I
 
 i^mOkiM 
 
 ^0l\n ^r;xntx^ (S^ontke,
 
 HISTORY OF NATIONS.
 
 -TTT, TJ^^Q^^ 
 
 l\ 
 
 i*-, vi. 
 
 ^''^-^ ^^^-^^ /APM. 
 
 THE MIKADO 
 
 TRY. •VT^Af^
 
 THE 
 
 CAPITAL OF THE TYCOON: 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF A 
 
 THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN JAPAN. 
 
 BY SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK, K.C.B., 
 
 BKB MAnSTT'S BIfTOT KZTBAOSDIMABT AND MIMIBTXB PUEMIPOTENTIABT HT JAPAK. 
 
 WITH MAPS AND KUMEBOUS ILLCSTKATIONS. 
 
 Look yet muter Tra7eler : unless ye note something worth the seeing, and eome home 
 wiser than ye went, I wouldn't gire a stag's horn for all your travels.' 
 
 OldPIiAT. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 THE BRADLEY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 
 
 NEW YOBK
 
 AA .UNIVERSITY OF CA LTPORNU 
 
 A4 SANTA BARBARA ^^ 
 
 TO 
 
 SIR JOHN F. DAVIS, BART, K,C.R 
 
 My dear Sir John, — The age of formal dedications and 
 stilted prefaces has long passed away, and it may safely be 
 assumed that they ceased to be written, because the public 
 ceased to read them. As often happens in like cases, all 
 parties gained by the arrangement ; and I have no intention 
 whatever of reviving an obsolete custom. Yet something 
 in the nature of an introduction is often a great advantage 
 both to the writer and the reader ; and I think in the pres- 
 ent instance the latter will turn the pages over with more 
 satisfaction, if the circumstances under which the book has 
 been written and the principal objects kept in view by the 
 writer are first understood. 
 
 In determining to write a few introductory remarks for 
 the benefit of those who, like yourself, will take up the book 
 for what it may contain, and in a letter to your address, I 
 am glad of the opportunity thus afforded me of saying pub- 
 licly, that to no one could such a work on Japan as it has 
 been my aim to supply, have been more fitly dedicated, on 
 public grounds, than to the author of the best and only pop- 
 ular work we possess on the Chinese Empire, and the first 
 who succeeded in making the subject familiar to readers in 
 general. While on personal grounds, to whom could I more 
 appropriately have addressed this latest fruit of my labors 
 in the East, than to the chief under whom I first commenced 
 my career in those regions, now nearly twenty years ago ? 
 Or to one whose interest in those outlying empires of the 
 far East has never flagged ; and who, I am quite sure, will 
 read this new contribution to our information on the Japa- 
 nese with all the attention the most earnest and conscien- 
 tious writer could desire.
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 You will soon perceive that I have not written merely 
 for amusement — either my own or the reader's — and yet I 
 should be sorry to think that amusement may not be found 
 in its pages; for if I hesitate to adopt in its fullest sense the 
 French axiom, ^ious les genres sont bons hors le genre ennuyeux,^ 
 I am quite sure that he who wearies never convinces or per- 
 suades, and I desire to do both. With the best intention, 
 however, there have been many difficulties to overcome in 
 the effort to give to the public a work calculated to satisfy 
 the desire for something novel and instructive concerning 
 the Japanese Empire. To write any thing that should be 
 worth reading, and yet not trench upon the rule of official 
 reserve in all matters not open to public discussion, was in 
 itself a difficulty independent of every other. It might have 
 been easy to put a new face on things old and familiar, but 
 this did not enter into my plan. In drawing up this narra- 
 tive of a three years' residence at the Court of the Tycoon, 
 I had, on the contrary, two objects more especially in view, 
 neither of which could be attained by any such procedure. 
 The one was to give the results of a careful study of the sin- 
 gular people among whom my lot had been cast, and thus, 
 if possible, supply a great deficiency in our knowledge, from 
 personal observation and original resources ; — the other, to 
 throw some light, however faint and broken, on the condi- 
 tions of all Western diplomacy in its struggles with Eastern 
 character and Eastern policy. The latter was in some de- 
 gree new ground, and had therefore the recommendation of 
 novelty ; but it had also a disadvantage attaching, which 
 you will readily appreciate from having occupied a similar 
 official position. Narratives of missions to distant countries, 
 and to Eastern Courts more particularly, have often before 
 appeared, it is true, written either avowedly by the Envoys 
 themselves, or by the Secretaries, with their sanction and 
 materials. Indeed, to these sources the world is chiefly in- 
 debted for most of the information we actually possess at 
 the present day of countries which lie out of the beaten 
 track of Western diplomacy. But, in the majority of these
 
 PREFACE. vh 
 
 cases, the writers had retired from the scene of their labors, 
 and were not likely therefore to be brought in contact again 
 with those whose acts they may have described. And I 
 should probably have hesitated, had it not seemed important 
 to furnish materials for a right judgment, in matters of na- 
 tional concern connected with Japan and our relations there, 
 — while it might yet be time to avert, by the intelligent ap- 
 preciation of our true situation, grievous disappointment as 
 well as increased complications and great calamities, A 
 free expression of opinion in matters of public interest is not 
 to be lightly adventured upon however ; and, in many cases, 
 those holding office are altogether precluded from such ac- 
 tion. At the same time, much mischief is often done by un- 
 due reticence in matters which must, in a country like ours, 
 be the subject of public discussion. It so happened that I 
 was relieved from any difficulty under this head, by the pub- 
 lication, in extenso, of the greater number of my dispatches, 
 which were printed and laid before Parliament. And not 
 only was the necessity for silence obviated by such publica- 
 tion in this country, but a similar course was followed at 
 Washington in respect to the dispatches of my colleague, 
 the American Minister, during the same period. As in each 
 of these series there is a very unreserved expression of opin- 
 ion as to the political situation of the country, the action 
 of the Japanese authorities, the views entertained by Col- 
 leagues, and the conduct of the Foreign communities, — the 
 decision of the respective Governments of both countries to 
 make the dispatches public, and this so freely as to leave 
 little of a confidential character unprinted, effectually re- 
 moved all the impediments which might otherwise have ex- 
 isted. Secret diplomacy is a favorite taunt of our Trans- 
 atlantic cousins when criticising European institutions and 
 government ; but, in so far as Great Britain is concerned, it 
 would be difficult to show any nation, not even the Ameri- 
 cans themselves, less open to the reproach. The discussion 
 of public affairs in both Houses of Parliament, the free ex- 
 pression of opinion on the most delicate questions affecting
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 our international relations, and the ample information re- 
 quired in Parliament, and given by the heads of depart- 
 ments, both verbally and in Blue Books, are all so many 
 refutations of any charge of this nature, and result so natu- 
 rally and unavoidably from our popular form of govern- 
 ment, that nothing really secret or confidential can well 
 remain in the archives of any public office. With such 
 documents and information before the public in regard to 
 Japanese affairs, therefore there could be little room for in- 
 discretion in any farther contributions on the same subject. 
 You will accordingly find no transaction of an official char- 
 acter touched upon in these pages, and no opinion expressed 
 on the progress of events, the policy these seemed to indi- 
 cate, or the people with whom I came in contact in my offi- 
 cial capacity, that can take any one by surprise as new, or 
 that has not already been in print. But, as regards the 
 reading public, I do not think that circumstance will in any 
 degree deprive the work of its claims to novelty. Blue 
 Books are often full of valuable matter, but they do not 
 generally find a place among the popular literature of the 
 day. A process of distillation and transmutation has first 
 to take place, through the leaders of the duily press and the 
 pages of periodicals, before they become fit food for the mil- 
 lion ; and something of this kind I have endeavored to ac- 
 complish here in respect to our political relations. The 
 same leading facts will be found in both, but not in the same 
 digestible shape or form. As regards the Japanese authori- 
 ties, my Colleagues, or the Foreign communities in Japan, 
 I repeat there is nothing in my opinions, as here narrated, 
 which has not been freely spoken on the spot, or that could 
 well be unknown to any of the parties immediately con- 
 cerned, even if not already in print. Those opinions may 
 not always be flattering, either to the Japanese or to others, 
 and I do not expect they will be liked ; but I have great 
 faith in honesty of purpose and absence of malice, and these 
 must be my justification now as heretofore. Truth I be- 
 lieve to be far less dangerous, to those who have the courage
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 to utter it, than misapprehension or misrepresentation. I 
 have never disguised from the Japanese authorities, as my 
 published dispatches prove, the opinions I entertained of 
 their proceedings toward Foreigners from time to time, and 
 the unsatisfactory course of action generally pursued. If I 
 have spoken in these pages of the authorities generally, the 
 system of government, and more especially their policy to- 
 ward Foreigners, honestly according to my knowledge and 
 convictions, I told them on the spot quite as honestly and 
 plainly what those convictions were. And yet I had con- 
 clusive evidence, at the hour of my departure, that they ap- 
 preciated the fairness of my dealings, and trusted me, more 
 absolutely and entirely, than I could have believed possible, 
 without such unmistakable proof as they spontaneously gave 
 me. Nor will the two things seem incompatible to any one 
 who has had much experience of Asiatics. You must often 
 have seen, in your long intercourse with Easterns, how un- 
 failingly they learn, in spite of their own habitual want of 
 veracity, to trust in the truth and respect the honesty of one 
 of our race, if, after some intercourse, they find that he will 
 not stoop to trickery or falsehood for any temporary advan- 
 tage either may give. 
 
 So much for the official difiiculties of my task. But 
 these were not the only ones to be encountered. The in- 
 corrigible tendency of the Japanese to withhold from For- 
 eigners or disguise the truth on all matters great and small ; 
 and consequently the absence of reliable information on al- 
 most every subject necessary to the full elucidation of their 
 character, institutions, and system of government, consti- 
 tuted another obstacle. 
 
 In the following work I have only sought, therefore, to 
 render a faithful account of what I observed, with better 
 opportunities as a resident Minister in the capital than had 
 been enjoyed by any previous writer on Japan. But hav- 
 ing studied the practical working of the Government ma- 
 chinery — the policy adopted in relation to Foreigners, and 
 the action of hostile parties among the privileged classes, I 
 
 A2
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 believed I might bring some useful materials to aid the con- 
 sideration of our own interests. On the other hand, the 
 narrative I have given of all the trials and difficulties which 
 surround a Diplomatic Agent in such a field is calculated, 
 I hope and believe, to throw some new light on questions 
 which, of all others, have most engrossed public attention 
 of late years in connection with our Eastern relations, name- 
 ly, what are the essential and inherent conditions attaching 
 to all Western diplomacy in the East? What are the ne- 
 cessities and exigencies — with our will, or against it — which 
 govern our action? Lastly, what are the limits within 
 which we may reasonably look for success in our efforts to 
 amalgamate two conflicting civilizations, and open new 
 markets for our manufactures, without resort to force, or 
 coercive means of any kind ? While discussing these deli- 
 cate questions, I have carefully avoided expressing any 
 opinion of my own as to the policy actually to be followed, 
 and confined myself to a statement of the probable or inev- 
 itable conditions of different courses of action which might 
 be suggested, as matters in the abstract perfectly open to 
 discussion. In my position, it is not for me either to pre- 
 scribe or to advocate in these pages a particular policy. My 
 business is to afford the best information in my power, and 
 in office to carry out such instructions as I may receive. 
 
 With the details of my daily life, and the leading events 
 which marked the first three years of a permanent Legation 
 in the capital of the Tycoon, you will see I have mingled 
 illustrations of the life, manners, and customs of the Japan- 
 ese of all classes — from the Feudal Prince with his two- 
 sworded henchmen and retainers, to the humble and peace- 
 loving peasant. With many of these I came more or less 
 constantly in contact, and sometimes under unlooked-for 
 and striking circumstances. The relations between the dif- 
 ferent classes was always a subject of great interest to me, 
 and in my journeys through the interior I had many op- 
 portunities, not otherwise attainable, of studying them with 
 advantage. I trust, therefore, the work, upon the whole, is
 
 PREFACE. Xl 
 
 not likely to disappoint any reader who seeks information 
 on the character of the people, their daily life, manners, and 
 customs. And as giving many curious glimpses of the 
 working of their laws, their peculiar system of government 
 and a masked policy, something of interest may also be 
 found. In so far as these are true revelations, they can not 
 well fail to be acceptable to many. To you it will be read- 
 ily enough apparent that I have sought especially to lay 
 bare the inherent difficulties under which all commercial 
 and diplomatic relations with the far East, for many years 
 to come at least, must be maintained, if maintained at all ; 
 and the risks to be encountered in any efforts to open new 
 markets in these regions. On this part of the subject exact 
 information has long been much needed. Nor do I think 
 any Government can lose by the truth being known. Nei- 
 ther the Japanese Government, which may seem the most 
 damaged by these expositions of their habitual course 
 (founded, as I believe, in partial ignorance of certain immu- 
 table conditions), fraught with danger to them and to us, 
 nor Her Majesty's Government, which (in equal ignorance 
 of those same inevitable and inseparable conditions) is some- 
 times expected or required to effect impossibilities. There 
 will always be pressure upon any government of the day in 
 a manufacturing country like ours, to open new markets 
 and impose new treaties upon Eastern races ; while, on the 
 other hand, there will also be a strong pressure, from mo- 
 tives of economy and philanthropy, either separate or com- 
 bined, to keep the peace and avoid Eastern complications. 
 Can both these objects be reconciled, or are the; wholly and 
 absolutely incompatible ? That is a question which it be- 
 hooves all parties to answer rightly and with full knowl- 
 edge. Governments are often made responsible for results 
 which no government in the world can prevent. This is 
 especially true in regard to the relations of Western with 
 Eastern Powers ; and if the natural causes at work were 
 better understood, or the laws which govern thera, there 
 would not only be less chance of injustice, but very much
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 less disappointment. Perhaps, too, less eagerness for Treaty 
 relations with. Eastern races, wholly unprepared to enter 
 into them in any spirit of reciprocity and good will. But 
 to exercise any good influence in this direction, beneficial 
 alike to governments and subjects, it was obviously neces- 
 sary to state the truth in sufficient fullness and detail to car- 
 ry conviction, as well as to give needful information. There 
 is, in truth, no alternative between this and saying nothing. 
 Any partial, mutilated, or half statements of the real state 
 of affairs, and the influences in operation, would be worse 
 than none at all ; because, while there would be a pretense 
 of giving information, the account so given could only tend 
 to mislead. I have told all I thought necessary, therefore, 
 without a doubt as to the benefit such true knowledge of 
 Eastern politics and conditions of intercourse is calculated 
 to bring in its train ; and without fear, I will add, of being 
 held censurable, for clearing the way to a better apprecia- 
 tion of the difficulties inherent in, and inseparable from all 
 political and commercial relations with Eastern tribes and 
 potentates. Both the nations and their Kulers have as yet 
 every thing to learn of the principles which govern rela- 
 tions between Western Powers, and are apt to make very 
 sad blunders — sad in their immediate consequences to them 
 and to us — while learning their lesson and gaining some 
 faint notion of the first principles of international law. Pub- 
 lic opinion in a country constitutionally governed as this is, 
 must always be felt, and exercise a strong influence on any 
 government in power; it is the more necessary, therefore, 
 that it should be a right opinion, enlightened and guided by 
 knowledge, and not a blind judgment based upon ignorance 
 or misapprehension. The actual existence of danger and 
 risk of collision, wherever there is intercourse established 
 between the East and West — and whatever may be the de- 
 sire for peace on the part of European Grovemments or the 
 efforts of their Eepresentatives on the spot — is only begin- 
 ning to be recognized ; while many still doubt the fact, and 
 are disposed to lay all such untoward complications at the
 
 PREFACE. xiii 
 
 door of the agents employed. If I succeed in removing 
 some erroneous impressions under this head, and in giving 
 more full and authentic information as to the present state 
 of Japan than has hitherto been attainable, I shall be well 
 content; for with this object principally I sat down to 
 write. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to tell you that this has no pre- 
 tension whatever to be considered an exhaustive book on 
 Japan. Not only would such a work, in my opinion, be un- 
 avoidably tedious, but I have a perfect conviction no for- 
 eigner is yet, or will be for many years to come, in a posi- 
 tion to write it. Nevertheless, having had better oppor- 
 tunities of observation than any one, perhaps, since the 
 Portuguese and Spaniards wandered at large through the 
 Empire, and traveled and seen more with my own eyes, I 
 may, without much presumption, hope to have something 
 to communicate that shall be both new and true of the peo- 
 ple of Japan — of their language and habits, as well as their 
 political and social condition. 
 
 Although I had long forsworn all regular journalizing, 
 yet on my arrival in Japan, conscious how impressions fade 
 and opinions change, and how impossible it often becomes 
 in after years to retrace and compare them, as aids to a final 
 judgment, I began and continued from day to day, as cir- 
 cumstances presented themselves seemingly worthy of at- 
 tention, to make certain fragmentary notes of men and things 
 during my long residence in the capital and my several 
 journeys and voyages, I was not, therefore, without a 
 rough chart of the road I had traversed, and landmarks jot- 
 ted down on the spot, fresh with the impress of the hour. 
 
 Many of these brief and informal records of things or 
 events I found, on looking back, were much more pregnant 
 of suggestion than they had appeared at the time, and cal- 
 culated incidentally to throw a reflected light on Japanese 
 character and institutions. It has been my purpose, there- 
 fore, to preserve as far as possible these first impressions, 
 and unstudied touches of the pencil, with such corrections
 
 Xiv PREFACE. 
 
 and amplifications only, as later experience and fuller 
 knowledge may have enabled me to supply. For this rea- 
 son principally, I resolved to give any book I should write 
 the form of a narrative, and arrange in chronological order 
 my residence and its experiences. If this has some disad- 
 vantages to those who would desire a more systematic and 
 scientific treatise on the History, Government, and Institu- 
 tions of Japan, it has the advantage of imparting something 
 of a living, if not a personal, interest to the whole. 
 
 The narrative I have given would have a certain inter- 
 est, I conceive, if all other were wanting, as a contrast to the 
 pleasant and amusing account furnished by Mr. Oliphant of 
 Lord Elgin's mission, and to that previously supplied by 
 Commodore Perry's expedition. Both sides of the medal 
 give important revelations. The history of the Extraordi- 
 nary Missions show the Japanese rulers under the pressure 
 of a sudden danger and emergency for which they felt fully 
 unprepared. Submission to the exigencies of Western Pow- 
 ers, which some inexorable fate seemed to have let slip upon 
 their devoted country ; or resistance with arms in their 
 hands, seemed the only alternatives. The Japanese did, un- 
 der these circumstances, what almost every Eastern race has 
 done in presence of a superior force. They negotiated and 
 treated, because they felt unprepared to fight. They smiled 
 and dissimulated, employing their utmost skill to give as 
 little as possible ; and reserving to themselves the full right 
 hereafter of nullifying all they might feel compelled for the 
 time to surrender. The Foreign negotiators went away 
 well pleased with their easy victories. The Japanese Plen- 
 ipotentiaries retired in disgrace ; while their successors in 
 the Government deeply meditated, in the interval before 
 the arrival of the permanent Legations, upon a policy of 
 negation, accepting the letter, but determined on resistance 
 ci Voutrance to the spirit of the treaties. It naturally follow- 
 ed that the Diplomatic Agents first appointed to take up 
 their residence in the capital were beset with difficulties, 
 dangers, and disappointments from the hour of their arri-
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 val. Their predecessors, the Ambassadors Extraordinary, 
 had only to extort certain privileges on paper ; it was the 
 business of the resident Ministers to make of these paper- 
 concessions realities — practical, every-day realities. As this 
 was the very thing the Eulers of the country had detcnn- 
 ined to prevent, it can not be matter of wonder that there 
 was not, and never could be, any real accord, whatever the 
 outward professions of good faith and amity. Hence also 
 it naturally followed that, although the original negotiators 
 were received with smiles, and their path was strewn with 
 flowers, their successors had only the poisoned chalice held 
 to their lips, thorns in their path, and the scowl of the two- 
 sworded bravos and Samourai to welcome them whenever 
 they ventured to leave their gates, while the assassin haunt- 
 ed their steps, and broke their rest in the still hours of the 
 night, with fell intent to massacre a whole Legation. 
 
 No wonder two authorities so differently placed should 
 see Japan from different points of view and in a wholly dif- 
 ferent light ! The history of the first permanent Legations 
 was needful to complete and give the true interpretation 
 to that of the first special Embassies. And this I have 
 endeavored to give, faithfully and candidly, in the follow- 
 ing chapters. The French have a whole class of literature 
 entitled '■ Memoires pour servir d Thistoire^ which, without 
 aiming at the gravity and authority of history, furnishes 
 nevertheless the most valuable materials for it. In this cat- 
 egory I would place my narrative of a three years' experi- 
 ence in Japan. It has been said that ' the experiment, now 
 on its trial, of allowing a free circulation of the European 
 within the frontier which for the last two hundred years 
 has been steadily barred against all intrusive strangers what- 
 soever, is in its circumstances one of the most singular in the 
 known history of the world,' To a certain extent undoubt- 
 edly it may be so considered. But it will only prove ei- 
 ther interesting or instructive in so far as the true details 
 of the experiment are known, and these could only be given 
 by a narration of the events, day by day, which marked the
 
 Xvi PKEFACE. 
 
 unceasing struggle between Western diplomacy and East- 
 ern policy. Nor could it have answered any useful pur- 
 pose to have deferred this until all the present actors were 
 in their graves. On the contrary, it must be obvious that 
 any object of utility could only be attained by giving the 
 information at once. 
 
 Again it has been observed, that those who live in the 
 nineteenth century are familiar 'with the difficulties of fus- 
 ing into a harmonious coexistence the progressive develop- 
 ment of an inferior people, and the immediate interests of a 
 superior, where an obviously higher and lower phase of civ- 
 ilization intersect each other.' Whether our civilization is 
 so undoubtedly higher, and in what degree, I have serious- 
 ly examined in the Chapter devoted to the ' Civilization of 
 the Japanese ;' and perhaps the conclusions to which I have 
 been led may be little in accordance with some stereotyped 
 notions of what the actual civilization of Europe is, as well 
 as of the feasibility of the undertaking to effect any fu- 
 sion with the East in a single generation or by exclusive- 
 ly peaceable means. But I have given, with a conscien- 
 tiousness of inquiry and amount of detail which, I fear, may 
 be tedious to many, the various grounds for my opinion, 
 and am thus content to leave both questions to all who 
 choose to give the requisite attention for their impartial in- 
 vestigation. Whatever may be the relative merits and rank 
 of the two civilizations, there can be no question that we are 
 the stronger race — stronger in all the means and appliances 
 of science and war. And if we fall into active antagonism, 
 of which there has been a constant danger, despite the best 
 efforts of European Diplomacy to avert it as a great nation- 
 al calamity, there can be just as little doubt that the Japan- 
 ese would be overmatched and vanquished. But yet, un- 
 der the simple relation of conquered and conquerors, look- 
 ing to the difference of race and character, and the striking 
 contrast in purpose, mental constitution, and appreciation 
 of each other — the struggle once over there could be no 
 possible fusion. The attraction would seem to be wanting,
 
 PREFACE. jtyii 
 
 powerful enough to blend in cohesion the elements on which 
 a mixed or amalgamated civilization could be based. We 
 can not hope or desire to absorb their civilization as the 
 Spaniards did that of the Mexicans. There seems as little 
 hope of their spontaneously fusing into their own such of 
 the elements of ours as might best combine with it Fail- 
 ing these, we are left face to face with an insoluble problem, 
 involving the welfare and the destinies of a nation of thirty 
 millions of as industrious, kindly, and well-disposed people 
 as any in the world. Toward the solution, I bring only 
 such data as years of constant effort in the midst of all the 
 conflicting forces could supply. Time, the great solver of 
 all riddles, is needed to come to our aid. But as the record 
 of a novel experience, throwing some light on the difficul- 
 ties and dangers which beset all attempts to enter into new 
 relations with an isolated Eastern race, I trust it may be read 
 with some interest. More especially is the field new, be- 
 cause with the Japanese we take a step backward some few 
 centuries, to live over again the Feudal days which marked 
 our own past in Japanese history. Feudalism, accordingly, 
 after time and out of place, is here, with sufficient identity 
 and analogy in all its leading features to make the coinci- 
 dence striking, and yet with sufficient divergence to make 
 its study in this Eastern phase deeply interesting. Perhaps 
 the following pages may suggest some useful reflections as 
 to how the dangers incident to, and apparently inseparable 
 from, such an experiment as we are now engaged in, may 
 be best encountered. In any case, it will be seen Feudalism 
 lies full in our path. We must either conciliate it, or hold 
 our own against its most hostile efforts. 
 
 I would gladly have given a full and complete history of 
 the Japanese Empire, and its internal organization, but I 
 feel — perhaps more strongly in consequence of my favored 
 position in the country — how difficult, not to say impossi- 
 ble, it must be, with only such opportunities of observation 
 as Europeans have hitherto enjoyed, to accomplish such an 
 object It has been said that ' it is the homes of a people
 
 xviii PREFACE. 
 
 that shape and mould the character of a nation,' and I be- 
 lieve it ; but, if so, what can we know of the homes of the 
 Japanese ? Of the lower classes we see something, since 
 their homes are all more or less open to the street. In their 
 daily habits and mode of life, there can be very little of mys- 
 tery or secrecy. But of the higher classes, who has ever 
 seen an interior? Such is the rigid rule of a jealous oli- 
 garchy, headed by a nominally despotic sovereign, that the 
 Daimios may not even visit each other, as the Ministers 
 one day took occasion to assure me in reference to those 
 who sat side by side with them in the presence chamber. 
 Friends and colleagues though they were, they might not 
 cross each other's threshold — hold neighborhood relations. 
 Whether any thing in the shape of social life therefore ex- 
 ists — whether there are living springs of thought, or ele- 
 ments of progress and elevation in their homes — who can 
 say? Are the home influences purifying or demoralizing? 
 Are the relations of husband and wife, brother and sister, 
 such as we know them in Europe ? Who is in a position 
 to offer any thing more than a guess ? It has been said of 
 the Moslem that ' he has no home, no real relationship of 
 father and mother, son and daughter, as we understand such 
 ties : the harem is a stye, woman a mere animal, and man 
 but the sensual proprietor of both, while the children are a 
 miserable litter.' Is this a fair picture of a Japanese estab- 
 lishment also? Probably not. We see and know much that 
 leads us to conclude something different and better exists, 
 but what that something is must be very much a matter of 
 guess, founded upon inference from the few facts that we 
 do know. Yet all this is vastly more important, and more 
 interesting in reference to their place in the family of na- 
 tions, their civilization, and future prospects, than any frame- 
 work of government and public administration — as much 
 more important as the growth and development of internal 
 organization and conditions of being in plants or animals 
 is of greater consequence than mere external forms. The 
 home relations are mainly the product of influences devel-
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 XIX 
 
 oped under their own roof-tree, which no forms of govern- 
 ment can materially or permanently control. Whether the 
 same may with equal truth be said of any foreign importa- 
 tion of ideas, or how far these may be capable of materially 
 affecting the mental constitution and social relations of a 
 people in a few years or a single generation, may be a ques- 
 tion. The Japanese Rulers evidently have already consid- 
 ered it, and arrived at a decision in the affirmative. Hence 
 one great cause of implacable hostility. They see in this 
 introduction of foreign ideas a leaven, a cause of fermenta- 
 tion, and a germ of revolution. 
 
 In looking to the future of the Japanese Empire, and our 
 relations with the people, it behooves us above all things, I 
 conceive, to obtain a knowledge of the more intimate fami- 
 ly relations existing among them : and, after that, it imports 
 us no less to know the true character of the existing feu- 
 dalism. The relations between the serf and his feudal chief, 
 and of both these to the suzerain and executive govern- 
 ment, which, in Japan, is divided and strangely duplicated, 
 are no less needed. These are the keys wherewith to un- 
 lock the mysteries of their policy, and the secret of their 
 vitality as a nation. When we can really know what they 
 now are, not in mere outward lineaments, but in their whole 
 being, habits of thought, and principles of action, we shall 
 be better able to form a correct opinion as to what they are 
 likely to become in one or several generations from the 
 present time. Whether there be any germs of a vigorous 
 growth in their cities — any cradle for a new and more ad- 
 vanced race in their homesteads — any moral stimulants 
 existing among the masses which may waken up a new 
 life, and give a greater impetus to the energies of the many, 
 in the direction of a higher and more progressive civiliza- 
 tion — these are the questions which constantly recur to the 
 mind of a patient observer, and press upon him for answer, 
 long before he sees any means of arriving at sufficient data 
 whereon to found a conclusion. 
 
 I have scrupulously endeavored to write my own thoughts,
 
 XX 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 without reference to what may have been said by others on 
 the same subject before. In the illustrations alone I have 
 freely borrowed, and when my own sketch-book failed to 
 meet the want of the hour, I turned to the portfolios of my 
 friends, and sometimes to their photographic labors; but 
 these, also, in so far as the public are concerned, are entire- 
 ly new and original, and were all taken on the spot, under 
 my own eye. Some of these, from the pencil of Mr. Werg- 
 man, have a merit peculiarly their own, both in artistic 
 treatment and fidelity. The fac-similes of numerous Jap- 
 anese wood-cuts could hardly be surpassed in fidelity and 
 effect 
 
 With these preliminary remarks, which will at least have 
 answered the purpose of preparing you for some of the in- 
 formation and many of the views to be found in the follow- 
 ing pages — and, perhaps, of saving the reader from disap- 
 pointment at the absence of many things I do not pretend 
 to give — I leave the book, such as it is, to your judgment, 
 and to that of the public for whom it was written. It has 
 been undertaken in the hope of supplying information not 
 easily obtained, but very necessary to any right apprecia- 
 tion of the relations of Europe with the eastern half of Asia 
 — with China and Japan more especially. And the present 
 state as well as the future prospects of both countries in 
 connection with the West have become, within the last few 
 years, subjects of such importance to the British Empire, in 
 connection with both trade and revenue, that no exact in- 
 formation can well be unacceptable. On these subjects I 
 shall find in you a competent judge, and a critic neither 
 blinded by hostility nor biased by partiality — and to such 
 the book is in all sincerity addressed. In the hope that its 
 perusal may not be wholly without pleasure or profit, be 
 lieve me, my dear Sir John, very faithfully yours, 
 
 KUTHEKFOBD AlCOCK. 
 London, January 21$^, 1863.
 
 CONTENTS TO VOL I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Previsions and Preparations. — A Glance at Canton. — Hongkong and Ma- 
 cao, with their contrasted Destinies. — Shanghae. — The Yangtze and the 
 Chinese Empire. — The Past and the Future Page 31 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Voyage to Nagasaki. — Japan as it was, or a Glance at the Japanese Chron- 
 icles, and what they tell us 64 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 First Impressions. — Nagasaki 86 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Nagasaki to Yeddo. — The Work of Two Centuries nndone in as manj 
 Years. — EflFect upon the Japanese Mind. — How its Rulers felt under such 
 Innovations. — The Touch-stone of Trial. — First Arrival of the British and 
 American Diplomatic Agents at Yeddo to take up a permanent Resi- 
 dence 98 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Capital and its Environs. — Stereoscopic Views of Town and Country 114 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 First Lessons in Japanese Diplomacy 138 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Exchange of Ratifications. — News of the Repulse at the Peiho. — Hermit 
 Life in Yeddo. — Conditions of Exile and Isolation. — Life in a Wilderness 
 of Men and Women 160 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 The Japanese Language. — First Lessons in Grammar and Speaking.... 160 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Japanese Sayings and Doings 172 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 A Glance at Japanese Politics. — How the two American Treaties were made 
 and inaugurated. —By whom the Country is governed, and how. 190 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 First Bloodshed. — Arrival of Count MouraviefF Amoorsky with a Russian 
 Squadron. — An OflScer and two of the Sailors butchered in the Streets of 
 Yokohama. — European Diplomacy and Elastem PoUcy 214
 
 xxii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Improving Prospects. — An Official Interview with the two Ministers of For- 
 eign Affairs. — Ride Home by Moonlight. — How Yeddo appears after Sun. 
 set Page 224 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. 
 
 A Visit to Hakodadi. — The Lead Mines. — Governor. — Prospects of Trade. 
 
 Potatoes and Salmon the great Staples 240 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Murder of French Consul's Servant at Yokohama. — The Gold Currency 
 Question again. — Tycoon's Palace burned down. — Proposition of Japan- 
 ese Ministers to stop all Official Business in consequence 251 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 A Country Walk. — Agriculture, Trees, and Flora of Japan. — Peasant Life 
 and Prison Life. — Natural History. — Japanese Lacker-ware and skillful 
 Workmanship. — Monster Bazar 260 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The New Year, 1860, and what it brought. — Incendiary Fire at Yokohama. 
 — Assassination of a Linguist at the Gate of the British Legation. — 
 Gloomy Prospects. — Fire at the French Legation the same Night .... 288 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 Murder of the Regent on his Way to the Tycocm's Palace. — Narrative of 
 what tookPlace. — General Alarm and Sense of Insecurity. — The Legations 
 surrounded by Japanese Guards for their Protection from Attack. — The 
 Times of the Guelfs and Ghibelines resuscitated. — Subsequent Acts of the 
 Conspirators, and how they disposed of the Regent's Head. — Popular Sto- 
 ries and Legends. — Story of the forty-seven Lonins. — Influence of such 
 Literature and Hero-worship on the Morality and Actions of the Peo- 
 ple 304 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Stray Leaves from a Journal. — Thoughts discursive and retrospective on 
 
 Japanese Relations. — Speculations on the Future. — Trade Returns and 
 
 Greneral Results. — Retrospect of the first Twelve Months after the opening 
 
 of the Ports by Treaty. — The Gain and the Loss summed up 314 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Audience of the Tycoon. — Preliminary Difficulties. — Importance in the East 
 of seeming Trifles 328 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Change of Scene. — A Pilgrimage to Fusiyama, and a Visit to the Spas of 
 Atami 340 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 The Sulphur Springs of Atami. — Village Life in Japan. — Paper Manufac- 
 tory. — ^The Moxa 374
 
 CONTENTS. Xxiii 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 The High Road to the Capital, and those who Travel on it Page 895
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. L 
 
 Hap of Japan, in the front paoi 
 
 The Village Beauty Frontispiece. 
 
 Hongkong 40 
 
 Macao 45 
 
 Followers of the 'Great Peace' Dynasty 67 
 
 Chinese under the Tartar Dynasty 64 
 
 Nagasaki Harbor 87 
 
 A Japanese Salutation 92 
 
 Lonin reading 93 
 
 Japanese Norimon 105 
 
 Japanese Cango 105 
 
 How Japanese rest 106 
 
 Japanese Page in attendance 106 
 
 How the Japanese sleep 107 
 
 Yeddo from the Avenue 1 1 1 
 
 A Group of 'Jolly Beggars' 117 
 
 Mendicant Singers 119 
 
 Merchandise in the Streets of Yeddo 121 
 
 Shopkeeper going to a Customer 122 
 
 Horse carrying Liquid Manure 124 
 
 How Mothers dispose of their Infants 124 
 
 The Paternal Nurse 125 
 
 Type of the 'Dangerous Classes' 128 
 
 Woman of Yeddo in Winter Garb 132 
 
 The Samourai 134 
 
 Officer on urgent Duty 136 
 
 Female Head-dress 180 
 
 Tea-house Attendant 182 
 
 Writing a Letter of Divorce 184 
 
 Love-letter discovered 184 
 
 Conjugal Service 185 
 
 A Japanese Servant or Workman 186 
 
 A Japanese prostrating himself before his Saperiors 188 
 
 Weighed in the Balance 223 
 
 Night Scene 227 
 
 B
 
 xxvi I^IST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Japanese Ladies in the Bath 230 
 
 After the Bath 231 
 
 A Japanese at his Toilet for a Visit of Ceremony 232 
 
 Female Costume 238 
 
 Female Dress 239 
 
 Music Girl, with Servant carrying her Instrument 239 
 
 The Evening Meal 239 
 
 Bay of Hakodadi 240 
 
 Female Costume 243 
 
 Society of Hakodadi 250 
 
 Carding Machine for separating the Grain 261 
 
 How they separate the Grain 262 
 
 Japanese Plowing 263 
 
 How they cover the Seed 263 
 
 How they use Manure 265 
 
 Manuring Process 265 
 
 Mode of protecting Land from Birds 267 
 
 The Peasant's Luxury 268 
 
 Wild-fowl 272,273 
 
 Scene in a Silk-shop 275 
 
 Agricultural Process 284 
 
 Homeward Bound 322 
 
 Court Dress of the Japanese 333 
 
 Japanese 'Lords in Waiting' 334 
 
 Fusiyama from the Suburbs of Yeddo 340 
 
 How Japanese Beasts of Burden comport themselves 343 
 
 Salutation of mine Host 346 
 
 Interior of a Kitchen 347 
 
 A Japanese Maritornes 349 
 
 Well-earned Rest 349 
 
 Crossing the River to Odawara 361 
 
 The Lake of Hakoni 360 
 
 Fusiyama from Yosiwara 366 
 
 Ascent of Fusiyama 371 
 
 Pilgrims on the Road 373 
 
 Horsefish 380 
 
 Atami and its Monuments 388 
 
 Life at Atami — a Peasant and his Wife returning from Labor 389 
 
 The Village Aqueduct - 392 
 
 Returning from Sea-fishing 393 
 
 A Japanese traveling 394 
 
 How the Unprivileged travel on the High Road 396 
 
 Itinerant Musicians 397 
 
 Yaconin on Service 398 
 
 On the Road to Yeddo 399 
 
 Returning from Market , ,. 399
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxvii 
 
 TAB* 
 
 Fishermen 400 
 
 The Blind Gentleman 401 
 
 A Female Ostler 402 
 
 Passing the River Logo 403 
 
 'Saionara' 407
 
 NARBATIVE OP 
 
 A THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN JAPAN. 
 VOL. L
 
 A NARRATIVE 
 
 OF 
 
 THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN JAPAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FEOM CHINA TO JAPAN. 
 
 Previsions and Preparations. — A Glance at Canton. — Hongkong and Ma- 
 cao, with their contrasted Destinies. — Shanghae. — The Yangtze and the 
 Chinese Empire. — The Past and the Future. 
 
 In consequence of the treaty entered into with the goveni- 
 ment of the Tycoon by the Earl of Elgin in 1858, it became 
 necessary to establish a permanent diplomatic mission in Ja- 
 pan ; and it was yet early in the spring of the following year 
 when I received, at Canton, the first intimation of my appoint- 
 ment as its head. To me, as to the rest of the world prooably 
 at this period, Japan was all but a terra incognita. No very 
 definite ideas, indeed, could well be attached to a country so 
 long and so completely isolated. Time and distance had done 
 much to efface the memory of whatever had once been learned 
 by personal observation, of a people who for the last three cen- 
 turies had resolutely shut their doors, not only in their neigh- 
 bors' faces, but on all mankind. Even in China, separated only 
 by a narrow sea which steamers now cross in three days, little 
 that was either positive or accurate could be learned. In 
 1846, when residing at Foochow, a port which every alternate 
 year received a junk from the Loochoo Islands, a dependency 
 of Japan, I endeavored to get into communication with the na- 
 tives who came over in it. Neither my oflScial position nor 
 personal efibrts availed, however. The policy of both races — 
 Chinese and Japanese — to exclude and avoid the foreigner, 
 was too perfectly in accord to allow of success. And these 
 were the people I was now destined to live among I Nearly 
 lost in the haze of a distant horizon, Japan, if not wholly for- 
 gotten, had become invested with a sort of traditional and 
 mythic character. The quaint phraseology of the early En-
 
 32 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I. 
 
 glish navigators, as stereotyped by Purchas, in which the first 
 narratives of voyages to Japan and things Japanese are writ- 
 ten, had given a mediaeval coloring to all our knowledge of 
 the country and the people. Nor was this much affected by 
 the more lively descriptions, and easy flowing Italian of the 
 noble Venetian, Marco Paolo ; the solace of whose prison hours 
 in Genoa was to recount to his visitors all the wonders he had 
 seen and heard of at the court of Genghis Khan ; and among 
 the latter were these ' Isles washed by stormy seas — and 
 abounding in gold and pearls.' But Marco MiUione (a title 
 which the marvelous nature of his stories earned him among 
 his countrymen) was, in regard to Japan, only a narrator of 
 what he had heard from the Chinese ; and the account taken 
 down from his dictation by one of his friends did not appear 
 in print for nearly two centuries after his death. Mendez 
 Pinto, who wrote much later of what he had seen (or said he 
 had seen), when he gave his adventures to the world in Portu- 
 guese, found no translator, in those days at least, nor since that 
 I am aware of. One of the earliest who followed in the track 
 of Vasco da Gama round the Cape, he was cast on the shores 
 of Japan by stress of weather, and had to make out the best 
 story he could of his past history and pursuits. Merchant, 
 pirate, or filibuster by turns, and as occasion served, he appears 
 to have found it by no means an easy task to get himself ac- 
 cepted by his hosts as an honest trader. But he found mate- 
 rials enough while on the Chinese and Japanese coasts, with 
 the aid of a little invention perhaps, for a large folio, which I 
 remember disinterring from the back shop of an old book col- 
 lector in Lisbon, more than twenty years before my departure 
 for the East. Some of it I read at the time in the original, 
 little dreaming I should ever visit the place this ' Prince of 
 Hars'* invested with such strange features and peculiarities. 
 By a no less strange coincidence, my Japanese education had 
 been continued many years later when an occasional visitor at 
 the Monastery of Sicawei near Shanghae, by a fragmentary 
 course of the ' Japanese Martyrs' — such being the title of one 
 of the pious works, which, according to the custom of the or- 
 der, are always read aloud by a member of the fraternity dur- 
 ing dinner. How little we are aware to what future use knowl- 
 edge picked up in the most fortuitous way may be applied ! 
 From these various sources, materials had been casually got 
 together for the dissolving views which rapidly flitted before 
 
 * So Congreve styles him, with doubtful justice ; for although he may 
 have romanced about himself, there is reason to believe he told much that 
 yia& true of the strange people he was cast among.
 
 Chap. I.] PREVISIONS. 33 
 
 my mental vision as I held the dispatch in my hand, consign- 
 ing me to a new place of exile. My first attempts to realize 
 the future before me — the country and the people with whom 
 my lot was cast, were not, it must be confessed, very success- 
 ful. The series of contributors to the sum of all European 
 knowledge of Japan, of later date than those just enumerated, 
 were not altogether excluded either. Koempfer, Thunberg, 
 and others (from whose works all recent attempts to describe 
 the Japanese, or their country and institutions, have chiefly 
 been compiled), passed in rapid review. But my knowledge 
 of them was probably too slight to be of much use ; and though 
 compelled to make an appearance, they came and went like 
 flitting shadows. The only positive impression obtained by 
 this sudden dragging forth of many negatives, long put away 
 in the dark chambers of the brain, and their subjection to the 
 strongest light I could bring to bear at the moment, was, I 
 think, one — of immeasurable distance ! 
 
 A cluster of isles appeared on the farthest verge of the ho- 
 rizon, apparently inhabited by a race at once grotesque and 
 savage — not much given to hospitality, and rather addicted to 
 martyrizing strangers of whose creed they disapproved. Thus 
 much stood out tolerably distinctly, but little else that was 
 tangible. Severance from all social ties, isolation from one's 
 kind, and a pariah existence, far away from all centres of civil- 
 ization — far beyond the utmost reach of railroad or telegraph 
 — came much more vividly before me; and in Rembrandt 
 masses of shade — with but one small ray of light, just enough 
 to give force and depth to the whole — a sense of duty, a duty 
 that must be done, whether pleasant or otherwise, and about 
 which there was no choice. What a world of anxiety and 
 doubt the consciousness of this saves us ! Doubt and Suspense 
 are the great corroders and absorbents of life. A plain, clear 
 path to follow, however rough or thorn-strewn, is far less ex- 
 hausting and trying in the end than many divergent roads, 
 with no certainty as to the right one, no ruling principle for 
 guide, and no definite goal beyond. 
 
 To Japan my eyes were turning at this moment, as likely 
 to furnish a new market for the ever-increasing industrial prod- 
 ucts of the West. In this reopened field for all kinds of efforts 
 and propagandisras — Commercial, Political, and Religious — 
 five Western Powers were about to engage. The United 
 States of America, which had led the way by their two treat- 
 ies of 1854 and 185S ; Great Britain, France, and Russia, three 
 of the greatest powers of the old world by land and sea; and 
 ^olland, the long-lived heir of the past, were already on the 
 
 B2
 
 34 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. 1. 
 
 spot, in the persons of divers merchants and commercial agents, 
 waiting at Nagasaki, and eager to rush in as soon as the ports 
 were opened. How this sudden influx of so many nationalities 
 was likely to be regarded by the long-isolated Japanese rulers 
 could only be matter of speculation. But if it seemed to them 
 like the opening of so many flood-gates — an inundation of bar- 
 barians, and a menace of destruction^ we could hardly wonder. 
 
 In the short interval before me, while waiting the arrival 
 from Europe of several members of the Japanese Consular es- 
 tablishment, I found abundant occupation in getting furniture 
 made, specially adapted to resist rough usage on the deck of 
 a man-of-war — where it was sure to get it — to go into the 
 smallest possible space, in order to get taken at all — and yet 
 to meet all the innumerable wants of a large establishment. 
 These were conditions not very easily complied with even in 
 Canton, where a colony of carpenters and cabinet-makers have 
 existed for many generations, dependent entirely upon the de- 
 mand created by foreigners for all kinds of wants — real and 
 fancied — in the shape of furniture. Long as the Cantonese, 
 however, have been laboring in our behalf, and with all their 
 imitative talent, they have never learned to make a drawer to 
 fit, or to mortise the legs of a chair. Knowing their weakness 
 in this respect, I was not much surprised, therefore, on landing 
 in Japan some weeks later, to find, that, despite all the mat- 
 ting and packing, and other innumerable precautions taken, my 
 chairs were delivered to me crippled and dilapidated, so as to 
 present a most deplorable picture. Broken-backed and maim- 
 ed, with fractured arms and dislocated legs, they were fit for 
 nothing, unless to be laid up at Greenwich or Chelsea, as relics 
 of a voyage to Japan ! They had been stowed away in the 
 cutter between the masts, for want of room elsewhere, no 
 doubt — a sort of thoroughfare in bad weather, and they had 
 borne the trafllic badly ; — but this is to anticipate. 
 
 In a moderately short time I succeeded, with the assistance 
 of ' Copo^ and '•Hopfo^ and '■HowsMng^ with sundry others 
 of the carpenters' guild enjoying equally characteristic and eu- 
 phonious names, in getting the principal articles of furniture 
 deemed most essential for Europeans, ready to embark — for a 
 land which boasted of none. I am not sure that I did not 
 sometimes think the Japanese wiser in their generation, to 
 treat all such things — beds, tables, and chairs, as superfluities. 
 How greatly, for example, it would simplify the question of 
 marriages on limited incomes, by striking out the most expen- 
 sive item of a first establishment — the upholsterer's bill! to 
 say nothing of the farther and permanent advantage of dimin-
 
 Chap. I.] ARRANGEMENTS COMPLETED. 35 
 
 ishing household work and the number of servants. Not hav- 
 ing arrived, however, at such perfect simplicity of life ; and 
 distrusting the wisdom of making the experiment — of sitting 
 on my heels, and eating off the mats, without preliminary 
 training — I felt obliged to undertake all the trouble and ex- 
 pense of a variety of rectangular devices for being comforta- 
 ble. Bedsteads and mattresses, they would both take to pieces ; 
 tables and sofas, cunningly contrived to carry their legs hori- 
 zontally beneath them ; ' What-nots' that collapsed into some- 
 thing perfectly flat and inappreciable in bulk, and warranted 
 to rise story above story on a touch, like the children's 'jack 
 in a box' — all deftly put together in solid mahogany — corded 
 and matted, soon filled up a large space in the entrance hall of 
 the hong temporarily occupied as a Consulate in Canton. 
 What would I not have given for ready access to Herr Op- 
 penheimer and the marvels of portable furniture since exhibit- 
 ed in the International Exhibition ! 
 
 It was still early in May when all the preparatory arrange- 
 ments were completed ; but spring had passed, and a tropical 
 summer was upon us. The last few days before my departure 
 from Canton had brought unmistakable evidence of the fact. 
 With the thermometer standing in the bedroom at 97°, mus- 
 quitoes swarming outside the curtains — and too often within, 
 sleep is a blessing which comes but seldom, and is never sound 
 and refreshing. In all travels in the East, there has always 
 seemed to me a suppresslo veri in regard to these Poisoners 
 of the human race, and Destroyers of all peace. Whoever sat 
 down patiently to write either letter or book in such com- 
 pany? Not content with sucking the blood out of your veins, 
 they pour a venom into them, throwing the most philosophic 
 into a state of fever and irritation. The heat itself, enervating 
 and exhausting as it is, would be ten times more endurable but 
 for these winged plagues. The very noise of their trumpet 
 becomes so hateful, that the bugle sounding the advance of a 
 line of Zouave skirmishers could hardly be more distracting, 
 or more fatal to any sense of repose and security. And like 
 the ' small provocations of a bitter tongue,' the longer they 
 continue, and the oftener they are repeated, the more intolera- 
 ble they become ! It is hardly fair, then, in Eastern travelers, 
 to suppress, as they almost invariably do, any reference to this 
 greatest of small miseries. With the exception of enlarged 
 livers and sudden death, no more grievous drawbacks to an 
 Eastern climate can be conceived. 
 
 The hour of departure had come. The sun was pouring a 
 blaze of light on the broad waters of the Pearl River, as they
 
 36 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. L 
 
 swept in dangerous eddies past the rocks in mid stream, and 
 reflected in broken lines the ruined suburbs of Canton. As I 
 stepped on board the steamer which was to convey me to 
 Hongkong, the scene suggested many thoughts of the past. 
 
 This city, once the pride and boast of the southern Chinese, 
 was still in the occupation of the ' Barbarians ;' while roofless 
 houses and crumbling walls, with windows like eyeless sock- 
 ets, told a tale of weak and unavailing resistance. And even 
 in that hour there came steaming up the river a vessel, with 
 the British ensign flying at half-mast — freighted with the re- 
 mains of the Viceroy who played his last stake at Canton, and 
 lost it. Yeh was on his way to his last home in Chinese earth. 
 He had indeed returned, as Lord Stanley, in the House, short- 
 ly before had intimated he might ; but only to be buried. The 
 Fatalist's creed had ill served so persevering a votary and so 
 stanch a believer. During the long solitary hours spent in a 
 foreign land, did he ever pass in review his Canton administra- 
 tion, with a doubt or a question in his mind as to the policy 
 or the wisdom of his course ? As far as can be learned, the 
 idea never suggested itself to him ; but he was too evidently 
 a reserved and uncommunicative man for those even nearest 
 him to know what might be in his thoughts. Certain it is, 
 he died and gave no sign, expressed no doubt; and to all ap- 
 pearance was undisturbed by any regret or misgiving. Had 
 he lived to come back (as might well have been, for we had 
 no longer any object in keeping him away), he would have 
 seen such a changed order of things as might have roused 
 even his stolid nature ; and with all his conceit of unapproach- 
 able superiority, and his nil admirari habit, given rise to seri- 
 ous reflections. Not that he would have admired., but he could 
 scarcely have failed to be surprised. He might have passed 
 incognito through the streets of the great and busy city which 
 he had so lately governed (trembling often lest ' braves' from 
 without, and conspirators within, might snatch it from his 
 grasp), and have seen how securely it was now held by a hand- 
 ful of foreign troops. So easily and lanconcernedly, indeed, 
 that from street to street, a couple of marine police, armed 
 with only a switch, kept perfect order ; and a small body of 
 men thus employed gave security to all the bustling throng 
 of shopkeepers, street-vendors, and still more numerous pur- 
 chasers. Their occasional presence was enough ; and in this 
 city, which no foreigner might pollute with his presence a few 
 short months before, English and French — officers, soldiers, 
 and civilians — on horseback, in chairs, and on foot — were cir- 
 culating through the streets in every direction, the Chinaman
 
 CriAP.I.] FACTITIOUS HOSTILITY. 3Y 
 
 scarcely looking up from his work to notice them as they pass- 
 ed. If a coolie meets them, his only notice is the removal of 
 his broad bamboo hat, that it may not incommode the foreign- 
 er. Children that used, in all the suburbs, to be taught by 
 their elders to spit out terms of abuse, the gentlest of which 
 was '■FankweV or ' foreign devil,' now hail the humblest private 
 as ' Taipan' or ' chief,' and with outstretched palm, sometimes 
 insinuate that a ' kumshaw,' or gratuity of copper cash, would 
 be by no means disdained. This, and much more, he might 
 have read, marked, and inwardly digested. A goodly and a 
 pleasant change for the better, no one can doubt, whatever di- 
 versity of opinion may have existed as to the means by which 
 it was brought about. 
 
 Clear proof indeed was furnished, by after events, that the 
 long-nurtured and often-invoked hostility of the Cantonese was 
 entirely of factitious growth, due exclusively to the machina- 
 tions of the Mandarins, as a part of the policy of the Court at 
 Pekin. More recent occurrences had moreover shown that 
 the high officials on the spot would, without scruple or hesita- 
 tion, venture to repeal, within their province, the ancient and 
 most time-honored laws of the enjpire — such as the law pro- 
 hibiting emigration — whenever a necessity for such action be- 
 came apparent. Thus the admission of foreigners into the city 
 of Canton, the ever-recurring qiicestio vexata, might at any time 
 have been granted at the option of the successive Viceroys, 
 from Keying to Yeh, and upon their own authority, if they had 
 chosen — all their protestations ' to the contrary notwithstand- 
 ing,' And if this had been done, Yeh, even at the last hour, 
 might have averted the catastrophe which precipitated hira 
 from his Viceroyalty, and sent him a prisoner to die in the 
 hated foreigner's land. Governor Peihkwei, Yeh's successor, 
 issued, a short time before my departure, a proclamation legal- 
 izing the emigration of all Chinese willing to enter into labor 
 contracts for foreign colonies — and the whole history of this 
 important step was very instructive, both as regarded the past 
 and the future. The atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese 
 crimps in kidnapping by fraud and violence the unwary, with 
 a view to secure the bonus offered by shippers, under >foreign 
 flags (not British, I am glad to say), had at last excited in the 
 whole population such a feeling of alarm and exasperation as 
 to threaten the personal security of the officials, hitherto so su- 
 pine, and endanger the peace of the place by an uprising of 
 the populace. Momentary measures were taken, in conjunc- 
 tion with the allies, to seize certain receiving vessels ; but the 
 true remedy, provided under good advice by the Chinese high
 
 38 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I. 
 
 authorities, was a proclamation removing at once the ban of 
 illegality on emigration, which served as a pretext for these 
 enormities. 
 
 So, it may be inferred, they could and would have removed 
 the ban on our entrance into Canton, at any time during the 
 fifteen preceding years, if steps had been taken to make them 
 understand that we were determined it should be removed, in 
 accordance with treaties, and that the alternative was certain 
 capture and military occupation of the city — thus shifting the 
 pressure and the vexation from the foreigners' to the Manda- 
 rins' shoulders. However, as regards Canton, the knowledge 
 came too late, either to save us the expense of costly arma- 
 ments, or them a great destruction of property. 
 
 Let us hope permanent good has come of so much tempo- 
 rary evil ; — and of this there was at least some promise when 
 I took my departure. Even as regarded intercourse with the 
 authorities, there was little evidence of ill blood. Perhaps the 
 facility for direct and personal intercourse had done something 
 to remove both the prejudices born of long isolation, and the 
 enmity naturally arising from recent collision. A very unu- 
 sual demonstration indicative of changed sentiments was wit- 
 nessed on my leaving Canton. When the steamer passed the 
 Custom-house, on its way down the river, a salute was fired by 
 the Chinese authorities, with a display of fireworks and crack- 
 ers in continuation (as is their custom when they wish to do 
 honor), telling the surrounding population of the new order of 
 things a British Consul left behind him. A friendly farewell 
 from one of the highest ofiicers of the province, and the Chief 
 Superintendent of Maritime Customs, was, indeed, a novel trait ; 
 — and, that nothing might be wanting, he had previously sent 
 an officer on board, with his card, to take a ceremonious leave, 
 and announce the intended salute. Three years ago, this same 
 official could not be approached by a Foreign consul; — and 
 when an official letter might be answered, if at all, was a doubt- 
 ful question! A great step in the way of progress and per- 
 manent friendly intercourse had undoubtedly been taken, and 
 it will be our own fault, I think, if that which has once been 
 gained is ever entirely lost. 
 
 The personal intercourse I had with the Hoppo, and other 
 authorities, on my return from Europe, after the capture of the 
 city, had been frequent and satisfactory. If a nuisance had to 
 be abated on the Honan side of the river (where the foreign- 
 ers were located after the destruction of the factories), gam- 
 bling-shops to be closed, or the course of a canal which had 
 been built over and made into a filthy sewer to be restored,
 
 Chap. I J A "MISTAKE."— COOLNESS. 89 
 
 it required but a request, and it was done at once, where for- 
 merly all the power of Great Britain could not have secured 
 attention. With the Hoppo (the Chief of the Customs), not- 
 withstanding many difficulties, and continued evasion of duties 
 by P"'oreigners and Chmese in collusion, something like cordial 
 relations existed; not very sincere, perhaps — not without a 
 shade of duplicity, and the spirit which bends to circumstances ; 
 — but we have no right to expect miracles to be wrought in 
 our favor in China, any more than elsewhere. 
 
 And now we pass the Barrier forts, with their crumbled 
 bastions and dismantled walls, recalling the solution of a little 
 'difficulty' with the Americans, not with us, and one which 
 carried its lesson also and a moral with it. While Yeh had 
 his hands full enough, one would have thought, with the Brit- 
 ish, his officers, in pure wantonness or stupidity, one day amused 
 themselves by practicing with round shot at the American 
 Commodore's boats, as they passed with their flag flying. To 
 remonstrance and demand for explanation and apology noth- 
 ing but Chinese verbiage could be obtained ; — until the Amer- 
 ican commander's patience being exhausted, he laid his ship's 
 broadside to the batteries and dismantled them. Then only 
 did Yeh, that able, intelligent, and treaty-loving official, find 
 out that his people ' had made a mistake ;' and, with the min- 
 gled inconsistency and insolence which only a Chinese manda- 
 rin ever carried to such perfection, he closed his apology by 
 coolly proposing that the Commodore would send the ' flag of 
 his nation, that in future the Chinese officers might know and 
 be able to recognize it.' This, after half a century's interna- 
 tional intercourse ! W^hat could diplomacy do with such offi- 
 cials as these? — authorities which never yielded to argument 
 until enforced by blows, and obstinately turned a deaf ear to 
 all remonstrances — not backed by the logic of the sword. 
 
 From the Bogue forts to Hongkong is but four hours' steam- 
 ing, and the ' Williamette' cleverly threads her way through a 
 very maze of boats and shipping without collision or accident ; 
 her great bell clanging a deafening warning to the market and 
 shore boats, which evmce the most perverse tendency to cross 
 the bows of a steamer, with scarce a yard to spare. How they 
 escape seems a mystery, but they do escape generally ; and the 
 anchor finally brings her up at her berth, amidst a rush of ' San- 
 pans' and boats of all sizes and descriptions ; — and a mighty 
 clamor of voices, in which the shrill pipes of the women drown 
 the bass tones of their male competitors, and set at defiance all 
 efforts of the men to be heard above them. To get into one 
 of these hundred Sanpans with all your belongings is truly a
 
 40 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 service of danger and a trial of nerve. Half a dozen sharp 
 prows are edged in contact with the companion-ladder — or 
 thereabouts. You descend, and a moment's indecision is 
 enough to cost you a ducking, if not your life. Nothing but 
 a determined spring into one can save you ; happy even then 
 if no treacherous siren, with a grasp of iron, seek to turn you 
 into her own which lies to the right or to the left, or some 
 laggard, with a desperate thrust, does not send your selected 
 boat six y-irds away, without exactly filling up the vacant space 
 over which you see yourself taking a flying leap. These perils 
 safely passed, you have then time to look and see what has be- 
 come of your ' boy' — a corruption, I believe, of the Indian call 
 for a servant — and, more important still, your bag and trunk. 
 Most probably you have the satisfaction of seeing him with 
 one foot still on the ladder, and the other in the air, vainly 
 
 HONGKONG. 
 
 seeking the boat beneath ; while your boxes are passing over 
 his head into another, and your bag, like the last horse in a 
 race, is ' nowhere.' As, however, the same scene of utter con- 
 fusion and despair takes place at least ten times every day, and 
 travelers do, for the most part, reach the shore in safety, while 
 * boys' and trunks turn up after all, you resign yourself to Prov- 
 idence, take the rudder and steer to the shore, where the best
 
 Chap. I.] HONGKONG. 41 
 
 of hospitality, or the worst of hotel accommodation, awaits 
 you ; with a third chance of a room in the club-house, not so 
 good as the first, nor quite so bad as the second. 
 
 I passed several days in Hongkong before all was ready for 
 a final departure. This St. Helena of the China Seas, then, as 
 now, with its motley population, its bad repute, and incongru- 
 ous pretensions, ' progresses,' as the Americans say, in a very 
 wonderful way ! Its first governors would hardly know it, al- 
 though the general features are the same as when they held 
 the reins. Wiien I returned three years later, on my way 
 homeward, progress still was the only change. More houses 
 and more streets were there ; more hill and rock had been cut 
 away or blasted, to make room. Nature, and the inbred ener- 
 gy of the English race combined, have made Hongkong a won- 
 der to all other nations. As I took my early walk the morn- 
 ing after my arrival, the sun, through heavy banks of cloud and 
 mist, was struggling hard to light up the bay, the opposite 
 shores of which were still shrouded by an impenetrable veil. 
 Ships of many nations, and junks of every size and description, 
 were shaking out their sails to dry — before another drenching 
 rain might come down. But, fair weather or foul, this Bay of 
 Hongkong, one of the finest in the world, is always pictur- 
 esque. Landlocked with bold rocks and swelling hills, the na- 
 vies of every European power might safely ride at anchor. 
 Full of life and movement, too, from the shipping whi(;h crowds 
 its waters, the scene is one of great attraction to residents and 
 casual visitors alike. The daybreak gun wakens up all early 
 risers', the loud-screaming whistles, and scarce less discordant 
 bells of the river steamers, soon after begin the business of the 
 day, and keep up an incessant alarm from seven in the morning 
 to eight or nine o'clock, and again from four in the afternoon 
 until long after dark, on their return from Canton or Macao. 
 The snorting and puffing of gunboats diversify the sounds, 
 while from the shore and the streets a busy hum of cries, and 
 sounds indescribable and untranslatable, tell the drowsy stran- 
 ger that a city in the tropics has leaped into life and activity 
 before the sun attains his scorching power. If he turns out 
 for an early walk or ride, as most Anglo - Easterns do, and 
 bends his steps upward to the higher grounds, he will find the 
 convolvulus spreading its beautiful flowers for the fresh breath 
 of dawn, creepers of wild luxuriance covering each wall and 
 bank ; and, looking seaward, a whole series of bays lie at his 
 feet, stretching away into the distance. Market-boats, laden 
 with provisions from the main land, with their richly-colored 
 8{uli of matting, and many picturesque forms, are crowding
 
 42 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap.! 
 
 into the harbor. Square-rigged ships are pressing all sail to 
 gain the long-desired haven ; while others are unmooring, to 
 proceed to the several ports with their outward cargo. Ships 
 of war, trading junks, merchant craft from every country, all 
 are here to bear testimony to the activity and importance of 
 the trade which, in some way or other, finds in Hongkong a 
 connecting link. Native craft in numbers from the adjoining 
 coast, each differing in shape and color, according to the port, 
 crowd the anchorage. The great bulky Shantung junk, laden 
 with peas and beans ; the Shanghae hulk, with its gaudy colors 
 and mythic eagle on the stern, but little differing in exterior ; 
 and the long low craft of Ningpo, all are there. Hainan, and 
 even Siara and Singapore, each has its type. A Chinese sailor 
 will distinguish wheie they come from by differences of shape 
 and rigging, paint and decoration, without difficulty ; and, if 
 he be honest, may also tell you where stout-built junks are ly- 
 ing undisturbed, with a pirate crew, and nearly fitted out with 
 fresh supplies of guns and powder. Only I do not recom- 
 mend any one to trust him too implicitly ; for he may be one 
 of the pirate crew himself, and will send you on a wrong scent, 
 to the damage of some honest trader whom he wishes to ruin ; 
 — or simply to damage you, and prevent the Hongkong au- 
 thorities pursuing his fellows on information given, by letting 
 you into a few deploiable mistakes — mares' nests — of which 
 Mr. Chisholm Anstey has long since had his say in Hongkong 
 and elsewhere. With a large harbor full of junks from every 
 sea-port and island between Shantung and Singapore, Siam, 
 Java, and the Philippines ; with 90,000 Chinese and Macden- 
 ses (as the mixed Portuguese population of the neighboring 
 peninsula of Macao are usually termed) on shore, it is not easy 
 for the authorities and police to put their hands upon all the 
 rogues, or pirate craft either, that take shelter beneath the 
 sure protection of the British flag, were they the best and 
 most honest that ever wielded colonial pow^er. The native 
 population from the main land have made this barren rock 
 their home, building a large Chinese town, which spreads along 
 the western shore, and skirts the bay, creeping and scrambling 
 upward and upward over the hillside, along the face of the ra- 
 vines, and high above the town beneath. Nest on nest of 
 houses elbow each other in the most determined way, until 
 they dispute the higher levels with the merchant princes of 
 the colony, and seem to aim at crowning the Victoria peak it- 
 self, sufficiently attesting the untiring industry, perseverance, 
 and enterprise too^when in pursuit of their own gain — of 
 these SODS of Ham.
 
 Chap. I.] SECRET OF PROSPERITY. 43 
 
 Twenty years have not yet passed over our heads since En- 
 gland first took possession of this pirate haunt, and all its prop- 
 erties of unlimited granite and bare hills ; and now it is the 
 great centre of a Chinese coasting trade, to feed which num- 
 berless ships come laden with produce, from India, Siam, and 
 the Philippines, from Batavia and Singapore, with the col- 
 lected tribute of the Malayan Archipelago. These are chiefly 
 for transhipment or dispatch to other markets ; while from En- 
 gland, New York, and San Francisco, some of the finest clip- 
 pers of both countries come filled with manufactured goods 
 and American 'notions.' Even New Zealand and Australia 
 are contributors of the required supplies, seeking tea in ex- 
 change, for their own wants. It has become the postal and 
 financial terminus, or great centre, whence all the directing 
 wires of the European, Indian, and American trade with China 
 receive their impulse from the heads of firms located in the 
 colony, determining the ultimate destination of all the ships 
 and cargoes that enter or leave the China seas. What is the 
 secret of this sudden and enormous growth in population and 
 in trading importance of a barren rock ? This must be among 
 the first questions of a stranger. Hongkong itself, he sees at 
 a glance, produces nothing but granite boulders and the thin- 
 nest scrub, beneath the hottest of suns, and least healthy of 
 climates. The city of Victoria, with its Cathedral and Episco- 
 pal palace, its Government House, and Supreme Court, with 
 all its Merchants' palatial houses, is perhaps the very last spot, 
 on all the coast of China, where a sensible man would have 
 thought of placing house or home, if the choice had been left 
 to himself. Victoria Peak rises 1700 feet above the level of 
 the sea, and stretches its solid bulk across the whole line of 
 the city, eifectually shutting out the southwest breeze, and 
 all the cool air to be had during six months of a most oppress- 
 ive summer, when every one gasps for want of that needinl 
 aliment. From this arid rock many go home sick every year, 
 with spleens much larger than their fortunes ; and not a few 
 remain, to have their bones laid in six feet of Chinese earth, in 
 the ' Happy Valley,' where an English cemetery has been lo- 
 cated. Yet the neighboring main land has good and commo- 
 dious harbors, far nearer to the producing markets and the 
 native purchasers of foreign goods ; and apparently, in every 
 respect, better fitted for trade than Hongkong. But, despite 
 all this, and more that might be said to its disadvantage, trade, 
 from countries the most distant, converges here, to a great 
 centre of attraction — as though its hills and granite rocks 
 were loadstone, and ships must needs be drawn within its
 
 44 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I. 
 
 landlocked bay. The secret of its seeming magnetic power is 
 soon told, however. 
 
 Security to life and property is the first and broadest found- 
 ation of such prosj)erity ; a magnificent bay, of easy access, the 
 second condition ; and the absence of all custom-houses, with 
 proximity to Chinese ports, where these do exist, in more or 
 less oppressive form, the third. And these taken together, fur- 
 nish, I conceive, a very full solution of the problem. Given a 
 barren rock, in the near vicinity of a wealthy empire cursed 
 with a corrupt administration, how shall the trade of the main 
 land be made to overflow to the islet ? In the first place, to 
 it an enterprising and industrial population can bring their 
 produce from the whole sea-board of the main land, on advan- 
 tageous terms of export with their own people, as not declared 
 for foreign market ; and from it run cargoes of return goods, 
 with like exemption from import duties. Thus it happens that 
 Hongkong, though promoting in a certain subsidiary way for- 
 eign trade with China — in the only way originally contem- 
 plated when it was ceded to Great Britain by treaty — really 
 owes its wondrous growth and prosperity as a colony to other 
 causes ; and mainly to a vast trade with the whole sea-board 
 of China, which, for the most part, is in the hands of the Chi- 
 nese themselves. And this, if not contraband trade, in so far 
 as our merchants personally are concerned, is at least carried 
 on and only flourishes under conditions of exemption from du- 
 ties and all custom-house regulations, contrary to the law of 
 China. From the island, as a great depot of produce in de- 
 mand on the main land, the Chinese traders can take their opi- 
 um, long-cloths, yarns, and woolens, free of all duty, with the 
 chance of laying them down near the points of consumption, 
 either for nothing, or a small bribe to the custom-house offi- 
 cials, often on a previously-arranged scale. Half a loaf being 
 proverbially better than no bread, and the latter being the al- 
 ternative presented to the custom-house authorities by the 
 wretched inadequacy of their pay — if, steadfast to their duty, 
 they exact the full dues at any one point — they adopt this mode 
 of redressing the wrong. This arrangement, by which they 
 supplement their salaries, and encourage trade at the expense 
 of the revenue, is pretty well established all over the empire. 
 In like manner, upon the same principle, the natives can bring 
 to Hongkong yrom the main land their own produce for sale 
 — their Rhubarb, Sugar, Camphor, Cassia, and sundry other 
 articles ; and to Macao their Tea, at a better price than at the 
 consular ports, for the simple reason that they succeed in es- 
 caping duty, either wholly or in part, on their export.
 
 Chap. I.] 
 
 MACAO AND HONGKONG. 
 
 45 
 
 There is, perhaps, no chapter more curious in the history of 
 nations than the chapter of bhuiders and their results. It is 
 related of the Marechal de Castries, one of the men said to 
 have sought all his life to fix fortune by deep and learned com- 
 binations, that at the end of his career, he confessed with rare 
 candor, to some one inquiring the secret of his uniform success, 
 ' he owed much to accident and opportunity, and not a little 
 to blunders !' Certainly the history of China in these matters, 
 and of Macao and Hongkong, the two rival European settle- 
 ments on the borders of China, the one occupied by the Portu- 
 guese more than two centuries, and Hongkong only some two 
 decades by ourselves, furnish striking illustrations. To look 
 
 at Macao, as the steamer heads into its picturesque bay, see its 
 imposing buildings, its convents and cathedrals, its praya and 
 its batteries, with green hills and tree-embowered villas, no 
 one would guess that this was the home of poverty and long- 
 departed prosperity — where bankrupt aliens find a refuge, and 
 a mongrel race of Portuguese, Chinese, and Africans from Goa, 
 all commingled, swarm, and breed, and live — God only knows 
 how ! Once great and wealthy (built up chiefly with the gold 
 and the spoils of Japan), in the pride of triumphant rivalry 
 with Great Britain in her Eastern trade, then only in its infan- 
 cy, it had long fallen into the sere and yellow leaf of a gradual
 
 46 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. 1. 
 
 decay, when our first war with China gave one of those chances 
 which — to nations as to individuals — seldom come more than 
 once in a cycle, of seizing fortune in its passage, and emerging 
 from poverty to wealth, had those who governed only been 
 gifted with sufficient prescience to see their opportunity. They 
 had but to declare it a Free port, and shake off the evil spell 
 of mandarin rule, to become the great emporium of Western 
 trade — become what Hongkong now is. It may, at all events, 
 admit of question, if this bold and vigorous step had been taken 
 at the right moment, whether, notwithstanding all the disad- 
 vantages of a shallow bay and bad anchorage attaching to 
 Macao, the new colony of Hongkong would ever have been 
 adopted as the head-quarters of British houses. With its im- 
 practicable hills, its sultry and unhealthy atmosphere, its in- 
 convenient distance from the main land, and the rivers which 
 form the great lines of traffic between the interior and the 
 coast, nothing could be less inviting. It had, originally, but 
 one recommendation, in the natural advantage of a fine bay. 
 But to this the British Government could attach freedom from 
 all the petty worry and vexatious exactions of corruption — in 
 the hybrid form of a Portuguese colony, crossed by a Chinese 
 custom • house. And above all, perhaps, security to life and 
 property, only to be found in those latitudes under the British 
 flag. We were very slow, however, as is our wont, to make 
 up our minds. Our merchants did not move ; and an offer 
 was even made to the Portuguese Government to purchase their 
 right of possession of Macao, such as it was, under Chinese 
 rule. Fortunately for us, in some respects at least, the pride 
 of Portugal refused to cede this last poor relic of former great- 
 ness ; and while we were thus groping our way, they missed 
 the only chance in a century of bringing back trade and wealth 
 to their starving colony, by declaring it a free port, and ridding 
 themselves of the incubus of a Chinese custom-house. With 
 a curious inconsistency, they took this very step, and ejected 
 the Chinese officials when it was too late by ten years to profit 
 them ; and the bold step only cost the Governor his life, with- 
 out any corresponding advantage to his country.* It seems 
 
 * Captain Amaral, the Governor here alluded to, was a distinguished naval 
 ofScer, who fell a victim to his zeal for the improvement of the colony, and 
 its emancipation from Chinese rule. He was assassinated in open day, while 
 riding out, by a band of Chinese, and his head was carried off to the Chinese 
 authorities, by whom it was carefully preserved in pickle ; and only delivered 
 up to the Portuguese some weeks later, after an enormous amount of hard 
 swearing. This act of atrocity, so well illustrating the principle on which 
 the Chinese rulers would fain have regulated their dealings with foreigners, 
 was a fit sequent to the torture and murder of six English clerks at Whang-
 
 Chap. I] MACAO AND HONGKONG. 47 
 
 to be as unfortunate for a man to arrive too late as too early, 
 on the world's stage, when he has a part to play. Ten years 
 earlier he might have changed the destiny of the two colonies ; 
 coming too late, he only sacrificed himself and changed noth- 
 ing. Millions of dollars had then been expended on the sun- 
 baked and sterile hills of Hongkong — by the Government, in 
 roads, and barracks, and public offices ; by our own merchants 
 and those of other nations, in houses and godowns — driven at 
 last to this expensive alternative by the vexatious impediments 
 to which their trade was exposed in Macao, under the joint 
 Chinese and Portuguese rule. Trade had irrevocably followed 
 tho heads and the purses which gave it vitality ; and not even 
 the pleasant hills and green shade of Macao, nor its fresher 
 breezes, could ever while them back again. 
 
 It is but a four hours' passage from Hongkong to Macao, 
 and a passenger lands on the praya, while the convent bells 
 fill the air with their chimes, feeling as though he had traversed 
 a whole hemisphere in that short space — passed into another 
 climate, and suddenly found himself in an old watering-place 
 on the coast of Portugal in the year 1600 ! 
 
 Here dark -tinted women in their black Mantos saunter 
 through the streets, as to this day they saunter in the provin- 
 cial towns of Portugal. The bright - colored kerchief round 
 the bead, and swarthy skins, meeting you at every step, tell of 
 long connection with Goa and African possessions. Dwarfed 
 children of all hues under the sun, and lazy-looking monks, or 
 sable-robed padres, with portentous shovel hats, either drone 
 through the half-deserted streets (become too large for its pop- 
 ulation where the Chinese do not fill up the space), or help to 
 swell some monkish procession, wending its way to the cathe- 
 dral, precisely as did Spaniards and Portuguese alike in by- 
 gone centuries (when Auto-du-Fe's were more in vogue), and 
 presenting the same pictures and groups as may still be seen 
 in the land of their birth. ' Coelum non animam mutant' is in- 
 deed specially true in this Portuguese colony. 
 
 cha-kee, a village near Canton, only a short time before. The present Gror- 
 emor of Macao, Captain Guimnraes, a naval officer also, of great ability and 
 energy, has known how to draw all the profit that was possible from the 
 emancipation from Chinese rule which his predecessor had effected at the 
 cost of his life. Aided by the unsettled state of the whole province, which 
 induced the Chinese to flock to the colony for security, the revenue so won- 
 derfully improved, that a surplus has even been remitted to the mother coun- 
 try — very much to its surprise, it must be imagined: Portuguese colonies, 
 like our own, being chiefly known as sources of expenditure — draining the 
 home exchequer instead of feeding it! Holland and Si)ain alone seem to 
 have preserved the art of reversing the process, and making their colonics /xiy.
 
 48 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I. 
 
 The Chinese Government, there is little doubt, has viewed 
 with jealousy and anger the great development of commerce, 
 and rapid increase of population, recruited as it has been from 
 their own subjects. The close proximity of two foreign colo- 
 nies and free ports must of necessity be a source of vexation 
 and even of injury ; for both piracy and frauds on the revenue 
 are unquestionably stimulated and fostered by the facilities 
 such ports afford. We can not be surprised, therefore, if a gov- 
 ernment like that of China should see in this a ground of re- 
 proach, and consider us responsible, as the intentional promo- 
 ters of disorder and violence. The only remedy, however, is 
 obviously to be found, not so much in any change in the foi'- 
 eign colony, as in greater security to life and property on the 
 main land, and an improved custom-house. The absence of the 
 one drives homeless men to the high seas for plunder ; and a 
 wretchedly administered custom - house, with venal officials, 
 quite as certainly develops smuggling. One can only rejoice, 
 therefore, to see that the Chinese are at last turning their at- 
 tention to these, with a seemingly right appreciation of their 
 importance, and to the means by which improvement is most 
 certainly to be effected. In seeking to organize an efficient 
 administration of customs on land on a imiform system, and 
 a ffeet of gunboats at sea, with the assistance of foreign offi- 
 cers, they are doing much. If they succeed in thus introdu- 
 cing such elements of honesty, courage, and efficiency as their 
 own service can not supply, a rapid and decisive improvement 
 in both directions must take place. 
 
 The vigor, honesty, and intelligence they find it so difficult 
 to secui'e among their own people may certainly be found 
 among foreignei's, if rightly set about. Time will show with 
 what success their present effbrts may be attended ; but it is 
 impossible not to desire that it may be full and complete. In 
 that direction lies their only hope of providing an effective 
 remedy for a great and increasing evil. Under the present 
 order of things, even Macao has repaired her tattered vest- 
 ments, sole legacy of two hundred years of poverty ; and Hong- 
 kong has made the fortune of many of its denizens in less than 
 twenty years. Under a better regime in China, both colonies 
 would possibly have to content themselves with more legiti- 
 mate gains, and, it may be, smaller revenues and lessened im- 
 portance. But, though Macao should have to fall back upon 
 lentils and soup maigre six days in the week, as of old, and 
 Hongkong see fewer ships in her harbor, with corresponding 
 diminution of the Chinese population and revenue, it is well 
 that the Chinese should succeed in their effbrts at reorganiza-
 
 Chap. I.] COLLECTION OF REVENUE. 49 
 
 tion. It would be well — even oa the most selfish view of our 
 own interests. 
 
 In getting its legitimate dues from foreign trade, which the 
 Government received until recently at Shanghae alone, under 
 a system of foreign inspection first organized during ray resi- 
 dence there in 1854, the Chinese Government would obtain 
 a direct and increasing interest in its development and pros- 
 perity, besides the means of establishing a better government 
 over the country, without which all trade is Ukely to be de- 
 stroyed by a general disorganization. They may farther learn 
 by success a lesson they much need, namely, that to secure 
 good and honest service, States, as well as individuals, must 
 deal fairly with their servants, and give adequate salaries. 
 Though last, not least among the benefits to be derived, the 
 foreign merchant would find his trade could be carried on in 
 the Chinese markets with honesty, and on principles of fairness 
 to all, without any sacrifice either of principle or capital, such 
 as must otherwise be inevitable where a vicious and lax ad- 
 ministration of customs exists. There are many who contend 
 against the organization of a system for the efficient collection 
 of customs by the Chinese Government, with the aid of foreign 
 inspectors of their own appointment, on the alleged ground 
 that it is no business of ours ; and that if they are defrauded 
 of their revenue (by collusion between their own officers and 
 foreign merchants), theirs alone is the fault and the loss. But 
 is it no concern of a foreign nation and its government whether 
 those who represent its conunerce and nationality bring credit 
 or disgrace upon their country by their dealings? Is the loss 
 only on one side ? How does the conscientious trader tlirive 
 in such circumstances ? And how much ill will and excuse for 
 bad faith on the part of the Chinese Government may be due 
 to this one cause? Merchants are never slow to claim protec- 
 tion for their interests as a national obligation, even at the cost 
 of a war — and they are quite right. Such an obligation un- 
 doubtedly exists ; but is it no concern of Statesmen what may 
 be the character of the mercantile transactions and the hon- 
 esty of the dealings for which tliey be called upon to draw the 
 flword ? We owe much of our commercial position in the 
 world, and the wealth it brings, to the British name for good 
 faith and honesty. And can this be dishonored, or flung to 
 the winds, in any quarter of the globe, without prejudice to 
 our commercial interests every where ? Were it a matter of 
 as perfect indifference, as has often been asserted, what befell 
 the Chinese revenue, it would still be of grave concern to us in 
 a national sense that Englishmen should not be engaged in de- 
 
 C
 
 50 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap, t 
 
 frauding it. These are serious considerations, and with too di- 
 rect a bearing upon our position and commerce in the East t(V 
 be safely overlooked. No doubt the effort now making to 
 establish at the consular ports, by a leaven of foreign elements, 
 an efficient inspectorate of customs, and completely reorganize 
 the establishments hitherto existing, radically vicious and bad 
 as they notoriously were, is a task in which perfect success 
 can not be looked for at once, if even in the end, after time and 
 experience shall have given education and training to the many 
 subordinates of all kinds required, and perfected the machinery. 
 Perfect institutions exist nowhere ; and China, with its under- 
 paid officials and their prescriptive rights under such a system 
 — to pay themselves by every kind of bribery and extortion, 
 neglect and peculation — is the last place to produce them. We 
 may take it for granted, therefore, that much, for a long time 
 at least, must necessarily be imperfect in any administration of 
 customs that can be organized under a Foreign Inspectorate. 
 It must, consequently, be open to cavil and objection ; and all 
 who are inimical to an impartial and rigid enforcement of cus- 
 toms will find it easy work to discover flaws and evidences of 
 imperfect working. But the true question, after all, is, not 
 whether this machinery or any other that can be devised is 
 perfect, for that we know to be unattainable, but whether it 
 is, under the circumstances, the best attainable ? And, again, 
 whether the administration, by the introduction of certain for- 
 eign elements of honesty and vigor, under intelligent direction, 
 does not constitiite a vast improvement on any system that has 
 hitherto existed in native hands alone? If it is, we must be 
 content to accept with the improvement the certainty that 
 there will be no exemption from the law of humanity which 
 precludes absolute perfection. As for the plausible objections 
 which are now and then advanced, in default of better argu- 
 ments, that the British Government (or the Treaty powers gen- 
 erally), by encouraging these effi^rts of the Chinese to infuse 
 new vigor into their administration of customs — as into the po- 
 lice of the coast for the suppression of piracy, by the employ- 
 ment of foreigners and the purchase of gunboats — are under- 
 mining their independence and usurping their rights, it is only 
 waste of time to answer them. What European power has 
 ever hesitated to employ foreigners when these could supply a 
 special knoAvledge or a talent not to be found in the country? 
 How does Russia, one of the greatest European powers, con- 
 duct its administration? Is there no employment of foreign- 
 ers ? And what statesman or politician has ever seen in such 
 a course a ground of protest, or of danger to Russia ? So far
 
 Chap. I.] CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS. 61 
 
 from seeing in these agencies, and infusion of foreign blood and 
 intellect in the administration of an Eastern empire, a cause of 
 regret orgroimd of objection, I believe it is only thus that any 
 amalgamation of the two civilizations of the East and West, so 
 diflferent in kind and antagonistic in tendencies, can ever be 
 brought about, or more harmonious relations established. Im- 
 provement, it is true, to be either general or effective, must 
 come from within and not from without. With the best good 
 will in the world, neither Great Britahi, nor all the Western 
 powers united — as they probably never will be — can supply a 
 remedy for the universal anarchy, corruption, and bad govern- 
 ment existing at the present day in the Chinese Empire. But 
 there must be a beginning somewhere, and it is probably easier 
 and more hopeful to commence from without under existing 
 circumstances. 
 
 To relieve the Chinese Empire of two of its great enemies, 
 piracy and smuggling, the one so damaging to its commerce, 
 and the other to its revenue, it is evident indeed that two 
 things are wanted, which, I repeat, no foreign power can sup- 
 ply. A good and strong government, and an honest adminis- 
 tration throughout the provinces, but especially of the customs 
 along the coast and on the navigable rivers. Whether it be 
 vain to look for these in the existing generation, time alone 
 can show ; but Foreign Powers in treaty with China, having 
 large interests involved, are still at liberty (if not constrained 
 in their own behalf) to do their best in aid, when the existing 
 government is disposed, either spontaneously or under advice, 
 to make efforts for their own regeneration and the salvation 
 of the country. To reform their administration, improve the 
 custom-house, reorganize, and, indeed, create both an army and 
 a navy, are all needful conditions of success ; and any aid the 
 powers of the West can give for the speedy attainment of these 
 ends will be a gain to civilization, and a direct benefit to 
 nearly a third of the whole human race. 
 
 The sun was rapidly rising higher and higher as the morn- 
 ing walk drew to a close, together with my speculations on 
 the past and the future. The rain-clouds dispersed, and a gal- 
 lant fleet might be seen stretching across the bay, with pend- 
 ants and ensigns of many nations. Music came floating on the 
 breeze from the U. S. S. ' Powhatan ;' H. M. ship ' Fury' was 
 getting up her steam, with 300 marines on board, bound for 
 the north, for the then impending struggle at the Peiho, and 
 IT. M, S. 'Sampson' was ready also for the conveyance of 
 the Diplomatic mission to Yeddo. We took our leave of 
 Hongkong on May 17, and bent our course northward for
 
 52 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I. 
 
 Nagasaki or Shanghae, according as coals and weather might 
 determine. 
 
 The incidents of a voyage up the coast from Hongkong in 
 these days of steam are few, unless one happens to fall in with 
 a typhoon, or succeeds in discovering a new rock ; and the 
 month of May offers less chance of either, perhaps, than any 
 other in the year. The escape from the sultry heat of Canton 
 and Hongkong, to the fresh breezes of the higher latitudes and 
 open sea, is the most noteworthy and delightful of the ' inci- 
 dents,' but this is not an interesting event to any one out of 
 the tropics. To feel a desire for a blanket, and to escape the 
 sleep-disturbing trumpet of the musquitoes, are chief elements 
 of a happiness only born of contrast. The winds were ad- 
 verse, and so we turned our course toward the wide mouth of 
 the leviathan of rivers, the Yangtze, and arrived at Shanghae 
 in time for the Queen's birthday. It was not the Queen's 
 weather, however, for the morning was wet and stormy. In 
 vain the numerous ships of war were dressed in their gayest 
 colors, and all the merchant vessels followed suit; every thing 
 looked drooping, wet, and miserable. 
 
 I wandered through the Foreign Settlement despite both 
 rain and mud, over once familiar ground. There is certainly 
 nothing more wonderful in the East than the rapid growtli of 
 this place, and the vast trade to which it has given rise, as the 
 shipping port of the silk country, and many of the tea districts. 
 Fifteen years ago, corn, and rice, and cotton covered the 
 ground, now entirely occupied for more than a mile square 
 with foreign buildings — mansions for the foreign merchants, 
 and pack -houses of corresponding extent for merchandise. 
 This is farther increased by a Chinese settlement in the rear, 
 its occupants having sought peace and security where the 
 flags of Western powers (and chief of these, by the magnitude 
 of our interests and commercial transactions, the British) give 
 no vain promise of both. Some 80,000 Chinese, many of the 
 better and wealthier classes of merchants, have thus located 
 themselves of their own free choice, and built Made streets and 
 extensive bazars. They pay road- and police-rates, and con- 
 form to the municipal regulations of foreign growth with out- 
 ward willingness, if not with scrupulous fidehty. The Chinese 
 are certainly among the most easily-governed people in the 
 world; given two conditions only — honesty of purpose and 
 strength in the governing power. Under such conditions, the 
 latter is hardly ever called into active exercise. It is enough 
 that it should be known to exist. The city itself had but par- 
 tially recovered its devastation by the horde of soi-disant pa«
 
 Chap. I.] OUR POSITION IN CHINA. 63 
 
 triots and ruthless spoliators — banditti, which gained posses- 
 sion in 1853, and held it against an Imperial army until the 
 beginning of 1855. A word from the Treaty Powers might, 
 I believe, have averted such a calamity then, and saved from 
 spoliation and ruin a population of some 80,000 industrious 
 and peace-loving people. But a want of unanimity and decis- 
 ion among the Foreign representatives on the spot, either as 
 to the end or the means, prevented any effort being made, and 
 the opportunity was lost. Warned by past experience, we 
 shall not willingly let this consular port again become a prey 
 to the miserable vampires who exist only by sucking the life's 
 blood out of flourishing towns, in many of which we have 
 large commercial and treaty-guaranteed interests. True, the 
 policy to be pursued in such circumstances opens up a large 
 question, on which there has been already much difference of 
 opinion. It is one, however, that can hardly be discussed with 
 advantage upon any basis of noti-intervention interpreted in a 
 thoroughly doctrinaire spirit. Any word spoken or blow 
 struck to defend the lives, the property, or the trade of our 
 merchants at Shanghae or to safeguard the national interests 
 of vast amount inseparably connected with these, and the sal- 
 vation of Shanghae itself from capture and destruction (synony- 
 mous terms with the Taepings), is a violation of a non-inter- 
 vention policy, under such interpretation. Are we then to 
 give up, without an effort, a trade employing thirty millions 
 of capital, and yielding to the British and Indian exchequers a 
 Revenue of ten millions sterling annually ? Let us look the 
 difficulty in the face. We must either make up our minds to 
 do this, and accept the consequences in lost trade and increased 
 taxation, both at home and in India, to make up so many mil- 
 lions of revenue, or do what may be necessary to avert such a 
 catastrophe. It is precisely here, I believe, that the great di- 
 vergence of opinion begins. One party of politicians, general 
 advocates of a peace and non-intervention policy, protest 
 against any employment of our forces in the defense of the 
 consular ports and centres of our Chinese trade — first, as a de- 
 parture from a sound policy of absolute neutrality ; and, sec- 
 ondly, as unnecessary for the end in view, if that end be only 
 protection to our trade. The Taepings, it is argued, might be 
 treated with just as easily and effectually as the Government 
 of China. Granted that it is a departure from absolute neu- 
 trality, inasmuch as though the object be other than partisan- 
 ship, yet, to give the insurgents a check in any direction, or 
 prevent their seizing on a great sea-port, is in effect to damage 
 their cause, and by so much to interfere with their success^
 
 54 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I. 
 
 and the issue of the struggle between them and the existing 
 government, we have only to consider the second assertion 
 that it is unnecessary, even if justifiable. But that entirely 
 rests on the assumption, demonstrably untenable and dis- 
 proved by experience, that we could enter into arrangements 
 with the Taepings, and let them occupy all the consular ports 
 and lines of traffic without serious detriment, if not destruc- 
 tion, to our trade and treaty rights. They are not a govern- 
 ment in any sense of the word. They neither offer any of the 
 guarantees of a government, nor any responsible head to treat 
 with.* Assuming, for the moment, that our obligations to- 
 ward the Imperial Government would warrant such negotia- 
 tions, the attempts we have made in this direction have been 
 signal failures — failures, as might be shown, inevitable from 
 the constitution and character of the party with which we en- 
 deavored to treat. The Taepings acknowledge no treaties, 
 and are bound by no laws. How can a regular and responsi- 
 ble Government, such as ours, enter into treaty relations with 
 an armed horde of illiterate and lawless insurgents, whose sole 
 vocation these ten years past has been one of devastation ; 
 who wander from province to province, as locusts migrate from 
 field to field when they have utterly consumed and destroyed 
 all that can support life ? Must we patiently look on and see 
 our trade and revenue, present and prospective, destroyed by 
 these spoliators of honest men's goods, or shall we take eflTect- 
 ive means for their defense ? 
 
 In what these may best consist is another question, and one 
 of detail rather than principle. So also is that which regards 
 the limits within which we shall seek to extend protection. 
 But, as regards the means, it will be found these resolve them- 
 selves into two : Great Britain, or Gi'eat Britain and France 
 as at present, may either employ their own forces, naval and 
 military, to defend the principal ports and centres of trade (or 
 such of them as shall be deemed most essential), China paying 
 for the expenses of such contingents, or assist the Chinese 
 Government to organize an army and navy for themselves, 
 competent to do the same work. This, of course, is to help 
 the Imperial Government, and may naturally be expected to 
 bring down upon us the active hostility of the Taepings. But 
 the worst they can do can not be more fatal to our interests 
 than non-intervention and neutrality would be, taken in such 
 absolute sense as the abstaining from all action. We are do- 
 ing this in America, it is true, and accepting the loss. But the 
 
 * Nor should it be for;:otten that the rebellion has many heads, acting in- 
 •iependently of each other.
 
 Chap. I.] QUESTIONS OF POLICY.— INTERVENTION. 55 
 
 character and conditions of the struggle going on are differ- 
 ent ; and, moreover, where the same rules of International law 
 are accepted as binding on both sides, the obligation is mutual 
 to adhere to them, whatever may be the cost. We are bound 
 by no such obligations in reference to the Taepings, because 
 they themselves recognize no laws but those of their own mak- 
 ing, and are not particular in observing them. 
 
 Intervention, in an international sense, implies partisanship, 
 and the espousal of a cause. There has been no desire to in- 
 tervene in this sense, but only to interpose our arms in self- 
 defense. Intervention of the specific and limited character 
 here referred to should more properly be regarded as simply 
 a prohibition, issued to those who recognize no law, are bound 
 by no treaties, and respect only force — a declaration th.it at 
 the consular ports, where foreign powers have large vested in- 
 terests and treaty rights, no one, in M-anton spoliation, shall be 
 allowed to destroy them, and with them the lives and prop- 
 erty of thousands of peaceable inhabitants, with whom we have 
 daily relations of amity and commerce. If the right to inter- 
 vene and the necessity for such interference are defensible on 
 these grounds, the advantages of such a course are still more 
 clearly demonstrable. The population of these ports will learn 
 to look upon us as their best friends, and a sure defense against 
 violence and wrong they are otherwise unable to resist. The 
 insurgent rabble themselves will regard us with all the more 
 respect for our determined bearing; and the Imperial Govern- 
 ment may even be grateful for exertions, by which the custom- 
 house revenues (becoming every day of greater importance to 
 them) are preserved from the grasp of their enemies. And, 
 whether grateful or not, the Emperor's counselors can not help 
 seeing, by such service, that they have a direct interest in the 
 preservation of foreign commerce, and the relations of good 
 will connected with its development. No doubt this, or any 
 other course that might be adopted for the protection of our 
 commerce, is open to criticism, as involving us in a serious un- 
 dertaking with many difficulties. But one thing, I repeat, is 
 clear : Ave must either intervene (singly, or with other powers), 
 to protect at least one or more of the great centres of our trade 
 in China, or make up our minds to see it destroyed by the 
 insurgent bands ravaging the country. Are those who advo- 
 cate a laissez faire policy, and abstinence from all protective 
 measures, prepared for such a sacrifice of trade and revenue? 
 If not, ' qui veut la fin, vetU les moyens? 
 
 These considerations of general policy very naturally sug- 
 gested themgelves with the still evident traces of the savago
 
 ^6 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 tCHAP. i. 
 
 and wanton destruction wrought by a handful of horse-boys 
 and rabble Cantonese once more under my eyes. Wide spaces, 
 illled only with ruins, lie between the foreign settlement and 
 the city walls, which I remembered completely covered with 
 Chinese streets, the homes of a large and industrious popula- 
 tion. Within the walls, permanent loss and devastation were 
 still every where apparent. Thousands of houses had been 
 leveled, and tens of thousands of their inhabitants either tor- 
 tured to death, beheaded, or cast out houseless and destitute 
 to perish in the open country ; but it would be hard to find 
 a single human being who had reaped any tangible or perma- 
 nent benefit ! Even the ruffian leader, Chin-a-lin^ who alone 
 of all his followers made his escape at the capture of the city 
 (by the help of a foreign merchant), was prowHng about Hong- 
 kong the other day, trying in vain, through more foreign agen- 
 cy, to get possession of a certain lot of ground in Shanghae. 
 There, known only to himself he said, lay buried a lac of dol- 
 lars, wrung from the tears and agony of his tortured victims. 
 As many in Europe have not enjoyed the advantage of a per- 
 sonal acquaintance with these disciples of Taeping, Ibeg to in- 
 troduce them more particularly in a study from nature (oppo- 
 site), made by a warm partisan of theirs con amore. 
 
 As I threaded my way amidst crowded thoroughfares, and 
 scrambled over the rubbish of fallen houses, destroyed when 
 the insurgents fired the city as they sought to escape, some 
 of the more striking features of our position in China involun- 
 tarily occupied my thoughts. To this place, where so many 
 years of my life had been spent, I had now returned for a mo- 
 ment, after a two years' absence in Europe, and therefore 
 could look upon old scenes with some of the freshness of eye 
 which an artist brings to his work after a long rest has re- 
 stored the power of distinguishing the tints, often destroyed or 
 impaired by a too constant gaze on the same glaring colors. 
 The changes and wonderful development of trade a few years 
 had brought about in Shanghae,* the chief of the five ports 
 
 * Brief Sdmmart of Statistics — 1855-1860: 
 
 
 No. of 
 Vessels 
 Inward. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 No. of 
 
 Vessels 
 
 Outward. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Value of 
 Imports. 
 
 Value of 
 Exports. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 1859 
 1860 
 
 164 
 398 
 633 
 754 
 926 
 1007 
 
 68,630 
 127,730 
 205,613 
 242,624 
 287,100 
 304,154 
 
 223 
 353 
 298 
 378 
 939 
 972 
 
 111,593 
 122,106 
 114,243 
 154,795 
 
 289,709 
 293,568 
 
 £ 
 7,773,869 
 8,325,772 
 10,227,895 
 12,061,185 
 15,124,920 
 18,326,430 
 
 £ 
 9,032,944 
 9,538,379 
 11,302,833 
 12,663,014 
 13,330,055 
 10,779,319 
 
 £ 
 16,806,813 
 17,864,151 
 21,530,728 
 24,624,199 
 28,454,975 
 29,105,749
 
 Chap. I.J A STUDY.— THE 'GREAT PEACE' DYNASTY. 57 
 
 FOLLOWERS OF THE 'GREAT PEACE' DYNASTY. 
 
 originally opened under treaty in 1843, are such as can hard- 
 ly be realized by any one away from the spot. Nothing more 
 surprising has ever been seen in the annals of colonization or 
 trade. When I first arrived in Shanghae in 1 846, to take pos- 
 
 The above figures include opium and treasure in the im|>orts ; apart from 
 these, the ratio of increase and the actual amount of the import trade is com- 
 ))ariitivcl\' small. This summary is taken from the Custom-house returns 
 ])uhli<;he(l under the Foreij^u Ins|)ect()rs ; and it is hut justice to sav, ihat 
 their complctoncss and general accuracy is not one of the least st^rvices they 
 Uuvu rendered to commerce. See A|ipi-ndix A fur some additional details. 
 
 C 2
 
 68 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I. 
 
 session of a post which I held for nine years, there were but 
 three or four houses on the ' Bund,' or river front, which now 
 extends in a continuous line nearly two miles, to the south gate 
 of the city. Behind — away in the midst of cornfields and 
 Chinese hamlets — was the beginning of a Missionary settle- 
 ment, supposed to be far enough in the country never to be 
 overtaken by the all-encroaching and mundane pursuits of com- 
 merce. It was difficult in 1859 for me to find my way through 
 a very labyrinth of streets and houses to where the once iso- 
 lated missionary village looked out on the open country. The 
 busy hum of voices and din of traffic is now every where around 
 them. Crowds of men, Jew, Pagan, and Christian, Buddhist 
 and Parsee, Chinese and European, fill the streets, with endless 
 gangs of coolies chanting their pavior-like sound to keep each 
 other in step, as they press on beneath heavy burdens of tea- 
 chests, bales of silk, and long-cloth. Sedan-chairs, with Chinese 
 brokers inside, are rushing madly on, to the imminent danger 
 of the eyes of pedestrians, from the projecting poles of the 
 chairs just reaching to the level of the head. The thousands 
 of Chinese who, since the seizure and destruction of the city 
 by the insurgents, have been continually pressing within our 
 limits, give a fabulous value to the land. Wherever a spare 
 lot could be had, they have either leased or bought it and built 
 houses. 
 
 The original occupants of European race run some risk of 
 being jostled out of their possessions, just as these pushed and 
 bought out the native possessors of the soil ; a sort of retrib- 
 utive justice, perhaps, but one that was little anticipated when 
 every effort was being made, some ten or fifteen years before, 
 to get all the land into foreign hands. This result was, how- 
 ever, clearly enough foreseen by myself in the beginning ; and 
 an endeavor was made, both by my predecessor, Colonel Bal- 
 four, at the very outset, and subsequently by myself, to keep 
 the ground within the limits of the Foreign Concession exclu- 
 sively for foreigners, as better for the permanent interests of 
 these and the security of the settlement. But if it be true 
 that there never was an Act of Parliament through which a 
 clever lawyer could not drive a coach and six, it is still more 
 certain that there are no laws or regulations which can be so 
 applied to various nationalities in an Eastern country that they 
 may not, and will not be broken through. What some may 
 do with profit and impunity, can never be effectually prohib- 
 ited to others. And so the once Foreign Settlement has be- 
 come a Chinese town, and, as a natural consequence, has gone 
 through a series of panics during the last few years, lest it
 
 Chap. I.] MIXTURE OF RACES.— AVARICSl. 59 
 
 should be given over to f3ack and plunder on the approacih of 
 the insurgents, after the fashion of Chinese cities ; the greatest 
 danger coming from the Chinese population within the bound- 
 aries, and in the very midst of which every foreigner now 
 must live. The natives are probably in the proportion of a 
 hundred to one of the foreigners. Hitherto this calamity has 
 been averted by British and French forces; but as this also 
 may come to an end, being much too expensive a process for 
 permanent adoption, the future of Shanghae is by no means so 
 secure as one would wish to see it. It is true, many of the 
 wealthier and better classes of Chinese have taken refuge in 
 the Foreign Settlement ; and as they have much to lose, their 
 presence alfords a certain security. Yc>t even this is, after all, 
 worth very little; for naturally timid, and of unwarlike dispo- 
 sition, they would only flock together or tiy the place in time 
 of danger, like so many sheep on the approach of wolves. And 
 in their train, thousands of Chinese who have nothing to lose 
 — many of the worst classes, indeed — have also taken up their 
 abode in the Foreign Settlement as an Alsatia, where no law 
 of their own country can reach them, and no power of the 
 stranger exists to deal with an evil of this nature. Many years 
 ago, when, as Her Majesty's Consul, I used to foreshadow pre- 
 cisely this state of aft'airs, with some fahit hope, at first, of in- 
 ducing the more influential of the residents, among my own 
 countrymen more especially, to second ray efforts, and prevent 
 this location of Chinese among them as a permanent source of 
 danger, and a grievous deterioration of the settlement in all 
 save the immediate dollar value of the land and houses, I had 
 a conversation with one of ihein honest and outspoken enough 
 to tell the whole truth. ' No doubt your anticipations of fu- 
 ture evil have a certain foundation, and, indeed, may be correct 
 enough, though something may be urged on the other side 
 as to the advantages of having the Chinese mingled with us, 
 and departing from the old Canton system of isolation ; but, 
 upon the whole, I agree with you. The day will probably 
 come when those who then may be here will see abundant 
 cause to regret what is now being done, in letting and sublet- 
 ting to Chinese. But in what way am I and my brother land- 
 holders and speculators concerned in this? You, as H.M.'s. 
 Consul, are bound to look to national and permanent interests 
 — that is your business ; but it is my business to make a for- 
 tune with the least possible loss of time, by letting my land to 
 Chinese, and building for them at thirty or forty per cent, in- 
 terest, if that is the best thing I can do with my money. In 
 two or three years at farthest, I hope to realize a fortune and
 
 60 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. tCHAP. I. 
 
 get away ; and what can it matter to me if all Shanghae dis- 
 appear afterward in fire or flood ? You must not expect men 
 in my situation to condemn themselves to years of prolonged 
 exile in an unhealthy climate for the benefit of posterity. We 
 are money-making, practical men. Our business is to make 
 money, as much and as fast as we can ; and for this end, all 
 modes and means are good which the law permits.' My plain- 
 spoken friend quite convinced me I was losing time in any ef- 
 forts to stem the tide of land-jobbing and house-building for 
 Chinese tenants, who could be found to repay the capital of 
 land and house by a two or three years' rent ; and so ended 
 my desire to continue the struggle, too evidently hopeless. 
 And as long as there is land still to be bought up, and room 
 to build more houses, and Great Britain supplies means of pro- 
 tection ^bai'ring now and then an uncomfortable panic of the 
 destruction of the whole by fire and pillage from the enemy 
 within the citadel), ' all goes on as merry as a marriage bell.' 
 Successive merchants, clerks, and storekeepers — generations of 
 them, so to speak, come and disappear, stay their time of five 
 or ten years, and carry off a fortune, rejoicing in the Bourbon 
 consolation, apr^ moi le deluge ! They have snatched wealth 
 out of the fire, and so may others after them, or, if not, tant 
 pis ! The merchant feels he must be quick in a climate as try- 
 ing as that of China. He has to snatch a fortune from the 
 jaws of death, and, imless he make haste, it is more than prob- 
 able he Avill only dig his own grave, and be snatched away 
 himself. But, on the other hand, it must be confessed these 
 are conditions sadly adverse to any attempt on the part of con- 
 stituted authorities to provide for the future security and well- 
 being of a foreign settlement at the expense of the present, 
 however small this may be, or great and permanent the other. 
 I saw with the more satisfaction, therefore, that, despite of all 
 this, the Municipality, of which the foundations Avere laid in 
 ray day, still survived as an institution, and, even under the 
 strain of an enormous increase of property and population, did 
 good service, though manifestly becoming inadequate to meet 
 the growing exigencies. 
 
