is not considered
right to avow the fact, with the same cynical indifference to
what may be thought either of it or the avowal.
To return to the Tycoon and the government of the early
Middle Ages, with its Suzerain and Feudatories, its fiefs and a
phantom king, with hereditary Mayors of the palace, and Chiefs
with 10,000 retainers, each one holding himself as good as the
Tycoon, who must live in constant dread of open revolt or se-
cret assassination, what a pleasant state of existence for all
parties it reveals! Each of these territorial magnates or great
Daimios is practically independent of the Tycoon when within
his own territory, with power of life and death over all his sub-
jects and dependents. When at Nagasaki, I heard upon good
authority a history of an incident yet fresh in the memory of
every one, highly illustrative both of this fact and the state of
feeling as regards foreigners and Japanese honor. Two of the
retainers of an officer, a subject of the Prince of Fizen, got into
a quarrel with some foreigners in the street, and were disarmed
after drawing their swords. This reached the Prince's ears,
and so highly incensed him, that he sent instant orders to his
officers to have them beheaded for the disgrace they had brought
on themselves and their Prince in permitting themselves to be
disarmed by foreigners. It was said the Prince had a pique
against his officer, and was not sorry thus to avenge himself;
but, be this as it may, the men lost their heads, and were decapi-
tated just outside of Nagasaki, where the Tycoon's jurisdiction
ceases. An imperial passport will not secure an intruder's life,
and each one of these Barons is capable of giving the answer
Hugh Capet provoked by reminding a disobedient vassal of his
duties, and asking' who made him countP 'Who made you
king ?' was the defiant reply. And therefore, to keep such bold
and independent lords in some subjection, Taiko-sama insisted
on their spending six months of every year in his capital at
Yeddo, where they would be under his jurisdiction (though
limited, even within his moated city); and when they returned


212 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. True. X.
to their territories he kept their wives and children hostages.
Thus, it seems, a farther pleasant state of mutual love and con-
fidence must be perpetuated between the rival powers, heredit-
ary Tycoon, and hereditary feudal chiefs or princes. And thus
is explained the enormous extent of the official quarters of the
city within a double enciente of glacis, wall, and moat; and
whole streets with moated houses, displaying a frontage of a
thousand feet or more. These form, as already explained, an
outer screen to a large court-yard, furnishing ranges of apart-
ments for retainers and their families, while fine and massive-
looking gates of bronze and wood, with high roofs and armo-
rial bearings, mark those which are the property of the Daimios
or higher class of nobles. Nothing, perhaps, is more striking
to the eye of a stranger, on first penetrating through the com-
mercial part of the city into the official quarter, than the vast
dimensions of all these residences of the feudal princes. Many
of the streets are at least a hundred feet wide; the fronts of
houses, that is, the one-storied range of court-yard buildings,
sometimes extend nearly a quarter of a mile; and behind lie
garden and parade-grounds, while beautiful timber can be seen
towering above, giving a semi-regal air to the whole quarter.
No business is ever seen here. Nothing but retainers are ever
visible, often with bow and arrows slung, and all with the ar-
morial cognizance of their masters worked on the back and
sleeves of their tunic. Occasionally a guard may be met with
musket and bayonet, which, if they did not come from European
workshops, would to all appearance have done the best no dis-
credit. But they are all, I have been informed, of Dutch manu-
facture. One would think a score or two of these great hered-
itary chiefs, princes in their own right, each with five or ten
thousand armed retainers within his town-house and grounds,
would be but dangerous guests to the Tycoon, brought as they
are under durance, or at least compulsion, by the ruling power,
to eat their substance away from their estates and sources of
revenue. Still, this same arrangement of check and counter-
check has been in existence for many generations, without, it
would seem, any serious attempt to overthrow the government-
al system. Perhaps this is to be explained by the fact, already
referred to, that power has passed in no small degree from the
Tycoon's hands, as it formerly did from the Mikados', and now
resides chiefly in an executive Council of State, consisting of
five ministers, and these again held in no small check, if not in
subservience, by the Daimios and Feudal chiefs of the higher
order, amounting to some 360. Although these do not actually
form a chamber of lords, nor assemble in a body at stated pe-


Chap. X.]
THE DAIMIOS AND THE TYCOON.
213
riods, nothing legislative, it is said, can be done without their
assent obtained, after they have been convened to meet and de-
liberate. It does not appear that they interfere overtly with
the executive rule of the empire, it being recognized as the
proper business of the Tycoon and his council of ministers to
apply and cause to be respected all existing laws and customs.
They hold themselves too high to demean themselves by taking
part in the administration, or holding office under the Tycoon.
But neither the Tycoon nor the ministers, separately or col-
lectively, can venture upon a change in these laws and customs
without their sanction, and a farther confirmation by the phan-
tom sovereign of Miaco, who, shut up for life within its garden
walls, is occasionally recalled to a consciousness of an outer
world by being required to give his authority for some legis-
lative action or fundamental change of which he can know
nothing. I do not hear that it was ever refused, until this re-
cent affair of the treaties; why should it be? What can it
matter to him, poor recluse, how they govern or misgovern an
empire only in mockery called his?
In the mean time, between the Mikado who nominally wields
the sceptre—the Tycoon, a youth who no less nominally gov-
erns the kingdom, and is but fourth in rank in the Japanese
red book, for three of the Mikado's officers take precedence,
and the Daimios great and small, those with a million kokous*
of rice for their territorial revenue, and those with 50,000 and
less, who are only nominally feudatories—the administrative
machinery of the realm seems to be kept in working order!
and this, whether Tycoons die peaceably in their beds (on
their mats it should be written), or by the hand of a conspira-
tor. Along the broad ramparts of the moated enceinte with-
in which the Tycoon, by a strange retributive justice, as has
been remarked, seems in these days quite as much a cipher and
a prisoner as the virtually deposed Mikados, these ruling class-
es may be studied any day, in their outer lineaments at least.
They are often to be seen, either on horseback or in norimon,
going or returning to the Tycoon's palace. First approaches
a kind of standard-bearer, with a tall staff or lance, or it may
be two or three, pointed in steel, and with something not un-
like a fleur-de-lis covering the blade, f as an emblem of rank and
* A measure equivalent to about 100 lbs., and valued, on an average, at
from ten to twelve itziboos (say fifteen shillings). In the Appendix will be
found a tabular list of the Daimios and their respective revenues, capitals,
etc.; also a translation of the Yeddo red book of the government and admin-
istrative hierarchy of the Tycoon's government. See Appendix D.
t Another custom showing the dangerous elements it must have contained
nt some former period, if not now, is that of never appearing with any bared
weapon, spear or sword, that being held to be a declaration of war.
'


214
[Chap. XI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
authority; these vary in form according to the dignity. Then
a caparisoned horse, led by two grooms; a squad of retainers,
with the armorial bearings of their lord embroidered on their
back and sleeves follows; and the great man himself seated,
or rather doubled up, in his norimon, comes next, with officers
on each side. After the great man come bearers of covers for
his norimon, if it should rain; trunks with his wardrobe, should
he wish to change; a large umbrella, if it should chance to rain;
occasionally, more led horses and a few attendants on horse-
back, and then a detachment of archers, matchlock men, and
inferior followers with one sword only. And so passes on his
way the Daimio, meditating, it may well be, on the sudden and
strange revolution in his country which has brought the for-
eigner once more to the Japanese shores, and even into the
streets and thoroughfares of the capital, with the laws of Gon-
gen Sama, the great founder of the existing dynasty, still de-
nouncing as high treason, with death for the penalty, any one
harboring a foreigner within the dominions of the Tycoon, and
still enjoining all good and loyal subjects to slay and extermin-
ate any of the hated race who may ever venture to desecrate
the sacred soil of Niphon by their presence! This law, it is
very certain, has never been repealed, and by it we are outlaws
in the land. Any one may slay us, therefore, and plead in
justification one of the statute laws of the empire! A curious
state of affairs this, where a large class of nobles and retainers
dwell side by side with foreigners whom they hate. What
but murders and butcheries can possibly come of such a state
of things? It must be quite evident that either the relative
status of the foreigner and the armed classes must be altered,
or we shall be compelled to abandon the capital, and accept a
wholly different position in the country to that which was stip-
ulated for by existing treaties.
CHAPTER XI.
First Bloodshed.—Arrival of Count Mouravieff Amoorsky with a Russian
Squadron.—An Officer and two of the Sailors butchered in the Streets of
Yokohama.—European Diplomacy and Eastern Policy.
The British and American Legations had been established
in Yeddo some six weeks—left to themselves, as I have said,
to make their way as they best could, without a pendant of
either nation in the Japanese waters, when Count Mouravieff


Chap. XL] RUDENESS AND INSULT. 215
Amoorsky arrived with a squadron of ten vessels- As Gov-
ernor General of Siberia, and the territories recently torn from
the Chinese in Manchuria, he was supposed to have paid a
visit to Yeddo for the purpose of settling the joint occupation
of Sagalien, a large island off the Manchurian coast, hitherto
in the joint occupation of Chinese and Japanese.
Previous to this arrival affairs had been going on, if not very
satisfactorily, at least with no more serious difficulties than
might perhaps have been reasonably anticipated with an East-
ern people and a government so long isolated from the rest of
the world.
The currency question, after a long struggle, had ended in
the Japanese Government giving way, and withdrawing for
the present the obnoxious new coin. The Consuls were lo-
cated at Kanagawa, and a right of road had been secured un-
der a system of passports. Even as regarded a site at Kana-
gawa for the merchants, there were not wanting indications
that on this point also the government was prepared to yield.
To counterbalance these material advantages gained, a good
deal of hostile feeling seemed ready for manifestation when-
ever occasion served. Mr. Heuskin, the Secretary of the Amer-
ican Legation, had been more than once assaulted by some of
the Samourai, or two-sworded retainers of the Daimios; and
he had been repeatedly mobbed and molested when attempt-
ing to pass through a populous quarter of the city, near to the
celebrated JVipon Bas, a bridge across a river from whence all
the statute measurements on the road, from one end of the
empire to the other, are taken.
Various minor acts of rudeness and insult had also fallen to
the share of the British Legation. But as regarded the mob-
bing and pelting, I made a vigorous protest on August 9 of
this year (1859), declaring that the Japanese Government
would be held responsible if they permitted such hostile acts
on the part of the populace. The concluding paragraphs so
perfectly describe our actual position at the time that I can
not do better than transcribe them:
'Finally, I come to the state of affairs here, at the capital
and seat of government. Two Foreign Representatives only
are here, with half a dozen gentlemen attached to their Mis-
sions. They have been sent in accordance with treaties, and
have trusted themselves alone in the midst of a vast popula-
tion, without ships of war or other protection than the loyalty
and good faith of that government, and the presumed respect
of Japanese people for their own laws, and the mutual obliga-
tions of States 


216
[Chap. XL
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
'Do your Excellencies know how this confidence on our part
has been met? No officer of the Missions of either country,
Great Britain or the United States, can walk out of their offi-
cial residence without risk of rudeness, offense, and latterly—
more especially latterly—violence of the most wanton and de-
termined character. Stones are thrown, blows are struck,
swords are drawn on gentlemen passing along the great thor-
oughfares inoffensively and peaceably, offering neither offense
nor provocation to any one. I hear that a few days ago the
American Secretary of Legation, Mr. Heuskin, was attacked
deliberately, and struck a violent blow while slowly walking
his horse on the road; and this not by a coolie, or even a
drunkard, as far as could be observed, but one of " those offi-
cers bearing swords." A day or two later, I farther hear, he
and the Consul of Holland, who was in his company, were as-
sailed in the centre of the town, and in open day, with stones;
and not by idle boys—not by one, but hundreds of men—not
for a moment either, but persistently for a considerable time,
two officials being present at the time, and stirring no hand to
put a stop to such an outrage. My own staff have complained
to me of insolence and rudeness experienced in their walks,
and not always from common people, but officers; and some-
times stones have been thrown, without the shadow of a pre-
text, by provocation or offense, offered on their part; on the
contrary, it is always from behind their assailants come. It ap-
pears they do not deem it inconsistent with a reputation for
courage to attack perfectly inoffensive and unarmed strangers
walking alone in their streets (under safeguard only of the
good disposition of the population and the laws of their coun-
try), and think it no disparagement to their courage, and no
evidence of cowardice, to steal from behind to throw these
missiles, or, backed by a crowd, to attack by dozens a single
stranger.
'These outrages can only be considered as a reproach and a
scandal to any city where all the powers of a government are
concentrated and available for the maintenance of order. I
pray your Excellencies to allow me for a moment to draw
your serious attention to some leading facts connected with
such acts, if not the inferences to which they lead. This de-
meanor of the population was not observable on the first ar-
rival of the Foreign Missions last month; they have gradually
become more noticeable; while latterly each day seems to
bring a new instance, with accession of violence and aggrava-
ting circumstances.
'Whence is this? As regards my own Mission I can vouch


Chap. XI.]
INSULTS AND OUTRAGES.
217
for the absence of all pretext or shadow of justification, even
in their demeanor, for any display either of ill will or offensive
conduct. I feel scarcely less certain that no just provocation
has been received from the American Mission. I have said
that in the beginning such action on the part of officers and
populace alike did not exist; and in saying so, I do not over-
look the fact that in all large cities there will be idle and ill-
conditioned people about the thoroughfares, disorderly boys
who will follow and sometimes hoot at foreigners, or idly throw
a stone. These things may happen every where, and in most
civilized states; nor to such instances as these have I ever
thought it necessary to draw your attention; but there is this
notable difference between these continued and reiterated acts
of aggression directed against the five or six individuals form-
ing two diplomatic Missions (who must be very generally
known to be the only foreign residents at Yeddo) and what
might take place in any city of Europe, viz., that such public
display of violence could not take place without its being the
duty of certain public officers charged with the maintenance
of the peace to interfere and put a stop to it, and apprehend
some, at least, of the most prominent offenders, who would, in
that case, be certainly and severely punished for their violation
of the law. Secondly, that if any officer, or civilian even, of
respectability, saw such disgraceful conduct toward inoffensive
strangers, they would, of their own accord, interfere to prevent
its continuance, and secure, if possible, the apprehension of some
of the assailants. And they would be held disgraced in pub-
lic opinion if they failed to do so, much more if they stood by
encouraging such ruffianly violence; while any officer or pub-
lic functionary so acting could hardly escape, on complaint, if
not without it, the punishment due to his conduct. If any such
instances of unprovoked and unpunished violence offered to in-
offensive foreigners ever occur in European States, there is no
one who does not know that they are the exceptions, not the
rule; and the occurrence of one is quite sufficient to move the
government or municipal authorities to more strenuous efforts
to provide against the possibility of a recurrence of the same
acts with like impunity.
'In all these essential points "I am obliged to conclude the
inhabitants and officers of Yeddo differ from the functionaries
and populations of every other city in the civilized world. I
say it with regret, but the facts compel me to adopt this con-
clusion. Day after day these insults and outrages are offer-
ed to five or six individuals; they increase in frequency and
violence: no functionary interferes. Officers are sometimes


Chap. XI.] PROTEST.—MURDER OF RUSSIANS. 219
lations; but it is not permitted to any nation with large in-
terests at stake and national honor to defend, to shrink from
the due maintenance of its treaty rights, and least of all can
Great Britain allow them to be trampled under foot here or
elsewhere. I am, therefore, acting strictly and simply in ac-
cordance with my instructions in taking the only step which
appears calculated to prevent any interruption to the good
understanding and friendly intercourse it was the object of
the treaty to establish and maintain inviolate, by calling the
attention of the Government of Japan, through your Excellen-
cies, to the imperative necessity for the vigorous adoption of
measures which shall render such frequent and grave causes
of complaint impossible, and allow the treaty to take effect,
by the removal of obstacles for which the Japanese Govern-
ment must unavoidably be responsible.'
This undoubtedly had its effect; for, although the ministers
disclaimed any knowledge of the parties offending, and denied
their power to prevent such popular demonstrations, I rode
through this quarter a week later, and several miles on the
other side, and not a hand or voice was raised against me, nor
have such scenes ever been renewed since. If the Govern-
ment had nothing to do with this sudden cessation of such
hostile acts, it was certainly a very strange coincidence that,
so immediately after an energetic remonstrance, they ceased
altogether and permanently.
Count Mouravieff took up his residence at a large temple,
having landed with a guard of 300 men fully armed and equip-
ped. Shortly afterward I heard that some of his officers, in
walking through the city, had been annoyed and insulted, and
one morning he came to breakfast with me, arriving late, and
looking as if something untoward had occurred. In a few
moments he told me.-he had just received some deplorable in-
telligence from Kanagawa. An officer, with a sailor and a
steward of one of the Russian ships, had been on shore about
8 o'clock the previous evening to buy some provisions, and on
their way to the boat, close to the principal street, in which
many of the shops were still open, the party was suddenly set
upon by some armed Japanese, and hewn down with the most
ghastly wounds that could be inflicted. The steward, though
mortally wounded it was feared, still lived, having, after the
first onset, succeeded in rushing into a shop. The other two
were left in a pool of blood, the flesh hanging in large masses
from their bodies and limbs. The sailor was cleft through his
skull to the nostrils, half the scalp sliced down, and one arm
nearly severed from the shoulder through the joint. The offi-


220
[Chap. XI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
cer was equally mangled, his lungs protruding from a sabre
gash across the body, the thighs and legs deeply gashed. The
ruffians, it appears, were not content with simply killing, but
must have taken pleasure in cutting them to pieces. All three,
unfortunately, were unarmed, but numbers of people were ei-
ther in sight or in the close vicinity. Was it, then, a mere
highway robbery, with murder as an accompaniment, or was
it an act of hatred and revenge? It is said that one or more
officials had been dismissed, on the complaint of General Mou-
ravieff, for insults offered to some of his own officers a day or
two before. This seemed to offer a possible clew to the assas-
sins, but nothing had been heard of them.
This first deed of blood took every one by surprise; for al-
though, as I have recorded, there were not wanting evidences
of hostility somewhere, believed more especially to have its
origin in Yeddo among the Daimios and their armed retainers,
it had hitherto only manifested itself by acts of rudeness and
insult, or the turbulence of a mob. Here, without the slight-
est provocation and away from the capital, three unfortunate
men had been set upon and butphered in the most savage
manner. What was the motive, and who were the perpetra-
tors? It was difficult to imagine they could be common high-
waymen and robbers—'ZomVis,' as brigands are called in this
country, including all the criminal classes who have no fixed
abode, employment, or lord, disbanded soldiers, disgraced and
unclassed retainers of the Daimios, deserters, etc. It is difficult
to attribute the act to any of these for purposes of plunder,
because, although they did carry off a money-box the steward
had with him, it was found on the road to Kanagawa. True,
it contained only foreign coins, which they may have thought
too dangerous property and nearly useless to them after such
a deed. It is believed that the parties had come down to
Kanagawa from Yeddo. This is certain, by the depositions of
the steward and of the officer, who did not expire until some
of his companions had reached the spot, that one or more of
the attacking party wore the two swords distinctive of an offi-
cer's rank in Japan. A sandal was left on the ground, which,
by its make, proved the rank of the wearer to be above that
of a coolie. A vest, too, had been torn off, but with no dis-
tinguishing badge or mark; and a piece of a broken sword was
found by the bodies—all useful means of tracing the assassins.
But the Governor, when the British Acting Consul went to
him at four o'clock in the morning, on being informed of what
had happened, treated the whole matter with a kind of brutal
levity (such, at least, was the impression he gave), and there


Chap. XI.]
DIFFICULT QUESTIONS.
221
was little hope of justice from such authority. They were not
mere highwaymen, however, because the manner in which the
murdered men were slashed and nearly dismembered indica-
ted more than a mere desire to disable or kill. There was
something savage and vindictive, indicating personal or polit-
ical feeling in the number and nature of the wounds. On the
other hand, if it had some ulterior or political design of intimi-
dation addressed to all the Foreigners, surely none in high
places would have chosen this particular moment, when, by a
rare chance, there was a powerful foreign squadron in the bay
of the nation to which the victims belonged, and a chief in
Count Mouravieff who could land an army on their territory
from the neighboring coast, if he pleased, in a shorter period
than could any other foreign representative or government.
But it was precisely on account of this, according to popular
, rumor, that the deed was done, and his men were singled out.
In the troubles consequent on the last American treaty, Prince
Mito, as I have already explained, was exiled by the Regent,
Jkamono-no-kami, whose own tragic end was not yet fore-
shadowed. Since that period the prince had been left under
a species of surveillance, chafing under the loss of power and
the failure of his projects. Having yet a large body of officers
and retainers devoted to him as their feudal chief, it was sup-
posed he had now taken this means of bringing the existing
government and its real chief, the Regent, into collision with a
foreign Power, hoping in the confusion to recover his position,
and perhaps seize upon the reins of power as Tycoon.
Another account, already referred to, represented it as an
act of personal revenge directed indiscriminately against any
Russians that might come in their way, in order to avenge the
disgrace of an official, which Count Mouravieff had insisted
upon as a satisfaction- for some violence or insult offered to a
party of his officers in Yeddo.
Of the real motives, or the actual perpetrators, nothing pos-
itive has ever been known. But no one believed that it was
a mere case of highway robbery and murder. Count Moura-
vieff was pleased to confer with me as to the best steps to be
taken, and the means of obtaining the punishment of all con-
cerned in this atrocity, or, failing this, the means of exacting
such satisfaction or reparation for the outrage as could be ac-
cepted, and might best deter the Government or the Daimios
from recurring to such means of carrying out a policy of hos-
tility and exclusion, if such, indeed, was the construction to be
put upon this otherwise motiveless crime.
This involved many considerations both of expediency and


222
[Chap. XI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
practicability. The news had only just been received of the
repulse of both English and French forces at the Peiho, recoil-
ing defeated from the Taku forts. It was not to be conceived
that this would be without significance or influence on the
minds of the Japanese rulers. True, I had myself announced
the fact to the Government (preferring this to leaving it to
less sure hands to bear intelligence which could not be kept
secret), and had declared at the same time the certainty that,
as soon as forces could be dispatched from England or India,
signal retribution would be exacted. Yet the check had actu-
ally taken place, and the retribution was future and contin-
gent, and might well seem to them less certain than I repre-
sented it.
A few days later, a drunken officer was brandishing one of
the sabres they carry (a murderous weapon in any hands, with
a powerful leverage of handle, and an edge like a razor), vow-
ing he would have the head of a Russian. And what was
done? He was evidently dangerous, and, after some delay, he
was dragged down at a respectful distance by a long pole with
a hook, and disarmed, but only to be sent about his business.
It was impossible to disguise the fact that a hostile spirit of
the worst kind was abroad, and to all remonstrances the For-
eign Ministers quietly observed that these acts of violence
fully justified them in all they had urged upon the Plenipoten-
tiaries negotiating, as to the dangerous character of the popu-
lation in Yeddo, and the expediency of deferring the residence
of any diplomatic agents for two or three years! It was, of
course, easy, and it might be pleasant for them to fulfill their
own predictions of mischief, but would the contracting Powers
allow their agents to be driven out of Yeddo by mob violence,
their subjects to be murdered in the streets, and all trade made
impossible? In the mean time, this is what they menaced us
with thus early, and the position of all the diplomatic agents
at Yeddo was any thing but secure, if not full of peril, and
boded ill for the possibility of any satisfactory relations being
established. There was too much reason to believe that a
powerful party among the hereditary Princes and Daimios
were disposed to risk every thing rather than permit peace-
able intercourse and good relations with European Powers to
be established; and the late checks suffered by the allies at the
Peiho, and the French in Cochin China, with the war raging
in Europe at the time, may all have tended to embolden them
to make the effort without farther delay to drive the Missions
from the capital, and all trade from its vicinity.
In the end, it was seen nothing could be done. To blockade


CnAp. XL]
THE AMENDE.
223
the port and bombard the city, assuming it were in the Count's
power to do either, gave little promise of better result. The
first would have the immediate effect of making both the cap-
ital and port of Kanagawa untenable to Foreigners, and the
last was an extreme measure, likely to cost the lives of thou-
sands of innocent and harmless people, without doing the least
injury to those really concerned in the wrong. In this Count
Mouravieff seemed entirely to agree, and he finally took his
departure a few days afterward, having insisted upon certain
'high officers' going on board and making in person an apolo-
gy on the part of the Government, which entered into an en-
gagement to discover and punish the offenders by a given pe-
riod. It was farther stipulated and agreed that the Governor
of Kanagawa should be disgraced, and that they should build
a mortuary chapel, and keep a guard in perpetuity on the spot.
It was very characteristic that this last condition was precise-
ly the one they most resisted, as entailing on all posterity a
great and needless expense.

And so ended the first of a long series of tragedies, with
something very like a solemn farce; the apology and the prom-
ise were made, the chapel has been built, but of course nothing
has ever been heard of the perpetrators, and the very Govern-
or so disgraced was actually named, two years later, to pro-
ceed as one of the Tycoon's Envoys on a mission to the Treaty
Powers in Europe; the Court of Russia among the rest; and


224
[Chap. XII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
it was only on my remonstrance that he was removed from the
mission and another appointed in his place. The struggle had
now commenced in earnest, and first blood had been shed—the
struggle between European diplomacy, with protocols and the
appliances of modern warfare in the background, and Japanese
policy, animated by a fierce spirit of national fanaticism and
hostility to all innovation, backed by the assassin's steel and
all the weapons of Oriental treachery and ruthless cruelty.
CHAPTER XII.
Improving Prospects —An Official Interview with the two Ministers of For-
eign Affairs.—Ride Home by Moonlight.—How Yeddo appears after Sun-
set.
July and August were gone, the first two months after my
arrival; and however monotonously the time seemed to pass,
day after day glided imperceptibly away. It is in these cir-
cumstances that time in the retrospect always seems the short-
est. With nothing to mark or distinguish one day from an-
other (one day and night being the exact counterpart of the
other), the mind refuses to take account of the unvarying suc-
cession, and the memory finds nothing prominent whereon to
attach a record. The days themselves may seem long, with
nothing to break the dull flow of the unrippled stream while
we are living through each one, but on looking back we find it
impossible to say whether ten or twenty have passed along the
same smooth way, leaving no footprint or water-mark on the
shores. In traveling, where each hour brings new scenes, new
people and things, while events are crowded into small space,
or in the excitement of active life, where every day is filled
with the record of hopes or fears, successes or failures, work
achieved, designs advanced or retarded by adverse conditions,
the mind is incessantly on the stretch between the conception
and the birth of new projects, and refuses to accept a mere
calendar measure of time. We have lived ten days or months
in one, counting, as the mind ever does, by epochs made out
of sensations and events; and however rapid the passage of
each day, when filled to the brim with thoughts and deeds, in
the retrospect a month expands into space and time without
definite limit!
Our only incident at this period was the appearance of the
cholera. I returned from the American Legation on the even-


Chap. XII.] THE CHOLERA IN YEDDO.—A VISIT. 225
ing of the 29th of August, bringing the unpleasant tidings,
and the next morning I awoke to find myself in its fell grip.
The attack was sharp but short, and my actual danger was
over in a few hours, but I did not feel quite well for some time
after, and all the other members of the establishment had at-
tacks more or less severe in character. Fortunately, no life
was lost, and in the mean time the hot season was passing rap-
idly away, and in another fortnight or three weeks we might
expect cool days as well as nights. The heat, however, out
of the sun, was never excessive; the highest range of the ther-
mometer in the house was only 86°, and its ordinary pitch in
midday was 80°, while the evenings always became cool and
pleasant; there had been not more than two or three nights
when the temperature could interfere with sleep, lying under
musquito curtains without bed-covering.
The political atmosphere seemed clearing. The day I was
laid up with the cholera, one of the Governors of Foreign Af-
fairs paid a visit, apparently a call of friendly courtesy or ca-
jolery, for he proposed that, at any time I liked, he would ac-
company me to see some of the more curious temples, make
water parties, etc. This was quite a novel proposition, for
hitherto they had only seemed anxious to keep Foreigners out
of the streets, and within the four walls of their official resi-
dences. He proposed that jugglers should be sent for to
amuse me, and the next day sent again to ask after my health!
The same comedy was acted with the American Minister.
However, it was all received courteously, of course for as much
as it was worth only, but I looked upon it as significant of
some anxiety on their part as to the state of their relations.
Count MouraviefF had, no doubt, made very energetic remon-
strances against the manifest laxity of Government and offi-
cials which allowed Foreigners to be repeatedly stoned and
mobbed without interference, and some ofhis own people final-
ly murdered within a few steps of open shops, and in sight of
the Otono, or head man of the ward, who declared that, hear-
ing blows in the street opposite, and seeing through the dark-
ness two Russians fall, 'he called his assistants to light the
lanterns, and when all were ready sallied out,' to find two For-
eigners weltering in their blood, nearly hacked to pieces, and
one already dead—the murderers clear off, of course. Upon
which he sent to his superior officers, and waited orders, not
even lifting the dying officer from the road! The removal of
the Governor and the Otono, it is true, was the only redress
obtainable; but the Government spared no effort to remove
from the Count's mind any impression he may have had, either


226
[Chap. XH.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
of their complicity, or their unwillingness to give the fullest
redress, by the seizure and execution of the offenders, if they
could be found. Unless they were the protected retainers of
a Daimio indeed, this would cost them little; life is not set at
a high value either by Japanese laws or customs. About this
time, Mr. Cowan, one of the Consulate interpreters, was on his
way up from Kanagawa, and, just before reaching the gates of
the Legation, he saw an evidence of this which seemed to have
turned him sick. Three gory heads were stuck in a bed of
clay on a pedestal by the road side, with the eyes open in the
fixed stare of death. I could not find out to whom they had
belonged, or for what crime their owners had been condemned.
But a theft of any sum above forty kobangs is death, and even
repeated petty larcenies have the same penalty attached. Here
is an original sentence forwarded to the Consul in an official
letter:
To F. Howard Vyse, Esq.
Krai'!
Vagabond in the village Idrocmigawa. .
Yon hare, while in the service of the English merchant Telge, stolen 300
rio in his absence, which were kept in an unlocked box.
As this is a great offense, you are sentenced to be beheaded.
Kiske!
In the village of loci u Mocra.
During the time you were in the service of Telge, an English merchant,
residing in Yoku-hama, your fellow-merchant Kihf stole his money; although
you were ignorant of this, it is declared unlawful that you fled with him when
asked to do so, and suspicious that you allowed him to pay your expenses for
lodging, food, and drink, while traveling with him for many days.
You shall be whipped and banished.
The above two sentences having been passed, the remainder of the stolen
money, 284 rio, 17 tempos, and 80 cash, is kept at your disposal. I desire
you may communicate the above sentences to Telge, and hand him the mon-
ey, for which I beg him to give a receipt.
Proposed with respect.
The 11th day of the 4th month. (June 1,1860.)
(Signed) Takimoto Dzoekionokami.
Other signs of improvement were not wanting. When we
went abroad, the ward constables with their jingling staves in-
stantly turned out, and so escorted us from street to street, re-
lieved at each gate. Mr. Heusken, the interpreter of the Uni-
ted States' Legation, went on horseback to his old haunt, the
populous quarter about the Nipon Bas or central bridge, where
he had been so often assailed and mobbed, and found himself
well guarded, and not an idle boy seemed to have a look, much
less a stone to throw at him.


Chap. XII.]
A NIGHT SCENE.
227
One day in September, a two hours' procession through the
commercial and official cities in Norimons brought me to the
residence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and another two
hours, spent in discussing a great variety of pending matters,
were required to set me free to mount my horse, and return by
moonlight, and lantern-light combined, with a noisy accompa-
niment of jingling staves, to an eight o'clock dinner.

night scene.—(From a Japanese woodcut.)
I should like to attempt a description of the whole from be-
ginning to end—procession, interview, and return by night to
the temple of Tozengee, where the British Legation was pro-
visionally located—a brief chapter in Yeddo life, during which
glimpses are obtained of a thousand things connected with the
habits and character of the Japanese in their relations with
each other, in their political system, and social institutions;
while the interview itself brings out in strong relief the conflict
between the heterogeneous elements of two different phases of
civilization, each marked by a state of feeling and of ethics
equally fixed, and sometimes perfectly irreconcilable. Japan-
ese imperialism and nationality, feudalism, and the whole po-
litical and social system, by which the people are not only gov-
erned, but influenced in their development, all form a study
full of interest in a philosophical as well as an international
point of view.


