JAPAN DESCRIBED BY GREAT WRITERS ' SINGLETON THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES JAPAN JAPAN As Seen and Described by Famous Writers Edited and Translated by ESTHER SINGLETON Author of "Turrets, Towers and Temples," "Great Pictures," and "A Guide to the Opera," and translator of " The Music Dramas of Richard Wagner." WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS t j, _ I. > I I t _j_ I _1. ,t t_ I I _t I, ,t l_.t t-.t I- I ^ * * I _t_ I ^>^ t < _l t^ r* " r r r I ~ i r r T r r ~ r r i i i i i i i i r i j r I I 1 I I I 1 M I I I I I 1 I I I I 1 I I i I ! I I 'M' I"M I l-Hf j8eto port Dodd, Mead and Company COPYRIGHT, 1904, By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY Published March, 1904 Art Libra rv OS PREFACE IN the following pages I have endeavoured to present a bird's eye view of Japan, as seen by travellers and recognized authorities who have given time and study to the arts, sciences, history, ethnography, manners, cus- toms and institutions of that country. Within the limits of a volume of this size, it is, of course, impossible to de- scribe Japan in detail ; in fact, that country is still a sealed book to the European and American with the exception of the circumscribed region around Tokio, Kioto and the Treaty Ports. I have tried, however, to give a general and comprehensive view of Japan and Japanese life by drawing on the records and impressions of those who have been allowed especial opportunities for examination and forming their own conclusions. Beginning with the description of the country, its phys- ical features, flora, fauna, etc., the writers whom I have laid under contribution next describe the Japanese race with ethnological details, and then proceed to treat of the history and religion of the land. The next division of the work is devoted to descriptions of special towns, the Inland Sea, mountains, highways, temples, shrines and places or popular resort. As these special descriptions give a clearer idea of Japanese life and thought than more general v vi PREFACE articles, more space has been devoted to this department of the work than any other. From the topography and special descriptions, we pass to the manners and customs of the nation, treating of the home and the special social obser- vances and amusements peculiar to Japan. After this, the arts and crafts of the Japanese are treated comprehensively by recognized authorities in the various branches j and, in order to give the reader an idea of Japan as it now is, I have added a few recent statistics and an article on the dawn of New Japan. The extracts from Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan^ by Lafcadio Hearn, are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., publishers of Mr. Hearn's works. E. S. New Tork, March 20, 1904. CONTENTS PART I THE COUNTRY AND THE RACE PAGE The Country ........ I Louis Const Physical Features . . . *3 A. H. Keane The Japanese Race . 21 Jean Jacques Elisee Reclus PART II HISTORY AND RELIGION The History of Japan .30 Basil Hall Chamberlain Shinto and Buddhism 44 Toshitaro Tamashita The Japanese Tori-i 54 Samuel Tuke PART III PLACES AND MONUMENTS The Great Tokaido Road 60 Sir Edward J. Reed vii viii CONTENTS Tokio 77 Frederic H. Balfour The Temple of Asakusa .82 Judith Gautier The Temple of Hatchiman ...... 89 Aime Humbert The Shiba Temple . 97 Christopher Dresser In Yokohama 102 Lafcadio Hearn Fuji-San ..no Sir Edwin Arnold The Temples of Nikko . 1 20 Pierre Loti The Ise Shrines . . . . . . . 131 Isabella Bird Bishop The Dai-Butsu of Nara . . . . . 137 Sir Edward J. Reed Kioto I4 i Pierre Loti The Mikado's Palace . . . . . . 149 Pierre Loti The Inland Sea . . . . . . . .156 Aime Humbert Impressions of Kobe . . . . . . .164 Andre Bellessort Miyanoshita . . . . . . . .172 Sir Edwin Arnold In the Japanese Mountains 182 Sir Edwin Arnold CONTENTS ix Ena-San and Misakatoge . . . . . .191 Noel Buxton A Large Crater 201 Prof. John Milne Enoshima . . . . . .210 Lafcadio Hearn PART IV MANNERS AND CUSTOMS Costume of the Gentlemen of Japan . . . .218 Arthur Diosy Japanese Ladies . . . . . . .227 T. E. M. Japanese Children 234 Mortimer Mempes The Geisha 239 Mortimer Mempes The House and its Customs ...... 243 Marcus B. Huish The Japanese Hearth . . . , . . . 250 Sir Edwin Arnold Gardens 257 7. J. Rein The Flowers of Japan ^263 Josiah Conder The Tea-Ceremonies (Cha-no-yu) .... 282 Augustus W. Franks Pilgrimages ........ 287 Basil Hall Chamberlain x CONTENTS PART V ARTS AND CRAFTS Ornamental Arts . . . . . . . .291 George Ashdown Audslej Decorative Arts . . . , . . . .297 Sir Rutherford Alcock Architecture . . . . . . . .305 Christopher Dresser Painting . . . .-,...,. , . .312 William Anderson Pottery and Porcelain . . . . . . .316 Augustus W. Franks Sculpture and Carving . 324 Marcus B. Huish Lacquer 331 Ernest Hart Literature 34 , W. G. Aston Theatre . 349 Mortimer Mempes PART VI MODERN JAPAN The New Japan 356 Arthur Diosy Present Conditions 364 E. S. ILLUSTRATIONS YOKOHAMA FRONTISPIECE To face page FALLING FOG CASCADE, KIRIFURINOTAKI ... 2 HARBOUR OF NAGASAKI . . . . . . 14 JAPANESE PRIESTS ....... 2* TOMB OF IYEYASU, NIKKO . . . . . . 32 OSAKA CASTLE ....... 4 SHINTO TEMPLE, KOBE ...... 46 DAI-BUTSU, UENO, TOKIO . . . . . . 5 2 TORI-I, NAGASAKI ....... 5^ STREET IN TOKIO ....... ?8 BUDDHAS, ASAKUSA ....... 88 DAIBOUDHS, KAMAKURA . . . . . . 9^ THE SHIBA TEMPLE, TOKIO . . . . . 100 A JlNRIKI-SHA . . . . . . . ,IO8 FUJI-SAN .116 TEMPLES OF NIKKO . . . . . . . 1 20 SHOGUN'S BRIDGE, NIKKO . . . , . .130 ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE OF CHION-IN, KIOTO . . 142 TEMPLE OF KIOMIZU, KIOTO . . . . .148 MIKADO'S PALACE, KIOTO . . . . . .154 KOBE 164 JAPANESE CHILDREN. BY MORTIMER MEMPES . . . 234 JAPANESE INTERIOR WITH ARRANGEMENT OF WINTER FLOWERS 244 GARDENS, TOKIO . . . . . . . 250 GARDENS, KOGOSHIMA . , . . . , 262 xli ILLUSTRATIONS Tofacepagt VIEWING THE PLUM BLOSSOMS ..... 268 ON THE SUMIDA RIVER ...... 270 WISTARIA BLOSSOMS AT KAMEIDO .... 274 JAPANESE TEA-ROOM ...... 284 MOTHER AND CHILD. Bv KENZAN (1663-1743), IN KENZAN-!MADO WARE ..... 294 GATEWAY OF THE SHIBA TEMPLE, TOKIO . . .306 PAGODA AT ASAKUSA . . . . .! . . 308 SPECTACLE BRIDGE, KIOTO. . . . . . 310 KAKEMONO BY HOKUSAI, REPRESENTING OFUKU THROWING BEANS AT A DEMON ; PAINTED ABOUT I 8OO . . 3 I VASES OF OWARI PORCELAIN . . . . .318 CARVED IVORY GROUP, BY MEI-GIOKU BUTSU, REPRESENT- ING THE FAMOUS ARCHER TAMETOMO A.'tD HIS SWORD- BEARER ....... 326 FOUR LACQUER BOXES . . . . . .334 PANEL FROM A SCREEN, LACQUER, WITH FIGI'SE OF A COURT LADY AND POETESS OF THE ELEVENT** CENTURY, IN- CRUSTED IN IVORY ; DESIGN BY YoSAJ . . .344 TEA HOUSE . . . . . . . .358 TEMPLE BELL, KIOTO . . . , . .368 THE COUNTRY LOUIS GONSE ALL those who have set foot on Japanese soil agree in praising its natural beauties. In this respect, travellers' tales present such unanimity that we may consider Japan as one of the most favoured countries in the world. Beauty of sky, mildness of climate, variety of zone, and configuration to the land all contribute to its wealth. By its greatly lengthened form, like that of a bow, the concave side of which is turned towards the Asiatic continent, and by its extension from north-east to south- west, the Nippon archipelago covers very different latitudes and consequently lends itself to cultivations of the most opposite character. There are no fewer than 750 leagues between the northern extremity of the island of Yezo, which is on the forty-sixth parallel, to the extreme south of Kiushiu, which is on the thirtieth. While the northern regions are covered with snow the southern ones are vivified by an ardent sun. From the crossing, around Japan, of the great Polar current that comes down from the Sea of Okhotsk and the great tropical current that comes up from the equator towards the Isle of Formosa and flows along the east coasts before losing itself in the Pacific, it results that the difference between the temperatures of the north 2 JAPAN and south, between summer and winter, is more marked even than in Europe. At the same latitude, it is colder by five or six degrees in the north of Japan ; and the heat is more intense in the south. The medium climate of Yezo corresponds almost with that of Norway ; that of Kiushiu with that of Egypt. There is the same difference in the seasons. It must also be added that the east coasts have a milder and more humid climate than those on the west. Four islands, of much greater importance than the others, form the territory of the Empire of Japan properly speak- ing j Yezo, Hondo, the largest, which the Dutch named Nippon ; Shikok, the coasts of which form the Inland Sea, and Kiushiu. The area of the Empire of Japan, accord- ing to official statistics, is a little more than three-quarters the size of France ; and the population numbers about forty millions. Taking into account the small number of inhabitants contained by the northern and mountainous regions, this country must rank as one of the most densely populated on the face of the globe. The population of the three imperial cities is, Tokio, 1,507,642 ; Kioto, 351,461; Osaka, 1,311,909. Ten other towns have more than 100,000 inhabitants each. The extreme width of Japan, even in the latitude of Tokio, does not exceed 130 leagues. The extent of the coast line is enormous and may be set at ten times that of France. The shores are greatly indented, with deep bays ; and the islands with which they are dotted are almost in- finite in number, no less than thirty-eight hundred of FALLING FOG CASCADE, KIRIFURINOTAKI. THE COUNTRY 3 them have been counted. This geographical disposition, in combination with the presence of the ocean currents, re- sults for a great portion of the year in a very humid condi- tion of the atmosphere, from which vegetation gains an incomparable freshness. The almost tropical humidity of the spring and summer, and the relative dryness of the autumn and winter constitute the most striking character of the climate of Japan. Rain and snow are continually recurring in the compositions of the Japanese artists. The rainy season corresponds to our months of June and July. The temperature rises rapidly with the arrival of the rains, and transforms Japan into a veritable sewer. The summer, which follows, is short, hot and stormy. We can imagine the different actions exercised by such a state of atmosphere upon plants, animals and man. During these months, the population is attacked by a general anemia. Everything softens in this warm humidity. Twice as much rain falls in Japan as in Western Europe ; at Tokio (Yedo), the meteorological observations show a rainfall of nearly sixty inches per annum. The bay of Tokio performs the office of a hole to engulf the clouds brought by the south winds. The paddy-fields thrive wonderfully in the prov- ince of Musachi and form stretches of verdure for which the eye can find no limit. The skies in this region pour down such masses of water that the waters of the sea are far less salt here than elsewhere. This enervating return of warm rain is a real scourge to public health ; it is the sole complaint that visitors have to make. But it is really 4 JAPAN serious, and to its influence must be attributed the frail constitution of the Japanese, especially in the leisured classes, their premature old age, and the relatively short life among the dwellers in the plains. The autumn and winter are the dry seasons. The autumn particularly is the loveliest part of the year. Dur- ing the months of October, November and December, the sky is of exquisite purity, the colours in the landscape glow with marvellous brilliancy, and the air is light and full of tonic. Those who visit Japan in these privileged days carry away with them an image of ineffaceable de- light. Freed from the excessive influence of the spring, the plants, like the men, stand up and seem to take strength from the well-being of Nature. The flowers of spring are succeeded by a still richer display ; this is the time when the denticulated leaf of the moumidji illumines the landscape with its purple hues. The surface of Japan is very mountainous and of an essentially volcanic formation. The features of the land and shores give to the landscapes an extraordinary variety and an almost tortuous aspect which is very happily softened by a luxuriant vegetation. A few of the volcanoes that are scattered over the surface of the Japanese archipelago are still in activity. The most remarkable of all, on account of its outline, the beauty of its form, and its isolated situa- tion, is the celebrated Fusiyama, the snowy mass of which is so majestically enthroned on the horizon of Yedo ; the poetical Fusi, sung by all the poets and reproduced by all THE COUNTRY 5 the artists of the capital. The affection of every good Japanese for this admirable mountain, the highest in Japan, is well known. Like Etna, with which it presents singular analogies, Fusi has no rival. It reigns over Japan as Etna does over Sicily. Warm springs are abundant, and the vegetative energy indicates that the period of volcanic upheavals is not yet very remote. The soil is wonderfully fertile almost every- where. Cascades, streamlets, bridges, mills and miniature lakes are the necessary accompaniment of every Japanese land- scape. The chains of mountains that accentuate Japan are ac- companied by innumerable valleys, and even by immense plains, such as that of Yedo, in which the Japanese peasant finds a generous soil from which he can demand everything. Japanese cultivation, although greatly laboured, is yet somewhat restricted ; a small number of vegetables, among which are egg-plants, roots and potatoes ; watermelons figure in the first rank ; a few species of fruit-trees, mul- berries, bamboos, cotton trees, maize,' hemp, tobacco, indigo, tea and rice, particularly rice, which, with fish, is the dominant, not to say exclusive, food of Japan. Gar- dening, by which I mean the cultivation of ornamental plants and flowers, is, on the other hand, extremely devel- oped. The Japanese love flowers. The flowers have not much odour, but they attain magnificent development and glow with hues unknown to us in Europe. Among the 6 JAPAN most extraordinary, we may mention the giant chrysanthe- mums and the rose nenuphars, the calyx of which some- times measures fifty centimetres in diameter. The Japanese flora and fauna are similar to our own ; many plants and animals are common to Europe and Japan. As for the flora, the number of families and genuses is greater than ours ; but the varieties are infinitely fewer. The fauna is poorer. The centre of Japan, principally in the low regions of the Tokaido, thanks to the development of cultivation, offers a remarkable mixture of the plants of the temperate and tropical zones. There may be seen the banana growing side by side with the mulberry, the orange with the apple, the cotton tree with the walnut and chestnut. The edible fruits seem almost all to be derived from importation from abroad at a historical period. The peach, cherry, plum and almond are not indigenous to Japan ; there they have less flavour than in Europe. Pears attain enormous size there; the apple is only a wild fruit; the vine, which thrives in many regions, is not yet used for making wine. The only fermented drink in use is sake or rice brandy which contains only a small proportion of alcohol. The forest vegetation is very remarkable. Trees attain colossal dimensions. The soil is shaded everywhere; bushes, ligneous plants, creepers and tall grasses are mingled in a picturesque jumble. Roads, paths, cascades, peasants' houses, inns and temples seem to be drowned in the verdure. The most noteworthy of the plants peculiar THE COUNTRY 7 ro Japan are : the Kiri (Paulonia imperialii), the imperial tree, the flower of which united with that of the chrys- anthemum, symbolizes the power of the Mikado; the um'e, or wild plum, an angular tree, covered with thorns, but of most beautiful style, that grows everywhere and whose dazzling blooms are the messengers of spring ; the Sought (Cryptomeria japonica) whose strange and strong forms have been often celebrated by European writers ; the Hinoki (Retinispora obtusd) that affords the most prized wood for cabinet-making; the Foudzi (Wysteria sincusii) that wreathes the columns of the temples, covers the straw- thatched roofs of the huts, and figures so largely in the poetic imagination of the Japanese, as the emblem of youth and of the season of flowers ; the Biva, the Kaki, which is the fruit-tree par excellence of Japan ; and the peony (Eotan) which is its most beautiful flower. We may also mention the Rhus vernicifera^ the lacquer tree, and the Brussonetia papyrifera^ the paper tree. The olive is unknown. The flowers which the Japanese are most fond of culti- vating in their gardens are orchids, chrysanthemums, camelias, peonies, azaleas, magnolias, hibiscus, nenuphars, irises, poppies, volubilis, lilies, begonias, ferns and mosses, odd forms of which they particularly esteem. The cherry is cultivated not for its fruit but for its blossom which is much larger and more beautiful than that borne by our trees. The double cherry blossom is incomparably mag- nificent. 8 JAPAN Neglecting the flowers that are known to have been in- troduced from China or Europe, Savatier has classified the flora of Japan in 2,743 species, grouped in 1,035 genuses and 154 families. The number of plants may be put at more than 3,000; forty-four genuses have not yet been found outside the Japan archipelago. As to the southern flora of Yezo, it is entirely different and almost unknown. In the forests, the number and mixture of species are much greater than in other countries of the same latitude. The virgin forests of Japan, notwithstanding the breaches al- ready made in them by industry, are still among the finest in the world. Yezo is nothing but a vast virgin forest of which the wealth of timber fit for building purposes has scarcely been touched. If rice dominates in alimentary cultivation, the conif- erous and evergreens dominate in forest vegetation. The resinous species of Japan enjoy universal celebrity. The pines and wild plums (um'e} are the most beautiful orna- ments of this region. The whole of decorate art is to some extent borrowed from the ingenious, delicate and learned study of these most picturesque trees. The artists have also made wonderful use of the moumidji, or American oak, the leaves of which assume a purplish red in Autumn and glow in great masses in the Japanese landscape; also of the bamboo the elegant forms of which lend themselves so readily to their favourite combinations. After rice, the bamboo plays the chief part in Japanese life ; it seems as if the country could not subsist without the bamboo. THE COUNTRY 9 It lends itself to the most multifarious uses and needs. After the cereals, the cultivation of the tea-shrub oc- cupies the first rank, without being so important or so per- fect as in China. Tea is the national drink. The shrubs are set out in the fields, or form hedges ; they thrive well everywhere and are very hardy. The best tea is harvested in the neighbourhood of Kioto ; as to fineness and delicacy, it is inferior in quality to the tea of China. Silk culture occupies the third place in the national economics. Japanese silk was already celebrated in Europe in the Sixteenth Century. With respect to suppleness of tissue and beauty of tone, it has no rival. Un- fortunately, this industry is in complete decadence, the quality of the best goods no longer appeals to foreign buy- ers to the same degree as formerly ; the Japanese now only think about producing as much as possible without caring to maintain their old superiority. As for the native con- sumption, it diminishes daily under the invasion of our Jinens and cottons. The fauna of Japan offers few remarkable peculiarities. Moreover, it is much poorer than the flora. Owing to the density of population and the development of cultivation, Japan has preserved very few wild animals. The carnivora are scarcely represented except by two species of bears, one of which lives almost exclusively in the isle of Yezo. The tiger exists only in some of the southern provinces, and the wolf has almost entirely disappeared. A species of wild 10 JAPAN dog is also mentioned ; but the two wild animals that are common over the whole surface of the country are the fox (Kitsuni), and the badger (Tanukfy which constantly appear, in popular legend and to which the women's imagi- nation attributes a baleful power. The fox can assume the human form. By preference, he chooses that of a young and beautiful woman, in order to lead belated travellers astray. The credulity of the lower orders attributes the most malicious annoyances to him. It is certain that he devastates the poultry-yards and rice-fields, where at his ease he can visit during the night the little tabernacles of Inari, the god of rice. The Japanese custom of offering food to their divinities attracts Mr. Renard and furnishes him with excellent repasts. The astute animal is so closely identi- fied with the peaceable god of the fields that every little temple (jaciro) is flanked by two foxes coarsely carved in stone or wood, which has led some European writers to be- lieve that the Japanese worship the fox under the name of Inari. For his part, the badger can metamorphose himself into inanimate objects and kitchen furniture and utensils. He is fond of the porridge pot. A very popular legend that has very often inspired the artists relates that one day a merchant bought a big porridge pot. Having been set on the fire, it put out a tail, four paws and a head, and then took to precipitate flight. The boar and monkey are rather common. Rodents swarm. The rat is the emblem of fortune. It is always represented with Daikoku, the god of wealth. Animals THE COUNTRY 1 1 with prized furs abound in the island of Yezo; but the Japanese have scarcely begun to take advantage of the natural resources of that island. The rabbit and hare are very rare. A few years ago, rabbits imported from Europe commanded fabulous prices. All the domestic animals, except the dog, came from China. The ass is unknown. The ox is employed in field work ; but, until the arrival of the Europeans, the Japanese had not thought of using its flesh as food. The horse alone has any real importance in the normal life of the people. It is reserved for the saddle and pack, the drawing of all kinds of vehicles being confined to men. The sole indigenous equine race is that of the Satsouma ponies. They are small, fiery and difficult to manage. Their mane is short and bristling, and they are strong necked and have a long and flowing tail. The Japanese ride only entire horses. They have great veneration for the horses of great personages. On the death of a prince or a warrior, a talented artist is commis- sioned to paint the portrait of his favourite horse with a few rapid strokes. These little pictures, called yemas^ are piously preserved by the friends, or descendants of the de- ceased. At Nikko, people still visit the chapel erected to the battle-horse of Tokugawa lyeyasu. The ornithological and entomological wealth of Japan is very considerable. The various species of birds present much analogy with those of our temperate regions. The most richly represented are the ducks, wild geese, cranes, 12 JAPAN herons, and generally all the long-legged birds. Pheasants and peacocks are reared in gardens, as with us. The gal- linacae offer superb types, and the Japanese cocks enjoy a well-deserved reputation. As for insects and butterflies, they abound throughout Japan. The marine fauna is no less numerous. The waters of Japan afford fishing innumerable resources which, it is true, have somewhat diminished in certain parts of the sea, but in many others have scarcely begun to be exploited. One may say that Japan is a nation of fish-eaters. Fish cooked, salted, smoked or dried is the basis of the food of the people, and the fish is of excellent quality. There are very few differences between the Japanese species and our own. In general, the principal difference is that they are much larger ; the crustaceans are more varied and abundant. There are crabs of gigantic size. Siebold, who studied the flora and fauna of Japan with great enthusiasm, mentions one species with long tentacles measuring no less than sixty inches. A sketch (natural size) of this species is preserved in the ethnological museum at Leyden. Among the reptiles, we must mention a very odd animal, and one very celebrated in Europe since a specimen was brought to one of the zoological establishments of Italy, the giant salamander, Sieboldia maxima (in Japanese, Sanzio Ouvo), which is found in some of the central provinces and in the neighbourhood of Lake Biwa. PHYSICAL FEATURES Relief of the Land Highlands Volcanoes A. H. KEANE THE Japanese archipelago is "an advanced frontier of Asia " consisting for the most part of very old sedimentary rocks, deposited, like the mainland itself, in deep water in palaeozoic times, and upheaved, like so many other mountain systems by lateral pressure due to the gradual shrinkage of the earth's crust through secular cooling. Doubtless, extensive longitudinal fissures were left, through which igneous matter was ejected in later ages. But although most of the loftiest summits are extinct craters, volcanic agencies have on the whole played a rela- tively small part in the geological history of Japan. If the archipelago be compared, with the old geographers, to garlands of flowers, then the volcanoes may be likened to small pearls threaded among these garlands. The neighbouring Pacific waters are the deepest that have yet been anywhere sounded ; but they shoal somewhat grad- ually towards the east coast, while the incline is still more gentle in the comparatively shallow sea of Japan on the west side. Above these waters rise the Japanese uplands, which cover the greater part of the surface, and which, viewed as a 13 1 4 JAPAN single orographic system, are found to consist of a long series of folds running normally in the direction of the main axis of the Archipelago. But towards the central and widest part of Hondo, a great transversal cleft, Naumann's Fossa Magna, marks off an area of profound disturbance be- tween the northern and southern sections of the system. For some distance north of this cross fissure, above which rises Fujiyama, culminating point of the Archipelago (12,425 feet), the folds curve round so as to run for the most part transversely to the insular trend, but resume the normal direction about thirty-eight degrees north latitude, between Sado Island and Sendai Bay. During its long life above the marine waters, the original structure of the Japanese highlands has been somewhat ob- literated by weathering, denudation, erosive action, me- chanical pressure, and igneous agencies. Nevertheless, these primitive zones an outer towards the Pacific, a median, and an inner facing the mainland may still be distinguished, and are somewhat clearly marked, especially in the southern section south of the Fossa Magna. Here, the outer zone traverses the islands of Kiushiu and Shi- koku, and the Kii and Akaishi districts of Hondo, rising to a height of over 7,700 feet in Shi-koku, and to about 10,000 near the transverse fissure. Beyond this point, it is continued at intervals by the Quinto, Abukuma and Kita- kami mountain masses. In the south, the median zone is now represented by the innumerable rocky islets of the Inland Sea, a vast flooded PHYSICAL FEATURES 15 depression disposed in the normal direction between the outer and inner zones. North of the Fossa Magna, this basin is continued by a median range with crests 6,000 feet high, extending to Awomori Bay at the northern extremity of Hondo, and bearing numerous igneous cones. Both in the north and in the extreme south (Kiushiu), the median zone is the chief sphere of volcanic activity in the Ar- chipelago, and here are accumulated enormous masses of erupted rocks. Lastly, the inner zone, skirting the shores of the sea of Japan, is of a more fragmentary character, its most salient feature being isolated volcanoes rising above circular basins formed by abrupt depressions. Such are the Sanpei and Daisen basins in the south facing the Oki Islands, in the north those of Gassan, Chokai, Moriyoshi, and Iwaki, ex- tending from near the parallel of Sado Island to Sangar (Sugara) Strait, between Hondo and Yezo. In Yesso (Yezo) exploration has been greatly retarded by the absence of roads through the trackless forests covering the greater part of the interior. The whole surface is hilly and in parts mountainous, the highest peaks being Shribetsi in the south (7,874 feet) ; Unabetsu in the north- east (5,039) ; Ofuyu in the west coast (6,000) ; Ishikari (7,710) and Tokachi (8,200) near the centre. Both old and recent eruptive rocks occur, as in Hondo ; but sedi- mentary formations seem to predominate, developing nu- merous ridges of moderate elevation. The narrow inter- vening valleys are watered by small streams, which do not 16 JAPAN converge in any large fluvial basins, but for the most part find their way in independent channels to the coast. These rivers teem with salmon, while the immense forests contain much valuable timber oak, elm, walnut, birch and maple which might be exported at a profit. Coal abounds, and the mines opened at Sorachi are now con- nected by a railway with the coast. Yezo has an area of 86,880 square miles. In Hondo, the main axis towards the middle of the island recedes somewhat from the east coast, where is de- veloped an alluvial lowland district watered by numerous streams, and occupied by Tokio (Yedo), capital of the empire. But west and south of this district the hills attain their greatest elevation in Mounts Nantai (8,195 feet), As- ama (8,260), Haku (9,185), and the magnificent snow- capped cone of Fujiyama (12,400). The latter rises in solitary grandeur some seventy miles south-west of Tokio, and is visible in clear weather for a distance of nearly one hundred miles. It has been quiescent since the year 1707. But although the highest, Fujiyama is not the largest vol- cano in Japan. This honour is claimed by Asosan, in Kiushiu, twenty miles from Kumamoto, the crater of which is said by Milne to be twelve miles in diameter, and consequently larger than Mauna Loa, hitherto supposed to be the largest in the world. The Asama-yama occupies a somewhat central position to the north-west of Tokio. From its crater, 1,000 feet across, this volcano emits constant volumes of smoke and PHYSICAL FEATURES 17 vapour, and from its summit a magnificent prospect is com- manded of the surrounding country. Other superb cones are Chokai-san on the north-west coast of Hondo, and Tateyama, one of the most con- spicuous and loftly peaks (nearly 10,000 feet) of the Shinano Hida range, towards the northern extremity of the Fossa Magna. Like Fusiyama, near the southern extrem- ity, it is a famous place of pilgrimage ; and both command magnificent prospects of the surrounding lands and seas. Except a few hot springs at the foot of the mountain, there are no traces of recent volcanic action on Chokai-san ; but on the western slope of Tateyama is the largest and most interesting solfatara in the Archipelago. " The Japanese call it Figoku, ' Hell,' and no place in the whole world could remind one more of the infernal regions. From hundreds of openings, steam is emitted with a shrill, hissing noise, and sulphurous vapours belch forth in large volumes. At the edge of the solfatara, I found some small mud volca- noes in regular action. In some of the openings grew graceful flower-like cups of a beautiful yellow colour, formed of minute and beautiful crystals of sulphur, one of which, was about six feet high " (Naumann). Although many of the volcanoes have been in eruption during the historic period, nearly all are now extinct, or at least quiescent. But in 1878, Naumann witnessed a tremendous outbreak on the island of Oshima at the en- trance of Tokio Bay. From a small cone springing from the floor of a huge circular crater, a column of fire was i8 JAPAN projected into the air to a height of 1,000 feet, while masses of molten lava streamed down the slopes. But if eruptions are rare, earthquakes are all the more frequent, one might almost say of daily occurrence, although seldom of a violent character. Since the opening of the country to foreign intercourse, however, two very destructive disturbances haye been recorded, that of the Tokio district on 22d February, 1880, and the still more violent convulsions of the Mino and Owari providences which began on 28th October, 1891, and continued till the end of March, 1892, as many as 2,588 shocks being felt at Gifu, and 1,495 at Nagoya. This event was felt over an area of 50,000 square miles, or sixty per cent, of the Japanese Archipelago, and in the central parts its effect was greatly to modify the topography of the country, rendering existing surveys quite useless in some districts. On the plain near Nagoya, the ground was riven with myriads of fissures, small mud volcanoes being thrown up along the Shonigawa River, where a bamboo grove slid sixty feet back, the trees remaining upright. Gifu was nearly ruined, and every house was overthrown in the continuous street, twenty miles long, running thence to Nagoya. Several other places shared the same fate, and even greater havoc was wrought in the hilly Mino district, traversed for forty miles by a new line of fault, where everything lying near the great throws of shale was des- troyed. The solid ground became for a time like a sea of waves, the destruction being complete in the epicentric PHYSICAL FEATURES 19 district, 4,200 square miles in extent. Near Kimbara, in the Neo basin, the sides of the valley slid into the river, and in the upper reaches a great part of the mountain slopes glided down to the lowlands. One result of the earthquake was the formation of a huge fissure, which was traced for over forty miles through the Neo valley from Katabira to Fukui in Echizen, cutting across hills and paddy-fields, and raising the soft earth into a ridge, like the track of a gigantic mole. " The old Japanese idea that earthquakes are caused by the burrowing of a gigantic insect might well be suggested by such a phenomenon." Hydrography Rivers and Lakes. The lofty range stretching southwards from Mount Asama forms the water parting between the Pacific and the Sea of Japan. But owing to the disposition of the mountain system, covering probably nine-tenths of the whole surface, no room is left for the development of large rivers. Those that do exist bear somewhat the character of mountain torrents with very rapid courses, and are liable to sudden and disastrous floodings in their lower reaches. Hence they are almost more damaging than beneficial even for irrigation purposes. To navigation, they are not merely useless, but a positive hindrance, owing to the large quantities of sedimentary matter which they bring down, and with which some of the best harbours in the country have been gradually filled in. Such has especially been the fate of Osaka and Niigata harbours, formerly accessible to the largest vessels, but which can now be approached only by small craft. In 20 JAPAN Japan, " a river bed is a waste of sand, boulders and shingle^ through the middle of which, among sandbanks and shal- lows, the river proper takes its devious course. In the freshets, which occur to a greater or less extent every year, enormous volumes of water pour over these wastes, carry- ing sand and detritus down to the mouths, which are all obstructed by bars. Of these rivers, the Shinano, being the biggest, is the most refractory and has piled up a bar at its entrance through which there is only a passage seven feet deep, which is perpetually shallowing. " l Of the few lakes, none is of any size except Biwa, a magnificent sheet of water some forty-five miles long, with a mean breadth of about ten miles. Biwa, which is traversed by the river Yodo, lies within eight miles of Kioto, the ancient capital of the Mikados, who usually spent the summer months with their suites on its romantic banks. It is closed north and west by lofty forest covered mountains, and elsewhere skirted by an open highly-culti- vated country dotted over with numerous villages and tea- houses, the resort of pleasure-seekers from all parts. Its clear waters, which abound in fish, are enlivened by fleets of tiny craft, including probably one hundred small steam- ers always crowded with passengers. bishop, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (London, 1880). THE JAPANESE RACE JEAN JACQUES ELISEE RECLUS THE dominant people in Japan are evidently a mixed race, in which the Aino element is but slightly represented. According to the prepossession of observers, they have been affiliated to various stocks ; but although Whitney and Morton regard them as members of the Caucasic family, most anthropologists class them with the Mongol races of Siberia and East Asia. The Chinese records referring to the land of Wo, that is, of Japan, before the inhabitants were acquainted with the art of writing, mention certain facts attesting the preponderating influence of Chinese civilization even at that remote epoch. Migrations must have taken place from the Yang-tze basin to the adjacent archipelago, and according to one legend the ancestors of the Japanese race were three hun- dred young men and women sent across the seas by the Emperor Tsin-Shi-hwangti in search of the flower of im- mortality. Many have suspected the presence of the Malay elements amongst the inhabitants of Nippon, while the curly hair and dark complexion common in the south have been referred by Siebold to a mixture with "Alfuros," Melanesians and Caroline Islanders. Vessels may certainly have often drifted northwards with the equatorial current and the Kuro-sivo, and it is possible that Japan may have 21 22 JAPAN in this way been peopled from the Pacific or East Indian Archipelagoes. Ethnologists have attempted to describe the character- istic Japanese type. But although at first sight few differ- ences are detected, foreigners residing in the country soon begin to distinguish two distinct types, which correspond partly to two social classes, and which the native artists have at all times reproduced and even exaggerated. These types are those of the peasants and the aristocracy. The features of the peasant approach nearest to those of the East Asiatic peoples. He has the same broad, flat face, crushed nose, low brow, prominent cheek bones, half-open mouth, small black and oblique eyes. He is best repre- sented in the northern division of Hondo, in the low-lying plain of Tonegava and on the highlands stretching west of Kioto. The nobles are distinguished by their lighter com- plexion, more pliant and less vigorous body, more elongated head, elevated brow and oval face. The cheek bones are but slightly prominent, the nose aquiline, mouth small, eyes very small and apparently oblique. Artists have accepted this aristocratic type as the ideal of beauty, transferring it to their gods and heroes, and exaggerating it in their por- traits of women. Being found chiefly in the Kioto district and on the slope facing the Pacific, it has been argued that these features belonged to a conquering " Polynesian " element from the eastern islands. But all shades of tradi- tion are now found between the two extremes, and owing to crossings and shiftings of fortune many of the nobles JAPANESE PRIESTS. THE JAPANESE RACE 23 might be taken for plebeians, while the oval face and aquiline nose of the aristocracy are often found amongst the lower classes. On the whole, the Japanese face, with its olive complexion, lozenge shape and receding brow, is far from answering to the Western ideal of beauty, and to most foreigners seems decidedly plain. But this plainness in the case of the women is often counterbalanced by a graceful carriage, charming expression and tender glance. Those of Kioto and the southern regions bear the palm for beauty in the estimation both of natives and foreigners. Amongst the Samurai aristocracy many beardless youths betray a surprising resemblance to young women. To whatever class they may belong, all the Japanese are of low stature, averaging from five feet to five feet two inches in the men, and under five feet in the women. The lower orders are mostly robust, broad-shouldered, very straight, and endowed with a remarkable power of endur- ance. The Japanese coolie will carry a heavy load at a rapid pace for hours together, without stopping even when ascending steep mountain passes. Attendants on foot keep up with their master's horse crossing the country at full gallop, and the acrobats are unsurpassed in strength and activity by those of the west. A tendency to obesity is found only amongst the wrestlers, amongst whom the Mongolian type seems, by a sort of atavism, to be pre- served to a surprising degree. The artisans and peasantry are generally well-proportioned, except that they are often knock-kneed, a defect due to the way children are carried 24 JAPAN on their mothers' backs. They also become prematurely aged, both sexes being usually covered with wrinkles about their thirtieth year, and retaining of youth little beyond their white teeth and fiery glance. The prevailing malady is anemia, which sooner or later affects four-fifths of the whole population, and which is attributed to the almost exclusive use of rice and vegetables, possessing little albumen and fat. It is no longer obligatory to wear the national dress, and in their eagerness to imitate foreign ways, the lettered and trading classes have adopted the European costume, which, although very unbecoming, has the advantage of helping to get rid of the old class distinctions. Formerly the style and colours of the clothes worn by both sexes in every social position were strictly regulated by law or custom. The usual material was cotton, silk being reserved for the rich, or for grand occasions. The Kimono, or robe of the women, differs only in its greater length and brilliancy from that of the men. In both the wide sleeves serve as pockets, and are usually filled with rolls of paper used as handker- chiefs, or table-napkins. Hence also " sleeve editions " answering to our small " pocket editions " of books. The costume is completed by a skirt in the upper classes, or drawers amongst the poor, while several robes are worn one over the other in cold weather. During the rainy season, the artisans and peasantry cover their clothes with straw or oil paper cloaks. All except the coolies and couriers wear the so-called hata, high wooden clogs, which THE JAPANESE RACE 25 require great care in walking, and are even the cause of nervous affections. The European boot is ill-suited for the muddy streets, and indoors they walk bare-footed on the fine matting of the floors. The head-dress, especially of the fair sex, is quite a work of art and much patient labour, consisting of a vast chignon of real and artificial hair, cunningly devised, and over which many hours are usually spent. Being unable to afford all this time every day, women engaged in work have their hair dressed once or twice a week only, and in order not to disturb the elab- orate superstructure, they are obliged to sleep with the neck resting on a wooden pillow, so as to keep the head free from contact with the bed-clothes. A white cosmetic on the face and neck, crimson on the cheeks, the eyebrows blackened, the lips covered with gold leaf, and the teeth with a brown pigment, and the toilet of the high-born lady of the olden times may be pronounced completed. Tattooing has been almost entirely abandoned by the women of all classes, and its use, even by the men, has now been forbidden by the Government. We learn from Matoualin that the nobles were formerly more richly deco- rated than the plebeians. But in recent times the most elaborate art has been lavished on the couriers and others, obliged, by their occupation, to appear almost naked in public. These designs, mostly in red, white and blue, are diversely interlaced without any symmetrical arrange- ment, but always with great taste, so that a graceful pro- portion is observed between the birds, dragons, flowers and 26 JAPAN other more conspicuous objects. Thus a tree will be rep- resented with its roots twined round the right foot, the stem growing up the left leg, and covering the back or breast with its outspread leafy branches, on which are perched birds of various kinds. Made up as they are of so many heterogeneous elements, it is extremely difficult to form a just estimate of the Japanese people, and the difficulty is increased by their consciousness that they are just now, so to say, on their trial. They are consequently apt to assume false airs ; and as they have endeavoured to assimilate themselves out- wardly to Europeans, by adopting a foreign garb, they, in the same way, affect the manners and tone of a nation long accustomed to Western culture. Except, perhaps, certain tribes of the New World, no people have developed to a higher degree the faculty of concealing their inward sentiments and preserving their equanimity under the most trying circumstances. Extremely reserved and sensitive to the opinion of others, they speak only after having well weighed their words, and maintain a sort of self-restraint in the presence of Europeans. Many officials have even taken to blue or coloured spectacles, in order the better to conceal their inmost thoughts; and even among themselves their outward indications of anger, contempt, affection, or other strong passions, are singularly moderate, compared with the vehemence of many Western peoples. They suffer impassively without wringing their hands in despair, or appealing to the Deity with outstretched arms and THE JAPANESE RACE 27 upturned eyes. They have learnt from Europeans the custom of shaking hands, but it never approaches the hearty grasp of an Englishman. Mothers even rarely embrace their children ; and this general reserve extends even to the demented classes, so that a " dangerous luna- tic " is almost an unheard-of phenomenon in Nippon. The very effort to make a good appearance in the eyes of strangers speaks highly in favour of this interesting people. The are essentially kind-hearted, and nothing is rarer than instances of men rendered arrogant by their social position, and treating those beneath them with harsh- ness. Those in the enjoyment of power and privilege seek rather to avoid envy by their courtesy and considera- tion for others less favoured by fortune. No one, whatever his rank, assumes that haughty air which so many function- aries great and small, elsewhere regard as their most highly prized prerogative. From the custom of bowing gracefully to each other, the Japanese have gradually acquired a natural attitude of deference, while the expression of the features generally reflects their kindly disposition. Even under extreme suffering, patients preserve a mild glance and endearing tone. This innate amiability, conspicuous especially in the fair sex, is usually accompanied by the domestic virtues of temperance, order, thrift, and common sense. The young women united by temporary alliances with Europeans, as is the custom of the country, seldom fail to ingratiate themselves with them by their careful forethought, assiduous attention, and orderly management 28 JAPAN of the household. Strangers are surprised at the cheerful- ness and calm resignation of the hard-working labouring classes, who adapt themselves to everything, and submit uncomplainingly to the greatest hardships and privations. Yet this resignation cannot be attributed to the want of a higher ideal. The eagerness with which the European arts and sciences have been welcomed shows how keen is the desire of progress amongst all classes. The Japanese are now committed to the new social evo- lution by a sense of honour, which has ever been one of their main springs of action. The practice of barakiri, or sappuku^ maintained for centuries among the nobles, attests the strength of will with which they are capable of assert- ing their personal dignity. Although not of native growth for frequent mention is made of it in the Chinese annals this custom has nowhere else become a national institution. Whether commanded by the Government in order to spare the nobleman a dishonourable death, or voluntarily per- formed in order to be indirectly avenged on an opponent by compelling him to give life for life, the act was always executed with scrupulous nicety. The history of the forty-seven ronin, so determined in exacting vengeance for the murder of their master, so heroic in their self-sacrifice, is the most widely known in the country, and the graves of these daring men are still piously tended by the citizens of the imperial capital. The recent wars and revolutions also show that the people have not degenerated from the prowess of their forefathers, and THE JAPANESE RACE 29 we may rest assured that should Russia or any other Western power become engaged in hostilities with them, it will meet with a formidable adversary. Hitherto the European powers have obtained easy triumphs over most Eastern nations, thanks to the superiority of their arma- ments and discipline. But the Japanese people are not one of those which will henceforth allow themselves to be conquered without a struggle, nor will civilization have to deplore the disgraceful subjection of 40,000,000 human beings who are rapidly placing themselves on a level with the most advanced states of Christendom. While recognizing the superiority of European science and industry, the Japanese are none the less, in certain respects even more, civilized than their foreign instructors. In all that regards frugality, self-respect, the sentiment of honour, mutual kindness and consideration, the mass of the people certainly stand on a higher level than most Western peoples. The humblest Japanese peasant has an eye open to the wild grandeur and softer charms of the landscape, and takes care to build his hut by the sparkling stream, in the shade of a leafy thicket, or on an eminence commanding a fair prospect of the surrounding scenery. His lowly dwelling is even usually adorned with flowering plants tastefully dis- posed. The country is not allowed to be disfigured by wayside inns erected on incongruous sites, and during the fine weather groups rather of tourists than pilgrims are everywhere met visiting the districts famous for their romantic beauty. THE HISTORY OF JAPAN BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN THE continuity of the Japanese mythology and his- tory has been fully recognized by the leading native commentators, whose opinions are those consid- ered orthodox by modern Shintoists, and they draw from it the conclusion that everything in the standard national his- tories must be accepted as literal truth, the supernatural equally with the natural. But the general habit of the more sceptical Japanese of the present day, that is to say, of ninety-nine out of every hundred of the educated, is to reject or rather ignore the legends of the gods, while im- plicitly believing the legends of the emperors, from Jimmu Tenno, in B. c. 600, downwards. For so arbitrary a dis- tinction there is not a shadow of justification. The so- called history of Jimmu, the first earthly Mikado, of Jingo the conqueror of Korea, of Yamato-take, and of the rest, stands or falls by exactly the same criterion as the legends of the creator and creatress Izanagi and Izanami. Both sets of tales are told in the same books, in the same style, and with an almost equal amount of supernatural detail. The so-called historical part is as devoid as the other of all contemporary evidence. Arrived at A. D. 600, we stand on terra firma, and can afford to push on more quickly. 