 We left Shanghae for Nagasaki after a delay of some days, 
 having been detained by incessant rains, heavy enough even 
 to prevent coaling. When it rains in Shanghae, it does so in 
 earnest — sets all water-proof devices at naught, and reduces the 
 roads to a sea of mud, hardly passable except on stilts ; a state 
 of things which materially diminishes any regret at leaving it.
 
 Chap. I.] THE FUTURE. 61 
 
 I could not help reflecting, as we steamed out of the Hwang- 
 po (the tributary river on which Shanghae is situated), that it 
 would not be among the least curious or important of the in- 
 cidental results attaching to the enlarged traffic and inter- 
 course even then rapidly developing between this port and 
 Japan, that chiefly by and through the Chinese ports (the more 
 nearly assimilated wants and tastes of the two races mainly 
 aiding, in combination with the activity, enterprise, and capi- 
 tal of British merchants), a great trade, opening up the re- 
 sources of both semi-secluded empires, should be developed. 
 This was no part of the original design of the Western Powers 
 in framing the recent treaties, but only thus was any foreign 
 trade in the first instance created and developed. A Chinese 
 trade with Japan already existed at Nagasaki, of very old date ; 
 and though much diminished in value and importance, like the 
 Dutch, it still retained some vitality up to the date of the open- 
 ing of new ports under treaties. Wants had been created the 
 natural products of Japan could not (or did not) supply, for 
 which they had been accustomed therefore to look to a foreign 
 market; and thus the Japanese mind had been familiarized 
 with the idea at least that a foreign trade might exist with ad- 
 vantage to themselves. That the greater part of such Chinese 
 trade would pass into foi-eign hands, and ours more particu- 
 larly, might safely be predicted from the beginning. But this 
 carrying trade between China and Japan is not certainly the 
 commerce to which we more especially desired to open the 
 way by our treaty. Our aim and hope was to create a direct 
 trade, oy the interchange of Japanese products with British 
 goods. Thus, as in a thousand instances, we are reminded of 
 
 * a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough hew them how we will.' 
 
 What we have sought and striven for may, indeed, be ulti- 
 mately obtained ; but neither in the way we looked for, nor 
 often with the results anticipated. The Chinese formed a nat- 
 ural, and, to all appearance, a necessary link in the first devel- 
 opment of any large trade between Europe and Japan, just as 
 India has long been a connecting link with China. So, pass- 
 ing from things temporal to those that are spiritual, may we 
 not yet find that Roman Catholicism will form the connecting 
 link between Paganism in its many idolatrous forms, and a 
 purer Protestantism ? Though I feel this is dangerous ground, 
 and scarce know whether Romanists or Protestants would most 
 vehemently repudiate as injurious any inference that in the 
 ways of Providence either could be beholden to the other, or
 
 62 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. I. 
 
 the final propagation of Christianity among the heathen be de- 
 pendent upon an order of progression, still I have a strong con- 
 viction on the subject. The Jews, under an inspired leader, 
 did not emerge out of Egyptian idolatry into a pure Theism 
 without many intervening stages of progress; of semi-idolatry, 
 and assimilations to the ceremonial and material worship they 
 left behind. Man seems ill designed or constituted for such 
 sudden leaps from darkness into light ; and all past missionary 
 experience, I think, goes far to enforce the unwelcome truth at 
 which I am glancing, that the abstract doctrines of a Protestant 
 faith find acceptance among a heathen and idolatrous race with 
 infinitely greater difficulty than Romanism. Such is certainly 
 the fact. It may admit of other and better explanation per- 
 haps, but this alone suggests itself to me as both adequate and 
 satisfactory. With one reflection more I take my leave of 
 China, which may one day exercise as much influence on the 
 Western world, and its relations with the Eastern races, as we 
 can ever hope to exercise on them. It has been ingeniously 
 remarked by Mr. Mill that the Chinese have succeeded beyond 
 all hope, in what English philanthropists of the present day are 
 so industriously working at, in making people all alike, all gov- 
 erning their thoughts and conduct by the same axioms and 
 rules. He goes on to say ' that the modern regime of public 
 opinion is, in an unorganized form, what the Chinese educa- 
 tional and political system are in an organized ; and, unless in- 
 dividuality shall be able successfully to assert itself against this 
 yoke, Europe, notwithstanding its noble antecedents and its 
 professed Christianity, will tend to become another China.' 
 
 It is curious enough, that while all things tend to infuse into 
 the Chinese mind ideas of progress, of change, and develop- 
 ment, even at the price of great internal convulsions and the 
 destruction of material interests, one of our most distinguished 
 writers should see, in the tendency of our own habits and edu- 
 cation, worldly and other, a retrograde action to the dead level 
 mediocrity and immobility of the Chinese mind ! If so, the 
 two ends of the circle, traveling from opposite points, may ulti- 
 mately meet in Japan, which seems scarcely less profoundly 
 stirred up in its depths by the sudden contact of Europe than 
 China, but not so steadily bent on a collective mediocrity. 
 
 And now farewell to China. Its low, flat coast had long 
 been invisible when I left the deck ; and the Yangtze no lon- 
 ger divided the blue waves of the open sea with its mud- 
 charged waters, yellow and turbid in their course for many a 
 mile. A fit symbol it seemed of the great empire through 
 which it takes its troubled way, bearing onward the disinte-
 
 Chap. I.] A PROBLEM.— PROGRESS. 63 
 
 grated fragments of a material creation fast passing away, to be 
 built up again, it may be, with new elements and in other forms. 
 The oldest empire will not last forever, any more than the hills 
 and mountains which this mighty river is slowly but surely 
 carrying into the depths of the sea. So I took my leave of 
 this empire of the ' Lord of ten thousand isles,' one of the many 
 Oriental titles of the sovereign who reigns over China, but cer- 
 tainly does not govern. His overgrown family of four hund- 
 red millions of ' black-haired children,' as he affectionately styles 
 them, have led their ' father' an uneasy life for many long years 
 past. Nor can the wisest see the end of all the troubles which 
 distract the country, from the Great Wall to the borders of 
 Nepaul. 
 
 How far the closer contact of foreign nations, and the pres- 
 ence of their Representatives in Pekin, may influence the final 
 issue between the Emperor and his insurgent subjects, or help 
 to give the power now wanting to put down the wandering 
 hordes of banditti and malcontents with whom pillage is the 
 end, and political change only the pretext, is the problem now 
 waiting solution by the progress of events. * Far Cathay,' an 
 appropriate title once, and no poetic fiction when Coleridge 
 wrote, has ceased to be applicable to the empire of ' Kublai 
 Khan.' Steam and railroad have placed London and Canton 
 within six weeks of each other. It was but a few years since 
 I heard one of the East India Company's servants, who had 
 knelt in his youth before the throne of 'Keenlung' (the late 
 emperor's grandfather), describe the long and weary twelve 
 months that used to elapse before they could hope to receive 
 an answer to their letters dispatched to Europe from Canton ! 
 How their successors grumble now if the mail gun at Hong- 
 kong does not announce its arrival within forty-two days from 
 Marseilles ! Fewer days nearly than, a century ago, it required 
 weeks. And more is yet promised. Soon the electric tele- 
 graph may flash intelligence from Pekin to St. James's in less 
 than as many hours, via Siberia and St. Petersburg. It is idle, 
 then, to talk of distance, the true measure of which is Time. 
 If it take longer to penetrate into the heart of ' Old Castile' 
 than to reach Canton, we are to all intents nearer to the latter ; 
 and Pekin is infinitely farther from Canton, than Canton itself 
 is from London, for access, traffic, or communication. This is 
 one of those suggestive facts, which appear full of promise, in 
 regard not only to the relations of Europe with China, but to 
 the destinies of the Chinese Empire and race, though pregnant 
 with change and not exempt from danger. It must needs be 
 80, whether Treaty Powers in their wisdom desire it or not*
 
 64 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. TI. 
 
 With or without their consent (it may well be without their 
 prescience), influences are ah-eady active calculated to bring 
 about great changes among the Chinese, and in their inter- 
 course with Western nations. And they are precisely the in- 
 fluences over which there is the least control to be exercised 
 by governments, even were they more clearly recognized. 
 
 CHINESE UNDEK THE TAKTAR DYNASTY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Voyage to Nagasaki. — Japan as it was, or a Glance at the Japanese Chron- 
 icles, and what they tell us. 
 
 Squalls and gales, with drenching rain, and a pitching sea 
 every now and then sweeping in at the stern-posts, if in a mo- 
 ment of misplaced confidence they had been opened for air and 
 light, were the chief incidents of the passage from China to 
 Japan ; and this in the ' pleasant month of May' — a description 
 by no means applicable in these latitudes. 
 
 We see the land at last — a long sweep of coast with a bold 
 outline ; but where ? at what point ? No sun for an observa- 
 tion from day to day ; you may be near your port, but dare
 
 Chap. II.] BEACONS NEEDED.— JAPAN. 65 
 
 not run on in the night through a dense sea-fog; so the goocl 
 ship stops her course, and 'lies to' for the night. The next 
 morning finds you ' as you were,' wind ' dead ahead,' squalls 
 and rain or haze the only alternations, the sun your only hope 
 — and nothing apparently more hopeless than its appearance. 
 You console yourself by the reflection that a blanket is desir- 
 able at night, and a pea-jacket of the thicker sort an essential 
 by day. But how long it is to last no one can tell. To the 
 end of the wet season ? As much time almost may be con- 
 sumed in going from Hongkong to Yeddo as is required to 
 reach China from England ! 
 
 One of the first steps toward the opening of a direct trade 
 with Great Biitain would seem to be a good survey of the 
 Japanese coasts, and the erection of light-houses or beacons ; 
 some landmarks that may supply the place of an observation, 
 and enable the navigator, when he makes the coast, to tell his 
 whereabouts and how to shape his course. I made great ef- 
 forts immediately after my arrival to obtain the services of our 
 surveying ships in the China Seas ; but the war and other cir- 
 cumstances prevented success until, in 1861, a beginning to sup- 
 ply the deficiency was made. Captain Capella, of the Dutch 
 Navy, in command of H. N. M. S. the ' Balli,' had in the mean 
 time made a sort of commencement, by taking his ship through 
 the inland sea or strait stretching between the islands of Kiu- 
 sin, Sikok, and Nipon, and coasting round the latter to Hako- 
 dadi and Neeagata, the port on the west coast which by treaty 
 was to be opened to foreign trade on January 1, 1861. His 
 report, however, only tended to show how great was the ne- 
 cessity of accurate surveys. 
 
 While thus ' lying to' in the trough of the Japanese Seas, 
 hoping against hope for better times and a glimpse of sunshine, 
 I tried to look into the sources of all our existing information 
 on the country and the people so long and successfully secluded 
 from the inquiring European, and soon now to be laid open to 
 all comers. 
 
 'To let the reader see Japan with the successive eyes of all 
 those who have visited it' — ' Japan as it Avas and is,' the de- 
 clared object of more than one of the recent compilations on 
 Japan, is a very laudable one, no doubt, but who is to write 
 the book? 'Japan as it was and is' must obviously be for 
 other hands than those of writers who merely compile in New 
 York or London from what has been .already written by the 
 few attaches of the Dutch fnctory, who at long intervals g.ave 
 to the public the results of their very limited opportunities of 
 personal observation. Something of what Japan is, and prora-
 
 66 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN". [Chap. II. 
 
 ises to be in its connection with foreign nations, I hope to tell 
 as I go on ; but, in the mean while, let me fill up the dreary 
 blank of a voyage to the coast, through mist, and rain, and baf- 
 fling winds, by a sketch of Japan and the Japanese, if not as 
 they were^ at least as they appeared and have been already 
 painted by others, with more or less of accuracy, according to 
 their power and opportunities. 
 
 The sources from which such information is to be drawn are 
 not very numerous. The letters of some of the early Portu- 
 guese and Spanish missionaries before their final expulsion 
 from the country in 1642 ; the pilgrimages or voyages of vari- 
 ous navigatoi-s, compiled by Purchas, and embodying much of 
 the information accessible two centuries ago ; lastly, the con- 
 tributions from chiefs and medical officers of the Dutch factory, 
 complete the list. And the last of these were shut up in De- 
 cima, except during a journey every three or four years to the 
 capital, well guarded and caged in their ' norimons' or sedan- 
 chairs — cages, indeed, from the windows of which they might 
 obtain, if they could stoop low enough, a sort of telescopic 
 view of the country they were passing through. The writers 
 have generally been the medical men attached to the factory, 
 at intervals of half a century from each other. First Koemp- 
 fer, then Thunberg, and lastly Siebold, still living, and for some 
 time in the service of the Dutch Government — all foreigners, 
 Swedish or German. 
 
 Japan, as it appeared to them, in its government and insti- 
 tutions — no longer the New Atlantis which ' Marco Millione,* 
 of Venetian memory, had two centuries earlier invested with 
 strange ' wealth of gold, and pearls, and precious stones' — was 
 still to them a land with a certain charm attaching to it, from 
 the mystery in which the governing powei'S enveloped both the 
 country and the people. Then, as more recently, there was a 
 strange proneness to look upon all they were allowed to see 
 through a screen and by stealth, as something wondrous and 
 Utopian. Here especially it seems to have been 'omne igno- 
 tum pro magnifico.' Like Don Quixote, whose imagination 
 invested a road-side inn, and its serving-wenches of question- 
 able repute, with attributes of romance which left nothing to 
 be desired, writers on Japan have hitherto seen every thing 
 through highly colored glasses, and generally of a Claude Lor- 
 raine hue. They remind one of Dr. Pan gloss, M'ho 'likes every 
 thing and every body, and believes every thing is the very best, 
 in the best of all possible worlds.' Some difficulty may, there- 
 fore, naturally be looked for, in identifying the people and 
 scenes, when the hard, practical understanding of the nineteenth
 
 Chap. H.] A STRAIGHTFORWARD COURSE BEST. 67 
 
 century is brought to bear on the same features and institu- 
 tions. 
 
 I felt we should soon be in the way of knowing in sober 
 truth this modern Utopia as it really is — how the Empire is 
 constituted and governed, how the people live, and work, and 
 trade; and, tliough last, not least, what they are likely to want 
 which Manchester or Birmingham can supply. What they 
 are in a position to give us in return was not the least inter- 
 esting part of the question, despite the phraseology of proto- 
 cols and treaties, and the ' disinterestedness' of Treaty Powers, 
 of which the less said the better perhaps. Nations do not gen- 
 erally go to the expense or trouble of making treaties without 
 a due regard to their own interests ; and although we have 
 heard very recently of nations making war for an idea, it sel- 
 dom turns out to be an abstract idea, and is apt to take a very 
 solid form in the concrete. 
 
 Has the universal experience of mankind left this lesson yet 
 to be learned by any race or nation. East or West ? I should 
 say, from no short experience of Eastern races, that these, of 
 all others, are least likely to be imposed upon by pretensions 
 to a disinterestedness that has no real existence, and that 
 sound policy would dictate a perfectly straightforward course 
 in all our dealings with them. We are too apt, perhaps, to 
 treat them as children, and tell them nursery stories, forgetting 
 that they have long outgrown the age when these are calcu- 
 lated to raise any thing but a smile of incredulity, and sink 
 deeper in their hearts a conviction of our want of truth and 
 honesty. Considering their natural tendency to distrust, this, 
 to say the least, is superfluous, and without much sense or wis- 
 dom to recommend it. Those who have lived longest in the 
 East, and had the largest intercourse with all ranks, best know, 
 perhaps, that the first element of success and influence, among 
 both rulers and people, is honesty of purpose — never belied by 
 evasion or subterfuge, but carried out with the courage that 
 dictates truth and even frankness, far oftener than the uniniti- 
 ated are willing to believe. 
 
 You tell an Eastern potentate or official that squadrons have 
 been put in motion, and ambassadors sent from the other side 
 of the globe in the purest disinterestedness, desiring only to 
 confer benefits, and enter into trade for their advantage, or the 
 advancement of civilization ; and while he pays you back in 
 coin of the same alloy, always at his command, telling you ' so 
 it must be,' ' for all men are brothers,' and the ' great Buddha,' 
 or*Fo,' or 'Allah' is over all, he will bow or salaam you out, 
 with the profoundest contempt for your wisdom, in thinking 
 that he could be imposed upon by such transparent lies 1
 
 68 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. xChap. IL 
 
 It is to be hoped that we may teach the Japanese both to 
 respect and trust us by making no vain pretensions to this 
 apocryphal benevolence and disinterestedness in nations or in 
 governments. All permanent relations of amity between dif- 
 ferent countries must, in these days at least, be based on mu- 
 tual interests or advantages ; and any attempt to build them 
 up, or sustain them on any other foundation than this, only 
 ends in failure. 
 
 History often furnishes plain lessons of morality as well as 
 policy to those who can read aright ; but it is not often that 
 they are written in such clear and unmistakable characters as 
 those supplied by China and Japan. And, curiously enough, 
 there is between the two countries, isolated as they have al- 
 ways been from each other, but with which Europeans had 
 contemporaneously in the sixteenth century such free and cor- 
 dial intercourse, a parallelism so perfect, in all that took place 
 with each — in the events, their remote and immediate causes, 
 and the final efiects, no less than in the periods and successive 
 phases — that it would almost seem as though the lesson to be 
 conveyed to mankind for all future time had been deemed too 
 important to be given only once, and was therefore twice re- 
 peated with different races, and under analogous conditions, to 
 make it more indelible and impressive. So let us turn over 
 the pages and read as we run, for the handwriting on the wall 
 of Belshazzar's palace was not more plain ; and as the mist is 
 thickening around, and no land still can be seen, while a tum- 
 bling sea makes all efforts at the perpendicular vain and illu- 
 sory, we shall certainly have traversed the three centuries 
 which lie behind us before there is a chance of walking through 
 Nagasaki. 
 
 When the three Portuguese adventurers, under the guid- 
 ance of their Chinese-junk captain — without any credentials, 
 and all of doubtful antecedents — first made their appearance, 
 driven by stress of weather, rather than their own good will, 
 to an unknown coast, it proved to be that part of Japan own- 
 ing the sovereignty of the Prince of Bungo ; and we find the 
 Japanese, though vigilant, manifested no reluctance to admit 
 the strangers. They showed them much kindness even, and 
 no obstacle was interposed to a free trade with the inhabitants, 
 in the interchange of such commodities as they had with them. 
 The natives and strangers were ultimately so well pleased with 
 each other that, by an arrangement with the Prince of Bungo, 
 a Portuguese ship was to be sent annually, ' laden with woolen 
 cloths, furs, silks, taffetas, and other commodities needed by the 
 Japanese.'' This was the commencement of European inter- 
 course and trade, carrying us back to 1542-5.
 
 Chap. II.] PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 6& 
 
 A few years later, Hansiro, a Japanese noble, fled his coun- 
 try for ' an act of homicide' (having run some fellow-subject 
 through the body, no doubt), and took refuge iu Goa. Tliere 
 he Avas converted and baptized. 
 
 This proved the second link in the chain ; for, being enter- 
 prising and shrewd, and animated probably with the hot zeal 
 of a new convert, he soon persuaded the merchants of Goa, 
 nothing loth we may imagine, that they might establish a 
 profitable trade with Japan, whWa to the Jesuit fathers he 
 promised a rich harvest of souls. He obviously preached to 
 willing ears in both directions, and foremost among his listen- 
 ers was the Jesuit apostle of the East, Francis Xavier, who had 
 recently ai'rived. 
 
 A ship was forthwith loaded with goods and presents where- 
 with to commence a permanent trade. For the accomplish- 
 ment of spiritual objects, Francis Xavier himself embarked 
 with the Japanese refugee, and a number of his order as mis- 
 sionaries. A goodly freight — Jesuit fathers to win souls — 
 merchants to make money : merchandise for the people and 
 their carnal wants — presents to propitiate the authorities — all 
 were duly provided ; and thus auspiciously began this second 
 chapter. 
 
 On arriving at Bungo they were received with open arms, 
 and not the slightest opposition was made to the introduction 
 of either trade or religion. No system of exclusion then ex- 
 isted ; and such was the spirit of toleration, that the Govern- 
 ment made no objection to the open' preaching of Christianity. 
 Indeed, the Portuguese were freely permitted to go where 
 they pleased in the empire, and to travel from one end of it to 
 the other. ' The people freely bought the goods of the traders, 
 and listened to the teachings of the missionaries.' 
 
 And a little later we find it said that ' if the feudal princes 
 were ever at any time ready to quarrel with the merchant, it 
 was because he would not come to their ports.' Passing on- 
 ward a few years, we find the Christianity of the Jesuit fathers 
 spreading rapidly and universally ; princes and rulers, nobles 
 and plebeians, Avomen and children, of all ranks and in large 
 numbers, embraced the faith. Churches, Hospitals, Convents, 
 and Schools, were scattered over the country. Intermarriages 
 between the Portuguese and wealthy Japanese were frequent. 
 So little had Christianity to fear from the disposition of the 
 governing powers, or the temper of the people, that the only 
 opposition they encountered in these early years of promise 
 and fruitful labor came from the Bonzes or native priesthood ; 
 and they seem to have been powerless. For we read that,
 
 70 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II. 
 
 feeling their religion and influence discredited by the rapid 
 adoption of a rival and hostile creed, they appealed to the em- 
 peror ' to banish the Jesuit and Romish monks ;' and it is re- 
 lated ' that, annoyed by their importunities, he asked them how 
 many different religions there were in Japan.' They answer- 
 ed ' thirty-five.' ' Well,' said the emperor, ' when thirty-five 
 religions can be tolerated, we can easily bear with thirty-six : 
 leave the strangers in peace.' 
 
 After forty years, the Roman Catholic faith was in such high 
 esteem, and had such undisputed possession of the field (no 
 Protestant element having at that time appeared on the scene), 
 that a Japanese embassy, composed of three princes, was sent 
 to Rome to Pope Gregory XIII., with letters and valuable pres- 
 ents. Their reception at Rome was not only magnificent, but 
 their whole progress through Spain and Italy was one contin- 
 ued ovation. ' A nation of thirty millions of civilized and in- 
 telligent people had been won from the heathen !' Great in- 
 deed was the joy and triumph ; and this was the culminating 
 point of the Church's success. 
 
 In that same hour, while the artillery of St. Angelo, answered 
 by the guns of the Vatican, was thundering a welcome to the 
 Japanese ambassadors, an edict had gone forth from the Ku- 
 bo-sama, or sovereign lord of Japan, banishing all Catholic mis- 
 sionaries within six months, on pain of death ; and ordering 
 all the crosses to be thrown down, and all the churches to be 
 razed to the ground. 
 
 When the Jesuit Superior, P6re Valignani, returned with 
 the ambassadors, after an absence of eight years (so long had 
 it taken to exchange amenities across distant seas and foreign 
 lands in those days), he found this edict in force, and partially 
 carried out. The old King of Bungo, the great protector of 
 the Jesuits, was dead, his successor ill disposed. All their 
 Christian communities, schools, and hospitals had been sup- 
 pressed, and the missionaries dispersed, expelled, or forced 
 into concealment. There are few more striking examples of 
 the instability of human affairs ; and it must have been a cruel 
 blow to Valignani, as the Superior of the Order, so long happy 
 and successful in all his efforts. 
 
 We enter on the third and last phase of this eventful history. 
 The first edict for the banishment of the missionaries was pub- 
 lished in June, 1587. All that follows is but a narrative of 
 partially interrupted persecutions, the decay of trade, increas- 
 ing restrictions, and nt last the expulsion of all, amid scenes of 
 martyrdom and sweeping destruction. In the year 1635, the 
 Portuguese were shut up in Decima, and only allowed to trade
 
 Chap. II.] CHANGE OF POLICY. 71 
 
 there, amidst, it is said, the jeers and derision of their Dutch 
 rivals. 
 
 A year or two later, the fall of the last Christian strong-hold, 
 Simabara, battered in breach by the Dutch artillery, under 
 Kockebecker, marked the final catastrophe, and the close of 
 all relations but the miserable ones allowed to the Dutch fac- 
 tory, which an avenging Nemesis transferred to the prison 
 bounds of their ruined rivals in Decima. Since that date until 
 recent treaties were signed, no Japanese had been allowed to 
 leave his island home, nor foreigners to land. All who had 
 been cast on shore, or made the attempt, had either been killed 
 or imprisoned. Great must be the power wielded by the rul- 
 ers of this strange country, thus, for two centuries, to succeed 
 in preventing the departure of a single Japanese subject ! Yet 
 such appears to be the fact, though before this edict they were 
 enterprising sailors, and, if we may believe the records of the 
 period, not only traded with the Indian archipelago, but even 
 extended their voyages as far as South America. Thus briefly 
 we have the whole history of European intercourse (for the 
 few attempts made by the British and French to take part 
 were too feeble and interrupted to be worthy of much note), 
 and two questions press themselves on the attention of all who 
 read. Whence the seemingly sudden and violent change in 
 the policy of the Japanese? And, was it sudden in reality, or 
 of slow and insidious growth — which only came suddenly upon 
 Europeans, because they blinded themselves to the signs of 
 change and indications of danger, otherwise plainly enough 
 to be discerned, had any one looked with clear and intelligent 
 eye ? 
 
 The accounts of the period are full of details of feuds between 
 the different monastic orders ; of the pride, avarice, and over- 
 bearing arrogance of the priests ; the overreaching and insa- 
 tiable cupidity of the Portuguese and Spanish merchants, 
 which latter charges are not even limited to the laymen. But, 
 admitting all these causes to have been in operation, and ex- 
 ercising the influence which belongs to them, it is impossible 
 to doubt that other and more profound causes of distrust and 
 dissatisfaction chiefly moved Taiko-saraa, when laying the 
 foundation of his usurped empire, to irreconcilable enmity, di- 
 rected more especially, if not altogether and exclusively, against 
 the Padres of every order, and their converts. One cause of 
 such enmity lies, indeed, on the surface. 
 
 The great success of the Jesuits and missionaries of various 
 monastic orders had been based, in part at least, on the shift- 
 ing sands of political favor and influence with the feudatory
 
 72 THKEE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II. 
 
 princes in their several territories ; a turbulent race, as was 
 the same class in the days of the early French and English 
 kings : not always at peace with each other, and often in league 
 against their Suzerain. One of the most obvious conditions 
 of strength to the latter was the abasement and weakening 
 of the nobles. Taiko-sama, in order to strengthen and render 
 hereditary his sovereign power, necessarily therefore set him- 
 self to this task, as did Louis XI., and, later, Richelieu and 
 Louis XIV., in France. 
 
 Whatever was identified with the Feudal chiefs could not 
 fail to share the fate of an order doomed to destruction or hu- 
 miliation. While the Jesuit, therefore, sought to promote the 
 objects of his mission by favor of princes and court influence, 
 and, for a time, reaped great fruit therefrom, these same Feu- 
 datory princes were looking to force and intrigue to advance 
 •their own interests, and uphold their cause against an ambitious 
 and successful general, who had seized the quasi sceptre. That 
 both the princes and their proteges, the missionaries, should be 
 involved in a common ruin, was in the nature of things to be 
 expected, and indeed inevitable. If one feudatory prince pro- 
 tected Christianity, it was equally open to his successor or rival 
 to attack and persecute it. The spiritual guide who had put 
 his trust in Princes and the Sword, found all the aid of man 
 impotent to save when the hour of trial and persecution came. 
 They had built upon a mundane foundation with the aid of 
 sword and buckler, and by the same was their ruin efiected. 
 
 But beneath all this lay other causes, wider and more pene- 
 trating, as well as more permanent in their influence. Another 
 and far more fatal element of destruction had been slowly but 
 surely preparing the way for the final catastrophe from the be- 
 ginning — undermining the very ground upon which the whole 
 spiritual edifice was built, whether Jesuit or Augustinian, Fran- 
 ciscan or Dominican, Spaniard or Portuguese, fashioned the 
 walls. 
 
 The determining cause of the downfall and utter destruc- 
 tion of the Roman Church in Japan is to be sought in the pre- 
 tension to a spiritual supremacy, which is but another name for 
 the monopoly of power, since all that is political or secular 
 must bow to God's viceregent on earth, who claims the right 
 to bind and to loosen, to absolve subjects of their oath and 
 fealty, and dethrone kings by his edict. This pretension to 
 supremacy and papal infallibility — to a power as unlimited as 
 it is irresponsible — has been Avoven into the very texture and 
 fabric of the Church of Rome, and has long been considered 
 inseparable from it.
 
 Chap. II.] tliGAClES FROM THE tAST. 73 
 
 The Japanese rulers, wlio during nearly fifty years success- 
 ively never relaxed in their policy to extirpate out of the land 
 all trace of the missionaries and their teaching, and were de- 
 terred by no difficulties, no sacrifice of life or commercial ad- 
 vantages,. and never stopped until their object was finally ac- 
 complished, clearly saw that between theui and such teachers 
 there could be neither peace nor truce. The two systems were 
 necessarily antagonistic and mutually destructive. The Siogun 
 must veil his power to the higher pretensions of the Pope and 
 the priests ; hold it from their hands, liable to be dispossessed 
 at their pleasure, or be engaged in interminable conflict, all the 
 more dangerous that spiritual weapons could be brought to 
 bear, as well as the arm of flesh, by his adversaries of the cowl 
 and rosary. Taiko-sama, a man of no ordinary gifts apparent- 
 ly, who first engaged in a war to the death, and issued the 
 edict of extermination, must indeed have been something more 
 than dull not to have his doubts raised and his worst conclu- 
 sions verified by the tenor of the letters to the Pope, given by 
 the three Feudal princes to their ambassadors. 
 
 Hear how they run. Thus writes the Prince of Bungo : 
 
 ' To him who ought to be adored and who holds the place 
 of the King of Heaven, the great and very holy Pope ;' and, 
 in the body of the letter, he continues in the same strain : 
 *Your holiness (who holds the place of God on earth).' 
 
 The King of Arima addressed himself ' to the very great 
 and holy lord whom I adore, because he holds on earth the 
 place of God himself 
 
 The Prince of Omara goes, if possible, farther : ' With hands 
 raised toward heaven, and sentiments of profound admiration, 
 I adore the most holy Pope, who holds the place of God on 
 earth.' 
 
 With what feelings must Taiko-sama have spelled over these 
 acts of homage to an alien sovereign by three of the leading 
 feudatory princes of the empire, when the death of Nobunan- 
 ga in 1582, the sovereign friend of the missionaries, threw the 
 reins of power into his hands? There is an absurd story told 
 of the Siogun's jealousy having first been roused by the indis- 
 creet answer of a Spaniard, who, on being asked how his mas- 
 ter had managed to possess himself of half the world, replied : 
 *He commenced by sending priests, who Avin over the people, 
 and, when this is done, his troops are dispatched to join the 
 Christian, and the conquest is easy and complete.' I say it is 
 absiu'd, because, in the first place, the account of the process 
 then in vogue is much too near the truth to have been openly 
 told by one of the chief agents ; and, next, it was too palpably 
 
 D
 
 74 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. H. 
 
 calculated to lead to the expulsion of the narrator and all his 
 race. Nor was any such plain-spoken traveler needed. Taiko- 
 sama must have been blind not to have seen whither the 
 Church of Rome was tending, and how irreconcilable were 
 its pretensions and his own. 
 
 Another law than that of the Japanese empire had been in- 
 troduced, and other Rulers and administrators than those 
 nominated by either Mikado or Siogun (the titular and the 
 effective rulers of Japan) were in full exercise of their func- 
 tions, claiming from Japanese subjects, once become converts, 
 fealty and implicit obedience to the Church's commands — an 
 obedience which might at any time be turned against the au- 
 thority and rule of the territorial Sovereign. There was noth- 
 ing very far-fetched in the conclusion, or monstrous in the as- 
 sumption that such was the tendency of the Church polity. 
 That same sovereign of Spain, Avhose dominions, Taiko-sama 
 heard, had been extended over half the world by priestly aid, 
 had actually moved the Pope to issue a bull to dethrone the 
 Queen of England in favor of another pretender to the crown, 
 to raise up conspirators among her subjects, and release them 
 from all oaths or ties of allegiance. 
 
 This and no other cause, it is impossible to doubt, led to the 
 final expulsion of every European, the extermination of every 
 Christian convert, and the closing of every port for two cen- 
 turies. The annihilation of commerce and raatei'ial interests 
 was merely a necessary consequence of the close connection 
 that had subsisted between the professors of religion and the 
 traders, taken in connection with their common nationality. 
 
 And this, now that the Japanese, yielding to major force 
 and an obvious necessity, have entered into Treaties with for- 
 eign powers, will undoubtedly still sow distrust and misgivings 
 in the minds of the Japanese rulers. And how should it be 
 otherwise? The Church of Rome has undergone no change, 
 neither have the pretensions to supreme and undisputed pow- 
 er in the Mikado and Tycoon (however shared between them) 
 been modified. Why should we expect the Japanese to change 
 in their estimate of the true tendency of the Church system 
 and doctrines ? The repugnance which the Protestant sover- 
 eign feels to hand over to the keeping of a spiritual confessor 
 and director the consciences of his subjects and their individ- 
 ual right of judgment, may well be allowed to the Rulers of a 
 heathen people, in no degree inferior to many European popu- 
 lations in intelligence, wealth, and industry, and far before 
 many in their long-cherished and well-defended national inde- 
 pendence.
 
 Chap. II.] WAKNINGS FOR THE FUTURE. V6 
 
 If these matters regarded only the past, I should scarcely 
 have introduced the subject. But, in plain truth, they are 
 things which have sprung again into life under recent treaties 
 — actualities which we must be prepared to meet face to face, 
 and from day to day, contributing as they will in no slight de- 
 gree to the difficulties and complications naturally to be antic- 
 ipated in the renewal of long-interrupted relations, between 
 two races so entirely distinct as the European and Japanese, 
 and one of these so long in hostile isolation. 
 
 As to the leading causes, in mercantile affairs, of deprecia- 
 tion and injury, which two centuries ago may have helped the 
 religious grounds of quarrel, instead of forming, as they might 
 and ought to have formed, a counterpoise to stay the relentless 
 march of persecution, little more need be said. Inordinate 
 cupidity, an overreaching spirit of gain, not content with fair 
 and mutually advantageous terras of exchange, may make a 
 few men suddenly rich, but never can build up a permanent 
 trade of national importance. More than this, it is very evi- 
 dent no trade can assume those characters of largeness and 
 permanence with mutual benefit in the results (all conditions 
 essential to the development of national commerce), where one 
 of the countries must pay for all its imports in the precious 
 metals. Gold and silver may well be treated as commodities 
 in the commerce of European nations, because, though some 
 imports may, by each, be paid for in the precious metals, the 
 bulk taken will always be in exchange for a native produce; 
 while some of this, in turn, may be bought by other countries 
 for gold, and thus any great drain or displacement of gold and 
 silver is prevented. It has not hitherto, or always been so, in 
 the dealings of Western countries with the East. This ' leak- 
 ing out' of the silver in China, of the ' bones and marrow of 
 the land' in Japan (to use their own characteristic phraseolo- 
 gy), has in each country raised a strong feeling of hostility to 
 all foreign trade among the ruling classes in both. The expe- 
 rience of the past, therefore, seems strongly to enforce this one 
 lesson, that if we would see foreign trade popular in Japan, 
 and placed under conditions of healthy development, we must 
 find among their raw or manufactured products other articles 
 of exchange than the precious metals. The quantities of these 
 reported to have been shipped by the Portuguese, and later 
 by the Dutch in the old period, is something incredible. They 
 were enormous, however, beyond doubt, and furnish a plain 
 proof, first, that there must have been large and productive 
 mines, and, next, that a very disproportionate value must have 
 been exacted for the European goods. The large and increas-
 
 Y6 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II. 
 
 ing drain on the precious metals, coupled with the small re- 
 turns in European fabrics, there can be no question, must have 
 greatly disgusted the Japanese, rendered foreign trade unpop- 
 ular, and formed the fittest preparation for the edict closing the 
 country to foreigners altogether. Thus it is that by an over- 
 reaching spirit we ' o'erleap and fall on t'other side.' Where 
 individuals are allowed to seek their own profit per fas et ne- 
 fas, it needs no prophet to tell that the ruin of all who come 
 after them is the only end that can be anticipated. One set 
 of traders may be enriched, but a nation requires that the 
 goose which lays the golden eggs should not be killed for the 
 purpose, but sedulously nurtured and cared for, in the interest 
 of succeeding generations. Fortunately, one rock on which 
 all the traders of a former time in Japan made wreck has been 
 removed out of their path. Merchants of different countries 
 may indeed vilify each other as in olden times, if it pleases 
 them, unwarned by the obvious depreciation of all, which was 
 the only final result ; but there is some consolation in the 
 thought that the strongest motive for such a line of action is 
 removed. Monopolies of the trade of any country are happily 
 no longer possibilities, and only to be numbered with things 
 of the past, which no blindness of the many or selfishness of 
 the few can ever resuscitate. Moreover, in the present day 
 competition secures even the less civilized of Eastern races 
 from Western greed and extortionate prices. Nor are they 
 in danger now of taking more of our manufactures than we 
 are willing to take of tlieir produce. The balance of trade is 
 likely to be quite the other way at first, if not for a long period 
 to come.* 
 
 In glancing over the history of the Past, one can not avoid 
 being struck with the important part which accidents, and cir- 
 cumstances often seemingly the most fortuitous and trivial, 
 played in the first discovery of Japan, no less than its subse- 
 quent relations with Europe. 
 
 To Marco Paolo's imprisonment at Genoa, after his return 
 
 * This has been abundantly verified in the course of the three years past. 
 The Japanese have bought little — next to nothing — and that little only in 
 exchange. The foreign trade of a million sterling annually which has been 
 created, has consisted chiefly of exports of Japanese produce, Silk and Tea, 
 the greater part of which has been paid for in silver, imported into the coun- 
 try for that purpose, in the absence of any considerable demand for Euro- 
 pean manufactures. Precisely the same results are to be seen in the For- 
 eign trade with China of late years, notwithstanding the vast increase in 
 the import of opium, from 7000 chests to 70,000 in less than a quarter of a 
 century. We take twice as much tpa .nnd silk as they are willing to take of 
 manufactured goods and opium combined.
 
 Chap. II.] ACCIDENTS AND DESTINIES. 77 
 
 from China, we owe the stirriug narrative which, 200 years 
 later, fired the iniaguiation of Columbus, and sent him west- 
 ward in quest of new worlds. And thus to dreams oi Japan 
 we are indebted in no small degree for the discovery of Amer- 
 ica in the sixteenth century ! To a half piratical, half trading 
 expedition of three Portuguese adventurers in a Chinese junk, 
 driven they knew not whither by stress of weather, is due the 
 first discovery of Japan itself; and to the escape of Hansiro, 
 and the 'homicide' which was the cause of his flight, the first 
 introduction of Christianity is to be traced. Finally, to Will 
 Adams's imprisonment in the cells of Lisbon, and his frequent 
 colloquy with fellow -prisoners (Portuguese sailors who had 
 been in Japan), the Dutch and English are both indebted for 
 their first introduction, and commencement of commercial re- 
 lations with the country. Not only accidents, but crime, per- 
 sonal misfortunes and calamities, homicide, and imprisonment, 
 seem to have played by far the most important part, and to 
 have been the very pivots on which great events, entirely hid- 
 den from the actors — were made to turn. They were blind 
 carvers of a nation's destiny, when most exclusively bent on 
 fashioning their own. 
 
 One more noteworthy fact and strange coincidence before I 
 try again to peer through mist and rain for the long-desired 
 shores of Nagasaki Bay, while Simabara, the tomb of Christi- 
 anity in Japan, is close at hand, suggesting the coincidence in 
 question. In that same year, when the last of the Roman 
 Catholic converts were buried under the ruins of the captured 
 city, or hurled from the rocky islet of Pappenberg, in the Bay 
 of Nagasaki, a few exiles landed at Plymouth, in the newly- 
 discovered continent, where they were destined to plant the 
 seeds of a Protestant faith, and a great Protestant empire. 
 Thus strangely, the same era which saw thousands of converts 
 to that Church from which those Pilgrim Fathers had seceded 
 martyrized, and the Romanist faith trampled out with unspar- 
 ing violence on one side of the globe, marked the foundations 
 of a Protestant Church in the other hemisphere, destined rap- 
 idly to spread the Gospel over a whole contuient. And it was 
 the descendants of these same Pilgrim Fathers who, two cen- 
 turies later in the cycle of events, were the first among West- 
 em nations to supply the link of connection wanted — to bring 
 the lapsed heathen race once more within the circle of Chris- 
 tian communion, and invite them anew to take their place in 
 the family of civilized nations. 
 
 A century after the final expulsion of foreigners we may see 
 how Japan and its people, their customs and institutions, ap*
 
 78 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II 
 
 peared to a man of intelligence and observation, by taking the 
 Swedish physician, Thunberg, for our guide. Fresh from a 
 country in Europe — Sweden — where feudal institutions were 
 still in force, he would seem to have been peculiarly well fitted 
 to enter into the spirit and meaning of the fundamental axioms 
 of the Japanese Government. Yet, if we are to credit Thun- 
 berg (and as to the reality of the impressions there is no room 
 for doubt), things seemingly similar, so far from appearing to 
 him to produce like results, wrought only oppression and wrong 
 in Sweden ; and in Japan, the perfection of order, law, and jus- 
 tice! Discontent and attempts at revolution in the one; so- 
 cial order, peace, and prosperity in the other. Let us listen to 
 him, long after he had got over the first salutations of the little 
 nudities in the streets of Nagasaki, taking him for a Dutchman, 
 and expressing their wonder at the large round eyes of the 
 European by crying after him ' Hollande Ome !' which sounds 
 very hke the sort of slang facetiousness not unfamiliar to the 
 juvenile members of our own street populations. Long after 
 these first facts and impressions had been tempered and cor- 
 rected by after knowledge, he tells his readers that ' Japan is 
 in many respects a singular country, and, with regard to cus- 
 toms and institutions, totally different from Europe, or, I had al- 
 most said, from any other part of the world. Of all the na- 
 tions that inhabit the three largest parts of the globe, the Jap- 
 anese deserve to rank the first, and to be compared with the 
 Europeans ; and although in many points they must yield the 
 palm to the latter, yet in various other respects they may with 
 great justice be preferred to them. Here, indeed, as well as in 
 other countries, are found both useful and pernicious establish- 
 ments, both rational and absurd institutions ; yet still we must 
 admire the steadiness which constitutes the national character, 
 the immutability which reigns in the administration of their 
 laws and in the exercise of their public functions, the unwea- 
 ried assiduity of this nation to do and to promote what is use- 
 ful, and a hundred other things of a similar nature.' 'That so 
 numerous a people as this should love so ardently and so uni- 
 versally (without even a single exception to the contrary) their 
 native country, their Government, and each other — that the 
 whole country should be, as it were, inclosed, so that no native 
 can get out nor foreigner enter in without permission — that 
 their laws should have remained unaltered for several thou- 
 sand (hundred ?) years, and that justice should be administer- 
 ed without partiality or respect of persons — that the govern- 
 ments can neither become despotic nor evade the laws in or- 
 der to grant pardons or do other acts of mercy — that the mon«
 
 Chap. II.] JAPAN SEEN BY THUNBERG. 79 
 
 arch and all his subjects should be clad alike iu a particular 
 national dress — that no fashions should be adopted from 
 abroad, nor now ones invented at home — that no foreign war 
 should have been waged for centuries past — that a great vari- 
 ety of religious sects should live in peace and harmony togeth- 
 er — that hunger and want should be almost unknown, or at 
 least known but seldom — all this must appear improbable, and 
 to many as impossible as it is strictly true, and deserving of 
 the utmost attention.' 
 
 Certainly, of the whole catalogue of wonderful conditions 
 presented by this view of the Japanese people and Govern- 
 ment, the most extraordinary and marvelous to Europeans 
 must be the last two : a great variety of religious sects living 
 together in harmony, and hunger and famine almost unknown 
 in a nation of thirty millions or more, inhabiting a set of isl- 
 ands not larger than Great Britain and Ireland, and in some- 
 thing like the same geographical position. 
 
 And nowhere should such a state of things appear more en- 
 viable than in England, where we are too much open, perhaps, 
 to Voltaire's reproach of building ' palaces for our felons and 
 prisons for our poor.' If the secret by which such admirable 
 eifects as Thunberg describes are secured could only be com- 
 municated, what country is there in Europe that would not be 
 better for knowing it ? What a blessing the secret of relig- 
 ious harmony would be to many countries from Syria to Spitz- 
 bergen ! All the other good things enumerated sink into a 
 wholly secondary rank by the side of these. And yet what 
 farther blessings are combined in the uniform administration 
 of laws and justice (exchangeable terms, it seems, in Japan), 
 undeviating uniformity of costume, absence of all foreign wars 
 and intestine feuds, of foot soldiers and income-tax, with the 
 crowning gift of food to the poor, who always get their bellies 
 full ! These are miracles which, to see repeated in old En- 
 gland and Ireland, might well repay an expedition even to Ja- 
 pan 'beyond the farthermost end of Asia to the East.' 
 
 But Thunberg has more to tell us. ' If the laws iu this 
 country are rigid, the police are equally vigilant, wliile disci- 
 pline and good order are scrupulously observed. The happy 
 consequences of this are extremely visible and important, for 
 hardly any country exhibits fewer instances of vice. And as 
 no respect whatever is paid to persons, and at the same time 
 the laws preserve their pristine and original purity, without 
 any alterations, explanations, and misconstructions, the sub- 
 jects not only imbibe, as they grow up, an infallible knowl- 
 edge of what ought or ought not to be done, but are likewise
 
 80 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II. 
 
 enliglitened by the example and irreproachable conduct of 
 their superiors in age.' 
 
 *Most crimes are punished with death, a sentence which is 
 inflicted with less regard to the magnitude of the crime than 
 to the audacity of the attempt to transgress the hallowed laws 
 of the empire, and to violate justice, which, together with relig- 
 ion, they consider as the most sacred things in the whole land. 
 Fines and pecuniary mulcts they regard as equally repugnant 
 to justice and reason, as the rich are thereby freed from all 
 punishment, a procedure which appears to them the height of 
 absurdity.' 
 
 'In the towns it often happens that the inhabitants of a 
 Arhole street are made to suffer for the malpractice of a single 
 individual, the master of a house for the faults of his domes- 
 tics, and parents for those of their children, in proportion to 
 the share they may have had in the transaction. In Europe, 
 which boasts a purer religion and a more enlightened philoso- 
 phy, Ave very rarely see those punished who have debauched and 
 seduced others, never see parents and relatives made to sufter 
 for neglecting the education of their children and kindred, at 
 the same time that these heathens see the justice and proprie- 
 ty of such punishment.' 
 
 True, there is a slight shadow to this brilliant tableau. The 
 prisons, we are told, in this paradise of law and justice are, ' as 
 in most others, gloomy and horrid ; the rooms are, however, 
 kept clean and wholesome, and consist of an apartment for the 
 trial by torture, and another for private executions, besides a 
 kitchen, a dining-room, and a bath !' 
 
 A strange juxtaposition this, of rooms for torture and death, 
 with such ample provision for the creature comforts in a kitch- 
 en and dining-room, and even for luxury in a bath ! But we 
 were warned in the beginning that we should find Japan in 
 many respects a singular country. 
 
 Nearly a century later an American went over some of the 
 same ground, and with Republican notions he supplies us with 
 the other side of the medal. The working of their much-ad- 
 mired institutions does not appear to Commodore Perry's his- 
 torian altogether so commendable. Here is the opinion at 
 length of the practical American who looked to final efiects 
 principally. 
 
 * The sitter is the same, and, what is more, he sits on his 
 heels to-day just as his grandfather did to Thunberg, yet it is 
 hard to see any points of resemblance, a lesson to all theolo- 
 gians and politicians wlio still indulge the dream that uniform- 
 ity of opinion on the plainest matters of fact and observation
 
 Chap. II.] AMERICAN VIEWS OF JAPAN. 81 
 
 can ever be attained among men, however honest and ctmsci- 
 entious they may be in their efforts after unity. The Chinese 
 proverb with more wisdom declares, " Truth is one, but opin- 
 ions are many." 
 
 'All officials serve in pairs, as spies upon each other, and 
 this pervades the entire polity of Japan. It is a government 
 of espionage. Every body is watched. No man knows who 
 are the secret spies around him, even though he may be and is 
 acquainted with those that are official. The emperors them- 
 selves are not exempt ; governors, grand councilors, vassal 
 princes, all are under the eye of an everlasting unknown police. 
 This wretched system is even extended to the humblest of the 
 citizens. Every town is divided into collections of five fami- 
 lies, and every member of siicli a division is personally respon- 
 sible for the conduct of the others ; every thing which occurs, 
 therefore, out of the ordinary course in any one of these, is in- 
 stantly reported by the other four, to save themselves from 
 censure. The Ziogoon has his minions about the Mikado, and 
 the Gi'and Council have theirs about the Ziogoon. And the 
 cowardice engendered by such ceaseless distrust ncessarily 
 leads to cruelty in penalties. When an official has offended, 
 or even when in his department there has been any violation 
 of law, although beyond his power of prevention, so sure is he 
 of the punishment of death, that he anticipates it by ripping 
 up his own body, rather than be delivered over to the exe- 
 cutioner, and entailing disgrace and ruin on all his family. 
 There can not, under such a system, be any thing like judicious 
 legislation founded on inquiry, and adapted to the ever-vary- 
 ing circumstances of life. As Government functionaries, they 
 lie and practice artifice to save themselves from condemnation 
 by the higher powers : it is their vocation. As private gentle- 
 men, they are frank, truthful, and hospitable.' 
 
 These facts present a seeming anomaly, and yet I am not 
 sure that something very like it, and differing only in degree, 
 may not be found nearer home. The severity of the Japanese 
 laws is excessive, the code is probably the bloodiest in the 
 world, for death is the penalty of most offenses. But the Jap- 
 anese seem to proceed on the principle that he who violates 
 one law will violate any other, and that the willful violator is 
 unworthy to live. Does not the religion of the Gospel teach 
 something very like it ? " Verily, I say unto you, he who is 
 guilty of the least of these is guilty of all." 
 
 A still more recent American writer supplies another esti- 
 mate of what may be the value of these Utopian institution.s 
 tlionirh his field of observation seems to have been limited to 
 
 D2
 
 82 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II. 
 
 Nagasaki, where Foreign civilization and Chinese combined 
 (for a colony of the latter exists there) seem already to have 
 mingled in no purifying streams with native sources; and, as 
 he modestly observes, ' a residence of five weeks is an imper- 
 fect qualification for descanting on the character of a people.' 
 It is quite true, however, that to an intelligent observer there 
 are some features visible at a glance from which inferences 
 may very justly be draw^n. Among these he mentions, ' Crimes 
 against property are not frequent, being repressed evidently by 
 a strong and almost omniscient Government, yet street broils 
 are of common occurrence. The people seem well to do and 
 contented, yet mendacity and drunkenness are far from being 
 rare. Woman appears to hold a higher rank in this than in 
 any Asiatic country, yet prostitution is fostered by Govern- 
 ment and approved by moralists.' 
 
 Of the higher arcana and machinery of Government, so much 
 lauded by our optimist Thunberg, Dr. Macgowan, liis American 
 confrere of a later century, takes another ' stand-point of view,' 
 and of necessity a different impression is the result. 
 
 ' There has been eflfected here what priestcraft and kingcraft 
 nearly attained with us, and, by a singular coincidence, at the 
 time when Western Europe was in course of emancipation, 
 Eastern Asia was being brought into servitude not less effi- 
 cient than that which menaced our fathers. Espionage accom- 
 plishes what the confessional aims at. Yet the system of es- 
 pionage, an abomination to foreigners, loses much of its repul- 
 siveness when viewed from a Japan stand-point. It is only 
 carrying to an extreme the justly-lauded censorate of China. 
 Espionage performs the functions of a press. It exercises a 
 wholesome restraint upon delegated powers, sitting light upon 
 intelligent and upright officers, who regard these spies with no 
 more disfavor than our treasurers their auditors. How much 
 misery would be averted from China if the Imperial Govern- 
 ment were cognizant of official misdemeanors in the provinces. 
 Nearly all the maladies of that empire may be ascribed to the 
 ignorance in which the Sovereign is kept of what transpires 
 beyond the precincts of the palace. Japan, it must be confess- 
 ed, furnishes the best apology for despotism that the world af- 
 fords. The Government is omniscient, and consequently strong 
 and stable. The bondage is absolute and pressing on all sides 
 alike; society is scarcely conscious of its existence.' 
 
 Pretty well this in the way of approval from a citizen of the 
 *free and enlightened republic' He finds espionage efl'ects 
 ' what the confessional only aims at' — it performs ' the func- 
 tions of the press' — ' it exercises a wholesome restraint upon
 
 Chap, n.] JAPANESE AGRICULTURE. g3 
 
 delegated powers — sits lightly upon intelligent and upright of- 
 ficers!' But, for sucii results, the writer seems to forget it is 
 essential that this secret and irresponsible power should be 
 righteously exercised. This is an inseparable condition of any 
 wholesome restraint or of espionage sitting lightly^ and a con- 
 dition that has not hitherto been realized in the history of the 
 world in connection with such functions. 
 
 On the contrary, the world's experience seems to have es- 
 tablished as a universal truth the fact, however unsuspected by 
 the learned doctor, that personal liberty, security, and inde- 
 pendence can not exist side by side xoith a system of secret po- 
 lice. Stranger still, he seems to have no suspicion that of the 
 many evils Avhich can befall a nation, perhaps the worst is a 
 system of government which sows distrust between man and 
 man, deprives the subject of a manly sense of self-respect, and 
 builds up its own security on the rotten foundation of a de- 
 grading and demoralizing betrayal of the secrets of every fam- 
 ily hearth. If ignorance of the misdeeds of subordinates or 
 men in office be the source of one kind of evil, a Republican 
 might have guessed that the knowledge which is derived from 
 the venal informer is in itself a more frightful malady than any 
 amount of ignorance in a government, seeing that spies habit- 
 ually invent more than they ever discover. 
 
 But we will retui*n to our Swedish doctor. When speaking 
 of the agriculture of the Japanese, he draws a vivid picture of 
 the happy state of Japan compared with his own country : 
 
 ' Agriculture is in the highest esteem with the Japanese, in- 
 somuch that (the most barren and untractable mountains ex- 
 cepted) one sees here the surface of the earth cultivated all 
 over the country, and most of the mountains and hills up to 
 their very tops. Neither rewards nor encouragements are 
 necessary in a country where the tillers of the ground are con- 
 sidered as the most useful class of citizens (he can not be al- 
 luding to the vexed question of agricultural prizes in our day), 
 and where they do not groan under various oppressions which 
 in other countries have hindered, and ever must hinder, the 
 progress of agriculture. The duties paid by the farmer of his 
 corn in kind are indeed very heavy, but in other respects he 
 cultivates his land with greater freedom than the lord of a 
 manor in Sweden. He is not hindered two days together at a 
 time, in consequence of furnishing relays of horses, by which he 
 perhaps earns a groat, and often returns with the loss of his 
 horses ; he is not dragged from his field and plow to transport 
 a prisoner or a deserter to the next castle ; nor are his time 
 and property wasted in making roads, building bridges, alms-
 
 84 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. II. 
 
 houses, parsonage-Tiouses, and magazines. He knows nothing 
 of the impediments and inconveniences which attend the main- 
 tenance and equipments of horses and foot soldiers. And what 
 contributes still more to his happiness, and leaves sufficient 
 scope for his industry in cultivating his land, is this, that he 
 has only one master, viz., his feudal lord, without being under 
 the command of a host of masters, as with us. No parceling 
 out of the land forbids him to improve to the least advantage 
 the portion he possesses, and no right of commonage, belong- 
 ing to many, prevents each from deriving profit from his share. 
 All are bound to cultivate their land ; and if a husbandman 
 can not annually cultivate a certain portion of his fields, he for- 
 feits them, and another who can is at liberty to cultivate them. 
 Meadows are not to be met with in the whole country ; on the 
 contrary, every spot of ground is made use of either for corn- 
 fields or else for plantations of esculent-rooted vegetables, so 
 that the land is neither wasted upon extensive meadows for 
 the support of cattle and saddle-horses, nor upon large and un- 
 profitable plantations of tobacco (they grow tobacco, neverthe- 
 less), nor is it sown with seed for any other still less necessary 
 purpose, which is the reason that the whole country is very 
 thickly inhabited and populous, and can without difficulty give 
 maintenance to all its innumerable inhabitants.' 
 
 It is obvious that our Swedish observer had one eye on his 
 native land and its abuses, and another on the country he thus 
 so highly extols ; and that he was moreover an out-and-out 
 utilitarian, in the sense of those who regard the meat and 
 drink of the body as the great or sole end for which the many 
 labor on this earth. He goes on to describe the minute and 
 elaborate care bestowed on the manuring of the soil, to make 
 it so productive of corn and esculent-rooted vegetables, to the 
 exclusion of the green meadow and the pleasant copse ; and 
 the process so carefully described confirms the impression con- 
 veyed by what goes before, that Japan would be a very good 
 coimtry to be fed in, but those who live in it ought not to have 
 noses as well as mouths, or be in any way endowed with ol- 
 factory nerves. 
 
 The cultivator, in giving himself ' the disgusting trouble of 
 mixing up manure of man and beast till it becomes a perfect 
 hodge-podge,' must be, upon the whole, a cause of considerable 
 disgust to every body else, if not to himself. And the process 
 described — pouring the contents of the manvire-pails by a ladle 
 upon the plant when it is about six inches high, by which it 
 receives the whole benefit of it, at the same time that the liq- 
 uor penetrates immediately to the root' — may be very advan-
 
 Crap. II. J AGRICULTURE.— POETRY. 86 
 
 taguous to the growth of said six-inch high plant, but hardly 
 accords with any delicacy of taste. Some people might object 
 to asparagus or lettuce thus brought to perfection, and find 
 their pleasure of eating it sadly interfered with by a certain 
 association of ideas, foolish enough no doubt, but very difficult 
 to be got rid of. In other respects, to those who do not care 
 to eat vegetables at all, but have some pleasure in green fields 
 and fresh air, there is a serious drawback. He somewhere 
 else alludes to the numerous receptacles made for preserving 
 the odious compounds until wanted 'on the highways at fre- 
 quent intervals,' which, he admits, renders the roads them- 
 selves impassable to people afflicted with the sense of smell, 
 and must make it a work, of considerable difficulty to get a 
 fresh walk from one end of the land to the other, unless it be 
 on the edge of the craters. After I had resided some time in 
 Japan, I found both the disagreeables and advantages required 
 to be restated, with certain modifications. Except in spring, 
 during the months of March and April, there is little in the 
 manuring to complain of. How this is managed I can not tell, 
 for all exercise in the country in China, throughout the year, 
 had this terrible drawback attached to it. On the other hand, 
 either from the too great supply of manure to the soil, or oth- 
 er causes — perhaps perpetuating the same seeds and plants 
 without change — all their vegetables are either rank or taste- 
 less, and their fruit is no better. As it is never allowed to 
 ripen, however, it is difficult to say what it might be under 
 more natural conditions ! Still, my latest conclusion justifies 
 my early impression that, as Chloe in the ' Minister's Wooing' 
 declares in a higher matter, there is a mistake somewhere, and 
 the result is that in one of the most beautiful and fertile coun- 
 tries in the whole world the flowers have no scent, the birds 
 no song, and the fruit and vegetables no flavor ! One of my 
 colleagues gave the characteristics of the country in another 
 triology, which I am bound to say was not inferior in accuracy, 
 if less poetical. * Women wearing no crinoline, houses harbor- 
 ing no bugs, and the couKtry no lawyers.' The last is perhaps 
 the most astonishing of the whole. 
 
 Thunberg complains that the fields are so completely clear- 
 ed, that the most sharp-sighted botanist would scarcely be able 
 to discover a single plant of any other species among the corn I 
 Yet he contends they are a poetical people. 'Poetry,' he 
 says, ' is a favorite study with this nation.' The way in which 
 they cultivate their cabbnges would not have led one to this 
 conclusion, perhaps. But they are not quite as bad as they 
 are painted, for weeds flourish at Nagasaki as elsewhere, and 
 wild flowers too !
 
 86 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. III. 
 
 This was about the sum of the information extracted from 
 ray authorities, ancient or modern, in respect to the country 
 and its institutions I was so soon to examine for myself. I 
 have thought it might not be useless, or prove uninteresting to 
 general readers to have, at a single glance, a resume of our 
 previous knowledge of the Japanese. More especially did this 
 seem desirable, as from these same sources Europe derived the 
 Utopian views of Japan long prevalent, and destined to be 
 somewhat rudely destroyed upon closer acquaintance. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 First Impressions. — Nagasaki. 
 
 FiEST impressions of a country so little known can not al- 
 ways be correct, yet, if faithfully given, they may still be worth 
 recording. Our first impressions of those we meet in society 
 may not do justice to all their latent good qualities ; we may 
 very much exaggerate that which is unprepossessing in ap- 
 pearance — conceive unreasonable dislike to what is contrary to 
 our own habits and associations, and for no better reason than 
 such contradiction — and, upon the whole, do tliem great injus- 
 tice. Nevertheless, there is an instinctive trust in the accuracy 
 and truthfulness of these. Estimates of character, made upon 
 farther acquaintance, often prove less trustworthy ; and this, I 
 think, may be very satisfactorily accounted for. Familiarity 
 blunts our power of perception as to what is really distinctive, 
 and personal interest, as well as partial knowledge, alike tend 
 to mislead or pervert the judgment. That which is most 
 characteristic catches the eye best at first sight, whether the 
 natural features of a landscape, the carriage and bearing of an 
 individual, or national life and customs be the subject of ob- 
 servation. 
 
 I was not deterred, therefore, on arriving at Nagasaki, from 
 reading as I ran, and noting my impressions too, by the fear 
 that I might fall into some involuntary error as to the right in- 
 terpretation of all that I saw. What we gain in accuracy by 
 a more cautious method, we are likely to miss in freshness and 
 graphic power, even if we do not lose all interest in the sub- 
 ject, when it has grown hackneyed by long familiarity. I 
 give, therefore, from a few notes made on the spot, some of 
 my first impressions, together with the corrections suggested 
 by later information.
 
 Chap. III.] 
 
 ENTRANCE OF tHE BAY. 
 
 87 
 
 The 4th of June, of pleasant memory to Etonians, opened the 
 port of Nagasaki to our rain-drenched party. It has often been 
 described by recent travelers, and even under a cloudy sky the 
 entrance was not devoid of beauty. Island after island comes 
 into view as the bay is entered, many very picturesque in form. 
 
 NAGASAKI HARBOR. 
 
 As the ship moves farther up the bay, the town of Nagasaki is 
 seen lying at the farther end, clustering at the foot of a range 
 of hills, and creeping no inconsiderable distance up the wooded 
 sides. JDecima^ to the right, fixes the eye — a low, fan-shaped 
 strip of land, dammed out from the Avaters of the bay, the han- 
 dle being toward the shore, and truncated. One long wide 
 street, with two-storied houses on each side, built in European 
 style, gives an air of great tidiness ; but they looked with large 
 hollow eyes into each other's interiors, in a dismal sort of way, 
 as if they had been so engaged for six generations at least, and 
 were quite weary of the view. A conscious sense of the inev- 
 itable monotony of a life passed within its boundaries leaves 
 one little disposed to admire even the trimness and cleanliness 
 of all around. But the view from the Dutch Commissioner's 
 residence, with its quaint Japanese garden and fine sweep dowa
 
 88 *rHREE YEARS m JAPAlJ. tCHAP.nl. 
 
 the bay toward the entrance, is very charming. As I stood for 
 a few minutes alone on the balcony, there flitted before me a 
 vision of the sort of Hfe these indomitable representatives of 
 the Great Batavian Republic must have led. I saw the soli- 
 tary chiefs of the factory, the Heeren Waardenaar, Doeff, Tit- 
 singh, etc., in long succession, taking up their prison station in 
 rotation, and looking forth upon the fair bay, with which their 
 sight alone might be gladdened. How often must the occu- 
 pants of this lone post have strained their eyes to the entrance, 
 hoping and looking in vain for the solitary ship bringing tid- 
 ings from Europe and home at far-off" intervals ? Of a truth 
 it must have been a trying life to the most phlegmatic Dutch- 
 man that ever drew smoke and consolation from a meerschaum. 
 And they held to thi? foot of earth with desperate tenacity, 
 nothing daunted by a prison life, and such a series of vexations^ 
 and indignities as only an Oriental race, like the Chinese or 
 Japanese, could have the ingenuit}* to devise, or the patience to 
 put into execution for two centuries without cessation or inter- 
 mission. When politicians of a certain school would advocate 
 unlimited submission and conciliation in our dealings with East- 
 ern nations, and the Chinese and Japanese especially, one could 
 wish they would take the trouble to read, in the history of 
 Dutch relations, what such policy, carried out unswervingly to 
 the utmost, led to in Japan. When a general expectation of 
 efforts to open Japan to Western commerce emboldened the 
 Dutch Government, by slow degrees, gently to insinuate a pos- 
 sibility of some relaxation of a system of exclusion and isola- 
 tion as the sole means of averting danger and destruction to 
 the Japanese themselves and the whole fabric of their policy 
 and independence, the monopoly won by the exclusion of all 
 other nations two centuries before had long ceased to be of 
 any value to Holland, even had the conditions of such dwarfed 
 and oppressed trade been less humiliating. To this end all 
 trade with these countries naturally gravitates, if the Rulers are 
 allowed to follow their own inspirations and policy without 
 check or hinderance. This is the legitimate policy of a peace- 
 at-any-price policy, as all who advocate such a system in the 
 East may satisfy themselves, if they will take the trouble to 
 study either the past or the present. It has been common 
 enough to twit the Dutch with a groveling cupidity in sub- 
 mitting to such conditions as were, for so many generations, 
 relentlessly imposed upon them by the Japanese. But we, and 
 all the nations of the West, who have any commercial interests 
 in the East, are greatly indebted to them for the demonstration 
 their experience has afforded us of the futility of such unresist-
 
 Chap. III.] ASPECT OF THE BAY. 89 
 
 ing submission to wrong and injury, caprice and oppression, 
 from an Eastern Government. 
 
 And, to say the truth, we have nothing to boast of in tliis 
 field, and are little entitled to make merry at the expense of 
 our neighbors. What the Dutch submitted to for centuries in 
 Japan, we also, and other nations with us, but we more than 
 all the rest, on account of our larger stake, put up with from 
 the Chinese at Canton. Sometimes, it is true, we Avere driven 
 beyond our powers of endurance, and before the first conflict 
 ending in war — which it is the peculiar delight of our cousins 
 on the other side of the Atlantic to call the 'opium war' — we 
 had upon more than one occasion shown something of the old 
 spirit of resistance to oppression, but never, I fancy, without 
 the rebuke of the high powers at the India House, who looked 
 to the season's tea, and held any thing that periled it an unpar- 
 donable ofiense in their servants. Nor were the Governments 
 of the day one whit more disposed to run any unavoidable 
 risks by the assertion of our national dignity. It is a late dis- 
 covery that, between a determined assertion of treaty rights, 
 with all its"sad contingencies of resistance, collision, and event- 
 ual war, and the most abject submission to continually increas- 
 ing wrong and injury, tliere is rarely any middle term to be 
 found in the East compatible either with the maintenance of 
 those rights or the extension of commerce. 
 
 The first aspect of the bay itself strongly recalls to the Euro- 
 pean traveler some of the more picturesque fiords of Norway, 
 especially the approach to Christiania, the capital. The hills 
 rise boldly from the water's edge, and the pine grows plenti- 
 fully here as there. But the Swiss lakes also produce scenes 
 much more resembling this than one could have anticipated. 
 On landing only, something more tropical appears in the trees 
 and shrubs. The pomegranate and persimmon, the palm and 
 the bamboo are there. But the gjirdinia and camellia flourish 
 also ; and every where our common ferns may be seen, and ivy 
 covering the walls ; while by the road-side the thistle is not 
 wanting, to confound all geographical divisions into floral zones. 
 The rare and much-prized stiphelia of botanists I observed 
 growing luxuriantly in many places as a creeper. 
 
 A beautiful bay it is, and perfectly land-locked. While blow- 
 ing a gale of wind outside, there is scarcely any swell here, or 
 only enough to make the water look crisp and fresh, while the 
 brown fishing-hawk swoops down upon his finny prey, or, poised 
 above, fills the air with his wild cry. They seem to occupy the 
 place of sea-gulls in this latitude, and are perched about on the 
 rigging of the several ships, especially those with which they
 
 90 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IIL 
 
 have had the longest acquaintance, for they make a distinction, 
 and are very shy of a new arrival. 
 
 The first landing in a new country is generally a moment of 
 great interest, even to the oldest traveler. There must ho. some- 
 thhig essentially pleasant in new sensations, novelty in almost 
 every form, since not only we give ourselves much trouble to 
 obtain it, but generally find some pleasure when it is secured. 
 No traveling in Europe can rob Japan of its peculiar claims to 
 admiration under this head, for nothing in the West at all re- 
 sembles a thousand things that meet the eye ; and even famil- 
 iarity with the scenery and people of other parts of the East 
 still leaves room for a variety of new impressions. It must 
 often have been remarked how little books, or drawings either, 
 can effect to enable any one completel}' to realize a new coun- 
 try and people. Once among them, you discover immediately 
 that your ideal is something very diflerent from the actual liv- 
 ing embodiment. This is essentially true of people, towns, 
 streets, and the eflTect of costumes diflering from those to which 
 the eye is accustomed. Certainly, as regards the first view of 
 Japan, there are specialities in the Japanese figure, physiog- 
 nomy, and costume, for which long familiarity with the adjoin- 
 ing population of China does nothing to prepare you. It is 
 not so much that the race of boatmen, and the working-classes 
 generally, are content with the narrowest possible girdle and 
 connecting band, for that is common enough from Alexandria 
 to China ; though in respect to the men of the latter country, 
 I must say there is generally a more liberal allowance of col- 
 ored calico for a covering, under the hottest sun and hardest 
 "work, than seemed to be the usage at Nagasaki. But it is as 
 regards the women that all our notions are most confounded. 
 One must be brought up from infancy to the manner to be able 
 to look upon their large mouths full of black teeth, and the lips 
 thickly daubed with a brick-red color, and not turn away with 
 a strong feeling of repulsion. 
 
 The general aspect of Nagasaki, in the upper part of the 
 town, was that of a half-deserted city, partly from the width 
 of the streets, and partly by contrast, I suspect, with the swarm- 
 ing populations of Chinese cities. The shops seemed but poor- 
 ly supplied ; porcelain, and lacker-ware, and silk goods there 
 were — not absolutely to be despised, perhaps, if Yeddo had not 
 been in prospect, but presenting no great attractions. 
 
 One or two of the more salient features of Nagasaki street 
 life must strike the least observant. I say 'street life ;' but as 
 all the shops have open fronts, and give a view right through 
 the interior to the inevitable little garden at the back, and the
 
 Chap. III.) HOUSES, THEIR USE.— CLIMATE. 91 
 
 inmates of the house sit, work, and play in full view, whatever 
 raay be the occupation in hand — the morning meal, the after- 
 noon siesta, or the later ablutions, the household work of the 
 women, the play of their nude progeny, or the trade and handi- 
 craft of the men — each house is converted into a microcosm 
 where the Japanese raay be studied in all their aspects. We 
 hear a great deal of the marvelous perfection to which a gov- 
 ernment system of rule by espionage has been brought in this 
 country ; but really it would seem as if the last, and not the 
 least strange result arrived at has been the abrogation of all 
 secrecy or desire for privacy on the part of a whole popula- 
 tion ! It says much, too, for the climate, which has often more 
 to do with the habits and tastes of a people than more recon- 
 dite causes. It has been asserted by Buckle, and others before 
 him, that the character of a people's civilization is actually de- 
 termined by the climate, and there is much in Japan to bear 
 out the truth of the axiom. 
 
 Throughout the south of Europe and in the East, in our 
 time as in the days of ancient Greece and Rome, houses are 
 merely places to sleep and to eat in, to lock up their goods 
 when trade is the vocation, and sometimes their women. In 
 northern lands, blessed only with a small share of sun and fine 
 weather, and a disproportionate allowance of fog and mist, of 
 cold and damp, many of the chief pleasures of life must be 
 sought within the walls of a well-built and roomy house, capa- 
 ble of being thoroughly warmed, and made cheerful by fire and 
 artificial ligiit. Hence the domesticity of Northern Europe, 
 with its chief home in Great Britain ; hence many of our vir- 
 tues, and some of our vices ! Among the former, the art of 
 making ourselves comfortable, so often quoted by the French, 
 and 80 rarely attained, may fairly take rank. Hence, too, in 
 part at least, the luxury and extravagance displayed in many 
 of our dwellings and habits of life. 
 
 It is impossible to wander through any of these Eastern lands 
 without being farther struck by the influence of climate in na- 
 tional dress or clothing, and the requirements of modesty or 
 decency. Certainly, if the laws of morality are immutable, and 
 written in the hearts and consciences of all men alike, as is com- 
 monly maintained, it is difficult to arrive at the same conclu- 
 sion as regards any universality or identity of the innate sense 
 which dictates the rules of propriety in dress. We read that 
 in the fifteenth century, when the sect of Flagellants perambu- 
 lated Europe, plying the whip upon their naked backs, and de- 
 claring that the whole of religion consisted in the use of the 
 scourge, ' others, more crazy still, pronounced the use of clothes
 
 92 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. III. 
 
 to be evidence of an unconveited nature, and returned to the 
 nakedness of our first parents as proof of their restoration to a 
 state of innocence.' Now, whether the working part of this 
 population are in the state of primeval purity and innocence 
 or the very reverse, one thing is certain, that they are in a state 
 very nearly approaching that of our first parents, and may 
 daily be seen ' naked and not ashamed.' But if it should turn 
 out, as has been asserted by those who have lived longest 
 among them, that their women are not less chaste, nor their 
 men more immoral than many of the best-dressed populations 
 of Europe, it will be hard to avoid the conclusion that in this 
 said article of clothing there is a great deal more that is pure- 
 ly conventional than is generally imagined. 
 
 When I first landed it was a holiday-time ; many of the peo- 
 ple were out, evidently dressed in their best, and exchanging 
 grave and courteous salutations as they met, bending, with 
 their hands sliding down to their knees, and uttering their 
 
 A JAPANESE SALUTATION. 
 
 greetings with a deep-drawn inspiration, the depth from whence 
 it was extracted appearing to be in strict relation to the de- 
 gree of respect they wished to manifest, as though the joy and 
 satisfaction of such a meeting were something too deep for ut- 
 terance ! Banners and flags of fantastic device, and often grace- 
 ful forms, were being carried about in procession, while others 
 were hung on poles before many of the doors, with little man- 
 nikins, dressed in gaudy colors, swinging to and fro beneath. 
 It was a great fete or '• Matsuri^ held once a year for three 
 days, to commemorate the births of sons and daughters; and
 
 Chap. III.] 
 
 JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 08 
 
 the little stuffed figures represent the accessions to the family 
 during the year — two for a son and one for a daughter. Street 
 musicians were about ; not the respectable hurdy-gurdy of Eu- 
 ropean cities, but a sort of lute and fife, played by an itinerant 
 race. Some are said to be outcasts and 'iomwa,' who some- 
 
 LOmS BEADING. 
 
 times thus play the mendicant instead of the highway robber, 
 with a hat completely concealing their face. Inside a half- 
 closed slio}) might be seen a dozen musicians, squatted on their 
 knees and heels (a heart-breaking and impossible posture to the 
 uninitiated). I say musicians, but they make a most unearthly 
 noise, a perfect charivari of drum, and fife, and stringed instru- 
 ments, each performer apparently seeking with the greatest 
 conscientiousness to drown the noise of his neighbor, and suc- 
 ceeding to perfection. 
 I have made some remarks on the nude Japanese : it is only
 
 94 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. III. 
 
 right to observe that all the more well-to-do classes go about 
 full dressed, and with great attention both to taste and neat- 
 ness of costume. I speak of the better class of men only, for 
 women of this rank do not present themselves out of doors, it 
 would seem. Take them all in all, with their resemblances 
 and differences, you soon come to the conclusion that, judging 
 even from this sea-port or Wapping of Japan, with a Chinese 
 colony located among them for some centuries to teach them 
 their vices, Dutch and other foreigners in time past and pres- 
 ent to add their quota also, they are a good-humored, intelli- 
 gent, and courteous race, gentle withal, and speaking one of 
 the softest tongues out of Italy. Their salutations and greet- 
 ings in the mai*ket-place have a stately and elaborate courtesy 
 in the lowly bend of the body, and make a very striking con- 
 trast to the jerk of the head and ' How do ?' of Jones, Brown, 
 and Robinson. 
 
 A fair amount of industry and business appeared in the shops 
 and along the wide streets, down the centre of which there is, 
 in most cases, a fine flag pavement. Groups of half, or wholly 
 naked children, clamoring for buttons, you meet every where ; 
 and almost every woman has at least one at the breast, and 
 often another at the back. The race is undoubtedly prolific, 
 and this, I should say, is a very paradise of babies. 
 
 One of the most interesting facts connected with the port, 
 and the relations opened by the series of treaties, from Com- 
 modore Perry's, in March, 1854, to Lord Elgin's, in August, 
 1858, is the Japanese steam factory on the opposite side of the 
 bay, under the superintendence of Dutch officers. I went over 
 it, and could not but admire the progress made, under every 
 possible difficulty, by the Japanese and Dutch combined, in 
 their endeavors to create, in this remote corner of tiic earth, 
 all the complicated means and appliances for the roj^-'^ii') ^.nd 
 manufacture ultimately, of steam machinery. 
 
 All honor is due to the Dutch officers — Captain Kattandyck, 
 of the Dutch Navy,* as the head of the commission, and the 
 Chief Engineer — worthy descendants of those brave Holland- 
 ers whom no danger could daunt, nor difficulties arrest, in their 
 efforts to conquer a territory from the sea on the one side, and 
 the Spaniard on the other. 
 
 In going over the various workshops, where every thing had 
 to be created from the beginning — bricks and tiles to be made, 
 and kilns even to burn them, for the necessary buildings, docks 
 to plan and dig, Japanese workmen to instruct, with all the 
 endless difficulties caused by imperfect means of comraunica- 
 * The present Minister of Maiine at the Hague.
 
 Chap. III.J STEAxM-ENGINE FACTORY. 95 
 
 tion, and not be struck with the singular combination of en- 
 ergy and persevering effort, guided by competent practical 
 knowledge, which the Dutch must have supplied. 
 
 The head engineer, whose name I am sorry I can not recall, 
 was one of those plain, unpretending men, who, like the Brunels 
 and Stcphensons of our own country, find means of overcoming 
 every difficulty. Not the least, perhaps, in this case, was the 
 reluctance of the Japanese to sink large sums, month after 
 month, in an undertaking the full value of which they could 
 hardly appreciate until they saw some tangible results. Of 
 course there was much which yet remained to be done; but 
 even then, in little more than a year, a large lathe factory was 
 in full work, where Japanese workmen, some the sons of gen- 
 tlemen, turned out all the parts of a steam-engine proper to 
 their department. Among other things, I found them turning 
 moderator lamps ! Beyond was a forge factory, in complete 
 working order, with a Nasmyth's hammer, and all the requi- 
 sites for repairing damages. And here we saw one of the most 
 extraordinary and crowning testimonies of Japanese enterprise 
 and ingenuity, which leaves all the Chinese have ever attempted 
 far behind. I allude to a steam-engine with tubular boilers, 
 made by themselves before a steam-vessel or engine had ever 
 been seen by Japanese; made solely, therefore, from the plans 
 in a Dutch Avork. This engine was not only put together, but 
 made to work a boat. It is true there were defects, both in 
 structure and adaptation ; and it is rather a marvel, perhaps, 
 that the engineers were not ' hoisted with their own petard ;' 
 but even these defects admit of rectification, under the able 
 hands of the head engineer, were it not worthy of being pre- 
 served as a national monument of Japanese capacity and enter- 
 prise. An American writer seems unwilling to leave them the 
 credit so justly their due, and suggests that the workmen must 
 have seen the United States ' Mississippi' steamer ! But he is 
 clearly mistaken. It was actually in operation long before an 
 American or any other steamer had ever appeared in Japanese 
 waters. 
 
 I left this most interesting establishment, and its worthy 
 head, who spoke English very unexceptionably, and gave every 
 kind of information with great readiness, fully realizing the la- 
 bor and the difficulties he and his fellow-workmen must have 
 had to encounter at every step, in thus laying the foundations 
 of a steam navy in these remote regions, and among a people 
 to whom all the appliances of modern science were unknown. 
 We extended our walk to the Russian settlement, in a beauti- 
 fully situated cove, with wooded hills rising boldly behind it«
 
 96 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. III. 
 
 Coal-sheds and stores spread along the base, while temporary 
 barracks and head-quarters were on a commanding platform 
 half way up the banks. If the Russians, as some have sur- 
 mised, intended a permanent settlement, it could not have been 
 better chosen ; but I saw nothing to indicate more than what 
 it professed to be — a temporary location for the crew of the 
 frigate ' Aschol,' requiring a thorough repair and refit, for which 
 this retired and snug bay was admirably adapted. They had 
 been here some months, and this had evidently been made the 
 rendezvous for a Commodore's squadron, consisting of the frig- 
 ate and half a dozen corvettes and gunboats, supposed to be 
 on their way to the Amoor. I dare say, being here in force, 
 the Russian had had it pretty much his own way, and obtained 
 what supplies he wanted, with fair words or the strong hand, 
 as the case might require. But, under similar circumstances, 
 the same thing would probably have been done by the senior 
 oflScer of any other foreign squadron. 
 
 Talking of supplies, there seemed a terrible dearth of chick- 
 ens, though plenty of eggs. There were no sheep to be bought, 
 for there are none in the country ; and bullocks were denied, 
 and declared not to exist in the island, until a razzia of the Rus- 
 sians swept in two or three score from the surrounding coun- 
 try, after which they were always abundantly supplied. The 
 only specimens we could procure, however, made wretched beef, 
 and were only fit for leather, though cheap enough, if any thing 
 can properly be called cheap which is bad and unfit for use. No 
 cattle being kept for slaughter by a nation of Buddhists and 
 Ichthyologists or Vegetai'ians, only those can be obtained which 
 are taken from the plow, and of course old and worn-out beasts 
 are alone brought to market. The scarcity of fowls is less 
 easily understood, seeing that for more than six months there 
 must have been a remunerating demand, and the means of 
 producing them are there. Bantams, beautiful enough to win 
 prizes, are plentiful in the streets, and a few long-legged, high- 
 stepping fowls, fit almost for a cabriolet, might also be seen ; 
 but they had a patriarchal look, and, moreover, could not be 
 bought. In fact, it seemed that the first settlei's would find no 
 small difficulty in supplying their table with any thing but fish 
 and vegetables, unless, in winter, game might fill up the deficien- 
 cies. Fish alone is plentiful at Nagasaki, and in considerable 
 variety. We found crawfish and prawns of noble proportions. 
 Some of the fish are good, and others smooth-skinned and 
 coarse ; but they are in great variety, from the pomfret to the 
 shark, which latter is not despised by the natives. Its fins, in- 
 deed, are a delicacy among the Chinese ; and its skin furnishes 
 a covering to the Japanese sword scabbards.
 
 chap.iii.j climate.— mode of reception. 97 
 
 After a glance at the fisli-inarket and vegetable stalls, the 
 latter chiefly filled with the coarser kinds of roots and French 
 beans, I wandered over one of the beautiful sloping hills ex- 
 tending along the bay toward the mouth of the harbor. It 
 offered more than one delightful site for a foreign settlement, 
 with abundant AV%ater frontage, and bounded by a ravine, down 
 which a mountain stream came tumbling in foam and ripple, 
 to empty itself into the bay. With such a site, invalids from 
 India and China might find a Sanitarium such as no other land 
 between the two, or east of the Cape, can afford. The end of 
 June was approaching, and still no summer-heat was experi- 
 enced, the thermometer ranging only from 62° to 78°. 
 
 The rain at this season, indeed, obscures the sun and tem- 
 pers the atmosphere ; but whoever has panted through six 
 months of summer-heat on the banks of the Hooghly or the 
 burning plains of Madras, or sighed in vain for one breath of 
 air in the sun-stricken side of Hongkong, and the low, sedgy 
 flats of the Canton river, will gladly compound for a tempera- 
 ture of 70° in June, and a fresh breeze from the south, by six 
 weeks of heavy rain. In the South there is little actual win- 
 ter, it appears. A new country full of natural beauties, no 
 tropical heat, and within ten days' steam of Hongkong, prom- 
 ised an abundant influx of visitors, seeking for change and 
 health — a promise which was more fully realized in the sequel 
 than many other anticipated results. 
 
 Before taking my departure for Yeddo, I had occasion to 
 see the Governor of Nagasaki, whom I found full of courtesy, 
 and a man of prepossessing address and manners. Their modes 
 of reception, though very simple, are not Avanting in dignity. 
 If the person to be received is of sufficient rank to entitle him 
 to be greeted as an equal, the Governor will meet the guest at 
 the end of the first corridor leading to the reception-room, and 
 after an exchange of salutations, show him the way. Wlien 
 foreigners are to be received, seats and tables are arranged on 
 each side of the room opposite. The Japanese take theirs ac- 
 cording to their respective rank on one side, and the foreign- 
 ers are requested to sit down opposite, benches or chairs being 
 provided for the occasion. As the interview proceeds, lacker 
 trays are brought, on which are fire, tobacco, pijies, and small 
 copper spittoons ; and if it be a very formal or long affair, 
 these are succeeded by a succession of trays containing first 
 cake and sweets, then fish, vegetables, sea-weed, rice, etc., and 
 tea — the last of doubtful flavor. Cups of saki, a spirit distilled 
 from rice, are handed roimd, and some peo])le think it very 
 palatable or potable. It is quite as good (or bad) as the Chi-
 
 98 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IV. 
 
 nese samshu or wine, however, and very much the same kind 
 of thing. 
 
 Grapes they have, but from these they make spirit, not wine. 
 When the visit is conduded the two parties rise, notice having 
 been given by the guest of his wish to retire. Salutations are 
 returned, and he is conducted by his host a longer or shorter 
 distance, according to their relative rank. All this is well and 
 courteously done, but the tedium, and often the uselessness of 
 these official interviews of several hours, when important busi- 
 ness presses for decision, is something beyond description. 
 For every thing a double translation is required, first into 
 Dutch, from whatever foreign language is spoken, then into 
 Japanese, and so back again, with the pleasant condition of ut- 
 ter uncertainty whether any of the true sense or spirit of the 
 first words spoken passes through the Japanese and last filter, 
 or is left in the unspoken residuum. Time alone can supply a 
 remedy for this, by enabling foreigners to be their own inter- 
 preters, and speak Japanese. The native interpreters all un- 
 derstand and speak more or less of English, but too little yet 
 to be available for any practical purpose. It is encouraging, 
 however, to see the spontaneous efibrt that has been made in 
 this direction ; and many years can not elapse before Dutch is 
 entirely superseded, and English takes its place.* •» 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Nagasaki to Yeddo. — The Work of Two Centuries undone in as many 
 Years. — Effect upon the Japanese Mind. — How its Rulers felt under such 
 Innovations. — The Touch-stone of Trial. — First Arrival of the British and 
 American Diplomatic Agents at Yeddo to take up a permanent Resi- 
 dence. 
 
 Nagasaki to Yeddo ! Two centuries lie between these 
 points, so near on the map, but so far and completely separ- 
 ated by the determined policy of the Japanese rulers — a policy 
 of isolation, so effectually carried out that no foreigner, though 
 he might under the Dutch flag gain access to Nagasaki, could 
 force or find his way to the capital. 
 
 * Great progress has in effect been made during the past three years 
 every where except at Yeddo ! At the three ports, many very efficient inter- 
 preters in English are constantly employed by the Japanese authorities. At 
 Yeddo, I offered to have a class of youths taught English, if the Government 
 would select educated boys, and send them to us. They appeared to receive 
 the proposition with great pleasure, and promised immediately after my ar- 
 rival to make a selection, but it was yet to be done when I left, at the end of 
 nearly three years.
 
 Chap. IV.] CHANGED RELATIONS. 99 
 
 A mission of tribute-bearers alone was permitted to proceed 
 to Yeddo, under the most vigilant and inexorable of escorts — 
 paid by themselves, too, thus adding insult to injury. When 
 there they were closely guarded, and allowed to offer on their 
 knees or faces, in the august presence of the Siogun (Tycoon) 
 — or, rather, with prostrations before a screen, behind which 
 he was supposed to be seated in solemn state — the offerings 
 of the Dutch factory, in humble token of gratitude for the 
 pleasant life and profitable conditions of trade enjoyed at De- 
 cima ! If these presents, in value and number, were satisfac- 
 tory, then the suite were farther graciously permitted to play 
 all sorts of antics and tomfooleries for the especial amusement 
 of the court and the ladies behind the lattices. Thunberg re- 
 lates how they were desired to turn round, that they might 
 show the cut of their clothes behind and before; dance Euro- 
 pean dances, sing foreign songs, feign drunkenness, etc., for 
 several hours, until completely exhausted, when they were al- 
 lowed to retire, but not to rest ; for, the Tycoon's entertain- 
 ment over, princes and courtiers pressed upon them for farther 
 amusement. It does not appear that the chief of the factory 
 was subjected to this truly humiliating oideal, but all the rest 
 of his mission were made to contribute their share. 
 
 Such were the receptions granted during the last two cen- 
 turies ; but ' Nagasaki to Yeddo' carries the imagination back 
 yet another century, when the stout English pilot, William 
 Adams, first steered to the coast a storm-tossed and battered 
 vessel of small tonnage, under Dutch colors, the only one of a 
 fleet of five that ever reached a Japanese port. After a series 
 of disasters, he arrived, with only five companions who could 
 walk, and was sent with his party to the capital. How he 
 made his way at Court, though no courtier born, and survived 
 the kindly suggestion of a Portuguese Jesuit, that he should 
 be hanged as a 'pestilent fellow and a pirate,' is generally 
 known. Three centuries have rolled on since then, and now 
 Foreign Representatives are on their way to exchange the rati- 
 fications of new treaties ; and they will arrive at the capital, 
 not, as honest Will Adams approached the coast, in a little mer- 
 chant lugger, unaccredited and helpless, but in due state, each 
 with a goodly ship-of-war for escort, bearing the national flag ; 
 not, as the Representatives of any foreign nation during the 
 two centuries past, bearers of presents and triennial tribute — 
 the price paid for leave to trade at Nagasaki, and there alone, 
 under the most oppressive and humiliating conditions — but 
 empty-handed, save as the bearers of treaties which abrogate 
 all conditions not consistent with the dignity of a great nation,
 
 100 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IV. 
 
 and the free development of a mutually advantageous trade. 
 So great is the contrast, that two centuries seem hardly too 
 much for the change to be effected in. And yet it had all been 
 the work of five yeai's — of five years of continuous treaties, it 
 may be said, but all crowded into that short space. The ex- 
 pedition of the United States, under Commodore Perry, in 
 March, 1854, first began by inserting the wedge, destined by 
 successive efforts of Foreign Powers to cleave through the op- 
 posing body of Japanese tradition and policy. Admiral Stir- 
 ling followed later in the year, and content, like his predeces- 
 sor, with continued refusal to trade, he merely stipulated for 
 wood and provisions, with humanity to shipwrecked mariners. 
 
 The Dutch, naturally anxious to play a part as a Power in- 
 strumental in opening the country they had once striven so 
 hard to close to all but themselves, got rid of some of the most 
 galling and humbling of the conditions of their own position, 
 by a convention concluded by Mr. Donker Curtius, the Com- 
 missioner, and head of the Dutch factory. 
 
 Then came the Russians, taught the value of Japanese ports 
 by their war with England and France ; and in October, 1857, 
 Admiral Poutiatine formed a treaty. In a few days later, the 
 Dutch again returned to the charge, by which trading privi- 
 leges were secured at three ports — Nagasaki, Simoda, and 
 Hakodadi. Next followed in rapid succession American, En • 
 glish, and French treaties, in the months of July and August 
 of 1858; and the wedge was finally driven home, enlarging 
 and improving the conditions and privileges of trade. By these 
 last the gates of Yeddo were forced — made to turn upon their 
 rusty hinges, and give reluctant passage, for the first time, to 
 Foreign ministers as residents. 
 
 Credit may have been justly due to the Japanese Rulers — 
 to some, at least — for having had the sense to perceive the 
 time had come when their exclusive policy could no longer be 
 safely maintained, and the prudence not to provoke a collision 
 with the Great Powers of Europe, which could only have end- 
 ed in the humiliation and discomfiture of the nation. The Chi- 
 nese had appeared more blinded with conceit, and less capable 
 of appreciating the futility of resistance, and the hopelessness 
 of an appeal to arms. There was a general disposition to draw 
 a good augury from this for our future relations with the Jap- 
 anese empire. If they received the Diplomatic agent of Great 
 Britain without vain protestations of inexpediency, when he 
 should present himself, without previous communication or an- 
 nouncement, at Yeddo, then time and patience, it might natu- 
 rally be expected, would alone be required to secure settled 
 relations of amity and commerce.
 
 Chap. IV.] MISTAKEN FEARS. 101 
 
 But, as this narrative proceeds, it will be seen there were 
 many more things in Japan to be taken note of than had en- 
 tered into the philosophy of the world in general on this sub- 
 ject. It is often well, indeed, that we know so little of what 
 lies before us in this troubled world, whether of good or evil ! 
 Knowledge of the lirst might render us presumptuous ; and 
 of the second, take away the heart and courage necessary to 
 make a good fight. The Japanese ruling classes, we found 
 later, had only yielded to suggestions of danger, chiefly emana- 
 ting from what proved the weaker or more timid party in the 
 State, and were as hostile to foreigners as ever. They fell into 
 the natural mistake^ it is to be believed — judging by the light 
 of after events — that Foreign Powers, one and all, were pre- 
 pared to go to war with them if they refused to enter into all 
 the treaties proposed. In their conscious state of unprepared- 
 ness for resistance, they probably thought it better to tempo- 
 rize and yield, with a mental reservation, intending to retrace 
 their steps when time and opportunity should serve, and sat- 
 isfied that it remained in their own hands, in the mean while, 
 to suspend or impede the execution of all the more important 
 stipulations. 
 
 When has it ever been otherwise in the treaties of the 
 Western with the Eastern races ? Yielding under moral pres- 
 sure (a kind of euphuistic phrase for coercion, and a coercion 
 which has a great deal more to do with rifled guns and frig- 
 ates than any thing moral or intellectual), they ever reserve 
 the right of the conquered to resist, and of the weak to feign 
 acquiescence, until they shall feel strong enough to annul by 
 force what was Avrung from them by no very different process. 
 When they afterward discovered, as there is no doubt they 
 did, that they yielded to a vain fear in the first treaty entered 
 into, and that no Foreign Power, even later, would have gone 
 to war to force upon them a Treaty of Commerce — least of all, 
 the United States of America — the wrath and indignation of 
 the more violent party in the State exploded, and has ever since 
 been a source of peril. But this was not the revelation of the 
 hour. It came later, and with much unwillingness was re- 
 ceived. 
 
 On the 2Gth of June, H.M.S. 'Sampson' cast anchor where 
 the ' Furious,' with Lord Elgin, had last been seen, immediate- 
 ly opposite the city. It was a critical moment. By treaty, 
 Great Britain was no doubt entitled to send a diplomatic agent 
 to reside in Yeddo ; but the Japanese Government had very 
 strongly urged upon Lord Elgin, to the last, their earnest de- 
 sire that no Representative should actually be nominated until
 
 102 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IV. 
 
 1863, on the plea that the popuhai- feelhig against foreigners 
 was likely to be aroused, if so great a change were attempted 
 before there was time to prepare the public mind. 
 
 Her Majesty's Government had not seen fit to accede to this 
 request, and no previous notice had been sent that a British 
 diplomatic agent was on his way. I had determined, there- 
 fore, that the wisest com-se under these circumstances was to 
 steam right up to the anchorage outside the batteries, and 
 take it for granted that the Japanese Government was pre- 
 pared to give effect to the treaty in all its stipulations. But 
 what if they met me with serious remonstrance as to the dan- 
 ger a residence in Yeddo would entail upon the Japanese Gov- 
 ernment and foreigners generally throughout the country, and 
 refuse to accept the responsibility or guarantee the safety of a 
 Mission in the capital? All this had to be duly weighed — 
 and risked. 
 
 Accordingly, on my arrival, a letter to the Ministers of For- 
 eign Affairs was ready to be sent on shore, announcing ray 
 presence, and requesting a residence to be assigned, that I might 
 disembark with as little delay as possible. It was not long be- 
 fore some officials came off to know our business, ar^d they re- 
 ceived the letter for answer. Nor had I long to wait for the 
 reply. It came the next day, followed by a visit from two of 
 the Governors of Foreign Affairs, bringing congratulations 
 from the government on my safe arrival. This relieved me of 
 some anxiety ; and I had the more reason to congratulate my- 
 self, because my American colleague, Mr. Harris, who followed 
 me a few days later from Simoda, where he had hitherto re- 
 sided, had not escaped pressing invitations from the govern- 
 ment to defer his departure for the capital. 
 
 Very glad to find the first anticipated difficulty no longer in 
 my way, I proceeded immediately to the most pressing busi- 
 ness, the selection of a temple for a provisional residence and 
 Consulate General; and having mentioned the two placed at 
 the disposal of Lord Elgin and Baron Gros respectively in 
 1858, plans not only of these, but of two others, were sent the 
 following day, with an offer to conduct any member of the es- 
 tablishment to examine and select from the whole. 
 
 This seemed a matter of such moment that I determined to 
 land privately myself Accordingly, on the third day after my 
 arrival, accompanied by Captain Hand, we were pulling toward 
 the shore on a visit of inspection. Little of the capital, vast as 
 it is, can be seen from the anchorage, which is outside a line of 
 batteries built some two miles from the shore. Fringed with 
 low houses and trees, some higher ground appears behind, ap
 
 Chap. IV.] ANCHORAGE.— ABHORRENCE OF PAINT. 103 
 
 parently covered with wood. Only here and there a temple, 
 or the white walls of a Daimio's park, can be distinguished. 
 
 The ' Sampson' lay full four miles from the shore, and even 
 then only in three fathoms of water. The bay shoals all along 
 the banks on which the city stands, so that, at low water, even 
 a ship's boat can not approach within a mile! Notwithstand- 
 ing this best of natural defenses, no less than live batteries, 
 faced with guns on every side, interpose between the deeper 
 channel and the city, besides several on shore ; and the num- 
 ber and strength of these, I may observe, went on increasing 
 continuously from the arrival of the Foreign Representatives. 
 There is thus nothing imposing in the aspect of Yeddo from 
 the bay. This is partly duo, as I have indicated, to the great 
 amount of timber every where, which conceals the low houses, 
 in many cases only single-storied, and partly to the formation 
 of the ground, high land interposing, and concealing by far the 
 larger part of the city. The batteries midway between the 
 anchorage and the shore are the most conspicuous objects, 
 though only a few feet above high-water mark. They are sol- 
 idly built of granite, and must have cost immense labor in lay- 
 ing the foundations. In their low-level line and general aspect 
 they are not unlike some of those oflf Cronstadt. They are 
 well kept, with green turf on the embankments, over which the 
 muzzles of the guns may be seen, though the pieces themselves 
 are carefully protected from the weather and too curious pry- 
 ing by wooden sheds or coverings. They seemed, for the most 
 part, of light calibre, twelve or eighteen pounders apparently. 
 
 Two European rigged vessels bearing the Japanese flag — a 
 red sun on a white field — were lying outside, and below the 
 batteries. One of these was the Emperor's yacht, as it has 
 been the fashion to call it ; that is, the steam vessel sent out by 
 our government, at Admiral Stirling's suggestion, as a present 
 to the Tycoon, which has been called the ' Emperor.' I had 
 heard it asserted that it was allowed to go to decay, and was 
 neglected. This is not the case, however, as I satisfied myself 
 the next day by personal inspection. The painted wood-work 
 looked shabby, because the Japanese abhor paint about their 
 ships, and had consequently been steadily engaged in scrub- 
 bing it off ever since the boat had come into their possession, 
 and by dint of labor and perseverance had nearly succeeded. 
 How they dispense with paint, and oil, and varnish on all their 
 boats and junks, and still preserve them in a seaworthy state, 
 I have never been able to learn, though the fact is indisputa- 
 ble. They char the keels, and more than once, I believe ; but 
 beyond this, they seem to do nothing to guard the wood from
 
 104 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IV. 
 
 decay, under a hot sun, and tlio alternate processes of soaking 
 and drying. Tliis, too, in the land of lacker and varnish ! 
 They must apparently have found, by experience, that no ade- 
 quate advantage was derived from the expenditure of either 
 paint, drying-oil, or varnish ; and yet this runs so entirely coun- 
 ter to our own experience, that it has always been a matter of 
 speculation to me. I have often asked naval officers if they 
 could explain the reason for this diversity of practice, but nev- 
 er obtained any satisfactory answer ; on the contrary, the re- 
 ply generally consisted of an affirmation of the absolute neces- 
 sity of paint ; indeed, like the receipts in Mrs. Glasse's cook- 
 ery-book in respect to butter, it was quite evidently their firm 
 conviction that ' the more paint tlie better !' How far this set- 
 tled bias in favor of abundance of paint, in the minds of my 
 naval friends, may arise from the alleged fact of its scarcity, 
 and the universal complaint of smart first lieutenants that they 
 are stinted and never have enough,! do not venture to determ- 
 ine ; but after a time I gave up farther inquiries in that quar- 
 ter, plainly perceiving that all had one settled conviction in fa- 
 vor of paint — more paint — abundance of paint ! So I left this 
 irreconcilable difierence of theory and practice between the 
 naval profession of Eui'ope and Japan just where I found it. 
 One explanation, indeed, has been suggested which may not be 
 far from the truth, namely, that wood and labor both being 
 cheap, it is less expensive to build new boats than to incur the 
 expense of paint to make them more durable. But to return 
 to the yacht. All the fine imitation satin-wood, and the gilt- 
 work, was found reduced to a very forlorn state by this proc- 
 ess of incessant scrubbing ; but the engines, and all the brass- 
 work, would have done no discredit to the best kept man-of- 
 war in our service. I afterward found that they frequently 
 got up her steam and proceeded with her to different points 
 when any high official had to be sent on the Tycoon's service, 
 and the vessel was worked entirely by Japanese. 
 
 On landing, we found a great crowd of the inhabitants eag- 
 er to see the strangers ; but the police mustered strong, and 
 we were in no way incommoded, save by the awkward at- 
 tempts we had to make before we could succeed in doubling 
 oiirselves up so as to pack our limbs and bodies inside the Jap- 
 anese palanquin, called a norimon, prior to our being suspend- 
 ed from the shoulders of four men, two before and two behind, 
 very much as a wild beast might be slung in a cage for safe 
 transport. Here is a fac-simile, for the benefit of all wlio have 
 never seen the reality, or undergone the practical torture of 
 cramped limbs and a half- dislocated spine within its narrow 
 walls.
 
 Chap. IV.j JAPANESE NOKIMON AND CANGO. 106 
 
 V 
 
 JAPANESE NOBIMON. 
 
 We are often told that no man is so miserable but he may 
 find some one in a worse state than himself — that, in every ex- 
 tremity of evil, there is still ' a lower deep.' Whatever satis- 
 faction or comfort may be derivable from this source, I soon 
 had the opportunity of trying ; for numerous vehicles passed 
 to and fro, carried from the shoulders also, but by two men, be- 
 ing evidently of much lighter construction, and only used by 
 the lower classes. 
 
 JAPANESE CANOO. 
 
 It is made of light wicker-work, and consists of a bottom, 
 back, and front, in the shape of a truncated *V,' or a U with 
 
 £2
 
 106 
 
 *rttREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 the sides pulled out. Into the bottom the Japanese place a 
 cotton quilt. Here, doubled up with their legs beneath them, 
 looking as if they had been amputated at the knees, hundreds 
 of men and women may be seen in the streets or on the high- 
 way, traveling for hours, and on a whole day's journey, appar- 
 ently without serious fatigue or discomfort. Nothing, indeed, 
 has ever seemed to me more wonderful than the way in which 
 Japanese men, women, and children take their ease and repose, 
 asleep or awake. A Japanese quite at his ease, and sans gene, 
 as naturally drops on his heels and squats, with no more solid 
 support to his person than his legs or heels can afford, as an 
 Englishman drops into a chair when he is tired. 
 
 As soon as the babe leaves its mother's breast, the first thing 
 it learns is not to walk or to run, but to squat on its heels in 
 this baboon fashion. If the Japanese are on ceremony, then 
 they sink on the mats, resting jointly on heels and knees. 
 And this attitude also, which would be torture to us, they 
 maintain for hours apparently without serious inconvenience. 
 Finally, the day's labor over, or the time for siesta in the heat 
 of the day arrived, they throw themselves down full length on 
 the mat, with a little padded rest, just large enough to receive 
 the occiput or the angle of the 
 jaw, and sleep as soundly as 
 the most fastidious with a 
 feather pillow and bed. _ 
 
 -T^^?" .=^-^^^-^ 
 
 HOW JAPANESE REST. 
 
 JAPANESE PAGE IN ATTENDANCE. 
 
 As we slowly wended our way through the streets, I had 
 fiill opportunity of observing the absence of all the things we 
 deem so essential to comfort, and which crowd our rooms al-
 
 Chap. IV.] JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 107 
 
 HOW THE JAPANESE SLEEP. 
 
 most to the exclusion, and certainly to the great inconvenience 
 of the people who are intended to occupy them, as well as to 
 the great detriment of the proprietor's purse. 
 
 If European joints could only be made supple enough to en- 
 able their owners to dispense with sofas and chairs, and, jt>ar 
 consequetice, with tables, and we were hardy enough to lie on 
 clean mats, six feet by three, stuffed with fine straw, and beau- 
 tifully made with a silk border, so as to form a sort of reticu- 
 lated carpet for rooms of any size, the solution of that much- 
 debated question, the possibility of marrying on £400 a year, 
 might certainly be predicted with something like unanimity 
 in favor of matrimony. The upholsterer's bill never can offer 
 any impediment to a young couple in Japan. Their future 
 house is taken, containing generally three or four little rooms, 
 in which clean mats are put. Each then brings to the house- 
 keeping a cotton-stuffed quilt and a box of wearing apparel for 
 their own personal use ; a pan to cook the rice, half a dozen 
 lacker cups and trays to eat off; a large tub to bathe and wash 
 in are added on the general account, and these complete the 
 establishment ! 
 