228
[Chap. XII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
The Norimons are at the door—suspended cages, already
described as something like a large baby-house, with roof and
side doors, and cushions, and shelves, and windows. The stardy Norimon-bearers wear a loose tunic of cotton descending
nearly to their heels, but when engaged in carrying, especially
if it be a person of importance, the skirts are tucked up by the
waistband, and the lower limbs and body, to the waist nearly,
left bare and free, in token of the urgent business on which
they are engaged, like the Jews of old, who' girded up their
loins' in somewhat similar guise very possibly when preparing
for a journey or for energetic action. Thus equipped, the arms
of their master stamped or embroidered on the back and on
each arm, they bend under the great projecting beam and raise
it on their shoulders, the bottom of the Norimon being then
about a foot only above the ground. They make no cry or
sound such as the Chinese chair-bearers or Indian palanquin-
men, but step out with a tolerably smooth, steady pace, at the
rate of some three miles an hour. Japanese ideas of dignity
are opposed to all haste, and, accordingly, with a spear carried
in front to which the British flag is attached, and half a dozen
Japanese armed with swords as a body-guard, re-enforced by
a squad of Japanese officials and officers sent by the authori-
ties to accompany me, the procession winds slowly along. My
horse is led by a groom, saddled and ready to mount in case
of accident to the Norimon, such being the order and theory
of traveling in Japan. A great Daimio will sometimes be fol-
lowed by two or three led horses, but only a very poor noble
is ever supposed to ride—his poverty, not his will, consenting;
Had I been a Japanese, I should, in addition, have had half a
dozen bearers carrying trunks, with changes of dress and other
objects for my personal convenience, and as many officers and
armed retainers in addition as might serve to mark a high offi-
cer's dignity, from fifty to five hundred or more. As the cav-
alcade enters into the street, a couple of ward constables, with
ponderous iron rods and jingling rings, making a loud carillon
each time they strike the ground with it, head the march, and
announce the arrival of some one of rank, as an intimation to
clear the road. These are exchanged at very short distances,
on the entrance of every new ward, marked by a gate across
the street or road, and a small guard-house. If it be a Daimio
or J apanese of official rank, all the inhabitants are prohibited
from standing up at the doors or windows to look at the great
man, and persons passing are bound to stop and make lowly
obeisance, or go down on their knees.* Amid all these out-
* I have sometimes thought this custom may have originated as a measure


Chap. XII.] PATRICIAN AND PLEBEIAN.
229
ward marks of profound respect and a servile state, every high
officer of the Tycoon and every Daimio is accustomed to move.
So wide, indeed, is the distance between the hereditary nobles
and the mass of the population, and impassable the space divid-
ing them, that the very existence of the plebeian seems unrec-
ognized by the patrician in his lordly progress. And for that
very reason there may be more real liberty among the mass of
the people than we imagine. It has often been remarked that
in the feudal ages of Europe, and under the most grinding des-
potism of crowned heads, both in ancient and modern times,
when absolute power over the lives and property of all has
been claimed as of Divine right, that the long submission of
whole populations was to be explained by the fact that it was
only rarely the violence of king or noble reached the peasant.
Feudal princes and chiefs made war on and despoiled each
other, and kings preyed upon nobles, but it was only excep-
tionally that the weight of their ruthless hands was felt by the
humbler classes. And not seldom the head despot of all made
common cause with the people against the insolent power of
the nobles, and appeared rather in the light of the protector
than the oppressor of either burgher or peasant. As the storm
often strikes the highest trees and leaves the lowlier shrubs
unscathed, so has it often been with the humbler classes; their
lowness is their protection; and being beneath the notice and
attention of the great ones of the earth, save as instruments of
labor, the most pregnant causes of revolution among the masses
are wanting. So it may well be here in Japan, where we find
reproduced, in its fullest vigor, the feudal and despotic condi-
tions of a long-past age and order of society in Europe. The
outward show of servility may be but skin deep, and the body
of the industrial population, in town and country, may be left
with a larger share of freedom and greater immunity from in-
dividual wrong, or meddling legislation brought to bear upon
them by those who wield the chief power of the state, than in
many countries having the form and show of popular freedom
and more democratic institutions. Many things which meet
the eye and the ear tend to give this impression, but of course
require verification before any deduction of this nature can be
accepted as conclusively established.
We pass on along the great tocado; the people in the streets
and shops, attracted by the jingling of the iron stave-men and
a line of march, squat down on their heels, as is their manner,
of security against those very onslaughts of which we have had so many in-
stances the last three years, where armed men have sprung upon high per-
sonages in the midst of their retinue.


230
[Chap. XII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
to get a peep into the Norimon. Men and women steaming in
the bathing-houses raise themselves to the open bars of the lat-
tice fronts to look out, the interior behind them presenting a
view very faithfully represented in the following sketch by a
native artist; in reference to which, I can not help feeling

JAPANESE LADIES IN THE BATH.
there is some danger of doing great injustice to the woman-
hood of Japan, if we judge them by our rules of decency and
modesty. Where there is no sense of immodesty, no conscious-
ness of wrong doing, there is, or may be, a like absence of any
sinful or depraved feeling. It is a custom of the country. Fa-
thers, brothers, and husbands all sanction it; and from child-
hood the feeling must grow up, as effectually guarding them
from self-reproach or shame as their sisters in Europe in adopt-
ing low dresses in the ball-room, or any other generally adopted
fashion of garments or amusements. There is much in the
usual appearance and expression of Japanese women to lead to
this conclusion. Any one of the real performers in the above


Chap. XII.]
JAPANESE STREET.
231
scene—a bathing saturnalia it may appear to us—when all is
over and the toilette is completed, will leave the bath door a
very picture of womanly reserve and modesty, as truly limned
below, looking as irreproachable as the best of her sex; and
far more so, both in look and
carriage, than a great many
of those who frequent the
streets and public places of
resort in London or Paris.
Little nude children run a
few steps forward to pro-
long their view, and boys
and girls somewhat older
compromise the matter of
costume by a bit of printed
calico hung from the waist,
as a loose apron. Then
black-teethed women, with
mouths like open sepul-
chres, so dark and forbid-
ding is the cavern they un-
lock, generally uncovered to
the waist if in summer time,
and with a copper-colored
'marmot' hanging to the
breast, press forward for a
sight at the shop doors, and
rush down the wynds and
passages which lead to the
great thoroughfare. Tat-
tooed workmen and shop-
boys add to the throng; and swaggering among the groups
are many of the two-sworded gentry, retainers of Daimios, sub-
ordinate officials, and military, all fully impressed with their
own importance and superiority, as well as of the masters they
serve, to the common plebs, making them the least safe or pleas-
ant people in all Yeddo to meet.
But we are in Norimons, surrounded by servants, and for
the moment out of the reach of the whole class of ruffian retain-
ers and disorderly soldiers, unless they resolve to make an on-
slaught. Mile after mile of streets has to be traversed, shops,
and tea-houses, and bathing establishments meeting the eye at
every step along the route. There is the Swan and Edgar's
of Yeddo, with premises nearly as vast, and at least a hundred
men and women waiting to attend the customers, and with

AFTER THE BATH.


232
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XII.
deafening cries, inviting the latter to step in and buy. The
cleanly matted floor, raised some eighteen inches above the
street, serves for an ample counter, on which are spread the
silks, and gauzes, and cottons before the purchasers. As in the
sketch, "Scene in a Silk-shop," the seller and the buyer, both
squatted on their hams and heels, or bending forward on their
knees, examine the goods at leisure. Time, which is never an
object of value in the East, or to an Eastern, is very essential
to any satisfactory dealings. The Japanese, like the Turks,
rather prefer a chaffering customer, who, in spending his mon-
ey, will also help them to dispose of the other commodity,
which is apt to hang heavy on their hands, and be quite as dif-
ficult to get rid of—vacant hours. I have not gone deeply
into Japanese silks, my knowledge of-such wares being very
slight, but I fancy their manufacturing skill is inferior, in some
kinds at least, to that of Europe. They have both delicate col-
ors and fabrics in gauze, however, which the Daimios and men
of rank wear in summer, with projecting wings on the outer
vest, giving something of the appearance, when they are in
gala costume, of dragon-flies. Generally speaking, the shops

A JAPANESE AT HIS TOILET FOR A VISIT OF CEREMONY.


Chap. XII.]
JAPANESE STREET.
233
make little show; the better class of goods are not commonly set out to attract the eye, nor could they be so without dam-
age, when the whole shop is open to the street, with'no glass to
protect them from dust or exposure to the damp. The crock-
ery-shops, toy-shops, second-hand old iron and bronze shops,
fruit-shops, are exceptions, but little in these at all tempting
ever meets the eye of a foreigner. The lacker-ware, ornaments,
and similar articles, are always packed away, and generally to
be unearthed only by diving into the back, or mounting a break-
neck ladder to the loft over the shop. They are, perhaps, the
neatest carpenters and cabinet-makers, and the best coopers in
the world. Their tubs, and baths, and baskets are all perfect
specimens of workmanship. But here we are on the Nipon
Bas, the great central bridge of Nipon, flung across the River
Okawa, which traverses Yeddo. The population hereabouts is
very dense, and has distinguished itself, as I have related, by
repeatedly mobbing any luckless traveler who may have stray-
ed so far. But there are no stones for us to-day, nor crowd-
ing and pressing. We are among those, for the hour,'whom
the king delighteth to honor,' and his officials lead the way.
A more lamblike or inoffensive assemblage of sight-seers could
hardly be found all the world through; yet but a few weeks
before, as we have seen, a member of the American Legation
and the Dutch Consul, although on horseback, were driven
back with the volley of stones that fell around them, denting
their pith helmets, and covering the wearers with bruises!
At last we arrive at the residence of the senior of the For-
eign Ministers, where the interview is to take place, glad
enough, for the sun at three o'clock in these latitudes is at its
hottest, and the whole atmosphere is heated like the air of an
oven, which the Norimon, under the sun's rays, by no means
badly represents. Here we are set down, and having been
disinterred, we pass through one of the great gateways already
described into a spacious, well-paved court-yard, scrupulously
clean and well kept. Immediately opposite the entrance is
the covered entrance to the dwelling of the Minister, where,
under an ample peristyle, two superior attendants are in wait-
ing to receive the guests. In the hall beyond we find the in-
terpreter, Moriyama, and two superior officers. We pass along
a large matted passage or corridor, with the usual paper win-
dows on one side, and sliding panels on the other—generally
removed in summer, and giving entrance to a suite of rooms.
Several Governors of Foreign Affairs are here in waiting to re-
ceive us—under-secretaries of state in their functions, and cre-
ated expressly for the transaction of foreign affairs since the


234
f Chap. XII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
treaties. Finally, we gain an anteroom, which leads to a room
of still larger dimensions opening on to a narrow court, and
evidently the principal apartment of the residence, all neatly
matted, with silk borders to each mat; these, indeed, consti-
tuting its usual furniture. There is a slightly raised dais at
the end, and midway up the room the two Ministers stand to
receive their guests. A grave and silent salutation is ex-
changed, and each party retires to opposite sides, where lacker
tables and chairs have been placed. The Ministers and the
foreign visitors take their seat at the same moment. Moriya-
ma, the interpreter, barefooted, but otherwise with wings of
gauze and surcoat like the rest, sinks on to his knees, with his
head nearly touching the ground, in the vacant space between
those on each side who will have to be the spokesmen. Be-
hind the Ministers, to the right, several attendants, in similar
attitude, rest like statues on their knees and heels; a stand im-
mediately behind receives the Ministers' two swords, and be-
hind them both, in a row within easy speaking distance, are
the seven Governors of Foreign Affairs, often apparently filling
the part so humorously described by Swift in ' Gulliver's Trav-
els,' as the 'Flappers' of the Ministers, to make them under-
stand what they hear, or, at all events, explain its meaning, and
sometimes suggest what to say in reply. These have no ta-
bles before them, and are seated on benches ranged along the
wall on the ministerial side of the house. At the lower end,
facing the passage, are groups of attendants resting on their
heels, and silent as the grave.
We have time to look around us; nothing is hurried or pre-
cipitate here; scarcely will the first formalities have been ex-
changed ten minutes hence. We scan every lineament of those
present quite at our ease; only they have taken care to place
us opposite the light, and themselves in shade, with their back
to it, so that we may rest assured they have the advantage of
us in any critical examination of expression or feature. While
thus engaged, see, there comes gliding up the room, with
noiseless step upon the matted floor, a troop of attendants
bearing trays on the level of their chins, who reverently place
on each of the four tables a tray containing fire, pipes, and to-
bacco. Others bring two kinds of tea in lacker cups; and all
retire, as noiselessly as they came, in long procession.
The senior of the two Foreign Ministers at this time was a
wizened, ascetic-looking old man, with no great amount of in-
telligence in his countenance; one of the hereditary Daimios,
though not of the most powerful class. He had been brought
out of a voluntary retirement to put on the heavy chains of


Chap. XII.] THE FOREIGN MINISTERS.
235
office, and he looked as if they were but little to his taste. On*e
can not help thinking he must have often wished, since the
signing of the treaties last year, that he was safe back in his
retreat, with monks for his only companions, and a chaplet to
count for his chief occupation!
The other Minister, recently appointed on the retirement
from ill health of his predecessor, worn out, it appears, by the
first year of foreign affairs, is younger looking, and of less as-
cetic countenance; a Daimio and a Kami also. He is new to
office and intercourse with Foreigners. One would like to
know what are his first impressions of them and the present
state of affairs, but you will seek in vain in that smooth, hair-
less face for any information on these points.
But now the conference is opening; His Excellency has ex-
pressed his' fears that you found the day warm, and the way
very long; is glad to find you have survived both, did not die,
the other day, of the cholera, and are as well now as, the
warmth of the weather and other circumstances considered,
can well be expected!' You, in your turn, have had some fears
that you had arrived after time; you hope that he had not
suffered from the ominous visitation of the cholera; you re-
gret that his colleague (whom you never saw but once) had
been compelled to retire from ill health; and you finally trust
that his new colleague may be able to support the fatigues of
his onerous office without injury to his health.
Much more of the same kind passes. At last the interpret-
ers feel the real work is beginning. The foreign blood will
not bear an infinite prolongation of nothings, and there is a
steady plunge into deep water. The prologue is over, and the
real play begins.
'The speaker wrote some days ago to know when a messen-
ger could be dispatched to the Governor of Neagata, with in-
structions to facilitate the survey of the harbor by one of
H.M.'s ships.'
Flapper No. 1 suggests an answer shall be sent, and Minis-
ter replies accordingly.
'An answer had been received, omitting the essential, which
requires but a word; when will the instructions and messen-
ger be sent, and how soon arrive, that the Consul's letter may
go by the same opportunity?'
Flappers consult, and Minister, duly prompted, answers,'As
soon as you send the letter; it will arrive in seven days.'

Can no interpreter be
found or spared?'
'Not possible.'


238
[Chap. XII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
staves and rings of the men in office, and the dogs will not get
up out of his path, while little children, equally perversely, will
run under his feet, to the great discomfort of both rider and
horse. The streets are otherwise full of life and movement.
People are wending to their homes or the bathing-houses,
which, strongly lighted, show through their lattice bars and
open doors a crowd of both sexes on opposite sides, with a
mathematical line of separation. Gayly painted and figured
lanterns are flitting to and fro, and light up, somewhat dimly,
if truth must be told, the shops, the front where windows
would be if in Europe. The tea-houses are filling, and the
wild discords of what they call musical instruments is heard
from many of the upper stories. Men and women both are
wending their way homeward, for the streets are much too

FEMALE COSTUME.
dark and unsafe to be much frequented after night fairly sets
in. Every one by law, as in China, is bound not to stir out
after dark without a lantern on which their name is painted.
Now it is a mistress with her child and servant returning, or a
solitary matron wending her solitary way, and her own lan-
tern-holder; or a public singer, with her servant carrying her
instrument, is on her way to some tea-house to furnish out the
evening amusement. The fronts of the houses are not all shut
in yet, and every now and then there is a glimpse of an inte-
rior, showing the master already at his evening meal, faithfully


FEMALE DRESS. MUSIC GIRL, WITH 4 CARRYING HER INSTRUMENT.

THE EVENING MEAL.


240
[Chap. XIII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
waited upon by his wife, who, like Sarah in the tent, ever serves
him as her lord, and regards him as her master, despite of the
matrimonial tie. A few tipsy one-sworded and two-sworded
retainers are reeling homeward in noisy mirth. And so wend-
ing our way, with scarce less clamor of iron rings and staves,
and often changing attendants, we turn up the long avenue
which leads to the Legation, and forms the entrance to the
Temple of Tozengee.

THE BAT OF HAKODADI.
CHAPTER XIII. A Visit to Hakodadi.—The Lead Mines.—Governor.—Prospects of Trade.—
Potatoes and Salmon the great Staples.
Toward the end of September (1859), profiting by one of the
few opportunities which present themselves in these latitudes
for locomotion, I determined to pay a visit to the most northern
of the open ports in Japan. Typhoons and equinoctial gales are
apt to sweep through the Japanese seas about the change of the
monsoons in no gentle mood. A gale, however, had just blown
itself out before I left—always held the most favorable time
for a start—and we had only baffling winds, blowing from ev-
ery point of the compass except the right one, to contend with.


Chap. XIII.] JAPANESE SPECIALTIES.
241
Some ten days were consumed in getting over the 600 miles
which separate Teddo from the port of Hakodadi, or Hako-
date as it is more generally pronounced by the Japanese. But
the longest voyage must come to an end as well as the longest
lane, and Japan is a country eminently adapted to teach this
sort of practical philosophy. If the winds are baffling, and the
currents, which you have been assured run thirty knots in your
favor in the twenty-four hours, prove to be something stron-
ger than that against your beat up the coast, and are equally
contrary when you return, it is merely the reiteration of the
moral phenomena on shore, where nothing turns out as you
have been led to expect it by previous travelers, and nothing
goes straight unless it be the bravo's sword, while some un-
dercurrent of traversing influences impedes your progress in
whichever direction you desire to move. Perseverance, how-
ever, in both cases brings its reward sooner or later, and they
who have not this in their nature, and a stock of patience per-
fectly inexhaustible, will do well to go elsewhere than Japan.
Once entered the Bay of Hakodadi indeed, the reward be-
gins, if, as happened to us, the sun is shining, and a few drift-
ing clouds checker with fleeting shadows the fine panorama of
hills which encircle the port. Completely landlocked, easy of
access, spacious enough for the largest navy to ride in, with
deep water and good holding-ground, it is the realization of all
a sailor's dreams as a harbor. Even to the artist and lover of
the picturesque, there is much to compensate a wearisome voy-
age. Many ranges of hills in graceful lines carry the eye far
into the distance, and two remarkable peaks give the distinct-
ive features of a volcanic formation, from one of which fire and
smoke are perceptible in the night. The beauty of the shore,
however, is of a severe kind, for there is little luxuriance of fo-
liage. Here and there only a patch of pine, or a wider sweep
of scrub, breaks the surface of the hills. But what tree and
foliage fail to give, cloud and sunshine often effect to perfection,
clothing all the mountain sides with purple and russet hues,
and giving a mantle of rich and ever-changing colors to the
barest headlands and most distant ranges, while junks and
boats, with their picturesque sails, are never wanting to give
life and movement to the whole.
The town of Hakodadi is little better than a long fishing vil-
lage, nestled round the foot of an island-like promontory, which
forms the projecting headland at the eastern edge of the bay.
Though on a somewhat smaller scale, it forcibly recalls to the
mind Hongkong, with its northern exposure. Nor is it with-
out some resemblance to Gibraltar, with a long strip of land


Chap. XIII.]
STREETS AND HOUSES IN JAPAN.
243

FEMALE COSTUME.
manage to walk in them is one of those things which, as Lord
Dundreary would say,' No fellow can find out!'
I think a broad street has a pleasant aspect always. There
is a free circulation of air, of men, and of beasts; there is room
enough for every body and every thing, an object we find it
so difficult to secure in overstocked England. Elbow-room is
one of the luxuries of this life, and the want of it on board ship
is, to my fancy, not the least of the many disagreeables which
makes traveling by sea so irksome. Hakodadi gives this one
element of a pleasant life in abundance. Thirty horsemen may
ride abreast if they choose, and even the very houses seem to
disdain to jostle each other. You are prepared to respect the
owners of all such spacious streets, accordingly, until, on far-
ther examination, a general poverty in the construction of the
houses, and an aspect of penury both in the interior and exte-
rior, has the common effect of poverty in this sad world, of di-
minishing your esteem. Some of them lift their heads a little
higher than their neighbors, and make pretensions to a second
story, but it is a miserable attempt, a sorry attic only, and all
below is open to the street, under a projecting roof and narrow
veranda. Continuing your inspection, much as a prosperous
trader eyes an unfortunate creditor who is each moment sinking


244
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. True. XIII.
lower in his estimation, you pause to inquire by what ingenious
process the good people of Hakodadi have succeeded in making
paving-stones do the duty of tiles on their roofs? As far as the
eye can stretch, stones, nothing but stones, seem to cover the
tops of the houses. It is as if a street had been unpaved, and all
the materials transported to the roof, ready for assault or de-
fense. By more minute attention, you may at last discover a
thin layer of lath or shingle beneath, laid upon the rafters which
support this wonderful agglomeration of pebbles and young
boulders of all shapes and dimensions. Such a novel spectacle
leads to reflection, and you involuntarily exclaim, 'What a
windy land this must be, to require such prodigious efforts to
keep the roof from flying away! and what a dry climate! for,
though stones may do very well for weights, one never heard
of their keeping out wetl' At last you meet a friendly inter-
preter, who answers the inquiry with which you are charged.
'These stones you marvel at so much are the cheapest means
of keeping a roof over their heads; sometimes it blows very
hard, and as thin layers of shingle are very light (but a great
deal better than nothing), we take tins mode of securing it.'
To a farther question he answers, 'Ah! the rain? Yes, it does
rain occasionally—in the wet season for weeks, and often at
other seasons very heavily, and a good deal of water does run
down between the stones, but we find a dry corner, and put
up our umbrellas, and, besides, we have excellent oil-paper
cloaks.' 'And your furniture?' 'Have you not been long
enough in Japan to know our habits are too simple for such
useless and cumbrous appliances? Tables and chairs, which
you Europeans, we are told, can not manage to live without,
are to us superfluities; our matting and quilts suffice for beds,
bamboo or lacker nfake our pillows; what else does man want?
You build houses ten times as large as is necessary for your
accommodation, and more than your income can keep up—so
I heard from a Dutch friend at Nagasaki—merely that you
may have room to stow away an endless succession of ugly
square and oblong pieces of timber, tortured into various
shapes and uses. We build houses to live in, not for ostenta-
tion, and still less as store-rooms for useless things, and think
ourselves not behind you in wisdom!' Enlightened by this
Japanese philosophy, I looked into their shops to see if their
goods were of the same primitive and unsophisticated charac-
ter, and found very little beyond the commonest articles of
consumption. This is a population of fishermen, and the bay
abounds in salmon, plaice, and various other fish. Almost ev-
ery stall in the street was stocked with fine salmon, weighing


Chap. XHI.J PRODUCE OF HAKODADI. 245
from fifteen to twenty pounds, many of them still alive, at rates
varying from half an itziboo to a whole one (from 9d. to Is.
6d?.). Unfortunately, they were not in season, being soft and
ready to spawn; but that seemed no impediment to their be-
ing caught, and, it is to be presumed, eaten by the Japanese.
Every second shop almost presented long rows of the same
produce dried and salted, three for an itziboo, or sixpence
each! Agreat quantity of potatoes—* real Irish potatoes,' as
one of the interpreters assured me (of Irish extraction, he
meant, perhaps), are grown here, to judge by their abundance
and cheapness. In the town they are seventy-five cents or a
dollar a picul (130 lbs.), but in the villages I found they might
be bought for a third of the sum, before the compradoric sys-
tem, especially adapted to the use of Foreigners, had added its
extortions and profits. Teal, three for an itziboo (or sixpence
each), wild ducks, somewhat dearer, snipe, golden plover, all
were there, and I was told, during the previous winter, that
the crews of the whalers were chiefly fed upon deer and bear's
flesh, as the cheapest meat. Think of that, ye epicures, and
instead of a shooting or a fishing season in Norway, with its
hackneyed fields and fiords, come to Japan to catch salmon,
hunt the deer, the boar, and the bear, and, if you like it, shoot
pheasant, snipe, teal, and wild-fowl without stint. It is rather
far off, it is true—some sixty odd days—but then think of the
game and the novelty, to say nothing of the chance of being
becarved by two-sworded Samourai in pursuit of their game.
One would expect fur and skins to be abundant, and so they
are, but unfortunately the Japanese do not understand dress-
ing them, and are far inferior to the Chinese in this art. I
saw some noble bearskins priced at about £1 sterling. Sea-
otter skins of a finer quality I also saw, but fron<0£3 to £5 each
were asked. Great quantities of deerskins and horns were in
the market. Some of the former, made into soft leather, and
stamped with not ungraceful patterns, seemed well fitted to
make good coverings for chairs and couches; they were about
a dollar apiece. Hides and deer-horns, with various kinds of
furs, I should think, might ultimately become articles of export
to a considerable extent.
Wandering on through a double line of open shops nearly a
mile long, it was soon evident that the bulk of the articles were
such only as are required for daily consumption in food, cloth-
ing, and utensils, by a large but poor population. The town
was said to contain about 6000 inhabitants, and the island of
Yeso only seems to contain one larger centre of commerce or
population in Matsumai, a sea-port some sixty miles along the
-


246
[Chap. XIII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
coast, and said to contain 60,000 inhabitants. Here and there
in the shops were some poor specimens of lacker-ware. Con-
siderable stores of sea-weed, sea-slug, dried mushrooms, and
other delicacies suited to the taste of the Chinese and Japan-
ese rice-eating populations, appear to exist here, and will prob-
ably form another class of exports from hence to China. Some
silk fabrics were to be seen, of an inferior kind, and there is no
want of Japanese printed calicoes. Sulphur, from the neigh-
boring Loochoo Islands, is spoken of as offering a chance of
large and profitable trade; and there are lead mines within
twenty miles, the property of the Government, which, if made
available for foreign markets, would undoubtedly very soon
create both a considerable and profitable trade. Of this I feel,
however, there is little immediate prospect; to say nothing of
their political economy, which denies the right and contests
the wisdom of any one generation drawing more from the min-
eral productions of a country than suffices for its own wants,
lest the whole should be exhausted, and the interests of poster-
ity sacrificed, they seem yet in their infancy as to the adapta-
tion of steam and other mechanical or scientific appliances for
the profitable working of mines.
Wishing, however, to judge for myself, and also to take a
long ride into the country, I went to these lead mines, of which
I had heard so much. Mounted on a good little island pony,
warranted to carry me thirty-five miles, the stated distance
there and back, I took my way along the sea-shore, after pass-
ing through the interminable high street of Hakodadi. At
first the road was good, with sand-hills on either hand, and the
blue waters of the bay stretching away to the left; while in
the farther distance, towering above several ranges of hills, ap-
peared two p«aked and cone-like mountains, looking as though
they were covered with snow—the reflection of the sun, prob-
ably, on some bare surface, or lava descending from the vol-
canic crater. From one of these at night there is a great glare
from the apex of the cone.
Unlike the road to Yeddo, the traffic here is small. You
meet no travelers, and only a few pack-horses laden with the
produce of the neighboring fields, with charcoal from the
woods, or lead from the mines. After continuing our ride
eight or nine miles, we entered a considerable village and pro-
ceeded to a house of entertainment, to bait the horses and get
some breakfast ourselves.
The host came with his gliding obeisance, sliding his hands
down his knees as he bent his body at a right angle, desiring
to know our wants. My companion, the Russian Consul, had


Chap. XIII.] A BREAKFAST.— COUNTRY ROADS. 247
not trusted too much to their powers of supplying a meal, and
produced out of the groom's wallet cold teal, chicken, and mut-
ton, a large case of Chinese tea already made, and good bread
of Japanese flour, flanked by a bottle of sherry. What we
wanted, therefore, was hot water, cups, hard-boiled eggs, and
fire for the cigars; and these were speedily brought in, not by
a bright-eyed houri, but by a shrill-voiced little urchin, who
squinted abominably.
In the course of the repast, one or two of the gentler sex,
with teeth as black as ebony, favored us with their company
and an inspection, as we lay stretched on the mats. Presently
our host, not seeing, I suppose, how a good bill was to be made
out of hard eggs and hot water, brought in a tray of small
dishes, and tried to tempt us with a huge salmon that did not
look over fresh. He took our refusal to be seduced, however,
very good-humoredly; and although we returned in the even-
ing to make another similar meal, was well content with two
itziboos (three shillings), having gently hinted that one and a
half would do, and saw us blandly out of the door with a salu-
tation. Clear proof that we were far out of the beat of Japan-
ese officials, and could make our own bargain!
Refreshed by our breakfast, we began to turn inland to the
screen of hills which skirt the bay, and soon came upon some
roads as bad as any 'caminha real'in Spain. My horse's
straw shoes, having already been half shuffled off, were tripping
him up at every step, and compelled me to dismount in order
to get rid of them altogether. An Englishman riding with
the fore feet of his horse muffled in straw slippers might fur-
nish a subject for 'Punch.' I am happy to say that at both
the Legations this absurdity has been got rid of, and means
found of teaching the Japanese to shoe our horses properly
with iron, and more than one of the Daimios, I was told, had
followed the good example. A Japanese saddler, employed by
us for repairs, declared he could not do our work, he had such
an extensive order for English saddles. I heard later, how-
ever, that the Daimio, on pushing his sandaled foot into the
stirrup, found it very difficult to keep it there, and ended by
anathematizing the Foreign invention, and returning to the
customs and saddlery of his ancestors.
But to return to the road. It had rained heavily in the
night, and in the midst of a sea of mud were more solid rollers
of earth; in fact, the best possible imitation on a large scale of
a ' corduroy road.' I was excessively puzzled to make out by
what process such an effect had been produced, until, watching
some horses before me, I saw the cuts on each side of these
*


248
[Chap. XIII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
regular furrows exactly corresponded with the stride of each,
and that every horse, within an inch, trod on the selfsame lines.
Japanese ponies seem as well trained, therefore, as their mas-
ters, and tread in each other's footsteps with a persistence and
closeness that never varies or fails. The traffic of the pack-
horses was evidently great here: wood and charcoal from the
hills often passed, and soon we ourselves entered into the
mountain region, after skirting along a valley, and fording a
noisy Gave (as such a stream would be called in the German
hills). This operation was repeated three times, and as the
river ran rapidly, with bad footing, and water to the pony's
girths, it was not without a chance of a ducking. Striking
soon into the heart of the wooded hills, and often crossing
smaller tributary streams, we made our way along a narrow
path, gradually ascending until we reached the foot of the hill
containing the lead mines. The wild vine festooned many of
the trees, and bore grapes black and sour; the sycamore and
the pine were there, and a great quantity of dwarf oak and
scrub, but scarcely any large timber. We mounted the hill-
side by a rough and rather abrupt ascent, and soon came upon
signs of the miner's occupation. A low range of houses, then a
quantity of debris from a pit, a washing-house with troughs for
the ore, a smelting-house (or hut rather), and, lastly, the mouth
of an <adiff—a horizontal gallery leading into the heart of the
hill. Being provided with an official order, a guide was imme-
diately appointed, and, putting on the coarse miner's dress, far-
ther armed with two dried bunches of bamboo as torches, we
crept into the damp, dirty, dismal scene of the miner's labors.
Having seriously endangered our skulls against the low roofs
and occasionally projecting beams (all the galleries were sup-
ported by timber), and plentifully imbibed through boots and
stockings the water on the floors, we reached at last some of
the points they were working at. No doubt this would be an
excellent opportunity for expatiating very learnedly on all the
scientific facts connected with the deposit of metal in the bow-
els of the earth, and all the theories proposed in explanation;
but, unfortunately, or fortunately as others may judge, I make
no pretensions to any extensive practical or scientific acquaint-
ance with the subject, and shall content myself with saying
that it has all the appearance of possessing many rich veins;
but the means and appliances of the Japanese are very primi-
tive, and I presume they can only work as deep by shafts as
their adits, cut horizontally in the side of the hills at a lower
point, shall enable them to effect drainage.
I found that the Governor, on the return of the party, was


Chap. Xin.]
INSTALLATION OF CONSUL.
249
very anxious to learn whether the mode of working in Europe
was greatly superior, and what improvements could be suggest-
ed. He was told we undoubtedly possessed great advantages
in scientific knowledge and the use of steam-engines, but he
gave no indication of a desire to resort to such means. And,
indeed, if, as he alleged, they wanted all the produce of the
mine for their own use, and that simply for bullets to practice
fire-arms, either the produce must be marvelously small, or the
consumption in ball-practice must be truly alarming, and Eu-
ropean Powers should look to it!
I have little more to tell of Hakodadi. Whether its magnif-
icent bay will ever see a fleet of merchantmen and a prosper-
ous foreign trade, it would be bold in any one to say at this
moment. It is at present chiefly used by whalers. The year
previous thirty called in, twenty-nine American and one French
—no English. Sulphur, lead, and Chinese edibles, with furs
and deer-horns, are at present all that offer, and these not in
large quantities. But all must have a beginning, and every
thing was at its commencement here. The people seemed
perfectly free from all trace of ill will—a simple and good-hu-
mored face.* I had to install the British Consul, and anticipated some dif-
ficulty in his location, from the sheer want of accommodation
in this town of 6000 inhabitants. There were, in truth, but
four temples. Two were in the occupation of the Russian
Consul and his staff, one had been given up to the American
commercial agent, and the fourth, and best incomparably, was
getting ready for the second Governor, absent on a tour of in-
spection. No other building, public or private, existed in the
place that could be made to answer. This was certainly an
awkward state of affairs! I could not leave a Consul with his
wife and family without a habitation possessing some reason-
able amount of accommodation. It is very true, my ideas of
what was reasonable and the Governor's were likely to be
very different, as he very delicately hinted the day I took
leave of him, and in a way too characteristic to be forgotten.
After all was settled, and the temple had been obtained, de-
spite the seemingly insuperable obstacle of its having been ap-
* Shortly before I left my post to return to Europe, I am sorry to say very
unsatisfactory reports reached me from the acting Consul of a manifest de-
terioration in this respect, plainly, as he thought, the work of the officials,
for no Daimios' retainers are there on whom to lay the blame. A British
subject, an American, and a Eussian had at different periods been attacked
with drawn swords, and one very severely wounded, by men in the employ-
ment of the Government.
L 2


Chap. XIV.]
A MURDER AND A FIRE.
251
CHAPTER XIV.
Murder of French Consul's Servant at Yokohama. —The Gold Currency
Question again.—Tycoon's Palace burned down.—Proposition of Japan-
ese Ministers to stop all Official Business in consequence.
I ebtuened near the end of October. No very stirring in-
cident had occurred in my absence of nearly a month. The
appearance of improvement in our prospects when I left, though
unchanged during my absence, was unfortunately not of long
duration. Early in November the foreign community at Yoko-
hama were startled by a murderous and unprovoked attack
upon the servant of one of their number, who at the time was
officiating as vice-consul of France—a repetition, in all its chief
features, of the foul murder perpetrated on the Russians. The
servant was a Chinaman, but dressed very much like a foreign-
er, and, it was thought, might have been mistaken for one. He
was attacked by a man with a drawn sword in the middle of
the day, and close to the house of his master in the foreign set-
tlement, pursued some distance, and frightfully gashed before
he gained the entrance of one of the Compounds. He lingered
a few days, and then died; several of the wounds had laid
open the cavities both of the chest and abdomen. Neither the
murderer nor his motive were ever known—to the foreigners,
at least—and no satisfaction could be obtained. Various mat-
ters, this among the rest, took me down to Kanagawa on No-
vember 11. I noted the date, because as I proceeded on my
road I saw a great fire had broken out in Yeddo, and it proved
to be the Tycoon's castle that was lighting up the sky far and
near, and sending up a dense column of smoke drifting before
the wind. In the middle of the night I received a courier from
the Ministers of Foreign Affairs to inform me of the event, and
begging that no official communications might be sent, as they
were in constant attendance on the Tycoon in consequence,
and could not possibly enter into any business for some time
to come.
The export of the gold currency had been carried on to such
an extent by the foreigners that the Government was becom-
ing not only indignant at what they regarded as an outrage-
ous act of spoliation, but seriously alarmed for the consequen-
ces in the utter impoverishment of the country. It was, in-
deed, the renewal of the old grief, when Portuguese and Spam 


252 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIV.
iards, in the first century of foreign intercourse, awakened the
fears of the then Rulers, and roused their indignation by ship-
ping off all the gold bullion and currency of the country they
could put their hands on. It was, no doubt, one of the princi-
pal causes of the determined hatred with which Taiko-sama
and his successors pursued their policy of extermination and
entire seclusion. We seemed threatened with a similar dan-
ger from precisely similar causes. It was long before I could
persuade the Ministers that the true remedy lay in their own
hands, and they only had to put an end to the disproportion
existing between the relative value of their gold and silver,
compared with the rates ruling in the European market. All
over the rest of the world the proportion was as 1 to 15 or
thereabouts; in Japan it was but 1 to 3—that is, four silver
itziboos (a dollar and a third in weight) would buy a kobang
of gold, worth, in China and elsewhere, 18s. 4^d., or more than
three times that amount of silver. With the means before
them of tripling or quadrupling their capital by a single opera-
tion, and that five or six times in the year, by purchasing gold
for silver, how vain it was to speak to merchants of the danger
or impolicy of entering upon such a traffic, and rousing all the
fears and hostility of the country! It would have been as idle
as to talk to the winds. There is a limit, I suppose, beyond
which human nature can not resist temptation, and mercantile
human nature may well be expected to break down before a
certain prospect of 200 per cent. six times over in the year
without risk, whether the trade could be shown to be illegal
or not. Indeed, however contrary to the spirit of the treaty
and the intention of the contracting parties, it had, by inad-
vertence probably, been distinctly stipulated that all gold and
silver coin might be exported, though nothing could have been
farther from the intention of the Japanese government than to
leave a door open for emptying the country of the precious
metals. Equally idle and abortive must prove any efforts they
could make to stop it by custom-house or repressive measures.
I told them this from the beginning, and where the remedy
lay, warning them of the danger of delay. But it was not un-
til they were nearly goaded into desperation that they would
listen, or at least act, and protect themselves by altering the
relative value standard of the gold and silver in their currency.
Partly, also, the business on which I came down had refer-
ence to numerous complaints which reached me of irregulari-
ties about the exchange of dollars at the custom-house. They
had entered into an engagement to exchange a certain quan-
tity every day for the merchants, and, of course, impartially;
-.