3 THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 31 About that time occurred the greatest event of Japanese history, the conversion of the nation to Buddhism (approxi- mately A. D. 552-621). So far as can be gathered from the ancients of the early Chinese travellers, Chinese civili- zation had slowly very slowly been gaining ground in the archipelago ever since the Third Century after Christ. But when the Buddhist missionaries crossed the water, all Chinese institutions followed them and came in with a rush. Mathematical instruments and calendars were intro- duced ; books began to be written (the earliest that has survived, and indeed nearly the earliest of all, is the Kojiki, dating from A. D. 712) ; the custom of abdicating the throne in order to spend old age in prayer was adopted, a custom which, more than anything else, led to the effacement of the Mikado's authority during the Middle Ages. Sweeping changes in political arrangements began to be made in the year 645, and before the end of the Eighth Century, the government had been entirely remodelled on the Chinese centralized bureaucratic plan, with a regular system of ministers responsible to the sovereign, who, as " Son of Heaven," was theoretically absolute. In practice this absolutism lasted but a short time, because the entour- age and mode of life of the Mikados were not such as to make of them able rulers. They passed their time sur- rounded only by women and priests, oscillating between indolence and debauchery, between poetastering and gor- geous temple services. This was the brilliant age of Japa- nese classical literature, which lived and moved and had its 32 JAPAN being in the atmosphere of an effeminate court. The Fujiwara family engrossed the power of the state during this early epoch (A. D. 670-1050). While their sons held all the great posts of government, their daughters were married to puppet emperors. The next change resulted from the impatience of the always manly and warlike Japanese gentry at the sight of this sort of petticoat government. The great clans of Taira and Minamoto arose, and struggled for and alter- nately held the reins of power during the second half of the Eleventh and the whole of the Twelfth Century. Japan was now converted into a camp ; her institutions were feudalized. The real master of the empire was he who, strongest with his sword and bow, and heading the most numerous host, could partition out the land among the chief barons, his retainers. By the final overthrow of the Taira family at the sea-fight of Dan-no-ura in A. D. 1185, Yoritomo, the chief of the Minamotos, rose to supreme power, and obtained from the Court at Kioto the title of Shogun, literally " Generalissimo," which had till then been applied in its proper meaning to those generals who were sent from time to time to subdue the Ainos or rebel- lious provincials, but which thenceforth took to itself a special sense, somewhat as the word Imperator (also mean- ing originally " general ") did in Rome. The coincidence is striking. So is the contrast. For, as Imperial Rome never ceased to be theoretically a republic, Japan contrari- wise, though practically and indeed avowedly ruled by the TOMB OF IYEYASU, N1KKO. THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 33 Shoguns from A. D. 1190 to 1867, always retained the Mikado as theoretical head of the state, descendant of the Sun-Goddess, fountain of all honour. There never were two emperors, acknowledged as such, one spiritual and one secular, as has been so often asserted by European writers. There never was but one emperor, an emperor powerless, it is true, seen only by the women who attended him, often a mere infant in arms, who was discarded on reaching adolescence for another infant in arms. Still, he was the theoretical head of the state, whose authority was merely delegated to the Shogun as, so to say, Mayor of the Palace. By a curious parallelism of destiny, the Shogunate itself more than once showed signs of fading away from sub- stance into shadow. Yoritomo's descendants did not prove worthy of him and for more than a century (A. D. 1205- 1333) the real authority was wielded by the so-called " Regents " of the Hojo family, while their liege-lords, the Shoguns, though keeping a nominal court at Kamakura, were for all that period little better than empty names. So completely were the Hojos masters of the whole country, that they actually had their deputy governors at Kioto and in Kyushu in the south-west, and thought nothing of banishing Mikados to distant islands. Their rule was made memorable by the repulse of the Mongol fleet sent by Kublai Khan with the purpose of aiding Japan to his gigantic dominions. This was at the end of the Thirteenth Century, since which time Japan has never been attacked from without. 34 JAPAN During the Fourteenth Century even the dowager-like calm of the Court of Kioto was broken by internecine strife. Two branches of the Imperial house, supported each by different feudal chiefs, disputed the crown. One was called Hokucho, or " Northern Court," the other the Nancboy or u Southern Court." After lasting some sixty years, this contest terminated in A. D. 1392, by the triumph of the Northern dynasty, whose cause the powerful Ashi- kaga family had espaused. From 1338 to 1565, the Ashi- kagas ruled Japan as Shoguns. Their Court was a centre of elegance, at which painting flourished, and the lyric drama, and the tea-ceremonies, and the highly intricate arts of gardening and flower-arrangement. But they allowed themselves to sink into effeminacy and sloth, as the Mikados had done before them ; and political authority, after being for some time administered less by them than in their name, fell from them altogether in 1597. Meanwhile Japan had been discovered by the Portuguese (A. D. 1542); and the imprudent conduct of the Portuguese and Spanish friars (bateren, as they were called a corrup- tion of the word padre] made of the Christian religion an additional source, of discord. Japan fell into utter anarchy. Each baron in his fastness was a law unto himself. Then, in the latter half of the Sixteenth Century, there arose successively three great men, Ota Nobunaga, the Taikun Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa lyeyasu. The first of these con- ceived the idea of centralizing all the authority of the state in a single person ; the second, Hideyoshi, who has been THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 35 called the Napoleon of Japan, actually put the idea into practice, and added the invasion of Korea (A. D. 1592- 1598) to his domestic triumphs. Death overtook him in 1598, while he was revolving no less a scheme than the conquest of China. lyeyasu, setting Hideyoshi's youthful son aside, stepped into the vacant place. An able general, unsurpassed as a diplomat and administrator, he first quelled all the turbulent barons, then bestowed a considerable por- tion of their lands on his own kinsmen and dependents, and either broke or balanced, by a judicious distribution of other fiefs over different provinces of the empire, the might of those greater feudal lords, such as Satsuma and Choshu, whom it was impossible to put altogether out of the way. The Court of Kioto was treated by him respectfully, and investiture as Shogun for himself and his heirs duly ob- tained from the Mikado. In order further to break the might of the Daimios, lyeyasu compelled them to live at Yedo, which he had chosen for his capital in 1590, during six months of the year, and to leave their wives and families there as hostages during the other half. What lyeyasu sketched out, the third Shogun of his line, lyemitsu, perfected. From that time for- ward, " Old Japan," as we know it from the Dutch ac- counts, from art, from the stage, was crystallized for two hundred and fifty years, the Old Japan of isolation (for lyemitsu shut the country up, to prevent complications with the Spaniards and Portuguese), the Old Japan of picturesque feudalism, of barakiri, of a society ranged in castes and or- 36 JAPAN ders and officered by spies, the Old Japan of an ever-in- creasing skill in lacquer and porcelain, of aristocratic punc- tilio, of supremely exquisite taste. Unchangeable to the outward eye of contemporaries, Japan had not passed a hundred years under the Tokugawa regime before the seeds of the disease which finally killed that regime were sown. Strangely enough, the instrument of destruction was historical research. lyeyasu himself had been a great patron of literature. His grandson, the second Prince of Mito, inherited his taste. Under the auspices of this Japanese Maecenas a school of literati arose, to whom the antiquities of their country were all in all, Japanese poetry and romance, as against the Chinese Classics ; the native religion, Shinto, as against the foreign religion, Bud- dhism ; hence by an inevitable extension, the ancient legiti- mate dynasty of the Mikados, as against the upstart Sho- guns. Of course this political portion of the doctrine of the literary party was kept in the background at first ; for those were not days when opposition to the existing govern- ment could be expressed or even hinted at without danger. Nevertheless it gradually grew in importance, so that, when Commodore Perry came with his big guns (A. D. 1853-4), he found a government already tottering to its fall, many who cared little for the Mikado's abstract rights caring a great deal for the chance of aggrandizing their own families at the Shogun's expense. The Shogun yielded to the demands of Perry and of the representatives of the other foreign powers England, THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 37 France, Russia who followed in Perry's train, and con- sented to open Yokohama, Hakodate, and certain other ports to foreign trade and residence (1857-9). He even sent embassies to the United States and to Europe in 1860 and 1 86 1. The knowledge of the outer world possessed by the Court of Yedo, though not extensive, was sufficient to assure the Shogun and his advisers that it was in vain to re- fuse what the Western powers claimed. The Court of Kioto had no means of acquiring even this modicum of worldly wisdom. According to its view, Japan, " the land of the gods," should never be polluted by outsiders, the ports should be closed again, and the "barbarians " expelled at any hazard. What specially tended to complicate matters at this crisis was the independent action of certain Daimios. One of them, the Prince of Choshu, acting, as it is believed, un- der secret instructions from the Court of Kioto, fired on ships belonging to France, Holland and the United States, this too, at the very moment (1863) when the Shogun's government, placed between foreign aggression and home tumult, as between hammer and anvil, was doing its utmost to effect by diplomacy the departure of the foreigners whom it had been driven to admit a few years before. The conse- quence of this act was what is called "the Shimonoseki Affair," namely the bombardment of Shimonoseki, Choshu's chief sea-port, by the combined fleets of the powers that had been insulted, together with Great Britain which es- poused their cause on the ground of the solidarity of all for- 38 JAPAN eign interests in Japan. An indemnity of $3,000,000 was exacted, a last blow which broke the Shogunate's back. The Shogun lyemochi attempted to punish Choshu for the humiliation which he had brought on Japan, but failed, was himself defeated by the latter's troops, and died. Hitotsu- bashi, the last of his line, succeeded him. But the Court of Kioto, prompted by the great Daimyos of Choshu and Sat- suma, suddenly decided on the abolition of the Shogunate. The Shogun submitted to the decree, and those of his fol- lowers who did not were routed, first at Fushimi near Kioto (ijth January, 1868), then at Ueno in Yedo (4th July, 1868), then in Aizu (6th November, 1868), and lastly at Hakodate (lyth June, 1869), where some of them had endeavoured to set up an independent republic. The government of the country was reorganized during 1867-8, nominally on the basis of a pure absolutism, with the Mikado as the sole wielder of all authority both legisla- tive and executive. Thus the literary party had triumphed. All their dreams were realized. They were henceforth to have Japan for the Japanese. The Shogunate, which had admitted the hated barbarian, was no more. Even their hope of supplanting Buddhism by the national religion, Shinto, was in great measure accomplished. They believed that not only European innovations, but everything even Japanese that was newer than A. D. 500, would be for- ever swept away. Things were to go back to what they had been in the primitive ages, when Japan was really " the land of the gods." THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 39 From this dream they were soon roughly wakened. The shrewd clansmen of Satsuma and Choshu, who had hu- moured the ignorance of the Court and the fads of the schol- ars only as long as their common enemy, the Shogunate, remained in existence, now turned round and declared in favour, not merely of foreign intercourse, but of the Euro- peanization of their own country. History has never wit- nessed a more sudden volte-face. History has never wit- nessed a wiser one. We foreigners, being mere lookers-on, may no doubt sometimes regret the substitution of common- place European ways for the glitter, the glamour of pictur- esque Orientalism. But can it be doubtful which of the two civilizations is the higher, both materially and intellect- ually ? And does not the whole experience of the last three hundred years go to prove that no Oriental state which re- tains distinctively Oriental institutions can hope to keep its territory free from Western aggression ? What of India ? What even of China ? And what was Commodore Perry's visit but a threat to the effect that if Japan chose to remain Oriental, she should not be allowed to remain her own mis- tress ? From the moment when the intelligent Samurai of the leading clans realized that the European ization of the country was a question of life and death, they (for to this day the government has continued practically in their hands) have never ceased carrying on the work of reform and progress. The first and greatest step was when the Daimyos them- selves came forward to surrender their estates and privileges, 40 JAPAN when, in fact, the Japanese feudal system ended appropri- ately by committing harakiri. A centralized bureaucracy was set up on its ruins (1871). At the same time all social disabilities were removed, Buddhism was disestablished, an Imperial mint opened, and posts and telegraphs followed next year by railways were introduced. In 1873 vacci- nation, the European calendar, and European dress for officials were adopted, torture was abolished, and the persecution of Christians stopped. At the same time photography, meat-eating, and other " Europeanisms " came pell-mell into vogue, not without official encourage- ment; and an edict was issued against wearing the queue. Steamship companies were established (1875-1885), an im- mense financial reform was effected by the commutation of the Samurai's pensions (1876), a Bourse and Chamber of Commerce were inaugurated at Tokio (1878), new codes inspired by the Code Napoleon began to be published (1880), a Supreme Court of Justice was instituted (1883), and the English language was introduced into the curric- ulum of the common schools (1884). Most notable, next to 1873, were 1885-7, t ^ le y ears f 'he great "foreign fever," when Japanese society was literally submerged in a flood of European influence, such things as foreign dress for ladies, dancing, athletics, card-playing, etc., etc., coming in with a rush, while what is still remembered as the O-jishin, or " Great Earthquake," shook the political world. Then were administrative methods reformed, the hitherto excessive number of officials reduced, and new men, such THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 41 as Ito and Inouye names still the most famous in the land assumed the highest posts. The failure in 1887, of long-protracted negotiations for treaty revision made of that year a turning-point in modern Japanese history. A strong reaction set in against for- eigners and their ways, which has lasted ever since, leading occasionally to murderous attacks on foreign residents and even to one on the present Czar of Russia, who happened as Czarewitch to be visiting Japan in 1891. Notwith- standing reaction, however, a long-promised Constitution, modelled to some extent on that of Prussia, was granted in 1889. Unfortunately it failed from the very beginning to work smoothly, and summary suspension, following on violent altercations, has come to be looked forward to as the most likely fate of the yearly session, while the gradual consolidation of divers political parties in the state has helped to induce considerable exacerbation of feeling. Be- sides the promulgation, from time to time, of the new codes, the most important administrative events of the last few years have been the promulgation of the Local Self- Government Act in 1888, the granting of bounties for navigation and ship-building in 1896, and the adoption of the gold standard in 1897. ^ n international politics, the revision of the treaties with the various great powers calls for prominent notice. That with England was concluded first, in August, 1894, with the United States a few months later, Russia in 1895, Germany in 1896. Those with France and Austria are still (1898) under discussion. 42 JAPAN In the summer of 1894, the Japanese government sud- denly and silently despatched to the mainland of Asia a large body of troops, who occupied Korea and seized the persons of the king and royal family, "with the object "- so it was officially stated " of maintaining Korean inde- pendence," thence proceeding to make war on China, " in order to establish the peace of the Orient." The war grew naturally out of the condition of Japan herself at that particular juncture. Perpetual dissensions between the Diet and the executive were fast putting the working of the new Constitution out of gear, straining it in fact to breaking point. Meanwhile the admirably-trained army, like a racer panting for its trial of speed, had long been impatient for a fight with some one, somewhere, anywhere. To these motives were superadded the desire now that treaty revision with all the foreign powers was imminent of abolishing an inconvenient early treaty with China, and above all, the longing to make a figure in the world, to show Russia and England that Japan was no mere play- ground for aesthetically disposed tourists, but a great power, the great power of the East. Surely here were reasons enough. Plausible excuses for taking offence, if one is on the look-out for doing so, are never lacking between close neighbours so mutually antipathetic in temper as the pro- gressive, mercurial islanders and the conservative conti- nentals. The result brilliantly justified the shrewd calcula- tions of the Japanese government. Their preparations, spread over years, but carried on so quietly that not one of THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 43 the foreign legations suspected aught unusual to be in hand, were complete in every point ; their troops behaved splendidly, and the enemy generally ran away. Within a year of the inception of the war, China had been forced to cede to Japan the province of Liao-tung, besides paying a heavy indemnity ; and when Russia, Germany and France unexpectedly stepped in to forbid the cession of any territory on the Chinese mainland, the large and fertile island of Formosa was obtained instead. The simple and ardent patriotism of the Japanese people during the war was as admirable as the statecraft of their rulers : they moved as one man. Whatever troubles Japan may have in store for her, troubles financial per- haps, complications with foreign powers, troubles arising from the constant yearning of small but influential sections of her people for radical changes in government, one thing is certain : the late war has made for stability and for safety, for increased commerce, increased influence, and national self-respect. New Japan has come of age. SHINTO AND BUDDHISM TOSHITARO YAMASH1TA SHINTO has been the religion of the Japanese na- tion from the very commencement of its history, and cannot be separated from it. Buddhism, though introduced at a much later period, has exercised, with its subtle doctrines and gorgeous ritual, a far-reaching influence over the nation, and it is natural, therefore, to find numerous traces of its effect upon the people of the Em- pire. I propose to deal first with Shinto, not only because it is the national religion of Japan, but because it is by far the simpler of the two, and a very few words will suffice to consider its effects. Students of this religion must have been struck with the simplicity of its doctrine. It enforces no especial moral code, embraces no philosophical ideas, and, moreover, it has no authoritative books to guide believers. Its one peculiar feature is the relation it holds towards the Imperial Family of Japan, whose ancestors are made the chief object of wor- ship. This religion, if indeed it can be rightly called a religion at all, amounts to ancestor- worship the apoth- eosis of the Japanese Imperial Family. This fact naturally brings about two results : one is that Shinto can never be 44 SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 45 propagated beyond the realms of the Japanese Emperor; the other, that it has helped to a very great extent the growth of the spirit of loyalty of Japanese subjects towards their head, and has enshrined the Imperial Family with such a degree of sacredness and reverence that it would be difficult to name another ruling family which is looked up to by its subjects with the same amount of loyal homage and submissive veneration. It is, indeed, a unique circum- stance in the history of nations, that, during the two thousand five hundred years of its sway, the position of the Japanese Imperial P'amily as head of the whole nation has never once been disputed, nor even questioned, by the people. Of course, it is true that the dynasty has experienced many vicissitudes, but, although the actual government has at times been in the hands of powerful nobles and Shoguns, the throne has, nevertheless, been always kept sacred for the descendants of Jimmu, the first Emperor. In the recent history of Japan, this single fact, coupled with the great wisdom displayed by the present Emperor, explains, in a great measure, the secret of the rapid, yet coherent, change which the country has undergone since the beginning of the Meiji era. Had it not been for the presence of the Em- peror as the centre of popular reverence and affection, it is difficult to tell whether the country would not have been thrown into an inextricable chaos of conflicting interests and factions during the period of this radical change. Every Japanese feels deeply grateful for the resultant benefits de- rived from the transition, the achievement of which was 46 JAPAN due to the sagacity and foresight of the Imperial Family; while the Shinto must also be assigned a share of the honours, by virtue of the fact that its influence has brought about and preserved intact the loyal spirit of the people for upwards of twenty-five centuries. With this single yet not insignificant result, I must leave Shinto, and pass on to the consideration of the wide and many-sided influence exercised over Japan by Buddhism. Buddhism was first introduced in Japan in A. D. 584, during the reign of the Emperor Bitatsu. At first many bitter conflicts naturally occurred between the adherents of the old and the new beliefs. But Prince Shotoku, a man of high education and great resource, and therefore the wielder of considerable power in the land, having been con- verted to its tenets, Buddhism at once began to make rapid headway. One of the nobles, named Moriya, who watched with misgivings the pushing aside of the old national relig- ion, felt constrained to resort to force of arms in order to check the progress of the heathen belief, but he was speedily overwhelmed and killed. Then, chiefly through the in- strumentality of the governing classes, temple after temple was erected in various parts of the country, and Buddhism soon took firm root in Japan. At a later period, during the long-continued peace of nearly three hundred years under the Tokugawa administration, which preceded the present Meiji era, strict feudalism prevailed throughout the whole of the country, and, as a consequence, many men of high at- tainments but humble birth were excluded from every SHINTO TEMPLE, KOBE. SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 47 sphere of action except the circumscribed one of the priesthood. It came about, therefore, that although Con- fucianism was actively encouraged during this time of pro- tracted peace, nevertheless Buddhism produced a large number of distinguished leaders of the faith. In this way, I think, the most subtle and refined forms of Buddhism were developed in Japan to a greater degree than in India, where it originated, or in China, whence it spread to Japan. The many things for which Japan is indebted to Bud- dhism may be classified briefly under two heads : first, those which were introduced into the country with Buddhism; and, second, the developments which can be traced to its traditions, its doctrines and its culture. Under the first head must be mentioned the following : Sculpture and Metal-work. Sculpture undoubtedly re- ceived its first impetus through the introduction of Bud- dhistic images. Old historians state that the carving of images in stone was practised from very remote ages, but the production of wood and copper statues and reliefs cer- tainly dates from the introduction of Buddhism. The am- bassadors sent to Korea by the Emperor Bitatsu, returned in 584 A. D., with a stone image of Buddha, and this was the first of the models brought from time to time into D Japan, and from which the Japanese artists made their copies. According to " Kogei-Shiryo," certain relics have been discovered which can be proved to be the products of this period. It seems that the early Japanese artists did not confine themselves to the carving of Buddhistic images, 48 JAPAN but produced also representations of the Shinto gods and animals. Though Shinto carvings are now very rare, those of animals are often to be met with usually at the en- trance to a temple ; and it is recorded that when the gate of Tendaiji Temple, in Nara, was in course of construc- tion in A. D. 1196, men were sent to China to procure stones suitable for the carving of lions and Buddhistic im- ages. The production of wooden and copper images was also encouraged, and, when the temples were built, wood- carving was applied to other objects in addition to statues. Embroidery. Embroidery is also considered to have been introduced into Japan in the same way. The first record of this class of work dates from the thirteenth year of the reign of the Empress Suiko, when, at her orders, two im- ages of Buddha, one in copper and the other in embroidery, were made by Japanese artists. Besides these, there are several other branches of art culture which owe their first introduction to Buddhism, but, having regard to the more interesting character of the second class, namely the developments which can be traced to its traditions, doctrines and culture, I pass on at once to consider them. Education. A debt of gratitude is due to Buddhism for its unstinted encouragement of education for a period of several centuries. China, in addition to many other things, supplied Japan with her philosophy and litera- ture, and the first serious attention paid to education dates from the reign of Ojin, a period much anterior to the ap- SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 49 pearance of Buddhism ; for a long period after that date able scholars were continually sent by the government to the land of our teachers, in order to keep pace with the ad- vancement of their learning. Subsequently, however, the power of the Japanese cen- tral government gradually waned, and the actual governing power was transferred in the latter part of the Twelfth Century to the military class, with the result that the country was plunged into a state of continual warfare be- tween the leading military families. In consequence of this, education became entirely neglected by the govern- ment. The Buddhist priests were, however, well versed in Chinese literature, and the monasteries soon became centres of learning, and from that time onwards until three centuries ago, when Tokugawa came into power, it was kept almost entirely in the hands of the Buddhists. This explains the existence of the many Buddhistic institutions and ideas which have taken so firm a hold upon Japanese daily life. Toleration. A distinctly commendable feature of Bud- dhism is its capacity for assimilating the practices and teach- ings of other religions. Among its many sects, some, of course, hold decidedly narrow and bigoted views ; but, gen- erally speaking, a respect for the tenets of rival religions is a distinguishing characteristic of the adherents of Buddhism. An instance of this is to be seen in the ready absorption of Confucian doctrines, and in the adoption of many Shinto ceremonies. This attitude towards other faiths, coupled, 5 o JAPAN perhaps, with the peculiarly undevotional character of the average Japanese, and the Confucian doctrine of self-cul- ture, has developed to a remarkable degree that spirit of re- ligious toleration which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from a general indifference to religious matters. It fre- quently occurs that, while the birth of a baby is celebrated in accordance with Shinto customs, Buddhist priests are in- vited to preside over the burial of the dead. Even the places of worship were used in common by the followers of the two religions, until with the revival of Shinto ideas, the government took steps to separate them. This may be explained in a measure by the fact that both Bud- dhism and Confucianism, as understood by the educated classes of Japan, inculcate the same doctrine of self-cul- ture. But the assimilation of the essence of other benefits by Buddhism is, it seems to me, quite as much responsible for this far-reaching spirit of toleration. Many of the time-honoured maxims of Japan exhort the people to disabuse their minds of the idea that the particular one they are following is the only road to salvation, and emphasize the fact that there are several others leading to the same goal which are equally worthy of respect and at- tention. A typical example is found in a short stanza : " To reach the mountain's crest are many ways, But all meet there beneath the moon's bright rays. From yonder tow'ring peak her smile serene Reveals the beauty of the native scene." It is by no means uncommon to find several different re- SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 51 ligions in one family ; for instance, the man may be a Shintoist, his wife a Buddhist, and their grown-up children Christians, yet their diversity of beliefs seldom disturbs in the slightest degree the tranquillity and happiness of home- life. This equanimity of disposition seems to suggest that the conversion of the people to a new belief could be easily accomplished in Japan, provided that it were possible to prove that the new one is better than the old, and that un- deniable reasonings could be marshalled in support of it. The Love of Natural Beauty, and its Effect. A Buddhist temple is usually built upon a site which commands a view of the most beautiful and imposing scenery in the neigh- bourhood, and it will be sometimes situated far up in a mountain several miles from the nearest town or village. It is not my intention to inquire into the reason why pref- erence was originally given to a position remarkable for imposing scenery rather than for convenience of access. What we are more concerned with is the indirect influence upon the country brought about by this peculiarity. The most apparent result was the opening up of the country as the natural outcome of making new roads leading to the temples, and but for which roads many villages would never have arisen until a much later period. Apart, how- ever, from this essentially material benefit, there seems to be another which has left its mark even more plainly upon Japanese character. As I have already said, most of the famous temples are built upon spots especially chosen by reason of their great natural beauty, and this selection of a 52 JAPAN picturesque environment for the place of worship and med- itation could not fail to exercise a very powerful influence upon the minds of worshippers. A result of this seems to be that a love of natural beauty has become one of the strongest characteristics of the people, and this has been fostered by the tenets of Buddhism, which hold all the products of nature in the highest veneration. As a demonstration of this love of natural beauty, a Japanese garden may be cited. When a family is not in a position to make its home in the midst of fine natural scenery, a counterfeit presentment of it on a reduced scale is usually contrived. Hills, valleys, rocks, streams, lakes, woods, thickets and bridges are all faithfully planned out upon a suitable scale just as an artist composes a landscape on canvas. The Japanese mode of procedure is in direct contrast to European methods of gardening. One tries to hide everything but that which is natural, while the other endeavours to render nature subservient to his own ideas. There is an anecdote told of Rikiu, Master of the Tea- Ceremony in the service of Hideyoshi known to Western notions as Taikun. Rikiu is known to have introduced into Chanoyu, or the Tea-Ceremony, many Buddhistic ideas. It is related that one day Rikiu was ordered to prepare a garden for the reception of some guests. When, however, Rikiu went to the garden he found that every possible attention had already been bestowed upon it. Every corner was swept scrupulously clean, and not a foot- print disturbed the freshly sanded paths. He regarded it DAI-BUTSU, UENO, TOK1O. SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 53 critically for a moment or two, and then went to a large tree that stood at one end, and, by giving it a shake, brought down a few dead leaves. He then reported to his master that the garden was ready for the reception of his guests. I think I may safely assert that this idea of beauty largely owes its development, either directly or indirectly t to Buddhistic influences. THE JAPANESE TORI-I SAMUEL TUKE N"O one who has ever visited Japan, not even the most cursory of haste-impelled globe-trotters, can forget the curious but picturesque gateways which form so characteristic a feature in the Japanese land- scape. As a rule, they serve as entrances to shrines or temple grounds, venerated spots, or funereal enclosures; but they not infrequently appear in all sorts of unexpected places, where it is difficult to assign any satisfactory reason for their existence. Every one who has been over the Nagasendo, recollects the Tori-i Toge, " the pass of the Tori-i^" where the old road passes through a Tori-i planted on the summit of a pass. It is impossible to wander over the sunny, flower-decked hillsides, and through the mysterious, shaded valley groves of Dai Nippon, without coming across numbers of these curious structures. Let us pass beneath one at hazard, and having done so, leave the main track for a narrow footpath through a dark grove of cryptomerias, a few steps along which will bring us to a flight of moss-grown stone stairs leading up the steep hillside to a terrace of masonry, upon which, half hidden in a grove of sacred trees, stands a shingle-roofed, 54 THE JAPANESE TORI-I 55 wooden Shinto shrine. Having climbed the steps, we pass beneath a second Tori-i, and, having deposited a few coppers in the offertory chest, placed for its maintenance in front of the little " miya" we stroll round to its further side. There, at the back, we may find yet another little Tori-i, and a path by which we can clamber for a short distance further up the hillside. But soon the track loses itself in the tangled brushwood and luxuriant growth of weeds apparently leading nowhere. So we retrace our steps, and, leaving the shrine behind, go carefully down the damp and slippery stone stairs and reach the main path and the sunlight once more. Further on we come across another 7or/W, this time, perhaps, rising from a jungle of tall bamboo grass, with here and there a tree of some sort, and many an azalea bush or trail of wisteria in full blossom. Again we leave the main track to pass beneath the Tori-i, We follow the narrow footpath, which leads us on and on through the jungle of grasses and flowering shrubs; here and there we notice a few strips of paper tied to a bush, or a straw rope, evidently placed in position by some devout hand. Perhaps the path grows steeper, and the trees and bushes denser, when again our path vanishes in the under- growth, or possibly branches in several directions only to lead us nowhere. A second time we retrace our steps ; perhaps we have passed some forgotten Shinto tomb or graveyard, which has given us no trace of its existence, owing to the thick masses of vegetation which have for years outgrown it. So we return to the main track again, 56 JAPAN none the wiser for our exploration, though our minds may be full of conjectures as to the object of that particular rri lon-i. But, as every globe-trotter knows, the Tori-i is as common in the cities as in the country districts of Japan ; it is also a familiar object to those who, never having had the good fortune to visit the country, are, notwithstanding, lovers of Japanese art, and know something of the salient features of Japanese landscape from the works of her artists and artisans. Perhaps no artists have better repro- duced these salient features in a form intelligible to the uninitiated foreigner than Hokusai and Hiroshige. If any one wishes to recall the forms of the Tori-i distinctly to his mind, he has only to look through the Fu-ji hak 'kei, or perhaps, better still, the Sumi-da gawa rio-gan icbi-ran, or the Fu-gaku san-jiu-rok ^kei, and he will find his memory sufficiently and satisfactorily restored. From these pictures it is evident that Tori-i are not all of the same form. These two forms are sometimes con- sidered to belong respectively to the two religions of Japan: the simpler to the Shinto worship; the latter and more complex to Buddhism. If we accept Fergusson's state- ment that the Toran of India is the ancestor of the Tori-i, it appears probable that the more complex form is the older, and that the simpler is nothing more nor less than a rustic copy of a more highly developed original, which formed an integral portion of the architecture of a religious cult older than Buddhism. THE JAPANESE TORI-I 57 There are, indeed, some who tell us that the Tori-i is a form of Buddhist architecture which has in Japan been adapted to the Shinto cult. It is true that the two religious systems of Japan, since they have been able to exist peaceably side by side, appear, at a certain period, to have got somewhat mixed up with one another, yet on the whole, it seems safer to take the generally received opinion that Tori-i of both kinds are structures belonging to the Shinto worship. The usual material for their construction is naturally wood, occasionally painted bright red ; but stone and bronze are sometimes employed. The Tori-i can hardly have been introduced into Japan much later than 250 B. c. For after this date both stone architecture and the Buddhist religion would have become influences which could not have failed to somewhat alter both its form and purpose along the course of its migration north-eastward. Now, it is hardly fanciful to imagine that the early con- querors of Japan were either refugees from the mainland driven over seas by some displacement of the races of Central Asia, or else warriors, who, rinding the tide of races driven eastward by the conquests of Western powers, turned their attention to the far Eastern islands. If then, the Shinto religion was brought to Japan by the ancestors of the present Japanese on their first settlement in the country, and is not a purely indigenous growth, it is not altogether improbable that it originally came from India, 58 JAPAN It would, I think, be difficult for any one who has followed me to this point to fail to have been struck by the curious resemblance between the names Tori-i and Toran. He may also have said with equal justice that our own word " door " is not unlike Toran. The word Tori-i is written with two characters which signify "bird-dwelling," and the native account of its origin is quoted, and, it would seem accepted, by even so high an authority as Mr. Satow, who writes of it as follows : " The Tori-i was originally a perch for the fowls offered up to the gods, not as food, but to give warning of day- break. It was erected on any side of the temple indiffer- ently. In later times, not improbably after the introduc- tion of Buddhism, its original meaning was forgotten ; it was placed in front only, and supposed to be a gateway. Tablets with inscriptions (gakti) were placed on the Tori-i with this belief, and one of the first things done after the restoration of the Mikado in 1868, in the course of the purification of the Shinto Temples, was the removal of these tablets. The etymology of the word is evidently 1 bird-rest.' The Tori-i gradually assumed the character of a general symbol of Shinto, and the number which might be erected to the honour of a deity became practi- cally unlimited. The Buddhists made it of stone and bronze, and frequently of red-painted wood, and developed various forms." It has been pointed out that nearly the whole of Japanese civilization came from abroad, so that it is hardly likely THE JAPANESE TORI-I 59 that the Shinto religion and its accompanying architectural forms are purely indigenous growth. For the Japanese historians themselves record a migration of their ancestors from some foreign country at an early date. Is it not more likely that these early settlers brought their religion and its architecture with them, than that they created them subse- quently ? Such a proposition gives a much more venerable age to the Shinto cult. Supposing, then, that the ancestors of the present Japa- nese did bring their religious cult with them to Japan, and the Tori-i along with it, Fergusson's theory appears to offer a probable solution of the question whence that cult and the Tori-i came. It may even throw a ray of light upon the early dwelling-place of a portion, at all events, of the present Japanese race. THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD SIR EDWARD J. REED OUR long journey from the old capital (Kioto) to the new (Tokio) was resumed on Thursday, March 13, at 7 A. M. All the shops and places of business appeared to be open and in operation as we rattled through Nagoya and Miya, although the hour was so early. There were several very pretty gateways in Miya which I should have been glad to have sketched had time allowed, but a passing glance was all we could devote to them. The shrines of Atsuta, with their mystic sword, their towering trees, their crowded light pillars and simple ceremonies, were soon passed and left behind, and behind us likewise loomed up the great Honganji temple, and beyond, the mountains mountain-shrines, shall we call them ? hung with curtain-screens like Atsuta, but in this case the screens were blue, and wrought of valley mist and morning light. Numerous temples, and still more numerous shrines much simpler than temples, were passed during the day, and at many of them, here as elsewhere, the stone basins in front of them for the washing of the hands received their water from spouting bronze dragons of considerable size and much artistic merit. Soon after leaving Miya we were again upon the great 60 THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 61 Tokaido road, which throughout the day, as on some former days, was a fine, smooth, well-kept road between the towns and the villages, but was much neglected where it passed through them a point which would seem to require some attention on the part of both the central and local govern- ments. The road traversed by bridges several large rivers, the beds of which were raised above the neighbouring land- level by as much as ten feet. After a short halt at the town of Narumi, where cotton spinning is carried on, and transit through another in which dyeing is successfully practised, we passed through the famous battle-field in which the great Shogun of three days, so to call him, Yoshimoto, engaged the redoubtable Nobunaga in the Six- teenth Century, and was defeated by him and killed. A monument to his (Yoshimoto's) memory was passed in a field on our right a simple column of stone, surrounded by a railing of wood. Luncheon was taken at the town of Okazaki, the birthplace of lyeyasu, at which are the great granite quarries from which the capital, Tokio, and many other places, are provided with that stone ; the near- ness of Okazaki to the bay of Owari and its branches greatly facilitating the supply of this stone to towns and cities near the coast. The remainder of the day's journey was completed at four o'clock in the apparently thriving town of Yoshida, which is situated on a branch of the great river Tenriu, which finds its way into the sea further east- ward. This town does a considerable trade in timber, most of the roof-rafters for Tokio going hence. 