 I think this the nearest approach to Arcadian simplicity that 
 has yet been made ; and I recommend it to the serious con- 
 sideration of all who are perplexed with the difficulties of set- 
 ting up an establishment upon a small income, and keeping it 
 up afterward ; often the most arduous part of the undertaking. 
 
 But not even speculations of such interest and philanthropic 
 scope could prevent limbs aching with the cramped position 
 which my cage imposed. Nor did the jolting motion of the 
 bearers tend to make it less irksome. But what, perhaps, was 
 more objectionable still, the range of the eye was quite as 
 cramped as the rest of the body ; for, in order to see out of 
 the windows, it was necessary to risk a dislocation of the cer- 
 vical vertebra? to get the head at a proper angle. So at last, 
 these combined evils becoming intolerable, I determined, with
 
 108 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IV. 
 
 the rest of my party to walk ; since, as we were ' naihun! (the 
 exact rendering in Japanese, it seems, of our borrowed term 
 incognito)^ there could be no compromise of dignity. And 
 now, for the first time, we began to have some idea of what 
 the streets were like through which we were passing. 
 
 We landed on the banks of a canal which surrounds some 
 pleasure-grounds and a fishing summer-house of the Tycoon, 
 where every thing, seen from the outside, appeared fresh, and 
 green, and park-like. And we were still in what was called 
 the ' official quarter' when our walk began. 
 
 The first temple visited was that which had been occupied 
 by Baron Gros, situated immediately beneath the Tycoon's 
 Cemetery, another finely- wooded park, containing within its 
 wide area a town of temples and priests' quarters. But the 
 actual space included in the ground occupied by the building 
 now offered was very confined, and the building altogether too 
 small to afford the required accommodation for so large a 
 party as I brought with me on the public establishment. The 
 temporary cook-house and bath-rooms, run up with slight 
 planking for Baron Gros, still existed, though in a piteously 
 dilapidated state. Something, I thought, might possibly have 
 been done in the way of enlargement and improvement, pro- 
 vided the adjoining grounds had been open for purposes of 
 recreation and exercise. But not only was this held to be 
 * impossible,' but one of the conditions of tenure was rather 
 objectionable, namely, that the Tycoon, on his way to the cem- 
 etery, passed through the house or inclosui'e, I forget which, 
 and no fires could be lit on those days. I declined it at once, 
 therefore ; and as it was reported that Lord Elgin's former 
 habitation, though more roomy and less confined, scarcely af- 
 forded the required space, we proceeded, on the earnest rec- 
 ommendation of one of the officials, to inspect a ' large and 
 beautiful temple,' as he assured me, situated on the edge of 
 the bay, with all the requisite conditions of ample accommo- 
 dation, spacious grounds, and easy communication with the 
 water. 
 
 It was on this occasion I made my first acquaintance with 
 Moriyama, and he deserves a special introduction. He was 
 the chief of the Interpreters, and a much more important per- 
 sonage than his official title would indicate. He has been de- 
 scribed, and sketched, and photographed in all the accounts 
 that have appeared of the several Missions to Japan ; for on 
 him has devolved the labor of translating into the Japanese 
 version all the treaties, from Commodore Perry's in 1854, to 
 Count Eulenberg's in 1860. On hira it depends, in all the in-
 
 Ghap.IV.] MORIYAMA, the interpreter. 109 
 
 terviews with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, whether the 
 confereuces with the several Ibreigu representatives are cor- 
 rectly or intelhgibly rendered. Nearly all the correspondence 
 with the foreign representatives passes through his hands also, 
 a service, it appears, involving some danger as well as respon- 
 sibility ; for when the last American treaty, framed by Mr. 
 Harris, was signed, a violent reactionary movement taking 
 place among the leading Daimios, all the ministers were dis- 
 gi'aced, and Moriyama was made to share in the downfall of 
 his employers. 
 
 Moriyama spoke a little English then, but he has since been 
 to England with the Mission, and made great progress in the 
 language during his passage home with me. The interpreters 
 in Yeddo hitherto have only spoken in Dutch — the Dutch of 
 two centuries back, and very embarrassing to those fresh from 
 Europe, from the use of old and obsolete forms of expression, 
 which, with all the tenacity of a Japanese who understands 
 nothing of the mutation of languages, or progressive theories 
 of any kind, they are ready to maintain is the only true and 
 pure Dutch, all more modern phraseology being spurious ; like 
 our descendants in New England, who have preserved so many 
 obsolete phrases that they pique themselves on maintaining, 
 with greater success than the English themselves, the language 
 of the old country ' pure and undefiled.' It was amusing, 
 sometimes, to hear them sparring on this subject with the Le- 
 gation Interpreter, a gentleman brought up in Holland, and to 
 mark the astonishment of the latter on being told by his Jap- 
 anese colleague that he really did not know Dutch grammati- 
 cally ! This is only to be matched by my Canton Comprador, 
 who came to me once in China, when I had a visitor in the 
 house, fresh arrived from England, ' Massa, no man sabie what 
 that man want; he no taXkee proper English !' 
 
 The route soon led out of the official quarter, and through a 
 part of the city dedicated to commerce ; but, without stopping 
 to describe all that was striking and novel in the general as- 
 pect, it will be better to go straight forward to the object of 
 our perambulations, the temple of Tozengee^ one of the largest 
 and best endowed in Yeddo, under the patronage more espe- 
 cially of the Prince of Xendai, one of the great, semi-indepen- 
 dent Daimios, with vast territories, and a large number of sub- 
 jects under his rule. During our walk I had been assured 
 there was no finer site or grounds in Yeddo, and that it had 
 been specially destined for the British Representative. I can 
 not say I had much faith in my informant's perfect truthful- 
 ness, and therefore was agreeably surprised. On turning off
 
 110 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IV. 
 
 the Tocado (as the great high road through the island is called, 
 and which skirts the bay here), we passed through a gate giv- 
 ing entrance to a long avenue of cryptomerias and pines ; then 
 through a second more imposing gateway of two stories, across 
 an open square with lotus ponds, and trees on each side, and 
 finally, by an entrance to the right, through another court-yard, 
 and gained a fine suite of apartments looking on to as beauti- 
 ful a specimen of Japanese garden and grounds as can well be 
 conceived. A lawn was immediately in front, beyond a little 
 lake, across which was a rustic bridge (destined later to play 
 a prominent part in a scene of blood) ; and beyond this again, 
 palm trees and azaleas, large bushes trimly cropped into the 
 semblance of round hillocks, while the background w^as filled 
 up with a noble screen of timber, composed of the finest of all 
 Japanese trees, the evergreen oak and the maple. Palms and 
 bamboos were interspersed, and a drooping plum - tree was 
 trained over one end of the rustic bridge giving passage across 
 the lake. To the right, a steep bank shut in the view, covered 
 equally with a great variety of flowering shrubs and the ground 
 bamboo, and crowned with more of the same timber. Through 
 this a path led upward by a zigzag flight of steps to a fine 
 avenue of trees, the end of which widened into a platform, 
 whence a wide view of the bay and part of the city below 
 could be obtained, with a perfectly scenic efiect. The distant 
 view was set in a framework of foliage, formed by the branches 
 and trunks of pine-trees, towering, from fifty to a hundred feet 
 high, into the blue sky above. If Japan could only be viewed 
 as a place of exile, it must be confessed a more beautiful her- 
 mitage could not have been chosen ; and I felt almost doubt- 
 ful whether a retreat so perfect in every respect could possibly 
 have fallen to my lot without some terrible drawback. It 
 seemed too much to be so easily realized, and at so little cost. 
 I well remember the feeling, now that years have passed over 
 my head, and revealed what I could then so little foresee, that 
 in the midst of all this picturesque beauty, a scene at once so 
 fair and peaceful, I, and at a year's interval the Charge d' Af- 
 faires in my absence, were each destined to be hunted for our 
 lives by armed bravoes thirsting for our blood, and feel that no 
 human strength or art could make such a position defensible. 
 Sunk as the house is in a hollow, surrounded by wood, and 
 open on all sides to attack, efiective defense is indeed impossi- 
 ble, and the stealthy approach of the midnight assassin may 
 bring him close to his victim under cover. "Well, indeed, is it 
 ordered that our knowledge of the future is a total blank. 
 Had I foreseen what was to be, how much of pleasure and
 
 Chap. IV.] TROUBLES OF INSTALLATION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 YEDDO FROM THE AVENUE. 
 
 peace, in a sense of security, I should have lost, and how 
 wretchedly the two years preceding the first attempt at a mas- 
 sacre would have dragged on in this seemingly earthly para- 
 dise ! It left nothing to be desired as a place to live in ; and 
 the real objection, that it was a very likely place to die in, did 
 not strike the mind, though obviously enough a very bad loca- 
 tion in which to defend one's self From the end of the avenue, 
 through which a midday sun could only pour a checkered ar- 
 abesque of light and shade, the bay stretched far away a thou- 
 sand feet below, basking in the full glare of sunshine, and mak- 
 ing the deep cool shade of the terrace, with its thick screen of 
 green leaves, all the more enjoyable by contrast. It is true it 
 swarmed with musquitoes : this little disadvantage I perceived 
 at once, but it was only later that I had the satisfaction of 
 learning it was celebrated all over Yeddo for its breed ! But, 
 even with the place at my disposal, and it may well be sup- 
 posed I did not hesitate in my choice, all was not sunshine 
 with its priestly owners. I fancy they saw this intrusion of 
 the Tojin (foreigner) into their sacred precincts with little 
 satisfaction. The lay proprietor of the domain, the Prince of 
 Xendai, had not the reputation of being very friendly to us ; 
 and I have never been able to di.scovcr by what tenure these 
 temples are held, to be so entirely, as they seem, at the disposal
 
 112 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IV. 
 
 of the Tycoon's goveiniueut. Many of them, as this temple 
 of Tozengee, are built and endowed by Daimios out of their 
 own property. Sometimes, to escape the cares and responsi- 
 biUties of a Daimio's hfe, neither few nor light in Japan, they 
 voluntarily resign all their possessions to a son as soon as they 
 have one of age, lay down their powei*, and retire to one of 
 these temples, living in retirement, with shaven crowns, for the 
 rest of their lives. This, perhaps, may account for the fact that 
 to every temple there is attached a suite of apartments, larger 
 or smaller, according to its pretensions, where guests and offi- 
 cial personages may find temporary accommodation. But as 
 regards Yeddo, whatever may be the tenure, it would appear 
 the Tycoon, with or without the consent of the lay proprietor, 
 disposes of this part of the accommodation whenever he re- 
 quires it. 
 
 The difficulty I encountered, and which cost me a stout fight 
 of more than an hour's duration, was the alleged inability of 
 the Tycoon to compel the priests to give up any portion of the 
 building or grounds habitually occupied by them, and their 
 unwillingness to treat on any basis of equivalent compensation, 
 which I readily offered, for the surrender of an additional set 
 of rooms and a court-yard, absolutely essential for the putting 
 up of a large establishment of Europeans and their servants, 
 with stables, store-rooms, etc. 
 
 This was my first trial, and I had more than once well-nigh 
 given it up in despair, and gone elsewhere. And this I had to 
 intimate, finally, before I succeeded in obtaining such extension 
 as I knew to be absolutely necessary. When well-nigh wea- 
 ried out, enough was at last obtained, foot by foot, to enable 
 me to make arrangements for putting every one up decently, 
 though certainly not luxuriously. By a different disposition 
 of sliding panels (delightful style of architecture, when, like 
 Mr. Briggs, you have to turn the parlor into the passages), and 
 with the aid of carpenters to adjust them, and masons to build 
 kitchens, stables, and out-houses in the yai'd, that it had cost so 
 much hard fighting to win, all in the establishment were ar- 
 ranged for. The Japanese officials finally took their leave, and 
 we bade each other good-by, both probably well satisfied that 
 at least one troublesome business was settled, and there was 
 no more to be asked or refused. I dare say the room demand- 
 ed for half a dozen Europeans was considered very exorbitant, 
 our modes of life are so different ; and then the upholstery ! I 
 had tables, and chairs, and bedsteads, and sofas enough to fill 
 up entirely the first three rooms they placed at my disposal. 
 I think it very possible Moriyama and his superiors, when our
 
 Chap. IV.] TROUBLES OF INSTALLATION. 113 
 
 backs were turned, may have mutually exclaimed, ' What fools 
 these foreigners are, that they can not live without such a mass 
 of four-legged encumbrances, which destroy the mats, and leave 
 no room either to move or to sleep in !' And there have been 
 moments in my numerous translations from place to place in 
 the East, when, if I had heard such a comment, I might cer- 
 tainly have chimed in with a very cordial Amen ! 
 
 I have not yet forgotten the rush and turmoil consequent on 
 the transport of two hundred cases into the once secluded tem- 
 ple grounds, the contents of all being wanted at once by half 
 a dozen different proprietors — masters and their servants seek- 
 ing vainly to evoke some order out of such a chaos and embar- 
 ras de richesse — English, French, Dutch, Japanese, and Chi- 
 nese, a polyglot of languages, all adding their quota to other 
 elements of confusion. 
 
 It was a very Malakoff in Tozengee that day. Legs of sofas 
 were met in despairing search of their bodies ; sideboards on 
 their backs, waiting prostrate for their supports ; beds which 
 could not tind their bedsteads ; chairs, as 1 have said, only fit 
 for Chelsea Hospital, and with so many broken legs and dam- 
 aged arms that future service seemed quite out of the question. 
 Then came the crockery and glass chaos, quite a department 
 of its own — urged into active commotion by the conscious 
 sense, among the living agents, that some twenty people, be- 
 fore dark, would be vicious for want of food and drink, and 
 clamorous for both. To crown our troubles, the whole of the 
 cutlery was missing. Nobody could find the box with the 
 knives and forks ! Nor were they discovered for three weeks. 
 So carefully had they been packed away, that all trace of their 
 place of concealment had been lost. 
 
 Fortunately, the most grievous times come to an end ; and 
 when people are utterly exhausted and worn out with fatigue, 
 they ' drink deep of all the blessedness of sleep,' beds or no 
 beds, if not wholly supperless. 
 
 But the capital of the Tycoon, though it has been traversed, 
 has yet to be described, and deserves a chapter to itself. The 
 installation of a new Legation in an Eastern land is a rude un- 
 dertaking, trying to the patience as well as the stiength of the 
 first pioneers, and could not possibly be dismissed with a cur- 
 sory notice. It is not often that a description appears in print, 
 and yet, like most other trials in this life, it has its ludicrous 
 side, and we can afford to look back upon it with a smile, how- 
 ever grimly we may have stood on the battle-field, with pack- 
 ing-cases for the enemy, and hungry assailants with hammer 
 and chisel tearing out their entrails, preparatory to a final act 
 condemning them to an auto dafe to supply the place of fuel.
 
 114 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. V 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Capital and its Environs. — Stereoscopic Views of Town and Country. 
 
 Before proceeding fartlier in this narrulive of a long resi- 
 dence at the Court of the Tycoon, I would fain give something 
 in the way of description which should answer the purpose of 
 a series of stereoscopic views, embracing not only the outward 
 aspect of the capital and surrounding country — of houses and 
 streets, temples and Daimios' Yamaskas,* hill and bay, field 
 and hamlet, such as would be presented to the eye of a travel- 
 er in a few hours' ride — but the life and varying aspects of the 
 city and its inhabitants, according to the hour of the day or 
 the season of the year. Only thus will any casual reader be 
 able thoroughly to realize the scene in which many of the prin- 
 cipal events and incidents hereafter to be related were acted. 
 Without such aid it would indeed be impossible for those at a 
 distance to enter into and understand the strange life into 
 which the Diplomatic Agents of Western Powers were sud- 
 denly thrown, constrained to fight their way among hostile 
 factions, and through dangers and difficulties unknown to the 
 Legations o\' Europe. ' Western diplomacy and Eastern pol- 
 icy' form a chapter in the history of international relations 
 which has yet to be written ; and not the least curious or im- 
 portant of the materials for such a chapter, it will be seen, may 
 be drawn from a narrative of oin- relations with Japan and its 
 long-secluded race during the first years of our residence at 
 the capital. But it would lose much of its interest if the read- 
 er could form no picture in his mind of what the Japanese are 
 like — how they ' live, and move, and have their being ;' in a 
 word, of the leading features which characterize both the peo- 
 ple and their country. 
 
 To traverse Europe, and the whole breadth of Asia, and find 
 the living embodiment of a state of society which existed many 
 centuries ago in the West, but has long passed utterly away ; 
 to mark its reproduction, in all the details and distinctive char- 
 acters (only with much greater knowledge of the arts of life, 
 and a more advanced material civilization in the body of the 
 nation), is certainly a novel condition, well calculated to give 
 additional piquancy to the details of life in Japan in this nine- 
 * The name of the residence of a Prince or Daimio.
 
 Chap, v.] JAPAN AS IT IS. 115 
 
 teentli century. It is, thei*efore, with deliberate forethought, 
 and in order that the reader may more fully realize this Oriental 
 phase of feudalism, such as our ancestors knew it in the time 
 of the Plantagenets, that I would pray him to keep the stereo- 
 scopic tube to his eye, and shut out all preconceived views 
 and all surrounding objects which speak of a later age and a 
 different race. We are going back to the twelfth century in 
 Europe, for there alone shall we find the counterpart, in many 
 essential particulars, of 'Japan as it is.' 
 
 Perhaps a ride through the streets and environs of Yeddo, 
 at different hours of the day and seasons of the year, noting 
 how the very streets and houses change their physiognomy, is, 
 after all, not only the most pleasant and least laborious mode of 
 studying the ' Civilization, Manners, and Customs of the Jap- 
 anese, in their physical, political, and social conditions,' but 
 one calculated to give a livelier and a truer conception of what 
 these political and social conditions are than more systematic 
 methods, to which ambitious compilers of old materials have 
 given such exhaustive title-pages. 
 
 Our way lies first along the edge of the bay, under the bluff 
 which skirts it, where the suburb of Sinagawa merges into the 
 city, much as Kensington straggles into London. Along the 
 ill-paved road (the worst bit for fifty miles in a country re- 
 markable for the finest macadamized roads in the world) we 
 pick our way. The bay, stretching to the right, is occasionally 
 shut out by rows of houses, many of which are tea-houses, and 
 some only mere ai'boi-s for travelers coming from afar to sit 
 and rest in, while they sip their tea and enjoy the fair prospect 
 of the rippling waters and distant shores on the one side, or 
 the ways and manners of the Capital if they turn to the great 
 high road. This road forms, in fact, the main street here. So, 
 as we pace gently along, not to incommode the never-failing 
 stream of pedestrians, of 'Norimons,' and ' Cangos,' varied now 
 and then by a group of Yakonins on horseback, or some Da- 
 imio's cortege oi mixed horse and foot, with spear and halberd, 
 crest and pennon, as in olden days in other lands, we have time 
 to peer into the shops, open in front, and through the shops to 
 the small back room, which generally forms the whole interior, 
 and the region of domestic duties. The shops are of all kinds, 
 but none in this quarter of the town are of very great size or 
 importance. The common necessaries of life are on sale in 
 many. There are booksellers', shops of bronze and copper 
 ware, pawnbrokers', and old iron shops. Bath-houses, coopers 
 and basket-makers, armorers and sword-makers, M'ith here aiid 
 there a stall of ready-made clothes, or a print-shop, fill up the
 
 116 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. V. 
 
 list. Every hundred steps, more or less, we pass a ward-gate, 
 which at night they can close if an alarm of thieves is given, 
 or by day if any disturbance should arise, Avhile a sort of de- 
 crepit municipal guard is kept in a lodge at each, supposed to 
 be responsible for the peace of their wards, and to be ever vigi- 
 lant ! Some, as we pass, rush out with a long iron pole, to the 
 top of which rings are attached, and make a distracting noise 
 Avhen the lower end is struck on the ground. This is consid- 
 ered an honor, but one to which my horses generally showed 
 such a decided objection, that the warders in all my more usual 
 beats learned at last to dispense with it on ordinary occasions, 
 so now we pass unhonored and immolested, with the farther ad- 
 vantage of seeing how a Japanese keeps vigilant guard. There 
 they are, three in number, two old men and a boy, squatted on 
 their knees, the eldest half dozing, the other two drawing, by 
 long inhalation, the smoke out of their small copper-headed 
 pipes, and drawing away their existence. 
 
 After a mile of the Tocado, our road turns off into a side 
 street, naiTower and more crowded. A Daimio's residence ex- 
 tends the greater part of its length on one side, with a large and 
 imposing-looking gateway in the centre, from which stretches 
 a long line of barred windows. Through these the faces of 
 men, women, and children may be seen, eagerly or idly, as the 
 case may be, looking at the passers-by. A small, narrow, and 
 very muddy moat, little more than a gutter, keeps all intruders 
 from too close prying. But these out-buildings are only the 
 quarters of the numerous retainers attached, as in Europe in 
 former times, to every baron and knight, by a feudal tenure, 
 and constituting at once the chief sources of his expenditure 
 and the evidence of his rank or power. In many cases, these 
 extend for a quarter of a mile on each side of the main entrance, 
 and form in effect the best defense for their lord's apartments, 
 which are at the back of the court-yard, behind the gates, eoitre 
 cour etjardin^ as in the Faubourg St. Germain, and still to be 
 seen there and elsewhere in Europe, as relics of a former age. 
 
 We soon emerge into an open space in front of the Tycoon's 
 Cemetery, and through it a small river runs, fringed with fresh 
 green banks and a row of trees. A narrow strip next to the 
 water, marking its tortuous course, has been taken possession 
 of for cotters' cabbage-gardens. Here, in the open space above, 
 forming a sort of boulevard, Matsuri or public fairs are often 
 held, and, in their absence, story-tellers collect a little audience. 
 A few noisy beggars generally take up their position by the 
 wayside, and, although they receive gratefully a single cash 
 from their own countrymen, they never condescend to ask a
 
 Chap. V.J 
 
 JAPANESE MATSURL 
 
 A GROUP OF 'jolly BEGGABS.' 
 
 foreigner for less than a tempo, equivalent to a hundred cash ! 
 Here a party of jugglers may often be seen, too, collecting a 
 crowd from the passers-by. Blondin and the Wizard of the 
 North might both find formidable rivals here, for the Japanese 
 performers not only swallow portentously long swords, and 
 poise themselves on bottles, but out of their mouths come the 
 most unimaginable things : flying horses, swarms of flies, rib- 
 bons by the mile, and paper shavings without end. 
 
 On crossing the bridge, we traverse one of the most densely 
 populated of the commercial quarters, through which, indeed, 
 we can only ride slowly, and in single file, amidst pedestrians 
 and porters with their loads. Bullock-cars, Norimons, and 
 Cangos are all here, jostling each other in contending currents. 
 Over a gentle hill, then sharp round to the right, through a 
 barrier-gate, we approach the official quarter, in the centre of 
 which, within three moats of regal dimensions, the Tycoon him- 
 self resides. But we are not yet near to it. We pursue our 
 way down some rather steep steps, a Daimio's residence on one 
 side, and the wall and trees of the Tycoon's Cemetery, which 
 we are skirting, on the other. As we emerge from this defile, 
 we pass through a long line of booths, where a sort of daily 
 bazar is held for the sale of gaudily-colored prints, maps (many 
 of them copies of European charts),8tory-books, swords, tobac- 
 co-pouches, and pipes for the humbler classes ; and in the midst 
 of which a fortune-teller may habitually be seen, seemingly find- 
 ing plenty of credulous listeuers and the few cash necessary for
 
 118 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap.V. 
 
 his daily wants. Something very like the gambling-table of 
 our own fairs may also be seen in the same spot, but, judging 
 by the stock-in-trade and the juvenile customers, the gambling, 
 I suspect, is only for sweetmeats. Their serious gambling is 
 reserved for tea-houses and more private haunts, where the law 
 may be better defied. On festive occasions, a row of dingy 
 booths, divided by curtains into small compartments, is often 
 seen, provided for the lowest class. The Social Evil is here 
 a legalized institution, and nowhere takes a more revolting 
 form. 
 
 In all this there is little new, perhaps, except the mere outer 
 lineaments and costume; for human nature is essentially the 
 same under all skies and governments. And now we have ar- 
 rived at our first halt. Through the gateway may be seen the 
 double flights of steps, the one leading up to the top of the 
 hill in perpendicular and unbroken hne, the other curving less 
 abruptly upward. And although the height is probably the 
 same, the undulating flight looks so much less arduous, that 
 we instinctively turn to the right, willing to believe in its gen- 
 tler promise. 
 
 Many pedestrians — pilgrims from afar, and idle Yeddites 
 from the neighboring thoroughfares — are passing up and down. 
 And among all the strange and novel sights, few strike the 
 stranger as more singular than a class of penitents or disgraced 
 cflScers, who move about habitually with their heads buried in a 
 sort of basket mask, completely concealing the face. Lonins, 
 outlaws, and great criminals are said to adopt this mode of 
 traveling when wishing to elude observation. Whether their 
 incognito is always respected by the police I can not say. 
 They recall the brothers of the Misericordia and begging peni- 
 tents, still to be seen in the towns of Italy — relics of mediaeval 
 times — and it is not a little singular to find their counterpart 
 here. 
 
 Officers on horseback, wearing the badge either of the Ty- 
 coon or their feudal chief, are passing to and fro, preceded by 
 one or more footmen or grooms, who always accompany their 
 masters, and keep their pace, however rapid. Some of them 
 have marvelous powers of running in wind and limb. I had 
 more than one who would run three or four leagues at a stretch 
 by the side of the horse, and without distress — or used to do 
 so before they got too fat and lazy in the foreigner's service. 
 
 And thus we gain the summit of Atango-yama, so called 
 from the god Atango, to whom the temple is dedicated here. 
 From no other point can so fine and commanding a view of 
 the Bay of Yeddo, and the city washed by its waves, be ob-
 
 CtiAP. v.] 
 
 A STRIKING riCTUBE. 
 
 119 
 
 MENDICANT SINGERS. 
 
 tained. And the picture that bursts suddenly upon the trav- 
 eler is very striking. The hill fronts to the bay, but with a 
 couple of miles of valley intervening, thickly covered by streets 
 and temples. To the left, and in a noi'theastern direction, an- 
 other two miles' interval of plain is in like manner filled up 
 with a dense mass of houses, until a range of hills is reached 
 on which the Tycoon's castle stands. The whole enceinte of 
 the official quarter, within a triple line of moats, is there ; not 
 only the official residence of his court, but the yamaskas of 
 the feudatory Daimios. This range shuts out a still more ex- 
 tensive section of the city, which stretches away into the coun- 
 try on the other side, and may be traced from the point where 
 the spur of the hill ends abruptly toward the bay, winding 
 round the edge of the coast-line, and backward up the valley, 
 until nearly lost in the distance. Behind, yet another large 
 quarter of the capital is hid form view by a broken series of 
 hills and dales, amidst which only here and there a group of 
 temples can be distinguished ; a Daimio's residence and park, 
 or a few streets straggling irregularly over the crests and 
 down into the broken hollows. Seaward the eye looks out 
 upon the point which conceals Kanngawa, and across the line 
 of batteries a couple of miles from shore, on to the distant line 
 of coast and mountain some two or three leagues off, which 
 form the boundary on the opposite side.
 
 120 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. V. 
 
 Fair to look on is the capital of the Tycoon even in winter, 
 thus nestled in a broad valley, girdled with green woods, and 
 crowned by undulating hills, sloping with a gradual descent 
 to the edge of a bay, into which the Pacific seeks in vain to 
 pour its stormy waters. Nature has barred the entrance, 
 twenty miles below, with a breakwater of volcanic islands and 
 verdant headlands on either side. And, to make it more se- 
 cure, she has shoaled the Avhole gulf, so that five miles from 
 the city it is diflicult to find anchorage for a vessel drawing 
 twenty feet — the best of all defenses against assault from with- 
 out, whether the elements or a hostile fleet be the enemy ! 
 Nor are these Eastern potentates at all ignorant of the fact ; 
 for when a proposal was made some time ago to the King of 
 Siara to remove the bar at the mouth of the river leading to 
 Bangkok, his Majesty frankly replied : ' If necessary, I would 
 pay you to keep it there for the defense of my capital!' The 
 government at Yeddo, not content with what Nature has done, 
 are busily engaged in erecting another battery, to carry the 
 chain of fortifications still higher up the bay. They have no 
 idea, therefore, of being found defenseless ; though of all cities 
 situated on the edge of navigable water, there are few so un- 
 attackable by a naval force as Yeddo. The only conclusion to 
 be drawn from such preparations for defense is not of good 
 augury. Either the Japanese would seem to have looked for- 
 ward to an attack as a contingency to which they had un- 
 avoidably become exposed from the moment the treaties were 
 signed with Foreign Powers, whom it would seem, in that case, 
 they little trust, and like still less, or they had themselves some 
 ulterior policy which they knew would, sooner or later, make 
 h collision inevitable. If we are to judge from the evident ef- 
 forts so perseveringly made to prepare for effective resistance, 
 it is difficult to come to any other conclusion. Not only new 
 batteries were erected at Yeddo and the port of Kanagawa 
 below, but enough gunpowder is habitually expended in mus- 
 ket and artillery practice, in the course of a few months, to 
 supply an army during a whole campaign. 
 
 When I paid a visit to Hakodate some months after my ar- 
 rival, where there are extensive lead mines, which I had been 
 over, I asked the Governor why his government did not allow 
 some of the produce to be exported, suggesting that it might 
 be a source of national wealth and revenue. And the reply 
 was characteristic in many ways. 'We have none to spare.' 
 *None to spare!' I rejoined in surprise; 'what can you use it 
 for ? you neither employ it in building nor utensils.' ' We 
 vant it all for ball practice.^ They did not choose to export
 
 Chap, v.] STREETS OF YEDDO. 121 
 
 it, for reasons not very easily explained ; but they were not 
 sorry, perhaps, to point to such a use for home consumption. 
 
 It is nine o'clock in the morning. The city is up and stir- 
 ring. The shops are opened, and the streets are filling with a 
 swarming population. The street vendor with his ambulatory 
 stock, the halting beggar, officers on duty with their retainers 
 or serving-men, strings of coolies and porters, some dragging 
 and pushing primitive carts laden with goods, all help to swell 
 
 MERCHANDISE IK THE STREETS OF YEDDU. 
 
 the tide of human life ; shopkeepers proceeding with goods to 
 show some purchaser, according to the inverse custom of the 
 Japanese, whei e tlie shops go to the customer, not the cus- 
 tomer to the shops. Our road takes us through park and gar- 
 den-bordered streets and lanes, alternating over undulating 
 hills, high enough occasionally to give glimpses of the open 
 country beyond, with rice ground, black and fallow, in the 
 lower levels, during part of winter. The growing wheat, of 
 brightest green, carpets the u))lands even in March, however; 
 the rape-seed, with its golden flowers, catches the eye, and ev- 
 ery where unmistakable signs of skilled agricultural labor and 
 wealth may be seen. In all seasons of the year verdure and 
 beauty of no common character clothe the hills, broken into a 
 hundred winding vales for many leagues around Yeddo on all 
 the land-side ; for, imlike its population, the country never lots 
 itself be seen naked, and scarcely en deshabiUe^ even when 
 stripped barest of its foliage. A few trees lose their leaves en- 
 tirely, and stretch their naked arms to a wintry sky ; but in 
 close proximity will always be seen some full-leaved evergreens, 
 
 F
 
 122 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 SHOPKEEPERS GOING TO A CUSTOMER. 
 
 often noble trees, and, like tlie oak, of several varieties. The 
 cryptomeria, and a larger family of coniferae than any where 
 else in the world, perhaps, are hero. The cypress, with its 
 sombre foliage, contrasts well witli the lighter hue and grace- 
 ful branches of the feathery bamboo or the more stately palm. 
 All are there to give marvelous beauty and variety to the scen- 
 ery. A little later in the spring there is a lavish display of 
 blossoms, which supply the place of leaves yet in the bud. A 
 variety of flowering shrubs never yet seen in Europe fill the 
 hedges, and sometimes scent the air, as well as please the eye ; 
 while acres of orchard ground are covered by pear, and peach, 
 and plum blossoms, the branches trellised horizontally overhead 
 for a hundred square feet and more. The orange-tree, with its 
 fragrant white blossoms, is not wanting to grace the spring 
 festival, while the bright yellow flower of the melon covers the 
 poverty of the humblest thatched cottage or tool-house, and 
 clothes each lowly shed with a robe of beauty. In the tea- 
 gardens, scattered plentifully round the suburbs, the peach and
 
 Chap. V.] INTEMPERANCE.— DRAWBACKS. 123 
 
 the plum trees are cultivated chiefly with a view to the beauty 
 of the blossom, which attains the size and fullness of a rose, 
 and covers tlie tree in rich profusion. It is one of the great 
 delights of the Japanese at Yeddo, during all April, to make 
 picnics to these suburban gardens and temples. Groups of 
 men, women, and children, by families, may be seen trooping 
 along the shady roads on their way to enjoy the beauty ot the 
 opening spring; the rich in Norimons, the middle and lower 
 classes on foot. It is sad enough that this Arcadian scene is 
 so often marred by intemperance. Not content with inhaling 
 the freshness of the opening flowers, the men drink deep of 
 aaki ; nor is this practice altogether confined, as one would 
 fain have hoped, to the rougher sex. The latter make the 
 streets unsafe on their return, especially to dogs and foreign- 
 ers. They may be met in bands of two or three, with flushed 
 faces; and now and then, some of the lower class lie stretched 
 across the road, too drunk to go any farther. In the vice of 
 intemperance the Japanese have nothing to learn from foreign- 
 ers ; that, at least, can not be laid to our charge. They are as 
 much given to drunkenness as any of the northern races of Eu- 
 rope, as quarrelsome as the worst, and far more dangerous in 
 their cups. 
 
 These are drawbacks to the beauty of the landscape and the 
 country lanes ; but it must also be admitted, in candor, that 
 the same evils exist in Chnstian lands, only, fortunately, our 
 drunkards do not carry two sharp swords in their belt, or feel 
 it a point of honor to flesh them if any convenient opportunity 
 can be found. In other respects, both country roads and streets 
 in the city of Yeddo will bear advantageous comparison with 
 the best kept of either in the West. No squalid misery or ac- 
 cumulations of filth encumber the well-cared-for streets, if a 
 beggar here and there be excepted — a strange but pleasant 
 contrast with every other Asiatic land I have visited, and not 
 a few European cities. The occasional passage of a train of 
 porters carrying open pails of liquid manure from the town to 
 the fields, or a string of horses laden with the same precious 
 but ' perilous stuff",' may, indeed, be objected to. But the con- 
 ical tubs on the horses are carefully covered over, and form, 
 indeed, a great improvement on the open pails. To the unsus- 
 pecting traveler the turn-out is rather picturesque, as may be 
 seen by the following sketch. These are not only the worst 
 assaults made either on the olfactory or the visual organs, but 
 the sole assailants, when once the eye is accustomed to the 
 summer costume of the lower orders, which with the men is 
 limited to a narrow loin-cloth, and the women a petticoat, sadly
 
 124 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. V. 
 
 HORSE CARRYING LIQUID MANURE. 
 
 * scrimped' in the breadths. As I have ah-eady referred to this 
 ungainly fashion, and would not willingly be supposed capable 
 of ' setting down aught in malice,' or otherwise exaggerating 
 
 a defect, pictures will be found in 
 these pages drawn by the Japan- 
 ese themselves, and I think it will 
 be confessed that their own artists 
 show severer outlines than any pen- 
 cil of mine. 
 
 In the valley between the range 
 of hills and the bay, leagues of con- 
 tinuous streets may be traversed, 
 filled with a busy, but not over- 
 woi'ked, and seemingly a very con- 
 tented and good-humored people. 
 Children and dogs abound every 
 where. Until the former can walk, 
 they are generally secured to the 
 back of the mother, so that, while 
 these pursue their daily occupa- 
 tions, their arms are left free. Un- 
 fortunately (so it seems to the look- 
 er-on), the poor babe's head is left 
 
 equally free, the body only being 
 
 BOW MOTHERS DISPOSE OF THEIR supportcd by thc sort of pocket in 
 
 which the body is deposited ; and 
 
 ^^^^^n:^^^^ -— -
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 TREATMENT OF CHILDREN. 
 
 125 
 
 consequently, with every movement of the parental trunk, it 
 rolls from side to side, swaying to and fro, as if a dislocation 
 of the neck must inevitably be the result. Vain fear ! The 
 mothers know better. Children have been nursed through 
 twenty generations in precisely the same way. The babies 
 themselves may possibly, by use, grow to like it ; and certain- 
 ly they rarely cry, or give other token of dislike. What will 
 not use reconcile us to in this life ? But the mothers are not 
 the sole guardians of the infant progeny. It is a very common 
 sight, in the streets and shops of Yeddo, to see a little nude 
 Cupid in the arms of a stalwart-looking father, nearly as naked, 
 who walks about with his small burden, evidently handling it 
 
 (Summer coettuna) 
 
 (Winter costume.) 
 
 THE FA.TEBNAL NURSE. 
 
 With all the gentleness and dexterity of a practiced hand. It 
 does not seem there is any need of a foundling hospital, nor 
 has any intelligence reached me of infanticide — save in excep- 
 tional cases — though so common in China, especially in the 
 case of female children. Aboi'tion in the unmarried is said, 
 upon good authority, to be not unfrequent, and there are fe- 
 male professors of the art. 
 
 It is impossible to ride through the streets of Yeddo with, 
 out noticing one of the most striking and constant features of 
 the city, no matter what the season of the year — large gaj)8 
 where charred timbers and rubbish mark the scene of a recent 
 fire; and often, standing alone in the midst of smouldering
 
 126 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. V. 
 
 heaps and blackened walls, are single houses, unscathed and 
 erect. These are fire-proof houses, built of mud chiefly, from 
 one to two feet thick, and with windows faced with iron, clos- 
 ing all access to the interior hermetically. They certainly seem 
 to answer their purpose perfectly, though simple enough, and 
 not of any very expensive material, although there is often a 
 sort of coquetry about them, in the shape of lackered shutters 
 and doors, as if prompted by the overflowing of a grateful 
 heart for the security they give in a city where fires are daily 
 incidents. So natural does it seem to lavish decoration and 
 costly things on that which wins a place in the affections, 
 whether the object of the love be divine or ' of the earth, 
 earthy.' There are no fire-insurance offices in Japan any more 
 than in China, and but very imperfect means of extinguishing 
 a conflagration when it takes place. Water is scarce ; the 
 houses are all built of wood and lath, with a mere coating of 
 mud ; nothing is more common, therefore, than to see whole 
 streets leveled by their terrible enemy in a single night. There 
 are fire-bells and stations at short distances, and an elaborate 
 and apparently well-organized system of fire-brigades, which 
 are formed of a large number of the able-bodied in every ward ; 
 but without a plentiful supply of water and good engines, mere 
 labor can do little. The bells have distinct modes of commu- 
 nicating information to a great distance, not only of the break- 
 ing out of a fire, but the exact quarter in which it is situated, 
 and where assistance is to be directed. As to fire insurance, I 
 once had some conversation with the Ministers on the subject, 
 in which they seemed to take great interest; but they were 
 especially struck by the idea of assurances on life. I think 
 their first idea was that, by some cunning financial operation, 
 a life could be indefinitely prolonged or even brought back, as 
 they have ' long life pills in gold' every where advertised, and 
 supposed to possess some power of securing longevity. As to 
 the Insurance, I am not quite sure they are so far wrong in fan- 
 cying there may be some occult connection between a life an- 
 nuity and longevity. The Registrar General's returns of the 
 duration of life in annuitants, compared with other classes, 
 would seem to prove it. But as regards insurance against fire, 
 that from the first seemed to them to be the most hopeless of 
 things ! Here, as in China, in addition to the incorrigible care- 
 lessness of the natives living in most combustible houses, there 
 is a considerable prevalence of incendiarism, witliout such ad- 
 ditional premium as insurance might offer, where there is no 
 very general trust in each other's honesty. Indeed, in En- 
 gland, grave doubts have been expressed by those best inform-
 
 CiiAP.V.l FIRES.— THE SAMOUUAI. 127 
 
 ed ' wliether the practice of insurance, wliich has done so much 
 to mitigate the ruin brought by fire, may not have exercised 
 some baneful influence by increasing the motives for arson !' 
 So hard is it to devise any good that sliall not give rise to an 
 attendant evil. Be this as it may, the Japanese look for no aid 
 in this direction, and take the burning down of a whole quar- 
 ter periodically mucli as they do the advent of an earthquake 
 or a typhoon — calamities beyond the power or wisdom of man 
 to avert. They build their houses, accordingly, witli the least 
 possible expense, as foredoomed sooner or later to be food for 
 the flames, and when the evil comes lose no time in vain lam- 
 entations. They calculate that the whole of this vast city is 
 consumed in successive portions, to be rebuilt in every seven 
 years ! It is certainly very rare that a night passes without 
 the fire-bell of the quai'ter ringing a fearful alarm, and rousing 
 all the neighborhood ; and often during my long residence I 
 have heard them in different qtiarters, and seen the sky lurid 
 in two or three directions at once. 
 
 A good-humored and contented, as well as a happy race, the 
 Japanese seem, whatever may be their imperfections, with the 
 one important exception of the military, feudal, and official 
 caste — classes I might say, but they are not easily separable ; 
 indeed, it seems doubtful whether there be a civil class, since 
 all of a certain rank are armed with two formidable weapons 
 projecting from their belt ; swords, like every thing else in Ja- 
 pan, to our worse confusion, being double, without much or 
 any obvious distinction between military and civil, between 
 Tycoon's, officers', and Daimios' retainers. These are the 
 classes which furnish suitable types of that extinct species of 
 the race in Europe, still remembered as ' Sicash-bucklers^ — 
 swaggering, blustering bullies ; many cowardly enough to 
 strike an enemy in the back, or cut down an unarmed and in- 
 offensive man, but also supplying numbers every ready to fling 
 their own lives away in accomplishing a revenge, or carrying 
 out the behests of their Chief They are all entitled to the 
 privilege of two swords, rank and file, and are saluted by the 
 unprivileged (profession nl, mercantile, and agricultural) as 
 Sarna, or lord. With a rolling straddle in his gait, reminding 
 one of Mr. Kinglake's graphic description of the Janissary, and 
 due to the same cause — the heavy projecting blades at his 
 waist, and the swaddling-clothes round his body — the Japanese 
 Samonrai or Yacoinn moves on in a very ungainly fashion, 
 the hilts of his two swords at least a foot in advance of his per- 
 son, very handy, to all appearance, for an enemy's grasp. One 
 is a heavy two-handed weapon, pointed and sharp as a razor j
 
 128 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap.V. 
 
 TYPE OF THE 'DANGEROUS* CLASSES. — (From a Japanese wood-cut.) 
 
 the other short, hke a Roman sword, and religiously kept in 
 the same serviceable state. In the use of these he is no mean 
 adept. He seldom requires a second thrust with the shorter 
 weapon, but strikes home at a single thrust, as was fatally 
 proved at a later period ; while with the longer weapon he 
 severs a limb at a blow. Such a fellow is a man to whom all 
 peace-loving subjects and prudent people habitually give as 
 wide a berth as they can ! Often drunk and always insolent, 
 he is to be met with in the quarters of the town where the 
 tea-houses most abound, or returning about dusk from his 
 day's debauch, with a red and bloated face, and not over steady 
 on his legs, the terror of all the unarmed population and street 
 dogs. Happy for the former when he is content with trying 
 the edge of a ncAV sword on the quadrupeds; and many a poor 
 crippled animal is to be seen limping about slashed over the 
 back, or with more hideous evidences of brutality. But at 
 other times it is some coolie or inoffensive shopkeeper, who, 
 coming unadvisedly between 'the wind and his nobility,' is 
 just as mercilessly cut down at a blow. This does not quite 
 accord with Koempfer's or Thunberg's account of the perfect 
 order and respect for the law maintained throughout Japan, 
 nor with the first impressions of later writers as to the uni- 
 versal respect for the canine race ; but a long residence in the 
 Capital revealed many things still more opposed to the gener- 
 ally received accounts. And that I may not be supposed to
 
 Chap, v.] THE SAMOURAI. 129 
 
 overcolor this part of 1 he picture drawn from life, the follow- 
 ing extract from tlie Blue Book, taken from an official letter 
 addressed to the Japanese Ministers of Foreign Affairs not 
 long after my arrival, may show : 
 
 ' I was returning on horseback at a quiet pace from the 
 American Legation, about five o'clock, merely followed by a 
 groom on foot to take care of my horse, and a servant on 
 horseback. 
 
 ' I met in the " tokaido" many officers, some in groups and 
 others alone, armed with their two swords (about as danger- 
 ous and deadly weapons as men can well possess), and evident- 
 ly intoxicated. They were drunk in various degrees, but all — 
 the best of them — were in a state utterly unfit to be at large 
 in a great thoroughfare, or trusted with weapons by which 
 they might hi an instant inflict fatal wounds or grievous in- 
 jury. In such circumstances I have frequently observed be- 
 fore that they are not only insolent, and as a general rule of- 
 fensive in their gestures and speech when they meet foreign- 
 ers, but are very prone to put themselves directly ui the path, 
 and either dispute the passage with an air of menace, or some- 
 times even attempt to strike either horse or rider. Several of 
 these disorderly persons I had passed, and as a dispute with a 
 drunken man is always to be avoided by one in his sober 
 senses, I took no heed of their demonstrations of ill will, and 
 left the passage free ; but when within fifty yards of ray own 
 door, having just overtaken Mr. Heusken,* one more intoxi- 
 cated or more insolent than the rest, not content with standing 
 in our path, pushed against both horse and rider, and was 
 thrust aside by one of the grooms who came up; upon which 
 he instantly put his hand to his sword, and fearing a defense- 
 less servant might be cut down by this drunken bravo, I 
 wheeled my horse round, to protect him, if necessary, by inter- 
 posing myself. But I was unarmed, with only a riding-whip 
 m my hand, and, undoubtedly, as I should not have stood 
 quietly by and seen a servant murdered who had only done 
 his duty in my defense, it is doubtful what might have been 
 the issue ; but another servant who was on horseback had a 
 revolver, and hearing the officer vow immediate vengeance, 
 presented it, declaring he would shoot him if he drew his 
 sword. But for this both the groom and myself might very 
 probably have been wounded, if not murdered by this ruffian, 
 maddened with drink, and armed to the teeth. 
 
 * The Secretary of tlic Amcricnn Legntion, who met his death some eight- 
 een months later at the hands of some such ruffians, who cut him down in 
 the street, while bis Japanese guard ran away. 
 
 F2
 
 130 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. V. 
 
 ' Do your Excellencies mean to tell me that nothing can be 
 done, in this capital of Japan, to prevent men of the rank of of- 
 ficers going about the streets furiously drunk, with two dead- 
 ly weapons at their side? Is there no law against persons 
 who thus go about, to the disgrace of their rank, and to the 
 manifest danger of every peaceful inhabitant — no punishment 
 or penalty that can be inflicted to deter them from such con- 
 duct ?' 
 
 But for this class of military retainers and Tycoon's officials, 
 high and low, both of which swarm in Yeddo, it seems it 
 might be one of the pleasantest places of residence in the far 
 East. The climate is superior to that of any other country 
 east of the Cape. The capital itself, though spreading over a 
 circuit of some twenty miles, with probably a couple of millions 
 of inhabitants, can boast what no capital in Europe can — the 
 most charming rides, beginning even in its centre, and extend- 
 ing in every direction over wooded hills, through smiling val- 
 leys and shady lanes, fringed with evergreens and magnificent 
 timber. Even in the city, especially along the ramparts of the 
 cflScial quarter, and in many roads and avenues leading thence 
 to the country, broad green slopes and temple gardens, or well- 
 timbered parks gladden the eye, as it is nowhere else gladden- 
 ed within the circle of a city. No sooner is a suburb gained 
 in any direction, than hedgei'ows appear which only England 
 can rival, either for beauty or neatness ; while over all an East- 
 em sun, through the greater part of the year, throws a flood 
 of light from an iinclouded sky, making the deep shadow of 
 the overarcliing trees doubly grateful with its ever-varying 
 pictures of tracery, both above and below. Such is Yeddo and 
 its environs in the long summer time, and far into a late au- 
 tumn. Even through the early winter months imtil about the 
 middle of February this description holds good. Then the 
 weather breaks with rain and snow, and easterly winds swell- 
 ing into gales of two or three days' duration succeed, full of 
 danger to ships on the rock-bound coast and stormy seas. 
 
 Yeddo must have been looking its best and gayest when its 
 temple and castle-crowned hills first greeted the eyes of Lord 
 Elgin and his suite. And so those who accompanied him have 
 painted it for us in its gala dress, all nature contributing to 
 make it bright. The ministers of the dead Tycoon (for dead 
 he was while the treaty was being negotiated), too happy to 
 terminate a negotiation which could alone rid them of their 
 self-invited and most unwelcome guests, who had arrived in 
 the midst of a palace revolution, ' smiled and smiled' and ' made 
 things pleasant' as they best could. But it may well have been
 
 Chap, v.] WINTER AT YEDDO. 133 
 
 doubted, even then, whether any treaty with Japan could pos- 
 sibly be devised to establish a foreign trade and diplomatic 
 relations that would not be utterly distasteful to the Ruling 
 classes. 
 
 I have given a glimpse of Yeddo as it may be seen on a 
 bright summer day ; but it is not all sunshine in the capital of 
 the Tycoon. Tempests from above, and volcanic throes from 
 below, from time to time give it a very different aspect. From 
 political storms and convulsions it would appear they have 
 been more happily exempt, for the last two centuries, than any 
 other capital in modern times ; until events soon to be de- 
 scribed awoke the Yeddo citizens from their dream of char- 
 tered security, and inspired some anxious doubts as to what 
 might follow, of change or revolution, despite the most perfect 
 and best warranted of State machines ! There is a winter also 
 in Japan, though less severe in the capital than in the north, 
 and opposite coast of China — still a very unmistakable winter, 
 with ice and snow ; while at Hakodate, in the northernmost isl- 
 and of the group, it is almost Siberian, with long-continued and 
 heavy falls of snow, the thermometer standing many degrees 
 below zero. The country at Yeddo seldom, indeed, as I have 
 said, puts on a winter garb. It is in the streets the principal 
 change occurs ; for as nature throws off her mantle, her chil- 
 dren put on theirs ; and the Japanese heap wadded gown on 
 gown, until they get the required warmth, with a notable in- 
 crease of bulk. A chafing-dish with a handful of charcoal, let 
 into the floor (like the Spanish brasero), being the only fire 
 they use in their houses for purposes of warmth, they naturally 
 resort to clothing. The men in the streets seem, above all, 
 careful of the ends of their noses^ and on a cold day tM'O thirds 
 of the population are to be seen with all the lower part of their 
 faces concealed by the folds of a blue cotton muflBer tied round 
 the head, from under which nothing but a pair of eyes can be 
 recognized. And when the wearer carries a couple of deadly 
 weapons at his waist, and advances with a menacmg gait, it is 
 difficult to conceive a more assassin-like figure, immediately 
 suggesting a masked bravo, whom it would be unpleasant to 
 meet in a \o^e place on a dark night. And, in effect, murders 
 and highway robberies appear to be frequent. With the fronts 
 of the houses and shops less open to the street than when the 
 sun sheds light and heat into their farthest corners, and such 
 sinister-looking figures every where meeting the eye, the whole 
 city puts on something of the aspect of a beleaguered town, 
 
 feoplcd only by soldiers or armed men bent on desperate work, 
 f tbb be the impression conveyed by the narrow streets and
 
 134 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 THE SAMOURAI. 
 
 crowded thoroughfares of the commercial quarters, it is still 
 farther suggested on emerging from these into the Daimios' 
 quarter, circling between broad moats round the Tycoon's cas- 
 tle. Here are fine open spaces, great causeways or glacis, not 
 less than fifty feet in width, lined on one side with tlie outer 
 buildings and great, massive-looking gateways of the Daimios' 
 residences, and those of the high officers in the employment of 
 the government ; and on the other by the large, deep moats, 
 fed by tributary rivers, in which, at this season of the year, 
 thousands of wild -fowl live undisturbed. It being death to 
 molest or shoot them, they are so secure that it is almost im- 
 possible to get them up ; but if for a moment they are startled, 
 they rise like a dark cloud from the water, in immense num- 
 bers. In the more shallow parts, the sacred ibis of Egypt sol- 
 emnly picks his way and his food, enjoying, as an emblem of 
 happiness and longevity with the Japanese, quite as much sanc- 
 tity as in the land of the Pliaraohs. With the agriculturists, 
 the whole race of storks, cranes, and paddy -birds, of which 
 there are great numbers, are in much favor (partly, no doubt, 
 for their useful qualities) ; and they may often be seen in twos
 
 ChakV.J the RAMPAHTS. 135 
 
 and threes following the plow, with the greatest gravity, close 
 at the heels of the peasant, picking the worms out of the fresh 
 upturned earth, and making their morning meal, equally to his 
 advantage and their own. 
 
 The moats, like the causeways which serve as glacis, are 
 wide, with sloping banks descending to the water's edge, some 
 fifty feet or more from the level of the road. These are in 
 some places massive walls, and in others faced with turf; al- 
 ways beautifully kept, smooth as any gentleman's lawn in En- 
 gland, and always green, surmounted at the top by a rampart 
 wall. Where walls and bastions of stone exist, these are com- 
 posed of blocks of granite, consisting of polygons laid on each 
 other in irregular Hues without mortar, the better to meet the 
 shocks of continual eaithquakes, by allowing a certain latitude 
 of motion without fracture or serious displacement. From 
 many of these steep green banks fine cypresses and cedars rise 
 up perpendicularly nearly to the level of the parapets, or over- 
 hang the water below; an innovation perhaps on our ideas of 
 defensive works detrimental to their security, but singularly 
 conducive to their beauty. Strong, and almost impregnable as 
 these triple lines of bastion, rampart, and moat appear on the 
 first aspect, they have evidently been constructed in ignorance 
 of some of the first principles of the engineer's art as regards 
 military defense against artillery. But, curious to say, al- 
 though so evidently built at a vast expense for defense, not a 
 single piece of ordnance is any where to be seen within the of- 
 ficial quarter. Each moat is crossed at three or four points in 
 the circle by solidly constructed timber bridges, flanked by 
 high massive gateways and bastions, built with Cyclopean 
 blocks of granite. The gates are strong, copper sheathed and 
 iron clamped ; but nothing in the shape of a drawbridge exists. 
 
 As the whole of this quarter of the city occupies the crown 
 of a range of hills projecting across the valley, and dividing it 
 in two, covering an area of several miles in circumference, it 
 offers many commanding sites and some wide sweeps of land- 
 scape worthy of the pencil of a Roberts or aStanfield,if Japan 
 could boast such talented sons. The broad causeway in curv- 
 ing lines, bounded on one side by the moat, with green banks 
 shelving steeply down fiom the upper level, and on the other by 
 Daimios' residences — Yamaskas, with their gateways of quaint 
 and elaborate architecture — form the natural foreground. To 
 fill up the picture, giving life and movement to the scene, 
 groups of horsemen, with pedestrians intermingled, are never 
 wanting. Sometimes an imposing cortege will be seen emerg- 
 ing from a gateway, with standards and state umbrellas, nori-
 
 136 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. tCHAP.V. 
 
 mons and led horses, easily recognized as the escort of a Da- 
 imio, proceeding to the palace to pay his obligatory visit to the 
 Tycoon ; or some more modest train, forming the suite of an 
 officer attached either to the Tycoon or a great feudatory 
 prince, in his costume of ceremony, called Kamisima^ with its 
 projecting wings of gauze, is proceeding to his destination, 
 gravely and solemnly, as is the wont of his order. He is 
 perched on the top of a break-neck saddle, his bridle of silken 
 folds is held one in each hand, and wide apart — by it, indeed, 
 he seems to hold on — sawing at a small snaffle, to the destruc- 
 tion of his horse's mouth. A groom walks at his stirrup on 
 each side, to defend him if attacked, or assist him to keep his 
 seat if he should be in danger of falling, while two more lead 
 the impetuous animal ! More rarely some official sent on ur- 
 gent business presses his steed into a sort of shambling gal- 
 
 OFFICER ON URGENT DUTY. 
 
 lop, to the peril of both man and beast, to all appearance, both 
 being equally unaccustomed to such a pace. It is vulgar and 
 loxo to ride fast in Japan, consequently a furious pace in a Jap- 
 anese means either drunkenness or mischief, generally both, 
 or unquestionable urgency on the Tycoon's business. Farther 
 on, scattered here and there as if designed to fill up the picture, 
 are divers groups of Yeddites, citizen and peasant, with a cer- 
 tain proportion of valetaille and feudal retainers of all ranks. 
 These give interest to a foreground of grand proportions 
 and bold outline ; while beyond, and on a much lower level, 
 glimpses of the city appear, stretching away to the blue water*
 
 Chap. V.J OBJECTS OF TAIKOSAMA. 137 
 
 of the bay, covered with fantastically-rigged boats and junks. 
 No capital in Europe presents so many striking features of a 
 type altogether peculiar ; nor, upon the whole, can any boast of 
 80 much beauty in the site and surrounding country, and this 
 for leagues in every direction. And probably no other capital 
 would prove so difficult to occupy by an enemy, unless his army 
 rivaled the invading force of Xerxes in number. The official 
 quarter alone, with the Tycoon's castle in the centre, which is 
 the key of the whole position, could not be occupied with safety, 
 or be defended, except by a very large force, so wide is the area 
 it covers. But no European general would think of occupying 
 80 vast a city. One or two strong positions might be seized, 
 from which the greater part could be commanded or destroyed 
 without difficulty, although the whole could not be held with 
 a hostile population. Probably the Japanese may themselves 
 have come to this conclusion also, and thus thought they might 
 dispense with armed batteries round their ramparts. This cap- 
 itol of the Tycoon's metropolitan city (for Yeddo is not, prop- 
 erly speaking, the capital of Japan, but Miaco, which is the 
 residence of the Mikado, the hereditary and only recognized 
 titular sovereign), in which large bodies of armed retainers and 
 Tycoon's officers have their quarters, seems, indeed, rather for 
 a show of strength and power than for actual defense, except, 
 perhaps, in case of civil feuds and insurrection. Their history 
 seems to say these have never broken out since the civil wars, 
 which followed for the succession to the ' 7 ycoowa?,' created 
 by the strong arm and determined will of Taiko-sama. He it 
 was who reduced the boldest to subjection, and broke the 
 power of many of the independent princes. To exterminate 
 Christianity and humble the great nobles seem to have been 
 the two main objects he had in view, for in both he saw dan- 
 gerous enemies to the Sovereign power, by whomsoever wield- 
 ed. He accomplished the first of these in his lifetime, but 
 could only pave the way for the last, and, like other successful 
 soldiers and conquerors who have sought to found a dynasty, 
 and devoted their energies to secure it from all future dangers, 
 he worked for posterity, not, as he fondly hoped, for his own 
 offspring. The present dynasty acknowledges no drop of his 
 blood. Not even his own son, whom he left an infant to the 
 guardianship of hia uncle, ever held the reins of power, but per- 
 ished in the attempt to assert his right when arrived at man's 
 estate. In this same effort many Christian converts and their 
 Foreign teachers joined, and the failure of an appeal to arms 
 was the destruction of both. And so died out of the land the 
 Christianity of a century's growtli at Simabara,
 
 138 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VI. 
 
 This train of thought has led us far from Yeddo and all it 
 contains of promise for the present, but not before our journey 
 through its rural lanes and populous streets had come to a nat- 
 ural close. The stereoscopic slides are exhausted, and I put 
 away the box, not without hope that the purpose of the hour 
 has been answered, and some true idea given, both of the capi- 
 tal of the Tycoon and its population, in many of their leading 
 characteristics. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 First Lessons in Japanese Diplomacy. 
 
 As some days were required for carpenters and masons to 
 convert the temple rooms into a habitable residence for Euro- 
 peans, with far other wants than the Spartan habits of the Jap- 
 anese suggest, I turned the delay to account by making arrange- 
 ments for the opening of Kanagawa on the day fixed by treaty, 
 July 1, 1859. This is the shipping port of Yeddo, lying some 
 sixteen miles farther down the bay on the western side. There 
 is a small town here, built along the northern shore of an inner 
 bay, nearly a mile and a half in depth, and more than that across 
 from point to point. It is situated on the Tocado, the imperial 
 high road, leading, as already explained, from all the southern 
 provinces to the capital, along which the princes and Daimios 
 whose territories lie southward have to pass in their compul- 
 sory journeys to and fro, to take up their official residence un- 
 der the eyes of the Tycoon's Government for six months in the 
 year. 
 
 Whether the compulsory nature of the journey sours the 
 temper of these Magnates of the land, and renders it unpleasant 
 to have any dealings with them, on such occasions especially, or 
 whether a known hostility to foreigners existed in the breasts of 
 the Daimios, which made it inexpedient, if not dangerous, that 
 the two should meet, might be a question ; but it soon appeared 
 that the Japanese Government had formed a very decided reso- 
 lution to locate the foreigners, not at Kanagawa, where the 
 treaty stipulated, but on the opposite point of the bay, at a place 
 called Yokohama, where a fishing village existed, in the midst 
 of a marsh, and far away from the direct line of traffic through 
 the country. 
 
 On the first view, there seemed many and grave objections 
 to this arbitrary transfer of locality ; and perhaps I felt all the
 
 Chap. VI.] SITE FOR A SETTLEMENT. 139 
 
 less disposed to give in to such an arrangement, from the evi- 
 dence that the government must have determined the location 
 should be where they had elected, and nowhere else. They 
 had gone to vast expense in building a causeway across the 
 lagunes and marshy ground for nearly two miles, to shorten 
 the distance, and afford a certain and direct means of commu- 
 nication with the high road to Kanagawa. I found solid 
 granite piers and landing-places had already been built ; and 
 an extemporized town for Japanese traders, with a number of 
 small houses and go-downs for the foreign merchants, were all 
 prepared, together with a large range of official quartei's, in 
 which a custom-house was already established. 
 
 All these tangible evidences of a foregone conclusion, and a 
 determination to allow no voice in the matter to the Foreign 
 Representatives, naturally excited suspicion as to the motives 
 for such a course, and the Avisdom of concurrence. The alle- 
 gation of the officials was, that Mr. HaiTis, the American Min- 
 ister, when at Yeddo the previous year, had seen the locality 
 and accepted it. Of course this was open to the obvious re- 
 ply that Mr. Harris could not possibly have accepted any lo- 
 cation other than the treaty stipulated, except for his own 
 Government or countrymen, and had no power or authority 
 to decide for his colleagues. Fortunately, at this moment Mr. 
 Harris arrived in person from Simoda, and on being referred 
 to, he not only denied having given any assent, but assured me 
 he had strongly remonstrated against the proposed site, as one 
 to which serious objections attached. 
 
 Nevertheless, there was tlie locality, and a site prepared at 
 an enormous expenditure of labor and money. Not only this, 
 but there was a certainty of a long struggle and great delay 
 before any other site could be obtained ; and several ships 
 were already in harbor with pioneers of trade on board, from 
 Nagasaki and China, eager to try the new port, and, of course, 
 clamorous for instant accommodation and facilities. This was 
 an embarrassing position for all parties. It was impossible, 
 against our conviction of what was really best for the jierma- 
 nent and national interests at stake, to sanction the ofl'-hand 
 proceedings of the Japanese Government ; and yet it was easy 
 to foresee that, after having gone so far, they would in all prob- 
 ability not recede, but find some means of carrying their point 
 sooner or later. 
 
 Here was the first difficulty in our relations, and how it was 
 best to be met was not easily determined. Mr. Harris and I 
 both saw, in this set pui^pose of the Japanese to locate the for- 
 eign trade there and nowhere else, a design to make another
 
 140 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VI. 
 
 Deciraa — to place the merchants where they could be most 
 easily and completely isolated, their trade watched and con- 
 trolled, and in such a situation, in short, as should enable the 
 Japanese officials to exercise a restrictive power upon all trade. 
 Every Japanese appi'oaching the settlement must either pass 
 along two miles of exposed causeway, with a gate at each end, 
 or cross the bay, the edge of which was already studded with 
 watch-houses. It naturally followed that, not only had the 
 officials the power of effectually preventing any communica- 
 tion with the foreigner, except such as they might choose to 
 allow, and under such conditions as the Government might see 
 fit secretly to impose, but without appearing to move in the 
 matter^ they could exercise any amount of interference and 
 control over the trade, since not an ounce of silk or a chest of 
 tea could find its way to the foreign merchant thus located, 
 until sanctioned, nor a bale of his own goods pass out of such 
 a cleverly contrived trap for traders. 
 
 That this, among other objects, was distinctly contemplated, 
 it sufficed to know what had been the policy of the Japanese 
 at Nagasaki for the previous two centuries, and to see the dis- 
 position of the ground, with the works so energetically accom- 
 plished in anticipation. They had, too evidently, one stereo- 
 typed idea as to foreigners and foreign trade, and they had 
 proceeded with the instinct and perseverance of beavers to 
 work out the conception, damming up all but the one entrance 
 or exit, which enabled them to keep vigilant watch and ward 
 on all that might go in or come out. 
 
 This was not an auspicious opening to free trade under the 
 treaties ; and both the American Minister and myself determ- 
 ined vigorously to resist this attempt to place the merchants 
 in a disadvantageous position, and perpetuate a state of things 
 which it was the great object of the treaties to put an end to 
 forever. Either, indeed, such a policy must be reversed, or 
 the treaties would become worthless as waste paper. Due no- 
 tice was accordingly given by both of us to our respective 
 countrymen, that we should resist this attempt to force them 
 into this Decima-like settlement so astutely prepared, and rec- 
 ommended some patience and self-denial while the battle was 
 being fought in their interest and that of all trade at the port. 
 I confess I felt any thing but sanguine as to the result. Past 
 experience led me to conclude there was a losing fight before 
 us, though one we could not consistently or conscientiously de- 
 cline. 
 
 How vain it is, by any thing short of a laAV with specific 
 penalties, to induce the rough and ready pioneers of commerce,
 
 Chap. VI.] EXTENSION OF SITE. 141 
 
 who first rush into a new port in the East, to listen either to 
 advice or injunction, if it run counter to their immediate con- 
 venience or temporary interest, I had not now to learn. Nev- 
 ertheless, it was necessary, in the discharge of a public duty, to 
 make the attempt. Above all, it was needful to protect those 
 who might come after them, so far as this might be possible, and 
 the permanent interests of trade in Japan, from what threatened 
 to prove a serious detriment to both, and might at any moment 
 be made, in Japanese hands, the destruction of the latter. We 
 had scarcely returned to Yeddo when I heard that first one 
 mercantile agent, and then another, had taken up their quarters 
 at Yokohama, some partly driven by distress for lodging, of 
 course refused elsewhere, and pressed upon them with the ut- 
 most benevolence in the forbidden location by the Japanese. 
 These had their own game to play, and were of course not at 
 all slow to begin, by setting the merchants and their Repre- 
 sentatives at cross purposes and in unseemly antagonism. 
 
 From that time it was manifestly a losing fight against all 
 odds. "We were in fact, to all appearance, insisting upon a 
 right in behalf of our merchants which they themselves, the 
 chief parties interested, repudiated as much as the Japanese 
 Government ! The record of such past struggles against ad- 
 verse elements is not likely to be read with much interest now, 
 and therefore I will merely state the result. The consuls were 
 placed in Kanagawa^ and after some weeks of negotiation 
 (during which the Japanese Government insisted that Yoko- 
 hama was in fact Kanagawa, that name including the whole 
 district ; and therefore that it was not contrary to, but in strict 
 accordance with treaty, to locate the foreign settlement where 
 it was) they gave way, and a site was obtained on the edge of 
 the bay outside Kanagawa, and nearer to Yeddo by a league. 
 Merchants and Consuls both might have as much land as they 
 desired or chose to pay for, buying out the proprietors where 
 any houses actually existed. But in the interval more pioneers 
 of foreign trade had arrived, of many nationalities, and some 
 with very few scruples. More accommodation had been af- 
 forded them (by the most obliging of governments), despite 
 ' the unrelenting hostility and perversity of the Foreign Rep- 
 resentatives at Yeddo,' and trade once located makes a chan- 
 nel, from which no government influence (unless it be such as 
 the Japanese employ) can easily turn it. Trade, where it once 
 strikes root, is far more difiicult to transplant than trees, even 
 were it not otherwise contrary to the whole spirit of our legis- 
 lation to force its growth in any particular locality or direc- 
 tion. Having, therefore, secured a free choice, and, in some im-
 
 142 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VI. 
 
 portant respects at least, if not in all, a more eligible site, the 
 rest was left to the niei'chants themselves, without official in- 
 tervention or obstacle, to be decided by them and the course 
 of events. A good deal of ill blood was created at the time, 
 to judge by the amount of anonymous abuse that found its 
 way into the local press in China ; but a year had not passed 
 before all the available land and houses had been got into the 
 large and tenacious grasp of the first comers, who had money 
 at command ; and as new arrivals came, a wild cry of despair 
 and injured prospects arose, 'there was no more land to be 
 obtained !' The first on the ground had followed 
 
 The good old plan, 
 That all should take who have the power, 
 And all should keep who can ; 
 
 or, at least, only ^jwrt with it at a price which would bring 
 enormous returns, and impose very onerous conditions on the 
 later purchasers. I thought the time had then arrived to in- 
 tervene with effect, and with advantage to all, in order not only 
 to secure a legal tender and evoke some order out of existing 
 confusion, but procure more land, otherwise wholly unattain- 
 able by any efforts of the merchants. For the Japanese, hav- 
 ing got them there permanently located, it was not at all in 
 their project, when Kanagawa was secured from their pres- 
 ence, to give them any larger facilities for trade. The ques- 
 tion as to choice of site having to all appearance been prac- 
 tically settled, wisely or otherwise, by the merchants them- 
 selves, who were on the spot, I entered into communication 
 with the Japanese Government on the subject. After point- 
 ing out the efforts they had successfully made, contrary to my 
 wish and that of the other Foreign Representatives, to locate 
 foreigners on the Yokohama site, lavishly placing at the dis- 
 posal of the^rs^ comers^ without regard to the just rights of 
 those who might follow, or the permanent interests of the port, 
 all the land and house accommodation available, avoiding, 
 at the same time, every vestige of legal tenure, it was neces- 
 sary this state of confusion and unequal appropriation of land 
 should cease. In view of their own antecedent course, I in- 
 sisted upon their obligation immediately to extend the site to 
 the foot of the bluff forming the front of the bay, giving a mile 
 more of water frontage and a proportionate depth, which lat- 
 ter might afterward be extended ad libitum^ according to the 
 progress of trade, and the legitimate wants of the merchants. 
 The new site, it was farther stipulated, should be placed at 
 the disposal of the Representatives of the five Treaty Powers, 
 to be allotted on some equitable principle, in view of the ;p'es-
 
 Chap. VI.] THE NEW SETTLEMENT. 143 
 
 ent and future wants of foreigners, who miglit desire to settle 
 at this port for trade. This done, I promised that the hold- 
 ings in the old site should be ascertained and regularized, and, 
 a legal title being given by competent Japanese authority and 
 the rental fixed, payment of arrears should follow.. And thus, 
 at the end of two years only, was it possible to correct the 
 evils induced by the first irregular proceedings, or protect the 
 original squatters from the effects of their own acts, in support 
 of which they had invested large sums on land, and without 
 obtaining a shadow of legal title. 
 
 The Consul, at a much later period, convened a public meet- 
 ing for the purpose of hearing any grievances the merchants 
 might have against either the Japanese or their own authori- 
 ties, and gave a very plain resume of the whole subject in the 
 following extract from his speech, reviewing the several com- 
 plaints, and challenging denial or dissent if his facts were in- 
 correct. But no single word was offered either in the way 
 of refutation or comment. 
 
 ' We come now to the occupation of land, in which the com- 
 mittee speak of " unaccountable" and, what has appeared to 
 many, "vexatious" delays in obtaining building sites. Yet 
 nothing admits of more easy explanation. I need hardly re- 
 mind you that when the port was first opened it was a ques- 
 tion between the Japanese authorities and the Foreign Repre- 
 sentatives which side of the bay offered the most eligible site 
 for the permanent objects of trade. The British and Ameri- 
 can Ministers both saw cogent reasons for preferring Kanaga- 
 wa, in a permanent point of view ; while the majority of mer- 
 chants, arriving by ones and twos, seemed to find greater ad- 
 vantage, in view of immediate facilities, on the Yokohama side, 
 where the Japanese desired to fix them, and had gone to great 
 expense with that object. Both may have been right from 
 these separate points of view — the Ministers looking to nation- 
 al and permanent interests, the merchants to what was indi- 
 vidual and temporary. That is a question which need not be 
 discussed now, and it is not, in fact, before the meeting. But 
 as there has been no little misconception (I do not wish to use 
 any harder word) as to the real facts and the action of Her 
 Majesty's authorities, it may not perhaps be without advantage 
 to all if I offer a few words of explanation in respect to the 
 past, as tending to clear the way to a good understanding for 
 the future. 
 
 ' We will not discuss who was right or wrong, or whether 
 any thing better could have been done at first than to leave 
 the question to be decided by events, the progress of the set-
 
 144 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VI. 
 
 tlement being left to itself in a great degree. It is no very 
 grave reproach to those who have only temporary interests at 
 stake to charge them with preferring these to any future per- 
 manent advantages. So neither is it a very legitimate subject 
 of reproach to Consul or Ministers, who by office are the rep- 
 resentatives of interests that are national and permanent, if 
 they should keep these constantly in view, as the more impor- 
 tant, whatever may be the pressure of that which is individual 
 and fleeting, and follow the line of duty thus indicated without 
 fear or seeking after popularity. Of course, the two classes of 
 interests can not always be very perfectly reconciled to each 
 other, and this will lead to a conflict of interests and opinions. 
 But in such a contingency you have at least the satisfaction of 
 knowing that neither the Consul nor Minister can have any 
 personal interests to consult ; they neither trade nor deal in 
 land. And it is going very far a-tield for adverse motives to 
 attribute to either petty feelings of spite and ill will because 
 British subjects may have thought their own views the best, 
 and acted upon them to the best of their power.' 
 
 A resume of the whole subject will be found in the Report 
 of a public meeting convened by the Consul,* if any one should 
 feel sufficient interest in the subject to turn to it for all the 
 facts. 
 
 In order not to return to the subject myself, I have greatly 
 anticipated time. But we must go back to the first day of 
 my arrival and landing at Yokohama, where more diplomatic 
 troubles were in store. I went on shore as soon as the ' Samp- 
 son' had cast anchor, and it was impossible not to be struck 
 with the admirable and costly structures of granite which the 
 Japanese had so rapidly raised, in a large broad pier running 
 far into the bay, and a long flight of steps, at which twenty 
 boats might land their passengers or cargoes at the same time. 
 Immediately in front was a large official -looking building, 
 which was pointed out as the custom-house, and thither we 
 proceeded to find some of the officials and an interpreter. The 
 gate gave entrance into a court-yard, paved with stones from 
 the beach, and round the four sides were ranges of offices, 
 some evidently still in the carpenters' hands. Every where 
 there were signs of a rush having been made to get into some 
 sort of occupation and preparedness by July l,the day fixed 
 by our treaty for the opening of the port. In one of the large 
 apartments we found two grave-looking officials seated on their 
 heels ' at the receipt of customs,' with scales and weights, and 
 a glittering heap of new coins, the currency of Japan, we were 
 * Appendix B.
 
 Chap. VI.] THE CURRENCY. 145 
 
 told, ready to be exchanged, ' according to treaty,' for dollars. 
 Immediately several of the party, eager to be possessed of a 
 currency, as they were preparing to visit the shops, threw their 
 dollars into the empty scale, and obtained for each two fine- 
 looking coins, ' weight for weight,' most religiously exact, as 
 stipulated in the treaty regulations ! The Government seem- 
 ed to have exceeded all expectations in their preparations, 
 with an eagerness and a completeness that was calculated to 
 disarm the most suspicious nature ! After some conversation 
 with two of the Governors of Foreign Affairs as to a location 
 for the Consul on the opposite side of the bay, which they de- 
 clared could not be given^ we turned down the main street, and 
 here witnessed a scene which could hardly have been enacted 
 any where except in Russia, where whole villages appeared as 
 if by magic, at the mandate of Potemkin, to greet the Empress 
 Catharine in her progress through her dominions, with evi- 
 dence of a flourishing and populous empire, where ten days be- 
 fore there was only a desert. Here, out of a marsh by the 
 edge of a deserted bay, a wave of the conjuror's wand had cre- 
 ated a considerable and bustling settlement of Japanese mer- 
 chants. A large wide street was bordered on both sides with 
 handsome, well-built houses of timber and mud walls. But the 
 occupants had evidently only that very morning been precipi- 
 tated in ; their goods were still for the greater part unpacked ; 
 while frantic efforts were being made by servants and porters, 
 in a state of deliquescence, to make some sort of show of the 
 salable contents. 
 
 Partly to encourage such devotion to our interests, and with 
 some of the eagerness which children of the largest growth 
 are not quite exempted from feeling — to spend money already 
 in the pocket for that purpose, various articles were priced by 
 some of the juniors. And nothing could seem more reasona- 
 ble ! ' Six itziboos for that charming glove-box ; what can be 
 cheaper ! Three itziboos to the dollar — why, that is only two 
 dollars ! Here, my friend, here is your price without haggling 
 — two dollars.' 
 
 A suspicious look, and a shake of the head with averted 
 palm, created a momentary pause, until it was suggested that, 
 as at Nagasaki, they could only receive Japanese money. * Ah ! 
 all right ; here it is, bright and fresh from the mint, two for the 
 dollar ; therefore two of them — what do they call them again ? 
 — two of them must be equal to three itziboos — one and a half 
 each — ay, that is the calculation. Now, my friend, open your 
 palm ; there it is, four of these large bright coins : I wish I 
 could remember their name 1' But the palm turned them over, 
 
 G
 
 146 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VI. 
 
 and ngain the head shook, but this time four fingers were held 
 up three times in rapid succession. 'Why, what does he mean ? 
 He asked six itziboos, which I have given, and now he wants 
 twelve ! What an extortionate Jew !' This evidently required 
 the aid of language and an Interpreter, and with such help the 
 explanation was as easy as it was unsatisfactory. Each of the 
 bright coins were, indeed, the weight of one and a half itziboos, 
 but they bore the mint mark and value o^ half an itzihoo! 
 There it was, clear enough, ' ni-shi' — half. Oh, what a fall was 
 there! Had the bright silver been turned into the shriveled 
 leaves of the sorcerer, they could not have been looked upon 
 with more profound disgust and surprise. There were no pur- 
 chases made that morning ; one of the party, who had been 
 the most eager, ruefully remarking, ' The things are remarka- 
 bly pi'etty, but to clip the dollar of two thii'ds of its value will 
 make them rather dear to the holders of that coin.' 
 
 And this was the second great diplomatic struggle into 
 which I felt myself thrust before noon on July 1. Not con- 
 tent with fixing a site by anticipation to suit their own pur- 
 pose, they had also cleverly prepared a currency, keeping what 
 seemed the promise to the ear, but breaking it to the heart. 
 The letter of the treaty might be there, but assuredly not the 
 spirit, seeing that the dollar, thus ingeniously depressed from 
 three itziboos, its equivalent value by weight when the treaty 
 was signed, to one, bid fair to make Japan, supposed to be one 
 of the cheapest countries in the world, the very dearest. Un- 
 less imports could be sold at the same rate, it was quite clear 
 no exports could be purchased. There have not been wanting 
 Europeans (chiefly visitors), and some among the Dutch resi- 
 dents, I think, who have contended that the Japanese were 
 right in considering the itziboo as a mere ' bank token,' having 
 a money value far above its real worth as so much silver, and 
 that to hold them to the exact terms of the American and sub- 
 sequent treaties, bound to give weight for weight of the then 
 existing silver coins for European coins, was to inflict upon 
 them a wrong and a loss. But without going into the differ- 
 ent theories of a currency, it seemed to me then, as it does 
 still, that there was a ready means of testing the truth or fal- 
 lacy of the Japanese argument. Their silver currency might 
 be, and was, no doubt, ill adjusted, in regard to the relative 
 value of gold and copper in Europe. And now that trading 
 relations with the West were being established, it might be 
 essential that some readjustment should take place, with special 
 reference to the relative current value of the three metals in 
 European countries. Their gold was much too low, and so
 
 Chap. VI.] THE CURRENCY. 147 
 
 also was their copper, compared with the silver, since an ounce 
 and a third of silver (or four itziboos) were worth a gold co- 
 bang, valued in Europe by our standard at 18s., or between 3 
 and 4 oz., and the same amount of silver in Japan would pur- 
 chase 4800 copper cash ; whereas, even in China, a Mexican 
 dollar (about an ounce in weight) would not buy more than 
 from 1000 to 1200. To leave their currency without modifi- 
 cation, therefore, was simply to insure the sudden export of 
 all their gold and copper in exchange for European silver. 
 No wonder the Japanese looked upon such a contingency with 
 great anxiety and alarm ; and I suggested to them at once an 
 eiFective remedy, by altering the relative mint value of their 
 gold and silver coinage, increasing the value of the former from 
 four itziboos to twelve or thirteen, bringing it sufficiently close 
 to the average rates in Europe to secure them from any oper- 
 ations for the export of gold. Unfortunately, I think, they 
 hesitated, insisting upon altering the mint value of their silver 
 by depreciating it two thirds in relation to the copper coin, 
 not to prevent the export of the latter, but to increase the 
 price to foreigners of all Japanese produce. At least this 
 would obviously be the immediate eifect. Their fixed idea 
 was, that all Japanese produce and manufactures could be 
 bought vastly below their true value, if the ounce of silver, in 
 the shape of a dollar, was allowed to circulate as the equiva- 
 lent of three itziboos, corresponding in weight. I endeavored 
 to convince them, by reference to the market-prices in the 
 chief trading marts of Asia from Constantinople to Pekin, that, 
 except in the one article of copper (and gold as it then stood), 
 the ounce of silver, even when converted into three itziboos, 
 would not purchase more of the commonest articles of con- 
 sumption or of labor than elsewhere ; and, consequently, that 
 to depreciate the silver currency in regard to the copper cur- 
 rency, by which all produce was sold or its market value esti- 
 Tnated, could only have the effect of shutting out the foreigner 
 from their market altogether, except in so far as he could deal 
 by way of barter, exchanging European goods against Japan- 
 ese. If a dollar (or an ounce of silver) would buy so many 
 pounds of rice in India, Siam, or China, and so many days' la- 
 bor, the prices of both being perfectly well known, subject to 
 little fluctuation in ordinary times, and always easily ascertain- 
 able, while in Japan only one third the quantity could be pur- 
 chased with it, no argument could be needed to prove that 
 any but a barter trade would be impossible; and that the itzi- 
 boo did not, as they held, represent a fictitious value in the 
 produce market^ rendering it worth more, by two third.s, than
 
 148 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VI. 
 
 the same weight of silver over the leugth and breadth of Asia. 
 It wowld certainly buy more copper and more gold, but not 
 more food or labor. Ultimately, as will be seen, ti)ey altered 
 their gold coinage to the European standard, but too late to 
 prevent large exportations and much mischief. They protect- 
 ed their copper currency by withdrawing it, and circulating 
 iron cash instead ; but to this day they seek to carry out their 
 original plan of altering the silver coinage, the direct and cer- 
 tain effect of which, it would seem, must be to close the Japan- 
 ese markets to all foreign dealers, save to the extent in which 
 they can exchange goods, not silver, for native produce. Is not 
 this the effect contemplated and desired? This seems only 
 too probable. Sooner or later, silver being depreciated in val- 
 ue to the extent of some twenty-five per cent., a self-adjusting 
 process might bring the Japanese dealer to regard his silk and 
 tea as worth so much gold instead of silver, and the former 
 might thus restore the balance. The gold cobang piece being 
 worth the same amount of cash in Japan, and of silver, could 
 be by treaty claimed from the Japanese in exchange for Eu- 
 ropean gold coins, weight for weight ; and in this way gold 
 instead of silver might be imported, and supply the means of 
 purchase to the foreign trader. But, assuming the state of 
 exchange would admit such an operation, the Japanese Gov- 
 ernment are not bound, except in payment of duties, to receive 
 our gold weight for weight, and they profess inability to com- 
 pel their subjects. There can be little doubt, therefore, that 
 the first effects of the change still contemplated by the Japan- 
 ese Government would be to put a sudden stop to all Euro- 
 pean trade, since it would have the effect of raising the price 
 to foreigners of all native produce from fifty to seventy per 
 cent. 
 
 Dissatisfied with the location, which I yet foresaw it would 
 be diflScult or impossible to change ; refused a place of resi- 
 dence in Kanagawa for a consular oflScer, where of right it 
 could be claimed for both consuls and merchants (as they were 
 compelled to admit later) ; menaced with a depreciation of the 
 dollar to two thirds of its value by a juggle, much too cleverly 
 conceived in reference to the wording of the treaty, and too 
 effectually set on foot to be easily set aside, I returned to Yed- 
 do with no pleasant anticipations of my first diplomatic passes 
 with the Japanese Government, taking back with me the Vice- 
 consul I had purposed installing at the newly-opened port. A 
 residence was speedily obtained at Kanagawa (though declared 
 impossible three days before) ; but no sooner was it granted 
 than I had to combat a pretension of the Japanese Govern-
 
 Chap. VI.] FIRST DIFFICULTIES. 149 
 
 ment to close the road between us, and deny all right to trav- 
 el between the Legations and Consulates on the high road. 
 
 My American colleague and I had thus for a beginning three 
 as troublesome and harassing questions as could well have 
 been desired for a diplomatic agent. A disputed site for a 
 foreign settlement, after the native government had expended 
 large sums upon one, and merchants were on the spot, urgent 
 for land and instant accommodation ; a currency question 
 which struck at the root of all trade ; and, finally, an attempt 
 to dispute a right of road between the capital and the port, 
 even to the members of the Legations. I should scarcely have 
 entered upon my troubles at this outset of the Mission in Ja- 
 pan were it not that a narrative of my residence in the Capital 
 would be very imperfect, and only calculated to give a false 
 impression of the people we have to deal with, if such incidents 
 were omitted. Indeed, any record of such a residence, with- 
 out reference to these ever-recurring struggles between the 
 Minister, whose business it is to insist upon the observance of 
 treaties, and the Japanese rulers, whose peculiar pleasure and 
 duty it seemed to be to render them nugatory and void in ef- 
 fect, would be the Moor of Venice without Othello. Even in 
 looking back, with the pleasant remembrance of difficulties 
 overcome, of doubts resolved, and of dangers escaped, there 
 still lingers a weary sense of the trouble that preyed upon the 
 soul, and the pain and anxiety of a position in which every 
 thing had to be won by hard fighting, or defended with a de- 
 termined front and wary eye. All tliis, too, where a false step 
 or an error in judgment might be as fatal to the diplomatist as 
 to a traveler climbing up a steep acclivity, with a measureless 
 depth below him, down which he may be suddenly precipi- 
 tated without power to arrest his descent, or any hope of ever 
 obtaining a foothold lost. 
 
 I do not think I slept very soundly that night. I know I 
 rose the next morning very tired, and proceeded to land all my 
 goods, chattels, and belongings, and install myself, with a feel- 
 ing of utter weariness at the task I saw looming before me, 
 of the true nature and extent of which I had from the first a 
 tolerably clear conception.
 
 160 THREE YEARS IN jAtAN. (Coat. VU. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Exchange of Ratifications. — News of the Repulse at the Peiho. — Hermit 
 Life in Yeddo. — Conditions of Exile and Isolation. — Life in a Wilderness 
 of Men and Women. 
 
 On Wednesday, July 6, 1859, I landed officially, and the 
 British flag for the first time was unfurled in evidence of a per- 
 manent Legation in the Capital of the Tycoon. 
 
 While still in the midst of the confusion incident to installa- 
 tion at a new post in an Eastern land, it was necessary to pay 
 an official visit to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, who, in 
 Japan, are of course in dual form ; the one apparently to speak, 
 and the other to observe. They are each of them Daimios, 
 and the first, Manake Simoosano Kami, was also at this time 
 President of the Gorogio, or great Council of State, consisting 
 of five members of the Daimio class, and corresponding, in a 
 great degree, to our Cabinet, in Avhora the executive power 
 seems vested. The second was Waisaka Nakatsiikano Faya, 
 also a member of the Council, and it was at his official resi- 
 dence the interview took place. From Tozengee the distance 
 was little less than five miles, and although a July sun in Ja- 
 pan, with the thermometer standing at ninety degrees in the 
 shade, is not to be regarded with levity, I had taken so great 
 a dislike to tlie cramped space afforded by the ordinary Nori- 
 mon that I determined to go on horseback. And a long and 
 sultry ride we found it. The Yamaske of Waisaka was in the 
 heart of the official quarter, and within the circle of the second 
 raoat. Our reception was very formal, and the visit being 
 strictly official and one of ceremony, no discussion was entered 
 into or business transacted beyond fixing the day and settling 
 the preliminaries for the exchange of ratifications, which, to 
 my great rehef, I found they were quite disposed to expedite, 
 instead of raising difficulties for purposes of delay. It is true 
 my congratulatory feeling was somewhat premature, for near- 
 ly the whole intervening period of seven days was taken up in 
 discussing with the Governors of Foreign Affairs* the mode in 
 which the deed was to be accomplished, and at the end a seri- 
 ous misundeistanding arose about the day originally fixed. 
 Even after this, when the cortege was on the very point of 
 
 * These officers may be considered as Under Secretaries of State, and 
 have somewhat similar functions.
 
 Chap VII.] FIRST OFFICIAL RECEPTION. 151 
 
 Starting, an objection was raised to the guard of honor, which 
 it had been previously settled should accompany and surround 
 the canopied jjlatfonn on which the treaty was carried. ' Boast 
 not of day till night has made it thine !' is good advice every 
 where, but in Japan, of all countries, it is well to remember it 
 and not be over sanguine ! 
 
 It really seemed as if some Nemesis of retribution was on my 
 track, to make me pay for my easy victory in establishing a 
 right of residence, where I certainly had anticipated the first 
 and greatest diflBculty would be experienced. I was allowed 
 no time, however, for vain boasting, or any presumption found- 
 ed on a first success ; and, although it was a sore trial while it 
 lasted, I have since been disposed to be thankful that thus ear- 
 ly, in a new field, where every thing had to be learned as to 
 the feelings, motives, and policy of those with whom it was 
 necessary to establish relations of startling novelty, and where 
 novelty itself was a suificient condemnation, I had to struggle 
 through almost every form of difficulty that could be conceiv- 
 ed. It certainly impressed upon me, from the beginning, the 
 necessity of untiring patience and forbearance, witliout which 
 I soon saw nothing could be efiected. 
 
 That these preliminary discussions about mere matters of 
 form, when the thmg was secured, were tiresome to the last 
 degree, and often seemed intenninable, will easily be under- 
 stood. Each night, after another day had been consumed in 
 discussions which settled nothing, I felt the lesson sink deeper, 
 that the first virtue of a diplomatist in Japan must he patience ! 
 
 A very slight sketch of the progress made from day to day 
 will show how much this one virtue was tried. When the of- 
 ficial interview with the ministers took place, the order of pro- 
 ceeding had been discussed. I was the bearer of one of the 
 two copies of the treaty made in English, Dutch, and Japanese, 
 each signed by Lord Elgin and the Japanese plenipotentiaries, 
 to which the sign manual and the great seal were attached ; 
 and ray instructions were to receive back the other copy left 
 with the Japanese, bearing the original signatures and seals of 
 the plenipotentiaries, the Tycoon's ratification and seal being 
 in like manner attached. 
 
 Unfortunately, it seemed the Tycoon's ratification had al- 
 ready been obtained (so at least they said) to a copy 'more 
 beautifully written and elaborately bound,' and it was ' impos- 
 sible any change could be made!' The Tycoon's seal could 
 neither be attached a second time, nor shifted to the original 
 copy. A long demur to this arrangement led to an ofter on 
 their part to surrender the original, as well a^ the copy bearing
 
 162 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VII. 
 
 the Tycoon's ratification, and to this I consented with some 
 rehictance. In view of the apparent impossibility of carrying 
 out my instructions to the letter, it only behooved me to secure 
 the essential part, which was the Tycoon's ratification to the 
 treaty, and for this a correct and attested copy was, to all in- 
 tents and purposes, the same as one bearing the signatures of 
 the plenipotentiaries. 
 
 Next day it turned out that the copy to be offered was only 
 a copy of the Japanese version^ which neither I nor any one 
 attached to me could read. This I peremptorily refused, say- 
 ing ' the treaty' consisted of three versions in their integrity, 
 and not one only; but if any one was more essential than the 
 rest, it was the Dutch, which both could read. 
 
 While this was yet undecided, another night passed, and 
 then, late on the Sunday evening, came Moriyama and one of 
 the Governors of Foreign Affairs, in a state of great trepida- 
 tion to all appearance. ' There was an unfortunate mistake in 
 the day appointed for the exchange. Moriyama, the interpret- 
 er, had rendered it Monday ; all the preparations had been 
 made, the Council of State and Tycoon himself informed ; and 
 the disgrace of Moriyama, and his dismissal, would be the least 
 consequence if he had to avow his ■mistake.'' 'What,' I said, 
 ' if we took it upon ourselves, as an error in the interpretation, 
 and exonerated him ?' ' Useless, quite : it would then be said 
 that Moriyama had induced you to write to that effect merely 
 to screen himself, and his position would be worse than ever!' 
 
 What was to be done ? Was all this merely simulated (if 
 80, he and the Governor were both excellent actors), and was 
 there some hidden object to be gained, some intrigue being 
 played off against us ? I was now offered the ratification of 
 the Tycoon to the original treaty (so lately declared ' impossi- 
 ble'). What was the real motive of this sudden willingness to 
 give themselves the lie, and desperate effort to alter all the ar- 
 rangements, and hurry me through the ratifications the next 
 tnorning, instead of Tuesday, the day fixed, and, beyond doubt, 
 clearly understood? Was there some sinister intention of 
 palming off upon me at last a mere Japanese copy, or hustling 
 me through the exchange with the omission of some essential 
 formality on their part ? It was hard to say ; but enough ap- 
 peared to rouse suspicion, and I declared, in the most unmis- 
 takable terms, that I would neither undertake to make any 
 change, nor even to keep the appointment on Tuesday., unless 
 I received, in writing., a formal declaration from the Ministers 
 of Foreign Affairs that I should have the original treaty, bear- 
 ing the seals and signatures of the plenipotentiaries ; and at-
 
 Chap.VII.] vexed preliminaries. 153 
 
 tached to it the ratification of the Tycoon, with his seal and 
 the signatures of the two ministers. A new difficulty this. It 
 was late, the distances considerable, rendering it impossible, 
 before an early liour in the morning, to get such written com- 
 munication from the ministers to me; too late to make the 
 preliminary arrangements for landing the ' Sampson's' marines, 
 etc. ' Why would not the verbal assurance do ?' ' Too many 
 mistakes already,' I replied ; ' arrived at the minister's, I might 
 learn that one more had been made " by the interpreters,^'' and 
 that the Tycoon's ratification, in due form, was not attached 
 to the original treaty, when I should be compelled to return 
 with the originals, bearing the Queen's signature, without ef- 
 fecting the exchange ; and I did not choose to risk being placed 
 in such a position.' ' Would the written declaration of the 
 Chief Governor of Foreign Affairs answer the purpose?' (No 
 such official, by-the-by, existed, as I afterward knew.) 'Yes, 
 if I received it during the night ; and in that case I would con- 
 sent to the exchange taking place the following day, and, in 
 anticipation of its arrival, write at once to Captain Hand to 
 make the necessary arrangements. 
 
 At one o'clock came the formal written assurance. The 
 next morning, July 11, a bright and scorching sun gave sure 
 promise of a trying day. The distance to the official residence 
 of the minister, I now learned, was four miles by Japanese 
 measure. The treaty was to be carried in procession before 
 me through the city, under a canopy ornamented with flags 
 and evergreens, surrounded by a guard of marines, and fol- 
 lowed by fifty blue-jackets. Captain Hand, with a large num- 
 ber of his officers in uniform and on horseback, followed im- 
 mediately after the four petty officers carrying the treaty. Just 
 an hour before starting, the officer who had to conduct us came 
 to declare, the guard could not enter the official quarter / It 
 was too late to make any change without damage. They had 
 had four days' notice, and no objection had been taken. This 
 was their answer therefore. But the sudden announcement 
 left room for anxiety and suspicion. 
 
 The long line of march of this procession, through the wide 
 streets of Yeddo, was a novel sight for the inhabitants of the 
 capital — one such as had never been seen before. A treaty 
 with a Foreign Power carried in state, preceded by the flag of 
 Great Britain, surrounded by a guard of honor, and followed 
 by a large escort of moimted oflicers, with the Representative 
 of the Queen at the head, were novelties indeed. On through 
 the populous commercial quarter we took our way, across the 
 first broad moat (an anxious moment for the two chiefs of the 
 
 G2
 
 154 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VII. 
 
 civil and naval branches), unstopped by gate, portcullis, or 
 guard — right on into the first fortified enceinte of the official 
 quarter. The outer crowd of shopkeepers and industrial class- 
 es now left behind, a new crowd of retainers of the various 
 feudal princes, whose palaces lay on either side of the route, 
 supplied their place, keeping the road with long batons. Slow- 
 ly the cortege passed on to the second moat, wider and deeper 
 than the first, and more resembling a river than an artificial 
 moat. The gates of the second enceinte are before us; but 
 they, too, turn slowly, as if half reluctant, on their massive 
 hinges (shut expressly to be opened for our passage, as I aft- 
 erward knew, for I often saw, with my own eyes, that they re- 
 mained habitually open), and at last the minister's residence is 
 gained. It lies to the left of a broad glacis, in front of the last 
 fortified inclosure standing on a higher level, where the palace 
 of the Tycoon and the royal domain is seen. The guard form- 
 ed outside ; and, opening their ranks, the treaty was carried in 
 by the bearers under its canopy, followed by myself, the offi- 
 cers of the Mission, and of H. M. S. ' Sampson.' The full pow- 
 ers of the respective plenipotentiaries having been produced, 
 and the other formalities accomplished, by comparing the two 
 Dutch versions, signals, arranged by the Japanese in advance 
 (by fans from street to street), conveyed the news to the 
 'Sampson,' with telegraphic speed, in a minute and a half, a 
 distance of six miles. A royal salute of twenty-one guns, the 
 British and Japanese flags at the main, celebrated the exchange 
 of ratifications, and the happy conclusion of the day's ceremony, 
 which had been preceded by so much difficulty and so many 
 thoi'ny discussions. The Japanese had been invited to fire a 
 salute also, but they urged the inconvenience of departing from 
 their own customs, etc., and it was not pressed. They found 
 no impossibility later, however, in firing such a salute, under 
 the pressure of a sufficient object. Well it was, perhaps, for 
 the interests at stake, and my position in Yeddo, that no time 
 had been lost, for only a few days later news arrived of the 
 disaster at the Peiho, and there is no telling whether this might 
 not have disposed them to devise causes of indefinite delay. 
 
 Immediately after the exchange of the ratifications, H. M.S. 
 ' S impson' took her departure, and for many weeks — months, 
 no English pendant appeared in Japanese waters. While the 
 first weeks were slipping on, I fairly lost count of the days, and 
 got up one morning thinking it was Friday, until some better- 
 informed member of the establishment proved it was only 
 Wednesday. Really it seemed as if we should have to adopt 
 Robinson Crusoe's notable device of notching a stick to ena-
 
 Ghap, VII.J hermit LIFE IN YEDDO. 155 
 
 ble us to keep count of the days in this wilderness of men and 
 women, and total isolation from all of European race or civili- 
 zation, where no Sunday worship or Sabbath-day bells recur- 
 red regularly every week, to mark the end of one and the be- 
 ginning of another. In striking contradiction this, by the way, 
 to the broad assertions of some of the Sabbatarian writers 
 that a septennial division of time has prevailed all over the 
 earth, and that traces of it at least may be found in every coun- 
 try. It is strange how this often reiterated allegation, so pal- 
 pably in contradiction with known facts, could ever be made, 
 or relied upon as an argument. All over Asia, this division 
 into weeks is, I believe, utterly unknown to this day, as it is in 
 Japan. Through all antiquity, in Europe and Western Asia, 
 in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, it was only known, if known at 
 all, as a custom of the Jews. Neither Greeks nor Romans 
 adopted it in their mode of reckoning time. And when a new 
 world was discovered by Columbus, no trace of the supposed 
 universal weekly measurement of time was discovered. Nei- 
 ther the Red Indian and hunting nomades of North Amei'ica, 
 nor the people of the more civilized empires of the Mexicans 
 and Peruvians, had any cognizance of the * universally known' 
 seventh day, whether as one of particular sanctity, or as mark' 
 ing a fourth part of a lunar month. It is difficult not to doubt 
 the goodness of a cause when its advocates keep reiterating 
 the universality of a fact which has no existence. But how 
 gladly one would hear the weekly church-bell, calling to serv- 
 ice in this place of exile, instead of the early matins of the Pa- 
 gan Bonzes, announced at five o'clock by the deep tones of a 
 magnificent bell, struck by a suspended beam from the out- 
 side, and the long muttered orisons which follow every day 
 with little cessation for many hours, and again at five in the 
 evening, with a perseverance and regularity worthy of a bet- 
 ter cause ! 
 
 Such total absence of all external differences between one 
 day and another had a constant tendency to blur out distinc- 
 tions. In the hermit-like seclusion of Tozengee, the same 
 bright sun above our heads from day to day, and a thick screen 
 of wooded hills farther shutting out the world beyond — the 
 Pagan world, in which destiny had flung a little knot of Chris- 
 tians, and with it the world of a kindred creed and race, from 
 which the whole breadth of Asia on the one side, and of the 
 Pacific Ocean on the other, separated us, it was hard to realize 
 any distinction of days, weeks, or months ! The seasons alone 
 brought their own distinctive marks with them. In one, per- 
 haps the truest sense, all days were Sundays here — days of
 
 156 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VII. 
 
 solitary reflection, mingled with comparatively few secular af- 
 fairs or interruptions from the outer world. Nature, in glori- 
 ous robes of beauty, was ever inviting to contemplation, and 
 that worship of the heart which springs from a constant sense 
 of the Divine in creation, and the all-pervading presence of a 
 Supreme Ruler, governing and fashioning to wise, but often 
 inscrutable ends, the world of mind and matter. In the broad 
 avenues, checkered with light and shade, and richly colored 
 with every variety of tint, there was a temple which nothing 
 reared by man's hands by aid of stone and mortar could rival. 
 No fretted roof, or long-drawn aisle of a thousand pillars, could 
 approach it in beauty. A recluse there need envy no worship- 
 er in Dom or Minster, so far as grace or richness of color and 
 material forms are concerned; the communion of kindred 
 hearts in prayer and worship was alone wanting. 
 
 A strange feeling of isolation came upon me when the con- 
 fusion and novelty both had ceased. Immediately after the 
 exchange of the ratifications, as already stated, H. M. S. ' Samp- 
 son' had taken her departure, and left Her Majesty's Mission to 
 take care of itself. The American frigate which had brought 
 my colleague, the Resident Minister of the United Stales, had 
 hastened to follow the example. We were thus left, the Rep- 
 resentatives of two great Powers, perfectly isolated and un- 
 supported in the capital of the Tycoon, surrounded by many 
 hostile elements and unknown conditions, without the pend- 
 ant of a single gunboat in the Japanese waters, or within six 
 weeks' or two months' call ! Whatever might be the difiicul- 
 ties or the dangers of such a position, they must be met sin- 
 gle-handed and alone. I felt as though the dial had gone back 
 fourteen years with me, for in just such a position had I been 
 dropped, with less experience to guide me, at Foochou, the cap- 
 ital of the province of Fokien, in the year 1844. It seems not 
 a very wise or politic mode of proceeding, but I never knew 
 it otherwise. I never knew an Admiral, or a senior officer, I 
 think, who did not seem to consider the first duty of the Com- 
 mander of a ship of war, after dropping a Minister or a Consul 
 in the midst of a serai-civilized population, as a man drops an 
 awkward burden, was to disappear as fast as possible, and 
 leave him to his destiny or his own resources. No doubt it is 
 quite impossible even for the British navy to supply a ship en 
 permanence wherever there is a Legation or a Consiilate with 
 interests to defend and lives to protect. And there will al- 
 ways be more demands on an Aditiiral in the far East than lie 
 has the means, whatever may be his inclination, adequately to 
 meet. Still there is much to regret, and something I think to
 
 Chap.VIL] absolute ISOLATION. ]5Y 
 
 amend, in the practice of dropping diplomatic or consular 
 agents in the most remote regions, and then leaving them to 
 take care of themselves as they best can, or to be sacrificed in 
 the attempt, before it can possibly be known either what are 
 the conditions under which the duties are to be carried on, or 
 the dangers and difficulties to be encountered. It may well 
 happen that the very objects for which the nation incurs the 
 expense and liabilities attaching to the establishment of new 
 Legations or Consular ports in the far East may be sacrificed 
 and utterly lost by such a system of abandonment. 
 
 I sat musing one day under the deep shadow of the avenue, 
 looking across the bay, flecked only with white-sailed fishing- 
 boats, and there came before me a vision of the exile's life re- 
 served for me. Shut out from the whole world of interests that 
 bind man to this existence, and mingle with all his thoughts 
 and affections, even with those which wing their way to that 
 far eternity whither all are hastening, more or less conscious- 
 ly, I saw weeks pass on without any tidings from beyond the 
 seas. When last we had heard, Austria and France were both 
 in arms, and the French Emperor had taken the field at the 
 head of his army in Italy. What had happened in the inter- 
 val? Kingdoms might have been conquered, or shaken to 
 their centre, and, in the conflict and din of arms, dynasties as 
 well as nations might have fallen. But of all that might have 
 been we knew nothing, no more than if our habitation were in 
 another planet. When a mail and newspapers, with letters 
 and dispatches, tardily arrived, it was as if the cloud and va- 
 pors which surround a traveler lost on some high mountain 
 range were suddenly rent asunder, displaying a moving world 
 of life and action at his feet, where before all was stillness and 
 solitude. It was to waken from a long trance, and then only 
 to hear all that had been said and done in the interval of total 
 unconsciousness, however nearly it may have concerned him. 
 In a word, it was to receive a page torn out of the history of 
 the world, a fragment telling of changes of empires and desti- 
 nies — changes of all things, great and small, which make up the 
 sum of national and individual life, that had happened in some 
 distant period, while all knowledge was denied of events tak- 
 ing place in the interval, and filling up the space between the 
 two. In these days of rapid and certain communication — of 
 railway traveling and electric telegraphs — there is something 
 especially tantalizing and trying in this forced ignorance of all 
 that is — this dwelling on i^ past which always seems remote, 
 and never can be linked on to the present. 
 