Chat. XIV.]
A GOLD EPIDEMIC.
253
but, according to all accounts, nothing could be more scandal-
ous than the partiality with which the itziboos were distribu-
ted among the different members of the foreign community, un-
less it were the preposterous nature of the demands made upon
them, and the violence and unseemly scramble among the for-
eigners themselves for undue proportions, in collusion with
some of the custom-house officials. No doubt it outraged the
Japanese authorities all the more that it was very well known
what was the motive for all this violence and clamor. The
'merchants' wanted itziboos to traffic in buying up the gold
coinage of the empire, and shipping it off to China, whereby
they realized a profit of cent. per cent. at the lowest computa-
tion, even when the price of kobangs went up, and could turn
their capital and double it in two months. No wonder a sort
of delirium came upon them. Trade! what were the miser-
able profits upon transactions in the buying and selling of for-
eign and Japanese produce compared to this? Who would
look at tea and silk, with all the risks of falling markets, in face
of a steady and certain exchange of silver against Japanese
gold, with never less than 100 per cent. gain?
The custom-house endeavored to stem this impetuous flood
of demands for itziboos by requiring signed requisitions from
each person applying. Vain effort. Mrs. Partington's trying
to keep out the Atlantic with her mop could not be more fu-
tile. Names! there was no want of names. Every merchant
had a hundred friends here, at Shanghae, in every quarter of
the globe, who wanted itziboos, and to make cent. per cent.
profit in these newly-discovered gold diggings! Who can want
friends or constituents with such prizes in his hands? And
if bona fide names were not forthcoming, then 'Snooks' and
'Tooks,'' Bosh' and ' Moses,'' Messrs. Nonsense and Hook'em'
supplied the deficiency, and became frequent applicants for
sums so fabulous that a life would not suffice to have counted
the coins, and a line of thirty figures could not express the
amount! In fact, the community seemed to have gone utterly
mad. The prospect of such unbounded wealth had proved
too much for their brains, and they seemed threatened with
the fate of the poor man suddenly become possessed of a
£20,000 prize in the lottery, and who went from the lottery-of-
fice to Bedlam in a state of raving lunacy. Nor was it con-
fined to merchants. An American frigate coming into port
was seized with the same epidemic. One officer resigned his
commission, and instantly freighted a ship and started a firm;
and nearly every other officer in the ship, finding by the favor
of the custom-house an unlimited supply of itziboos, as they


- Chap. XIV.]
JAPANESE REGRETS.
255
the custom-house system in China, evidently impressed with
the idea that whereas the Chinese by it got all the revenue,
the Japanese, by their system, had only trouble for their pains,
with a supplementary budget of expenses. When he heard
what were the proceeds of the Shanghae customs, some two
millions of taels per annum, equal to some ten millions of itzi-
boos, a numeration difficult to convey in any Japanese terms,
he remarked, with a sigh,' that it was very different with them;
hitherto they had nothing but expense!' So, it was observed,
it must ever be with trade in its infancy. 'Ah!' he replied,
'but already every thing is becoming dearer; if this be the re-
sult of foreign trade at its first beginning, what will it be in its
development?' 'But,' it was observed in reply,' if some things,
in consequence of a foreign demand, become dearer, either
money, which bought them, would become more plentiful, or
other things (supplied in exchange by foreigners) would be
cheaper, so that there would be compensation somewhere.'
This was a political economy which Japanese are slow to be-
lieve in, and I was fain to be content with assuring him that,
so certain was the tendency of all trade to find or make equiv-
alents, that no commerce between different countries was ever
permanent unless it proved mutually beneficial, and so he might
be assured it would be in Japan.
'With every desire,' observed the senior of the Ministers of
Foreign Affairs, on another occasion, arguing for a limitation
of exports,' with every desire to give the fullest execution to
the treaties, to meet to the utmost of our power your wishes
and those of the other Representatives, we still hope it will be
borne in mind that we are but a small country. For centuries
we have been isolated from the rest of the world, have pro-
duced all that was wanted for our own use, but no more.
Now, suddenly, we have entered into foreign relations with
five European Powers; a large demand has sprung up for cer-
tain articles of home consumption, and with a corresponding
rise in prices! Thus we see ourselves menaced with a great
national calamity, and find it is impossible we can by any ef-
fort meet at once this demand by increased production. What
is the result? Every thing is becoming dearer; our people,
who have no superfluous means—our officers, who are all sala-
ried at very low rates, will soon find themselves in absolute pov-
erty, and without the means of subsistence. Where is this to
end? We know very well that in time, even in a small coun-
try like this, an increased demand will act as a stimulus on
production, and lead to an increased supply, and, it may be,
thus increase the riches of the nation—at least you tell us this


256
[Chap. XIV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
is the result shown by universal experience, and we are willing
to believe it; but, in the mean time, what is to become of the
people, unable to subsist on diminished means, or, what amounts
to the same thing, increased dearness of every thing? These
things wound us to the heart. We do not wish to be faithless
to treaties, but neither can we calmly look on and see our coun-
try menaced with a general impoverishment. What is evi-
dently wanted is time. You have come upon us with these
large demands, and this all-devouring Western trade too sud-
denly, and you press us too vehemently and too far. We are
urged to concede every thing, remove all restrictions, and, in a
word, to accomplish in your favor, and in a moment, what, after
all, should be the work of a century; and this is an impossi-
bility! For no effort or abstinence from action on our part
can suddenly double or triple the supply of the articles you
want to buy; and that which alone seems capable of limiting
your demand is precisely that which will reduce our people to
poverty and despair — such an increase of price as will leave
the inhabitants of this country no means of purchasing for their
own use. Already raw silk, a product of universal consump-
tion; oil, a common article of food, and a necessity to our peo-
ple; with vegetable wax, very needful also for common con-
sumption, are so greatly enhanced in value that Japanese be-
gin to find it difficult to buy for their own use. It would, no
doubt, be different with time, or, at all events, the evil would
be much mitigated, for it is difficult for us to understand what,
even ultimately, the nation has to gain by this foreign com-
merce! It makes the articles of our own production, which
we want, dearer to the many for the enrichment of the few, and
the things which you wish to sell are either superfluities we
do not want or can not afford to buy. We say, then, time is
wanted to prevent great calamities resulting, which, after all,
must tend to defeat your object of extended commerce, even
if you were deaf to all considerations connected with our wel-
fare as a nation. Let some restriction be put upon the export
of these articles until there has been time for an increased pro-
duction, and a supply that may be somewhat more propor-
tioned to the demand. In that way trade can still go on with-
out undermining all the elements of stability and peace, and
great national disasters will happily be averted.'
Now it must be admitted, allowing for some little coloring
or dressing in the passage of the ideas through European
brains, that the argument is a very telling one, and neither de-
void of truth nor logic. There is no doubt that the prices,
not only of all articles for which we have created a new de-


Chap. XIV.]
JAPANESE ARGUMENTS.
mand, had largely increased, but every thing had become dear-
er. The pressure of such increase must bear hardly on Japan-
ese consumers, who are many, even if the sellers, who are few
comparatively, should be enriched. Time is unquestionably
required for any largely increased production. But, once grant
the prayer of these patriotic Ministers, and assent to their
propositions, how would it work? We might justly answer:
'If you limit or prohibit the demand, you take away the stim-
ulus to increased production, on which all your hopes are
founded. You lessen it in the first case, and who shall devise
a gauge by which the foreigner may know how far you may
apply the pressure? And, in the second alternative—prohibi-
tion, you destroy it altogether. Then, again, you wish to ap-
ply this regulating screw (and to leave it in the hands of gov-
ernment officials wholly beyond our supervision or control) on
the only articles which hitherto have afforded any elements of
an export trade. That is, indeed, to render nugatory all com-
mercial treaties, and by the direct action of the government, a
contradiction in letter and spirit to the whole tenor and de-
clared object of those treaties. How can a government sup-
ply the unerring scales of graduation which trade, free and
unrestricted, naturally furnishes by a self-adjusting process?
Never has a government yet succeeded in its attempts to per-
form this function in a way to be really beneficial either to
trade or to a nation. If the tendency of a sudden demand or
measure of consumption, which is the same thing, is to en-
hance prices, that very tendency acts as a check to the de-
mand.' My American colleague, I thought, in talking over the
subject, seemed more or less disposed to accept a proposition
either for limitation orprohibition—guana" m&me; that is, as-
suming the result to be the destruction of all trade. If trade
and the weal of this nation were really incompatible, as the
Ministers allege and very possibly believe, and this could be
satisfactorily demonstrated, it is quite possible I also might
agree with them. For there are—such at least is my convic-
tion—other and higher objects in life, whether it be the life of
individuals or of nations, than Trade and the interchange of
produce between different people and countries. Whatever
material or moral advantages foreign commerce may bring in
its train, to set against the evils which also follow, as surely as
the shadow follows the substance, they can never be received
as an equivalent for the general impoverishment of a nation.
But I have the conviction that in this, as all other things
where a preponderating good is universal, despite the contin"
gent evils inseparable from it and every thing mundane, the


Chap. XIV.]
POLICY OF THE JAPANESE.
259
been dissipated, and, what is more lamentable, for things which
were only superfluities, and might easily have been dispensed
with. If we thus exhaust all our treasures, on what shall we
live?' He forgets that he had declared the page before they
wanted for nothing, the earth was fertile, and the people were
good and virtuous, and not only when there was no gold or
silver, but because there was none. He concludes with a sort of benediction: 'May we all reflect on what I have said, and
the riches of Japan will last as long as the heavens and the
earth.'
This, as I have had practical experience, is really the ruling
policy of the Japanese at this day. They regard all we bring
as superfluities, the payment of which, if in gold and silver, by
so much impoverishes them, and if in produce, is likely to raise
the prices on the natives, and equally lead to distress and pov-
erty; and, lastly, that it is a crime against posterity, and an
improvidence the most reprehensible, to go on exhausting the
mineral resources of the country without regard to any but
the present generation.
So they are deaf to all suggestions for increasing the quan-
tity, or improving the quality of their coal by better methods,
and the aid of steam machinery; the first, because they are
afraid of exhausting it, and do not, in truth, care to supply for-
eign nations from their own stores; and the second, because it
would throw labor out of employment. Hence, too, they have
refused to work certain lead mines at Hakodadi, rich in silver
alloy. Perhaps the Russians, who seem disposed to make that
port a sort of head-quarters, and to exercise a considerable in-
fluence over the ruling powers, may succeed, if this were their
interest, in persuading them to work it.'' * The Japanese Government apparently had made up their minds, at last,
to seek assistance in the working of their mines from the science of the
West; and, accordingly, just before my departure, two Americans, said to
be good geologists, with practical knowledge of mining, had arrived, to be employed by the Japanese Government. Arrangements for their services
appeared to have been entered into through Mr. Harris, the resident Minis-
ter of the United States, and on a liberal scale. I have not yet heard of any
result.


260 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV.
CHAPTER XV.
A Country Walk.—Agriculture, Trees, and Flora of Japan.—Peasant Life
and Prison Life.—Natural History.—Japanese Lacker-ware and Skillful
Workmanship.—Monster Bazar.
Let us leave Japanese politics and the whole class of sub-
jects official—wearisome and monotonous withal (save when
broken by some deed of atrocity or bloodshed), and take a
walk in the fresh morning air to Yokohama. The sun is up,
the sky clear and bright, and the change from Japanese offi-
cials and chicanery, with absurd alarms, and still more prepos-
terous plans for meeting the supposed dangers of natural im-
poverishment, famine, and ruin (declared, as we have seen, to
be the only probable result of foreign trade), to Japanese
scenery, is refreshing, both to body and mind. The shady
roads and country lanes bring us in communion only with Na-
ture, which here, as elsewhere, is divine—here more than in
many favored lands even, whatever the spirit of man may be!
It is indeed worthy of all admiration, while the simple manners
and kindly nature of the people are in pleasant contrast with
the juggling and duplicity of their rulers.
A walk to Yokahama, the present site of what foreign trade
there is, at the port of Kanagawa, through cultivated fields
and copse-fringed lanes, to end with a morning's shopping in
the huge bazar (which the whole extemporized settlement of
shops and warehouses has become), is as pleasant a change as
well can be. It opens the book of Japanese life at one of the
most amusing and least objectionable chapters. Kanagawa,
the residence of the official section of the little foreign com-
munity at the port, is situated on the northern edge of a bight
of the great Bay of Yeddo. Following the shore with a grace-
ful curve, the town stretches, with houses and trees intermin-
gled, for some two-miles, with a near background of pictur-
esque hills, wooded and broken into every variety of form. It
was on the opposite or southern point of this lesser bay, as has
been explained, that the Japanese bethought themselves of in-
venting a settlement for foreigners. Well isolated from all the
surrounding hamlets, and far removed from the great trunk
road which leads to the capital, and the busy town of Kanaga-
wa itself—the resort of all travelers on their journeys to and
from the capital, as I have already described—it realized all the


Chap. XV.]
A COUNTRY WALK.
261
conditions a Japanese could conceive desirable for the seclu-
sion and packing away of their little-desired guests, as they
would pack artillery or pen up cattle, to be accessible for them-
selves, but unapproachable to all else without permission.
An extemporized road across some salt marshes or lagoons
bridges the distance from Kanagawa, and farther answers the
purpose of making the route deviate earlier from the great
thoroughfare for Japanese. It gives it, moreover, an exclusive
character, so that no one could have any pretext for turning
into it other than that of intercourse with the 'Tojin baba? or
trading foreigners. To make it necessary to produce a license
for this, completed the net of isolation. It was to this happily
planned and ingeniously executed design that the Diplomatic
Agents of Great Britain and America saw sundry grave objec-
tions, and refused to accept the improvised settlement, with
all its properties of quays, jetties, and custom-house, roads and
bridges over salt lagoons included—refused to take them over
at any price, or accept them even as a gift. But there the
settlement remains, and no effort of Foreign Representatives
could undo the mischief of a first wrong step. Insidiously de-
signed, it has been too readily backed by the first comers, and
too steadily persisted in by the native authorities for any oth-
er result.
But we are taking a path through the fields that we may
turn out of the road a while. Some of the paddy (rice) is still
uncut, though it has long been ripe, and this is the end of No-
vember. The sun in its continued power, and the dry season,

CARDING MACHINE FOR SEPARATING THE GRAIN.


Chap. XV.]
A COUNTRY WALK.—PLOWING.
263

s

JAPANESE PLOWING.
attached. Potatoes, too, are cultivated, and seem to have been
known for centuries; whether indigenous or not it is difficult
to ascertain, but as they are called by a Dutch name, it may
be to them they are indebted for their introduction. They
thrive well, though always small, and are sold at two itziboos
the meal, or three shillings the sack of 133 lbs., much as at
Hakodadi. Here is a rich variety
of crops, fit for either zone, tropical or temperate; cotton, rice, pota-
toes, turnips, and wheat, maize,
buckwheat, and millet, seem in
strange juxtaposition; however,
here they are, and flourishing.
And now we turn from the
open fields, the last one showing
the regular treading down of bare
feet, to keep the seed from being
worked out, giving equal evidence
of the care of the husbandman
how they cover the seed. and the cheapness of labor. Yet


266
[Chap. XV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
would not think of politics. Let us return to the hedgerows
and their inexhaustible variety. Now it is a fine, tall, close-
twisted fence of Cryptomeria, while over that porch of thatch
the Wistaria (or Glycines cinensis, as it has also been called)
spreads, with insatiable desire, its far-reaching arms, to be cov-
ered in spring with glorious clusters of purple flowers.* Lit-
tle hamlets and farmers' homesteads are dotted about in a sort
of picturesque confusion, generally nestled in the valleys and
under the hill-sides amidst a clump of trees, where the Crypto-
meria, the bamboo, and the palm all tend to give an Eastern
character to dwellings otherwise claiming some resemblance
to Swiss chalets. What architecture there is, however, has no
originality, and is, in fact, only a slight modification of the Chi-
nese style of building, with wooden frames. Their temples,
gateways, and larger houses are eminently Chinese, only in
better style, and infinitely better kept. The country can never
look wintry here, unless covered with snow (which it is some-
times after Christmas), for its trees can never be wholly strip-
ped of foliage, there is such a preponderance of evergreens.
It seems the slack time of the year for laborers in the field;
few are at work. Their simple device for keeping off the birds
—a pole in the centre, from which cords are stretched to the
edges at wide intervals—show that seed is in the ground; and
the farmer seems to be contemplating, with great satisfaction,
design and economy in its application to recommend it, and I
have such faith in the practical spirit and intelligence of the
Japanese, that it is enough for me to see the general adoption
of any plan to feel certain of its well answering the end pro-
posed. I give a fac-simile drawing, therefore, of the original,
and, judging by the contented air of my Japanese farmer, I
should recommend it, on both grounds, to the agriculturist's
notice. Here and there, remnants of the paddy crop are being
cut with a primitive-looking sickle. Now and then one meets,
with regret, a line of coolies carrying the manure-pails to the
ground, or, worse still, distributing it in the manner already
illustrated. But most of the seed of the spring crops is already
in, I fancy, and the ground is pretty well cleared of all the
others; what little is doing is the work of women and chil-
dren, and they are the chief laborers at this season.
The Japanese authorities have endeavored to persuade for-
eign officials that wages are high and produce dear. Such can
hardly be the case. The evidence of plenty, or a sufficiency at
* The yellow flower, of which rare specimens are to be seen in China, I
have never observed in Japan.
the success of his device.


Chap. XV.] A COUNTRY WALK.—PEASANTRY. 267

MODE OF PROTECTING LAND FROM BUtDS.
least, every where meets the eye; cottages and farm-houses
are rarely seen out of repair—in pleasant contrast to China,
where every thing is going to decay—public buildings and pri-
vate dwellings alike, but more especially the former. The men
and women, now they take to their clothing, are well and com-
fortably clad, even the children, though there are two or three
rejoicing in Nature's garb, having just rushed out of a vapor-
bath, and, Russian-like, facing the cold with impunity. In pass-
ing the door may be seen a black-mouthed matron, the moth-
er, no doubt, of all these disreputable-looking little Cupid and
Psyches (without their wings), in precisely the same garb, nurs-
ing the baby as she looks unconcernedly round at the tojins.
One would think they must needs be a cleanly people, and
that is a great virtue, whatever we may say or think of their
free and easy mode of arriving at the result. There is no sign
of starvation or penury in the midst of the population, if little
room for the indulgence of luxury or the display of wealth.
Their habits of life are evidently simple in the highest degree.
A bare matted room, not over large, but generally clean; a
few shelves or a low etagere of lacker let into some recess; a
few lacker cups and saucers, or porcelain, with as many trays


268
[Chap. XV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
on stands—behold the whole furniture of a well-furnished house,
from the Daimio, whose revenue is estimated at a million meas-
ures of rice, to the little shopkeeper or peasant who lives from
hand to mouth. This is all the richest have, and more than
the poorest want. In the kitchen a few buckets, two or three
copper or iron pans, and a movable stove or two, with a large
pan for the daily rice and hot water, supply all the means of
cooking. Feather and bamboo brooms, with plenty of water
and air, afford the means of cleanliness. In the inner rooms,
behind those sliding panels, are a few cotton-stuffed wrappers,
and they are bed and blanket, while a lacker or wooden pillow
completes the couch.
There is something to admire in this Spartan simplicity of
habits, which seems to extend
through all their life, and they
pride themselves upon it. Fish
and rice are the chief articles of
food, with tea and saki for bev-
erages. The peasant, the labor
of the day over, can always look
forward to the luxury of a hot
bath, and a still more luxurious
shampooing, if not by his barber
or the blind professors of the art,
who go about all the evening,
with a whistle for their cry, seek-
ing customers, he can always
make sure of it by his wife's aid.
Certainly so much austerity,
and such universal absence of lux-
ury, must go far to enable all to
live upon little, preserve to each
the peasant's luxuRt. his independence of action, and,
one would think, spare many
heartburnings in vain effort to outvie each other in ostenta-
tious entertainments and equipages—a rivalry which, in other
countries, boasting of superior wisdom and civilization, is the
source of much more misery than happiness to the envied own-
ers, and often leads to ruin. Here, if there be any such rivalry,
I believe it is confined to the richer Daimios, and consists, al-
most exclusively, in the number of their retainers, who are fed
and kept in idleness. The poorer classes seem perfectly to an-
swer the description of a happy peasant-life, drawn from anoth-
er race, who
Lead a careless life,
With naught to wish and naught to spare.


Chap. XV.]
JAPANESE PRISON.
269
As I wandered on the pleasant road with this train of
thought, which the picture before me of agricultural life and
Arcadian simplicity suggested, fully occupying me, I had for-
gotten a special object I had in view on starting. This neces-
sitated a deviation out of the beaten track, about midway be-
tween Kanagawa and Yokohama; so I turned on my steps, the
same thoughts still pursuing me, however, as the lines already
quoted, so descriptive of the people, came back to my mind.
What condition can be happier? Wealth brings troubles,
cares, temptations 'Quien tien criados tien cuidados? says
the Spanish proverb. So true it is, that much to spare seems
ever to draw after it, as an inseparable condition, much to be
anxious about. Care follows like a shadow; and if, like other
shadows, it only proves the substance, unlike a mere shadow,
it becomes a heavy burden. Those who have little, without a
wish for more, are certainly, therefore, among the happiest of
mankind, as far as worldly conditions are concerned. Here I
came to a full stop, not that the argument seemed to me by
any means exhausted; it was a natural obstacle that brought
me suddenly up, an' institution' of this Arcadian country, and
much too real and substantial, in the form it presented, to be
overlooked. It was not so pleasant a sight as smiling faces of
happy peasants, and green fields with wild-fowl flying across by
hundreds, but perhaps it was more instructive. We are on
the rising ground, and below lies the valley, a pretty retired
and rural-looking spot as heart can desire or eye can look
upon! All is peaceful and quiet; every field is in full culti-
vation, and here and there a green hedgerow, or a clump of
noble evergreens, mark the line of a country lane. There are
no hamlets or cottages visible, however, and half unconsciously
you feel, even as you are admiring, that there is an air of sol-
itude and isolation about the whole scene which oppresses,
you can hardly explain why, until your eye rests on a strong
palisaded building, which stands in the midst of all, a little to
the left, and on a highly elevated platform. A stone-faced
moat surrounds it, and already, as you look down on its court-
yards and long low line of roofs, you feel by a kind of instinct
that the smiling valley has in its heart but one occupant, and
that a dismal one! It is the prison of the district, the twin
brother to the foreign settlement at Yokohama, conceived by
the same Government, born of the same parents in the same
hour, and placed under the same political guardianship. Let
us go in and see what it contains, and how they manage these
things in Japan, which, for all it seems so Arcadian, does not,
alasI seem exempt from the maladies common to the social
state in other lands.


270
[Chap. XV-
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
The outer gate is open, and, turning round an angle, we come
upon the Janitor's lodge—a sort of guard-house. Three or four
officials are lounging about, and do not seem much oppressed
with business, and still less with care. We have a pass, and
no difficulty is made, therefore, in showing the interior—none,
at least, beyond the delay caused by the necessity of hunting
amidst a heap of keys and labels, the first of the oddest shape,
and the last of an incommensurate size, on which the places
they open are written. This over, the gate of a narrow court-
yard is first opened, and then the inner door of a large room.
It is a room of twelve mats, for so they measure houses and
streets alike—open bars all round, and with an unpleasant re-
semblance to a wild beast's cage. This is a division appropri-
ated to foreign prisoners, furnished chiefly by sailors, a class
ever prolific in riot and drunkenness in a foreign port — the
more the pity! Happily, I was going to say; but a doubt enters
into my mind as to the appropriateness of the term; happily or
unhappily, then, as the case may be, there were no inmates.
But, on entering, there was no lack of evidence of former occu-
pants. A compass elaborately painted on the wainscot record-
ed how one 'Christian Louis' had whiled away the tedious
hours. A checker-board below answered for another; while
a third had made a frank confession, for the benefit of his suc-
cessors, that saki had brought him there, and 'saki would be
his ruin;' with which comfortable conviction he seems to have
solaced himself, for, with great complacency, he had signed
his name in full. This habit of scoring names wherever space
for sprawling letters can be found—on works of art or Nature's
monuments of granite; on prison cells and palace walls; or, in
default of other medium, on barks of trees and garden seats—is
one of the least intelligible of the many forms of folly which
idleness or a craving for notoriety seems to take in every age.
It is certainly one of the most universal and ancient. On the
rocks of Syria, as in the ruins of Pompeii, evidences abound
proving its existence from the time of the Pharaohs! Is it in-
stinctive desire for immortality which prompts so many Browns
and Robinsons of every race, Heathen and Christian, to take so
much trouble and pains to deface monuments with their initials
and names at length, and thus hand down to posterity the un-
important fact of their obscure existence at a given date and
place? Yet what can it benefit them, that in another century
their ignoble names should be read and laughed at, or anathe-
matized by others following in their footsteps? I confess I
never could form even a plausible explanation of the phenom-
enon; but at least a common felon's cell might escape from


Chap. XV.]
JAPANESE PRISON.
211
such frantic efforts to achieve immortality! There is a laurel-
tree shown in the gardens of the Isola Bella, on the Lago Maggi-
ore, with the half-effaced letters which once formed the word
'-Battaglia? carved—so guide-books and guides aver—by Na-
poleon himself shortly before the battle of Marengo. That his
thoughts should be of battles at that hour, as in his last, can
easily be understood; but what pleasure could he, whose des-
tiny it was to carve out empires, have found in cutting letters
on the bark of a tree, in that pleasant garden of Borromeo?
We must continue our inspection of the prison. To the right
is a second cell or closet with a tub of water. The Japanese,
true to their national habits, afford a daily bath to every in-
mate, and twice a day in the summer.
The prison is divided into two ranges, and on the opposite
side is a large square room or cage into which some twenty
prisoners might be put. It appears the solitary system has
not yet penetrated into Japan; and as no distinction of sex ap-
pears to be considered material, among the lower orders at all
events, the arrangements for the safe custody of the inmates
admits of little farther simplification. In this room we found
five or six sufficiently miserable-looking individuals—all men,
however—unshorn and unshaven, as prisoners usually are, ex-
cept in the palace-prisons of England. There was no furni-
ture, of course; how should there be, indeed, when the great-
est Daimio holds a table an encumbrance, a chair an abomina-
tion, and a bed altogether insufferable, and only fit for a For-
eigner!
One is glad to get out and breathe a purer and fresher air.
A prison, a mad-house, and a hospital are the three saddest
spectacles any where to be seen. They bring us face to face
with suffering humanity in many of its most repulsive forms;
and a Japanese prison, I found, was no exception. The other
two, so far as I can learn, do not exist—neither mad-house nor
hospital. With a brisk walk of a quarter of an hour across
the lagoon in the fresh morning air, with the sunlit bay on the
left, and the distant hills of the opposite shore, half lost in aeri-
al tints of gray and purple, to gladden the eye, the dismal one-
house valley is soon forgotten. Storks are vainly fishing for
eels, worms, and other delicacies, and devouring them when
found with the greatest equanimity, despite the contortions of
the victim—much as the clever and rapacious devour their vic-
tims in the world. Or, as the French poet has it,
Les fous sont des festins
Et les sages les mangent!
I have already remarked on the semi-worship of the stork by


272 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV.
the Japanese. They are the favorite objects of artistic skill in
every form of ornamentation—in porcelain and lacker, tapes-
try and embroidery—and nothing can be more artistic than
the way in which they are treated in all these various works,
as the following woodcut may show.

Beyond, on the surface of the pond, are myriads of wild-
fowl, so conscious of their immunity from gun and dog, under
imperial decree, that they allow you to approach within a few
yards—a most aggravating sight to a sportsman; but such is
the law, and the birds evidently know it. No shot at bird or
beast may be fired within ten Ri, or thirty miles of the Ty-
coon's residence, and Yokohama, alas! is only seventeen miles
distant. To the Japanese, probably, it is no privation, but to
an Englishman, sick of pork and fowls all the year round, and
eager for open air sport and exercise, it is very hard; but the
Japanese officials seem to take all the more pleasure in vigor-
ously insisting upon the inviolability of the laws." Their art-
* This was felt a great grievance by the Foreign residents at Yokohama,


Chap. XV.] WILDFOWL. 273
ists equally excel, from long and loving study, in depicting all
kinds of wild-fowl, of which the following is an illustration,
copied from a Japanese print. Hawking seems the only sport

in vogue even among the privileged and higher classes, and
that, in the imperial domain, is strictly limited likewise to the
Tycoon. No private individual, so I am told, may even keep
a falcon, of which there are some very fine specimens. This is
only one of the numerous petty restraints and restrictions aris-
ing from a totally different state of society and political organ-
ization, of a more or less irritating and vexatious character, to
which foreigners must perforce submit who take up their resi-
dence in Japan. The Diplomatic Agents were even recom-
mended, as a means of avoiding insult, never to go out on foot
or on horseback, but only in norimons, shut up, and with a
couple of' yaconins' in attendance. A pleasant life they would
have of it, under such conditions. And how long will this last,
and led to much ill feeling, as well as some bloodshed. The restriction was
probably all the more tenaciously maintained by the Government of the Ty-
coon from the fact that carrying fire-arms and shooting were privileges they
were determined the Japanese should not have, as involving danger to the
State. The great mass of the nation are denied all privileges, and none
more jealously than the right of carrying fire-arms.