62 JAPAN Early on Friday, the I4th of March, after another night of rain we pursued our journey eastward in an atmosphere of delightful freshness, in a north-western breeze of consid- erable force, and in sunshine that made the morning per- fect. We were soon skirting on our left ranges of wooded hills, rolling away to mountains in the distance. I was in- formed that on one of the finest and most sheer and lofty of these high wooded hills there was a temple. I had chosen a position in the procession of jinriki-shas well to the rear, so that I had before me the shifting picture of more than a dozen of these curious little carriages, with double that number of half-nude men trotting them along at a rate of six to seven miles an hour, their red and blue colours dancing with their movements, and little flags surmounted with branches of bright heather, or something like it, wav- ing at the side of each carriage. When we came to Siomizaka, there, on the high cluster of granite rocks, several hundred feet above us, and on a summit to which it would be difficult to lift even a living and breathing life-size goddess, was a large bronze statue of Kwannon, thirteen feet high, gazing over land and over the sea, which we know by the name to be within her view, though we could not see it, and apparently not a little proud of her elevation proud in the very presence of the Sun-Goddess herself, who, indeed, did not disdain to adorn her brazen brow with a touch of her own bright light. Leaving the goddess to her lofty meditations, we rolled on through a fine country, very wild, and wooded and moun- THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 63 tainous on our left, and very level, and cultivated and glistening with rice-swamps on our right. The road next led us up a succession of long hills, in ascending which I gladly availed myself of the opportunity thus afforded for a delight- ful morning walk. Presently we came out for a short time upon a comparatively open road, and a shrill voice ex- claimed "Fujiyama!" and there indeed, somewhat away on our left (broad on our port bow, as a sailor would put it), was the superb mountain which we had not seen for five weeks, and which, as it now stood up, nearly ninety miles off, above the nearer and darker mountains stood up, whiter with snow than if wrought with silver, purer than the very sky into which it towered, and more perfect in form than any mortal hands could model was a shrine of splendour worthy of the true God, and a consecration to the land which is so fortunate as to form its pedestal. It was a native gentleman who saw it first ; not a poet, not an artist, not a seer of any sort ; but he was a man, and a Japanese, and he clapped his hands and shouted with de- light, and with the joy of seeing once again the sacred mountain, and of turning the eyes of us strangers towards it. While we gazed with wonder and almost with worship upon this " most awful Form," another voice shouted " The sea ! " and there on our right lay before us, and low be- neath us, and rolling far away over the horizon's arc, the living liquid splendour of the sea indeed. " Isn't it just like gauze ! " shouted another of the party from a distance ; and although one feels some reluctance to associate with 64 JAPAN the ocean the name of so frail a thing as gauze, yet there was so soft and semi-transparent and delicate a look about the sea on this occasion, viewed from our height, that one felt the verisimilitude of the metaphor. I never before saw the sea so utterly beautiful. On this sun-bright morning, on which the breeze seemed saturate with the sun, and the sun blown through with breeze, both sun and breeze seemed to mix with the sea, until the whole surface foamed with life and light. We now dipped down from the height, and after a short run entered the village of Arai, which is or rather was, for the Tokaido has now taken another and newer route near this place, and the gate is removed one of the gates of the Tokaido, giving upon an inlet of the sea over which the passengers have to be ferried. Our party at once em- barked in several boats which were awaiting for us, and a strong stern breeze drove us quickly over the two or three miles of shallow water to the village of Mayezaka, in the province of Totomi. Here we re-entered our jinriki-shas and started for our luncheon-place, Hamamatsu. Before reaching Hamamatsu we pass the broad river of Tenriu (Tenriugawa)by the longest bridge in Japan, nearly four thousand feet in length. This river is navigable in its main stream for one hundred and twenty miles from the sea, which but few rivers in Japan are, owing to the narrow- ness of the country, and the nearness of the mountains to the sea in very many cases. The next day's journey lay chiefly over hills and river- THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 65 beds, with occasional transits over lovely valleys. A fine walk indeed we had through Swiss-like scenery, with occa- sional views over large extents of lowlands, now and then glimpses of the distant sea, and suddenly, after passing the first summit, such a full-fronted view of Fujiyama as might have well repaid a far more laborious climb. Later on, after passing across a valley and ascending a second hill, we came upon another and still more beautiful view of the sacred mountain, the highest in Japan, which rises 13,000 feet clear away from the sea. We could not, however, see the base from our position, but we saw what was perhaps better as an object of beauty. Below its snow-covered summit and sides, the lower and darker part of the mountain ap- peared of the self-same blue as the sky above, so that the mountain of snow seemed poised in Heaven perhaps sus- pended there after the fashion in which one of our poets has imagined the world to be " Hung by gold chains about the feet of God." Below Fuji were lower ranges of mountains, darkly con- trasting with it ; then, nearer, came low wooded hills ; nearer still, the broad, rough, stony bed of the Oigawa, with swift streams chasing down it, and sand-storms driv- ing over it; and nearer still a village, and tea-plantations, and the Tokaido sweeping down with its wild borderings of old and twisted trees. On all the sun shone brightly, and over all the gale blew swiftly, so that we had before us such a scene as artists might well paint and poets edit. 66 JAPAN Dipping down to the village below, Kanaya, where other jinrlki-sbas awaited us, we started in them for Fusieda. Our way lay first across the Oigawa, and through the driving sand-storms which we had enjoyed as part of a picture, but which were anything but charming as atmos- pheres to be driven through. We were soon beyond them, however, and ere long comfortably engaged in as- certaining the merits of a Fusieda luncheon in a very good native inn or hotel. This matter sufficiently de- termined to the satisfaction of all, we were speedily en route again, and instead of skirting the hills to the south- wards, as I expected, turned towards the hills in front. After passing through a village at their base, and racing down a valley between them, we ascended a winding or alternating roadway, which terminated at the entrance of a tunnel through the mountain. This tunnel, much resem- bling that of Pozzuoli, near Naples, and lighted, like it, with lamps at intervals, was about a third of a mile in length. It terminated in a beautiful valley, down which the road plunged, and up which as up the steep roads of the morning, by the bye several kagos were being borne, the travellers usually walking to spare the carrying ninsokus, as this class of labourers zndjinriti-sba men are called. After a few miles of further travelling, we saw before us the roofs of a large town, and between them and us the bed of another large river, which I rightly took to be the Abegawa, the town or city beyond being the terminus of our day's run, Shidzuoka. THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 67 This town is the most notable of all in relation to the great Tokugawa family, which gave to Japan its Shoguns and Tycoons from the year 1603 down to 1868, when the system of government by a Shogun was brought to an end. The first of the Tokugawa Shoguns, lyeyasu, finally took up his residence in Shidzuoka after his great victory over his rivals at Sekigahara, near Lake Biwa a victory which determined the government and fate of Japan from the be- ginning of the Seventeenth Century onwards to our own day. Here at Shidzuoka, then known as Sumpu, lyeyasu had long before built him a great castle, and resided in it. He now returned to it, and left it again only for two short intervals, to suppress rebellious attempts. Here he devoted himself mainly to literature, collecting and preserving so many old manuscripts, and otherwise so exerting himself that it is said to be largely due to him that much of the ancient Japanese literature is now in existence. As the first, so the last of the Tokugawa Tycoons has made Shidzuoka his place of residence, for here now 1 re- sides the dethroned Tycoon, who lives in great privacy and simplicity. He sees but few people, frankly acknowledg- ing that the reassertion of the Mikado's authority is just. Leaving Shidzuoka early on the morning of the i6th of March, we pursued our course eastward, lunching at Kam- bara, and staying for the next night at Mishima. Our route lay for several hours with Fujiyama on our left and 68 JAPAN the sea on our right, and as the day was one of rare fine- ness, and of very remarkable atmospheric clearness, we enjoyed scenery which is not to be surpassed in the world. For some hours the whole 13,000 feet of Fujiyama was without the faintest phantom of a cloud an almost un- precedented fact, according to the local statements made to us and when clouds formed they merely constituted a sort of experimental display, as if the governor of the district had carried his courtesy to the length of showing us how prettily clouds can be produced up there out of nothing ; how much softer than any silk, and how much more trans- parent than any gauze, they can be woven when sunbeams interlace with vapours of snow; how slowly they can sail past the steadfast mountain front, and quicken their speed as they pass around and beyond it; with what consummate art they can veil any blemish on the mountain's beauty, and how, by deepening their own shade and darkening their own shadows, they can intensify by contrast even the cold, white, solid-seeming splendour of the mountain itself. As for the sea, as it lay lake-like but vast in the beautiful Suruga Bay, sparkling in a setting of coloured mountains, its solicitations to the eye were urgent and perpetual. A morning or two before it seemed to fairly foam with brightness ; but on this occasion its brightness was more definite and intense, more like one might expect it to ap- pear if its whole surface were surging with liquid diamonds. I have no power to describe the combined beauty of the mountain on the one hand and the sea on the other, on this THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 69 middle day of March ; but to assist the reader in imaging it, I ought to repeat that for hours we had full before us the immense sweep of this huge tower of silver and blue, from the summit, high in heaven, clear down to the spark- ling sea. O for the skill of some more than mortal artist with which to fix before the eye this glorious picture ! and indeed those many pictures of this hallowed mountain as it appeared from our ever-shifting points of view throughout the day. Where a branch of Suruga Bay comes close up to the hills, the Tokaido passing along the strand between, stands the beautiful Buddhist (Zen-Shu) temple of Seikenji (" Clear View Temple ") beautiful for its position overlooking the bay and the mountains beyond ; beautiful for its buildings, which are among the best that we have seen of the purely Japanese type ; and beautiful for its garden at the back, formed from the mountain side, with a small natural torrent pouring down it, and with trees of great variety scattered in a highly picturesque manner over its rocky amphitheatre. In front of this temple is a plum-tree, planted by the hand of the great lyeyasu nearly three hundred years ago. The residential buildings of the temple were in part rebuilt eleven years ago, 1 and have been occupied for a short time by the now reigning Mikado, who once stayed here on ac- count of the salubrity of the place. We halted and visited this temple, the chief priest kindly showing us its treasures among which were letters of lyeyasu and Hideyoshi. yo JAPAN Most of the villages passed through on the day now under notice were on or near to the shore of Suruga Bay, along which the Tokaido sweeps, and the villagers were largely occupied in drying fish for manure. There was also carried on in favourable places, and on a large scale the method of obtaining salt from the sea, by throwing sea- water over prepared beds of salt, and allowing the sun's heat to evaporate the water and leave the salt. The largest river crossed was Fuji-kawa which runs down from the inland mountains past the western side of Fujiyama, en- tering the sea close to the base of that mountain. Its main channel is about seventy miles long. When we passed it was flowing with swiftness through one main channel of suf- ficient width to compel us to cross in ferry-boats in the absence of a bridge, but the bed of the river, which must be nearly two miles wide, was dry. Three times a year the whole of the broad bed is covered with the torrent. The Tokaido proper crosses this river by a bridge much higher up ; but we took a short cut, and with it a very bad sandy road, so that I doubt if we gained anything in time. It was five o'clock before we arrived at Mishima, having visited some pleasant gardens at Hara, after lunching at Kambara. Immediately after alighting from our jinriki- shaS) in which we had been with brief intervals for nearly ten hours, we proceeded to visit the great Shinto temple of Mishima Gengin, at the invitation of the chief priest, Mayada, a temple so ancient as regards its foundation that no one knows when it was founded, and a chief priest so THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 71 pleasant that I do not wish to meet a pleasanter. This is the temple by which Japanese pledge themselves when they wish to make a very solemn and binding engagement. Two of the junior priests received us at the outer Tori-i and led us to the temple proper, where the chief priest awaited us with the temple band playing. Some of us went through the simply ceremony of washing the hands and putting a branch of the sacred tree into its place. We then ex- amined the treasures of the temple, including a very ancient vase, said to belong to the period of the gods, dating, that is, from before the reign of Jimmu-Tenno, the first Mikado, which commenced, according to the histories, six hundred and sixty years before Christ ; an imperial order or warrant to the temple from the empress Gensho, written nearly twelve hundred years ago ; likewise, numerous small articles which once belonged to Yoritomo and his mother (Twelfth Cen- tury), having been brought here from the palace of Kama- kura; a very ancient flute, known as the flute of ivory ; a sword which was used by the Daimio of Hizen in sub- duing the Christian Japanese ; and collections of other swords and of robes of distinction which have from time to time, during many centuries, been presented to the tem- ple, and many of which as the reader will suppose, were viewed with interest. The chief priest presented us with some of the " god's food " in the form of boxes of sweet- meats which had been offered to the god at the altar, and had remained there the usual time ; and likewise with a written description of the temple, and some of the simple 72 JAPAN temple remembrances such as pilgrims take away with them. The next day our route lay over the Hakone Mountains, the pass of which, although broad and in the main of mod- erate gradients, is in places so steep, and everywhere paved with such large rough stones, as to be almost impracticable for jinriki-sbas. The usual course is therefore to resort to the kago^ or light carriage borne on the shoulders of men. We had a very suitable day for crossing these Hakone Mountains, the atmosphere being clear and inclined to brightness, but with continuous screens of cloud to protect us from the fiercer heat and light of the sun's direct beams. We obtained as we ascended glorious views over the coun- try we were leaving from Fujiyama westward over the fruitful Shidzuoka Ken, and southward over the fine bay of Suruga and the Idzu hills and vales. The road is pillared on either side throughout with ancient pine-trees, that make it like a vast continuous cathedral aisle, but one unlike all human architecture in its ascents and descents, in the twisted, contorted earth grasping character of its column- pedestals, and in the shifting lights and shadows that stream through its rustling roof. Occasionally we heard the melo- dious notes of the uguisu, a wood-bird much celebrated in the poetry of the country. It has a note like one of the best " phrases " of the nightingale, if the musical world will allow the expression ; but its range is limited. It is, however, a pretty though a brief bit of nightingale melody, and is sufficient of itself to make answer to those who say THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 73 that bird-song has been omitted altogether from the delights of Japan. 1 The uguisu is said by the poets " to come war- bling with the plum-blossom." And as one is here speak- ing of birds, it may not be amiss to add that throughout most of the country, and more still throughout the towns of Japan of which I have had experience, there has been a marked abundance of hawks and eagles on the wing these being, in fact, with wild ducks and wild geese, the birds most usually seen here. We observed on this road the proc- ess of preparing the bark of the koso for paper manufacture. There were also if I may be allowed to vary the subject of my remarks with something like the rapidity with which the objects of observation varied on the roadside numerous small shrines at intervals, and occasionally a rough monu- mental tablet to the memory of some long-deceased person of eminence. It was touching to note that here, high up on this mountain road, the memory of persons who had been dead for centuries was kept green still by a living hand placing before the stone in a bit of bamboo cane, a branch of fresh spring verdure. 1 Since writing the above I have been looking over the proof of a paper by my friend Capt. Hawes, of Tokio, descriptive of a tour made by him in the interior of Japan, in which I find a similar view stated. After de- scribing the delicious perfume of the air as not unlike the fragrance of the meadow-sweet at home, he adds : " This combined with the clear note of the cuckoo, which sounded pleasantly through the woods, the warble of the nightingale, and the harsher song of the jay, which were heard all around, does certainly rather upset the theory of some writers, who assert that < Japan is a country in which the birds do not sing and the flowers have no smell.' " 74 JAPAN Our hard walk over the mountain was relieved by fre- quent stoppages for rest and the slight but welcome refresh- ment of a cup of Japanese tea. There were numerous tea- houses by the way, and at any of them this could be got ; but having the honour of travelling with a cabinet minister of the country, and one of the most thoughtful and kindly of hosts, our necessities had all been anticipated by his offi- cers, or by those of the Ken or county. A long way up the mountain we halted at a spot whence the view west- ward was thought to be the finest on the pass, and where consequently a little view house had been erected for his Maj- esty the emperor on his journey already mentioned. Our view of the great solitary king of mountains, Fuji, was al- ready, by our change of position, getting seriously compro- mised by other mountains intervening, and he had donned a sort of helmet or crown of cloud ; a little later he became like our own King Arthur, on the night of his final leave- taking from the queen, for the rolling vapour " Enwound him fold by fold, and made him grey, And greyer, till himself became as mist," and he was seen no more before the close of our journey to the capital. Soon after the descent commenced we reached the di- viding line between the Kens of Shidzuoka and Kanagawa, which was notified by notice-posts, and was further marked in the present instance by a change of police. After chang- ing guard and commencing the descent towards Hakone, THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 75 we came upon a fine view of the pretty little lake of that name, which has an area of three and a half square miles, and upon the bank of which stands the village. In passing out of Hakone we saw the sight of old To- kaido gate, and the remains of the gate buildings. In the days of the Tycoons this Tokaido high road was blocked by three defensible gates, which people were allowed through only with passports. These gates were known as s'eki, and appear to have been kept with great care down to the close of the Tycoon's government, as I have heard from those who travelled over the Tokaido in comparatively recent times of the difficulties experienced in getting quickly through the gates, and of the insistence of those in charge upon all passengers, even the sick and weak, alighting from their kagos to pass through. The road beyond the old Hakone gate, going eastwards (as we were), rises again occasionally, but to no very great extent if my observation from a yama-kago, in a nearly horizontal position may be trusted but there were long de- scents, with many very steep and winding places, to be made before our destination, Yumoto, was reached. The scenery was fine, and for the greater part wooded, with a torrent tumbling down the valley, and the hedges enlivened by violets and by a variegated bamboo plant with green and yellow in each stem and leaf. From Fuji-sawa to Kanagawa the distance is over fifteen English miles : we travelled it in exactly two hours, or at the rate of over seven and a half miles an hour, although 76 JAPAN this part of the journey included the most and worst of the hills, and the worst part of the road. On a smooth good road, such as the Tokaido often is beyond the Hakone Mountains, and where there are but few towns upon it, the jinriki-sha men frequently ran us along at eight miles per hour. I may add that hearing, as I had often done, of the excellence of this great highway between what were for- merly the capitals of the Mikado and the Tycoon, I was quite astonished at the state in which I saw it in most of the towns and villages through which it passed. But whether the Tokaido be good or bad, our journey upon it was now over. TOKIO FREDERIC H. BALFOUR WHETHER it is the largest city in the world I do not know probably not ; but it is larger than London, 1 which covers only sixty-four square miles, while Tokio covers a hundred. In fact, it is less a city, as we understand the word, than a huge, strag- gling, beautiful village, or rather, perhaps, a group of vil- lages ; for often you may find yourself in some green, rural spot, and imagine that you have reached the country, only to turn the corner, and lo ! you are in a bustling street again. There is a story, for the truth of which I do not vouch, that an American once got into & jinriki-sba, and was pulled about for a week, trying to find Tokio. He gave it up at last, persuaded that there was no such place. Others, however, have been more successful. I was myself, and I have no hesitation in saying that, in my opinion, Tokio is one of the most peculiar and most beautiful cities in the world. True, when you get out at Shinbashi Terminus, its beauty does not strike you. In front stretches the great main street part of a thoroughfare three hundred miles long, known as the Tokaido lined with shops of all sorts, trams, omnibuses, andjinri&i-shas careering hither and thither, ' 1894. 77 78 JAPAN this way and that; newspaper offices covered with posters; telegraph and telephone wires over your head ; the chim- neys of great factories smoking here and there; and life, business, and bustle all around. This is interesting, but it is not picturesque. Follow the street, however, for about three miles, and you will come to one of the great play- grounds of the metropolis, Ueno Park; and here, in addi- tion to magnificent cryptomerias, lovely sylvan glades, gorgeous old temples to dead Shogun, and a big, though I am sorry to say exceedingly ugly, Buddha the only ugly one I have ever seen you will find a switchback railway, numberless restaurants and tea-houses, a beautiful Zoolog- ical Garden, a School of Art, a School of Music, a Public Library, a Museum, a Fine Art Exhibition, and many other resorts of pleasure and instruction. Or, if you bend your steps inland from the bay, you come upon the three great concentric moats, encircling the Imperial Palace, with their grand grassy slopes crowned with immemorial pine- trees growing in all sorts of contorted shapes; the remains of ancient yashiki, or Daimios' palaces ; Shiba Park, with its precipitous hills, deep shady groves, and temples of pe- culiar sanctity; broad, high, undulating roads, which wind upward in the bright sunlight like the pathways in some theological allegory ; palaces again, standing in ornamental grounds, and hidden by gigantic trees ; the modern resi- dences of Imperial Princes and members of the nobility, all handsomely-appointed mansions that would not discredit Park Lane ; and then, here, there, and everywhere, abrupt TOKIO 79 cliffs or bluffs, richly wooded, commanding extensive views, and topped by some pleasant suburban villa sur- rounded by an undulating lawn. A little further yet, and you find yourself in the country, in good earnest ; strolling through lanes like the lanes of Devonshire ; a yellow corn- field here, a stretch of blue-green rice-fields there, so much foliage that you can never get quite as good a view as you would like ; the pleasant throbbing of a water-mill in your ears, and a general sensation of smiling, sunny peace. Let us suppose it is November. The foliage presents great masses of rich colouring green, golden, crimson, and bronze ; the hawk sails, noiseless and graceful, through the air; the feathery bamboo copse in which you stand waves almost imperceptibly in the breeze ; the bees hum slumberously among the tea-plants; ever and anon the mellow tones of a temple-bell come booming from some neighbouring country shrine ; the sky is as clear and as blue as a great sapphire, and the whole world seems to lie basking in a flood of golden heat. Naturally it is only residents who see this side of Tokio. The " globe-trotter " lives in one of the hotels, and devotes his attention to what may be called the show-places of the town the curio-shops, the University, the principal tem- ples, and a few well-known restaurants. These are all in- teresting in their way, but the true charm of Tokio, to me, lies in its gardens and its rural districts. There is one garden that is worthy of special mention. Close to the entrance there is a big, unsightly Arsenal, the red-brick 8o JAPAN chimney of which belches out volumes of thick black smoke. Within five seconds after you have passed through the gate you find yourself in what I can only describe as a stretch of wild Highland scenery glens, groves, waterfalls, and all complete. The Korakuen is one of the glories of Tokio, and a favourite place for garden parties. The first time I went there was when the young Marquis Kuroda, formerly Prince of Fuknoka, gave a great entertainment to celebrate the completion of his political majority. Part of it is so arranged as to represent in miniature, the stretch of country between the capital and Kioto, including Fujiyama and Lake Biwa. The whole was laid out by an eminent Chinese refugee nearly three hundred years ago. Now, of course, it is impossible to describe Tokio in a few score of lines, and, of course, I do not pretend to have done it. All I have tried to do is to give you a general idea of the place, an impressionist daub ; not a pre-Raphael- ite, highly finished picture. There are many streets that are narrow and squalid, and rather smelly ; there are disa- greeable sights, too ; for the Japanese cleanliness of which we hear so much is, in my opinion, rather a legend ; and the weather, at certain seasons of the year, is frankly de- testable. But the charms of the place outweigh its draw- backs. I lived for over two years in a bungalow on the top of Bird-rest Hill, in the suburban ward of Azabu ; and from the height of my hanging-garden I looked over a sec- tion of the city that spread beneath me, framed in by the thick foliage of Shiba Park on one side, and Mita Hill on TOKIO 81 the other ; the blue waters of the bay, flecked by scores of white-sailed fishing-boats, sparkling in the middle distance, and the mountains showing lavendar-grey beyond. To others, Tokio may be a dull, uninteresting place. To me, it is one of the very few places that I know of in the solar system worth living in. THE TEMPLE OF ASAKUSA JUDITH GAUT1ER ASAKUSA is dedicated to Kwannon, the Chinese and Japanese Madonna, the charming Goddess of Mercy, who descended into hell, and by the fervour of her compassion, delivered the condemned and showered upon them a rain of flowers. Stone lanterns of a very peculiar form are placed in front of the monumental gate which gives access to the precincts of the temple. To go through this you pass under a gigantic round lantern, ornamented with Chinese characters, which hangs between two cylindrical lanterns. Under the gate, on the right and left, there rise the Two Kings, guardians of the gate. Beyond the gate, you walk on through wide avenues, paved with stones and bordered with many rows of cedars hundreds of years old, under which are grouped booths bright with a medley of standards, ornamented with lanterns and banners and filled with all kinds of charming bibelots and beautifully dressed dolls : it is the most animated kind of a kermess, with its mountebanks, its theatres, its fortune- tellers, and all kinds of entertainments. This perpetual festival that surrounds the temple does not seem very favourable to the encouragement of pious 82 THE TEMPLE OF ASAKUSA 83 ideas ; however, as you advance, and, in the midst of the cedars, the imposing mass of the temple appears, of a deep red with enormous roofs turning up at the edges and when you see that tower with its five stages springing towards the sky with such an extraordinary and novel aspect, you are truly seized with a respectful emotion. Before going into the temple, you are required to wash your hands and your mouth in a great stone trough, with the aid of a wooden dipper with a long handle that is float- ing on the water. As soon as you have gone through the gate of the vesti- bule, you find yourself in a reposeful and mysterious shadow in the midst of a tumult of voices and the rustling of the wings of clouds of pigeons that inhabit the temple. You stop at the vestibule to make some purchases from the various kinds of merchants who are installed there ; first, a package of tiny rings of perfumed paste to burn in honour of the gods ; then, from the merchants who are squatting on their heels, little saucers of terra cotta filled with rice for the sacred pigeons. To the left, in a pen with lacquered walls, you see a pigmy horse, entirely white with pale eyes ; it is an Albino horse consecrated to Kwannon. Upon his back is a symbolical piece of paper cut out nearly in the form of a cross and held on by strips of silk. They also sell you something to offer to the gentle Albino : some cooked peas in a terra cotta plate. The interior of the temple consists of one single hall, tall and immense, with a forest of round columns painted 84 JAPAN red, the capitals of which are lost in the shadows of the ceiling. In the background the altar appears in a warm reflection of gold and glimmering lights. Gigantic Bud- dhas of gilded wood with half closed eyes and faint smiles are vaguely perceived behind the great blind that hangs down before them a trellis of iron worked like lace and surrounded by banners, lanterns, lamps and magnificent bouquets of flowers of gilded metal. Each one of the faithful throws his scented rings into a gigantic bronze incense-burner, whose open-worked cover is ornamented with the signs of the zodiac and terminated by a chimaerical lion. Tiny threads of the blue smoke spring from the holes and mount as they quiver and unfold into diaphanous lilies which soon drop their leaves and make a pale fog high above in the mysterious shadow. This fog of perfumes renders still more confused those singular objects that hang about and scintillate from various heights : there are large round dais with splendid fringes of silk, fantastic beasts embroidered upon banners upon which you perceive shining scales of gold, lanterns of all forms upon which are painted black dragons or large Chinese letters, streamers and waving strips of silk ornamented with braids and tassels, inscriptions and maxims painted or embroidered, and other unfamiliar objects. From the base to the inaccessible heights, the walls are entirely covered with pictures of all kinds painted on satin, gauze and paper, carved in wood, marble, ivory, and THE TEMPLE OF ASAKUSA 85 mother-of-pearl, or magnificently embroidered upon silk or velvet. They represent scenes in the lives of saints, celebrated legends, terrible descriptions of the sufferings in hell or simply the images of gods and goddesses, particularly Kwannon, the gentle protectress of the temple. There are some beautiful sabres with open-worked guards, or carved wooden sabres, or formed of coins strung together. With these pieces of copper they also form Chinese characters : the name Amida occurs the most frequently. Bonzes wander about among the crowds, or remain on the ground before the chapels by the side of the relics. All have their heads entirely shaved and wear robes with sleeves of the most extraordinary size. They give to the faithful whatever pious information they desire, or conduct them to the saint whom they wish to honour. Some- times, at a given signal, they all go to the high altar, and, ranging themselves around an old bonze in his sacerdotal robes, they chant prayers while accompanying themselves on several instruments that make a shrill music. On every side the devotees are kneeling upon the pavement before their chosen altar ; they mutter their prayers aloud, and every now and then clap their hands as if they were applauding. To the right of the central altar, the statue of a saint, who is greatly venerated as he has the power of curing all illness, attracts many people. This personage in red lacquered wood, and about the size of a little boy, is seated in an arm-chair. He represents 86 JAPAN Bindzuru one of Buddha's first six disciples. Ah, he is not very beautiful, this Bindzuru : he has neither form nor features on account of the continual friction of the believers; for you must rub the ailing parts of the body against the statue in order to accomplish the miracle. He ought to cure the sick, this poor saint ! He ought to be kindly treated, for he is himself quite ill : he looks like a chocolate man half sucked. A constant noise is heard above the murmur of the crowd ; it is the shock of pieces of money that are falling without interruption in the alms- chest, a great square box about three metres long and one metre wide and standing under a bamboo trellis. And in the midst of all this noise, the pretty children run about upon the sonorous stones with gentle laughter, or perhaps stopping, as if in ecstasy, at the foot of a column, throw rice to the sacred pigeons. Outside the temple there are still a thousand things to see. All the pleasures are collected in this enclosure : apart from the numerous chapels, it contains a circus, theatres, galleries for archery, and countless tea-houses where the young and elegant people of the city have de- lightful parties. There is everything in the enclosure of Asakusa. Tokio has its Museum there. About forty pictures are arranged, to the left of the great temple in a gallery ; they are called 1-ki-nine-gnio, " the living dolls," and these wax dolls are so expressive that you might easily believe they were living pictures. All the scenes are represented that relate to THE TEMPLE OF ASAKUSA 87 the miracles due to the inexhaustible kindness of Kwan- non. But there are still things that are worthy of being seen in the territory of Asakusa, among others, the gardens and the nurseries, taken care of by skilful horticulturists. All kinds of dwarf trees appear here, by what process obtained I do not know : cedars which are planted in porcelain jars, doll pines, tiny peach-trees, bamboos fine as knitting-needles ; then carpets of delicate grass like green feathers, grassy plants that bristle with prickles and resemble wicked beasts, and a magnificent variety of rare flowers : rose-coloured, purple and white peonies as large as cabbages ; chrysanthe- mums that open out as big as plates. And the fruit-trees, those marvels whose blossoming at Spring-tide is the de- light of poets. All varieties of lemon, peach and cherry- trees, and above all the incomparable plum, whose beauty cannot be imagined, which blooms in the depths of winter under the snow and whose flowers are more deliciously scented than roses. There is as yet no lift in the Five-storied Pagoda, and the way up is very steep by a zigzag stairway, where it is very dark ; but you are well repaid for your trouble when you finally emerge in the open air on the last platform. An ocean of grey roofs, which waves, waves to the very edge of the horizon, appears to you, broken by islands of verdure and great clear spaces ; mirrors which confuse everything as if pieces of the sky had fallen upon the earth and lead on to infinite distances ; these are the rivers, the 88 JAPAN ponds and the canals. But the glance is suddenly attracted and fixed far away from all this by the extraordinary moun- tain, of which I can never say enough : the surprising, the marvellous, the unique Fujiyama! There appears over yonder towards the south-west a gigantic and solitary cone, very tall, very pale and rosy, with bluish shadows over it like wrinkles. The base is wreathed in mists, and it looks therefore as if it were suspended in the air and supported by the clouds. BUDDHAS, ASAKUSA. THE TEMPLE OF HATCHIMAN AIME HUMBERT AT the present time we find at Kamakoura the Pan- theon of the glories of Japan. It is composed of a majestic collection of sacred buildings which have always been spared by the fury of civil war. They are placed under the invocation of Hatchiman, one of the great national Kamis. Hatchiman belongs to the heroic period of the Empire of the Mikados. His mother was the Empress Zingou, who effected the conquest of the three kingdoms of Korea, and to whom divine honours are rendered. Each year, on the ninth day of the ninth month, a solemn procession to the tomb which is conse- crated to her at Fousimi, in the country of Yamasiro, com- memorates her glorious deeds. Zingou herself surnamed her son Fatsman, " the eight banners," in consequence of a sign which appeared in the heavens at the birth of the child. Thanks to the education which she gave him, she made him the bravest of her soldiers and the most skilful of her generals. When she had attained the age of one hundred years, she transmitted the sceptre and crown of the Mikados to her son, in the year 270 of our era. He was then seventy-one years old. Under the name of Woozin he reigned gloriously for forty-three years, and was raised, 89 90 JAPAN after his death, to the rank of a protecting genius of the Empire. He is especially revered as the patron of soldiers. In the annual fetes dedicated to him, Japan celebrates the memory of the heroes who have died for their country. The popular processions which take place on this occasion revive the ancient pomps of Kami worship. Even the horses formerly destined for sacrifice are among the cortege ; but instead of being immolated, they are turned loose on the race-course. Most of the great cities of Japan possess a Temple of Hatchiman. That of Kamakoura is distinguished above all the others by the trophies which it contains. Two vast buildings are required for the display of this national wealth. There, it is said, are preserved the spoils of the Korean and the Mongol invasions, also objects taken from the Portu- guese Colonies, and the Christian communities of Japan at the epoch when the Portuguese were expelled, and the Jap- anese Christians were exterminated by order of the Shoguns. No European has ever yet been permitted to view the trophies of Kamakoura. While all European states like to display the treasures which they have respectively seized or won in their fron- tier and dynastic wars, Japan hides all monuments of its military glory from foreigners. They are kept in reserve, like a family treasure, in venerable sanctuaries, to which no profane feet ever find access. On approaching the Temple of Hatchiman, we per- ceived that our arrival had been announced, and that THE TEMPLE OF HATCHIMAN 91 the bonzes were closing the shutters of their treasure- house. The Temples of Hatchiman are approached by long lines of those great cedar-trees which form the avenues to all places of worship in Japan. As we advance along the avenue on the Kanagawa side, chapels multiply themselves along the road, and to the left, upon the sacred hills, we also come in sight of the oratories and commemorative stones which mark the stations of the processions ; on the right the horizon is closed by the mountain, with its grottos, its streams, and its pine groves. After we have crossed the river by a fine wooden bridge, we find ourselves sud- denly at the entrance of another alley, which leads from the sea-side, and occupies a large street. This is the prin- cipal avenue, intersected by three gigantic 70r/V, and it opens on the grand square in front of the chief staircase of the main building of the Temple. The precinct of the sacred place extends into the street, and is surrounded on three sides by a low wall of solid masonry, surmounted by a barrier of wood painted black and red. Two steps lead to the first level. There is nothing to be seen there but the houses of the bonzes, arranged like the side-scenes of a theatre, amid trees planted along the barrier-wall, with two great oval ponds occupying the centre of the square. TKey are connected with each other by a large canal crossed by two parallel bridges, each equally remarkable in its way. That on the right is of white granite, and it describes an almost perfect semicircle, so that when one sees it for the 92 JAPAN first time one supposes that it is intended for some sort of geometrical exercise; but I suppose that it is in reality a bridge of honour reserved for the gods and the good genii who come to visit the Temple. The bridge on the left is quite flat, constructed of wood covered with red lacquer, with balusters and other ornaments in old polished copper. The pond crossed by the stone bridge is covered with mag- nificent white lotus flowers, the pond crossed by the wooden bridge with red lotus flowers. Among the leaves of the flowers we saw numbers of fish, some red and others like mother of pearl, with glittering fins, swimming about in waters of crystal clearness. The black tortoise glides among the great water-plants and clings to their stems. After having thoroughly enjoyed this most attractive spectacle, we go on towards the second enclosure. It is raised a few steps higher than the first, and, as it is pro- tected by an additional sanctity, it is only to be approached through the gate of the divine guardians of the sanctuary. This building, which stands opposite the bridges, contains two monstrous idols, placed side by side in the centre of the edifice. They are sculptured in wood, and are covered from head to foot with a thick coating of vermilion. Their grinning faces and their enormous busts are spotted all over with innumerable pieces of chewed paper, which the native visitors throw at them when passing, without any more formality than would be used by a number of school- boys out for a holiday. Nevertheless, it is considered a very serious act on the part of the pilgrims. It is the THE TEMPLE OF HATCHIMAN 93 means by which they make the prayer written on the sheet of chewed paper reach its address, and when they wish to recommend anything to the gods very strongly indeed, they bring as an offering a pair of straw slippers plaited with regard to the size of the feet of the Colossus, and hang them on the iron railings within which the statues are en- closed. Articles of this kind, suspended by thousands to the bars, remain there until they fall away in time, and it may be supposed that this curious ornamentation is any- thing but beautiful. Here a lay brother of the bonzes approached us, and his interested views were easily enough detected by his bear- ing. We hastened to assure him that we required nothing from his good offices, except access to an enclosed building. With a shake of his head, so as to make us understand that we were asking for an impossibility, he simply set himself to follow us about with the mechanical precision of a subaltern. He was quite superfluous, but we did not allow his presence to interfere with our admiration. A high terrace, reached by a long stone staircase, surmounted the second enclosure. It is sustained by a Cyclopean wall, and in its turn supports the principal Temple as well as the habitations of the bonzes. The grey roofs of all these dif- ferent buildings stand out against the sombre forest of cedars and pines. On the left are the buildings of the Treasury ; one of them has a pyramidal roof surmounted by a turret of bronze most elegantly worked. At the foot of the great terrace is the Chapel of the Ablutions. On 94 JAPAN our right stands a tall pagoda, constructed on the principle of the Chinese pagodas, but in a more sober and severe style. The first stage, of a quadrangular form, is sup- ported by pillars ; the second stage consists of a vast cir- cular gallery, which, though extremely massive, seems to rest simply upon a pivot. A painted roof terminated by a tall spire of cast bronze, embellished with pendants of the same metal, completes the effect of this strange but exquis- itely proportioned building. All the doors of the building which I have enumerated are in good taste. The fine proportions, the rich brown colouring of the wood, which is almost the only material employed in their construction, is enhanced by a few touches of red and dragon green, and the effect of the whole is per- fect ; add to the picture a frame of ancient trees and the extreme brilliancy