 There are days when, in spite of some active occupation and
 
 158 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VII. 
 
 study, one feels that to take office in a country so isolated from 
 the rest of the world, and so distant, is to descend alive into a 
 sepulchre of the dead. Human beings there ai'e about you — 
 there is no stint as to their number — but the touch of sympa- 
 thy which makes ' the whole world kin' is wanting. As a man 
 never feela more alone than when the sense of loneliness comes 
 upon him in a crowd, so in this wilderness of living men the 
 foreigner is too entirely a stranger, and too absolutely repudi- 
 ated as having any thing in common with the natives, to feel 
 otherwise than banished, and exiled from all social intercourse. 
 There is no interchange of ideas, no intellectual exercise, no 
 common language ; and the traditional policy of exclusion and 
 isolation still prevailing renders all these impossibilities. 
 
 The little mtercourse foreigners can hold for the first years 
 in a country like Japan, while laboring to acquire the colloqui- 
 al language, must be through some half dozen interpreters, 
 who have acquired a more or less imperfect knowledge of 
 Dutch. The hostility of the Daimios and governing powers 
 will long continue to suscitate acts of violence and ever-recur- 
 ring occasions of petty annoyance or impertinence, with a sys- 
 tematic plan of extortion and enormous lying by all the offi- 
 cials who surround the foreign missions, and the tradesmen 
 they allow to approach. Soon after we were domiciled, I came 
 to the conclusion that this must be a cheap country. We suc- 
 ceeded in getting evidences of this without its availing much 
 to save our pockets. A picul of fine rice (130 lbs.) could be 
 bought for a dollar and a half; six or eight fowls for the same 
 price. Fish, on the other hand, was unaccountably dear, al- 
 though the large bay is always covered with fishing-boats. It 
 is true the population may be great in proportion, but the fact 
 can not account for the extravagant prices we were made to 
 pay. Of the systematic extortion to which we were subject- 
 ed, indeed, each day brought some new evidence. 
 
 The first month was gliding silently away when one day I 
 determined to penetrate into the great commercial centre of 
 the city, where they had several times assaulted foreigners, 
 and Lord Elgin himself had been pelted, in order to be able to 
 judge, and, if need be, to speak from personal observation. 
 As the distance was great and the weather hot, I sent word 
 to the Japanese officers on service in the morning to procure 
 a good boat, with four or six rowers, and to accompany me, 
 that the inhabitants might see a foreigner's right to go there 
 unmolested was incontestable. When the hour came, and it 
 was too late to make other arrangements, I found an open boat, 
 with no seat or awning, exposed to the blaze of the sun, and
 
 Chap. VII] JAPANESE EXTORTIONS —HORSES. 159 
 
 two rowers only, one a miserable old man of sixty or seventy. 
 This was either a piece of deliberate impertinence, to punish 
 me for objecting to their extortionate practices, or an official 
 manoeuvre to deter me from going at all. On my sharply re- 
 monstrating, they uttered only a few nonchalant excuses, which 
 were palpable lies, such as that ' no covered boat came out of 
 the river,' though we met several within an hour. I did not 
 choose, however, to forego the expedition, and so we proceed- 
 ed. Great crowds met us on landing, and followed us with a 
 boisterous sort of hilarity — nothing really offensive, or hostile 
 in appearance, however. Once only a piece of dried mud was 
 thrown as we were standing outside a shop. In passing un- 
 der the bridges we saw they were packed with a dense mass 
 of people. They offered no insult, but there was a good deal 
 of shouting and hooting, which was certainly not intended to 
 be either respectful or complimentary. We went into some 
 of the shops and bought some lacker- ware, after some bargain- 
 ing, though the greater part was cheap enough. So that mere 
 material and labor, too, must be cheap. It was the venality 
 of the Officials and Compradors about us that alone made 
 things dear. One instance among a thousand may suffice as 
 an example of the wholesale plundering to which we were ex- 
 posed — by authority. I had ordered a wash-hand-stand of 
 common wood, for which the Comprador had the modesty to 
 charge nine itziboos, I cut it down to five, which he protest- 
 ed against most vehemently, and soon after I found that one 
 of my attaches had got a better one made for three! 
 
 Another day 1 was trying horses, and two or three, likely 
 animals enough, were brought. I chose a bay, about fourteen 
 hands, rising six years, with a good head, neck, and fore quar- 
 ters, but rather faUing off behind, and with hoofs somewhat 
 contracted for the size of the animal. A walk, an amble, and 
 a canter I got out of him, but nothing deserving the name of 
 a trot. As I have said, it being considered vulgar in Japan to 
 put your horse out of a walking pace, their animals are never 
 lunged or taught to step out. They are all entire horses; 
 there are no geldings, and the mares seem only kept for breed- 
 ing. I gave thirty-five kobangs, about £10 — not an exorbitant 
 price in itself, but to a Japanese it would certainly have been 
 one half less, and, indeed, a cob pony, of the same character, 
 could be purchased in many parts of England for that sum. 
 My groom, however, a fine stalwart man, who belonged for- 
 merly to a Governor of Simoda, was very urgent in his recom- 
 mendation to buy, impatient to be installed in his vocation, and 
 possibly had his own interest in the bargain ; but as he seem-
 
 160 THREE YEAKS IN JAPAN. [Chap.VIII. 
 
 ed an able-bodied, serviceable fellow, and had moreover been 
 taught by the Americans how to shoe a horse, instead of the 
 device of muffling their feet in straw slippers, I closed the bar- 
 gain, as much to secure the man as the horse. A Japanese 
 stable, built under his superintendence, presented some striking 
 features of contrast with ours. In the first place, the horse's 
 head was where his tail would be in an English stable, that is, 
 facing the entrance. It certainly seems a much more rational 
 thing to be able to go up to your horse's head, when he has an 
 opportunity of recognizing you, rather than to his heels, with a 
 preliminary chance of a kick and a broken leg. Then they 
 have no fixed mangers, but hang their food from the roof in a 
 bucket. When not eating, however, their head is often tied 
 up I'ather above the level of the neck, without any freedom or 
 power of moving from right to left, merely to keep them quiet, 
 which is great cruelty, and all to save a lazy groom the trouble 
 of cleaning them if they lie down. 
 
 And so flitted and passed away the first month of our resi- 
 dence in Yeddo. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Japanese Language. — First Lessons in Grammar and Speaking. 
 
 Our want of all knowledge of the Japanese language was 
 the first great barrier to any satisfactory progress in our rela- 
 tions with the country ; and as two young student interpret- 
 ers had been attached to the Mission, my first care was to set 
 them to work, and to see if I myself could aid by spelling out 
 something as to the construction of the language. With the 
 aid of the Japanese oflScial attached to the Legation as an In- 
 terpreter, who I found had some smattering of Dutch gram- 
 mar, I began without loss of time. 
 
 I probably should have hesitated had I foreseen all the labor 
 it would entail, even to produce the most elementary work, but 
 patience and perseverance will overcome many difficulties, and 
 so it was finished and printed at last. I preserved some notes 
 of my earlier efforts, when, in the mornings, we were all col- 
 lected round the table, and our unfortunate teacher in the 
 midst (with a Yakonin and an Ometsky in the background, to 
 see we hatched no treason against the State), bewildered and 
 sore distraught, imder a searching cross-fire of questions for 
 equivalents to English parts of speech. A quiet, much-en-
 
 Chap. VIII.] THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE. 161 
 
 during man was Matabe, but he sometimes used to put his 
 head on one side, while his fingers sought in vain to stimulate 
 the brain beneath, to furnish the required ideas by gentle and 
 continual friction over the shaven crown, and look the very 
 picture of bewilderment and misery! 
 
 No general reader will ever look at the grammar, with its 
 mixture of fact and speculation, which was the final result of 
 this long torture, renewed day after day for eighteen months. 
 And yet there is much to interest even the most casual student 
 in the characteristics of every language, and as the Japanese 
 has been hitherto a sealed book to Europeans, I will try to give 
 some account of the sort of discoveries wrung out of poor Ma- 
 tabe on these long summer mornings, and any other victims I 
 succeeded in getting under the same harrows. Many of these 
 were interesting, as throwing some reflected light on the hab- 
 its of thought and action of the race by whom it was framed, 
 and the people to whose daily wants it had been moulded. 
 
 If books are the transcripts of national taste, as has been 
 not unaptly said, much more may a language be considered a 
 true mirror of the national character. Of especial interest are 
 the questions involved in the use of a borrowed hieroglyphic 
 language in Japan, and the spontaneous adoption at a later 
 period of a phonetic system, without the latter displacing the 
 former. The Japanese are the only nation, as I observed iu 
 the preface to the grammar, who, so far as is known, ever frank- 
 ly adopted as their own, and at one efilirt, a language and a 
 literature, together with a whole system of morals and ethics, 
 from a neighboring people (in many respects essentially difler- 
 ent), without any pressure from conquest, and while in posses- 
 sion of a civilization of rival pretensions, a marked nationality, 
 and a strongly developed spirit of independence. Yet such 
 seems to have been the fact beyond a doubt. Although the 
 relations of China with Japan have often been hostile, and no 
 approach to fusion has ever taken place between the two na- 
 tions, the Japanese did adopt, at some distant period now un- 
 known, the system of writing of the Chinese. And although 
 the Japanese invented for themselves long subsequently a sys- 
 tem of phonetic symbols, consisting of a syllabary or alphabet 
 of forty-seven letters, which, with the addition of certain ac- 
 cents, suffices to convey all the sounds in the language, and 
 notwithstanding it has been in general use now some eight 
 centuries, they have not relinquished the hieroglyphic Avritten 
 language adopted from the Chinese. So the two languages 
 an«i systems of writing exist side by side to this day. 
 
 Indeed, they seem fond of duplicates in all things. Some*
 
 162 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 thing of a dual principle we know enters into man's organiza- 
 tion and pervades all nature, but in the Japanese idiosyncrasy 
 this seems to find a more elaborate development than else- 
 where. If it be true, as a learned physician has maintained,* 
 that we all have two perfect brains inclosed in our skulls, as 
 we liave two eyes and two ears on the outside, each cai)able 
 of performing all the functions of both combined, and even ca- 
 pable of carrying on independent trains of thought simultane- 
 ously, it would seem the Japanese duality of brains has been 
 productive of all sorts of binary combinations and devices run- 
 ning through and duplicating, as it were, all existence, politi- 
 cal, social, and intellectual. There is no dealing with a single 
 agent in Japan — from the sovereign to the postman, they all 
 run in couples. You ask for your interpreter, and finding him 
 long in coming, you demand the reason, and receive for con- 
 clusive answer that 'he could not come without his shadow!' 
 If the objection strikes you as singular or novel, it is explained 
 that his shadow is an ' ometsky^ literally, the ' eye that sees 
 through;' in plain English, a spy, without whom it is not safe 
 for him to enter on the performance of his functions, for the 
 ' ometsky ' is supposed to be a witness to the loyalty of his 
 action. 
 
 We may take as a farther illustration of the peculiarities of 
 Japanese character the grammatical fact that their nouns have 
 no genders. Neither have the Japanese, properly speaking, 
 any definite article. 
 
 The absence of genders to their nouns, and of personal pro- 
 nouns to express any difference between he, she, and it, notice- 
 able in their grammar, seems to be carried into practice oddly 
 enough in their custom of public baths for both sexes, and in 
 their daily life in other ways. Whether so strange a reversal 
 of all our ideas of propriety is attended in Japan with any of 
 the consequences that would unavoidably attach in Europe to 
 such habits, we are not yet, perhaps, sufficiently conversant 
 with the people or their social life to say with confidence. 
 What we do know certainly does not justify our jumping to 
 a condemnatory conclusion. It is very difficult to form an 
 opinion of the morality of one people by reference to the man- 
 ners and standard of another. The Turks think it a reproach 
 for women to be seen out of their harems ; and even the lower 
 classes regard the unveiling of the face as a shameless and in- 
 decent act, associating with it corresponding ideas of immo- 
 rality. Singularly enough, we seem to have some traces of this 
 conception in our own vernacular, by the term ' barefaced^ 
 * Dr. Wigan on the Duality of the Brain.
 
 Chap. VIII.] PERSONAL PRONOUNS. IQ^ 
 
 when we wish to express a similar reproach of shamelessness. 
 An Arab woman wears a single vest o})en to the waist, but 
 carefully shrouds her face from view. The Chinese, on the 
 other side of Asia, expose the face without reserve, and paint 
 it too, to be admired, but are scrupulous in covering the neck 
 as high as the throat, while they very certainly regard the low 
 dress of European ladies, their dancing in public with their 
 male acquaintances, and, indeed, our whole system of dress and 
 social intercourse, as the most shocking departure from all the 
 rules of propriety and decency which the imagination of man 
 or woman could invent ! 
 
 Reverting to their grammar, Ave find in respect to the per- 
 sonal pronouns another interesting fact, namely, that, although 
 not wholly wanting, they are rarely used. Nouns, with various 
 significations of honor or self-abasement, ahnost invariably sup- 
 ply their place. Thus in practice, if not in theor}^ they hardly 
 exist. We are not surprised, therefore, to find that there is a 
 bewildering variety in the modes of expressing the important 
 word I'm Japanese, and scarcely less for all the other persons. 
 TJiou^ and At?, and sAe, with their plurals, consequently become 
 formidable entities, requiring careful approach and long study. 
 I gave a table of six or seven forms for each, as the lowest 
 number for the student to begin with ; warning all comers, at 
 the same time, that there are still many additional forms to be 
 acquired, and that no more grievous solecism in manners can 
 be committed among the Japanese than wrongly to apply ei- 
 ther the terms of due humility in the speaker designating him- 
 self, or of honor to the person addressed, each variation in 
 rank, age, and sex demanding the use of some difierent form 
 of speech ! This is rather startling intelligence to beginners; 
 but if such be the fact, it is better to know the whole truth at 
 once than to go blundering on in the dark. Thus, to take an 
 example of the ingenuity exercised by the Japanese in the in- 
 vention of terms of honor or abasement which supply the place 
 of personal pronouns — for the most part pure circumlocutions 
 and paraphrases to avoid a personal ap])ellative or designating 
 pronoun — we find one of the terms for I^ speaking humbly as 
 to a superior, is Temaie, literally, 'the person who is before 
 your hand.' Watakooshi, another term for I, means, literally, 
 'something private,' an egoism, something pertaining to theZ 
 Again, Anatta, ^Thotc^ is a word literally signifying 'your 
 side.' So, in speaking of ladies or women, onago domo may 
 be used correctly, to designate those of a man's own house- 
 hold, but if applied to any other, the expression would be a 
 gross afifrout, domo being the plural adjunct implying humili-
 
 164 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [CHAP.Vm. 
 
 ty and relative lowncss of rank, while 07iago, the term for a 
 lady or female, is not sufficiently honorific to be used in speak- 
 ing of others. Both have, consequently, to be changed ; the 
 affix gata must then be used for the plural, and Jochou for 
 the noun ; whereas, among women and children, and speaking 
 of each other, the terminal would be tatsi or tatchi^ and then 
 the phrase might run Onago tatchi or Jochou-gata^ and if it 
 was meant to designate young ladies, Musoome tatchi. 
 
 We see in all this, first, a strange proneness to self-abase- 
 ment, a certain absence of individualism and self-assertion, 
 which, on the other hand, is very much opposed to some of 
 their national characteristics. A Japanese is proud of his race 
 and nation, stands much on his personal dignity, and is very 
 sensitive to any indignity or affront put upon him by the neg- 
 lect or refusal to render all that custom and etiquette prescribe. 
 That they should be a ceremonious and punctilious people fol- 
 lows as a matter of course, for just in proportion as they are con- 
 scious of sensitiveness on these points, is their scrupulousness 
 in avoiding any provocation or ground of offense to others. 
 Indeed, to such a pitch do they carry this, that no equestrian 
 statue is permitted — so at least they say themselves — because 
 it would wound the dignity of any one entitled to marks of re- 
 spect to pass in the street, or to meet in a house, a person rid- 
 ing, even in bronze, ichile the other was on foot ! Thus none 
 but officers, and not all these, are allowed to ride ; and if a 
 Daimio (or Prince) is met, they must dismount until he passes. 
 Nor are these unimportant distinctions, for they have much to 
 do with the hostility of all the ruling classes to foreigners pass- 
 ing along their roads and streets, especially on horseback ; be- 
 cause, in the first place, it is, according to Japanese etiquette, 
 an assumption of superiority, and, in the next place, no Daimio, 
 however high, can compel a foreigner to dismount and do him 
 obeisance. Hence they tried to close the road to foreigners 
 between Yeddo and the port of Kanagawa, and various un- 
 pleasant rencounters have taken place, when members of the dif- 
 ferent Legations have had to pass a Japanese noble with a ret- 
 inue* of retainers. Indeed, in the history of the edicts expel- 
 
 * There can be no doubt that one, and not the least important or influen- 
 tial, of the many causes of hostility in the privileged classes, lies here. The 
 lowly obeisance of the unprivileged (consisting of all the mass of the popula- 
 tion) is at once flattering to their pride and essential to their supremacy. 
 Whatever calls either the one or the other in question must be not only a 
 strong incitement to hostile feeling, but a source of danger; for the public 
 demonstration of independence in the foreigner aims a fatal blow at both. 
 The Japanese merchant or shopkeeper, who bends his head to the dust when 
 a two-sworded official passes, rises with a feeling of shame and self-abase«
 
 Chai'. VIII.J INDIVIDUALITY.— SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 165 
 
 ling all foreigners and exterminating all Christian converts in 
 the seventeenth century, one of the first provocations is said 
 to have arisen from such an incident, a Portuguese Bishop 
 meeting a high officer of the Tycoon, and ' not rendering the 
 usual obeisance,' in other words, getting out of the Norimon, 
 and on his knees bowing his head to the dust ! This is often 
 quoted as an evidence of the pride and arrogance of the priests, 
 but very absurdly. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that there is a great fund of preten- 
 sion at the bottom of all these periphrases of self-abasement, 
 which seem only so punctiliously adhered to, that each may be 
 sure in turn of having the like rendered back to him with in- 
 terest, in terms of honor and exaltation when addressed by oth- 
 ers. It is a common observation that the most punctilious and 
 ceremonious people, nations or individuals, are also the proud- 
 est and most tenacious of rank and observance in their own 
 case. So, although grammarians may find diificulty in disin- 
 terring and separating from these euphuisms and circumlocu- 
 tions distinctive personal pronouns, yet I hesitate to join in the 
 conclusion, somewhat rashly drawn perhaps, that tiiere is no 
 individual liberty among the Japanese, and that their laws, and 
 the mixed feudal and despotic nature of their government, im- 
 peratively require the utter renunciation of all individuality 
 and rights attaching to it. Something of this may be true, 
 without by any means justifying the more sweeping deduction. 
 
 The spoken language, except in these paiticulars, and in the 
 complicated construction of their verbs, presents no serious 
 difficulties to the learner. In pronunciation, noiie^ in compari- 
 son with the Chinese ; for the system of intonation, in eight 
 modulations, any one of which may entirely alter the sense, is 
 unknown in Japan. Nor are there any guttural or difficult 
 sounds, if we except the semi-liquid sound given to tlie r/ nei- 
 ther I nor r, but something between both. The Malay has 
 sometimes been described as the Italian of the East ; but the 
 Japanese, with all its soft and liquid sounds, has still better 
 pi'etensions to be so considered. 
 
 But, once we come to the written language, the difficulties 
 accumulate. They have three modes or systems of writing. 
 
 ment in the presence of a foreigner who is exempt. Pride, privileges, and 
 political power are all involved, therefore, in this question, v^hich, at first 
 sight, ap])eai-8 only one of puerile form or etiquette. Only recently a fatal 
 rencounter has taken place on the high road hetween Kanagawa and the cap- 
 ital, in which one of a party of English taking a ride was killed by the fol- 
 lowers of some Daimio whose corte'ge they were passing on horseback. And 
 it may truly be said that no such cortege is ever met by foreigners without 
 danger to life.
 
 166 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 The first consists in the use of the Chinese characters, the sec- 
 ond and third in the two alphabets known as the Katagana 
 and the Hiragana. But this goes a very little way toward ex- 
 hausting the subject. The Japanese have, unfortunately for 
 European students, many different methods of writing the Chi- 
 nese characters, and, worse still, a habit of mingling all the dif- 
 ferent modes in the same page. Thus, to begin with the Chi- 
 nese, or rather the nearest approach they make to it, there are 
 three modes of writing even the square character. The first 
 is called the Kaisho {kai^ ' care') style, and is only commonly 
 used in poetry and printed books. The second, the Giosho 
 {gio^ 'action' or 'going out'), is the style of ofiicial letters and 
 dispatches. The third, or Sosho (so, ' grass' or ' herb'), is fur 
 familiar correspondence between equals. The differences are 
 not so great but that the character in each may generally be 
 deciphered without much difficulty by any one very familiar 
 with the first ; although the difference, in the Sosho, is some- 
 times so essential as to make them altogether unrecognizable. 
 Nor has it been found possible to ascertain any rules by which 
 these interpolations of different systems are made. Sometimes, 
 especially if proper names are expressed, the Katagana char- 
 acters are used. This is easily understood, as it is an attempt 
 simply to convey the pronunciation of the foreign word. But, 
 as if to accumulate perplexities and baflle beginners, a farther 
 habit prevails of using the idiographic characters in a sentence, 
 sometimes according to the meaning or idea to be conveyed, 
 and at others merely as phonetic signs. Lastly, although they 
 have adopted the whole Chinese collection of characters, and 
 leai'ned to attach to each the ideas belonging to them in China, 
 the construction of sentences is often so completely different, 
 according to the genius of the Japanese language, that it is 
 difficult for a Chinese to read a book written by Japanese in 
 the Chinese character so as fully to understand every sentence ; 
 nor can the Japanese read Chinese books, although the con- 
 trary has been very confidently asserted. This is not to assert 
 that no Japanese ever acquires the power of reading Chinese 
 works, but simply that he can only have done so by a special 
 study of Chinese with that view, which appears to be far from 
 common, and not naturally as the result of his habitually em- 
 ploying the Chinese character in writing Japanese. All Chi- 
 nese is not unintelligible to Japanese, and vice versa. The 
 common signboards are readable by both, when the Chinese 
 character is used ; so are many simple phi'ases. Some among 
 their learned read the Chinese Classics, the Foiir Books, etc., 
 as they are written ; but copies are prepared for more general
 
 Chap. VIIT.] THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 167 
 
 use, ill which the necessary transpositions iire made, and it be- 
 comes a translation rather than the original work. 
 
 With these observations, it will be clear that only those who 
 have ample leisure, with years before them, can hope to obtain 
 any mastery of the icritten language of the Japanese, in its Chi- 
 nese form. Even with great application and peculiar aptitude, 
 it must necessarily be a very laborious undertaking — a more 
 arduous task even than acquiring the original Chinese ; for in 
 China there is no mixture of styles of writing ever admitted 
 into printed works, and very rarely any deviation from the 
 stereotyped forms in official correspondence. Still less are the 
 characters used, sometimes for sound and sometimes for ideas ; 
 although here and there, as every Chinese student knows, a 
 character is occasionally introduced, especially at the end of a 
 sentence, merely for euphony. The cursive writing of the Chi- 
 nese is, indeed, a puzzling style, and it is doubtful if any Euro- 
 pean has ever mastered it ;* but neither is it very essential, 
 since it is never employed in official documents or printed 
 works. These remarks, however, as to the difficulty of the 
 task, neither apply to the spoken language nor to the two pho- 
 netic systems of writing. Each of these seem fairly attainable 
 by the same amount of diligence which would be required for 
 the acquisition of European languages. As to the writing in 
 these two modes, by the use of the Katagana and Hiragana 
 characters, no more seems necessary than the knowledge of 
 two alphabets: the one perfectly easy and simple, consisting 
 of forty-seven letters only, not difficult to write, and as clear 
 and invariable as the Roman letters ; while the Hiragana (with 
 all its varieties of form, and farther mutations, by the charac- 
 ters being connected and run into each other so as to form 
 words) does not really present many more combinations than 
 the German and Gotliic texts and our own current styles, 
 which a few days' or weeks' study renders familiar. It is not 
 more than the learning of the two hundred and fourteen Chi- 
 nese radicals, or alphabet of that language, which is only the 
 first initiatory step ! To any one who has ever contemplated 
 the study of the Chinese language, the task of acquiring Japan- 
 ese with two comparatively simple systems of phonetic charac- 
 ters will seem veiy light, and he will be disposed to regard the 
 result without fear or misgiving. 
 
 * Some few of our best linjjnists, who began the study of Chinese at a very 
 early age, may decipher or even write it, more or less imperfectly, but I have 
 never seen any of them gs^t througii the task with ease ; on the contrary, it 
 seems open to the same objection as Jeffrey's hand, which he declared to be 
 ' very ea«y writing.' ' Yes,' answered his correspondent, ' but it is d— d hard 
 reading !'
 
 168 THREE VEAtlS IN ^APAN. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 That there are differences of style and of idiom between the 
 written and the spoken language is undoubted, in this as in ev- 
 ery other language, and there are varieties of style according 
 to the subject ; but this does not constitute three dialects^ still 
 less so many languages. 
 
 Rodriguez, in referring to the curious inversion of order 
 which exists in the Japanese construction of sentences com- 
 pared with the Chinese, seems more at home than in the con- 
 struction of the verbs, and brings out the contrast very clear- 
 ly, although it may be early for any European student to pro- 
 nounce an independent opinion as to its correctness. In Chi- 
 nese, he says, a sentence ordinarily begins with a participle 
 signifying opposition, if there be any, then the negatives, and 
 afterward those terms which mark the tense and mood ; the 
 verb follows, and, last of all, the word governed. The Japan- 
 ese adopt in their language a reversed order : the case govern- 
 ed by the verb comes first ; then the verb followed by the in- 
 dications of mood and tense, and the parts marking opposition 
 or negation ; and thus the sentence finishes where the Chinese 
 begins. When the Japanese translate Chinese into their own 
 literature, therefore, all the parts of a sentence require often to 
 be completely transposed, the translator passing from one to 
 another in search of what generally comes last, that he may 
 place it first ; the better to convey, from the beginning, the pur- 
 port of each phrase. 
 
 Such were my first impressions of this rather intricate ques- 
 tion ; but after two years' study, and a visit from Mr. Med- 
 hurst, H. M.'s Consul at Shanghae, whose knowledge of the 
 Chinese language is both large and practical, some new light 
 was thrown on the whole subject. Extracts from a very in- 
 teresting letter, which at my desire he wrote for the informa- 
 tion of H. M.'s Government, wnll be found in the Appendix.* 
 I will merely here remark, therefore, that it was clear our stu- 
 dent interpreters were at such great disadvantage in attempt- 
 ing to master Japanese writing icithoiit a previous knoioleclge 
 of the Chinese character and written language^ that I del erm- 
 ined at once on recommending a change in the course of study 
 for those newly arriving, and urged that they should hence- 
 forth remain the first two years in China, and begin with the 
 Chinese. 
 
 Whatever time might thus be lost in the beginning, as re- 
 garded the more special knowledge of the Japanese, written 
 and oral, would be richly compensated by the certainty and 
 rapidity of their progress on arriving in Japan, after this pre- 
 * See Note C, Appendix.
 
 Chap. VIII.] CIIINEISE OHAKACTEUS. 169 
 
 liminary course, with a power of readily deciphering the va- 
 rious combinations of* the Chinese character in common use 
 among the Japanese. 
 
 I found, in walking along the road or through the streets 
 with Mr. Medhurst, that the usual notices, shop-boards, etc., 
 were all perfectly intelligible to him, simply from his knowl- 
 edge of Chinese, and the identity (in many cases) both of the 
 character and idiom used, or from the close analogy existing. 
 The tea and sake shops are all scribbled over with the words, 
 in Chinese character, signifying ' Royal tea,' ' Royal wine,* 
 'Royal resting-place;' the term Royal evidently intended to 
 describe superiority or excellence. So of fruit-shops it was 
 ' Royal fruit' — a great misapplication of terms as regards this 
 last article, I protest, and with no closer adherence to truth 
 than advertisements usually exhibit. But often the very terms 
 used in China for ' fresh fruit' are employed, which may be 
 more vei-acious. So the prices are indicated by Chinese nu- 
 merals. ' Drugs are distinguished, as in China, by a more flam- 
 ing and elaborate sign than usual,' Mr. Medhurst remarks, and 
 are described by the same characters as in China. Advertise- 
 ments by quacks of life pills are identical. So the notice seen 
 every where in China answering to ours of ' commit no nui- 
 sance,' he found here worded in the same peculiar phraseology 
 which the Celestials have adopted. Public bathing-places have 
 two doors, side by side, with the notices 'men's baths' and 
 ' women's baths,' as in China ; though, unlike China, the dis- 
 tinction is disregarded and quite superfluous, as soon as the 
 doors are passed. Over roadway gates and entrances to in- 
 closures which are public or imperial property, and over par- 
 ticular bridges, he observed the same characters which in Chi- 
 na hint 'the necessity of dismounting from chair or horse while 
 treading sacred ground.' He even observed, one day, in the 
 main street of Yeddo, a plank stuck up by the workmen in 
 front of a portion of road under repair, with a notice in Chi- 
 nese ' to pass by on the other side.' These furnished such an 
 amoimt of cumulative evidence of the use of genuine Chinese, 
 even among the less educated, as to prove conclusively the 
 main point, namely, the familiar use of the Chinese written 
 language in common life. But the farther we proceeded in 
 this inquiry the more plentiful were the proofs. 'In books, 
 maps, pictures, and printed publications of all kinds,' Mr. Med- 
 hurst reports, ' the use of Chinese is quite as decided and re- 
 markable.' Chinese prefaces are common in the books; and 
 the titles or headings not only of the books, but of any illustra- 
 tions they contain, are invariably in Chinese. The outer cov-
 
 1 70 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 ers of maps seem always to be superscribed in Chinese, and ev- 
 ery town in the kingdom appears to have a distinct Chinese 
 name, and it would seem, as in China, applied in reference to 
 the site or some other association connected with it, the Jap- 
 anese sound of the character having in some cases the same 
 meaning as the characters themselves possess. ' Yeddo,' as it 
 is written by the Japanese, is ' River Door ;' ' Yokohama,' 
 * Cross Shore.' The highway between the two towns, 'East 
 Sea Road ;' ' Fusiyama,' ' Rich Scholar Peak,' and so on. Pic- 
 tures, which the Japanese seem peculiarly partial to, and they 
 are to be met with of every description and price, have gener- 
 ally Chinese titles attached. The envelopes of official letters 
 from the Japanese authorities to the Legation are all super- 
 scribed with the Minister's title in Chinese, with the single ex- 
 ception of the translation for ' Plenipotentiary,' a term intro- 
 duced originally by Mr. Morrison, our first Chinese Secretary 
 in China, but since discarded for one more correctly rendering 
 the title. It may readily be conceived with how much inter- 
 est I pursued the subject by the aid of Mr. Medhurst's large 
 and familiar knowledge of the Chinese language. Japanese 
 boys, we ascertained, ' begin first by learning the Chinese char- 
 acters, on which other phonetic letters are founded, and, in do- 
 ing so, not only accustom themselves to the sight of the rest 
 of the Chinese repertory, more or less, but acquire the habit 
 of writing them with such rapidity and facility, that event- 
 ually they learn to excel even the Chinese in their ability to 
 reduce the characters from the square to the cursive style.' 
 All this tended to prove beyond question the expediency, if 
 not the necessity, o\ commencing with Chinese as the founda- 
 tion. The whole document will be found full of interest, and 
 well to repay perusal, by any one concerned in tracing the cu- 
 rious analogy and connection existing between the two lan- 
 guages. 
 
 Among the characteristic peculiarities of the language is the 
 minute distinction and classification of diiferent forms of nu- 
 merals, according to the object. There is first a cardinal series 
 of general application, and then the ordinals, which are divided 
 into nearly as many series as there are classes of objects. 
 There is one class for all animals, except the flying and swim- 
 ming species and insects. Another for birds, in which, how- 
 ever, hares and rabbits are included ! A third for ships, and 
 junks, and boats ; a fourth for liquids drunk with a glass, as 
 water, wine, tea, etc. ; a fifth for things having length, as trees, 
 pens, sticks, masts, beams, radishes, carrots, fingers, brooms, 
 pipes, etc., and so on ad infinitum.; for after enumerating ex-
 
 CHAP.VniO IKTBICACIES OF THE LANGUAGE. IVI 
 
 amples of fourteen different kinds or series of numerals, I gave 
 it up in despair, foreseeing that they would fill a volume by 
 themselves. But this is a fair illustration of the eminently 
 Btraw-splitting character of the Japanese, which may be traced 
 through all their laws, institutions, and habits of thought. 
 When later, I was collecting objects for the Great Exhibition, 
 the Japanese Government asked me to suggest something tJiey 
 could contribute. Not wishing to involve them in expense, for 
 which I was sure they were not prepared, and with little time 
 to spare before the things must be shipped, I proposed speci- 
 mens of all the different kinds of paper in common use. The 
 next week I received a large box, in which were arranged no 
 less than sixty-seven different kinds, with a description of their 
 uses, carried out with such elaborate minuteness of distinctions, 
 and total absence of all reserve, delicacy, or refinement, as to 
 the details entered into regarding the uses to which each 
 should be applied, that I was compelled to revise the whole 
 carefully before it was fit for publication, and to exercise a 
 large discretion in the way of omission. 
 
 If the reader can fancy this microscopic spirit of analysis 
 and division applied to the verbs in the construction of their 
 language, my despair may be conceived when, as a mere tyro 
 and a foreigner, I came to the task of unraveling their intrica- 
 cies, and digging deep beneath the surface, overlaid with dis- 
 tinctions, for the simple elements and the roots. Many times I 
 was more than half disposed to give up the undertaking in ut- 
 ter hopelessness of ever seeing my way to any useful end. As 
 for Matab6, 1 feel some compunctious twinges of conscience 
 on looking back at the long hours of torture I subjected him 
 to in the effort — utterly vain and futile — to extract or pound 
 out of him, reckless of the cudgeling his brain required, any 
 grammatical element it might contain, transposed into the 
 Dutch forms. I sometimes wonder how he bore it, or did not 
 sink under the process. But I suspect that, after a certain 
 amount of suffering each day, having been endowed with a 
 Japanese suppleness of nature and conscience, he simply gave 
 over thinking at all, and let me pursue my own vagaries as I 
 might, assenting to every thing, just as an unha)>py victim on 
 the rack reaches a point when all his powers of endurance or 
 resistance give way, and he re-echoes whatever his tormentors 
 may choose to dictate or suggest! I began to understand how 
 the demon of persecution may have taken possession of good 
 and pious men in olden times, and converted them into fell 
 and heartless inquisitors, or how the absorbed artist struck a 
 dagger into his unfortunate model, who was tied on a cross to
 
 172 THRfiE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IX. 
 
 represent the Cnicifixion, because he failed to yield the re- 
 quired expression of agony in his face ! 
 
 Poor Matabe ! He was very proud, nevertheless, when all 
 was finished, to see his name in large print, as having lent im- 
 portant aid ; but it is very certain that without the more effi- 
 cient assistance of the Abbe Girard, a French missionary, who 
 had spent many years in the Loochoo Islands studying the 
 language, I should never have accomplished the verbs. I do 
 not know how many times they were recast, obliterated, cor- 
 rected, and rewritten ! I believe we all felt it to be a subject 
 of hearty congratulation when the word Jinis was written, 
 and the last sheet was dispatched to the printer. I leave it a 
 legacy to those who now are students, and to my successors in 
 the mission to correct all errors, enlarge and improve it, for 
 all of which I am convinced there must be great room.* 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Japanese Sayings and Doings, t 
 
 A BOOK, entitled ' Two Journeys to Japan,' was about this 
 time sent to me from England. I, who was only gleaning pain- 
 fully and with difficulty here and there, as fortune might aid 
 me, a few stray ears of corn amid a great deal of chaff float- 
 ing about, read with something of envious amazement the 
 startling incidents and strange adventures of this doubly ex- 
 perienced predecessor in the same field. It seemed to me al- 
 most doubtful, at first, whether this fortunate spectator and act- 
 or of marvels had ever been in Japan — bodily that is, and not 
 in imagination only. If so, I felt I ought to lay down the pen 
 
 * A second edition has since been prepared for the press under much more 
 favorable circumstances, in which many errors and omissions have been rec- 
 tified, and a great deal of new matter is added in the form of idiomatic dia- 
 logues and examples. 
 
 t The pages forming the chief portions of this chapter were suggested in 
 part by a work on Japan which appeared soon after I took up my residence 
 in the country, entitled 'Two Journeys to Japan, by the «utlior of the New 
 Eldorado,' in which the writer recounts such marvelous adventures as can 
 seldom have fallen to the lot of Paladin or Traveler since the days of Men- 
 dez Pinto. My observations on things Japanese, passing daily under my 
 eyes at the time, very different in kind, found their way into the columns of 
 a leading journal, arid as they seemed to be read with interest at the time, 
 and embody much I should desire to find place in a more permanent work, 
 I have reproduced them here, with such modifications only as fuller knowl- 
 edge naturally prompted, to prevent erroneous impressions being conveyed.
 
 Chap. IX.] SANITARY CONDITIONS. I73 
 
 in despair, for I had not even a hope of having any thing half 
 so wonderful to relate were my residence in Japan to be pro- 
 longed a hundred years, which Heaven forbid! Pork and 
 tough fowls for meat, and rice for vegetables, eggs for milk 
 (butter and milk being both unknown luxuries here), with an 
 occasional pigeon for entremet, may support life even under the 
 barbarous handling of a Japanese or Chinese cook — twin broth- 
 ers in capacity and instinct ; but I am satisfied there must be 
 a limit somewhere in sanitary conditions. The total depriva- 
 tion of beef and mutton must in time be a serious detriment to 
 the English constitution. Eastern climates, and long exile 
 from all home associations, we are brought up to look upon as 
 the natural incidents of people cribbed in a small insular terri- 
 tory with unbounded dependencies beyond the seas. And it 
 is astonishing Avith what philosophy we submit to the inexo- 
 rable necessity which drives so many thousands annually from 
 the parents' nest ; and how well we bear up under the loss of 
 friends and relations, and all the deprivations of social and in- 
 tellectual intercourse! But have my readers ever realized 
 what it is for months or years never to taste beef or mutton ? 
 If not, I can tell them the most robust philosophy quails under 
 such a prospect ; and I am sure the ' natural' term of a man's 
 life, occasionally so unfeelingly dwelt upon when a prisoner is 
 told he shall be eternally banished to some Norfolk Island or 
 Botany Bay, can never be a long one in Japan for any de- 
 scendants of the Saxon ! Consequently, for that is the true 
 moral of my reflections, it is improbable that I shall ever live 
 long enough to see a tithe of the funny, strange, and alarming 
 things which seem to have greeted the author's eye wherever 
 he turned. Happy, thrice happy traveler, with a book to pub- 
 lish! I only hope he has not altogether spoiled the British 
 public for the plain narrative of such every-day matters as 
 come under the observation of common mortals seeking clear 
 insight into the character and institutions of a people so excep- 
 tionally situated as the Japanese. Their long insulation, it is 
 true, even prior to the great maritime discoveries of the six- 
 teenth century which first carried Europeans to their shores, 
 but more especially since the seventeenth, when every one of 
 the anathematized races of foreigners were either exterminated 
 or expelled, save only the Dutch and the Chinese, at Nagasaki, 
 has had the eftect of placing a whole nation in a condition to 
 show the development of a civilization, sui (/eneris, uninflu- 
 enced, for the most part, by any knoAvledge of the progress be- 
 ing made throughout the world by contemporaneous races and 
 nations. But it is something like a geological survey of a
 
 174 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IX. 
 
 country ; here and there the underlying strata have cropped 
 up and may be noted on the surface, or a land-slip may reveal 
 to the casual observer some of the formations ; but more fre- 
 quently the leading points of interest, giving the key to the 
 whole, are only to be obtained by conscientious labor, carrying 
 the inquirer down through all the superincumbent layers. So, 
 in the study of national character and institutions, or a phase 
 of civilization, some indications lie on the surface which afford 
 valuable indicia to what lies beneath ; but they are also very 
 apt to mislead the merely superficial explorer. What I give 
 now, therefore, I give for as much as it may be worth, with a 
 distinct reservation for all ' errors and omissions.' 
 
 I propose for the present to give only a few traits of Jap- 
 anese character or customs, as these have come under my own 
 observation, with i-eference to the travelers' stories already be- 
 fore the public, and Japanese records professing to relate with 
 circumstantial accuracy the more remarkable events and inci- 
 dents of the last few reigns. Some of these Mr. Titsingh, long 
 a resident at Nagasaki as former chief of the Dutch factory, 
 with laudable diligence collected under the title of ' Memoires 
 et Anecdotes sous la Dynastie Regnante des Djogouns Sou- 
 verains du Japan,' and much therein is calculated to throw 
 light upon the habits of thought and action which prevail at 
 the present time in this land of earthquakes ! Excuse the in- 
 terruption, but until one gets used to such things, as I suppose 
 every body does in time, the smart shock of an earthquake has 
 a decidedly disturbing effect, bodily and mental ! 
 
 I have not now to make my first acquaintance with these 
 visitors from the caldrons beneath, yet I can not say familiarity 
 has produced either of the two proverbial results — affection 
 or contempt. As Slender confusedly says of sweet Anne Page, 
 ' I feel that there was no great love in the beginning ;' and it 
 has certainly pleased Heaven to ' decrease it upon better ac- 
 quaintance.' 
 
 In truth, no familiarity can make one like them ; for there is 
 this peculiar aggravation attending volcanic operations and 
 their eldest progeny Earthquakes, that while the solid earth, 
 associated in the mind with all faith in the stability of things 
 sublunary, vibrates and heaves under your feet, it is impossible 
 to form any conception or the remotest guess when it will 
 cease, how far it will go, or when and how often it will recom- 
 mence. The state of doubt and suspense into which one is 
 unavoidably thrown is, perhaps, the least agreeable of the ac- 
 companiments of earthquakes. But the resident in Japan must 
 needs be resigned to this also, for they occur with such fre-
 
 Chap. IX.] GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1781 175 
 
 quency, the ever-smoking and heaving volcanoes being in full 
 blast throughout the land, that the normal state of the coun- 
 try, physically considered, may be described as one of chronic 
 convulsion, the quiescent state being an exception, a mere in- 
 termittence in this tertian or quartan ague jBt, that takes the 
 four corners of a house and shakes it as a strong man shakes a 
 puny foe before he flings him to the earth crushed and man- 
 gled ! We had one or two in every week after my arrival, not 
 violent enough to throw houses down, but quite sufficiently 
 smart and long in duration to wake any one out of the sound- 
 est sleep, with a perfectly indescribable sense of insecurity ; 
 for the most frightful earthquake and volcanic eruption on rec- 
 ord in Japan, it is to be remembered, began by many prelim- 
 inary shocks of no great intensity, in this same district of Yed- 
 do, in 1783, and seems to have exceeded in its horrors and wide 
 destruction the earthquake of Lisbon at the other end of the 
 chain. The accounts state that at eight o'clock on the morn- 
 ing of July 27 of that year, a great wind got up, accompanied 
 by subterranean mutterings of thunder, which continued aug- 
 menting from day to day, in seeming menace of some frightful 
 catastrophe, until August 1. On that day an earthquake, with 
 loud thunders, shook all the houses to their foundations, the 
 intensity of the shocks each moment increasing until the sum- 
 mit of the mountain was rent open, and fire and flame appear- 
 ed, followed by such an avalanche of fand and stones, tossed 
 high into the air, and carried to incredible distances, that the 
 darkness of night came on, the only light being the lurid glare 
 of burning lava and devastating flames. Vast chasms opened 
 before the affrighted inhabitants in their flight, into which 
 thousands, in the darkness and panic, urged on by the streams 
 of fire and showers of stone and ashes, are said to have been 
 precipitated. The shocks did not entirely cease until the 
 twelfth day, and were felt over a space of thirty leagues. 
 Twenty-seven towns and villages were destroyed ; the rivers, 
 boiling and overflowing, inundated the whole country, to com- 
 plete the work of destruction. I think it must be admitted 
 that there is enough in this account, drawn from Japanese 
 sources and the accounts of eyewitnesses, to make men ' not to 
 the manner born' feel any thing but reconciled to the daily 
 chance of a repetition, especially as the same volcanic centre 
 has given, as late as 1 854, a signal proof of undiminished vigor. 
 At Simoda, only lower down m the bay, there was at that time 
 such a violent commotion of both earth and sea that the whole 
 town was reduced to ruins, and large portions were swallowed 
 up by the sea in the back sweep of three huge waves, which in
 
 176 imnm YEARS IN JAPAN. [CHAf . IX. 
 
 succession rose over the highest trees, leaving the bay nearly 
 empty. Large junks and boats were flung some distance in- 
 land, and the Russian frigate ' Diana,' which had escaped Ad- 
 miral Stirling the year before, now escaped a far greater dan- 
 ger almost miraculously. She is described as spinning round 
 and round at her anchors, the men being thrown down, and 
 many of the guns shot across the decks, killing and wounding 
 the crew, until she was left all but a total wreck. The harbor 
 was scoured out to its granite foundations, and has never since 
 afforded good holding-ground for ships to anchor in. 
 
 So one evening, when the air was sultry and a sobbing wind 
 swept suddenly through the pine-trees with menace of a storm, 
 an uneasy feeling seemed to take possession of every one. And 
 when the lightning and the rain followed quick, with some- 
 thing altogether peculiar in the roll of thunder — a long, even, 
 monotonous peal, neither seeming to approach nor recede, nei- 
 ther diminuendo nor crescendo to a final crash, but ceasing 
 just as it began — the first thought in every mind was, I am 
 sure, ' An earthquake !' However, no shock was felt, so the 
 dinner continued uninterrupted. But some time after, with 
 just such a storm, and with a deluge of rain, we had the se- 
 verest shock I have yet felt. Some men were thrown down, 
 others rushed at a bound from the house into the open space 
 regardless of rain, while every pillar and beam creaked and 
 shook. The whole house and earth beneath appeared to sway 
 to and fro horizontally, seized with a violent shivering-fit, which, 
 if it had only lasted another minute, I think, would have be- 
 come contagious. 
 
 The Japanese, it was said, found the magnet lose its power 
 during an earthquake, if not some time before. If this were true, 
 it would have been a curious fact, and one well worthy of far- 
 ther investigation. With a good horse-shoe magnet suspended, 
 and a gong or a copper basin beneath, one might improvise an 
 earthquake alarm, and if it only gave a few seconds' notice, it 
 might at least save people from being buried beneath the ruins 
 of their own hoiises. In a scientific point of view, however, 
 independent of any immediate practical application, it was an 
 object of interest. But a little inquiry and experiment seemed 
 to dissipate all hopes of a valuable discovery. The truth ap- 
 peared to be that the American Minister had read, in some of 
 the veracious correspondence from Japan which appeared in 
 the New York papers, a round assertion that such a fact was 
 well known to the Japanese. And these, being referred to, 
 with the characteristic vanity and mendacity of Yaconins, had
 
 Chap. IX.] INQUIRIES ABOUT JAPAN. 177 
 
 no scruple in appropriating the honor thus thrust upon their 
 country of a great scientific discovery.* 
 
 But let us turn to other matters ; for, spite of earthquakes, 
 and sudden burial under ruins, or slow roasting by the spread 
 of fires while pinioned to the earth, fire being almost the sure 
 sequent of a shock strong enough to throw houses down, there 
 is eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage in 
 Yeddo, ' as in the days that were before the flood,' and just as 
 continuously and joyously as though Japan had its foundations 
 immovably fixed in the centre of the earth instead of on these 
 treacherous and shifting ribs of granite, which case a mighty 
 sea of molten lava and tire ! 
 
 I received about this time a letter full of inquiries about Ja- 
 pan, its climate, productions, people, etc., suggested mainly, it 
 would appear, by a compilation of a Mr. Andrew Steinmetz, 
 giving in a popular form the gleanings from Kcempfer, Thun- 
 berg, and later residents or travelers. I could not help being 
 amused at the evidence these inquiries furnis>h of the absurd 
 mixture of fact and supposition in nearly all that is attributed 
 to the Japanese. My correspondent headed her sheet ' Facts 
 asserted by Andrew Steinraetz, of the Middle Temple,' with a 
 general query, ' Are any of these true ?' a doubt apparently 
 having crossed her mind as soon as she had written the word 
 '■facts.^ And she was right, for useful facts are hard to come 
 by in a country like this, and very apt to be misinterpreted 
 when obtained. 
 
 But to the facts. ' Fogs, and all sorts of rain, and bad weath- 
 er abundant; cold winds from the mountains extreme; not- 
 withstanding, a most healthy country to live in; air very salu- 
 brious ; soil very fertile ; fruits most delicious.' 
 
 We were near the end of August, and there had been, for 
 the week or two preceding, something very like English autumn 
 weather, the sun brighter and a little hotter, some 80° to 84° 
 in the shade, the evenings generally cool and pleasant, but at 
 frequent intervals a night or a day of heavy rain. Occasion- 
 ally, however, when I awoke, there would be a loud roaring of 
 wind among the forest trees and a deluge of falling rain, the 
 two together making a very dismal sort of music, by no means 
 conducive to cheerfulness or to early rising. Beautiful breezy 
 mornings, slightly overcast, often begin the day, which is then 
 pretty sure to be succeeded by a rainy afternoon ; but before 
 the rain nothing can be more delightful or more like a fine au- 
 
 * Some investigations have recently taken place, on the supposition that a 
 conncciiiju may be traced between the magnetic state of the earth or the at- 
 uiosplicrc and the shocks of earthquakes at any given spot. 
 
 H2
 
 178 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. IX. 
 
 tumn morning in England. The sun, during the hottest days 
 of summer, is very much less intense in its heat than on the 
 neighboring coast of China. The thermometer, in the shade, 
 ranges from 70° to 85°, and averages 80° between the morning 
 and the evening, while it is sometimes below 70° at night. 
 This is a climate, therefore, that does not make mere existence 
 a burden and all life an effort, as it often becomes both in India 
 and China. As to its ' salubrity, freedom of the people from 
 disease (especially skin diseases, on account of the sea-weed 
 eaten), undoubted longevity,' and other 'facts' very confidently 
 asserted, I should not have ventured, in those early days, to 
 give a decided opinion. But longer experience makes me bold, 
 and I have no hesitation in saying that they are, upon the 
 whole, a cleanly people, wash often, sa^is peur et sans reproche^ 
 wear little clothing, live in houses open to the air, and look on 
 wide and well-ventilated streets, where nothing offensive is al- 
 lowed to rest. In all these things the Japanese have greatly 
 the advantage over other Eastern races, and notably over the 
 Chinese, whose streets are an abomination to any one possess- 
 ing eyes to see or a nose to smell with. All failed, however, to 
 give them immunity from the devastating cholera, which the 
 United States' frigate Mississippi is said, I believe correctly, 
 to have brought over — a first fatal fruit of the treaty and their 
 extended relations with foreigners ! It swept many thousands 
 from their cities ; they say 200,000 from Yeddo alone. And 
 one can not be surprised that in the minds of the people it was 
 looked upon as associated with the strangers, and a visitation 
 wholly due to their newly-established relations. I hear, how- 
 ever, that it was not a first visitation, and that they had it in 
 1818; but as far as mere human agency was concerned, this 
 later visitation might be traced to that source, and of course it 
 did not tend to make either the treaties or the foreigners ob- 
 jects of popular favor. This might be one of the latent causes 
 of dislike and distrust which we had to struggle against, with 
 but doubtful success. Some officials very anxiously questioned 
 me as to the mode in which cholera was propagated or trans- 
 mitted from one country to another, what were the best medi- 
 cines and means of stopping its ravages, etc. They evidently 
 regarded the possibility of its reappearance with considerable 
 alarm ; and, indeed, not without reason, since by last accounts 
 it was then already at Nagasaki, though not to a very great ex- 
 tent. These ofiicials said the Japanese attributed its first ap- 
 pearance among them to the introduction last year of the water- 
 melons, also a gift of the Americana, though I should doubt 
 both facts. Watermelons, like potatoes, the first introduction
 
 Chap. IX.] SKIN DISEASES.— TATTOOING. 179 
 
 of which has also been attributed to Commodore Perry, if not 
 indigenous, have at least been many generations in the country, 
 and largely cultivated. Their inquiries, no doubt, had refer- 
 ence to our quarantine laws, the adoption of which they seemed 
 to be contemplating. 
 
 But as to general conditions of salubrity Japan certainly 
 appears to be greatly favored. What its influence may be in 
 regard to frequency of disease or longevity I can not say far- 
 ther than this, that there is not the exemption from skiyi dis- 
 eases which has been asserted. On the contrary, among the 
 working classes various forms of cutaneous eruptions are com- 
 mon — perhaps to be accounted for by their habit of washing 
 together in crowds. Every third man seems, for some cause 
 or other, to have had the tnoxa very frequently applied, leav- 
 ing scars down the whole length of the spine. Itch, too, is a 
 common malady — common to a distressing degree, and invet- 
 erate beyond any thing known in Europe ! It is almost im- 
 possible to get a domestic servant free from this loathsome 
 disease, or keep him so. The truth is, they wash their bodies 
 often enough, but much less frequently their clothes, and there 
 is a vast deal too much of promiscuous herding and slopping 
 together at the baths of all the lower orders for much purity 
 to come out of them, moral or physical. The love of dress be- 
 ing undeveloped in both sexes to a remarkable extent, there is 
 of course abundant opportunity of observing the state of the 
 skin. En revanche^ if the men dispense with robe or trowsers 
 whenever they are free to do as they choose, they seem to de- 
 light in ornament that has the double advantage of perma- 
 nence and close fitting, without otherwise incommoding the 
 wearer when once made to order. I have not been among the 
 South Sea Islanders yet, or the New Zealanders, nor even made 
 acquaintance with the Chippewa Indians, but I can conceive 
 nothing more elaborate in the way of tattooing than the speci- 
 mens supplied by the male population of Japan. And really 
 to see them in their habitual costume {videlicet, a girdle of the 
 narrowest possible kind), the greater part of the body and 
 limbs scrolled over with bright blue dragons, and lions, and 
 tigers, and figures of men and women, tattooed into their 
 skins with the most artistic and elaborate ornamentation — 
 • scantily dressed but decently painted,' as has been said of our 
 own ancestors when Julius Caesar first discovered them — it is 
 impossible to deny that they look remarkably like a race of 
 savages, if not savages, in their war paint. The women seem 
 content with the skin that nature gave them, in all its varying 
 shades of olive, and sometimes scarcely a shade at all. I have
 
 180 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 seen many as fair as my own countrywomen, and with heal- 
 thy blood mantling in their cheeks — that is, when fresh wash- 
 ed, and before they have painted cheeks and Hps, and powder- 
 ed all the face and neck with rice flour until they look like 
 painted Twelfth-night Queens done in pastry and white lead. 
 When they have renewed the black varnish to the teeth, jjluck- 
 ed out the last hair from their eyebrows, the Japanese matrons 
 may certainly claim unrivaled pre-eminence in artificial ugli- 
 ness over all their sex. Their mouths thus disfigured are like 
 open sepulchres, and whether given to ' flatter with their 
 tongues' I can not undertake in this my novitiate to say, but 
 they must have sirens' tongues or a fifty-horse power of flat- 
 tery to make those red-varnished lips utter any thing which 
 could compensate man or child for so much artificial ugliness ! 
 Were it not for such perverse ingenuity in marring nature's 
 fairest work, many among them might make some considerable 
 pretensions to beauty, as several of the studies from nature 
 scattered through this volume will show. The type, as may 
 be seen in the annexed portrait, is neither Malay nor Mongol, 
 
 FEMALE HEAD-DKES8. 
 
 ■while the elaborate style of the hair is in itself a study, and 
 displays a marvelous amount of feminine ingenuity. One 
 might certainly search the world through without being able 
 to match the womankind of Japan for such total abnegation 
 of personal vanity. If this be a sacrifice offered on the shrine 
 of conjugal fidelity, the motive is no doubt very laudable, but 
 it leads to the inference, not altogether so complimentary, that
 
 Chip.IX.1 SELF-INFLICTED UGLINESS. 183 
 
 either the men are more dangerous or the women more frail 
 than elsewhere, since sucli extreme measm-es have been found 
 necessary to secure the same results. Surely something less 
 than the whole womanhood of Japan deliberately making it- 
 self hideous might have sufficed to prove the absence of all 
 wish or design to captivate admirers ! For my part, I can not 
 help thinking the husbands pay rather dear for any protection 
 or security it is supposed to bring, since, if no other man can 
 find any thing pleasing in a face so marred and disfigured, the 
 husband must be just as badly ofF, if he has any sense of beauty 
 in him. Perhaps custom and that ' deformed thief,' fashion, 
 may have brought him to like it ; but if so, where is the pro- 
 tection ? If he can like it, so may others. Perverted tastes 
 are infectious. Of course I shall be told — nay, I think I hear 
 excellent and exemplary English matrons saying, with a cer- 
 tain monitory voice, ' That when the affections are engaged, a 
 loving husband sees only the mind and the heart in the face, 
 and loses the individual features ; and as those are worthy of 
 love and admiration, so is his indifference to the skin-deep 
 beauty of the face, his love being something quite irrespective 
 of such graces ; and, more than this, that, as a matter of expe- 
 rience, six months' married life serves to familiarize the ugliest 
 faces, or efface the original impression of the fairest. I have 
 heard some such discourse in time past in support of a theory, 
 which, despite all my efforts, I never could cordially accept. 
 But less than ever could I have done so now, after a few weeks' 
 residence in Japan, where I saw the principle carried out to its 
 last frightful consequences, and with inexorable logic ! What- 
 ever man's sensuous perception of the beautiful may be — and 
 some, at least, are very unfortunately endowed that way — he 
 must of necessity, for the whole term of his (or her) existence, 
 be condemned to take up his abode with willful and unmiti- 
 gated ugliness in the face of his cherished partner ! 
 
 Moreover, it does not seem to answer very perfectly the end 
 proposed, to judge by many very graphic and popular repre- 
 sentations of conjugal differences and infidelities. They have 
 not, it is true, so far as I know, yet arrived at such a pitch of 
 civilization as to require the assistance of a court answering to 
 that presided over by Sir Cresswell Cresswell — unnecessary, 
 perhaps, as they have adopted, if we may judge by the accom- 
 panying illustration, with polygamy and concubines, other parts 
 of the Jewish Law, and write letters of divorce — upon provo- 
 cation. Here is a little conjugal scene, painted to the life by 
 one of themselves, where man and wife are plainly at issue. 
 The husband is rubbing the Indian ink which is to write a let-
 
 184 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 WRITING A LETTER OF DIVORCE. 
 
 ter of divorce, and friends of each party are apparently seek- 
 ing in vain to reconcile the couple — the broken dishes in the 
 foreground appearing symbolic of broken trust, and vows 
 which are past restoring! Here again is another conjugal 
 scene, where the lady has discovered her husband with a love- 
 
 LOVE-LETTKR DISCOVERED.
 
 Chap. IX.] INTOXICATION.— A CONJUGAL SCENE. 185 
 
 letter of a most inconvenient length for concealment ; and to 
 all appearances it is the wife who is taking the law against her 
 husband, as sometimes in more civilized lands — taking it, too, 
 in her own hands, and seeming to require no extraneous aiding 
 whatever from judge or jury ! 
 
 Granted that constant intercourse and continued interchange 
 of good offices do greatly soften to the eye outward deformities, 
 is it very wrong to wish that the Japanese women might be 
 persuaded not to make themslves such frights, dressed or im- 
 dressed ? Enlightened by what I see in Japan, I confess, how- 
 ever, I should, as a matter of taste^ prefer and recommend the 
 former, as more advantageous to milliners, and (I hope I shall 
 be forgiven) occasionally to the ladies themselves. 
 
 'The Japanese are perfectly ignorant of alcolioL' There 
 may be a difference of opinion as to what constitutes alcohol, 
 but '■SaJci' seems to me an excellent imitation; and if it is 
 meant that the Japanese are innocent of intoxication — a noisy, 
 dangerous, and pugnacious intoxication — I am sorry truth com- 
 pels me to say there never was an assertion of fact more sig- 
 nally refuted by practice. Here the gentler sex sometimes 
 finds occasion to render service which may well make amends 
 to the erring husband for something of jealous watchfulnesi 
 
 CONJUGAL SUUVICB.
 
 186 THREE YEAKS IN JAPAN. tCHAP. IX. 
 
 over his aberrations iu more sober moments ; for see how lov- 
 ingly and uureproachfully she is leading him home, when he is 
 past taking care of himself, and might very easily come to 
 grief if he met a two-sworded Samourai. From a road which 
 ran behind the Legation, the noise of roistering blades, as soon 
 as night had well set in, and the shouting of hoarse inebriate 
 voices, left no room for doubt as to the state of the parties. 
 The great road, the 'Tocado,' ran iu front, and it furnished evi- 
 dence enough at earlier hours, only to be observed closely, 
 however, at the chance of getting a sword-thrust, or one's head 
 cut open, as a part of the evidence. 
 
 'The Japanese are as perfect gentlemen as could be found 
 in any part of the world.' As I have described them looking 
 very like North American Indians in their war paint, and the 
 resemblance is very close, I am bound also to say that when 
 they see fit to dress themselves like decent people elsewhere, 
 there is a notable change in the whole man. Even the most 
 elaborately tattooed, as he approach- 
 es you covered with a vest, with the 
 lowly and not ungraceful bend for- 
 ward of the whole body, and begs to 
 know your wishes, displays a gentle- 
 ness and winning courtesy in man- 
 ner and expression which 'John' or 
 ' Jeames' would find it very difiicult 
 to approach, even in idea ! Be it in- 
 nate or acquired, it sits perfectly easy 
 upon him. And in the npper classes, 
 with the exception of officials, or Sa- 
 mourai, when they may feel licensed 
 A JAPANESE SERVANT OR ^° ^^ iusolcnt aud truculcut to the 
 WORKMAN. foreigner, there is in their* perfect 
 
 self-possession and self-command, 
 their quiet demeanor, and the softened tones in which they 
 seem habitually to speak, even to their inferiors and servants, 
 a well-bred air which makes them look like gentlemen. Their 
 partially shaven heads, the hair most scrupulously dressed and 
 turned tight up over the back in a truncated queue laid on the 
 bare crown, their flowing gown and surcoat, in summer con- 
 sisting of delicate-colored gauzes and silks, chiefly grays and 
 lilacs, or fawn, the absence of hair about the face, and the bare 
 throat, all help the general effect of men carefully got up, who 
 not only respect themselves, but are well accustomed to respect 
 from others. There is nothing, perhaps, more readily recog- 
 nized at a glance than the difierence of expression, gait, and
 
 Chap. IX.] CONVENTIONALITIES. l87 
 
 general bearing, in either man or woman, between those to 
 whom outward respect and deference are habitually shown, 
 and those to whom such observances are new. Judged by 
 outward marks, then, the educated Japanese is to all appear- 
 ance a gentleman. And if farther acquaintance suggests some 
 reservations, more especially as regards conventionalities, there 
 is still much to accept frankly. They understand the courte- 
 sies of life perfectly, and their observances of etiquette seem, 
 upon the whole, less exaggerated and cumbrous than among 
 their Chinese neighbors. They do not tell the truth, officially 
 at all events, and do not particularly care that you should think 
 they do, it would almost seem ; though, as all speech and as- 
 severations become idle under an open and avowed disregard 
 of truth, this can hardly be so in fact. But, at all events, they 
 are very callous as to the discovery of any former aberration, 
 though anxious enough sometimes that they should be believed 
 at the moment. Then it takes long habit before Europeans can 
 bear the frequent and loud eructations, as evidence of a good 
 meal, without a strong mental protest. So, when a Japanese 
 takes out of the loose fold of his vest a nice square of paper, 
 and, applying it to his nose, carefully folds the envelope into 
 his sleeve for a pocket, or gives it to his attendant to throw 
 away, that is merely a conventional thing, and they may per- 
 haps reasonably contend that theirs is a more delicate pro- 
 ceeding than ours of carrying a handkerchief, or ' nose-cloth,' 
 about the person for a day. Or again, the day being warm, 
 when he brings out of the same recess a neatly buckled pouch 
 of matting, and takes a swab-cloth without hesitation or dis- 
 guise, not very white, to wipe the perspiration away, return- 
 ing it carefully when the operation is perfected, it is not ex- 
 actly as gentlemen or ladies do at home, but it is a difference 
 only in form, for under the same circumstances the act in one 
 way or other micst be performed by both. But, at least, 
 they are not an expectorating race : living in houses with 
 clean matted floors, one feels secure from that disgusting habit. 
 There is also, upon the whole, so far as I have had opportuni- 
 ties of observing, less cringing servility in the inferior classes, 
 lav and official, and much less official hauteiir in the dealings 
 of the higher with the lower classes, than ihe accounts in Com- 
 modore Perry's narrative had led us to suspect. It is very true 
 thatMoriyama himself, the prince and paragon of interpreters, 
 and an officer to boot (he particularly begged my secretary on 
 one occasion so to style him, and not Interpreter), when he acts 
 as interpreter in the official intei-views with the high officers of 
 State, comes bai'ofooted to the vicinity of the Chief Minister^
 
 188 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 and sinks on his knees, or, when not actually speaking, rests on 
 his heels by some ingenious process (still a great mystery to 
 me), and there remains during the whole interview, however 
 long it may be. If there are two or three Interpreters they 
 all do the same, and a long row of mute attendants are ranged 
 behind in the same attitude. Yet something of the servility 
 of the attitude is lost in the profound air of deference expressed, 
 and the urbane and gentle mode of address always employed 
 by the chief. When Moriyama listens, his head is lowered 
 nearly to the floor, with the hands prone and the eyes bent 
 down ; and so, when he has to interpret the answer, he com- 
 mences by a similar lowly prostration, the head only a little 
 more elevated. Though, even with this advantage, how these 
 low-bi"eathed sounds — now and then cut in two, as it were, by 
 some clever ventriloquism, bringing half the words from the 
 lower depths of the chest — ever reach the ears for which they 
 are intended, or convey any meaning, it is hard to understand. 
 Certain I am the Japanese must have, by nature or practice, very 
 fine auditory nerves. However, the slowly recurring ' Hai !* 
 'Heh!' 'Hah!' (Yes) — for it seems pronounced all ways, and 
 sometimes from the lips, but oftener from unfathomable re- 
 cesses low in the throat, and hovering between a deep-drawn 
 sigh and an interjection — gives assurance that the confidential 
 murmurs are really heard to effect ; and they have this advan- 
 tage, that what the interpreter is saying can only be known 
 by the high officer himself who is addressed. The following 
 sketch well represents the attitude, though not the costume of 
 an officer on duty. 
 
 A JAPANESE FROSTRATINO HIMSELF BEFORE HIS SUPERIORS. 
 
 This gossiping chapter on Japanese sayings and doings, how- 
 ever, must be brought to a close before half the * queries' and
 
 Chap. IX. J SCENERY OF THE COUNTRY. 189 
 
 'facts' of my fair coiTespondent are answered. I see all sorts 
 of notions' jotted down about ' common dogs,' or dogs in com- 
 mon — the only real nuisance of Japanese cities, in addition to 
 the two-s worded Samourai — and ' beautiful cats' (without tails), 
 ' rats and mice,' ' agates and cornelians,' and ' pearls fished up 
 every where, of great size and beauty, which Japanese do not 
 prize,' the last part being more wonderful than the first. All 
 I could then have said was, that I had seen no pearls, large or 
 small ; but if there were any, I should be exceedingly surprised 
 if my clever friends, the Japanese, had not learned their full 
 value ! And such I afterward found to be the fact. They 
 have them in certain quantities, and know what price to ask 
 for them, and how to imitate the true article by false substi- 
 tutes. And as for ' fine variegated marbles, jaspers,' and ' other 
 precious stones' (said to come from the inountains), but particu- 
 larly ' pearls,' for which they are ' celebrated — alas! I have seen 
 nothing,' and could only assure her I would ' make a note of it,' 
 especially the mountain pearls, if I should ever see any, and 
 duly send her a sample. 
 
 My query sheet wound up with something which is a fact, 
 namely, that ' outside of England there is nothing so green, so 
 garden-like, so full of tranquil beauty: the country luxuriously 
 wooded, and cedars of great size and beauty are plentiful ; the 
 soil very fertile.' 
 
 Yes, all this is very true : such fertility of soil, fine growth 
 of ornamental timber, richness and variety of foliage, or such 
 
 J)erfection of care and neatness in the hedgerows and shady 
 anes, the gardens, and the numerous pleasure-grounds of the 
 temples, are not, I believe, to be found any where out of En- 
 gland. The brilliant green hues and freshness of the grass and 
 every kind of foHage rather betokens a damp climate; but the 
 mixture of tropical vegetation with endless succession of ever- 
 green trees and the hardier race of pines and conifers gives a 
 character to the whole scenery of the country as novel as it is 
 perfect in effect. The tree-fern, which looks like a palm in its 
 tufts of top-foliage and bare trunk, the bamboo, banana, and 
 palm, side by side with the pine, the oak, and the beech, with a 
 numerous race of timber trees and shrubs, some of which are 
 probably unknown in Europe, open a Avide field for the bota- 
 nist, and give studies for the landscape painter of unrivaled 
 beauty. There is an infinite variety of form, character, and 
 coloring, in the masses of foliage that every where meet the 
 eye, grouped in the midst of well-kept fields and verdant slopes 
 which any English gentleman might envy for his park. Of 
 meadow-land only is there any want ; the soil available for cul-
 
 190 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 ture appears too precious for pasture, and is kept exclusively 
 for the production of rice, and corn, and esculent vegetables. 
 Hence no cattle are kept, except horses, and a few oxen for 
 agricultural purposes, and no sheep or goats. To all this per- 
 fection of beauty it is almost the only drawback, while to the 
 larder the loss is too irreparable to be contemplated with phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A Glance at Japanese Politics. — How the two American Treaties were made 
 and inaugurated. — By whom the Country is governed, and how. 
 
 In a preceding chapter I endeavored to give some general 
 idea of the civilization, the social condition, and the Govern- 
 ment of Japan, as these were known to Europeans in past cen- 
 turies. This earlier period oifered a point of departure having 
 many advantages. It formed a natural, and in some degree a 
 necessary introduction to any narrative purporting to throw 
 some light on the existing state of the country, as revealed by 
 the experience of the first permanent mission located in the 
 capital. Some first lessons in Japanese diplomacy and policy, 
 as well as in their language, already given, will liave shown the 
 diflSculties which from the beginning attended the first estab- 
 lishment of the Legations, though at the commencement there 
 were but two, the British and the American. The second 
 treaty of the United States, initiating a total change of policy, 
 having been the precursor, and, as it wei-e, the original, from 
 which all those of subsequent date were drafted, it was of im- 
 portance to asceitain Avhat had been the various influences 
 determining the Japanese ruling powers to take such a stride 
 in advance, as the second series of treaties marked. It will 
 be necessary for the reader to remember that the first infrac- 
 tion of the Japanese system of absolute seclusion from the rest 
 of the world was efiected by Commodore Perry, in 1854, who 
 found means to induce them to enter into a treaty of hu- 
 manity, guaranteeing simply succor and good treatment, in- 
 stead of imprisonment and death, to any shipwrecked or dis- 
 tressed sailors thrown on their inhospitable coasts. It aimed 
 at nothing more, and the only relations established consisted 
 in the right to locate a consul at Simoda, a small and unimpoi'- 
 tant place south of Cape Idzu. A very difierent state of af- 
 fairs was contemplated in the treaty entered into four years 
 later by Mr. Harris, on the part of the United States. Com-
 
 Chap.X] JAPANESE PoLitica idi 
 
 inerce and permanent Diplomatic relations were the avowed 
 objects of the second series, initiated as was the lirst, by the 
 American Representative. This marked ahuost as great a 
 change in the relations of Japan with the West as had the 
 treaty of Perry, which, for the first time during two centuries, 
 recognized a right of intercourse as a principle ; thus repudia- 
 ting their long-cherished policy and asserted right of exclusion. 
 How came such a result about, both in the first and the second 
 of these instances? What train of causes produced a change 
 amounting to a revolution in tlie foreign policy of the nation — 
 a policy so inflexibly and resolutely maintained at all risks, aft- 
 er years of internecine war and bloodshed for more than two 
 centuries? By what machinery wa^ the change effected? 
 Questions these, on the right solution of which obviously de- 
 pended very much in the future. A predominating feeling of 
 hostility to all innovation, and the admission of foreigners 
 among the ruling classes, manifested itself in too many forms 
 to admit of doubt, when, at the lapse of a year after the sig- 
 nature of the successive treaties, the time arrived for giving 
 them execution. With such prevailing feeling, how could 
 these treaties have been made ? What motives actuated those 
 who at the time lield the reins of power? While these re- 
 mained unexplained and unintelligible, every thing else con- 
 nected with the position of foreigners in the country was ob- 
 scure and doubtful. No force, apparently, had been used. It 
 was indeed the peculiar pride and V)oast of Mr. Harris, that he 
 had eflfected his object with no material means of support or 
 coercion ; the triumph of reason, argument, and diplomacy ! 
 This seemed very incomprehensible to me, and I confess very 
 doubtful. The whole subject was one of great interest and 
 importance moreover, and so continually presented itself with 
 all its diflSculties in our earlier intercourse with the Govern- 
 ment and people, that it engaged my earnest attention with 
 ?roportionate frequency. When the mystery was unraveled, 
 found within its meshes the pivot on which many very tragic 
 events had turned, as well as a long succession of struggles and 
 difficulties by no means at an end. No apology can be need- 
 ed, therefore, if I enter upon the matter with some fullness of 
 detail. Many of the following particulars, so far as regarded 
 Mr. Harris's own actions, were given spontaneously by himself, 
 and with full permission to make any use of the information. 
 Indeed, as regards publicity, the leading facts have already 
 been published, both in parliamentary papers and the daily 
 press of both countries. All that I need do for the reader is 
 to group them in such order as will best conduce to a clear
 
 102 THUEK YEAll'^. I^^ JAVAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 conception of the bearinsr fin<^l connection of the different parts, 
 and supply a plain and intelligible answer to the questions al- 
 ready enumerated. 
 
 The broad fact that a treaty was peaceably negotiated en- 
 tirely changing the policy and relations of a Government and 
 people, known chiefly for their tenacity of pur])ose in rejecting 
 all overtures and attempts on the part of civilized nations to 
 enter into friendly relations with them, has to be explained, 
 taken in connection with another not less patent lact, that tlie 
 Japanese Government have never ceased aflirming, since those 
 relations began, that the country was wholly ni;prepared for 
 such changes, and that the whole nation regarded all foreign 
 intercourse as a calamity and a source of danger! The two 
 taken together involve a contradiction of the most unintelligi- 
 ble kind, without the help of some missing links. To supply 
 these, in a rapid narrative of actual occurrences, with the Gov- 
 ernment of the country and the feudal classes for chief actors, 
 will probably serve better than any dissertation, liowever elab- 
 orate or scientific, to convey a clear idea of the political state 
 of Japan on the arrival of the Foreign Legations, and the na- 
 ture of the difiiculties to be overcome in any attempt to estab- 
 lish commercial and friendly relations with the country under 
 such conditions. 
 
 While Japan continued immovable, with her doors fast 
 closed against the world, a little postern gate alone being kept 
 open for Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki, and through which 
 both were allowed (under continually increasing difficulties 
 and exactions) to do a small barter trade, great changes were 
 taking place on the other side of the globe. The three inven- 
 tions which, in the Chinese land of their birth, had remained 
 unfruitful for a thousand years — Printing, the Compass, and 
 Gunpowder — had sufficed in less than three centuries to rev- 
 olutionize all Europe, and create a great empire in a newly-dis- 
 covered continent. Finally, Steam and Electricity came in the 
 present century to do the work of ages in a single generation, 
 annihilating time and space, making a tramway over the widest 
 seas, and bringing the most distant countries into close prox- 
 imity. To China and Japan, wrapped in Asiatic dreams of 
 self-consequence and isolated existence, these mighty changes 
 were either unknown or unheeded, until both in quick succes- 
 sion were somewhat rudely wakened by finding steam navies 
 on their coasts, and all Europe thundering at their gates with 
 a demand for instant admission ! The Chinese resisted, and 
 they were burst open. When Amherst and Napier miserably 
 failed, Paixan and Armstrong succeeded, and finally planted
 
 Chap.X.] dutch influences. 193 
 
 the flag of European Legations in Pekin itself. Japan, there 
 seemed reason to believe, was better advised and better able, 
 perhaps, to understand and appreciate the changes which had 
 completely altered the relative positions of Europe and the 
 East. Partly, it would seem, from their greater quickness and 
 aptitude for seizing the true meaning and significance of such 
 facts as come before them, but greatly also owing to the con- 
 tinued relations they had maintained with the Dutch. A door 
 was thus kept open by which they could get reliable informa- 
 tion of what was really passing in the world beyond. There 
 seems little doubt that, so far back as 1845, after the close of 
 the first war with China, the Dutch set themselves seriously to 
 work to prepare the Japanese mind for inevitable changes. 
 The Government of the Netherlands has claimed some grati- 
 tude from other European nations for liberality and disinter- 
 estedness in having thus spontaneously prepared the way for 
 their admission into Japan. And much of Commodore Perry's 
 success, on which all subsequent progress hinged, is, I think, 
 fairly to be attributed to these preliminary efforts of the Dutch. 
 In gradually instilling into the minds of Japanese Rulers a con- 
 viction of the absolute necessity, sooner or later, of a departure 
 from their system of absolute seclusion, and of their total ina- 
 bility to cope with the material means of attack and coercion 
 wielded by the Western Powers, backed as such arguments 
 would be by a reference to what we had done in China, there 
 can be no reasonable question, I think, that they effectively 
 prepared the way for fundamental changes. Their representa- 
 tions must have had great weight, and no doubt materially 
 tended to bring about the final result ten years later (in 1854), 
 when the American squadron first appeared in the Japanese 
 waters with proposals for a treaty. As to the disinterestedness 
 and liberality of the action, why should we take the ungracious 
 office of contesting either the one or the other ? The best of 
 governments and of men are not absolutely above the influence 
 of self-interest, and other more or less worldly motives, even 
 when bent upon seeking to do good. No doubt it might be 
 said with truth that the time had long gone by when the Dutch 
 had any thing to lose by letting in other nations to the Japan- 
 ese markets, and they may well have been glad to seize on any 
 opportunity (without abandoning that which they had so te- 
 naciously clung to for many generations), of escaping from the 
 humiliating and objectionable position they occupied singly in 
 Japan. And how could this be better done than by joining 
 with the Powers of the West, and preparing the way for the 
 saccess of all, in breaking down the barriers which separated 
 
 I
 
 194 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 Japan from the rest of the world ? But whatever may have 
 been the motives that influenced them, into which, I repeat, we 
 need not too curiously inquire, they contributed material aid in 
 a good work ; and whether the Japanese may be disposed to 
 thank them for the co-operation, of which I have serious doubt 
 now that the results are before them, the rest of the Treaty 
 Powers, who desired to see the doors unbarred without fight- 
 ing for it, may very well thank the Dutch for the helping hand 
 which they lent from the inside. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Commodore Perry 
 appeared oflf Cape Idzoo on July 8, 1853, with an American 
 squadron consisting of two large-class steam frigates and two 
 sloops of war. And having delivered a letter from the Presi- 
 dent proposing a treaty of amity and commerce, which the 
 Japanese authorities showed little disposition to grant, though 
 by no means prepared for what they evidently anticipated 
 might be the consequences of a refusal, the Commodore took 
 his departure with a promise, or a menace, whichever way it 
 may have been taken, of returning the following year, and with 
 a ' larger fleet,' for a definite answer. 
 
 On February 12, 1854, accordingly, the Commodore reap- 
 peared in the Bay of Yeddo with three steam frigates, four 
 sloops of war, and two store-ships — a squadron of nine vessels. 
 It is not necessary here to go into the details already known 
 of the somewhat protracted negotiations which followed, end- 
 ing in the signature of a treaty of amity, and promise of suc- 
 cor to ships in distress. They tried various expedients as 
 grounds of delay in giving any final answer. Particularly 
 they urged the death of the Siogoon (Tycoon) in the interval 
 between the Commodore's two visits, information which they 
 had even sent on, through their Dutch friends, to Batavia, in 
 the vain hope of preventing his return, or at least indefinitely 
 deferring it. Finding this step had failed in the desired efiect, 
 and all pleas for denial resolutely put aside by a Plenipotentia- 
 ry in command of a large fleet — speaking words of peace, but 
 looking dangerous — they signed a treaty opening two new 
 ports, of no value, indeed, in any commercial sense, but of in- 
 finite importance as sounding the knell of their long-cherished 
 policy of exclusion and non-intercourse ! 
 
 One thing must be perfectly clear, even from this bare re- 
 cital of facts, namely, that the Japanese Government did not 
 wish to make a treaty, and were only induced to sign one in 
 the end under the ' moral suasion' of a formidable fleet, com- 
 manded by the negotiator in person, which they felt by no 
 means certain would not be employed against them in active
 
 Chap.X.] AMERICAN diplomacy 195 
 
 hostilities if they persisted in refusing. In perfect accord with 
 this is thu farther fact that they yielded less than was asked, 
 and gave no more, even under strong pressure, than they could 
 help. 
 
 This treaty of Commodore Perry's brought in due time a 
 Diplomatic agent of the United States to Simoda, in the per- 
 son of Mr. Harris, with the official title of Consul General. 
 There he resided until 1857, when, having a letter of credence 
 from the President, he succeeded, with no small difficulty, in 
 obtaini:ig permission to proceed to Yeddo to present it, either 
 to the Tycoon himself or to his ministers. But the Japanese 
 would have been untrue to their own nature and instincts if 
 this had been conceded without a stout resistance. 
 
 The way in which the parallels of attack and Avorks of coim- 
 ter-defense were drawn by the two contending forces engaged 
 it was very amusing to trace. The thorough-going and clear- 
 headed American, feeling he held a key in the President's let- 
 ter which, rightly used, might open the gates of Yeddo, de- 
 termined to ])ut it to its destined use on the side of the attack ; 
 the Japanese ofilcials, first of Simoda, and afterward others 
 delegated from the capital, bent every resource of subtlety and 
 finesse to get it out of his hands and leave him where he was, 
 at an or.ier post. This on the side of the defense. These two 
 parties, pitted against each other, under every possible form of 
 courtesy sought a diplomatic victory — entrance into Yeddo 
 and a treaty being the prizes, if won by the American, and a 
 final abandonment of a system of exclusion and isolation, with 
 all their traditional policy in regard to foreigners, on the part 
 of the Japanese, the bitter fruit to them if they were defeated. 
 Mr. Harris had ' an autograph letter from the President, and 
 certain matters to communicate to the Tycoon and his minis- 
 ters.' 'Truly very important, and most desirable that his 
 Majesty and the council of ministers should be in possession, 
 but why should the Consul General have the trouble of going 
 to Yeddo ? They had been especially commissioned to receive 
 the letter, and hear what he had to offer.' That could not be 
 assented to. *It was not usual to deliver an autograph letter 
 from one Sovereign to another save by the hand of their own 
 Representative named for that purpose. Moreover, the mat- 
 ters he had to communicate were of national importance, and 
 could only be fitly communicated by himself direct to the Ty- 
 coon or his ministers.' 
 
 *To the Tycoon ! Impossible ; no one could speak or trans- 
 act business with the Tycoon !' 
 
 * Very sorry to hear it, for in that case the autograph letter 
 and accompanying message must remain undelivered,'
 
 106 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 ' But what if a high officer were especially dispatched from 
 Yeddo to represent the Tycoon, and receive the letter from 
 the Consul General's own hands ?' 
 
 'An unnecessary trouble, since it would be equally impossi- 
 ble for the Representative of the United States to acquit him- 
 self of his important mission, and one more important perhaps 
 to the Government of Japan than his own.' 
 
 So days and weeks were consumed, but somewhere about 
 the end of 1857 all the outer defenses were carried, and Mr. 
 Harris entered Yeddo, not to leave it, in March or April of 
 1858, until he had framed his treaty, discussing paragraph by 
 paragraph and article by article. The gathering together of 
 large forces by Great Britain for the prosecution of their de- 
 mands on China, in alliance with France ; the generally ru- 
 mored intention of the two governments, and also of Russia, to 
 send plenipotentiaries shortly to Japan, to open more effectual- 
 ly the ports of that country to European commerce and enter- 
 prise, all no doubt materially tended to give weight to the 
 more pacific arguments of the American agent, urging that the 
 true policy of Japan was no longer to defer doing, under the 
 most favorable and honorable conditions, without compromis- 
 ing its dignity or independence, that which must come under 
 wholly different circumstances before the year was out. 
 
 And thus the foundation for a Commercial Treaty was laid, 
 by pointing out to the Japanese Government that the time 
 was plainly approaching when refusal on their part icould be 
 impossible, for they would have the Western world in collect- 
 ive strength breaking down the barriers; and that one only 
 means remained by which they might preserve their free agen- 
 cy and self-respect, namely, to enter into a treaty with the 
 Representative of the United States — alone, as he then was, 
 unattended by a single ship of war ; and thus, when other 
 Powers came on the field with large squadrons (it might be 
 with increased or exaggerated demands), the answer would be 
 ready, ' Here is a treaty we have concluded of our own free 
 will with one of the great Western Powers ; we are willing to 
 enter into like engagements with you, but object to having dif- 
 ferent relations with the States of Europe.' All exaggerated 
 or dangerous pretensions to privileges incompatible with their 
 dignity or safety would thus be put aside, and without offense 
 or danger of collision ! 
 
 From the moment that this train of reasoning or argument 
 was understood and adopted by them, as apparently it was 
 very speedily, they saw their own interest and dignity would 
 thus best be consulted — or acted as if they did — and entered
 
 Chap. X.J UNEXPECTED OBSTACLE. 197 
 
 without farther debate into the subject matter of a treaty of 
 amity aud commerce. 
 
 The plan of attack was skillfully designed ; for, whether the 
 American Representative was fully persuaded in his own mind 
 that England and France, with their victorious forces in the 
 Peiho, would speedily come and insist upon new treaties and 
 enlarged facilities, or only regarded the possible contingency 
 as a means to secure his own success which fortune had thrown 
 in his way, is not very material in reference to the result. 
 
 This mode of appealing to the feelings most likely to influ- 
 ence a Japanese — national pride and fears of aggression — and 
 this on the part of a friend anxious to spare them the humili- 
 ation of having to yield to superior force on the one hand, or 
 to grant unreasonable demands on the other, was completely 
 successful up to the signature of the treaty, when a last and 
 most unexpected obstacle stood full in the path ! ' The min- 
 isters were willing ; the Tycoon, too, would yield ; but a pow- 
 erful party among the hereditary Princes and Daimios form- 
 ing the great council of the nation were still in a majority, and 
 would not consent.' There were some six hundred Daimios, 
 all feudal chiefs, many with territorial jurisdiction, exercising 
 'la haute justice,' with power of life and death in their own 
 principalities, and no fundamental change in the customs of 
 Japan could be effected without their assent, or at least that 
 of the great council of eighteen, representing the Mikado at 
 Yeddo, farther confirmed by the Mikado. This was a cruel 
 check after such steady progress and near approach to the con- 
 summation desired — the honor, for America, of making the 
 first treaty with Japan, opening the country to foreign com- 
 merce. 
 
 But for the moment the obstacle was insuperable. The hos- 
 tile majority continued compact and menacing. 'Many had 
 been gained' — more enlightened men, possibly, who saw what 
 their colleagues could not discern, that the time was at hand 
 when all opposition would be futile, and bring only the dis- 
 grace of defeat and harder terms. Time, therefore, was de- 
 manded by the ministers, and a characteristic Eastern argu- 
 ment was urged in support and illustration of the state of af- 
 fairs : ' Japan is a little maiden, full of promise, but she is not 
 yet matured. If you listen only to your passions and take her 
 now, you will spoil all the beauty into which she will other- 
 wise ripen for your greater happiness and enjoyment.' Add- 
 ing, 'You do not wish, nor can it be your interest, to plunge 
 this country into a civil war, the end of which no one can sec. 
 Be patient, then, leave it in our hands, and we will give you a
 
 198 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 promise in writing, under the pledge of the Tycoon, that in 
 September, at the latest, the treaty now endorsed shall be for- 
 mally concluded.' Mr. Harris yielded the point it seemed im- 
 possible to carry; and it was afterward arranged that each 
 should retain a copy of the draft treaty signed by the other, in 
 proof that all the stipulations had been finally agreed upon. 
 Upon this the American negotiator took his departure for Si- 
 moda, his usual place of residence ; this was, I think, in May, 
 1858. In June, the allied squadrons were at the mouth of the 
 Peiho ; and on July 27, our treaty with the Court of Pekin was 
 extorted at the cannon's mouth, opening the whole length and 
 breadth of the Empire, all the navigable rivers, and the gates 
 of Pekin, nearly as hermetically sealed to foreigners as Yeddo 
 itself had been for the last three centuries. 
 
 Short space was allowed to intervene between the signature 
 of tlie treaty and the arrival of the United States frigate Mis- 
 sissippi in the Bay of Simoda with the startling news. The 
 finale may be imagined. Mr. Harris immediately proceeded to 
 Kanagawa in another frigate— the 'Powhatan' turning up, we 
 are to believe, equally fortuitously, but fortunately at the pre- 
 cise moment it Avas wanted — nnd Imperial commissioners were 
 dispatched to meet him. ' What news is this ?' ' Treaties 
 have been signed with four of the greatest Powers of the West, 
 after the destruction of the Chinese batteries by the English 
 and French. The same four Powers will in another month be 
 knocking at the gates of Yeddo. Do you wish to lose all the 
 advantages for which you have labored and risked so much ?' 
 'No!' 'Very well, then, conclude without delay your treaty 
 with the United States, already drafted, agreed to, and signed 
 on both sides. Give it formal execution, and thus secure your- 
 selves from less moderate demands, which may within the 
 month be urged by other Powers, backed with imposing squad- 
 rons.' And the dates were filled in accordingly, and the treaty 
 formally executed on board of the 'Powhatan,' on the third 
 day from Mr. Harris's arrival. 
 
 Throughout the negotiations, apparently single-handed, and 
 without any material support from his Government, the Amer- 
 ican diplomatic agent thus surmounted all difiiculties and 
 proved himself fully equal to the occasion. How such success 
 was secured, with the knowledge since attained, it is easy to 
 see ; but it detracts nothing from the credit due to the strate- 
 gic skill with which the negotiator turned the weakness of the 
 Japanese, the strength of his neighbors, and even his own want 
 of material support from the Government he represented, all 
 equally to account for the success of his mission ! Where oth-
 
 Chap. X.J SECOND TREATY CONCLUDED. I99 
 
 ers might have seen only motives of discouragement, he found 
 all the elements of victory. Availing himself of the fleets of 
 the Allies — having none under the American flag at his dis- 
 posal — and while the echo of their guns in the Peiho and the 
 rumor of their victorious operations were still in the ears of 
 the Tycoon and his advisers, he achieved the object of all his 
 labors, and this at the very time when they seemed least like- 
 ly to be either promptly or successfully brought to a close; 
 for, although a treaty had been drafted, and signatures more 
 or less informally exchanged, the flnal execution had already 
 entered into that dangerous phase in all Oriental diplomacy, 
 
 })rocrastiiiation, with a contingent future. Mr. Harris himself 
 lad returned to his isolated domicile at Simoda, there to wait 
 until the deferred period for execution arrived. Who could 
 say what new cause of delay might be discovered within that 
 interval ? Was there any real intention of keeping faith ? Mr. 
 Harris may have thought and believed there was ; others, with 
 a longer experience than any one could then have, would prob- 
 ably arrive at a different conclusion. Be this as it may, the 
 weakness and distracted counsels of Japan, combined with vic- 
 tory and strength on the opposite shore, was the diplomatist's 
 opportunity, and well and promptly he seized upon it, unques- 
 tionably paving the way, or rather macadamizijig it, for all 
 succeeding negotiators ! Shall he be blamed that, having no 
 fleets or material force of his own country to fall back upon, 
 he adroitly turned to profit those of the Allies, flushed with 
 victory ? We may question the right to use it as a means of 
 
 * moral pressure,' since that required that he should assume 
 and attribute to us views or intentions that might not be ours, 
 and which were not certainly of a nature to make us very fa- 
 vorably looked upon by Japanese rulers ; but it must be ad- 
 mitted the opportunity was very tempting, and diplomatists, 
 the ablest and best, are but luortals after all ! Nay, more, to 
 a diplomatic agent of the United States, it must have been pe- 
 culiarly and especially tempting. While demonstrating the 
 ' peaceful and friendly policy' of his own Government, which 
 
 * required no material force, and kept no fleets in Eastern seas 
 to make aggressive wars on distant potentates or peoples' (as 
 other publicans and sinners did), he was really invoking the 
 effective aid of the belligerent resources and prestige which 
 were the objects of reprobation. This bellicose and aggrea- 
 fiive action of England — of which we have heard so much in 
 China and elsewhere during the last twenty years, whenever 
 she has been engaged, at her cost and peril, in figliting her own 
 battles in Eastern seas — yet scarcely more her own than those
 
 200 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. tCnAP. X. 
 
 of the whole Western world — was never brought more deci- 
 sively to bear ; but this time it was in a new country, and by 
 the apostle of peace — the Representative of the United States 
 in person ! This was a veritable tour de maitre, to use and 
 turn to such account the belligerent Allies, holding them i?i 
 terrorem over the Japanese, and to do this in a way that should 
 give the United States all the benefit and the credit, without 
 any of the cost, of great expeditions ; while to Great Britain 
 was left only the odium of a reputation at once bellicose and 
 exigeant. In the same quarter a disposition has more than 
 once been shown* to attribute to some peculiar pugnacity, or 
 other vice of British agents in Japan, the seeming preference 
 given on two occasions to the British Legation as an object of 
 murderous attack — once during my residence in Yeddo, and 
 once subsequently with the Charge d' Affaires officiating in my 
 absence. The premisses hardly bear out the inference of any 
 exclusive preference, since the outrage of assassinating those 
 who are resident in Yeddo and attached to the several Lega- 
 tions has been pretty impartially distributed. The Secretary 
 of the United States was slain in the streets not far from his 
 own Minister's door ; and the life of a servant of the French 
 Minister was attempted at the Legation gate. Dutch and Rus- 
 sians have equally been the objects of murderous attack at Yo- 
 kohama and Hakodadi. But were it otherwise, and an unen- 
 viable preference were really the lot of the British Legation, 
 might not this more naturally be accounted for by a reference 
 to the pleasant introduction, of a diplomatic kind, which the 
 negotiations just detailed must have supplied ? 
 
 Whether success in negotiating a treaty establishing com- 
 mercial and diplomatic relations is a benefit or an injury to 
 Japan and other Powers brought in contact with a people who 
 their rulers declare are wholly unfitted and unprepared for any 
 such violent and rapid change in policy, is another question al- 
 together. But it is one which events have been continually 
 forcing upon the Treaty Powers ever since the opening of the 
 ports, and is yet unsolved in any very satisfactory or conclusive 
 manner. This much is alone certain, that it was a success 
 which has borne bitter fruit to all on the Japanese side who 
 took any part in the signature of the treaty or its negotiation, 
 from the Tycoon to the subordinate secretaries and interpret- 
 ers. Before the ink was well dry a violent reaction seems to 
 have taken place among the Daimios, inimical to such funda- 
 mental changes, which swept the whole of the actors from the 
 scene ; the Tycoon and his ministers the first, the one to his 
 grave, and the others to banishment and disgrace. 
 
 * See ofScial correspondence laid before Congress in 1861-2.
 
 Chap. X.] A CURIOUS CHAPTER IN HISTORY. 201 
 
 There was something ominous in the fact that each of tlie 
 two American treaties cost a reigning Tycoon his life. The 
 one fell subsequent to Commodore Perry's first visit, and his 
 life was taken, so the Japanese generally believe, as the pen- 
 alty for admitting any intercourse ; and the second died im- 
 mediately after the signature of Mr. Harris's treaty. A tri- 
 umph to one contracting party, but a signal of death to the 
 other ! 
 
 The whole course of events, as narrated by the Japanese 
 among themselves and generally accredited, forms a very curi- 
 ous chapter in their history, and throws so much light on the 
 political state and organization of the country, that it well de- 
 serves attention. It may not be accurate or strictly true in all 
 its details ; no one can safely vouch for that, perhaps, in any 
 country. Sir Kobert Walpole, himself a principal actor and 
 behind the scenes, used to account for his never listening to 
 history by saying ' that he knew to be false, whatever books 
 of fiction might be.' And if our guarantees for truth and per- 
 fect accuracy are deficient in Europe, where records are kept 
 and often published, what shall we say of the materials of his- 
 tory in Japan, where it is not permitted to write under pain 
 of death ? Perhaps the prohibition may have had for motive 
 a conviction of the utter hopelessness of attaining truth ! Be 
 this as it may, the narrative, as it has reached me from divers 
 sources, and often in detached portions or very fragmentary 
 shape, seems suiBciently illustrative, despite all contingent 
 chances of inaccuracy, to be worthy of record, if only to show 
 what a long chapter of tragic events the renewal of foreign re- 
 lations has opened in the history of Japan. Every page seems 
 to have been written in blood, and each phase to have demand- 
 ed a victim. Of the number and identity of these there is at 
 least no question. 
 
 When Commodore Perry first arrived (in 1853), Minamotto 
 Jejoshi had reigned seventeen years as Tycoon. He is said to 
 liave been a prince of energy and experience, and to have car- 
 ried weight in the council of Daimios by his superior intelli- 
 gence. On the first news of the arrival of a foreign fleet in 
 the forbidden waters, the Daimios severally charged with the 
 defense of that part of the coast are said to have mustered, in 
 two days, 10,000 men, with artillery, commanded by three 
 princes of large revenue and consideration, whose names are 
 given. 
 
 The President's letter, however, it was resolved should be 
 received ; and a year's delay was demanded for time to assem- 
 ble a great council of Daimios. A few days after the Tycoon 
 
 12
 
 202 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 died suddenly. The following is said to be the palace chroni- 
 cle of the mode of his death, and the subsequent events. 
 
 Minamotto's prime minister was Midzouno Etsisen-no-Karai, 
 a stout defender of old laws and customs, and he, it is said, con- 
 spired with other Daimios, then in the capital, as to the means 
 of saving the country from foreign influence. It was agreed 
 that the Tycoon should be poisoned, and some charge Etsisen- 
 no-Kanii with views of aggrandizement for himself as future 
 regent, tlie Tycoon's only son being of infirm mind. But wh'.Mi 
 the cup containing the poison was presented to tJie Tycoon by 
 one of the officers who had been tampered with, sometliing 
 roused the suspicions of the destined victim, and ho threw the 
 cup with its contents into his attendant's face, who instantly 
 drew his sword and ran him through the body, killing himself 
 immediately afterward. Midzouno Etsisen w' as loudly accused 
 by the Tycoon's followers, and he also performed the Hara- 
 Kiru. 
 
 Minaraotto Yesado, the son aforesaid, succeeded his father, 
 and Ikomono-no-Kami became Regent, that office being heredi- 
 tary in his family whenever, from minority or other cause, the 
 reigning Tycoon shall be incapable of governing. In the con- 
 flict of opinions respecting foreign relations, Ikomono is de- 
 scribed as preserving a neutral position, and refusing to pro- 
 nounce a decided opinion on either side. His first act was to 
 summon a great council to deliberate on the answer to be given 
 to the American propositions to enter into a treaty. All the 
 Daimios of 50,000 kokous of rice in revenue, and upward, were 
 invited to assist, and even those with less, who were in any 
 way distinguished. Many advocated resistance d Voutrance. 
 At the head of these was the Prince of Mito, supported by 
 many powerful Daimios. The Prince of Kago, with a revenue 
 of 10,000,000 kokous, is reported to have placed his hand on 
 his sword in full council, exclaiming, ' Rather than consent to 
 enter into a treaty, it were better to die fighting !' The Prince 
 of Mito deemed the dignity of the country compromised if the 
 subversive changes and the relations proposed by the Ameri- 
 cans were admitted, and advocated the acceptance of such re- 
 lations only as were consistent with their old established policy. 
 It is difficult to understand in what these could consist, since 
 that policy was one of absolute exclusion to all save a few 
 Dutch ; and, considering that only two ports of refuge were 
 conceded, Simoda and Hakodadi, both perfectly useless for pur- 
 poses of trade, and no commerce was in eflfect allowed, what 
 the minor concessions could have amounted to, which the 
 Prince of Mito and his party w^ould have counseled, it would 
 be hard to say !
 
 Chap.X.] prince of MITO. 203 
 
 It was determined, however, in view of the unprepared state 
 of the defenses, to seem to listen, and to temporize, making 
 such treaty only as might seem necessary to avoid an imme- 
 diate declaration of war, which they evidently considered the 
 probable consequence of any total denial. We know the Presi- 
 dent's instructions were to abstain from all menace of war or 
 employment of force. How far Commodore Perry's action 
 was calculated to give a different idea, we need not very close- 
 ly inquire. One thing is certain, such was not the impression 
 received by the Japanese. 
 
 The Prince of Mito, it would appear, had the idea of profit- 
 ing by all this conflict and confusion, either by becoming him- 
 self Tycoon or securing the election of his son. One of the 
 GosANKAY (the name given to the royal house, descended from 
 the three brothers of the founder of the existing dynasty), he 
 had legitimate pretensions in the event of a vacancy ; while 
 the present occupant had no son, and was not in a state to ex- 
 ercise the power of adopting one to succeed him. But it was 
 an old grief of this branch of the royal descendants that they 
 had ever been excluded in favor of some heir of the other 
 houses, the Princes of Kiusiu or Owari, when an election had 
 taken place. Moved by these motives, Mito plotted to put 
 himself at the head of a powerful body of the Daimios inimical 
 to the new relations established with Foreign Powers, to poi- 
 son the reigning Tycoon, and secure the succession. 
 
 When the second American treaty negotiated by Mr. Har- 
 ris was under discussion, it is supposed he actively opposed the 
 final signature ; and when this was consummated in the pre- 
 cipitate manner already detailed, under pressure of the an- 
 nounced arrival of victorious fleets from China with plenipo- 
 tentiaries of two great maritime powers of Europe, the hour 
 for action arrived, and the Tycoon had ceased to live before 
 Lord Elgin's appearance the following month ! The Gotairo, 
 as the regent is officially styled, had no doubt from whence the 
 blow came. He instantly had all the attendants in the palace 
 seized, and by torture wrung from them confessions crimina- 
 ting the Prince of Mito. He sent to the latter an order of ban- 
 ishment to his territories, giving him to understand that, if in- 
 stantly obeyed, it should only be temporary, and if resisted, he 
 should be charged before the great council with the poisoning 
 of the Tycoon, for which the penalty was crucifixion. In the 
 event of his quietly abandoning the field, it was farther prom- 
 ised him that his crime should not be divulged. Overawed 
 by so much vigor and determination, or unprepared for such 
 prompt action, the Prince of Mito accepted tlie alternative and
 
 204 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 retired, discomfited and compromised, to his principality. The 
 elective council was immediately convoked, and the young 
 Prince of Kiusiu, whose father was still alive, was duly elected 
 Tycoon, to the exclusion of the Prince of Mito and his son. 
 The latter, unlike this heir of the house of Kiusiu, was a man 
 of thirty instead of a boy of fifteen. But the minority of the 
 former was no doubt one of his recommendations, since it left 
 the power in the hands of the Regent Ikomono, which he 
 promptly exercised, it seems, to issue a decree of perpetual 
 banishment against the old Prince of Mito, and deposition in 
 favor of his son. This, according to the received accounts, was 
 an act of treachery and a breach of faith on the part of the Go- 
 tairo, and we shall see later how it was avenged. 
 
 From causes not very clearly understood or explained, there 
 was contemporaneously a total change in the composition of the 
 Gorogio, or Great Council of State, forming in fact the cabinet 
 or government of the Tycoon, and consisting of five ministers. 
 Those in ofiice when the treaty was signed were all disgraced, 
 and disappeared from the scene, as well as nearly all their sub- 
 ordinates. A complete palace revolution appears to have tak- 
 en place, consequent on the double event of the signature of 
 the second of the American treaties and the murder of the 
 Tycoon. Mr. Harris, fortunately perhaps for himself, also dis- 
 appeared from the scene, having returned to his secluded place 
 of residence of Simoda until the following year, when he re- 
 turned to Yeddo at the same time as myself, to take up his 
 permanent residence in the capital. 
 
 And thus were inaugurated the first two treaties which For- 
 eign powers owe to the United States. The first inserting the 
 wedge of limited intercourse for objects of humanity ; the sec- 
 ond splitting open the rock of Japanese obstruction and open- 
 ing the country to commerce — a fit preface to the long series 
 of tragedies which, as will be seen, were destined to mark the 
 progress of foreign relations with a country containing so many 
 hostile elements. 
 
 The hostile party now came into power, it is said, and have 
 ever since remained. Midzuo Tsikfogono, the chief of the min- 
 istry when I arrived, had been called from his retirement to 
 enter anew on the cares of ofiice, as the best representative, it 
 is to be assumed, of the conservative, retrograde, or patriotic 
 party, for all these titles may be laid claim to. They are op- 
 posed to the introduction of any foreign elements — persons, 
 goods, or ideas — as pregnant with mischief, and fraught with 
 danger to the stability of the empire. By some it is believed 
 that there is a progressive party in Japan, in advance, at all
 
 Chap. X.] A RAIJJ OF TREATIES. 205 
 
 events, of those whom they stigmatize as '■toads in a well,'' the 
 latter being supposed to see but a very small speck above their 
 heads and under their eyes, and to enjoy no breadth of view. 
 But I confess, the longer my experience, the more doubtful it 
 has appeared to me. The only true distinction, so far as we 
 are concerned, is, I believe, one of degree only ; degree, that 
 is, of opposition ; and based rather upon the relative timidity 
 or courage of the leaders than any leaning to advanced views. 
 Those who are timid or wary advocate a temporizing policy to 
 gain time for better preparation, or at least to defer the evil 
 day. The more rash or courageous would fling down the 
 gauntlet, and, like the Prince of Kago, prefer to die with 
 swords in their hands, than tolerate any longer the presence of 
 the foreigner, and the danger of change and revolution which 
 he brings inevitably in his train. The prevision of the former 
 ministry, guided by Mr. Harris's information of the certain ar- 
 rival of plenipotentiaries from England and France, so prompt- 
 ly justified by the event, was therefore, to them, a source of 
 Bafety. For the new ministry, despite its retrograde tenden- 
 cies, had to do what ministries have sometimes done elsewhere 
 — carry out the very policy, as a matter of state necessity, which 
 they had denounced as treason or imbecility in their predeces- 
 sors. Then followed quick the Russian treaty, and on the 
 heels of Count Poutiatine came Baron Gros and the French 
 treaty. Then the Dutch. It rained treaties, as if all the furies 
 had been let loose by an avenging Nemesis on the heads of 
 the foresworn and recalcitrant ministry. They must have felt 
 their cup of bitterness was full when they signed the last of 
 the series, and approaching winter gave them a promise of res- 
 pite ! But they were even then threatened with a necessity 
 to conclude treaties with other Powers great and small, two 
 of which are now already matters of history. Unhappy polit- 
 ical martyrs, for they still retained the seals of oflSce ! Do these 
 bring here, as in other countries, compensations and advan- 
 tages to reconcile their holders to labors, humiliations, and anxi- 
 eties, since men of wealth and station can every where be found 
 voluntarily to go through a long course of bitter diet, eating 
 their own words, and reversing the policy they stormily upheld 
 when out of oflice ? 
 