274 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap.
or will it ever admit of improvement? We must hope so, for,
as one of my colleagues observed, 'il laisse beaucoup d de-
sirer /'
Our walk is coming to an end; storks aud wild-fowls are
already behind us, left unmolested to their privileged immuni-
ties. And now we are at the land entrance of Yokohama,
facing a town of two or three streets deep branching off one
large trunk, nearly half a mile in length. It is all timber built,
consisting entirely of shops, except the few houses and gar-
dens at the end for the foreigners, and the extensive Custom-
house establishment. These shops are all filled with goods
entirely selected to suit a foreigner's wants and tastes. Let
my readers figure in their mind all they have ever heard or
fancied of Japanese ingenuity and perfection of work—in lack-
er, basket-work, porcelain, and bronze, fancy silks and embroi-
deries, spread out before them in every tempting form, the
very shopkeepers having learned enough English to tell you
'all vely cheap,'' vely good' (for the r is seldom heard from a
Japanese tongue), and if you ask, he will tell you the prices
also tolerably intelligibly, and then judge how few button up
their pockets and walk away, like wise people!
But I came with deliberate intention to look, to examine,
and to buy—my friends had so persecuted me to spend their
money for them, some one hundred dollars, some five hundred,
or 'any amount,' only to send them ' beautiful things from Ja-
pan,' where, to their sorrow, they could not go in person.
'Beautiful things!' It is easily said, my friends, but it is dis-
tressingly vague. Pretty, cheap, and dear are all relative
terms, and subject to infinite diversity of opinion. However,
since I can not help myself, I must needs take the plunge; my
friends' money to spend, and my own taste to guide me, in
this most trying voyage of discovery. And, first, I am to find
a pair of well-bred Japanese dogs,'with eyes like saucers, no
nose, the tongue hanging out at the side, too large for the
mouth, and white and tan if possible, and two years old.' My
friend, you see, is a dog fancier, and so my first visit is to the
poultry street—some twenty establishments, with the most
extraordinary, and, it must also be said, the most rare and
beautiful collection of birds and beasts—the former especially
—that can well be seen out of a zoological garden. We turn
into the first of them by a large court-yard which runs behind
the shop, and all round are pens for the different occupants be-
low, with cages above for the smaller birds. Our first ac-
quaintance is with a long-bearded goat, trying in vain to get
over his prison bars; for goats are only objects of curiosity in








Chap. XV.]
JAPANESE SHOPS.
this part of Japan, although they do exist as an indigenous
race, I believe; and next to him a grizzly black bear, small, but
wild and vicious-looking—the sort of animal one likes to meet
in a cage much better than 'at home' in the woods. Then a
red fallow deer, and a very fine one. A great stork beyond is
gobbling up, as usual, his live food, and with his usual gusto
and disregard of their feelings; and then come various kinds
of web-footed birds, apparently of the duck species, one twice
the size of a common duck, and quite unknown to me. The
beautiful colored drake of the mandarin species and his home-
ly mate are there; and then such a collection of pheasants!
The gold bird with its gorgeous plumes, the silver pheasant
of almost greater beauty, with its silvery silky feathers and
long sweeping tail; the copper pheasant, never seen alive in
Europe, unless two pair which I sent from Japan to the Zoo-
logical Society may have arrived; then a species akin to our
own — and to think that a pair of each could be bought for
some thirty shillings, and yet to have to leave them behind,
was very sad! Strange freak of Nature that in all these it is
the male bird that has a monopoly of the gay plumage, tufts,
and other personal advantages, and the poor lady birds are left
shorn of all ornaments—sober, sad-colored matrons, with noth-
ing whatever to attract admiration! This seems a most un-
equal and hard distribution of Nature's gifts. What a change
there would be in this world of ours, if, with the human race,
the same law prevailed. I think man should be especially
grateful that it is quite otherwise ordered! We pass on to a
long line of cages containing doves and pigeons of most rare
plumage and colors, pink and blue, some tinted with gold and
green of the softest hue. Bantam fowls, indigenous or origin-
ally from Java, I can not discover; but in their miniature pro-
portions and perfect forms they are great beauties. We can
not stay here all day, however. The red-faced monkey (the
only species in Japan), fowls of all sizes and color, swans, and
geese, and ducks (some very captivating), we pass without
note. An aquarium, with all sorts of strange-looking elfs —
gold, and silver, and spotted purple fishes, with undeniable
tails dividing into three large sweeps of diaphonous texture,
beguile us on the way out. One much admired just emerges
from the shadow of the artificial rock, with its tufts of water-
grass and marine creepers, the most prized of the lot, with a
body like a barrel, to which a golden head and tail seem to
have been set on in the most capricious way. My dogs are
chosen, a species of Charles II. spaniel intensified; and, by-the-
by, there is so much genuine likeness that I think it probable


278
[Chap. XV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
the merry monarch was indebted to his marriage with a Portu-
guese princess for the original race of spaniels as well as her
dower of Bombay. I looked for some specimens of the 167
species of bees with which, according to Siebold, Japan is gift-
ed, but in vain. As we pass into the shop, we come upon a
number of toy cages occupied by mice with pink eyes, turning
a wheel which sets in motion half a dozen of the primitive ma-
chines with which they separate the rice from its husk here as
in China. Poor little workmen! they are happily uncon-
scious—happier than many higher placed in the scale—that it
is a life slavery of bootless labor, to which a hard fortune has
consigned them! In the shop is the dried body of a mermaid
most ingeniously put together, as natural and lifelike as any
dried mummy! But I must not take you over the lacker,
and silk, and porcelain shops, or where should I stop? A
broad sheet of the 'Times' would not suffice; and, besides, it
would be a sort of Tantalus cup, for I am positive, were I to
describe some of the things, the desire to possess them would
haunt my readers like a dream of unattainable bliss. There, at
the corner, is the principal, or, at least, one of the largest, the
best, and most expensive of the establishments—the 'Howell
and James' of Yokohama. One glance, and then we will say
good-by to lacker, in description at least, while I pursue, in the
most conscientious way, my labor of spending other people's
money in the purchase of things they do not want or may not
like. Here in the lower floor are merely such things as you
see every where—some lacker trays, oblong, round, and oval,
but miracles of cheapness—five, ten, and fifteen shillings each,
of good lacker, and many of beautiful design. But some
there are of inlaid wood and lacker combined, at very different
prices. There are boxes with every kind of gold tracery and
design, which here are used for carrying letters, but would do
admirably for gloves. Some are with birds and trees in raised
gold relief, as rich as well can be, and of all prices, from five
shillings to as many guineas. But up stairs is the fine collec-
tion — cabinets of many woods, inlaid; and lacker luncheon
cabinets, of such infinite ingenuity, variety, and perfection of
form, that they could not fail to win a lady's heart if offered
as work-boxes. Here is one of a square form, standing some
eighteen inches high, with a globe top, in imitation of a huge
egg, or crackled china, which opens out into a multiplicity of
drawers, and trays, and boxes of finished workmanship, em-
bossed in gold and silver. 'A very perfect piece of work and
ingenuity, truly. How muchP iIkorah na mong f that is
about the first sentence, every foreigner learns here, and the


Chap. XV.]
BAZAR. —GEWGAWS.
279
second, which he immediately finds the necessity of acquiring,
is 'Takai-meipd tdkeiP 'Too dear, much too dear!' But are
the things so dear? They are both dear and cheap. Some
of the older ware is much prized, either as we prize old China,
because it is old and can not be easily come at—a very silly
reason, it appears to me—or because it is really better than
the more modern, and can only be had in limited quantity;
and very long prices are very often asked and given for them.
Then, again, there have been sent lately, by Daimios of the
less wealthy classes, fine specimens of lacker—heirlooms it is
said, which, nevertheless, they are willing to part with—for a
consideration. Whether this be true or not, large and beauti-
ful specimens are often left to be sold with the Japanese deal-
ers at a fixed price, and you must either give it or go without
the articles. In other cases the shopkeeper will ask you 500
itziboos, and in the end take 300, or perhaps 100! There can
be no established price for such things, because they are not
in common demand, nor can they be multiplied. They are all
'fancy' articles and with a 'fancy' price. 'But what for this
bijou of a work-box, for such it ought to be — IkordhV
Eighty itziboos, he says. How cheap, you think! yet that is
five guineas, and very pretty things are to be bought in Lon-
don and Paris, or Berlin, for five guineas! And this inlaid
cabinet, with panels and cameos of porcelain—he wants 500
silver itziboos for it; and that, you see, is not far from forty
guineas, which, after all, is a long price, beautiful as the articles
are.* But some of the things are really wonderfully cheap,
while others, again, seem unreasonably dear, without the unin-
itiated being able to detect much difference in the work.
There is a difference, in most cases, in the cost of the produc-
tion, from a greater perfection of the work and material. But,
however interesting and amusing shopping may be on the
spot, and to the actual purchaser, it is dull work in descrip-
tion, and proverbially so both in practice and imagination to a
looker on; so we will say farewell to this monster bazar, where
pretty things are easily to be found, and a large sum of mon-
ey quite as easily to be spent, and lost for all other purposes.
Specimens of the lacker, porcelain, and bronze, many of them
very choice and rare, I collected and sent to the Great Exhi-
bition, that it might be seen how far they would bear the test
of close comparison with the best workmanship of Europe;
and I think the result was by no means to the disparagement
of the Japanese.
* Several of these articles were sent to the Japan Court in the Exhibition,
and proved objects of interest, attracting many admirers.


280
[Chap. XV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
As I have given the fruit of my own observation in regard
to the agriculture of Japan, so far as I was enabled to speak at
the time, I may as well say here that subsequently, during a
journey into the interior, I had the advantage of Mr. John
Veitch's greater knowledge as a practical gardener and bota-
nist, who was in search of new species in the vegetable king-
dom. And various collections were made with his assistance
for the royal gardens at Kew and Windsor. I profited by the
opportunity also to obtain from him a note of the results of
his observation both as to the agriculture, the crops, trees, and
flora of the country, and these I have, with his permission,
given entire in the Appendix.'' Although several new plants
and species were found, particularly among the conifers, in
which Japan is rich, it must needs be incomplete while great
part of the country remains unexplored; but I trust it will be
found to convey a good deal that is both new and interesting
on the subjects touched upon. I have had many inquiries
about the system of cultivation followed, and the rotation of
crops in Japan, but I fear any thing it has been in my power to
obtain in the way of information will fall far short of what is
desired. The Bishop of Victoria, with whom I had some con-
versation on the subject, has given nearly all the information
at present attainable, in a chapter devoted to the matter, in his
'Ten Weeks in Japan,' and it would therefore be superfluous
to repeat it here. I will merely say that the conclusion he ar-
rives at accords with my own, namely, that'any rotation of
crops which can answer to the English system of agriculture
is unknown and unpracticed, and that the disposition of the
land for convenience of irrigation necessary for a rice crop ex-
cludes the possibility of the same field being used for any oth-
er crop requiring a drier condition of the soil.' After the
above had been written, I obtained some farther notes from
Captain Vyse, H. M. Consul at Kanagawa, as to the agricul-
ture and rotation of crops in his district, which, from their pre-
cise and practical character, will, I think, be received by those
interested in the subject as a valuable addition to our previous
knowledge. The following is the substance of his communi-
cation:
Agriculture in this district, as I believe nearly over all Ja-
pan—all that I have seen, certainly—is the chief occupation of
the population. The land under cultivation here is exceeding-
ly fertile, the soil being a light friable loam of considerable
depth, and easily worked. The district is very hilly, but this
does not, as in many other countries, lead to much waste land.
* See Appendix E.


282
[Chap. XV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
with any fullness or accuracy of detail. The special relations
of landlord and tenant, and the particulars of sub-letting, are
not well known. In the Japanese social scale the Hi-yak-sho,
or farmer, holds the second place. What place the mere la-
borer occupies, and the relative value of his life, was rather cu-
riously illustrated in an official communication from the Minis-
ters of Foreign Affairs respecting the execution of two of the
'vilaine' class at Nagasaki, condemned to death for having
caused the death of one of the' Odin's' men found dead in the
street, with his jaw broken and other signs of violence. The
Admiral, Sir James Hope, wrote to me to request the sentence
might be commuted for some less serious punishment, as he
was not satisfied that the deceased might not have been him-
self in some degree to blame, as it was known he was drunk
when last seen, probably shortly before he met with his death.
To this the Ministers replied in the following terms:
'The person who lately killed the British sailor at Nagasaki
was one of the lowest class, named Sookemats, consequently
he is not allowed to bring in any excuse whatever; for there
is a law of long standing in our empire, that any one of the
lower order of persons who causes death to another in conse-
quence of a blow given, although unintentional, is to be be-
headed; which punishment is called geshinnin. Then this is
not a law that was made because the British nation was con-
cerned, as human life is of permanent importance, and to de-
prive any one of it is deserving of the highest punishment.
The above-mentioned law was enacted to deter the evil dispo-
sition of every one.'
Under such a law it behooves a Sookemats to beware how he
strikes, since he is not allowed to plead ' any justification;' and
so great is the value of any other life in Japan, that his must
pay the forfeit if death in any way is caused by him. I do not
know whether an old traditional law of this kind has any thing
to do with the exceedingly inoffensive character of the peas-
antry—so far as I have had the means of judging in all my
travels through the country—or whether it may be taken as
an evidence of the spirit of resistance having been crushed out
of them under a feudal system, with such sharp and decisive
penalties on the lowest classes for any act of violence.
Otherwise, in Japan as in China, agriculture is held in high
esteem, and it is the policy of the rulers to encourage it in ev-
ery way. All revenues of Daimios are estimated at so many
kokous of rice. This I conceive, however, is merely a stand-
ard of value, just as a pound sterling is with us, and does not
give any clew to the quantity of land these territories may


Chap. XV.] LAND-TAX.— CROPPING- IRRIGATION.
283
contain. The standard of superficial measurement is a tsoobo,
being about 6 feet square, or, in precise terms, the side is 5
feet Hi inches, and containing, therefore, an area of 35.25
square feet instead of 36. In referring to the size of a farm,
an it-than containing 300 tsoobo is the measurement generally
mentioned, and 1 it-than of good rice land is calculated to pro-
duce 1600 its-go (or about 532 lbs. avoirdupois) of clean rice at
one cropping. The pound weight is divided into 160 equal
parts, of which 120 make 1 lb. avoirdupois. The smallest Jap-
anese grain measure is an its-go, which, of clean rice, contains
5 J oz. avoirdupois.
1 Its-go = \ lb.
10 Its-go (1 Ischo) = 3jr lbs.
10 Ischo (1 Itho) = 30J"
10 Itho (1 Its' kokou)=333J"
The land-tax is said to be 3 itziboos silver per ithan of 300
tsoobo, or about £1 per acre per annum. If paid in coin it is
collected quarterly, but if paid in rice it is collected only once
a year, when the crop has been gathered in, and in such case is
said to be one sixth of the produce. The officers of the land-
lord or of the government make surveys annually at a time
when they can best approximate to the amounts of the rents
and other charges. If the yield is large the revenue will be in
proportion; if deficient, by this mode of adjustment, the land-
lord, still only receiving his sixth, suffers with the cultivator.
Cropping and the rotation of crops are thoroughly under-
stood by the Japanese. Rice is the staple food of the whole
population, and it is grown abundantly in the district of Kana-
gawa, and over the country generally wherever the nature of
the soil will admit the possibility, under the strongest compul-
sion of unwearied labor, irrigation and manuring all combined.
Here the water required for irrigation is plentifully supplied
by the streams and rivulets to be met with in all directions,
and often most ingeniously turned from their natural course to
wherever they may be required by the provident farmer. As
I have already stated, there are several kinds or varieties of
rice in this country, some adapted for growing on irrigated
lands, and others on higher and drier situations. All the val-
leys—and some are of great extent—are planted with rice, and
crops of wheat, rape, peas, beans, etc., line the hill-sides and
high lands. It is said that oats are cultivated in some parts of
the country, but none have been seen at the consular ports, nor
did I come upon any in my travels through the interior. No-
where in the world, perhaps, can the Japanese farmer be match-
ed for the good order in which he keeps his farm. The fields


284
[Chap. XV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
are not only kept scrupulously free from weeds, but in other
respects the order and neatness observable are most pleasing.
The manure chiefly in use (urine and night soil) no doubt tends
very materially to abate the growth of weeds; but this does
not detract from the skill, industry, and diligence which the
Japanese agriculturist brings to bear upon his land. Men,
women, and children may be seen in the fields early and late,
and the labor is chiefly manual. A plow drawn by bullocks
or ponies is used sometimes, but, generally speaking, mattocks
and hoes are the implements by which the land is prepared and
every part of the field labor performed. The sketches already
given (see pp. 261-267), from Japanese designs, illustrative of
their field labors, are wonderfully faithful in outline, character,
and detail. Flails and winnowing machines similar to those
in England are in common use, and a sort of carding machine
also. Large fans worked by hand are also used in winnowing.
To separate the rice from the husk, a section of a large tree is
scooped out so as to form a mortar, in which the rice is pound-
ed with a large wooden pestle or mallet, sometimes worked by
hand, but generally fixed on a fulcrum, and worked by the feet
or by water-power. Every where in Japan may be seen the
most successful efforts to econo-
mize labor. Rice is often beat-
en out on the spot where it
grows, to save the labor of car-
rying it. Thus the figure rep-
resented in the woodcut is not
very frequently seen.
The chief grains and vegeta-
bles of the district near the cap-
ital and the port of Kanagawa
are rice, millet, beans, peas, cot-
ton, wheat, buckwheat, tobac-
co, and a great variety of vege-
tables. Rice is grown as it is
in China. The fields are plow-
ed and irrigated. The seed is
first sown in small nurseries,
and transplanted in May or
June, in small tufts of eight or
ten plants, in rows about eight
inches apart. The plants at this time are about six inches in
height. The harvest commences in October. Wheat is exten-
sively grown also. It is shown generally in drills, in November
and December, and harvested in May and June. In some

AGRICULTURAL PROCESS.


Chap. XV.]
JAPANESE VEGETABLES.
285
places the grain seems to be sound and good in quality, but in
other parts bad, ill colored, and greatly worm-eaten and blight-
ed. The flour of the best quality is used in pastry and confec-
tionery, and I can answer, from a long experience, that, when
good of its kind, it makes excellent bread. All the bread con-
sumed at the Legation was made from it by my own cooks,
and was unexceptionable both in appearance and flavor. With
the Japanese, boiled rice takes the place of baker's bread, the
want of which they never feel. In this they are like the Chi-
nese. I remember a high official, who, on being told we did
not grow rice, but ate bread, turned to his brother officer and
said in the vernacular,' Alas! wretched people, they have no
rice!' So much are we creatures of habit and education, that
to a well-educated and intelligent Chinese it appeared impos-
sible to substitute bread for rice without undergoing the great-
est privation. And the rice-eating nations carry their predi-
lections to such an extent, that they reject with scorn rice
grown in different localities. The Indian considers himself
very ill used if he is fed on the large-grained rice of China, re-
garding it as a coarser and less nutritious food; while the Chi-
nese retorts upon him by thoroughly despising all Indian-
grown rice, and eating it only on compulsion and under a fam-
ine pressure.
There are also five kinds of millet grown. These are sown
in drills, in March or April, and harvested in September and
October. It is generally made into cakes, and forms a com-
mon article of food. Cotton, too, in this district is a crop of
some importance. It is sown in. March or April, attains a
height of from twelve to eighteen inches, and is harvested in
September and October. Beans are largely grown, and of
numerous varieties, some like the English field bean, and oth-
ers like the French bean, though both inferior in flavor. They
are grown for various purposes, and are eaten as food in a green
state, and also when ripe. Some kinds are ground down into
powder and made into cakes. Cattle are fed on some kinds,
and soy is made from others. Rape is grown for its seed here,
as in China, from which large quantities of oil are made, and it
forms one of the more important crops. Peas of several kinds
are also grown for food, and eaten both in a green and dry
state. Buckwheat, Indian corn, tobacco, and hemp are all
grown pretty largely, especially tobacco; almost every man,
and woman too, smokes in Japan. The cultivation of veg-
etables is large, and, although few are well flavored and many
are nearly savorless, they are largely consumed. The potatoes
alone are an exception as to quality, being of tolerable flavor,


286
[Chap. XV.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
though small. The principal vegetables are beans, peas, pota-
toes, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, lettuce, beet-root, arams,
yams, tomatoes, ginger, the egg plant, gourds, melons, chilies,
cucumbers, mushrooms, horseradish (the roots of several kinds
of lilies are eaten also), spinach, leeks, garlic, capsicums, endive,
fennel; an enormous turnip-radish, often twelve or fourteen
inches long, is consumed in great quantity, sliced and salted.
The young shoots of the bamboo, sliced and boiled, are a great
delicacy. It will be seen that if number and variety can make
amends for quality, the Japanese have little to desire. I suc-
ceeded in introducing to this part of Japan cauliflowers, Brus-
sels sprouts, and Jerusalem artichokes, as well as some good
lettuce, endive, parsley, and several kinds of cabbage. Mr.
Loureiro, at Yokohama, reared a large garden full of these in
great perfection, from some seeds I received from England.
Of the fruit-trees of this part of Japan the blossoms seem to
be the best part. These are certainly and more especially ad-
mired by the Japanese. Every tea-garden in the vicinity of
Yeddo tries to rival its neighbor in the beauty and size of the
peach blossoms, but it is very difficult to get good peaches to
eat. They are all habitually plucked unripe. It does not seem
to me that the Japanese have any idea what ripe fruit means.
They certainly never treat themselves to it, and after two years'
practice my market coolie could never be made to understand
what constituted ripeness. When pressed by threat of dis-
missal if he did not buy ripe peaches, and his attention was
drawn to the color and softness as signs, we found he used to
pinch them' black and blue' as the readiest means of meeting
one of the conditions at least of softness; and no doubt, in his
own mind, thought he had unreasonable people to deal with,
when, instead of praise for his ingenuity, he fell into deeper
disgrace. Their grapes are the only good fruit, and they come
from some northern district; I never saw them growing. I
was told they were chiefly the produce of the Daimio's gar-
dens, and were the perquisites of the female part of the estab-
lishment, affording by their sale ' pin money.' I have already
spoken of the fruit-trees, and I believe, with more competent
judges, that all the principal kinds, with proper attention and
skill, might be made equal to any in the world, looking to the
climate and the soil. Apples, pears, plums, peaches, chestnuts,
persimmons, oranges, pomegranates, figs, lemons, citrons, wild
strawberries, all are here, and nearly all equally bad, if we ex-
cept, perhaps, the watermelon, the persimmon, and grapes.
Of the flora of Japan I have little new to add. Mr.Veitch,
I think, calculated that the greater proportion of the plants


Chap. XV.]
JAPANESE GARDENING.
287
growing wild were evergreen. Many of the flowering shrubs
in the neighborhood of Yeddo are of this class, giving a peren-
nial richness of color and foliage to the country, even during
the winter months. Many of the conifers appear to be peculiar
to Japan. The variety of showy flowering plants, however, is
not so great as might be expected, but for this the abundance
and variety of foliage fully compensates to all lovers of beauti-
ful scenery. The Japanese are great amateur gardeners, and
some of the finest botanical specimens in this quarter of the
globe are to be found about Yeddo. In general, the Japanese
gardener who rears flowers to any extent- does so with the
view of selling them. He manages to have at all seasons a
supply of the kinds most esteemed, and every day the flower
vendor may be seen wandering about, offering his beautiful
wares for sale, and pretty certain to find a buyer even among
the poorest householders. To be sure their cost is usually
small (always excepting when a Foreign Minister is the pur-
chaser), and, as every family has its household altar, and among
the daily offerings a bunch of flowers is never omitted, while
their graves, too, are frequently decorated by the same simple
offering of affection, the demand never fails.
Of some of the specimens of their dwarf trees which I sent
home, an account appeared in the ' Gardener's Chronicle' of
January 11,1862; and, as it is evidently from the pen of one
much better able to do the subject justice than I can be, I give
the following extract:
'It is perfectly astonishing to see the amount of industry
and perseverance which the Japanese must have devoted to
the production of these plants. There were some little fir-
trees, not more than a foot in height, and yet I counted up-
ward of fifty ties, by means of which the shoots were bent
backward and forward in a zigzag way. These little pines
must have been very old, and many years must have been
spent in bringing them to this state, as their growth under
these unfavorable circumstances must have been slow in the
extreme. There was also a specimen of Podocarpus or Dam-
mara, with oval leaves beautifully striped with pure white.
This was a large plant, two and a half feet high, and nearly as
much through. It was evident that an old narrow-leaved
Podocarpus, with a stem two inches in diameter, had been
taken up, the roots cut in, and the stem headed down to with-
in about eighteen inches of the soil, and then the roots cram-
med into as small a pot as possible. The stem had been cut
off horizontally, and a circle of scions of the oval-leaved spe-
cies inserted between the bark and the wood. Most of these


288
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI.
had grown, and as they grew the shoots were bent downward,
and twisted in and out, so that the stem was completely hid-
den in a dense mass of foliage. This interesting plant is now
in the Royal Garden at Osborne. There were many other
plants which proved that the Japanese gardeners are very
clever in grafting, and employ many modes of performing the
operation. There was one species of a Retinispora, the branch-
es of which were bent backward and forward as usual, and
these branches had been grafted with dozens of scions, at in-
tervals of about an inch apart. It was only one here and there
which had failed; nearly all had grown well, and made little
tufts of shoots. Unfortunately, this plant had died upon its
voyage to England, and it is now deposited, with some ot^ier
interesting examples of dwarfed trees, in the Coniferous case
in the Museum at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Some
camellias which were sent home at the same time show that
the Japanese understand, and sometimes practice, the inarch-
ing of plants.
'The most valuable plants which have hitherto been intro-
duced from Japan are the Conifera, of which there are many
distinct kinds, some of them differing so widely from any thing
we already possess that they will form quite a new feature in
our landscapes. Also some curious new forms of chrysanthe-
mums.'
For some farther details on the flora and succession of crops,
I would refer those especially interested in the subject to Mr.
Veitch's notes in the Appendix.''' CHAPTER XVI.
The New Year, 1860, and what it brought.—Incendiary Fire at Yokohama.
— Assassination of a Linguist at the Gate of the British Legation.—
Gloomy Prospects.—Eire at the French Legation the same Night.
The new year, 1860, began with the most enchanting weath-
er. The sun was bright, with a clear sky, and a hoar-frost sil-
vering the lawn, while here and there, on the banks, a slight
drift remained from the snow of the day before. The ther-
mometer was standing at 32° when I got up, and I had to
break the ice to get my bath. If our political and commercial
horizon had only been as bright as the sky, Japan would have
not wanted attractions of a rare kind. As it was, no one could
* See Appendix E.


Chap. XVI.] INCENDIARY FIRE AT YOKOHAMA.
289
with any safety predict what our relations might be at the end
of the year thus pleasantly begun.
Five days had not passed over, in effect, before a courier ar-
rived from Yokohama, with intelligence that this improvised
wooden settlement had been in part destroyed by fire, the con-
flagration beginning in the part occupied by the Europeans.
The French Consular Agent, himself a merchant, happened to
be at the Legation on a visit, and he was left in doubt whether
his house and property had not been destroyed also. As there
can be no insurance in Japan, such a catastrophe involves a
total loss, it may be, of all a man possesses in the world. One
could understand his feeling when he exclaimed that he would
have given a thousand dollars to know the truth, instead of
being left in doubt and suspense, which is to many the most
intolerable of all states of mind. Several of the residents had
been burned out of house and home — young beginners too,
who, with little capital, had probably lost their all. The only
consolation the case admitted was to be found, perhaps, in the
admirable conduct of the Governor, the officials generally, and
the firemen, of whom there are organized brigades. Property
was effectively protected from pillage, and good order pre-
served, while every exertion was made to stop the progress of
the flames. This was in pleasant contrast with the conduct ob-
served at Nagasaki in a similar case, where the officials them-
selves helped to plunder—so it was reported by the Consul—
and no adequate efforts were made either to protect movable
property or to extinguish the fire; in pleasant contrast, it must
unfortunately be added, to the conduct of officials and firemen
at a much later period, in much more serious circumstances,
when the whole Japanese settlement, and, by its contiguity,
the large European quarter, were threatened with total de-
struction, and when, in effect, nearly one half of the Japanese
houses were completely destroyed. They seemed to think the
evil too great for their means of coping with it, and so let the
fire rage, doing nothing, until some of our blue-jackets, under
the orders of the Commodore, Lord John Hay, and Captain
Faucon, the Commander of H. I. M. S.' Dordogne,' with their
men, proceeded vigorously to pull down some of the houses, as
the sole mode, in the absence of water, of checking the devas-
tating progress of the flames.
In the midst of their efforts, a boatful of shipwrecked peo-
ple arrived, lighted to their haven by the conflagration—a cap-
tain and his wife, with an infant at her breast, and fourteen
other people, who had been eight days and nights in an open
boat! What cruel sufferings must often be endured in this life,
N


290
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI.
of which those who are more fortunate in all the conditions of
existence, living in peace and security, know nothing! And
when it meets our eye in a short paragraph of a newspaper,
how often do we pass on to some more pleasing item of news,
scarce bestowing a thought on the subject, and never realizing
the facts, or the sufferings they imply. For this reason, per-
haps, if for no other, it is 'good that we should be afflicted,'
each in our own being and sphere, for the whole world might
otherwise grow too utterly callous and careless of human suf-
fering and trial, and that would be a worse evil to mankind,
and to each unit, than their share of both, met in a right spirit.
This philosophy comes late to many, and only after large ex-
perience of the world's trials and its ways; but it is well that
we should learn even at last to pray, not for exemption from
danger or sorrow, but courage to bear our lot, and grace to do
what is right under the sorest trials.
While yet occupied by these events, we were startled by
another of more immediate and personal import. It was near
midnight. Mr. Eusden, the Japanese secretary, was standing
by my side before saying good-night, when the longest and
most violent shock of an earthquake yet experienced since our
arrival brought every one to his feet, with a sudden impulse to
fly from under the shaking roof. It began at first very gently,
but rapidly increased in the violence of the vibrations, until the
earth seemed to rock under our feet, and to be heaved up by
some mighty explosive power in the caldrons beneath. The
Chinese attribute earthquakes to the uneasy movements of the
Great Dragon; the Japanese to similar disturbing causes in a
tortoise on which the earth is poised, or the flapping of a
whale's tail; but not even Siebold can discover where the
whale has his habitat in Japanese cosmogony! Whoever has
looked down Vesuvius, however, when it is in full blast, and
heard the hoarse roar of the waves of boiling lava, as the liquid
fire rushes past the great vent, and dashes through its black-
ened lips, scattering the molten sulphur high and far, will have
a much more lively idea for the rest of his life whence earth-
quakes come, if not of Pandemonium itself.
The ' Saturday Review,' some time ago, had an article head-
ed 'A Week of Horrors.' A shipwreck, the destruction of a
foreign settlement by fire, and an earthquake, the incidents of
our Christmas week at Yeddo, might fairly lay claim to the
title! One of my guests exclaimed, after enumerating them
one by one, as'he was preparing to return, II faut avouer que
ce ri'est pas gail Still, grave or gay, the day sped on, and
weeks even slipped away, when we were recalled to a con-


Chap. XVI.]
HORSES FOR CHINESE WAR.
291
sciousness of the flight of time and an outer world by the ar-
rival of a Commissariat officer, with orders to purchase 3000
baggage-horses for our army transport in China! This seemed
a very forlorn hope. Horses there were certainly in consider-
able numbers, but how were we to ask the Japanese for the
means of making war on their neighbor and ally?
To my surprise, I confess, they did not point-blank refuse to
entertain the question, but only opposed various difficulties,
founded on an alleged poverty in cattle, the shortness of the
time specified, etc. In the end they consented; but the whole
business was so managed as to heap troubles on every body—
deception, vexations, delays—yaconinerie every where, and, as
a natural consequence, mendacity and extortion were the or-
der of the day. The horses were bought and stabled—some
few shipped; but before the bulk of the animals, that had been
the cause of incessant anxiety and trouble for many months,
could be embarked for want of transport, news arrived that
they were not required! Pekin had surrendered, peace had
been proclaimed, and a new convention signed in the capital.
The news was pleasant enough, and must have had its signifi-
cance with the Council of State in Yeddo. It was probably
more welcome to the yaconins, however, than their masters.
A sale of the horses on hand had to be effected. Horses for
which we had been made by them to pay an average price of
$30 apiece, because they were so scarce, could only be disposed
of to the chief of the fraternity, because they were so plentiful,
for $5 each! This was, indeed, to reverse the rule of trade,
and to buy in the dearest market and sell in the cheapest!
But there was no remedy; and when I mentioned the circum-
stance to the Ministers as somewhat singular that horses in
their country should be so scarce and dear when wanted by
us, and so superabundant and cheap when we had them to
sell as to be worth nothing, they only smiled, and evidently
thought it a good joke, observing that they had recommended
us not to buy them!
I have greatly outstripped the progress of events, however,
for these were transactions which took place six months later.
But it will save the necessity of any farther reference to the
same subject. The first month of the year was yet young
when a report, of some significance apparently, reached me
from Yokohama to the effect that, during the two preceding
days, a sudden demand had arisen among the Japanese for
fire-arms, and every foreign merchant and storekeeper was be-
sieged with applications for revolvers, muskets, etc. By treaty
these are prohibited articles, and can not be sold to any one