of the sky, for the atmosphere of Japan is the most transparent in the world. We went beyond the pagoda to visit a bell-tower, where we were shown a large bell beautifully engraved, and an oratory on each side containing three golden images, a large one in the centre and two small ones on either side. Each was surrounded by a nimbus. We then went to see the Daiboudhs, which is the won- der of Kamakoura. This building is dedicated to the Daiboudhs, that is to say, to the great Buddha, and may be regarded as the most finished work of Japanese genius, from the double points of view of art and religious senti- ment. The Temple of Hatchiman had already given us a THE TEMPLE OF HATCHIMAN 95 remarkable example of the use which native art makes of nature in producing that impression of religious majesty which in our northern climates is effected by Gothic archi- tecture. The Temple of Daiboudhs differs considerably from the first which we had seen. Instead of the great dimensions, instead of the illimitable space which seemed to stretch from portal to portal down to the sea, a solitary and mysterious retreat prepares the mind for some super- natural revelation. The road leads far away from every habitation ; in the direction of the mountain it winds about between hedges of tall shrubs. Finally, we see nothing before us but the high road, going up and up in the midst of foliage and flowers ; then it turns in a totally different direction, and all of a sudden, at the end of the alley, we perceive a gigantic brazen Divinity, squatting with joined hands, and the head slightly bent forward in an attitude of contemplative ecstasy. The involuntary amazement produced by the aspect of this great image soon gives place to admiration. There is an irresistible charm in the attitude of the Daiboudhs, as well as in the harmony of its proportions. The noble simplicity of its garments and the calm purity of its features are in perfect accord with the sentiment of serenity inspired by its presence. A grove, consisting of some beautiful groups of trees, forms the enclosure of the sacred place, whose silence and solitude are never disturbed. The small cell of the attend- ant priest can hardly be discerned amongst the foliage. The altar, on which a little incense is burning at the feet of 96 JAPAN the Divinity, is composed of a small brass table orna- mented by two lotus vases of the same metal, and beautifully wrought. The steps of the altar are composed of large slabs forming regular lines. The blue of the sky, the deep shadow of the statue, the sombre colour of the brass, the brilliancy of the flowers, the varied verdure of the hedges and the groves, fill this solemn retreat with the richest ef- fect of light and colour. The idol of the Daiboudhs, with the platform that supports it, is twenty yards high. ft THE SHIBA TEMPLE CHRISTOPHER DRESSER SHIBA lies in the north-east quarter of Tokio. It is reached by a pleasant short drive from the railway station. The impression which I now receive upon first beholding the magnificent temples and shrines standing before me as I step from our carriage is most delightful. Buildings, so rich in colour, so beautiful in detail, so striking in symbolism, I have never before seen or dreamt of. Had a Gibbons been employed on the wood-carvings, had the colourist of the Alhambra done his utmost to add to forms, which in themselves are almost perfect, a new charm through the addition of pigments, and were the whole of such details subordinated to fitting places in a vast architec- tural edifice by the architects of the Parthenon, no more worthy effect could be produced than that of the buildings on which my eyes now rest. The Temple of Shiba, like most of the large temples dedicated to the service of Buddhism, consisted of seven buildings, one of which may be regarded as more strictly in itself the Temple, while another is in all cases a pagoda, the pagoda bearing much the same relation to the Buddhist edifice that a spire does to a Christian church. Unfortu- nately the chief building of the seven has been lately (1882) 97 98 JAPAN burnt by, it is believed, revolutionary incendiaries, and I am informed that this building was more beautiful than any now remaining ; yet how any building could be more beautiful than those which have escaped, I am at a loss to under- stand. We walk through the courtyard inspecting the long rows of stone lanterns, and viewing the exteriors of the various buildings on which we find birds, flowers, water, and clouds carved with a tenderness and boldness scarcely to be sur- passed, and so coloured that each object retains its individ- ual beauty, while the various parts combine to produce an effect almost perfect. The art treatment of the natural ob- jects is semi-conventional, the carving is of the crispest, and the subjects are chosen with the view of symbolizing the power of the Buddhist's god over all created things. Shiba is not only a Buddhist shrine, but like our West- minster Abbey, is a resting-place for the mighty dead. Here five of Japan's great Shoguns (also called Tycoons) were buried, and the Shogun (who was practically the temporal ruler of Japan) was of the Buddhist faith, while the Mikado (whom we have described as the spiritual ruler) was of the Shinto religion. Shoguns found their resting-place in tombs of great beauty, while over the ashes of the Mikados are heaped mere mounds of earth. We are looking and wondering at all the loveliness out- spread before us when a shaven-headed priest comes for- ward to conduct us into the largest of the edifices which now remain. Before entering it we have to put off our THE SHIBA TEMPLE 99 shoes. This it was right that we should do, were it only because the balcony to which the steps before us lead, and the floor of the temple itself, are of polished black lacquer. The surface of these floors may be compared with that of the best papier-mache tray that Wolverhampton ever made. There is little in the way of wall in connexion with either Japanese temples or houses ; but of the structure of their buildings more will be said when we come to consider their architecture. However, the building before us is a large en- closed space, covered by a massive roof, supported on up- rights, between which are what we may regard as movable shutters; the columns and shutters forming the boundary of the building. The floor of the temple extends about six feet beyond the central enclosed part as a balcony, and it is this balcony which I have just mentioned as being bright black. The roof of the temple overhangs the balcony and protects it from the weather, while the constructive rafters and joists which support it are left fully exposed to view. Internally we have a ceiling of which the structural features are not visible. The ceiling is panelled out into small squares, and is decorated ; red, blue, green, white and gold being applied to it in all their intensity. It might be thought that such a system of colouring as this could only produce a coarse and vulgar effect ; but this is not so, for the overhanging roof which approaches within about four feet of the railing of the surrounding balcony does not permit the entrance of any excessive amount of light ; and ioo JAPAN the light which ultimately reaches the ceiling is all re- flected, and that from a black floor. We are now taken by our shaven-headed priest to see the tombs of the Shoguns. In front of each tomb stands a square building or shrine, one of which by his orders is opened at both back and front, that we may look on the monument behind. I am so much pleased with the one temple which I have been permitted to enter, and my art enthusiasm has been already so fully kindled, that my desire to see the interior of these sacred shrines becomes almost irresistible ; but I am told that none but great officials can enter these sanctuaries, as each building contains the sacred name of the now deified Shogun whose remains are entombed behind. I believe that the holy father mistakes my enthusiastic admiration of the art of the edifice for religious enthusiasm, as he somewhat excitedly exclaims, " You are a great Shogun," and allows me to enter a building which few, if any, Europeans have up to this time been permitted to inspect. These shrines are as beautiful as the larger temples which we have already seen, and their details are as perfectly wrought. But as I yet fail to comprehend the object of these buildings, for what the sacred name of a deceased Shogun may be, I do not understand. Ultimate inquiry led me to see that throughout Japan there is a strange con- fusion of Buddhism and Shintoism ; for while Shintoism deifies heroes, Buddhism, in its purity, does nothing of the kind. Nevertheless, as the Mikado, while yet regarded as THE SHIBA TEMPLE 101 the God incarnate of the Shinto Church, offers in public on certain days of the year prayers for his people at certain Buddhist shrines, it is not to be wondered at that the lead- ing sanctuaries of Japan should betray a blending so incon- sistent. Upon the death of a famous Japanese, be he daimio (baron), hero, benefactor, or Shogun, he is exalted to the rank of a god, when his name in the god world is allotted to him. This name, sacred and unpronounceable by mortal lips, is inscribed on a tablet of about two feet in length by four inches in breadth ; and it is this god name which the shrines in front of the Shogun's tombs are intended to encase and preserve. Every precaution is taken to insure the safety of these tablets, as in the belief of the Japanese the gravest calamities might befall the nation if any should be lost or destroyed. On this memorable day, which will always be a " red letter day " in my history, I learnt many facts of deep in- terest, and I have certainly beheld, enshrined in cryptomerias and other cone-bearing trees of vast proportions, an amount of architectural beauty such as I have never before seen. IN YOKOHAMA LAFCADIO HEARN THE first charm of Japan is as intangible and volatile as a perfume. It began for me with my first kuruma ride out of the European quarter of Yokohama into the Japanese town ; and so much as I can recall of it is hereafter set down. It is with the delicious surprise of the first journey through Japanese streets unable to make one's kuruma runner understand anything but gestures, frantic gestures to roll on anywhere, everywhere, since all is unspeakably pleasurable and new that one first receives the real sensation of being in the Orient, in this Far East so much read of, so long dreamed of, yet, as the eyes bear witness, heretofore all unknown. There is a romance even in the first full consciousness of this rather commonplace fact ; but for me this consciousness is transfigured inexpressibly by the divine beauty of the day. There is some charm unutterable in the morning air, cool with the coolness of Japanese spring and wind-waves from the snowy cone of Fuji ; a charm perhaps due rather to softest lucidity than to any positive tone, an atmospheric limpidity extraordinary, with only a suggestion of blue in it, through which the most distant objects appear focused with amazing sharp- 102 IN YOKOHAMA 103 ness. The sun is only pleasantly warm ; the jinrika-sha, or kuruma, is the most cosy little vehicle imaginable ; and the street-vistas, as seen above the dancing white mushroom- shaped hat of my sandalled runner, have an allurement of which I fancy that I could never weary. Elfish everything seems ; for everything as well as every- body is small, and queer, and mysterious : the little houses under their blue roofs, the little shop-fronts hung with blue, and the smiling little people in their blue costumes. The illusion is only broken by the occasional passing of a tall foreigner, and by divers shop-signs bearing announcements in absurd attempts in English. Nevertheless such discords only serve to emphasize reality; they never materially lessen the fascination of the funny little streets. 'Tis at first a delightfully odd confusion only, as you look down one of them, through an interminable flutter of flags and swaying of dark blue drapery, all made beautiful and mysterious with Japanese or Chinese lettering. For there are no immediately discernible laws of construction or decoration : each building seems to have a fantastic pretti- ness of its own ; nothing is exactly like anything else, and all is bewilderingly novel. But gradually, after an hour passed in the quarter, the eye begins to recognize in a vague way some general plan in the construction of these low, light, queerly-gabled wooden houses, mostly unpainted, with their first stories all open to the street, and thin strips of roofing sloping above each shop-front, like awnings, back to the miniature balconies of paper-screened second stories. 104 JAPAN You begin to understand the common plan of the tiny shops, with their matted floors well raised above the street level, and the general perpendicular arrangement of sign- lettering, whether undulating on drapery, or glimmering on gilded and lacquered signboards. You observe that the same rich, dark blue which dominates in popular costume rules also in shop draperies, though there is a sprinkling of other tints, bright blue and white and red (no greens or yellows). And then you note also that the dresses of the labourers are lettered with the same wonderful lettering as the shop draperies. No arabesques could produce such an effect. As modified for decorative purposes these ideo- graphs have a speaking symmetry which no design without a meaning could possess. As they appear on the back of a workman's frock pure white on dark blue and large enough to be easily read at a great distance (indicating some guild or company of which the wearer is a member or employee), they give to the poor cheap garment a factitious appearance of splendour. " Tera e yuke ! " I have been obliged to return to the European hotel, not because of the noon-meal, as I really begrudge myself the time necessary to eat it, but because I cannot make Cha understand that I want to visit a Buddhist temple. Now Cha understands; my landlord has uttered the mystical words, " Tera e yuke ! " A few minutes of running along broad thoroughfares IN YOKOHAMA 105 lined with gardens and costly ugly European buildings; then passing the bridge of a canal stocked with unpainted sharp-prowed craft of extraordinary construction, we again plunge into narrow, low, bright, pretty streets, into another part of the Japanese city. And Cha runs at the top of his speed between more rows of little ark-shaped houses, narrower above than below ; between other unfa- miliar lines of little open shops. And always over the shops little strips of blue-tiled roof slope back to the paper- screened chamber of upper floors ; and from all the facades hang draperies dark-blue or white, or crimson, foot- breadths of texture covered with beautiful Japanese letter- ing, white on blue, red on black, black on white. But all this flies by swiftly as a dream. Once more we cross a canal ; we rush up a narrow street rising to meet a hill ; and Cha, halting suddenly before an immense flight of broad stone steps, sets the shafts of his vehicle on the ground that I may dismount, and, pointing to the steps, exclaims, " Tera ! " I dismount, and ascend them, and, reaching a broad ter- race, find myself face to face with a wonderful gate, topped by a tilted, peaked, many-cornered Chinese roof. It is all strangely carven, this gate. Dragons are intertwined in a frieze above its open doors ; and the panels of the doors themselves are similarly sculptured ; and there are gargoyles grotesque lion heads protruding from the eaves. And the whole is grey, stone-coloured ; to me, nevertheless, the carvings do not seem to have the fixity of sculpture ; all 106 JAPAN the snakeries and dragonries appear to undulate with a swimming motion, elusively, in eddyings as of water. I turn a moment to look back through the glorious light. Sea and sky mingle in the same beautiful pale clear blue. Below me the billowing of bluish roofs reaches to the verge of the unruffled bay on the right, and to the feet of the green wooded hills flanking the city on two sides. Beyond that semicircle of green hills rises a lofty range of serrated mountains, indigo silhouettes. And enormously high above the line of them towers an apparition indescribably lovely, one solitary snowy cone, so filmily exquisite, so spiritu- ally white, that but for its immemorially familiar outline, one would surely deem it a shape of cloud. Invisible its base remains, being the same delicious tint as the sky : only above the eternal snow-line its dreamy cone appears, seem- ing to hang, the ghost of a peak, between the luminous land and the luminous heaven, the sacred and matchless mountain, Fujiyama. " Tera ? " " Yes, Cha, tera." But only for a brief while do I traverse Japanese streets. The houses separate, become scattered along the feet of the hills: the city thins away through little valleys and vanishes at last behind. And we follow a curving road, overlooking the sea. Green hills slope steeply down to the edge of the way on the right ; on the left, far below, spreads a vast stretch of dun sand and salty pools to a line of surf so distant that it is discernible only as a moving white thread. IN YOKOHAMA 107 The tide is out ; and thousands of cockle-gatherers are scattered over the sands, at such distances that their stoop- ing figures, dotting the glimmering sea-bed, appear no larger than gnats. And some are coming along the road before us, returning from their search with well-filled baskets, girls with faces almost as rosy as the faces of English girls. As the jinriki-sha rattles on, the hills dominating the road grow higher. All at once Cha halts again before the steepest and loftiest flight of temple steps I have yet seen. I climb and climb, halting perforce betimes, to ease the violent aching of my quadriceps muscles ; reach the top completely out of breath ; and find myself between two lions of stone ; one showing his fangs, the other with jaws closed. Before me stands the temple, at the farther end of a small bare plateau surrounded on three sides by low cliffs, a small temple, looking very old and grey. From a rocky height to the left of the building, a little cataract rumbles down into a pool, ringed in by a palisade. The voice of the water drowns all other sounds. A sharp wind is blowing from the ocean : the place is chill even in the sun, and bleak, and desolate, as if no prayer had been uttered in it for a hundred years. Cha taps and calls, while I take off my shoes upon the worn wooden steps of the temple; and after a minute of waiting, we hear a muffled step approaching and a hollow cough behind the paper screens. They slide open ; and an old white-robed priest appears, and motions me, with a low io8 JAPAN bow, to enter. He has a kindly face ; and his smile of welcome seems to me one of the most exquisite I have ever been greeted with. Then he coughs again, so badly that I think if I ever come here another time, I shall ask for him in vain. I go in, feeling that soft, cushioned matting beneath my feet with which the floors of all Japanese buildings are covered. I pass the indispensable bell and lacquered read- ing-desk ; and before me I see other screens only, stretch- ing from floor to ceiling. The old man, still coughing, slides back one of these upon the right, and waves me into the dimness of an inner sanctuary, haunted by faint odours of incense. A colossal bronze lamp, with snarling gilded dragons coiled about its columnar stem, is the first object I discern ; and, in passing it, my shoulder sets ringing a fes- toon of little bells suspended from the lotus-shaped summit of it. Then I reach the altar, gropingly, unable yet to dis- tinguish forms clearly. But the priest, sliding back screen after screen, pours in light upon the gilded brasses and the inscriptions ; and I look for the image of the Deity, or presiding Spirit between the altar-groups of convoluted candelabra. And I see only a mirror, a round, pale disk of polished metal and my own face therein, and behind this mockery of me a phantom of the far sea. Only a mirror ! Symbolizing what ? Illusion ? or that the Universe exists for us solely as the reflection of our own souls ? or the old Chinese teaching that we must seek the IN YOKOHAMA 109 Buddha only in our own hearts ? Perhaps some day I shall be able to find out all these things. " Hotel, Cha, hotel ! " I cry out again, for the way is long, and the sun sinking, sinking in the softest imagin- able glow of topazine light. I have not seen Shaka (so the Japanese have transformed the name Sakya-Muni); I have not looked upon the face of the Buddha. Perhaps I may be able to find his image to-morrow, somewhere in this wilderness of wooden streets, or upon the summit of some yet unvisited hill. The sun is gone ; the topaz-light is gone ; and Cha stops to light his lantern of paper j and we hurry on again, be- tween two long lines of painted paper lanterns suspended before the shops : so closely set, so level those lines are, that they seem two interminable strings of pearls of fire. And suddenly a sound solemn, profound, mighty peals to my ears over the roofs of the town, the voice of the tsurigane, the great temple-bell of Nungiyama. FUJI-SAN SIR EDWIN ARNOLD YOU would not wonder, residing here, that every- body in Japan talks about Fuji, and thinks about her-, paints her on fans, and limns her with gold on lacquer ; carves her on temple-gates and house- fronts, and draws her for curtains of shops and signboards of inns, rest-houses and public institutions. Living in Tokio or Yokohama, or anywhere along this Tokaido the South- ern road of Japan you would soon perceive how the great volcano dominates every landscape, asserts perpetually her sovereignty over all other hills and mountains, and becomes in reality as well as imagination, an indispensable element in the national scenery. Fuji-San, even among her loftiest sisters, is a giantess, nearer, by the best calculation, to 13,000 than 12,000 feet of elevation. The legend is that she rose in a single night, at about the date of Alexander the Great; and it is not im- possible. In 806 A. D., a temple was established on the mountain to the honour of the beautiful Goddess Ko- nohana-saku-ya Hime, though there is also a special deity of the eminence styled " O-ana-mochi-no-Mikoto," which means " Possessor of the Great Hole or Crater." As late as the Fourteenth Century Fuji was constantly no FUJI-SAN 111 smoking, and fire is spoken of w : th the eruptions, the last of which took place in December, 1707, and continued for nearly forty days. The Ho-Yei-san, or hump in the south face, was probably then formed. In this, her final outbreak, Fuji covered Tokio itself, sixty miles away, with six inches of ash, and sent rivers of lava far and wide. Since then she has slept, and only one little spot underneath the Kwan-nom-Gatake, on the lip of the crater, where steam exhales, and the red pumice-cracks are hot, shows that the heart of this huge volcano yet glows, and that she is capable of destroying again her own beauty and the for- ests and rich regions of fertility which clothe her knees and feet. It is a circuit of 120 miles to go all round the base of Fuji-San. If you could cut a tunnel through her from Yoshiwara to Kawaguchi, it would be forty miles long. Generally speaking, the lower portion of the mountain is cul- tivated to a height of 1,500 feet, and it is a whole province which thus climbs round her. From the border of the farms there begins a rough and wild, but flowery moorland, which stretches round the hill to an elevation of 4,000 feet, where there the thick forest belt commences. This girdles the volcano up to 7,000 feet on the Subashiri side and 8,000 on the Murayama fall, but is lower to the eastward. Above the forest extends a narrow zone of thicket and bush, chiefly dwarfed larch, juniper, and avaccinium after which comes the bare, burnt, and terribly majestic peak itself, where the only living thing is a little yellow lichen which 112 JAPAN grow in the fissures of the lava blocks, for no eagle or hawk ventures so high, and the boldest or most bewildered butterfly will not be seen above the bushes half-way down. The best indeed, the only time for the ascent of the mountain is between July ifth and September 5th. During this brief season, the snow will be melted from the cone, the huts upon the path will be opened for pilgrims, and there will be only the danger of getting caught by a ty- phoon, or reaching the summit to find it swathed day after day in clouds and no view obtainable. Our party of three started for the ascent on August 25th, taking that one of the many roads by which Fuji is approached that goes by Subashiri. Such an expedition may be divided into a series of stages. You have first to approach the foot of the mountain by train or otherwise, then to ride through the long slope of cultivated region. Then, abandoning horse or vehicles, to traverse on foot the sharper slopes of the forest belt. At the confines of this you will reach the first station, called Sho or Go ; for Japanese fancy has likened the mountain to a heap of dry rice and the stations are named by rice measures. From the first station to the ninth, whatever road you take, all will be hard, hot, con- tinuous climbing. You must go by narrow, bad paths, such as a goat might make, in loose volcanic dust, gritty pumice, or over the sharp edges of lava dykes, which cut boots and sandals to shreds. Taking train from Tokio to Gotemba, a station at the mountain's foot, we engaged " two men rikisba " to Suba- FUJI-SAN 113 shiri ; rolling along a rough but pretty country road, lined with pine and bamboo, and rice-fields where the early crop was already in ear. Silk is a great product of the region, and piles of cocoons lay in the sunshine, while the winding reel everywhere buzzed inside the cottages. From time to time Fuji would reveal portions of her mighty outline, but she was mainly shrouded till we reached Subashiri, and put up at a native inn called Tone-Tana. It is the custom with pilgrims to present the flags of their sect which they bring to the innkeepers, who suspend them on strings, the conse- quence being that the little town fluttered with pennons of all colours from end to end of the long street, terminating and overhanging which you saw Fuji-San gigantic, beau- tiful, terrible clearly and cloudlessly shown from head to foot, promising us a good reward for our climb of the mor- row. In the inn at night all the talk is about the volcano, the state of the path, the chances of fine weather, and so forth. We order three horses and six ninsoku, or " leg- men," to carry the indispensable blankets and provisions. They are to be ready at four o'clock in the morning, and we turn in early to get as much sleep as possible. At daybreak the horses are brought, and the six coolies, two by two, bind upon their backs the futons and the food. We start, a long procession, through a broad avenue in the forest, riding for five miles, under a lovely dawn, the sun shining gloriously on the forehead of Fuji, who seems fur- ther off and more immensely lofty the nearer we approach. The woodland is full of wild strawberries and flowers j in- U4 JAPAN eluding tiger-lilies, clematis, Canterbury bells, and the blue hotari-no bana^ or fire-fly blossom. At 6:30 A. M., we reach Uma-Gayeshi, or " turn-the-horses-back " ; and hence to the mountain top there is nothing for it but to walk every step of the long, steep, and difficult path. Two of the men with the lightest loads lead the way along the narrow path, in a wood so thick that we shall not see Fuji again till we have passed through it. It takes us every now and then through the gates and precincts of little Shinto temples, where the priests offer us tea or mountain water. In one of them, at Ko-mitake, we are invited to ring the brass gong in order that the Deity may make our limbs strong for the task before us. And this is solemnly done by all hands, the ninsoku slapping their brown thighs piously after sounding the bell. Presently the forest clears away ; we are in sunlight again, well upon the lower slopes of Fuji ; but the opening is due to an awful phenomenon. In the early part of the year an avalanche had descended down the valley which we are climbing. In a single night Fuji will often collect millions of tons of snow upon her cone, and then will let it slip next day, as a lady puts off her bonnet de nuit. One of these great snow slides has rolled down our valley and crushed perfectly flat every shrub and sapling and tree on a track half a mile wide right through the forest. The stoutest pines and beeches, the sturdiest larches and oaks, are broken short off at the root and pressed close to the earth, just as when a heavy roller goes over long grass. / FUJI-SAN 115 One look at this is enough to explain why it is not prudent to ascend Fuji when the snow lies upon her sides. Up those sides we must now steadily trudge by a path which begins unpromisingly enough, and grows constantly ruder and harder. It is not so bad among the dwarf alder bushes, where grows the curious and very rare glabra, called by the Japanese O Niku^ the root of which is sov- ereign for wounds and bruises. But it is quite bad enough long before we reach Shi-go-me, at 9:30 A. M., where we are to breakfast. This is Station No. 4, a rude hut built of black and red lava blocks, and standing at an elevation of 8,420 feet. You will see how we have been ascending. The stage on horseback from Subashiri lifted us 2,000 feet ; to the temple with the bell we made another 2,000 feet of altitude ; and now, at Shi-go-me, we are 2,000 feet higher still. A vast stratum of clouds hides at present the lower world ; but it breaks away in places to let us see and ad- mire a lovely lake shaped like the new moon, and called Mikazuki, shining in the hills near Yoshida. It is already welcome enough to halt and shake the sharp ashes from our boots, while we drink Liebig essence in hot water and eat tinned meats with an appetite sharpened by the already keen air. But we have a great height yet to climb to No. 6 Station, where we shall lunch, and the path henceforward is of two kinds both abominable. Either you zigzag to and fro in the loose black and red ashes, too steep and slip- pery to climb directly ; or you pick your way over the rugged slag and clinkers of a lava dyke, which is like as- ii6 JAPAN cending a shattered flight of steps or climbing the face of a furnace brnk. Every fifteen minutes one or other of the strong mountaineers accompanying us cries out, " O ya- sumi ! " and we all sink gladly on the nearest block, breath- ing quick and hard, the air being now so rarefied that it seems impossible to get enough into the lungs. After each rest, of a minute or two, we plod on towards the little black lava hut marked by fluttering red and white flags, which is our next goal ; and truly very far off, and very high up, and very hard to reach each in turn seems to be. Yet one by one, keeping steadily at work, we attain to stations " four and a half," " five," " five and a half" (Gogo, go, Shaku), and then at last to No. 6 (Roku-go-Me), where we stand 10,000 feet above the sea. A halt is called in the little hut for " tiffin " and pipes, and we are joined by a party of pilgrims dressed all in white, with huge white soup-plate hats, who, like ourselves, are glad enough of a little rest and a whiff" or two of the kiseru. Presently we start again up this tremendous cone, which seems to soar higher and higher in the blue the harder we toil to conquer it. Nevertheless, early in the afternoon we do reach Sta- tion No. 8, where we shall pass the nigbt, more than n,- ooo feet above sea level. Not only is the air ; r ery rarefied, but also very cold. There lies a large patch of snow in a hollow of the cone close by, and the water freezes where it drips from the kitchen. All vegetation has vanished, even the polygonum, and we are glad to unpack our blankets and lie under them round the bibachi^ while such FUJI-SAN 117 a meal as the mountain hut can furnish is being prepared. It consists of little else than small salted fish fried upon rice, but we supplement it with tinned provisions, and wash it down with weak whiskey and water. To realize the sleep which ensues after pipes and Japanese chat you must have been yourself climbing from daybreak till four in the afternoon. The shortest time in which the ascent has been made is six hours and a half. We, taking it more easily, made no attempt to beat the record, and stopped frequently to bot- anize, geologize, etc. The rarefaction of the air gave our Japanese companion, Takaji San, a slight headache, which soon passed as the circulation became accustomed to the atmosphere; but Captain Ingles and I, being I suppose, both in excellent health and strength, experienced no in- convenience worth mentioning. At half-past four next morning, while I was dreaming under my thick coverings, a hand touched me and a voice said softly : " Danna Sama, hi no de ! " " Master, here is the sun ! " The shoji at my feet were thrown open. I looked out, almost as you might from the moon, over a prodigious abyss of space, beyond which the eastern rim of all the world seemed to be on fire with flaming light. A belt of splendid rose and gold illumined all the horizon, darting long spears of glory into the dark sky overhead, gilding the tops of a thousand hills, scattered over the pur- ple plains below, and casting on the unbroken background of clouds beyond an enormous shadow of Fuji. The spec- ii8 JAPAN tacle was of unparalleled splendour, recalling Lord Tenny- son's line " And, in the East, God made himself an awful Rose of Dawn." Moment by moment it grew more wonderful in loveliness of colour and brilliant birth of day ; and then, suddenly, just when the sun rolled into sight an orb of gleaming gold, flooding the world beneath with almost insufferable radiance a vast mass of dense white clouds swept before the north wind over the view, completely blotting out the sun, the belt of rose and gold, the lighted mountains and plains, and the lower regions of Fuji-San. It was day again, but misty, white, and doubtful ; and when we started to climb the last two stages of the cone the flags of the stations were invisible, and we could not know whether we should find the summit clear, or wrapped in enveloping clouds. All was to be fortunate, however, on this happy day ; and after a hard clambering of the remaining 2,000 feet we planted our staffs victoriously on the level ground of the crater's lip and gazed north, south, east and west through clear and cloudless atmosphere over a prodigious prospect, whose diameter could not be less than 300 miles. It was one of the few days when O-ana-mochi, the Lord of the Great Hole, was wholly propitious ! Behind the long row of little black huts standing on the edge of the mountain, gaped that awful, deadly Cup of the Volcano an immense pit half a mile wide and six or seven hundred feet deep, its FUJI-SAN 119 sides black, yellow, red, white and grey, with the varying hues of the lava and scoria. In one spot where a perpetual shadow lay, from the ridge-peaks of Ken-ga-mine and the Shaka-no-wari-ishi, or " Cleft Rock of Buddha," gleamed a large patch of unmelted snow, and there was dust-covered snow at the bottom of the crater. We skirted part of the crater, passed by the dangerous path which is styled " Oya-shirazu, Ko-shirazu," " The place where you must forget parents and children to take care of yourself; " we saw the issue of the Kim-mei-sai or" Golden famous water," and of the Gim-mei-sai, or "Silver famous water"; and came back to breakfast at our hut silent with the delight and glory, the beauty and terror of the scene. Enormous flocks of fleecy clouds and cloudlets wandered in the lower air, many thousand feet beneath, but nowhere concealed the lakes, peaks, rivers, towns, villages, valleys, seacoasts, islands, and distant provinces spreading out all round. Imagine the prospect obtainable at 13,000 feet of elevation through the silvery air of Japan on a summer's morning with not a cloud, except shifting, thin, and transitory ones, to veil the view ! At the temple with the bell we were duly stamped shirts, sticks, and clothing with the sacred mark of the mountain, and having made the hearts of our faithful and patient ninsoku glad with extra pay, turned our backs on the great extinct volcano, whose crest, glowing again in the morning sunlight, had no longer any secrets for Captain Ingles, or Takaji San, or myself. THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO PIERRE LOTI " He who has not beheld Nikko, has no right to make use of the word splendour." Japanese Proverb. IN the heart of the large island of Nippon and in a mountainous and wooded region, fifty leagues from Yokohama, is hidden that marvel of marvels the necropolis of the Japanese Emperors. There, on the declivity of the Holy Mountain of Nikko, under cover of a dense forest and in the midst of cascades whose roar among the shadows of the cedars never ceases, is a series of enchanting temples, made of bronze and lacquer with roofs of gold which look as if a magic ring must have called them into existence among the ferns and mosses, in the green dampness, over-arched by dark branches and surrounded by the wildness and grandeur of Nature. Within these temples there is an inconceivable magnifi- cence, a fairy-like splendour. Nobody is about, except a few guardian bonzes who chant hymns, and several white- robed priestesses, who perform the sacred dances whilst waving their fans. Every now and then in the deep and echoing forest are heard the slow vibrations of an enormous bronze gong, or the dull, heavy blows on a monstrous 120 '*'#>> ;/& THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 121 prayer-drum. At other times there are certain sounds which really seem to be a part of the silence and solitude, the chirp of the grasshoppers, the cry of the falcons in the air, the cry of the monkeys in the branches and the monotonous fall of the cascades. All this dazzling gold in the mystery of the forest makes these sepulchres unique. This is the Mecca of Japan ; this is the heart, as yet inviolate, of this country which is now gradually sinking in the great Occidental current, but which has had a magnificent Past. Those were strange mystics and very rare artists who, three or four hundred years ago, realized all this magnificence in the depths of the woods and for their dead. We stop before the first temple. It stands a little off to itself in a kind of glade. You approach it by a garden with raised terraces ; a garden with grottos, fountains, and dwarf-trees with violet, yellow, or reddish foliage. The vast temple is entirely red, and blood-red ; an enormous black and gold roof, turned up at the corners, seems to crush it with its weight. From it comes a kind of religious music, soft and slow, interrupted from time to time by a heavy and horrible blow. It is wide open, open so that its entire facade with columns is visible ; but the interior is hidden by an im- mense white velum. The velum is of silk, only ornamented in its entire white length by three or four large black heraldic roses, which are very simple, but I cannot describe their exquisite distinction, and behind this first and half-lifted 122 JAPAN hanging, the light bamboo blinds are let down to the ground. We walk up several granite steps, and, to permit my entrance, my guide pushes aside a corner of the Veil : the sanctuary appears. Within everything is in black lacquer and gold lacquer, with the gold predominating. Above the complicated cornice and golden frieze there springs a ceiling in compartments, in worked lacquer of black and gold. Be- hind the colonnade at the back, the remote part, where, doubtless, the gods are kept, is hidden by long curtains of black and gold brocade, hanging in stiff folds from the ceiling to the floor. On the floor and upon white mats large golden vases are standing filled with great bunches of golden lotuses as tall as trees. And finally from the ceiling, like the bodies of large dead serpents or monstrous boas, hang a quantity of astonishing caterpillars of silk, as large as a human arm, blue, yellow, orange, brownish-red, and black, or strangely variegated like the throats of certain birds of those islands. Some bonzes are singing in one corner, seated in a circle around a prayer-drum, large enough to hold them all. And we go out by the back door, which leads into the most curious garden in the world : it is a square filled with shadows shut in by the forest cedars and high walls, which are red like the sanctuary ; in the centre rises a very large bronze obelisk flanked with four little ones, and crowned with a pyramid of golden leaves and golden bells ; you THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 123 would say that in this country bronze and gold cost noth- ing ; they are used in such profusion, everywhere, just as we use the mean materials of stone and plaster. All along this blood-red wall which forms the back of the temple, in order to animate this melancholy garden, at about the height of a man there is a level row of little wooden gods, of all forms and colours, which are gazing at the obelisk, some blue, others yellow, others green ; some have the shape of a man, others of an elephant : a company of dwarfs, extraordinarily comical, but which produce no merriment. In order to reach the other temples, we again walk through the damp and shadowy woods along the avenues of cedars which ascend and descend and intersect in vari- ous ways, and really constitute the streets of this city of the dead. We walk on pathways of fine sand strewn with these little brown needles which drop from the cedars. Always in terraces, they are bordered with balustrades and pillars of granite covered with the most delicious moss ; you would say all the hand-rails have been garnished with a beautiful green velvet, and at each side of the sanded path- way invariably flow little fresh and limpid brooks which join their crystal notes to those of the distant torrents and cascades. At a height of 100, or 200 metres, we arrive at the en trance of something which seems to indicate magnificence: above us on the mountain in the medley of branches, the 124 JAPAN walls taper upward while roofs of lacquer and bronze with their population of monsters are perched everywhere, shining with gold. Before this entrance there is a kind of open square, a narrow glade where a little sunlight falls. And here in its luminous rays two bonzes in ceremonial costume pass across the dark background : one, in a long robe of violet silk, with a surplice of orange silk ; the other in a robe of pearl-grey with a sky-blue surplice ; both wear a high and rigid head-dress of black lacquer, which is seldom worn now. (These were the only human beings whom we met on the way, during our pilgrimage.) They are probably going to perform some religious office, and, passing before the sumptuous entrance, they make profound bows. This temple before which we are now standing, is that of the deified soul of the Emperor lyeyasu (Sixteenth Century), and, perhaps, the most marvellous of all the buildings of Nikko. You ascend by a series of doors and enclosures which become more and more beautiful as you get higher and nearer the sanctuary, where the soul of this dead Emperor dwells. At the door of the Palace of the Splendour of the Orient we stop to take off our shoes according to custom. Gold is everywhere, resplendent gold. An indescribable ornamentation has been chosen for this threshold ; on the enormous posts are a kind of wavy clouds, or ocean-billows, in the centre of which here and THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 125 there appear the tentacles of medusae, the ends of paws, the claws of crabs, the ends of long caterpillars, flat and scaly ; all kinds of horrible fragments, imitated in colossal size with a striking fidelity, and making you think that the beasts to which they belong must be hidden there within the walls ready to enfold you and tear your flesh. This splendour has mysteriously hostile undercurrents ; we feel that it has many a surprise and menace. Above our heads the lintels are, however, ornamented with large, exquisite flowers in bronze, or gold : roses, peonies, wistaria, and spring branches of full-blown cherry-blossoms ; but, still higher, horrible faces with fixed death's-head grimaces lean towards us ; terrible things of all shapes hang by their golden wings from the golden beams of the roof; we per- ceive in the air rows of mouths split open with atrocious laughter, rows of eyes half-closed in an unquiet sleep. An old priest, aroused by the noise of our footsteps on the gravel in the silence of the court, appears before us on the bronze threshold. In order to examine the permit which I present to him, he puts a pair of round spectacles on his nose, which make him look like an owl. My papers are in order. A bow, and he steps aside to let me enter. It is gloomy inside this palace, with that mysterious semi-twilight which the Spirits delight in. The impressions felt on entering are grandeur and repose. The walls are of gold and the vault is of gold, supported on columns of gold. A vague, trembling light illuminating 126 JAPAN as if from beneath enters through the very much grated and very low windows ; the dark undetermined depths are full of the gleamings of precious things. Yellow gold, red gold, green gold ; gold that is vital, or tarnished ; gold that is brilliant, or lustreless ; here and there on the friezes and on the exquisite capitals of the columns, a little vermilion, a little emerald green ; very little, noth- ing but a thin thread of colour, just enough to relieve the wing of a bird, and the petal of a lotus, a peony, or a rose. Despite so much richness nothing is overcharged ; such taste has been displayed in the arrangement of the thou- sands of diverse forms and such harmony in the extremely complicated designs that the effect of the whole is simple and reposeful. Neither human figures nor idols have a part in this sanc- tuary of Shintoism. Nothing stands upon the altars but large vases of gold filled with natural flowers in sheaves, or gigantic flowers of gold. No idols, but a multitude of beasts flying or crawling, fa- miliar or chimaerical, pursue each other upon the walls, and fly away from the friezes and arches, in all attitudes of fury and struggle of terror and flight. Here, a flight of swans hurries away in swift flight the whole length of the golden cornice ; in other places are butterflies with tortoises ; large and hideous insects among the flowers, or many death- combats between fantastic beasts of the sea, medusae with big eyes, and imaginary fishes. On the ceilings innumera- ble dragons bristle and coil. The windows, cut out in mul- THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 127 tiple trefoils, in a form never before seen, and which give little light, seem only a pretext for displaying all kinds of marvellous piercings : trellises of gold entwined with golden leaves among which golden birds are sporting ; all of this seems accumulated at pleasure and permits the least possi- ble light to enter into the deep golden shadows of the tem- ple. The only really simple objects are the columns of a fine golden lacquer ending with capitals of a very sober design, forming a slight calix of the lotus, like those of cer- tain ancient Egyptian palaces. We could spend days in admiring separately each panel, each pillar, each minute detail ; the least little piece of the vault, or the walls would be a treasure for a museum. And so many rare and extravagant objects have succeeded in making the whole a composition of large quiet lines ; many living forms, many distorted bodies, many ruffled wings, stiff claws, open mouths, and squinting eyes have succeeded in producing a calm, an absolute calm by force of an inexpli- cable harmony, twilight and silence. I believe, moreover, that here is the quintessence of Jap- anese Art, of which the specimens brought to our collec- tions of Europe cannot give the true impression. And we are struck by feeling that this Art, so foreign to us, pro- ceeds from an origin so different; nothing here is derived, ever so remotely, from what we call antiquities Greek, Latin, or Arabian which always influence, even if we are not aware of it, our native ideas regarding ornamental form. Here the least design, the smallest line, everything is as 128 JAPAN profoundly strange as if had come from a neighbouring planet which had never held communication with our side of the world. The entire back of the temple, where it is almost night, is occupied by great doors of black lacquer and gold lacquer, with bolts of carved gold, shutting in a very sacred place which they refuse to show me. They tell me, moreover, that there is nothing in these closets ; but that they are the places where the deified souls of the heroes love to dwell ; the priests only open them on certain occasions to place in them poems in their honour, or prayers wisely written on rice-paper. The two lateral wings on each side of the large golden sanctuary are entirely of marquetry, in prodigious designs composed of the most precious mosaics left in their natural colour. The representations are animals and plants: on the walls light leaves in relief, bamboo, grasses of extreme delicacy, gold convolvulus falling in clusters of flowers, birds of resplendent plumage, peacocks and pheasants with spread tails. There is no painting here, no gold-work ; the whole effect is sombre, the general tone that of dead wood ; but each leaf of each branch is composed of a different piece ; and also each feather of each bird is shaded in such a way as almost to produce the effect of changing colours on the throats and wings. And at last, at last, behind all this magnificence, the most sacred place which they show me last, the most strange of all strange places, is the little mortuary court THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 129 which surrounds the tomb. It is hollowed out of a moun- tain between whose rocky walls water is dripping : the lichens and moss have made a damp carpet here and the tall surrounding cedars throw their dark shadows over it. There is an enclosure of bronze, shut by a bronze door which is inscribed across its centre with an inscription in gold, not in the Japanese language, but in Sanscrit to give more mystery ; a massive, lugubrious, inexorable door, ex- traordinary beyond all expression and which is the ideal door for a sepulchre. In the centre of this enclosure is a kind of round turret also in bronze having the form of a pagoda-bell, of a kneeling beast, of I don't know what un- known and disturbing thing and surmounted by a great astonishing heraldic flower : here, under this singular object rests the body of the little yellow bonhomme, once the Em- peror lyeyasu, for whom all this pomp has been displayed. A little breeze agitates the branches of the cedars this morning and there falls a shower of these little dry brown needles, a little brown rain on the greyish lichens, on the green velvet moss and upon the sinister bronze objects. The voice of the cascades is heard in the distance like perpetual sacred music. An impression of nothingness and supreme peace reigns in this final court to which so much splendour leads. In another quarter of the forest the temple of the deified soul of lyemitsu is of an almost equal magnificence. It is approached by a similar series of steps of little carved and gilded light-towers, doors of bronze and enclosures of 130 JAPAN lacquer ; but the plan of the whole is a little less regular, because the mountain is more broken. A solemn hour on the Holy Mountain is at night-fall, when they close the temples. It is even more lugubri- ous at this autumnal season, when the twilight brings sad thoughts. With heavy rumblings which linger long in the sonorous forest, the great panels of lacquer and bronze are rolled on their grooves and shut in the magnificent build- ings which have been open all day although visited by nobody. A cold and damp shiver passes through the black forest. For fear of fire which might consume these mar- vels, not a single light is allowed in this village of Spirits, where certainly darkness falls sooner and remains longer than anywhere else ; no lamp has ever shone upon these treasures, which, for many centuries have thus slept in darkness in the very heart of Japan; and the cascades in- crease their music while the silence of night enshrouds the forest so rich in enchantment. THE IS& SHRINES ISABELLA BIRD BISHOP THESE temples of Ise, the Geku and the Naiku, called by the Japanese by a name which literally means " the two great divine palaces," rank first among Shinto shrines in point of sanctity, and are to Shintoists, even in the irreligious present, something of what Mecca is to Mussulmans, and the Holy Places of Jerusalem to Greeks and Latins. Tens of thousands of pilgrims still resort to them annually, and though the pilgrimage season is chiefly in the spring months, there is no time of year in which there is an absolute cessation of visitors. The two groups of shrines are distant about three and a half miles from each other. It is sufficient to describe the Geku shrine, which is exactly copied from the Naiku. Both stand in the midst of ancient cryptomeria, each stately tree in Shinto fancy worthy to be a god, but it is the cam- phor groves, the finest in Japan, covering the extensive and broken grounds with their dark magnificence, which so impress a stranger with their unique grandeur as to make him forget the bareness and meanness of the shrines which they overshadow. 