 The dismissed ministers and subordinate functionaries were 
 still out and in disgrace. Lord Elgin's arrival simply helped 
 to prevent any necessity of a resort to the ' happy dispatch,'* 
 
 ♦ Both the original words in Japanese and the translation have been trav- 
 estied by Europeans. The words are, 'Hara wo kiru,' 'Belly cut.' The 
 ' happy dispatch' is a pure invention, and a term wholly unknown to tbo 
 Japanese.
 
 206 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 the curious title we give to their crucial mode of letting life 
 escape by an opening in the abdomen, when something worse 
 than death alone remains, if their existence should be pi*o- 
 longed. 
 
 If we now turn from the exclusively political field to the 
 general constitution of the realm and the social condition of 
 the people governed, we shall find ample opportunity for the 
 study of ' a new phase of humanity,' which Albert Smith, of 
 pleasant memory, said was his object in traveling to China. 
 Long isolation has given to this branch of the earth's great 
 family a development which they may claim with some reason 
 as peculiarly their own. Their outer life, their laws, customs, 
 and institutions, have all something peculiar, a cachet of their 
 own which may always be distinguished. It is neither Chi- 
 nese nor European, nor can the type be said to be purely Asi- 
 atic. The Japanese seem rather to be like the Greeks of the 
 ancient world, forming a link between Europe and Asia, and 
 put forth claims to be ranked inferior to neither race in some 
 of their best qualities, yet very strangely blending many of the 
 worst characteristics of both. While we are acquiring their 
 language and preparing to enter into such intercourse with 
 them as shall permit intimate relations of a domestic and social 
 kind to be formed, such alone as can give an insight into the 
 daily life, as well as the habits of thought and action of the 
 different classes, we can not do better, perhaps, than to study 
 them in their outer aspects, as a preparative to a profounder 
 study of their charcteristics as a nation. I remember one day, 
 in a conversation on Chinese life, M. Thiers observing, in reply 
 to a remark elicited by the various information he appeared to 
 have been at some pains to collect respecting China, ' that the 
 life and civilization of the Chinese had always greatly interest- 
 ed him, from its bearing on " Vhistoire de V esprit humainP ' 
 And no doubt the study of any distinct branch of the human 
 family in its development, progress, and resulting civilization, 
 is one of great interest to the philosophic mind. Peculiarly so 
 as regards the Chinese and Japanese, perhaps from the fact of 
 their being the only two of the Asiatic nations that have shown 
 any aptitude during the last ten centuries for a higher civiliza- 
 tion than belongs to the nomad tribes. The Indian race in far 
 remote ages, and the Arabs subsequently, have left in their 
 history and architecture, their literature, and their systems of 
 philosophy and religion, records of a civilization and mental 
 development of no mean order; but with them the traditions 
 of the past alone remain, and their present development is ap- 
 parently of a very inferior kind. Not so with either Chinese
 
 Chap. X.] JAPANESE CIVILIZATION. 207 
 
 or Japanese ; they are to this day, as they have been for the 
 last two thousand years, the former certainly, if not the latter, 
 highly civilized and with considerable intellectual culture. In 
 the industrial arts their progress in remote ages was such as to 
 leave all the Indo-Germanic races peopling Europe far behind, 
 and even at this day they yet excel us in many things. In arts 
 and manufactures we have, upon the whole, far outstripped 
 them during the last century ; and in art, properly so called, 
 always ; for, amid many peculiarities, none is more strikingly 
 characteristic of both these races than the absence of all artist- 
 ic power or development of the highest kind. Beyond a per- 
 fection of color in their porcelains, and graceful forms in their 
 bronzes, they have done little that will bear comparison or 
 close examination. Yet a certain graphic power, as I will 
 show more particularly hereafter, the Japanese possess in no 
 mean degree. But of art, not only the ' high art,' in praise 
 and pursuit of which poor Haydon wasted so much breath 
 and canvas, and at last a life, cast away in bitterness and disap- 
 pointment, but every other form — music, painting, sculpture, 
 and poetry, are all yet in their infancy, and seem incapable of 
 advance. As regards the Chinese, and the same rernark ap- 
 plies to the Japanese, their music is without melody, their 
 landscapes without perspective, light, or shade ; their figures 
 without drawing, a mere gdchis of crude colors and grotesque 
 forms, dancing in mid-air without ground to rest on, and only 
 saved from being utterly contemptible by a certain freedom 
 and power in the outline and expression. So again in archi- 
 tecture, a tent -like house, sometimes one superimposed upon 
 the other in two or three stories, with grotesque curves and 
 twisted borders to the roofs, is the extent of their architectural 
 achievements. No, I wrong them. These 300,000,000 of the 
 human race, moulded into one nationality by identity of origin 
 and a uniform written language for more than 2000 years, 
 have given to the world as their contribution to architecture 
 the Pagoda, which not only has a claim to originality, but fair 
 pretensions to admiration for lightness and grace, though far 
 inferior to its Indian or Arabic prototype, the minaret. Yet 
 this people, 600 years B.C., when Greece was in its palmy days, 
 and gave to all posterity a Socrates, a Plato, and an Aristotle, 
 and the rest of the inhabitants of the now civilized world were 
 little better than painted savages or wandering freebooters 
 and pirates, could boast philosophers as great in Confucius and 
 Mencius, industrial arts wholly unknown even to the polished 
 Greek, porcelain and enamel, and silk fabrics for which a Ro- 
 man Senator would give their weight in gold. The art of
 
 208 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 printing, and it is tolerably certain both the compass and gun- 
 powder were equally known to them — the great instruments 
 of all modern progress. These seem strange anomalies in the 
 history of civilization well calculated to arrest attention. As 
 it is not a history of China, however, nor even of Japan, which 
 I propose to write, we will turn to other and more every-day 
 matters. Yet it may be well, even in turning to other fields, 
 to remember that the most casual observation of the manners, 
 habits, and institutions of one of these long-isolated races has 
 a bearing upon the higher questions of social and mental prog- 
 ress, and may incidentally throw some light upon problems 
 which the peculiarities of a persistent and monotonous civiliza- 
 tion through so many successive ages unavoidably suggest. 
 Long passed in the race by the younger progeny of Europe, 
 both Japanese and Chinese must now be content to sit and 
 learn, accepting the place of pupils, though once they were so 
 capable of being teachers. The latter can still boast of popu- 
 lation and area far exceeding the widest limits ever attained 
 by rival races, and in some few things (tlie inheritance of for- 
 mer greatness) a still surviving superiority. We can not to 
 this day, I believe, produce a piece of China crape amid all the 
 marvels and variety of textile fabrics our looms turn out. 
 The Japanese have silk and crape textile fabrics also which I 
 doubt exceedingly the power of our most skilled workmen to 
 imitate. Neither can we rival their beautiful enamel vases, 
 or mend a hole in an iron kettle, with all our discoveries and 
 appliances, as they can with only a little charcoal stove in the 
 street and a blowpipe ; and these are all things familiar to the 
 Chinese, though something of the art of enameling may have 
 been lost in the dust of ages. 
 
 Into the history of the Japanese nation and the modifications 
 which its political constitution has successively undergone, I 
 do not propose to enter; for although to a student of national 
 life and character it is needful these should be known and oft- 
 en borne in mind in drawing general conclusions, the briefest 
 sketch may sufiice to give the casual reader all the information 
 which he requires. So many compilations from the old Dutch 
 authorities have appeared in a popular form recently, that the 
 leading features of Japanese history are pretty generally known 
 already. That the Mikado is the hereditary sovereign of the 
 empire, the descendant of a long and uninterrupted line of sov- 
 ereigns of the same dynasty, and the only sovereign de jure 
 recognized by all Japanese from the Tycoon to the lowest beg- 
 gar — a true sovereign in all the legal attributes of sovereign- 
 ty, and that the Tycoon receives investiture from him as hig
 
 Chap. X.] MAYOR OF THE PALACR 209 
 
 Lieutenant or Generalissimo, and as such only^ the head of the 
 Executive is known to most readers of the present day. True, 
 the Mikados have been shorn of much of their power since 
 Yoritomo, in 1143, profiting by civil commotions among the 
 princes of the land, and armed with power as Generalissimo 
 to humble these turbulent chiefs, only suppressed the troubles 
 to arrogate to himself greater part of the sovereign power un- 
 der the title given by a grateful master of Ziogun. Another 
 Pepin d'Huristal and Mayor of the palace, he did not care to 
 dethrone the descendant of an illustrious line of emperors, and 
 was content with holding the reins and transmitting the same 
 privileges to his descendants. And so the power continued 
 divided in great degree, the shadow from the substance, until 
 later, toward the close of the sixteenth century, a peasant's 
 son and favorite attendant of the actual Generalissimo, best 
 known in Japanese history by the name he afterward assumed 
 of laiko Sama, raised himself apparently by great abilities as 
 well as daring to the seat of power on his master's death, and 
 stripped the reigning Mikado of the last remnants of secular 
 power. Since that time the successive Emperors or Mikados 
 are brought into the world, and live and die within the pre- 
 cincts of their court at Miaco, the boundaries of which they 
 never pass during a whole life. Is it possible to conceive a 
 less desirable destiny ? But the Zioguns or Tycoons, as they 
 are styled in European Treaties,* have long been undergoing 
 a somewhat analogous process, under which all substantial 
 power has been transferred from them to the principal Daimios 
 or Princes who form a Great Council of State, and whose 
 nominee the Tycoon himself has become, as Avell, I believe, as 
 all his chief ministers or councilors. They exercise, if they do 
 not claim, the right of removing both Tycoon and ministers, 
 and a voice potential in all aifairs of state. For legislative 
 changes even the almost forgotten Mikado must indeed give 
 his consent, never of course refused when any unanimity pre- 
 vails. So much was apparently known in the days of Koemp- 
 fcr, and published by him, but when the treaty with America 
 w^as concluded, as we have seen, many things took place not 
 only highly illustrative of the times and the men in Japan, but 
 throwing some new light on the balance of political power in 
 the State. 
 
 • This title is involved in some obscurity. It does not seem to date far- 
 ther back than Commodore Perry's treaty in 1854, is hardly kno>vn by the 
 Japanese, and attributable to the pedantry of a i)receptor of the Ziogun, 
 learned in Chinese, who invented or coined a title for the occasion, composed 
 of two Chinese words, Tai and Koon or Kun, signifying Great Lord.
 
 210 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 The Mikado of the day is the exact type of the last descend- 
 ant of Clovis, sitting ' sad and solitary, effeminate and degener- 
 ate,' doomed only to wield ' a barren sceptre,' and sigh away a 
 burdensome and useless existence of mock pageantry; never 
 permitted to pass the gates of his prison-palace. It is related 
 that some years ago one of those fearful and all-devouring fires, 
 for which the great imperial cities of Miaco, Osaca, and Yeddo 
 enjoy a most unenviable reputation, drove the inmates even of 
 the Dairi* out of the sacred precincts, the only choice being 
 that of the celebrated King of Aragon — of moving or being 
 burned alive. Rigid as the etiquette of the Dairi is held to be, 
 it appears that it melted before the fire of a vast city in flames ; 
 and His Sacred Majesty, after escaping to one temple in the en- 
 virons, had to flee to a second, and, on his way, to cast himself 
 from his bullock-car and take to his feet, under penalty of being 
 burned after all. One can not help feeling that in all probabil- 
 ity this escape, with all the change, movement, and excitement, 
 must have formed by far the pleasantest, if not the only agree- 
 able hours he knew throughout his whole existence. How his 
 august person, too sacred to be exposed to the vulgar gaze of 
 his subjects, was restored to its pristine sanctity after that 
 midnight rush and long tramp along the dusty roads, Japanese 
 writers have not told us. 
 
 This double machinery of a titular Sovereign who only reigns, 
 and a Lieutenant of the empire who only governs, and does not 
 reign, from generation to generation, is certainly something very 
 curious ; and by long continuance it seems to have led to a du- 
 plicate system such as never existed in any other part of the 
 world, carried out to almost every detail of existence. Every of- 
 fice is doubled ; every man is alternately a watcher and watched. 
 Not only the whole administrative machinery is in duplicate, 
 but the most elaboi-ate system of check and counter-check, on 
 the most approved Machiavellian principle, is here developed 
 with a minuteness and perfection, as regards details, difiicult at 
 first to realize. As upon all this is grafted a system of more 
 than Oriental mendacity, one feels launched into a world of 
 shadows and make-believes hard to grapple with in the prac- 
 tical business of life. Of their mendacity and cynical views 
 respecting it I had many illustrations. One of these ofiicial 
 gentry, upon a particular occasion, having been found by a For- 
 eign Minister in deliberate contradiction with himself, was 
 asked, somewhat abruptly, perhaps, how he could reconcile it 
 to his conscience to utter such palpable untruths? With per- 
 fect calmness and self-possession he replied, ' I told you last 
 * The name given to the Court.
 
 Chap. X.] GREAT FEUDATORIES. 211 
 
 month that such and such a tiling had been done, and now I 
 tell you the thing has not been done at all. I am an officer 
 whose business it is to carry out the instructions I receive, and 
 to say what I am told to say. What have I to do witli its 
 truth or falsehood ? This must be pleasant hearing to those 
 whose business lies with officials; but perhaps the chief diffiir- 
 ence in the manners and customs of officials and diplomatists 
 at the two extremities of the great Continent may, after all, be 
 more in forms than in things ! In Europe, are not official un- 
 truths also told now and then ? (some people think systematic- 
 ally) — and unblushingly enough too — only it is not considered 
 right to avow the fact, with the same cynical indifference to 
 what may be thought either of it or the avowal. 
 
 To return to the Tycoon and the government of the early 
 Middle Ages, with its Suzerain and Feudatories, its fiefs and a 
 phantom king, with hereditary Mayors of the palace, and Chiefs 
 with 10,000 retainers, each one holding himself as good as the 
 Tycoon, who must live in constant dread of open revolt or se- 
 cret assassination, what a pleasant state of existence for all 
 parties it reveals ! Each of these territorial magnates or great 
 l)aimios is practically independent of the Tycoon when within 
 his own territory, with power of life and death over all his sub- 
 jects and dependents. When at Nagasaki, I heard upon good 
 authority a history of an incident yet fresh in the memory of 
 every one, highly illustrative both of this fact and the state of 
 feeling as regards foreigners and Japanese honor. Two of the 
 retainers of an officer, a subject of the Prince of Fizen, got into 
 a quarrel with some foreigners in the street, and were disarmed 
 after drawing their swords. This reached the Prince's ears, 
 and so highly incensed him, that he sent instant orders to his 
 officer to have them beheaded for the disgrace they had brought 
 on themselves and their Prince in permitting themselves to be 
 disarmed by foreigners. It was said the Prince had a pique 
 against his officer, and was not sorry thus to avenge himself; 
 but, be this as it may, the men lost their heads, and were decapi- 
 tated just outside of Nagasaki, where the Tycoon's jurisdiction 
 ceases. An imperial passport will not secure an intruder's life, 
 and each one of these Barons is capable of giving the answer 
 Hugh Capet provoked by reminding a disobedient vassal of his 
 duties, and asking ' who made him count ?' ' Who made you 
 king ?' was the defiant reply. And therefore, to keep such bold 
 and independent lords in some subjection, Taiko-sama insisted 
 on their spending six months of every year in his capital at 
 Yeddo, where they would be under his jurisdiction (though 
 limited, even within his moated city) ; and when they returned
 
 212 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. X. 
 
 to their territories he kept their wives and children hostages. 
 Thus, it seems, a farther pleasant state of mutual love and con- 
 fidence must be perpetuated between the rival powers, heredit- 
 ary Tycoon, and hereditary feudal chiefs or princes. And thus 
 is explained the enormous extent of the official quarters of the 
 city within a double enciente of glacis, wall, and moat ; and 
 whole streets with moated houses, displaying a frontage of a 
 thousand feet or more. These form, as already explained, au 
 outer screen to a large court-yard, furnishing ranges of apart- 
 ments for retainers and their families, while fine and massive- 
 looking gates of bronze and wood, with high roofs and armo- 
 rial bearings, mark those which are the property of the Daimios 
 or higher class of nobles. Nothing, perhaps, is more striking 
 to the eye of a stranger, on first penetrating through the com- 
 mercial part of the city into the official quarter, than the vast 
 dimensions of all these residences of the feudal princes. Many 
 of the streets are at least a hundred feet wide; the fronts of 
 houses, that is, the one-storied range of court-yard buildings, 
 sometimes extend nearly a quarter of a mile ; and behind lie 
 garden and parade-grounds, while beautiful timber can be seen 
 towering above, giving a semi-regal air to the whole quarter. 
 No business is ever seen here. Nothing but retainers are ever 
 visible, often with bow and arrows slung, and all with the ar- 
 morial cognizance of their masters worked on the back and 
 sleeves of their tunic. Occasionally a guard may be met with 
 musket and bayonet, which, if they did not come from European 
 workshops, would to all appearance have done the best no dis- 
 credit. But they are all, I have been informed, of Dutch manu- 
 facture. One would think a score or two of these great hered- 
 itary chiefs, princes in their own right, each with five or ten 
 thousand armed retainers within his town-house and grounds, 
 would be but dangerous guests to the Tycoon, brought as they 
 are under dui-ance, or at least compulsion, by the ruling power, 
 to eat their substance away from their estates and sources of 
 revenue. Still, this same arrangement of check and counter- 
 check has been in existence for many generations, without, it 
 would seem, any serious attempt to overthrow the government- 
 al system. Perhaps this is to be explained by the fact, already 
 referred to, that power has passed in no small degree from the 
 Tycoon's hands, as it formerly did from the Mikados', and now 
 resides chiefly in an executive Council of State, consisting of 
 five ministei'S, and these again held in no small check, if not in 
 subservience, by the Daimios and Feudal chiefs of the higher 
 order, amounting to some 360. Although these do not actually 
 form a chamber of lords, nor assemble in a body at stated pe-
 
 Chap.X.] the DAIMIOS and the tycoon. 213 
 
 nods, nothing legislative, it is said, can be done without their 
 assent obtained, after they have been convened to meet and de- 
 liberate. It does not appear that they interfere overtly with 
 the executive rule of the empire, it being recognized as the 
 proper business of the Tycoon and his council of ministers to 
 apply and cause to be respected all existing laws and customs. 
 They hold themselves too high to demean themselves by taking 
 part in the administration, or holding oflSce under the Tycoon. 
 But neither the Tycoon nor the ministers, separately or col- 
 lectively, can venture upon a change in these laws and customs 
 without their sanction, and a farther confirmation by the phan- 
 tom sovereign of Miaco, who, shut up for life within its garden 
 walls, is occasionally recalled to a consciousness of an outer 
 world by being required to give his authority for some legis- 
 lative action or fundamental change of which he can know 
 nothing. I do not hear that it was ever refused, until this re- 
 cent affair of the treaties ; why should it be ? What can it 
 matter to him, poor recluse, how they govern or misgoveni an 
 empire only in mockery called his ? 
 
 In the mean time, between the Mikado who nominally wields 
 the sceptre — the Tycoon, a youth who no less nominally gov- 
 erns the kingdom, and is but fourth in rank in the Japanese 
 red book, for three of the Mikado's officers take precedence, 
 and the Daimios great and small, those with a million kokous* 
 of rice for their territorial revenue, and those with 50,000 and 
 less, who are only nominally feudatories — the administrative 
 machinery of the realm seems to be kept in working order ! 
 and this, whether Tycoons die peaceably in their beds (on 
 their mats it should be written), or by the hand of a conspira- 
 tor. Along the broad ramparts of the moated enceinte with- 
 in which the Tycoon, by a strange retributive justice, as has 
 been remarked, seems in these days quite as much a cipher and 
 a prisoner as the virtually deposed Mikados, these ruling class- 
 es may be studied any day, in their outer lineaments at least. 
 They are often to be seen, either on horseback or in noriraon, 
 going or returning to the Tycoon's palace. First approaches 
 a kind of standard-bearer, with a tall staff or lance, or it may 
 be two or three, pointed in steel, and with something not un- 
 like a fleur-de-lis covering the blade,f as an emblem of rank and 
 
 * A measure equivalent to about 100 lbs,, and valued, on an average, at 
 from ten to twelve itziboos (say fifteen shillings). In the Appendix will be 
 found a tabular list of the Daimios and their respective revenues, ca])ital8, 
 etc. ; also a translation of the Yeddo red book of the government and admin- 
 istrative hierarchy of the Tycoon's government. Soe Appendix D. 
 
 t Another custom showing the dangerous chrmciits it must have contained 
 at some former peri<ui, if not now, i.s that of never ap]>earing with any bared 
 weapon, {>])Gar or swurd, that being held to be a declaration of war.
 
 214 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XI. 
 
 authority ; these vary in form according to the dignity. Then 
 a caparisoned horse, led by two grooms ; a squad of retainers, 
 with tlie armorial bearings of their lord embroidered on their 
 back and sleeves follows ; and the great man himself seated, 
 or rather doubled up, in his norimon, comes next, with officers 
 on each side. After the great man come bearers of covers for 
 his norimon, if it should rain ; trunks with his wardrobe, should 
 he wish to change ; a large umbrella, if it should chance to rain ; 
 occasionally, more led horses and a few attendants on horse- 
 back, and then a detachment of archers, matchlock men, and 
 inferior followers with one sword only. And so passes on his 
 way the Dairaio, meditating, it may well be, on the sudden and 
 strange revolution in his country which has brought the for- 
 eigner once more to the Japanese shores, and even into the 
 streets and thoroughfares of the capital, with the laws of Gon- 
 gen Sama, the great founder of the existing dynasty, still de- 
 nouncing as high treason, with death for the penalty, any one 
 harboring a foreigner within the dominions of the Tycoon, and 
 still enjoining all good and loyal subjects to slay and extermin- 
 ate any of the hated race who may ever venture to desecrate 
 the sacred soil of Niphon by their presence ! This law, it is 
 very certain, has never been repealed, and by it we are outlaws 
 in the land. Any one may slay us, therefore, and plead in 
 justification one of the statute laws of the empire! A curious 
 state of affairs this, where a large class of nobles and retainers 
 dwell side by side with foreigners whom they hate. What 
 but murders and butcheries can possibly come of such a state 
 of things ? It must be quite evident that either the relative 
 status of the foreigner and the armed classes must be altered, 
 or we shall be compelled to abandon the capital, and accept a 
 wholly different position in the country to that which was stip- 
 ulated for by existing treaties. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 First Bloodshed. — Arrival of Count MouraviefF Amoorsky with a Russian 
 Squadron. — An Officer and two of the Sailors butchered in the Streets of 
 Yokohama. — European Diplomacy and Eastern Policy. 
 
 The British and American Legations had been established 
 in Yeddo some six weeks — left to themselves, as I have said, 
 to make their way as they best could, without a pendant of 
 either nation in the Japanese Avaters, when Count Mouravieff
 
 Chap. XI.] RUDENESS AND INSULT. f^l5 
 
 Amoorsky arrived with a squadron often vessels- As Gov- 
 ernor General of Siberia, and the territories recently torn from 
 the Chinese in Manchouria, he was supposed to have paid a 
 visit to Yeddo for the purpose of settling the joint occupation 
 of Sagalien, a large island off the Manchourian coast, hitherto 
 in the joint occupation of Chinese and Japanese. 
 
 Previous to this arrival affairs had been going on, if not very 
 satisfactorily, at least with no more serious difficulties than 
 might perhaps have been reasonably anticipated with an East- 
 ern people and a government so long isolated from the rest of 
 the world. 
 
 The currency question, after a long struggle, had ended in 
 the Japanese Government giving way, and withdrawing for 
 the present the obnoxious new coin. The Consuls were lo- 
 cated at Kanagawa, and a right of road had been secured un- 
 der a system of passports. Even as regarded a site at Kana- 
 gawa for the merchants, there were not wanting indications 
 that on this point also the government was prepared to yield. 
 
 To counterbalance these material advantages gained, a good 
 deal of hostile feeling seemed ready for manifestation when- 
 ever occasion served. Mr. Heuskin, the Secretary of the Amer- 
 ican Legation, had been more than once assaulted by some of 
 the iSamoiirai, or two-sworded retainers of the Daimios ; and 
 he had been repeatedly mobbed and molested when attempt- 
 ing to pass through a populous quarter of the city, near to the 
 celebrated Nipon Bas, a bridge across a river from whence all 
 the statute measurements on the road, from one end of the 
 enipire to the other, are taken. 
 
 Various minor acts of rudeness and insult had also fallen to 
 the share of the British Legation. But as regarded the mob- 
 bing and pelting, I made a vigorous protest on August 9 of 
 this year (1859), declaring that the Japanese Government 
 would be held responsible if they permitted such hostile acts 
 on the part of the populace. The concluding paragraphs so 
 perfectly describe our actual position at the time that I can 
 not do better than transcribe them : 
 
 ' Finally, I come to the state of affairs here, at the capital 
 and seat of government. Two Foreign Representatives only 
 are here, with half a dozen gentlemen attached to their Mis- 
 sions. They have been sent in accordance with treaties, and 
 have trusted themselves alone in the midst of a vast popula- 
 tion, without ships of war or other protection than the loyalty 
 and good faith of that government, and the presumed respect 
 of Japanese people for their own laws, and the mutual obliga- 
 tions of States.
 
 216 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XI. 
 
 ' Do your Excellencies know how this coniSdence on our part 
 has been met ? No officer of the Missions of either country, 
 Great Britain or the United States, can walk out of their offi- 
 cial residence without risk of rudeness, offense, and latterly — 
 more especially latterly — violence of the most wanton and de- 
 termined character. Stones are thrown, blows are struck, 
 swords are drawn on gentlemen passing along the great thor- 
 oughfares inoffensively and peaceably, offeiing neither offense 
 nor provocation to any one. I hear that a few days ago the 
 American Secretary of Legation, Mr. Heuskin, was attacked 
 deliberately, and struck a violent blow while slowly walking 
 his horse on the road ; and this not by a coolie, or even a 
 drunkard, as far as could be observed, but one of " those offi- 
 cers bearing swords." A day or two later, I farther hear, he 
 and the Consul of Holland, who was in his company, were as- 
 sailed in the centre of the town, and in open day, with stones ; 
 and not by idle boys — not by one, but hundreds of men — not 
 for a moment either, but persistently for a considerable time, 
 two officials being present at the time, and stirring no hand to 
 put a stop to such an outrage. My own staff have complained 
 to me of insolence and rudeness experienced in their walks, 
 and not always from common people, but officers ; and some- 
 times stones have been thrown, without the shadow of a pre- 
 text, by provocation or offense, offered on their part ; on the 
 contrary, it is always from behind their assailants come. It ap- 
 pears they do not deem it inconsistent with a reputation for 
 courage to attack perfectly inoffensive and unarmed strangers 
 •walking alone in their streets (under safeguard only of the 
 good disposition of the population and the laws of their coun- 
 try), and think it no disparagement to their courage, and no 
 evidence of cowardice, to steal from behind to throw these 
 missiles, or, backed by a crowd, to attack by dozens a single 
 stranger. 
 
 ' These outrages can only be considered as a reproach and a 
 scandal to any city where all the powers of a government are 
 concentrated and available for the maintenance of order, I 
 pray your Excellencies to allow me for a moment to draw 
 your serious attention to some leading facts connected with 
 such acts, if not the inferences to which they lead. This de- 
 meanor of the population was not observable on the first ar- 
 rival of the Foreign Missions last month ; they have gradually 
 become more noticeable; while latterly each day seems to 
 bring a new instance, with accession of violence and aggrava- 
 ting circumstances. 
 
 ' Whence is this ? As regards my own Mission I can vouch
 
 Chap. XL] INSULTS AND OUTRAGES. 217 
 
 for the absence of all pretext or shadow of justification, even 
 in their demeanor, for any display either of ill will or offensive 
 conduct. I feel scarcely less certain that no just provocation 
 has been received from the American Mission. I have said 
 that in the beginning such action on the part of officers and 
 populace alike did not exist ; and in saying so, I do not over- 
 look the fact that in all large cities there will be idle and ill- 
 conditioned people about the thoroughfares, disorderly boys 
 who will follow and sometimes hoot at foreigners, or idly throw 
 a stone. These things may happen every where, and in most 
 civilized states; nor to such instances as these have I ever 
 thought it necessary to di'aw your attention ; but there is this 
 notable difference between these continued and reiterated acts 
 of aggression directed against the five or six individuals form- 
 ing two diplomatic Missions (who must be very generally 
 known to be the only foreign residents at Yeddo) and what 
 might take place in any city of Europe, viz., that such public 
 display of violence could not take place without its being the 
 duty of certain public officers charged with the maintenance 
 of the peace to interfere and put a stop to it, and apprehend 
 some, at least, of the most prominent offenders, who would, in 
 that case, be certainly and severely punished for their violation 
 of the law. Secondly, that if any officer, or civilian even, of 
 respectability, saw such disgraceful conduct toward inoffensive 
 strangers, they would, of their own accord, interfere to prevent 
 its continuance, and secure, if possible, the apprehension of some 
 of the assailants. And they would ho held disgraced in pub- 
 lic opinion if they failed to do so, much more if they stood by 
 encouraging such ruffianly violence ; while any officer or pub- 
 lic functionary so acting could hardly escape, on complaint, if 
 not without it, the punishment due to his conduct. If any such 
 instances of unprovoked and unpunished violence offered to in- 
 offensive foreigners ever occur in European States, there is no 
 one who does not know that they are the exceptions, not the 
 rule ; and the occurrence of one is quite sufficient to move the 
 government or municipal authorities to more strenuous efforts 
 to provide against the possibility of a recurrence of the same 
 acts with like impunity. 
 
 ' In all these essential points I am obliged to conclude the 
 inhabitants and officers of Yeddo differ from the functionaries 
 and populations of every other city in the civilized world. I 
 say it with regret, but the facts compel me to adopt this con- 
 clusion. Day after day these insults and outrages are offer- 
 ed to five or six individuals ; they increase in frequency and 
 violence: no functionary interferes. Officers are sometimes 
 
 K
 
 218 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap XL 
 
 the assailants, and oftener still either passive or encouraging 
 spectators. 
 
 * With all this going on almost under the walls of the Ty- 
 coon's palace, and the Representatives of two of the Great 
 Powers of the West subjected to daily insult in the persons of 
 those attached to them, and liable to the same treatment in 
 their own persons, neither the Japanese Government nor the 
 functionaries charged with the maintenance of the laws and 
 good order in the city give sign of life. No steps are taken, 
 to all appearance, to prevent the continual recurrence of these 
 scenes of disgraceful violence by the direct and timely inter- 
 vention of the proper authorities on the spot. No public proc- 
 lamation is issued to warn the inhabitants of the penalties of 
 such conduct, and prohibit it in the name of the law and the 
 Government. No authoritative act appears insisting upon the 
 respect and consideration due to foreigners coming as guests 
 in the midst of this population — to the Representatives of For- 
 eign Powers, entitled, by treaty and universal custom, not only 
 to perfect immunity from every description of wrong, but to 
 respect and consideration. 
 
 ' J will not tell your Excellencies what are the natural and 
 legitimate inferences to be drawn from all the facts I have been 
 reluctantly compelled on this occasion to bring under your se- 
 rious notice ; but I am bound to state, that if the Japanese 
 Government desired to make the treaties so formally entered 
 into a short year ago with Foreign Powers null and void of 
 effect without actually declaring such to be their intention ; to 
 make trade impossible by vexatious impediments, delays, and 
 changes of currency ; and, finally, to render the residence of 
 Diplomatic agents in Yeddo either untenable or dangerous to 
 life, with all the risks of misunderstandings, demands for re- 
 dress backed by power, and risks of collision — deplorable in all 
 circumstances — and grave complications of national interests 
 with it, it would be difficult, I conceive, to devise any system 
 better calculated to effect this end, whether I regard that 
 which has been done and openly permitted, or that which has 
 neither been done nor attempted to avert the worst conse- 
 quences. 
 
 ' I deeply regret to have to make such serious representa- 
 tions to your Excellencies, on matters, too, involving our na- 
 tional relations with Japan. I have it very earnestly at heart 
 to avert consequences I too clearly foresee will follow, if 
 prompt and efficacious means be not taken to that end. It is 
 the desire of my government and the interest of Great Britain 
 to be at peace with all nations, and cultivate only the best le-
 
 CHAr.Xr.] PROTEST.— MURDER OF RUSSIANS. 218 
 
 fations ; but it is not permitted to any nation with large in- 
 terests at stake and national honor to defend, to shrink from 
 the due maintenance of its treaty rights, and least of all can 
 Great Britain allow them to be trampled under foot here or 
 elsewhere. I am, therefore, acting strictly and simply in ac- 
 cordance with my instructions in taking the only step which 
 appears calculated to prevent any interrujnion to the good 
 understanding and friendly intercourse it was the object of 
 the treaty to establish and maintain inviolate, by calling the 
 attention of the Government of Japan, through your Excellen- 
 cies, to the imperative necessity for the vigorous adoption of 
 measures which shall render such frequent and grave causes 
 of complaint impossible, and allow the treaty to take effect, 
 by the removal of obstacles for which the Japanese Govern- 
 ment must unavoidably be responsible.' 
 
 This undoubtedly had its effect ; for, although the ministers 
 disclaimed any knowledge of the parties offending, and denied 
 their power to prevent such popular demonstrations, I rode 
 through this quarter a week later, and several miles on the 
 other side, and not a hand or voice was raised against me, nor 
 have such scenes ever been renewed since. If the Govern- 
 ment had nothing to do with this sudden cessation of such 
 hostile acts, it was certainly a very strange coincidence that, 
 so immediately after an energetic remonstrance, they ceased 
 altogether and permanently. 
 
 Count Mouravieff took up his residence at a large temple, 
 having landed with a guard of 300 men fully aimed and equip- 
 ped. Shortly afterward I heard that some of his officers, in 
 walking through the city, had been annoyed and insulted, and 
 one morning he came to breakfast with me, arriving late, and 
 looking as if something untoward had occurred. In a few 
 moments he told me he had just received some deplorable in- 
 telligence from Kanagawa. An officer, with a sailor and a 
 steward of one of the Russian ships, had been on shore about 
 8 o'clock the previous evening to buy some provisions, and on 
 their way to the boat, close to the principal street, in which 
 many of the shops were still open, the party was suddenly set 
 upon by some armed Japanese, and hewn down with the most 
 ghastly wounds that could be inflicted. The steward, though 
 mortally wounded it was feared, still lived, having, after the 
 first onset, succeeded in rushing into a shop. The other two 
 were left in a pool of blood, the flesh hanging in large masses 
 from their bodies and limbs. The sailor was cleft through his 
 skull to the nostrils, half the scalp sliced down, and one arm 
 nearly severed from the shoulder through the joint. The ofli'
 
 220 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XL 
 
 cer was equally mangled, his lungs protruding from a sabre 
 gash across the body, the thighs and legs deeply gashed. The 
 ruffians, it appears, were not content with simply killing, but 
 must have taken pleasure in cutting them to pieces. All three, 
 unfortunately, were unarmed, but numbers of people were ei- 
 ther in sight or in the close vicinity. Was it, then, a mere 
 highway robbery, with murder as an accompaniment, or was 
 it an act of hatred and revenge ? It is said that one or more 
 officials had been dismissed, on the complaint of General Mou- 
 ravieff, for insults offered to some of his own officers a day or 
 two before. This seemed to offer a possible clew to the assas- 
 sins, but nothing had been heard of them. 
 
 This first deed of blood took every one by surprise ; for al- 
 though, as I have recorded, there were not wanting evidences 
 of hostility somewhere, believed more especially to have its 
 origin in Yeddo among the Daimios and their armed retainers, 
 it had hitherto only manifested itself by acts of rudeness and. 
 insult, or the turbulence of a mob. Here, without the slight- 
 est provocation and away from the capital, three unfortunate 
 men had been set upon and butchered in the most savage 
 manner. What was the motive, and who were the perpetra- 
 tors ? It was difficult to imagine they could be common high- 
 waymen and robbers — '•Lonins^ as brigands are called in this 
 country, including all the criminal classes who have no fixed 
 abode, employment, or lord, disbanded soldiers, disgraced and 
 unclassed retainers of the Daimios, deserters, etc. It is difficult 
 to attribute the act to any of these for purposes of plunder, 
 because, although they did carry off a money-box the steward 
 had with him, it was found on the road to Kanagawa. True, 
 it contained only foreign coins, which they may have thought 
 too dangerous property and nearly useless to them after such 
 a deed. It is believed that the parties had come down to 
 Kanagawa from Yeddo. This is certain, by the depositions of 
 the steward and of the officer, who did not expire until some 
 of his companions had reached the spot, that one or more of 
 the attacking party wore the two swords distinctive of an offi- 
 cer's rank in Japan. A sandal was left on the ground, which, 
 by its make, proved, the rank of the wearer to be above that 
 of a coolie. A vest, too, had been torn off, but with no dis- 
 tinguishing badge or mark ; and a piece of a broken sword was 
 found by the bodies — all useful means of tracing the assassins. 
 But the Governor, when the British Acting Consul went to 
 him at four o'clock in the morning, on being informed of what 
 had happened, treated the whole matter with a kind of brutal 
 levity (such, at least, was the impression he gave), and there
 
 Chap. XI.] DIFFICULT QUESTIONS. 221 
 
 was little hope of justice from such authority. They were not 
 mere highwaymen, however, because the manner in which the 
 murdered men were slashed and nearly dismembered indica- 
 ted more than a mere desire to disable or kill. There was 
 something savage and vindictive, indicating personal or polit- 
 ical feeling in the number and nature of the wounds. On the 
 other hand, if it had some ulterior or political design of intimi- 
 dation addressed to all the Foreigners, surely none in high 
 places would have chosen this particular moment, when, by a 
 rare chance, there was a powerful foreign squadron in the bay 
 of the nation to which the victims belonged, and a chief in 
 Count Mouravieflf who could land an army on their territory 
 from the neighboring coast, if he pleased, in a shorter period 
 than could any other foreign representative or government. 
 But it was precisely on account of this, according to popular 
 rumor, that the deed was done, and his men were singled out. 
 In the troubles consequent on the last American treaty, Prince 
 Mito, as I have already explained, was exiled by the Regent, 
 Ikamono-no-kami^ whose own tragic end was not yet fore- 
 shadowed. Since that period the prince had been left under 
 a species of surveillance, chafing under the loss of power and 
 the failure of his projects. Having yet a large body of officers 
 and retainers devoted to him as their feudal chief, it was sup- 
 posed he had now taken this means of bringing the existing 
 government and its real chief, the Regent, into collision with a 
 foreign Power, hoping in the confusion to recover his position, 
 and perhaps seize upon the reins of power as Tycoon. 
 
 Another account, already referred to, represented it as an 
 act of personal revenge directed indiscriminately against any 
 Russians that might come in their way, in order to avenge the 
 disgrace of an official, which Count Mouravieff had insisted 
 upon as a satisfaction for some violence or insult ofl'ered to a 
 party of his officers in Yeddo. 
 
 Of the real motives, or the actual perpetrators, nothing pos- 
 itive has ever been known. But no one believed that it was 
 a mei-e case of highway robbery and murder. Count Moura- 
 vieff was pleased to confer with me as to the best steps to be 
 taken, and the means of obtaining the punishment of all con- 
 cerned in this atrocity, or, failing this, the means of exacting 
 such satisfaction or reparation for the outrage as could be ac- 
 cepted, and might best deter the Government or the Daimios 
 from recurring to such means of carrying out a policy of hos- 
 tility and exclusion, if such, indeed, was the construction to bo 
 put upon this otherwise motiveless crime. 
 
 This involved many considerations both of expediency and
 
 222 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XL 
 
 practicability. The news liad only just been received of the 
 repulse of both English and French forces at the Peiho, recoil- 
 ing defeated from the Taku forts. It was not to be conceived 
 that this would be without significance or influence on the 
 minds of the Japanese rulers. True, I had myself announced 
 the fact to the Government (preferring this to leaving it to 
 less sure hands to bear intelligence which could not be kept 
 secret), and had declared at the same time the certainty that, 
 as soon as forces could be dispatched from England or India, 
 signal retribution would be exacted. Yet the check had actu- 
 ally taken place, and the retribution was future and contin- 
 gent, and might well seem to them less certain than I repre- 
 sented it. 
 
 A few days later, a drunken officer was brandishing one of 
 the sabres they carry (a murderous weapon in any hands, with 
 a powerful leverage of handle, and an edge like a razor), vow- 
 ing he would have the head of a Russian. And what was 
 done ? He was evidently dangerous, and, after some delay, he 
 was dragged down at a respectful distance by a long pole with 
 a hook, and disarmed, but only to be sent about his business. 
 It was impossible to disguise the fact that a hostile spirit of 
 the worst kind was abroad, and to all remonstrances the For- 
 eign Ministers quietly observed that these acts of violence 
 fully justified them in all they had urged upon the Plenipoten- 
 tiaries negotiating, as to the dangerous character of the popu- 
 lation in Yeddo, and the expediency of deferring the residence 
 of any diplomatic agents for two or three years ! It was, of 
 course, easy, and it might be pleasant for them to fulfill their 
 own predictions of mischief, but would the contracting Powers 
 allow their agents to be driven out of Yeddo by mob violence, 
 their subjects to be murdered in the streets, and all ti'ade made 
 impossible ? In the mean time, this is what they menaced us 
 with thus early, and the position of all the diplomatic agents 
 at Yeddo was any thing but secure, if not full of peril, and 
 boded ill for the possibility of any satisfactory relations being 
 established. There was too much reason to believe that a 
 powerful party among the hereditary Princes and Daimios 
 were disposed to risk every thing rather than permit peace- 
 able intercourse and good relations with European Powers to 
 be established ; and the late checks suiFered by the allies at the 
 Peiho, and the Fi-ench in Cochin China, with the war raging 
 in Europe at the time, may all have tended to embolden them 
 to make the effort without farther delay to drive the Missions 
 from the capital, and all trade from its vicinity. 
 
 In the end, it was seen nothing could be done. To blockade
 
 Chap. XI.] 
 
 THE AMENDE. 
 
 223 
 
 the port and bombard the city, assuming it were in the Count's 
 power to do either, gave httle promise of better result. The 
 first would have the immediate effect of making both the cap- 
 ital and port of Kanagawa untenable to Foreigners, and the 
 last was an extreme measure, likely to cost the lives of thou- 
 sands of innocent and harmless people, without doing the least 
 injury to those really concerned in the wrong. In this Count 
 Mouravieff* seemed entirely to agree, and he finally took his 
 departure a few days afterward, having insisted upon certain 
 ' high officers' going on board and making in person an apolo- 
 gy on the part of the Government, which entered into an en- 
 gagement to discover and punish the offenders by a given pe- 
 riod. It was farther stipulated and agreed that the Governor 
 of Kanagawa should be disgraced, and that they should build 
 a mortuary chapel, and keep a guard in perpetuity on the spot. 
 It 'wa.s very characteristic that this last condition was precise- 
 ly the one they most resisted, as entailing on all posterity a 
 great and needless expense. 
 
 And 80 ended the first of a long series of tragedies, with 
 something very like a solemn farce ; the apology and the prom- 
 ise were made, the chapel has been built, but of course nothing 
 has ever been heard of the perpetrators, and the very Govern- 
 or so disgraced was actuallv named, two years later, to pro- 
 ceed as one of the Tycoon's Envoys on a mission to the Treaty 
 Powers in Europe, the Court of Russia among the rest ; and
 
 224 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XII. 
 
 it was only on my remonstrance that he was removed from tho 
 mission and another appointed in his place. The struggle had 
 now commenced in earnest, and first blood had been shed — the 
 struggle between European diplomacy, with protocols and the 
 appliances of modern warfare in the background, and Japanese 
 policy, animated by a fierce spirit of national fanaticism and 
 hostility to all innovation, backed by the assassin's steel and 
 all the weapons of Oriental treachery and ruthless cruelty. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Improving Prospects. — An Official Interview with the two Ministers of For- 
 eign Affaii-s. — Ride Home by Moonlight. — How Yeddo appears after San- 
 set. 
 
 July and August were gone, the first two months after my 
 arrival ; and however monotonously the time seemed to pass, 
 day after day glided imperceptibly away. It is in these cir- 
 cumstances that time in the retrospect always seems the short- 
 est. With nothing to mark or distinguish one day from an- 
 other (one day and night being the exact counterpart of the 
 other), the mind refuses to take account of the unvarying suc- 
 cession, and the memory finds nothing prominent whereon to 
 attach a record. The days themselves may seem long, with 
 nothing to break the dull flow of the unrippled stream while 
 we are living through each one, but on looking back we find it 
 impossible to say whether ten or twenty have passed along the 
 same smooth way, leaving no footprint or water-mark on the 
 shores. In traveling, where each hour brings new scenes, new 
 people and things, while events are crowded into small space, 
 or in the excitement of active life, where every day is filled 
 with the record of hopes or fears, successes or failures, work 
 achieved, designs advanced or retarded by adverse conditions, 
 the mind is incessantly on the stretch between the conception 
 and the birth of new projects, and refuses to accept a mere 
 calendar measure of time. We have lived ten days or months 
 in one, counting, as the mind ever does, by epochs made out 
 of sensations and events ; and however rapid the passage of 
 each day, when filled to the brim with thoughts and deeds, in 
 the retrospect a month expands into space and time without 
 definite limit! 
 
 Our only incident at this period was the appearance of the 
 cholera. I returned from the American Legation on the even-
 
 Chap. XU] THE CHOLERA IN YEDDO.— A VISIT. 225 
 
 ing of the 29th of August, bringing the unpleasant tidings, 
 and the next morning I awoke to find myself in its fell gnp. 
 The attack was sharp but short, and my actual danger was 
 over in a few hours, but I did not feel quite well for some time 
 after, and all the other members of the establishment had at- 
 tacks more or less severe in character. Fortunately, no life 
 was lost, and in the mean time the hot season was passing rap- 
 idly away, and in another fortnight or three weeks we might 
 expect cool days as well as nights. The heat, however, out 
 of the sun, was never excessive ; the highest range of the ther- 
 mometer in the house was only 86°, and its ordinary pitch in 
 midday was 80°, while the evenings always became cool and 
 pleasant ; there had been not more than two or three nights 
 when the temperature could interfere with sleep, lying under 
 musquito curtains without bed-covering. 
 
 The political atmosphere seemed clearing. The day I was 
 laid up with the cholera, one of the Governors of Foreign Af- 
 fairs paid a visit, appai-ently a call of friendly courtesy or ca- 
 jolery, for he proposed that, at any time I liked, he would ac- 
 company me to see some of the more curious temples, make 
 water parties, etc. This was quite a novel proposition, for 
 hitherto they had only seemed anxious to keep Foreigners out 
 of the streets, and within the four walls of their official resi- 
 dences. Pie proposed that jugglers should be sent for to 
 amuse me, and the next day sent again to ask after my health ! 
 The same comedy was acted with the American Minister. 
 However, it was all received courteously, of course for as much 
 as it was worth only, but I looked upon it as significant of 
 some anxiety on their part as to the state of their relations. 
 Count Mouravieif had, no doubt, made very energetic remon- 
 strances against the manifest laxity of Government and offi- 
 cials which allowed Foreigners to be repeatedly stoned and 
 mobbed without interference, and some of his own people final- 
 ly min-dered within a few steps of open shops, and in sight of 
 the OtonOy or head man of the ward, who declared that, hear- 
 ing blows in the street opposite, and seeing through the dark- 
 ness two Russians fall, ' he called his assistants to light the 
 lanterns, and when all were ready sallied out,' to find two For- 
 eigners weltering in their blood, nearly hacked to pieces, and 
 one already dead — the murderers clear off, of course. Upon 
 which he sent to his superior officers, and waited orders, not 
 even lifting the dying officer from the road ! The removal of 
 the Governor and the Otono, it is true, was the only redress 
 obtainable; but the Government spared no effort to remove 
 from the Count's mind any impression he may have had, either 
 
 E2
 
 226 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XU. 
 
 of their complicity, or their unwillingness to give the fullest 
 redress, by the seizure and execution of the offenders, if they 
 could be found. Unless they were the protected retainers of 
 a Daimio indeed, this would cost them little ; life is not set at 
 a high value either by Japanese laws or customs. About this 
 time, Mr. Cowan, one of the Consulate interpreters, was on his 
 way up from Kanagawa, and, just before reaching the gates of 
 the Legation, he saw an evidence of this which seemed to have 
 turned him sick. Three gory heads were stuck in a bed of 
 clay on a pedestal by the road side, with the eyes open in the 
 fixed stare of death. I could not find out to whom they had 
 belonged, or for what crime their owners had been condemned. 
 But a theft of any sum above forty kobangs is death, and even 
 repeated petty larcenies have the same penalty attached. Here 
 is an original sentence forwarded to the Consul in an official 
 letter : 
 
 To F. Howard Vyse, Esq, 
 
 KiHi ! 
 
 Vagabond in the village Idrocmigawa. 
 
 You have, while in the service of the English merchant Telge, stolen 300 
 rio in his absence, which were kept in an unlocked box. 
 
 As this is a great offense, you are sentenced to be beheaded. 
 
 KiSKE ! 
 
 In the village of loci u Mocra. 
 
 During the time yon were in the service of Telge, an English merchant, 
 residing in Yoku-hama, your fellow-merchant Kiln stole his money ; although 
 you were ignorant of this, it is declared unlawful that you fled with him when 
 asked to do so, and suspicious that you allowed him to pay your expenses for 
 lodging, food, and drink, while traveling with him for many days. 
 
 You shall be whipped and banished. 
 
 The above two sentences having been passed, the remainder of the stolen 
 money, 284 rio, 17 tempos, and 80 cash, is kept at your disposal. I desire 
 you may communicate the above sentences to Telge, and hand him the mon- 
 ey, for which I beg him to give a receipt. 
 
 Proposed with respect. 
 
 The 11th day of the 4th month. (June 1, 18G0.) 
 
 (Signed) Takimoto Dzoebionokami. 
 
 Other signs of improvement were not wanting. When we 
 went abroad, the ward constables with their jingling staves in- 
 stantly turned out, and so escorted us from street to street, re- 
 lieved at each gate. Mr. Heusken, the interpreter of the Uni- 
 ted States' Legation, went on horseback to his old haunt, the 
 populous quarter about the Nipon Bas or central bridge, where 
 he had been so often assailed and mobbed, and found himself 
 well guarded, and not an idle boy seemed to have a look, much 
 less a stone to throw at him.
 
 Chap. XII.] A NIGHT SCENE. 227 
 
 One day in September, a two hours' procession through the 
 coraniercial aiul officinl cities in Norinions brought nie to the 
 residence of the jMinister of Foreign Affairs, and another two 
 hours, spent in discussing a great variety of pending matters, 
 were required to set me free to mount my liorse, and return by 
 moonlight, and lantern-light combined, with a noisy accompa- 
 niment of jingling staves, to an eight o'clock dinner. 
 
 NIOHT SCENE. — (^FlOm a Joponttt tOOOii- 
 
 I should like to attempt a description of the whole from be- 
 ginning to end — procession, interview, and return by night to 
 the temple of Tozengee, where the British Legation was pro- 
 visionally located — a brief chapter in Yeddo life, during which 
 glimpses are obtained of a thousand things connected with the 
 habits and character of the Japanese in their relations with 
 each other, in their political system, and social institutions; 
 while the interview itself brings out in strong relief the conflict 
 between the heterogeneous elements of two different phases of 
 civilization, each marked by a state of feeling and of ethics 
 equally fixed, and sometimes perfectly irreconcilable. Japan- 
 ese imperialism and nationality, feudalism, and the whole po- 
 litical and social system, V)y which the people are not only gov- 
 erned, but influenced in their development, all form a study 
 iiill of interest in a philosophical as well as an international 
 point of view.
 
 228 THREE YEARS IK JAtAN. fCHAP. Xll. 
 
 The Norimoiis are at the door — suspended cages, already 
 described as something like a large baby -house, with roof and 
 side doors, and cushions, and shelves, and windows. The stur- 
 dy Norinion-bearers wear a loose tunic of cotton descending 
 nearly to their heels, but when engaged in carrying, especially 
 if it be a person of importance, the skirts are tucked up by the 
 waistband, and the lower limbs and body, to the waist nearly, 
 left bare and free, in token of the urgent business on which 
 they are engaged, like the Jews of old, who ' girded up their 
 loins' in somewhat similar guise very possibly when preparing 
 for a journey or for energetic action. Thus equipped, the arms 
 of their master stamped or embroidered on the back and on 
 each arm, they bend under the great projecting beam and raise 
 it on their shoulders, the bottom of the Norimon being then 
 about a foot only above the ground. They make no cry or 
 sound such as the Chinese chair-bearers or Indian palanquin- 
 men, but step out with a tolerably smooth, steady pace, at the 
 rate of some three miles an hour. Japanese ideas of dignity 
 are opposed to all haste, and, accordingly, with a spear carried 
 in front to which the British flag is attached, and half a dozen 
 Japanese armed with swords as a body-guard, re-enforced by 
 a squad of Japanese officials and officers sent by the authori- 
 ties to accompany me, the procession winds slowly along. My 
 hoi'se is led by a groom, saddled and ready to mount in case 
 of accident to the Norimon, such being the order and theory 
 of traveling in Japan. A great Daimio will sometimes be fol- 
 lowed by two or three led horses, but only a very poor noble 
 is ever supposed to ride — his poverty, not his will, consenting. 
 Had I been a Japanese, I should, in addition, have had half a 
 dozen bearers carrying trunks, with changes of dress and other 
 objects for my personal convenience, and as many officers and 
 armed retainers in addition as might serve to mark a high offi- 
 cer's dignity, from fifty to five hundred or more. As the cav- 
 alcade enters into the street, a couple of ward constables, with 
 ponderous iron rods and jingling rings, making a loud carillon 
 each time they strike the ground with it, head the march, and 
 announce the arrival of some one of rank, as an intimation to 
 clear the road. These are exchanged at very short distances, 
 on the entrance of every new ward, marked by a gate across 
 the street or road, and a small guard-house. If it be a Daimio 
 or Japanese of official rank, all the inhabitants are prohibited 
 from standing up at the doors or windows to look at the great 
 man, and persons passing are bound to stop and make lowly 
 obeisance, or go down on their knees.* Amid all these out- 
 
 * I have sometimes thought this custom may have originated as a measorf,
 
 Chap. XII.] PATRICIAN AND PLEBEIAN. 229 
 
 ward marks of profound respect and a servile state, every high 
 officer of the Tycoon and every Daimio is accustomed to move. 
 So wide, indeed, is the distance between the hereditary nobles 
 and the mass of the population, and impassable the space divid- 
 ing them, that the very existence of the plebeian seems nnrec- 
 ognized by the patrician in his lordly progress. And for that 
 very reason there may be more real liberty among the mass of 
 the people than we imagine. It has often been remarked that 
 in the feudal ages of Europe, and under the most grinding des- 
 potism of crowned heads, both in ancient and modern times, 
 when absolute power over the lives and property of all has 
 been claimed as of Divine right, that the long submission of 
 whole populations was to be explained by the fact that it was 
 only rarely the violence of king or noble reached the peasant. 
 Feudal princes and chiefs made war on and despoiled each 
 other, and kings preyed upon nobles, but it was only excep- 
 tionally that the weight of their ruthless hands was felt by the 
 humbler classes. And not seldom the head despot of all made 
 common cause with the people against the insolent power of 
 the nobles, and appeared rather in the light of the protector 
 than the oppressor of either burgher or peasant. As the storm 
 often strikes the highest trees and leaves the lowlier shrubs 
 unscathed, so has it often been with the humbler classes ; their 
 lowness is their protection ; and being beneath the notice and 
 attention of the great ones of the earth, save as instruments of 
 labor, the most pregnant causes of revolution among the masses 
 are Avanting. So it may well be here in Japan, where we find 
 reproduced, in its fullest vigor, the feudal and despotic condi- 
 tions of a long-past age and order of society in Europe. The 
 outward show of servility may be but skin deep, and the body 
 of the industrial popixlation, in town and country, may be left 
 with a larger share of freedom and greater immunity from in- 
 dividual wrong, or meddling legislation brought to bear upon 
 them by those who wield the chief power of the state, than in 
 many countries having the form and show of popular freedom 
 and more democratic institutions. Many things which meet 
 the eye and the ear tend to give this impression, but of course 
 require verification before any deduction of this nature can be 
 accepted as conclusively established. 
 
 We pass on along the great tocado ; the people in the streets 
 and shops, attracted by the jingling of the iron stave-men and 
 a line of march, squat down on their heels, as is their manner, 
 
 of security apainst those very onslaughts of which we have had so many in- 
 stances the last three years, where armed men have sprung upon high per- 
 sonages in the midst of their retinue.
 
 230 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. Xlt 
 
 to get a peep into the Norimon. Men and women steaming in 
 the bathing-houses raise themselves to tlie open bars of the lat^ 
 tice fronts to look out, the interior behind them presenting a 
 view very faithfully represented in the following sketch by a 
 native artist ; in reference to which, I can not help feeling 
 
 JAPANESE LADIES IN THE BATH. 
 
 there is some danger of doing great injustice to the woman- 
 hood of Japan, if we judge them by mvr rules of decency and 
 modesty. Where there is no sense of immodesty, no conscious- 
 ness of w^rong doing, there is, or may be, a like absence of any 
 sinful or depraved feeling. It is a custom of the country. Fa- 
 thers, brothers, and husbands all sanction it ; and from child- 
 hood the feeling must grow up, as effectually guarding them 
 from self-reproach or shame as their sisters in Europe in adopt- 
 ing low dresses in the ball-room, or any other generally adopted 
 fashion of garments or amusements. There is much in the 
 usual appearance and expression of Japanese women to lead to 
 this conclusion. Any one of the real performers in the above
 
 Cwxr. Xlt j 
 
 JAPANESE STREET. 
 
 231 
 
 scene — a bathing saturnalia it may appear to us — when all is 
 over and the toilette is completed, will leave the bath door a 
 very picture of womanly reserve and modesty, as truly limned 
 below, looking as irreproachable as the best of her sex ; and 
 far more so, both in look and 
 carriage, than a great many 
 of those who frequent the 
 streets and public places of 
 resort in London or Paris. 
 Little nude children run a 
 few steps forward to pro- 
 long their view, and boys 
 and girls somewhat older 
 compromise the matter of 
 costume by a bit of printed 
 calico hung from the waist, 
 as a loose apron. Then 
 black-teethed women, with 
 mouths like open sepul- 
 chres, so dark and forbid- 
 ding is the cavern they un- 
 lock, generally uncovered to 
 the waist if in summer time, 
 and with a copper-colored 
 * marmot' hanging to the 
 breast, press forward for :; 
 sight at the shop doors, and 
 rush down the wynds :nul 
 passages which lead to the 
 great thoroughfare. Tat- 
 tooed workmen and shop- 
 boys add to the throng ; and swaggering among the groups 
 are many of the two-sworded gentry, retainers of Daimios, sub- 
 ordinate officials, and military, all fully impressed with their 
 own importance and superiority, as well as of the masters they 
 serve, to the common plebs, making them the least safe or pleas- 
 ant people in all Yeddo to meet. 
 
 Bat wo are in Norimons, surrounded by servants, and for 
 the moment out of the reach of the whole class of ruffian retain- 
 ers and disorderly soldiers, unless they resolve to make an on- 
 slaught. Mile after mile of streets has to be traversed, shops, 
 and tea-houses, and bathing establishments meeting the eye at 
 every step along the route. There is the Swan and Edgar's 
 of Yeddo, with premises nearly as vast, and at least a hundred 
 men an^ women waiting to attend the custooaerS) vid with 
 
 AFTER THE BATH.
 
 232 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 deafening cries inviting the latter to step in and buy. The 
 cleanly matted floor, raised some eighteen inches above the 
 street, serves for an ample counter, on which are spread the 
 silks, and gauzes, and cottons before the purchasers. As in the 
 sketch, " Scene in a Silk-shop," the seller and the buyer, both 
 squatted on their hams and heels, or bending forward on their 
 knees, examine the goods at leisure. Time, which is never an 
 object of value in the East, or to an Eastern, is very essential 
 to any satisfactory dealings. The Japanese, like the Turks, 
 rather prefer a chaffering customer, who, in spending his mon- 
 ey, will also help them to dispose of the other commodity, 
 which is apt to hang heavy on their hands, and be quite as dif- 
 ficult to get rid of — vacant hours. I have not gone deeply 
 into Japanese silks, my knowledge of such wares being very 
 slight, but I fancy their manufacturing skill is inferior, in some 
 kinds at least, to that of Europe. They have both delicate col- 
 ors and fabrics in gauze, however, which the Daimios and men 
 of rank wear in summer, with projecting wings on the outer 
 vest, giving something of the appearance, when they are in 
 gala costume, of dragon-flies. Generally speaking, the shops 
 
 ▲ JAPANESE AT HIS TOILET FOB A VISIT OF CEREMONT.
 
 CHAP.Xn.] JAPANESE STREET. 233 
 
 make little show ; the better class of goods are not commonly 
 set cut to attract the eye, nor could they be so without dam- 
 age, when the whole shop is open to the street, with no glass to 
 protect them from dust or exposure to the damp. The crock- 
 ery-shops, toy-shops, second-hand old iron and bronze shops, 
 fruit-shops, are exceptions, but little in these at all tempting 
 ever meets the eye of a foreigner. The lacker- ware, ornaments, 
 and similar articles, are always packed away, and generally to 
 be unearthed only by diving into the back, or mounting a break- 
 neck ladder to the loft over the shop. They are, perhaps, the 
 neatest carpenters and cabinet-makers, and the best coopers in 
 the world. Their tubs, and baths, and baskets are all perfect 
 specimens of workmanship. But here we are on the Nipon 
 Bas, the great central bridge of Nipon, flung across the River 
 Okawa, which traverses Yeddo. The population hereabouts is 
 very dense, and has distinguished itself, as I have related, by 
 repeatedly mobbing any luckless traveler who may have stray- 
 ed so far. But there are no stones for us to-day, nor crowd- 
 ing and pressing. We are among those, for the hour, ' whom 
 the king delighteth to honor,' and his oflicials lead the way. 
 A more lamblike or iiiotfensive assemblage of sight-seers could 
 hardly be found all the world through ; yet but a few weeks 
 before, as we have seen, a member of the American Legation 
 and the Dutch Consul, although on horseback, were driven 
 back with the volley of stones that fell around them, denting 
 their pith helmets, and covering the wearers with bruises ! 
 
 At last we arrive at the residence of the senior of the For- 
 eign Ministers, where the interview is to take place, glad 
 enough, for the sun at three o'clock in these latitudes is at its 
 hottest, and the whole atmosphere is heated like the air of an 
 oven, which the Norimon, under the sun's rays, by no means 
 badly represents. Here we are set down, and having been 
 disinterred, we pass through one of the great gateways already 
 described into a spacious, well-paved court-yard, scrupulously 
 clean and well kept. Immediately opposite the entrance is 
 the covered entrance to the dwelling of the Minister, where, 
 under an ample peristyle, two superior attendants are in wait- 
 ing to receive the guests. In the hall beyond we find the in- 
 terpreter, INIoriyama, and two superior officers. We pass along 
 a large matted passage or corridor, with the usual paper win- 
 dows on one side, and sliding panels on the other — generally 
 removed in summer, and giving entrance to a suite of rooms. 
 Several Governors of Foreign Affairs are here in waiting to re- 
 ceive us — under-secretaries of state in their functions, and cre- 
 ated expressly for the transaction of foreign affairs since the
 
 234 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XII. 
 
 treaties. Finally, we gain an anteroom, which leads to a room 
 of still larger dimensions opening on to a narrow court, and 
 evidently the principal apartment of the residence, all neatly ;. 
 matted, with silk borders to each mat ; these, indeed, consti- ; 
 tuting its usual furniture. There is a slightly raised dais at 
 the end, and midway up the room the two Ministers stand to 
 receive their guests. A gi-ave and silent salutation is ex- 
 changed, and each party retires to opposite sides, where lacker 
 tables and chairs have been placed. The Ministers and the 
 foreign visitors take their seat at the same moment. Moriya- 
 ma, the interpreter, barefooted, but otherwise with wings of 
 gauze and surcoat like the rest, sinks on to his knees, with his 
 head nearly touching the ground, in the vacant space between 
 those on each side who will have to be the spokesmen. Be- 
 hind the Ministers, to the right, several attendants, in similar 
 attitude, rest like statues on their knees and heels ; a stand im- 
 mediately behind receives the Ministers' two swords, and be- 
 hind them both, in a row within easy speaking distance, are 
 the seven Governors of Foreign Affairs, often apparently filling 
 the part so humorously described by Swift in ' Gulliver's Trav- 
 els,' as the ' Flappers' of the Ministers, to make them under- 
 stand what they hear, or, at all events, explain its meaning, and 
 sometimes suggest what to say in reply. These have no ta- 
 bles before them, and are seated on benches ranged along the 
 wall on the ministerial side of the house. At the lower end, 
 facing the passage, are groups of attendants resting on their 
 heels, and silent as the grave. 
 
 We have time to look around us; nothing is hurried or pre- i 
 cipitate here ; scarcely will the first formalities have been ex- 
 changed ten minutes hence. We scan every lineament of those 
 present quite at our ease ; only they have taken care to place 
 us opposite the light, and themselves in shade, with their back 
 to it, so that we may rest assured they have the advantage of 
 us in any critical examination of expression or feature. While 
 thus engaged, see, there comes gliding up the room, with 
 noiseless step upon the matted floor, a troop of attendants 
 bearing trays on the level of their chins, who reverently place 
 on each of the four tables a tray containing fire, pipes, and to- 
 bacco. Others bring two kinds of tea in lacker cups; and all 
 retire, as noiselessly as they came, in long procession. 
 
 The senior of the two Foreign Ministers at this time was a 
 wizened, ascetic-looking old man, with no great amount of in- 
 telligence in his countenance ; one of the hereditary Daimios, 
 though not of the most powerful class. He had been brought 
 out of a voluntary retirement to put on the heavy chains of
 
 Chap. XII.] THE FOREIGN MINISTERS. 286 
 
 office, and he looked as if they were but little to his taste. One 
 can not help thinking he must have often wished, since the 
 signing of the treaties last year, that he was safe back in his 
 retreat, with monks for his only companions, and a chaplet to 
 count for his chief occupation ! 
 
 The other Minister, recently appointed on the retirement 
 from ill health of his predecessor, worn out, it appears, by the 
 first year of foreign affairs, is younger looking, and of less as- 
 cetic countenance ; a Daimio and a Kami also. He is new to 
 office and intercourse with Foreigners. One would like to 
 know what are his first impressions of them and the present 
 state of affairs, but you will seek in vain in that smooth, hair- 
 less face for any information on these points. 
 
 But now the conference is opening ; His Excellency has ex- 
 pressed his ' fears that you found the day warm, and the way 
 very long ; is glad to find you have survived both, did not die, 
 the other day, of the cholera, and are as well now as, the 
 warmth of the weather and other circumstances considered, 
 can well be expected !' You, in your turn, have had some fears 
 that you had ai'rived after time; you hope that he had not 
 suffered from the ominous visitation of the cholera ; you re- 
 gret that his colleague (whom you never saw but once) had 
 been compelled to retire from ill health ; and you finally trust 
 that his new colleague may be able to support the fatigues of 
 his onerous office without injury to his health. 
 
 Much more of the same kind passes. At last the interpret- 
 ers feel the real work is beginning. The foreign blood will 
 not bear an infinite prolongation of nothings, and there is a 
 steady plunge into deep water. The prologue is over, and the 
 real play begins. 
 
 ' The speaker wrote some days ago to know when a messen- 
 ger could be dispatched to the Governor of Neagata, with in- 
 structions to facilitate the survey of the harbor by cue of 
 H.M.'s ships.' 
 
 Flapper No. 1 suggests an answer shall be sent, and Minis- 
 ter replies accordingly. 
 
 ' An answer had been received, omitting the essential, which 
 requires but a word ; when will the instructions and messen- 
 ger be sent, and how soon arrive, that the Consul's letter may 
 go by the same opportunity ?' 
 
 Flappers consult, and Minister, duly prompted, answers, 'As 
 soon as you send the letter ; it will arrive in seven days.' 
 
 ' Good ; it shall be sent to-morrow. Can no interpreter be 
 found or spared ?' . ; i i 
 
 ' Not possible.' >nii\ n\y.
 
 236 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XU. 
 
 ' Can instructions be given for the pei'raission to survey other 
 harbors if Neagata be found unfit ?' 
 
 Much work of Flappers. Leave at last obtained for two 
 other places, and names written down. 
 
 'A mail was delivered five days ago at Kanagawa to the in- 
 terpreter at the Treasury, to be forwarded here, and has not 
 yet been received.' 
 
 ' The first Flapper had heard of it ! Inquiry should be 
 made ;' and I may here mention that mail and man disappear- 
 ed, and I have never been able to ascertain what became of 
 either. 
 
 ' Some one must be greatly to blame should he have disap- 
 peared ; great inconvenience has resulted.' 
 
 ' Inquiry should be made,' urged Flappers 2 and 3, and so 
 speaks the Minister. 
 
 Another subject is broached. ' The Ministers have been 
 good enough to place a set of officers and an interpreter, com- 
 pradoi", etc., at his orders, for which speaker is duly grateful. 
 They are no doubt placed there as a mark of good-will, and for 
 his protection. But among the number are certain ometskys 
 (spies), a class of officials who can have nothing to do at the 
 residence of a Foreign Representative.' 
 
 ' Nothing with the Representative, but necessary to his pro- 
 tection, to watch their oion people.'' 
 
 ' Their presence is nevertheless objectionable.' Great com- 
 motion among Flappers from one to seven. 
 
 ' It is an institution of the country, and can not be departed 
 from.' 
 
 * But inside the Legation their presence is objectionable.' 
 
 * It is only to watch Japanese for his protection.' 
 
 ' But the results of this protection from ometskys, officers, 
 and comprador, is a system of interference and extortion which 
 is both ofiensive and intolerable. Nothing can be bought at a 
 fair price, and there have been many instances of direct effiarts 
 to compel tradesmen to add to their charges.' 
 
 ' Inquiry must be made ; if the officers have misbehaved, 
 they can be changed ; but such things are impossible.' 
 
 ' All interference between a Diplomatic Agent and the Jap- 
 anese dealers, or with his servant, is objected to, and is, in point 
 of fact, contrary to treaty stipulations.' 
 
 ' Those only apply to the open ports. Of buying, and sell- 
 ing, and dealing with Japanese at Yeddo, nothing is said.' 
 
 ' But it is stipulated for all British subjects that there shall 
 be immunity from such official interference. And wherever 
 any have the right to reside, there the treaty applies.'
 
 CHAP.Xn.3 AN OFFICIAL CONFERENCE. 237 
 
 * Only at the open ports ; not at Yeddo.' 
 
 * Then, in point of fact, it is contended that such interference 
 is a right on the part of the Japanese Government, which they 
 are disposed to insist upon ; and a Diplomatic Agent can not 
 have a leg of pork put on his table without an official inter- 
 ference, one certain result of which is that he pays double the 
 proper price for it ?' 
 
 * The interference is, on the contrary, to save him from im- 
 position.' 
 
 * That is the theory ; but after two months' experience of 
 the practice, it has proved to be only an instrument of impo- 
 sition and extortion, against the continuance of which the 
 speaker protests.' 
 
 ' Inquiry shall be made, and if ground of complaint be dis- 
 covered, another comprador shall be sent.' 
 
 ' But there is no occasion whatever for the services or inter- 
 position of the comprador. Speaker has his own servants, and 
 must insist upon the removal of an official, whose sole employ- 
 ment is to levy black-mail on every thing that comes into his 
 house.' 
 
 Flappers are still of opinion that it is matter of inquiry. 
 
 ' They may inquire as much as they please, but a distinct 
 protest is now entered against the continuance of the whole 
 system.' 
 
 The choice of a site at Kanagawa for foreign merchants to 
 rent and build houses on ; objections to the frequent change of 
 governors at the post, as detrimental to all dispatch of busi- 
 ness ; the police of the city, and better protection of foreign- 
 ers ; the issue of a proclamation, and the publication of the 
 treaty, are each successively touched upon, and more or less 
 satisfactorily dealt with. The currency question and coining 
 of more itziboos is reserved for the last, and a step is finally 
 made by an arrangement for the recoining of the merchants' 
 dollars into itziboos at the rate of 16,000 of the latter daily. 
 This closed the conference long after sunset. 
 
 The horses are mounted, and the Norimons left to wend 
 their way more slowly. The moon is up, and a fresh evening 
 breeze makes the ride delightful through the high broad ways 
 of the official quarters skirting for some distance the moats. 
 Once emerged into the city of shops and traffic, our friends 
 with their jingling staves and lanterns pass us on from ward 
 to ward. Some of the streets, before we got down to the 
 lower level of the great tocado, that winds along the edge of 
 the bay, are narrow, partially dark, and crowded. My horse, 
 Japanese though he be, does not half like the rattle of the
 
 i38 
 
 l^HREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XIL 
 
 staves and rings of the men in office, and the dogs will not get 
 up out of his path, while little children, equally perversely, will 
 run under his feet, to the great discomfort of both rider and 
 horse. The streets are otherwise full of life and movement. 
 People are wending to their homes or the bathing -houses, 
 which, strongly lighted, show through their lattice bars and 
 open doors a crowd of both sexes on opposite sides, with a 
 mathematical line of separation. Gayly painted and figured 
 lanterns are flitting to and fro, and light up, somewhat dimly, 
 if truth must be told, the shops, the front where windows 
 would be if in Europe. The tea-houses are filling, and the 
 wild discords of what they call musical instruments is heard 
 from many of the upper stories. Men and women both are 
 wending their way homeward, for the streets are much too 
 
 ■.-.X 
 
 FEMALE COSTUME. 
 
 dark and unsafe to be much frequented after night fairly sets 
 in. Every one by law, as in China, is bound not to stir out 
 after dark without a lantern on which their name is painted. 
 Now it is a mistress with her child and servant returning, or a 
 solitary matron wending her solitary way, and her own lan- 
 tern-holder ; or a public singer, with her servant carrying her 
 instrument, is on her way to some tea-house to furnish out the 
 evening amusement. The fronts of the houses are not all shut 
 in yet, and every now and then there is a glimpse of an inte- 
 rior, showing the master already at his evening meal, faithfully
 
 THS TILLAGE BBAUTT.
 
 240 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XUI. 
 
 waited upon by his wife, who, like Sarah in the tent, ever serves 
 him as her lord, and regards him as her master, despite of the 
 matrimonial tie. A few tipsy one-sworded and two-sworded 
 retainers are reeling homeward in noisy mirth. And so wend- 
 ing our way, with scarce less clamor of iron rings and staves, 
 and often changing attendants, we turn up the long avenue 
 which leads to the Legation, and forms the entrance to the 
 Temple of Tozengee. 
 
 THE BAY OP HAKODADI. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A Visit to Hakodadi. — The Lead Mines. — Governor. — Prospects of Trade. — 
 Potatoes and Salmon the great Staples. 
 
 Toward the end of September (1859), profiting by one of the 
 few opportunities which present themselves in these latitudes 
 for locomotion, I determined to pay a visit to the most northern 
 of the open ports in Japan. Typhoons and equinoctial gales are 
 apt to sweep through the Japanese seas about the change of the 
 monsoons in no gentle mood. A gale, however, had just blown 
 itself out before I left — always held the most favorable time 
 for a start — and we had only baffling winds, blowing from ev- 
 ery point of the compass except the right one, to contend with.
 
 Chap. XHI.] JAPANESE SPECIALTIES. 241 
 
 Some ten days wei*e consumed in getting ovei* the 600 miles 
 which separate Yeddo from the port of Hakodadi, or Hako- 
 date as it is more generally pronounced by the Japanese. But 
 the longest voyage must come to an end as well as the longest 
 lane, and Japan is a country eminently adapted to teach this 
 sort of practical philosophy. If the winds are baffling, and the 
 currents, which you have been assured run thirty knots in your 
 favor in the twenty-four hours, prove to be something stron- 
 ger than that against your beat up the coast, and are equally 
 contrary when you return, it is merely the reiteration of the 
 moral phenomena on shore, where nothing turns out as you 
 have been led to expect it by previous travelers, and nothing 
 goes straight unless it be the bravo's sword, while some un- 
 dercui'rent of traversing influences impedes your progress in 
 whichever direction you desire to move. Persevei*ance, how- 
 ever, in both cases brings its reward sooner or later, and they 
 who have not this in their nature, and a stock of patience per- 
 fectly inexhaustible, will do well to go elsewhere than Japan. 
 
 Once entered the Bay of Hakodadi indeed, the reward be- 
 gins, if, as happened to us, the sun is shining, and a few drift- 
 ing clouds checker with fleeting shadows the fine panorama of 
 hills which encircle the port. Completely land-locked, easy of 
 access, spacious enough for the largest navy to ride in, with 
 deep water and good holding-ground, it is the realization of all 
 a sailor's dreams as a harbor. Even to the artist and lover of 
 the picturesque, there is much to compensate a wearisome voy- 
 age. Many ranges of hills in graceful lines carry the eye far 
 into the distance, and two remarkable peaks give the distinct- 
 ive features of a volcanic formation, from one of which fire and 
 smoke are perceptible in the night. The beauty of the shore, 
 however, is of a severe kind, for there is little luxuriance of fo- 
 liage. Here and there only a patch of pine, or a wider sweep 
 of scrub, breaks the surface of the hills. But what tree and 
 foliage fail to give, cloud and sunshine often efiect to perfection, 
 clothing all the mountain sides with purple and russet hues, 
 and giving a mantle of rich and ever- changing colors to the 
 barest headlands and most distant ranges, while junks and 
 boats, with their picturesque sails, are never wanting to give 
 life and movement to the whole. 
 
 The town of Hakodadi is little better than a long fishing vil- 
 lage, nestled round the foot of an island-like promontory, which 
 forms the projecting headland at the eastern edge of the bay. 
 Though on a somewhat smaller scale, it forcibly recalls to the 
 mind Hongkong, with its northern exposure. Nor is it with- 
 out some resemblance to Gibraltar, with a long strip of land
 
 242 tHREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XUI;) 
 
 which very well represents the neutral ground. Nature in the 
 midst of all variety preserves a certain uniformity, and fre- 
 quently seems to repeat herself. Whoever has traveled much 
 in either hemisphere must often have been struck with the 
 striking identity, not only of mountain, valley, and river, in dif- 
 ferent countries, but the similar combination of these in differ- 
 ent quarters of the globe. The same uniformity amidst con- 
 stant diversity, which seems to be the law of the human race 
 in its leading characteristics, appears to be no less perfectly 
 maintained in the physical conformation of the earth. There 
 are shady lanes and trim hedges, with glimpses of wooded hill 
 mid cultivated valley at intervals, which render the environs 
 of Yeddo so beautiful that they might be transplanted to En- 
 gland without any violence to the harmony of the surrounding 
 scenery. The cathedral spire or village church alone is want- 
 ing to maintain the general resemblance. 
 
 But Hakodadi, not Yeddo, must now occupy us. Let us land 
 and see what it offers of novelty or interest. Unlike the shal- 
 low Bay of Yeddo, our boat goes freely up to the steps of the 
 landing-place — an advantage only duly to be estimated after 
 being punted a mile over the shallows, and another mile shunt- 
 ed or sleighed over the mud ! The high street of Plakodadi is 
 within a few steps. The air is crisp, and a northerly wind is 
 blowing, so that the nudities which first scare the European 
 arriving at Nagasaki nowhere appear, unless in a large, many- 
 oared boat, where the men strip for hard work, rising to the 
 oar with a loud monotonous chant, but, wonderful to relate, 
 pulling toward them as in Europe ! On shore, every man, 
 woman, and child is well clothed, and protected from the cold 
 wind, some even enveloping both head and lower portion of 
 the face in a muffler of printed calico, as represented in the 
 engraving on page 132. The ordinary costume of the work- 
 ing classes is a large apron tucked round the waist for the 
 women, and descending to the heels nearly (how they walk in 
 such swathing -bands is a mystery), and over all a dressing- 
 gown, secured at the waist by a large band knotted behind, and 
 more or less open in front. If it rains, an oil-paper cloak or a 
 mat is flung over the shoulders of the men, and a huge basket 
 hat (of many forms, some conical, others like a flat basket re- 
 versed) is tied to the head with chin-bands. Thus equipped, 
 with wooden pattens which lift them six inches out of the mud, 
 they trudge on in perfect independence of the elements. It is 
 fine to-day, however, and all are walking either barefooted or 
 with sandals, most ingeniously retained by the great toe only, 
 which is pushed through a loop : how, they keep them on or
 
 Ohap. Xm.] STREETS AND HOUSES IN JAPAN. 
 
 243 
 
 FEBIALE COSTUUB. 
 
 manage to walk in them is one of those things which, as Lord 
 Dundreary would say, ' No fellow can find out !' 
 
 I think a broad street has a pleasant aspect always. There 
 is a free circulation of air, of men, and of beasts ; there is room 
 enough for every body and every thing, an object we find it 
 so difficult to secure in overstocked England. Elbow-room is 
 one of the luxuries of this life, and the want of it on board ship 
 is, to my fancy, not the least of the many disagreeables which 
 makes traveling by sea so irksome, Hakodadi gives this one 
 element of a pleasant life in abundance. Thirty horsemen may 
 ride abreast if they choose, and even the very houses seem to 
 disdain to jostle each other. You are prepared to respect the 
 owners of all such spacious streets, accordingly, until, on far- 
 ther examination, a general poverty in the construction of the 
 houses, and an aspect of penury both in the interior and exte- 
 rior, has the common eifect of poverty in this sad world, of di- 
 minishing your esteem. Some of them lift their heads a little 
 higher than their neighbors, and make pretensions to a second 
 story, but it is a miserable attempt, a sorry attic only, and all 
 below is open to the street, under a projecting roof and narrow 
 veranda. Continuing your inspection, much as a prosperous 
 trader eyes an unfortunate creditor who is each moment sinking
 
 244 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 lower in his estimation, you pause to inquire by what ingenious 
 process the good people of Hakodadi have succeeded in making 
 paving-stones do the duty of tiles on their roofs ? As far as the 
 eye can stretch, stones, nothing but stones, seem to cover the 
 tops of the houses. It is as if a street had been unpaved, and all 
 the materials transported to the roof, ready for assault or de- 
 fense. By more minute attention, you may at last discover a 
 thin layer of lath or shingle beneath, laid upon the rafters which 
 support this wonderful agglomeration of pebbles and young 
 boulders of all shapes and dimensions. Such a novel spectacle 
 leads to reflection, and you involuntarily exclaim, 'What a 
 windy land this must be, to require such prodigious efforts to 
 keep the roof from flying away ! and what a dry climate ! for, 
 though stones may do very well for weights, one never heard 
 of their keeping out wet !' At last you meet a friendly inter- 
 preter, who answers the inquiry with which you are charged. 
 ' These stones you marvel at so much are the cheapest means 
 of keeping a roof over their heads ; sometimes it blows very 
 hard, and as thin layers of shingle are very light (but a great 
 deal better than nothing), we take this mode of securing it.* 
 To a farther question he answers, 'Ah ! the rain ? Yes, it does 
 rain occasionally — in the wet season for weeks, and often at 
 other seasons very heavily, and a good deal of water does run 
 down between the stones, but we find a dry corner, and put 
 up our umbrellas, and, besides, we have excellent oil-paper 
 cloaks.' 'And your furniture?' 'Have you not been long 
 enough in Japan to know our habits are too simple for such 
 useless and cumbrous appliances ? Tables and chairs, which 
 you Europeans, we are told, can not manage to live without, 
 are to us superfluities ; our matting and quilts suffice for beds, 
 bamboo or lacker make our pillows ; what else does man want ? 
 You build houses ten times as large as is necessary for your 
 accommodation, and more than your income can keep up — so 
 I heard from a Dutch friend at Nagasaki — merely that you 
 may have room to stow away an endless succession of ugly 
 square and oblong pieces of timber, tortured into various 
 shapes and uses. We build houses to live in, not for ostenta- 
 tion, and still less as store-rooms for useless things, and think 
 ourselves not behind you in wisdom !' Enlightened by this 
 Japanese philosophy, I looked into their shops to see if their 
 goods were of the same primitive and unsophisticated charac- 
 ter, and found very little beyond the commonest articles of 
 consumption. This is a population of fishermen, and the bay 
 abounds in salmon, plaice, and various other fish. Almost ev- 
 ery stall in the street was stocked with fine salmon, weighing
 
 Chap. XUI.J PRODUCE OF HAKODADI. 245 
 
 from fifteen to twenty pounds, many of them still alive, at rates 
 varying from half an itziboo to a whole one (from 9c?. to Is. 
 6d.). Unfortunately, they were not in season, being soft and 
 ready to spawn ; but that seemed no impediment to their be- 
 ing caught, and, it is to be presumed, eaten by the Japanese. 
 Every second shop almost presented long rows of the same 
 produce dried and salted, three for an itziboo, or sixpence 
 each ! A great quantity of potatoes — ' real Irish potatoes,' as 
 one of the interpreters assured me (of Irish extraction, he 
 meant, perhaps), are grown here, to judge by their abundance 
 and cheapness. In the town they are seventy-five cents or a 
 dollar a picul (130 lbs.), but in the villages I found they might 
 be bought for a third of the sum, before the compradoric sys- 
 tem, especially adapted to the use of Foreigners, had added its 
 extortions and profits. Teal, three for an itziboo (or sixpence 
 each), wild ducks, somewhat dearer, snipe, golden plover, all 
 were there, and I was told, during the previous winter, that 
 the crews of the whalers were chiefly fed upon deer and bear's 
 flesh, as the cheapest meat. Think of that, ye epicures, and 
 instead of a shooting or a fishing season in Norway, with its 
 hackneyed fjelds and fiords, come to Japan to catch salmon, 
 hunt the deer, the boar, and the bear, and, if you like it, shoot 
 pheasant, snipe, teal, and wild-fowl without stint. It is rather 
 far off", it is true — some sixty odd days — but then think of the 
 game and the novelty, to say nothing of the chance of being 
 becarved by two-swoi'ded Samourai in pursuit of their game. 
 One would expect fur and skins to be abundant, and so they 
 are, but unfortunately the Japanese do not understand dress- 
 ing them, and are far inferior to the Chinese in this art. I 
 saw some noble bearskins priced at about £1 sterling. Sea- 
 otter skins of a finer quality I also saw, but from £3 to £5 each 
 were asked. Great quantities of deerskins and horns were in 
 the market. Some of the former, made into soft leather, and 
 stamped with not ungraceful patterns, seemed well fitted to 
 make good coverings for chairs and couches ; they were about 
 a dollar apiece. Hides and deer-horns, with various kinds of 
 furs, I should think, might ultimately become articles of export 
 to a considerable extent. 
 
 Wandering on through a double line of open shops nearly a 
 mile long, it was soon evident that the bulk of the articles were 
 such only as are required for daily consumption in food, cloth- 
 ing, and utensils, by a large but poor population. The town 
 was said to contain about 6000 inhabitants, and the island of 
 Yeso only seems to contain one larger centre of commerce or 
 population in Matsumai, a sea-port some sixty miles along the
 
 246 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 coast, and said to contain 60,000 inhabitants. Here and there 
 in the shops were some poor specimens of lacker-ware. Con- 
 siderable stores of sea-weed, sea-slug, dried mushrooms, and 
 other delicacies suited to the taste of the Chinese and Japan- 
 ese rice-eating populations, appear to exist here, and will prob- 
 ably form another class of exports from hence to China. Some 
 silk fabrics were to be seen, of an inferior kind, and there is no 
 want of Japanese printed calicoes. Sulphur, from the neigh- 
 boring Loochoo Islands, is spoken of as offering a chance of 
 large and profitable trade ; and there are lead mines within 
 twenty miles, the property of the Government, which, if made 
 available for foreign markets, would undoubtedly very soon 
 create both a considerable and profitable trade. Of this I feel, 
 however, there is little immediate prospect ; to say nothing of 
 their political economy, which denies the right and contests 
 the wisdom of any one generation drawing more from the min- 
 eral productions of a country than suffices for its own wants, 
 lest the whole should be exhausted, and the interests of poster- 
 ity sacrificed, they seem yet in their infancy as to the adapta- 
 tion of steam and other mechanical or scientific appliances for 
 the profitable working of mines. 
 
 Wishing, however, to judge for myself, and also to take a 
 long ride into the country, I went to these lead mines, of which 
 I had heard so much. Mounted on a good little island pony, 
 warranted to carry me thirty-five miles, the stated distance 
 there and back, I took my way along the sea-shore, after pass- 
 ing through the interminable high street of Hakodadi. At 
 first the road was good, with sand-hills on either hand, and the 
 blue waters of the bay stretching away to the left ; while in 
 the farther distance, towering above several ranges of hills, ap- 
 peared two peaked and cone-like mountains, looking as though 
 they were covered with snow — the reflection of the sun, prob- 
 ably, on some bare surface, or lava descending from the vol- 
 canic crater. From one of these at night there is a great glare 
 from the apex of the cone. 
 
 Unlike the road to Yeddo, the traffic here is small. You 
 meet no travelers, and only a few pack-horses laden with the 
 produce of the neighboring fields, with charcoal from the 
 woods, or lead from the mines. After continuing our ride 
 eight or nine miles, we entered a considerable village and pro- 
 ceeded to a house of entertainment, to bait the horses and get 
 some breakfast ourselves. 
 
 The host came with his gliding obeisance, sliding his hands 
 down his knees as he bent his body at a right angle, desiring 
 to know our wants. My companion, the Russian Consul, had
 
 C^AP.Xm.] A BREAKFAST.— COUNTRY ROADS. 247 
 
 not trusted too much to their powers of supplying a meal, and 
 produced out of the groom's wallet cold teal, chicken, and mut- 
 ton, a large case of Chinese tea already made, and good bread 
 of Japanese flour, flanked by a bottle of sherry. What we 
 wanted, therefore, was hot water, cups, hard-boiled eggs, and 
 fire for the cigars ; and these were speedily brought in, not by 
 a bright-eyed houri, but by a shrill-voiced little urchin, who 
 squinted abominably. 
 
 In the course of the repast, one or two of the gentler sex, 
 with teeth as black as ebony, favored us with their company 
 and an inspection, as we lay stretched on the mats. Presently 
 our host, not seeing, I suppose, how a good bill was to be made 
 out of hard eggs and hot water, brought in a tray of small 
 dishes, and tried to tempt us with a huge salmon that did not 
 look over fresh. He took our refusal to be seduced, however, 
 very good-humoredly ; and although we returned in the even- 
 ing to make another similar meal, was well content with two 
 itziboos (three shillings), having gently hinted that one and a 
 half would do, and saw us blandly out of the door with a salu- 
 tation. Clear proof that we were far out of the beat of Japan- 
 ese officials, and could make our own bargain ! 
 
 Refreshed by our breakfast, we began to turn inland to the 
 screen of hills which skirt the bay, and soon came upon some 
 roads as bad as any '' caminha reaT in Spain. My horse's 
 straw shoes, having already been half shuffled off*, were tripping 
 him up at every step, and compelled me to dismount in order 
 to get rid of them altogether. An Englishman riding with. . 
 the fore feet of his horse muffled in straw slippers might furt> 
 nish a subject for ' Punch.' I am happy to say that at both • 
 the Legations this absurdity has been got rid of, and means 
 found of teaching the Japanese to shoe our horses properly : 
 with iron, and more than one of the Daimios, I was told, had 
 followed the good example. A Japanese saddler, employed by 
 us for repairs, declared he could not do our work, he had such • 
 an extensive order for English saddles. I heard later, how- 
 ever, that the Daimio, on pushing his sandaled foot into the 
 stirrup, found it very difficult to keep it there, and ended by 
 anathematizing the Foreign invention, and returning to the 
 customs and saddlery of his ancestors. 
 
 But to return to the road. It had rained heavily in the 
 night, and in the midst of a sea of mud were more solid rollers 
 of earth ; in fact, the best possible imitation on a large scale of 
 a ' corduroy road.' I was excessively puzzled to make out by 
 what process such an effect had been produced, until, watching 
 some horses before me, I saw the ruts on each side of thes«
 
 248 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 regular furrows exactly corresponded with the stride of each, 
 and that every horse, within an inch, trod on the selfsame lines. 
 Japanese ponies seem as well trained, therefore, as their mas- 
 ters, and tread in each other's footsteps with a persistence and 
 closeness that never varies or fails. The traffic of the pack- 
 horses was evidently great here : wood and charcoal from the 
 hills often passed, and soon we ourselves entered into the 
 mountain region, after skirting along a valley, and fording a 
 noisy Gave (as such a stream would be called in the German 
 hills). This operation was i-epeated three times, and as the 
 river ran rapidly, with bad footing, and water to the pony's 
 girths, it was not without a chance of a ducking. Striking 
 soon into the heart of the wooded hills, and often crossing 
 smaller tributary streams, we made our way along a narrow 
 path, gradually ascending until we reached the foot of the hill 
 containing the lead mines. The wild vine festooned many of 
 the trees, and bore grapes black and sour ; the sycamore and 
 the pine were there, and a great quantity of dwarf oak and 
 scrub, but scarcely any large timber. We mounted the hill- 
 side by a rough and rather abrupt ascent, and soon came upon 
 signs of the miner's occupation. A low range of houses, then a 
 quantity of debris from a pit, a washing-house with troughs for 
 the ore, a smelting-house (or hut rather), and, lastly, the mouth 
 of an '■adW — a horizontal gallery leading into the heart of the 
 hill. Being provided with an official order, a guide was imme- 
 diately ap2)oiuted, and, putting on the coarse miner's dress, far- 
 ther armed with two dried bunches of bamboo as torches, we 
 crept into the damp, dirty, dismal scene of the miner's labors. 
 Having seriously endangered our skulls against the low roofs 
 and occasionally projecting beams (all the galleries were sup- 
 ported by timber), and plentifully imbibed through boots and 
 stockings the water on the floors, we reached at last some of 
 the points they were working at. No doubt this would be an 
 excellent opportunity for expatiating very learnedly on all the 
 scientific facts connected with the deposit of metal in the bow- 
 els of the earth, and all the theories proposed in explanation ; 
 but, unfortunately, or fortunately as others may judge, I make 
 no pretensions to any extensive practical or scientific acquaint- 
 ance with the subject, and shall content myself with saying 
 that it has all the appearance of possessing many rich veins ; 
 but the means and appliances of the Japanese are very primi- 
 tive, and I presume they can only work as deep by shafts as 
 their adits, cut horizontally in the side of the hills at a lower 
 point, shall enable them to efiect drainage. 
 
 I found that the Governor, on the return of the party, was
 
 Chap. XIII.] INSTALLATION OF CONSUL. 249 
 
 very anxious to learn whether the mode of working in Europe 
 was greatly superior, and what improvements could be suggest- 
 ed. He was told we undoubtedly possessed great advantages 
 in scientific knowledge and the use of steam-engines, but he 
 gave no indication of a desire to resort to such means. And, 
 indeed, if, as he alleged, they wanted all the produce of the 
 mine for their own use, and that simply for bullets to practice 
 fire-arms, either the produce must be marvelously small, or the 
 consumption in ball-practice must be truly alarming, and Eu- 
 ropean Powers should look to it ! 
 
 I have little more to tell of Hakodadi. Whether its magnif- 
 icent bay will ever see a fleet of merchantmen and a prosper- 
 ous foreign trade, it would be bold in any one to say at this 
 moment. It is at present chiefly used by whalers. The year 
 previous thirty called in, twenty-nine American and one French 
 — no English. Sulphur, lead, and Chinese edibles, with furs 
 and deer-horns, are at present all that ofier, and these not in 
 large quantities. But all must have a beginning, and every 
 thing was at its commencement here. The people seemed 
 perfectly free from all trace of ill will — a simple and good-hu- 
 mored race.* 
 
 I had to install the British Consul, and anticipated some dif- 
 ficulty in his location, from the sheer want of accommodation 
 in this town of 6000 inhabitants. There were, in truth, but 
 four temples. Two were in the occupation of the Russian 
 Consul and his stafi^, one had been given up to the American 
 commercial agent, and the fourth, and best incomparably, was 
 getting ready for the second Governor, absent on a tour of in- 
 spection. No other building, public or private, existed in the 
 place that could be made to answer. This was certainly an 
 awkward state of affairs ! I could not leave a Consul with his 
 wife and family without a habitation possessing some reason- 
 able amount of accommodation. It is very true, my ideas of 
 what waa reasonable and the Governor's were likely to be 
 very different, as he very delicately hinted the day I took 
 leave of him, and in a way too characteristic to be forgotten. 
 After all was settled, and the temple had been obtained, de- 
 spite the seemingly insuperable obstacle of its having been ap- 
 
 * Shortly before I left my post to retnrn to Europe, I am sorry to say very 
 nnsatisfactory reports reached me from the acting Consul of a manifest de- 
 terioration in this respect, plainly, as he thought, the work of the officials, 
 for no Daimios' retainers are there on whom to lay the blame. A British 
 subject, an American, and a Russian had at different periods been attacked 
 with drawn swords, and one very severely wounded, by men in the employ- 
 ment of the Government. 
 
 L2
 
 jpso 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap.XIU. 
 
 propriated to the use of the arriving Governor, the highest au- 
 thority in the island, I rose to leave. The Governor then ap- 
 proached, and, to my surprise, took me by the hand, evidently 
 wishing to lead me somewhere. Thus led, I followed him into 
 a corridor at the back of the room where the interview had 
 taken place, and to the left he showed me a little room, some 
 nine feet by six, and said very quietly, 'This is where the 
 new Governor will be accommodated when he arrives.' I felt 
 the reproach it conveyed, and could only smile, apologetically 
 observing that 'probably he had neither wife nor children 
 with him, and, above all, no four-post bedsteads and sofas, or 
 dining-room tables, any one of which would fill up the whole 
 room 1' We parted excellent friends after this final passage 
 ,.of arras, and I often met him in the following year at Yeddo as 
 one of the Governors of Foreign Affairs. He was a fine old 
 ^man, quiet and intelligent, and a very good specimen of the 
 ^better class of Japanese oflicials employed in the high offices 
 pf the administration. 
 
 ,' On the ninth day after ray arrival, the temple for which so 
 hard a battle had been fought was taken possession of, a fine 
 flag-staff, with the assistance of the ' Highflyer's' men, was got 
 up, and the Union Jack was hoisted with a royal salute from 
 the squadron, to raark the first tirae the flag had floated over 
 a British consulate in the port. 
 
 The next day H.M.S. 'Highflyer' steamed 
 out of the harbor, to be followed in a brief in- 
 terval by the other two vessels, and the British 
 Consul would then be left alone, with one Brit- 
 ish subject to govern, and only two American 
 citizetis, and a Russian Consul with his staff 
 for all society. I could not help thinking the 
 bay must look desolate enougii when no Eu- 
 ropean ship is in its waters, and only half a 
 dozen people of European extraction on shore! 
 A functionary can hardly be much to be envied, 
 though a fortune and honors were at the end 
 of a short terra. As neither of thera usually 
 fall to the lot of British Consuls, I could only 
 hope the Consul of Hakodadi might carry with- 
 in him and about hira something to compen- 
 BociETY OP HAKo- satc such utter isolation and banishment in the 
 : >i>A]>i — A TYPE, prime of life. tt 
 
 iii (! (It \"i ,!j . 
 
 ' r 
 
 .tnyaiffijv <n -lUlo Joom
 
 C^AP.XIV.l A MURDER AND A ^IRfi. 251 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Murder of French Consul's Servant at Yokohama. — The Gold Currency 
 Question again. — Tycoon's Palace burned down. — Proposition of Japan- 
 ese Ministers to stop all Official Business in consequence. 
 
 I RETURNED Dear the end of October. No very stirring in- 
 cident had occurred in my absence of nearly a month. The 
 appearance of improvement in our prospects when I left, though 
 unchanged during my absence, was unfortunately not of long 
 duration. Early in November the foreign community at Yoko- 
 hama were startled by a murderous and unprovoked attack 
 upon the servant of one of their number, who at the time was 
 officiating as vice-consul of France — a repetition, in all its chief 
 features, of the foul murder perpetrated on the Russians. The 
 servant was a Chinaman, but dressed very much like a foreign- 
 er, and, it was thought, might have been mistaken for one. He 
 was attacked by a man with a drawn sword in the middle of 
 the day, and close to the house of his master in the foreign set- 
 tlement, pursued some distance, and frightfully gashed before 
 he gained the entrance of one of the Compounds. He lingered 
 a few days, and then died ; several of the wounds had laid 
 open the cavities both of the chest and abdomen. Neither the 
 murderer nor his motive were ever known — to the foreigners, 
 at least — and no satisfaction could be obtained. Various mat- 
 ters, this among the rest, took me down to Kanagawa on No- 
 vember 11. I noted the date, because as I proceeded on my 
 road I saw a great fire had broken out in Yeddo, and it proved 
 to be the Tycoon's castle that was lighting up the sky far and 
 near, and sending up a dense column of smoke drifting before 
 the wind. In the middle of the night I received a courier from 
 the Ministers of Foreign Afi^airs to inform me of the event, and 
 begging that no official communications might be sent, as they 
 were in constant attendance on the Tycoon in consequence, 
 and could not possibly enter into any business for some time 
 to come. 
 
 The export of the gold currency had been carried on to such 
 an extent by the foreigners that the Government was becom- 
 ing not only indignant at what they regarded as an outrage- 
 ous act of spoliation, but seriously alarmed for the consequen- 
 ces in the utter impoverishment of the country. It was, in- 
 deed, the renewal of the old grief, when Portuguese and Span*
 
 252 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIV. 
 
 iards, in the first century of foreign intercourse, awakened the 
 fears of the then Rulers, and roused their indignation by ship- 
 I^ing off all the gold bullion and currency of the country they 
 could put their hands on. It was, no doubt, one of the princi- 
 pal causes of the determined hatred with which Taiko-sama 
 and his successors pursued their policy of extermination and 
 entire seclusion. We seemed threatened with a similar dan- 
 ger from precisely similar causes. It was long before I could 
 persuade the Ministers that the true remedy lay in their own 
 hands, and they only had to put an end to the disproportion 
 existing between the relative value of their gold and silver, 
 compared with the rates ruling in the European market. All 
 over the rest of the world the proportion was as 1 to 15 or 
 thereabouts ; in Japan it was but 1 to 3 — that is, four silver 
 itziboos (a dollar and a third in weight) would buy a kobang 
 of gold, worth, in China and elsewhere, 18s. 4|c?., or more than 
 three times that amount of silver. With the means before 
 them of tripling or quadrupling their capital by a single opera- 
 tion, and that five or six times in the year, by purchasing gold 
 for silver, how vain it was to speak to merchants of the danger 
 or impolicy of entering upon such a trafiic, and rousing all the 
 fears and hostility of the country ! It would have been as idle 
 as to talk to the winds. There is a limit, I suppose, beyond 
 which human nature can not resist temptation, and mercantile 
 human nature may well be expected to break down before a 
 certain prospect of 200 per cent, six times over in the year 
 without risk, whether the trade could be shown to be illegal 
 or not. Indeed, however contrary to the spirit of the treaty 
 and the intention of the contracting parties, it had, by inad- 
 vertence probably, been distinctly stipulated that all gold and 
 silver coin might be exported, though nothing could have been 
 farther from the intention of the Japanese government than to 
 leave a door open for emptying the country of the precious 
 metals. Equally idle and abortive must prove any eflbrts they 
 could make to stop it by custom-house or repressive measures. 
 I told them this from the beginning, and where the remedy 
 lay, warning them of the danger of delay. But it was not un- 
 til they were nearly goaded into desperation that they would 
 listen, or at least act, and protect themselves by altering the 
 relative value standard of the gold and silver in their currency. 
 Partly, also, the business on which I came down had refer- 
 ence to numerous complaints which reached me of irregulari- 
 ties about the exchange of dollars at the custom-house. They 
 had entered into an engagement to exchange a certain quan- 
 tity every day for the merchants, and, of course, impartially;
 
 Chap. XIV.] A GOLD EPIDEMIC. 253 
 
 but, according to all accounts, nothing could be more scandal- 
 ous than the partiality with which the itziboos were distribu- 
 ted among tlie different members of the foreign community, un- 
 less it were the preposterous nature of the demands made upon 
 them, and the violence and unseemly scramble among the for- 
 eigners themselves for undue proportions, in collusion with 
 some of the custom-house officials. No doubt it outraged the 
 Japanese authorities all the more that it was very well known 
 •what was the motive for all this violence and clamor. The 
 * merchants' wanted itziboos to traffic in buying up the gold 
 coinage of the empire, and shipping it off to China, whereby 
 they realized a profit of cent, per cent, at the lowest computa- 
 tion, even when the price of kobangs went up, and could turn 
 their capital and double it in two months. No wonder a sort 
 of delirium came upon them. Trade ! what were the miser- 
 able profits upon transactions in the buying and selling of for- 
 eign and Japanese produce compared to this? Who would 
 look at tea and silk, with all the risks of falling markets, in face 
 of a steady and certain exchange of silver against Japanese 
 gold, with never less than 100 per cent. gain? 
 
 The custom-house endeavored to stem this impetuous flood 
 of demands for itziboos by requiring signed requisitions from 
 each person applying. Vain effort. Mrs. Partington's trying 
 to keep out the Atlantic with her mop could not be more fu- 
 tile. Names ! there was no want of names. Every merchant 
 had a hundred friends here, at Shanghae, in every quarter of 
 the globe, who wanted itziboos, and to make cent, per cent, 
 profit in tiiese newly-discovered gold diggings ! Who can want 
 friends or constituents with such prizes in his hands? And 
 if bona fide names were not forthcoming, then ' Snooks' and 
 *Tooks,' ' Bosh' and 'Moses,' 'Messrs. Nonsense and Hook'em' 
 supplied the deficiency, and became frequent applicants for 
 sums so fabulous that a life would not suffice to have counted 
 the coins, and a line of thirty figures could not express the 
 amount ! In fact, the community seemed to have gone utterly 
 mad. The prospect of such unbounded wealth had proved 
 too much for their brains, and they seemed threatened with 
 the fate of the poor man suddenly become possessed of a 
 £20,000 prize in the lottery, and who went from the lottery-of- 
 fice to Bedlam in a state of raving lunacy. Nor was it con- 
 fined to merchants. An American frigate coming into port 
 was seized with the same epidemic. One officer resigned his 
 commission, and instantly freighted a ship and started a firm ; 
 and nearly every other officer in the ship, finding by the favor 
 of the custom-house an unlimited supply of itziboos, as they
 
 254 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIV. 
 
 were about to take the embassy over to America, entered large- 
 ly into profitable operations for converting silver into gold ! 
 