292
[Chap. XVI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
in Japan unless to the authorities themselves, the Government
looking, as I have already had occasion to remark, with great
jealousy on any arming of the population. But the sale being
illegal according to treaty every body knew would be no im-
pediment to the acquisition of as many as might be on hand,
if Japanese purchasers could be found willing to pay a good
price for them!
What did it mean? Did it bode some revolutionary pro-
ceeding on the part of the Japanese against their own Gov-
ernment, or some design against the lives of foreigners them-
selves? Even that would not have prevented money being
made by their sale, but it lent a new interest to the question!
If the latter, the time did not seem happily chosen, as the Bay
of Yeddo, so often bare of any means of protection from for-
eign ships of war, could now boast of one in the 'Powhatan'
United States steam frigate, waiting to take over to America, a Japanese Diplomatic Mission for the exchange of ratifica-
tions.
With these uneasy elements in motion—rumors of danger—
the month drew near its close. It was a Sunday afternoon
(January 29), when, just returned from a visit to the American
Minister, who was unwell, I heard a hasty step outside my
room, and Captain Marten, the Commander of H. M. S.'Roe-
buck,' who happened to be a guest at the Legation, threw
back the sliding panel. 'Come, quickly; your linguist is being
carried in, badly wounded.' My heart misgave me that his
death-knell had struck. I had for some time been under a
conviction that danger was at hand in some shape, and his fre-
quent collisions with the insolent retainers of Daimios, who
never lost an opportunity of insulting him in the streets, had
naturally turned my attention in that direction. I was even
seriously meditating sending him out of the country, for his
own sake, though his knowledge of the Japanese made him
very useful, if not necessary to me, in the first months of our
location. It was not his own desire, however, and I had hesi-
tated, for we all dislike to yield to intimidation. I felt, never-
theless, that a more discreet and better-tempered man than he
had any pretensions to be would have been insecure; and, lat-
terly, he had received a distinct warning that it was determ-
ined to take his life. But man's previsions and best precau-
tions seem idle things when the fatal hour has come. It even
would seem, at times, as if we were especially and fatally blind-
ed to the necessary consequences of our own acts, and thus
led on, step by step, to do and say the very things which, could
the veil of Isis be only lifted for a second, we should most


Chap. XVI.]
MURDER OF A LINGUIST.
293
carefully and anxiously avoid, and thus avert the impending
destruction. He had escaped shipwreck—long an exile and
proscribed outcast from his own country, nothing less than
such great and unforeseen events as the renewal of relations
with Western Powers could ever have restored him to it—and
he came back only to find a bloody grave, though it seemed
at the time that the dearest wishes of the exile's heart were
being gratified by the unexpected way open for his return.
There is an observation in one of Mr. Helps's essays* which
must often have occurred in similar circumstances. 'Fre-
quently it seems as if the faculties of man were not quite ade-
quate as yet to his situation—the individual seems the sport
of circumstances;' and he goes on to observe how these often
seem (maliciously, as it were) to provide a man with 'a good
opportunity for working out the errors of his mind and sys-
tem,' when he'strains his fortune to the uttermost, and it breaks
under him, as it did with Napoleon in the great Russian cam-
paign and retreat from Moscow. Dankirche, in his way, had
afforded a fatal illustration. He was ill tempered, proud, and
violent; and in returning to his own country he just brought
these qualities—rendered worse by long impunity in America
and China—where they were most sure to bring him to grief.
They were characteristic of his own race, but among them-
selves they were kept down by frequent letting of blood.
I found him stretched on a shutter, hardly conscious, though
he turned his eyes when I spoke to him as though he heard
and recognized me. He never spoke, and I saw at once that
he was mortally wounded. Death's finger had already been
laid on his quivering lip. One or two convulsive throes shook
his whole frame while we were getting some of his clothing
off to examine the wounds, and then, without a struggle, he
died. There was something awfully sudden in the catastro-
phe; he was alive and among us not ten minutes before. It
appeared he had gone down to the gate of the Legation, open-
ing upon a wide space close to the high road, and was leaning
against the entrance or doorway to a small nest of houses at
the end of a lane close by, immediately under the flag-staff, and
with men, women, and children about, in broad daylight, when
one or two men stole stealthily down the lane behind where
he stood, and a short sword was buried to the hilt in his body,
transfixing him as he stood. He staggered a few paces to-
ward the porter at the gate, who drew the sword out from his
back, and there he fell bathed in his blood. It had, indeed,
been a home thrust. The point had entered at his back, and
* Companions of my Solitude.
S


294
[Chap. XVI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
came out above the right breast; and thus buried in his body
the assassin left it, and disappeared as stealthily as he came,
without a hand or a voice being raised to stop him. The deed
must have been seen by many, but all, save one woman, I be-
lieve, denied seeing the blow struck. Either they were told
to do so, or knew that their own lives might pay the forfeit
of any indiscretion. With the authorities on the one side,
and the assassin and his friends on the other, justice in all such
cases is no better than an idle dream. I felt certain from the
beginning that there was no hope.
Who was the assassin, and what was the motive? Suspicion
rested more particularly upon two, the first a Daimio's drunken
retainer, who attacked him in the street a few days previously
and had been arrested. The man, however, was so violent in
his denunciations of vengeance, that the police were intimidated
and let him go, after taking his name or the name he chose to
give! The second was my chief cook, lately discharged, and
who had been heard to say somebody would kill'Dan' before
very long; and he was in the kitchen a day or two before, with
two swords in his belt. Both were apprehended, but nothing
came of it. I have no doubt the authorities knew perfectly
well who the parties were, whether one or several. Perhaps
they may have been compelled to commit the Hara-Kiri, but I
should doubt it. It is more probable that it was wished their
renegade subject, whom they considered as dangerous, 'know-
ing too much' (a grave offense and source of danger always in
Japan), might be put away; and if they did not themselves
take such means of removing him, were not sorry it was done
for them. I am quite satisfied they knew the blow was com-
ing, from the visit of a Governor of Foreign Affairs a few days
previously, who saw my Japanese secretary and spent a long
time in denunciations of Dankirche, urging with singular per-
tinacity the expediency of dismissing him at once.
Of course, if he had been dismissed prior to the assassination,
his death would have been a matter to give them little con-
cern; but they had some scruples, perhaps, in permitting the
murder of a servant of the Legation.
This was the third atrocious murder in public thoroughfares,
without brawl, or quarrel, or immediate provocation of any
kind. Two were in broad daylight, and all evidently deliberate
and planned assassinations. No justice had been done, or re-
dress obtained, in any of the cases. At midnight two of the
Governors of Foreign Affairs came to offer me their condo-
lences and concert measures, or seem to do so. They indig-
nantly repelled the supposition that the Tycoon's government


Chap. XVI.] A FIRE AND A FUNERAL. 295
could not pursue and arrest a Daimio's retainer, or even, if
needful, his master. But such has been alleged to be the fact
by Koempfer and others. While discussing this matter, news
came that Sacagi, the temple where Monsieur de Bellecourt,
the French Charge d'Affaires, resided, was on fire; and a few
minutes later the whole party appeared, the French Consul
General at their head. 'Sous voici, nous venons vous deman-
der de l'hospitalite—l'incendie nous a atteint!' Then followed
Monsieur l'Abbe in dressing-gown, a glass thermometer in one
hand, which had been committed to his charge by an absent
friend, and a breviary in the other—science and religion to-
gether, and faithful to both trusts. The Chancelier in slippers
followed, with a revolver and a bonnet de nuit, one in each hand.
It seemed as if a veritable Pandora's box had been opened. An
assassination in one Legation and a fire in another within six
hours! My spare rooms were full, but we made, of course, the
best shift we could for our unexpected guests, and about three
o'clock in the morning we all retired, sad enough at heart and
quite worn out. Verily I thought, as I prepared to take some
rest, this country on experience proves to be something very
different from the paradise represented by recent travelers,
who must have looked through very peculiar colored glasses
to see every thing so completely' en beau.' Zfelt disposed to
join in the prayer of'the privileged Grimkou,' who wrote from
King Frederick William's savage court, 'jTespere que le bon
Dieu me fera voir uneportepour sortir de cette maudite Go-
itre P
We buried the poor fellow a few days later, and to mark our
sympathy and solidarityin such an outrage to the flag of a
Treaty Power, members of all the Legations, together with
two of the Governors of Foreign Affairs, followed his remains
to the grave. A considerable crowd was collected on the pas-
sage to the cemetery, situated by the banks of the river which
runs through Yeddo, and at some distance from the British Le-
gation. Arrived at the temple, the great bell tolled to announce
the commencement of the service. Then the priests, in stole
and mitre, or something strikingly resembling both, took their
places in two rows. The abbot, seated in a high chair in the
centre, faced a temporary altar, on which tapers and incense
were burning. A chanted litany followed, in which the priests
were accompanied by the occasional sonorous tones of two
pairs of cymbals, a drum, and a small musical bell. This con-
tinued for a quarter of an hour, when the abbot or superior rose
from his chair, and, closing his hands and eyes, prayed with
great fervor—for the soul or spirit of the departed, it is to be


296
[Chap. XVI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
presumed. He then took off his curiously-shaped head appen-
dages and approached the altar, burned more incense, and on
the spade (of wood) which was to turn the earth being brought
to him, he waved it thrice on every side and over the incense,
to consecrate it. Then followed another litany, and, with a
clash of the cymbals and a double beat of the gong and drum,
the ceremony was over, and its termination formally announced
by the Superior crossing the temple to where I stood, and mak-
ing me a lowly reverence. The coffin was then carried to the
grave and lowered into it by the attendants, while two of the
priests brought a tablet with the name of the dead inscribed
upon it.
Four white lanterns were placed at the head and foot, the
earth shoveled in—' earth to earth, dust to dust'—and the mur-
dered man was left to his rest in Japanese soil. Long as he
had been in Christian countries, he had never entered into any
communion, as he had himself declared but a few days before
his death. He had Prayer-books and Bibles given him by many
missionaries in China and elsewhere, but never seemed to have
accepted any faith; in this taking too much after the class he
least loved, the Yaconins and officials. That he should be bur-
ied as he had lived, therefore, with the rights and usages of his
own land, was the only natural course to follow; and if deco-
rum and impressiveness could give any value to a funeral serv-
ice, there was nothing wanting in this. It was impossible for
a Protestant not to be struck with the outward similarity be-
tween the ceremonial of this Buddhist burial with those of the
Greek and Roman churches. The altar, the tapers, the incense,
the very costume and gestures of the priests, were in many strik-
ing particulars alike—a resemblance too close to have been for-
tuitous; but whence the seeming identity is yet a question, and
one which I do not pretend to discuss. The Japanese received
Buddhism from China in the sixth century, and then, or at
some later date, may have got some of these forms. As the
body was carried out of the temple to the grave, two white
doves, suddenly liberated, circled round and flew up into the
cloudless sky, intended apparently as symbols of the flight of
the spirit, but why two instead of one I could never get satis-
factorily explained.
Returning from the cemetery, which the Japanese govern-
ment, with considerate prevision, had urged me to decide upon,
not only in reference to this one burial, but'for the decent in-
terment of all who might hereafter follow' (in the course of
nature it is to be hoped they meant), I could not help reflect-
ing on the curious spectacle the procession and burial had pre-


Chap. XVI.] TREATIES IN ABEYANCE.
297
sented in this long-sealed capital of a jealously secluded people
and empire. How swiftly events had crowded upon them since
Commodore Perry's first visit and treaty in 1854. Not six
years, and yet three ports were opened, and many successive
treaties had been entered into. At this moment three Foreign
Representatives had their residence in the midst of the people,
not half reconciled yet to this sudden and total change in their
relations with the rest of the world, of which the murdered
man just followed to the grave was but too grievous a proof.
The head of a Diplomatic Mission in such a country, to a
great degree isolated, and unsupported by any of the material
means of enforcing respect or good faith, has, it must be ad-
mitted, an arduous and trying post at all times; but under
such circumstances as these, when his servants are openly
struck down at his gate, where they had often before been
wantonly insulted by these disorderly retainers of Daimios,
who are themselves in a great degree above the law, it is hard
to say in what direction efforts can be made to any purpose!
Every day seemed to furnish evidence of the futility of any ar-
guments addressed to their sense of justice or their good faith.
Still, it was within the domain of diplomacy. Indeed, there
could be no question of compulsion or force; for, with five
Treaty Powers, not one of these permanently maintained a ship
of war at Yeddo, or on the station even, though one under the
British flag appeared from time to time. Sometimes, as I have
said, for weeks not a pendant was seen in the waters. It is
true, the mercantile interests in existence hitherto had not
been large, but neither could they ever become so unless the
provisions of treaties should be better carried out; and-the ex-
perience of the past six months held out little promise of the
Japanese government, of its own free will, taking the necessary
steps, if they saw that a deliberate system of obstruction and
bad faith might be pursued without risk or damage. If such
were to be the permanent state of our relations, it had per-
haps been better, and, upon the whole, more satisfactory to all
parties, to have left the Japanese to their much-prized isolation,
instead of putting a constraint upon them to open their ports,
and then leaving them to their own devices. But this came,
in part at least, of the too flattering opinions entertained by
those who accompanied the first negotiators of treaties. Ac-
cording to the clear-sighted travelers who, upon a ten days' or
ten weeks' experience, dashed off a florid picture of' Paradise
Regained,' of bliss and innocence, which unfortunately existed
only in their own imaginations, and pronounced a favorable
judgment on the character and government of a whole people,
N 2


298
■
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
[Chap. XVI.
'The Japanese rulers were only too happy to enter into ami-
cable relations with Foreign Powers, and, though a little timid
(the result of inexperience and innocence), were most anxious
to carry out all the provisions of treaties with scrupulous fidel-
ityy One looked in vain, at this time, for any trace of these
desirable dispositions, and could only wonder upon what found-
ation such superstructures had been reared. To all appear-
ance, that'forward delusive faculty,' as Bishop Butler styles
the ' imagination,' has much to answer for in respect to Ja-
pan. A more systematic or determined policy of obstruction
and passive resistance combined, than that which the Gov-
ernment had perseveringly adhered to, could not be conceived.
And never were solemn treaties and the most indisputable
rights of nations set aside on more futile and puerile pretexts!
Either the treaties themselves were a mistake, and the whole
policy they were intended to inaugurate, or the means since
taken by the Western Powers to make them something more
than waste paper had been hardly calculated to attain the de-
sired end. Japan seemed fast learning a lesson she would un-
doubtedly be slow to forget, that the Western Powers, notwith-
standing the eagerness and determination they show to make
treaties with a new country, are little disposed to take the
necessary steps to cause them to be respected. And if they
should come to the conclusion, based upon a certain experi-
ence, that every obligation contracted may be systematically
evaded with impunity—if only such evasion be carried on un-
der cover of professions of amity and good faith—it will be
hard to get any substantial advantage ont of treaties. The
Japanese have no confidence or trust in Foreign Powers or
their subjects (they certainly, if truth must be told, have little
reason, to admire many of the first pioneers of Western civil-
ization and commerce flung on their shores), and if no steps
are to be taken to alter this state of things, then it would cer-
tainly seem a grievous mistake to have entered into any treaty
relations with them! For where there is no confidence be-
tween one nation and another, there can be no alliance worth
preserving; and assuredly where truth and justice are wanton-
ly violated, there can be no confidence. That reflections such
as these should present themselves at this time will scarcely be
matter of surprise. It is never wise, however, to take too de-
spondent a view of affairs, either national or private, and I re-
flected that it was yet early days. Undoubtedly the Japanese
were inexperienced in foreign relations, while the traditions of
those which existed in past generations were only calculated
to suggest doubt and mistrust. Something might fairly be put


300
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI.
The abbe, treating it rather as a jest, replied,' No, really—
when, then?' 'When? soon—in a single night!' Cut off
from all reliable means of information by the Japanese author-
ities, such sinister intimations as these strike unpleasantly on
the ear, since who can tell whether there be any real founda-
tion or not?
While thus speculating on our actual position, day after day
bringing nothing reassuring, we approached the end of Febru-
ary. On the 26th I was roused from my sleep at four o'clock
in the morning by the arrival of an express from H. M. Consul
at Kanagawa, with intelligence that about eight o'clock in the
evening, two captains of Dutch merchant vessels in the harbor
had been slain in the main street of Yokohama—a repetition,
in all its leading circumstances and unprovoked barbarity, of
the assassination perpetrated on the Russians. They had been
set upon in the dark, and head and limbs had nearly been sev-
ered from their bodies, as though butchers had assailed them
with their cleavers. One had his shoulder nearly cut through,
besides gashes across head, face, and chest, any one of which
must have been fatal. The second appears to have seized the
sword with his left hand, which, drawn through his grasp, had
severed three of the fingers; and, still struggling, he must
have warded off the next blow at his head with his right hand,
and run nearly a hundred steps from his butchers, as the hand
was found at that distance from his body. He also was fright-
fully mangled. Where was this to end? This was the fourth
assassination in eight months, and six lives had been ruthlessly
sacrificed. First a Russian officer and servant, next a servant
of the Consul of France, then my linguist (both slain in open
day), now two Dutch captains.
I saw the Ministers of Foreign Affairs a few hours later,
heard the usual expressions of regret, and assurances of efforts
to trace the assassins, meaning nothing, and with almost a
certainty that nothing would be done. I felt bound to tell
their Excellencies that a government so deficient, either in the
power or the will to secure life and property in the country,
was one with which it was difficult, and might become impos-
sible, to maintain any treaty relations.
'Yet had they not taken all the measures that could be con-
ceived? Did I, then, give them no credit for the exertions
made?'
My reply was in substance that'I could not say what meas-
ures they had taken. I could only judge by the results, and
these were nil, while the assassins were at large and unpunish-
ed; nothing had been done. So long as they could neither


Chap.XVI.] WHAT IS A LIFE WORTH?—FIRE.
301
prevent crime nor punish it, there could be no security for life,
and without that there could be no stable relations either of
trade or amity' It seemed very hopeless! Russian sailors were drunk on
shore, I believe, during the day—unfortunately too common
an incident wherever sailors of any nation get leave. Thus,
the very men of war that should be a protection, become a
new source of danger. Whether this last murder was a mere
wanton brutality—vengeance for some offense—or with a po-
litical object, we shall never know. Rumor said the latter;
and in any case, the two victims were unoffending; one was
an old man upward of sixty. t
And where was the remedy? What could be done? Even
such successive acts of assassination did not form a casus belli,
nor were we prepared to make war. Still less were we so
disposed. Nothing, indeed, could be farther from the desire
either of the Government or the nation at home than a war
with the Japanese. The one little ship sent to the station, it
was hoped, 'might be dispensed with during the operations in
the north of China,' that is, for three or four months probably!
To demand a heavy indemnity for the surviving families seem-
ed the only practical means of inducing serious effort on the
part of the Government. If a life cost them $50,000, they
would probably be at some pains to prevent its loss. Their
hearts or consciences it seemed difficult to touch; the only
thing remaining was to try their pockets. It might appear
very dignified to say, as Count Mouravieff did,' Russia did not
sell the blood of her subjects;' but then they should have been
avenged—made costly in some way to those who sat supinely
by and allowed them to be sacrificed.
Another month of the eventful year had passed; it was al-
ready the first of March as I sat finishing a mail for Hakodadi.
Midnight had arrived, and I was about to forget, if I could,
my daily troubles and anxieties in sleep, when the discordant
clang of the alarm-bells broke sharp and clear on the stillness
of the night, calling the population from their beds to look to
their own safety, and, if needful, help to extinguish the fire
of their neighbors. It seemed as if few nights passed over
without a fire in some quarter or other of this ill-fated city,
often destroying whole streets. How should it be otherwise
—all wood and no water! One or two bells only at first were
heard, then soon the note of alarm was taken up by others.
A fierce gale was raging, and grievous destruction of property,
if not of life, was inevitable. The servants told us it was about
three miles off, but, the wind blowing in our direction, they


302
[Chap. XVI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
seemed to think it might even reach us at Tozengee! Scarce
a day or night passed without some alarm of the kind, and
often the melancholy tocsin was heard more than once in the
twenty-four hours. They are miserably deficient in the first
great element of safety, water. By law a tub of water is kept
at every door, and buckets are often seen on the roofs of the
houses, but they have no supply beyond what their wells af-
ford. In other respects they seem to have a well-organized
system of rousing the people, and giving information even as
to the place, or at least the direction and distance of the fire.
If it be a long way off', a single stroke is repeated at short in-
tervals; if nearer, but not in the immediate neighborhood, it
is one, two, and then a pause; but if the whole quarter and
people are to be roused to aid on the spot, it is one, and then
a sharp second, and third, repeated loud and quick in contin-
ued succession. There is something very disturbing in this
combination of earthquakes and perpetually recurring confla-
grations, the latter destroying hundreds or even thousands of
houses in a few hours. Both often arouse you from your sleep,
with a most uncomfortable sense of insecurity.
I am free to confess my dislike of earthquakes increases
with each visitation; I can not say 'familiarity breeds con-
tempt.' You are sitting quietly at your table, or, with a book
in your hand, seeking very likely to forget your own thoughts,
or actual existence in those of others, when your chair begins
to vibrate, at first gently, as if merely to rouse your attention;
then the ground under your feet catches the contagion, and
you feel there is an earthquake to meet with what courage
you may. Will it bring the house down over your head?
Open a chasm to bury you in its depths? Or merely make
you feel as though you, not the earth below, had been taken
with an ague-fit? Who can tell? Who knows any thing of
the law of earthquakes? In the mean time, while these com-
fortable reflections flash through your mind—as in moments
of danger a whole chapter of accidents and dilemmas will oc-
casionally crowd themselves, without the slightest regard to
time or fitness—the vibration continues in spasmodic intermit-
tence, diminishes, then again recommences with greater vio-
lence — all the beams and rafters groan and creak, the house
swaying with a very perceptible movement under each shock!
Will it come down or not? The question is interesting and
important; for on your giving a right answer and acting ac-
cordingly, issues in life and eternity may depend, and yet you
know no more than the trembling dog at your feet what are
the chance and probabilities. Some take what they conceive


Chap. XVI.] CONTRASTS AND DISCORDANCES.
303
the safer course under all circumstances, and whether up or in
bed, dressed or undressed, rush out of the house into the street
or some open space. But what can assure them that the pre-
cise spot they choose for safety may not, the instant they reach
it, sink beneath them with a horrible crash, and precipitate
them into depths unfathomable of molten lava? So far as I
myself am concerned, I feel like a man on a field of battle in
the thick of the fight, with round shot and missiles of death
flying in every direction. Who but the novice ever thinks of
ducking his head or trying to dodge them? The hopelessness
of the attempt insensibly steadies his nerves. Not knowing
in the least, or able in the slightest degree to divine what is
to follow from moment to moment, I feel so entirely helpless
before destructive forces of which I can neither measure the
length, nor depth, nor height while yet in the hands of a Pow-
er 'able to save? that I seem to lack all impulse or desire to
make any sudden effort to reach the open space, which, for
aught I can tell, may be, after all, the most dangerous place
within reach!
'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning,' says the Psalmist, as though to warn us that even to
sorrow, and danger, and trouble, or any other evil that can af-
flict us, there is a limit, and joy may yet succeed, as morning
succeeds to night. Therefore should we strive on and hope,
not faint or despair. So daylight came to us in Yeddo after
nights of fires, and murders, and earthquakes. As I rode into
the country the next day, not even a mounted escort of Yaco-
nins, which the Foreign Representatives had at last, and very
reluctantly (I can answer at least for myself), accepted at the
earnest requisition of the Japanese Ministers, could wholly mar
the beauty of the country, bright and fresh in all the vernal
honors of spring. In the midst of death, and alarms of massa-
cre, with interludes of fires and earthquakes, spring was smil-
ing upon us. The peach-trees were bursting into blossom, and
the air each day was becoming more genial. What strange
contrasts and discordances between the sunny clime and beau-
tiful country, in ever-varying hue and form as far as the eye
could reach, and the deeds which were done in the land! On
the 11th of March, I find it noted, in a brief diary of dates and
occurrences, that I went to the American Legation to attend
the first Protestant service ever performed in Yeddo. An
American missionary officiated, and, out of courtesy to the
British Minister, I presume, since he was not an Episcopalian
of either Church, our service was read. The members of the
two Legations, and the American Consul from Kanagawa, nine


304
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVII.
persons in all, formed the whole congregation; but where 'two
or three are gathered together,' we are assured that He in
whose name they pray will be with them, and in that faith we
met in this pagan city, teeming with hostile elements to us and
our faith. We had no chaplain of our own, or medical officer
either, in the establishment as originally organized. To attend
a religious service of any kind, therefore, formed a sort of ep-
och among the Legations. It would have been difficult, per-
haps, to find a post in the whole range of diplomatic or consu-
lar appointments where both were more likely to be needed in
extremis. But it has well been said,'In the field of life (in
diplomacy as in war) there must occasionally be dangerous
work to do, and somebody must do it, whatever be the disad-
vantages of position, or shortcomings in the provision made by
anticipation to meet it.'
CHAPTER XVII.
Murder of the Regent on his Way to the Tycoon's Palace. — Narrative of
what took Place.—General Alarm and Sense of Insecurity.—The Legations
surrounded by Japanese Guards for their Protection from Attack.—The
Times of the Guelfs and Ghibelines resuscitated.—Subsequent Acts of the
Conspirators, and how they disposed of the Regent's Head.—Popular Sto-
ries and Legends. — Story of the forty-seven Lonins. — Influence of such
Literature and Hero-worship on the Morality and Actions of the People.
The rising settlement of Yokohama had already spread over
a considerable area—all, indeed, that the foreign merchants on
the spot could put their hands upon was occupied, and new
houses of substantial character were taking the place of the
flimsy superstructures which had been run up in anticipation
by the Japanese authorities. The actual amount of business
done, apart from the purchase of gold kobangs, was not great,
and yet it was much larger than had been anticipated by many.
Some matters connected with the locations and the custom-
house administration had taken me to the spot, on a visit of a
few days to H. M.'s Consul at Kanagawa, in the month of
March, and, on my return to Yeddo, the first news that greeted
me as I entered the Legation was of so startling and incredible
a character that I hesitated to believe what was told me. The
Gotaieo, or Regent of the empire, was said to have been set
upon and assassinated in broad daylight, on his way to the pal-
ace, and this, too, not a hundred yards from his own gates, and
in the very midst of a large retinue of his retainers! I confess


Chap. XVII.]
MURDER OF THE REGENT.
305
I felt all the more indisposed to credit the intelligence that I
found the Japanese officials making great demonstrations of
alarm, and wanting to quarter half a dozen armed police in one
of my apartments ' for my protection.' But concurrent infor-
mation soon left no doubt that some bold and desperate at-
tempt on his life had been made, whether successfully or not
it was impossible to learn with certainty. Some said he had
been killed on the spot, and his head carried off; others, again,
and all the official informants, said he was alive, and had only
been wounded. Their assurances, of course, went for very lit-
tle, in such circumstances especially! They would simply say
what they were told to say; and it is a common custom in Ja-
pan, when a sovereign or any one high in authority dies, to
conceal his death until measures have been taken to install his
successor, and, in the mean time, the dead man is merely said
to be sick. To my inquiries after his health, and offers of sur-
gical aid from the Legation, the Ministers for many days mere-
ly returned civil messages, declining the assistance, and giving
bulletins of his health, informing me, truly enough, that' he was
not worse!' The real facts were not ascertained, with any
guarantee of fidelity as to the main incidents, until some time
later, when they became public property as it were, and the
common gossip of the bath-houses, an institution of Japan cor-
responding to the cafe, in France. As the whole history, from
the beginning to the end, is of great interest, and highly illus-
trative of the Japanese character and political condition, I will
relate it in a more connected form than it reached me, and with
all the corrections supplied by later acquired knowledge, not
only of the tragic event itself, but of the political history to
which it is attached.
Within the second moated circle facing the bay, the cause-
way leads over a gentle acclivity, near the summit of which,
lying a little backward, is an imposing gateway, flanked on
either side with a range of buildings which form the outer
screens of large court-yards. Over the gates, in copper enamel,
is the crest of the noble owner (an orange on a branch with
three leaves), the Chief of the house of Ikomono, in which is
vested the hereditary office of Regent, whenever a minor fills
the Tycoon's throne. From the commanding position of this
residence a view is obtained of a long sweep of the rampart,
and about midway the descent ends in a long level line of
road. Just at this point, not five hundred yards distant, is one
of the three bridges across the moat which leads into the in-
ner enclosure, where the castle of the Tycoon is situated. It
was about ten o'clock in the morning of March 24, while a


Chap. XVII.] NARRATIVE OF THE EVENT.
30?
gate on the opposite side, while coming up from the causeway
at a few paces distant was the retinue of a second of these
brothers, the Prince of Owari. The Gotairo was thus between
them at the foot of the bridge, in the open space formed by the
meeting of a broad street, which debouches on the bridge. A
few straggling groups, enveloped in their oil-paper cloaks,
alone were near; when suddenly one of these seeming idlers
flung himself across the line of march, immediately in front of
the Regent's norimon. The officers of his household, whose
place is on each side of him, rushed forward at this unprece-
dented interruption—a fatal move, which had evidently been
anticipated, for their place was instantly filled with armed men
in coats of mail, who seemed to have sprung from the earth—
a compact band of some eighteen or twenty men. With flash-
ing swords and frightful yells, blows were struck at all around,
the lightest of which severed men's hands from the poles of
the norimon, and cut down those who did not flee. Brief and
deadly was the struggle. The unhappy officers and attend-
ants, thus taken by surprise, were hampered with their rain-
gear, and many fell before they could draw a sword to defend
either themselves or their lord. A few seconds must have
done the work, so more than one looker-on declared; and be-
fore any thought of rescue seemed to have come to the attend-
ants and escorts of the two other Princes, both very near—if,
indeed, they were total strangers to what was passing—one
of the band was seen to dash along the causeway with a gory
trophy in his hand. Many had fallen in the melee on both
sides. Two of the assailants, who were badly wounded, find-
ing escape impossible, it is said, stopped in their flight, and de-
liberately performed the Hara-kiru, to the edification of their
pursuers; for it seems to be the law (so sacred is the rite, or
right, whichever may be the proper reading) that no one may
be interrupted even for the ends of justice. These are held to
be sufficiently secured by the self-immolation of the criminal,
however heinous the offense, and it is a privilege to be denied
to no one entitled to wear two swords I Other accounts say
that their companions, as a last act of friendship, dispatched
the wounded, to prevent them falling into the hands of the
torturer, and revealing what they knew. Eight of the assail-
ants were unaccounted for when all was over, and many of the
retinue were stretched on the ground wounded and dying by
the side of those who had made the murderous onslaught. The
remnant of the Regent's people, released from their deadly
struggle, turned to the norimon to see how it had fared with
their master in the brief interval, to find only a headless trunk!