132 JAPAN The grand entrance is reached from Yamada by crossing a handsome bridge, which leads to a wide space enclosed by banks faced with stone. On the right is a building occupied by the temple-attendants, where fragments of the wood used in building the shrines, packets of the rice offered to the gods and sundry other charms are offered for sale. Close to this there is a massive Tori-i, the entrance to the temple-grounds, which are of great extent, and contain hills, ravines, groves and streams. Very broad and finely- gravelled roads, with granite margins and standard lamps at intervals, intersect them, and their Tori-t^ stone bridges, stone staircases, and stone-faced embankments, are all on a grand scale and in perfect repair. On the left hand, within the entrance, there are some plain buildings, one of which is occupied by several temple-attendants in white silk vestments, whose business it is to sell the o-barai to all comers. Heavy curtains with the Mikado's crest upon them are draped over the entrances to this and the building at the gate, and may be taken as indicating that Shinto is under " State " patronage. Passing through stately groves by a stately road and under a second massive Tori-i, the visitor reaches the famous Geku shrine, and even in spite of Mr. Satow's realistic description, is stricken with a feeling of disappointment, for he is suddenly brought up by a great oblong enclosure of neatly planed wood, the upright posts, which are just over nine feet high, being planted at distances of six feet, the intervals being completely filled up with closely-fitting and THE IS SHRINES 133 very heavy planking laid horizontally. The only orna- ments are bamboo receptacles on each post, containing sprigs of Cleyera Japonica, changed occasionally. This monotonous-looking enclosure rests on a raised platform of broken stone, supported on a rough stone-faced embank- ment about three feet high. One corner of this is formed by a large, irregularly shaped dark stone, worn perfectly smooth from being constantly rubbed by the hands of per- sons who believe that by rubbing the stone first, and then any painful part of the body, the pain will be cured. The front of this extraordinary enclosure is 247 feet long, the rear 235 feet, one side 339 feet and the other 335 feet. It has five entrances, the principal one eighteen feet wide, facing the road, being formed by a Tori-i. At a distance of twenty-four feet from three of these entrances are high wooden screens, and a similar screen, at a distance of seventy-six feet, hides the main entrance, much in the same way that the great brick screens in Canton conceal the gateways of the private dwellings of the mandarins. Within the entrance Tori-i there is a wooden gateway with a thatched roof, but a curtain with the Mikado's crest con- ceals all view of the interior court. In front of this gate- way the pilgrims make their obeisances and throw down their rin upon a white cloth. The other entrances are closed with solid gates. There is no admission except for the specially privileged, but a good view into the enclosure is gained by climbing a bank upon its west side. Within the thatched gateway there is a pebbled court, on 134 JAPAN the right of which is a long narrow shed, one of three buildings set apart for the entertainment of the envoys sent by the Mikado after the annual harvest festival. In a straight line from the second gateway a flagged pavement, passing under a Tori-i at a distance of ninety-nine feet, reaches another thatched gateway, through which there is a third court, formed by palisades the height of a man, placed close together. Another thatched gateway gives entrance to the last enclosure, an area nearly square, being 134 feet by 131, surrounded by a very stout palisade. Within this stands the shoden, or shrine of the gods, and on the right and left two treasuries. The impression produced by the whole resembles that made upon the minds of those who have made the deepest researches into Shinto there is nothing, and all things, even the stately avenues of the Geku, lead to nothing. In the north-west corner of the area is a plain building containing the gohei wands, with dependent pieces of paper, usually worshipped as gods, but at Ise only believed to have the power of attracting the spirits of the gods to the spot, which was their original meaning. In the north-east cor- ner, within a special enclosure, there is another plain build- ing, in which the water and food offered to the gods of the Geku are set out. The daily offerings to the principal deity consist of sixteen saucers of rice, four saucers of salt, four cups of water, and such fish, birds and vegetables as may be contributed by the surrounding villages, and the three secondary deities receive one-half each. The chief THE ISE SHRINES 135 deity of the Geku is " The Goddess of Food," and of the Naiku, the great " Sun Goddess." Having followed Shinto to its centre at Ise, the bare wooden building, which is the kernel of the Geku en- closure and the Shinto " Holy of Holies," assumes a very special interest, but here, again, there is nothing but disap- pointment, for the shoden only contains four boxes of un- painted wood, furnished with light handles, resting on low stands, and covered with what is said to be white silk. In each box is a mirror wrapped in a brocade bag, which is never renewed, only re-covered. Over one mirror is placed a cage of unpainted wood, which is covered with a curtain of coarse silk, which conceals both cage and box. The three other boxes stand outside this cage, but are also covered, and the coverings are all that can be seen when the shrines are opened on festival days. It is in these mirrors that the spirits of the gods are supposed to dwell. Much ingenious rubbish has been devised to account for the presence of a looking-glass in every Shinto temple ; but the fact is, that the original Ise mirror, of which all the rest are copies, merely represents the great Sun Goddess, the supposed ancestress of the Mikado, and, together with the sword, which constitute the Japanese regalia, found a resting-place at Ise, after many wanderings, in the year 4 B. c. The Geku was founded in the year 478 A. D., and it has been customary from time immemorial to rebuild a temple, alternately on either site, once in twenty years. 136 JAPAN The Ise shrines were unknown to Europeans till 1872, when the Government very liberally gave Mr. Satow and a small party of foreigners the opportunity of visiting them. They are now open to passport holders under certain re- strictions, and are singularly interesting to those who have made either an original or second-hand study of Shinto. THE DAI-BUTSU OF NARA SIR EDWARD REED WE had decided to devote the whole day to Nara, returning the following day, but nevertheless there was no time to lose ; therefore breakfast over, we started on our tour of the temples, guided by ex- perienced officers, and attended by a pleasant set of Japa- nese companions and interpreters. Besides a few European coats upon some of our conductors, there was nothing to break in upon the aspect which this part of the old city had worn for more than a thousand years. On leaving the grounds of our temporary residence, we stepped at once into the shadow of that huge structure the great gate of the Temple of Dai-butsu an immense and imposing pile, containing two colossal carved gate-keepers or kings, of very forbidding aspect and attitude, but who were less hideous than others of the kind. This great gateway was on our left ; on our right, at a distance of three to four hundred yards, was another gateway to the great temple, the broad road between the two gateways having wide grassy spaces on either side, from which spring many ancient and lofty old trees. The space between the two gates is therefore a broad and beautiful promenade for the greater part of the year. Our first visit was to the 137 138 JAPAN famous temple of the great Buddha. As usual in ap- proaches to Japanese temples, there are several shops near to the temple itself. In the centre of the large open space between the lesser gateway and the temple is an immense and very old bronze lantern, large enough for a man to stand in. This lantern was presented to the temple by the renowned hero and statesman Yoritomo, who died in the year 1199, and is seven hundred years old. It is in daily use still. This temple was originally founded and the im- mense image made by the Mikado Shomu, the forty-sixth of the present line of emperors, and the third of Nara who died 748 A. D. This temple was destroyed seven hundred years ago in the terrible civil wars of the Twelfth Century, and again seriously injured, so that the head of the god had to be recast in the Seventeenth Century. The great gate- way, however, with most of the other buildings of this great temple, has escaped such injuries, and although con- structed of wood have stood as they now stand for more than eleven centuries. The interest of this place centres, of course, in the great god of bronze and gold, who (subject to the mischances just mentioned) has been the wonder of Japan for so many ages past. It has been positively stated by some that a consid- erable amount of gold entered into his composition, but those on the spot seem to be uncertain as to whether the gold em- ployed in making him was mixed with the bronze of which he is cast, or applied superficially to him. The dimensions of this god are truly colossal. His THE DAI-BUTSU OF NARA 139 height from the base of the sacred lotus-flower on which he sits to the top of his head is sixty-three and a half feet, and above this rises a halo fourteen feet wide, above which again rises for several feet the flame-like glory which arches in the whole figure. The face proper is sixteen feet long, its width nine and a half feet. The eyes are three feet nine inches long, the eyebrows five and a half feet, the ears eight and a half feet. The chest is twenty feet in depth. Its middle finger is five feet long. Around the head, shoulders, and sides of the god, in front of the halo, are sixteen sitting figures, said to be eight feet long. The leaves of the immense lotus on which he sits are each ten feet long and six feet wide, and there are fifty-six of them. The casting 1 must have been wonderfully well executed, although the fineness of the leaf-edges and other parts which we were able to examine, and the elaborate engraving which can be traced upon the lotus-leaves in the uninjured parts, leave no doubt that the founder's art was elaborately supplemented by the file and graver. The countenance of the god is less mild and calm of expression than is usual in images of Buddha. The right hand is opened and raised upwards, the left rests on the lap. The surroundings of this enormous image are interesting, some of them very beautiful. On his right hand is a very large image of Kokuzo, and on his left one of the goddess 1 This idol was first cast in the year 743. It was twice destroyed dur- ing the time of wars in its neighbourhood, and the idol which at present exists was erected about seven hundred years ago. 140 JAPAN Kwannon, who here seems to occupy a more pronounced and immediate association with Buddha than usual. Our return trip was a delightful one. Up at seven in the morning, we were soon sunning ourselves in the deli- cious brightness and warmth, with a pretty and curious garden before us, and old temples, old woods, and old hills all around us, and a sky above us far older than all of them, and yet wrought of material as unsubstantial and evanes- cent as a dream. Passing once more the grim gate-keepers, away we rolled, merrily through the merry morning, past the old temples and pagodas ; among the staring people ; between the huge lanterns of the portal, and on to the westward- spreading plain over which eleven hundred years ago the imperial sacred city shone. On our right lay large mounds, the tombs of emperors and empresses, each of whom has been a god for ages past. Over their tombs spread clumps of pine-trees, and beneath the pines stand their shrines, to which a people reverent, and with a cause, of their ancestral gods resort to breathe forth their simple prayers. About a mile and a half from the present bound- ary, we reached a village, at which the road turned right and left, and it was to this point that the ancient capital extended. KIOTO PIERRE LOTI WHAT a great city, this Kioto, occupying with its parks, its palaces, its pagodas, almost the territory of Paris. Built entirely on a plain, but surrounded by high mountains as though to appear more mysterious. We hurry on through a labyrinth of small streets of lit- tle wooden houses which are low and discoloured. It has the appearance of a deserted city. This is truly Japanese, and nothing is inharmonious. I alone am odd, since people turn back to look at me. It takes half an hour's frantic hurrying to get to the Hotel Yaami, the address of which I had given to my djin. This is apparently a real hotel, quite new, which a Japanese has set up in the English style, for the accommodation of amiable travellers from the West. It is absolutely necessary that we should go there to obtain something to eat, as the Japanese cuisine serves us at best as a form of amusement. It is charmingly situated, fifty miles up in the mountains over- looking the city, amongst gardens and woods. We made the ascent by means of an extremely dainty ascent, up slopes which are sanded and bordered by rock-work and flowers, all of this too pretty, too much studied, too much 141 142 JAPAN after the design on a Chinese vase, but yet very dainty, very neat. A first light repast, served entirely in the English style, accompanied with tea and bread and butter, and then I call for two djln whom I engage at a fixed wage of seventy- five cents each per diem for this sum they will run around for me from morning until night without so much as getting out of breath or heaving a sigh, dragging me along with them. This travelling by way of djins is a never to be forgotten souvenir of the days in Kioto where we are compelled to hurry to see and do so many things. Hurried along at a gait twice as fast as a horse at the trot, we jump from one rut into another, push through the crowds, cross little creaking bridges, and find ourselves travelling along through deserted gardens. We even mount and descend steps ; so that at each step, bump, bump, bump we are shaken in our seats, breaking the shock with our hands. Finally, at night, we find ourselves dazed, and we see things defiling before us in a hurried kaleidoscopic way, the changing scene of which would tire the eyes. How eccentric, changeable, bizarre is this Kioto ! The streets still noisy, encumbered with djins, with strollers, ven- dors of gaudy posters, of eccentric oriflammes which float in the breeze. At one time, we are hurrying amidst noises and cries ; at another, it is amidst the silence of abandoned things, amidst the debris of a great, dead past. We are in the midst of a KIOTO 143 glittering show of stuffs and porcelains; then again we approach great temples, and only the vendors of idols open up their booths filled with unimaginable figures ; or again, we are surprised by suddenly entering a forest of bamboos whose tops are of great height, close together, frail and gives one the impression of having become an insignificant insect such as crawls through the fine grass of our fields in June. And what an immense religious caphamaum, and what a gigantic sanctuary of adoration, is this Kioto of the ancient Emperors ! Three thousand temples where rest innumer- able riches, consecrated to all kinds of gods, goddesses, or beasts. Palaces empty and silent, where we traverse shoe- less, a series of rooms all in lacquer and gold, decorated in a manner strangely rare and beautiful. Sacred groves con- taining centenarian trees, the avenues of which are bordered with a legion of monsters in granite, marble, or bronze. To see this whole deployed before us from a height, in the gay morning sunshine, at nine o'clock, we ascend a tower, such as did Madame Malborough of days of old ; it is the Yasaka tower; it reminds one of those pagodas with multiple stories, such as one sees on the backs of those bronze elephants in which the Chinese burn incense. The ground floor is arranged as a temple ; large golden Buddhas lost in ancientness and dust, lanterns and sacred vases con- taining bouquets of lotus. On the top story, a Buddha Cabinet in a corner. I open it, to look at the god who inhabits it ; he appears very 144 JAPAN aged and decayed, squatting down in his lotus, with a mys- terious smile under a layer of dust. From this topmost gallery, we see, as though hovering over it, the immense city, spread out like an ant-hill on the level plain, with its fence of tall mountains, whose forests of pine and bamboo are of a lovely green tint. At the first glance, one would almost imagine it to be a European city ; millions of small roofs with sombre grey tiles, which remind us of our Northern cities ; here and there straight thoroughfares, making clear lines in the midst of this blackish mass. In spite of oneself, one looks for churches and belfrys ; but no, nothing of this kind ; on the contrary, a strange and far-away note is given by these high monumental roofs, too large, too strangely shaped, which surge up in the midst of small low houses, and which are either palaces or pagodas. Not a sound reaches me from the old religious capital ; at such a height one would say it were entirely dead. A beautiful soft sun lights it up, and floats over it like a veil, like the light mist of autumn mornings. The temple of Kiyomizu, one of the most beautiful and most venerated. It is, according to custom, perched somewhat up in the mountains, surrounded by the beauti- ful verdure of the woods. The roads by which we ascend are pretty well deserted. The approaches are occupied es- pecially by porcelain vendors, their varied stock glistening with varnish and gilt. No one is in the booths, no one is KIOTO 145 outside to inspect them. These streets are only frequented on certain days of pilgrimage or holidays; to-day it resem- bles a large exposition devoid of visitors. As we approach, always ascending, the vendors of porce- lains give place to vendors of idols, a stranger kind of ware. Thousands of figures of gods and monsters, sinister, mock- ing, or grotesque ; some are enormous and others very old, having escaped from old demolished temples, and which are very costly ; there are especially an innumerable quantity in clay and in plaster, standing on the pavement at a cent apiece, or even less, altogether humorous and comical, for the use of little children. Where does the god begin and the plaything end ? Do the Japanese themselves know ? The steps follow one another really too rapidly, and I descend to the ground, in spite of my djin assuring me that it does not matter, that this street can be quite easily as- cended on wheels. At last, here is a real stairway in gran- ite, monumental, at the top of which stands the first mon- strous portal of the temple. At first we enter into large courts and terraces from which the view extends over the holy city ; ancient trees spread their branches over a pell-mell mass of tombs, monsters, religious kiosks, and garlanded tea-booths. Little second- ary temples, filled with idols, are planted at hazard, here and there. And the two large ones appear at the other end, crowding everything else with their enormous roofs. A miraculous water, which people come from long dis- tances to drink, comes limpid and fresh from the moun- 146 JAPAN tain, vomited into a basin by a chimaera in bronze, bristling, clawing, enraged, doubles up on itself as though ready to make a spring. In these large temples at the further end, one is seized on entering by an unexpected sentiment of horror of things religious : the gods appear recoiling, which is increased by the profoundness of the obscurity. A number of barriers prevents the profanation of the region which they inhabit and in which burn lamps with their light subdued. They are seen seated on benches, in chairs on thrones of gold. Buddhas, Amidas, Kwannons, Bentens, a pell- mell of symbols and emblems, including the mirrors of the Shinto cult which are representative of truth ; all this gives the idea of a horrible chaos of Japanese theogony. Before them are heaped up unheard of riches ; gigantic perfume- burners of antique design ; marvellous lamp-holders ; sacred vases from which protrude sheaves of lotus in silver or gold. From the arch of the temple hang a profusion of embroid- ered banners, lanterns, enormous chandeliers of copper and bronze, crowded together as almost to touch, this in an ex- travagant confusion. But time has shed over these things a slightly grey tint, like that of a badger, which is softening, to harmonize them all. The massive columns with bases of bronze are worn away to the height of a human body by the contact of past generations who came to their prayers ; the whole breathes of a far-away spirit of past epochs. Groups of men and women defile past the idols in bare feet, with an inattentive and light air; they however recite KIOTO 147 prayers, clapping their hands so as to attract the attention of the spirits ; they then seat themselves under the tents of the vendors of tea, to smoke and to laugh. The second temple is in appearance like the first ; the same heaping up of precious objects ; only it has the peculiarity of being constructed as a projection, suspended over a precipice; these are prodigious piles which for centuries have sustained it in the air (/'. *>., in position). On entering, one does not realize it, but on arriving at the end, at the veranda at the back part, one leans over with surprise to plunge the eyes into an abyss of verdure which one overhangs ; forests of bamboos, of a delicious freshness and seen from overhead in a fading foreshortening. One is here as though on the balcony of some gigantic ae'rian dwelling. From below, arise sounds of most merry plashing of water and bursts of laughter. There are five miraculous sources, having the power of rendering young married women mothers, and a group of women are installed beneath the shade drinking the same. This wood com- posed entirely of Japanese bamboos is singularly beautiful. Seen as it is from above, it appears like a series of immense plumes regular and parallel, tinted with the same five shaded green colour which becomes clearer towards the tops ; and the whole is so light, that at each breath of air they wave and tremble. And these women down below in this well of verdure, appear like little Japanese fairies with their gowns of startling colours fantastically com- 148 JAPAN bined, with their high head-dress traversed by pins and flowers. These new things are refreshing to gaze upon after all those terrible gods which one sees under the lights of lamps, and which one sees continually before one, be- hind one, aligned in those obscure sanctuaries. At the Hotel Yaami, the meals are arranged after a manner truly Britannic: small pieces of bread; underdone roast meats and boiled potatoes. In this hotel I experienced a truly agreeable moment. It is after the mid-day dinner when I sit alone on the veranda from which one overlooks the city, smoking a cigarette in a sort of half-doze of the spirit. On the first level is the garden, with its labyrinths in miniature, its very small rock-work, its miniature lake, its dwarfed trees, some of which have leaves, other flowers only, just like the scenery on porcelain. Over and above these pretty things, in the Japanese fashion, there is deployed in the distance the city with its thousands of black roofs, its palaces, its temples, and its belt of bluish mountains. There is always the light white mist of autumn floating in the air, and the warm sun, lighting up everything with its pure light. And the country is entirely filled with the everlasting music of the grasshoppers. Mr. Yaami, I beg you to order my djin at once and let us away to the palace of Taiko-Sama ! THE MIKADO'S PALACE PIERRE LOTI AN enclosure of high walls. My djin stop in front of a first gateway in the ancient severe and religious style : massive columns with bases of bronze ; a narrow frieze sculptured with strange orna- ments ; and a heavy and enormous roof. Then I walked into the vast deserted court-yards planted with venerable trees, to the branches of which they have given props, like crutches for old men. The immense buildings of the palace first appeared to me in a kind of disorder where you can discern no plan of unity. Everywhere you see these high, monumental, and heavy roofs, whose corners turn up in Chinese curves and bristle with black ornaments. Not seeing any one, I walked on at random, entering into the silence of an incomprehensible Past, in the dead splendour of a civilization, whose architecture, design, and aesthetic taste were to me strange and unknown. A bonze guard who saw me, advanced, and, making a bow, asked me for my name and passport. It was satisfactory : he will take me himself to see the entire palace on condition that I will take off my shoes and remove my hat. He even brings me velvet sandals which 149 150 JAPAN are offered to visitors. Thanks, I prefer to walk with bare feet like him, and we begin our silent walk through an in- terminable series of halls all lacquered in gold, and deco- rated with a rare and exquisite strangeness. On the floor there is that eternal white matting that one finds just as simple, as well kept and as neat in the homes of the emperors and in the temples, as among the middle classes and the poor. No furniture; for this is unknown in Japan, or slightly known at most ; the palace is entirely empty. All the surprising magnificence is upon the walls and ceilings. The precious golden lacquer is displayed uniformly on all sides, and upon this background, Byzan- tine in effect, all the celebrated artists of the great Japanese century have painted inimitable objects. Each hall has been decorated by a different and illustrious painter, whose name the bonze cited to me with respect. In one there are all the known flowers ; in another, all the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field ; or perhaps hunting- scenes and combats, where you see warriors dressed in armour and terrifying helmets, on horseback pursuing monsters and chimaeras. The most peculiar one, assuredly, is decorated entirely with fans : fans of all forms and of all colours, open, shut, and half open, thrown with extreme grace upon the fine golden lacquer. The ceilings, also of golden lacquer are in compartments, painted with the same care and the same art. What is, perhaps, the most marvellous of all, is that series of high pierced friezes that extends around all the ceilings ; you think of generations of patient THE MIKADO'S PALACE 151 workmen who have worn themselves out in chiselling such delicate, almost transparent things, in such thicknesses of wood : sometimes there are rose-bushes, sometimes entanglements of wistaria, or sheaves of rice ; elsewhere flights of storks that seem to cleave the air with great ve- locity, forming with their thousands of claws, extended necks, and feathers, a medley so beautifully combined that it is alive and scurrying away ; nothing lags behind, nor falls into confusion. In this palace, which is windowless, it is dusky ; a half- carkness favourable to enchantments. The greater number of these halls receive a shimmering light from the outside verandas, composed only of lacquered columns, to which they are entirely open on one side ; it is the subdued light of deep sheds, or of markets. The more mysterious interior apartments open on the first by other similar columns, and receive from it a still more attenuated light ; they can be shut at will by bamboo curtains of an extreme delicacy, whose tissue imitates in its transparency the form of a wave, and which are raised to the ceiling by enormous tassels of red silk. Communication is had by species of doorways, the forms of which are unusual and unthought-of : sometimes they are perfect circles and some- times they are more complicated figures, such as hexagons or stars. And all these secondary openings have frame- works of black lacquer which stand out with an elegant distinction upon the general background of the gold, and which bear upon the corners ornaments of bronze 152 JAPAN marvellously chiselled by the metal-workers of the past. The centuries also have embellished this palace, veiling a little the glitter of the objects by blending all these har- monies of gold in a kind of very gentle shadow ; in its silence and solitude one might call it the enchanted dwelling of some Sleeping Beauty^ of a princess of an un- known world, or of a planet that could not be our own. We pass before some little interior gardens, which are, according to the Japanese custom, miniature reductions of very wild places, unlooked-for contrasts in the centre of this golden palace. There also time has passed, throwing its emerald upon the little rocks, the tiny lakes, and the small abysses; exhausting the little mountains, and giving an appearance of reality to all that is minute and artificial. The trees, dwarfed by I do not know what Japanese process, have not grown larger; but they have taken on an air of extreme old age. The cycas have acquired many branches, because of their hundreds of years ; one would call the little palms of multiple trunks, antidiluvian plants ; or rather massive black candelabra, whose every arm carries at its extremity a fresh bouquet of green plumes. What also surprises us is the special apartment chosen by this Taiko-Sama, who was both a great conqueror and a great emperor. It is very small and very simple, and looks upon the tiniest, and the most artificial of the little gardens. The Reception Hall, which they showed me last of all, is the largest and the most magnificent. It is about fifty THE MIKADO'S PALACE 153 metres long, and, naturally, all in golden lacquer, with a high and marvellous frieze. No furniture ; nothing but the stages of lacquer upon which the handsome lords on arriv- ing placed their arms. At the back, behind a colonnade, the platform, where Tai'ko-Sama held his audiences at the period of our Henri IV. Then it is that one dreams of these receptions, of these entrances of brilliant noblemen, whose helmets are surmounted by horns, snouts and grotesque figures; and all the unheard-of ceremonial of this court. One may dream of all this, but he will not clearly see it revive. Not only is the period too remote, but it is too far away in grade among the races of the earth ; it is too far outside of our conceptions and the notions that we have inherited regarding these things. It is the same in the old temples of this country ; we look at them without un- derstanding; the symbols escape us. Between Japan and ourselves the difference of origin has made a deep abyss. " We shall cross another hall," the bonze said to me, "and then a series of passages that will lead us to the temple of the palace." In this last hall there are some people, which is a sur- prise, as all the former ones were empty ; but silence dwells there just the same. The men squatting all around the walls seem very busy writing ; they are priests copying prayers with tiny pencils on rice-paper to sell to the people. Here, upon the golden background of the walls, all the paintings represent royal tigers, a little larger than their nat- ural size, in all attitudes of fury, of watching, of the hunt, 154 JAPAN of prowling, or of sleep. Above these motionless bonzes they lift their great heads, so expressive and wicked, show ing their sharp teeth. My guide bowed on entering. As I am among the most polite people in the world, 1 feel obliged to bow also. Then the reverence that was accorded to me passes all along the hall, and we go through. Passages obstructed with manuscripts and bales of prayers are passed, and we are in the temple. It is, as I expected, of great magnificence. Walls, ceilings, columns, all is in golden lacquer, the high frieze representing leaves and bunches of enormous peonies, very full blown and sculp- tured with so much skill that they seem ready to drop their leaves at the least breath to fall in a golden shower upon the floor. Behind a colonnade, in the darkest place, are the idols and emblems, in the midst of all the rich collection of sacred vases, incense-burners, and torch-bearers. Just now it is the hour of Buddhist service. In one of the courts, a gong, with the deep tones of a double-bass, begins to ring with extreme deliberation. Some bonzes in robes of black gauze with green surplices make a ritualistic entrance, the passes of which are very complicated, and then they go and kneel in the centre of the sanctuary. There are very few of the faithful ; scarcely two or three groups, which seem lost in this great temple. There are some women lying on the matting, having brought their little smoking-boxes and their little pipes ; they are talking in very low voices and smothering the desire to laugh. THE MIKADO'S PALACE 155 However, the gong begins to sound more rapidly and the priests to make low bows to their gods. It sounds still faster, and the bonzes quicken their bows, while the priests prostrate themselves upon their faces. Then, in the mystic regions something happens that re- minds me very much of the elevation of the host in the Ro- man cult. Outside the gong, as if exasperated, sounds with rapid strokes, uninterruptedly and frantically. I believe that I have seen everything now in this palace; but I still do not understand the disposition of the halls, the plan of the whole. If alone, I should soon become lost in it, as if in a labyrinth. Happily, my guide comes to take me out, after having put my shoes on me himself. Across new halls of silence, passing by an old and gigantic tree, which has miraculous properties, it seems, having for several centuries protected this palace from fire, he conducted me through the same gate by which I had entered and where my djin are waiting for me. THE INLAND SEA AIME HUMBERT THE Inland Sea of Japan is bounded by the southern coasts of Nippon, and the northern coasts of Kiu- shiu and Shi-koku. It is, however, more like a canal than a real Mediterranean Sea, being a communication established at the height of the thirty-fourth degree of north latitude, between the Chinese Sea, or more strictly, of the Strait of Korea on the western coast of Japan, and the great ocean which washes the southern and eastern shores of the same archipelago. The whole of the Japanese Mediterra- nean is sometimes known as the Sea of Souwo. The Japanese Mediterranean, like the European sea so called, is divided into several basins. They are five in number, and are named from the most important of the provinces which overlook them, so that the Inland Sea bears five different names throughout its longitudinal course from west to east. In the midst of the natural wealth which surrounds them, the large, industrious, and intelligent population of the country parts of Japan have for their entire possessions only a humble shed, a few working implements, some pieces of cotton cloth, a few mats, a cloak of straw, a little store of tea, oil, rice, and salt ; for furniture, nothing but two or 156 THE INLAND SEA 157 three cooking utensils ; in a word, only the strict necessaries of existence. The uniformity of the rustic dwellings is broken by temples, but they are to be distinguished at a dis- tance only by the vast dimensions of their roofs, and by the imposing effect of the ancient trees which are almost always to be found in their vicinity. On entering the basin of Hiogo, we came in sight of a town of some importance, on the coast of Shi-koku ; it is called Imabari. A vast sandy beach, which is rarely to be found in Japan, stretched back to a kind of suburb, in which we could discern a busy concourse of people, apparently car- rying on a market business. Above the strand were fertile plains, whose undulating lines were lost in the mist at the foot of a chain of mountains bathed in sunshine. The prin- cipal peaks of this chain Kori-yama, Yafatzowsen, and Siro Yama are from 1,000 to 1,600 yards in height. We anchored in a bay of the island of Souyousima, at the southern point of the province of Bitsiou, and at the entrance of the basin of Arima. We were surrounded by mountains, at whose feet twinkled many lights shining in from houses. The stillness was unbroken save by the dis- tant barking of dogs. Next morning, April 24, very early, we were ploughing the peaceful waters of the Arimanado. This basin is completely closed on the east by a single island, which divides it from the Idsouminada by a length of thirty miles. It is in the form of a triangle, whose apex, turned towards the north, faces the province of Arima, on the island of Nippon. This is the beautiful island of 158 JAPAN Awaji, which was the dwelling-place of the gods and the cradle of the national mythology of the Japanese. The lowlands at the southern extremity are covered with a lux- uriant vegetation, and the soil rises gently into cultivated or wooded hills until they touch the boundaries of a chain of mountains from 300 to 700 yards in height. The greater number of the steamers which cross the Japa- nese Mediterranean from west to east, pass from the basin of Arima into that of Idsoumi, where they generally touch at the important commercial town of Hiogo; and from thence they enter the great ocean by the Strait of Linschoten. That passage of Naruto which leads directly from the basin of Arima into the great ocean is shorter than the former ; it is, however, much less frequented, because it is consid- ered a dangerous channel for high-decked vessels. We saw the coasts drawing nearer and nearer to us, as we descended, towards the south-west corner of this tri- angular piece of land. At the same time a promontory of the island of Shi-koku rose above the horizon on our right, and seemed to stretch continuously onward in the direction of Awaji. Very soon we found ourselves in a passage from whence we could distinctly see the beautiful vegeta- tion of the coast of Shi-koku and the coast of Awadsi. At length we saw the gates of the Strait ; on the left, rocks surmounted by pines, forming the front of the island of Awaji ; on the right, a solitary rock, or islet, also bearing a few pines, forming the front of the island of Shi-koku. Between them the sea, like a bar of breakers, though the THE INLAND SEA 159 weather was calm : afar, the undulating ocean, without a speck of foam ; the tossing of the waves in the passage be- ing solely the result of the violence of the current. All around us, on the waves and at the foot of the rocks, were thousands of sea-birds, screaming, fluttering, and diving for the prey which the sea, stirred to its depths by the current, was perpetually tossing up to them. Several fishing-boats were out, not on the canal that would have been impos- sible but behind the rocks, in the creeks of the little soli- tary islet and of Shi-koku. Below Awaji, the united waters of the two straits of Naruto and Linschoten form the canal of Kino, which washes the shores of the province of Awa, on Shi-koku, and of the province of Kisou on Nippon. We sailed for some time yet in sight of the latter ; then the land disappeared from our eyes, and we soon perceived, by the wide rolling motion of the waves, that we were on the outer sea, in the immense domain of the great ocean. I occupied myself, during the whole evening, in recalling the recollections of my journey ; and I could find nothing out of Switzerland to compare with the effect of the beau- tiful Japanese scenery. Since then, several Japanese, travelling in Switzerland, have told me that no other coun- try awakened so vividly the remembrance of their own. Still more frequently I transported myself in fancy to one or other of the archipelagoes of the Souwanda, earnestly desir- ing the advent of that hour when the breath of liberty will give them, in the Far East, the importance which formerly 160 JAPAN belonged, in Europe, to the Archipelago of our Mediterra nean. They cannot be blended into a general impression. Nothing is less uniform than the scenery of the shores of the Inland Sea. It is a series of pictures which vary infi- nitely, according to the greater or less proximity of the coasts, or to the aspect of the islands on the horizon. There are grand marine scenes, where the lines of the sea blend with sandy beaches sleeping under the golden rays of the sun ; while in the distance, the misty mountains form a dim background. There are little landscapes, very clear, trim, and modest : a village at the back of a peaceful bay, surrounded by green fields, over which towers a forest of pines ; just as one may see by a lake in the Jura on a fine morning in June. Sometimes, when the basins contracted, and the islands in front seemed to shut us in, I remembered the Rhine above Boppart. The Japanese scenery is, however, more calm and bright than the romantic landscapes to which I allude. The abrupt slopes, the great masses of shade, the shifting lines, are replaced by horizontal levels; by a beach, a port, and terraces ; in the distance are rounded islands, sloping hills, conical mountains. These pictures have their charms : the imagination, no less than the eye, rests in the contemplation of them ; but it would seek in vain that melancholy attraction which, according to the notions of European taste, seems inseparable from the enjoyment. On the night of April 24, after having doubled the THE INLAND SEA 161 southern point of the great island of Nippon, /. *., the prom- ontory of Idsoumo, situated at the southern extremity of the principality of Kisou, we sailed, during the whole day on the 25th, with the current which the Japanese call Kouro-Siwo, which runs from south-west to north-east, at the rate of from thirty-five to forty miles a day. It is a current of hot-water, whose maximum temperature is thirty degrees Centigrade. The weather was fine, and the sea a shining emerald- green. I passed many hours on the poop, in stillness and vague contemplation. For the first time I enjoyed the pleasure of sailing. The silence which reigned on board added to the majestic effect of the ship, laden up to the summit of her masts with her triple wings of white. It was as though the fires had been extinguished, and the noise of the engines hushed, that we might present our- selves more respectfully at the gates of the residence of the Tycoons. But when night fell, the fires were lighted again, in case of accident ; for the land-winds frequently cause much trouble to