 The main fault lay no doubt with the Japanese themselves ; 
 but when the day of reckoning and inquiry came as to the 
 source of these disorders and scandals, mutual recriminations 
 abounded. From the Japanese came complaints that they 
 were borne down and bewildered by clamor and violence ; 
 from the foreigners, that they met with no proper attention to 
 reasonable demands ; that they were even recommended to sign 
 requisitions for preposterous sums ; that there was gross par- 
 tiality in the distribution of the coins, a system of vexatious pro- 
 crastination, etc., etc., without end ! Japanese and foreigners 
 seemed equally to have had a fit of insanity ; the first from 
 fear and rage combined, and the second from the ' auri sacra 
 fames^ the unquenched and unquenchable thirst for gold, more 
 gold, and still gold ! 
 
 It would be difficult to estimate how much and disastrous 
 the influence these unfortunate speculations and bickerings ex- 
 ercised on the Japanese mind. The exchange of itziboos (in- 
 tended as a facility to foster a legitimate trade, but systemat- 
 ically and perseveriiigly devoted to the buying up of their gold 
 coinage, which was daily shipped off in large quantities to their 
 despair) became at last their one absorbing thought ! There 
 can be no doubt it tended much to excite feelings of hostility, 
 and to array all their prejudices against the foreigner, his trade, 
 and all that belonged to him or was connected with his pres- 
 ence in the country. It equally certainly and seriously warped 
 their better judgment in regard to the possible benefits of for- 
 eign commerce. It was about this time that they first began 
 to exhibit a desire, which soon ripened into a distinct proposi- 
 tion, to defer the opening of any more ports for a term of 
 years, and even, in the interval, to limit the exports from those 
 already opened. Many were the discussions, both viva voce 
 and on paper, to which these reiterated attempts to nullify the 
 treaties led. One result of which was to give a considerable 
 insight into their system of political economy and ethics ; and 
 perhaps the information thus gained can nowhere be more ap- 
 propriately given than in this place, while on the subject of 
 commercial rights and tendencies. 
 
 In the course of the discussions which followed the inquiry 
 I instituted in regard to these injurious proceedings, the Gov- 
 ernor of Kanagawa came more than once to see me ; and when 
 his heart was opened, or his tongue only perhaps loosened, by 
 frequent libations of Chartreuse, which the Consul had placed 
 on the table, he showed a great desire to understand what was
 
 Cj^R XIV. J JAPANESE REGRETS. 266 
 
 the custom-house system in China, evidently impressed with 
 the idea that whereas the Chinese by it got all the revenue, 
 the Japanese, by their system, had only trouble for their pains, 
 with a supplementary budget of expenses. When he heard 
 what were the proceeds of the Shanghae customs, some two 
 millions of taels per annum, equal to some ten millions of itzi- 
 boos, a numeration difficult to convey in any Japanese terms, 
 he remarked, with a sigh, ' that it was very ditferent with them ; 
 hitherto they had nothing but expense !' So, it was observed, 
 it must ever be with trade in its infancy. 'Ah!' he replied, 
 *but already every thing is becoming dearer; if this be the re- 
 sult of foreign trade at its first beginning, what will it be in its 
 development ?' ' But,' it was observed in reply, ' if seme things, 
 in consequence of a foreign demand, become dearer, either 
 money, which bought them, would become more plentiful, or 
 other things (supplied in exchange by foreigners) would be 
 cheaper, so that there would be compensation somewhere.' 
 This was a political economy which Ja])anese are slow to be-, 
 lieve in, and I was fain to be content with assuring him thatj , 
 80 certain was the tendency of all trade to find or niake equiv- 
 alents, that no commerce betAveen diiferent countries was ever 
 permanent unless it proved mutually beneficial, and so he might^^ 
 be assured it would be in Japan. ,,* 
 
 'With every desire,' observed the senior of the Ministers of 
 Foreign Afiairs on another occasion, arguing for a limitation 
 of exports, 'with every desire to give the fullest execution to 
 the treaties, to meet to the utmost of our power your wishes 
 and those of tiie other Representatives, we still hope it will be 
 borne in mind that we are but a small country. For centuries 
 we have been isolated from the rest of the world, have pro- 
 duced all that was wanted for our own use, but no more. 
 Now, suddenly, we have entered into foreign relations with 
 five European Powers ; a large demand has sprung up for cer- 
 tain articles of home consumption, and with a corresponding 
 rise in prices ! Thus we see ourselves menaced with a great 
 national calamity, and find it is impossible we can by any ef- 
 fort meet at once this demand by increased production. What 
 is the result ? Every thing is becoming dearer ; our people, 
 who have no superfluous means — our officers, who are all sala- 
 ried at very low rates, will soon find themselves in absolute pov- 
 erty, and without the means of subsistence. Where is this to 
 end? We know very well that in time, even in a small coun- 
 try like this, an increased demand will act as a stimulus on , 
 production, and lead to an increased supply, and, it may be^., 
 thus increase the riches of the nation — at least you tell us thi|^,',
 
 256 THREE YEARS 11? JAPAN. [Chap. XlV. 
 
 is the I'esult shown by universal experience, and we are willing 
 to believe it ; but, in the mean time, what is to become of the 
 people, unable to subsist on diminished means, or, what amounts 
 to the same thing, increased dearness of every thing ? These 
 things wound us to the heart. We do not wish to be faithless 
 to treaties, but neither can we calmly look on and see our coun- 
 try menaced with a general impoverishment. What is evi- 
 dently wanted is time. You have come upon us with these 
 large demands, and this all-devouring Western trade too sud- 
 denly, and you press us too vehemently and too far. We are 
 urged to concede every thing, remove all restrictions, and, in a 
 word, to accomplish in your favor, and in a moment, what, after 
 all, should be the work of a century ; and this is an impossi- 
 biUty! For no effort or abstinence from action on our part 
 can suddenly double or triple the supply of the articles you 
 want to buy ; and that which alone seems capable of limiting 
 your demand is precisely that which will reduce our people to 
 poverty and despair — such an increase of price as will leave 
 the inhabitants of this country no means of purchasing for their 
 own use. Already raw silk, a product of univei'sal consump- 
 tion ; oil, a common article of food, and a necessity to our peo- 
 ple ; with vegetable wax, very needful also for common con- 
 sumption, are so greatly enhanced in value that Japanese be- 
 gin to find it difficult to buy for their own use. It would, no 
 doubt, be different with time, or, at all events, the evil would 
 be much mitigated, for it is difficult for us to understand what, 
 even ultimately, the nation has to gain by this foreign com- 
 merce ! It makes the articles of our own production, which 
 we want, dearer to the many for the enrichment of the few, and 
 the things which you wish to sell are either superfluities we 
 do not want or can not afford to buy. We say, then, time is 
 loanted to prevent great calamities resulting, which, after all, 
 must tend to defeat your object of extended commerce, even 
 if you were deaf to all considerations connected with our wel- 
 fare as a nation. Let some restriction be put upon the export 
 of these articles until there has been time for an increased pro- 
 duction, and a supply that may be somewhat more propor- 
 tioned to the demand. In that way trade can still go on with- 
 out undermining all the elements of stability and peace, and 
 great national disasters will happily be averted.' 
 
 Now it must be admitted, allowing for some little coloring 
 or dressing in the passage of the ideas through European 
 brains, that the argument is a very telling one, and neither de- 
 void of truth nor logic. There is no doubt that the prices, 
 not only of all articles for which we have created a new de-
 
 Chap. XIV.] JAPANESE ARGUMENTS. 257 
 
 mand, had largely increased, but every thing had become dear- 
 er. The pressure of such increase must bear hardly on Japan- 
 ese consumers, who are many, even if the sellers, who are few 
 comparatively, should be enriched. Time is unquestionably 
 required for any largely increased production. But, once grant 
 the prayer of these patriotic Ministers, and assent to their 
 propositions, how would it work? We might justly answer: 
 * If you limit or prohibit the demand, you take away the stim- 
 ulus to increased production, on which all your hopes are 
 founded. You lessen it in the first case, and who shall devise 
 a gauge by which the foreigner may know how far you may 
 apply the pressure ? And, in the second alternative — prohibi- 
 tion, you destroy it altogether. Then, again, you wish to ap- 
 ply this regulating screw (and to leave it in the hands of gov- 
 ernment officials wholly beyond our supervision or control) on 
 the only articles which hitherto have afibrded any elements of 
 an export trade. That is, indeed, to render nugatory all com- 
 mercial treaties, and by the direct action of the government, a 
 contradiction in letter and spirit to the whole tenor and de- 
 clared object of those treaties. How can a government sup- 
 ply the unerring scales of graduation which trade, free and 
 unrestricted, naturally furnishes by a self-adjusting process? 
 Never has a government yet succeeded in its attempts to per- 
 form this function in a way to be really beneficial either to 
 trade or to a nation. If the tendency of a sudden demand or 
 measure of consumption, which is the same thing, is to en- 
 hance prices, that very tendency acts as a check to the de- 
 mand.' My American colleague, I thought, in talking over the 
 subject, seemed more or less disposed to accept a proposition 
 either for limitation ov prohibition — quand m^me ; that is, as- 
 suming the result to be the destruction of all trade. If trade 
 and the weal of this nation were really incompatible, as the 
 Ministers allege and very possibly believe, and this could be 
 satisfactorily demonstrated, it is quite possible I also might 
 agree with them. For there are — such at least is my convic- 
 tion — other and higher objects in life, whether it be the life of 
 individuals or of nations, than Trade and the interchange of 
 produce between different people and countries. Whatever 
 material or moral advantages foreign commerce may bring in 
 its train, to set against the evils which also follow, as surely as 
 the shadow follows the substance, they can never be received 
 as an equivalent for the general impoverishment of a nation. 
 But I have the conviction that in this, as all other things 
 where a preponderating good is universal, despite the contin- 
 gent evils inseparable from it and every thing mundane, the
 
 268 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. {Chap. XIV. 
 
 general laws which give the universality, render any result 
 wholly out of keeping with the rest impossible. And, there- 
 fore, although evil and not good may seem the direct or im- 
 mediate result, it is neither only apparent, partial, or very tem- 
 porary, and trade is still the instrument of an ultimate good, 
 and one only thus to be attained. 
 
 But it is ill arguing against foregone conclusions and a tra- 
 ditional policy. In a work of Titsingh, I came a short time 
 afterward upon an exposition of Japanese views on matters of 
 political economy, still existing and in full force, as I have had 
 occasion to test in my unavailing efforts to induce them to 
 profit by modern science for the better working of their coal 
 mines — a vast source of wealth to them and benefit to us, could 
 they be moved. ' Ancient writers,' says our Japanese author, 
 ' compared the metals to the bones of the human body, and 
 the contributions to the blood, the fiesh, the hair of the skin, 
 which are continually renewed — a process that never takes 
 place with the metals.' And he goes on to trace the ruin and 
 impoverishment of China to the improvident working of these 
 mines, and the prodigious export of the metals into Tartary 
 and Mongolia. He then draws the moral, that if they contin- 
 ued to work their gold, and silver, and copper mines as they 
 had heretofore done — since the metals, like the bones, once taken 
 from the earth, were never reproduced — they would soon be 
 exhausted ; and unless the export of gold and silver to foreign 
 countries were stopped — more considerable, he believed, than 
 all which had been transported from China to Tartary, and es- 
 timated at about 150,000 cobangs annually (about as many 
 sovereigns, which does not give a very high idea of the quan- 
 tity in the country) — he augured nothing but ruin and penury. 
 
 He goes on to say that ' Anciently they knew neither gold 
 nor silver in Japan, and then they wanted for nothing, and the 
 people were good and virtuous. Since then metals have been 
 discovered, the heart of man has been perverted from day to 
 day, and yet, with the exception of medicines, we could very 
 well dispense with all that comes from without. The textile 
 stuffs, and all the foreign articles, are of no real utility to us ; 
 we did not even know them in former times.' And having 
 thus satisfactorily shown that to the love or greed of gold had 
 to be traced all evil in the breast of man, and to its export the 
 impoverishment of the country, he farther adds, 'All the gold, 
 and silver, and copper that has been extracted from the 
 mines, under the reign of Gongin* and since his reign, have 
 
 * Gongin Sama, the successor of Taiko Sama, and the founder of the pres- 
 ent dynasty of Tycoons, in the beginning of the seventeenth centuiy.
 
 Cn*p. XIV.] POLICY OF THE JAPANESE. 259 
 
 been dissipated, and, what is more lamentable, for things which 
 were only superfluities, and might easily have been dispensed 
 with. If we thus exhaust all our treasures, on what shall we 
 live?' He forgets that he had declared the page before they 
 wanted for nothing, the earth was fertile, and the people were 
 good and virtuous, and not only when there was no gold or 
 silver, but because there was none. He concludes with a "sort 
 of benediction : 'May we all reflect on what I have said, and 
 the riches of Japan will last as long as the heavens and the 
 earth.' 
 
 This, as I have had practical experience, is really the ruling 
 policy of the Japanese at this day. Tliey regard all we bring 
 as superfluities, the payment of which, if in gold and silver, by 
 so much impoverishes them, and if in produce, is likely to raise 
 the prices on the natives, and equally lead to distress and ])0v- 
 erty ; and, lastly, that it is a crime against posterity, and an 
 improvidence the most reprehensible, to go on exhausting the 
 mineral resources of the country without regard to any but 
 the present generation. 
 
 So they are de;if to all suggestions for increasing the quan. 
 lity, or improving the quality of their coal by better methods, 
 and the aid of steam machinery ; the first, because they are 
 afraid of exhausting it, and do not, in truth, care to supply forr 
 eign nations from their own stores ; and the second, because it 
 would throw labor out of employment. Hence, too, they have 
 refused to work certain lead mines at Hakodadi, rich in silver 
 alloy. Perhaps the Russians, who seem disposed to make that 
 
 Sort a sort of head-quarters, and to exercise a considerable in- 
 uence over the ruling powers, may succeed, if this were their 
 interest, in persuading them to work it.* 
 
 * The Japanese Government apparently had made up their minds, at last, 
 to seek assistance in the working of their mines from the science of the 
 West ; and, accordingly, just before my departure, two Americans, said to 
 be good geologists, with practical knowledge of mining, had arrived, to be 
 employed by the Japanese Government. Arrangements for their services 
 appeared to have been entered into through Mr. Harris, the resident Minis, 
 ter of the United States, and on ^ lateral scale. I have not yet heard of an; 
 result. , • 
 
 '!ij iUi Lujiiiiiyi ji — b^j6a.ic'A> . j i{;oi^
 
 260 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV, 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A Country Walk. — Agriculture, Trees, and Flora of Japan. — Peasant Life 
 and Prison Life. — Natural History. — Japanese Lacker-ware and Skillful 
 Workmanship. — Monster Bazar. 
 
 Let us leave Japanese politics and the whole class of sub- 
 jects official — wearisome and monotonous withal (save when 
 broken by some deed of atrocity or bloodshed), and take a 
 walk in the fresh morning air to Yokohama. The sun is up, 
 the sky clear and bright, and the change from Japanese offi- 
 cials and chicanery, with absurd alarms, and still more prepos- 
 terous plans for meeting the supposed dangers of natural im- 
 poverishment, famine, and ruin (declared, as we have seen, to 
 be the only probable result of foreign trade), to Japanese 
 scenery, is refreshing, both to body and mind. The shady 
 roads and country lanes bring us in communion only with Na- 
 ture, which here, as elsewhere, is divine — here more than in 
 many favored lands even, whatever the spirit of man may be ! 
 It is indeed worthy of all admiration, while the simple manners 
 and kindly nature of the people are in pleasant contrast with 
 the juggling and duplicity of their rulers, 
 
 A walk to Yokahama, the present site of what foreign trade 
 there is, at the port of Kanagawa, through cultivated fields 
 and copse-fringed lanes, to end with a morning's shopping in 
 the huge bazar (which the whole extemporized settlement of 
 shops and warehouses has become), is as pleasant a change as 
 well can be. It opens the book of Japanese life at one of the 
 most amusing and least objectionable chapters. Kanagawa, 
 the residence of the official section of the little foreign com- 
 munity at the port, is situated on the northern edge of a bight 
 of the great Bay of Yeddo. Following the shore with a grace- 
 ful curve, the town stretches, with houses and trees intermin- 
 gled, for some two miles, with a near background of pictur- 
 esque hills, wooded and broken into every variety of form. It 
 was on the opposite or southern point of this lesser bay, as has 
 been explained, that the Japanese bethought themselves of in- 
 venting a settlement for foreigners. Well isolated from all the 
 surrounding hamlets, and far removed from the great trunk 
 road which leads to the capital, and the busy town of Kanaga- 
 wa itself — the resort of all travelers on their journeys to and 
 from the capital, as I have already described — it realized all the
 
 Chap. XV.] A COUNTRY WALK. 261 
 
 conditions a Japanese could conceive desirable for the seclu- 
 sion and packing away of their little-desired guests, as they 
 would pack artillery or pen up cattle, to be accessible for them- 
 selves, but unapproachable to all else without permission. 
 An extemporized road across some salt marshes or lagoo: s 
 bridges the distance from Kanagawa, and farther answers the 
 purpose of making the route deviate earlier from the great 
 thoroughfare for Japanese. It gives it, moreover, an exclusive 
 character, so that no one could have any pretext for turning 
 into it other than that of intercourse with the '■T'ojin haha^ or 
 trading foreigners. To make it necessary to produce a license 
 for this, completed the net of isolation. It was to this happily 
 planned and ingeniously executed design that the Diplomatic 
 Agents of Great Britain and America saw sundry grave objec- 
 tions, and refused to accept the improvised settlement, with 
 all its properties of quays, jetties, and custom-house, roads and 
 bridges over salt lagoons included — refused to take them over 
 at any price, or accept them even as a gift. But there the 
 settlement remains, and no effort of Foreign Representatives 
 could undo the mischief of a first wrong step. Insidiously de- 
 signed, it has been too readily backed by the first comers, and 
 too steadily persisted in by the native authorities for any oth- 
 er result. 
 
 But we are taking a path through the fields that we may 
 turn out of the road a while. Some of the paddy (rice) is still 
 uncut, though it has long been ripe, and this is the end of No- 
 vember. The sun in its continued power, and the dry season, 
 
 CABDINO MACHINE FOR 8BPARA.TIMO THB ORAIK.
 
 262 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 are apparently sufficient guarantees to the farmer that it will 
 not be spoiled ; and, ever thrifty, they provide no more store- 
 room than is absolutely necessary. The corn itself they often 
 either beat out on the roadside or pathway, or by tire, on the 
 place where it is cut, separate the heads, and turn the straw to 
 manure. Here is some suspended across a bamboo pole along 
 the edge of the field, heads down, to dry — a very shuple, inex- 
 pensive, and, I should fancy, effective mode of drying. At oth- 
 er times they have a simple machine with ii'on teeth, by which 
 the women separate the grain as they would card wool. The 
 flail is also in use, as the following sketch shows. Neither 
 
 HOW THEY SEPARATE THE GRAIN. 
 
 cold, nor rain, nor fogs have any terrors here to the cultivator 
 during the months of October and November, for it is like an- 
 other summer, without its scorching heat or pestilent musqui- 
 toes. They are, in reality, among the pleasantest and most 
 genial of the twelve. Yet here and there a little hoar-frost is 
 on the tufts of grass, and the early morning air is keen. They 
 have already got their wheat-seed into the ground on the high- 
 er land, and it is springing up in regular lines, not broadcast, 
 but drilled. And what a soil it is ! a rich, dark, friable earth, 
 nearly black — light to handle, and without a stone or a pebble 
 to be seen, which the lightest wooden plow, just tipped with 
 iron, turns up with ease. This is two or three feet deep, bank- 
 ed up from the paths ; a crop of turnip-radish is coming up, 
 which grows here between one and two feet in length, perfect- 
 ly white, and nearly as tasteless. Some of the cotton-fields 
 Still have the sticks standing, with a few pods here and there
 
 Chap.XV.J a country WALK.— PLOWING. 
 
 263 
 
 JAPANESE PLOWING. 
 
 attached. Potatoes, too, are cultivated, and seem to have been 
 known for centuries ; whether indigenous or not it is diificult 
 to ascertain, but as they are called by a Dutch name, it may 
 be to them they are indebted for their introduction. They 
 thrive well, though always small, and are sold at two itziboos 
 the picul, or three shillings the sack of 133 lbs., much as at 
 
 Hakodadi. Here is a rich variety 
 of crops, fit for either zone, tropic 
 or temperate ; cotton, rice, pota- 
 toes, turnips, and wheat, maize, 
 buckwheat, and millet, seem in 
 strange juxtaposition ; however, 
 liere they are, and flourishing. 
 
 And now we turn from the 
 open fields, the last one showing 
 the regular treading down of bare 
 feet, to keep the seed from being 
 worked out, giving equal evidence 
 of the care of the husbandman 
 BOW Tn£v covEB THE SEED, aud the chcapncss of labor. Yet
 
 264 THKEE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV. 
 
 they are always economizing it, cheap and plentiful as it may 
 be, and instead of the feet they sometimes use a simple roller, 
 made out of a transverse section of a tree. And when they 
 wish to manure a field, they make a tree do the duty of one 
 man, and very much assist and economize the labor of the other 
 by passing a rope through the handle of the pail close to the 
 depot of the manure, one end of which is secured to the tree, 
 and the other is held by the laborer to enable him to swing the 
 contents over a wide area. In other cases he is supplied with 
 a large ladle, at the end of a ten-feet handle, which gives an 
 equally wide sweep, and with little labor. 
 
 We now gain a shady lane through which the sun's rays 
 pierce only at intervals. On the banks above, the pine, the 
 evergreen oak, a noble tree, with leaves of a rich dark color, 
 something like the laurel, the light bamboo — the Cryptomeria 
 Japonica — (all except the bamboo, which is a grass, though 
 growing thirty or forty feet high), trees of great size and value 
 as timber. The beautiful maple, too, with its star-like leaves 
 and ever-graceful foliage, can not be passed by without a glance 
 of admiration, and Japan can boast of numerous varieties. At 
 this season its leaves are of the brightest scarlet hue, but no 
 pen can convey an adequate idea of the richness and variety 
 of the autumnal tints. The brightest crimson and scarlet al- 
 ternate with a golden yellow, and the deeper colors, brown 
 and green, of the evergreens. The ' sear and yellow leaf has 
 a beauty of its own here, which leaves little room for regret, 
 that the glowing hues of summer are wanting. Yet winter is 
 coming, one sees ; every now and then the wind sends a whirl 
 of dried leaves along the road, and some of the trees are look- 
 ing all the barer in consequence. 
 
 The tall, well-kept hedges and fences are still thickly cover- 
 ed, cut and trimmed in the Dutch manner of gardening (a 
 fashion which there is little doubt, I think, was introduced into 
 Europe from Japan), and how admirably they are planted and 
 trimmed ! Nowhere out of England can such hedges be seen, 
 and not in the British Isles can be found such variety. Here 
 is a low hedge, or border rather, made of the tea-plant, two or 
 three bushes deep, and growing about three feet high, not un- 
 like the ordinary flowering camellia, of which it is a species. 
 Now we have come to an inclosure fenced in with nectarines, 
 and there is a hedge of pomegranate. Inside a tall orange- 
 tree is laden with its golden fruit ; and, stranger still, a cherry- 
 tree in full blossom this 25th day of November ! Oh happy 
 land and pleasant country ! that is, when no Daimios or ofii- 
 cials intrude their presence, which mars all. But I said I
 
 Chaf. XV.] 
 
 MANURING PROCESSES. 
 
 261 
 
 MAMKINO fKOCtMS. 
 
 J^
 
 266 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV. 
 
 would not think of politics. Let us return to the hedgerows 
 and their inexhaustible variety. Now it is a fine, tall, close- 
 twisted fence of Cryptonieria, while over that porch of thatch 
 the Wistaria (or Glycince cinensis, as it has also been called) 
 spreads, with insatiable desire, its far-reaching arms, to be cov- 
 ered in spring with glorious clusters of purple flowers.* Lit- 
 tle hamlets and farmers' homesteads are dotted about in a sort 
 of picturesque confusion, generally nestled in the valleys and 
 under the hill-sides amidst a clump of trees, where the Crypto- 
 meria, the bamboo, and the palm all tend to give an Eastern 
 character to dwellings otherwise claiming some resemblance 
 to Swiss chalets. What architecture there is, however, has no 
 originality, and is, in fact, only a slight modification of the Chi- 
 nese style of building, with wooden frames. Their temples, 
 gateways, and larger houses are eminently Chinese, only in 
 better style, and infinitely better kept. The country can never 
 look wintry here, unless covered with snow (which it is some- 
 times after Chi'istmas), for its trees can never be wholly strip- 
 ped of foliage, there is such a preponderance of evergreens. 
 
 It seems the slack time of the year for laborers in the field ; 
 few are at work. Their simple device for keeping off the birds 
 — a pole in the centre, from which cords are stretched to the 
 edges at wide intervals — show that seed is in the ground ; and 
 the farmer seems to be contemplating, with great satisfaction, 
 the success of his device. Certainly it has great simplicity of 
 design and economy in its application to recommend it, and I 
 have such faith in the practical spirit and intelligence of the 
 Japanese, that it is enough for me to see the general adoption 
 of any plan to feel certain of its well answering the end pro- 
 posed. I give a fac-simile drawing, therefore, of the original, 
 and, judging by the contented air of my Japanese farmer, I 
 should recommend it, on both grounds, to the agriculturist's 
 notice. Here and there, remnants of the paddy crop are being 
 cut with a primitive-looking sickle. Now and then one meets, 
 with regret, a line of coolies carrying the manure-pails to the 
 ground, or, worse still, distributing it in the manner already 
 illustrated. But most of the seed of the spring crops is already 
 in, I fancy, and the ground is pretty well cleared of all the 
 others ; what little is doing is the work of women and chil- 
 dren, and they are the chief laborers at this season. 
 
 The Japanese authorities have endeavored to persuade for- 
 eign officials that wages are high and produce dear. Such can 
 hardly be the case. The evidence of plenty, or a sufficiency at 
 
 * The yellow flower, of which rare specimens are to be seen in China, I 
 have never observed in Japan.
 
 Chap. XV.] A COUMTKY WALK.— PEASANTRY. 267 
 
 4v' M 
 
 MODK OF PBUTECTIMO LAND FBOM BIR08. 
 
 least, every where meets the eye ; cottages and farm-houses 
 are rarely seen out of repair — in pleasant contrast to China, 
 where every thing is going to decay — public buildings and pri- 
 vate dwellings alike, but more especially the former. The men 
 and women, now they take to their clothing, are well and com- 
 fortably clad, even the children, though there are two or three 
 rejoicing in Nature's garb, having just rushed out of a vapor- 
 bath, and, Russian-like, facing the cold with impunity. In pass- 
 ing the door may be seen a black-mouthed matron, the moth- 
 er, no doubt, of all these disreputable-looking little Cupids and 
 Psyches (without their wings), in precisely the same garb, nurs- 
 ing the baby as she looks unconcernedly round at the tCQVis. 
 One would think they must needs be a cleanly people, and 
 that is a great virtue, whatever we may say or think of their 
 free and easy mode of arriving at the result. There is no sign 
 of starvation or penury in the midst of the population, if little 
 room for the indulgence of luxury or the display of wealth. 
 Their habits of life are evidently simple in the highest degree. 
 A bare matted room, not over large, but generally clean ; a 
 few shelves or a low etagere of lacker let into some recess; a 
 few lacker cups and saucers, or porcelain, M'ith as many trays
 
 268 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 on stands — behold the whole furniture of a well-furnished house, 
 from the Daimio, whose revenue is estimated at a million meas- 
 ures of rice, to the little shopkeeper or peasant who lives from 
 hand to mouth. This is all the richest have, and more than 
 the poorest want. In the kitchen a few buckets, two or three 
 copper or iron pans, and a movable stove or two, with a large 
 pan for the daily rice and hot water, supply all the means of 
 cooking. Feather and bamboo brooms, with plenty of water 
 and air, afford the means of cleanliness. In the inner rooms, 
 behind those sliding panels, are a few cotton-stuffed wrappers, 
 and they are bed and blanket, while a lacker or wooden pillow 
 completes the couch. 
 
 There is something to admire in this Spartan simplicity of 
 
 habits, which seems to extend 
 through all their life, and they 
 pride themselves upon it. Fish 
 and rice are the chief articles of 
 food, with tea and saki for bev- 
 erages. The peasant, the labor 
 of the day over, can alw^ays look 
 forward to the luxury of a hot 
 bath, and a still more luxurious 
 shampooing, if not by his barber 
 or the blind professors of the art, 
 who go about all the evening, 
 with a whistle for their cry, seek- 
 ing customers, he can always 
 make sure of it by his wife's aid. 
 Certainly so much austerity, 
 and such universal absence of lux- 
 ury, must go far to enable all to 
 live upon little, preserve to each 
 his independence of action, and, 
 one would think, spare many 
 heartburnings in vain effort to outvie each other in ostenta- 
 tious entertainments and equipages — a rivalry Avhich, in other 
 countries, boasting of superior wisdom and civilization, is the 
 source of much more misery than happiness to the envied own- 
 ers, and often leads to ruin. Here, if there be any such rivalry, 
 I believe it is confined to the richer Daimios, and consists, al- 
 most exclusively, in the number of their retainers, who are fed 
 and kept in idleness. The poorer classes seem perfectly to an- 
 swer the description of a happy peasant-life, drawn from anoth- 
 er race, who 
 
 Lead a careless life, 
 With naught to wish and naught to spare, 
 
 THE PEASANT S LUXURY.
 
 Chap. XV.j JAPAIIesE PRISON. 269 
 
 As I wandered on the pleasant road with this train of 
 thought, which the picture before n\e of agricultural life and 
 Arcadian simplicity suggested, fully occupying me, I had for- 
 gotten a special object I had in view on starting. This neces- 
 sitated a deviation out of the beaten track, about midway be- 
 tween Kanagawa and Yokohama ; so I turned on ray steps, the 
 same thoughts still pursuing me, however, as the lines already 
 quoted, so descriptive of the people, came back to my mind. 
 What condition can be happier? Wealth brings troubles, 
 cares, temptations. ' Quien tien criaclos tien cuidados^ says 
 the Spanish proverb. So true it is, that much to spare seems 
 ever to draw after it, as an inseparable condition, much to be 
 anxious about. Care follows like a shadow; and if, like other 
 shadows, it only proves the substance, unlike a mere shadow, 
 it becomes a heavy burden. Those who have little, without a 
 wish for more, are certainly, therefore, among the happiest of 
 mankind, as far as worldly conditions are concerned. Here I 
 came to a full stop, not that the argument seemed to me by 
 any means exhausted ; it was a natural obstacle that brought 
 me suddenly up, an ' institution' of this Arcadian country, and 
 much too real and substantial, in the form it presented, to be 
 overlooked. It was not so pleasant a sight as smiling faces of 
 happy peasants, and green fields with wild-fowl flying across by 
 hundreds, but perhaps it was more instructive. We are on 
 the rising ground, and below lies the valley, a pretty retired 
 and rural - looking spot as heart can desire or eye can look 
 upon ! All is peaceful and quiet ; every field is in full culti- 
 vation, and here and there a green hedgerow, or a clump of 
 noble evergreens, mark the line of a country lane. There are 
 no hamlets or cottages visible, however, and half unconsciously 
 you feel, even as you are admiring, that there is an air of sol- 
 itude and isolation about the whole scene which oppresses, 
 you can hardly explain why, until your eye rests on a strong 
 palisaded building, which stands in the midst of all, a little to 
 the left, and on a highly elevated platform. A stone -faced 
 moat surrounds it, and already, as you look down on its court- 
 yards and long low line of roofs, you feel by a kind of instinct 
 that the smiling valley has in its heart but one occupant, and 
 that a dismal one! It is the prison of the district, the twin 
 brother to the foreign settlement at Yokohama, conceived by 
 the same Government, born of the same parents in the same 
 hour, and placed under the same political guardianship. Let 
 us go in and see what it contains, and how they manage these 
 things in Japan, which, for all it seems so Arcadian, docs not, 
 alas! seem exempt from the maladies commou to the social 
 Btate in other lands.
 
 270 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV- 
 
 The outer gate is open, and, turning round an angle, we come 
 upon the Janitor's lodge — a sort of guard-house. Three or four 
 officials are lounging about, and do not seem much oppressed 
 with business, and still less with care. We have a pass, and 
 no difficulty is made, therefore, in showing the interior — none, 
 at least, beyond the delay caused by the necessity of hunting 
 amidst a heap of keys and labels, the first of the oddest shape, 
 and the last of an incommensurate size, on which the places 
 they open are written. This over, the gate of a narrow court- 
 yard is first opened, and then the inner door of a large room. 
 It is a room of twelve mats, for so they measure houses and 
 streets alike — open bars all round, and with an unpleasant re- 
 semblance to a wild beast's cage. This is a division appropri- 
 ated to foreign prisoners, furnished chiefly by sailors, a class 
 ever prolific in riot and drunkenness in a foreign port — the 
 more the pity ! Happily, I was going to say ; but a doubt enters 
 into ray mind as to the aijpropriateness of the term ; happily or 
 unhappily, then, as the case may be, there were no inmates. 
 But, on entering, there was no lack of evidence of former occu- 
 pants. A compass elaborately painted on the wainscot record- 
 ed how one 'Christian Louis' had whiled away the tedious 
 hours. A checker-board below answered for another; while 
 a third had made a frank confession, for the benefit of his suc- 
 cessors, that saki had brought him there, and ' saki would be 
 his ruin ;' with which comfortable conviction he seems to have 
 solaced himself, for, with great complacency, he had signed 
 his name in full. This habit of scoring names wherever space 
 for sprawling letters can be found — on works of art or Nature's 
 monuments of granite ; on prison cells and palace walls ; or, in 
 default of other medium, on barks of trees and garden seats — is 
 one of the least intelligible of the many forms of folly which 
 idleness or a craving for notoriety seems to take in every age. 
 It is certainly one of the most universal and ancient. On the 
 rocks of Syria, as in the ruins of Pompeii, evidences abound 
 proving its existence from the time of the Pharaohs ! Is it in- 
 stinctive desire for immortality which prompts so raanyBrowns 
 and Robinsons of every race. Heathen and Christian, to take so 
 much trouble and pains to deface monuments with their initials 
 and names at length, and thus hand down to posterity the un- 
 important fact of their obscure existence at a given date and 
 place ? Yet what can it benefit them^ that in another century 
 their ignoble names should be read and laughed at, or anathe- 
 matized by others following in their footsteps? I confess I 
 never could form even a plausible explanation of the phenom- 
 enon } but at least a common felon's cell might escape from
 
 Chap. XV.] JAPANESE PRISON. 271 
 
 such frantic efforts to achieve immortality ! There is a laurel- 
 tree shown in the gardens of the Isola Bella, on the Lago Maggi- 
 ore, with the half-effaced letters which once formed the word 
 '"Battaglia^ carved — so guide-books and guides aver — by Na- 
 poleon himself shortly before the battle of Marengo. That his 
 thoughts should be of battles at that hour, as in his last, can 
 easily be understood ; but what pleasure could Ae, whose des- 
 tiny it was to carve out empires, have found in cutting letters 
 on the bark of a tree, in that pleasant garden of Borromco ? 
 We must continue our inspection of the prison. To the right 
 is a second cell or closet with a tub of water. The Japanese, 
 true to their national habits, afford a daily bath to every in- 
 mate, and twice a day in the summer. 
 
 The prison is divided into two ranges, and on the opposite 
 side is a large square room or cage into which some twenty 
 prisoners might be put. It appears the solitary system has 
 not yet penetrated into Japan ; and as no distinction of sex ap- 
 pears to be considered material, among the lower orders at all 
 events, the arrangements for the safe custody of the inmates 
 admits of little farther simplification. In this room we found 
 five or six sufiiciently miserable-looking individuals — all men, 
 however — unshorn and unshaven, as prisoners usually are, ex- 
 cept in the palace-prisons of England. There was no furni- 
 ture, of course ; how should there be, indeed, when the great- 
 est Daimio holds a table an encumbrance, a chair an abomina- 
 tion, and a bed altogether insufferable, and only fit for a For- 
 eigner ! 
 
 One is glad to get out and breathe a purer and fresher air. 
 A prison, a mad-house, and a hospital are the three saddest 
 spectacles any where to be seen. They bring us face to face 
 with suffering humanity in many of its most repulsive forms ; 
 and a Japanese prison, I found, was no exception. The other 
 two, so far as I can learn, do not exist — neither mad-house nor 
 hospitJil. "With a brisk walk of a quarter of an hour across 
 the lagoon in the fresh morning air, with the sunlit bay on the 
 left, and the distant hills of the opposite shore, half lost in aeri- 
 al tints of gray and purple, to gladden the eye, the dismal one- 
 house valley is soon forgotten. Storks are vainly fishing for 
 eels, worms, and other delicacies, and devouring them when 
 found with the greatest equanimity, despite the contortions of 
 the victim — much as the clever and rapacious devour their vic- 
 tims in the world. Or, as the French poet has it, 
 Les fous 8ont des festins 
 Et les sages les roangcnt ! 
 
 I have already remarked on the semi- worship of the stork by
 
 272 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 the Japanese. They are the favorite objects of artistic skill in 
 every form of ornamentation — in porcelain and lacker, tapes- 
 try and embroidery — and nothing can be more artistic than 
 the way in which they are treated in all these various works, 
 as the following wood-cut may show. 
 
 Beyond, on the surface of the pond, are myriads of wild- 
 fowl, so conscious of their immunity from gun and dog, under 
 imperial decree, that they allow you to approach within a few 
 yards — a most aggravating sight to a sportsman ; but such is 
 the law, and the birds evidently know it. No shot at bird or 
 beast may be fired within ten Ri, or thirty miles of the Ty- 
 coon's residence, and Yokohama, alas ! is only seventeen miles 
 distant. To the Japanese, probably, it is no privation, but to 
 an Englishman, sick of pork and fowls all the year round, and 
 eager for open air sport and exercise, it is very hard ; but the 
 Japanese officials seem to take all the more pleasure in vigor- 
 ously insisting upon the inviolability of the laws.* Their art- 
 
 * This was felt a great grievance by the Foreign residents at Yokohama,
 
 Chap. XV.] WILD-FOWL. 273 
 
 ists equally excel, from long and loving study, in depicting all 
 kinds of wild-fowl, of which the following is an illustration, 
 copied from a Japanese print. Hawking seems the only sport 
 
 in vogue even among the privileged and higher classes, and 
 that, in the imperial domain, is strictly limited likewise to the 
 Tycoon. No private individual, so I am told, may even keep 
 a falcon, of which there are some very fine specimens. This is 
 only one of the numerous petty restraints and restrictions aris- 
 ing from a totally diiFerent state of society and political organ- 
 ization, of a more or less irritating and vexatious character, to 
 which foreigners must perforce submit who take up their resi- 
 dence in Japan. The Diplomatic Agents were even recom- 
 mended, as a means of avoiding insult, never to go out on foot 
 or on horseback, but only in norimons, shut up, and with a 
 couple of ' yaconins' in attendance. A pleasant life they would 
 have of it, under such conditions. And how long will this last, 
 
 and led to much ill feeling, ns well as some bloodshed. The restriction was 
 probably all the more tenaciously maintained by the Government of the Ty- 
 coon from the fact that carrjinp fire-arms and shooting wore privileges they 
 were determined the Japanese should not have, as involving danger to the 
 State. The great mass of the nation are denied all privileges, and none 
 more jealoasly than the right of carrying fire-arms. 
 
 M2
 
 274 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV. 
 
 or will it ever admit of improvement ? We must hope so, for, 
 as one of my colleagues observed, ' il laisse heaucoup d> de- 
 sirer P 
 
 Our walk is coming to an end ; storks aud wild-fowls are 
 already behind us, left unmolested to their privileged immuni- 
 ties. And now we are at the land entrance of Yokohama, 
 facing a town of two or three streets deep branching off one 
 large trunk, nearly half a mile in length. It is all timber built, 
 consisting entirely of shops, except the few houses and gar- 
 dens at the end for the foreigners, and the extensive Custom- 
 house establishment. These shops are all filled with goods 
 entirely selected to suit a foreigner's wants and tastes. Let 
 my readers figure in their mind all they have ever heard or 
 fancied of Japanese ingenuity and perfection of work — in lack- 
 er, basket-work, porcelain, and bronze, fancy silks and embroi- 
 deries, spread out before them in every tempting form, the 
 very shopkeepers having learned enough English to tell you 
 ' all vely cheap,' ' vely good' (for the r is seldom heard from a 
 Japanese tongue), and if you ask, he will tell you the prices 
 also tolerably intelligibly, and then judge how few button up 
 their pockets and walk away, like wise people ! 
 
 But I came with deliberate intention to look, to examine, 
 and to buy — my friends had so persecuted me to spend their 
 money for them, some one hundred dollars, some five hundred, 
 or ' any amount,' only to send them ' beautiful things from Ja- 
 pan,' where, to their sorrow, they could not go in person. 
 * Beautiful things !' It is easily said, my friends, but it is dis- 
 tressingly vague. Pretty, cheap, and dear are all relative 
 terms, and subject to infinite diversity of opinion. However, 
 since I can not help myself, I must needs take the plunge ; my 
 friends' money to spend, and my own taste to guide me, in 
 this most trying voyage of discovery. And, first, I am to find 
 a pair of well-bred Japanese dogs, ' with eyes like saucers, no 
 nose, the tongue hanging out at the side, too large for the 
 mouth, and white and tan if possible, and two years old.' My 
 friend, you see, is a dog fancier, and so my first visit is to the 
 poultry street — some twenty establishments, with the most 
 extraordinary, and, it must also be said, the most rare and 
 beautiful collection of birds and beasts — the former especially 
 — that can well be seen out of a zoological garden. We turn 
 into the first of them by a large court-yard which runs behind 
 the shop, and all round are pens for the different occupants be- 
 low, with cages above for the smaller birds. Our first ac- 
 quaintance is with a long-bearded goat, trying in vain to get 
 over his prison bars; for goats are only objects of curiosity in
 
 Chap. XV.] JAPANESE SHOPS. 277 
 
 this part of Japan, although tiiey do exist as an indigenous 
 race, I believe ; and next to him a grizzly black bear, small, but 
 wild and vicious-looking — the sort of animal one likes to meet 
 in a cage much better than ' at home' in the woods. Then a 
 red fallow deer, and a very fine one. A great stork beyond is 
 gobbling up, as usual, his live food, and with his usual gusto 
 and disregard of their feelings ; and then come various kinds 
 of web-footed birds, apparently of the duck species, one twice 
 the size of a common duck, and quite unknown to me. The 
 beautiful colored drake of the mandarin species and his home- 
 ly mate are there ; and then such a collection of pheasants ! 
 The gold bird with its gorgeous plumes, the silver pheasant 
 of almost greater beauty, with its silvery silky feathers and 
 long sweeping tail ; the copper pheasant, never seen alive in 
 Europe, unless two pair which I sent from Japan to the Zoo- 
 logical Society may have arrived ; then a species akin to our 
 own — and to think that a pair of each could be bought for 
 some thirty shillings, and yet to have to leave them behind, 
 was very sad ! Strange freak of Nature that in all these it is 
 the male bird that has a monopoly of the gay plumage, tufts, 
 and other personal advantages, and the poor lady birds are left 
 shorn of all ornaments — sober, sad-colored matrons, with noth- 
 ing whatever to attract admiration ! This seems a most un- 
 equal and hard distribution of Nature's gifts. What a change 
 there would be in this world of ours, if, with the human race, 
 the same law prevailed. I think man should be especially 
 grateful that it is quite otherwise ordered ! We pass on to a 
 long line of cages containing doves and pigeons of most rare 
 plumage and colors, pink and blue, some tinted with gold and 
 green of the softest hue. Bantam fowls, indigenous or origin- 
 ally from Java, I can not discover ; but in their miniature pro- 
 portions and perfect forms they are great beauties. We can 
 not stay here all day, however. The red-faced monkey (the 
 only species in Japan), fowls of all sizes and color, swans, and 
 geese, and ducks (some very captivating), we pass without 
 note. An aquarium, with all sorts of strange-looking elfs — 
 gold, and silver, and spotted purple fishes, with undeniable 
 tails dividing into three large sweeps of diaphonous texture, 
 beguile us on the way out. One much admired just emerges 
 from the shadow of the artificial rock, with its tufts of water- 
 grass and marine creepers, the most prized of the lot, with a 
 body like a barrel, to which a golden head and tail seem to 
 have been sot on in the most capricious way. My dogs are 
 chosen, a species of Charles II. spaniel intensified ; and, by-the- 
 by, there is so much genuine likeness that I think it probable
 
 2V8 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV. 
 
 the merry monarch was indebted to his marriage with a Portu- 
 guese princess for the original race of spaniels as well as her 
 dower of Bombay. I looked for some specimens of the 167 
 species of bees with which, according to Siebold, Japan is gift- 
 ed, but in vain. As we pass into the shop, we come upon a 
 number of toy cages occupied by mice with pink eyes, turning 
 a wheel which sets in motion half a dozen of the primitive ma- 
 chines with which they separate the rice from its husk here as 
 in China. Poor little workmen ! they are happily uncon- 
 scious — happier than many higher placed in the scale — that it 
 is a life slavery of bootless labor, to which a hard fortune has 
 consigned tliem ! In the shop is the dried body of a mermaid 
 most ingeniously put together, as natural and lifelike as any 
 dried mummy ! But I must not take you over the lacker, 
 and silk, and porcelain shops, or where should I stop ? A 
 broad sheet of the ' Times' would not suffice ; and, besides, it 
 would be a sort of Tantalus cup, for I am positive, were I to 
 describe some of the things, the desire to possess them would 
 haunt my readers like a dream of unattainable bliss. There, at 
 the corner, is the principal, or, at least, one of the largest, the 
 best, and most expensive of the establishments — the ' Howell 
 and James' of Yokohama. One glance, and then we will say 
 good-by to lacker, in description at least, while I pursue, in the 
 most conscientious way, my labor of spending other people's 
 money in the purchase of things they do not want or may not 
 like. Here in the lower floor are merely such things as you 
 see every where — some lacker trays, oblong, round, and oval, 
 but miracles of cheapness — five, ten, and fifteen shillings each, 
 of good lacker, and many of beautiful design. But some 
 there are of inlaid wood and lacker combined, at very different 
 prices. There are boxes Math every kind of gold tracery and 
 design, which here are used for carrying letters, but would do 
 admirably for gloves. Some are with birds and trees in raised 
 gold relief, as rich as well can be, and of all prices, from five 
 shillings to as many guineas. But up stairs is the fine collec- 
 tion — cabinets of many woods, inlaid ; and lacker luncheon 
 cabinets, of such infinite ingenuity, variety, and perfection of 
 form, that they could not fail to win a lady's heart if offered 
 as work-boxes. Here is one of a square form, standing some 
 eighteen inches high, with a globe top, in imitation of a huge 
 egg, or crackled china, wliich opens out into a multiplicity of 
 drawers, and trays, and boxes of finished workmanship, em- 
 bossed in gold and silver. ' A very perfect piece of work and 
 ingenuity, truly. How much ?' '■IJcorah na mong f that is 
 about the first sentence every foreigner learns here, and the
 
 Chap. XV.] BAZAR. -GEWGAWS. 2/9 
 
 second, which he immediately finds the necessity of acquiring, 
 is '• Takai-meipd tdkeiP ' Too dear, much too dear !' But are 
 the things so dear? They are both dear and cheap. Some 
 of the older ware is much prized, either as we prize old China, 
 because it is old and can not be easily come at — a very silly 
 reason, it appears to me — or because it is really better than 
 the more modern, and can only be had in limited quantity; 
 and very long prices are very often asked and given for them. 
 Then, again, there have been sent lately, by Daimios of the 
 less wealthy classes, fine specimens of lacker — heirlooms it is 
 said, which, nevertheless, they are willing to part with — for a 
 consideration. Whether this be true or not, large and beauti- 
 ful specimens are often left to be sold with the Japanese deal- 
 ers at a fixed price, and you must either give it or go without 
 the articles. In other cases the shopkeeper will ask you 500 
 itziboos, and in the end take 300, or perhaps 100 ! There can 
 be no established price for such things, because they are not 
 in common demand, nor can they be multiplied. They are all 
 'fancy' articles and with a 'fancy' price. 'But what for this 
 bijou of a work-box, for such it ought to be — Ikorahf 
 Eighty ilziboos, he says. How cheap, you think ! yet that is 
 five guineas, and very pretty things are to be bought in Lon- 
 don and Paris, or Berlin, for five guineas! And this inlaid 
 cabinet, with panels and cameos of porcelain — he wants 500 
 silver itziboos for it ; and that, you see, is not far from forty 
 guineas, which, after all, is a long price, beautiful as the articles 
 are.* But some of the things are really wonderfully cheap, 
 while others, again, seem unreasonably dear, without the imin- 
 itiated being able to detect much difference in the work. 
 There is a difference, in most cases, in the cost of the produc- 
 tion, from a greater perfection of the work and material. But, 
 however interesting and amusing shopping may be on the 
 spot, and to the actual purchaser, it is dull work in descrip- 
 tion, and proverbially so both in practice and imagination to a 
 lookei' 071 ; so we will say farewell to this monster bazar, where 
 pretty things are easily to be found, and a large sum of mon- 
 ey quite as easily to be spent, and lost for all other purposes. 
 
 Specimens of the lacker, porcelain, and bronze, many of them 
 very choice and rare, I collected and sent to the Great Exhi- 
 bition, that it might be seen how far they would bear the test 
 of close comparison with the best workmanship of Europe ; 
 and I think tlie result was by no means to the dispaiagement 
 of the Japanese. 
 
 ♦ Several of these articles were sent to the Japan Court in the Exhibition, 
 anil jiruvcd objects of interest, attracting many admirers.
 
 280 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV. 
 
 As I have given the fruit of my own observation in regard 
 to the agriculture of Japan, so far as I was enabled to speak at 
 the time, I may as well say here that subsequently, during a 
 journey into the interior, I had the advantage of Mr. John 
 Veitch's greater knowledge as a practical gardener and bota- 
 nist, who was in search of new species in the vegetable king- 
 dom. And various collections were made with his assistance 
 for the royal gardens at Kew and Windsor. I profited by the 
 opportunity also to obtain from him a note of the results of 
 his observation both as to the agriculture, the crops, trees, and 
 flora of the country, and these I have, with his permission, 
 given entire in the Appendix.* Although several new plants 
 and species were found, particularly among the conifers, in 
 which Japan is rich, it must needs be incomplete while great 
 part of the country remains unexplored ; but I trust it will be 
 found to convey a good deal that is both new and interesting 
 on the subjects touched upon. I have had many inquiries 
 about the system of cultivation followed, and the rotation of 
 crops in Japan, but I fear any thing it has been in my power to 
 obtain in the way of information will fall far short of what is 
 desired. The Bishop of Victoria, with whom I had some con- 
 versation on the subject, has given nearly all the information 
 at present attainable, in a chapter devoted to the matter, in his 
 * Ten Weeks in Japan,' and it would therefore be superfluous 
 to repeat it here. I will merely say that the conclusion he ar- 
 rives at accords with my own, namely, that ' any rotation of 
 crops which can answer to the English system of agriculture 
 is unknown and unpracticed, and that the disposition of the 
 land for convenience of irrigation necessary for a rice crop ex- 
 cludes the possibility of the same field being used for any oth- 
 er crop requiring a drier condition of the soil.' After the 
 above had been written, I obtained some farther notes from 
 Captain Vyse, H. M. Consul at Kanagawa, as to the agricul- 
 ture and rotation of crops in his district, which, from their pre- 
 cise and practical character, will, I think, be received by those 
 interested in the subject as a valuable addition to our previous 
 knowledge. The following is the substance of his communi- 
 cation : 
 
 Agriculture in this district, as I believe nearly over all Ja- 
 pan — all that I have seen, certainly — is the chief occupation of 
 the population. The land under cultivation here is exceeding- 
 ly fertile, the soil being a light friable loam of considerable 
 depth, and easily worked. The district is very hilly, but this 
 does not, as in many other countries, lead to much waste land. 
 ♦ See Appendix E.
 
 Chap. XV. j SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURfi. 281 
 
 In general, the Japanese makes the most of his farm, and in 
 many instances the hills are terraced with prodigious labor, 
 and cultivated in a skillful manner, and this often carried on to 
 a surprising height. ' In an extended view of the country, in 
 any commanding situation,' the Consul remarks very truly, ' a 
 bald or barren appearance is nowhere presented. On the con- 
 trary, one unbroken expanse of abundant vegetation and verd- 
 ure is to be seen throughout the year. Again, what might ap- 
 pear to some persons to be waste land is not so.' Whether 
 from the force of custom or by law, the Japanese so regulates 
 his land that each part will have time to rest and recreate it- 
 self for several years. But, while this desirable object is aim- 
 ed at, no part of the land is allowed to remain perfectly idle. 
 The same principle in action with the brain and intellectual ca- 
 pacity seems equally applicable here, and change of occupation 
 suffices to restore the exhausted powers or give the needful 
 rest. In fact, as the earth, like the human mind, can never be 
 said to be wholly unoccupied or unproductive — the first, in its 
 idleness, producing fruit too often of an undesirable kind, and 
 the land, if left to itself, a plentiful crop of weeds — the true 
 principle would seem to have been adopted by the Japanese, 
 m never allowing the land to be wholly fallow or unemployed. 
 Thus, when not producing edible crops, the ground is planted 
 with trees of whatever kind the owner may think best, and by 
 the time that it is again to be brought into cultivation those 
 trees turn out to be useful timber. When the traveler sees a 
 large space, whether on hill or level land, covered with trees 
 and shrubs, and apparently in a wild, neglected state, he may, 
 perhaps, infer that the Japanese agriculturist is unthrifty or 
 negligent, and that so much land is far from being turned to 
 its proper account. But this would be a great mistake. The 
 careful and general cultivation of trees and shrubs by the Jap- 
 anese serves many useful as well as ornamental purposes. 
 Within the limits of this consular district during the past year 
 many hills might be seen the sides and summits of which were 
 being cleared of trees, and others which had recently been un- 
 der cultivation were carefully laid down under crops of trees. 
 The Japanese can not, in truth, afford to leave any part of the 
 land idle, because, in the first place, there is population press- 
 ing on the means of subsistence derived from the soil, whose 
 every want has been for centuries supplied from that source 
 and their waters. And, in the next place, almost all rents and 
 revenues are paid in kind — principally in rice. A feudal sys- 
 tem prevails ; but beyond this, what are the special conditions 
 under which land is held and cultivated can not be ascertained
 
 282 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV. 
 
 with any fullness or accuracy of detail. The special relations 
 of landlord and tenant, and the particulars of sub-letting, are 
 not well known. In the Japanese social scale the Hi-yak-shOy 
 or farmer, holds the second place. What place the mere la- 
 borer occupies, and the relative value of his life, was rather cu- 
 riously illustrated in an official communication from the Minis- 
 ters of Foreign Aifairs respecting the execution of two of the 
 *vilaine' class at Nagasaki, condemned to death for having 
 caused the death of one of the ' Odin's' men found dead in the 
 street, with his jaw broken and other signs of violence. The 
 Admiral, Sir James Hope, wrote to me to request the sentence 
 might be commuted for some less serious punishment, as he 
 was not satisfied that the deceased might not have been him- 
 self in some degree to blame, as it was known he was drunk 
 when last seen, probably shortly before he met with his death. 
 To this the Ministers replied in the following terms : 
 
 ' The person who lately killed the British sailor at Nagasaki 
 was one of the lowest class, named Sooketnats^ consequently 
 he is not allowed to bring in any excuse whatever ; for there 
 is a law of long standing in our empire, that any one of the 
 lower order of persons who causes death to another in conse- 
 quence of a blow given, although unintentional, is to be be- 
 headed ; which punishment is called geshinnin. Then this is 
 not a law that was made because the British nation was con- 
 cerned, as human life is of permanent importance, and to de- 
 prive any one of it is deserving of the highest punishment. 
 The above-mentioned law was enacted to deter the evil dispo- 
 sition of every one.' 
 
 Under such a law it behooves a JSookeinats to beware how he 
 strikes, since he is not allowed to plead ' any justification ;' and 
 so great is the value of any other life in Japan, that his must 
 pay the forfeit if death in any way is caused by him. I do not 
 know whether an old traditional law of this kind has any thing 
 to do with the exceedingly inoflfensive character of the peas- 
 antry — so far as I have had the means of judging in all my 
 travels through the country — or whether it may be taken as 
 an evidence of the spirit of resistance having been crushed out 
 of them under a feudal system, with such sharp and decisive 
 penalties on the lowest classes for any act of violence. 
 
 Otherwise, in Japan as in China, agriculture is held in high 
 esteem, and it is the policy of the rulers to encourage it in ev- 
 ery way. All revenues of Daimios are estimated at so many 
 kokous of rice. This I conceive, however, is merely a stand- 
 ard of value, just as a pound sterling is with us, and does not 
 give any clew to the quantity of land these territories may
 
 Chap. XV] LAND-TAX.— CROPPING.— IRRIGATION, 283 
 
 contain. The standard of superficial measurement is a tsoobo^ 
 being about 6 feet square, or, in precise terms, the side is 5 
 feet Hi inches, and containing, therefore, an area of 35.25 
 square feet instead of 36. In referring to the size of a farm, 
 an itrthan containing 300 tsoobo is the measurement generally 
 mentioned, and 1 it-than of good rice land is calculated to pro- 
 duce 1600 its-go (or about 532 lbs. avoirdupois) of clean rice at 
 one cropping. The pound weight is divided into 160 equal 
 parts, of which 120 make 1 lb. avoirdupois. The smallest Jap- 
 anese grain measure is an its-go, which, of clean rice, contains 
 5^ oz. avoirdupois. 
 
 1 Its-go = J lb. 
 
 10 Its-go (1 Ischo) = 3Jr lbs. 
 10 Ischo (1 Itho) = 30i " 
 10 Itho (1 Its' kokon)=333i^ " 
 
 The land-tax is said to be 3 itziboos silver per ithan of 300 
 tsoobo, or about £l per acre per annum. If paid in coin it is 
 collected quarterly, but if paid in rice it is collected only once 
 a year, when the crop has been gathered in, and in such case is 
 said to be one sixth of the produce. The officers of the land- 
 lord or of the government make surveys annually at a time 
 when they can best approximate to the amounts of the rents 
 and other charges. If the yield is large the revenue will be in 
 proportion ; if deficient, by this mode of adjustment, the land- 
 lord, still only receiving his sixth, suffers with the cultivator. 
 
 Cropping and the rotation of crops are thoroughly under- 
 stood by the Japanese. Rice is the staple food of the whole 
 population, and it is grown abundantly in the district of Kana- 
 gawa, and over the country generally wherever the nature of 
 the soil will admit the possibility, under the strongest compul- 
 sion of unwearied labor, irrigation and manuring all combined. 
 Here the water required for irrigation is plentifully supplied 
 by the streams and rivulets to be met with in all directions, 
 and often most ingeniously turned from their natural course to 
 wherever they may be required by the provident farmer. As 
 I have already stated, there are several kinds or varieties of 
 rice in this country, some adapted for growing on irrigated 
 lands, and others on higher and drier situations. All the val- 
 leys — and some are of great extent — are planted with rice, and 
 crops of wheat, rape, peas, beans, etc, line the hill-sides and 
 high lands. It is said that oats are cultivated in some parts of 
 the country, but none have been seen at the consular ports, nor 
 did I come upon any in my travels through the interior. No- 
 where in the world, perhaps, can the Japanese farmer be match- 
 ed for the good order in which he keeps his farm. The fields
 
 284 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 are not only kept scrupulously free from weeds, but in other 
 respects the order and neatness observable are most pleasing. 
 The manure chiefly in use (urine and night soil) no doubt tends 
 very materially to abate the growth of weeds ; but this does 
 not detract from the skill, industry, and diligence which the 
 Japanese agriculturist brings to bear upon his land. Men, 
 women, and children may be seen in the fields early and late, 
 and the labor is chiefly manual. A plow drawn by bullocks 
 or ponies is used sometimes, but, generally speaking, mattocks 
 and hoes are the implements by which the land is prepared and 
 every part of the field labor performed. The sketches ali'eady 
 given (see pp. 261-26T), from Japanese designs, illustrative of 
 their field labors, are wonderfully faithful in outline, character, 
 and detail. Flails and winnowing machines similar to those 
 in England are in common use, and a sort of carding machine 
 also. Large fans worked by hand are also used in winnowing. 
 To separate the rice from the husk, a section of a large tree is 
 scooped out so as to form a mortar, in which the rice is pound- 
 ed with a large wooden pestle or mallet, sometimes worked by 
 hand, but generally fixed on a fulcrum, and worked by the feet 
 or by water-power. Every where in Japan may be seen the 
 
 most successful efforts to econo- 
 mize labor. Rice is often beat- 
 en out on the spot where it 
 grows, to save the labor of car- 
 rying it. Thus the figure rep- 
 resented in the woodcut is not 
 very frequently seen. 
 
 The chief grains and vegeta- 
 bles of the district near the cap- 
 ital and the port of Kanagawa 
 are rice, millet, beans, peas, cot- 
 ton, wheat, buckwheat, tobac- 
 co, and a great variety of vege- 
 tables. Rice is grown as it is 
 in China. The fields are plow- 
 ed and irrigated. The seed is 
 first sown in small nurseries, 
 and transplanted in May or 
 June, in small tufts of eight or 
 ten plants, in rows about eight 
 inches apart. The plants at this time are about six inches in 
 height. The harvest commences in October. Wheat is exten- 
 sively grown also. It is sown generally in drills, in November 
 and December, and harvested in May and June. In some 
 
 AGRICULTURJO. PROCESS.
 
 Chap. XV.] JAPANESE VEGETABLES. 285 
 
 places the grain seems to be sound and good in quality, but in 
 other parts bad, ill colored, and greatly worra-eaten and blight- 
 ed. The flour of the best quality is used in pastry and confeo- 
 tiopery, and I can answer, from a long experience, that, when 
 good of its kind, it makes excellent bread. All the bread con- 
 sumed at the Legation was made from it by my own cooks, 
 and was unexceptionable both in appearance and flavor. With 
 the Japanese, boiled rice takes the place of baker's bread, the 
 want of which they never feel. In this they are like the Chi- 
 nese. I remember a high oflicial, who, on being told we did 
 not grow rice, but ate bread, turned to his bi"other officer and 
 said in the vernacular, ' Alas ! wretched people, they have no 
 rice !' So much are we creatures of habit and education, that 
 to a well-educated and intelligent Chinese it appeared impos- 
 sible to substitute bread for rice without undergoing the great- 
 est privation. And the rice-eating nations carry their predi- 
 lections to such an extent, that they reject with scorn rice 
 grown in different localities. The Indian considei's himself 
 very ill used if he is fed on the large-grained rice of China, re- 
 garding it as a coarser and less nutritious food ; while the Chi- 
 nese retoi'ts upon him by thoroughly despising all Indian- 
 grown rice, and eating it only on compulsion and under a fam- 
 ine pressure. 
 
 There are also five kinds of millet grown. These are sown 
 in drills, in March or April, and harvested in September and 
 October. It is generally made into cakes, and forms a com- 
 mon article of food. Cotton, too, in this district is a crop of 
 some importance. It is sown in March or April, attains a 
 height of from twelve to eighteen inches, and is harvested in 
 September and October. Beans are largely grown, and of 
 numerous varieties, some like the English field bean, and oth- 
 ers like the French bean, though both inferior in flavor. They 
 are grown for various purposes, and are eaten as food in a green 
 state, and also when ripe. Some kinds are ground down into 
 powder and made into cakes. Cattle are fed on some kinds, 
 and soy is made from others. Rape is grown for its seed here, 
 as in China, from which large quantities of oil are made, and it 
 forms one of the more important crops. Peas of several kinds 
 are also grown for food, and eaten both in a green and dry 
 state. Buckwheat, Indian corn, tobacco, and hemp are all 
 grown pretty largely, especially tobacco ; almost every man, 
 and woman too, smokes in Japan. The cultivation of veg- 
 etables is large, and, although few are well flavored and many 
 are nearly savorless, they are largely consumed. The potatoes 
 alone are an exception as to quality, being of tolerable flavor,
 
 286 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XV. 
 
 though small. The principal vegetables are beans, peas, pota- 
 toes, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, lettuce, beet-root, araras, 
 yams, tomatoes, ginger, the egg plant, gourds, melons, chilies, 
 cucumbers, mushrooms, horseradish (the roots of several kinds 
 of lilies are eaten also), spinach, leeks, garlic, capsicums, endive, 
 fennel ; an enormous turnip-radish, often twelve or fourteen 
 inches long, is consumed in great quantity, sliced and salted. 
 The young shoots of the bamboo, sliced and boiled, are a great 
 delicacy. It will be seen that if number and variety can make 
 amends for quality, the Japanese have little to desire. I suc- 
 ceeded in introducing to this part of Japan cauliflowers, Brus- 
 sels sprouts, and Jerusalem artichokes, as well as some good 
 lettuce, endive, paisley, and several kinds of cabbage. Mr. 
 Loureiro, at Yokohama, reared a large garden full of these in 
 great perfection, from some seeds I received from England. 
 
 Of the fruit-trees of this part of Japan the blossoms seem to 
 be the best part. These are certainly and more especially ad- 
 mired by the Japanese. Every tea-garden in the vicinity of 
 Yeddo tries to rival its neighbor in the beauty and size of the 
 peach blossoms, but it is very difficult to get good peaches to 
 eat. They are all habitually plucked unripe. It does not seem 
 to me that the Japanese have any idea what ripe fruit means. 
 They certainly never treat themselves to it, and after two years' 
 practice my market coolie could never be made to understand 
 what constituted ripeness. When pressed by threat of dis- 
 missal if he did not buy ripe peaches, and his attention was 
 drawn to the color and softness as signs, we found he used to 
 pinch them 'black and blue' as the readiest means of meeting 
 one of the conditions at least of softness ; and no doubt, in his 
 own mind, thought he had unreasonable people to deal with, 
 when, instead of praise for his ingenuity, he fell into deeper 
 disgrace. Their grapes are the only good fruit, and they come 
 from some northern district; I never saw them growing. I 
 was told they were chiefly the produce of the Daimio's gar- 
 dens, and were the perquisites of the female part of the estab- 
 lishment, affording by their sale 'pin money.' I have already 
 spoken of the fruit-trees, and I believe, with more competent 
 judges, that all the principal kinds, with proper attention and 
 skill, might be made equal to any in the world, looking to the 
 climate and the soil. Apples, pears, plums, peaches, chestnuts, 
 persimmons, oranges, pomegranates, figs, lemons, citrons, wild 
 strawberries, all are here, and nearly all equally bad, if we ex- 
 cept, perhaps, the watermelon, the persimmon, and grapes. 
 
 Of the flora of Japan I have little new to add. Mr.Veitch, 
 I think, calculated that the greater proportion of the plants
 
 Chap. XV. J JAPANESE GARDENING. 287 
 
 growing wild were evergreen. Many of the flowering shrubs 
 in the neighborhood of Yeddo are of this class, giving a peren- 
 nial richness of color and foliage to the country, even during 
 the winter months. Many of the conifers appear to be peculiar 
 to Japan. The variety of showy flowering plants, however, is 
 not so great as might be expected, but for this the abundance 
 and variety of foliage fully compensates to all lovers of beauti- 
 ful scenery. The Japanese are great amateur gardeners, and 
 some of the finest botanical specimens in this quarter of the 
 globe are to be found about Yeddo. In general, the Japanese 
 gardener who rears flowers to any extent does so with the 
 view of selling them. He manages to have at all seasons a 
 supply of the kinds most esteemed, and every day the flower 
 vendor may be seen wandering about, ofiering his beautiful 
 wares for sale, and pretty certain to find a buyer even among 
 the poorest householders. To be sure their cost is usually 
 small (always excepting when a Foreign Minister is the pur- 
 chaser), and, as every family has its household altar, and among 
 the daily offerings a bunch of flowers is never omitted, while 
 their graves, too, are frequently decorated by the same simple 
 offering of affection, the demand never fails. 
 
 Of some of the specimens of their dwarf trees which I sent 
 home, an account appeared in the ' Gardener's Chronicle' of 
 January 11, 1862 ; and, as it is evidently from the pen of one 
 much better able to do the subject justice than I can be, I give 
 the following extract : 
 
 'It is perfectly astonishing to see the amount of industry 
 and perseverance which the Japanese must have devoted to 
 the production of these plants. There were some little fir- 
 trees, not more than a foot in height, and yet I counted up- 
 ward of fifty ties, by means of which the shoots were bent 
 backward and forward in a zigzag way. These little pines 
 must have been very old, and many years must have been 
 spent in bringing them to this state, as their growth under 
 these unfavorable circumstances must have been slow in the 
 extreme. There was also a specimen of Podocarpus or Dam- 
 mara, with oval leaves beautifully striped with pure white. 
 This was a large plant, two and a half feet high, and nearly as 
 much through. It was evident that an old narrow-leaved 
 Podocarpus, with a stem two inches in diameter, had been 
 taken up, the roots cut in, and the stem headed down to with- 
 in about eighteen inches of the soil, and then the roots cram- 
 med into as small a pot as possible. The stem had been cut 
 off horizontally, and a circle of scions of the oval-leaved spe- 
 cies inserted between the bark and the wood, Most of these
 
 288 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI. 
 
 had grown, and as they grew the shoots were bent downward, 
 and twisted in and out, so that the stem was completely hid- 
 den in a dense mass of foliage. This interesting plant is now 
 in the Royal Garden at Osborne. There were many other 
 plants which proved that the Japanese gardeners are very 
 clever in grafting, and employ many modes of performing the 
 operation. There was one species of a Retinispora,the branch- 
 es of which were bent backward and forward as usual, and 
 these branches had been grafted with dozens of scions, at in- 
 tervals of about an inch apart. It was only one here and there 
 which had failed ; nearly all had grown well, and made little 
 tufts of shoots. Unfortunately, this plant had died upon its 
 voyage to England, and it is now deposited, with some other 
 interesting examples of dwarfed trees, in the Coniferous case 
 in the Museum at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Some 
 camellias which were sent home at the same time show that 
 the Japanese understand, and sometimes practice, the inarch- 
 ing of plants. 
 
 'The most valuable plants which have hitherto been intro- 
 duced from Japan are the Conifera, of which there are many 
 distinct kinds, some of them differing so widely from any thing 
 we already possess that they will form quite a new feature in 
 our landscapes. Also some curious new forms of chrysanthe- 
 mums.' 
 
 For some farther details on the flora and succession of crops, 
 I would refer those especially interested in the subject to Mr. 
 Veitch's notes in the Appendix.* 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The New Year, 1860, and what it brought. — Incendiary Fire at Yokohama. 
 — Assassination of a Linguist at the Gate of the British Legation. — 
 Gloomy Prospects. — Fire at the French Legation the same Night. 
 
 The new year, 1860, began with the most enchanting weath- 
 er. The sun was bright, with a clear sky, and a hoar-frost sil- 
 vering the lawn, while here and there, on the banks, a slight 
 drift remained from the snow of the day before. The ther- 
 mometer was standing at 32° when I got up, and I had to 
 break the ice to get my bath. If our political and commercial 
 horizon had only been as bright as the sky, Japan would have 
 not wanted attractions of a rare kind. As it was, no one could 
 
 ♦ See Appendix E,
 
 Chap. XVI.] INCENDIARY FIRE AT YOKOHAMA. 289 
 
 with any safety predict what our relations might be at the end 
 of the year thus pleasantly begun. 
 
 Five days hud not passed over, in effect, before a courier ar- 
 rived from Yokohama, with intelligence that this improvised 
 wooden settlement had been in pai't destroyed by fire, the con- 
 flagration beginning in the part occupied by the Europeans. 
 The French Consular Agent, hitnself a merchant, happened to 
 be at the Legation on a visit, and he was left in doubt whether 
 his house and property had not been destroyed also. As there 
 can be no insurance in Japan, such a catastrophe involves a 
 total loss, it may be, of all a man possesses in the world. One 
 could understand his feeling when he exclaimed that he would 
 have given a thousand dollars to know the truth, instead of 
 being left in doubt and suspense, which is to many the most 
 intolerable of all states of mind. Several of the residents had 
 been burned out of house and home — young beginners too, 
 who, with little capital, had probably lost their all. The only 
 consolation the case admitted was to be found, perhaps, in the 
 admirable conduct of the Governor, the officials generally, and 
 the firemen, of whom there are organized brigades. Property 
 was effectively protected from pillage, and good order pre- 
 served, while every exertion was made to stop the progress of 
 the flames. This was in pleasant contrast with the conduct ob- 
 served at Nagasaki in a similar case, where the officials them- 
 selves helped to plunder — so it was reported by the Consul — 
 and no adequate efforts were made either to protect movable 
 property or to extinguish the fire ; in pleasant contrast, it must 
 unfortunately be added, to the conduct of officials and firemen 
 at a much later period, in much more serious circumstances, 
 when the whole Japanese settlement, and, by its contiguity, 
 the large European (juarter, were threatened with total de- 
 struction, and when, m effect, nearly one half of the Japanese 
 houses were completely destroyed. They seemed to think the 
 evil too great for their means of coping with it, and so let the 
 fire rage, doing nothing, until some of our blue-jackets, under 
 the orders of the Commodore, Lord John Hay, and Captain 
 Faucon, the Commander of H. I. M. S. ' Dordogne,' with their 
 men, proceeded vigorously to pull down some of the houses, as 
 the sole mode, in the absence of water, of checking the devas- 
 tating progress of the flames. 
 
 In the midst of their efforts, a boatful of shipwrecked peo- 
 ple arrived, lighted to their haven by the conflagration — a cap- 
 tain and his wife, with an infant at her breast, and fourteen 
 other people, who had been eight days and nights in an open 
 boat ! What cruel sufferings must often be endured in this life, 
 
 N
 
 290 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI. 
 
 of wliich those who are more fortunate in all the conditions of 
 existence, living in peace and security, know nothing ! And 
 when it meets our eye in a short paragi-aph of a newspaper, 
 how often do we pass on to some more pleasing item of news, 
 scarce bestowing a thought on the subject, and never realizing 
 the facts, or the sufferings they imply. For this reason, per- 
 haps, if for no other, it is ' good that we should be afflicted,' 
 each in our own being and sphere, for the whole world might 
 otherwise grow too utterly callous and careless of human suf- 
 fering and trial, and that would be a worse evil to mankind, 
 and to each unit, than their share of both, met in a right spirit. 
 This philosophy comes late to many, and only after large ex- 
 perience of the world's trials and its ways ; but it is well that 
 we should learn even at last to pray, not for exemption from 
 danger or sorrow, but courage to bear our lot, and grace to do 
 what is right under the sorest trials. 
 
 While yet occupied by these events, we were startled by 
 another of more immediate and personal import. It was near 
 midnight. Mr. Eusden, the Japanese secretary, was standing 
 by my side before saying good -night, when the longest and 
 most violent shock of an earthquake yet experienced since our 
 arrival brought every one to his feet, with a sudden impulse to 
 fly from under the shaking roof. It began at first very gently, 
 but rapidly increased in the violence of the vibrations, until the 
 earth seemed to rock under our feet, and to be heaved up by 
 some mighty explosive power in the caldrons beneath. The 
 Chinese attribute earthquakes to the uneasy movements of the 
 Great Dragon ; the Japanese to similar disturbing causes in a 
 tortoise on which the earth is poised, or the flapping of a 
 whale's tail; but not even Siebold can discover where the 
 whale has his habitat in Japanese cosmogony ! Whoever has 
 looked down Vesuvius, however, when it is in full blast, and 
 heard the hoarse roar of the waves of boiling lava, as the liquid 
 fire rushes past the great vent, and dashes through its black- 
 ened lips, scattering the molten sulphur high and far, will have 
 a much more lively idea for the rest of his life whenca earth- 
 quakes come, if not of Pandemonium itself. 
 
 The ' Saturday Review,' some time ago, had an article head- 
 ed 'A Week of Horrors.' A shipwreck, the destruction of a 
 foreign settlement by fire, and an earthquake, the incidents of 
 our Christmas week at Yeddo, might fairly lay claim to the 
 title ! One of my guests exclaimed, after enumerating them 
 one by one, as he was preparing to xoXaxxw^ II faut avouer que 
 ce n' est pas gai! Still, grave or gay, the day sped on, and 
 weeks even slipped away, when we were recalled to a con-
 
 Chai>. XVI.] HORSES FOR CHINESE WAR. 291 
 
 sciousness of tl)e flight of time and an outer world by the ar- 
 rival of a Commissariat ofiicer, with orders to purchase 3000 
 baggage-horses for our army transport in China ! This seemed 
 a very forlorn hope. Horses there were certainly in consider- 
 able numbers, but how were we to ask the Japanese for the 
 means of making Avar on their neighbor and ally? 
 
 To my surprise, I confess, they did not point-blank refuse to 
 entertain the question, but only opposed various difficulties, 
 founded on an alleged poverty in cattle, the shortness of the 
 time specified, etc. In the end they consented ; but the whole 
 business was so managed as to heap troubles on every body — 
 deception, vexatitMis, delays — yaconinerie every where, and, as 
 a natural consequence, mendacity and extortion were the or- 
 der of the day. The horses were bought and stabled — some 
 few shipped ; but before the bulk of the animals, that had been 
 the cause of incessant anxiety and trouble for many months, 
 could be embarked for want of transport, news arrived that 
 they were not required! Pekin had surrendered, peace had 
 been proclaimed, and a new convention signed in the capital. 
 The news was pleasant enough, and must have had its signifi- 
 cance with the Council of State in Yeddo. It was probably 
 more welcome to the yaconins, however, than their masters. 
 A sale of the horses on hand had to be effected. Horses for 
 which we had been made by tJiem to pay an average price of 
 $30 apiece, because they were so scarce^ could only be disposed 
 of to the chief of the fraternity, because they were so plentiful, 
 for |5 eacli ! This Mas, indeed, to reverse the rule of trade, 
 and to buy in the dcircst market and sell in the cheapest! 
 But there was no remedy ; and when I mentioned the circum- 
 stance to the Ministers as somewhat singular that horses in 
 their country should be so scarce and dear when wanted by 
 us, and so superabundant and cheap when we had them to 
 sell as to be worth nothing, they only smiled, and evidently 
 thought it a good joke, obsei'ving that they had recommended 
 us not to buy them ! 
 
 I have greatly outstripped the progress of events, however, 
 for these were transactions which took place six months later. 
 But it will save the necessity of any farther reference to the 
 same subject. The first month of the year was yet young 
 when a report, of some significance apparently, reached me 
 from Yokohama to the effect that, during the two preceding 
 days, a sudden demand had arisen among the Japanese for 
 fire-arms, and every foreign merchant and storekeeper was be- 
 sieged with applications for revolvers, muskets, etc. By treaty 
 these are prohibited articles, and can not be sold to any one
 
 292 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI. 
 
 in Japan unless to the authorities themselves, the Government 
 looking, as I have already had occasion to remark, with great 
 jealousy on any arming of the population. But the sale being 
 illegal according to treaty every body knew would be no im- 
 pediment to the acquisition of as many as might be on hand, 
 if Japanese purchasers could be found willing to pay a good 
 price for them ! 
 
 What did it mean? Did it bode some revolutionary pro- 
 ceeding on the part of the Japanese against their own Gov- 
 ernment, or some design against the lives of foreigners them- 
 selves? Even that would not have prevented money being 
 made by their sale, but it lent a new interest to the question ! 
 If the latter, the time did not seem happily chosen, as the Bay 
 of Yeddo, so often bare of any means of protection from for- 
 eign ships of war, could now boast of one in the 'Powhatan' 
 United States steam frigate, waiting to take over to America 
 a Japanese Diplomatic Mission for the exchange of ratifica- 
 tions. 
 
 With these uneasy elements in motion — rumors of danger — 
 the month drew near its close. It was a Sunday afternoon 
 (January 29), when, just returned from a visit to the American 
 Minister, who was unwell, I heard a hasty step outside my 
 room, and Captain Marten, the Commander of H. M. S. ' Roe- 
 buck,' who happened to be a guest at the Legation, threw 
 back the sliding panel. 'Come, quickly; your linguist is being 
 carried in, badly wounded.' My heart misgave me that his 
 death-knell had struck. I had for some time been under a 
 conviction that danger was at hand in some shape, and his fre- 
 quent collisions with the insolent retainers of Daimios, who 
 never lost an opportunity of insulting him in the streets, had 
 naturally turned my attention in that direction. I was even 
 seriously meditating sending him out of the country, for his 
 own sake, though his knowledge of the Japanese made him 
 very useful, if not necessary to me, in the first months of our 
 location. It was not his own desire, however, and I had hesi- 
 tated, for we all dislike to yield to intimidation. I felt, never- 
 theless, that a more discreet and better-tempered man than he 
 had any pretensions to be would have been insecure ; and, lat- 
 terly, he had received a distinct warning that it was determ- 
 ined to take his life. But man's previsions and best precau- 
 tions seem idle things when the fatal hour has come. It even 
 would seem, at times, as if we were especially and fatally blind- 
 ed to the necessary consequences of our own acts, and thus 
 led on, step by step, to do and say the very things which, could 
 the veil of Isis be only lifted for a second, we should most
 
 Chap. XVI.] MURDER OF A LINGUIST. 293 
 
 carefully and anxiously avoid, and thus avert the impending 
 destruction. He had escaped sliipwreck — long an exile and 
 proscribed outcast from his own country, nothing less than 
 such great and unforeseen events as the renewal of relations 
 with Western Powers could ever have restored him to it — and 
 he came back only to find a bloody grave, though it seemed 
 at the time that the dearest wishes of the exile's heart were 
 being gratified by the unexpected way open for his return. 
 There is an observation in one of Mr. Helps's essays* which 
 must often have occurred in similar circumstances. 'Fre- 
 quently it seems as if the faculties of man wei"e not quite ade- 
 quate as yet to his situation — the individual seems the sport 
 of circumstances ;' and he goes on to observe how these often 
 seem (maliciously, as it were) to provide a man with ' a good 
 opportunity for working out the errors of his mind and sys- 
 tem,' when he strains his fortune to the uttermost, and it breaks 
 under him, as it did with Napoleon in the great Russian cam- 
 paign and retreat from Moscow. Dankirche, in his way, had 
 afforded a fatal illustration. He was ill tempered, proud, and 
 violent; and in returning to his own country he just brought 
 these qualities — rendered worse by long impunity in America 
 and China — where they were most sure to bring him to grief. 
 They were characteristic of his own race, but among them- 
 selves they were kept down by frequent letting of blood. 
 
 I found him stretched on a shutter, hardly conscious, though 
 he turned liis eyes when I spoke to him as though he heard 
 and recognized me. He never spoke, and I saw at once that 
 he was mortally wounded. Death's finger had already been 
 laid on his quivering lip. One or two convulsive throes shook 
 his whole frame while we were getting some of his clothing 
 off to examine the wounds, and then, without a struggle, he 
 died. There was something awfully sudden in the catastro- 
 phe; he was alive and among us not ten minutes before. It 
 appeared he had gone down to the gate of the Legation, open- 
 ing upon a wide space close to the high road, and was leaning 
 against the entrance or doorway to a small nest of houses at 
 the end of a lane close by, immediately under the flag-staff, and 
 with men, women, and children about, in broad daylight, when 
 one or two men stole stealthily down the lane behind where 
 he stood, and a short sword was buried to the hilt in his body, 
 transfixing him as he stood. He st;iggcred a few paces to- 
 ward the porter at the gate, who drew the sword out from his 
 back, and there he fell bathed in his blood. It had, indeed, 
 been a home thrust. The point had entered at his back, and 
 * Companions of my Solitude.
 
 294 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI. 
 
 came out above the right breast ; and thus buried in his body 
 the assassin left it, and disappeared as stealthily as he came, 
 without a hand or a voice being raised to stop him. The deed 
 must have been seen by many, but all, save one woman, I be- 
 lieve, denied seeing the blow struck. Either they were told 
 to do so, or knew that their own lives might pay the forfeit 
 of any indiscretion. With the authorities on the one side, 
 and the assassin and his friends on the other, justice in all such 
 cases is no better than an idle dream. I felt certain from the 
 beginning that there was no hope. 
 
 Who was the assassin, and what was the motive ? Suspicion 
 rested more particularly upon two, the first a Daimio's drunken 
 retainer, who attacked him in the street a few days previously 
 and had been arrested. The man, however, was so violent in 
 his denunciations of vengeance, that the police were intimidated 
 and let him go, after taking his name or the name he chose to 
 give ! The second was my chief cook, lately discharged, and 
 who had been heard to say somebody would kill ' Dan' before 
 very long ; and he Avas in the kitchen a day or two before, with 
 two swords in his belt. Both were apprehended, but nothing 
 came of it. I have no doubt the authorities knew perl'ectly 
 well who the pai'ties were, whether one or several. Perhaps 
 they may have been compelled to commit the Hara-Kiri, but I 
 should doubt it. It is more probable that it was wished their 
 renegade subject, whom they considered as dangerous, 'know- 
 ing too much' (a grave offense and source of danger always in 
 Japan), might be put away ; and if they did not themselves 
 take such means of removing him, were not sorry it was done 
 for them. I am quite satisfied they knew the blow was com- 
 ing, from the visit of a Governor of Foreign Affairs a few days 
 previously, who saw my Japanese secretary and spent a long 
 time in denunciations of Dankirche, urging with singular per- 
 tinacity the expediency of dismissing him at once. 
 
 Of course, if he had been dismissed prior to the assassination, 
 his death would have been a matter to give them little con- 
 cern ; but they had some scruples, perhaps, in permitting the 
 murder of a servant of the Legation. 
 
 This was the third atrocious murder in public thoroughfares, 
 without brawl, or quarrel, or immediate provocation of any 
 kind. Two were in broad daylight, and all evidently deliberate 
 and planned assassinations. No justice had been done, or re- 
 dress obtained, in any of the cases. At midnight two of the 
 Governors of Foreign Affairs came to offer me their condo- 
 lences and concert measures, or seem to do so. They indig- 
 nantly repelled the supposition that the Tycoon's government
 
 Chap.XVI.] a fire and A FUNERAL. 295 
 
 could not pursue and arrest a Daimio's retainer, or even, if 
 needful, Iiis master. But suclj has been alleged to be the fact 
 by KoDuipler and others. While discussing this matter, news 
 came that Sacagi, the temple where Monsieur de Bellecourt, 
 the French Charge d' Affaires, resided, was on fire ; and a few 
 minutes later the whole party appeared, the French Consul 
 General at their head. ' Nous voici, nous venons vous deman- 
 der de I'hospitalite — I'incendie nous a atteint !' Then followed 
 Monsieur I'Abbe in dressing-gown, a glass thermometer in one 
 hand, which had been committed to his charge by an absent 
 friend, and a breviary in the other — science and religion to- 
 gether, and faithful to both trusts. The Chancelier in slippers 
 ifbllowed, with a revolver and a homut de iiuit^ one in each hand. 
 It seemed as if a veritable Pandora's box had been opened. An 
 assassination in one Legation and a fire in another within six 
 hours ! My spare rooms were full, but we made, of course, the 
 best shift we could for our unexpected guests, and about three 
 o'clock in the morning we all retired, sad enough at heart and 
 quite worn out. Verily I thought, as I prepared to take some 
 rest, this country on experience proves to be something very 
 different from the paradise represented by recent travelers, 
 who must have looked through very peculiar colored glasses 
 to see every thing so completely ' en beau.' 7" felt disposed to 
 join in the prayer of 'the privileged Grimkou,' who wrote from 
 King Frederick William's savage court, ''tPesp^re que le bon 
 Dieu me f era voir uneportepour sortir de cette maudite Ga- 
 lore!' 
 
 We buried the poor fellow a few days later, and to mark our 
 sympathy and solidarite in such an outrage to the flag of a 
 Treaty Power, members of all the Legations, together with 
 two of the Governors of Foreign Afiairs, followed his remains 
 to the grave. A considerable crowd was collected on the pas- 
 sage to the cemetery, situated by the banks of the river which 
 runs through Yeddo, and at some distance from the British Le- 
 gation. Arrived at the temple, the great bell tolled to announce 
 the commencement of the service. Then the priests, in stole 
 and mitre, or something strikingly resembling both, took their 
 places in two rows. The abbot, seated in a high chair in the 
 centre, faced a temporary altar, on which tapers and incense 
 were burning. A chanted litany followed, in which the priests 
 were accompanied by the occasional sonorous tones of two 
 pairs of cymbals, a drum, and a small musical bell. This con- 
 tinued for a quarter of an hour, when the abbot or superior rose 
 from his chair, and, closing his hands and eyes, prayed with 
 great fervor — for the soul or soirit of the deoarted. it is to be
 
 296 THREE YEARS IN JAPAK. tCHAP. XVI. 
 
 presumed. He then took off his curiously-shaped head appen- 
 dages and approached the altar, burned more incense, and on 
 the spade (of wood) which was to turn the earth being brought 
 to him, he waved it thrice on every side and over the incense, 
 to consecrate it. Then followed another litany, and, with a 
 clash of the cymbals and a double beat of the gong and drum, 
 the ceremony was over, and its termination formally announced 
 by the Superior crossing the temple to where I stood, and mak- 
 ing me a lowly reverence. The coffin was then carried to the 
 grave and lowered into it by the attendants, while two of the 
 priests brought a tablet with the name of the dead inscribed 
 upon it. 
 
 Four white lanterns were placed at the head and foot, the 
 earth shoveled in — ' earth to earth, dust to dust' — and the mur- 
 dered man was left to his rest in Japanese soil. Long as he 
 had been in Christian countries, he had never entered into any 
 communion, as he had himself declared but a few days before 
 his death. He had Prayer-books and Bibles given him by many 
 missionaries in China and elsewhere, but never seemed to have 
 accepted any faith ; in this taking too much after the class he 
 least loved, the Yaconins and officials. That he should be bur- 
 ied as he had lived, therefore, with the rights and usages of his 
 own land, was the only natural course to follow ; and if deco- 
 rum and impressiveness could give any value to a funeral serv- 
 ice, there was nothing wanting in this. It was impossible for 
 a Protestant not to be struck with the outward similarity be- 
 tween the ceremonial of this Buddhist burial with those of the 
 Greek and Roman churches. The altar, the tapers, the incense, 
 the very costume and gestures of the priests, were in many strik- 
 ing particulars alike — a resemblance too close to have been for- 
 tuitous ; but whence the seeming identity is yet a question, and 
 one which I do not pretend to discuss. The Japanese received 
 Buddhism from China in the sixth century, and then, or at 
 some later date, may have got some of these forms. As the 
 body was carried out of the temple to the grave, two white 
 doves, suddenly liberated, circled round and flew up into the 
 cloudless sky, intended apparently as symbols of the flight of 
 the spirit, but why two instead of one I could never get satis- 
 factorily explained. 
 
 Returning from the cemet'ery, which the Japanese govern- 
 ment, with considerate prevision, had urged me to decide upon, 
 not only in reference to this one burial,"but ' for the decent in- 
 terment of all who might hereafter follow' (in the course of 
 nature it is to be hoped they meant), I could not help reflect- 
 ing on the curious spectacle the procession and burial had pre-
 
 Chap. XVI.] TREATIES IN ABEYANCE. 297 
 
 sented in this long-sealed capital of a jealously secluded people 
 and empire. How swiftly events had crowded upon them since 
 Commodore Perry's first visit and treaty in 1854. Not six 
 years, and yet three ports were opened, and many successive 
 treaties had been entered into. At this moment three Foreign 
 Representatives had their residence in the midst of the people, 
 not half reconciled yet to this sudden and total change in their 
 relations with the rest of the world, of which the murdered 
 man just followed to the grave was but too grievous a proof. 
 The head of a Diplomatic Mission in such a country, to a 
 great degree isolated, and unsupported by any of the material 
 means of enforcing respect or good faith, has, it must be ad- 
 mitted, an arduous and trying post at all times ; but under 
 such circumstances as these, when his servants are openly 
 struck down at his gate, where they had often before been 
 wantonly insulted by these disorderly retainers of Daimios, 
 who are themselves in a great degree above the law, it is hard 
 to say in what direction efforts can be made to any purpose ! 
 Every day seemed to furnish evidence of the futility of any ar- 
 
 fuments addressed to their sense of justice or their good faith, 
 till, it was within the domain of diplomacy. Indeed, there 
 could be no question of compulsion or force ; for, with five 
 Treaty Powers, not one of these permanently maintained a ship 
 of war at Yeddo, or on the station even, though one under the 
 British flag appeared from time to time. Sometimes, as I have 
 said, for weeks not a pendant was seen in the waters. It is 
 true, the mercantile interests in existence hitherto had not 
 been large, but neither could they ever become so unless the 
 provisions of treaties should be better carried out ; and the ex- 
 
 Serience of the past six months held out little promise of the 
 apanese government, of its own free will, taking the necessary 
 steps, if they saw that a deliberate system of obstruction and 
 bad faith might be pursued without risk or damage. If such 
 were to be the permanent state of our relations, it had per- 
 haps been better, and, upon the whole, more satisfactory to all 
 parties, to have left the Japanese to their much-prized isolation, 
 instead of putting a constraint upon them to open their ports, 
 and then leaving them to their own devices. But this came, 
 in part at least, of the too flattering opinions entertained by 
 those who accompanied the first negotiators of treaties. Ac- 
 cording to the clear-sighted travelers who, upon a ten days' or 
 ten weeks' experience, dashed off a florid picture of 'Paradise 
 Regained,' of bliss and innocence, which unfortunately existed 
 only in their own imaginations, and pronounced a favorable 
 judgment on the character and government of a whole people, 
 
 N2
 
 298 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVL 
 
 *The Japanese rulers were only too happy to enter into ami- 
 cable relations with Foreign Powers, and, though a little timid 
 (the result of inexperience and innocence), were most anxious 
 to carry out all the provisions of treaties with scrupulous fidel- 
 ity !' One looked in vain, at this time, for any trace of these 
 desirable dispositions, and could only wonder upon what found- 
 ation such superstructures had been reared. To all appear- 
 ance, that ' forward delusive faculty,' as Bishop Butler styles 
 the ' imagination,' has much to answer for in respect to Ja- 
 pan. A more systematic or determined policy of obstruction 
 and passive resistance combined, than that which the Gov- 
 ernment had perseveringly adhered to, could not be conceived. 
 And never were solemn treaties and the most indisputable 
 rights of nations set aside on more futile and puerile pretexts ! 
 Either the treaties themselves were a mistake, and the whole 
 policy they were intended to inaugurate, or the means since 
 taken by the Western Powers to make them something more 
 than waste paper had been hardly calculated to attain the de- 
 sired end. Japan seemed fast learning a lesson she would un- 
 doubtedly be slow to forget, that the Western Powers, notwith- 
 standing the eagerness and determination they show to make 
 treaties with a new country, are little disposed to take the 
 necessary steps to cause them to be respected. And if they 
 should come to the conclusion, based upon a certain experi- 
 ence, that every obligation contracted -tnay he systematically 
 evaded with impunity — if only such evasion be carried on un- 
 der cover of professions of amity and good faith — it will be 
 hard to get any substantial advantage ont of treaties. The 
 Japanese have no confidence or trust in Foreign Powers or 
 their subjects (they certainly, if truth must be told, have little 
 reason to admire many of the first pioneers of Western civil- 
 ization and commerce flung on their shores), and if no steps 
 are to be taken to alter this state of things, then it would cer- 
 tainly seem a grievous mistake to have entered into any treaty 
 relations with them ! For where there is no confidence be- 
 tween one nation and another, there can be no alliance worth 
 preserving; and assuredly where truth and justice are wanton- 
 ly violated, there can be no confidence. That reflections such 
 as these should present themselves at this time will scarcely be 
 matter of surprise. It is never wise, however, to take too de- 
 spondent a view of afiairs, either national or private, and I re- 
 flected that it was yet early days. Undoubtedly the Japanese 
 were inexperienced in foreign relations, while the traditions of 
 those which existed in past generations were only calculated 
 to suggest doubt and mistrust. Something might fairly be put
 
 Chap. XVI.] PAST AND FUTURE.— A RUMOR. 299 
 
 down to their utter ignorance of all the conditions hy which 
 profitable and friendly intercourse is to be maintained with 
 other nations. Then, again, the currency had been a great dif- 
 ficulty, and an obstacle in the way of all satisfactory commer- 
 cial relations.* The Government, once more, as in days of old, 
 under the Spanish and Portuguese regime^ had seen with an- 
 ger and alarm their gold shipped away, never to return. But 
 that danger removed (by the reduction of the gold and silver 
 to the European standard), there was some hope of the irrita- 
 tion and alarm subsiding with the cause. 
 
 With this glimpse of a brighter dawn I was fain to be con- 
 tent, and conclude, in respect to trade and its future prospects 
 in Japan, that, as Burns wrote to Gavin Hamilton of a very 
 difierent matter, 
 
 ' It may do weel, for aught it's done yet, 
 But only — it's no just begun yet. ' 
 
 111 - omened and bloodstained, the month of January had 
 passed away, and we were already far into February without 
 any very new or startling incident to make an epoch in our 
 otherwise monotonous existence, when a message came to my 
 colleague, the Minister of the United States, to request he 
 would not leave his home because the presents from the Mika- 
 do to the Tycoon would be passing. I was happy not to re- 
 ceive a similar message, as on the last occasion the Governors 
 charged with its delivery had been somewhat curtly answered. 
 Once acceded to, they would soon have found a pretext for 
 shutting us up in our houses 350 days out of the 365, much as 
 the Tycoon himself was ! A day or two later, I received inti- 
 mation from Mr. Harris that it had just been reported to him 
 fifty men had been seized the night before by the police, it hav- 
 ing been discovered that they had gone down to Yokohama to 
 murder all the foreigners. There was, perhaps, little or no 
 foundation for the rumor, and no truth in the alleged seizure, 
 but such rumors were much too frequently in circulation to be 
 pleasant, or wholly without significance. I think it was about 
 this time that the Abbe Girard, attached to the French Lega- 
 tion, was returning to Yeddo from Kanagawa, and seated out- 
 side a tea-house while his horse was being fed, when a two- 
 sworded individual came up to him, and, finding he could speak 
 Japanese, said to him, ' You know you are all to be killed V 
 
 * Owing in some measnre, no doubt, to the unprecedented clause in nil the 
 treaties — first introduced in the American — that all foreign gold and silver 
 coins should frrcly circulate in JHpan, and lie exchangeable with Jnjianese 
 coin, weight for weight, without reference to the totally different rate of val- 
 ue, as by law established in Japan, between their gold and silver.
 
 300 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI. 
 
 The abbe, treating it rather as a jest, replied, ' No, really — 
 when, then ?' ' When ? soon — in a single night !' Cut off 
 from all reliable means of information by the Japanese author- 
 ities, such sinister intimations as these strike unpleasantly on 
 the ear, since who can tell whether there be any real founda- 
 tion or not ? 
 
 While thus speculating on our actual position, day after day 
 bringing nothing reassuring, we approached the end of Febru- 
 ary. On the 26th I was roused from my sleep at four o'clock 
 in the morning by the arrival of an express from H. M. Consul 
 at Kanagawa, with intelligence that about eight o'clock in the 
 evening, two captains of Dutch mei'chant vessels in the harbor 
 had been slain in the main street of Yokohama — a repetition, 
 in all its leading circumstances and unprovoked barbarity, of 
 the assassination perpetrated on the Russians. They had been 
 set upon in the dark, and head and limbs had nearly been sev- 
 ered from their bodies, as though butchers had assailed them 
 with their cleavers. One had his shoulder nearly cut through, 
 besides gashes across head, face, and chest, any one of which 
 must have been fatal. The second appears to have seized the 
 sword with his left hand, which, drawn through his grasp, had 
 severed three of the fingers ; and, still struggling, he must 
 have warded off the next blow at his head with his right hand, 
 and run nearly a hundred steps from his butchers, as the hand 
 was found at that distance from his body. He also was fright- 
 fully mangled. Where was this to end ? This was the fourth 
 assassination in eight months, and six lives had been ruthlessly 
 sacrificed. First a Russian ofiicer and servant, next a servant 
 of the Consul of France, then my linguist (both slain in open 
 day), now two Dutch captains. 
 
 I saw the Ministers of Foreign Affairs a few hours later, 
 heard the usual expressions of regret, and assurances of efforts 
 to trace the assassins, meaning nothing, and with almost a 
 certainty that nothing would be done. I felt bound to tell 
 their Excellencies that a government so deficient, either in the 
 power or the will to secure life and property in the country, 
 was one with which it was difiicult, and might become impos- 
 sible, to maintain any treaty relations. 
 
 ' Yet had they not taken all the measures that could be con- 
 ceived ? Did I, then, give them no credit for the exertions 
 made ?' 
 
 My reply was in substance that ' I could not say what meas- 
 ures they had taken. I could only judge by the results, and 
 these were nil, while the assassins were at large and unpunish- 
 ed ; nothing had been done. So long as they could neither
 
 Chap. XVI.] WHAT IS A LIFE WORTH ?— FIRE. 30I 
 
 prevent crime nor punish it, there could be no security for life, 
 and without that there could be no stable relations either of 
 trade or amity.' 
 
 It seemed very hopeless! Russian sailors were drunk on 
 shore, I believe, during the day — unfortunately too common 
 an incident wherever sailors of any nation get leave. Thus, 
 the very men of war that should be a protection, become a 
 new source of danger. Whether this last murder was a mere 
 wanton brutality — vengeance for some offense — or with a po- 
 litical object, we shall never know. Rumor said the latter ; 
 and in any case, the two victims were unoffending; one was 
 an old man upward of sixty. 
 
 And where was the remedy? What could be done? Even 
 such successive acts of assassination did not form a casus belli, 
 nor were we prepared to make war. Still less were we so 
 disposed. Nothing, indeed, could be farther from the desire 
 either of the Government or the nation at home than a war 
 with the Japanese. The one little ship sent to the station, it 
 was hoped, ' might be dispensed with during the operations in 
 the north of China,' that is, for three or four months probably ! 
 To demand a heavy indemnity for the surviving families seem- 
 ed the only practical means of inducing serious effort on the 
 part of the Government. If a life cost them $50,000, they 
 would probably be at some pains to prevent its loss. Their 
 hearts or consciences it seemed diflScult to touch; the only 
 thing remaining was to try their pockets. It might appear 
 very dignified to say, as Count Mouravieff did, ' Russia did not 
 sell the blood of her subjects ;' but then they should have been 
 avenged — made costly in some way to those who sat supinely 
 by and allowed them to be sacrificed. 
 
 Another month of the eventful year had passed ; it was al- 
 ready the first of March as I sat finishing a mail for Hakodadi. 
 Midnight had arrived, and I was about to forget, if I could, 
 my daily troubles and anxieties in sleep, when the discordant 
 clang of the alarm-bells broke sharp and clear on the stillness 
 of the night, calling the population from their beds to look to 
 their own safety, and, if needful, help to extinguish the fire 
 of their neighbors. It seemed as if few nights passed over 
 without a fire in some quarter or other of this ill-fated city, 
 often destroying whole streets. How should it be otherwise 
 — all wood and no water ! One or two bells only at fii-st were 
 heard, then soon the note of alarm was taken up by others. 
 A fierce gale was raging, and grievous destruction of property, 
 if not of life, was inevitable. The servants told us it was about 
 three miles off, but, the wind blowing in our direction, they
 
 302 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVI. 
 
 seemed to think it might even reach us at Tozengee ! Scarce 
 a day or night passed without some alarm of the kind, and 
 often tlie melancholy tocsin was heard more than once in the 
 twenty-four hours. They are miserably deficient in the first 
 great element of safety, water. By law a tub of water is kept 
 at every door, and buckets are often seen on the roofs of the 
 houses, but they have no supply beyond what their wells af- 
 ford. In other respects they seem to have a well-organized 
 system of rousing the people, and giving information even as 
 to the place, or at least the direction and distance of the fire. 
 If it be a long way off, a single stroke is repeated at short in- 
 tervals ; if nearer, but not in the immediate neighborhood, it 
 is one, two, and then a pause ; but if the whole quarter and 
 people are to be roused to aid on the spot, it is one, and then 
 a sharp second, and third, repeated loud and quick in contin- 
 ued succession. There is something very disturbing in this 
 combination of earthquakes and perpetually recurring confla- 
 grations, the latter destroying hundreds or even thousands of 
 houses in a few hours. Both often arouse you from your sleep, 
 with a most uncomfortable sense of insecurity. 
 
 I am free to confess my dislike of earthquakes increases 
 with each visitation ; I can not say ' familiarity breeds con- 
 tempt.' You are sitting quietly at your table, or, with a book 
 in your hand, seeking very likely to forget your own thoughts, 
 or actual existence in those of others, when your chair begins 
 to vibrate, at first gently, as if merely to rouse your attention ; 
 then the ground under your feet catches the contagion, and 
 you feel there is an earthquake to meet with what courage 
 you may. Will it bring the house down over your head? 
 Open a chasm to bury you in its depths? Or merely make 
 you feel as though you, not the earth below, had been taken 
 with an ague-fit ? Who can tell ? Who knows any thing of 
 the law of earthquakes? In the mean time, while these com- 
 fortable reflections flash through your mind — as in moments 
 of danger a whole chapter of accidents and dilemmas will oc- 
 casionally crowd themselves, without the slightest regard to 
 time or fitness — the vibration continues in spasmodic intermit- 
 tence, diminishes, then again recommences with greater vio- 
 lence — all the beams and rafters groan and creak, the house 
 swaying with a very perceptible movement under each shock ! 
 Will it come down or not ? The question is interesting and 
 important ; for on your giving a right answer and acting ac- 
 cordingly, issues in life and eternityniay depend, and yet you 
 know no more than the trembling dog at your feet what are 
 the chance and probabilities, Some take what they conceive
 
 Chap.XVI.] contrasts and discordances. 303 
 
 the safer course under all circumstances, and whether up or in 
 bed, dressed or undressed, ru.sh out of the house into the street 
 or some open space. But what cau assure them that the pre- 
 cise spot they choose for safety may not, the instant they reach 
 it, sink beneath them with a horrible crash, and precipitate 
 them into depths unfathomable of molten lava ? So far as I 
 myself am concerned, I feel like a man on a field of battle in 
 the thick of the fight, with round shot and missiles of death 
 flying in every direction. Who but the novice ever thinks of 
 ducking his head or trying to dodge them ? The ho])elessnes8 
 of the attempt insensibly steadies his nerves. Not knowing 
 in the least, or able in the slightest degree to divine what is 
 to follow from moment to moment, I feel so entirely helpless 
 before destructive forces of which I can neither measure the 
 length, nor depth, nor height while yet in the hands of a Pow- 
 er ' able to save,' that I seem to lack all impulse or desire to 
 make any sudden effort to reach the open space, which, for 
 aught I can tell, may be, after all, the most dangerous place 
 within reach! 
 
 * Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the 
 morning,' says the Psalmist, as though to warn us that even to 
 sorrow, and danger, and trouble, or any other evil that can af- 
 flict us, there is a limit, and joy may yet succeed, as morning 
 succeeds to night. Therefore should we strive on and hope, 
 not faint or despair. So daylight came to us in Yeddo after 
 nights of fires, and murders, and earthquakes. As I rode into 
 the country the next day, not even a mounted escort of Yaco- 
 nins, which the Foreign Representatives had at last, and very 
 reluctantly (I can answer at least for myself), accepted at the 
 earnest requisition of the Japanese Ministers, could wholly mar 
 the beauty of the country, bright and fresh in all the vernal 
 honors of spring. In the midst of death, and alarms of massa- 
 cre, with interludes of fires and earthquakes, spring was smil- 
 ing upon us. The peach-trees were bursting into blossom, and 
 the air each day was becoming more genial. What strange 
 contrasts and discordances between the sunny clime and beau- 
 tiful country, in ever-varying hue and form as far as the eye 
 could reach, and the deeds which were done in the land ! On 
 the 11th of March, I find it noted, in a brief diary of dates and 
 occurrences, that I went to the American Legation to attend 
 the first Protestant service ever performed in Yeddo. An 
 American missionary ofiiciated, and, out of courtesy to the 
 British Minister, I presume, since he was not an Ejiiscopalian 
 of either Church, our service was read. The members of the 
 two Legations, and the American Consul from Kanagawa, nine
 
 804 *rHREE YEARS HH JAPAN. IChilP. XVIt. 
 
 persons in all, formed the whole congregation ; but where 'two 
 or three are gathered together,' we are assured that He in 
 whose name they pray will be with them, and in that faith we 
 met in this pagan city, teeming with hostile elements to us and 
 our faith. We had no chaplain of our own, or medical officer 
 either, in the establishment as originally organized. To attend 
 a religious service of any kind, therefore, formed a sort of ep- 
 och among the Legations. It would have been difficult, per- 
 haps, to find a post in the whole range of diplomatic or consu- 
 lar appointments where both were more likely to be needed in 
 extremis. But it has well been said, ' In the field of life (in 
 diplomacy as in war) there must occasionally be dangerous 
 work to do, and somebody must do it, whatever be the disad- 
 vantages of position, or shortcomings in the provision made by 
 anticipation to meet it.' 
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 Murder of the Regent on his Way to the Tycoon's Palace. — Narrative of 
 what took Place. — General Alarm and Sense of Insecurity. — The Legations 
 surrounded by Japanese Guards for their Protection from Attack. — The 
 Times of the Guelfs and Ghibelines resuscitated. — Subsequent Acts of the 
 Conspirators, and how they disposed of the Regent's Head. — Popular Sto- 
 ries and Legends. — Story of the forty-seven Lonins. — Influence of such 
 Literature and Hero-worship on the Morality and Actions of the People. 
 
 The rising settlement of Yokohama had already spread over 
 a considerable area — all, indeed, that the foreign merchants on 
 the spot could put their hands upon was occupied, and new 
 houses of substantial character were taking the place of the 
 flimsy superstructures which had been run up in anticipation 
 by the Japanese authorities. The actual amount of business 
 done, apart from the purchase of gold kobangs, was not great, 
 and yet it was much larger than had been anticipated by many. 
 Some matters connected with the locations and the custom- 
 house administration had taken me to the spot, on a visit of a 
 few days to H. M.'s Consul at Kanagawa, in the month of 
 March, and, on my return to Yeddo, the first news that greeted 
 me as I entered the Legation was of so startling and incredible 
 a character that I hesitated to believe what was told me. The 
 GoTAiRO, or Regent of the empire, was said to have been set 
 upon and assassinated in broad daylight, on his way to the pal- 
 ace, and this, too, not a hundred yards from his own gates, and 
 in the very midst of a large retinue of his retainers ! I confess
 
 Chap. XVII] MURDER OF THE REGENT 306 
 
 I felt all the more indisposed to credit the intelligence that I 
 found the Japanese officials making great demonstrations of 
 alarm, and wanting to quarter half a dozen armed police in one 
 of my apartments ' for my protection.' But concurrent infor- 
 mation soon left no doubt that some bold and desperate at- 
 tempt on his life had been made, whether successfully or not 
 it was impossible to leai'n with certainty. Some said he had 
 been killed on the spot, and his head carried off; others, again, 
 and all the official informants^ said he was alive, and had only 
 been wounded. Their assurances, of course, went for very lit- 
 tle, in such circumstances especially ! They would simply say 
 what they were told to say ; and it is a coniraon custom in Ja- 
 pan, when a sovereign or any one high in authority dies, to 
 conceal his death until measui'es have been taken to install his 
 successor, and, in the mean time, the dead man is merely said 
 to be sick. To my inquiries after his health, and offers of sur- 
 gical aid from the Legation, the Ministers for many days mere- 
 ly returned civil messages, declining the assistance, and giving 
 bulletins of his health, informing me, truly enough, that ' he was 
 not worse !' The real facts were not ascertained, with any 
 guarantee of fidelity as to the main incidents, until some time 
 later, when they became public property as it were, and the 
 common gossip of the bath-houses, an institution of Japan cor- 
 responding to the cafe in France. As the whole history, from 
 the beginning to the end, is of great interest, and highly illus- 
 trative of the Japanese character and political condition, I will 
 relate it in a more connected form than it reached me, and with 
 all the corrections supplied by later acquired knowledge, not 
 only of the tragic event itself, but of the political history to 
 which it is attached. 
 
 Within the second moated circle facing the bay, the cause- 
 way leads over a gentle acclivity, near the summit of which, 
 lying a little backward, is an imposing gateway, flanked on 
 either side with a range of buildings which form the outer 
 screens of large court-yards. Over the gates, in cop])er enamel, 
 is the crest of the noble owner (an orange on a branch with 
 three leaves), the Chief of the house of Ikomono, in which is 
 vested the hereditary office of Regent, whenever a minor fills 
 the Tycoon's throne. From the commanding position of this 
 residence a view is obtained of a long sweep of the rampart, 
 and about midway the descent ends in a long level line of 
 road. Just at this point, not five hundred yards distant, is one 
 of the three bridges across the moat which leads into tlie in- 
 ner inclosure, where the castle of the Tycoon is situated. It 
 was about ten o'clock in the morning of March 24, while a
 
 306 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVII. 
 
 Storm of alternate sleet and rain swept over the exposed road 
 and open space, offering little inducements to mere idlers to 
 be abroad, that a train was seen to emerge from the gateway 
 of the Gotairo's residence. The appearance of the cortege was 
 sufficient to tell those familiar with Japanese habits and cus- 
 toms that the Regent himself was in the midst, on his way to 
 the palace, where his daily duties called him. Although the 
 numbers were inconsiderable, and all the attendants were en- 
 veloped in their rain-proof cloaks of oiled paper, with great cir- 
 cular hats of basket or lacker tied to their head, yet the two 
 standard-bearers bore aloft at the end of their spears the black 
 tuft of feathers distinctive of a Daimio, and always marking 
 his presence. A small company of officers and personal at- 
 tendants walk in front and round the foremost norimon, while 
 a troop of inferior office-bearers follow — grooms with led 
 horses, extra norimon-bearers, baggage porters — for no officer, 
 much less a Daimio, ever leaves his house without a train of 
 baggage ; empty or full, they are essential to his dignity. Then 
 there are umbrella-bearers, and the servants of servants along 
 the line. The cortege slowly wound its way down the hill, for 
 the roads were wet and muddy even on this high ground ; 
 while the bearers were blinded with the drifting sleet, which 
 was carefully excluded only from the norimons by closed 
 screens. Thus suspended in a sort of cage, just large enough 
 to permit a man to sit cross-legged, the principal personage 
 proceeded on his way to the jjalace. Little, it would seem, did 
 either he or his men dream of possible danger. How should 
 they, indeed, on such a spot, and for so exalted a personage ? 
 No augur or soothsayer, it seems, gave warning to beware of 
 the ' Ides of March.' And Ikomono-no-kami, had he no secret 
 misgiving, no presentiment of impending danger, such as men 
 devoted to destruction are believed to have had on so many 
 occasions ? There is a Scottish superstition, that when the 
 shadow of death is closing round, the mighty one is permitted 
 to touch those he is about to grasp, so that, unconsciously to 
 themselves, they are warned to make their peace with men be- 
 fore departing on their lonely road. But he left his own gate- 
 way, having but a few yards to go — the foremost man in the 
 realm, surrounded by his own people — nothing doubting, noth- 
 ing fearing — and before his bearers could set foot on the bridge 
 the vengeful steel was at his throat. Death stands there across 
 the path, a fatal mandate in his grasp ; but still the procession 
 moves on in careless ease. The edge of the moat is gained. 
 A still larger cortege of the Prince of Kiusiu, one of the royal 
 brothers, was already on the bridge and passing through the
 
 Chap. XVH.] NARRATIVE OP THE EVENT. 807 
 
 gate on the opposite side, while coming up from the causeway 
 at a few paces distant was the retinue of a second of these 
 brothers, the Prince of Owari. The Gotairo was thus between 
 them at the foot of the bridge, in the open space formed by the 
 meeting of a broad street, which debouches on the bridge. A 
 few straggling groups, enveloped in their oil-paper cloaks, 
 alone were near ; when suddenly one of these seeming idlers 
 flung himself across the line of march, immediately in front of 
 the Regent's norimon. The oflicers of his household, whose 
 place is on each side of him, rushed forward at this unprece- 
 dented interruption — a fatal move, which had evidently been 
 anticipated, for their place was instantly tilled with armed men 
 in coats of mail, who seemed to have sprung from the earth — 
 a compact band of some eighteen or twenty men. With flash- 
 ing swords and frightful yells, blows were struck at all around, 
 the lightest of which severed men's hands from the poles of 
 the norimon, and cut down those who did not flee. Brief and 
 deadly was the struggle. The unhappy oflicers and attend- 
 ants, thus taken by surprise, were hampered with their rain- 
 gear, and many fell before they could draw a sword to defend 
 either themselves or their lord. A few seconds must have 
 done the work, so more than one looker-on declared ; and be- 
 fore any thought of rescue seemed to have come to the attend- 
 ants and escorts of the two other Princes, both very near — if, 
 indeed, they were total strangers to what was passing — one 
 of the band was seen to dash along the causeway with a gory 
 trophy in his hand. Many had fallen in the melee on both 
 sides. Two of the assailants, who were badly wounded, find- 
 ing escape impossible, it is said, stopped in their flight, and de- 
 liberately performed the Hara-kiru, to the edification of their 
 pursuers ; for it seems to be the law (so sacred is the rite, or 
 right, whichever may be the proper reading) that no one may 
 be interrupted even for the ends of justice. These are held to 
 be sufficiently secured by the self-immolation of the criminal, 
 however heinous the offense, and it is a privilege to be denied 
 to no one entitled to wear two swords ! Other accounts say 
 that their companions, as a last act of friendship, dispatched 
 the wounded, to prevent them falling into the hands of the 
 torturer, and revealing what they knew. Eight of the assail- 
 ants weie unaccounted for when all was over, and many of the 
 retinue were stretched on the ground wounded and dying by 
 the side of those who had made the murderous onslaught. The 
 remnant of the Regent's people, released from their deadly 
 struggle, turned to the norimon to see how it had fared with 
 their master in the brief interval, to find only a lieadless trunk !
 
 308 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. (Chap.XVH 
 
 The bleeding trophy carried away was supposed to have been 
 the head of the Gotairo himself, hacked off on the spot. But 
 strangest of all these startling incidents, it is farther related 
 that two heads were found missing, and that which was seen 
 in the fugitive's hand was only a lure to the pursuing party, 
 while the true trophy had been secreted on the person of an- 
 other, and was thus successfully carried off, though the decoy 
 paid the penalty of his life. After leading the chase through 
 a first gateway down the road, and dashing past the useless 
 guard, he was finally overtaken and slain, the end for which 
 he had devoted himself having, however, been accomplished. 
 Whether this be merely a popular version of the simple truth, 
 it serves to prove what is believed to be a likely course of ac- 
 tion, and how ready desperate men are in Japan to sacrifice 
 their lives deliberately in a feud, their own or their chief's. 
 The oflScer in command of the gate who had allowed his post 
 to be forced was ordered the next day to perform the Hara- 
 kiru on the spot. All Yeddo was thrown into commotion. 
 The ward gates were closed ; the whole machinery of the Gov- 
 ernment in spies, police, and soldiers, was put in motion ; and 
 in a few days it was generally believed that the whole of the 
 missing assassins were arrested, and in the hands of the tor- 
 turer; although this subsequently was denied by the Minis- 
 ters, and the non-apprehension of the murderers was quoted as 
 a justification for similar want of success in tracing the several 
 parties engaged in the assassination of foreigners. What rev- 
 elations were wrung from them, or whether they were enabled 
 to resist the utmost strain that could be put on quivering flesh 
 and nerve, remains shrouded in mystery. The officers of the 
 Government intimated at the Legation that they had revealed 
 all, confessing they were in the service of the Prince of Mito ; 
 but the popular version, as shown in an ingenious rebus, was 
 more heroic. The Chinese chai*acters representing the Goro- 
 gio (Council of Ministers) was circulated, omitting certain por- 
 tions, which, taken separately, signify a mouth ; and the whole 
 was made to signify that the answers and heroism of the tor- 
 tured men had closed the mt)uths of the Council. 
 
 Thus, in broad daylight, within sight of his own house, and 
 close to the Tycoon's residence, the next highest personage in 
 the realm by office was slain by a small band of determined 
 men, retainers of a member of the reigning House, who had 
 thus devoted themselves with a kind of chivalry, and certainly 
 with no ordinary courage, to avenge the wrongs of their Chief. 
 The Prince himself, subsequently, with such followers as he 
 could get together, was reported to have escaped from surveil-
 
 Chap. XVII.] FEUDAL TIMES REVIVED. 3O9 
 
 lance, and, raising the standard of revolt within his own terri- 
 tories, which had been transferred to his son, to have seized a 
 castle in a commanding position. This was held by one of the 
 Tycoon's high officers, whom the Prince beheaded without scru- 
 ple, and then bid defiance to all enemies and the ruling power ! 
 Whether this was the commencement of a civil war, or merely 
 the outbreak of a faction feud between the chiefs of two rival 
 houses, which would end in the destruction of one or both, 
 seemed for some time doubtful. The danger of any general 
 conflict, however, whatever it might have been, appeared to 
 have passed away in the course of the succeeding months. 
 
 It is difficult to determine whether the boldness of the at- 
 tack, its ruthlessness, or its prompt and sure success, under such 
 circumstances, were most remarkable. They can hardly be re- 
 garded as common assassins, for it was an act of self-devotion 
 on their part. They had nothing to gain, and no personal quar- 
 rel to avenge. Death on the spot, or a more tardy end, after 
 going through the extremity of torture, was sure, and escape 
 all but an impossibility for any. It carries the mind back to 
 the feudal times of Europe, when the streets and thoroughfares 
 of every capital were scenes of daily bloodshed and murder ; 
 when Guelfs and Ghibelines fought and slew each other when- 
 ever they met or an ambuscade could rid them of an enemy. 
 
 Certainly this picture is very unlike any we have heretofore 
 been presented with, either by painstaking Koempfer and Thun- 
 berg, in past generations, or hasty visitors since. Those writ- 
 ers who, on the strength of a superficial observation or a flying 
 visit to Nagasaki, have led the credulous public in Europe and 
 America to believe that the triumph of European civilization in 
 Japan is already secure, and that the Japanese government is 
 promoting it, must have been strangely deluded. As to prog- 
 ress and advance in the path of civilization, the papers laid 
 before Parliament at this peiiod, in which I passed in review 
 the progress made in the previous six months — the first after 
 the opening of the ports under treaties in July last — must have 
 given a very different impression. The Foreign Representa- 
 tives in the capital found so little disposition on the part of the 
 ruling powers to give a liberal interpretation to the treaties, 
 that, ever since their arrival at Yeddo, they had been chiefly 
 occupied, as the reader will have seen, in resisting and protest- 
 ing against continual and systematic violations of all the more 
 essential provisions of treaties. As to the alleged ' eagerness 
 of the Japanese to learn,' before schools could benefit them 
 there must be permission for them to attend. Every European 
 lives to this day in a sort of moral quarantine, at the capital
 
 310 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Ciiap. XVII. 
 
 more especially ; and no Japanese above the rank of a servant 
 or a coolie, who is not officially employed about them by the 
 Government, may hold any communication with them. The 
 American Minister was even told so when expressing a desire 
 to see some officer of rank whom he had known when the lat- 
 ter had been in office before. At Kanagawa, some American 
 missionaries having arrived with their families, and desiring to 
 engage one or two female servants, were told without any cir- 
 cumlocution by the officials that they must send to a huge 
 brothel, erected at the neighboring settlement of Yokohama, 
 and pay an exorbitant rate, one lialf of which goes to the Gov- 
 ernment, it being the law of Japan that none but this class of 
 females shall serve foreigners ! This was not liberal or very 
 agreeable, neither was it according to treaty. As to the rail- 
 ways and steam communication (which about this time I saw 
 it asserted in some of the public journals were contemplated), 
 one fact is worth a page of suppositions. A very few months 
 after jjorts were opened under treaty, a fairly liberal offer was 
 made by the agent of a fine steamer to keep up a monthly com- 
 munication between Yeddo, Nagasaki, and Shanghae, carrying 
 freight, treasure, and dispatches, if required for the Govern- 
 ment, for the supply of 300 tons of Japanese coal each voyage ; 
 and it was refused, without apparently a second thought as to 
 the advantages of such regular and rapid communication, either 
 between their own ports or with those of China. Indeed, to 
 them, with their policy and views of political economy , it would 
 obviously be considered any thing but an advantage. 
 
 The murder of Ikomono-no-kami threw a shadow over the 
 capital — a shadow of doubt, and uneasy anticipation of farther 
 troubles. All the wards of the city were kept closed for two 
 days, and for some considerable time afterward were carefully 
 guarded at night. Ostensibly the object was to prevent the 
 escape of the survivors of the band ; but in reality, I believe, 
 they were precautionary measures against any farther attack 
 upon the members of the Tycoon's government by bodies of 
 armed men. The Legations were filled with troops, contin- 
 gents of certain Daimios held bound to supply them by feudal 
 tenure, to which were added for our greater security some of 
 the Tycoon's body-guard. It was apparently thought the For- 
 eign Legations might be the next object of attack, not so much 
 from hostility to them as with a view of involving the existing 
 Government, and bringing on a conflict with Foreign Powers. 
 The position both of the Government and the Foreign Repre- 
 sentatives seemed very critical ; and no one in the Legations 
 could form any very certain estimate of the real amount of dan-
 
 Chap. XVII.] CUKI0U8 DETAILS. 311 
 
 ger to both, for tlie Japanese Council of State, true to their 
 habitual policy, declined furnishing any data upon which a judg- 
 ment could be formed. They contented themselves with meas- 
 ures of precaution and defense. Field-pieces were placed in the 
 court-yards of the several Legations, and the Ministers were ur- 
 gently requested to abstain for a time from going outside. As 
 past experience had shown any pretext was good with a view 
 to the limitation and curtailment of the privileges of the Lega- 
 tions — even the very harmless one of riding through the city, 
 or into the surrounding country for exercise, as was my daily 
 habit — this alone tended to throw some doubt over the whole 
 of their proceedings, and left all the foreign diplomatic agents 
 in a very unpleasant state of suspense and uncertainty. As far 
 as the British Legation was concerned, I felt bound to refuse 
 constituting myself a sort of State prisoner within the gates of 
 my own residence, and I took my rides as usual, accompanied, 
 at the earnest entreaty of the Japanese Ministers, by a few 
 mounted Yaconins, a very useless appendage if any real danger 
 was to be apprehended, as I had very soon occasion to remark, 
 and distinctly told the Ministers, giving ray grounds for arriv- 
 ing at the conclusion. 
 
 Some very curious details respecting the conspirators who 
 had leagued together to slay the Regent, and their subsequent 
 acts, reached me long after this period, and, as they are highly 
 illustrative of the customs and traditions of the Japanese, and 
 tend to throw some new light on their present political condi- 
 tion, I can not do better than close this chapter with their re- 
 cital. 
 
 Of the assassination of the Tycoon on the throne, when Com- 
 modore Perry's expedition first arrived in the Bay of Yeddo 
 in 1853, some account has already been given in a preceding 
 chapter, and so far back this tragic history may be easily traced 
 by very tangible links of connection. When his son, Mina- 
 motto Yesado, was gathered to his fathers, after the signature 
 of the second American treaty, negotiated by Mr. Harris in 
 1858, with or 'without the aid of medicine,' according to the 
 odd phraseology of the Japanese in similar cases (though there 
 is a popular conviction that he had the aid of medicine of the 
 most effective kind), and a minor of the royal house of Kiusiu 
 was elected to fill the vacant place, Ikomono-no-kami became 
 Regent by hereditary right. And, it may fairly be presumed, 
 he had not been without influence in an election by the great 
 Council of Daimios, which, while it excluded the house of Mito 
 — father and son both of mature age — virtiially placed the ex- 
 ecutive power of the realm in his hands. But the reader knows
 
 312 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVII. 
 
 this was not the only grievance, real or fancied, of the Prince 
 of Mito, then an old man of sixty, against the Regent. He was 
 accused by the latter of the murder of the last Tycoon, Mina- 
 motto Yesado, by poison, and on the strength of it had him 
 banished to his territories as a temporary measure, under prom- 
 ise of speedy release. So far from this, one of the first acts of 
 the Council, under the regency of Ikomono-no-karai, was to de- 
 pose him from his principality in favor of his son, and to pass 
 a sentence of perpetual banishment from the capital. Hence 
 the plot of Mito's followers to avenge their Prhice for this 
 double act of treachery, and, if there be any truth in the popu- 
 lar version, more devoted or determined adherents no prince 
 in the feudal ages of Europe could ever boast. The head of 
 tlie Regent is said to have been got safely out of Yeddo, and 
 presented to the Prince their master, who spat upon it with 
 maledictions, as the head of his greatest enemy. It was then 
 carried to Miaco^ the capital of the Mikado, and there exposed 
 at a place of execution in that city especially destined for princes 
 condemned to be executed — ^Sidio onagaxoarciC it is called, and 
 over it was placed a placard, 'This is the head of a traitor who 
 has violated the most sacred laws of Japan — those which for- 
 bid the admission of foreigners into the country.' After two 
 hours of exposure, the same intrepid followers are said to have 
 brought it away, and in the night to have cast it over the wall 
 into the court of Ikomono's palace at Yeddo, from whence he 
 had sallied out in pi-ide and power on the morning of his death. 
 A strange history — strange if true, and scarcely less so if 
 invented. Not less, but more illustrative, perhaps, in the lat- 
 ter case, of the popular idea of heroism and poetic justice, as 
 these are, moreover, exemplified in a hundred legends and tra- 
 ditions, which form the staple of their theatrical pieces, their 
 picture-books, and their popular tales. One of the most cele- 
 brated of these is a story of a small Daimio, who, having a 
 feud in past times with one of the Tycoon's Council of State, 
 determined to avenge himself by slaying his enemy when he 
 met him in the palace. He made the attempt and failed, in- 
 flicting only a slight wound, some of the attendants having 
 seized him from behind as he was aiming his blow. Foiled in 
 his object, he returned to his house ; and having collected his 
 officers and retainers about him, and made his preparations for 
 disemboweling himself, he deliberately performed the opera- 
 tion in their presence, and then, handing the short sword cov- 
 ered with his blood to his secretary, he laid his dying injunc- 
 tions upon him, as his liege lord, with that very weapon to take 
 the life of his enemy. The latter, being freed from his antag-
 
 Chap. XVII.] A POPULAR LEGEND. 313 
 
 onist, seized upon the house and property of the deceased Da- 
 imio, and turned out all his faithful servitors. These, to the 
 number of forty-seven, became Lonhis^ under the command of 
 the secretary, all bound together by an oath to accomplish the 
 destruction of their master's enemy ! Accordingly, choosing 
 their time, they stormed his castle during the night when they 
 knew he was inside, and entered into a terrible conflict with 
 all his retainers, to the number of some three hundred ; and 
 such was their valor and heroism that they finally vanquished 
 them, and immediately proceeded to search for their chief 
 victim. He was concealed in a secret recess between two 
 rooms, with one of his friends ; but they had obtained infor- 
 mation of the existence of such a hiding-place, and one of them 
 thrust a spear through the partition. The blade wounded the 
 Daimio, but not in a vital part ; and as it was drawn out he 
 took care to wipe it with his sleeve, so that on examining it 
 and seeing no mark of blood, they came to the conclusion that 
 no one was there, and that he had escaped their vengeance. 
 Nothing then remained but an act of self-immolation ; and, 
 stripping off their armor and dress, they were just in the act 
 of performing the Hara-kiru, when a stifled cough reached 
 their ears from the very hiding-place they had pierced in a vain 
 search. Satisfied now that their enemy was still in their grasp, 
 they sprung to their feet, tore down the walls, and dragged 
 him and his friend out, when the secretary, with the very 
 sword received from his dying chief, struck off both their 
 heads. Their vengeance thus satisfied, and not a living being 
 remaining to be slain, they then performed the disemboweling 
 with the greatest heroism and complacency. They were all 
 buried in one cemetery in Yeddo, which was pointed out to 
 me, and they live to this day in the hearts of all brave and loyal 
 men in Japan as types of true heroism ! As this story was re- 
 cited to me, I could not help reflecting on what must be the 
 influence of such a popular literature and history upon the 
 character, as well as the habits of thought and action of a na- 
 tion. When children listen to such fragments of their history 
 or popular tales, and, as they grow up, hear their elders praise 
 the valor and heroism of such servitors, and see them go at 
 stated periods to pay honor to their graves centuries after the 
 deed — and such is the fact — it is quite obvious this general 
 talk and unhesitating approval of what with us, perhaps, would 
 be considered great crimes, may have very subtle and curious 
 bearings on the general character and moral training of the 
 people. What its exact influence may be we can not determ- 
 ine, perhaps^ but that it is deep and all-pervading, affecting
 
 314 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 their general estimate of all deeds of like character, whether it 
 be the slaying of a Regent or the massacre of a Foreign Lega- 
 tion, is very certain, and presents a state of things well worthy 
 of serious consideration. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Stray Leaves from a Journal. — Thoughts discursive and retrospective on 
 Japanese Relations. — Speculations on the Future. — Trade Returns and 
 General Results. — Retrospect of the first Twelve Months after the opening 
 of the Ports by Treaty. — The Gain and the Loss summed up. 
 
 The succeeding three months, from April to June, in this 
 year offered little that was either striking or novel to record. 
 Newspaper writers in search of ' sensation articles,' liad there 
 been any such in Japan, would have been in sad dearth of ma- 
 terials. The usual number of earthquakes and fires only, and 
 not a single case of slaughter or assassination ! A year had 
 now passed and gone since H. M. S. ' Sampson' steamed up the 
 Bay of Yeddo, freighted with our Diplomatic and Consular es- 
 tablishments in Japan. What had been the progress made — 
 the gain and the loss on the first twelve months of effort, dip- 
 lomatic and commercial ? 
 
 The first anniversary of the day of arrival — not likely to be 
 forgotten in such isolation — found me in the temple where I 
 had first taken up my residence pending the selection of a per- 
 manent site for building, and the erection of a Legation, It 
 was near the end of June in 1860 ; and as I sat musing over 
 the past and the future, my thoughts dwelt long and anxiously 
 on our prospects in Japan, and the course which foreign rela- 
 tions seemed likely to take. The future of Japan itself, and 
 its contented, industrious, and teeming population, entered 
 largely into my speculations. 
 
 It was a wild night. The great trees, which form a noble 
 screen of evergreens on the garden side of the temple, and 
 serve to shut out the rays "of the western sun as it descends, 
 were swaying to and fro like the masts of a storm-tossed ship 
 at sea, while the wind came rushing through their branches in 
 gusts that shook the building itself. When these intermitted, 
 the loud plashing of the rain, as it fell in torrents from the 
 eaves, and beat against the casements, in spite of a projecting 
 veranda, ni:ide a dismal sort of accompaniment. It was the 
 wind-up of the wet season, which, with frequent breaks, had 
 lasted two months. ' Two months !' I mentally exclaimed, as
 
 Chap. XVIII.] HOW TIME PASSED. 316 
 
 the thought crossed me ; and I turned mechanically to a book 
 labeled — with questionable accuracy, so far as any use I made 
 of it was concerned — ' Diary,' to satisfy myself that my imag- 
 ination had not made a shorter period fill that space. I found 
 it was nearly that time since any entry had been made of date, 
 thought, or fact. Time, which seemed to ' drag its slow length 
 along' so wearily day by day, had nevertheless, with an even 
 and stealthy pace, glided on almost imperceptibly, filching dear 
 life away by inches. Dear life ! what could make it so, in such 
 an exile as this — in total isolation, under sentence of banish- 
 ment without any definite term — utter banishment from all 
 that enters into and constitutes existence in a civilized coun- 
 try? The ringing laugh of merry childhood, the soft voice 
 and familiar tones of woman, the interchange of ideas and in- 
 tellectual intercourse, continually fed by new materials for 
 thought, all were wanting as absolutely as though an evil des- 
 tiny had cast me in a clearing in the back woods of Canada or 
 Texas! Shut up in this great heathen city — a very w^ilder- 
 ness of men and women, as I have already styled it, semi-civ- 
 ilized Asiatics of a strange type — with two or three juniors 
 and fellow-victims only for companions, what could be more 
 dispiriting or more fossilizing f A very few months suflSce 
 to enable half a dozen people, even with well-stocked brains, 
 to travel over each other's minds, and to do it so often in ev- 
 ery sense, as Johnson once feelingly comi)lained when restrict- 
 ed for a few weeks only to such a nairow range and spare 
 diet, that nothing new remains to be discovered — nothing from 
 *Dan to Beersheba.' The monotony of 
 
 A twice-told tale, 
 Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man, 
 
 is liveliness itself to a tale or a remark heard twenty times 
 over — the same, or another so like that the impression is iden- 
 tical. 
 
 Men in active life, after time has scattered gray hairs on 
 their track, may write of their thoughts, if they have any, but 
 seldom journalize their feelings unless they have a great deal 
 of spare time on their hands and little to occupy their minds. 
 Yet, if any thing in the outward conditions of an existence 
 could drive the tide backward to the heart, and keep thought 
 fast chained in a work of introspection, it would surely be such 
 a life as I now led in the capital of the Tycoon ! In the en- 
 deavor to escape from the too painful consciousness of the sub- 
 jective 'Tne' with a present so full of weariness, and a future 
 so void of hope, I took up ' Eothen,' to try and lose, in the 
 freshness and quiet humor of its author, all that was so stale,
 
 316 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap, XVIII. 
 
 flat, and unprofitable about myself. Even in describing scenes 
 which we have either traveled over in person, or vicariously in 
 the thousand and one writers of ' narratives' and ' diaries' — 
 from Lady Wortley Montagu or 'Anastasius' Hope, to War- 
 burton and Miss Martineau, learned in the Pharaohs — how 
 pleasantly still he beguiles you ! How grateful we feel for his 
 consideration in sparing us all scraps of other people's learning 
 or dullness — dissertations on antiquities only interesting on the 
 spot ; and columns of statistics which nobody can check, or 
 would care to take the trouble of scrutinizing if they could — 
 contenting himself and his reader with slight allusions and in- 
 cidental references only. But, after a short time, even this re- 
 source failed on the present occasion. The wind continued its 
 wierd incantations among the branches of the trees, and, in a 
 feeling of desperation, drawing the neglected diary to me, I 
 sat down and wrote, far into the night, as the only way of lay- 
 ing the ghosts of things Japanese, past, present, and future, 
 which tcould not be chased away by any less potent spoil. 
 
 As I turned over the pages not long ago, seeking, or rather 
 taking a mental inventory of the materials which had been in- 
 sensibly accumulating ever since my arrival in the country, I 
 came upon this night's work, long cast aside and forgotten. I 
 found, in glancing over them, that they supplied a better and 
 more vivid picture of my Japanese life at this period, in all its 
 most characteristic features, than I could attempt to repro- 
 duce. And, as one object in this narrative of my residence in 
 Japan is to give such glimpses of the people and their rulers 
 among whom my lot was cast as flitted before my eyes like 
 dissolving views, day after day, and so aflbrd to those who 
 have never been in the country a faithful report of my own 
 impressions, photographed at the moment, under an Eastern 
 sky,! can not do better than give the fragment as it was writ- 
 ten, while the mind was in the sensitive state which best fits 
 it to receive and perpetuate a sharp and well-defined image of 
 the objects brought within its field. If it answers no other or 
 better purpose, it will at least supply the Retrospect it was 
 my desire to give at this .stage, and afford a sort of halting- 
 place from whence we may look back upon the country trav- 
 eled over, and take a glance at the road which lies stretched 
 before us to a yet distant horizon. If somewhat meditative 
 and discursive, local coloring and fidelity of detail may make 
 up for a certain diff'usiveness, and give to a slight sketch from 
 nature a merit often wanting in a more studied picture. With 
 this apology I venture to transfer, without material change or 
 emendation, the following
 
 Chap.XVIII.] lEAVES of a journal. 317 
 
 STRAY LEAVES FROM A JOURNAL. 
 
 *A wide gap there would be to fill up if this were really in- 
 tended to be a daily jourual or record, which it is not, and 
 never will be. There is so much in life, in all we say, and do, 
 and feel, to say nothing of all we think, which would be tedi- 
 ous if written down — often tedious and wearisome enough in 
 the acting, but doubly so in the recording, and useless withal ! 
 It is related of a once celebrated physician — Dr. Fordyce, I 
 think — that he was remarkable, among other thhigs, for an 
 astonishing memory for details, and the fidelity and minute- 
 ness with which he could recall, after the lapse of any number 
 of years, the occurrences of any given day of his life, even in 
 the most trivial things. And it is said he owed this entirely 
 to a discipline he voluntarily imposed upon liiniself in youth, 
 never to go to bed until he had recapitulated to himself every 
 word and incident of the day, beginning with the order in 
 which he pulled his stockings on, and so throughout the day 
 to the end, not forgetting the dishes on the table at dinner ! 
 I remember being struck, when I heard it, young as I then 
 was, with the feeling that not even the memory or the gift of 
 a Mezzofanti would be worth purchasing at such a price as the 
 intolerable penance of living all one's life twice over — in its 
 trivialities and its boredom, as well as its pleasant scenes ! 
 But, if I thought so then, when life had much of novelty in 
 store, and freshness too, what would be my feelings if any ma- 
 levolent spirit were to threaten me with such a burden now — 
 here in Yeddo! A thousand things must be said and done 
 every day — needful for the time, doubtless ; but, having once 
 served their generation, like the patriarchs of old, and passed 
 away, it would be a vile proceeding to call them from their 
 graves and make them walk this earth again. Doubtless many 
 incidents and occurrences are daily taking place among us 
 which seem trivial at the time, though their influence upon 
 ourselves, and upon many others, may extend through all time. 
 Indeed, in one sense, nothing that happens is without an in- 
 fluence, or wholly trivial and unimportant. Nevertheless, even 
 writers of diaries (with the exception of a Pepys, who is amus- 
 ing and instructive because all the trivial and minute incidents 
 of his daily life, and that of his compeers, like flies in amber, 
 are so perfectly preserved for a future generation) must of 
 necessity exercise some discrimination in what they record or 
 omit. I wonder whether any one ever reads their own jour- 
 nals ? I remember once trying myself, and finding it impossi- 
 ble ; and so I threw the musty volumes into the fire, and have
 
 318 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVIlI, 
 
 never been guilty of a " diary" since. After all, how impossi- 
 ble it is to tell by anticipation which of the many thousand in- 
 cidents or occurrences of a life will prove the significant events 
 or turning points of a destiny, or even the headings for a chap- 
 ter of Life. It is told of Louis Seize, when the concealed re- 
 cesses of the Tuileries gave up his private journal to the irrev- 
 erent liands of the mob, that one entry was found often repeat- 
 ed during the most critical period immediately preceding the 
 Revolution — "Rien, rien, rien!" Time, W'hich was hurrying 
 nations to their fate and him to the scaffold — advancing with 
 giant strides indeed — seemed to the unfortunate monarch only 
 a blank, and its progress equally void of interest or signifi- 
 cance ! We exclaim, " How strange ! how unaccountable !" 
 yet the same thing happens to most of us, only the scene of 
 action is less historic. We meet a certain stranger one day, 
 make his acquaintance, and think no more about it until, in aft- 
 er years, we perceive that a whole chain of events began at 
 that first link, influencing, it may be, the whole future course 
 of life. Or, you slip your foot as you are springing out of a 
 vehicle, and are laid up for a week, instead of taking the train — 
 which never reached its destination, and was shattered in pie- 
 ces. You owed your life, under Providence, to that awkward 
 but most fortimate slip ! The faculty of discerning the true 
 significance and importance of passing events, especially of the 
 more seemingly trivial or fortuitous kind, would imply a gift 
 of divination which might not always be a blessing, though 
 we are apt to desire it above all things. I think it is Emerson 
 says, " The present always seems trivial in our eyes, but the 
 present is a king in disguise." We succeed better in retro- 
 spect ; and the " wisdom of after events" is often the only true 
 wisdom we ever attain, though we all aim at prevision and 
 the seer's gift. Our contemplation of the past, however, loses 
 much of its interest, and utility too, if we cease to look forward 
 into the future. No one cares either for the past, or even for 
 the present (beyond the avoidance of actual pain or weariness), 
 unless the future holds some prize — some thing to desire and 
 to hope^ as well as to strive, for ! If any one still actively em- 
 ployed could feel what the French poet, Henry Murgher, says 
 BO emphatically for himself, in one of his Bohemian pieces, 
 
 La vie 
 Pour moi n'a plus d'avenir, 
 
 I would not give much for his present existence. But the his- 
 tory of a life, or two lives, might sometimes be summed up, 
 like the poet's, in one fatal phrase —
 
 Chap. XVIIL] WEAR AND TEAR. 319 
 
 Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
 The saddest still are these — It might have been ! 
 
 An irrevocable past and a hopeless future are both implied. 
 I don't know what has betrayed me into this vein of moraliz- 
 ing ; I believe I am getting weary of the never-ending grind 
 of the wheels of life, and the unbroken monotony of such an 
 existence — weary, in spite of all my philosophy, its constant 
 dangers and startling incidents. One carries a life in one's 
 hand until at last it becomes an intolerable burden, and we are 
 ready to throw it away. The same ever-recurring tracasseries 
 and anxieties, with the equally unfailing consciousness of ina- 
 bility to secure any really satisfactory results, harass and tire 
 me ! Not all the ' peace,' but 
 
 All the misery which springs 
 From the large aggregate of little things, 
 
 should be the reading here. Foreign merchants and Japanese 
 officials often vying with each other in efforts to tear the treat- 
 ies into shreds, or, like clown and harlequin, leaping one after 
 the other through all its paper clauses, wholly regardless of 
 the damage done to more permanent interests than those of 
 the hour, and more important objects than those of the few in- 
 dividuals on the spot! Consuls of many nations sometimes 
 joining in this play at cross purposes with each other, some 
 from design, and others from want of judgment. And so the 
 weary wheel goes round, always demanding action, nerve, and 
 effi^rt, but never advancing or making any perceptible progress 
 toward a finite end. It is recorded of Johnson that he pro- 
 pounded tiie question one day, " Who was the most to be en- 
 vied, he who had every thing to hope and nothing to fear, or 
 the man in whom these conditions were reversed by his hav- 
 ing every thing to fear and nothing to hope .^" The latter 
 would very well apply to a diplomatic agent in Japan, al- 
 though Johnson designed it to describe the rich man as com- 
 f)ared with the poor, who has nothing to lose, and consequent- 
 y little to fear. 
 
 ' Of daily work and events there seems to be little worth re» 
 cording, and yet each day brings its task, and generally its 
 struggle with the adverse influences about us. Political events 
 do not, so far as we can see, move very fast here. The status 
 quo remains, despite many mutterings and subterranean heav- 
 ings of this volcanic soil beneath our feet, so truly emblematic 
 or typical of the moral atmosphere above. Changes seem im- 
 pending, and yet they do not come, or come but slowly and 
 partially. We are in a very unfiivorable position for correct
 
 320 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 judgment, however. The keenest observer of the tunes, 
 among foreigners domiciled in Japan, is in danger of writing 
 " Rien, rien," on the eve of a revolution or a convulsion that 
 would involve all in a common ruin. On the other hand, he is 
 taught caution by the fear of falling into the opposite extreme, 
 and drawing alarming inferences from what may, after all, be 
 only volcanic throes that will end in nothing. The Prince of 
 Mito is said to have tendered his submission. The Ministers 
 of Foreign Affairs, with whom I had a long interview lately, 
 w^ere, as usual, vague and mysterious, not wholly denying the 
 existence of disturbances, but carefully avoiding any details. 
 It lasted (as usual, also) more than four hours, but was, upon 
 the whole, more than usually amicable in its tone ; so much so, 
 indeed, that on taking leave, and expressing my regret to have 
 been compelled to detain them so long, they replied, with more 
 '■'• effusion'''' than is their habit, " we do not care about its length, 
 but that which is agreeable to us is the friendly and satisfac- 
 tory mode in which all matters have been discussed." 
 
 ' The whole life of a Diplomatic Agent here is one uninter- 
 rupted struggle against unceasing efforts to make the treaties 
 null and void in effect. Progress has been made, however. I 
 see, on looking back, certain landmarks plainly visible. If the 
 untiring wave of encroachment has gained upon us at some 
 points, strong breakwaters at others stand high and dry above 
 all the spray and turmoil of the vexed elements. The estab- 
 lishment of our ti'ade and diplomatic relations in the country 
 may be compared to the launch of the " Great Eastern." So 
 far from the water's edge, and so firmly fixed in the imyield- 
 ing clay, all the appliances of European science and power 
 seem to be invoked in vain. Now a few inches or feet are 
 gained, when the strain proves too much for the gear, and back 
 she slips, more firmly imbedded apparently than ever ! Bxit 
 new pressure is brought to bear, and again the leviathan plain- 
 ly moves, and this time what is gained is held. And thus the 
 struggle is continued against inert bulk and passive resistance. 
 It is only by measuring the distance at intervals, however, that 
 we can be satisfied any progress is actually made. At last she 
 is swung into the tide and floats ; but will she sail and carry 
 merchandise f Ah ! that still remains a knotty question — a 
 problem hard of solution with us, as it was once with the 
 shareholders of the " Great Eastern ;" but we work on in the 
 mean while, toiling and hoping still. 
 
 'Not long ago I had another interview with Ando Tsusi- 
 mano-kami, the second of the two Ministers for Foreign Af- 
 fairs. I had, to begin with, a case of murderous onslaught
 
 Chap. XAIII.] SCOEES TO SETTLE. 321 
 
 marlc by a <lrunkcn Yaconin on an English merchant at Hako- 
 dadi — not over discreet, perhaps, in risking a collision, though 
 clearly the Japanese was the aggressor, and apparently out of 
 pure wantonness and malice. Then 1 had to meet, on their 
 side, a complaint made by Government officers of rudeness, 
 said to have been offered them by a Consul at the same port, 
 in which I should have liked to have felt more certain there 
 was no foundation ! We had next, as I told him, to take ship 
 for Nagasaki, and discuss the teimre of land in the foreign lo- 
 cation there ; to insist upon our right to build on the hill-side, 
 and not to be penned up like cattle in a swamp beloAv — a De- 
 ciraa without its advantages ; to contend for a cemetery to 
 bury our dead, and the ground for a dock in which to refiair 
 our ships. Thence back to Kanagawa, and settle a squabble 
 about itziboos between the Governor of that place and H.M.'s 
 Consul, who had been accused by the former of giving a false 
 return — a trifle they did not think it necessary to lose time in 
 sul)Stantiating by evidence ; and His Excellency was surprised 
 I took it seriously, and insisted on the charge being either sub- 
 stantiated, or withdrawn with an apology. Then to Yeddo to 
 protest against the insult offered by shutting the gates of the 
 Imperial cemetery, open to all the population of Yeddo, in the 
 face of some of the Legation, with every mark of premeditated 
 rudeness, on which it was necessary to say many hnrd things, 
 as upon their whole policy of surrounding the Foreign Repre- 
 sentatives with meddling spies and subaltern police, "who keep 
 us in an odious quarantine, and prevent all free access. This 
 is yet a drawn battle, which has been going on ever since we 
 arrived, and where, so far, we have rather lost than gained 
 ground ! And so, heartily weary, no doubt, of each other, we 
 withdrew our respective forces about sunset, and I tried to re- 
 cover my equanimity on a favorite hack, who evidently thought 
 these five-hour conferences quite as tiresome as his master, and 
 went off at a pace which left the attendant Yaconins small time 
 to settle themselves on the top of their outlandish saddles, on 
 which they perch like apes, and with quite as little grip on 
 their horses. I sometimes think, as they pass me, what an ex* 
 ample a troop of dragoons would make of a few thousands of 
 them, if ever they had a chance and got in among them. Aa 
 I passed along the four miles of ramparts and streets which lie 
 between the minister's house adjoinimr the Tycoon's pai.ice 
 and Tozengee, I guided my horse with checked speed through 
 the swarms of children and Yeddites ofmnturer year?, (<|ually 
 sans culottes in the literal sense. Night was closing in ; my 
 escort in advance had lanterns attached to their belts by a 
 
 02
 
 S22 
 
 THREE YEAHS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 bamboo, and at short intervals the lights from the bath-houses 
 showed the usual scene of two or three dozen figures laughing, 
 splashing, and talking. Ever and anon some l3aimio's retain- 
 er would swagger past with a truculent jest of scorn and de- 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 fiance, while more peaceable wayfarers were gaining their 
 homes. I fell insensibly into a train of thought on the destiny 
 which had left me stranded on this far-off shore, and moralizing 
 on the sort of people among whom my lot had been cast. The 
 description the authoress of the " Mill on the Floss" gives of 
 that degraded species of existence, the ant-hill life of the Dod- 
 sons and Tullivers in the Yorkshire dells, as in other parts of 
 our soi-disant Christian land, mutato nomine^ would admirably 
 answer for the Japanese ; the Dodsons have their national 
 countertype here. 
 
 ' This " emmet life," described as essentially a sordid, sensu- 
 al life, "irradiated by no sublime principles, no romantic vis- 
 ions, no active self-renouncing faith — a life so sordid that even 
 sorrow hardly suffices to lift it above the level of the tragi- 
 comic." So says the writer of the clever critique in the 
 " Times" which I have just been reading. I could not help be- 
 ing struck with its perfect applicability to the Japanese. Here 
 I see it in the reality in still more vivid colors than even the 
 authoress has limned her characters, " in all its nakedness, hid- 
 eousness, and littleness," this life of respectable brutishness, 
 which so many persons lead even in Europe, " illumined by not 
 one ray of spiritual influence, by no suspicion of a higher life, 
 of another world, of a surrounding divinity." Thus live and 
 die these thirty millions of human beings from one generation 
 to another. Yet they do not seem to become more brutish, 
 more degraded, onore immoral. What they are now they seem
 
 Chap. XVm.J SPECULATIONS. 82S 
 
 to have been, without change, centuries ago ; perhaps neither 
 much better nor worse than millions in other lands claiming 
 to be both civilized and Christians ! 
 
 ' In this lies a great mystery. Not that a pagan and long- 
 isolated people should lead a more or less pagan and brutalized 
 life of material existence, but that they should not, by well- 
 marked degrees of sharp descent, deteriorate and become en- 
 tirely brutish. Such is certainly not the fact. On the contra- 
 ry, they are a well-to-do, flourishing, and advancing people, and 
 for generations and centuries have maintained a respectable 
 level of intellectual cultivation and social virtues. It is natural 
 that I should speculate on this problem and the past of the 
 Japanese, for I am convinced a key to all progress in the future 
 can only be made after careful examination of all the wards of 
 the lock by which we are kept out — until, in a word, we can 
 satisfactorily account for all the phenomena of national exist- 
 ence and progress under such conditions. 
 
 'The Japanese seem thoroughly imbued with the principle 
 often so eloquently enforced by our own Conservative press, 
 that no old laws should be abrogated or adjusted until a clear 
 case of necessity is made out, and even then with fear and 
 trembling, remembering that it is more easy to discover the 
 mischief which an existing law does than the mischief which it 
 prevents. Perhaps have they some dim consciousness even, 
 that in the application of a theory, especially in so complicated 
 a subject as political economy, the most sagacious may over- 
 look some item which may be fatal to the success of the meas- 
 ure, however well meant. That the Japanese rulers should be 
 nervous and distrustful, more particularly of the applications 
 which Foreign Powers urge, feeling no great certainty of the 
 disinterestedness or honesty of their advisers, and no faith in 
 the truth of a political economy which is not their own, and in 
 total discord with the principles hitherto regarded by them as 
 the only true guides to a nation's welfare and prosperity, is 
 not only what might be anticipated as natural, but is obviously 
 inevitable. Perhaps also they have been warned by their own 
 experience of a fact by no means unknown to statesmen in Eu- 
 rope, that it is " scarcely possible to make too much allowance 
 for friction in the actual business of life." And were they bet- 
 ter read in history, they might quote from our own, that a 
 grave authority, and one of our own Daimios, whose head was 
 brought to the block by fierce innovators, although it was said 
 to be the wisest head that stood on any pair of shoulders in 
 England,* declared, "how advised wo ought to be of any inno- 
 * Lord Strafford.
 
 324 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 vation, considering that inconveniences are rather found by ex- 
 perience than foreseen by judgment." Stare super antiqims 
 vias is held to be a good maxim in more enlightened countries 
 than Japan ! And, in truth, we are apt to be impatient, and 
 too ready, perhaps — seeing with other eyes than theirs where 
 the true interests of both countries lie, and all that is obstruc- 
 tive and retrograde in their policy — to exclaim against their 
 arguments for inaction. But thirty years ago, in England, very 
 similar reasoning was daily produced by leading statesmen in 
 Lords and Commons against the repeal of the Corn laws ; the 
 same reasoning is commonly resorted to through Europe gen- 
 erally at this day ; and are we so sure that opposition to free 
 trade, and to innovation in legislation, have no supporters 
 among our own Daimios still ? Are there no " stupid preju- 
 dices," no " antiquated notions," or " ecclesiastical bigotry," 
 the legacies of former generations, yet to be done battle with 
 in England, or her offspring, free and enlightened America ? — 
 England, the great proselytizer of nations, and foremost among 
 the champions of free trade ! What if the Japanese Mission, 
 when about to sail for England, had received instructions to 
 propose, not free trade — that we have at length made up our 
 minds to accept as the best for our own interests as a whole 
 nation, however hard it may press upon fractional portions as 
 producers — but the reduction, say, of our exorbitant duty of 200 
 per cent, upon tea (one of the great staples of Japan), or, with 
 a supposed leaning to the introduction of the Sintoo religion 
 and system of endowment, they should propose to us to throw 
 open the doors of our universities and churches to all comers, 
 and alter the whole system and curriculum of education ; or a 
 modification of our representative institutions and system of 
 government as " essential to greater harmony and cordiality 
 in the relations between the two countries, the existing order 
 of things being a grave impediment, preventing our ever taking 
 a just view of the policy of an Eastern kingdom like Japan ?" 
 They would probably meet with some opposition in the coun- 
 try, if not active hostility. Their pretensions to make innova- 
 tions would not escape sharp discussion and censure in Lords 
 and Commons ; Exeter Hall might not speak altogether mildly 
 on the subject ; I should not be surprised if, at the first grand 
 meeting to consider the " interests of religion and order," 
 their immediate and ignominioiis expulsion from the kingdom 
 might not be voted unanimously ! As for the Government, it 
 might either pooh-pooh the whole thing or treat it with scorn ; 
 but, in either case, means Avould be found, in perfectly diplo- 
 matic language,! have no doubt, of telling them that the Jap-
 
 Chap. XVIlL] JAPANESE TRADE 325 
 
 anese Government had better mind their own business, and 
 leave us to deal with Enghind and its aflairs, as we knew best. 
 
 ' From all tlietffi <;onsiderations, bearing upon the history of 
 the past and the present, there is a moral to be drawn, I think. 
 " A narrow-necked bottle," says Quintilian somewhere, " must 
 be humored ; pour gently, or you spill instead of fill?'' So I 
 must find yet more patience to continue the work, and try "to 
 fill instead of spill." 
 
 ' But, despite all obstacles and diflSculties, as I have noted, 
 some progress has really been made. My letters from England 
 might encourage me. " We are surprised so much has been 
 done in the time ; the merchants are well satisfied with the re- 
 sults and full of hope. You who are on the spot, and occupied 
 in clearing away the rubbish, do not see it; but we who are 
 looking on from the distance perceive your progress, and are 
 content." And so I suppose I must learn to be, if I am to re- 
 main another year at the same work, and I see no prospect of 
 relief. Certainly the year, just ended, since the opening of the 
 ports and the exchange of ratifications, has been an eventful 
 one for Japan, and a very weary one for " H. M.'s Representa- 
 tive at the Court of the Tycoon." Let us pass it in review, 
 count tlie gain and the loss ; these may both be summed up 
 now, and a balance struck. 
 
 *A8 to what has been actually achieved in the way of Com- 
 merce during the first year after the opening of the ports, it 
 has been clearly established that Japan can furnish both tka. 
 and SILK of such quality and price as will bring both into the 
 home market advantageously, in competition with those of Chi- 
 na. Some 15,000 chests of tea, and not less than 3000 bales 
 of silk, exported during the twelve months, proved, by the 
 prices obtained in the home markets, and the profits realized, 
 that they could enter into such competition. Some of the finer 
 silk realized four shillings a pound more than the best prod- 
 uce of China.' [I may here remark that at first it was sup- 
 posed we had probably absorbed tlie whole surplus of the 
 country, and that the amount exported showed, therefore, all 
 that was immediately producible for foreign trade. But even 
 at the time there was a promise, amply realized in the follow- 
 ing year, of a large increase, the limits of which have not yet 
 been ascertained. Tlie 3000 bales swelled to 18,000.] 
 
 'In the streets of Yeddo hundreds of tea-chests are being 
 manufactured in preparation for exports; and of this staple of 
 a foreign trade there is every reason to believe the quantity 
 hitherto exported might be increased to an indefinite extent, 
 without even additional planting. The Japanese themselves
 
 926 THREE YEARS IX JAPAN. [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 say that, having no demand except for home consumption, all 
 the leaves had never been plucked, nor, in regard to silk, all 
 the cocoons reeled. Many other article-i^ •;l'u'''demaud for the 
 foreign markets, exclusive of the lai-ge supplies for the Chi- 
 nese,"have been discovered, calculated to yield a large profit, 
 and constituting of themselves a considerable trade: Vegeta- 
 ble Wa.v and Oils, Mother-of-pearl shells, Camphor, Gall-nuts, 
 etc. Flour has been largely in demand for China. The min- 
 eral wealth of Japan we knew before was great, but little 
 progress in this direction lias been made. The Jajjanese gov- 
 ernment continue to manifest the greatest jealousy of our de- 
 mands, and an insuperable repugnance to the produce of any 
 of their mines being exported. Coal, of which they are, per- 
 haps, the least careful, requires better working to be very 
 available for steamers ; probably they possess much better 
 than any they have allowed to find its way to the open ports.* 
 Of imports, at this time, little can be said that is encouraging. 
 The stoppage of all exchange of itziboos at this period is look- 
 ed upon by the merchants as a great evil.f The whole trade 
 in this year, after the opening of the ports, has exceeded a mil- 
 lion stei'ling, from which, I have reason to believe, very large 
 profits have been realized, and comparatively by a small num- 
 ber of merchants — English, Dutch, and American chiefly, the 
 former well maintaining their traditional predominance here, 
 as elsewhere in the East. 
 
 ' In other respects much has been gained, if much still re- 
 main to be achieved. As regards our Political and Diplomatic 
 relations — only important in these remote regions from their 
 bearing 0:1 our Commercial interests here and in the Eastern 
 seas generally — and the actual position of the Foreign Repre- 
 sentatives at Yeddo, there is, indeed, much to be accomplished 
 yet. Life and property botli have been through the whole pe- 
 riod very insecure. Incendiarism, unchecked by punishment, 
 lias been frequent and disastrous at Nagasaki. Neither re- 
 dress nor compensation could be obtained, and but small secu- 
 rity for the future. Life has been repeatedly taken at Yoko- 
 hama and at Yeddo with perfect impunity. Six individuals 
 have been murdered successively, by ones and twos, wath cir- 
 
 * Some information I obtained during a journey in the interior the follow- 
 ing year confirmed me in this conclusion. 
 
 t It proved, nevertheless, to be the means by which the first impulse was 
 given to an import trade, and it has gone on largely increasing since. Nor 
 was there much unanimity of opinion on this subject among the merchants 
 themselves. See Report of a Public Meeting at Yokohama for farther in- 
 formation. Appendix B.
 
 Chap.XVIU.J a moral QUARANTINE. ?,27 
 
 cumstances of great barbarity, and, to all appearance, without 
 any provocation. According to common report among llie 
 Japanese, they were political murders, deliberately planned and 
 executed for political purposes in all, perhaps, save that of my 
 linguist, who had something like a personal feud with the most 
 dangerous class in Japan— the Daimios' I'etainers, though lie was 
 undoubtedly obnoxious to the Government too, as one capable 
 of furnishing me with information not otherwise attainable by 
 a foreigner. As for the Foreign Representatives themselves, 
 besides behig exposed to similar danger, with like objects in 
 the assailants, the members of the several Legations are all (in 
 thorough accordance with the policy of the preceding three 
 centuries) put in moral quarantine, and a cordon follows them 
 wherever tliey go, permitting no res[)ectable Japanese or na- 
 tive of the educated and higher classes to approach them ! In 
 vain the respective Ministers have protested, and some, at 
 least, persistently and energetically have fought against the 
 system ; but the Japanese government have such infinite re- 
 sources and means at their disposal for giving eifect to any 
 policy of this nature, that we are always at a gieat disadvant- 
 age, and, it must be confessed, have been hitherto, as was to 
 be expected, signally worsted in nearly every struggle to break 
 through the toils of the hunter. 
 
 ' This systematic and peisistent policy of isolation and re- 
 striction in regard to all foreigners in the country — the Mer- 
 chants at the ports and the Ministers in the ca]»ital, and 
 against all nations impartially and unchangeably, together with 
 a certain insecurity to life and denial of justice when either life 
 or property may have been sacrificed — are among the great- 
 est difficulties sliil to be encountered. And judging by the 
 amount and successful nature oftlie resistance offered, and the 
 failure of all the efforts of the Foreign Legations, sepai'ately 
 and collectively, to effect any sensible change or amelioration, 
 it is evident they are difficulties which will endure, and, for a 
 long time to come, be the hardest to grapple with successfully. 
 Yet there is nothing in the first twelve months' experience 
 more strongly impressed upon my mind than the conviction 
 that, until vp. do sxicceed in this^ no permanent or sure prog- 
 ress can well be made. While we are isolated by a cordon 
 of Japanese officials from the whole population, and debarred 
 all free intercourse both with the mass and the higher classes, 
 our relations must of necessity rest on a basis as insecure as it 
 is unsatisfaetorv. "We are, and always shall be, at the mercy 
 of the Govermnent of the day, and may be massacred at any 
 moment, at a given hour, the turn of the Tycoon's fan for a
 
 52R tllUEE YEAliS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIX. 
 
 gign.i], at the mere will of whoever, for the time being, controls 
 or dii-ects the Executive. All the more certainly, that the 
 whole tendency of this system has been astutely calculated to 
 keep us defenseless, by shutting us out from all the sources of 
 information, and insuring our ignorance of every thing M'hich 
 it most concerned the Foreign Representatives to know, wheth- 
 er as regarded national interests or their own safety. I con- 
 sider this the great problem, therefore, in the existing relations 
 between Japan and the Western Powers, much, if not all, 
 that is yet uncertain in the future hanging upon the solution 
 it may receive. In the mean time, living among scenes and 
 with a race where it may truly be said, " Life's life is lied 
 away," and " Murder breathes her bloody steam," we must 
 take the ancient words of Plutarch for our motto, " Courage 
 against Fury !" ' 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Audience of the Tycoon. — Prelirainai y Difficulties. — Importance in the East 
 
 of seeming Trifles. 
 
 Toward the end of August, in 1860, a day was fixed for my 
 audience with the Tycoon, ' The most High, Mighty, and Glo- 
 rious Prince, His Imperial and Royal Majesty,' as he is styled 
 in the Queen's letter accrediting Her Majesty's Envoy Extra- 
 ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiju-y to the Court of Yeddo, 
 the delivery of which to the Tycoon in person was the object 
 of the audience. 
 
 It had been more than six months in my hands, waiting the 
 settlement of a 'dilRcully' which had arisen with the Resident 
 Minister of the United States, respecting the manner of his re- 
 ception about the same time the preceding year, when he 
 thought there was a marked want of observance and ceremony 
 in the whole of the arrangements, compared with the reception 
 he had received when he first came to Yeddo to deliver the 
 President's letter, prior to liis entering on his negotiations for 
 a treaty. No pains had been taken to keep his passage to the 
 palace free, and his norimon was hustled, and he himself in- 
 commoded in a most unseemly way, by the retainers, grooms, 
 and servants hanging about the outer courts of the palace as 
 he passed in. Not desiring to interpose any obstacle to his 
 arriving at a satisfactory conchision, and obtaining the amende 
 honorable he had demanded by another audience under more
 
 Chat. XIX.] SEEMING TRIFLES. 329 
 
 fitting conditions and ceremonial, unaffected by any precedent 
 which might be created by any of his colleagues,! had deferred 
 taking any steps for my own reception. I did so the more 
 willingly, Mr. Harris having consulted oflficially with me on the 
 subject, and communicated both the offense offered, and the 
 steps he proposed taking in vindication of the honor and dig- 
 nity of his Government. I considered him perfectly right in 
 not passing over what we neither of us doubted was intended 
 as a slight in the eyes of the Japanese Court, including all the 
 Daimios and retainers on the spot. In Eastern courts it is pre- 
 cisely by such studied slights and insults, often veiled under a 
 pretense of showing honor, and always denied when they are 
 found out, that Eastern diplomacy seeks to avenge itself on 
 Foreign Powers for the humiliation of receiving their Repre- 
 sentatives, or holding any relations with foreigners at all, ex- 
 cept as tribute-bearers or suppliants ! And as the knowledge 
 any European can possess, in the first instance, of the etiquette, 
 forms, and customs of an Eastern court — more especially 
 where, as in Japan, our relations are new — must be very slight 
 and imperfect, they feel and know their advantage, and are 
 generally disposed to press it to the utmost, by imposing upon 
 an Ambassador some mockery of their forms, which is alleged 
 to be in accordance with their customs, while it is, in fact, the 
 reverse, and calculated to humiliate and degrade in the eyes 
 of the natives. It may be something seemingly frivolous or 
 indifferent in itself whether the robe of the foreigner be blue 
 or yellow, whether his head be covered or bare, the coui'tiers 
 in full costume or in morning wrappers, their slippers on or 
 off, their trowsers to the ankle or a yard longer to conceal their 
 feet* — it matters veiy little what ; the only question for a For- 
 eign Representative is, whether the forms and customs adopt- 
 ed are such as, according to established customs and etiquette 
 of the country, would be held to indicate respect, or insult and 
 humiliation ? For the prestige of the nation so treated in the 
 person of its Representative, and his own personal influence 
 and weight at the Court where he is accredited, will be determ- 
 ined by these seemingly indifferent matters. This, of course, 
 will appear obvious enough to any sensible person on reflec- 
 tion, and is matter of notoriety and universal experience among 
 those who have lived among Asiatics; but it is just one of 
 those subjects which offer a tempting handle to newspaper 
 writers, who, sometimes from ignorance, but often (counting 
 upon the ignorance of their readers) with mischievous intent, 
 seek to damage a public servant, or the Government which 
 • The official costume in grand ceremouics of the Tycoon's Court.
 
 330 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIX. 
 
 employs him. It is always easy to hold up such matters to 
 ridicule as idle pretensions, springing from an exaggerated es- 
 timate of personal importance on the part of the individual 
 agent, although it must presuppose a greater amount of fatu- 
 ity than usually falls to tlie share of men holding public ap- 
 pointments of trust and responsibility to assume that any per- 
 sonal feeling enters into the question. There are not many Eu- 
 ropeans who could feel it individually, and as regarded them- 
 selves, apart from their office, woi-thy of a moment's thought, 
 whether an Eastern potentate or his Minister received them in 
 slippers and dressing-gown, if it involved no moral apprecia- 
 tion or political consequences. The tendency is, in truth, all 
 the other way. We care so little what Easterns, with whom 
 we have no really social or sympathetic rel.itions, and no free 
 intercourse of any kind, actually think of us, and we can, in re- 
 ality, know so little of their true sentiments, or what they say 
 and do among themselves in connection with up, that, unless it 
 be known there is an intention to offer insult, diplomatic agents, 
 political residents, and all other European functionaries cm- 
 ployed from Constantinople to Yeddo are much more disposed 
 to consider them in the light of barbarians, whose ceremonials 
 and ideas of honor are all so many puerilities. They are in 
 danger of erring in the opposite direction, by inattention to 
 forms, to which the native authorities often attach immense im- 
 portance, and thus either give offense by neglect, or put up, in 
 ignorance, with treatment which lowers and degrades them in 
 Eastern eyes. Human nature remains the same in all climes ; 
 and whether rubbing of noses, a particular costume, or pre- 
 scribed contortions and postures of the body, be considered 
 marks of respect and amity, or of scorn and insult, between 
 men, may be very indifferent ; but it can never be a matter of 
 indifference wliich of the two sentiments are intended to he ex- 
 jyressed hy any of these in the relations of Foreign Represent- 
 atives and Eastern potentates. It might, in one sense, be very 
 indifferent whether Lord Macartney, our first Ambassador to 
 Pekin, was preceded by Chinese flag-laearers, supposed to be in 
 his honor, and with flags written over with characters which 
 described the Embassy as humble ' bearers of tribute to the 
 Lord of all Kings,' but the political consequences and influ- 
 ences may not have been Mashed out with the blood of two 
 wars. It may not have been very material, so far as the Amer- 
 ican Minister, Mr. Ward, was personally concerned, whether he 
 jolted over the roads between Peihtang and Pekin in a vehi- 
 cle unfitted for one in his position ; but the influence on the 
 population, the court, and his own action and power to enforce
 
 Chap. XIX] PERFECT UNDERSTANDING. 331 
 
 respect for treaties and a nation's rights would assuredly be 
 felt, and disadxantageously, in every after transaction. 
 
 Thus mucli it seemed desirable to say on a subject of no 
 small importance in the larger question of European diplomacy 
 and Eastern policy, not very generally or well understood any 
 where in Europe. Believing Mr. Harris to be perfectly right 
 in resenting what liad taken place and insisting upon an amende^ 
 I waited patiently, tlierefore, for the end of the affair. The 
 obstinacy of the resistance on the part of the Council of State 
 was a clear proof to my mind, if any farther proof had been 
 wanting, that a slight had been intended ; not, indeed, that the 
 American should see and know it, but merely that the specla- 
 cle should be given to the Japanese in how little estimation 
 Foreign Representatives were held by the Tycoon and his Gov- 
 ernment, and that any small Daimio was entitled to more con- 
 sideration and respect. And it was precisely this public de- 
 preciation which it behooved all the corps diplomatique com- 
 bined, if necessary, seriously to resist and have as publicly re- 
 versed. In this thei'c was, fortunately, a perfect accord among 
 the only three Diplomatic Agents in Yeddo, the American, 
 French, and English ; and, indeed, in all the questions which 
 arose during tlie first eighteen months, it was a subject of con- 
 gratulation, and undoubtedly a great advantage to all, that this 
 general accordance of views was constant. And when, after 
 that period, there was a broad divergence, and the Minister of 
 the United Stales took one view in a grave question of national 
 or rather Western policy, and the Representatives of all the 
 other Treaty Powers — England, France, Holland, and Prussia, 
 another, it was to me, as I am sure it must have been to all, a 
 subject of great regret. As unity of sentiment and policy 
 among the Foreign Representatives must always be a great 
 element of strength in dealing with an Eastern Power, so will 
 disunion and divergence of views necessarily be a source of 
 weakness. Previously to this unfortunate schism, the only dif- 
 ference liad been a greater disposition on Mr. Harris's part to 
 think favorably of the Government, and to give tliem credit for 
 more of good faith and sincerity than any of his colle.igues 
 thought justified by iheir acts and the course of events. But 
 this was only natural, perhaps, in the circumstances in which 
 Mr. Harris had been placed. To the Japanese he owed a great 
 diplomatic success, as the negotiator of the first commercial 
 treaty, by which botli Trade and Diplomatic relations were es- 
 tablished, while on his colleagues devolved the less agreeable 
 and less easy task of reducing treat i(?s made by others to work- 
 ing realities. As they had daily e.\perience of tlie obstructions 
 created by the Japanese Government, from the Council of State
 
 ,^32 I'HRfeE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIX. 
 
 down to the lowest official or Yaconin about the Legations, they 
 very naturally saw less to admire in the friendly expressions 
 of Ministers. It was perhaps inevitable that the two should 
 look with different eyes upon the course of the Government to 
 which they were accredited, and be disposed to apply a differ- 
 ent test to its assurances of good will, and cordial desire to pro- 
 vide for our security and give execution to treaties. Deeds, 
 not words, foi'm an experimentum crucis before which all pro- 
 fessions are apt to lose much of their value ; and when the 
 deeds are wholly inconsistent with, and often in utter contra- 
 diction to the words of promise, it is not easy, where there is 
 no personal predilection or foregone conclusion biasing the 
 judgment, to believe in the good faith or sincerity of those 
 who are responsible for both. I say responsible for both ; but 
 for the second Mr. Hairis often found excuses, in the want of 
 power which he attributed to the Tycoon and his Council to 
 give such fulfillment, or even to prevent acts directly affecting 
 the security of life and property, and violating the first condi- 
 tions of a treaty of amity and commerce, or, indeed, of any per- 
 manent and peaceable relations. 
 
 The full development of this original cause of divergence into 
 a manifest and avowed want of unity in action and thought 
 was yet to come ; and, in the mean time, both the French 
 Charge d' Affaires and myself gave the Ministers distinctly to 
 understand that we did not desire our respective audiences 
 until they had satisfactorily arranged with the Minister of the 
 United States the conditions and ceremonial such as he could 
 accept, for the farther reception he had required, and that we 
 were in entire accord with him on the subject. At last, after 
 negotiations and conferences which seemed well-nigh interm- 
 inable, a programme having been agreed upon with Mr. Harris, 
 it was presented to me and accepted. By this the whole cere- 
 monial, from the door of the Legations to the palace and back 
 again, was fixed. 
 
 Mr. Harris had his audience first, as had been previously ar- 
 ranged, and, his report being satisfactory, a day was fixed for 
 the British Minister. I could certainly have desired that it 
 had not been a broiling day in August under an Eastern sun, but 
 these things must be taken as they come. According to pre- 
 concerted arrangements, Takimoto Dzoosiono Kami, one of the 
 eight Governors of Foreign Affairs, arrived soon after 7 A.M. 
 to conduct the procession to the palace, an hour and a half's 
 course in a norimon. In a few minutes the cortege was en 
 rottte. First, the Governor and his suite, then the British Min- 
 ister and the members of the Legation, Japanese and British, 
 with standard, spear, and umbrella bearers, led horses, and a
 
 CuAi-. XIX.] 
 
 PROGRESS TO THE PALACE. 
 
 333 
 
 considerable following of Tycoon's oflBcers, uccoi (.ling; to the 
 custom of the country, when men of rank or high officials ap- 
 pear in public. The whole way, through some four mDes of 
 streets, was kept clear by the ward constables with their iron 
 staves and jingling rings, aided by a large addition of Tycoon's 
 officers, and in the official quarter by tlie retainers of the re- 
 spective Dairaios as we passed their several residences. All 
 traffic was either stopped or turned out of the course of the pro- 
 cession. The inferior and unprivileged classes were stopped, 
 and officials made to pass by the side outside the line. The 
 authorities kept their word loyalement for once, and the whole 
 way there and back this order was strictly observed. Arrived 
 M'ithin the third moated inclosure we came to another bridge, 
 high above the level of the lower causeway, leading directly to 
 that part where the Tycoon kept his court while his own pal- 
 ace was being rebuilt. Here we had to leave our norimons 
 and cross the bridge on foot, the gentlemen with me having 
 descended at a previous station — no Daimio or officer, we were 
 told, being allowed to pass over the bridge otherwise than on 
 foot. 
 
 Passing through the massive gateway, with bastions flanking 
 a walled enceinte built of great blocks of gi-anite, a five minute's 
 walk, still preceded by Takimoto Kami, brought me to the en- 
 trance of the palace. A sort of large vestibule, opening into 
 a close court-yard of no great extent, and the exact counterpart 
 of the only Daimios' residences to which Foreigners have had 
 access — those of the Ministers — gave entrance to the palace. 
 Here, our servants having brought some camp-stools expressly 
 sent, to provide seats where there were none, we changed our 
 shoes, that we might not mark the trim mats of the palace, or 
 enter the royal presence 
 in unseemly guise. Fa- 
 cing us in the square 
 apartment forming an in- 
 ner hall, some fifty offi- 
 cials, all in gauze and 
 silks, were on their knees, 
 and in front of these 
 several of the Governors 
 of Foreign Affiiirs, dis- 
 guised in a court costume 
 so quaint and strange, 
 and so utterly bizarre to 
 European eyes, that I had 
 some difficulty in recog- 
 nizing my old acquaint- 
 
 COUKT ORKSS OF JAPAXKSK.
 
 334 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XIX. 
 
 ancos, and still more in repressing a smile when the recogni- 
 tion took place. How shall I describe it? Nothing but the 
 pencil can convey a true notion of what it is, or rather what 
 Its effect is, to any one who has not seen the reality. 
 
 To begin with the head, the shaven and usually bare crown 
 had perched upon the top what I suppose must be called a cap, 
 for want of any more appropriate name, made of black lackered 
 papier-mache. In shape it appears like a boat turned bottom 
 up, with one half cut off and the edges folded in. The surcoat 
 of gauze, projecting at the shoulders, and called in Japanese 
 the Kamislraa^ pariially conceals a robe of darker hue, beneath 
 which again a pair of Turkish trowsers, or petticoat rather, of 
 figured silk, i\\Q TlaJca-nia, is slit open at the sides to allow the 
 outer robe to be tucked in, and secured at the waist by a broad 
 belt, through which the two swords, the one long and the other 
 short, are passed. But the inost singular part of the whole 
 costume, and that which, added to the head-gear, gave an irre- 
 sistibly comic air to the whole presentment, was the immeas- 
 urable prolongation of the silk trowsers. These, instead of stop- 
 ping short at the heels, are unconscionably lengthened, and left 
 to trail two or three feet behind them, so that their feet, as they 
 
 advanced, seemed pushed 
 into what should have been 
 the knees of the garment. 
 The consequence was, that 
 they were compelled to 
 shuffle along like so many 
 people shorn by some gen- 
 eral calamity of both legs, 
 and walking upon their 
 stumps, much as a man cut 
 down to his knees might 
 be expected to progress, an 
 effect still farther height- 
 ened by said prolongations trailing behind on the floor, col- 
 lapsed and evidently empty. It certainly required some com- 
 mand of countenance to follow gravely these high officers in 
 such a masquerading costume ; and how they managed to 
 shuffle on, without tumbling at each step, was all but incom- 
 prehensible. I have seen none of the Japanese conjurors do 
 any thing better. 
 
 Thus preceded, we were ushered into an anteroom, where 
 all the Governors of Foreign Affairs came to make their sal- 
 utation. Then all the high Oinetskys of the palace, to the num- 
 ber of some seven or eight, were presented in form — the ' look- 
 
 JAPANE8E 'lords IN WAITING.
 
 Chap.XIX.] the TYCOON'S palace. ^3$ 
 
 ers through,' who are supposed to see and to note every thing 
 for the information of the Government. These were followed 
 by the heads of the Treasury and Mint. A few minutes were 
 thus passed, while cups of tea were handed round and the ar- 
 rival of the British Minister was being announced to the Coun- 
 cil of State, and by them to the Tycoon. The room was of 
 twenty-eight mats (so they measure rooms in Japan, each mat 
 being of regulation size, the larger six feet by three), of no 
 great pretensions, yet handsome withal. If the walls were not 
 covered with chef-if ceuvres from the Gobelins, or the pencil of 
 a Titian or Correggio, the sliding panels or screens, of which 
 the partitions are always formed in Japanese houses, presented 
 pictures dashed off with a free pencil, and which had at least 
 the merit of singularity — birds soaring in skies of gold, trees 
 rising out of equally effulgent seas (or hills indifferently), with 
 a dreamy sort of vagueness as to the respective limits of earth, 
 sky, or water, though all were evidently intended to appear. 
 The floor was of matting, in the usual way, each mat edged 
 with a border of figured silk, the effect of which is by no means 
 bad. The ceiling was lackered, and divided into square com- 
 partments, deeply cut, with gold and colored leaves embossed 
 in lacker forming the centres, not unlike our older Gothic ceil- 
 ings. Some elaborate, but rather coarse carving filled up cer- 
 tain spaces running round one side of the room, between the 
 ceiling and the tops of the sliding panels, which are seldom 
 higher than six feet from the ground, as tall Saxons and Celts 
 have found to their cost many times. When Admiral Hope 
 was at the Legation I was always in anxiety for his head, and 
 II. M.'s Consul at Kanagawa fairly tried the strength of his 
 skull against the sharp edge of the traversing beam, an(i meas- 
 ured his length backward on the ground under a blow that 
 might have killed a weaker man.* On the side cf the room 
 opposite the entrance, a very narrow court, or passage rather, 
 open to the sky, let in light and air from above, and was evi- 
 dently there for that purpose only, none coming from any oth- 
 er quarter. By the time I had made these observations, I was 
 invited to move forward through a corridor lined with kneel- 
 ing attendants some two or three deep, until I reached another 
 and smaller room, or rather an angle screened off, where I liad 
 to wait until the signal shouM be given that the Tycoon was 
 seated in the audience hall. 
 
 * Upon a later occasion, Mr. Oliphant, the Secretary of Lopation, owed 
 his life to this peonliarity of construction, every blow nintsd at liis hojid with 
 the two-handed sword, in his rencounter in the passage with sonic of the as* 
 &assins, being turned aside in the dark by the low urarerse beam.
 
 336 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIX. 
 
 The detention was very short, and, emerging again into the 
 corridor, there was another pause opposite a large room, filled 
 with more than a hundred otRcers in grand official costume, all 
 kneeling, five and six deep, in rows, perfectly mute, and immov- 
 able as statues, their heads just raised from the floor. This 
 was the room, I found, adjoining the audience chamber ; and 
 two officers in the same posture, a little in advance, were evi- 
 dently watching for the moment to give the signal for our ad- 
 vance. This followed almost immediately, when my usher 
 with the inexpressible prolongations instantly fell on his hands 
 and knees, and, with his head to the ground, turned the event- 
 ful corner which brought him into the presence. Upon the 
 whole, his costume seemed to gain in rationality, whatever its 
 owner might do, by the change of posture, for now the same 
 silken continuations served to cover his unsandaled feet, and, 
 to a certain extent, disguise what sort of a being was under 
 their folds. Following him as close as his drapery would al- 
 low, I came to the entrance of the audience chamber, which 
 was raised a low step above the level of the corridor, and be- 
 fore me I saw, some thirty feet off, on a kind of dais at the far- 
 ther end of the room, the young Tycoon. He was seated on a 
 sort of throne, or square pedestal, raised about six feet from 
 the ground. He wore a head-dress something like that of his 
 officers, and was dressed in a silken robe of very ample pro- 
 portions, in which he appeared enveloped from head to foot. 
 There was only a demi-jour admitted ; indeed, this prevails in 
 all Japanese houses, from the absence of glass and the want of 
 height in all their paper-covered screens, which do the duty of 
 both doors and windows. The light is still farther obscured 
 by a projecting roof, to cover the inevitable veranda, neces- 
 sary in all cases to protect the paper from the rain. It was 
 impossible, therefore, even when I approached much nearer, to 
 distingiiisli his features very accurately. But he was evidently 
 a mere youth, though stout and large-limbed, with a full face 
 and rather heavy expression. To my right, below the dais, 
 three members of the Great Council of State were kneeling in 
 attendance. One of these was the President and First Minis- 
 ter of Foreign Affairs, who was to receive from my hands the 
 letter of the Queen after I had delivered my address. Behind 
 the Tycoon was a numerous retinue, kneeling in some strange 
 attitude I had not seen before — leaning, I think, upon their 
 sheathed swords, as if in the act of springing to their feet — or 
 prepared to do so at a signal. To the left of me, also, a con- 
 siderable number of Daimios and officers were grouped, all 
 kneeling. Upon the whole, it was impossible not to be struck
 
 Chap. XIX] THE AUDIENCE. 337 
 
 with the luished silence and solemn decorum of the assem- 
 blage. Not a movement could bo detected, nor a sound heard, 
 until, as I advanced to the centre of the second mat, and 
 made, according to the programme, my first obeisance by a 
 bow, when my usher and m:ister of the ceremonies — a First 
 Lord in Waiting, who was still on his knees and hands to 
 my right, and a step or two behind — announced me in a 
 sort of llnyua franca — a remnant of former barbaric pro- 
 cedures with the Dutch — something created for the occasion, 
 I should think; it certainly was neither Japanese nor pure 
 Dutch, still less English. It was neither 'JToye' nov'-Yomi;'* 
 but it sounded something like 'Inglesa Minister.' This done, 
 he shuffled on two mats farther, while I advanced on, and, 
 pausing, made my second reverence ; then two more mats and 
 a third bow brought me within a few paces of the presence 
 seat. I had been told the prostrate Usher of the Rod would be 
 close to my feet to take hold of my trowsers if I forgot my 
 lesson and advanced too far ; and the Governors in waiting 
 had made divers efforts, both previously in the Legation and 
 on my arrival at the palace, to induce me to go through a re- 
 hearsal in the audience chamber for their satisfaction. They 
 appeared horribly afraid there might be some step too much 
 or too little. As I declined going through such mummery, 
 they evidently were at their wits' end. 'Would I not like 
 before the audience to see the room ?' I supposed it was like 
 any other large room with mats, which I could see as I walk- 
 ed, and count, if necessary, 'Oh no ! it was unlike any other 
 room, and Mr. Harris had gone to see it' — carefully suppress- 
 ing that they had, indeed, inveigled him the first time, but on 
 the second occasion, knowing tlieir object, he had resolutely 
 resisted all their cajoleries. However, I gave my lowly guide 
 no trouble ; I stopped as he stopped, an<l gave the Tycoon his 
 stipulated number of reverences, and, after the last, delivered 
 a very short address, which the Tycoon answered still more 
 briefly, by what appeared, indeed, three or four words, al- 
 though the Dutch translation, which had been previously 
 placed in my hands by the Ministers, consisted of as many sen- 
 tences. Mr. Eusden, the secretary in the Japanese depart- 
 ment, having handed me the Queen's letter before I began my 
 speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs then rose and received 
 it from my hands. I made another reverence, which the Ty- 
 coon acknowledged by an inclination of his head, and that was 
 the signal for my retiring, which I did en reculant, bowing in 
 the same order as when I entered. I had been told that I 
 might turn round, but I said that was contrary to our custom 
 
 P
 
 338 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XIX. 
 
 before crowned licads, :xnd, tlicrefore, T should not avail myself 
 of the permission, willing to show to the Tycoon the observ- 
 ance and respect due to my own Sovereign. It nearly termin- 
 ated untowardly, however, for my usher. On my stepping 
 down into the corridor, just before turning round as I left the 
 chamber, he liad already gained his feet, and was shuffling 
 away before me, leaving a^. least a yard of silk drnpery behind 
 him trailin<T on the ground, when my heel pinned one of these. 
 For a moment it seemed doubtful whether he must part com- 
 pany with his garment, or fall backward to save it. But, with 
 this small misadventure, all went smoothly. I retired to an- 
 other room, where I received the congratulations of the Coun- 
 cil of Ministers, and then my party wended its way back as it 
 came, preceded by another of the Governors of Foreign Af- 
 fiirs, and we arrived at the Legation about noon. Immediate- 
 ly after, Oribeno-no-kami, a second Governor of Foreign Afl'airs, 
 made his appearance with a box carried by eight men — a pres- 
 ent from the Tycoon, with wliich he was specially charged, as 
 a time -honored custom. On the top was a roll of dried iish 
 and sea-weed, tied round by a red and white string made of 
 twisted paper, the only string they use — supposed to be em- 
 blematic of humility, and to remind the Japanese that they 
 were 'once a race of poor fisheimen, and that by temperance 
 and frugality they had risen to greatness, which only by such 
 virtues could be preserved.' The box contr.ined a series of 
 trays, with a variety of the most recherche confectionery, taste- 
 fully arranged in variegated rows and figures. The two Gov- 
 ernors and chii^f interpreter, Moriyama, acce] (ted ray invitation 
 to breakfast, this answering to their usual noon meal, and 
 seemed to enjoy some preserved mutton and green peas, as 
 well as the champagne, and did not even refuse to eat — in 
 courtesy to their host, probably — some remarkably tough beef 
 of Japanese growth. I fear they could make no ])retensions 
 to be considered good Buddhists, nor have I yet nset any of 
 the ofiicial class who do not either feel or affect great con- 
 tempt for any creed but that of Taouists, or some kindred sect 
 of rationalists and skeptics. jMoriyama is an espe(;ial admirer 
 of ale and coffee — the latter a very general taste among all 
 who came to the Legation ; and, indeed, nothing but oppor- 
 tunity is wanting, I fancy, to make the Japanese generally con- 
 sumers of many of our European luxuries — to the great detri- 
 ment, it is to be feared, of the frugality and temperance so 
 earnestly inculcated as the habits of their fishermen ancestors. 
 Perhaps their Rulers are not so far wrong in looking forward 
 with dread to the time when Western civilization and luxu-
 
 CuAi-.XIX.] SPARTAN SIMPLICITY. 339 
 
 ries shall take tlie i)lace of their own more simple habits of 
 life, with no wants but those whieh are easily supplied, and 
 that from their own soil, without the necessity of paying trib- 
 ute to the foreigner. How soon such changes may come it is 
 impossible to say, seeing what marvelous progress has marked 
 the last seven years. Notwithstanding their long and reso- 
 lutely maintained isolation and exclusion, carried even into 
 their political economy, and che-rished in the national mind as 
 their ark of safety and the shibboleth of their independence, 
 the day ha* arrived when a British Minister can take up his 
 residence in the capital, and is received by the Tycoon, not as 
 were the chiefs of the Dutch factory at Decima — long the 
 only representatives of Europe — in the days now long passed, 
 and never, it is to be hoped, to return. There is hope in this, 
 but there is also danger; for when were ever changes so 
 sudden and extreme made without danger and risk of reac- 
 tion? 
 
 I may say, in conclusion, that I was struck with the order 
 and decorum of all I saw within the palace. As things are 
 ordered at the levee, nothing can exceed the general simplicity 
 of the arrangements. The suite of rooms and corridors are 
 unencumbered with a vestige of furniture — a Japanese noble, 
 like his serf or subject, as we know, sitting on his heels and 
 eating off a little lacker tray on legs standing only a few inch- 
 es from the groimd, while both sleej) on the mats of the floor 
 with a pillow of lacker or wood not larger than the head. 
 May they not truly congratulate themselves that they have 
 •well preserved the Spartan simplicity of their ancestors, con- 
 tent with the same simple fire of rice and fish, and requiring 
 no foreign luxuries to al)sorb their wealth or enervate their 
 energies? The rooms, admitting of being opened their whole 
 width and length upon the ample corridors by merely remov- 
 ing the sliding screens, which are the only partitions in a Jap- 
 anese house, allow a great display of officers and attendants 
 in their costumes of ceremony without crowding. Passing 
 through rank after rank of these, mute and motionless as I 
 have described them, suddenly, on some signal apparently, 
 there is a general and long-prolonged sibilated soimd impossi- 
 ble to describe, something between a '■hiss' and a long-drawn 
 ^hish-t? It seems to circulate through the whole building far 
 and near, and to be echoed through all the courts and corri- 
 dors ; and is supposed, I fancy, to indicate some act or move- 
 ment of the Tycoon bespeaking reverence and a hushed atten- 
 tion. It was immediately after one of these rustlings of the 
 breeze of reverence vibrating through the lips of a thousand
 
 340 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 sibilating courtiers, tliat I received the signal to advance to 
 the entrance of the council chamber. I have never seen or 
 heard any thing like it, or, indeed, in the least resembling 
 this strange but impi-essive way of bespeaking profound rev- 
 erence. 
 
 FUSIYAMA FROM THE SOBURBS OF YEDDO. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Change of Scene. — A Pilgrimage to Fiisiyama, and a Visit to the Spas of 
 
 Atami. 
 
 Various motives led me to plan an expedition through the 
 interior of the far-famed sacred mountain, and various causes 
 also delayed ray departure xintil I had some reasons to fear the 
 Japanese Ministers might prove right in their confident pre- 
 dictions that it was too late to accomplish the ascent. August 
 was already past and the first days of September were gliding 
 on, while I was yet engaged in removing the obstacles raised 
 by the Ministers themselves in the first instance, and admira- 
 bly spread over time and space subsequently by their subor- 
 dinates, with a fertility of invention and hardihood of persist- 
 ence which, if it did not secure them success, would, in a bet- 
 ter cause, have entitled them to great praise. 
 
 There are but two months in the year, usually July and 
 August, when the mountain is sufficiently free from snow to 
 permit the ascent. So, at least, the natives assert, who go to 
 this snow-capped and cloud-enveloped shrine of their gods in 
 crowds every year ; and, from my subsequent experience, I 
 should judge the ascent to be well-nigh impossible after any 
 snow has fallen. But, although they go in numbers, strangely 
 enough it is only the poorer classes, to whom, one would sup- 
 pose, both time and money must be the most difficult to com-
 
 CuAP. XX. J RESTRICTED LIBERTY. 341 
 
 mand, while the absence of either would create insurmounta- 
 ble obstacles. But what will not faith and energy, even a pa- 
 gan's faith, accomplish ? It appears, if I may believe the Min- 
 isters, that it is not considered consistent with the dignity of 
 a Daimio, or even an officer of any rank, to make the pilgrim- 
 age, perhaps because too many of the greasy mob must una- 
 voidably come in close (Jontact with them. Be this as it may, 
 it was one of the objections strongly urged by the Ministers: 
 *It was not jBtting in a person of the rank of a British Envoy 
 to make the pilgrimage, limited by custom, if not by law, to 
 the lower classes !' If it be asked why the Ministers were so 
 averse to my giving effect to a plain stipulation of treaties, by 
 which the head of a Diplomatic mission is secured, with right 
 of residence in the capital, the free right to travel all over the 
 empire, I can only reply that there are many reasons apparent 
 enough. But which may have been the most influential of 
 these, or the real objection, is quite another question. No 
 doubt the whole policy of the existing rulers is to limit and 
 restrict, as far as possible, all locomotion of foreigners, and all 
 intercourse, commercial or social, with the natives. The infil- 
 tration of European ideas, principles, and habits of thought, 
 felt to bo antagonistic and subversive of those heretofore prev- 
 alent, is not, in their opinion, a desirable consummation, and, 
 so far as in them lies, it will be prevented. Of this I can have 
 no doubt ; and with this ever-present feeling and guiding prin- 
 ciple, it is not to be wondered at if they have from the begin- 
 ning spared no effort to create impediments, and place the 
 Foreign Representatives especially (who, by treaty and diplo- 
 matic usage, could claim so much more latitude of action than 
 any others) in a sort of moral quarantine. It has only been 
 by a series of well-contested battles, in which much strategy 
 and perseverance has been displayed by the Japanese, and 
 much firmness and determination on the other side has been 
 required, that it has been possible to secure any semblance of 
 liberty in the capital, where, to say the truth, our presence was, 
 and is long likely to be, particularly unpalatable to all the priv- 
 ileged classes. It was first attempted to bar all traveling by 
 land to the port of Kanagawa, some seventeen miles distant. 
 Then, under pressure of alarm at the danger of disaffected per- 
 sons doing us personal injury, it was sought to confine the 
 members of the several Legations for an indefinite time, 'until 
 the country was more quiet,' within the walls of the residences 
 assigned. To this day no Japanese of education or station can 
 pass within the gates, unless actually employed by the Govern- 
 ment. Nor, indeed, can any Japanese servant, workman, or
 
 342 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX 
 
 merchant, without a license, for which, if they have any thing 
 to sell, a black mail is levied.* 
 
 Despite all difficulties, this first attempt of any Foreign Rep- 
 resentative to make the treaty clause securing the right of 
 travel a reality, succeeded, and, on September the 4th, a party 
 of eight started from the British Consulate at Kanagawa, 
 which, being a day's journey on the road, had been made the 
 rendezvous. Besides the permanent staff of the Legation, I 
 had the advantage of being accompanied by Lieutenant Rob- 
 inson, of the Indian navy, provided with a few instruments for 
 the purpose of scientific observations, and a practical botanist 
 in the person of Mr. Veitch, a son of the well-known London 
 liorticulturist. This I deemed especially fortunate, as Sir Wil- 
 liam Hooker had written to say it was an object of great in- 
 terest to botanists to learn something of the mountain vegeta- 
 tion of Japan, and especially Fusiyama, of which nothing ab- 
 solutely was known. I felt it no breach of treaty to attach 
 temporarily to the Legation such provisional members, nor 
 did the Government take any exception, or attempt to limit, 
 in any way, the number of my suite. 
 
 Traveling in Japan, unless as a pedestrian and one of the 
 unprivileged classes, is not altogether a simple matter ; espe- 
 cially is it not so when a large party of Europeans go togeth- 
 er, and intend to be away some weeks. Every additional unit 
 added to the number involves transport and commissariat ar- 
 rangements, which seem to increase, not in arithmetical, but 
 in geometrical rates of progression ! Accordingly, before I 
 mounted myself, I marked with dismay a seemingly endless 
 line of baggage animals, indulging in the most vehement and 
 eccentric protests against their burdens, which boded no good 
 to any thing fragile, and led horses issuing out of the gates 
 accompanied by their keepers. Servants and followers of 
 every denomination, under every imaginable pretext, had, I 
 found, attached themselves, and apparently without limit, to the 
 party. The expedition had evidently risen in popular favor, 
 
 * After the event, it was referred to by writers in the local papers of China 
 and Japan, seldom disposed to see any good in the acts or the motives of of- 
 ficials, as a wanton outrage to the feelings of the Japanese, and a source of 
 danger to foreigners generally ; while others, again, made it a reproach to 
 the British Minister that he himself exercised a privilege which he denied to 
 the rest of his countrymen. Both charges admit of a very simple answer. 
 The right of traveling through tlie empire was secured by treaty to Diplo- 
 matic Agents, and denied to all others ; and the right was stipulated for and 
 insisted upon that it might be exercised^ and thus gradually break down the 
 barriers to free intercourse with the people, and give access to the interior, 
 which it was not judged expedient to attempt by other means.
 
 Chap. XX] 
 
 IMPEDIMENTA. 
 
 343 
 
 
 ^" 'Ssrs^^^-; ,r_!" 
 
 -^i^ 
 
 HOW JAPANESE BEASTS OF BDKDKN cuMluUT THEMSELVES. 
 
 once the objections of tlie autliorities had been pnt aside. To 
 make a pilgrimage to Fusiyama is an act of virtue with the 
 natives, to which deliverance from misfortune and sickness at- 
 taches ; and an opportunity of doing this at my expense in- 
 stead of their own, and enjoying a holiday at the same time, 
 with an additional chance of service and good wages, was alto- 
 gether too much to be resisted. Even the Government officials 
 ordered to accompany me, and my most troublesome impedi- 
 ments in the beginning, at last discovered that I had chosen a 
 propitious time for my expedition, and evinced the greatest 
 alacrity when it became inevitable, and their part of obstruct- 
 ives had been played out. So I was, perhaps, to be considered 
 fortunate, on the whole, that my commissariat did not quite 
 take the proportions of an Indian detachment on a line of 
 march. Although I had especially stipulated for the absence 
 of any paiade, and desired to dispense with an accompanying 
 escort, wishing on all accounts to travel as much as possible in 
 a private capacity, the Government's declared anxiety for my 
 security (along roads they persisted in considering dangerous) 
 made the company of a certain number of officials inevitable. 
 A Vice-Governor, three or four Yaconins (officers of the Gov- 
 ernment entitled to wear two swords), and of course an ' oinet- 
 sky,'' or spy, to watch them, if not me — more probably both — 
 made up my escort. These all being gentlemen of a certain 
 dignity, each had their norimons, with bearers and attendants, 
 the Vice-Governor with unibrella and 8pear-V)carers. These, 
 added to my own, made a cortege of at least a hundred per-
 
 344 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 sons, with more than thirty horses ; and, as my eye followed 
 them along the road nearly as far as I could see, I sighed invol- 
 untarily to think what I was undertaking, having had some ex- 
 perience of traveling in the East, both in its cares and its costs, 
 and under similar conditions of a large following. In truth, it 
 had required some effort on my part to face the inevitable 
 troubles, and without a political object, which I deemed of 
 some importance, I should never, perhaps, have started. But 
 it was a question whether the clause of the treaty giving unre- 
 stricted right of traveling to Foreign Representatives residing 
 in the capital was, like so many other stipulations, to be re- 
 garded as a dead letter to all practical purposes ? It so hap- 
 pened that neither I nor any of my colleagues hitherto had 
 found leisure or inclination to put it to a practical test, and 
 give it effect by undeilaking any expedition. American, 
 Dutch, and Russian agents had, on one or two occasions, trav- 
 eled along the high road, either from Nagasaki or Hakodadi, 
 on their way to and from the capital for purposes of negotia- 
 tion, as the Dutch formerly, to carry tx'ibute ; but a journey in 
 the interior, undertaken for the avowed purpose of recreation 
 and observation, and out of the beaten track, in the exercise of 
 a treaty right, was as yet an unheard-of thing. The difficulties 
 and obstacles I encountered, though not, on the whole, more 
 than experience led me to anticipate, were at least many and 
 tiresome. Sometimes the pleas for delay or abandonment put 
 forward were amusing. At first it was the unsettled state of 
 the country, and the risk of venturing so far from the capital 
 and seat of government ; then it was too late in the season; 
 nay, ' at certain times the mountain opened in huge fissures 
 and swallowed up the incautious traveler.' Even when all 
 hope of absolutely stopping me must have been lost, it was 
 found a great feast, or tnatsuri, was going on, and the roads 
 would be filled with drunken, dissolute characters ; so that, at 
 all Q\eui%, I must defer my departure a/eto days. This con- 
 ceded, the preparations went on, and it was somewhat re- 
 markable that from this moment, having made a good fight 
 and been defeated, they seemed to accept the result as inevita- 
 ble, and 'ate their leek' with no bad grace after all. Indeed, 
 from the hour of my leaving Yeddo to the day of my return, 
 after a month's absence, I met not only with no farther ob- 
 struction, but, to all appearance, every thing was done by the 
 officials and Government to make my journey both pleasant 
 and safe ; this I feel bound in justice to record. 
 
 I have said there was a political object apart from the pleas- 
 ure of getting away from my quasi state prison in Yeddo, and
 
 Chap. XX.] POLITICAL OBJECTS. ^45 
 
 the attractions of so novel an expedition in a new field of ob- 
 servation. The prospect of fine scenery, change of air, and an 
 experience of the sulphur spas of Atarni, with a quiet sojourn 
 by the sea-side, all of which were in the programme, might 
 have been insuflScient. But I wished especially to ascertain 
 for myself whether there was any foundation for the never- 
 failing assertion of the Ministers, that the ' country was in an 
 unsettled state, owing to the increased dearness of every thing, 
 caused by the sudden demands of foreign trade.' I wished to 
 have the opportunity of judging whether the excitement and 
 hostility toward foreigners, in consequence of the newly-con- 
 tracted foreign relations, and departure from the ancient pol- 
 icy of seclusion and isolation, did or did not exist away from 
 the centre of government. And this personal observation 
 could alone supply, while traveling leisurely through the coun- 
 try. Other objects there were also, only to be attained by my 
 own presence. It is true, I ran the risk of encountering disa- 
 agreeable evidences of the power of the Rulers of Japan to 
 verify their own prophecies ; neither did I overlook the cir- 
 cumstance of such a journey ofiering a great temptation to 
 convince me hy facts of the accuracy of the conclusion they 
 were so anxious to impress upon me, namely, that such was 
 the state of public feeling that our own safety, not less than 
 that of the Government, required the quasi sequestration of 
 Foreign Representatives in their respective dwellings, and a 
 farther modification of existing treaties, so far as the opening 
 of additional ports was concerned. But these were risks to be 
 deliberately incurred, in view of the importance of securing 
 some independent means of judgment, or the chance, at least, 
 of doing so, which such an expedition, far from the capital and 
 centre of government, could alone afford. And I had heard so 
 much of this dread hydra which stood in the way of all ad- 
 vance, warning the foreigner oflT, with threatening voice and 
 gesture, that I was strongly moved to take a voyage of discov- 
 ery in pursuit of some more tangible evidence of its existence 
 than had yet been afforded me. 
 
 The route to Fusiyama from Yeddo skirts the coast for some 
 fifty miles, crossing here and there a peninsula. Tlie Tocado^ 
 or high road to the capital already referred to, winding along 
 the coast to Nagasaki and other towns south of Yeddo, was 
 open to us as far as Yosiwara. By this road, all the Daimios 
 whose territories lie south yearly travel to and from the court 
 for a forced residence of six months ; and the mountain pass 
 of Hakoni, through which it leads, is strictly guarded, to pre- 
 vent arms being carried toward the capital, or wife or female 
 
 P2
 
 Ji46 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 child belonging to Daimios passing out from it, as these re- 
 main hostages daring his return to his territory. The day's 
 journey for these magnates of the land, who travel -with an 
 immense retinue of retainers, sometimes several thousand, sel- 
 dom exceeds twenty miles, and more generally fifteen is the 
 limit, or from five to six Mi, a measure of about 4900 yards, or 
 two miles and two thirds. At the several towns at which they 
 usually halt there are a certain number of honjens — houses of 
 entertainment reserved expressly for Daimios and Tycoon's of- 
 ficers, where they put up for the night. These are generally 
 kept by some servant or retainer of the lord of the district, 
 who will either supply the usual food from the kitchen attach- 
 ed, or the traveler's servants can prepare it themselves, or 
 finally purchase it from a neighboring traiteur for their master. 
 These houses are generally spacious, clean — and empty. The 
 clean matted floor supplies at once a seat, a couch, and a table. 
 Wadded counterpanes, and even musquito nets, can generally 
 be supplied for sleeping. 
 
 The principal apartments are at what may be termed the 
 back of the house, situated, as the dwelling always is, entre 
 cow etjardin ; and, whatever the space allotted, a garden of 
 some kind is always to be found. Though only a few square 
 feet sometimes, there will still be a miniature imitation of a 
 wilderness, of dwarfed trees, rock-work, lake, and lawn. These 
 are indispensable in all ; and in some, where the space is less 
 restricted, and the vicinity of mountains aids the artist, there 
 are cascades brought over ledges of rock, subterranean caves 
 with gold and silver fish passing in and out, and trees of every 
 variety of hue and shape, including the pine and yew, bamboo, 
 and a long list of flowering shrubs, among which oranges and 
 camellias are common. Here, away from the noise of the en- 
 trance and the kitchen — the latter always in the vicinity of the 
 former — the traveler may take his rest, and, with very little 
 help from the imagination, believe himself in the midst of a 
 
 spacious garden and grounds, laid 
 out with skill and taste. Imme- 
 diately after arrival the landlord 
 appears in full costume, and, pros- 
 trating himself with his head to 
 the ground, felicitates himself on 
 the honor of receiving so distin- 
 
 guished a guest, begs to receive 
 
 SALUTATION OF MINE HOST. J'^u^ ordcrs, and that you will be 
 pleased to accept a humble oflTer- 
 ing at his hands — generally a little fruit, a iew grapes or or-
 
 Chap. XX.] 
 
 MINE HOST.— KITCHEN. 
 
 347 
 
 anges, occasionally a rope of eggs, that is to say, a row of 
 these, curiously twisted and plaited in to a fine rope of straw. 
 Due thanks having been given, he disappears, and you see no 
 more of him or his servants — if, as usually happens, the guests 
 bring their own, and do not require help — until the foot is in 
 the stirrup, when he makes another formal salutation, with 
 parting thanks and good wishes. I mention these details now, 
 because, once given, they apply to the whole journey ; the 
 house or garden may be a little larger or smaller, the paper on 
 the walls which divides the rooms a little fresher or dingier, 
 but all the essential features are stereotyped, and exactly re- 
 produced from one end of the kingdom to the other. I was 
 frequently puzzled, at a few days' interval, to tell whether I had 
 been in the same quarters before or not, there is so little to in- 
 dividualize either the landlord or the accommodation. 
 
 INTERIOR OF A KITCHEN. 
 
 The kitchen is undoubtedly the best furnished apartment in 
 the house, as may be seen by the ' interior,' with all its acces- 
 sories, drawn from nature. And, in the few glimpses I ever 
 had of these regions, it seemed to me that the presiding god- 
 dess had, if not the best quarters or the highest style of beau- 
 ty, that which both sometimes fail to secure, ' troops of friends' 
 and good cheer, with a capacity for sleep wliich could disponso 
 with all accessories of feather bed and pillows. Nor, iiid h«1,
 
 348 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 is there any room for compassion at the want of these adjuncts. 
 The pillow in the foreground is of the smallest, and must re- 
 quire a tranquil sleeper ; but the wadded quilt supplies a very 
 good cover and bed in one, and the circular paper-shaded night- 
 lamp sheds a soft and soothing light. To the principal apart- 
 ments a bath-room, sometimes two or three, with conveniences 
 of every kind adjoining, maybe invariably counted upon — and 
 models of cleanliness such as are rarely met with out of En- 
 gland, where the bath-rooms themselves, it must be confessed, 
 are far too generally wanting. In these respects the Japanese 
 are in a condition to give lessons to Europe. We always found 
 prepared, on our arrival at the house selected by the oiRcer 
 sent in advance, a bath of hot water and another of cold ; the 
 first to bathe in, and the second for a cold douche on stepping 
 out, to brace up the relaxed fibres. 
 