310
[Chap. XVII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
more especially; and no Japanese above the rank of a servant
or a coolie, who is not officially employed about them by the
Government, may hold any communication with them. The
American Minister was even told so when expressing a desire
to see some officer of rank whom he had known when the lat-
ter had been in office before. At Kanagawa, some American
missionaries having arrived with their families, and desiring to
engage one or two female servants, were told without any cir-
cumlocution by the officials that they must send to a huge
brothel, erected at the neighboring settlement of Yokohama,
and pay an exorbitant rate, one half of which goes to the Gov-
ernment, it being the law of Japan that none but this class of
females shall serve foreigners! This was not liberal or very
agreeable, neither was it according to treaty. As to the rail-
ways and steam communication (which about this time I saw
it asserted in some of the public journals were contemplated),
one fact is worth a page of suppositions. A very few months
after ports were opened under treaty, a fairly liberal offer was
made by the agent of a fine steamer to keep up a monthly com-
munication between Yeddo, Nagasaki, and Shanghae, carrying
freight, treasure, and dispatches, if required for the Govern-
ment, for the supply of 300 tons of Japanese coal each voyage;
and it was refused, without apparently a second thought as to
the advantages of such regular and rapid communication, either
between their own ports or with those of China. Indeed, to
them, with their policy and views of political economy, it would
obviously be considered any thing but an advantage.
The murder of Ikomono-no-kami threw a shadow over the
capital—a shadow of doubt, and uneasy anticipation of farther
troubles. All the wards of the city were kept closed for two
days, and for some considerable time afterward were carefully
guarded at night. Ostensibly the object was to prevent the
escape of the survivors of the band; but in reality, I believe,
they were precautionary measures against any farther attack
upon the members of the Tycoon's government by bodies of
armed men. The Legations were filled with troops, contin-
gents of certain Daimios held bound to supply them by feudal
tenure, to which were added for our greater security some of
the Tycoon's body-guard. It was apparently thought the For-
eign Legations might be the next object of attack, not so much
from hostility to them as with a view of involving the existing
Government, and bringing on a conflict with Foreign Powers.
The position both of the Government and the Foreign Repre-
sentatives seemed very critical; and no one in the Legations
could form any very certain estimate of the real amount of dan-


Chap. XVII.]
CUEIOUS DETAILS.
311
ger to both, for the Japanese Council of State, true to their
habitual policy, declined furnishing any data upon which a judg-
ment could be formed. They contented themselves with meas-
ures of precaution and defense. Field-pieces were placed in the
court-yards of the several Legations, and the Ministers were ur-
gently requested to abstain for a time from going outside. As
past experience had shown any pretext was good with a view
to the limitation and curtailment of the privileges of the Lega-
tions—even the very harmless one of riding through the city,
or into the surrounding country for exercise, as was my daily
habit—this alone tended to throw some doubt over the whole
of their proceedings, and left all the foreign diplomatic agents
in a very unpleasant state of suspense and uncertainty. As far
as the British Legation was concerned, I felt bound to refuse
constituting myself a sort of State prisoner within the gates of
my own residence, and I took my rides as usual, accompanied,
at the earnest entreaty of the Japanese Ministers, by a few
mounted Yaconins, a very useless appendage if any real danger
was to be apprehended, as I had very soon occasion to remark,
and distinctly told the Ministers, giving my grounds for arriv-
ing at the conclusion.
Some very curious details respecting the conspirators who
had leagued together to slay the Regent, and their subsequent
acts, reached me long after this period, and, as. they are highly
illustrative of the customs and traditions of the Japanese, and
tend to throw some new light on their present political condi-
tion, I can not do better than close this chapter with their re-
cital.
Of the assassination of the Tycoon on the throne, when Com-
modore Perry's expedition first arrived in the Bay of Yeddo
in 1853, some account has already been given in a preceding
chapter, and so far back this tragic history may be easily traced
by very tangible links of connection. When his son, Mina-
motto Yesado, was gathered to his fathers, after the signature
of the second American treaty, negotiated by Mr. Harris in
1858, with or'without the aid of medicine,'according to the
odd phraseology of the Japanese in similar cases (though there
is a popular conviction that he had the aid of medicine of the
most effective kind), and a minor of the royal house of Kiusiu
was elected to fill the vacant place, Ikomono-no-kami became
Regent by hereditary right. And, it may fairly be presumed,
he had not been without influence in an election by the great
Council of Daimios, which, while it excluded the house of Mito
—father and son both of mature age—virtually placed the ex-
ecutive power of the realm in his hands. But the reader knows


- 312
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chaf. XVII.
this was not the only grievance, real or fancied, of the Prince
of Mito, then an old man of sixty, against the Regent. He was
accused by the latter of the murder of the last Tycoon, Mina-
motto Yesado, by poison, and on the strength of it had him
banished to his territories as a temporary measure, under prom-
ise of speedy release. So far from this, one of the first acts of
the Council, under the regency of Ikomono-no-kami, was to de-
pose him from his principality in favor of his son, and to pass
a sentence of perpetual banishment from the capital. Hence
the plot of Mito's followers to avenge their Prince for this
double act of treachery, and, if there be any truth in the popu-
lar version, more devoted or determined adherents no prince
in the feudal ages of Europe could ever boast. The head of
the Regent is said to have been got safely out of Yeddo, and
presented to the Prince their master, who spat upon it with
maledictions, as the head of his greatest enemy. It was then
carried to Miaco, the capital of the Mikado, and there exposed
at a place of execution in that city especially destined for princes
condemned to be executed—'Sidio onagawarcH it is called, and
over it was placed a placard, 'This is the head of a traitor who
has violated the most sacred laws of Japan—those which for-
bid the admission of foreigners into the country' After two
hours of exposure, the same intrepid followers are said to have
brought it away, and in the night to have cast it over the wall
into the court of Ikomono's palace at Yeddo, from whence he
had sallied out in pride and power on the morning of his death.
A strange history—strange if true,, and scarcely less so if
invented. Not less, but more illustrative, perhaps, in the lat-
ter case, of the popular idea of heroism arid poetic justice, as
these are, moreover, exemplified in a hundred legends and tra-
ditions, which form the staple of their theatrical pieces, their
picture-books, and their popular tales. One of the most cele-
brated of these is a story of a small Daimio, who, having a
feud in past times with one of the Tycoon's Council of State,
determined to avenge himself by slaying his enemy when he
met him in the palace. He made the attempt and failed, in-
flicting only a slight wound, some of the attendants having
seized him from behind as he was aiming his blow. Foiled in
his object, he returned to his house; and having collected his
officers and retainers about him, and made his preparations for
disemboweling himself, he deliberately performed the opera-
tion in their presence, and then, handing the short sword cov-
ered with his blood to his secretary, he laid his dying injunc-
tions upon him, as his liege lord, with that very weapon to take
the life of his enemy. The latter, being freed from his antag-


314
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVIII.
their general estimate of all deeds of like character, whether it
be the slaying of a Regent or the massacre of a Foreign Lega-
tion, is very certain, and presents a state of things well worthy
of serious consideration.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Stray Leaves from a Journal.—Thoughts discursive and retrospective on
Japanese Relations.—Speculations on the Future.—Trade Returns and
General Results.—Retrospect of the first Twelve Months after the opening
of the Ports by Treaty.—The Gain and the Loss summed up.
The succeeding three months, from April to June, in this
year offered little that was either striking or novel to record.
Newspaper writers in search of' sensation articles,' had there
been any such in Japan, would have been in sad dearth of ma-
terials. The usual number of earthquakes and fires only, and
not a single case of slaughter or assassination! A year had
now passed and gone since H. M. S.' Sampson' steamed up the
Bay of Yeddo, freighted with our Diplomatic and Consular es-
tablishments in Japan. What had been the progress made—
the gain and the loss on the first twelve months of effort, dip-
lomatic and commercial?
The first anniversary of the day of arrival—not likely to be
forgotten in such isolation—found me in the temple where I
had first taken up my residence pending the selection of a per-
manent site for building, and the erection of a Legation. It
was near the end of June in 1860; and as I sat musing over
the past 1m d the future, my thoughts dwelt long and anxiously
on our prospects in Japan, and the course which foreign rela-
tions seemed likely to take. The future of Japan itself, and
its contented, industrious, and teeming population, entered
largely into my speculations.
It was a wild night. The great trees, which form a noble
screen of evergreens on the garden side of the temple, and
serve to shut out the rays of the western sun as it descends,
were swaying to and fro like the masts of a storm-tossed ship
at sea, while the wind came rushing through their branches in
gusts that shook the building itself. When these intermitted,
the loud plashing of the rain, as it fell in torrents from the
eaves, and beat against the casements, in spite of a projecting
veranda, made a dismal sort of accompaniment. It was the
wind-up of the wet season, which, with frequent breaks, had
lasted two months. 'Two months!' I mentally exclaimed, as


Chap. XVIII.]
HOW TIME PASSED.
315
the thought crossed me; and I turned mechanically to a book
labeled—with questionable accuracy, so far as any use I made
of it was concerned—' Diary,' to satisfy myself that my imag-
ination had not made a shorter period fill that space. I found
it was nearly that time since any entry had been made of date,
thought, or fact. Time, which seemed to' drag its slow length
along' so wearily day by day, had nevertheless, with an even
and stealthy pace, glided on almost imperceptibly, filching dear
life away by inches. Dear life! what could make it so, in such
an exile as this—in total isolation, under sentence of banish-
ment without any definite term—utter banishment from all
that enters into and constitutes existence in a civilized coun-
try? The ringing laugh of merry childhood, the soft voice
and familiar tones of woman, the interchange of ideas and in-
tellectual intercourse, continually fed by new materials for
thought, all were wanting as absolutely as though an evil des-
tiny had cast me in a clearing in the back woods of Canada or
Texas! Shut up in this great heathen city—a very wilder-
ness of men and women, as I have already styled it, semi-civ-
ilized Asiatics of a strange type—with two or three juniors
and fellow-victims only for companions, what could be more
dispiriting or more fossilizing? A very few months suffice
to enable half a dozen people, even with well-stocked brains,
to travel over each other's minds, and to do it so often in ev-
ery sense, as Johnson once feelingly complained when restrict-
ed for a few weeks only to such a narrow range and spare
diet, that nothing new remains to be discovered—nothing from
'Dan to Beersheba.' The monotony of
A twice-told tale,
Vexing the dall ear of a drowsy man,
is liveliness itself to a tale or a remark heard twenty times
over—the same, or another so like that the impression is iden-
tical.
Men in active life, after time has scattered gray hairs on
their track, may write of their thoughts, if they have any, but
seldom journalize their feelings unless they have a great deal
of spare time on their hands and little to occupy their minds.
Yet, if any thing in the outward conditions of an existence
could drive the tide backward to the heart, and keep thought
fast chained in a work of introspection, it would surely be such
a life as I now led in the capital of the Tycoon! In the en-
deavor to escape from the too painful consciousness of the sub-
jective 'me' with a present so full of weariness, and a future
so void of hope, I took up 'Eothen,' to try and lose, in the
freshness and quiet humor of its author, all that was so stale,


316
[Chap. XVIII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
flat, and unprofitable about myself. Even in describing scenes
which we have either traveled over in person, or vicariously in
the thousand and one writers of 'narratives' and 'diaries'—
from Lady Wortley Montagu or 'Anastasius' Hope, to War-
burton and Miss Martineau, learned in the Pharaohs—how
pleasantly still he beguiles you! How grateful we feel for his
consideration in sparing us all scraps of other people's learning
or dullness—dissertations on antiquities only interesting on the
spot; and columns of statistics which nobody can check, or
would care to take the trouble of scrutinizing if they could—
contenting himself and his reader with slight allusions and in-
cidental references only. But, after a short time, even this re-
source failed on the present occasion. The wind continued its
wierd incantations among the branches of the trees, and, in a
feeling of desperation, drawing the neglected diary to me, I
sat down and wrote, far into the night, as the only way of lay-
ing the ghosts of things Japanese, past, present, and future,
which would not be chased away by any less potent spell.
As I turned over the pages not long ago, seeking, or rather
taking a mental inventory of the materials which had been in-
sensibly accumulating ever since my arrival in the country, I
came upon this night's work, long cast aside and forgotten. I
found, in glancing over them, that they supplied a better and
more vivid picture of my Japanese life at this period, in all its
most characteristic features, than I could attempt to repro-
duce. And, as one object in this narrative of my residence in
Japan is to give such glimpses of the people and their rulers
among whom my lot was cast as flitted before my eyes like
dissolving views, day after day, and so afford to those who
have never been in the country a faithful report of my own
impressions, photographed at the moment, under an Eastern
sky, I can not do better than give the fragment as it was writ-
ten, while the mind was in the sensitive state which best fits
it to receive and perpetuate a sharp and well-defined image of
the objects brought within its field. If it answers no other or
better purpose, it will at least supply the Retrospect it was
my desire to give at this stage, and afford a sort of halting-
place from whence we may look back upon the country trav-
eled over, and take a glance at the road which lies stretched
before us to a yet distant horizon. If somewhat meditative
and discursive, local coloring and fidelity of detail may make
up for a certain diffusiveness, and give to a slight sketch from
nature a merit often wanting in a more studied picture. With
this apology I venture to transfer, without material change or
emendation, the following


Chap. XVIII.]
LEAVES OF A JOURNAL. 317
STRAY LEAVES FROM A JOURNAL. •
'A wide gap there would be to fill up if this were really in-
tended to be a daily journal or record, which it is not, and
never will be. There is so much in life, in all we say, and do,
and feel, to say nothing of all we think, which would be tedi-
ous if written down—often tedious and wearisome enough in
the acting, but doubly so in the recording, and useless withal!
It is related of a once celebrated physician—Dr. Fordyce, I
think—that he was remarkable, among other things, for an
astonishing memory for details, and the fidelity and minute-
ness with which he could recall, after the lapse of any number
of years, the occurrences of any given day of his life, even in
the most trivial things. And it is said he owed this entirely
to a discipline he voluntarily imposed upon himself in youth,
never to go to bed until he had recapitulated to himself every
word and incident of the day, beginning with the order in
which he pulled his stockings on, and so throughout the day
to the end, not forgetting the dishes on the table at dinner!
I remember being struck, when I heard it, young as I then
was, with the feeling that not even the memory or the gift of
a Mezzofanti would be worth purchasing at such a price as the
intolerable penance of living all one's life twice over—in its
trivialities and its boredom, as well as its pleasant scenes!
But, if I thought so then, when life had much of novelty in
store, and freshness too, what would be my feelings if any ma-
levolent spirit were to threaten me with such a burden now—
here in Yeddol A thousand things must be said and done
every day—needful for the time, doubtless; but, having once
served their generation, like the patriarchs of old, and passed
away, it would be a vile proceeding to call them from their
graves and make them walk this earth again. Doubtless many
incidents and occurrences are daily taking place among us
which seem trivial at the time, though their influence upon
ourselves, and upon many others, may extend through all time.
Indeed, in one sense, nothing that happens is without an in-
fluence, or wholly trivial and unimportant. Nevertheless, even
writers of diaries (with the exception of a Pepys, who is amus-
ing and instructive because all the trivial and minute incidents
of his daily life, and that of his compeers, like flies in amber,
are so perfectly preserved for a future generation) must of
necessity exercise some discrimination in what they record or
omit. I wonder whether any one ever reads their own jour-
nals? I remember once trying myself, and finding it impossi-
ble; and so I threw the musty volumes into the.fire, and have


Chap. XVIII.]
WEAR AND TEAR.
319
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest still are these—It might have been!
An irrevocable past and a hopeless future are both implied.
I don't know what has betrayed me into this vein of moraliz-
ing; I believe I am getting weary of the never-ending grind
of the wheels of life, and the unbroken monotony of such an
existence—weary, in spite of all my philosophy, its constant
dangers and startling incidents. One carries a life in one's
hand until at last it becomes an intolerable burden, and we are
ready to throw it away. The same ever-recurring tracasseries
and anxieties, with the equally nnfailing consciousness of ina-
bility to secure any really satisfactory results, harass and tire
me! Not all the' peace,' but
All the misery which springs
From the large aggregate of little things,
should be the reading here. Foreign merchants and Japanese
officials often vying with each other in efforts to, tear the treat-
ies into shreds, or, like clown and harlequin, leaping one after
the other through all its paper clauses, wholly regardless of
the damage done to more permanent interests than those of
the hour, and more important objects than those of the few in-
dividuals on the spot! Consuls of many nations sometimes
joining in this play at cross purposes with each other, some from design, and others from want of judgment. And so the
weary wheel goes round, always demanding action, nerve, and
effort, but never advancing or making any perceptible progress
toward a finite end. It is recorded of Johnson that he pro-
pounded the question one day, " Who was the most to be en-
vied, he who had every thing to hope and nothing to fear, or
the man in whom these conditions were reversed by his hav-
ing every thing to fear and nothing to hope?" The latter
would very well apply to a diplomatic agent in Japan, al-
though Johnson designed it to describe the rich man as com-
pared with the poor, who has nothing to lose, and consequent-
ly little to fear.
'Of daily work and events there seems to be little worth re-
cording, and yet each day brings its task, and generally its
struggle with the adverse influences about us. Political events
do not, so far as we can see, move very fast here. The status
quo remains, despite many mutterings and subterranean heav-
ings of this volcanic soil beneath our feet, so truly emblematic
or typical of the moral atmosphere above. Changes seem im-
pending, and yet they do not come, or come but slowly and
partially. We are in a very unfavorable position for correct


Chap. XVIII.] SCORES TO SETTLE. 321
made by a drunken Yaconin on an English merchant at Hako-
dadi—not over discreet, perhaps, in risking a collision, though
clearly the Japanese was the aggressor, and apparently out of
pure wantonness and malice. Then I had to meet, on their
side, a complaint made by Government officers of rudeness,
said to have been offered them by a Consul at the same port,
in which I should have liked to have felt more certain there
"was no foundation! We had next, as I told him, to take ship
for Nagasaki, and discuss the tenure of land in the foreign lo-
cation there; to insist upon our right to build on the hill-side,
and not to be penned up like cattle in a swamp below—a De-
cima without its advantages; to contend for a cemetery to
bury our dead, and the ground for a dock in which to repair
our ships. Thence back to Kanagawa, and settle a squabble
about itziboos between the Governor of that place and H. M.'s
Consul, who had been accused by the former of giving a false
return—a trifle they did not think it necessary to lose time in
substantiating by evidence; and His Excellency was surprised
I took it seriously, and insisted on the charge being either sub-
stantiated, or withdrawn with an apology. Then to Yeddo to protest against the insult offered by shutting the gates of the
Imperial cemetery, open to all the population of Yeddo, in the
face of some of the Legation, with every mark of premeditated
rudeness, on which it was necessary to say many hard things,
as upon their whole policy of surrounding the Foreign Repre-
sentatives with meddling spies and subaltern police, who keep
us in an odious quarantine, and prevent all free access. This
is yet a drawn battle, which has been going on ever since we
arrived, and where, so far, we have rather lost than gained
ground! And so, heartily weary, no doubt, of each other, we
withdrew our respective forces about sunset, and I tried to re-
cover my equanimity on a favorite hack, who evidently thought
these five-hour conferences quite as tiresome as his master, and
went off at a pace which left the attendant Yaconins small time
to settle themselves on the top of their outlandish saddles, on
which they perch like apes, and with quite as little grip on
their horses. I sometimes think, as they pass me, what an ex-
ample a troop of dragoons would make of a few thousands of
them, if ever they had a chance and got in among them. As
I passed along the four miles of ramparts and streets which lie
between the minister's house adjoining the Tycoon's palace
and Tozengee, I guided my horse with checked speed through
the swarms of children and Yeddites of maturer years, equally
sans culottes in the literal sense. Night was closing in; my
escort in advance had lanterns attached to their belts by a
O 2


322 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVIII.
bamboo, and at short intervals the lights from the bath-houses
showed the usual scene of two or three dozen figures laughing,
splashing, and talking. Ever and anon some Daimio's retain-
er would swagger past with a truculent jest of scorn and de-

HOMEWARD BOUND.
fiance, while more peaceable wayfarers were gaining their
homes. I fell insensibly into a train of thought on the destiny
which had left me stranded on this far-off shore, and moralizing
on the sort of people among whom my lot had been cast. The
description the authoress of the " Mill on the Floss" gives of
that degraded species of existence, the ant-hill life of the Dod-
sons and Tullivers in the Yorkshire dells, as in other parts of
our soi-disant Christian land, mutato nomine, would admirably
answer for the Japanese; the Dodsons have their national
countertype here.
'This " emmet life," described as essentially a sordid, sensu-
al life, "irradiated by no sublime principles, no romantic vis-
ions, no active self-renouncing faith—a life so sordid that even
sorrow hardly suffices to lift it above the level of the tragi-
comic." So says the writer of the clever critique in the
"Times" which I have just been reading. I could not help be-
ing struck with its perfect applicability to the Japanese. Here
I see it in the reality in still more vivid colors than even the
authoress has limned her characters," in all its nakedness, hid eousness, and littleness," this life of respectable brutishness,
which so many persons lead even in Europe," illumined by not
one ray of spiritual influence, by no suspicion of a higher life,
of another world, of a surrounding divinity." Thus live and
die these thirty millions of human beings from one generation
to another. Yet they do not seem to become more brutish,
more degraded, more immoral. What they are now they seem


324 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVIII.
vation, considering that inconveniences are rather found by ex-
perience than foreseen by judgment." Stare super antiquas
vices is held to be a good maxim in more enlightened countries
than Japan! And, in truth, we are apt to be impatient, and
too ready, perhaps—seeing with other eyes than theirs where
the true interests of both countries lie, and all that is obstruc-
tive and retrograde in their policy—to exclaim against their
arguments for inaction. But thirty years ago, in England, very
similar reasoning was daily produced by leading statesmen in
Lords and Commons against the repeal of the Corn laws; the
same reasoning is commonly resorted to through Europe gen-
erally at this day; and are we so sure that opposition to free
trade, and to innovation in legislation, have no supporters
among our own Daimios still? Are there no "stupid preju-
dices," no "antiquated notions," or "ecclesiastical bigotry,"
the legacies of former generations, yet to be done battle with
in England, or her offspring, free and enlightened America ?—
England, the great proselytizer of nations, and foremost among
the champions of free trade! What if the Japanese Mission,
when about to sail for England, had received instructions to
propose, not free trade—that we have at length made up our
minds to accept as the best for our own interests as a whole
nation, however hard it may press upon fractional portions as
producers—but the reduction, say, of our exorbitant duty of 200
per cent. upon tea (one of the great staples of Japan), or, with
a supposed leaning to the introduction of the Sintoo religion
and system of endowment, they should propose to us to throw
open the doors of our universities and churches to all comers,
and alter the whole system and curriculum of education; or a
modification of our representative institutions and system of
government as "essential to greater harmony and cordiality
in the relations between the two countries, the existing order
of things being a grave impediment, preventing our ever taking
a just view of the policy of an Eastern kingdom like Japan?"
They would probably meet with some opposition in the coun-
try, if not active hostility. Their pretensions to make innova-
tions would not escape sharp discussion and censure in Lords
and Commons; Exeter Hall might not speak altogether mildly
on the subject; I should not be surprised if, at the first grand
meeting to consider the " interests of religion and order,"
their immediate and ignominious expulsion from the kingdom
might not be voted unanimously! As for the Government, it
might either pooh-pooh the whole thing or treat it with scorn;
but, in either case, means would be found, in perfectly diplo-
matic language, I have no doubt, of telling them that the Jap-


Chap. XVIII.] JAPANESE TRADE.
325
anese Government had better mind their own business, and
leave us to deal with England and its affairs, as we knew best.
'From all these considerations, bearing upon the history of
the past and the present, there is a moral to be drawn, I think.
"A narrow-necked bottle," says Quintilian somewhere,"must
be humored; pour gently, or you spill instead ofJill." So I
must find yet more patience to continue the work, and try " to
fill instead of spill."
'But, despite all obstacles and difficulties, as I have noted,
some progress has really been made. My letters from England
might encourage me. "We are surprised so much has been
done in the time; the merchants are well satisfied with the re-
sults and full of hope. You who are on the spot, and occupied
in clearing away the rubbish, do not see it; but we who are
looking on from the distance perceive your progress, and are
content." And so I suppose I must learn to be, if I am to re-
main another year at the same work, and I see no prospect of
relief. Certainly the year, just ended, since the opening of the
ports and the exchange of ratifications, has been an eventful
one for Japan, and a very weary one for " H. M.'s Representa-
tive at the Court of the Tycoon." Let us pass it in review,
count the gain and the loss; these may both be summed up
now, and a balance struck.
'As to what has been actually achieved in the way of Com-
merce during the first year after the opening of the ports, it
has been clearly established that Japan can furnish both tea
and silk of such quality and price as will bring both into the
home market advantageously, in competition with those of Chi-
na. Some 15,000 chests of tea, and not less than 3000 bales
of silk, exported during the twelve months, proved, by the
prices obtained in the home markets, and the profits realized,
that they could enter into such competition. Some of the finer
silk realized four shillings a pound more than the best prod-
uce of China.' [I may here remark that at first it was sup-
posed we had probably absorbed the whole surplus of the
country, and that the amount exported showed, therefore, all
that was immediately producible for foreign trade. But even
at the time there was a promise, amply realized in the follow-
ing year, of a large increase, the limits of which have not yet
been ascertained. The 3000 bales swelled to 18,000.]
'In the streets of Yeddo hundreds of tea-chests are being
manufactured in preparation for exports; and of this staple of
a foreign trade there is every reason to believe the quantity
hitherto exported might be increased to an indefinite extent,
without even additional planting. The Japanese themselves


Chap. XVIII.] A MORAL QUARANTINE. 327
cumstances of great barbarity, and, to all appearance, without
any provocation. According to common report among the
Japanese, they were political murders, deliberately planned and
executed for political purposes in all, perhaps, save that of my
linguist, who had something like a personal feud with the most
dangerous class in Japan—the Daimios' retainers, though he was
undoubtedly obnoxious to the Government too, as one capable
of furnishing me with information not otherwise attainable by
a foreigner. As for the Foreign Representatives themselves,
besides being exposed to similar danger, with like objects in
the assailants, the members of the several Legations are all (in
thorough accordance with the policy of the preceding three
centuries) put in moral quarantine, and a cordon follows them
wherever they go, permitting no respectable Japanese or na-
tive of the educated and higher classes to approach them! In
vain the respective Ministers have protested, and some, at
least, persistently and energetically have fought against the
system; but the Japanese government have such infinite re-
sources and means at their disposal for giving effect to any
policy of this nature, that we are always at a great disadvant-
age, and, it must be confessed, have been hitherto, as was to
be expected, signally worsted in nearly every struggle to break
through the toils of the hunter.
'This systematic and persistent policy of isolation and re-
striction in regard to all foreigners in the country—the Mer-
chants at the ports and the Ministers in the capital, and
against all nations impartially and unchangeably, together with
a certain insecurity to life and denial of justice when either life
or property may have been sacrificed—are among the great-
est difficulties still to be encountered. And judging by the
amount and successful nature of the resistance offered, and the
failure of all the efforts of the Foreign Legations, separately
and collectively, to effect any sensible change or amelioration,
it is evident they are difficulties which will endure, and, for a
long time to come, be the hardest to grapple with successfully.
Yet there is nothing in the first twelve months' experience
more strongly impressed upon my mind than the conviction
that, until we do succeed in this, no permanent or sure prog-
ress can well be made. While we are isolated by a cordon
of Japanese officials from the whole population, and debarred
all free intercourse both with the mass and the higher classes,
our relations must of necessity rest on a basis as insecure as it
is unsatisfactory. We are, and always shall be, at the mercy
of the Government of the day, and may be massacred at any
moment, at a given hour, the turn of the Tycoon's fan for a
J


Chap. XIX.]
SEEMING TRIFLES.
329
fitting conditions and ceremonial, unaffected by any precedent
which might be created by any of his colleagues, I had deferred
taking any steps for my own reception. I did so the more,
willingly, Mr. Harris having consulted officially with me on the
subject, aud communicated both the offense offered, and the
steps he proposed taking in vindication of the honor and dig-
nity of his Government. I considered him perfectly right in
not passing over what we neither of us doubted was intended
as a slight in the eyes of the Japanese Court, including all the
Daimios and retainers on the spot. In Eastern courts it is pre-
cisely by such studied slights and insults, often veiled under a
pretense of showing honor, and always denied when they are
found out, that Eastern diplomacy seeks to avenge itself on
Foreign Powers for the humiliation of receiving their Repre-
sentatives, or holding any relations with foreigners at all, ex-
cept as tribute-bearers or suppliants! And as the knowledge
any European can possess, in the first instance, of the etiquette,
forms, and customs of an Eastern court — more especially
where, as in Japan, our relations are new—must be very slight
and imperfect, they feel and know their advantage, and are
generally disposed to press it to the utmost, by imposing upon
an Ambassador some mockery of their forms, which is alleged
to be in accordance with their customs, while it is, in fact, the
reverse, and calculated to humiliate and degrade in the eyes
of the natives. It may be something seemingly frivolous or
indifferent in itself whether the robe of the foreigner be blue
or yellow, whether his head be covered or bare, the courtiers
in full costume or in morning wrappers, their slippers on or
off, their trowsers to the ankle or a yard longer to conceal their
feet*—it matters very little what; the only question for a For-
eign Representative is, whether the forms and customs adopt-
ed are such as, according to established customs and etiquette
of the country, would be held to indicate respect, or insult and
humiliation? For the prestige of the nation so treated in the
person of its Representative, and his own personal influence
and weight at the Court where he is accredited, will be determ-
ined by these seemingly indifferent matters. This, of course,
will appear obvious enough to any sensible person on reflec-
tion, and is matter of notoriety and universal experience among
those who have lived among Asiatics; but it is just one of
those subjects which offer a tempting handle to newspaper
writers, who, sometimes from ignorance, but often (counting
upon the ignorance of their readers) with mischievous intent,
seek to damage a public servant, or the Government which
* The official costume in grand ceremonies of the Tycoon's Court.


332
[Chap. XIX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
down to the lowest official or Taconin about the Legations, they
very naturally saw less to admire in the friendly expressions
of Ministers. It was perhaps inevitable that the two should
look with different eyes upon the course of the Government to
which they were accredited, and be disposed to apply a differ-
ent test to its assurances of good will, and cordial desire to pro-
vide for our security and give execution to treaties. Deeds,
not words, form an experimentum cruets before which all pro-
fessions are apt to lose much of their value; and when the
deeds are wholly inconsistent with, and often in utter contra-
diction to the words of promise, it is not easy, where there is
no personal predilection or foregone conclusion biasing the
judgment, to believe in the good faith or sincerity of those
who are responsible for both. I say responsible for both; but
for the second Mr. Harris often found excuses, in the want of
power which he attributed to the Tycoon and his Council to
give such fulfillment, or even to prevent acts directly affecting
the security of life and property, and violating the first condi-
tions of a treaty of amity and commerce, or, indeed, of any per-
manent and peaceable relations.
The full development of this original cause of divergence into
a manifest and avowed want of unity in action and thought
was yet to come; and, in the mean time, both the French
Charge d'Affaires and myself gave the Ministers distinctly to
understand that we did not desire our respective audiences
until they had satisfactorily arranged with the Minister of the
United States the conditions and ceremonial such as he could
accept, for the farther reception he had required, and that ice
were in entire accord with him on the subject. At last, after
negotiations and conferences which seemed well-nigh interm-
inable, a programme having been agreed upon with Mr. Harris,
it was presented to me and accepted. By this the whole cere-
monial, from the door of the Legations to the palace and back
again, was fixed.
Mr. Harris had his audience first, as had been previously ar-
ranged, and, his report being satisfactory, a day was fixed for
the British Minister. I could certainly have desired that it
had not been a broiling day in August under an Eastern sun, but
these things must be taken as they come. According to pre-
concerted arrangements, Takimoto Dzoosiono Kami, one of the
eight Governors of Foreign Affairs, arrived soon after 7 A.M.
to conduct the procession to the palace, an hour and a half's
course in a norimon. In a few minutes the cortege was en
route. First, the Governor and his suite, then the British Min-
ister and the members of the Legation, Japanese and British,
with standard, spear, and umbrella bearers, led horses, and a


334
[Chap. XIX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
ances, and still more in repressing a smile when the recogni-
tion took place. How shall I describe it? Nothing but the
pencil can convey a true notion of what it is, or rather what
its effect is, to any one who has not seen the reality.
To begin with the head, the shaven and usually bare crown
had perched upon the top what I suppose must be called a cap,
for want of any more appropriate name, made of black lackered
papier-mache. In shape it appears like a boat turned bottom
up, with one half cut off and the edges folded in. The surcoat
of gauze, projecting at the shoulders, and called in Japanese
the Kamisima, partially conceals a robe of darker hue, beneath
which again a pair of Turkish trowsers, or petticoat rather, of
figured silk, the Haka-ma, is slit open at the sides to allow the
outer robe to be tucked in, and secured at the waist by a broad
belt, through which the two swords, the one long and the other
short, are passed. But the most singular part of the whole
costume, and that which, added to the head-gear, gave an irre-
sistibly comic air to the whole presentment, was the immeas-
urable prolongation of the silk trousers. These, instead of stop-
ping short at the heels, are unconscionably lengthened, and left
to trail two or three feet behind them, so that their feet, as they
ened by said prolongations trailing behind on the floor, col-
lapsed and evidently empty. It certainly required some com-
mand of countenance to follow gravely these high officers in
such a masquerading costume; and how they managed to
shuffle on, without tumbling at each step, was all but incom-
prehensible. I have seen none of the Japanese conjurors do
any thing better.
Thus preceded, we were ushered into an anteroom, where
all the Governors of Foreign Affairs came to make their sal-
utation. Then all the high Ometskys of the palace, to the num-
ber of some seven or eight, were presented in form—the' look-

JAPANESE 'LORDS IN WAITING.'
advanced, seemed pushed
into what should have been
the knees of the garment.
The consequence was, that
they were compelled to
shuffle along like so many
people shorn by some gen-
eral calamity of both legs,
and walking upon their
stumps, much as a man cut
down to his knees might
be expected to progress, an
effect still farther height-


Chap. XIX.]
THE TYCOON'S PALACE
335
era through,' who are supposed to see and to note every thing
for the information of the Government. These were followed
by the heads of the Treasury and Mint. A few minutes were
thus passed, while cups of tea were handed round and the ar-
rival of the British Minister was being announced to the Coun-
cil of State, and by them to the Tycoon. The room was of
twenty-eight mats (so they measure rooms in Japan, each mat
being of regulation size, the larger six feet by three), of no
great pretensions, yet handsome withal. If the walls were not
covered with chef-d'oeuvres from the Gobelins, or the pencil of
a Titian or Correggio, the sliding panels or screens, of which
the partitions are always formed in Japanese houses, presented
pictures dashed off with a free pencil, and which had at least
the merit of singularity—birds soaring in skies of gold, trees
rising out of equally effulgent seas (or hills indifferently), with
a dreamy sort of vagueness as to the respective limits of earth,
sky, or water, though all were evidently intended to appear.
The floor was of matting, in the usual way, each mat edged
with a border of figured silk, the effect of which is by no means
bad. The ceiling was lackered, and divided into square com-
partments, deeply cut, with gold and colored leaves embossed
in lacker forming the centres, not unlike our older Gothic ceil-
ings. Some elaborate, but rather coarse carving filled up cer-
tain spaces running round one side of the room, between the
ceiling and the tops of the sliding panels, which are seldom
higher than six feet from the ground, as tall Saxons and Celts
have found to their cost many times. When Admiral Hope
was at the Legation I was always in anxiety for his head, and
H. M.'s Consul at Kanagawa fairly tried the strength of his
skull against the sharp edge of the traversing beam, and meas-
ured his length backward on the ground under a blow that
might have killed a weaker man.* On the side of the room
opposite the entrance, a very narrow court, or passage rather,
open'to the sky, let in light and air from above, and was evi-
dently there for that purpose only, none coming from any oth-
er quarter. By the time I had made these observations, I was
invited to move forward through a corridor lined with kneel-
ing attendants some two or three deep, until I reached another
and smaller room, or rather an angle screened off, where I had
to wait until the signal should be given that the Tycoon was
seated in the audience hall.
* Upon a later occasion, Mr. Oliphant, the Secretary of Legation, owed
his life to this peculiarity of construction, every blow aimed at his head with
the two-handed sword, in his encounter in the passage with $ome of the as-
sassins, being turned aside in the dark by the low traverse beam.