the ships in the Gulf of Yedo. On the 26th, at daybreak, we came within sight of six small mountainous islands, which looked like signals set up at the entrance of this vast arm of the sea. The sun rose, and presented, amid the salt sea mists of the horizon, that image of a scarlet globe which forms the national arms of Japan. His earliest rays lighted up Cape Idsou, on the mainland of Nippon, whilst in the East we beheld the smoke of the two craters of the island of Oho- if)2 JAPAN sima. At the head of a bay in the promontory of Idsou is situated the town of Simoda, the first, but the least impor- tant of the commercial places to which we come when sail- ing up the Gulf of Yedo. The Americans obtained an authorization to found an establishment there in 1854. Some time afterwards the harbour of Simoda was destroyed by an earthquake, and no mention was made of that place in the treaties of 1858. A number of fishing-boats are to be seen on the coast, and several thousand three-masted vessels are going to the mainland of Nippon and the surrounding islands. The scene is full of life and sparkling with brilliant and har- monious colour ; the wide sky is a splendid azure ; the pale green sea has no longer the sombre hues of the great deeps, but shines with the limpid brightness which char- acterizes it upon the rocky coasts of Japan. The isles are decked in the brilliant foliage of the spring ; the harsh brown of the rocks is streaked with shades of ochre ; and the white sails of the native barques, the snow-crests of Myakesima, and the smoke from the craters of Ohosima, complete the beautiful marine scene. Having reached the " Bay of the Mississippi," we made out, for the first time, the summit of Fusiyama, the " Matchless Mountain," an extinct volcano nearly 13,000 feet above the level of the sea. It is fifty nautical miles from the coast, on the west of the bay, and except for the chain of the Akoni hills at the base, completely isolated. The effect of this immense solitary pyramid, covered with THE INLAND SEA 163 eternal snow, surpasses description. It lends inexpressible solemnity to the scenery of the Bay of Yedo, already more sombre than that of the gulf, by reason of the closer prox- imity of the shores, the somewhat sandy hue of the sea- water, and the immense quantity of cedars, pines, and other dark-foliaged trees which crown the crests of all the hills along the coast. At length we double Point Treaty, a picturesque prom- ontory where the convention between Commodore Perry and the Commissioners of the Tycoon was signed ; and all of a sudden, behind this promontory, we see the quays and the city of Yokohama stretching along a marshy beach, bounded on the south and west by a ring of wooded hills. A score of ships of war and merchant vessels, English, Dutch, French, and American, are lying out in the roads, almost opposite the " foreign quarter," which may be easily recognized by its white houses and its consular flags. Native junks are lying at anchor at some distance from the jetties of the port and the storehouses of the Custom House. We pass by these slowly, and steam at half speed in front of the Japanese city, in which all the houses, ex- cept a certain number of shops, are built of wood, and seem to have only one story above the ground floor. When we had come opposite to the Benten quarter, situ- ated at the extremity of the beach of Yokohama, and at the mouth of a wide river, our corvette anchored, near the Dutch Legation, which was at that time (1874), the only European residence in that part of Yokohama. IMPRESSIONS OF KOB& ANDRE BELLESSORT WE were at Kobe, and our djins took us to the Cascades, one of the most popular promenades in the city. They set us down in front of a tea-house where two courteous Japanese, whose easy ways showed that they were used to Europeans, hastened to meet us with a smile upon their lips, and saluting us with a " Good-morning ! " invited us to refresh ourselves and ex- hibited no ill-humour when we refused. The sky had clouded over. We followed the windings of a path that crept up under the red maples and dark pines. As we as- cended, I listened to catch the fall of running water. One could hardly be hindered from hearing it, since there were no other cascades except a brook that rippled over sloping rocks. But our most able contrivers of picturesque spots could not have done anything more with this silent little gorge. Here everything contributed to delight the stroller and distract his steps. Two wooden restaurants with their galleries faced the little cascade and the second was reached only by passing through the first. The low tables, covered with matting and red material served at will as seats and platforms. Grated niches, in which gods puffed out their cheeks like infants gorged with milk, sanctified the land- 164 IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 165 scape. Their white streamers fluttered among the verdure, and their half twilight was starred with pale glowing wicks. The path did not run blindly along. Its windings, for every one of which there was a reason, brought into view in succession an old twisted trunk, extravagant roots, a space of sky framed by green branchings, and the course of the ravine between two clumps of trees. At the most pleasing spots, curiosity and souvenir shops displayed their assortment of canes, pen-holders, goblets, paper-weights and photographs. Five thousand leagues from Europe, I found the little Chamounix tradesmen and their trashy shell boxes. Are then the Japanese the Swiss of the Far East ? And among so many officers and engineers sent to our schools, may they not have sent colporters and inn- keepers to our watering-places and warm springs in order to learn there how at the same time to exploit the tourist and engineer Nature ? On this desert road in this dead season, we met only one Japanese family, composed of two old people and a young woman whose child was trying its first steps. The grand- mother whose eyebrows were shaved off and teeth black- ened, and the grandfather, whose leanness, angular and shrivelled face and neck afflicted with a nascent goitre, of- fered a vague resemblance to the marabou-stork, were squatting in the middle of the road holding out their arms to the motley mite that tottered towards them protected by his mother's extended sleeves like two great drooping wings. The young woman, rosy and chubby, made the hill that i66 JAPAN winter had abandoned echo with that laughter of trium- phant joy with which maternal lips wake the echoes in the four quarters of the globe. Just as the exotic flavour of this picture gave its ancient legend only a slight tinge of novelty, so Nature in Japan did not appear to me as an unpublished work of the Creator. She is pretty, hospitable, and happy in her mountains bathed in a subtle light that gives value to the distances. When necessary, she knows how to enhance her coquetry, with a Savoyard negligence. Sometimes her hair falls over her eyes, but she smiles through it. Perhaps I should re- proach her with some monotony in the unforeseen, some preparation in her surprises. She has too often been told that she is adorable ; she has been feted too much ; she has been too often taught the value of the odd little things of fancy that she produces, and of which ordinarily she does not show herself so careful. And it is in ransom of so much grace that, particularly when we want to celebrate her, we forget her maternal sweetness in order to retain nothing but her artistic virtuosity. What did I think of the Japanese towns and their in- habitants ? Invisible interviewer, listen tome: the towns are frightful and their inhabitants mock at our aesthetics. The luminous beauty of the roadsteads, their amphitheatre of hills dotted with chalets and temples, the truncated pyra- mid of Mount Fuji which lifts high into the sky its distant and sacred snow, those perspectives which winter scarcely discolours and does not wither render only more unbearable IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 167 the jumble of smutty huts that is presented to our sight by a Japanese town. I shall long remember my entry into Kobe. The streets of the European concession, deserted and dewy in the cold dawn had the tranquil physiognomy of provincial streets. The consulate flags floated over this Western sub-prefec- ture. Little by little, from the native quarter, a noise reached us and increased, a noise of wooden shoes ham- mering the hardened ground. This town, in which we were commencing our wanderings and which extended farther than the eye could see, produced the effect of an agglomeration of rather miserable villages bordering uneven and rutty roads. The very low houses, generally latticed and set upon the ground, resembled human habitations less than poultry-yards and rabbit-hutches. Their roofs of planks or tiles have superimposed projections, and each is surrounded or prolonged by tiny dependencies that look like hen-houses, so that, to form an idea of a Japanese street, a rising street seen from above or below, it would be almost sufficient to imagine a bad road on each side of which pack- ing cases of all sizes had been allowed to roll over one an- other. Most of the shops are kept by women. But care in the display hardly corresponds to the importance of the merchandise. The most vulgar trifle is prominently pre- sented, while the art objects and rich stuffs hide themselves and flee from the light of day. Around us, kurumayas, clothed in blue drawers and an open blouse on which big geometrical designs are traced 168 JAPAN in white, some wearing a Russian cap and others Annamite hats, seated between the shafts of their cart chillily wrap themselves in the red covering with which they swathe the traveller's feet. I should have taken them for moujiks but for being shod with straw sandals and their head-shields re- calling to mind the tropical sun. Men passed by perched on their getas, almost all wearing the kimono. They had the yellow tint and simian faces. Their teeth, half gum- less and irregular, furnished complicated and threatening mouths. The Cingalese jaw, pre-eminent as it is, does not attain this terrible relief. This type of man does not sensibly differ from that of the Tagals and Annamites. But, my eyes being already accustomed to the delicate con- formation of the Malay race, I was not struck with their small size. At first, the women, who were very numerous, discon- certed the ideas I had formed of them. Their costume approached that of the men. They walked with a springy little trot, with bent body, stretched neck, legs turned in and loins arched by a sort of cushion where the girdle is tied. Covered with baori, one might think they were trav- elling with their litter on their back. Slightly round- shouldered and knock-kneed, these young hags wear heads of hair smeared with a brilliant varnish, stuck through or bristling with tortoise-shell pins which make them look like casques of black lacquer. Their eyes, weighed down by puffy lids are pressed towards the temples. Their nose and mouth are often pressed in between their rounded and ruddy IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 169 cheeks. Their infants, baled upon their backs, look over their shoulders or turn their little jolting heads back to- wards the sky. All of them, men and women, struck by the fresh morning air, shrugged their shoulders and shel- tered their arms in the width of their ample sleeves which hung wide open. It was a city inhabited by a nation of penguins. In the afternoon, our guides took us to see a Shintoist temple. You arrive there under alleys of porticos or fixed bars, the transverse bar of which curves slightly like a ship's prow, and amid rows of wooden, stone, or bronze lanterns set on tall stands. The abode of the Japanese gods, of an Arcadian simplicity, consists of two almost square pavilions, erected one behind the other and con- nected by a foot bridge. Their roofs, made of little laths which, strongly pressed together imitate thatch, rest an enormous weight on their polished column. The altar, devoid of painting or gilding, exposes to the eyes of the faithful no other emblems of the divinity than a clouded mirror and some bamboo stalks from which zigzags of paper lacework fall symmetrically. Before the altar, a bell suspended from the edge of the roof with swinging rope warns the god that he is wanted on earth. Women come, ring, bow their heads, clap their hands, mumble a short prayer and go away. The outside air and birds penetrate these sacred kiosks from every side, and the surrounding gardens are dotted with lanterns and large tabernacles. Several shells set on granite columns and four cannons ijo JAPAN fixed at the four corners of the first pavilion, trophies of the last war, assume an aspect of inoffensive old rubbish in this rustic decoration. And under a little wooden pent- house among the lanterns, a bronze cow lying down with heavy udders, notwithstanding its relation with the Egyp- tian divinities, had nothing imposing nor hieratic in it, but simply looked like a good peaceable cow that was not in the least symbolic. Porticos, lanterns, pavilions, sanctuaries, everything pre- sented to us the image of a religion without either mystery or terror, passion or voluptuousness, but one rudimentary, rural, impregnated with ingenuous naturalism, capable of contenting the warriors of ancient days as well as labourers and lovers. I suspect, however, that beneath the simplicity of the external worship there are esoteric secrets, so that those sticks ornamented with streamers and that mirror did not pique my curiosity more than some attributes of som- nambulism did. The crowd spread around the temple and found its cus- tomary diversions there. Acrobats were beating the tam- bourine in front of a booth. Shops that sold cakes and candies, and the little bazaars " at fixed prices " deafened the customers with the noise of bells and clappers ; and modern inventions, even science, recruited circles of gravely astonished loungers. I saw some with phonographic trump- ets at their ears but their faces remained as imperturbable and their eyes as sad as if they had not heard anything. One charlatan had on exhibition on his table a skull, two IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 171 skeletons, anatomical casts, the intestines of which showed tumors painted in green, three stomachs containing tape- worms, and in the midst of this horrifying display a pile of pamphlets and a pyramid of little pill-boxes. He talked with dizzying volubility and with his stick alternately struck a stomach or a cast and pointed at the body of one of his numerous auditors. The good people nodded their heads, but it seemed to me that they were more impressed with the eloquence of the speaker than convinced of the advan- tages of his drugs. A few steps farther on, mountebanks with robes and sleeves turned up were juggling with sabres, those beautiful sabres that were the honour and ferocity of Japan, and which these knaves had tamed to the point of interrupting their jugglery to swallow them in the most natural way imaginable. And I said to myself: " Is this the eccentric land which has been the joy of lovers of oddity and whose porcelain has told us such fabulous stories ? It was dinned into my ears that nothing happened, here as elsewhere, and every- thing I see warns me of my delusion. The men are ugly, the women ridiculously garbed, but their way of amusing themselves does not differ from ours in the least." So, more simple perhaps in my disenchantment than others in their amiable craze, I committed innocent sacri- lege towards Japan ! MIYANOSHITA SIR EDWIN ARNOLD ABOUT fifty miles away from Yokohama, along the sea-shore, and then by a sharp turn into the high- lands which are grouped around Fuji-San, lies embosomed the lovely and salubrious Japanese health re- sort, whence I am writing this. Fifteen hundred feet above the Pacific and the hot plains, we have escaped hither, for a time, shunning the now somewhat sultry weather of the capital and its ubiquitous mosquitoes, which are more bloodthirsty and importunate in Tokio than anywhere. The Ka, bred in the rice-fields and ditches of Nippon, is truly a most relentless and insatiable little pest, against which natives and foreigners equally defend themselves with kaya or nets of green muslin, made either large enough to cover a European four-poster, or small enough to place over a sleeping baby. At this season of the year you may indeed see hundreds of tiny brown Japanese infants sleep- ing, stark naked, beneath what looks like a green meat-safe, where the flies and mosquitoes cannot get at them. Not only the babies, moreover, but their fathers, mothers, " sis- ters, cousins, and aunts," and the Japanese world in general, largely discard clothing as the July heats come on ; and, in the country especially, one sees at this time moreot 172 MIYANOSHITA 173 the people in a very literal sense than during the cooler weather. One result is to disclose the really splendid il- lustrations with which a great many of the men are adorned by the tattooer. Thejinribi-sba pullers in particular are oft- times gorgeously pictorial from nape to heel, and you may study for an hour the volutes, arabesques, flowers, gods, dragons, and poetical inscriptions on the back of your coolie as you bowl along, without exhausting the wealth of design and colouring upon the saffron surface of his skin. The journey hither from Yokohama leads by railway through interminable rice-fields lying between the hills and the sea, all the spare patches now " green as grass " with the sprouting roots of the ine. Last year Inare, the deity of the rice plant gave Japan a bad harvest, and the poor are greatly suffering in consequence. But this year all looks well for a bumper crop, and the purple and silver of the iris and lily-clumps everywhere at present blossoming fringe verdant squares of exuberant promised plenty, where the great dragon-flies buzz, and the frogs croak all day long. A run of two hours brings you past Kamakura, the region of the old glories of the warlike house which ruled Japan from 1192 A. D., to the middle of the Fifteenth Cen- tury past Enoshima, the ever beautiful " Isle of Dragons," to Kodzu, where you take a tramcar, and bump through the town of Odawara to Yumoto village, whence the ascent to Miyanoshita commences. The ladies and the luggage ride up the three miles of hilly road in kuruma drawn by two men, no-nim-biki. The gentlemen, glad of a little 174 JAPAN rural walk after the hot streets of Tokio, breast the ascent on foot. We reach Miyanoshita just as the lights begin to twinkle in the windows of the two hotels which receive the innumerable visitors to this green and pleasant glen. A hot spring, slightly mineral, has created Miyanoshita, affording perpetual and pleasant bathing ; and the air, whether it breathes from the sea below or from the thickly-wooded hills above, is always fresh and pleasant. To inhale that air, and to bathe in the soft waters heated for you in the subterranean furnances, are the main business of life in this hill village. The only industry of the place, apart from guides, tea-houses, and waiting musumes, is the manufacture of all kinds of small articles from the wood of the various timber trees growing on the hills around. Some of these are of incredible ingenuity in construction and neatness of finish, making the most elaborate work of Tunbridge Wells utterly commonplace. Many of the woods em- ployed, such as the camphor, the ivy, the kaki, kari and sendan, are of great beauty, and there seems to be almost nothing that a Japan turner cannot produce from them. He sells you, for a few sen, a box of ivy-wood delicately grained and polished, containing a dozen lovely little sau- cers of the same material ; or a lunch-box which folds into next to nothing until you want it, and then expands into a complete and handsome table service. Sellers of photo- graphs are also numerous, and softly importunate, for the Japanese have become very skilful with the camera. When you have purchased all the photographs and wooden MIYANOSHITA 175 nicknacks which you desire, the next thing is to organize excursions into the wild and beautiful wilderness of moun- tains everywhere surrounding you. These must be per- formed either on foot or on chairs lashed on bamboo poles, and carried upon the shoulders of four of the sturdy hill men of the district. The paths are very steep and narrow, and the foothold very often merely the loose stones of a mountain stream. Yet the sturdy ninsoku trudge along, up hill and down dale, in their sandals of rope, apparently insensible to fatigue, or sufficiently refreshed from time to time by a cup of pale tea and a sugar biscuit, and willingly ac- cepting fifty sen, or about eighteen pence, for a tremendous day's work. With a thin blue calico coat, a blue handker- chief tied around the close-cropped head, and their small brass tobacco pipes stuck in their girdles, they chatter gaily as they trot along under the bamboo poles, shifting these every now and then from shoulder to shoulder with a little harmonious murmur of " Go-issho," which means " at the same honourable time," /'. ^., " all together, boys." Ar- rived at the tea-house, they patiently pick from their legs the leeches which have fastened there in the wet and nar- row forest paths, wipe the profuse perspiration from their brown necks, smoke a pipe or two, and slowly sip a cup of the " honourable hot tea," and are then ready to trudge on again for another ri under their heavy burdens. Charming and instructive beyond description are some of the expeditions which may thus be undertaken from Miyanoshita as a centre, the hills containing all sorts of 176 JAPAN natural wonders, as well as being of wonderful beauty in regard of scenery. We made two out of many favourite explorations yesterday and the day before j on the first oc- casion to the mountain lake of Hakone, on the second to no less formidably-named a spot than " the Great Hell " O Jigoku. The general character of the country being the same, I will make one description serve for the impres- sions of the two journeys. The Hakone Mountains are for the most part intensely green in aspect, " darkly, deeply, beautifully green " of a green to make an artist despair, it is so magnificently monotonous, and beyond imitation by the palette. This results principally from the long bamboo grass everywhere growing over the highland country, which, though it rises to the height of eight or ten feet, presents the appearance of an unbroken verdant mantle of herbage rolling in light waves before the wind. The trees chiefly beech, fir of various kinds, and oak grow at one time sparsely, at another in extensive groves, from the jungle of the dwarf bamboo ; intermixed with which are a few inconspicuous wild flowers white andromedas and spiraes, yellow lilies, wild hydrangea, dog roses, and the Canterbury bell. Little or no animal life is to be seen ; the cover seems too dense for four-footed creatures, but on the less-wooded mountains the fox and badger exist, and there are deer, wild boar, and monkeys of a single species, to be found not far ofF. A lark almost exactly identical with the English species sings the familiar carol as we pass, and MIYANOSHITA 177 an oriole, which flutes very sweetly, is seen and heard ; but the general silence of the mountains is remarkable and almost unbroken, except by the noise of streams every- where descending. Some of these smoke in the cool hill- side air, and discolour the stones with sulphurous or mineral deposits, notably at Ko-ji-go-ku, near to Ashi- no-yu, where some of us enjoyed the luxury of hot sulphur baths, and found them immensely refreshing in the middle of a long walk. The central spot, however, for witnessing this kind of phenomenon is at the "Great Hell" itself, near to the pass of O Tomi Toge, from which a glorious view is obtained of the ever wonderful Fuji-San. There was nothing to indicate that we were approaching a spot to justify the name given to this place, except the sudden ap- pearance of many large dead trees, which had been killed by the fatal breath emanating from the solfataras near. The hillside at large spreads on either hand as fair and green as before, with waving bamboo grass and silvery flowers of the deutzia^ and white bells of the Japan anemone. The earliest intimation was by the nostrils, which become abruptly aware of odours distinctly infernal ; and on reaching a solitary farmhouse you come in sight of a torrent, running over black and speckled rocks, on a bed yellow as the rind of an orange. The ladies must now leave their chairs and toil by a steep ascent round a shoulder of the valley, from which issues this Japanese Styx ; and by a perilous and broken path, winding now through the thickets, now along the brink of a crumbling 178 JAPAN precipice, we come suddenly in sight of a gully, destitute of every shred of vegetation, and hideous with all the Cocytian colours associated with flame and smoke, death and desolation, ruin and ravage. It is a corner of the world abandoned to despair a mountain hearth on fire which one beholds; a nook of nature whence everything lovely and living has been banished to give vent to the secret forces of the under world. The earth all around is poisoned and parti-coloured with livid blotches and gangrenes ; the rocks are crusted with a leprous tetter ; pimples and ulcers of purple and black and yellow break out from the level spaces. Some of these are alive with an evil activity, and hiss and fume and bubble, emitting jets of fat yellow and green smoke, with now and then a crackling noise when the crust sinks in, to open by and by at another black and yellow gash in the diseased ground. It is not safe even to stand near the melancholy amphi- theatre where reek these caldrons of Acheron. To pass along the black edge of the stream itself and into this ghastly corry would be rash in the extreme, for no one knows where the surface may not yield, and suddenly plunge the foot or limb into a bath of boiling sulphur. A lady of our acquaintance was severely burned here some time ago, and a Russian officer lost his life in the treacherous morass of flame. I am requested by an amiable and charming young lady of our party to inscribe upon her bamboo stafF the Japanese name of the place which she will certainly never visit MIYANOSHITA 179 again together with some suitable record. Sitting out of reach of the winds from Hades, under a great cryptomeria, blasted by its neighbourhood, I carve on the Japanese alpenstock a verse which she means to preserve : " Staff, which to O Jigoku went, Good news to Sinners tell ; Demons may climb to Paradise, Now angels walk to Hell." And yet, just over the ridge, spreads a scene as beautiful as that just quitted is forbidding. On the slopes of the O Tomi Pass box-trees and the milky-blossomed asemi, with the pines and bamboos, the azaleas and lilies, make the mountain fair and glad again ; and Fuji-San is seen tower- ing up in perfect beauty at the end of a vast valley. The snow is almost gone from the Lady of Mountains. Just here and there are visible, if I might quote my own new poem, the " Light of the World " : " Dark hollows where sad winter hides away From summer, with the snow still in her lap." By another path the matchless mount may be seen looking down upon the deep waters of Hakone a great lake of unknown depth, and perpetual coldness, lying two thou- sand feet above the sea. Hakone Lake has for its Japanese name Toshi-no-Midzu-Umi, or the "water of the reeds," and is a very beautiful highland sea, the abode, it is said, of supernatural beings, till a Buddhist priest penetrated these i8o JAPAN recesses and gave to the world knowledge and possession of lovely and cool Hakone. We drink to the pious memory of Mangwan Shonin as we sit in the upper gallery of the tea-house looking over the rolling blue wavelets of the lake. Close by Japanese woodmen are cutting fir-trees into thin boards, to make ori, the boxes in which sweet- meats and cakes are presented. We return in drenching rain, but well rewarded for this and for all our exertions by the splendid scenery and the countless objects of interest on the road. Perhaps it would not have rained if we had remembered to put some stones in the lap of the great rock image of Jizo, whom we passed in accomplishing the ascent. He is the god of travellers and the protector of children, and the correct thing is to pay him the little at- tention alluded to. As we wend homewards through the picturesque village of Kiga, we stop to look again at the wonderful fish in the gardens of a tea-house near at hand. Swimming about in a pool under a little waterfall there are exhibited some hundreds of variegated carp the Japanese Koi which are of every imaginable brilliancy of colour purple, russet, citron, saffron, orange, rose-red, gold and silver. They are tamer than any pigeons, and come vo- raciously to the bank to be fed, scrambling for slices of bean-cake, and putting their gold and brown noses high out of the water in their struggles to secure the morsel. When a piece of cake falls on the dry rock, near the water, they try to throw themselves on shore, and even use their fins for legs in their eagerness to obtain the prize. The fish MIYANOSHITA 181 in the opening story of the Arabian Nights, who were coloured blue, yellow, white, and red, and who talked in the frying-pan, could not have been more marvellous in hue, and certainly not more intelligent. IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS SIR EDWIN ARNOLD JAPAN is a land of mountains, and the Japanese pas- sionately admire, and vastly delight in the beautiful highlands which diversify their Empire. Twelve- thirteenths of its surface are indeed totally withdrawn from cultivation, either by the broken character of the country, or the prevalence on the uplands and ranges of dense un- dergrowth of bamboo-grass and wild thicket, which nothing can clear away. Except in small patches, therefore, where circumstances are favourable to an energetic agriculture, the Japanese regard and employ their mountains chiefly as delights to the eye and pleasant refuges from the sultry weather which is now bathing the plains in a burning, op- pressive atmosphere. The sea coasts at this season are as hot as the inland plains, or hotter, and there is thus an al- most universal exodus of people from the cities, towns, and villages to the innumerable places of retreat perched amid the green and lovely hills of Nippon. The fashion among the middle and lower classes of the people is to go as pil- grims. Dressed in white haori^ white drawers, and white leggings that colour betokening penitence for past sins, and a resolution, more or less earnest, to turn over a new leaf of the book of life the citizen starts forth with a 182 IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 183 coloured flag, a staff, a small satchel, and a straw hat, marked with the symbol of his sect, for some favoured spot, high among the hills, where he can unite a little devotion with a great deal of pure, cool air, delightful scenery, and constant bathing. He needs not to carry, and he does not carry, any luggage. His bare feet want no newly-washed tabi. At every yadoya he will be supplied with a clean kimono for his bath and dinner, with futons to sleep upon, and with the simple food, supplemented by the eternal gozen (the tub of boiled rice), which is all he needs, for an extremely small sum per diem. Europeans are naturally, and not improperly, overcharged at such resorts, since they prove ofttimes difficult guests ; but we a party of six have lately paid a bill at the native inn of this place for four days' board and lodging, together with washing and plenty of fresh milk, which did but amount to eleven yen, or about thirty-four shillings. With such cheap and pleasant arrangements everywhere existing, the Japanese people move about their beautiful land in great numbers during the summer and early autumn, mostly on foot. They are in truth a nation of pedestrians, at least as regards the lower classes, and shuffle along with their wooden clogs or grass sandals over an astonishing deal of ground. Many railway lines run along the coasts or through the lowlands, carrying passengers easily and quickly, if not with very great comfort, in the crowded third-class carriages, to the foot of many a splendid range of mountains. Then it is but to mount with a stout step to some village nestled 184 JAPAN three or four thousand feet above the rice-fields, where heat and mosquitoes are left behind, and the boundless verdure of the rolling hills, rich with a hundred flowers, restores mind and body. Above all, your Japanese loves those spots in the moun- tains where a hot spring issues from the rocks and can be utilized for baths more or less medicinal. Ikao, whither we have lately repaired, is a good specimen of such a place. From a lovely glen in the cleft of a ridge there issues here a thin but strong stream of warm water, so impregnated with sulphites of iron and soda that it colours all its chan- nel a bright golden-yellow, as it bubbles and smokes down- ward to lose itself in the larger torrents. Such a gift from the subterranean world and such gifts abound almost always creates in Japan a town or village for its due enjoy- ment. Ikao climbs up the mountain along side its precious rillet of the " O Yu " in a street of stone stairs more pre- cipitous and picturesque than any in Malta; and all the inns and most of the houses lead a private trickle of the hot spring through bamboo pipes into a bath-house, where, three or four times a day, visitors or residents sit up to their necks in the soft embrace of the liquid heated for them in the underground furnaces of our Planet. There is much simplicity and very little concealment about the system of these Japanese spas. The business of the place is to bathe, and, with or without garments, everybody is always bathing, as always the golden water is bubbling down from the dark rocks which are overshadowed with all kinds of IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 185 strange trees, and clad with ferns, squills, wild clematis, and the Canterbury bell, called here " chochin no bana" the lantern-flower. Our party of six, including the two Japanese ladies, mounted to Ikao by a long string ofjinriti-shas, each drawn by two men. The ascent occupies four hours, and the ku- rumayas stop twice or thrice to refresh. Sharply the little vehicles wheel around at the front of the cbaya , the mu- sumes raise a chorus of irrasbais ; the travellers dismount and sip tea or barley-water ; the riti-sha-men wring the perspi- ration from their headcloths and coats, wash down their tat- tooed bodies with cold water, rinse out their mouths, eat a bowl of rice soaked with hot tea, and are ready again for a long spell of uphill work. In the heart of the hills kurumas cannot pass, and you must tramp afoot to the many lovely spots of interest, or ride in the kago, a contrivance of luxu- rious ease for the native, but of swiftly-increasing torture to the foreigner. It is like the lid of a big basket suspended on a stout bamboo, and you must sit on your feet, or cross them against the slings of the kago either position speedily resolving itself for the inexperienced into something be- tween paralysis and the rack. For the most part, there- fore, during the many and delightful excursions made from Ikao as a centre our kagos followed us empty, for even our fair Japanese companions proved excellent pedestrians, and tripped and glittered through the winding woods and over the wild moorlands, clad every day in some new and bright kimono^ which made them look like butterflies or birds. 186 JAPAN Thus, taking each day our ample tiffin to enjoy in some lovely sylvan recess, some ancient temple, or by the music and coolness of some lovely cascade, we visited Benten-no-taki, the waterfall of the Goddess of Mercy ; Kompira Yama, the Hill of the Gods, whence half Japan seemed to stretch out, green and tranquil, at our happy feet; Mizu-sawa, where we lunched at the foot of the altar of Buddha, under carvings of scarlet and gold, and diapered ceilings, and tall black waving cryptomerias, in a spot so solemn and beautiful that the gods might have joined our repast ; Yumoto, the Glen of the Spring, greener and more gloriously decked with ferns and wild flowers than any Devonshire or Scot- tish coombe or corrie ; and, best and most beautiful of all, Haruna, the " Village of the God," hard to be reached, but worth all the fatigue of a long and steep tramp. One of the very fairest spots I have seen on this earth lies midway between Ikao and Haruna. It is a wooded ridge, commanding on either side a view of vast expanse and supreme beauty. To the left, opens the verdant Ha- runa vale, the narrow path winding down into a wilderness of dark majestic forests, flowery hill-sides, fantastic rocks, and foaming torrents ; to the right, a lovely lake sleeps in the green basin which was once a crater, surrounded by hills of wild and wonderful shapes, and moorlands painted with stretches of white, and red, and yellow blossoms, and patches of black, and purple, and saffron soil. The profusion of lilies growing on these level spaces was truly astonishing. We IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 187 plunged through the bamboo-grass and reeds, gathering in- discriminately the blood-red tiger lily, the white lily, the crown imperial, the golden lily peculiar to Japan and now and again superb sticks of the Lilium auratum, the great cream-coloured bloom, spangled with gold, and silver, and purple, the fragrance of which is as delicious as its grace of shape and hue is perfect. Our ladies came down the last of the hills homeward bearing not merely bouquets, but sheaves of the floral plunder. It was like a procession from a picture of Cimabue, Giotto, or Fra An- gelico ; and I think if their descended angels had to choose an earthly dress, the bright and graceful kimono and obi of O Fuku San and O Yoshi San would have surely appeared as near to the charm of a Celestial toilette as earthly fabrics and fashions can well go ! And, after such a long, hard tramp over the mountains, who can exaggerate the delights of the Japanese bath ? It is the first thing we all think of, and say, O Yu ni iketai " I wish to go into the honourable hot water ! " Discarding all garments but the loose, com- fortable kimono, and even forgetting to inquire if dinner be ready, we troop down to the bathing-house. There a row of little chambers contain each an oblong tank, level with the sloping floor, into which, through bamboo pipes, the hot mineral stream jets. Its temperature is about no degrees, but you may modify this with buckets of cold water, placed at hand. The soft caress of the subterranean lymph seems in a moment to dissipate all bodily fatigue. Up to your chin in the subtly-medicated tide, you meditate i88 JAPAN placidly on the adventures of the day, the varied pictures of the hills, the moorland gilded with the yellow lilies, the chatter of the walk, half English, half Japanese. It is use- less to dress in the hot little furo-do. Every pore of the body is open, and towels are of no avail. Wrapped again in the kimono, you emerge into the open air, without the smallest fear of catching cold, and wonder no longer that the whole place exists solely for the joy of dabbling perpetu- ally in the delicious volcanic rivulet. The drawback of these delectable Japanese mountains is their lack of animal life. Hardly a bird or beast will be seen or heard, and nature appears depopulated. Upon all the long walk to and from Haruna I did but see, apart from the crows and high-flying birds, one brown snake and one lark. One hears occasionally the uguisu, called by flattery the "Japan nightingale" known to science as the Cettria cantons but its notes, though sweet, are not sustained. There are bears, foxes, badgers, and even deer in the Ha- runa jungles, and in by-gone days there were plenty of monkeys, but none are seen now. Possibly the dense clothing of the hills, which are swathed from base to sum- mit in tussock grass and dwarf bamboo, forbids the prevalence of small life. On the other hand, butterflies are numerous and splendid, a great black species, large as a bat, with bronze and green reflections, an amber and gold va- riety, a saffron and red, a green and gold swallow-tail, an abundance of brimstones, peacocks, purple Emperors, and red Admirals. But, as a rule, these fair vistas are desolate IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 189 of that wild life which adds so much to the charm of other Highlands. From Ikao we descended the mountain slopes in a long line of jinriki-shas, the men stripping to the hot work, and disclosing wonderful patterns of blue and red tattooing upon their brown, perspiring bodies. All along the foot of these hills lies the region of silk. Every field is full of dwarf mulberry-trees, and every cottage hums with the silk wind- ing wheel, while piles of white cocoons are spread out in the sun to dry. Next to the rice the silk crop of Japan is of chief importance, and it was curious to reflect how the fine threads which the country mother was winding, her baby at her breast, and her pipe in her mouth, would glisten and "frou frou " in Paris or London, or New York the robe of some proud beauty who never heard of Ikao or Id- zuka. On the road I saw the loveliest lily ever beheld large blossoms of the purest rose-colour, with white and crimson spangles on each petal. The lotus was also flow- ering in many places, being cultivated for food, its blossom very stately in size and shape, and of pure white or pink. At Idzuka the train receives us, and carries us round the range as far as Yokogawa, whence we ascend the mountains again to Karuizawa, nearly 4,000 feet above the hot and steaming plains. This station, very popular in the summer with foreigners and Japanese alike, sits high in the clouds upon a curious table-land, surrounded by picturesque hills. One crag, called the Cathedral Rock, really resembles very closely the Cathedral of Durham, and near it rises Asama JAPAN Yama, with steep red sides and smoking apex a still active volcano, and one which everybody ascends. The signs of its activity are everywhere ; all the ground is covered with pumice and ash, and if a cutting be made you can see how, at intervals measured by centuries, the " Hill of the Morning Fires " has covered all the region with black death and des- olation, over which Nature and Time have slowly spread a growing mantle of life and verdure, to be again and again obliterated by an eruption. A delightful excursion made here on foot was to Kosei, the glen in the hills where a thin sulphuretted stream issues from the dark crags. There was a bathing-house and little yadoya there, but too remote to be prosperous, and the aruji, the proprietor, offered us the whole establishment at a low price. The hill-sides were covered with wild raspberries of a delicate flavour, and blue and white with the campanula and clematis. We came down again to the railway, and so to Tokio, in heavy rain, and by a bad and broken road. ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE NOEL BUXTON I NEED hardly remark that Japan is a volcanic coun- try, with a backbone of mountains rising, in the case of the famous Fuji, to over 12,000 feet. There are no glaciers, but snow falls on the western side so as to smother whole villages, and lies even in summer sometimes as low as 7,000 feet. Several volcanoes are active, and hot mineral springs are frequent, often attracting crowds of sufferers by their medicinal properties. High up alpine plants abound, and lower down are masses of lily and iris. The forests below are of cypress, maple, and various firs, while mulberries are grown for silk in the valleys. There are deer and bears, badgers and eagles in the forests, and trout in the streams. Population spreads even to the very inaccessible parts, and the highest peaks can be climbed without getting very far from native society. Things are much as they have been for many centuries past; and among country people the traveller may find strange cus- toms and beliefs, such as the idea that foxes and badgers can " possess " human beings, and be driven out by exor- cism. It was the 8th of May when, with the Rev. Walter Weston, F. R. G. S., Mr. H. O'Rorke, and a Japanese 191 192 JAPAN servant, I left the railway station of Kioto, the ancient capital. A few hours brought us to Gifu, a town which suffered terribly in the earthquake of 1891, most of the houses be- ing destroyed. Immediately on leaving the railway, we had to dispute with the police as to whether our passports provided for travel in the particular province we wished to visit. Suffice it to say that at last the police are pacified, jinriki-shas and coolies engaged, and we speed along the Nakasendo, the great mountain road from Tokio to the west. We pass through a forest of scattered pines, with grass below full of short pink azaleas growing as thick as blue bells or primroses in an English wood. Like level clouds of sunset colour they lie in broad stretches beneath the dark green. At night, we reach the village of Ota, and here I must not omit a few words on that invaluable institution, the yadoya, or village inn. Its wide-eaved ve- randa abuts on the village street, from which the rooms within are visible. Leaving our shoes at the entrance, we mount the raised or matted floor, and meet the host and hostess, who prostrate themselves on all fours, touching the ground with their foreheads between each remark. The host entreats, " Honourably deign to accept the use of my dirty apartments," and then ushers us into a scrupu- lously clean guest room, looking on to the back garden, a paradise of miniature landscapes. The room is innocent of the smallest attempt at furniture, but the advent of a foreigner and his luggage soon litters it with confusion. ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE 193 It is the privilege of the first arrived traveller to take first turn at the hot bath, without which no evening would be complete. It is a wooden vessel some three feet square, with a stove underneath, placed at the back of the house next the yard or garden, and surrounded by paper screens. The village idlers will probably be gathered to view the stranger in his bath ; and even if the screen should be un- broken, he will soon be aroused from fancied security by a shuffling outside the screens, then by the appearance of a finger through the paper, and finally of an eye applied to the hole. He will soon realize the notions of the country and cease to be annoyed. After the bath comes the hostess, bringing dainty bowls of soup, fish, eggs and rice, with chopsticks in a hand- painted envelope. These are supplemented with advan- tage by viands brought with us, and (not least important), a knife and spoon. After dinner the leading villagers will probably drop in for a chat with the hairy barbarians, and music (of a kind) may be had for the asking. When bed- time comes, quilts are piled on the floor, another rolled up makes a pillow, and nothing is lacking to make a comfor- table night. After some hours of alpine scenery, with snow-clad peaks and chalet-like houses, whose roofs were weighted with heavy stones to secure them against wind and snow, we reached our goal, the village of Nakatsugawa, from which it appeared that a certain peak could be climbed, never trod- den yet by European foot. 194 JAPAN The garden of our inn, about eight yards square, afforded a landscape containing trees and shrubs, miniature hills, and streams, a waterfall, a lake with fish, a water-wheel, and rustic paths. Looking on to this charming prospect with a veranda between, was the room allotted to us. Beauty and interest are never failing in these country hostelries. The ascent of Ena-san, at whose base lies Nakatsugawa, had not yet been made by Europeans, and was now under- taken by my companion at the request of Professor Cham- berlain, with a view to the next edition of " Murray's Guide-book." Hence my good fortune in sharing the honours. After a wet day, during which we picked up information about the mountain, next morning saw us on the move at six o'clock. Leaving the village and crossing the rice- fields that surround it, we found a cloudless sky to greet us, and such a faultless day as so often in Japan rewards the traveller for his patience during a wet one. Near the mountain's foot we passed the Enajinsba^ or shrine of the mountain Ena-san. Here live the guardian priests, but the season for pilgrims was not yet, and no help is given to climbers till the summer, when the snow is melted and the mountain is formerly thrown open. So we were lucky to pick up a coolie who had been up Ena-san, and could help to carry our things. These were heavy, for we were pre- pared to camp out. Soon the ridge became so steep that we ascended 1,100 feet in half an hour, and were 4,000 ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE 195 feet above the sea. A break in the trees affords a view of steep well-wooded slopes falling down to a noisy torrent, while in front rose the main mass of the peak, with streaks of snow in the gullies or showing through the dark trees near the summit, and over the shoulder appeared far away the snow-clad cone of a giant mountain. The nearer charms of large white azaleas, growing under the trees, with dwarf bamboo around them, the roaring of torrents and the soft cooing of doves combined with the distant view to produce a charm not soon forgotten ; at this dis- tance of time we need not remember the painful labours of the ascent, during which the charm undoubtedly was for- gotten. At 5,500 feet we reached snow, and were soon plunging up to the knees, with many a deeper fall, for we were walking on a level with the branches of the pine-trees, whose lower stems were buried, and the snow was getting soft with spring sunshine. At last the summit, 7,350 feet high, was reached, and we found a glorious reward for the six hours' climb. The great ranges and mountains stood round us to the north from west to east, still wearing their snowy robes unspoilt by summer heat. There were Haku- san, Yarigatake (the spear peak), the smoking Asamayama, the Shiranesan range, and others to the due east, over which peeped the flattened cone of Fuji herself, sixty miles away. To the south was a softer expanse of lower wooded hills, among which could be traced two of the greatest rivers in Japan, forcing their way through narrow gorges, here di- 196 JAPAN vided only by a single range, but destined to reach the Pacific eighty miles apart. They looked like silver threads below, so high above were we. Most enchanting was the prospect, and it was long be- fore we could bring our attention to the nearer attractions of a pilgrim's shrine, in which the ways and thoughts of men display a more interesting, if less beautiful, field of study. It is a wooden structure, with small images covered by an open roof. In front of the images is a table or altar, on which lie several coins, and some knives offered by crimi- nals who have used them in a way which needs expiation. Pilgrimages and offerings are the favourite form in which the penitent seeks forgiveness and purity. The coins had been lying there all the winter, so be it said to the credit of the priests, who might have appropriated them months ago. Strange superstitions linger in these distant spots. On many mountains these shrines are held specially sacred, and Ontakegan is the scene of weird incantations, exorcisms of evil spirits and ceremonies which are practically " con- sulting the oracle," when the medium, having thrown him- self into a trance, obtains answer from the spirit of the mountain to any question which the pilgrims wish to pro- pound. Possession by foxes is a common belief in many parts, or (in places where there are no foxes) possession by badgers, as in the island of Shikoku, where the badger walks by moonlight on his hind legs, distends his stomach, and drums upon it with his fore feet, producing such celes- ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE 197 tial music that those who meet him fall enchanted under his spells. Again the view demanded our attention, and what with the needs of the inner man, three hours had all too quickly passed when we tore ourselves from the spot, not insensible of the fact that, though known to numbers of Japanese pil- grims, to us first among Europeans had fallen the delight of this, perhaps the finest, panorama to be seen in Japan. It was dark when we reached flat ground again, and most welcome was the hospitality of an ancient farmhouse, where beast and man enjoyed the same roof. Here that excellent beverage, tamagozake, a warm concoction of eggs and rice wine revived us for the rest of the way. Eggs form the staple of the native food which a foreigner can rely on, a fact which we soon keenly realized, for next morning, when we left Nakatsugawa, and made the customary offering of " tea money," our bill, for the keep of four men during less than three days, included an item for one hundred and forty eggs ! I must pass all too rapidly over the day during which we crossed the range into the next valley, by the Misakatoge pass, of which nothing was known by Europeans, and very little could be learnt from the Japanese. Suffice it to say that the view of a deep valley between wooded mountains, with a dashing river shining green along its wide bed of white stones, seen through a dazzling foreground of pink and white azalea, was one which for beauty, I have never seen surpassed. 198 JAPAN Near the village of Sonohara we came on a small shrine, whose majestic surroundings seemed more worthy of Nikko or Nara. An immense cryptomeria stood on either side of it, and one of these, at five feet from the ground, measured twenty-six feet in girth. One incident must also be told. At a little hamlet, where peach, cherry, and pear were still in blossom, the people, usually so excited at seeing a for- eigner, seemed quite unconcerned. We sent our native servant to ask one of them what they thought we were, and he reported this reply: " They are from a distant part of Japan, where the people grow to gigantic size ; " and one old woman, on hearing that we were foreigners, remarked : u That is impossible. There are no dwellers outside the land of great Japan." This must not be taken as an ex- ample of native education, but as showing that Japan is not yet entirely Europeanized. It was not till after one o'clock at night that we knocked at the outer shutters (for there are no doors) of an inn by the river-bank. The household were fast asleep ; but it does not take long to put on what is really rational dress, and in a few moments master and servants were welcoming us as if they had been longing for our arrival. " Deign to let me wash your honourable feet," " Please allow us to make hot food for you," " How kind of you to honour our mis- erable house ! " were phrases showered upon us with many smiles, and every possible attention. This politeness, so impossible to a European when rudely awakened at dead of night, is the more remarkable, as the Japanese believe ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE 199 the spirit to leave the body during sleep and wander afar in the shape of a small black ball, and that, if the body is sud- denly roused, the soul may be too late to join it, and death will result. Our two days' hard walking were now to be rewarded by a surfeit of delightful ease. Shooting the rapids of fast rivers is a pleasant diversion from mountain-climbing. It is less laborious and more exciting, and as it is combined, on the Tenriugawa River, with splendid scenery, the de- scent of that river is an expedition to be made if possible. For the first half of the ninety mile journey (which takes altogether ten hours) the long flat-bottomed boat speeds swiftly down a constant succession of races and rapids, its bottom being flat and thin, and so built as to bend without breaking if it touches a rock. Each time we approach a rapid, the oarsmen, of whom there are four, standing up with long oars, strike the gunwale of the boat. The sound re-echoes from the cliffs on each side of the narrow gorge, and is supposed to call both gods and men to attention. Soon the current's speed increases ; we plunge headlong into a seething cauldron of boiling water; right in front is a cliff, from which we apparently cannot escape ; the boat- men paddle fast and deftly ; a single false motion and we are lost ; the waves dash over the gunwale ; but in much less time than these words have taken we are gliding along a smooth current and almost into the next rapid. In the intervals of calm water, there is all too little time to scan the glorious cliffs that rise from the river for hun- 200 JAPAN dreds of feet almost straight to the skies, and are never- theless rich with luxuriant verdure. They, in themselves, would amply repay us for our journey. Pine and maple almost hide the precipitous rock, here in sunlight and there in deepest shade, while right over the river hang festoons of pale blue wistaria, sometimes smothering whole trees. Not least among the day's marvels was the astounding skill o\ our native cook, who with no further appliance than a small brass frame, a few pieces of charcoal, and a frying-pan, cooked various choice dishes till forbidden to cook any more. After six or seven hours through this deep and narrow cleft in the mountain mass, the cliffs begin insensibly to slope, and on the shelving shores the signs of human life appeared. Here and there a boat was being pulled, sailed or punted, or all three at once, against the strong current. We came down the ninety miles in ten hours, but it takes them ten days and more to get back up the river. Who but the most plucky and patient of men would use such torrents for navigation ? As we neared the sea, twilight fell ; and it was dark when we reached the great railway bridge which spans the river near its mouth, and found ourselves once more in the busy world. A LARGE CRATER PROF. JOHN MILNE THE crater I wish to describe is called Asosan. It is situated in Kiushiu. The width of this crater is about fifteen miles, and in the bottom of it are living about 20,000 people. From Kumamoto, I travelled directly eastward along a road which upon the native maps appears to lead from one side of the island to the other. Straight before us we could see Asosan giving off heavy clouds of steam; be- tween us and this there was a long range of rugged hills parallel with the coast which we had just left behind us; these looked reddish and bare, but when we came actually upon them, I found that their colour was due to a covering of brown grass. The road on which we travelled was, for a Japanese road, very wide ; on each side of it there were two lines of trees, the lines nearest to the road were wax- trees, and those behind them were cryptomerias. As the wax-trees had lost their leaves, they looked very bare and ragged, but in summer time, when they are in full foliage, they must form an avenue which I think would far surpass anything I ever saw in an English park. Roads bordered with lines of tall trees are a feature in Japan, and some of those which continue for twenty or thirty miles in almost 20 1 202 JAPAN unbroken lines, form sights which when once seen will always be remembered. After eleven and a half miles up this road, we reached the village of Odzu, where we took up quarters for the night. Early next morning we started out upon frozen roads to climb the hills before us. The ascent was gentle. Right and left were broad stretches of uncultivated grassy ground. Away upon our left, we could see a high moun- tain called Kuratake, which, from its general shape and a rugged-looking hollow which had been breached upon the side towards which we were looking, seemed to represent the remains of an old volcano. Looking back, we could see the plain across which we had come on the previous afternoon ; at the edge of it, where it reached down to the sea, we could just make out the position of Kumamoto; whilst beyond that, at the other side of the bay on which Kumamoto is situated, there rises a rugged mass of moun- tains, the highest peak of which was the volcano Unsen. This volcano is the one which, amongst all Japanese vol- canoes, has probably been the most destructive. In 1793, during an eruption which extended over many days, a large portion of it literally blew up. The earthquakes that ac- companied this outburst the rushing in of the sea, and the falling boulders and fiery rain of red-hot cinders laid waste the surrounding country, and took away the lives of fifty thousand of its inhabitants. After a little more climbing, we reached the top of the ridge called Futaiyaino-toge ; and here, before us, was a A LARGE CRATER 203 sight as striking as it was unexpected, because the ascent from the sea up to this point had been so gentle, being in- deed only about 1,750 feet. We had naturally expected that on reaching the summit we should have before us a descent equally easy, but instead of that, we found our- selves standing on the edge of what was nothing more or less than a deep pit, which was nearly circular. The greater portion of the sides of this pit were perpendicular cliffs of rocks, which here and there, near their upper parts, showed the irregular, broken stratification, so char- acteristic of the sides of many craters. In places at the foot of these cliffs, a sloping talus had been formed ; whilst in other places the cliff-like forms had been so far denuded that the sides of the pit formed irregular, but ex- ceedingly steep, slopes. Looking at this pit from the commanding position in which we stood, I estimated its width at seven miles; and it was not until we descended, and tried to walk across, and found how little was the prog- ress which we made, that we recognized how far we had underrated its true dimensions. In the middle of the pit, and running far up above its sides, there is a large, irregu- lar block of mountains, the central peak of which is always giving off large clouds of steam. This peak was Mount Aso, the goal of our journey. From the rim upon which we stood, by a zig-zag pathway, we quickly made the descent to the crater plain below us. The depth at this point was about 600 feet. At the foot of these mountains, the priests have their 204 JAPAN permanent rendez-vous y and, on the summit, small temples and shrines, where during fixed seasons they reside, and re- ceive the crowds of pilgrims to the deities of the mountain. The number of pilgrims who ascend the famous Fujiyama every year must be many thousands, and the fees the priests receive thereby, from the toll-gates on the upward paths that they have established, are very numerous, and must form a considerable revenue. If you visit some of these mountains at any other time than the appointed season, you may be refused permission to ascend. I myself was refused in this way at Iwakisan, one of the most beautiful volcanoes in northern Nippon. On another mountain, Chokaisan, I was subjected to a most curious treatment. I commenced ascending this mountain, and after scrambling over blocks of lava, and up long fields of snow, I reached the top, faint and weary at 1:30 p. M. My first impulse was to eat and drink, but in this I was prevented by four priests, who in- sisted that before satisfying either my hunger or my thirst I ought to pay my devotions at a small shrine which they had built. Being too tired and feeble to resist, I allowed them to lead me into the shrine where I dropped on my knees before the idol between the two priests, who, after putting on their robes of office, commenced to invoke the deity, and beat small drums. After this, they opened a small door in front of me, and showed me my reflection in a metal looking-glass, where I suppose I was expected to see the lines which sin had graven on my face. Next, one of them handed me a large, clean, metal bowl. Instinct A LARGE CRATER 205 told me that an opportunity was coming to satisfy my thirst ; so I took it reverentially in my two hands, and the priest immediately filled the bowl up with Japanese wine (sake], which I learnt afterwards had been dedicated to the gods. Never did nectar taste so good. After the first half- pint, the priest invited me to more wine, and, feeling faint, the offer was readily accepted. Again the offer came, but this was too much j modesty overcame me, and putting down twenty cents as an offering to the gods, I withdrew to my sandwiches. This was a Japanese sacrament, and I must say that I found it very good. From the foot of the crater to Bojo, I calculated the dis- tance to be about five miles ; and, as this point was about half-way across this portion of the pit, the total width would here be about ten miles. From a map of the crater, which our host, who kept a small shop in Bojo, made for me, the diameter in some directions must be fourteen or fifteen miles. This I confirmed by sketching in the position of the crater upon a map prepared by the government. Looking on the map, inside the space I marked out as being the boundaries of the crater, I counted about eighty villages. Fifty of the villages, our host said, were a moderate size. If these contained, say, on an average 300 people, then living in the crater there must be from fifteen to twenty thousand people. The following account was given to me of the last eruption of Asosan : "During the winter of 1873, sounds were heard and white and black smoke was ob- 206 JAPAN served proceeding from the top of Asosan. On the 2jth February in the following year, whilst the wind was blow- ing from the south, the ground began to quake and ashes were thrown out. What the thickness of the beds of ashes in the rice-fields was we cannot tell, but near to us they attained a thickness of one inch. The ashes covered everything, and the leaves of the pine-trees and the wheat were turned quite red. At six o'clock in the morning of the I3th the ground again began to shake, and noises were heard on an average one hundred times an hour. On the I4th, at six o'clock, there were two or three very heavy shakes and on the 23d these became still more violent. These shakings were so strong that neither old nor young could sleep. They continued on the 24th, but on this day the eruption ceased. The material which was thrown out was of a grey colour, but afterwards it be- came red. The greatest quantity of ashes fell at Kuro- gawagumi and Higashi-kurogawa. At the commencement of the eruption, which was on the ist of December, 1873, the volcano threw out stones one and two feet in diameter; and four men who were working at some sulphur deposits on the top of the mountain were immediately killed. Many hot springs burst out, and so much sulphurous matter was thrown into the River Shirokawo, which flows from this crater to Kumamoto that all the fish were poisoned. Even up till the 3d of March, 1874, shocks were felt, and material was thrown out which covered the ground for a distance of eighteen miles. During the day, A LARGE CRATER 207 it was at times as dark as night. Previously, in 1806, there had been another serious eruption. The fame of this mountain spread even to China, and in a Chinese book I found the following : Smoke rises up to the sky from Mount Aso in Nippon. People say that in this mountain there is a precious stone of a blue colour and shaped like an egg, which shines at night. They worship this and call it Antikokusan. The shining smoke on the top of this mountain has three colours which can be seen from a distance of three miles ; these three colours are blue, yellow and red." On the morning after reaching Bojo, we started off to ascend the central peak of Asosan. After a climb of about 200 feet, we turned round to look at the crater we were leaving. At our feet was a cultivated plain dotted over with clumps of trees and villages, beyond which there was a line of fir-trees and cryptomeria. These formed a belt round the foot of the amphitheatre of perpendicular cliffs which intercepted any further view. Before us, but on the left, there was a rugged peak called Nekodake, a portion of which looked very like a ruined crater. To the right and to the left of us was a wide expanse of slop- ing ground covered with brown grass. When we were 400 feet above Bojo, we came to patches of snow. As we neared the top, we crossed one or two old lava streams and beds of ashes. At a height of about 2,000 feet above our starting point, or about 3,600 feet above the sea, we were on a level with the upper crater of Asosan, a huge 208 JAPAN black pit which was giving off vast clouds of steam. All the rocks which I saw up to this point were andesites, similar to those which form the ring-wall of the outer crater. Here we found one or two men who were engaged in collecting sulphur. Upon our right, there was a rounded hill called Dobindake, which rose almost 500 feet above the level of the crater. The extreme height, therefore, of Asosan above the sea-level is perhaps a little over 5,000 feet. From this position, we had a good view of the big crater which surrounded us, as the slope on its outside is generally so gentle that it looked like a huge pit with perpendicular sides which had been dug out of the top part of a piece of ground in shape like an inverted saucer. On the northern side, the cliffs which bound this pit are almost everywhere perpendicular; but on the south side, which was the side towards which we descended, they were more worn away to form rugged hills. The cliff-like character, with its horizontally-stratified structure, could, however, be in many places distinctly traced. Now how does the crater of Asosan compare with other craters in the world ? Amongst those which are active, it appears to be the largest which has hitherto been discovered, and even if we include those which are extinct, it appears to take the foremost place. Amongst the large craters mentioned by Scrope, it would seem that Asosan, considering its size and activity, is without a rival. If we go further, leave the earth and compare Asosan with craters on the Moon, although it cannot stand before a pit like A LARGE CRATER 209 that exhibited by Copernicus, which is said to have a diameter of fifty-six miles, it nevertheless may be regarded as an example of healthy competition. As an active volcano, however, it still holds its place ; and if Africa boasts of the largest waterfall, and India of the highest mountains, in one of the prominent classes of natural phenomena Japan also will be able to take an equally prominent position. Not only may the Japanese boast of possessing one of the most beautiful of volcanoes, which mountain is the far-famed Fuji, but they may boast of one of the most remarkable of craters. ENOSHIMA LAP CAD 10 HEARN THE road slopes before us as we go, sinks down between cliffs steep as the walls of a canon, and curves. Suddenly we emerge from the cliffs, and reach the sea. It is blue like the unclouded sky, a soft dreamy blue. And our path turns sharply to the right, and winds along cliff-summits overlooking a broad beach of dun-coloured sand ; and the sea-wind blows deliciously with a sweet saline scent, urging the lungs to fill themselves to the very utmost; and far away before me, I perceive a beautiful high green mass, an island foliage-covered, rising out of the water about a quarter of a mile from the main-land, Enoshima, the holy island, sacred to the goddess of the sea, the goddess of beauty. I can already distinguish a tiny town, grey-sprinkling its steep slope. Evidently it can be reached to-day on foot, for the tide is out, and has left bare a long broad reach of sand, extending to it, from the op- posite village which we are approaching, like a causeway. At Katase, the little settlement facing the island, we must leave our jinriki-sba and walk ; the dunes between the villages and the beach are too deep to pull the vehicle over. Scores of other jinriki-sha are waiting here in the 210 ENOSHIMA 211 little narrow street for pilgrims who have preceded me. But to-day, I am told, I am the only European who visits the shrine of Benten. Our two men lead the way over the dunes, and we soon descend upon damp, firm sand. As we near the island the architectural details of the lit- tle town define delightfully through the faint sea-haze, curved bluish sweeps of fantastic roofs, angles of airy bal- conies, high-peaked curious gables, all above a fluttering of queerly shaped banners covered with mysterious lettering. We pass the sand-flats ; and the ever-open Portal of the Sea-City, the City of the Dragon-goddess, is before us, a beautiful Tori-i. All of bronze it is, with shimenawa of bronze above it, and a brazen tablet inscribed with char- acters declaring : " This is the Palace of the Goddess of Enosh- ima." About the bases of the ponderous pillars are strange designs in relievo^ eddyings of waves with tortoises strug- gling in the flow. This is really the gate of the city, fac- ing the shrine of Benten by the land approach ; but it is only the third Tori-i of the imposing series through Katase : we did not see the others, having come by way of the coast. And lo ! we are in Enoshima. High before us slopes the single street, a street of broad steps, a street shadowy, full of multi-coloured flags and dark blue drapery dashed with white fantasticalities, which are words, fluttered by the sea-wind. It is lined with taverns and miniature shops. At every one I must pause to look; and to dare to look at 212 JAPAN anything in Japan is to want to buy it. So I buy, and buy, and buy. For verily 'tis a City of Mother-of-Pearl, this Enoshima. In every shop, behind the lettered draperies there are mira- cles of shell-work for sale at absurdly small prices. The glazed cases laid flat upon the matted platforms, the shelved cabinets set against the walls, are all opalescent with nacre- ous things, extraordinary surprises, incredible ingenuities ; strings of mother-of-pearl fish, strings of mother-of-pearl birds, all shimmering with rainbow colours. There are little kittens of mother-of-pearl, and little foxes of mother- of-pearl, and little puppies of mother-of-pearl, and girls' hair-combs, and cigarette-holders, and pipes too beautiful to use. There are little tortoises, not larger than a shilling, made of shells, that, when you touch them, however lightly, begin to move head, legs, and tail, all at the same time, al- ternately withdrawing or protruding their limbs so much like real tortoises as to give one a shock of surprise. There are storks and birds, and beetles and butterflies, and crabs and lobsters, made so cunningly of shells, that only touch convinces you they are not alive. There are bees of shell, poised on flowers of the same material, poised on wire in such a way that they seem to buzz if moved only with the tip of a feather. There is shell-work jewelry indescribable, things that Japanese girls love, enchantments in mother-of- pearl, hair-pins carven in a hundred forms, brooches, neck- laces. And there are photographs of Enoshima. This curious street ends at another 70r;V, a wooden ENOSHIMA 213 Tori-i, with a steeper flight of stone steps ascending to it. At the foot of the steps are votive stone lamps and a little well, and a stone tank at which all pilgrims wash their hands and rinse their mouths before approaching the tem- ples of the gods. And hanging beside the tank are bright blue towels, with large white Chinese characters upon them. I ask Akira what these characters signify : Ho-Keng is the sound of the characters in the Chinese; but in Japanese the same characters are pronounced Kenji- tate matsuru, and signify that those towels are most hum- bly offered to Benten. They are what you call votive offerings. And there are many kinds of votive offerings made to famous shrines. Some people give towels, some give pictures, some give vases ; some offer lanterns of paper, or bronze, or stone. It is common to promise such offerings when making petitions to the gods ; and it is usual to promise a Tori-i. The Tori-i may be small or great, according to the wealth of him who gives it; the very rich pilgrim may offer to the gods a Tori-i of metal, such as that below, which is the Gate of Enoshima. Now we are going to visit the Dragon cavern, not so called, Akira says, because the Dragon of Benten ever dwelt therein, but because the shape of the cavern is the shape of a dragon. The path descends towards the oppo- site side of the island, and suddenly breaks into a flight of steps cut out of the pale hard rock, exceedingly steep and worn, and slippery, and perilous, overlooking the sea. A vision of low pale rocks, and surf bursting among them, 214 JAPAN and a Toro, or votive stone lamp, in the centre of them, all seen as in a bird's eye view, over the verge of an awful precipice. I see also deep round holes in one of the rocks. There used to be a tea-house below ; and the wooden pil- lars supporting it were fitted into those holes. I descend with caution ; the Japanese seldom slip in their straw sandals, but I can only proceed with the aid of the guide. At almost every step I slip. Surely these steps could never have been thus worn away by the straw sandals of pilgrims who came to see only stones and serpents ! At last we reach a plank gallery carried along the face of the cliff above the rocks and pools, and following it round a projection of the cliff enter the sacred cave. The light dims as we advance; and the sea-waves, running after us into the gloom, make a stupefying roar, multiplied by the extraordinary echo. Looking back, I see the mouth of the cavern like a prodigious sharply angled rent in black- ness, showing a fragment of azure sky. We reach a shrine with no deity in it, pay a fee ; and lamps being lighted and given to each of us, we proceed to explore a series of underground passages. So black they are that even with the light of three lamps, I can at first see nothing. In a while, however, I can distinguish stone figures in relief, chiseled on slabs like those I saw in the Buddhist graveyard. These are placed at regular intervals along the rock walls. The guide approaches his light to the face of each one, and utters a name, " Daikoku-Sama," " Fudo-Sama," " Kwannon-Sama." Sometimes in lieu of ENOSHIMA 215 a statue there is an empty shrine only, with a money-box before it ; and these void shrines have the names of Shinto gods, " Daijingu," " Hachiman," " Inari-Sama." All the statues are black, or seem black in the yellow lamplight, and sparkle as if frosted. I feel as if I were in some mor- tuary pit, some subterranean burial-place of dead gods. Interminable the corridor appears ; yet there is at last an end, an end with a shrine in it, where the rocky ceiling descends so low that to reach the shrine one must go down on hands and knees. And there is nothing in the shrine. This is the Tail of the Dragon. We do not return to the light at once, but enter into other lateral black corridors the Wings of the Dragon. More sable effigies of dispossessed gods ; more empty shrines ; more stone faces covered with saltpetre ; and more money-boxes possible only to reach by stooping, where more offerings should be made. And there is no Benten, either of wood or stone. I am glad to return to the light. Here our guide strips naked, and suddenly leaps head foremost into a black, deep, swirling current between rocks. Five minutes later he reappears, and clambering out lays at my feet a living, squirming sea-snail and an enormous shrimp. Then he resumes his robe, and we reascend the mountain. " And this," the reader may say, " this is all that you went forth to see : a 70r/W, some shells, a small damask snake, some stones ? " It is true. And nevertheless I know that I am be- 216 JAPAN witched. There is a charm indefinable about the place, a sort of charm which comes with a little ghostly thrill never to be forgotten. Not of strange sights alone is this charm made, but of numberless subtle sensations and ideas interwoven and in- terblended : the sweet, sharp scents of grove and sea ; the blood-brightening, vivifying touch of the free wind ; the dumb appeal of ancient, mystic, mossy things ; vague rev- erence evoked by knowledge of treading soil called holy for a thousand years ; and a sense of sympathy, as a human duty, compelled by the vision of steps of rock worn down into shapelessness by the pilgrim feet of vanished genera- tions. And other memories ineffaceable : the first sight of the sea-girt City of Pearl through a fairy veil of haze; the windy approach to the lovely island over the velvety sound- less brown stretch of sand ; the weird majesty of the giant gate of bronze ; the queer, high-sloping, fantastic, quaintly- gabled street, flinging down sharp shadows of aerial bal- conies ; the flutter of coloured draperies in the sea-wind, and of flags with their riddles of lettering ; the pearly glim- mering of the astonishing shapes. And impressions of the enormous day, the day of the Land of the Gods, a loftier day than ever our summers know ; and the glory of the view from those green, sacred, silent heights between sea and sun ; and the remembrance of the sky, a sky spiritual as holiness, a sky with clouds ghost-pure and white as the light itself, seeming, indeed, ENOSHIMA 217 not clouds but dreams, or souls of Bodhisattvas about to melt forever into some blue Nirvana. And the romance of Benten, too, the Deity of Beauty, the Divinity of Love, the Goddess of Eloquence. Rightly is she named Goddess of the Sea. For is not the Sea most ancient and most excellent of Speakers, the eternal Poet, chanter of that mystic hymn whose rhythm shakes the world, whose mighty syllables no man may learn ? COSTUME OF THE GENTLEMEN OF JAPAN ARTHUR DIOSr THE dress of the Japanese civilian Shi-zokuJ as worn out of doors in all occupations which do not render the adoption of European garments necessary or advisable, is simple in cut, sombre in colour, neat to a degree, and in excellent taste. The wide-sleeved silken gown, or kimono, of some quiet, dark colour, in very narrow vertical stripes divided by black lines, showing at the breast where the left side is crossed over the right, the edge of an undergarment of precisely similar cut, perhaps the edges of two such under-gowns, the one worn next to the body, the ju-ban (colloquially, ji-bari), usually of plain silk, these edges of under-robes showing in a manner that recalls the superimposed waistcoats of a past generation in Europe. Over the kimono, the wide hakama, commonly translated by " trousers," but really a divided skirt, of sober-coloured silk probably of some bluish-grey tint with narrow vertical black stripes, strikingly similar to the " striped Angola trouserings " of the fashionable London tailors. The obi, or girdle, of thick silk, four yards long 1 Formerly called Samurai ; the Gentry, who formed the governing and military class in Old Japan. 218 THE COSTUME OF GENTLEMEN 219 and two and three-quarter inches wide, is smoothly and evenly wound about the waist. Over all, the haorij or overcoat, of stiff, black corded silk, tied across the breast by two silken cords, slung in a graceful loop, the back of the coat, just below the collar, and the sleeves bearing the wearer's crest, his man, beautifully embroidered in white silk, within a circle of about the size of a shilling. These garments compose a costume which proclaims in its tasteful simplicity that it is the dress of a gentleman of refinement. And, indeed the impression is confirmed by closer examination ; it is borne out by every outward sign, from the crown of the hatless head to the small, well- shaped feet, still free from the painful deformities caused by the irrational foot-gear of Western civilization, and encased in the most comfortable, hygienic covering imaginable, the soft, strong-soled socks, generally white, called tabi, which have a separate compartment for the big toe. This allows the big toe and the one next to it to have a firm grasp of the thick, padded loop, often covered with ribbed velvet, blue or grey, that is the only attachment to the foot of the straw sandal, the zori, worn in dry weather and for walking on smooth ground, or of the geta^ the wooden clog com- monly used to keep the soles of the feet dry in the very damp climate on roads which are often rivers of slush. 1 The haori, as now worn reaches to below the knee. Its silk lining, often costly, is of a well-chosen colour, such as russet-brown or " old gold," with a beautiful woven pattern. During the war against China, and immediately after it, linings decorated with representations of vic- tories and incidents of conspicuous gallantry were very popular in Tokio. 220 JAPAN These pattens add a few inches to the small stature of the Japanese gentleman, just as the loose-cut and wide sleeves, used as pockets, of his robes and coat add breadth to his rather narrow shoulders. The normal Japanese position, equivalent to our sitting, is a squatting on the heels, practised from babyhood, which has the one advantage that it keeps the feet warm in cold weather, but which forces the body into an unhealthy atti- tude, and has resulted, in the course of centuries, in pro- ducing the disproportionate figure of the modern Japanese of the upper classes, the trunk too long in comparison with the legs, the shoulders too narrow and the chest too flat. Amongst the working-classes, whose labour entails much standing and walking, the body is much more symmetrical, and the muscular development, particularly in the loins and the lower limbs, is often remarkable, especially in the case of " coolies," jinriki-sha drawers and fishermen. The Japanese gentleman has been described as hatless. Would that this were always true, or that, at all events, when he feels the necessity of a covering for his head, he would wear one of the various shapes of shady, light, and cool hats, of straw, or of split and plaited bamboo, used in summer by the labouring classes and wayfarers, the kind most in favour amongst them being an inverted bowl, or basin, with a light inner rim fitting round the head, on the principle of the " sun-helmets " used by Europeans in the tropics, a perfectly rational, hygienic hat ! Unfortu- nately, his natural good taste seems to fail him at times, THE COSTUME OF GENTLEMEN 221 and he sees no incongruity in wearing, with his graceful, dignified, silken costume, any sort of Western head-gear, from the jaunty " Homburg hat," of grey or brown felt, with a " complimentary mourning " band, or of straw, with its cleft crown, or the hard, low-crowned " bowler," to the straw hat of the Occidental boating-man, and even sad to relate ! to that abomination of modern Britain -the shape- less cloth " stable-cap," with its peak of the same material, or sometimes, more hideous still, the double-peaked, ear- flapped, " fore-and-aft " cap of sad-coloured cloth. If he be not always hatless, he is certainly without gloves, so that we have an opportunity of admiring his small, delicately-formed hands, with their slender, supple fingers whose pliancy is cultivated in childhood and youth, by the school-boy habit of twisting soft paper into tough string whilst poring over the lesson-book fingers that can deftly handle the writing-brush or the eating- sticks, and that are kept soft and clean, with carefully- trimmed nails. Small and well-shaped hands and feet are characteristic of the Turanian races, but nowhere are they more noticeable than in Japan, where the roughest labour does not seem to obliterate the good shape of the extremities. The Japanese gentleman's clean, gloveless hand holds a small and simple fan, of paper and bamboo ; not one of those garish articles the bad taste of Western purchasers compels Japanese craftsmen to produce for export by hun- dreds of thousands annually. No Japanese would cool 222 JAPAN himself, or shield his head from the sun's rays (a frequent use of the fan), with one of the fans too large, too bright, the design badly printed from a worn-out block that Occidental ladies use without hesitation, and even exhibit, as artistic decorations on the walls of their rooms. The Shi-zoku's ogi, or folding-fan (not to be confounded with the uchi-wa, the stiff non-folding-fan, or hand-screen), is beau- tifully made of stout mulberry-tree paper, with a fine, glossy, parchment-like surface, and of carefully-selected split bamboo ; it is light and very durable, and it closes with a sharp click testifying to the accuracy with which its faces are pasted on to the frame. Its decoration is severely sim- ple ; usually a mere suggestion of clouds, in pale gold and silver powdering on the colourless surface, or a delicate lit- tle sketch in sepia a scene from classic literature, or an impression of romantic landscape, frequently with the ad- dition of a short poem, a shi^ or ode in the Chinese style, or an uta, purely Japanese, written with consummate art by the brush of some renowned master of caligraphy. When the fan is not carried in the hand, it is stuck into the girdle, or into the bosom of the gown. According to the season, the Japanese gentleman carries a paper parasol, an umbrella, or a walking-stick. The par- asol is of purely Japanese design, now too well known to need description ; the umbrella is, sad to tell, more frequently a local imitation of the most ungainly form of the cheap Occidental article than one of the light and graceful um- brellas of oiled paper and split bamboo still used by the masses. THE COSTUME OF GENTLEMEN 223 I have described thus in detail the dress of the gentleman of New Japan, and its accessories, not only because of the opportunities of throwing side-lights on some manners and customs affected by the introduction of Western ideas and on some of the new industries created, and the old ones affected, by the new conditions but with the object of dis- pelling the prevalent misconception that the national costume is in danger of early extinction. There was a period in which it seemed doomed to give way before the dress of the West, as represented by hideous imported "slop-clothes " and native imitations thereof. From 1873 to 1887, especially in the last three years of that period, the adoption of European dress progressed rapidly amongst the upper classes. It had been made compulsory for officials when on duty in 1873, and had steadily gained ground amongst students, bankers, merchants, and others coming, more or less directly, under foreign influence. The wave of German influence that swept over Japan from 1885 to 1887 carried the innovation to a still more danger- ous point. The beautiful costume of the women of Japan, so absolutely becoming to its wearers that one can hardly imagine them clad in any other way, was threatened, and sad to relate, the ladies of the Court began to order dresses from Paris ? No the pen almost refuses to chronicle the appalling fact -from Berlin! In the nick of time, the re- action against a Slavish imitation of Occidental customs unsuited to the country came to the rescue. In 1887, the national spirit, roused to indignation against the Western 224 JAPAN Powers by the failure of Count Inouye's attempts to induce them to negotiate a Revision of the Treaties on the basis ardently desired by the Japanese, caused a sudden return to many of the old habits and customs that had fallen into abeyance. This reaction in minor matters, whilst not im- peding the nation's progress in the adaptation of the essen- tials of modern civilization, has since made itself increas- ingly conspicuous. Its outward and visible sign is the resumption of their picturesque and becoming national dress by both men and women of the upper class. The uniforms, naval, military and civil, are all of European patterns ; so is the court dress of the nobility more is the pity, for no statelier cos- tume could be devised than that worn by the nobles of Old Japan and, at most of the court functions, the Empress, one of those gracious \\tt\egrandes dames who look charming and dignified in any costume, appears in European dress, together with her ladies, some of whom now accus- tomed to wear it, wear it with truly Parisian grace. Offi- cials are clad in European costume during office-hours, but it may safely be said that, with the above exceptions, the Japanese of the upper class now wear their national dress at all times when the nature of their work, or recreation, does not render Western clothing much more suitable. The dress I have attempted to describe is subject to some modifications, according to the seasons. In winter, a short under jacket, or dog'i, of silk or cotton is worn ; and, in very cold weather, two wadded gowns, the nether one called THE COSTUME OF GENTLEMEN 225 shita-gi, the upper one uwa-gi, keep the body warm. In summer, the kimono is of thin material and of lighter colour, the ji-ban, or shirt, shows a white edge at the opening of the gown, and, indoors, or within the precincts of his own garden, the Shi-zoku throws off the summer baorij or overcoat, which is not necessarily black, like the one worn in winter, the silken hakama^ and even the summer kimono of r0, or gauze silk, and slips on a yukata, a cotton bath- gown, generally white with some minute blue pattern the perfection of a garment for lounging in hot weather. The loin-cloth (shita-obi) of bleached muslin is always worn next to the skin. Its plebeian counterpart, the fundoshi, is the foundation of the costume of every male Japanese who earns his rice or only his millet, by the sweat of his brow. When working away from houses, and secure from obser- vation by the lynx-eyed policemen, he reduces his dress to its simplest form the loin-cloth wondering greatly why the powers that be, should, at the instigation of the foreign- ers, object to his thus baring his brawny limbs, his muscular back and chest, just as untold generations of his ancestors did unmolested. The Shi-zoku has wisely reverted to his national dress, but in one point of his appearance he belongs irrevocably to New Japan. He wears his abundant hair cut in the Occidental fashion, not always, sooth to say, in the most approved Bond Street or Piccadilly style too frequently, an inverted pudding-basin would appear to have guided the scissors in their course but, uneven or sleek, his hair, with 226 JAPAN its parting in the European fashion, is a sign of the Great Change. One of the first acts of those who shaped the policy of New Japan was to order all officials to abandon the national mode of wearing the hair, the time-honoured custom of shaving the centre of the front and top of the head, leaving the backhair long, to be gathered into a little cue, the mage, which was bound with a string, wound round and round its base, and then bent forward, lying well over the shaven poll, the ends neatly cut and trimmed. A glance at any Japanese picture representing a scene of any period between the heroic times and 1870, containing bare-headed male figures, will show the mage, and will demonstrate its appropriateness to the Japanese countenance, to which it imparts a look of great intelligence, due to the high, shaven forehead, and of peculiar dignity. But the mage was a troublesome fashion, involving the frequent ministrations of the barber, and the loss of much time that was required, under the new dispensation, for the study of many difficult subjects, such as chemistry, and political economy, and Parliamentary government. So the mage had to be cut off, the smooth space on the head was suffered to grow a crop of stubble, and the fraternity of barbers groaned inwardly, and learnt to cut the hair after the fashion of the West. JAPANESE LADIES T. E. M. THE fair sex in Japan are the most simple, and, at the same time, the most complicated creatures im- aginable. In their general ideas and knowledge of the world they are like children delightful children too and in their love of enjoyment and simple pleasures they retain their youthful simplicity all their lives. But, on the other hand, it is almost impossible for a foreigner really to understand their natures. Up to a certain point a Japanese lady is apparently friendly, as she greets one on meeting with that easy grace and courtesy which is one of her pe- culiar charms. But one seldom becomes more intimate. There seems to be a wall of reserve beyond which it is im- possible to penetrate. I