 At last we were fairly on our way, and our pilgrimage to 
 Fusiyama, ' mons exeelsus et smgvlaris^ as Kcempfer describes 
 it, ' which in beauty, perhaps, hath not its equal.' It may be 
 seen from Yeddo, at a distance of some eighty miles, on a bright 
 summer evening, lifting its head high into the clouds, the west- 
 ern sun setting behind it, and making a screen of gold on which 
 its purple mass stands out in bold relief; or, early in the morn- 
 ing, its glittering cone of snow tipped with the rays of the ris- 
 ing orb ; and in either aspect it is certainly both singular and 
 picturesque, springing abruptly from a broad base into an al- 
 most perfect cone, truncated only at the extreme pinnacle, and 
 towering fir above all the surrounding ranges of hills. To the 
 Japanese, who are any thing but cosmopolitan, it may be the 
 * matchless' for which, as Koerapfer goes on to say, ' poets can 
 not find words, nor painters skill and colors sufficient to repre- 
 sent the mountain as they think it deserves.' 
 
 Our route is pretty accurately laid down in the rough tracing 
 of a native map I sent to the Geographical Society, which, for 
 want of tracing-paper, had been drawn on one of the Japanese 
 oil-paper cloaks we purchased on the way. It may also be 
 seen, on a smaller scale, in the map of Japan at the end of this 
 volume. During the first few days the road lay over a suc- 
 cession of hills of no great height, but from whence fine views 
 were obtained over the cultivated valleys on either side, with 
 a background of mountains to the westward, among which 
 Fusi soars conspicuous in solitary grandeur. We passed 
 through many large villages, and the town of Totsooka, where 
 we halted for breakfast. The second day carried us over a 
 plain skirting the sea, from Foodisawa, where we slept, to Oda- 
 wara, before reaching which we had to cross the River Saki.
 
 Chap. XX.] A MARltORNES.— UEST. 
 
 849 
 
 A JAl'ANi,SJi ilAlillUKNtS. 
 
 WELL-BAAMBD BBST.
 
 S60 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 While yet some distance from the entrance, a guard of honor 
 was sent to meet the party by the Daimio of the territory, and 
 preceded us into the town. Sakigawa is nearly as celebrated 
 in Japanese art and story as Fusiyama, although less frequent- 
 ly the ornament of tea-cups or cabinets. Rude illustrations of 
 both abound, and show, among other things, that the litho- 
 crome process, so recently brought to perfection with us, has 
 long been familiar to them, both in its principle and manipula- 
 tion, blocks of wood only being used instead of stones. 
 
 This river, descending abruptly from the neighboring hills, 
 which are at no great distance, divides into two branches as it 
 approaches the sea, spreading wide across a pebbly bottom. 
 It appears to be subject to such sudden freshes in wet weather, 
 or on the melting of the snow, and to such increase of volume, 
 as well as width on its flat shores, that over one of the branch- 
 es it has been found impossible to maintain a bridge. The 
 consequence is, that, lying across the main road to and from 
 the capital, a large body oi porters — strong, brawny men — in- 
 nocent of all drapery but a loin-cloth, are always in attendance 
 to carry the travelers across — the common sort on their shoul- 
 ders, '■ plck-a-back^^ the dignitaries, male and female, on short 
 platforms borne by six men, with their arms crossed over each 
 other's shoulders for greater steadiness, as depicted in the 
 sketch on the opposite page. It would seem a tolerably lucrar 
 live monopoly; however, it has its drawbacks, for they are 
 made responsible for the safety of their passengers, and if any 
 accident happens to their burdens, they have nothing left but 
 to drown with tliem, for no excuses are taken. Such is the 
 theory and the law ; I can not so confidently speak of the prac- 
 tice. If railroads could only be placed under the same system, 
 excursion trains might, perhaps, travel with safety. Accidents, 
 at all events, are unknown here, partly, no doubt, because, 
 when the waters swell, these experienced men at the ford, in 
 view of their responsibility, and the certainty of no traffic be- 
 ing possible without their aid, refuse the passage ; and it occa- 
 sionally happens that travelers on each side are detained sev- 
 eral days, looking disconsolately at each other from the oppo- 
 site banks. When the Gotairo (the Regent of the kingdom) 
 was slain in the streets of Yeddo, as I have related, by a band 
 of armed men, who cut their way, sword in hand, through his 
 retinue, it is said some of his own vassals in the covmtry had 
 got information of the plot against his life, and followed sharp 
 on the heels of the conspirators ; there was a day's interval, 
 however, between them, and in that day the river became im- 
 passable ! Life and death were hanging on then* speed, but
 
 Chap. XX.] ENTRANCE INTO ODAWARA. 353 
 
 their road was stopped by this impassable ford ; and wlien 
 they reached Yeddo, the catastrophe, which their warning 
 might have averted, was consummated, and their Prince had 
 fallen. 
 
 We were more fortunate, and our stout porters carried us 
 without demur across, though the water was surging round 
 their hips in many places ; but they seemed to know perfectly 
 well where to pick their steps, and, taking us in a zigzag line 
 up the stream, made their way without much difficulty. Our 
 whole party were carried over for eleven itziboos — about 15s. 
 — a large sum in Japan, to be divided amongst some thirty 
 men for a half hour's work ; but it is by no means certain this 
 sum was paid to them. That was the amount charged to us ; 
 whether it ever reached their hands could not be ascertained, 
 as the payment was necessarily made through the attendant 
 officers, and there was at least a great probability of diminu- 
 tion on the way. 
 
 The entrance of such a cavalcade of foreigners was doubtless 
 a great event in all the towns we passed through ; in fact, noth- 
 ing like it could ever have been seen before. And as each 
 roadside village, and even the larger towns, generally consist 
 of one long and seemingly endless street, the news of our ap- 
 proach spread as rapidly and unerringly as the message of an 
 electric telegraph, turning out the whole population as if by a 
 simultaneous shock; men, women, and children — clothed and 
 nude — dogs, poultry, and cats! I think at Odawara no living 
 thing could have been left inside. Such a waving sea of heads 
 seemed to bar our passage, that I began to congratulate my- 
 self (as we had outstripped all our own people) that my un- 
 known friend the Daimio had so courteously supplied me with 
 an escort. I felt some curiosity as to the mode they would 
 take to open a way through the dense mass of swaying bodies 
 and excited heads, which looked all the more formidable the 
 nearer we approached. My guides, however, seemed perfectly 
 unembarrassed, and well they might be, for when within a few 
 steps of the foremost ranks, there was a wave of the fan and a 
 single word of command issued, '■ ShUanXrioP (kneel down), 
 when, as if by magic, a wide path was opened, and everv head 
 dropped, the body disappearing in some marvelous way behind 
 the legs and knees of its owner. Certainly Harlequin's wand 
 or Aladdin's sesame never produced a more sudden or scenic 
 effect. I could not help thinking how much more easily the 
 wonder was wrought and the ])roblom solved than would have 
 been possible in the streets of London. If the magic fan and 
 word could only be imported for the use of our policemen,
 
 354 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 without losing their spell-like effect, there is no saying what 
 amount might be saved in yearly police-rates. I doubt, how- 
 ever, whether an English mob would be as susceptible of the 
 same mesmeric influence? It probably requires a long pre- 
 paratory training — and whether severe or gentle may be a 
 question. 
 
 During both these days, which brought us to the foot of the 
 Hakoni range of mountains, rising some 6000 feet above the 
 sea, nothing could exceed the beauty of the road. Generally 
 a fine avenue of smooth gravel led through a succession offer- 
 tile plains and valleys, where the millet, buckwheat, and rice 
 were all giving promise of rich harvest. A fruitful soil, a fine 
 climate, and an industrious people, make a list which seems to 
 contain nearly all that can be desired for any country in the 
 way of material elements of prosperity, unless they are in the 
 case described in an old legend of Spain, which tells how tSt. 
 Jago, the patron saint of Iberia, went to his Master and begged 
 some special favor for the country he had adopted. And first 
 he asked for a fertile soil, for a fine climate, for brave sons to 
 defend, and fair daughters to grace it, all of which were suc- 
 cessively granted. Emboldened by this success, he asked that 
 they should be blessed with a good Government ; when his 
 Master, according to the Spanish version, either wearied with 
 so much importunity, or in a spirit of justice to other lands by 
 way of compensation for so many rich gifts, replied with em- 
 phasis, ' That was a blessing they would never have !' And the 
 Spaniard will tell you how loyally the word has been kept, and 
 how all other blessings have been neutralized by the want of 
 this one crowning gift! This, however, can hardly be said 
 with truth of Japan, to judge by what I have seen; but an- 
 other and a better occasion will be found hereafter for dealing 
 with this question. 
 
 Reflections on the government and civilization of the Jap- 
 anese press upon the European every step he takes in this 
 land, so singularly blessed in soil and climate, so happy in the 
 contented character and simple habits of its people, yet so 
 strangely governed by unwritten laws and irresponsii)le Rul- 
 ers. I say unwritten ; for, though the Ministers tell me a writ- 
 ten code exists, I have been unable to obtain a copy, and, im- 
 less they misled me, it has never been printed.* A country 
 without either statute, law, or lawyers, does seem an anomaly 
 with a civilization so advanced. Whether the want of the one 
 may be held compensated by the absence of the other, in the 
 
 * I afteisvard succeeded in obtaining a code of printed laws and edicts, 
 whether only a sectional portion or the whole yet remains to be ascertained.
 
 Chap. XX] HAKONI SCENERY. 355 
 
 estimation of the Japanese, I dare not venture to say ; I can 
 only affirm that they seem very well contented without either. 
 If their administration of justice be in many cases sharp, and 
 in all without appeal, it may be better suited to the simple 
 habits and the state of education of the mass, than more elab- 
 orate processes, for which they might find it impossible to 
 supply the proper instruments — processes which, even in more 
 advanced nations, are not without serious drawbacks of inter- 
 minable suits and ruinous litigation, with no small admixture 
 of doubt and uncertainty in the issue. But it is time we pro- 
 ceeded on our journey. 
 
 From Odawara to Missima, the road lies through the mount- 
 ain passes of Hakoni, which are situated near the summit of 
 the range, a distance of about seven leagues, and of as rough 
 mountain roads as can well be conceived. Many are but wa- 
 ter-courses, filled with fragments of rocks for paving-stones, 
 over which it was quite impossible to ride, even with the ad- 
 vantage of the straw shoes of the country. With our iron- 
 shod horses these were found indispensable, and it was difficult 
 work for the Bettos (grooms) to lead them safely across the 
 boulders, even without the encumbrance of a rider, and several 
 had i'alls with manifest danger to their knees. It is almost one 
 continued ascent too, which renders it slow as well as labori- 
 ous work to make much progress. But the scenery would 
 amply repay any fatigue of body. There was much to remind 
 a Swiss traveler of the Oberland in parts, especially the descent 
 to Lauterbrunnen : high wooded hills where the pine predom- 
 inated, fresh green valleys, and a mountain stream winding 
 through the fields at the bottom. But it is less grand in its 
 princijial features. Here are no bare rocks and high-peaked 
 mountains, with their eternal glaciers and mantle of snow. 
 Fewer cascades are to be seen leaping over the precipitous 
 rocks in a sheer descent of a thousand feet. The Scheideck 
 and Wetterhorn, with bare walls towering to the sky, are want- 
 ing; nor is there any rival in all the mountain range of Hakoni 
 to the Jungfrau, with its soaring pinnacle and vast expanse of 
 snow and glacier. The giant of the Bernese chain, it must be 
 confessed, flings into the shade any thing to be seen in Japan. 
 But if its scenery may not compete with the Alps in sublim- 
 ity, there is in lieu far greater variety and richness of vegeta- 
 tion. Here, high up the mountain sides, forests of Pinus deyi- 
 sijlora mingle with the graceful foliage of the Bamboo and 
 the Cryptomeria, which for the first time I saw in its glory as 
 a timber tree. In our descent to the Lake of Hakoni from the 
 summit of the pass, we came upon a fine avenue of these, sev-
 
 356 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. tCHAP. XX. 
 
 eral measuring in girth, three feet from the ground, fourteen 
 and sixteen feet, and standing upward of 150 feet high. The 
 wild hydrangea, with its large flower clusters, lilac, blue, and 
 white, covered the banks side by side with the Scotch thistle. 
 From the valleys to the highest summit, every hill and mount- 
 ain presented one dense mass of luxuriant foliage in trees and 
 shrubs. The oak, the maple, the beech, the alder, and the 
 chestnut, all were here, and in rich autumnal tints. The bot- 
 anist returned laden with many new ferns and other specimens 
 of interest. The Thujopsis dolahrata described by Thunberg, 
 and of which the only specimen in England was, I believe, un- 
 til lately, in the gardens of Mr.Veitch, I looked for with great 
 interest, but must confess I was disappointed in the effect of 
 the tree. Thunberg was so enthusiastic in his admiration that 
 perhaps disappointment was inevitable. It is a noble tree of 
 the pine species, and, with its silver lining, unlike in this and 
 other respects any in Europe. But still it seemed scarcely cal- 
 culated to throw any but a botanist escaping from a sea-girt 
 prison, and the first discoverer, into ecstasies ! I sent several 
 specimens, in Ward's cases, to the Royal Gardens at Kew, and 
 one, a variegated species, not before described, I believe. It 
 was found by Mr. Veitch in the Monastery of Omio, at the 
 foot of Fusiyama, and I immediately secured it, for a consid- 
 eration, from its proprietor, the Superior. On my return to 
 Yeddo, however, I found many others of the same kind, which 
 it seems had escaped my attention, and it has been observed 
 that there is a great disposition in all the vegetation to be- 
 come variegated. That I may not fatigue the reader, howev- 
 er, with a long enumeration of plants and mere botanical 
 names, I have placed in the Appendix some detailed notes, and 
 a list of the most prevalent species observed throughout the 
 expedition, which Mr. Veitch made out from day to day. 
 
 After a three hours' toilsome ascent we reached Yomotz, 
 a little hamlet buried in the mountains, and clustered round 
 some hot saline springs. The common calamity of the coun- 
 try had befallen the villagers, and a fire had reduced the place 
 to ashes. We found them busily engaged in building up the 
 houses anew, and made a very short stay, as the clouds threat- 
 ened rain, and we had still four hours' journey before us even 
 to reach the lake and village of Hakoni. And this was little 
 more than half way to Missima, which lies in the plain beyond 
 the pass, and thither we were bound. A younger member of 
 the party, however, had profited by the halt to plunge into 
 one of the saline baths, and came out even more quickly than 
 he rushed in, quite satisfied that a Japanese skin must be
 
 Chai'. XX.] PARADOXES AND ANOMALIES. 357 
 
 much more tolerant of heat than the Caucasian's, for he 
 emerged as red as a lobster, and much as that martyr to gas- 
 tronomy may be supposed to feel before all feeling is boiled 
 out of him. 
 
 There seemed to be several sources with a saline taste, and 
 the Japanese, who are a race of bathers, come from great dis- 
 tances to take baths. Indeed, the bath-house, as I have had 
 occasion to remark, is an important institution in Japan ; it is 
 what the baths were to the Romans, and what the cafe is to 
 a Frenchman — the grand lounge. Toward the close of the 
 day and the early hours after sunset, in passing along the 
 streets of Yeddo on a summer's evening, at every hundred 
 steps a bath-house is visible. You know their vicinity by 
 the steam escaping through open doors and windows, and the 
 hum of many voices, bass and tenor, in full chorus. And here 
 all the gossip of the neighborhood and town is no doubt ven- 
 tilated. No one is so poor that he can not secure a bath — no 
 one so wretched that this luxury, at least, may not be his. 
 Here, if they have any cares, they seem to forgot them all in 
 the steamy atmosphere, and forming the very oddest assem- 
 blage that can well be conceived. 
 
 Japan is essentially a country of paradoxes and anomalies, 
 where all, even familiar things, put on new faces, and are cu- 
 riously reversed. Except that they do not walk on their heads 
 instead of their feet, there are few things in which they do not 
 seem, by some occult law, to have been impelled in a perfectly 
 opposite direction and a reversed order. They write from top 
 to bottom, from right to left, in perpendicular instead of hori- 
 zontal lines, and their books begin where ours end, thus fur- 
 nishing goo«l examples of the curious perfection this rule of 
 contraries has attained. Their locks, though imitated from 
 Europe, are all niaile to lock by turning the key from left to 
 right. The course of all sublunary things appears reversed. 
 Their day is for the most part our night, and this principle of 
 antagonism crops out in the most unexpected and bizarre way 
 in all their moral being, ctistoms, and habits. I leave to phi- 
 losophers the explanation — I only speak to the facts. There 
 old men fly kites while the children look on ; the carpenter 
 uses his plane by drawing it to him, and their tailors stitch 
 from them ; they motmt their horses from the off-side ; the 
 horses stand in the stables with their heads where we place 
 their tails, and the bells to their harness are always on the hind 
 quarters instead of the front; ladies black their teeth instead 
 of keeping them white, and their anti-crinoline tendencies are 
 carried to the point of seriously interfering not only with grace
 
 358 THREE YEARS m JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 of movement, but with all locomotion, so tightly are the lower 
 limbs, from the waist downward, girt round with their gar- 
 ments ; and, finally, the utter confusion of sexes in the public 
 bath-houses, making that correct which we in the West deem 
 so shocking and improper, I leave as I find it — a problem to 
 solve. 
 
 But if this great institution of the bath be the source of the 
 public opinion — said by the Ministers to exist, and so often in- 
 voked — it rises in dignity as the people's parhament or house 
 of assembly (the only one, certainly, they are permitted), and 
 we may overlook some of its deficiencies of costume and other 
 eccentricities in the contemplation of its political and national 
 uses. It certainly has a recommendation wanting in all other 
 parliaments, of acknowledging to the fullest extent the rights 
 of both sexes, and their equality. Not only is woman not ex- 
 cluded, as in more pretentious parliaments, but their voice is 
 unquestionably heard ! The gentler tenor often prevails over 
 the deep bass of the men ; and the frequent laugh and shrill 
 hilarity of the tone, heard from afai', ought to be a sufficient 
 guarantee to the Government that no deep schemes of treason 
 or sanguinary revolutions are ever discussed, at the same time 
 that it affords a pleasant contrast in other respects to many 
 debates in more solemn places. The sex is the State's protec- 
 tion ; foi", though one woman may plot a deed of vengeance, 
 the history of the world does not furnish an instance of a C07h- 
 spiracy ofwomen^ or of any mixed assembly of men and wom- 
 en, for the enactment of scenes of violence and political convul- 
 sions. Long experience, or a deep insight into human nature, 
 may have given the jealous rulers of Japan full assurance of 
 the fact, and thus have supplied to the vox pojyuli a free vent 
 as a sort of safety-valve, without any of its attendant dangers. 
 Assuredly they would allow no such gatherings of meji alone. 
 If so, they have made a discovery by which Western States 
 may hereafter profit, with such modifications of drapery and 
 costume as our more refined habits would dictate. 
 
 The rain began to descend in torrents as we left the baths 
 of Yomotz, and before we reached the guarded barrier at the 
 entrance of the pass we were all thoroughly drenched and 
 tired. As there was a good honjen just outside the bamer, 
 and picturesquely situated at the edge of the lake, all thought 
 of proceeding farther till the next day was given up, and Lieu- 
 tenant Robinson set to work, to the infinite astonishment of 
 some native attendants, to boil his thermometer ; in other 
 words, to ascertain the height of the lake above the sea, which 
 he duly reported to be 6250 feet. The water boiled at a tem-
 
 Chap. XX.] THE LAKE OF HAKONI.— MISSIMA. 361 
 
 perature of 1 98°, and the aneroid fell to 27-90. The lake itself 
 IS a fine sheet of water, surrounded by hills, and tradition says 
 that it fills tlie extinct crater of a volcano. I was very sorry 
 that no boat could be found to enable us to try and get sound- 
 ings. A boat there was, but in a decayed and leaky condi- 
 tion, which would have required, moreover, a large crew, and 
 not a man was forthcoming. We were assured there v eie no 
 fishermen on the spot, and we could only conclude it was a 
 precaution to prevent the possibility of any one crossing to 
 avoid the pass and its guard at each end. The hills, which 
 come rather steeply down to the water's edge, are covered at 
 the top with a coarse grass, and the highest in tlie immediate 
 vicinity I should not estimate at more than 300 or 500 feet, 
 so near the summit of the range is the level of the lake. I 
 made a sketch on the spot, here rejjroduced, which tolerably 
 faithfully shows the general features of the secluded spot. 
 
 The following morning the rain had passed away, and we 
 took the road to Missima in the plain, passing through the 
 second barrier, where, as at the first — warned of our approach, 
 no doubt, and the exemption from all search or detention 
 claimed as due to Her Majesty's Envoy — the whole party 
 were allowed to pass without question. Somewhat to our 
 surprise, we found an ascent of more than an hour V)efore we 
 reached the highest point beyond the pass, from whence a 
 beautiful view was gained of the plain below, stretching away 
 to the sea, and dotted over with towns and hamlets, chiefly on 
 the banks of a winding stream fringed with evergreens. The 
 view down the mountain side to the valley and sea beyond, 
 basking in sunshine, was most picturesque in effect. Evi- 
 dtnces of agricultural wealth were broadcast. Not only the 
 fields were covered with crops waving to the harvest, but 
 many of the hills to the right and left were also cultivated in 
 terraces nearly to the summit ; and where neither rice nor 
 maize could be grown, timber with luxuriant foliage and of 
 great variety succeeded. 
 
 We halted, just before we made our last descent, at one of 
 the wayside sheds, which are to be met with at short distances 
 along the main road every where in Japan, I believe, certainly 
 in that part of it along which we traveled. In these the poor- 
 est traveler, if he have but a few cash (integral parts of a 
 farthing), may get a meal served with coui'tesy, which will 
 keep him from exhaustion for many hours — a sweet potato, 
 steaming hot, a fried fish, and a cup of tea ; or, if he seeks 
 lighter diet, any fruit that is in season — a bunch of grapes or a 
 slice of watermelon, red and luscious as it lies invitingly under
 
 862 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 the shade. If utterly destitute, without one cash, he may still 
 have vest, a seat, aua a cup of pure fresh water, though the 
 latter has often to be brought from a great distance. Surely 
 it says much for the people where such provision for the least 
 wealthy aijd most needy classes is made, and, with scanty profit, 
 is so kindly extended to all. It furnishes a strong argument, 
 also, against the Government which seeks to convince the For- 
 eign Representatives of the dearness of the commonest articles 
 of consumption. They are dear only when Foreigners require 
 them, as I had occasion to know, to my cost, during the whole 
 of my residence in the country. We halted here, partly tempt- 
 ed by a larg;' melon which turned its deep red honeycomb to- 
 ward us, and partly to ascend a natural platform by the side, 
 round which some seats were placed, that the traveler might 
 drink in refreshment by the eye as well as by the lips. It 
 overlooked the whole glorious plain, with the spurs of wooded 
 hills projecting in wavy lines, as though still washed by the 
 sea, where very evidently it had once been, fretting at their 
 base. Hei-e we ate I should be afraid to say how many boun- 
 tiful slices of the great melon, rendered more delicious by two 
 hours' hai-d walking, with a hot sun overhead. The road so 
 far had offered little inducement to ride, it was so rough and 
 steep, whether in ascent or descent. The silver itziboo (value 
 about Is. 6d.) which I gave in payment for what would not 
 have been charged more than a tempo (a fifteenth of that mod- 
 erate sum), was given in the hope that it might make some 
 amends for many smaller profits during the day. The exceed- 
 ing cheapness of things whenever we happen, as in that case, 
 to be out of reach of government officers and escort, and to 
 get at the real price, does not tend to improve the temper 
 under barefaced imposition. On descending the plain, from 
 whence they are brought at great labor, there was a demand 
 for melons ; and we were told, first, that there were none ; and 
 then that a single melon would cost the price for which six- 
 teen could have been bought on the hill ! This befell us at 
 Missima, where we rested for the night. The people have 
 many virtues, but a long experience has only brought to light, 
 in the official class, in connection with foreigners, many vices'/ 
 and that of plundering those unhappily committed to their 
 charge is among the first, and, I fear, the most incorrigible. 
 As for mendacity, one does not expect impossibilities or mir- 
 acles of virtue, especially in the East ; and truth is apparently 
 one of the things only to be got at their hands by torture or 
 miracle. It is their business to conceal the truth from for- 
 eigners in all cases. They are given to romancing (not to use
 
 Chap. XX.] JAPANESE CHARACTER. 86d 
 
 harsh words) by vocation^ therefore a sense of duty, and I am 
 afraid it must also be said taste and inveterate habit, all tend 
 the same way. One often sighs involuntarily, with a weary 
 feeling of utter hopelessness, when life or important interests 
 may be at stake, while the exclamation rises to the lips, ' Oh 
 for a gleam, a single ray of truth' — ' a hap'orth of bread to this 
 unconscionable quantity of sack P Russell Lowel never can 
 have been in Japan, or he would not have talked of 
 
 The agony 
 Of wearing all day long a lying face ! 
 
 As certain physical characters of race are transmissible from 
 generation to generation, and with them certain moral features, 
 so with the Japanese this proclivity to lying must have com- 
 pletely taken the place of any original constitution. And yet, 
 withal, he has many traces of something higher and better in 
 his nature. The same poet supplies a description much more 
 apposite, and we might truly say. 
 
 He had been noble, but some great deceit 
 Had turned his better instinct to a vice. 
 
 A chivalric disdain of life, and readiness to incur death in any 
 shape rather than dishonor, the origin of the Jfara-kiru, is a 
 striking feature in their character. But it is evidently easier 
 to them to make an incised wound into their stomach than to 
 speak the truth. If any one is in danger of forgetting how 
 precious a bond of society this is, he has only to come to Ja- 
 pan, and live where it is wholly unknown. 
 
 Missima is a large, populous town, and the same dense mass 
 of crowds greeted our entrance as at Odawara and every oth- 
 cs- considerable place. But the magic word in the mouth of 
 the Daimios' officers never failed in effect; nor did the escort 
 ever fail us either, for the party had attended us on foot the 
 whole way over the mountains, and only left us the next day, 
 after seeing us safely out of the town. So, as we apj)roached 
 our next lesting-place, Yoshvara, another of the ' Seigneurs,' in 
 whose territory it lay, appeared to have been carefully apprised 
 of our approach, and we found an escort a mile or two in ad- 
 vance waiting to conduct us to our quarters ; and the same at- 
 tention was received every where throughout the journey.* 
 
 From Missima we liad passed through the towns of Noo- 
 MADS and II Ann A, each about a league apart, and plainly to be 
 seen from the heights of Hakoni. From thence to Yosiwara, 
 
 • An attention, or a precaution to prevent straying from the Imperial 
 high road, as, on my second and longer jouniey, I had occasion to conrince 
 myself.
 
 364 TttREE YEARS lU JAPAN. tCnAP. XX. 
 
 still on the plain, is about three leagues, and here we were to 
 take our leave of the Tocado. 
 
 The route to Fusiyania here turns off, and leads by cross 
 roads to Omio and Mooriyama, two hamlets, which are situ- 
 ated at the foot of the mountain, where some important tem- 
 ples and monasteries are giouped. In the evening a deputa- 
 tion was announced from the Superior of the fraternity at 
 Omio, sent to salute me and convey a request that the temple 
 might be my resting-place for the folloMing night ; with many 
 flattering expressions, significant of the desire of their head to 
 have so distinguished an honor as to entertain the Minister of 
 Great Britain, no one of such rank, Foreigner or Japanese, 
 having ever traveled to that region, with much more to the 
 same effect. Considering they had come a long day's journey 
 on foot, through nmd and rain, to offer me such hospitality, 
 the least I could do was to assure them I would not fail, either 
 in going or retui'ning, to show the attention was appreciated, 
 by taking up my quarters with them ; not, I confess, without 
 some misgiving lest I should be laying myself open to the re- 
 proach of ignorance in the ' rites and ceremonies' of well-bred 
 natives, so humorously related by the Abbe Hue in his travels 
 in China. A country cousin, coming unexpectedly from a great 
 distance, was invited to dine, and, after waiting some hours 
 and seeing no signs of the meal, he suggested it was getting 
 late, when his relation and host burst into a torrent of abuse. 
 * What ! are you so ignorant and so rustic as not to know that 
 it was my duty to ask you, but, by the same rites and cere- 
 monies, you were bound to refuse ?' The three shaven bonzes, 
 with sandaled feet, but two swords in their belts, were with 
 difiiculty induced to raise their heads and bodies to something 
 like an upright posture, and take their leave. 
 
 It had rained heavily nearly all day, and most of the party, 
 enveloped in extemporized joowcAos and leggins, manufactured 
 of the oil-paper cloaks of the country, and some with the still 
 more common straw coats of the peasants, it is to be feared 
 presented rather an incongruous appearance as they traversed 
 the town, preceded by an escort of Daimios' officers, and paced 
 slowly through its interminably long streets. But for the 
 weather the road would have been very enjoyable. It was 
 one continued avenue bordered by cryptomeriae — the cedar of 
 Japan, as it has been not very correctly styled, for it is not a 
 cedar. A loud roar of breakers reached the ear, softened by 
 its passage through a narrow belt of pines, which drew scanty 
 nourishment from the sand dunes that separated us from the 
 edge of the bay. Being as wet as it was possible to be, instead
 
 Chap. XX.J YOSIWARA.— GALE.— MOURIYAMA. 367 
 
 of halting as intended for a midday meal and rest at Hara, we 
 pushed on, to the utter confusion and disgust of cooks, Yaco- 
 nins, and all the host of followers, who, never counting upon 
 the possibility of a change in the order of march, had already 
 got in and begun to make themselves comfortable. I have no 
 doubt comparisons, by no means to our advantage, were drawn 
 between us, with our independent aud erratic proceedings, and 
 a Japanese Magnate, whose progress never exceeds two or 
 three miles an hour, and who otherwise is quite above sudden 
 changes, and a three leagues' ride through the pelting rain. 
 We had not long been safely housed in Yosiwara when signs 
 of a coming tempest were evident, and about ten o'clock at 
 night a furious gale set in, with torrents of rain, and soon 
 showed by its veering round the compass that a typhoon was 
 sweeping its fatal circles along the coast. We all thought of 
 the ' Camilla' and her gallant crew, one of H. M.'s ships, which 
 to all calculation ought even then to be near Atami, at the en- 
 trance of the Bay of Yeddo, where the commander, Captain 
 Colville, was to call on his way from Hakodadi. 
 
 A sad foreboding came upon more than one of the party, 
 only too truly verified in the sequel. The ' Camilla' left Hako- 
 dadi September 2, with one of the Government interpreters 
 and a British merchant as passengers on board, and neither 
 ship, commander, nor crew have ever been heard of since. 
 Either in the storm of the 2d, or in this of the 9th, she must 
 have gone down, with 130 men in the pride of their strength. 
 
 Here we remained at the foot of Fusiyama, as seen in the 
 sketch, and the next morning was still sufficiently boisterous to 
 deter us from an early start. The aneroid had fallen to 29-50. 
 But about two o'clock in the afternoon, the baggage having 
 been dispatched, we started for Ohio, the nearest of the tem- 
 ple monasteries, paid a short visit of ceremony and thanks, and 
 passed on to MoaHyama^ the last inhabited place on our way. 
 Great preparations had been made for the party, and extra bath 
 and stable accommodation run up. The inner sanctum of the 
 temple itself, with its altars, had been divided into two and 
 screened off, to give the Minister a separate room, and the 
 chief priest himself was so profoundly impressed with the dig- 
 nity of his guests, that we began to wonder whether he would 
 ever be induced to stand up on his feet again. A hot tub and 
 a cold douche after it soon refreshed us all. I say a tub, for 
 such it is, and I began to admire the economy of space and 
 other advantages it possesses over the long slipper-bath. About 
 four feet deep, oval in shape, and just long enough to let an 
 adult sit down with his knees very close to his chest, as is the
 
 368 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 Japanese habitual mode, less water is required to warm the 
 whole body, and less space for the bath. In many a copper 
 tube is fixed in at the end, with a grating at the bottom, into 
 which a handful of charcoal is thrown, and in an hour a hot 
 bath is ready. Some such appliance as this would be a great 
 comfort, and in sickness a blessing in many an English home, 
 when to get a hot bath in a sick-room is a work for the whole 
 household. A section of one of these baths was sent to the 
 Geographical Society, to show how simple and easy the sys- 
 tem is. In Italy a double copper cylinder, removable at pleas- 
 ure, is used instead, and by either process great facilities may 
 be gained in the most economical way. The Japanese, indeed, 
 have a perfect genius for attaining the most useful ends with 
 the smallest expenditure of material, and by the simplest means 
 — no small merit. For instance, at the various honjens where 
 we stopped for the night, we should have been devoured by 
 the musquitoes had the landlords not come to our rescue by 
 the simplest of all contrivances — a musquito curtain, open at 
 the bottom, made up in the shape of a parallelogram, is let 
 down over the mat (6 feet by 3) selected by the sleeper, a cord 
 is run from each of the four upper corners (into which a sort 
 of eyelet-hole has been worked), and four nails driven in enable 
 a servant to suspend it. Beneath this the persecuted martyr 
 creeps, tucking the sides and ends under his cotton quilt or 
 mattress, and he may then sleep undisturbed by any thing that 
 flies. So our hospitable Superior had evidently tried his in- 
 genuity to invent impromptu seats for Europeans, who can not 
 sit upon their heels like other men, or even squat on the mats 
 with their legs tucked under them, and it was amusing to see 
 by what simple means he had succeeded. Half a dozen small 
 tubs, a plank nailed over each, and over that a cotton quilt 
 doubled into a cushion, materials at hand and in daily use, and 
 we were all seated like Christians at a minimum of cost to our 
 host. Unluckily, the table only reached our knees when thus 
 elevated ; but nobody can be equal to so many new exigencies 
 in travelers ! So we lowered our bodies to the mats and used 
 the stools for our elbows, imitating the Roman habit of eating 
 reclining, and managed to eat, and drink too, without difficulty. 
 The next morning anxious inquiries were made very early 
 as to the weather ; and the announcement that it was fine, and 
 the ascent practicable, roused the whole pai-ty soon after day- 
 break. The horses were promptly saddled for the last stage 
 up the lower slopes. Three martial-looking priests, ' yoboos,'' 
 were told ofiT for our guides, and a few strong yamabooshe, 
 *men of the mountain,' took our railway rugs and a few stores,
 
 Chap. XX.] HAKIMONDO.-ATAMI. 369 
 
 in the shape of coffee, rice, and biscuit, wherewith to sustain us 
 during the two days and nights to be occupied in the ascent 
 and return. 
 
 At first our way led through waving fields of corn, succeeded 
 by a belt of high rank grass ; but soon we entered the mazes of 
 the Avood, which clings round the base and creeps high up the 
 sides of the mountain, clothing the shoulders of the towering 
 peak, like the shaggy mane of a lion, with increased majesty. 
 At first we found trees of large growth, goodly trunks of the 
 oak, the pine, and the beech, and came upon many traces of the 
 fui-y with which the typhoon had swept across. Large trees 
 had been broken short off", and others uprooted. One of these, 
 broken off", had been thrown right across our path, and com- 
 pelled us either to scramble over or creep under its massive 
 trunk. At Hakimondo we left the horses, and the last trace 
 of permanent habitation or the haunts of men. Soon after the 
 wood became thinner and more stunted in growth, while the 
 beech and birch took the place of the oak and pine. Just be- 
 fore we entered the forest-ground a lark rose on the wing, the 
 first I had ever seen or heard in Japan. Before we left the 
 belt of wood we heard many stories of the wild animals to 
 which it gave shelter. Surprised at the number, an appeal was 
 made to the Japanese officer attached to us as interpreter : 
 ' Oh ! certainly, quite true ; only there are millions.^ And noth- 
 ing could shake his testimony ; but this is not the first time 
 we have observed the absence of all definite notions of number 
 beyond a few hundreds. I am satisfied, when the Ministers 
 were told we had exacted eight million taels of silver from the 
 Chinese, that they merely knew we intended to convey the idea 
 of having demanded a very heavy sum. 
 
 Whatever may be the ferm naturae in this region, there is 
 no doubt a large area of jungle and forest to give cover. At 
 Atami, later, we saw frequent traces of the boar; deer must 
 be plentiful also, since even to a foreigner the price of a large 
 stag docs not exceed twenty-five shillings at Yokohama. We 
 soon lost all traces of life, however, vegetable or animal. A 
 solitary sparrow or two — the most universal of all birds, it 
 would seem — alone flitted occasionally across our path. In 
 the winding ascent over the rubble and scoria? of the mount- 
 ain, which alone is seen after ascending about half way, little 
 huts or eaves, as these resting-places are called, partly dug out 
 and roofed over to give refuge to the pilgrims, appeared. 
 There are, I think, eleven from Jlakimondo to the summit, and 
 they are generally about a couple of miles asunder. In one of 
 these we took up our quarters for the night, and laid down 
 
 Q2
 
 370 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XX. 
 
 our rugs, too tired to be very delicate. Nevertheless, the cold, 
 and the occupants we found former pilgrims had left, precluded 
 much sleep. Daylight was rather a relief, and after a cup of 
 hot coffee and a biscuit, we commenced the upper half of the 
 ascent. The first part, after we left the horses, had occupied 
 about four hours' steady work, and we reached our sleeping- 
 station a little before sunset, lava and scoriae every where 
 around. The clouds were sailing far below our feet, and a 
 vast panorama of hill and plain, bounded by the sea, stretched 
 far away. We looked down upon the summits of the Hakoni 
 range, being evidently far above their level, and we could dis- 
 tinctly see the lake lying in one of the hollows. The last half 
 of the ascent is by far the most arduous, growing more steep 
 as each station is passed. The first rays of the sun just touch- 
 ed with a line of hght the broad waters of the Pacific as they 
 wash the coast when we made our start. The first station 
 seemed very near, and was reached within the hour ; but each 
 step now became more difiicult. The path, if such the zigzag 
 may be called which our guides took, often led directly over 
 fragments of out-jutting rocks, while the loose scoriae prevent- 
 ed firm footing, and added much to the fatigue. The air be- 
 came more rarefied, and perceptibly affected the breathing. At 
 last the third station was passed, and a strong effort carried us 
 to the fourth, the whole party by this time straggling at long 
 intervals. This was now the last between us and the summit. 
 It did not seem so far until a few figures on the edge of the 
 crater furnished a means of measurement, and they looked 
 painfully diminutive. The last stage, more rough and precipi- 
 tous than all the preceding, had this farther disadvantage, that 
 it came after the fatigue of all the others. More than an hour's 
 toil, with frequent stoppages for breath and rest to aching legs 
 and spine, were needed ; and more than one of our number 
 felt very near the end of their strength before the last step 
 placed the happy pilgrim on the topmost stone, and enabled 
 him to look down the yawning crater. This is a great oval 
 opening, with jagged lips, estimated by Lieut. Robinson, Avith 
 such means of measurement as he could command, at about 
 1100 yards in length, with a mean width of 600, and is proba- 
 bly about 360 in depth. Looking down on the other side, 
 which had a northern aspect, there seemed a total absence of 
 vegetation, even on the lower levels, and the rich country we 
 had left was completely hid by a canopy of clouds drifting far 
 below. Water boiled at 184° of Fahr. The estimated height 
 of the edge of the crater above the level of the sea was 
 13,977 feet, and the highest peak 14,177. At our resting-
 
 Chap. XX. / 
 
 FUSIYAMA.— PILGRIMS. 
 
 3V3 
 
 place on the top ol Fusiyama, the latitude was calculated 35° 
 21' N., longitude 138° 42' E. Variation of compass at ditto 
 3° 2' W. Temperature of air in sun at noon 54° Fahr. 
 
 The Japanese, who perform this pilgrimage from religious 
 motives, are generally dressed in white garments, which they 
 are careful to have stamped with various mystic characters 
 and idols' images by the bonzes located there during the sea- 
 son for that purpose. And on the sleeves of many of the pil- 
 grims scallop-shells appear — a strange coincidence which I 
 have never been able to explain. The origin of the pilgrimage 
 is traced back to an ancient date, when a holy man, the found- 
 er of the Sintoo religion (apparently the oldest in Japan), took 
 up his residence in this mountain ; and, since his death, his 
 spirit is still held to have influence to bestow health and vari- 
 ous other blessings on those who made the pilgrimage in hon- 
 or of his memory. 
 
 PILGRIMS ON THE BOAD. 
 
 The volcano has long been extinct ; the latest eruption re- 
 corded was in 1707. The tradition is that the mountain itself 
 appeared in a single night from the bowels of the earth, a lake 
 of equal dimensions making its appearance near Miaco at the 
 same hour. The time actually spent in climbing up to the 
 summit was about eight hours, but the descetJt occupied little 
 wore than three. We slept two nights on the mountain, and
 
 374 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXL 
 
 had greatly to congratulate oiuselves on the weather, having 
 fallen upon the only two fine days out of six that were not bad, 
 and escaped the typhoon while safely housed at the foot. As 
 we descended on the last morning there was a thick Scotch 
 mist, which soon changed into a drenching rain. We only 
 found patches of snow here and there near the summit, but on 
 our return to Yeddo, three weeks later, we saw it completely 
 covered. 
 
 "We had thus succeeded in visiting the ' matchless' mountain 
 in the only interval of fine weathei*, before the setting in of 
 winter would have made it impossible. The prediction of the 
 Ministers that we were too late was thus very near indeed 
 being verified ; but, like many other prophets of evil, they did 
 much themselves to make it come to pass. From Kanagawa 
 I heard that, when they were visited by the typhoon there, the 
 report was circulated that it was a sign of the anger of the 
 gods at the foreigner profaning the sacred precincts of their 
 stormy home. But I am by no means certain this was not of 
 foreign invention, for neither during the journey thither, nor 
 among the bonzes at the temples there, did we perceive the 
 slightest indication of jealousy, or a disposition to consider the 
 visit as an intrusion on our part, and a desecration. Nor do I 
 believe any feeling of this kind existed among the Japanese. 
 So, in like manner, some one told Admiral Hope that, in conse- 
 quence of the British Minister traveling along the Tocado, the 
 Tycoon was precluded using it to pay a visit to the Mikado, as 
 it would require to be broken up after such a desecration and 
 remade. I made some inquiries on the subject among the Jap- 
 anese, and all denied any knowledge of law, custom, or tradi- 
 tion which could aflford foundation for such a report ; and on 
 Moriyama's coming to England with me, I satisfied myself it 
 was purely an invention of foreign origin, and somewhat too 
 readily credited and embodied in the dispatches of the Admi- 
 ral. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Snlphnr Springs of Atami. — Village Life in Japan. — Paper Manufac- 
 tory. — The Moxa. 
 
 We left our hospitable quarters at Omio on the morning of 
 the 13th September. The rain that pursued us down the low- 
 er slopes of Fusiyama still continued, but I determined to push 
 forward, and accordingly, about nine o'clock, we mounted oiir
 
 Chap. XXI.] ROAD TO ATAMI.— AN OBSTACLE. 375 
 
 horses, and, passing through Yosiwara, arrived at Harra for a 
 noonday meal, fortunate in having had only a few passing 
 showers to encounter. 
 
 We left Harra again for Missima at 6 P.M., and had a beau- 
 tiful ride along a sanded avenue, through Noomads, and by 
 the banks of a fine river, running strong and fast between 
 steep banks. We were met by two detachments in succession 
 of Daimios' officers, and accompanied by them a considerable 
 distance. As we passed the entrance to each of the residen- 
 ces, an officer sat in state at the gate, as the representative of 
 his lord, surrounded by numerous attendants, with whom a 
 salutation of courtesy was exchanged. Thus honored with es- 
 corts and Yaconins, we pursued our way through the avenues 
 of pines and cryptomerias, and the smoothest of roads, little 
 dreaming that any thing else was in store for us. We had, 
 however, hardly taken leave of our last escort — the two Jap- 
 anese officers of my own party, always sent in front to prepare 
 quarters, being an hour in advance, and the rest, with all our 
 servants, far behind — when, at a turn of the road, we came 
 suddenly on the broad river so lately admired as it ran be- 
 tween deep banks nearly parallel with the road, but which now 
 lay across our path, swelled with the rains and overflowing its 
 banks. The bridge we had crossed in coming only appeared 
 somewhere about the middle of the heavy stream, which poured 
 its waters tumultuously over all obstacles. Night was coming 
 on, swiftly too, as is its wont here, and only a single groom 
 and his ' help' were on the spot of all our people. A few noisy 
 villagers were there, but showed no sort of desire to assist us 
 in the dilemma, and were, besides, not very intelligible. I 
 could not help being struck and half amused with the sudden 
 contrast. But half an hour before escorted with every mark 
 of honor and respect, and now almost alone on the banks of a 
 river rushing wildly and menacingly across our path, with a 
 fair chance of being swept into its boiling eddies and drowned, 
 one and all of us, like stray cattle, in the attempt to make our 
 way across. Instant decision was necessary. That, indeed, 
 was the only thing quite clear ; either we must go back, witli 
 the risk of the mischief increasing and being detained two or 
 three days, or else face the danger, whatever it might be, and 
 make good our passage. One of the grooms tried to lead a 
 horse across, and having finally succeeded, with the help of a 
 native who knew the locality, not without some difficulty and 
 risk to both, I got rid of my heavy accoutrements and cloak, 
 and tried my fate. It was rather nervous work — already dark, 
 the waters increasing each moment and rushing past with
 
 376 THREE YEARS IN JAPAK. [Chap. XXt. 
 
 great velocity, every thing depended on the footing, which, of 
 course, could not be seen. The bridge, however, was gained 
 by all with safety, and the whole party ' quitte pour la peur,* 
 and a partial ducking, were enabled to mount their horses on 
 the other side. But it was now pitch dark, and one of the 
 steeds seemed perversely bent on plunging back into the riv- 
 er, out of which he certainly would never have made his way 
 again alive. After groping our way up an abrupt ascent and 
 over some rough road for a short time, we were finally met by 
 a party of the Municipal authorities of Missima, who came with 
 lanterns and jingling staves to escort us in, now that it was 
 ascertained we had not been drowned in fording the river! 
 The accident caused no small detention to the baggage, so that 
 it was late before we settled down, got dry things and some- 
 thing to eat in our old quarters, which we were not sorry to 
 regain. After the meal had been dispatched, and we were all 
 grouped about, talking over the adventure in its various inci- 
 dents, serious and comic, one of the party hajjpened to raise 
 his eyes to the ledge just above his head, and, within a few 
 inches of him, saw the head of a fine snake, the body curled 
 into a sort of lover's knot. The proximity was too close to be 
 pleasant, notwithstanding the general harmlessness ascribed to 
 the snake species in Japan as in China, and there was an im- 
 mediate demand for some weapon ; at last a whip was pro- 
 duced, but he had already begun to make his exit through the 
 bars of a grated opening into the balcony, and, with only some 
 damage to his tail, he made good his escape. This closed our 
 day's adventures, and soon every body was stretched on the 
 mats, under their niusquito curtains, and fast asleep. 
 
 The next day, September 14, we mounted early, with beau- 
 tiful weather, and took our way across the mountainous penin- 
 sula which separates Missima from the sea-coast. We first 
 crossed a broad valley beautifully diversified with clumps of 
 trees, hedgerows, and winding rivulets. Nothing could be 
 richer than the soil, or the teeming variety of its produce. 
 The whole plain was surrounded by an amphitheatre of culti- 
 vated hills, and beyond were mountains stretching higher and 
 farther, with a shaggy mantle of scrub and pine. Little snug- 
 looking hamlets and homesteads were nestled among the trees 
 or under the hills, and here and there the park walls, and 
 glimpses of the avenues leading to Daimios' country residen- 
 ces appeared. Much has been heard of the despotic sway of 
 the feudal lords, and the oppression under which all the labor- 
 ing classes toil and groan ; but it is impossible to traverse 
 these well-cultivated valleys, and mai*k the happy, content-
 
 Chap. XXL] ROAD TO ATAML— LARGE TREE. 377 
 
 ed, and well-to-do-looking populations which have their home 
 amid so much plenty, and believe we see a land entirely ty- 
 rant-ridden, and impoverished by exactions. On the contrary, 
 the impression is irresistibly borne in upon the mind that Eu- 
 rope can not show a happier or better-fed peasantry, or a cli- 
 mate and soil so genial or bounteous in their gifts. The rich- 
 est proprietor in this district of Idzoo was the same who fur- 
 nished our first guard of honor through his domains — Agawa 
 Farozayamang by name, and he is not a Daimio. We were 
 told that he had. refused to be ennobled, that he might escape 
 the penance of a yearly visit and residence at Yeddo, with oth- 
 er burdens. One could not but approve his taste ; and as I 
 passed the gates that led up to his house between a double row 
 of noble pine-trees, I thought he might easily find much in his 
 country life to compensate him for the barren honors and bur- 
 densome dignities which the Tycoon has in his gift, and fig- 
 ured to myself an existence not unlike that of a wealthy land- 
 owner in England, whose pleasure it is to spend his days on 
 his own estates and among his tenants. The variety of the 
 produce through the breadth of the valley was gi'eat. Inter- 
 spersed among fields of waving rice ripening to the harvest 
 were many plots of tobacco and cotton ; the brinjall, or egg 
 fruit, excellent in curries ; the succulent aram, with its lotus- 
 like leaf, and the sweet potato, all were here ; while the per- 
 simmon with its ricsh red fruit, and the orange-trees with their 
 golden produce, were grouped round the different hamlets and 
 villages. As we passed out of the valley into an opening 
 winding far among the hills, we came upon a little village half 
 hid by a mass of fine cryptomerias rising a hundred feet or 
 more in a straight stem. One of these we measured, and found 
 it to be exactly 16 feet 3 inches in girth. Penetrating farther 
 up the gorge, the banks were bright with the wild pink hy- 
 drangeas ; and as we ascended higher and higher, the harebell, 
 with its graceful flower, appeared every where. When we 
 gained the higher ridges, the views each step disclosed, look- 
 ing backward across the valley and toward the sea, were in- 
 describably picturesque, and sometimes grand in their frame- 
 work of wooded hills and terraced mountains. In the heart 
 of the mountain regions we came upon a pretty secluded vil- 
 lage of about a hundred houses, and were met at the entrance 
 by the Otono, or mayor, and his staff, by whom we were courte- 
 ously entreated to dismount and rest. I did not feel disposed 
 to stop, but Mr. Eusden, the secretary, was behind, and, as I 
 had anticipated, he gladdened the oificial by resting and par- 
 taking of his refreshment. In passing through these mountain
 
 378 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXI, 
 
 districts we occasionally came upon groups of peasantry, evi- 
 dently collected from all the surrounding hamlets for the pur- 
 pose of seeing the strangers, perhaps the greatest novelty of 
 their lives. There they sat on some knoll or small hillock by 
 the roadside, or kneeling on their mats, waiting patiently the 
 uncertain hour of our arrival. I hope so much perseverance 
 did not go without its reward in the gratification they experi- 
 enced. There is always some pleasure in accomplishing an 
 object for which we have made either eifort or sacrifice, even 
 if the object prove, on better knowledge, little worth the trouble 
 taken. It is well it shoiald be so, for we make so many false 
 estimates of value, and bad calculations as to the final cost, as 
 well as the true worth of mundane things, that, but for this 
 redeeming condition, there would be a serious increase to the 
 pains and penalties of a life's errors. 
 
 The descent was rather trying to the horses, and in parts 
 very steep, but for several miles the worst places had evidently 
 been quite recently put under repair, and apparently for us, 
 since this is not a route any Japanese of rank was very likely 
 to travel. About noon we came in sight of the little town of 
 Atami, lying in a narrow gorge close to the shore, and from 
 the centre of the houses, in two or three places, we saw a great 
 jet of steam from the mineral springs. About half a mile ofi" 
 the officials of the place met us to form our escort, and about 
 noon we were ushered into the principal bathing establishment, 
 generally reserved for Daimios and their families, and were 
 agreeably surprised to find it far superior in accommodation 
 to any thing we had ventured to anticipate. Not only was 
 there a range of half a dozen roomy baths filled direct from the 
 source, steaming and boiling within the court-yard of the house, 
 but a suite of apartments of good size opened on to a perfect 
 specimen of a Japanese garden ; and a broad flight of steps to 
 the right led to a couple of rooms on a first floor, with a bal- 
 cony commanding a beautiful view of the sea. In these I be- 
 gan immediately to install myself A low table formed a bed- 
 stead for my air bed. My musquito curtain was stretched over 
 it, and in a few hours another of the same tables, with legs two 
 feet higher, was knocked up. One of Brown's portable easy- 
 chairs, which are heartily to be commended and recommended, 
 a small folding table, and two or three camp-stools, with the 
 aid of a few nails for caps, glass, traveling-sack, etc., soon sur- 
 rounded me with all a traveler's luxuries and belongings, and 
 gave an air of comfort to the two little matted rooms, twelve 
 feet square. Both were provided with closets, sliding doors, 
 and shelves, making admirable wardrobes. And here I set up
 
 Chap.XXI.3 * poor toby.* gt9 
 
 ray flag, determined to try the sanitary effects of rest, sea air, 
 and the mineral springs of Atarai. 
 
 The life we led in this secluded watering-place was one of 
 little variety — the arrival of a courier and the death of a favor- 
 ite Scotch terrier, my constant and faithful companion, were 
 the only events. One must have led the isolated life of a For- 
 eign Minister in Japan to realize the blank which the loss even 
 of an attached dog creates. So much of disinterested affection 
 and trust had passed out of the world, and more of companion- 
 ship than those who have never been much alone can well un- 
 dei"stand, perhaps ! Some of the best traits of the Japanese 
 character came out very favorably on this occasion. 'Toby' 
 had many good friends among my servants. My head betto, 
 as soon as he heard of the death, came himself to put him in his 
 basket-shroud and under the sod. I asked the proprietor's 
 leave to bury him in his pretty garden under the shade of a 
 tree, and he instantly came himself and helped to dig the grave. 
 A group of assistants of all ranks gathered round with mourn- 
 ful faces, as though one of their own kind had passed away. 
 He was folded up in a mat, some of the beans he was so fond 
 of were put in the grave with him, and a branch of evergreens 
 inserted at the head, which was scrupulously laid to the north. 
 The priest of the temple brought water and incense sticks to 
 burn, and then a rough tombstone to mark the spot was laid 
 on his grave. They are really a kindly people when not per- 
 verted by their rulers and prompted to hostility. When I pro- 
 posed to send a tablet my host was equally ready, and assured 
 me it should be carefully placed over the head. I had begun 
 to forget I was in Japan, so much good will was shown, and so 
 few difficulties made even to the gratification of a whim. But 
 in one sense I reckoned without my true hosts, the Government 
 officials. I can not stop to tell how much trouble the luckless 
 tablet entailed upon me before it actually reached its destina- 
 tion. How it was pretended that the town governor of Yeddo 
 must first give his permission ; and that, according to the law 
 of Japan, no stone could be placed any where without official 
 sanction. Nor, after it was up (which I only effected by tak- 
 ing advantage of one of our ships passing the port and land- 
 ing it on the spot), what grave remonstrances followed from 
 the Ministers because one of the Legation had visited Atami 
 'against the treaty.' Well might I write on his tombstone 
 ' Poor Toby,' for it had been hard work to preserve him where 
 he died from total oblivion. 
 
 The Spas of Atami are not gay as a place of residence. Be- 
 yond the interest attaching to the study of village life in Japan,
 
 380 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXI. 
 
 there is nothing whatever to amuse or give occupation. It 
 h.'is an agricultural and fishing population of some 1400 souls. 
 They cultivate their fields of rice and millet and a few vegeta- 
 bles. The bay provides them with fish, chiefly at this season 
 mackerel and a sort of pomfret, with lobster and moabee (a large 
 species of mussel, with a shell coated with mother-of-pearl). 
 Some of our party occasionally went out fishing and brought 
 back very curious specimens of the finny species. One, a flat 
 fish, about the size of the hand, had long thread-like prolonga- 
 tions from the tail and fins, something like the tentacula of in- 
 sects, but several inches in length. Another, and smaller fish, 
 was hard as bone all over, with a thick gibbous head, which 
 they call the ' horsefish.' Of this I found a good Japanese 
 drawing, and the following wood-cut is a faithful copy. A 
 
 HORSEFISH. 
 
 third kind, of which no specimen was preserved, the fishermen 
 believe to be poisonous, and always throw overboard again as 
 soon as they catch it. There are a few shops in the place for 
 the sale of some of the more common necessaries, the few things 
 which are alone required in their very simple mode of life. The 
 only manufacture is that of paper, and the making of boxes of 
 many devices, cups, platters, trays, and a few toys for Yeddo 
 and other markets, made either of the variegated wood of the 
 camphor or pine, which these hills supply. These are very 
 cleverly turned and neatly put together, with the simplest and 
 rudest instruments. Their only lathe is a horizontal spindle, 
 turned by a boy with two straps, holding one in each hand, 
 which he pulls alternately. To one end of the shaft the object 
 of manufacture is fixed for the other workman, and they give 
 the last polish to the varnish by the fingers with a little whit- 
 ing. The women, with a primitive loom, may also be seen here 
 and there in the cottages weaving cotton. The mineral springs 
 are spread over a considerable space, bubbling up in divers 
 places over the spot where a source exists. Near several of 
 these, and in connection with the source, a few stones are placed 
 so as to allow the steam to escape, and here they boil their tea 
 and cook their vegetables without expenditure of fuel. Thei-e
 
 CuAi'. XXI.] THE MINERAL WATERS. 381 
 
 are wooden baths at all the places, but they did not seem in 
 constant requisition. The waters appeared to be all the same 
 — saline, with a soup^on only of sulphur. They are very slight- 
 ly aperient, and are held among the natives to be good for rheu- 
 matism, diseases of the skin, and bad eyes. But before ray ar- 
 rival they never drank the waters, or turned the steam to ac- 
 count for vapor-baths. At the large vent of the springs, which 
 boils up with a loud explosion of steam some six or eight times 
 in the twenty-four hours, I had a little hut built, which made an 
 excellent vapor-bath; and the Yaconins, following my example, 
 began to drink the waters. 
 
 We had at first a continuance of rain and wind, but later our 
 weather was very propitious — bright, clear, and pleasantly 
 warm. The maximum range of the thermometer was 80° of 
 Fahrenheit. 
 
 The first fine breezy day, with gathering clouds and fitful 
 sunshine, giving picturesque and ever-changing effects to sea 
 and mountain, we went three or four miles in the direction of 
 Odawara, across the mountain, where a number of hot springs 
 also exist, but all tasteless. Two of them come down, or are 
 let down over a cliflT so as to make a doitche^ under one of which 
 we found an old woman, and under the other something much 
 rarer in Japan than old women taking their bath — a mare. It 
 had a bad sore on its back, which they were bathing with the 
 hot water. The way to these springs leads through a ravine, 
 down which, overhung with shrubs, evergreens all, and wild 
 hydrangeas in flower, a mountain stream rushes in cascades, 
 making pleasant music. Scattered along the side of the mount- 
 ain road are a few peasants' homes, and here and there a tem- 
 ple or a wayside shrine, while the vegetation speaks of a genial 
 clime, where Nature 
 
 Hangs in shade the orange bright, 
 Like lamps of gold in a green night, 
 And throws the melons at onr feet — 
 
 as Andrew Marvel writes of 
 
 The remote Bermudas rich 
 In ocean's bosom unespied — 
 
 Shakspeare's ' still vexed Bermoothes ;' and the rough swell 
 of the Pacific, setting on the pebbly and rocky shore, keeps up 
 the similitude. The coast in other respects, with its bold, pic- 
 turesque features, resembles very much the Biscayan coast 
 from San Sebastian and Bilboa to Santander. Nor is the cli- 
 mate very different, only less severe in winter. Even the high- 
 est crest of Fusiyama scarce preserves a remnant of its snow- 
 ^hroud through the months of July and August. From the
 
 382 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXI. 
 
 vicinity of these mineral springs, nitre, in considerable quanti- 
 ties and purity, appears to be collected for export, and I saw 
 some being brought in as I returned. 
 
 I tried in vain to get some more precise information about 
 the land tenure here, the Government administration, and the 
 amount of taxation. Unfortunately, most of our inquiries had 
 to go through Matabe, the official interpreter, of whom it may 
 truly be said, as of Sydney Smith's Scotchman, that it required 
 a trephining operation to get a new idea into his head, and 
 something much more severe to get a rational or trustworthy 
 answer out of it. He either was or affected to be profoundly 
 ignorant of his own country, its statistics and administration, 
 though with some smattering knowledge of foreign countries. 
 At the same time, he had a bold fashion of giving off-hand any 
 answer that promised to rid him of farther inquiry, without the 
 slightest regard to the facts ! Furthermore, he deluded him- 
 self by fancying he knew things upon the vaguest possible 
 conception of their true meaning, sometimes with none at all. 
 On one occasion, Mr. Eusden, reproaching him with the many 
 false alarms and statements made respecting the route, and 
 the difficulties of the ascent of Fusiyama, asked him if he had 
 ever heard of the fable of the wolf and the shepherd-boy. 
 ' Yes, he thought he had !' ' Did he know what a fable meant ?' 
 ' Oh yes ; a legend or tradition of something supposed to have 
 happened long ago, which sometimes was true and sometimes 
 was false.' 
 
 Not a promising informant this ; and when I put him on the 
 rack, as the Juniors used to call it, and insisted on his giving an 
 explanation of things observed in Japan which should be both 
 credible and intelligible, he would screw his head on one side, 
 and look very like a man going to choke under some strangling 
 process. One is thus reduced to draw, somewhat at hazard, 
 conclusions from what can be observed of the people, and, for 
 the most part, only of what lies on the surface. Upon what 
 tenure these lands are held (said to belong to, or to be admin- 
 istered by the proprietor of Idzoo, the courteous Agawa Faro- 
 zayamang) I could make nothing out — whether for himself, as 
 Lord of the Manor, or steward of the Tycoon, it seemed impos- 
 sible to ascertain. There appeared to be some resident officer 
 there, acting in his name. Several of the shopkeepers were 
 Yaconins, as also was the proprietor of the hotel and bathing- 
 house. There maybe a good deal of tyranny and oppression, 
 but the people show no marks of it, any more than of grinding 
 exactions and abject poverty ; though of course a small fishing 
 village is not a place where people are otherwise than poor.
 
 Chap. XXL] FEUDALISM REPRODUCED. 383 
 
 Seeing there are no representative institutions, no free press, 
 no freedom of any kind in the forms inseparably associated in 
 an Englishman's mind with Uberty, it may be necessary to 
 guard against a bias and a leaning to d priori conclusions, ad- 
 verse alike to the Government in its absolute and despotic 
 character, and the people governed. There is, perhaps, no 
 more certain truth than that which is conveyed in the axiom 
 that laws and actions must have a certain adaptation to the 
 existing character of the people to be governed ; and that we 
 must judge of any code by estimating the amount of good or 
 evil that has been found to result. If the average, for the time 
 being, of good will bear comparison with that observable in 
 other countries, and in other stages of civilization, although a 
 different code or form of government and institutions may ex- 
 ist, our right to condemn the latter must, to say the least, be 
 very questionable, however they may depart from our own 
 standard of ethics and good government. 
 
 Here in outward form we have feudalism, without its chiv- 
 alry, reproduced — a Venetian oligarchy of nobles, reducing 
 even the duplicated sovereign power to a shadowy existence, 
 in which the feudal lord is every thing, and the lower and la- 
 boring classes nothing. Yet what do we see ? Peace, plenty, 
 apparent content, and a country more perfectly and carefully 
 cultivated and kept, with more ornamental timber every where 
 than can be matched even in England. The laws, so far as we 
 know, are somewhat Draconian in their severity, and adminis- 
 tered unflinchingly by the very simplest and most direct proc- 
 esses, without the aid of lawyers. As the traveler passes along 
 the road, at the entrance of a bourg or hamlet his eye will often 
 be attracted by a long board, roofed over to protect it from the 
 weather, but open at the sides, on which are written imperial 
 decrees it behooves all the Tycoon's subjects to know and obey. 
 They have at least the merit of being few and short, and most 
 of them seem half effaced by time, as already superfluous ! 
 Perhaps, after all, the Draconian penal code and absence of 
 legal technicalities may be not only a natural product of less 
 advanced stages of civilization, and a needful restraint on indi- 
 vidual freedom of action, but also it may be that, as I have sug- 
 gested, a more seemingly equitable and humane, as well as a 
 more elaborately constituted code, could not be carried out for 
 want of fit administrative machinery. The institutions may be 
 as good as the average character of the people and their civil- 
 ization will permit, and if so, the best and fittest for the existing 
 time, however remote from an absolutely just penal system, 
 or an abstractedly perfect tlieory of government. Less strin-
 
 384 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXL 
 
 gent institutions might only entail social confusion, and the 
 worse evils inseparable from it. Anarchy brings far more suf- 
 fering on the masses, and, it may be, more demoralization, than 
 a despotism ^fitted to avert this, and therefore, in that sense at 
 least, justified by the circumstances. It may be tlie least wrong 
 in view of the total of suffering, and if so, can not be far from 
 being relatively/ right for the time and the people, and worthy 
 of approbation rather than sweeping condemnation. At all 
 events, be the connection of cause and effect what it may, tak- 
 ing the despotic and oligarchic constitution of these realms, 
 with its rude and sharp administration of justice, which admits 
 neither public pleading, appeal, nor extenuations, but takes a 
 man's head oif as certainly for a theft as a murder ; and, on the 
 other hand, the material prosperity of a population, estimated 
 at thirty millions, which has made a garden of Eden of this 
 volcanic soil, and has grown in numbers and in wealth by un- 
 aided native industry, shut out from all intercourse with the 
 rest of the world, it is impossible to pass any sweeping con- 
 demnation either on them or the institutions under which they 
 live, and where such results are possible. Witliout wishing to 
 make any apology for despotism, or the Japanese Government 
 either, I give the reflections which naturally suggest them- 
 selves to the European traveler. 
 
 I remained in this isolated region — wilderness within a wil- 
 derness (for such all Japan is to the foreigner yet), nearly 
 three weeks. But even our Yaconins became weary of the 
 contracted circle of our gyrations ; and, to say the truth, there 
 was no one of the party, I believe, who did not look forward 
 with pleasure to the day of departure. The villagers soon 
 got accustomed to us, and were as quiet and inofiensive a pop- 
 ulation as heart could desire ; but we had exhausted all the 
 shops, and all the amusement that could be extracted out of 
 the operation of bai'gaining with their puzzle-headed owners. 
 The men especially, all over Japan, seem to be wretched ac- 
 countants, for inferior in this to the Chinese, who are a match 
 for the best European ' experts.' The women, strange to say, 
 are much better than their lords at figures ; and when it came 
 to a question of addition or multiplication, we always had re- 
 course to the more ready wit of the wife. 
 
 I must not take leave of Atami without a few words on its 
 principal manufacture — Paper ; nor could I have had a better 
 opportunity of observing all the processes, since our landlord 
 had an establishment attached to the house where paper was 
 made ; and, wonderful to relate, he was quite ready and will- 
 ing to give me such information as was in his power.
 
 Chap. XX I] RAGS A BAD SPECULATION. 385 
 
 Nearly all paper in Jai)an is made from the bark of trees, 
 and in some qualities it is superior to any in Europe, more es- 
 pecially as regards toughness. Even the finer kinds can only 
 be torn with difiiculty, and the stronger qualities defy every 
 elFort. Indeed, it supplies the place of linen and cambric, be- 
 ing used for handkerchiefs and other domestic purposes where 
 we should use cloth or rags. They are not unacquainted with 
 the process of manufacturing paper from cotton rags — indeed, 
 I believe they would make paper out of old shoes — but the for- 
 mer are little used, because the bark is prefen'ed. Some of the 
 more enterprising pioneers of foreign trade endeavored to turn 
 this fact to account, and began to buy up all the old rags, 
 which, as may be supposed, were cheap enough in a country 
 where cotton is universally worn, and the rags were regarded 
 as rubbish. The Japanese, however, were not long in discov- 
 ering that, however useless and worthless for home consump- 
 tion, they had a value for the foreign market, and the profits 
 on the later shipments were very speedily diminished from the 
 rise in price. 
 
 Some twenty or thirty thousand piculs (133 lbs. each) had 
 been shipped to the end of 1861. But the rags were mostly 
 colored and nearly all rotten ; and, although the British ship- 
 pers, who chiefly entered into this business, showed no little 
 ingenuity and energy, both in finding means to discharge the 
 color (always vegetable), and in the invention of a press to 
 screw the contents of each bale into smaller compass, I believe 
 the calculations made were not borne out by the results. It 
 was supposed tliat these rags could be laid down in England 
 at about £12 per ton, and would fetch £18, or something like 
 60 per cent, profit, rags in England varying in value from 
 £10 to £35 per ton. As the Japanese make little or no use 
 of their rags, and are almost exclusively clothed in cotton, this, 
 it was hoped, might become an article of export of some little 
 importance, though not very large in money value. I know it 
 was expected that 25,000 piculs could be sent away from Yo- 
 kohama alone, at about $1 50 the picul. The out-turn of the 
 first venture was such, however, as to discourage all enterprise 
 in this direction, the coloring matter, and means taken for its 
 discharge, being alleged as the chief cause of failure. 
 
 As to the kind of bark used, and the processes by which it 
 is converted into such an infinite variety of paper — sixty-seven 
 diflferent kinds, I have elsewhere mentioned, were sent to the 
 Exhibition, exclusive of a large number of imitation leathers, 
 all made from the same materials — I find Kcempfer has given a 
 very detailed description, gathered from native sources, and 
 
 R
 
 386 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXI. 
 
 describes the shrubs botanically, with cai*efully executed plates. 
 Mr. J. Veitch also supplied me with some botanical notes in 
 reference to the paper ; but, on comparing the two, thei-o seems 
 some difference of opinion or information. Koempfer snys the 
 paper in Japan is made of the Moms papyrif era sutiva^ or true 
 'paper-tree' (a kind of mulberry), with the addition of a slimy 
 infusion of rice and also of the Oreni root ; and sometimes, as 
 a substitute for the latter, they make use of a creeping shrub 
 called '■Sane Kadsura, the leaves whereof yield a mucilage in 
 great plenty,' as also of the Papyrus legitima ; and he gives 
 carefully engraved plates of both, with a minute description of 
 the plants. 
 
 Mr. Veitch describes the paper-tree of Japan as the Morus^ 
 or Broiissonetia papyrifera^ and also tells me he has found two 
 other plants grown in the district of Yeddo for paper-making, 
 namely, a Buddled species and the Hibiscus. It seems proba- 
 ble there are many more trees and shrubs, the bark of which 
 would answer the same purpose, perhaps, equally well. With 
 us at home, it is, no doubt, a question of cost in reducing the 
 raw raatei-ial to the pulpy state proper for paper -making. 
 The bamboo, in China, almost exclusively supplies the material 
 for all Chinese paper, known so long among artists and cop- 
 per-plate printers as 'Indian paper,' the first impoitations hav- 
 ing been made in the East India Company's ships. This is 
 excellent in its kind, and much prized for artistic purposes — 
 proof impressions, mounting of drawings, etc., but it is wholly 
 wanting in the toughness or tenacity of the Japanese. As to 
 the processes of manufacture, these, like almost every thing 
 else in Japan, are simple in the extreme, and, if expensive, they 
 could only be so in the article of labor. A more elaborate de- 
 scription, and, as far as I can judge, a very accurate one, may 
 be read in Koempfer, and a third will also be found in Mr. 
 Veitch's botanical notes, which he has kindly permitted me to 
 add in the Appendix. But the following I gleaned myself on 
 the spot. It appeared three several trees Meie laid under con- 
 tribution to furnish the materials, severally called in Japanese 
 Ganpi, 3Iitsoo-mata^ and Tamo. The first is the staple or 
 foundation, a shrub growing some eight feet high a few miles 
 from Atami. The bark of this is stripped off, dried, and then, 
 when the season arrives (winter is best), it is steeped in water 
 until the outer green layer can be scraped off, and then the 
 bark thus stripped is boiled in ley until it is softened like a 
 vegetable for eating, after which it is beaten with two clubs 
 until it is reduced to a state of pulp, or at least ready to be- 
 come pulp with a farther immersion. A second bark is then
 
 Chap. XXI.] PAPER-MAKING.— A FOSSIL. ssl 
 
 added, apparently of a larger tree, stripped also of the outei 
 husk, to give toughness — the Tamo ; and the third, the Mii- 
 800-mata, to make it glutinous, or to size it. When all thes« 
 ingredients are brought into a state of fine liquid pulp, and 
 well mixed, it is made into sheets of paper by being spread, in 
 a perfectly liquid shape, over frames of matting very like our 
 wire frames, and answering precisely the same purpose. They 
 make it at Atami of five colors ; the landlord brought me a 
 large bundle of each as a specimen, which I sent to the Exhi- 
 bition. It is sold at six cash a sheet, or say four for a far- 
 thing, each sheet about the size of large quarto letter-paper. 
 I fancy Japan is rich in fibrous textures derived from the veg- 
 etable kingdom, all turned to the same use ; but my informant 
 seemed to know only his own branch of the business, or else 
 Matabe's powers of interpretation were exhausted. 
 
 Having tried in vain while here to obtain any reliable infor- 
 mation about the tenure of the houses and land, I was com- 
 pelled to draw my own conclusions. The land seemed, for the 
 most part, to be in very small allotments, and to furnish only 
 one of the occupations and means of subsistence of each house- 
 hold — the fisherman's net, the turner's lathe, and a little shop- 
 keeping, all alternating with the plowman's and farmer's toil. 
 A more primitive or easily-satisfied population I never lived 
 among ; and I doubt whether twenty of the Avhole number 
 ever leave their sea-girt home, Avith its mountain barriers, from 
 the beginning to the end of their lives. But the absence of all 
 active curiosity, or desire for change, is not peculiar to them. 
 I once sat by the chimney of a peasant's hut, in the plains of 
 Castilia la veija (Old Castile), not twenty miles from the great 
 cathedral town oi Burgos, with all its glories of Gothic archi- 
 tecture, and, on asking him what he thought of it, was amused 
 to hear he had never been there, though his hair was as white 
 as the snow that covered those bleak plains. Before railroads 
 came into play, many similar cases might, no doubt, have been 
 found in England also. For the most part, the desire for 
 change of scene comes only with opportunity and habit. Those 
 who have wandered once away from home are seldom content 
 to remain theie, without change, for the rest of their lives. The 
 desire for travel, like so many other of our appetites (if not 
 all), grows by what it feeds upon; and the natural food once 
 obtained, more is inevitably desired, though many live a life 
 through without experiencing the want. 
 
 Thus moralizing as I wandered day by day through the val- 
 ley and its hamlets, peopled with successive generations of men 
 and women, and a plentiful progeny of children, leaving no
 
 388 
 
 THKEE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 doubt of the perpetuation of the species, all born with immor- 
 tal souls — in outward lineament, too, how like — and yet, in all 
 that constitutes the difference between man and man, how 
 strangely and utterly dissimilar to many of their kind in Eu- 
 rope ! I used to find myself speculating on the causes of such 
 wide divergence, and the consequences. Compare the exist- 
 ence which one of these villagers leads — which all lead from 
 age to age — with the life just closed in a man like Cavour. 
 Are they all born with the same feelings, wants, and ca])aci- 
 ties? There was something of a sepulchral or catacomb char- 
 acter about the very streets, and in the features of houses, tem- 
 ples, and tombstones, all promiscuously mingled — mementoes 
 
 ATAMI AND ITS MOJ<UMENTS. 
 
 of a past Avhich had no future — a Pompeii, without its interest 
 or its history. Yet they lead, to all appearance, a happy life 
 enough, after a fashion of their own, these same villagers, as 
 the mole and the oyster in their respective elements may be 
 happy. There can not be much ebb and flow in their lives, 
 and no swift current ever bears thera onward to new shores or 
 experiences. All who are happy are not, equally happy, as 
 Johnson observed. The peasant and the king, the fisherman
 
 CHAt. XXI.] 
 
 A MORAL PROBLEM. 
 
 d8d 
 
 and the philosopher, may be equally satisfied with their lot, 
 but not equally happy, if happiness be truly defined as con- 
 sisting in the multiplicity of agreeable impressions, or the vivid- 
 ness and intensity of a conscious sense of being and enjoyment. 
 The peasant and the philosopher have not equal capacities for 
 happiness in this sense. ' A small drinking glass and a large 
 one may be equally full, but a large one holds more than the 
 small ;' and though Channing may be perfectly right in saying 
 no man, be he emperor or peasant, can have more enjoyment 
 than will lie between the crown of his head and the sole of his 
 foot, the difierence in amount and kind, in different organiza- 
 tions and degrees of development, must be almost infinite. 
 
 But it is not the inequality of enjoyment (every where so 
 constant, even in the highest civilization) which strikes an ob- 
 
 MTB AT ATAJfl — (a PBASANT AND HI8 WIFB RETCRKINO FROM LABOR^k
 
 390 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. [Chap. XXL 
 
 server so much, as the certain and continuous inequality of de- 
 velopment. This is a transitory life and a probationary one, 
 the preparation and preface only to another. That much should 
 be imperfect or fragmentary we can readily conceive ; but 
 what of the inequality that dwarfs development and all per- 
 fecting pi'ocess, which makes a I'ace of cretins by the side of a 
 nation of philosophers, statesmen, poets, artists, and, as they 
 were born, so leaves them to die? and so, from generation 
 to generation, to perpetuate their race, and reappear to run 
 the same sad, hopeless, seemingly aimless destiny ! Idolaters, 
 Pagans — with capacities undeveloped, germs left dormant, and 
 a dead level of existence just one degree above the beasts that 
 perish — no hope, no faith in a future and a better life ! How 
 are such inequalities as these, inexorably reproduced in seeidos 
 secidoncm, fvom the earliest days of the human race, to be blend- 
 ed into any system of divine government which we can con- 
 ceive ? 
 
 It was time I left Atami when such problems as these sug- 
 gested themselves for solution. But before I took my depart- 
 ure I found that man's ingenuity in torturing himself for some 
 fancied good or evil was not without its example among my 
 friends here, however primitive their habits and low their esti- 
 mate of the things really needful to life and happiness, for I 
 found a manufactory oi' Mbxas in full play. Now the Moxa is 
 a pleasant and ingenious device for burning a hole in a man's 
 skin, not wholly unknown to the Faculty in Europe, but the 
 honor of invention and love for its application lie, I believe, ex- 
 clusively with Japan. With us the art, moreover, is entirely 
 monopolized by physicians and surgeons, whereas every Jap- 
 anese has it in his own hands as a household remedy. For the 
 uninitiated I may say that the cauterizing tinder is made from 
 the pith of a tree of which I procured a branch. Kcempfer de- 
 scribes it as the common mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris latifo- 
 lia, but he says the leaves only are used ; I was told the pith 
 and the bark, dried, rubbed to powder, and then put up in neat 
 little squares attached to paper. When wanted for use, one 
 of these is taken out and placed on a little circular layer of 
 powdered charcoal, which is ignited. The Japanese seem 
 strangely addicted to its use — this and the acupuncture, an- 
 other agreeable invention, common, I believe, to Japan and to 
 China, and used ' to discuss and expel all manner of winds and 
 vapors' — the cause of nearly all distempers, according to the 
 learned, from Hippocrates to the last Japanese sage. At their 
 own free choice, most of the natives undergo the operation at 
 least once every spring, as a preventive measure ; and it is
 
 Chap. XXI.] TAXES.— JAPANESE FUTURK 391 
 
 rare to see a man stripped without finding a long row of 
 scars burned in on each side the spine at an inch or two apart. 
 It seems to be considered a universal specific ; even the ac- 
 coucheur calls in its aid, and is directed to burn ' three cones 
 on the little toe of the right foot to facilitate delivery!' 
 
 One day I saw an infant held across its mother's knee while 
 another woman, quite remorselessly, was burning two or three 
 of these pleasant pastils about the umbilical region, to the great 
 discomfiture of the unhappy little patient, as may well be imag- 
 ined, who protested vehemently with throat and legs, but all 
 in vain, against the practice. 
 
 Although occasionally resorted to by our surgeons, and with 
 good effect, it is said, in some obscure neuralgic and paralytic 
 cases, it has never been in great vogue with us. Koempfer tells 
 a story of the Japanese apropos to this practice too good to be 
 lost. The first two or three cones are applied successively in 
 order to burn through the skin, and these are called kawakiri j 
 new taxes laid on them by their Princes or Government are 
 called '-kmcakiri' also, because ' they are very hard to be borne 
 at first, but become much easier in time.' If this be true of 
 taxes in the experience of the Japanese, it should afford great 
 encouragement to our future Chancellors of tiie Exchequer to 
 lay on boldly the shilling income-tax, so constantly referred to 
 as a pleasant round sum, though many of the lieges would, no 
 doubt, regard it as a kawakiH, a skin-cutter, and ' hard to be 
 borne at first ;' but then, if it should become much easier in 
 time, that might bring consolation ! 
 
 Whatever may be the experience of the Japanese population 
 in the way of taxation, I adhere to the idea that it is not of a very 
 onerous or grinding character upon the whole ; and at the close 
 of this, my first expedition into the interior, recalling all the 
 evidences that met my eye of a happy, contented-looking peas- 
 antry, I was not disposed to think Ka'mpfer so far wrong when 
 he concluded his history of Japan, nearly two centuries ago, by 
 declaring that ' their country was never in a happier condition 
 than it now is, governed by an arbitrary monarch, shut up and 
 kept from all commerce and communication with foreign na- 
 tions.' Whether, a century hence, the descendants of this gen- 
 eration, which has seen the inauguration of renewed relations, 
 commercial and political, may be able to point to a higher and 
 better civilization, with an equal development of material pros- 
 perity and national content, as is every where apparent now, 
 and rejoice in the result as a consequence of foreign relations, 
 is another problem for time to solve. But that such progress 
 will not be achieved without fundamental changes, and gi'eat
 
 392 
 
 THREE YEAES IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 disturbance to all existing institutions and relations of the peo- 
 ple to their rulers, seems very certain. Happy will it be if a 
 frequent resort to pi-eventive and curative processes be not re- 
 quired, compared to which the skin-cutting of the ko/wakiri will 
 be mild indeed. We need not, at all events, be surprised if the 
 rulers and the ruled should alike show great repugnance at first 
 to the initiative steps, and look upon all foreign nations much 
 as patients regard their doctors, with an instinctive anticipation 
 of something both dangerous and disagreeable necessarily fol- 
 lowing their introduction into the house — some medicines bit- 
 ter to the taste and hard to swallow, however benevolent the 
 practitioners, if not scarifications and cauteries painful in antic- 
 ipation, and still worse in experience, however determined or 
 skillful the operator. 
 
 My last walk through Atami ended in my sketching a very 
 primitive but no less characteristic aqueduct in one of the 
 
 THE VILLAGE AQUEDUCT. 
 
 streets, constructed of bamboo, to spare the labor of the good 
 wives in fetching water. Here they came, each with their little 
 tub, to wash the clothes, and, never being at a loss for hot wa- 
 ter (out of the great caldron under their feet), they spared
 
 Ghap.xxl] fishermen.— soil. nft-T 
 
 both labor and soap, with the farther advantage of breathing 
 the fresh air and enjoying a gossip with their neighbors. Oft- 
 en, as I returned toward the sea-beach, I was met by groups 
 of fishermen, with their wives and chihircn — the wife suckling 
 her baby and carrying the fish ; the father loaded only with 
 some light fishing-tackle, while his elder child would follow in 
 the wake, with a victimized tortoise for his playfellow. 
 
 RETTIRNINO FROM SEA-FI8HINO. 
 
 Of the geographical characters I can give little information. 
 The soil under cultivation in all the valleys seems to be similar 
 to that observable in tracts of Central India called 'black or 
 cotton soil' — a rich earth, the detritus of igneous rocks prob- 
 ably, farther fertilized during a long succession of centuries by 
 the liquid manure from towns. Riding along the road, it may 
 be seen several feet in depth, richer-looking than any garden 
 mould, and without a stone. Indeed, in all the country adja- 
 cent to the capital, more varied in form and character, and rich 
 
 Il2
 
 394 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 tCHAP. XXL 
 
 in picturesque features, than the vicinity of any capital I have 
 ever seen can boast of; it is a saying that ' stones and gold are 
 equally scarce.' Yet, w^ith all this apparent richness and care- 
 ful culture, there is a sad deficiency of flavor and delicacy in 
 every thing it pi'oduces except rice, which is excellent — ' the 
 richest and fattest in the world,' according to Koempfer. 
 
 At last, the resources of the place and our own patience being 
 alike exhausted, early one morning, toward the end of Septem- 
 ber, we took our departure, and started for Odawara, on our 
 way back to Yeddo. Our road lay along the coast, fair and 
 pleasant to the eye, but hard to travel for man and horse. The 
 same careful culture and abundance of timber were every where 
 observable. The following day brought us to Foodisawa, along 
 five leagues of a level and sanded avenue, still coasting the sea- 
 shore. We were ferried across two rivers, and passed a dead 
 man on the road, evidently a beggar ; so destitution does exist, 
 however rare, and men die on the high roads — at least this one 
 instance seemed to show such things were, even in Japan, 
 though somebody has said or written there were no beggars in 
 Japan. Beggars there certainly are, and in and about the capi- 
 tal in considerable numbers ; but they are very far from being 
 either so numerous, or so frequently to be seen at the point of 
 starvation as in the neighboring country of China. 
 
 The third day a continuance of the same beautiful road led 
 us to Totsooka, then a sharp ride of five leagues before break- 
 fast into Kanagawa, and the journey was over. 
 
 A JAPANESE TRAVEUNG,
 
 CHAP. XXII.J THE HIGH ROAD. 395 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 The High Road to the Capital, and those who Travel on it. 
 
 There is an arrangement in this country, already alluded to, 
 by which certain high roads, the great arteries of the empire, 
 leading to and from Miaco and Yeddo, are made imperial 
 property. These may both be considered capitals, since the 
 Mikado, the titular Emperoi*, resides at the one, and the Ty- 
 coon, the virtual Sovereign, at the other. The road between 
 these, and from them to the other Imperial cities on the coast, 
 although passing through the domains of the several Daimios, 
 are in no sense considered as a part of their territories, or un- 
 der their jurisdiction. Avery needful reservation obviously, 
 where these feudal Princes exercise within their own territo- 
 ries a sovereign sway, as otherwise they could stop all traffic 
 and communication throughout the empire. Or, what would 
 be just as prejudicial, and to Western Powers peculiarly ad- 
 verse, levy a tax in transitu upon pi'oduce, as did our barons 
 of yore in the good old times, and so arrest all development of 
 trade. 
 
 Along this Tocado, or Imperial road, lies the way to Yeddo 
 from the consular port of Kanagawa ; and, although with short 
 intervals the road on both sides of the whole distance is lined 
 with houses and shops only one or two deep, and now and 
 then clustering into a little township, much as from Hounslow 
 to London, yet Kanagawa proper ends about a mile and a half 
 from where it begins, and each succeeding hamlet has its own 
 name. Kanagawa, before it was made a consular port, was a 
 place of some importance, as a resting-station for travelers, and 
 the Daimios more especially proceeding to and from the capi- 
 tal with a large following of retainers, being just a day's jour- 
 ney at the usual rate of traveling, or seventeen miles. Ac- 
 cordingly, evei'y second house in Kanagawa is either a tea- 
 house, or an establishment for the letting of horses, cangos, 
 norimons, and bearers to carry the two latter vehicles. 
 
 The whole road is a scene of constant traffic. Pack-horses 
 and porters of luggage — travelers of the lower classes are here, 
 in cangos with two bearers going at a swinging trot whenever 
 they are entering a place — travelers of a higher order, male or 
 female, in norimons, carried by four bearers, and going much 
 more deliberately, as becomes the dignity of superior rank.
 
 396 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 This is not a country in which men of this generation may ever 
 hope for the luxury of express trains, nor is time, apparently, 
 estimated as a valuable commodity ; hence, every thing to be 
 done, whether it be a journey, a bargain, or the transaction of 
 any other business, is apt to be intolerably tedious. 
 
 From one of these hostelries our horses have to be hired. 
 The bargain is made at a most extortionate rate, and we are 
 to pay ten itziboos, or more than three dollars, for a sorry 
 brute, the cost price of which to a Japanese is not more than 
 ten or twenty dollars at the highest ; that is, a day's use of an 
 animal is, by this kind of tarift' (adjusted by foreigners), equal 
 to a seven days' purchase. The true price is from Is. 6c?. to 
 3s. per diem; but such is the unconscionable extortion to which 
 strangers are exposed. Travelers, when mounted, are accom- 
 panied by a man for each horse to bring it back, and seated on 
 a high-peaked saddle with a sort of Turkish stirrup, in which 
 the whole foot rests, the knees being brought to a right angle 
 with the body. Here is a faithf»\l picture of one of the hum- 
 bler classes of travelers mounted on a pack-saddle, the crest or 
 monogram of the owner being stamped on the broad belly- 
 
 now THE UNPRIVILEGED TRAVEL ON THE HIGH ROAD. 
 
 band of cloth to protect the horse from the gadflies. Thus 
 equipped, if neither provided with horse nor saddle of your 
 own, you set off, trusting in Providence to arrive before dark, 
 with some skin left on your bones. The road, for the most 
 part, is good— broad and level— but here and there macadam-
 
 Chap. XXII.j KANAGAWA TO YEDDO. -MUSICIANS. 307 
 
 ITINERANT MUSICIANS. 
 
 izing is wofully wanted, one lialf the road rising in perilous ab- 
 ruptness one or two feet higher than the lower edge. And in 
 wet weather, the road which forms the main street thi'ongh 
 the town of Kanagawa itself becomes a perfect quagmire. 
 What the great Daimios do on such occasions I can not say. 
 It is true, in fine weather, when the whole road is tolerably 
 clean, portions may be seen nicely swept and sanded for their 
 high mightinesses to pass smoothly along; but the slough of 
 despond to which all Kanagawa is reduced for days together 
 is far past sweeping or sanding either ! And neither K(rmp- 
 fer nor Thunberg, who tell us so much of the delectable state 
 of the Japanese roads, have thrown any light on this part of 
 the problem, or even hinted at its existence. Injustice be it 
 said, this state of road is not common in Japan ; how it comes 
 to be so, more especially near the capital of the Tycoon, and 
 even in Yeddo itself, is difficult to understand, unless upon the
 
 398 
 
 THREE YEAUS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 principle involved in the proverbial saying, 'The nearer the 
 church, the farther from heaven.' 
 
 Slowly we wend our way among horse and foot, men and 
 women, children and dogs. The traffic seems to be great, and 
 the travelers are of all classes. Through the streets of the 
 town it requires very good steering amid the light heels of 
 the pack-horses, the blocking up of the passage by their loads, 
 the gangs of coolies, and a constant stream of pedestrians and 
 wayfarers of every denomination. Now it is a band of stroll- 
 ing musicians, who make up in noise and discord, as some- 
 times do greater professors, what they want in music and mel- 
 ody. 
 
 Following them is a Yaconin, plowing his way through the 
 snow, which, by a rare chance has fallen somewhat thickly 
 during the morning. He is protected from the inclemency of 
 the weather by a cloak of split reeds, light, warm, and nearly 
 water-pruof, with the farther advantage of being cheap : I 
 
 
 TACONIN ON 8EKVICE. 
 
 thought it well worth a place in the collection at the Interna- 
 tional Exhibition. Here come two coolies, heavily charged, 
 vociferating to us to get out of their way. They may be the
 
 Chap. XXII.] A DAIMIO ON THE ROAD.— PEASANTS. 
 
 399 
 
 scullions of the petty officer we passed a few minutes ago, and 
 who deems himself vastly superior in his own land to any des- 
 ecrating foreigner ! I once met a train of coolies carrying the 
 heavy baggage of some courtier from Miaco, who took up the 
 middle of the road, and called out fiercely, '' Slutatario P (Down 
 on your knees !) But here comes a train of the Daimio him- 
 self; let us ride single file, and leave ample room — do what we 
 may, in fact, to pass unchallenged and unmolested — if possible! 
 No one can count with any certainty on success. First are 
 two not very reputable-looking runners, whose business it is to 
 clear the road with the all-potent word which commands pros- 
 tration — well, we can not prostrate ourselves, notwithstanding 
 that imperious gest and truculent look. Now come some 
 avant-couriers of a higher class, and behind them are the spear- 
 men and personal officers of the noble. See how they eye us, 
 and say if you think they are safe people to meet where they 
 are a hundred to one, and are assured of immunity if 1 hey fall 
 upon you and murder you on the spot ? There, thank God 
 and be grateful ; they have neither drawn upon, nor even 
 pushed us into the kennel, as they evidently felt more than 
 half inclined to do ; pray that you meet no more to-day, for 
 you may be less fortunate if compelled to run the gauntlet a 
 second time. What! you think this unpleasant; learn that 
 this is the tenure on which foreigners hold all their rights and 
 privileges under treaty in Japan — the chance of being slain iu 
 
 ON TUB ROAD TO TKDDO. 
 
 BKTURNINO FROM MARKKT.
 
 400 
 
 THliEE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chai\ XXII. 
 
 the high road for no other offense than that of being there, 
 where your presence is not desired.* But here are more 
 peaceable people, from whom there is nothing to be feared — 
 the t/riprivileged classes, unprivileged to kill or to plunder — 
 civilians, merchants, shopkeepers, peasants — all as harmless and 
 well-disposed people as can well be found in any country in 
 the world. Here is one peasant going home with his market- 
 ing, and another slowly toiling on foot to the capital. After 
 him a couple of fishermen going to their boats, with a kilt, or 
 something which does duty for one, and much the same pat- 
 
 FISHERMKN. 
 
 tern, only economically made of reeds. Approaching us is 
 one of those remarkable figures said to be often disgraced offi- 
 cers, whose face is quite concealed under a sort of broad, deep- 
 
 * The truth of these observations has received a sad illustration in the 
 last act of butchery perpetrated on a party of foreigners riding on this very 
 liigh road, in which one was slain and two were grievously wounded.
 
 Chap. XXII.J THE PEACEABLE CLASSES —BLINDNESS. 401 
 
 rimmed basket for a hat, evidently too common a sight to at- 
 tract attention, for the servant is passing him without a glance. 
 Take care ! we have a blind man here. ' How well he is 
 dressed !' ' Certainly ; he is no beggar, but well to do, and 
 therefore dressed like a gentleman, but blind not the less, and 
 feeling his way, while the peasant girl is watching to see he 
 
 THE BUND GENTLEMAN. 
 
 comes by no harm from our horses.' ' Is blindness very com* 
 mon'r" Yes — no! It must always be common where there 
 are no good oculists. Even in our own land, thousands lose 
 their sight annually by bad surgery, or the want of good treat- 
 ment, such as those only who have made diseases of the eye 
 and their treatment a specialty can supply. But otherwis*', 1 
 do not think either diseases of the eye or blindness unusually
 
 402 
 
 THREE YEARS IN JAPAN. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 frequent, judging by what one can see, though one often hears 
 the contrary asserted. It might be expected, I admit also ; 
 for not only their knowledge of ophthalmic surgery must be on 
 
 a par with the rest of their 
 ^"^ surgery, and very bad ; but 
 J i* the practice which prevails 
 ^^ft"^ among the people of having 
 their eyelids daily turned 
 inside out — of which you 
 may see an example as you 
 pass that barber's shop — 
 and then rubbed ovei', tit- 
 illated, and polished by a 
 smooth copper spatula, 
 must, I should think, be 
 eminently conducive to dis- 
 ease of one sort or other. 
 Here we come to a way- 
 side hostelry, and see that 
 picture of zeal in a female 
 hostler, who is hurrying, 
 with well-poised body and 
 a pail of water, to refresh 
 the horses' mouths ; while, 
 on the other side, tea is of- 
 fered in cups of dainty por- 
 celain, thin as an egg-shell. 
 Now we are leaving the great congress of tea-houses be- 
 hind, the inns and hotels of the Japanese offering every thing 
 that a Japanese traveler can desire — food, drink, shelter, a clean 
 matted floor, a look-out on a little garden, or here, still better, 
 over the bay. But, even if we may have all this, we know we 
 can not have a table, or a chair, or a bed, nor a mutton-chop, 
 nor a cup of milk, nor a loaf of bread, for the simple reason 
 that all these things are to the Japanese imknown, or ignored 
 as superfluities. And if you are a man of rank, still more if a 
 foreigner, be prepared with a long purse and kobangs ' galore ;' 
 for, if we are to believe the Japanese themsdves, long bills fol- 
 low the shortest sojourn in these terrestrial paradises.* The 
 shops, as we pass, do not present a very inviting appearance. 
 For the most part, they are little better than roadside booths 
 
 * This may be so in the case of Daimios, but not as regards travelers gen- 
 erally, as I had means of ascertaining in my long journeys. The charges 
 are very moderate, and to all the Tycoon's officers and employes one third 
 less than to others, by law established. 
 
 A FEMALE HOSTLER.
 
 Chap. XXII.] SHOPS.— OliOSSING THE LOGO. 
 
 403 
 
 or stalls, offering for sale children's toys, having a marvelous 
 family likeness with those of Europe — windmills, stuffed ani- 
 mals on wheels, tops, battledores and shuttlecocks. Here are 
 others with cooked eatables ; beyond, a shop with false toupees 
 or wigs, umbrellas and hats, baskets, rain -cloaks and horse- 
 shoes of straw, form the staple articles, all under one roof, the 
 material being the same for most of them. Thus it happens 
 that a Japanese equipped for a journey looks as if he had taken 
 the cover of a basket for his head-gear, a wisp of straw for his 
 cloak, and a portion of another for his sandals. These, with a 
 few of the ordinary village crafts, fill up the straggling line of 
 houses. Once merged out of a bourg or township, we come 
 upon a broad road lined with trees, giving pleasant glimpses 
 of the wide bay of Yeddo between their branches, and the 
 distant line of hills on the opposite shore. The trees yield a 
 grateful shade even at this time of the year, the depth of win- 
 ter, the sun in the middle of the day having still much pow- 
 er ; but the pine, and even the cryptomeria, of which the trees 
 here chiefly consist, are not the best adapted for this purpose. 
 On both sides, but chiefly inland, are fields of grain and vege- 
 tables, those devoted to paddy now lying fallow, while the 
 stork and wild-fowl have undisturbed possession, and cover the 
 ground. 
 
 After a seven-mile ride along tlie road which skirts the bay, 
 the traveler from Kanagawa comes to the River Logo, the 
 ])Oundary of the limits within which foreigners may travel or 
 wander for their pleasure from that place without a passport. 
 Here is a police station, and a passport is rigorously demanded 
 for any foreigner seeking to pass the ferry. 
 
 A few minutes suffice to ferry man and horse across — grati.<«, 
 
 #>1ii^ 
 
 rAKSINU THK RIVKIt
 
 404 TUKEK YEARS IN JAPAN. CCJhap.XXIL 
 
 if in the employnieut of the government. The horses take to 
 it kindly as you see, and horse, baggage, men, and women, all 
 stand or squat together in the flat-bottomed boat in a very pro- 
 miscuous and friendly manner. And now, as we approach the 
 capital, the traffic along the road increases : here is a family of 
 the poorer class, apparently with all their worldly goods, leav- 
 mg the city ; the wife and her child are doubled up in a can- 
 go, protected from the drizzling rain by an oiled paper roof 
 and apron ; the husband and one or two boys, with a porter 
 carrying heavier baggage, follow. Two or tliree men succeed 
 these — common soldiers, possibly, for they have one sword, 
 and not so fierce a look as some of their two-sworded fraterni- 
 ty, while a white hood drawn under the chin, and covering the 
 lower part of the mouth, half masks the whole face, and gives 
 them something of the look of 'men at arms' in the days of the 
 Templars. Here is a noriraon with two children placed knee 
 to knee opposite each other vis-a-vis, with powdered and paint- 
 ed faces, dressed so as exactly to represent two huge Dutch 
 dolls. This mania of the Japanese for painting and powdering 
 their skins with flour makes them hideous, with Art for the dis- 
 ligurer. Now and then one meets a Japanese maiden with a 
 clean-washed face and unstained teeth, neither wanting in come- 
 liness nor intelligence, but such visions are indeed 'few and far 
 between.' Of the ladies of Japan no chance passenger can 
 speak ; they are never visible to a stranger, and it yet remains 
 to be seen whether the barrier now existing will ever be re- 
 moved. One of the oldest residents in Japan, at Nagasaki, 
 and well placed for successful effort, once made the attempt 
 with an official in intimate and cordial relations, but he was as- 
 sured that compliance would inevitably bring disgrace upon 
 him and all his family. I can not help thinking some rather 
 erroneous notions have been disseminated by the writers on 
 Japan in respect to the position and relations of the wife here. 
 That she may be more of a companion to her husband, and on 
 a greater footing of equality than in other Eastern countries, 
 is possible ; but she is as strictly forbidden by the laws and 
 customs of the country from entering into society, or being 
 seen by any but those of her own family, as any inmate of a 
 harem. When traveling, or passing from house to house, it is 
 always in a norimon hermetically closed and surrounded by 
 her husband's attendants. I speak of the upper classes ; the 
 lower and working orders, here as elsewhere, by the necessity 
 of labor, can not be shut up. 
 
 The distance shortens to Yeddo, and the journey promises 
 to be uneventful. Here comes the only element of mischief
 
 Chap. XXII.] JAPANESE COMPLAINT. 40.5 
 
 in the shape of some roistering evil-eyed and double-sworded 
 retainers of a Dairaio. There are three or four of them, all 
 mounted, with the Prince of Satsuma's cognizance on their 
 sleeves. And now they see us; keep your horse well in hand, 
 for here the two foremost come at headlong speed. 'Will 
 they ride us down ?' ' Can not possibly say ; but if not, they 
 will go very near. Keep a steady hand and a quick eye.' 
 There! they have passed, only brushing our stirrups; bent on 
 showing their own prowess, and not unwilling to try ours, 
 with a dash of defiance to the Giaour ; for to this class, adopt- 
 ing the feelings of their masters, as we must suppose, we are 
 all dogs of Christians and aliens, hateful in both characters. 
 It was reported of Count Mouraviefi", when at Yeddo, that 
 among the complimentary phrases which form a necesi>ary pre- 
 lude to business in the East, on the occasion of his visit to 
 some of the ministers, he spoke in congratulatory terms of the 
 new and pacific relations now established with all the great 
 maritime Powers of the West, to which the Minister respond- 
 ed with an amount of truth and sinceiity, which could only be 
 accounted for on the preacher's wise saying, that ' out of the 
 fullness of the heart the tongue speaketh.' ' You congratulate 
 us,' was the reply, ' on the new relations now establislied, but 
 these have hitherto only been to us sources of trouble and vex- 
 ation, each day bringing forth some new cause of anxiety, or 
 some new complaint on the part of foreigners.' What might 
 be the rejoinder report does not tell ; but there was an answer, 
 a true answer, it were a pity not to have given, even though 
 it might have brought no immediate conviction. Sources of 
 complaint, of vexation to the authorities and anxiety on both 
 sides, have indeed been plentiful ; but chiefly, if not solely due 
 to the bad faith and shuflling of officials, unwilling to give ex- 
 ecution to the plainest provisions of treaties, and not, as the 
 ministers evidently would have it inferred, to the unreasonable 
 exigencies of foreigners, though these may not always be fault- 
 less either. Those first arriving as pioneers in a far Eastern 
 country are not generally the most refined or select specimens 
 of their class or nation. 
 
 And now we approach Sinagawa, the great suburb immedi- 
 ately before Yeddo itself, already more than once referred to. 
 Here, at night, the whole road is an illumination of lanterns, 
 with frequenters of the numerous tea-houses and places of en- 
 tertaintut'iit situated here passing to and fro. The two-sword- 
 ed men, on foot and in norimons, block up the way, and woe 
 betide any luckless man of the inferior class who comes acrotw 
 their path ; for ailer eight o'clock the said is in and the wit la
 
 406 THREE YEAKb IN JAPAN. [Cuap. XXII. 
 
 out, aud any discretion with it, which, iti more lucid moments, 
 the race of swashbucklers may boast. Their hand is often on 
 the hilt of their sharp-edged sword, and always in unpleasant 
 proximity. It is not yet the dangerous hour, so we shall prob- 
 ably pass unmolested. 
 
 The suburb of Sinagawa, of evil repute, is passed, and now 
 the bay opposite Yeddo, with its line of forts, opens once more 
 upon us, a few refreshment-booths alone interposing; while in- 
 land is a great barrack with closed gates — powder-magazines, 
 and opposite a newly-formed battery, to protect the shore at 
 this point. Two others are being built upon the shallows 
 there, so as completely to cover the approach to Yeddo on the 
 water side by a whole line of batteries armed with guns. In 
 the barracks to our left, and at many of the Daimios' resi- 
 dences, the noise of musket-practice may be heard. It looks 
 very warlike ; and whether it be merely the result of a mistrust 
 in the pacific intentions of Foreign Powers generally, or any 
 one in particular, or intended to impose on the diplomatic 
 agents now residing in the capital by daily evidence of a state 
 of preparation for battle ; or whether, finally, it be the result 
 of a foregone conclusion that, sooner or later, collision is inev- 
 itable, or w^Jl be made so by them, if not by us, and that they 
 may be prepared for such a contingency, I have already said, 
 no one is in a position to speak very positively. But all these 
 notes of preparation for battle are sufficiently remarkable and 
 significant. Here we arrive safe from all dangers of the road, 
 only 'ware horses!' They are all vicious brutes — stallions 
 ever ready to kick and bite. There ! you are lucky that brute, 
 relieved of his pack and carelessly led, has only left the mark 
 of his hind hoof on your saddle-cloth ; six inches farther for- 
 ward and it might have broken your thigh. Let it be a warn- 
 ing to you, on a Japanese road, to give a wide berth to the 
 whole race of pack-horses, and a good eye on every other, or 
 you will certainly be rolled in the dust some day. That is a 
 warning for you, and if you look back you will see the groom 
 is giving a wai-ning to the owner of the paok-horse to keep a 
 more respectful distance another time. 'But he will hurt him.' 
 ' Well, I hope he will, a little ; but do not be the least alarm- 
 ed ; for, first, observe the man makes not the least resistance, so 
 conscious is he that he is only meeting his deserts ; and, next, 
 that the cudgel with which he is being belabored is only the 
 umbrella I bought on the road, made of light bamboo and oil- 
 paper, which most assuredly will come out of the fray with 
 much more serious damage than the man's head.' 
 
 And so ends our journey to Yeddo, and the panorama of the
 
 Chap. XXU.] 
 
 SAIONARA ! 
 
 4or 
 
 high road. Saionarat the salutation of the Japanese, loses 
 nothing in softness by contrast either with the French adieu 
 or the Italian addio ; while the elaborate courtesy of the horse- 
 keeper and my servant there distance any thing you or I cao 
 attempt in the same line. 
 
 'saionara!' 
 
 BND OF VOL. I.
 
 ^
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 STACK COLLECTION 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAAAPED BELOW. 
 
 MAF^l/t m 1998 
 
 1 Onj-5,'65 (F4458s4 ) 476D
 
 ft- 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000 142 244 3
 
 ^^nnTFfjn 
 
 Uiti