338
[Chap. XIX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
before crowned heads, and, therefore, I should not avail myself
of the permission, willing to show to the Tycoon the observ-
ance and respect due to my own Sovereign. It nearly termin-
ated untowardly, however, for my usher. Op my stepping
down into the corridor, just before turning round as I left the
chamber, he had already gained his feet, and was shuffling
away before me, leaving at least a yard of silk drapery behind
him trailing on the ground, when my heel pinned one of these.
For a moment it seemed doubtful whether he must part com-
pany with his garment, or fall backward to save it. But, with
this small misadventure, all went smoothly. I retired to an-
other room, where I received the congratulations of the Coun-
cil of Ministers, and then my party wended its way back as it
came, preceded by another of the Governors of Foreign Af-
fairs, and we arrived at the Legation about noon. Immediate-
ly after, Oribeno-no-kami, a second Governor of Foreign Affairs,
made his appearance with a box carried by eight men—a pres-
ent from the Tycoon, with which he was specially charged, as
a time-honored custom. On the top was a roll of dried fish
and sea-weed, tied round by a red and white string made of
twisted paper, the only string they use—supposed to be em-
blematic of humility, and to remind the Japanese that they
were 'once a race of poor fishermen, and that by temperance
and frugality they had risen to greatness, which only by such
virtues could be preserved.' The box contained a series of
trays, with a variety of the most recherche confectionery, taste-
fully arranged in variegated rows and figures. The two Gov-
ernors and chief interpreter, Moriyama, accepted my invitation
to breakfast, this answering to their usual noon meal, and
seemed to enjoy some preserved mutton and green peas, as
well as the champagne, and did not even refuse to eat — in
courtesy to their host, probably—some remarkably tough beef
of Japanese growth. I fear they could make no pretensions
to be considered good Buddhists, nor have I yet met any of
the official class who do not either feel or affect great con-
tempt for any creed but that of Taouists, or some kindred sect
of rationalists and skeptics. Moriyama is an especial admirer
of ale and coffee — the latter a very general taste among all
who came to the Legation; and, indeed, nothing but oppor-
tunity is wanting, I fancy, to make the Japanese generally con-
sumers of many of our European luxuries—to the great detri-
ment, it is to be feared, of the frugality and temperance so
earnestly inculcated as the habits of their fishermen ancestors.
Perhaps their Rulers are not so far wrong in looking forward
with dread to the time when Western civilization and luxu-


Chap. XIX.]
SPARTAN SIMPLICITY.
339
ries shall take the place of their own more simple habits of
life, with no wants but those which are easily supplied, and
that from their own soil, without the necessity of paying trib-
ute to the foreigner. How soon such changes may come it is
impossible to say, seeing what marvelous progress has marked
the last seven years. Notwithstanding their long and reso-
lutely maintained isolation and exclusion, carried even into
their political economy, and cherished in the national mind as
their ark of safety and the shibboleth of their independence,
the day has arrived when a British Minister can take up his
residence in the capital, and is received by the Tycoon, not as
were the chiefs of the Dutch factory at Decima — long the
only representatives of Europe—in the days now long passed,
and never, it is to be hoped, to return. There is hope in this,
but there is also danger; for when were ever changes so
sudden and extreme made without danger and risk of reac-
tion?
I may say, in conclusion, that I was struck with the order
and decorum of all I saw within the palace. As things are
ordered at the levee, nothing can exceed the general simplicity
of the arrangements. The suite of rooms and corridors are
unencumbered with a vestige of furniture—a Japanese noble,
like his serf or subject, as we know, sitting on his heels and
eating off a little lacker tray on legs standing only a few inch-
es from the ground, while both sleep on the mats of the floor
with a pillow of lacker or wood not larger than the head.
May they not truly congratulate themselves that they have
well preserved the Spartan simplicity of their ancestors, con-
tent with the same simple fare of rice and fish, and requiring
no foreign luxuries to absorb their wealth or enervate their
energies? The rooms, admitting of being opened their whole
width and length upon the ample corridors by merely remov-
ing the sliding screens, which are the only partitions in a Jap-
anese house, allow a great display of officers and attendants
in their costumes of ceremony without crowding. Passing
through rank after rank of these, mute and motionless as I
have described them, suddenly, on some signal apparently,
there is a general and long-prolonged sibilated sound impossi-
ble to describe, something between a 'hiss' and a long-drawn
'hish-t? It seems to circulate through the whole building far
and near, and to be echoed through all the courts and corri-
dors; and is supposed, I fancy, to indicate some act or move-
ment of the Tycoon bespeaking reverence and a hushed atten-
tion. It was immediately after one of these rustlings of the
breeze of reverence vibrating through the lips of a thousand


340 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX.
sibilating courtiers, that I received the signal to advance to
the entrance of the council chamber. I have never seen or
heard any thing like it, or, indeed, in the least resembling
this strange but impressive way of bespeaking profound rev-
erence.

FUSIYAMA FKOM THE SUBURBS OF YJEDDO.
CHAPTER XX.
Change of Scene.—A Pilgrimage to Fusiyama, and a Visit to the Spas of
Atami.
Various motives led me to plan an expedition through the
interior of the far-famed sacred mountain, and various causes
also delayed my departure until I had some reasons to fear the
Japanese Ministers might prove right in their confident pre-
dictions that it was too late to accomplish the ascent. August
was already past and the first days of September were gliding
on, while I was yet engaged in removing the obstacles raised
by the Ministers themselves in the first instance, and admira-
bly spread over time and space subsequently by their subor-
dinates, with a fertility of invention and hardihood of persist-
ence which, if it did not secure them success, would, in a bet-
ter cause, have entitled them to great praise.
There are but two months in the year, usually July and
August, when the mountain is sufficiently free from snow to
permit the ascent. So, at least, the natives assert, who go to
this snow-capped and cloud-enveloped shrine of their gods in
crowds every year; and, from my subsequent experience, I
should judge the ascent to be well-nigh impossible after any
snow has fallen. But, although they go in numbers, strangely
enough it is only the poorer classes, to whom, one would sup-
pose, both time and money must be the most difficult to com-


Chap. XX.] RESTRICTED LIBERTY. 341
mand, while the absence of either would create insurmounta-
ble obstacles. But what will not faith and energy, even a pa-
gan's faith, accomplish? It appears, if I may believe the Min-
isters, that it is not considered consistent with the dignity of
a Daimio, or even an officer of any rank, to make the pilgrim-
age, perhaps because too many of the greasy mob must una-
voidably come in close contact with them. Be this as it may,
it was one of the objections strongly urged by the Ministers:
'It was not fitting in a person of the rank of a British Envoy
to make the pilgrimage, limited by custom, if not by law, to
the lower classes!' If it be asked why the Ministers were so
averse to my giving effect to a plain stipulation of treaties, by
which the head of a Diplomatic mission is secured, with right
of residence in the capital, the free right to travel all over the
empire, I can only reply that there are many reasons apparent
enough. But which may have been the most influential of
these, or the real objection, is quite another question. No
doubt the whole policy of the existing rulers is to limit and
restrict, as far as possible, all locomotion of foreigners, and all
intercourse, commercial or social, with the natives. The infil-
tration of European ideas, principles, and habits of thought,
felt to be antagonistic and subversive of those heretofore prev-
alent, is not, in their opinion, a desirable consummation, and,
bo far as in them lies, it will be prevented. Of this I can have
no doubt; and with this ever-present feeling and guiding prin-
ciple, it is not to be wondered at if they have from the begin-
ning spared no effort to create impediments, and place the
Foreign Representatives especially (who, by treaty and diplo-
matic usage, could claim so much more latitude of action than
any others) in a sort of moral quarantine. It has only been
by a series of well-contested battles, in which much strategy
and perseverance has been displayed by the Japanese, and
much firmness and determination on the other side has been
required, that it has been possible to secure any semblance of
liberty in the capital, where, to say the truth, our presence was,
and is long likely to be, particularly unpalatable to all the priv-
ileged classes. It was first attempted to bar all traveling by
land to the port of Kanagawa, some seventeen miles distant.
Then, under pressure of alarm at the danger of disaffected per-
sons doing us personal injury, it was sought to confine the
members of the several Legations for an indefinite time,' until
the country was more quiet,' within the walls of the residences
assigned. To this day no Japanese of education or station can
pass within the gates, unless actually employed by the Govern-
ment. Nor, indeed, can any Japanese servant, workman, or


Chap. XX.]
IMPEDIMENTA.
343

HOW JAPANESE BEASTS OF BURDEN COMPORT THEMSELVES.
once the objections of the authorities had been put aside. To
make a pilgrimage to Fusiyama is an act of virtue with the
natives, to which deliverance from misfortune and sickness at-
taches; and an opportunity of doing this at my expense in-
stead of their own, and enjoying a holiday at the same time,
with an additional chance of service and good wages, was alto-
gether too much to be resisted. Even the Government officials
ordered to accompany me, and my most troublesome impedi-
ments in the beginning, at last discovered that I had chosen a
propitious time for my expedition, and evinced the greatest
alacrity when it became inevitable, and their part of obstruct-
ives had been played out. So I was, perhaps, to be considered
fortunate, on the whole, that my commissariat did not quite
take the proportions of an Indian detachment on a line of
march. Although I had especially stipulated for the absence
of any parade, and desired to dispense with an accompanying
escort, wishing on all accounts to travel as much as possible in
a private capacity, the Government's declared anxiety for my
security (along roads they persisted in considering dangerous)
made the company of a certain number of officials inevitable.
A Vice-Governor, three or four Yaconins (officers of the Gov-
ernment entitled to wear two swords), and of course an lomet-
sky,' or spy, to watch them, if not me—more probably both—
made up my escort. These all being gentlemen of a certain
dignity, each had their norimons, with bearers and attendants,
the Vice-Governor with umbrella and spear-bearers. These,
added to my own, made a cortSge of at least a hundred per-


344
[Chap. XX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
sons, with more than thirty horses; and, as my eye followed
them along the road nearly as far as I could see, I sighed invol-
untarily to think what I was undertaking, having had some ex-
perience of traveling in the East, both in its cares and its costs,
and under similar conditions of a large following. In truth, it
had required some effort on my part to face the inevitable
troubles, and without a political object, which I deemed of
some importance, I should never, perhaps, have started. But
it was a question whether the clause of the treaty giving unre-
stricted right of traveling to Foreign Representatives residing
in the capital was, like so many other stipulations, to be re-
garded as a dead letter to all practical purposes? It so hap-
pened that neither I nor any of my colleagues hitherto had
found leisure or inclination to put it to a practical test, and
give it effect by undertaking any expedition. American,
Dutch, and Russian agents had, on one or two occasions, trav-
eled along the high road, either from Nagasaki or Hakodadi,
on their way to and from the capital for purposes of negotia-
tion, as the Dutch formerly, to carry tribute; but a journey in
the interior, undertaken for the avowed purpose of recreation
and observation, and out of the beaten track, in the exercise of
a treaty right, was as yet an unheard-of thing. The difficulties
and obstacles I encountered, though not, on the whole, more
than experience led me to anticipate, were at least many and
tiresome. Sometimes the pleas for delay or abandonment put
forward were amusing. At first it was the unsettled state of
the country, and the risk of venturing so far from the capital
and seat of government; then it was too late in the season;
nay, 'at certain times the mountain opened in huge fissures
and swallowed up the incautious traveler.' Even when all
hope of absolutely stopping me must have been lost, it was
found a great feast, or matsuri, was going on, and the roads
would be filled with drunken, dissolute characters; so that, at
all events, I must defer my departure a few days. This con-
ceded, the preparations went on, and it was somewhat re-
markable that from this moment, having made a good fight
and been defeated, they seemed to accept the result as inevita-
ble, and ' ate their leek' with no bad grace after all. Indeed,
from the hour of my leaving Yeddo to the day of my return,
after a month's absence, I met not only with no farther ob-
struction, but, to all appearance, every thing was done by the
officials and Government to make my journey both pleasant
and safe; this I feel bound in justice to record.
I have said there was a political object apart from the pleas-
ure of getting away from my quasi state prison in Yeddo, and


Chap. XX.] POLITICAL OBJECTS.
345
the attractions of so novel an expedition in a new field of ob-
servation. The prospect of fine scenery, change of air, and an
experience of the sulphur spas of Atami, with a quiet sojourn
by the sea-side, all of which were in the programme, might
have been insufficient. But I wished especially to ascertain
for myself whether there was any foundation for the never-
failing assertion of the Ministers, that the 'country was in an
unsettled state, owing to the increased dearness of every thing,
caused by the sudden demands of foreign trade.' I wished to
have the opportunity of judging whether the excitement and
hostility toward foreigners, in consequence of the newly-con-
tracted foreign relations, and departure from the ancient pol-
icy of seclusion and isolation, did or did not exist away from
the centre of government. And this personal observation
could alone supply, while traveling leisurely through the coun-
try. Other objects there were also, only to be attained by my
own presence. It is true, I ran the risk of encountering disa-
agreeable evidences of the power of the Rulers of Japan to
verify their own prophecies; neither did I overlook the cir-
cumstance of such a journey offering a great temptation to
convince me by facts of the accuracy of the conclusion they
were so anxious to impress upon me, namely, that such was
the state of public feeling that our own safety, not less than
that of the Government, required the quasi sequestration of
Foreign Representatives in their respective dwellings, and a
farther modification of existing treaties, so far as the opening
of additional ports was concerned. But these were risks to be
deliberately incurred, in view of the importance of securing
some independent means of judgment, or the chance, at least,
of doing so, which such an expedition, far from the capital and
centre of government, could alone afford. And I had heard so
much of this dread hydra which stood in the way of all ad-
vance, warning the foreigner off, with threatening voice and
gesture, that I was strongly moved to take a voyage of discov-
ery in pursuit of some more tangible evidence of its existence
than had yet been afforded me.
The route to Fusiyama from Yeddo skirts the coast for some
fifty miles, crossing here and there a peninsula. The Tocado,
or high road to the capital already referred to, winding along
the coast to Nagasaki and other towns south of Yeddo, was
open to us as far as Yosiwara. By this road, all the Daimios
whose territories lie south yearly travel to and from the court
for a forced residence of six months; and the mountain pass
of Hakoni, through which it leads, is strictly guarded, to pre-
vent arms being carried toward the capital, or wife or female


346 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX.
child belonging to Daimios passing out from it, as these re-
main hostages during his return to his territory. The day's
journey for these magnates of the land, who travel with an
immense retinue of retainers, sometimes several thousand, sel-
dom exceeds twenty miles, and more generally fifteen is the
limit, or from five to six Hi, a measure of about 4900 yards, or
two miles and two thirds. At the several towns at which they
usually halt there are a certain number of honjens—houses of
entertainment reserved expressly for Daimios and Tycoon's of-
ficers, where they put up for the night. These are generally
kept by some servant or retainer of the lord of the district,
who will either supply the usual food from the kitchen attach-
ed, or the traveler's servants can prepare it themselves, or
finally purchase it from a neighboring traiteur for their master.
These houses are generally spacious, clean—and empty. The
clean matted floor supplies at once a seat, a couch, and a table.
Wadded counterpanes, and even musquito nets, can generally
be supplied for sleeping.
The principal apartments are at what may be termed the
back of the house, situated, as the dwelling always is, entre
cour etjardin; and, whatever the space allotted, a garden of
some kind is always to be found. Though only a few square
feet sometimes, there will still be a miniature imitation of a
wilderness, of dwarfed trees, rock-work, lake, and lawn. These
are indispensable in all; and in some, where the space is less
restricted, and the vicinity of mountains aids the artist, there
are cascades brought over ledges of rock, subterranean caves
with gold and silver fish passing in and out, and trees of every
variety of hue and shape, including the pine and yew, bamboo,
and a long list of flowering shrubs, among which oranges and
camellias are common. Here, away from the noise of the en-
trance and the kitchen—the latter always in the vicinity of the
former—the traveler may take his rest, and, with very little
help from the imagination, believe himself in the midst of a
spacious garden and grounds, laid
out with skill and taste. Imme-
diately after arrival the landlord
appears in full costume, and, pros-
trating himself with his head to
the ground, felicitates himself on
the honor of receiving so distin-
guished a guest, begs to receive
salutation op mine host. y,our orders, and that you will be
pleased to accept a humble offer-
ing at his hands—generally a little fruit, a few grapes or or-


348
[Chap. xx THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
is there any room for compassion at the want of these adjuncts.
The pillow in the foreground is of the smallest, and must re-
quire a tranquil sleeper; but the wadded quilt supplies a very
good cover and bed in one, and the circular paper-shaded night-
lamp sheds a soft and soothing light. To the principal apart-
ments a bath-room, sometimes two or three, with conveniences
of every kind adjoining, may be invariably counted upon—and
models of cleanliness such as are rarely met with out of En-
gland, where the bath-rooms themselves, it must be confessed,
are far too generally wanting. In these respects the Japanese
are in a condition to give lessons to Europe. We always found
prepared, on our arrival at the house selected by the officer
sent in advance, a bath of hot water and another of cold; the
first to bathe in, and the second for a cold douche on stepping
out, to brace up the relaxed fibres.
At last we were fairly on our way, and our pilgrimage to
Fusiyama,' mons excelsw et singnlaris' as Koempfer describes
it,' which in beauty, perhaps, hath not its equal.' It may be
seen from Yeddo, at a distance of some eighty miles, on a bright
summer evening, lifting its head high into the clouds, the west-
ern sun setting behind it, and making a screen of gold on which
its purple mass stands out in bold relief; or, early in the morn-
ing, its glittering cone of snow tipped with the rays of the ris-
ing orb; and in either aspect it is certainly both singular and
picturesque, springing abruptly from a broad base into an al-
most perfect cone, truncated only at the extreme pinnacle, and
towering far above all the surrounding ranges of hills. To the
Japanese, who are any thing but cosmopolitan, it may be the
'matchless' for which, as Koempfer goes on to say,'poets can
not find words, nor painters skill and colors sufficient to repre-
sent the mountain as they think it deserves.'
Our route is pretty accurately laid down in the rough tracing
of a native map I sent to the Geographical Society, which, for
want of tracing-paper, had been drawn on one of the Japanese
oil-paper cloaks we purchased on the way. It may also be
seen, on a smaller scale, in the map of Japan at the end of this
volume. During the first few days the road lay over a suc-
cession of hills of no great height, but from whence fine views
were obtained over the cultivated valleys on either side, with
a background of mountains to the westward, among which
Fusi soars conspicuous in solitary grandeur. We passed
through many large villages, and the town of Totsooka, where
we halted for breakfast. The second day carried us over a
plain skirting the sea, from Foodisawa, where we slept, to Oda-
wara, before reaching which we had to cross the River Saki.


350
[Chap. XX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
While yet some distance from the' entrance, a guard of honor
was sent to meet the party by the Daimio of the territory, and
preceded us into the town. Sakigawa is nearly as celebrated
in Japanese art and story as Fusiyama, although less frequent-
ly the ornament of tea-cups or cabinets. Rude illustrations of
both abound, and show, among other things, that the litho-
crome process, so recently brought to perfection with us, has
long been familiar to them, both in its principle and manipula-
tion, blocks of wood only being used instead of stones.
This river, descending abruptly from the neighboring hills,
which are at no great distance, divides into two branches as it
approaches the sea, spreading wide across a pebbly bottom.
It appears to be subject to such sudden freshes in wet weather,
or on the melting of the snow, and to such increase of volume,
as well as width on its flat shores, that over one of the branch-
es it has been found impossible to maintain a bridge. The
consequence is, that, lying across the main road to and from
the capital, a large body of porters—strong, brawny men—in-
nocent of all drapery but a loin-cloth, are always in attendance
to carry the travelers across—the common sort on their shoul-
ders, 1 pick-a-back,'' the dignitaries, male and female, on short
platforms borne by six men, with their arms crossed over each
other's shoulders for greater steadiness, as depicted in the
sketch on the opposite page. It would seem a tolerably lucra-
tive monopoly; however, it has its drawbacks, for they are
made responsible for the safety of their passengers, and if any
accident happens to their burdens, they have nothing left but
to drown with them, for no excuses are taken. Such is the
theory and the law; I can not so confidently speak of the prac-
tice. If railroads could only be placed under the same system,
excursion trains might, perhaps, travel with safety. Accidents,
at all events, are unknown here, partly, no doubt, because,
when the waters swell, these experienced men at the ford, in
view of their responsibility, and the certainty of no traffic be-
ing possible without their aid, refuse the passage; and it occa-
sionally happens that travelers on each side are detained sev-
eral days, looking disconsolately at each other from the oppo-
site banks. When the Gotairo (the Regent of the kingdom)
was slain in the streets of Yeddo, as I have related, by a band
of armed men, who cut their way, sword in hand, through his
retinue, it is said some of his own vassals in the country had
got information of the plot against his life, and followed sharp
on the heels of the conspirators; there was a day's interval,
however, between them, and in that day the river became im-
passable! Life and death were hanging on their speed, but








Chap. XX.J
ENTRANCE INTO ODAWARA.
353
their road was stopped by this impassable ford; and when
they reached Yeddo, the catastrophe, which their warning
might have averted, was consummated, and their Prince had
fallen.
We were more fortunate, and our stout porters carried us
without demur across, though the water was surging round
their hips in many places; but they seemed to know perfectly
well where to pick their steps, and, taking us in a zigzag line
up the stream, made their way without much difficulty. Our
whole party were carried over for eleven itziboos—about 15s.
— a large sum in Japan, to be divided amongst some thirty
men for a half hour's work; but it is by no means certain, this
sum was paid to them. That was the amount charged to us;
whether it ever reached their hands could not be ascertained,
as the payment was necessarily made through the attendant
officers, and there was at least a great probability of diminu-
tion on the way.
The entrance of such a cavalcade of foreigners was doubtless
a great event in all the towns we passed through; in fact, noth-
ing like it could ever have been seen before. And as each
roadside village, and even the larger towns, generally consist
of one long and seemingly endless street, the news of our ap-
proach spread as rapidly and unerringly as the message of an
electric telegraph, turning out the whole population as if by a
simultaneous shock; men, women, and children — clothed and
nude—dogs, poultry, and cats! I think at Odawara no living
thing could have been left inside. Such a waving sea of heads
seemed to bar our passage, that I began to congratulate my-
self (as we had outstripped all our own people) that my un-
known friend the Daimio had so courteously supplied me with
an escort, I felt some curiosity as to the mode they would
take to open away through the dense mass of swaying bodies
and excited heads, which looked all the more formidable the
nearer we approached. My guides, however, seemed perfectly
unembarrassed, and well they might be, for when within a few
steps of the foremost ranks, there was a wave of the fan and a
single word of command issued, 'ShltanlrioP (kneel down),
when, as if by magic, a wide path was opened, and every head
dropped, the body disappearing in some marvelous way behind
the legs and knees of its owner. Certainly Harlequin's wand
or Aladdin's sesame never produced a more sudden or scenic
effect. I could not help thinking how much more easily the
wonder was wrought and the problem solved than would have
been possible in the streets of London. If the magic fan and
word could only be imported for the use of our policemen,


.354
[Chap. XX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
without losing their spell-like effect, there is no saying what
amount might be saved in yearly police-rates. I doubt, how-
ever, whether an English mob would be as susceptible of'the
same mesmeric influence? It probably requires a long pre-
paratory training — and whether severe or gentle may be a
question.
During both these days, which brought us to the foot of the
Hakoni range of mountains, rising some 6000 feet above the
sea, nothing could exceed the beauty of the road. Generally
a fine avenue of smooth gravel led through a succession offers tile plains and valleys, where the millet, buckwheat, and rice
were all giving promise of rich harvest. A fruitful soil, a fine
climate, and an industrious people, make a list which seems to
contain nearly all that can be desired for any country in the
way of material elements of prosperity, unless they are in the
case described in an old legend of Spain, which tells how St.
Iago,the patron saint of Iberia, went to his Master and begged
some special favor for the country he had adopted. And first
he asked for a fertile soil, for a fine climate, for brave sons to
defend, and fair daughters to grace it, all of which were suc-
cessively granted. Emboldened by this success, he asked that
they should be blessed with a good Government; when his
Master, according to the Spanish version, either wearied with
so much importunity, or in a spirit of justice to other lands by
way of compensation for so many rich gifts, replied with em-
phasis, ' That was a blessing they would never have!' And the
Spaniard will tell you how loyally the word has been kept, and
how all other blessings have been neutralized by the want of
this one crowning gift! This, however, can hardly be said
with truth of Japan, to judge by what I have seen; but an-
other and a better occasion will be found hereafter for dealing
with this question.
Reflections on the government and civilization of the Jap-
anese press upon the European every step he takes in this
land, so singularly blessed in soil and climate, so happy in the
contented character and simple habits of its people, yet so
strangely governed by unwritten laws and irresponsible Rul-
ers. I say unwritten; for, though the Ministers tell me a writ-
ten code exists, I have been unable to obtain a copy, and, un-
less they misled me, it has never been printed." A country
without either statute, law, or lawyers, does seem an anomaly
with a civilization so advanced. Whether the want of the one
may be held compensated by the absence of the other, in the
* I afterward succeeded in obtaining a code of printed laws and edicts,
whether only a sectional portion or the whole yet remains to be ascertained.


Chap. XX.]
HAKONI SCENERY.
355
estimation of the Japanese, I dare not venture to say; I can
only affirm that they seem very well contented.without either.
If their administration of justice be in many cases sharp, and
in all without appeal, it may be better suited to the simple
habits and the state of education of the mass, than more elab-
orate processes, for which they might find it impossible to
supply the proper instruments—-processes which, even in more
advanced nations, are not without serious drawbacks of inter-
minable suits and ruinous litigation, with no small admixture
of doubt and uncertainty in the issue. But it is time we pro-
ceeded on our journey.
From Odawara to MissiMA,the road lies through the mount-
ain passes of Hakoni, which are situated near the summit of
the range, a distance of about seven leagues, and of as rough
mountain roads as can well be conceived. Many are but wa-
ter-courses, filled with fragments of rocks for paving-stones,
over which it was quite impossible to ride, even with the ad-
vantage of the straw shoes of the country. With our iron-
shod horses these were found indispensable, and it was difficult
work for the Bettos (grooms) to lead them safely across the
boulders, even without the encumbrance of a rider, and several
had falls with manifest danger to their knees. It is almost one
continued ascent too, which renders it slow as well as labori-
ous work to make much progress. But the scenery would
amply repay any fatigue of body. There was much to remind
a Swiss traveler of the Oberland in parts, especially the descent
to Lauterbrunnen: high wooded hills where the pine predom-
inated, fresh green valleys, and a mountain stream winding
through the fields at the bottom. But it is less grand in its
principal features. Here are no bare rocks and high-peaked
mountains, with their eternal glaciers and mantle of snow.
Fewer cascades are to be seen leaping over the precipitous
rocks in a sheer descent of a thousand feet. The Scheideck
and Wetterhorn, with bare walls towering to the sky, are want-
ing; nor is there any rival in all the mountain range of Hakoni
to the Jungfrau, with its soaring pinnacles and vast expanse of
snow and glacier. The giant of the Bernese chain, it must be
confessed, flings into the shade any thing to be seen in Japan.
But if its scenery may not compete with the Alps in sublim-
ity, there is in lieu far greater variety and richness of vegeta-
tion. Here, high up the mountain sides, forests of Pinus den-
siflora mingle with the graceful foliage of the Bamboo and
the Cryptomeria, which for the first time I saw in its glory as
a timber tree. In our descent to the Lake of Hakoni from the
summit of the pass, we came upon a fine avenue of these, sev-


356
[Chap. XX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
eral measuring in girth, three feet from the ground, fourteen
and sixteen feet, and standing upward of 150 feet high. The
wild hydrangea, with its large flower clusters, lilac, blue, and
white, covered the banks side by side with the Scotch thistle.
From the valleys to the highest summit, every hill and mount-
ain presented one dense mass of luxuriant foliage in trees and
shrubs. The oak, the maple, the beech, the alder, and the
chestnut, all were here, and in rich autumnal tints. The bot-
anist returned laden with many new ferns and other specimens
of interest. The Thujopsis dolabrata described by Thunberg,
and of which the only specimen in England was, I believe, un-
til lately, in the gardens of Mr. Veitch, I looked for with great
interest, but must confess I was disappointed in the effect of
the tree. Thunberg was so enthusiastic in his admiration that
perhaps disappointment was inevitable. It is a noble tree of
the pine species, and, with its silver lining, unlike in this and
other respects any in Europe. But still it seemed scarcely cal-
culated to throw any but a botanist escaping from a sea-girt
prison, and the first discoverer, into ecstasies! I sent several
specimens, in Ward's cases, to the Royal Gardens at Kew, and
one, a variegated species, not before described, I believe. It
was found by Mr. Veitch in the Monastery of Omio, at the
foot of Fusiyama, and I immediately secured it, for a consid-
eration, from its proprietor, the Superior. On my return to
Yeddo, however, I found many others of the same kind, which
it seems had escaped my attention, and it has been observed
that there is a great disposition in all the vegetation to be-
come variegated. That I may not fatigue the reader, howev-
er, with a long enumeration of plants and mere botanical
names, I have placed in the Appendix some detailed notes, and
a list of the most prevalent species observed throughout the
expedition, which Mr. Veitch made out from day to day.
a little hamlet buried in the mountains, and clustered round
some hot saline springs. The common calamity of the coun-
try had befallen the villagers, and a fire had reduced the place
to ashes. We found them busily engaged in building up the
houses anew, and made a very short stay, as the clouds threat-
ened rain, and we had still four hours' journey before us, even
to reach the lake and village of Hakoni. And this was little
more than half way to Missima, which lies in the plain beyond
the pass, and thither we were bound. A younger member of
the party, however, had profited by the halt to plunge into
one of the saline baths, and came out even more quickly than
he rushed in, quite satisfied that a Japanese skin must be
After a three hours' toilsome


358
[Chap. xx. THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
of movement, but with all locomotion, so tightly are the lower
limbs, from the waist downward, girt round with their gar-
ments; and, finally, the utter confusion of sexes in the public
bath-houses, making that correct which we in the West deem
so shocking and improper, I leave as I find it—a problem to
solve.
But if this great institution of the bath be the source of the
public opinion—said by the Ministers to exist, and so often in-
voked—it rises in dignity as the people's parliament or house
of assembly (the only one, certainly, they are permitted), and
we may overlook some of its deficiencies of costume and other
eccentricities in the contemplation of its political and national
uses. It certainly has a recommendation wanting in all other
parliaments, of acknowledging to the fullest extent the rights
of both sexes, and their equality. Not only is woman not ex-
cluded, as in more pretentious parliaments, but their voice is
unquestionably heard! The gentler tenor often prevails over
the deep bass of the men; and the frequent laugh and shrill
hilarity of the tone, heard from afar, ought to be a sufficient
guarantee to the Government that no deep schemes of treason
or sanguinary revolutions are ever discussed, at the same time
that it affords a pleasant contrast in other respects to many
debates in more solemn places. The sex is the State's protec-
tion; for, though one woman may plot a deed of vengeance,
the history of the world does not furnish an instance of a con-
spiracy of women, or of any mixed assembly of men and wom-
en, for the enactment of scenes of violence and political convul-
sions. Long experience, or a deep insight into human nature,
may have given the jealous rulers of Japan full assurance of
the fact, and thus have supplied to the vox populi a free vent
as a sort of safety-valve, without any of its attendant dangers.
Assuredly they would allow no such gatherings of men alone.
If so, they have made a discovery by which Western States
may hereafter profit, with such modifications of drapery and
costume as our more refined habits would dictate.
The rain began to descend in torrents as we left the baths
of Yomotz, and before we reached the guarded barrier at the
entrance of the pass we were all thoroughly drenched and
tired. As there was a good honjen just outside the barrier,
and picturesquely situated at the edge of the lake, all thought
of proceeding farther till the next day was given up, and Lieu-
tenant Robinson set to work, to the infinite astonishment of
some native attendants, to boil his thermometer; in other
words, to ascertain the height of the lake above the sea, which
he duly reported to be 6250 feet. The water boiled at a tem-