have vainly attempted to fathom the cause of this barrier, but without success ; and I find it is the general experience of those who, like myself, have lived amongst the Japanese, and know them well. Perhaps the natural antipathy which has so long existed between the Eastern and Western races may somewhat account for this want of intimacy, and I also fear we Eu- ropeans have often wounded the delicate susceptibilities of our Eastern cousins by our want of tact, and our tendency 227 228 JAPAN to treat their manners and customs with ridicule, if not contempt. I am speaking more particularly of the ladies of the upper classes. The little " musmee," generally considered by the ordinary globe-trotter to be the recognized type of a Jap- anese woman, is no more so than is the " grisette " the typical French woman, or the English ballet girl the typical Englishwoman. Nowhere, perhaps, in the world does one find a more ideal " lady " than amongst the wives and daughters of " fair Japonica." A Japanese lady reminds me of a deli- cate sea-anemone which at the first approach of a rough hand shrinks into itself, avoiding contact with the practical hardness of every-day life. She is almost morbidly sensi- tive, but her natural pride and politeness forbid her in any way to retaliate. How little we understand her feelings ! A Japanese never forgets. Sometimes revenge is impos- sible, but I have heard of more than one case when a for- eigner's official position had been lost owing to his wife's indiscretion, though he, and his wife also, may be entirely ignorant of the cause of the dismissal. In appearance a Japanese woman is smaller and of slighter build than a European. Many are distinctly pretty when young, but they age very quickly, and with their youth every vestige of good looks departs. Their com- plexions are very sallow, but their faces are generally thickly painted and powdered, a hard line round the neck showing the point where art stops and nature begins. JAPANESE LADIES 229 Beauty, from a Japanese standpoint, consists in a long, oval face, regular features, almond-shaped eyes, sloping slightly upwards, a high narrow forehead, and abundance of smooth, black hair. Their movements are graceful, al- though the style of their dress prevents them walking with ease ; their feet and hands are delicately formed, and their manners are unquestionably charming. They take little or no exercise, and one wonders some- times how the little ladies employ their time there seems so little to be done in a Japanese house. To begin with, there are no regular meals. The shops near at hand sup- ply daily numberless little dishes, which seem to be eaten at all hours of the day and night a few pecks at a time with those impossible little chopsticks. Very little is kept in the larder except some slices of daikon (fermented tur- nip), some rice and sweet biscuits. " The honourable live fish " is sold by men who carry round large water-tubs from house to house and cut off as much as is required from the unfortunate fish, and replace the sadly mutilated but struggling remains back in the tub. Eggs are plentiful and cheap ; bread is never used, so there is no necessity for an oven. The great stand-by is tea. A Japanese lady is seldom seen in her home without the quaint little tea-tray by her side, and the inevitable pipe, containing one whiff of to- bacco, which is in constant requisition. There is practically no furniture in a Japanese house. The beds consist of large quilted rugs, called futons, which 230 JAPAN are rolled up every morning and put in the cupboards con- cealed behind the shoji^ or panels in the walls. There are no carpets, curtains, tables or chairs, only the straw tatami ; and a few small flat cushions on the floor. Instead of our European fireplace, a brass or wooden hibatchi, i. e., firebox, is substituted, containing charcoal. The boxes can be moved about a room as desired. Everything is spotlessly clean. No muddy shoes are allowed inside a house, and one can generally judge of the number of inmates by the row of wooden clogs placed in a row outside the front door. Yes, it is all very quaint and strange in Japan, and the longer one lives in the country, the more fascinated one becomes with the little people whose manners and cus- toms differ so greatly from our own. A Japanese lady is noted for her courage, her strength of mind and self-possession. It is wonderful to think what physical trials and dangers these fragile little creatures will undergo in an emergency. From her youth a Japanese lady is taught to control her feelings, and the strange im- mobility that is so noticeable in the Empress is considered, from a Japanese point of view, the very highest mark of good breeding. The social position of Japanese women has very much changed for the better during the last few years, chiefly owing to foreign influence and the spread of Christianity in the country. The Empress, too, has done much by pro- moting charitable work of all kinds, and, through her in- fluence, the horrible custom of blackening the teeth and JAPANESE LADIES 231 shaving the eyebrows of married women has been abolished. Her personal interest in the Red Cross Society was espe- cially noticeable during the war, when she and the wives of many of the nobles visited, and some even nursed, the sick in hospital, and employed their days making lint and bandages for use of the wounded. A Japanese courtship and wedding are both very curious ceremonies, and still somewhat savour of barbarism. " When a young man has fixed his affections upon a maiden of suitable standing, he declares his love by fasten- ing a branch of a certain shrub to the house of the damsel's parents. If the branch be neglected, the suit is rejected ; if it be accepted, so is the suitor." At the time of the marriage the bridegroom sends presents to his bride as costly as his means will allow ; which she immediately of- fers to her parents, in acknowledgment of their kindness in infancy and of the pains bestowed upon her education. The wedding takes place in the evening. The bride is dressed in a long white silk kimono and white veil, and she and her future husband sit facing each other on the floor. Two tables are placed close by ; on the one is a kettle with two spouts, a bottle of sake, and cups ; on the other is a miniature fir-tree signifying the strength of the bride- groom ; a plum-tree, signifying the beauty of the bride; and lastly a stork standing on a tortoise representing long life and happiness desired by them both. At the marriage feast each guest in turn drinks three cups of the sake ; and the two-spouted kettle, also contain- 232 JAPAN ing sake, is put to the mouths of the bride and bridegroom alternately by two attendants, signifying that they are to share together joys and sorrows. The bride keeps her veil all her life, and at her death it is buried with her as her shroud. The chief duty of a Japanese woman all her life is obedience: whilst unmarried, to her parents; when mar- ried, to her husband and his parents ; when widowed, to her son. In the Greater Learning of Women, we read : " A woman should look upon her husband as if he were Heaven itself, and thus escape celestial punishment. The five worst maladies that afflict the female mind are : indocility, dis- content, slander, jealousy and silliness. Without any doubt these five maladies afflict seven or eight out of every ten women, and from them arises the inferiority of women to men. A woman should cure them by self-inspection and self-reproach. The worst of them, and the parent of the other four, is silliness ! " The above extract shows us very clearly the position which women have, until quite recently, taken in Japan. As a German writer says, her condition is the intermediate link between the European and the Asiatic. On the one hand, Japanese women are subjected to no seclusion, and are as carefully educated as the men, and take their place in society ; but, on the other hand, they have absolutely no independence, and are in complete subjection to their husbands, sons, and other relations. They are without legal rights, and under no circumstances can a wife obtain JAPANESE LADIES 233 a divorce or separation from her husband, however great his offence. Notwithstanding this, in no country does one find a higher standard of morality than amongst the mar- ried women of Japan. Faithlessness is practically un- known, although the poor little wives must often have much to put up with from their autocratic lords and mas- ters. They bear all, however, silently and uncomplain- ingly, their characteristic pride and reserve forbidding them show to the outer world what they suffer. JAPANESE CHILDREN MORTIMER MEMPES A CLUSTER of little Japanese children at play somehow suggests to me a grand picture-gallery, a picture-gallery of a nation. Every picture is a child upon which has been expended the subtle decorative sense of its family or neighbours, as expressed in the tint of its dress and sash and in the decoration of its little head. It is in the children that the national artistic and poetic nature of the Japanese people most assuredly finds expres- sion. Each little one expresses in its tiny dress some con- ception, some idea or thought, dear to the mother, some particular aspect of the national ideals. And just as in the West the character of a man can be gauged by the set and crease of his trousers, so in Japan are the sentiments and ideals of a mother expressed in the design and colour- ing of her baby's little kimono. Thus, when watching a group of children, maybe on a fete day, one instinctively compares them with a gallery of pictures, each of which is a masterpiece, painted by an artist whose individuality is clearly expressed therein. Each little picture in this gal- lery of children is perfect in itself; yet on closer study it will be found that the children are more than mere pictures. They tell us of the truths of Japan. The science of deportment occupies quite half the time 234 JAPANESE CHILDREN, BY MORTIMER MEMPES. JAPANESE CHILDREN 235 of the Japanese children's lives, and so early are they trained that even the baby of three, strapped to the back of its sister aged five, will in that awkward position bow to you and behave with perfect propriety and grace. This Japa- nese baby has already gone through a course of severe training in the science of deportment. It has been taught how to walk, how to kneel down, and how to get up again without disarranging a single fold of its kimono. After this it is necessary that it should learn the correct way to wait upon people how to carry a tray, and how to present it gracefully ; while the dainty handing of a cup to a guest is of the greatest importance imaginable. A gentleman can always tell the character of a girl and the class to which she belongs by the way she offers him a cup of sake. And then the children are taught that they must always control their feelings if they are sad, never to cry ; if they are happy, to laugh quietly, never in a boisterous manner, for that would be considered vulgar in the extreme. Modesty and reserve are insisted upon in the youth of Japan. A girl is taught that she must talk very little, but listen sympathetically to the conversation of her superiors. If she has a brother, she must look up to him as her mas- ter, even although he be younger than herself. She must give way to him in every detail. The baby boy places his tiny foot upon his sister's neck, and she is thenceforth his slave. If he is sad, her one care must be to make him happy. Her ambition is to imitate as nearly as possible the behaviour of her mother towards her own lord and master. 236 JAPAN A little boy flying a kite is like no other boy you have ever seen in England. There is a curious formality and staidness about him and his companions which never degen- erates into shyness. Once I drifted into a country village in search of sub- jects for pictures, and I found to my astonishment that every living soul there was flying a kite, from old men down to babies. It was evidently ayQfo-day, dedicated to kites; all business seemed abandoned, and every one either stood or ran about gazing up in the air at the respective toys. There were kites of every variety red kites, yellow kites, kites in the shape of fish, teams of fighting kites and sometimes whole battalions of them at war with kites of a different colour, attempting to chafe each other's strings. It rather surprised me at first to see staid old men keenly interested in so childish an amusement ; but in a very short time I too found myself running about with the rest, grasp- ing a string and watching with the greatest joy imaginable the career of a floating thing gorgeously painted, softly rising higher and higher in the air, until it mingled among the canopy of other kites above my head, becoming en- tangled for a moment, then leaving them and soaring up above the common herd, and side by side with a monstrous butterfly kite ; then came the chase, the flight and the downfall of one or the other. They were all children there, every one of them, from the old men downwards; all care and worry was for the time forgotten in the simple joy of flying kites ; and I too, in sympathy with the gaiety JAPANESE CHILDREN 237 about me, felt bubbling over with pure joy. To see these lovely flower-like child faces mingling with the yellow wrinkled visages of very old men, all equally happy in a game in which age played no part, was an experience never to be forgotten. None was too old or too young, and you would see mites strapped to the backs of their mothers, holding a bit of soiled knotted string in their baby fingers, and gazing with their black slit eyes at some tiny bit of a crumpled kite floating only a few inches away. Another game in which both the youth and the age of Japan play equal parts is the game of painting sand-pictures on the roadside. These sand-pictures are often executed by very clever artists ; but I have seen little children draw- ing exquisite pictures in coloured sands. Japanese children seem to have an instinctive knowledge of drawing and a facility in the handling of a paint-brush that is simply extraordinary. They will begin quite as babies to practise the art of painting and drawing, and more especially the art of painting sand-pictures. You will see groups of little children sitting in the playground of some ancient temple, each child with three bags of coloured sand and one of white, competing with one another as to who shall draw the quaintest and most rapid picture. The white sand they will first proceed to spread over the ground in the form of a square, cleaning the edges until it resembles a sheet of white paper. Then with a handful of black sand held in the chubby fingers, they will draw with the utmost rapidity the outline of some 238 JAPAN grotesque figure of a man or an animal, formed out of their own baby imaginations. Then come the coloured sands, filled in the spaces with red, yellow, or blue, ac- cording to the taste and fancy of the particular child artist. But the most extraordinary and most fascinating thing of all is to watch the performance of a master in sand-pictures. So dexterous and masterly is he that he will dip his hand first into a bag of blue sand, and then into one of yellow, allowing the separate streams to trickle out unmixed ; and then with a slight tremble of the hand these streams will be quickly converted into one thin stream of bright green, relapsing again into the streams of blue and yellow at a moment's notice. A Japanese mother will take infinite pains to cultivate the artistic propensities of her child, and almost the first lesson she teaches it is to appreciate the beauties of nature. She will never miss the opportunity of teaching the infant to enjoy the cherry-blossom on a sunny day in Ueno Park. Hundreds of such little parties are to be seen under the trees enjoying the blossom, while the mother seated in the middle of the group points out the many beauties of the scene. She will tell them dainty fairy stories to the boys, brave deeds of valour, to strengthen their courage ; to the girls, tales of unselfish and honour- able wives and mothers. Every story has a moral attached to it, and is intended to educate and improve the children in one direction or another. THE GEISHA MORTIMER MEMPES THE geisha begins her career at a very early age. When only two or three years old she is taught to sing and dance and talk, and above all to be able to listen sympathetically, which is the greatest art of all. The career of this tiny mite is carved out thus early be- cause her mother foresees that she has the qualities that will develop, and the little butterfly child, so gay and so brilliant, will become a still more gorgeous butterfly woman. Nothing can be too brilliant for the geisha ; she is the life and soul of Japan, the merry sparkling side of Japanese life ; she must be always gay, always laughing and always young ever to the end of her life. But for the girl who is to become the ordinary domesticated wife it is different. Starting life as a bright, light-hearted child, she becomes sadder and sadder in colour and in spirits with every passing year. Directly she becomes a wife, her one ambition is to become old in fact it is almost a craze with her. She shows it in every possible way in the way she ties her obi, the fashion in which she dresses her hair; everything that suggests the advance of the sere and yellow leaf she will eagerly adopt. When her huband gives a party, he calls in the geisha ; she herself, poor dear, sits 239 240 JAPAN up-stairs on a mat and is not allowed to be seen. She is called the " honoured interior/' and is far too precious and refined to figure in public life. The geisha in reality is a little genius, perfectly brilliant as a talker, and mistress of the art of dancing. But she knows that the Westerner does not appreciate or under- stand her fine classical dancing and singing, and she is so refined and so charming that she will not allow you to feel that you are ignorant and more or less vulgar but will instantly begin to amuse you in some way that she thinks you will enjoy and understand. She will perhaps unfold paper and draw rapid character-sketches of birds and fish, or dance a sort of spirited dance that she feels will enter- tain you. It is very seldom that they will show you their fine classical dances ; but if by good fortune you can over- persuade them, as I have done, the sight is one that you will never forget the slow, dignified movements, the placing of the foot and the hand, the exquisite curves and poses of the body, forming a different picture every time, all is a joy and a perfect intellectual treat to the artist and to the lover of beautiful things. There is no rushing about, no accordion skirt and high kick, nothing that in any way resembles the Western dance. Sometimes, if she finds that you appreciate the fine work, the geisha will give you imitations of the dancing on our stage at home, and although it is very funny, the coarseness of it strikes you forcibly. One never dines out or is enter- tained in Japan without the geisha forming a prominent THE GEISHA 241 part of the entertainment ; in fact, she herself decorates the room where you are dining, just as a flower or picture would decorate our dining-rooms at home, only better. And there is nothing more typical of the decorative sense innate in the Japanese than the little garden of geisha girls, which almost invariably forms the background of every tea- house dinner. The dinner itself, with its pretty doll-tables, its curious assortment of dainty viands set in red lacquer bowls, its quaint formalities, and the magnificent ceremonial costumes of its hosts, is an artistic scheme, elaborately thought out and prepared. But when, at the close, the troupe of geishas and mai'kos appears, forming (as it were) a pattern of gorgeous tropical flowers, the scene becomes a bit of decoration as daring, original and whimsically beau- tiful as any to be seen in this land of natural " placing " and artistic design and effect. The colours of kimonos, obis, fans, and head-ornaments blend, contrast and produce a carefully-arranged harmony, the whole converging to a centre of attraction, a grotesque, fascinating, exotic figure, the geisha of geishas that vermilion-and-gold girl who especially seizes me. She is a bewildering symphony in vermilion orange and gold. Her kimono is vermilion em- broidered in great dragons ; her obi is cloth of gold ; her long hanging sleeves are lined with orange. Just one little slim slip of apple-green appears above the golden fold of the obi and accentuates the harmony ; it is the crape cord of the knapsack which bulges the loops at the back and gives the Japanese curve of grace. The little apple-green 242 JAPAN cord keeps the obi in place, and is the discord which makes the melody. My vermilion girl's hair is brilliant black with blue lights, and shining where it is stiffened and gummed in loops and bands till they seem to reflect the gold lacquer and coral-tipped pins that bristle round her head. Yes, she is like some wonderful, fantastical, tropical blossom, that vermilion geisha girl, or like some hitherto unknown and gorgeous dragon-fly. And she is charming ; so sweetly, simply, candidly alluring. Every movement and gesture, each rippling laugh, each fan-flutter, each wave of her rice- powdered arms from out of their wing-like sleeves, is a joyous and naive appeal for admiration and sympathy. THE HOUSE AND ITS CUSTOMS MARCUS B. HUISH THE Japanese house principally differs from that of other nations in its want of substantiality. It is . fixed to no foundation, for it merely rests upon unhewn stones placed at intervals beneath it, and it usually consists of a panel-work of wood, either unpainted or painted black on the interior face ; sometimes it is of plaster, but this is the exception. Its roof is either shin- gled, tiled, or thatched with hay (kayo]. No chimneys break its skyline, for fires are seldom used. Where they are, their smoke issues from a hole left at the top of the angle of the gable. The worst side of the house is usually turned towards the street, the artistic towards the garden. The houses, as a rule, evidence the fact that the nation is poor, and that the Japanese does not launch out beyond his means, or what he can reinstate when it is destroyed, as it most probably will be during his lifetime, by fire or earth- quake. Two at least of the sides of the house have no permanent walls, and the same applies to almost every par- tition in the interior. These are merely screens fitting into grooves, which admit of easy and frequent removal. Those on the exterior, which are called shoji, are generally covered with white paper, so as to allow the light to pene- 243 244 JAPAN trate ; the shadows thrown upon these, when the light is inside, find many a place in the pages of the caricaturists. The interior screens are of thick paper, and are usually decorated with paintings. The rooms in the house are for the most part small and low; one can almost always easily touch the ceilings. The size of each is planned out most accurately according to the number of mats which it will take to cover the floor. These mats are always of the same size, namely, about seventy-two inches by thirty-six inches. The rooms are also rectangular and without re- cesses, save in the guest-room, where there are two, called toko-noma and cbigai-dana. In the toko-noma are hung the kakemono, or pictures, and on its floor, which is raised above the rest of the compartment, vases with flowers, an in- cense-burner, a figure of the household god, etc., are placed. The cbigai-dana is used as a receptacle for everything which we put in a cupboard. As a rule, it is fitted at the top with shelves, and below with a cupboard the former for the reception of the kakemono which are not in use, makemono or rolls, lacquer boxes, etc., and the latter for stowing away the bedding. Almost every Japanese house has a veranda, which is al- most a necessity where heavy rain is frequent and the sides of the house are composed of fragile materials such as the sboji. Round this veranda, therefore, wooden screens called amado are placed at night and in the rainy season; these are fixed into grooves, and slide along. JAPANESE INTERIOR, WITH ARRANGEMENT OF WINTER FLOWERS. THE HOUSE AND ITS CUSTOMS 245 No expensive paintwork, in feeble imitation of the wood it covers, stands ready to chip and scratch and look shabby. Everything remains as it left the carpenter's plane, usually smoothed but not polished. If the workman thought the bark upon the wood was pretty, he would probably leave even this, and he would certainly make no attempt to re- move any artistic markings caused by the ravages of a worm or larvae. Besides the guest-room, there was usually a special room set apart for the cha-no-yu^ or tea ceremony ; this was not always in the building, but often one apart from the house in the garden. The cha-no-yu had its origin three hundred years ago. A code of rules was formulated for its observ- ance, against which there was no appeal ; it inculcated morality, good fellowship, politeness, social equality, and simplicity. " The members of the association were," as Mr. Anderson says, " the critics and connoisseurs, whose dicta consecrated or condemned the labours of artist or author, and established canons of taste, to which all works, to be successful in their generation, must conform." The seances constituted symposia in which abstruse questions of philosophy, literature, and art were discussed from the standpoint of acknowledged authority. Persons in Japan who wish to start housekeeping are saved one great expense, namely, furnishing. No carpets, tables, bedsteads, wardrobes, or cupboards find a place in their requirements. Nor does the Japanese require chairs, for he is only comfortable when resting on his knees and 246 JAPAN heels on a cushion (zabutori) ; and he must have his hibachi or fire vessel, and his tobako-bon, or tobacco-tray. The hibachi is a portable fire-place, which throws out a slight heat, and also serves as a source whence to light the pipe. It contains small pieces of charcoal. According to the ex- haustive work of Professor Morse on Japanese Homes, whenever a caller comes, the first act of hospitality, whether in winter or summer, is to place the hibachi before him. Even in shops it is brought in and placed on a mat when the visitor enters. At a winter party one is assigned to each guest, and the place where each is to sit is indicated by a square cloth cushion. The tobako-bon is also handed to a visitor ; it contains a small earthen jar for holding charcoal. The baskets used for holding the charcoal for the hibachi and tobako-bon are often very artistically made. The only other articles of furniture will be the kotatsu, a square wooden frame, which in winter is placed over the hibachi or stove, and is covered with a large wadded quilt or futon (under this the whole family huddle for warmth), the pillow (makura), and the lantern (andon) which feebly il- lumines the apartment. No Japanese would think of sleep- ing without having this burning throughout the night. All houses were until lately (1889) lit at night by lanterns, but now paraffine lamps are driving them out and assisting to increase the fires. Owing to the frequent visi- tation of fire, to which Japanese towns and villages are subject, almost every house of any importance possesses a kura, or " godown," a fireproof isolated building, in which THE HOUSE AND ITS CUSTOMS 247 all the valuables are kept. Fires are so constantly occur- ring that it is almost impossible to take up a number of a Japanese weekly paper without more than one notification that several hundred houses have been de- stroyed. The consumption of lanterns in Japan is enormous, without counting the export trade. Every house has dozens for internal use and for going out at night. These latter are placed in a rack in the hall ; each bears the owner's name in Chinese characters, or his crest, in red or black on a white ground. One burns outside most houses and shops, and every foot-passenger carries one. No fes- tival is complete without thousands of them. Smoking is a universal habit with the Japanese. It be- gins, interrupts, and ends his day. The pipes used are very small in the bowl, and only hold sufficient tobacco for three or four whiffs ; these are swallowed and expelled through the nostrils. In consequence of their tiny capacity they are often taken for opium pipes ; upon them and the tobacco-pouch, artists lavish all their skill. Many, perhaps the majority of the objects which come to Europe are utensils for food ; it may therefore be inter- esting to describe a meal in a well-to-do house. Herr Rein says that each person is served separately on a small table or tray. For solid food, he uses chopsticks, but his soup he drinks from a small lacquered bowl. Upon his table will be found a small porcelain bowl of rice, and dishes upon which are relishes of fish, etc.; a tea-pot, for 248 JAPAN the contents of which a saucer instead of a cup is used. The stimulants will be either tea (cha] or rice beer (sake). The tea is native green, and no milk or sugar is used ; it is drunk on every possible occasion, and is even served when one visits a shop. The tea apparatus (cha-dogu) is always in readiness in the living-room, viz., a brazier with live coals (hibachi)) tray (ban) tea-pot (dobin or cha-bin)^ cups (cba-wan) and a tea-caddy (cha-ire). So too a labourer going to work carries with him a bento of lacquered wood for his rice, a kettle, a tea-caddy, a tea-pot, a cup, and chopstick (hasht). The sake contains a certain amount of fusel oil, and is in- toxicating ; it is usually drunk warm from sake cups, which may be either of lacquer or porcelain. Rice being the prin- cipal condiment, a servant kneels by with a large pailful, and replenishes the bowls as they are held out to her; it is eaten at almost every meal, the only substitute being groats made out of millet, barley, or wheat. Bread is seldom used. Other favourite edibles are gigantic radishes (daikon), which frequently figure in Art, lotus roots, young bamboo shoots, cucumbers, of which a single person will often consume three or four a day ; so, too, the dark violet fruit of the egg-plant, and fungi (the subject of frequent illustration) are eaten at almost every meal. With fruits the Japanese is sparsely supplied ; his grapes, peaches, pears and walnuts will not compare with Western specimens, but the persim- mon, with which the ape is always associated, and which is always cropping up in fairy stories, a brillant orange- coloured fruit, the size of an apple, is common enough ; THE HOUSE AND ITS CUSTOMS 249 the tree grows to a large size, and holds its fruit in the autumn even after it has lost its leaves. The wife eats separately from her husband in another room with the rest of the females, and holds a position lit- tle higher than that of an upper servant. No notice of a Japanese house would be complete without some reference to the incense-burners (ko-ro), which find a place there, and also in Buddhist temples. An article which finds a place in most houses and in all shops and is constantly depicted in Art is the soroban, a frame enclosing rows of balls moving on wires by which accounts and calculations are made. Another article which is constantly being drawn is a besom, which must typify industry. In this respect the Jap is singularly clean, as every evening there is a simulta- neous and universal sweeping up of the fronts of the houses. Hokusai is very fond of drawing persons sweeping, especially falling leaves. The old couple, Giotomba, 1 always have a broom and rake. Picnicing is one of the favourite and the mildest of the out-door amusements. It is indulged in by all classes and at all seasons of the year. At stated times the roads lead- ing from the large towns are thronged with animated and joyous crowds proceeding to some favourite haunt. The excuses for picnicing are many and various. For instance : upon a certain day in January all the world sallies forth to gather seven different kinds of grasses, which upon the re- turn home, are made into a salad. 'An old man and woman, spirits of the pine. THE JAPANESE HEARTH SIR EDWIN ARNOLD I DO not remember that anybody has ever yet, in de- scribing Japan, done any sort of sufficient justice to the immense and important part borne by the hibachi in the domestic life of this people. Tourists, travellers, and corre- spondents casually, indeed, mention the article, as something special to Japan, but forget to say how the entire existence of the Japanese centres in this very peculiar little institu- tion. The hibachi is a fire-box, of which the simplest form is that of a square, or circular, or oblong receptacle of wood lined with sheet-copper. Into this a quantity of lime-dust, or sifted ashes, is put, and on the top of that a little pile of lighted charcoal, which burns slowly and steadily upon the fine ashes, giving out heat, but not a vestige of smoke. This is the primitive and plainest form of the " fire-box," such as will be seen in use for common pur- poses, at railway stations, in Kuruma-sheds, in wayside tea- houses and restaurants, and in unpretentious shops. But Japanese skill and taste love to lavish themselves on this central piece of domestic furniture, and you see hibachis^ accordingly, of all forms and materials. Some are made of hammered copper, or brass, or iron, with patterns delicately and beautifully beaten out of the burnished metal. Some I 250 THE JAPANESE HEARTH 251 have seen in great houses contrived from the root of a vast tree, the gnarled and knotted timber being laboriously hol- lowed out and lined with copper, and the exterior carefully polished to bring forth the beauty of the grain. These fantastic " fire-boxes " are in much vogue for country vil- las and smoking-rooms. The hibachi for daily home service must be useful before all things, and the general shape of it is, as I have said, that of an oblong box, about two feet in length by fourteen inches broad and a foot deep. Two- thirds of the length of this structure is occupied by the fire-box proper, lined with metal, and laid with carefully sifted ashes, upon which glows the little nest of red sumi- sticks. Upon the top of that will be placed a four-legged frame of iron, which supports the bronze kettle, the tea-pot, and, at need, a small gridiron of wire, or a glazed frying- pan in which fish are stewed or fried, or else the earthen dish whereupon the inmates roast their bean-cakes, or the slices of daikon. The remainder of the hibachi is made up of clever little drawers, and unsuspected compartments, where the lady of the house whose special possession the " fire-box " is keeps a world of things which profit by being dry, her biscuits, her paper for accounts, needles and thread, kanzashis, combs, tea, chopsticks, and what not. Thus this piece of furniture is at one and the same moment the household hearth, the larder, the work-box, the writing- case, the toilette-stand, the kitchen, and the natural centre for the family of conversation, employment, and needle- work. But it may combine these with ever so much beauty 252 JAPAN and richness of external decoration, and it is common to see the hibachi built of very beautiful striped and variegated woods, its drawers and compartments delicately adorned with chased handles and placques of silver or bronze metal, while neat little mats of plaited grass or embroidered velvet are laid upon the highly honoured part where the tea-pot of porcelain and the pretty small painted tea-cups usually stand. Sometimes a table for writing and working is ingeniously blended with the other conveniences, and there is one special form of hibacbi, used for imparting heat in cold weather, which is closed in with a lattice of light wood- work all around. You can cover this over vf\t\\ futons, or bed- rugs, and warm the hands and feet in the confined glow, or, on frosty nights, you can put it boldly and bodily under the bed-clothes, and derive from it all the advantage of a per- manent warming-pan. Then there is the tobacco-mono, another special form of the hibacbi, but entirely devoted to the eternal kiseru, the small pipe of brass and bamboo in which the Japanese perpetually indulge. This is a kind of smaller fire-box, with a bed of ashes for the ever-glowing charcoal, a couple of drawers for the delicately cut fragrant tobacco, and a little compartment where the brass and sil- ver tipped pipes repose while not in use. There is a cover, with an opening, for the charcoal, and a handle by which the tobacco-mono is carried about ; for it accompanies the owner everywhere to bed, to breakfast, to dinner on all occasions; and next to the sliding of the shoji, the most uni- versal sound heard, perhaps, in Japan, is the tapping of the THE JAPANESE HEARTH 253 little kiseru on the edge of the tobacco-box, when, for the hundredth time during the day, the little pipe has been filled, and lighted, and the one full puff " ippuku " taken, which satisfies the refined and delicate desires of the Nippon smoker. You must realize then, or try to realize, the prodigious import and positive universality of the domestic "fire-box" in Japan. There must exist at least as many as the inhabit- ants of the country that is to say, about 40,000,000. Every shop has one in front of its shelves and bales, and every tea-house or hotel keeps them by the score, because the first thing brought to a traveller, or customer, on arrival, is the ktbacki, either to warm him, or to furnish a chronic light for his pipe, or simply from habit and hospi- tality. The tradesmen and those who come to buy at his shop gather over the bronze fire-box to discuss prices, and at a dinner-party a hibachi is placed between every pair of guests. In the interior of an ordinary Japanese home, however, one sees the national institution in its simplest use. There it stands, always lighted, at least during the autumn and winter months, and in its copper receptacle the bed of ashes, and the glowing nest of genial fire. It is good to see with what dainty care the Japanese dame will pick up, stick by stick, and fragment by fragment, the precious pieces of charcoal which have fallen from off the central fire ! With what delicate skill she builds a little dome or peak over the tiny crater of the domestic volcano, arranging and distributing ! With what silent interest 254 JAPAN everybody watches her purse up her lips, and gently but persistently blow upon the sleeping fire till the scarlet life of it creeps from the central spark into every grey and black bit of the heap, and the bibachi is once more in high activity. Then the hands of the household meet over the kindly warmth, for this is the only " hearth " of the domi- cile, and when the palms and wrists are warm all the body will be comfortable. There are little square cushions laid all around the fire-box, and upon this we kneel and chat. You must drop nothing into that sacred centre in the way of cigar-ends, stumps of matches, or cigarette-paper ; it is the Vestal Fire, not to be violated by disrespectful fuel. But you may put the tetsubin on it, and boil the " honour- able hot water," or fry peas over it, or cook little fishes, or stew slices of orange and persimmon, and in fact treat it as a supplementary kitchen to the larger and permanent hearth established in the daidokoro. Every now and then the mis- tress of the house, who has the seat of honour before it, controlling the supply of sumi and the brass bashij with which the fire-box is tended, will delicately and economic- ally pick out with them from the brass basket at her side, a nodule or two more of charcoal, and place these on the sinking fire, treating her sumi-hako, or charcoal-store, as elegantly and sparingly as a London lady would the sugar- basin. Confess that it is a mark of the refined natural life of this people, that they have thus for their family hearth- stove a pretty piece of cabinet-work lined with copper, and THE JAPANESE HEARTH 255 for their coal-cellar a tiny flower-basket filled with a hand- ful of clean picked charcoal ! You might place the entire affair on the toilet table of a duchess, and not spoil or soil one lappet of her laces, or leave one speck of dust upon her mirrors and her dressing-bags. Japan in her social aspects is already, in truth, half understood when the universal use and the graceful utility of the hibachi have thoroughly be- come comprehended. One happy consequence of this omnipresent employment of charcoal for domestic and culinary purposes is that Japa- nese cities, villages, and abodes are perfectly free from smoke. The clear air is always unpolluted by those clouds of defacing and degrading black smuts which blot out our rare sunshine in London, and help to create its horrible fogs. There is no doubt a peril of a special kind in the fire-box. If not supplied from the kitchen hearth with glowing coals already past their first firing, there will be a constant efflux of carbonic acid gas into the room, which will kill you, subtly and slowly, as certainly as an overdose of opium. In European apartments this would prove a very serious danger, but the shojl and sliding doors of wood let in so many little sources of ventilation and the rats, moreover, take care to gnaw so many holes in the paper of the mado that the fatal gas becomes dispelled or diluted as fast as it is created. Nevertheless accidents occur, espe- cially in bath-rooms where the fune, or great tub, is heated by a large mass of raw charcoal, and there was a case a week ago in Yokohama of a sea-captain found dead in the 256 JAPAN furo-do of his hotel. The Japanese are too wise to sleep with a large hibachi in their apartments. They know well that the deadly gas, being heavy, sinks to the bottom of the room, where their futons are spread upon the mats ; and they either put the fire-box outside, or are careful to see that it has " honourable mature charcoal " burning low in it. GARDENS jT. J. REIN ENCLOSED fruit and vegetable gardens, such as are usually found with us around the dwelling, are un- known to the Japanese. He plants his Yasai- mono (vegetables) on the Hatake, or Sai-yen, the vegetable ground in the open field. He calls the fenced tree-nursery Uye-gomi, and the little ornamental garden, commonly be- hind the house, Niwa (Sono is the poetical expression) or Ko-yen. It is the Niwa which chiefly interests us. Siebold says that even in the large cities there is scarcely a house which has not its garden, or at least a court adorned with one or more evergreen trees. This idea has become very prevalent, but it is nevertheless erroneous. Extensive journeys through different portions of the three principal islands of Old Japan, and the numerous observations in cities and countries have convinced me that only a small proportion of dwellings have any ornamental or particu- larly cultivated piece of ground about them, and that these are only to be found in the homes of the cultured and wealthy classes. Even the substitute for a garden the court with its few evergreen trees (more properly bushes) although frequently seen, is still only an exception. The two shrubs which are found most often in these narrow 257 258 JAPAN courtyards are the Toshuro (Raphis flabelliformis), a kind of fan palm about two inches in height, and even more gen- erally the Nanten (Nandina domesticd), a bush which seldom grows more than one to two inches high. Its trunk, when old, is covered with a rugged bark. It bears red berry clusters in winter, and is a favourite house-decoration at the New Year. The enclosures of gardens and parks differ greatly. They are whitewashed mud and stone walls, palings generally of bamboo cane and quickset hedge. Quickset hedges are seen most often around the houses of the Samurai. They are generally very carefully cultivated and trimmed and shut off a small garden from the street. Oftentimes a pretty bamboo paling takes their place, but in this case an evergreen thicket grows just behind it, so as to hide the modest dwelling as much as possible from the passers-by. It can hardly be doubted that flower cultivation and the art of gardening among the Japanese received their first impulse and encouragement from Buddhist priests. For many centuries the Chinese had cultivated the beautiful ornamental plants which were brought from China to adorn altars and graves, temple courts and holy pools, gardens and parks; also the plants which, like the peony and lotus, were at the same time producers of valuable medicines. In the enjoyment of the beautiful appearance and prosperity of the foreign plants, interest in the indigenous flora increased also, and its finest specimens GARDENS 259 were gradually brought into cultivation and carefully reared. As the feudal system developed in Japan and, under the rule of the Tokugawa, the privileged classes enjoyed their prerogatives in peace, the parks surrounding the fortresses of the Daimios and their Yashikis in Yedo became the gathering-place of various ornamental plants which had been introduced gradually from the neighbouring continent, and principally of those which had been borrowed from the splendid indigenous flora. 1 Every Samurai cultivated as large a selection as space would permit in the little garden which was his pleasure-ground, but the nationality of the little plants after so many digressions was unrecognizable. The Japanese ornamental garden is not intended to be an abode, but merely to please the eye. It is not a pleas- ure-garden or jardln 8o,583 tons were British ; 385 of 1,192,153 tons, German; 284 of 455,243 tons, Russian; 188 of 240,906 tons, Norwegian; 175 of 404,724 tons, American ; and 154 of 303,690 tons, French. The Japanese have shown great energy in developing their railway lines. In 1900, there were 2, 802 miles of private railway and 833 miles of Government. The latter owns the Tokaido, Shinano and Echigo as well as the Oshiu and Dewa lines (66 1 miles). Progress is being made on the East Coast route. A railway was opened in Formosa in 1900 from Takao to Tainan (forty miles), and a Japanese line is also being built in Korea from Fusan to Seoul. In the budget of 19012, the net profit on these lines was estimated at 746,977. In 1899, there were 1,562 miles of telephone. In 1897, tne currency was placed upon a gold standard, the unit of value is 0.75 grammes of pure gold and is PRESENT CONDITIONS 371 called the yen which is not coined, the smallest gold coin being the 5~yen piece. The old silver 5~sen piece and copper 2, i and ^ sen pieces are used as formerly. The sen is the hundredth part of a yen and the rin is the tenth part of a sen. In 1901 the local exchange value of the yen was 2s o^d. The paper money in circulation is Nippon Ginko notes, or notes of the Bank of Japan, ex- changeable for gold on presentation, amounted on April i, 1902, to 187,194,336 yen. The revenue for 1902-3 amounted to 273,630,836 yen and the expenditure, 270,424,495 yen. The constitution permits freedom of religious belief and practice. There is no state religion nor state support, although the state and local authorities support many shrines. In 1900, there were 196,358 of these shrines dedicated to the eminent ancestors of the Imperial House and meritorious subjects. The chief forms of religion are Shintoism (with twelve sects) and Buddhism (with twelve sects and thirty-two creeds). In 1900, there were 89,507 Shinto priests and 687 students, while there were 71,951 Buddhist temples, 111,264 bonzes, and 9,276 students. Moreover there were 1,035 churches and preaching stations of the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Protestant Churches. The two Universities are Tokio Imperial University and Kioto Imperial University. Both are supported by the Government. Elementary education is compulsory. There are about 27,000 elementary schools with more than 4,300,000 pupils. Technical schools are rapidly increas- 372 JAPAN ing. Formosa has a special educational system. In 1900, Japan had forty-three libraries with 525,971 volumes. In that year 944 periodicals and newspapers and 18,281 books were published. THE END. 000 452 407