Chat. XX.] THE LAKE OF HAKONL—MISSIMA.
361
perature of 198°, and the aneroid fell to 27-90. The lake itself
is a fine sheet of water, surrounded by hills, and tradition says
that it fills the extinct crater of a volcano. I was very sorry
that no boat could be found to enable us to try and get sound-
ings. A boat there was, but in a decayed and leaky condi-
tion, which would have required, moreover, a large crew, and
not a man was forthcoming. We -were assured there were no
fishermen on the spot, and we could only conclude it was a
precaution to prevent the possibility of any one crossing to
avoid the pass and its guard at each end. The hills, which
come rather steeply down to the water's edge, are covered at
the top with a coarse grass, and the highest in the immediate
vicinity I should not estimate at more than 300 or 500 feet,
so near the summit of the range is the level of the lake. I
made a sketch on the spot, here reproduced, which tolerably
faithfully shows the general features of the secluded spot.
The following morning the rain had passed away, and we
took the road to Missima in the plain, passing through the
second barrier, where, as at the first—warned of our approach,
no doubt, and the exemption from all search or detention
claimed as due to Her Majesty's Envoy—the whole party
were allowed to pass without question. Somewhat to our
surprise, we found an ascent of more than an hour before we
reached the highest point beyond the pass, from whence a
beautiful view was gained of the plain below, stretching away
to the sea, and dotted over with towns and hamlets, chiefly on
the banks of a winding stream fringed with evergreens. The
view down the mountain side to the valley and sea beyond,
basking in sunshine, was most picturesque in effect. Evi-
dences of agricultural wealth were broadcast. Not only the
fields were covered with crops waving to the harvest, but
many of the hills to the right and left were also cultivated in
terraces nearly to the summit; and where neither rice nor
maize could be grown, timber with luxuriant foliage and of
great variety succeeded.
We halted, just before we made our last descent, at one of
the wayside sheds, which are to be met with at short distances
along the main road every where in Japan, I believe, certainly
in that part of it along which we traveled. In these the poor-
est traveler, if he have but a few cash (integral parts of a
farthing), may get a meal served with courtesy, which will
keep him from exhaustion for many hours—a sweet potato,
steaming hot, a fried fish, and a cup of tea; or, if he seeks
lighter diet, any fruit that is in season—a bunch of grapes or a
slice of watermelon, red and luscious as it lies invitingly under


362
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. xx. the shade. If utterly destitute, without one cash, he may still
have rest, a seat, and a cup of pure fresh water, though the
latter has often to be brought from a great distance. Surely
it says much for the people where such provision for the least
wealthy and most needy classes is made, and, with scanty profit,
is so kindly extended to all. It furnishes a strong argument,
also, against the Government which seeks to convince the For-
eign Representatives of the dearness of the commonest articles
of consumption. They are dear only when Foreigners require
them, as I had occasion to know, to my cost, during the whole
of my residence in the country. We halted here, partly tempt-
ed by a large melon which turned its deep red honeycomb to-
ward us, and partly to ascend a natural platform by the side,
round which some seats were placed, that the traveler might
drink in refreshment by the eye as well as by the lips. It
overlooked the whole glorious plain, with the spurs of wooded
hills projecting in wavy lines, as though still washed by the
sea, where very evidently it had once been, fretting at their
base. Here we ate I should be afraid to say how many boun-
tiful slices of the great melon, rendered more delicious by two
hours' hard walking, with a hot sun overhead. The road so
far had offered little inducement to ride, it was so rough and
steep, whether in ascent or descent. The silver itziboo (value
about Is. 6d.) which I gave in payment for what would not
have been charged more than a tempo (a fifteenth of that mod-
erate sum), was given in the hope that it might make some
amends for many smaller profits during the day. The exceed-
ing cheapness of things whenever we happen, as in that case,
to be out of reach of government officers and escort, and to
get at the real price, does not tend to improve the temper
under barefaced imposition. On descending the plain, from
whence they are brought at great labor, there was a demand
for melons; and we were told, first, that there were none; and
then that a single melon would cost the price for which six-
teen could have been bought on the hill! This befell us at
Missima, where we rested for the night. The people have
many virtues, but a long experience has only brought to light,
in the official class, in connection with foreigners, many vices f and that of plundering those unhappily committed to their
charge is among the first, and, I fear, the most incorrigible.
As for mendacity, one does not expect impossibilities or mir-
acles of virtue, especially in the East; and truth is apparently
one of the things only to be got at their hands by torture or
miracle. It is their business to conceal the truth from for-
eigners in all cases. They are given to romancing (not to use


Chap. XX. J YOSIWARA—GALE.—MOUBIYAMA.
367
of baiting as intended for a midday meal and rest at Hara, we
pushed on, to the utter confusion and disgust of cooks, Yaco-
nins, and all the host of followers, who, never counting upon
the possibility of a change in the order of march, had already
got in and begun to make themselves comfortable. I have no
doubt comparisons, by no means to our advantage, were drawn
between us, with our independent and erratic proceedings, and
a Japanese Magnate, whose progress never exceeds two or
three miles an hour, and who otherwise is quite above sudden
changes, and a three leagues' ride through the pelting rain.
We had not long been safely housed in Yosiwara when signs
of a coming tempest were evident, and about ten o'clock at
night a furious gale set in, with torrents of rain, and soon
showed by its veering round the compass that a typhoon was
sweeping its fatal circles along the coast. We all thought of
the ' Camilla' and her gallant crew, one of H. M.'s ships, which
to all calculation ought even then to be near Atami, at the en-
trance of the Bay of Yeddo, where the commander, Captain
Colville, was to call on his way from Hakodadi.
A sad foreboding came upon more than one of the party,
only too truly verified in the sequel. The' Camilla' left Hako-
dadi September 2, with one of the Government interpreters
and a British merchant as passengers on board, and neither
ship, commander, nor crew have ever been heard of since.
Either in the storm of the 2d, or in this of the 9th, she must
have gone down, with 130 men in the pride of their strength.
Here we remained at the foot of Fusiyama, as seen in the
sketch, and the next morning was still sufficiently boisterous to
deter us from an early start. The aneroid had fallen to 29-50.
But about two o'clock in the afternoon, the baggage having
been dispatched, we started for Ohio, the nearest of the tem-
ple monasteries, paid a short visit of ceremony and thanks, and
passed on to Mouriyama, the last inhabited place on our way.
Great preparations had been made for the party, and extra bath
and stable accommodation run up. The inner sanctum of the
temple itself, with its altars, had been divided into two and
screened off, to give the Minister a separate room, and the
chief priest himself was so profoundly impressed with the dig-
nity of his guests, that we began to wonder whether he would
ever be induced to stand up on his feet again. A hot tub and
a cold douche after it soon refreshed us all. I say a tub, for
such it is, and I began to admire the economy of space and
other advantages it possesses over the long slipper-bath. About
four feet deep, oval in shape, and just long enough to let an
adult sit down with his knees very close to his chest, as is the


Chap. XX.]
HAKIMONDO. —ATAMI.
369
in the shape of coffee, rice, and biscuit, wherewith to sustain us
during the two days and nights to be occupied in the ascent
and return.
At first our way led through waving fields of corn, succeeded
by a belt of high rank grass; but soon we entered the mazes of
the wood, which clings round the base and creeps high up the
sides of the mountain, clothing the shoulders of the towering
peak, like the shaggy mane of a lion, with increased majesty.
At first we found trees of large growth, goodly trunks of the
oak, the pine, and the beech, and came upon many traces of the
fury with which the typhoon had swept across. Large trees
had been broken short off, and others uprooted. One of these,
broken off, had been thrown right across our path, and com-
pelled us either to scramble over or creep under its massive
trunk. At Hakimondo we left the horses, and the last trace
of permanent habitation or the haunts of men. Soon after the
wood became thinner and more stunted in growth, while the
beech and birch took the place of the oak and pine. Just be-
fore we entered the forest-ground a lark rose on the wing, the
first I had ever seen or heard in Japan. Before we left the
belt of wood we heard many stories of the wild animals to
which it gave shelter. Surprised at the number, an appeal was
made to the Japanese officer attached to us as interpreter:
'Oh! certainly, quite true; only there are millions.'' And noth-
ing could shake his testimony; but this is not the first time
we have observed the absence of all definite notions of number
beyond a few hundreds. I am satisfied, when the Ministers
were told we had exacted eight million taels of silver from the
Chinese, that they merely knew we intended to convey the idea
of having demanded a very heavy sum.
Whatever may be the ferce natural in this region, there is
no doubt a large area of jungle and forest to give cover. At
Atami, later, we saw frequent traces of the boar; deer must
be plentiful also, since even to a foreigner the price of a large
stag does not exceed twenty-five shillings at Yokohama. We
soon lost all traces of life, however, vegetable or animal. A
solitary sparrow or two—the most universal of all birds, it
would seem—alone flitted occasionally across our path. In
the winding ascent over the rubble and scoria? of the mount-
ain, which alone is seen after ascending about half way, little
huts or caves, as these resting-places are called, partly dug out
and roofed over to give refuge to the pilgrims, appeared.
There are, I think, eleven from Hakimondo to the summit, and
they are generally about a couple of miles asunder. In one of
these we took up our quarters for the night, and laid down


370
[Chap. XX.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
our rugs, too tired to be very delicate. Nevertheless, the cold,
and the occupants we found former pilgrims had left, precluded
much sleep. Daylight was rather a relief, and after a cup of
hot coffee and a biscuit, we commenced the upper half of the
ascent. The first part, after we left the horses, had occupied
about four hours' steady work, and we reached our sleeping-
station a little before sunset, lava and scoriae every where
around. The clouds were sailing far below our feet, and a
vast panorama of hill and plain, bounded by the sea, stretched
far away. We looked down upon the summits of the Hakoni
range, being evidently far above their level, and we could dis-
tinctly see the lake lying in one of the hollows. The last half
of the ascent is by far the most arduous, growing more steep
as each station is passed. The first rays of the sun just touch-
ed with a line of light the broad waters of the Pacific as they
wash the coast when we made our start. The first station
seemed very near, and was reached within the hour; but each
step now became more difficult. The path, if such the zigzag
may be called which our guides took, often led directly over
fragments of out-jutting rocks, while the loose scoria? prevent-
ed firm footing, and added much to the fatigue. The air be-
came more rarefied, and perceptibly affected the breathing. At
last the third station was passed, and a strong effort carried us
to the fourth, the whole party by this time straggling at long
intervals. This was now the last between us and the summit.
It did not seem so far until a few figures on the edge of the
crater furnished a means of measurement, and they looked
painfully diminutive. The last stage, more rough and precipi-
tous than all the preceding, had this farther disadvantage, that
it came after the fatigue of all the others. More than an hour's
toil, with frequent stoppages for breath and rest to aching legs
and spine, were needed; and more than one of our number
felt very near the end of their strength before the last step
placed the happy pilgrim on the topmost stone, and enabled
him to look down the yawning crater. This is a great oval
opening, with jagged lips, estimated by Lieut. Robinson, with
such means of measurement as he could command, at about
1100 yards in length, with a mean width of 600, and is proba-
bly about 350 in depth. Looking down on the other side,
which had a northern aspect, there seemed a total absence of
vegetation, even on the lower levels, and the rich country we
had left was completely hid by a canopy of clouds drifting far
below. Water boiled at 184° of Fahr. The estimated height
of the edge of the crater above the level of the sea was
13,977 feet, and the highest peak 14,177. At our resting-


Chap. XXL] ROAD TO ATAMI.—AN OBSTACLE.
375
horses, and, passing through Yosiwara, arrived at Harra for a
noonday meal, fortunate in having had only a few passing
showers to encounter.
We left Harra again for Missima at 5 P.M., and had a beau-
tiful ride along a sanded avenue, through Noomads, and by
the banks of a fine river, running strong and fast between
steep banks. We were met by two detachments in succession
of Daimios' officers, and accompanied by them a considerable
distance. As we passed the entrance to each of the residen-
ces, an officer sat in state at the gate, as the representative of
his lord, surrounded by numerous attendants, with whom a
salutation of courtesy was exchanged. Thus honored with es-
corts and Yaconins, we pursued our way through the avenues
of pines and cryptomerias, and the smoothest of roads, little
dreaming that any thing else was in store for us. We had,
however, hardly taken leave of our last escort—the two Jap-
anese officers of my own party, always sent in front to prepare
quarters, being an hour in advance, and the rest, with all our
servants, far behind—when, at a turn of the road, we came
suddenly on the broad river so lately admired as it ran be-
tween deep banks nearly parallel with the road, but which now
lay across our path, swelled with the rains and overflowing its
banks. The bridge we had crossed in coming only appeared
somewhere about the middle of the heavy stream, which poured
its waters tumultuously over all obstacles. Night was coming
on, swiftly too, as is its wont here, and only a single groom
and his 'help' were on the spot of all our people. A few noisy
villagers were there, but showed no sort of desire to assist us
in the dilemma, and were, besides, not very intelligible. I
could not help being struck and half amused with the sudden
contrast. But half an hour before escorted with every mark
of honor and respect, and now almost alone on the banks of a
river rushing wildly and menacingly across our path, with a
fair chance of being swept into its boiling eddies and drowned,
one and all of us, like stray cattle, in the attempt to make our
way across. Instant decision was necessary. That, indeed,
was the only thing quite clear ", either we must go back, with
the risk of the mischief increasing and being detained two or
three days, or else face the danger, whatever it might be, and
make good our passage. One of the grooms tried to lead a
horse across, and having finally succeeded, with the help of a
native who knew the locality, not without some difficulty and
risk to both, I got rid of my heavy accoutrements and cloak,
and tried my fate. It was rather nervous work—already dark,
the waters increasing each moment and rushing past with


Chap. XXI.] ROAD TO ATAML—LARGE TREE.
377
ed, and well-to-do-looking populations which have their home
amid so much plenty, and believe we see a land entirely ty-
rant-ridden, and impoverished by exactions. On the contrary,
the impression is irresistibly borne in upon the mind that Eu-
rope can not show a happier or better-fed peasantry, or a cli-
mate and soil so genial or bounteous in their gifts. The rich-
est proprietor in this district of Idzoo was the same who fur-
nished our first guard of honor through his domains—Agawa
Farozayamang by name, and he is not a Daimio. We were
told that he had refused to be ennobled, that he might escape
the penance of a yearly visit and residence at Yeddo, with oth-
er burdens. One could not but approve his taste; and as I .
passed the gates that led up to his house between a double row
of noble pine-trees, I thought he might easily find much in his
country life to compensate him for the barren honors and bur-
densome dignities which the Tycoon has in his gift, and fig-
ured to myself an existence not unlike that of a wealthy land-
owner in England, whose pleasure it is to spend his days on
his own estates and among his tenants. The variety of the
produce through the breadth of the valley was great. Inter-
spersed among fields of waving rice ripening to the harvest
were many plots of tobacco and cotton; the brinjall, or egg
fruit, excellent in curries; the succulent aram, with its lotus-
like leaf, and the sweet potato, all were here; while the per-
simmon with its rich red fruit, and the orange-trees with their
golden produce, were grouped round the different hamlets and
villages. As we passed out of the valley into an opening
winding far among the hills, we came upon a little village half
hid by a mass of fine cryptomerias rising a hundred feet or
more in a straight stem. One of these we measured, and found
it to be exactly 16 feet 3 inches in girth. Penetrating farther
up the gorge, the banks were bright with the wild pink hy-
drangeas; and as we ascended higher and higher, the harebell,
with its graceful flower, appeared every where. When we
gained the higher ridges, the views each step disclosed, look-
ing backward across the valley and toward the sea, were in-
describably picturesque, and sometimes grand in their frame-
work of wooded hills and terraced mountains. In the heart
of the mountain regions we came upon a pretty secluded vil-
lage of about a hundred houses, and were met at the entrance
by the Otono, or mayor, and his staff, by whom we were courte-
ously entreated to dismount and rest. I did not feel disposed
to stop, but Mr. Eusden, the secretary, was behind, and, as I
had anticipated, he gladdened the official by resting and par-
taking of his refreshment. In passing through these mountain


378 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXL districts we occasionally came upon groups of peasantry, evi-
dently collected from all the surrounding hamlets for the pur-
pose of seeing the strangers, perhaps the greatest novelty of
their lives. There they sat on some knoll or small hillock by
the roadside, or kneeling on their mats, waiting patiently the
uncertain hour of our arrival. I hope so much perseverance
did not go without its reward in the gratification they experi-
enced. There is always some pleasure in accomplishing an
object for which we have made either effort or sacrifice, even
if the object prove, on better knowledge, little worth the trouble
taken. It is well it should be so, for we make so many false
estimates of value, and bad calculations as to the final cost, as
well as the true worth of mundane things, that, but for this
redeeming condition, there would be a serious increase to the
pains and penalties of a life's errors.
The descent was rather trying to the horses, and in parts
very steep, but for several miles the worst places had evidently
been quite recently put under repair, and apparently for us,
since this is not a route any Japanese of rank was very likely
to travel. About noon we came in sight of the little town of
Atami, lying in a narrow gorge close to the shore, and from
the centre of the houses, in two or three places, we saw a great
jet of steam from the mineral springs. About half a mile off
the officials of the place met us to form our escort, and about
noon we were ushered into the principal bathing establishment,
generally reserved for Daimios and their families, and were
agreeably surprised to find it far superior in accommodation
to any thing we had ventured to anticipate. Not only was
there a range of half a dozen roomy baths filled direct from the
source, steaming and boiling within the court-yard of the house,
but a suite of apartments of good size, opened on to a perfect
specimen of a Japanese garden; and a broad flight of steps to
the right led to a couple of rooms on a first floor, with a bal-
cony commanding a beautiful view of the sea. In these I be-
gan immediately to install myself. A low table formed a bed-
stead for my air bed. My musquito curtain was stretched over
it, and in a few hours another of the same tables, with legs two
feet higher, was knocked up. One of Brown's portable easy-
chairs, which are heartily to be commended and recommended,
a small folding table, and two or three camp-stools, with the
aid of a few nails for caps, glass, traveling-sack, etc., soon sur-
rounded me with all a traveler's luxuries and belongings, and
gave an air of comfort to the two little matted rooms, twelve
feet square. Both were provided with closets, sliding doors,
and shelves, making admirable wardrobes. And here I set up


380
[Chap. XXI.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
there is nothing whatever to amuse or give occupation. It
has an agricultural and fishing population of some 1400 souls.
They cultivate their fields of rice and millet and a few vegeta-
bles. The bay provides them with fish, chiefly at this season
mackerel and a sort of pomfret, with lobster and awabee (a large
species of mussel, with a shell coated with mother-of-pearl).
Some of our party occasionally went out fishing and brought
back very curious specimens of the finny species. One, a flat
fish, about the size of the hand, had long thread-like prolonga-
tions from the tail and fins, something like the tentacula of in-
sects, but several inches in length. Another, and smaller fish,
was hard as bone all over, with a thick gibbous head, which
they call the 'horsefish.' Of this I found a good Japanese
drawing, and the following woodcut is a faithful copy. A

1IORSEFISH.
third kind, of which no specimen was preserved, the fishermen
believe to be poisonous, and always throw overboard again as
soon as they catch it. There are a few shops in the place for
the sale of some of the more common necessaries, the few things
which are alone required in their very simple mode of life. The
only manufacture is that of paper, and the making of boxes of
many devices, cups, platters, trays, and a few toys for Yeddo
and other markets, made either of the variegated wood of the
camphor or pine, which these hills supply. These are very
cleverly turned and neatly put together, with the simplest and
rudest instruments. Their only lathe is a horizontal spindle,
turned by a boy with two straps, holding one in each hand,
which he pulls alternately. To one end of the shaft the object
of manufacture is fixed for the other workman, and they give
the last polish to the varnish by the fingers with a little whit-
ing. The women, with a primitive loom, may also be seen here
and there in the cottages weaving cotton. The mineral springs
are spread over a considerable space, bubbling up in divers
places over the spot where a source exists. Near several of
these, and in connection with the source, a few stones are placed
so as to allow the steam to escape, and here they boil their tea
and cook their vegetables without expenditure of fuel. There


384
[Chap. XXL
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
gent institutions might only entail social confusion, and the
worse evils inseparable from it. Anarchy brings far more suf-
fering on the masses, and, it may be, more demoralization, than
a despotism fitted to avert this, and therefore, in that sense at
least, justified by the circumstances. It may be the least wrong
in view of the total of suffering, and if so, can not be far from
being relatively right for the time and the people, and worthy
of approbation rather than sweeping condemnation. At all
events, be the connection of cause and effect what it may, tak-
ing the despotic and oligarchic constitution of these realms,
with its rude and sharp administration of justice, which admits
neither public pleading, appeal, nor extenuations, but takes a
man's head off as certainly for a theft as a murder; and, on the
other hand, the material prosperity of a population, estimated
at thirty millions, which has made a garden of Eden of this
volcanic soil, and has grown in numbers and in wealth by un-
aided native industry, shut out from all intercourse with the
rest of the world, it is impossible to pass any sweeping con-
demnation either on them or the institutions under which they
live, and where such results are possible. Without wishing to
make any apology for despotism, or the Japanese Government
either, I give the reflections which naturally suggest them-
selves to the European traveler.
I remained in this isolated region—wilderness within a wil-
derness (for such all Japan is to the foreigner yet), nearly
three weeks. But even our Yaconins became weary of the
contracted circle of our gyrations; and, to say the truth, there
was no one of the party, I believe, who did not look forward
with pleasure to the day of departure. The villagers soon
got accustomed to us, and were as quiet and inoffensive a pop-
ulation as heart could desire; but we had exhausted all the
shops, and all the amusement that could be extracted out of
the operation of bargaining with their puzzle-headed owners. .
The men especially, all over Japan, seem to be wretched ac-
countants, far inferior in this to the Chinese, who are a match
for the best European ' experts.' The women, strange to say,
are much better than their lords at figures; and when it came
to a question of addition or multiplication, we always had re-
course to the more ready wit of the wife.
I must not take leave of Atami without a few words on its
principal manufacture—Paper; nor could I have had a better
opportunity of observing all the processes, since our landlord
had an establishment attached to the house where paper was
made; and, wonderful to relate, he was quite ready and will-
ing to give me such information as was in his power.


Chap. XXL] HAGS A BAP SPECULATION.
385
Nearly all paper in Japan is made from the bark of trees,
and in some qualities it is superior to any in Europe, more es-
pecially as regards toughness. Even the finer kinds can only
be torn with difficulty, and the stronger qualities defy every
effort. Indeed, it supplies the place of linen and cambric, be-
ing used for handkerchiefs and other domestic purposes where
we should use cloth or rags. They are not unacquainted with
the process of manufacturing paper from cotton rags—indeed,
I believe they would make paper out of old shoes—but the for-
mer are little used, because the bark is preferred. Some of the
more enterprising pioneers of foreign trade endeavored to turn
this fact to account, and began to buy up all the old rags,
which, as may be supposed, were cheap enough in a country
where cotton is universally worn, and the rags were regarded
as rubbish. The Japanese, however, were not long in discov-
ering that, however useless and worthless for home consump-
tion, they had a value for the foreign market, and the profits
on the later shipments were very speedily diminished from the
rise in price.
Some twenty or thirty thousand piculs (133 lbs. each) had
been shipped to the end of 1861. But the rags were mostly
colored and nearly all rotten; and, although the British ship-
pers, who chiefly entered into this business, showed no little
ingenuity and energy, both in finding means to discharge the
color (always vegetable), and in the invention of a press to
screw the contents of each bale into smaller compass, I believe
the calculations made were not borne out by the results. It
was supposed that these rags could be laid down in England
at about £12 per ton, and would fetch £18, or something like
50 per cent, profit, rags in England varying in value from
£10 to £35 per ton. As the Japanese make little or no use
of their rags, and are almost exclusively clothed in cotton, this,
it was hoped, might become an article of export of some little
importance, though not very large in money value. I know it
was expected that 25,000 piculs could be sent away from Yo-
kohama alone, at about $1 50 the picul. The out-turn of the
first venture was such, however, as to discourage all enterprise
in this direction, the coloring matter, and means taken for its
discharge, being alleged as the chief cause of failure.
As to the kind of bark used, and the processes by which it
is converted into such an infinite variety of paper—sixty-seven
different kinds, I have elsewhere mentioned, were sent to the
Exhibition, exclusive of a large number of imitation leathers,
all made from the same materials—I find Koempfer has given a
very detailed description, gathered from native sources, and
R


388
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXL doubt of the perpetuation of the species, all born with immor-
tal souls—in outward lineament, too, how like—and yet, in all
that constitutes the difference between man and man, how
^ strangely and utterly dissimilar to many of their kind in Eu-
rope! I used to find myself speculating on the causes of such
wide divergence, and the consequences. Compare the exist-
ence which one of these villagers leads—which all lead from
age to age—with the life just closed in a man like Cavour.
Are they all born with the same feelings, wants, and capaci-
ties? There was something of a sepulchral or catacomb char-
acter about the very streets, and in the features of houses, tem-
ples, and tombstones, all promiscuously mingled—mementoes

ATAMI AND ITS MONUMENTS.
of a past which had no future—a Pompeii, without its interest
or its history. Yet they lead, to all appearance, a happy life
enough, after a fashion of their own, these same villagers, as
the mole and the oyster in their respective elements may be
happy. There can not be much ebb and flow in their lives,
and no swift current ever bears them onward to new shores or
experiences. All who are happy are not equally happy, as
Johnson observed. The peasant and the king, the fisherman


390
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXI. .
server so much, as the certain and continuous inequality of de-
velopment. This is a transitory life and a probationary one,
the preparation and preface only to another. That much should
be imperfect or fragmentary we can readily conceive; but
what of the inequality that dwarfs development and all per-
fecting process, which makes a race of cretins by the side of a
nation of philosophers, statesmen, poets, artists, and, as they
were born, so leaves them to die? and so, from generation
to generation, to perpetuate their race, and reappear to run
the same sad, hopeless, seemingly aimless destiny! Idolaters,
Pagans—with capacities undeveloped, germs left dormant, and
a dead level of existence just one degree above the beasts that
perish—no hope, no faith in a future and a better life! How
are such inequalities as these, inexorably reproduced in seculos
seculorum, from the earliest days of the human race, to be blend-
ed into any system of divine government which we can con-
ceive?
It was time I left Atami when such problems as these sug-
gested themselves for solution. But before I took my depart-
ure I found that man's ingenuity in torturing himself for some
fancied good or evil was not without its example among my
friends here, however primitive their habits and low their esti-
mate of the things really needful to life and happiness, for I
found a manufactory of Texasin full play. Now the Moxa is
a pleasant and ingenious device for burning a hole in a man's
skin, not wholly unknown to the Faculty in Europe, but the
honor of invention and love for its application lie, I believe, ex-
clusively with Japan. With us the art, moreover, is entirely
monopolized by physicians and surgeons, whereas every Jap-
anese has it in his own hands as a household remedy. For the
uninitiated I may say that the cauterizing tinder is made from
the pith of a tree of which I procured a branch. Kcempfer de-
scribes it as the common mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris latifo-
lia, but he says the leaves only are used; I was told the pith
and the bark, dried, rubbed to powder, and then put up in neat
little squares attached to paper. When wanted for use, one
of these is taken out and placed on a little circular layer of
powdered charcoal, which is ignited. The Japanese seem
strangely addicted to its use—this and the acupuncture, an-
other agreeable invention, common, I believe, to Japan and to
China, and used ' to discuss and expel all manner of winds and
vapors'—the cause of nearly all distempers, according to the
learned, from Hippocrates to the last Japanese sage. At their
own free choice, most of the natives undergo the operation at
least once every spring, as a preventive measure; and it is


392
[Chap. XXI.... THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
disturbance to all existing institutions and relations of the peo-
ple to their rulers, seems very certain. Happy will it be if a
frequent resort to preventive and curative processes be not re-
quired, compared to which the skin-cutting of the kawakiri will
be mild indeed. We need not, at all events, be surprised if the
rulers and the ruled should alike show great repugnance at first
to the initiative steps, and look upon all foreign nations much
as patients regard their doctors, with an instinctive anticipation
of something both dangerous and disagreeable necessarily fol-
lowing their introduction into the house—some medicines bit-
ter to the taste and hard to swallow, however benevolent the
practitioners, if not scarifications and cauteries painful in antic-
ipation, and still worse in experience, however determined or
skillful the operator.
My last walk through Atami ended in my sketching a very
primitive but no less characteristic aqueduct in one of the

THE VILLAGE AQUEDUCT.
streets, constructed of bamboo, to spare the labor of the good
wives in fetching water. Here they came, each with their little
tub, to wash the clothes, and, never being at a loss for hot wa-
ter (out of the great caldron under their feet), they spared


398
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXII, principle involved in the proverbial sayings'The nearer the
church, the farther from heaven.'
Slowly we wend our way among horse and foot, men and
women, children and dogs. The traffic seems to be great, and
the travelers are of all classes. Through the streets of the
town it requires very good steering amid the light heels of
the pack-horses, the blocking up of the passage by their loads,
the gangs of coolies, and a constant stream of pedestrians and
wayfarers of every denomination. Now it is a band of stroll-
ing musicians, who make up in noise and discord, as some-
times do greater professors, what they want in music and mel-
ody.
Following them is a Yaconin, plowing his way through the
snow, which, by a rare chance has fallen somewhat thickly
during the morning. He is protected from the inclemency of
the weather by a cloak of split reeds, light, warm, and nearly
water-proof, with the farther advantage of being cheap: I

YACONIN ON SERVICE.
thought it well worth a place in the collection at the Interna-
tional Exhibition. Here come two coolies, heavily charged,
vociferating to us to get out of their way. They may be the
v


Chap. XXII.J THE PEACEABLE CLASSES —BLINDNESS. 401
rimmed basket for a hat, evidently too common a sight to at-
tract attention, for the servant is passing him without a glance.
Take care! we have a blind man here. 'How well he is
dressed!' 'Certainly; he is no beggar, but well to do, and
therefore dressed like a gentleman, but blind not the less, and
feeling his way, while the peasant girl is watching to see he

THE BLIND GENTLEMAN.
comes by no harm from our horses.' 'Is blindness very com-
mon?' Yes—no! It must always be common where there
are no good oculists. Even in our own land, thousands lose
their sight annually by bad surgery, or the want of good treat-
ment, such as those only who have made diseases of the eye
and their treatment a specialty can supply. But otherwise, I
do not think either diseases of the eye or blindness unusually


402
[Chap. XXII.
THREE YEARS IN JAPAN.
frequent, judging by what one can see, though one often hears
the contrary asserted. It might be expected, I admit also;
for not only their knowledge of ophthalmic surgery must be on
a par with the rest of their
w**^ surgery, and very bad; but
r the practice which prevails
among the people of having
their eyelids daily turned
inside out — of which you
may see an example as you
pass that barber's shop —
and then rubbed over, tit-
illated, and polished by a
smooth copper spatula,
must, I should think, be
eminently conducive to dis-
ease of one sort or other.
Here we" come to a way-
side hostelry, and see that
picture of zeal in a female
hostler, who is hurrying,
with well-poised body and
a pail of water, to refresh
the horses' mouths; while,
on the other side, tea is of-
fered in cups of dainty por-
celain, thin as an egg-shell.
Now we are leaving the great congress of tea-houses be-
hind, the inns and hotels of the Japanese offering every thing
that a Japanese traveler can desire—food, drink, shelter, a clean
matted floor, a look-out on a little garden, or here, still better,
over the bay. But, even if we may have all this, we know we
can not have a table, or a chair, or a bed, nor a mutton-chop,
nor a cup of milk, nor a loaf of bread, for the simple reason
that all these things are to the Japanese unknown, or ignored
as superfluities. And if you are a man of rank, still more if a
foreigner, be prepared with a long purse and kobangs' galore;'
for, if we are to believe the Japanese themselves, long bills fol-
low the shortest sojourn in these terrestrial paradises* The
shops, as we pass, do not present a very inviting appearance.
For the most part, they are little better than roadside booths
* This may be so in the case of X)aimios, but not as regards travelers gen-
erally, as I had means of ascertaining in my long journeys. The charges
are very moderate, and to all the Tycoon's officers and employe's one third
less than to others, by law established.

A FEMALE HOSTLER.


Chap. XXII.]
JAPANESE COMPLAINT.
405
in the shape of some roistering evil-eyed and double-sworded
retainers of a Daimio. There are three or four of them, all
mounted, with the Prince of Satsuma's cognizance 'on their
sleeves. And now they see ns; keep your horse well in hand,
for here the two foremost come at headlong speed. 'Will
they ride us downP 'Can not possibly say; but if not, they
will go very near. Keep a steady hand and a quick eye.'
There! they have passed, only brushing our stirrups; bent on
showing their own prowess, and not unwilling to try ours,
with a dash of defiance to the Giaour; for to this class, adopt-
ing the feelings of their masters, as we must suppose, we are
all dogs of Christians and aliens, hateful in both characters.
It was reported of Count Mouravieff, when at Yeddo, that
among the complimentary phrases which form a necessary pre-
lude to business in the East, on the occasion of his visit to
some of the ministers, he spoke in congratulatory terms of the
new and pacific relations now established with all the great
maritime Powers of the West, to which the Minister respond-
ed with an amount of truth and sincerity, which could only be
accounted for on the preacher's wise saying, that' out of the
fullness of the heart the tongue speaketh.' 'You congratulate
us,' was the reply,' on the new relations now established, but
these have hitherto only been to us sources of trouble and vex-
ation, each day bringing forth some new cause of anxiety, or
some new complaint on the part of foreigners.' What might
be the rejoinder report does not tell; but there was an answer,
a true answer, it were a pity not to have given, even though
it might have brought no immediate conviction. Sources of
complaint, of vexation to the authorities and anxiety on both
sides, have indeed been plentiful; but chiefly, if not solely due
to the bad faith and shuffling of officials, unwilling to give ex-
ecution to the plainest provisions of treaties, and not, as the
ministers evidently would have it inferred, to the unreasonable
exigencies of foreigners, though these may not always be fault-
less either. Those first arriving as pioneers in a far Eastern
country are not generally the most refined or select specimens
of their class or nation.
And now we approach Sinagawa, the great suburb immedi-
ately before Yeddo itself, already more than once referred to.
Here, at night, the whole road is an illumination of lanterns,
with frequenters of the numerous tea-houses and places of en-
tertainment situated here passing to and fro. The two-sword-
ed men, on foot and in norimons, block up the way, and woe
betide any luckless man of the inferior class who comes across
their path; for after eight o'clock the saki is in and the wit is





»»«r f' ne bf' be brough' 'o I dfsk.